German Police Investigation

Per Tommy's request:

A few weeks ago, when friends were visiting, we set out on a Sunday morning to go on a Sleigh Ride. Waiting for us in the drive way was a very official looking man with clipboard and pen in hand asking if we owned a green VW Caddy. I did not catch most of the first part of the conversation. All I understood was that someone in a green VW Caddy had done something bad and he was investigating.

The man was from the police investigating an incident in the town of Blaichach where a man driving a green VW Caddy tried to lure a young woman into the car with him. The only part of the liscense plate number that she got was the first two letters OA. (OA stands for the area where we live, OberAllgaeu. Every car that is registered in this area has a liscense plate number that begins with OA.) Anyway they had to check out every green VW Caddy in the OA to try and find this man. I guess I should be glad they are so thorough.

Well I drive our green VW Caddy and I immediately felt guilty. I thought, "Holy Crap! What did I do? Did I run over someone's dog or did I hit someone in a parking lot and not realize it?" I was freaking out just a little bit. Later Tommy told me that he was freaking out too. He said he immediately felt guilty and could not speak a word of German. Thank God Tom was here to act as translator or Tommy might have ended up in jail.

Turns out the Caddy in question did not have side windows and our does, so that eliminated our names from the suspect list. Tommy thinks it is cool that we were a part of an official German Police investigation. I just hope they caught the guy.

Schneemann Bauen

Snowman Building

The temperatures have warmed up a little this week to the high 30's low 40's. This is pretty warm compared to the teens and low 20's of the last few months. Before the snow was too dry and powdery to form a ball, but the warmer temps have melted the snow a little and we can now make a snowman!

Grace working on her's. She and Sarah could not agree on how to do it, so they each did their own.

Sarah with her finished product.

Grace trying to figure out how to get the second snow ball on top of the first. Unfortunately, I don't think she ever did. I think I made them come in for dinner before she finished.

Sarah working...Cy deciding what is the best way to wreck the snowman!

Lore Mae and I were feeling a bit under the weather, so she and I stayed in the house. She was not too happy about this situation. She kept saying, "I want my boots!"

Sad baby!

Fasching Part 2

On Shrove Tuesday we went with another CharlestonEx-pat family to a Fasching parade in a nearby town. Tommy says that Germans do parades way better than Americans. I am not so sure about that, but they are for sure different.

All the "big" kids pre parade.

Cy and Seth scoping out the candy situation on the ground.

Each group or float had a different theme. This one was obviously witches (Hexen).

Here come the Cowboys. Tommy called them the married men, because they were chained to a ball. (Isn't he charming?) Can you see the last two guys? They are both drinking beer. It becomes increasingly obvious that beer/wine/any kind of alcohol consumption is pretty popular with the participants of the parade.

This one is for Pa.

Sarah loved this group of what she called 80's people.

Had to explain that she was two decades behind.

This was one of my favorites, Schweinegrippe Quarantaenestation (swine flu quarantine station). They were giving out vaccinations, a syringe filled with wine, but I had to pass.

Grace watching the parade.

We were standing on the side of a street, but the parade turned off of the street just ahead of us and came into the parking lot behind us. Then it made a U-turn and went back up the street towards the direction that it had come. It was great for us because we got to see the parade coming and going so to speak. After seeing the same groups a couple of times, we figured out after a while that in German parades they just keep parading until they get tired, and then they stop in the middle of the street and play music as loud as possible.

Loved the Lego group!

Affen (monkeys)

The first of two Mariachi Bands.








German version of the Shriners?

Cy seemed to be like it.








There were several floats similar to this one. At the end of the parade we walked to the center of town where all of the floats were parked and all were playing music as loud as possible.









Lore Mae dancing. She had fun, but Bless her heart she could not pick up any candy because her hands were covered up to keep them warm.

When this group came by, one of the kids said, "Hey that's an American song!"

Fasching Part 1

Fasching is the German equivalent to Mardi Gras or Carnival. It begins around the beginning of February and ends on Shrove Tuesday. It is a very popular holiday here. The kids have a holiday from school. There are parades in every village and parties and "Balls" for young and old alike.

Cyrus's Kindergarten had a program last Friday to celebrate Fasching and the parents were invited to attend. Now I knew that folks dressed up for most Fasching events, but wasn't aware that Cy needed to dress up for his program at Kindergarten until Tommy called after he had dropped him off and said he was on his way home to get a costume for Cy. Apparently, it is not an option to NOT dress up. So I scrambled around the house to find an appropriate costume for Cy. He ended up with a Cowboy hat, mask, holster with a toy gun and a sword. I think he was supposed to be something resembling Zoro, but I really don't know. By the time I got to Kindergarten at 11:00, most of the costume had been removed.

The program was great, eventhough I didn't understand most of it, and Lore Mae kept talking so loud that some of the time you couldn't hear the teacher or the kids say their lines. At one point, Frau Geiser said something about Cyrus's little sister, but I didn't catch all of it. The rest of the parents laughed and I was left standing there looking somewhat foolish I am sure, because I was not in on the joke.

Anyway, Cy did a great job! He even sang the songs (even if it wasn't the right words), and I was so proud of him.

After the program we all had Krapfen (jelly filled doughnuts).

Cy with some of his costume on. Even most of the parents were dressed in costumes. I felt a little out of place in my jeans and hiking boots.

On Monday Cy went to a Fasching Birthday party and dressed up as Spiderman.

The girls had a Fasching party at school as well. Grace was a cat and Sarah a Gypsy. They put together their costumes on their own. I thought they did a great job!

Pferdschlittenfahren

Sunday we took a horse drawn sleigh ride.

Before the sleigh ride. Waiting for the horses.

The poor horses chosen to pull 5 adults and 4 kids through all of that snow.

Tom and Nadja were visiting for the weekend. They do not get as much snow where they live in Germany. I hope that they enjoyed it here.

It had snowed a good bit on Saturday night, so the landscape had a fresh powdering of snow.

Grace got to sit in the front of the sleigh with the driver. Except for the horse poo, I think she had the best seat.

Cy kept standing up to see out in front of the sleigh.

Can you see the sunlight on top of the hill? I have heard that although the Allgaeu gets the most precipitation (snow/rain) of any place in Germany, it also gets the most amount of sunshine than any other place in Germany. I love the way the weather can change here so quickly. When the sun comes out and there is the contrast of the blue sky against the white mountains...it is breath-taking!