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I went swimming for the first time today. I have been avoiding it like the plague but I needed an exercise that was easy on the knees (too many stairs in the last 3 years) and relatively cheap and something I could do with someone (meaning Jason). So, I braved wearing a swimsuit and tried hard to not think about the public pool water. But what I still can't get over is the nudity! I only have to see naked women (and men in speedos, that doesn't count, right?) but it still is shocking. I was not prepared and I don't know if I can ever be prepared to see it.
Here is a little about the day:
I went into the women's changing area, so far so good! I walked around looking the locker room and once I found it, grabbed my swimsuit and towel, swimming cap and goggles and went searching for a private place to change. I look right and a skinny older woman is drying her naked body. Ok, so I find small rooms that have numbers on them but several have the door open. I guess I can just shut the door and have a little privacy. I change quickly and walk through the shower area, get wet and proceed to the swimming pool. (First naked lady to be seen, 9 months pregnant!) Swimming was fine, no problems except some of the older folk showing me up. Now, comes the challenge. I need to bathe and wash my hair. There are 2 shower rooms, both with about 6-8 shower heads. All one big room, no privacy. (Just an interesting note, the bathroom does have stalls, so I guess you won't get shy bladder. But there is nothing for shy naked people!) I peak into the one shower room and see a naked young women showering. Ack. I think,okay I will use the other room, but when you finish and need to grab your towel, you might be seen by anyone coming out of the swimming pool area! Back to the more private shower room. Three ladies are now in the room, all older wrinkly ladies. I use the restroom thinking that might give them a little time to finish. I return to find only one woman, yeah! I take my bathingsuit down to bathe, but just can't work up the courage to take it all off. I bathe as best as I can and hurry to dry myself. I return to the locker room to find another woman naked and drying herself off. Ack! I grab my clothes and keep my towelaround me and walk through the coed walkway to the little rooms again. I go into the same room and try very hard to dry off and dress as quickly as possible. About half done and a child comes into the room. It looked like a boy but I think it must have been a girl. I said excuse me but she continued to stare for what seemed like a long time. "She"? left and said loudly, "We're early". So, I walked back to the locker room and grabbed my things and left, but not before I got peeks at at least 2 other naked women.
I think I have hit my naked people quota for a while, at least till the next time I swim. Why did I take up swimming?
The parent coffee hour before our first aid training yesterday was a good opportunity to "see" into the thinking of the german mind. Germany has one of the lowest birthrates in the entire world. The German government is trying to give couples incentive to have babies. They receive a large amount of money every month and more for each additional child. Dresden has had a baby boom so to speak and has seen an increase in the birthrate, up to a little above 1%! There are also laws that allow women to keep their job for up to 3 years after the birth of the child so they can stay home until then. Many women will plan their children exactly 3 years apart.
As we were eating cookies and drinking coffee, the parents began to discuss how difficult it is to find cheap places to vacation with large families. The couple had 3 children I think. Jason volunteered that we have 4 kids. Everyone was surprised we had so many. It seems that 1 child is typical, 2 children is becoming more common, 3 children is pretty rare but not so bad, but apparently 4 children is too many, over the top! Someone made some comment about 5 but unfortunately I didn't hear it. We know several families with 3 kids in our neighborhood, and our neighbor actually has 4 daughters, and another family in our church has 4 but they are the only exception I know of! So, we were not exactly normal in the states but we are definitely just strange here in Germany!
Life in another country is often very similar to life in the United States. Or at least it is after one gets over culture shock and learns the language and how things work. I am very fortunate here in Germany to find many things or even the same things as in the US. I still buy Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet paper and the kids still get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (just with less sweet pb and no grape jelly). I can even buy some luxury items (like cake mixes and Pop Tarts) if I am willing to pay the astronomical prices! We bake and cook a lot of things from scratch and they usually are as good or better than what we would have had in Texas.
But, as I was preparing to bake a cake for a collegue, I ran into the problem that makes cooking and baking here in Germany a challenge. I first looked for a recipe for strawberry cake. (Sure was missing the cake mixes from the states!) I found a recipe that went a little like this:
One white cake mix (why do they do this?)
1 Package frozen strawberries (how much is that exactly? and can you switch that to metric?)
3/4 package powdered sugar (it has been over 3 years since I bought a package of anything and so I can't remember how much comes in a package.)
1/4 of said package strawberries hold back for icing (aghhhh!)
3 oz. strawberry jello (2 problems with this: one, no strawberry jello, two, jello packages here are different sizes and don't come with sugar, that must be added)
Well,my cake turned out okay even though I guestimated the amount of strawberries and used strawberry pudding mix instead of the jello. One must be flexible when baking here and open to failing when trying new recipes! I won't even go into the difficulty that arises when trying to make anything that calls for Cool Whip or cream cheese! And I haven't found anything comparable to Rotel and creamed corn, so a few recipes must be sacrificed.
Jonah turned 11 on the 20th and I now have a preteen. In Germany they call them Teenies! As a sunday school teacher and childcare worker through the years, this is the age for boys that I dread. The ages from 11-14 for boys, when they go through that awkward stage, puberty and just get goofy and annoying,I just find scary. I haven't started worrying about the teen years, which everyone is so keen on reminding me are TERRIBLE! I look forward to seeing my children go through young adulthood and mature into what I hope are polite, respectful, God-fearing adults.
So, Jonah is a trip. He is beginning to sound very much like Jason and me. That is the scary part. He is half Jason and half me in personality and he and I really clash sometimes. He loves to argue,just to argue. He has many desires/wishes that are quite outlandish and impossible and I just don't get it.It really upsets him when I tell him that he ought to focus on and create achievable goals and desires. He and Ashlyn are constantly arguing and fighting. Saturdays are not much fun when the kids are home the entire day. Ashlyn is another story but I will save her for another day. Jonah is a very talented kid, not just smart but clever too. Too clever for his own good. He loves to draw and draws the cartoon and illustrates the school newspaper. He also made me a birdfeeder for Christmas. He wants to be a film director after college. I haven't been able to find anything yet though to get him involved in directing for the summer or school year, but I hope I can find something. Maybe I can find an art class he might like.
Jonah, I love him and am proud of him and hope I can get through these next few years and maintain my sanity.
Just wanted to relate a short story from yesterday's events. We have now had our time change (too) and so it stays lighter till close to 8:30 now. We also now allow Jonah (almost 11) and Ashlyn (9) to stay up past their brothers 7:45-8:00 pm bedtime. Jonah stays up till 9 and Ashlyn 8:30. I started a Bible study for them on Monday nights to go a little deeper with them than what they are getting at church (nothing, really) and house church (simplified for the younger boys). All that was bonus, ha!
Last evening, after dinner, Jason had to go to a revival service (of sorts) and so I had the kids alone (again!). I let them finish a movie they had started the night before till about 7 and then sent them to get pjs on. We would then clean rooms and put away the clean laundry. I was trying to take care of a few emails in the movie time, but noticed after I sent them downstairs, it was way too quiet. I heard children's voices outside, but knew that they weren't my kids' because they were downstairs changing! I peeked out of my 3rd story window, and didn't see anything. BUT it was too quiet. So I head downstairs to check on their progress and ended up finding them ALL outside in the back garden drawing with chalk! No one had shoes on, all were just wearing socks. And, Caedon had gotten ready for bed, because he was in only his undershirt and underwear!! And, it was pretty cool outside, probably in the 50s at the most. Needless to say, I was a little angry. Everyone was sent to change, brush their teeth and get in bed with a spanking to go with it! No one put up a fuss though, they knew they were caught.
