The beginning and the end

Today is the last day of Fabian´s kindergarden.

According to the German sytem, children go to "Kindergarten" from age 3 to 6 years old. During the last year, they´re called "Preschoolers".

I made a collage comparing the pictures I took on Fabi´s *first* and *last* day of kindergarden: before walking out the door and waiting for the bus.

Fabian at 3 and 6 years of age.

Pensando en voz alta - ACTUALIZADO

Ya han pasado más de 9 meses desde que anunciamos que me nos íbamos de Erlangen y, sin embargo, aquí estamos todavía. Ishan cambió de trabajo, y la nueva compañía para la que trabaja está a 274 kms de donde vivimos actualmente. Resulta que no ha sido fácil encontrar una casa que esté a la venta en Schongau y que nos parezca la adecuada. A sólo un par de meses para que Fabián empiece su primer grado de escuela, hay dos opciones: o aparece algo ya y nos mudamos muy pronto...o Fabián empezará su escuela en Erlangen (para luego tener que cambiarse de escuela). La segunda opción no me gusta mucho, pero tampoco me preocupa demasiado: después de todo, el cambio no será tan drástico como tener que cambiar de país/idioma/sistema educativo. De todas formas, yo sé que nos iremos a adaptar a nuestro nuevo ambiente, aunque siempre consideraremos Erlangen como nuestro primer hogar en Alemania.

Con toda esta incertidumbre de la mudanza, lo cierto es que ya no tenemos servicio de teléfono/Internet, pues previendo el cambio, lo habíamos cancelado "hace mucho". Suerte que no habíamos renunciado al apartamento, sino ahora estaríamos en la calle. El hecho de que aquí hay que cancelar todo por lo menos con un mes (o a veces hasta tres meses) de anticipación, no hay flexibilidad para ser espontáneo.

El estilo de vida alemán implica que todo hay que planearlo ... ¡con tiempo! Será por eso que, desde que empezó este mes de julio, en las librerías ya hay calendarios del 2012 a la venta.

Desde que supe que me iba de Erlangen, empecé a ponerle punto final a los compromisos que había adquirido. Renuncié a ser la encargada del "Grupo de Madres e Hijos de Habla Hispana" en Erlangen y también al Consejo Pastoral de la "Misión Católica de Lengua Española" en Nürenberg. Sin embargo, me alegra haber podido continuar asistiendo a las reuniones semanales del "Grupo de Madres" y de haber asistido a la fiesta anual de la Misión - ¡especialmente porque celebramos sus 50 años!

Dentro de los pequeños-grandes logros que he alcanzado durante mi estadía en Erlangen, están el haber completado el Curso de Integración del Gobierno Federal de Alemania y haber completado varios cursos del programa de entrenamiento para mujeres que buscan retomar su vida profesional en la PS:Akademie de Nürenberg.

Recientemente, también me alegra mucho haber podido ayudar a dos de mis amigas a abrir su propio blog. De paso, aprovecho para invitarles a que las pasen a visitar y les den la bienvenida a Carmen (Más allá del pensamiento) y a Johanna (Historias del corazón).

Y Uds...¿Qué me cuentan? ¿Cómo han estado últimamente?

ACTUALIZACIÒN - 5.08.2011

Ishan y yo hemos decidido que es mejor que Fabián empiece su escuela aquí en Erlangen. Así también podrá ir al primer grado con los amigos de su kindergarten. Posponemos mudarnos a Schongau (Ishan dice que unos meses, yo digo que un año)...

Ah!...y ya tenemos teléfono de nuevo....el mismo número que teníamos antes de cambiar de proveedor.

UPDATE (a long story, short):

Ishan changed jobs almost a year ago, to a company which is in Schongau - 274 kms (171 mi) away from where we live now. We were hoping to find a house we could buy there and move before Fabian started his first year of school. Since that didn´t happen, we´ve decided to stay in Erlangen a little longer (Ishan says for a few more months, I say one year).

In the meantime, we changed our telephone/Internet provider, but we still have the same phone number we had before.
So, it´s all good...

I want more grass!

Today's dinner menu was:

-Grilled chicken
-white rice
-spinach sauce

Fabian helped me cook. While he was eating he said: "Yo quiero más zacate!" (zacate en Costa Rica: grama, césped).

An Enduring Legacy indeed

Randy Pausch (1960-2008)

I had seen his speech on "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" and I had been following his blog since.

It's a speech that I hope to have in mind constantly. A legacy worth sharing.

Piedras Mágicas-Magic Stones

Besides my wedding ring, the only "jewelry" I wear on a daily basis are earrings. Most of the jewelry I own comes from gifts that I have received from friends and family. Sometimes I even forget to wear things because I forget I have them in the first place. I have been meaning to arrange my stuff so that I can easily find see it and wear it more often.

A few days ago, I gave in and bought this necklace shown in the picture.

Do you like it? I bought it from a very talented friend and neighbor of mine, Maribel, who makes wonderful bijouterie.

It turns out Maribel is from Mexico and she uses stones (mostly quartz) from a magical place called "Peña de Bernal" in the state of Querétaro.

Latin America is full of traditions and I think it's wonderful to be able to own a piece of this magic through one of Maribel's creations.

I invite you to visit her wonderful catalog (which I have been helping out to create). As of now there are only pictures of bracelets, but hopefully very soon there will also be pictures of earrings, necklaces and rings as well.

If you want to own or gift some of her creations I suggest you send her an e-mail (preferably in Spanish or German). The prices are wonderfully affordable. (Hint, hint: Valentine's Day is coming up! This is a wonderful gift idea.)

Visit "Piedras Mágicas" here.

What does it mean?

Last night I dreamt that I had a test and I hadn't studied for it.

Anoche me soñé que tenía un examen para el cual no había estudiado.

Wisdom

I was talking to some friends of mine and the topic of 'gray hair' came up. (Yeah,we're such a fun crowd, aren't we?) I said that according to some tribes gray hair was a sign of wisdom and it was one (more) reason to respect your elders. I mentioned that I didn't know if I would dye my hair if it started to get gray.

"What do you mean?" - a friend asked. "Don't you color it already?"

Wwwhhhat?!?! I thought you could always tell when hair has been colored...it doesn't always look so natural...does it?

Does my hair color look fake unnatural in any way? hm....A few months ago, I tried out a mousse so that my hair would have a plum shade of shine for a few days...and after waiting 30 minutes before washing it out I finally had a look in the mirror and it looked exactly the same dark (black) color. I'm not doing that anymore.

So there you have it: I have been blessed by genetics. One more myth busted, Fabian doesn't wear contact lenses and up until now, I have never dyed my hair (although I have always liked the color blue!)

Wild Hair No More

Mother´s Day Pics & Update...

My Mom got a really cool present on her day: a Digital Frame (similar to this). I took some pictures so that when she gets home from the hospital she can enjoy seeing her grandson. The pictures are here.

Dekoration

These pictures show details of my attempt at doing some decoration around the house. I like blue candles.

(Click the picture to enlarge.)

Fabi is busy playing with his toys and I leave him alone for one minute, but when I come back, I find he has rearranged my decoration. Apparently, towers are "in".


Noten la diferencia entre la foto de arriba y la de abajo. La primera muestra algunos detalles decorativos que he puesto en la casa usando candelas azules. La segunda foto muestra cómo a Fabián le parece que se ven mejor las candelas: en torre!

Erfolg in der Küche

El sabado pasado fuimos a cenar a la casa del jefe de Ishan. Hoy jueves era feriado aqui en Erlangen, asi que aprovechamos para devolver la invitacion de la cena. El jefe de Ishan, su esposa y dos hijos adolescentes estuvieron aqui en nuestro apartamento y pasamos un rato agradable. Ellos tambien tienen una hija de 6 años, pero no estuvo hoy porque anda en Inglaterra con su abuela. La pasamos muy bien!

I was in charge of making a salad for the dinner party we hosted for Ishan´s boss and his family. I made "The World´s Best Pasta Salad" and this other salad with watermelon and feta cheese. I also made a guacamole dip and tortilla chips that we had before dinner, along with fried spiced shrimp Ishan prepared. Ishan also made Tandoori chicken, okra and an eggplant curry. We now have enough food to feed an army...for a week!

Unwiderstehlich

I can´t go to the Thalia bookstore in Erlangen without buying something. It´s simply irresistible!

But really...can u blame me? I found a really cool Sesame Street book in German about the colours of the rainbow. When you open the book each color of the rainbow is represented with a ribbon. Plus...the original price was €9.95 and I got it for €2.99!

I also got a German political map for me! So I´m finally going to learn all the names and locations of the German states. I remember when I used to be in school in Illinois, I used to have a puzzle map with the 50 states of U.S.A and still remember most of that information.

Fabian tambien disfruto del Berg!

Mal kurz auf Spanisch...

Con semanas de anticipación ya se anunciaban las "fiestas" en esta pequeña ciudad. Yo me escapé un día (mientras Ishan se quedó en casa con Fabián) y salí con amistades que vinieron de visita y la pasamos muy bien. Ishan por su parte también ya había ido con sus compañeros de trabajo. Solo faltaba Fabián de ir a dar un paseo por el "Berg" y qué mejor día que hoy domingo!...

Lástima que se me olvido la cámara y la única foto que tengo es del globo en forma del "Monstruo Comegalletas" que trajimos a casa. Plaza Sésamo estaba presente en el "Berg"! :)

Sin embargo, les contaré que Fabián disfrutó mucho, pues dio una vuelta en un carro de carreras y en un caballito (de plástico). Probó la comida típica alemana (mientras bailaba al ritmo de la música de la banda) y se comió un gran helado. Se entusiasmó mucho cuando vimos que unos niños montaban caballitos de verdad, pero a diferencia de sus amiguitas Sayén y Silene, Fabián no quiso montar un pony. Tal vez el otro año sí se anime...

24 de Mayo - Dia de Maria Auxiliadora

Today is the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians.

Ave Maria prayer (German)
Gegrüßet seist du Maria, voll der Gnade, der Herr ist mit dir. Du bist gebenedeit unter den Frauen und gebenedeit ist die Frucht deines Leibes, Jesus. Heilige Maria, Mutter Gottes, bitte für uns Sünder jetzt und in der Stunde unseres Todes. Amen.

A group of Latin American ladies (mostly Mexicans) gather every Thursday morning to pray the Rosary. Sometimes on Thursday mornings Fabi and I go to a German playgroup, but since today was "May 24th", we went to pray.

Afterwards, we joined a group of ladies that had been invited to a small town nearby, to an Indian lady´s house...to pray another Rosary! I met Rani, who turned out to be a (Catholic) lady from Kerala, married to a German. It was the anniversary of her father´s death and she had gathered some friends in her house to join her for prayers. There I met a Catholic priest -- also from Kerala.

That´s how we ended up praying two Rosaries today (one in Spanish and one in German) and also how we happened to have idlis for a late morning snack. Of course that by the time the second prayer has taking place, Fabi was a lot more interested in playing in the garden.

After we came back to Erlangen, Fabi and I stayed in the city center, had lunch, did some shopping and came back home for a few minutes to freshen up. Then we headed out to the playground to celebrate with one (of two of) his friends who had his 1st birthday today. (Happy Birthday to Manuel and Nicolas! See you next Tuesday at your party!)

And that´s how Fabi spend the day when he turned 26 months old!

Spielplatz Spaß

The weather was so nice and warm today, that our usual "Krabbelgruppe" met in the playground. There´s always so much to do there!...


Even the mommies have a chance to socialize...cool,huh?!

Speaking of playground, the second episode of "In the Motherhood" is out! :)

Cooking 101 (Updated)

I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again: "Cooking is not my thing." But because I would like to (at least try to) keep my New Year´s resolution, I thought I would experiment with an Indian recipe today (from a book that my Mom had given me called "Cocina India)". I was halfway into the "potato curry" recipe on page 44... when I looked down on the floor to see that Fabi was having a spaghetti party. Those fine pasta sticks were really keeping him busy:So I decided to go ahead with the second part of the project and make a historic attempt at making chapatis:
I had SO much work picking up the mess Fabi had made that it seriously makes me wonder if I am going to try cooking again in the near future. Maybe I´ll try again next week. Next time I will give Fabi something to "help me" with before he opens the pantry by himself.

P.S. On the other hand, MasalaDad was *SO* happy to find a resemblence of Indian food at home today...that I just might change my mind about cooking ... maybe it´s not so bad after all.

UPDATED to add: My friend Rong says it looks like Fabi was playing Mikado with the spaghetti sticks.

MasalaDad is back from China!...

...and he found two mangoes left, of which he shared one with Fabi after lunch today.

I really like what he got me from his trip: a "Sesame English" cd set which I will also share with Fabi.

Rring, rrring, rrriiiing....

We had our home phone installed several weeks (months?) ago. I have not yet given the new number to many people, so usually the phone never rings and when it does, I know that most likely it will be for me (and most likely it will be one of 2 or 3 people - "Hi, Rong!").

However, a couple of days ago it seemed like the phone was ringing a lot. The first time, I was not able to answer it, as I was in the shower with Fabi. (I also got a missed call on my cell phone, but it showed no number, so I never knew who called.) Then a nice german man called asking for Frau Prabhu. I told him it was me (eventhough I don´t go by that name) and I told him to call me back when I felt more confident with my German language (in a few decades!)...

The last phone call of the day though, was definitely the cherry on the top! It was my friend Abhijeet announcing that his little boy had been born last Sunday, May 13th at around 10:00pm. CONGRATULATIONS to the Avhale family!!

P.S.If you want my phone number, send me an e-mail and I´ll give it to you.

"Mamá! Más mango!"...

MasalaDad arranged for some Alphonso mangoes to be brought from India. (Thanks, Sopan!) Ishan left for China yesterday. I hope that when he comes back on Friday, he still finds some mangoes left.

Fabi likes his हापुस!

H-Day

H stands for haircut.

I don´t know what´s going to happen today...it can be anywhere from Sinead O´Connor to just a trim of my Morticia look...but most likely that it will be somewhere in between.

I need a change!