it's been a while

So to start with I thought I would put my favorite BVG quote in:

"Current traffic hints and disturbed lifts" - the BVG is the Ubahn and Sbahn people and they give information about possible disturbances to travel.. I love the idea of disturbed lifts though - they mean lifts that are out of service.. oh the poor little disturbed lifts.

In other news - Lara is now called Carlotta - I get around this by just calling her 'her' and being done with it.

GREs are a week today - my other exams two weeks from today. I am completely burned out which is why I spent 6 hours yesterday at the Berlin children's museum teaching Jakob how to multiply and paulina how to ride in a wheelchair :)

Our favorite way of getting home, pretending we are all planes and flying as fast as we can to the door is starting to backfire.. the first "absturz" (crash) that we had was fixed with "Kussheilung" (kiss healing)... now they spend more time crashing than flying.

My favorite moment of yesterday was in the train on the way home from the museum as Paulina fell fast asleep on my lap. And started snoring. And MAN can that little kid snore! The whole carriage full of people was just staring and i could not stop laughing! She wouldn't wake up when the train arrived at Alexanderplatz, so I had to carry her to the next train... it was the most ridiculous thing I think I have ever seen (and I soo wish I had been seeing me instead of being me.) me laughing so hard carrying this (amazingly heavy) kid in my arms who is snoring her head off... it was fun.. my back is still sore!

babies babies everywhere...

The baby's name is Lara :)

Yesterday -
Jakob: But Beth, what I don't understand is what the bad guys think is good about war. Can you explain it?
me: (crap!!)

I tried to be my diplomatic best (me, diplomatic? since when???) The main thing I keep trying to get through to him is that is is not normally a whole population but some leaders who make decisions and that all countries are full of people just like us who feel and hurt just like we do as well.... although I don't know what kind of deaf ears I am preaching to considering he still believes Noam is not a German because he is a Jew...

FINALLY

The baby arrived this afternoon - 4kgs.. as yet no name.. although Paulina is calling it Clara. That meant that this afternoon I had to pick up Paulina from school then catch the tram, then the bus then the tram again then walk for 10 minutes, pick up Jakob, catch another tram then the train. it was good that she kept herself amused and the rest of berlin annoyed as she sang "Heute kommt das BABY!!" (the Baby's arriving today!) at the top of her voice the entire way :)

On saturday night I went to the BEST concert from Broken Social Scene at Lido, this big concert place. I am so so glad that I got to go. It was so much fun! The music was just awesome and the atmosphere was phenomenal. I met some really interesting people and really enjoyed myself! I can't wait for the other concerts now!! The band played for 2.5 hours which just rocks and did some cool improv too. Be jealous - it was awesome! The guy who played before them was also phenomenal. Reminded me of Mal Webb who I got to see and hang out with in Australia. This guy did a lot with repetition and different harmonies building over each other. It was really just so interesting to watch.

I am back at the books. With three weeks till the GRE's, my finals and 2 assignments due. It is no small task I have set myself this semester. Oh and Turkish is still so much fun! Met some interesting people through it as well!

WOOHOO!!!

Jakob: This is my friend Noam! Beth - Noam isn't a German! Noam is a jew!!
me: What?? no no Jakob, Noam is a German! his religion means that he is jewish. You can be ajew and be german.
Jakob:no you can't! He even eats different food from us at school!

and so it continues it would seem!

I have been hanging out with Noam and his mum a lot. They are lovely.

My family is moving!! They have bought a house in the same street as Jakob's school - I will have my own nanny flat in the garden. We won't be moving till sometime next year.

Jakob's school and our new home is right off Bernauer strasse. This is where the wall ran. it is kind of stilla little shocking to see that there are such lasting impressions of the war (even places that my kids don't love as their playgrounds!!) when the wall went up, the east tore down the front houses of apartment blocks to make the death strip. Now I ride the tram along where the wall once ran, where people were shot, across the ground under which people dug tunnels to escape to the west.

Tomorrow night I am going to see Broken Social Scene, then I am seeing Interpol, Blonde Redhed and the National all within the next month! how exciting!!