Good News, Accomplishments, and the Merits of Socialism

Today was a pleasantly eventful day, and we didn't even intend it to be. First, I received an e-mail from my exchange coordinator here saying that she had some paperwork that I needed. Getting paperwork it normally hardly something to get excited about, let alone enough to inspire a blog post. But this paperwork will allow us to register with the city so that we're good and legal, and also get us health insurance from the state. The reason this is good news is because Germany is so wonderfully socialist in just the right places. Now, Germany is not a socialist country, but it has a social government, like you Republicans out there love to see (yeah right). There's something to be said about socialized health care. As the current situation in the US has proven, Capitalism and health care are not the most fitting of bedfellows. This isn't to say that a completely socialized health care system doesn't have its (also major) flaws, but at least virtually all people are insured here, which is a lot more than the land south of Canada can say. The reason I'm lauding the virtues of the social state we're living in is because this means that for about €350 a semester (or €700 for the duration of our stay), we can have prenatal visits, deliver a baby, stay in the hospital for 5 or 6 nights afterward, get all the check-ups we need, get medication, and sleep soundly, knowing that we will be taken care of in case of any accident. Last I checked, private health insurance in America can't do that for even $478/month (that's €350. I'll exchange Euros to Dollars at the current rate to give any idiot supporters of the current insurance farce in the States the benefit of the doubt). By the way, for that per semester cost, our whole family is covered, even the coming baby. That's right, the cost doesn't go up. I'm rambling, but I just wanted to convey my excitement on finding out today that we will be coming home with at least $6000 less debt than we would have were it not for my eligibility for public insurance here.

After this good news, we ran into our landlord-to-be, who informed us that the previous tenant would be dropping off the key today, so we get to move in tomorrow! We are ecstatic! We can't wait to take all 6 suitcases of our life into our new apartment and finally settle in to our HOME!! We're sick of temporary arrangements. Granted, this is also temporary, but 11 months is a lot better than 3 weeks here and 4 weeks there and looking forward to the accompanying luggage hauling.

Oh yeah, I apparently get one month more of my Baden-Württemberg scholarship, and my exchange coordinator is trying to convince the state and school to give us 6 more months of the stipend. Even if we don't get the extra 6 months, the extra 1 month is nice. We can pay rent with cash!

The attentive reader will notice that I haven't necessarily addressed the "accomplishments" so proudly written in the title of this post. This is Micah's accomplishment. Yes, he craps in the toilet. Now, it's not a regular feat, but it has occured on two occasions, and his progress is promising. He tells us now when he needs to produce a bowel movement, after which he assumes the position, with varying success. So, for his future embarrasment, out of our pride as parents, and because we haven't posted a picture of anything for a while now, here he is, in all his toddler glory.

An Anniversary in Heidelberg

We didn't have gifts for each other. We didn't even get cards. I wanted to draw something for BreAnne, but I didn't have time (at least not much when I wasn't with her). The challenge became finding out how much we could do with about 20 Euros. First we let Micah play on a playground that's really close to our future apartment. He had fun and was finally brave enough to climb up this ladder thing on his own. Then we set out to find a place to have our big anniversary dinner. After walking around down town for about two hours looking for a chinese restaurant that we saw last week (we never did find it), we settled on a Thai restaurant and ate there. It was good and relatively cheap, especially since we just brought our own bottle of water. We didn't feel like spending 3 Euros per 6 ounce glass of water at the restaurant. Germany needs to work on the drink price situation in restaurants. At least you're not obligated to tip (as much anyway). After that, we got some ice cream and found a bench to sit on and eat. The pedestrian zone is always packed here. A lot of them are tourists here for the summer, but there are a lot of natives in town all the time, too. We headed home after some window shopping (i.e. pricing items we'll need for our new apartment: hand towels, sheets, etc.), where Micah refused to fall asleep (it's so ridiculous living in one room, with no other room to go to while he falls asleep!). I went to Penny Markt, since it's open late, ad bought a 700 g tub of Smurf gummi candy, a bag of chips, and two rolls of Doppel Keks (with milk). That was our real celebration. Had we spent our anniversary like this back in Salt Lake City, I would have been disappointed, but how many Americans can say they spent their anniversary eating ice cream in Heidelberg? On top of that, Matt and Emmy's website said "Happy Anniversary BreAnne and Patrick!" That was an exciting extra. Sorry about there not being any pictures. We'll have more soon.

Music, Church, and Road Rash

Micah has developed a near-obsessive love for music. He plays my harmonica as loud and long as he can. He's hilarious to watch; he moves his hands, fingers, and head while he's playing like he's imitating Bob Dylan or something. I don't know where he gets it, but he has fun. If I start playing the guitar to accompany him, he says, "No, Papa, zu laut," (too loud) so I have to stop and just let him entertain us until he's finished.


We went to church for the first time in Heidelberg today and loved it. We have honestly never been welcomed so warmly into any ward, ever. It was amazing. There are a couple of Americans in the ward, and a guy from England, and they're all great. Micah went to nursery and was just fine. As soon as he came and found us afterward he told us how he got to eat in nursery. We're looking forward to our year here. It'll be nice once we get in our new apartment. It'll be downtown. I'll post more about our drama with the current living arrangements some other time.

On the way to the train stop after church, Micah was running along, racing us as usual, when he tripped and tried to stop his fall, but succeeded only in landing on his left arm and slamming his left temple and forehead into a nice bit of asphalt. It sounded like thumping a cantaloupe. He cried, bled a little, then fell asleep in BreAnne's arms. We got pictures just in case something so amusingly unfortunate doesn't happen again for a while. The flash on the camera sort of washes out the color, but you can still see his road rash, especially if you click on the photos to enlarge them.

Oh yeah, if you pull up our blog and the polls are unavailable, just click refresh and they should come up. You should submit your vote. If you don't, there'll be a new poll topic someday and you'll kick yourself for not voting on this (especially relevant and important) one.

In case you care...

So, this post is here to tell you all a few things: what I (we) do with all this time on our hands, give a luggage update, and introduce some changes to our blog. School starts here October 14th. I've never had such a big break from school since my mission. In case you're curious as to what we do with all this "free time," then keep reading. First of all, we have a few details to attend to before I can actually start studying. We have to open a bank account here so that our rent can be automatically stolen from it every month. We need to apply for (student) visas. We need to acquire and provide proof of health insurance (the insurance we had in Kiel just expired). We need to come up with our first month's rent and deposit, as well as money for med school application fees (more on that later). We also need to register with Heidelberg so that we're legal residents, but we can only do that once we've moved into our apartment. Once that is all out of the way, I need to sign up for classes. Signing up for classes is much less convenient than in the US. I have to go to each professor and request a seat in his/her class. Usually, I'm told, this is simply a matter of signing my name on a list. With some classes I may have to show that I've fulfilled certain prerequisites, etc. On top of that, if the class is only offered as a lecture, and not a "seminar," I need to request that the professor grade a paper or give me a test to receive a grade for the class. To get a grade for the class, I also need to have the professor sign a certificate at the end of the semester. Then, I take the certificates to the international office, where they're copied and kept on file. I have to take those home to get credit for my classes. Anyway, I'm a little off the subject, but I just wanted to let you all know how spoiled we are in the US with such user-friendly universities. Besides the more bureaucratic tasks at hand, I spend most of my time filling out medical school application materials, including writing essays for the applications. We added a list to our blog (on the left) that shows all of the medical schools I've sent a primary application to. The key at the bottom explains the rest. The list was BreAnne's idea, so that I don't have to write it all in seperate posts, and it's a neat, organized way to keep track of it for ourselves. That way, for any and all of you wondering what the latest news regarding my applications is, you can come to the blog and easily find out. The secondaries I've actually submitted, or that I'm ready to submit, are Johns Hopkins, Washington, and Dartmouth. I was really excited to hear from all of them, so we'll see how it goes from here. We got our luggage today. Everything was even in it. We're excited to be able to wear something else for the first time in a week. With the arrival of our luggage, we said goodbye to the luggage poll. But in its place is the new "Poll of the Week." Tell your friends. I'll try to have a fresh, interesting, or otherwise new poll for our faithful blog readers every week. That's about all for now. I'll post some more pictures soon.

Baby Boy needs a post, too.

So, even though our next little boy won't be here until the first week of December, I decided to let everyone have a look at him. He looks like a skeleton right now; skeletons don't have penises, but Baby Boy does (see the arrow in the picture?). That's how we know he's a boy, not a skeleton. Excuse the fact that we don't have a scanner. BreAnne just took a picture of our ultrasound photos.

Auftrag erledigt!

I hate to disappoint the two naysayers who took it upon themselves to add insult to our injury and actually vote "no" on our poll, but the two words in the title of this post say it all: our luggage was picked up. Whether or not we'll ever see it again, one can only guess. So, to keep a lively spirit of pessimism alive for as long as possible, I'm keeping the poll until the luggage is in our hands, or until we are convinced that its contents have been distributed throughout the Balkans, or any other region with an active black market (I guess that would be most of the world, wouldn't it?).

Waiting for luggage, walking for fun.

Yesterday afternoon (I'm almost caught up on our blog!), we went for a walk down town. Micah ate a pizza from a bakery pretty much all by himself. BreAnne and I got "fish n' chips" at a place called BigPommes (Pommes is almost universally European for french fries). The name says it all. For 3 Euros, we got a big paper cone of Pommes with some fish on top. Neither one of us could eat all of the Pommes. They even smothered them in ketchup and mayo at no extra charge, and that is quite the deal in Germany. Usually you get charged for asking for more than the allotted one napkin per customer. After our visit to BigPommes, we went to a playground just down the street from our future place of residence. It was great, nobody there was a native German speaker. I've never seen so many young families in one place in Germany.

After the playground, we went back to our train stop. On the way back, there was a guy throwing a flaming stick around. Just for Micah (he said), he would do an extra trick, which was putting the fire out in his mouth. I love it here. It's a very diverse city. There are Germans, Turks, Italians, Spaniards, Americans, and Asians all over the place. They're not just tourists, either. A lot of the population is students and military personnel.

Wir lieben dich Heidelberg! (We love you, Heidelberg!)

I know, I know, you're in no mood to appreciate beauty after that last post. Or maybe you are. I am. The greatest thing about arriving in Heidelberg is knowing that this is our home for a year! We're not vacationing, we're not passing through, we're not missionaries! We get to enjoy the city and region thoroughly!

First things first, we took a nap from about 9:30 until 16:30. Micah called Oma, as promised. If you want us to call you, just deposit money in our account, and we'll buy a phone card and call. Phone cards are typically 5, €. You can check the exchange rate online yourself. After calling (oh yeah, if you e-mail us your telephone number we'll call, too), we went on a walk in our new home town. One of the coolest things about the city is that it's on the river. It's wedged between some hills and the river and it makes for a very scenic city. The city's downtown area apparently used to be medieval, but was largely destroyed by the French (!) around 1700. So, almost all of the houses are built in a baroque style. Some noteworthy exceptions are the Heiliggeistkirche (built 1400 - 1441), the Haus zum Ritter (built 1596), some university buildings (like the library that we'll live about 100 m from, built around 15-something), and most of the gi-freaking-normous castle on the hill (different sections were built between the 12th and 17th centuries).

After walking around downtown, we crossed the old bridge and appreciated the old town from the other side of the river. The bridge is a lot bigger than I had imagined. In our picture you can see how small the people are compared to it. We went back to the old town side and ate a crepe. It was good.

We found our soon-to-be apartment. It's in the old town, very close to a lot of pretty things and conveniences. We'll post pictures of that when we move in on the first of September.

On Sunday, we found the church, although we didn't go that morning. In case you're wondering, no, we're not going to go to the American ward. We're in Germany, we speak German, so why not go to the German ward? Exactly.

To end this entry, I'm just going to post some more pictures we took that first day...

Good riddance Kiel!

Please understand, I (we) didn't hate the city, people, or my education that I received while staying in Kiel. Quite the opposite. But the program in general was flawed in that it lacked some very basic organisation usually present in any kind of program/event/party/semester/(fill in the blank). So, we had been told that we had to leave Friday, but, we could stay as late as needed on Friday, which was nice of them to let us do, seeing as how we paid so much for BreAnne alone to come and "participate" (i.e. pay rent and go on a VERY long day trip with the group). So, since we couldn't travel on the weekend (which is much, much, very much cheaper), we had to get a night train to Heidelberg. The problem with the damn things is that you can't bring any more luggage than what you can carry on a night train. So, we had the option (i.e. were forced) to have our luggage picked up by a courier service. The problem was, the dork didn't show up on Friday (departure date) to pick up our luggage. I called the service to ask them why they felt it was necessary to leave us out of their fun and was told that said dork had made an "attempt" (Versuch was the word) and was unable (by no fault of his own, I'm sure) to find us at home, even though we sat at home from 8 to 18 o'clock, as any good customer would do. Since we didn't have money to buy new tickets, we decided to give the courier service the necessary code, in order to be able to get into our stairwell, where we left the luggage. Everything was settled.

We hurried to catch our train and ended up in Karlsruhe, 40 km past Heidelberg. This happened because there was an accident on the tracks and we were detoured past Mannheim, didn't stop in Heidelberg (at least not on a platform), then were dumped out in Karlsruhe to find our way back to Heidelberg. After arguing shortly with a man, who by the way couldn't speak a reasonable dialect to save his life (welcome to southern Germany), we had to buy tickets to Heidelberg. In Germany, it's never anyone's fault. Things just are the way they are and you damn well better accept the fact. So, even though it didn't actually stop in Heidelberg, it really did.

Later in Heidelberg (more about the city in the next blog, I'm not finished with my treatise on incompetence just yet), we found out that the courier again failed to pick up our luggage. Basically, we had to pay again, with the hope that the first order will someday be refunded, and gave them the original orders again. Tomorrow (Wednesday the 15th) is the scheduled pick-up date. We'll see what happens. Until then, we will curse the disorganisation of the Kiel/U of U Study Abroad program. I haven't explicitly said why our situation is justifiably the fault of the program coordinators. The thing is, we found out a few hours before our departure, that we could have actually stayed until Sunday (despite, as the attentive reader will recall, being told to get the hell out by Friday). Had we known that, we could have all made it here on Saturday, bringing our luggage with us, for 33, € instead of what is, so far, about 300, €. That is why I am angry. That is why leadership and accountability is necessary in a Study Abroad program (Reader! You now know as I do, that we can't assume such amenities to be present in the real world). And that is why I didn't include pictures with this post. It's supposed to be ugly.

Strande und Schilksee

With Lübeck behind us, and Heidelberg before us, we spent a Saturday enjoying what our home-for-a-month had to offer. We took the bus up to Strande, a small, seaside village where a fair was going on. Micah had fun petting the goats, although he wasn't quite brave enough to let any of them eat out of his hand. After we'd had enough of the goats, we set out to find something to eat. We found a stand with Haribo (R) instead, so we bought Schlümpfe (Smurfs) and some other sorry excuses for sustenance and went on our way. We ran into a carousel of sorts that had cars. Given Micah's obsession with sitting in toy cars of almost any sort, we were naturally obliged to let him have a ride. It's funny how seriously he takes it. I don't think he noticed that we were waving at him until the 13th or 14th time around, because he was too focused on the road, which is understandable in that kind of traffic. He didn't want to get out, but he gave in and we walked a few minutes to Schilksee, a beach resort town right by Strande. We bought Micah a little bucket and shovel and went to play when suddenly BreAnne spotted a lady dancing topless with her kids (approx. 12 and 10 yrs old). Now, since BreAnne warned me, I was spared having to gaze upon her glory, but I understand she was really something. We migrated south along the water and found another nice spot to play without the marred view.
We finally got a Fischbrötchen. BreAnne got a fish pattie of some sort that ended up not being very good (but was about the only cooked fish available) and I got a Matjes fillet. Raw fish is good. It's kind of weird, since it's cold, but it's usually pickled or otherwise seasoned and tastes good.

Before we left, Micah threw some rocks at the seagulls, told them to shut up (he really does this), then started looking for a rock for Oma. Then we walked around and took pictures. Before I came here, I don't think a bunch of docked sailboats would have been the first thing that came to mind when I thought of pretty things, but just look at it!

Lübeck

At this point classes were in full swing. We spent our last weekend (or a day at least), in Lübeck, a very pretty, medieval city south of Kiel. This gate was built some time in the 15th century. I thought it was pretty impressive. Somehow, the island that the downtown was built on was spared during World War II, leaving us with plenty of 600 year old buildings to look at. Besides the novelty of looking at something that was built before Columbus was born, I thought the architecture was interesting enough in and of itself to warrant a visit to some of the buildings. The picture on the left is just old buildings on a narrow street next to a church (you can't see the church in the picture, but it's there). After going through the gate and looking around, we bought some marzipan. Lübeck is really famous for the marzipan they make there (Niederegger Marzipan). If you're like BreAnne, and you don't like marzipan, then you should be ashamed of yourself. Then we made our way to the ginormous Marienkirche. The ceiling inside is apparently the highest vaulted brick ceiling in the world. It's just short of 40 meters tall inside (just over 120 feet, for those of you who didn't pay attention to unit conversions during grades five through 12). Since that was impressive, we took pictures. Right after that, BreAnne entertained my need to see where Thomas Mann grew up (the Buddenbrooks house), which was right next to the Marienkirche. Then we went and saw the house where Günther Grass grew up. He's still alive and lives close to Lübeck. I wonder how that would be, to be alive and have a museum made out of your childhood home? I guess if you win a nobel prize you have to deal with that sort of thing.
After seeing the laureates' houses, we went to the old town hall, also built sometime in the 14th or 15th century (or maybe both, there were two parts to it). We thought that was really neat, so we took some pictures of that, too. There was a restaurant right next to the old Rathaus, and we were hungry, so we decided to eat there and enjoy the medieval view. After we ate (good food), we found the old hospital, which is, according to all available accounts, the best preserved medieval building of its kind. It was built in the 13th century, making it even older than most of the other buildings in Lübeck. We didn't get to go inside, but it was still fun to see. After that we walked around and went and saw the dome (but it was closed, too), then went and sat by the water and enjoyed our time together like the happy family that we are.

Hanging out in Hamburg

After the Kunsthalle, we went around town for a

while. Our first stop was the Hamburger Rathaus (City Hall). There's a large square in front of the Rathaus with a canal running alongside it. We went down by the canal and Micah looked at and yelled at the ducks and geese. We didn't have any bread to feed them, but he had fun anyway, because they came right up to us even without food in our hand. After hanging out there for a little while, we walked around to find a place to eat. While walking around, we noticed that a statue that we'd walked by earlier was actually a painted guy. He was really good at what he did. If you threw money in his tin, he would move. We told Mikah to go put money in. They guy gave Micah high fives and kissed BreAnne's hand and it was just fun.

We found a reasonably priced italian restaurant downtown that had good food. We decided to eat outside, even though it had been raining off and on. A man came and pplayed his violin while we ate, so we gave him a Euro. After eating, we walked all around, took the subway to the harbor and just enjoyed the view. We got some ice cream, which Micah really enjoyed, and watched boats and ferries float by. I hope that gap in in his teeth goes away with his baby teeth... goodness.

After that, we went to the Michaelis Kirche, a large, catholic church close to downtown. The sculpture is over the main doors. It's really an impressive church inside as well, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to take our word for it. Once we'd spent a little time there, we went to the Nikolai Kirche. The chruch was destroyed in World War II by Mr. Roosevelt's and Mr. Churchill's armies, and the church was left in ruins as a monument to everyone that died in the war. It's a really neat monument and definitely worth seeing. It's strange seeing what the war really did to the country. For us it was overseas, but to have that all going on where you live is something else.

To end our visit in Hamburg, we walked around the old Speicherstadt, a section of town that was the old warehouse district. The canals and houses are beautiful. They have boat tours of the area, too, but we didn't have enough money for it.

Die Hamburger Kunsthalle

We visited the famous art museum in Hamburg. Inspired by the abstract expressionism seen during our visit, Micah felt free to delve into some avant-garde technique of his own. The museum was great. They had Max Beckmann (my favorite artist), Monet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Picasso, and lots of others. The Caspar David Friedrich collection was really cool, too. If you're ever in Germany, go to Hamburg and see it.

Willkommen in Kiel!

Kiel is right on the water. There's a huge sandbox downtown full of kids and toys and even some parents standing around smoking. Micah loves playing there, and usually gets mad when we have to go. Kiel's harbor is really pretty. There are some beaches around, too. Those pictures are in a later blog, since our camera's battery went

dead and we couldn't find a charger for it for a week or so. In any case, we've liked it here. Micah loves seeing the boats in the harbor. We rode on a ferry our first weekend here and he loved that.

There are jellyfish all over in the water. That's what Micah's pointing at in the picture.

Willkommen in Deutschland!

Upshot: we're in Germany!! Downside: so is our luggage... After trying to convince several different taxi drivers that we could fit it all in their station wagon, we found a taxi driver with a van. It all fit, although I still don't really know how. Our driver was super nice and took us to our hotel, which was right by the Hamburg Central Station. The next morning, it was off to Kiel.

Cheerio England.

After a hard day of walking around Manchester and trying to sleep in chairs, Micah decided that an airport floor was suitable as a bed. As disgusted as we were with the idea of touching the floor, we decided to let him just sleep until we had to board.

The airplane to Hamburg was small, but the flight was barely over an hour, so it was pleasant. They even fed us on the flight! Delta won't even do that for a five hour flight. Everyone should fly Lufthansa (just make sure your carry-on is light and you only have one)! Besides, finally getting to Germany would have been worth a crappy flight.

Our morning constitutional in Manchester...

Manchester was surprisingly scenic. This is a picture of an old pub in downtwown Manchester. The city had more of these Fachwerkhäuser (I don't know what they're called in English) than I expected. I love these; it was nice to feel so close to Germany. So, we walked around town and ate a British Breakfast at some little Cafe in a department store. It was good and filling, but it cost us around 8 pounds, which ended up clearing our account as $17 or something. Micah really tried to stay awake and excited, but it didn't work very well for him. I can't remember how long he stayed asleep in his strollerr. After seeing the old town hall and walking around town, we started feeling (really) tired. So we went back to the airport and crashed for a while (hours) on some nice vinyl chairs in a busy hallway.