The Miniature Earth

"All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you 'cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
Mad World
Mad World..." - Tears for Fears

Vocabulary - Synonym of zerstören

I always say that one of Fabi´s developmental phase which I have enjoyed the most is his speech. It never ceases to amaze me to hear him pronounce a new word and I just can´t get enough of knowing what goes through his head.

I celebrate each word and phrase as if they were his first ones! I love the fact that he says: "Muchas gracias, Mamá." and "Thank You!" to his Dad.

I was not expecting him to have a German vocabulary, besides the words I had already taught him: "Danke", "Bitte", "Nein", "Hallo" and "Tschüss"... but today he was playing in the afternoon after having lunch and I heard him say: "kaputt machen!"(to destroy) and then burst out laughing. I laughed too! I would have never guessed those would be the first words he would pick up at playgroup.

Happy "Thirty-second month", Fabi!

32 months! That´s how long I had to wait for Fabi to help me cook dinner....and it was SO much worth it! He put pepper in the rice and then said it was "spicy" Here´s a picture of our first meal that we cooked together:

Today we made soup (and banana milk-shake). He practically knows how to operate the microwave oven and we love our new toy!

He counts from 1 to 10 in English and Spanish and says random words/phrases in English now that he´s around his Dad again ("What´s this?" "Is this spicy?")

Fabi is not so keen on going out of the house lately ("Mucho frío!"), and insists on doing things by himself ("sólo chi'quito!").

Talent

(Left: Gothic Landscape by Lee Krasner; Right: Autumn Landscape by Gaurang Fabian Prabhu)

Alo had the opportunity to visit the Tate Modern museum in London. When Alo saw Fabi´s recent abstract painting, it reminded him of Pollock's and Krasner's works.

This reminds me that I should go and get some brushes and water colors to have at home. Who knows when the little artist will get an inspiration for another landscape!

Chronicle of my birthday

I mentioned before that my birthday celebration this year was to go out with Ishan last Saturday night. We went to my favorite place in Erlangen where they play Latinamerican music and I had a couple of Baileys...yum!

On Monday evening Fabi had surprised me by singing "¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Mamá! while playing with the balloons that Alonso had left for him the previous day.

Tuesday 13th, the actual day of my birthday, was really special because it was Fabi's first day at his playgroup. Jetlag is officially over and it was the day when we got up the earliest since we came back from Costa Rica. We headed for the Mütterzentrum and met Fabi´s playmates. There are eight children in total (including Fabi): 4 boys and 4 girls. The group includes a pair of 3-yr. old twin girls (who speak Russian and German) and a pair of twin boys (who speak Urkrainian and German). They will get together every Tuesday and Friday from 9:00am to 12 noon. Since it was the first day, I stayed with them the whole time, but I will slowly start leaving Fabi alone until he realizes that he can stay there by himself and then I come back for him at the end of the session.

Fabi did a watercolor painting, had a snack and played outside in the sandbox. As we were leaving, he was proudly showing his work of art.

Check out my birthday card:

After Fabi´s playgroup was over, I was going to head towards Subway to have my birthday lunch, but we happened to walk by McDonald´s and Fabi managed to change my mind: I know the Happy Meal is healthy there (milk, salad, fruits and fish sticks) - and we get a toy!

After lunch we crossed the street and Fabi spent some time in the children´s section of our favorite bookstore while I browsed the calendar section. It was getting cold and so after a short visit to the Arcaden, we waited for the bus (no. 287) that would take us home again.

We came home just in time to have a chatting session with Fabi´s family in Mumbai. At the same time Masaladad came home, packed his bag and left on a business trip to...India!

One of the things I really enjoyed was getting messages from friends (some whom I hadn´t been in touch with for a while). So many nice birthday wishes came in the form of phone calls, e-mails, e-cards, blog comments, messenger lines, Orkut scraps and Hi-5 messages!

As you can see, it was a nice, blessed, memorable -albeit cakeless- birthday!

Snow in November

¡Yo les dije que estaba nevando! Si Alo se hubiera quedado unos 4 días más, le toca sentir más frío. Ahora estamos a 3 grados. Lo curioso es que en el invierno del año pasado tuvimos nieve sólo durante una semana, al final del invierno. Este año está nevando cuando todavía se supone que estamos en otoño.

Por dicha Fabián esta preparado para estas inclemencias del tiempo:

Travel Diary - Alonso in Erlangen

Nidhi asked if I had shown my brother Alonso the University and the building where I had been as a student. The answer is "leider nicht" (no). I thought about it, but the truth is my brother didn´t actually see much of Erlangen...not even the Schlossgarten!

I made a list of what he did see -as a form of travel diary- so that next time he comes, we can pick up from there.

November 2007

Monday 5th: Alo reached Erlangen in the evening. Had dinner and shared stories about his visit to England, Holland and France. We all slept very late.

Tuesday 6th: We all got up late, had breakfast and got ready. Took a bus to Kaufland. This was his first visit to a "real" european supermarket, so we got a lot of goodies (besides basic necessities like cereal, juice and milk, we also got different types of cheeses, antipastos, seefood, Spanish ham, Christmas cake, sushi, etc). We had a feast during the days he was here. After having a Döner Kebab for lunch, Fabi and Alo came back home and took long naps. Our visitor was so tired from the previous weeks that he even turned down Ishan's invitation to go out for a beer.

Wednesday 7th: Fabi still had a bad case of jetlag, so Alo had to wake him up at noon. We finally managed to go by bus to the "Wasch Saloon" at Lorlebergplatz to do laundry. While the clothes were getting washed we went to the main Sparkasse building in Hugenottenplatz to change money into euros and then went to the Erlangen Bahnhof to buy a train ticket for Alo to go to Berlin. The highlight of the day was definitely going to the Thalia bookstore and later a quick stroll through Erlangen Arcaden, which was a first for me also!

Thursday 8th & Friday 9th: Alo took a very early bus to get to the train station and head for Berlin. He came back the next day, almost at midnight.

Saturday 10th: Alo´s last day. He spent most of the morning playing with Fabi and we thought we would go to Nuremberg, but at the end decided to stay in Erlangen. Ishan took us to have lunch at a Turkish restaurant. The menu included a Dürüm Kebab and Baklava for dessert. After a quick trip to Kaufland again (Ishan was preparing for his trip to India!) we went to the Greiner store and found so many neat things there, including some Rosenthal studio-line designs. We strolled down the Nürenberger Strasse (main street) in Erlangen and went to the Arcaden again. This time there were a lot of people at the mall. Eventhough it was our second time there, we still haven´t seen everything at this new shopping center. We came back home and Alo helped me install a shower curtain rod and spent a very long evening playing with Fabi (while Ishan and I went out). He finished packing at 2:00am just in time to sleep for a couple of hours before he had to head for the airport on his way to Mexico. Two days later he landed in Costa Rica.

We enjoyed your (little) time here! ¡Gracias por todo, Alo! Come back, soon!

(Opa José, Fernando and Titi receive Alo at the Costa Rican airport.)

sechs und dreißig

I came back to Germany a week ago. During this past week, my brother was here visiting us. Now he has left and I feel as if I actually just landed in Erlangen. I still have to finish unpacking. It feels as if I´m waking up after a long dream...and now I have to face the reality of our German life here:

• I must do something to improve my German;
• the drastic change to cold weather;
• Fabi will be starting a playgroup this week!

On top of that, Ishan is packing for a short business trip to India, we´re in the process of extending our visas here and it´s very likely that Ishan will be in China during most of the month of December. With all of this in mind...I forgot about my birthday!

It´s because I already got a couple of e-greetings from some of my friends that I am now aware of today´s date. My motto this year is: "Remember my birthday, forget my age!" (Not that there´s anything wrong with being 36!)

Anyway, I did manage to "go out on a date" with Ishan last Saturday (while my brother -bless his soul- babysat for Fabi). That in itself is such a rare thing that it counts as a nice birthday celebration! :)

Happy "13140th month", Masalamom! :o

Hace una semana regresé a Alemania. La semana pasada mi hermano estuvo de visita por acá. Ahora que ya se fue, siento como si yo acabara de regresar a Erlangen. Todavía tengo que terminar de desempacar. Siento como si me estuviera despertando de un sueño muy largo...y ahora tengo que enfrentar la realidad de nuestra vida en Alemania:

Tengo que hacer algo para mejorar mi alemán,

el cambio drástico al clima frío,

¡Fabián empieza esta semana a asistir a un grupo de juego!

Además, Ishan está empacando para un corto viaje de negocios a India, estamos en medio del proceso de prolongar nuestras visas alemanas y es muy probable que Ishan pase en China durante la mayor parte del mes de diciembre. ¡Con todo esto se me había olvidado que era mi cumpleaños!

La razón por la que sé la fecha de hoy es porque desde ayer he recibido varios saludos de felicitación por Internet. Mi lema de este año es: "Recordar mi cumpleaños y olvidar mi edad!" (Aunque no hay nada malo con cumplir 36 años!)

De todas formas, el sábado pasado logré tener una cita con Ishan (mientras mi hermano -Dios lo bendiga!- cuidó a Fabián). Esa concesión fue tan exclusiva que cuenta como una buena celebración de cumpleaños! :)

A taste of Berlin

In his recent (first) trip to Europe, Alonso had the opportunity to visit England, France and Germany. Among the cities he visited, he was able to do some sightseeing in London, Paris and.... BERLIN, a favorite city of mine!

It´s funny how each person notices a place according to their own perspective. Alonso - an industrial designer by profession - was very pleased to be able to visit the Bauhaus, which is practically his mecca. He got Ishan -and me- a very cool ballpoint pen from USUS in a "revolutionary magnetic design".

When you take the pen out of its package, it originally appears as closed:

To open the pen (and use it), you are suppossed to twist it, so that the tip comes out. The magnets hold the two halves of the pen together:

When it´s time to refill, you just separate the bottom half:

Cool! Isn´t it?!

I´m also enjoying my Ampelmann souvenirs. He´s cute! Can´t get enough of the Ampelmann!

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Autumn Obsession

Ayer domingo estuvo muy nublado, lluvioso y frío. Parecía ser un día típico de otoño, pero ya tuvimos que sacar los abrigos de invierno. Todo el día estuvo oscurísimo, pero hubo un momento en que salió el sol durante unos minutos en la tarde. Las fotos de abajo fueron tomadas con unos minutos de diferencia:

Me sigue fascinando cuando el sol sale de día y los colores del otoño se ven lindísimos. ¡A través de la ventana se ve como una postal! Pero cuando se sale, se siente un frío que es difícil imaginarse con sólo ver por la ventana.

Estamos estrenando un termómetro ambiental que nos regaló Alonso. La temperatura de adentro aparece en la parte de arriba y la de afuera en la parte de abajo. El termómetro registra las temperaturas mínimas y máximas. Esta foto la saqué para todos los que se están quejando del frío (15 grados!) en Costa Rica. Aquí hoy llegó a 2.5°C -- aunque esta foto fue tomada casi a las 5 de la madrugada y además, claro...tenemos calefacción :)

kaltes Wetter

This is how autumn looks like out from my kitchen window.

However, yesterday morning there were ice patches on the fields seen from my living room window...and today, it´s SNOWING!

REGEN, 1.7°C

Happy Diwali!

It´s Diwali time!

ALO!

¡Miren quien llegó! Ayer en la noche llegó Alo desde París, después de su visita a Francia, Holanda e Inglaterra. Esta semana será muy emocionante mientras Fabi le muestra a su tío el lugar donde vive: Erlangen y los alrededores.

Look who´s here! Last night, Fabi´s uncle - Alonso- came from Paris, after visiting France, Holland and England. This will be a very exciting week as Fabi will show Alo the place where he lives, Erlangen and its surroundings.

Back Home

Travelling would be SO much more fun if it weren´t for the

PACKING

and UNPACKING

Here´s a picture of Fabi saying Good-Bye to his grandparents (Abuela & Abuelo) at the airport in Costa Rica.

We´re back in Germany just in time to enjoy the autumn! This is the view from our living room window. It´s good to be home!


A big "Happy Birthday!" wish to Fabi´s uncle, Alonso, who is enjoying his birthday weekend in Paris, France!