Day 1

Today was my first day in the city without Bryce. Alittle more work but overall, a success.

Fruit loops over here consist of 3 colors and are quite nasty. Without being able to understand most of the food labels...grocery shopping is turning out to be alot of a trial and error (looking at pictures on the label) sort of game. Luckily, the milk has cows on it and was a dead give away and it is actually pretty yummy....And seeing cows every morning definitely makes Brycen happy.

THIS made me happy! For those who don't know, back in Indiana-I play volleyball 1-2 times a week at the church and love it (despite the fact that I'm not great at it). I treat it as "my" night out and one of the biggest cons to coming to Germany was missing 6 weeks of it. So to see this in a park in the middle of the city brought a smile to my face. It would be like having a volleyball court in the middle of Central Park in NYC....which I don't think there is, but maybe...

Brycen with the radio tower behind him. Wikipedia tells me it's the fourth tallest freestanding structure in Europe.

Definitely pretty cool. Brycen was way more excited about the water though.

So, randomly walking back to the apartment for lunch, I came across all these bears lining a few blocks of a street. Each one was decorated for a different country under the theme, "Respect for ALL life". Naturally, I became eager to see the one for the United States and may or may not have spent 30 minutes and alot of walking to locate it. After I did locate it, I decided that it was pretty cool but all in all, I could've guessed what it would be.

The United States was one of the last I came across to and I was able to give up and was almost at the point where I was going to claim, "Canada--close enough" (crazy, eh? Never did I ever think I would consider Canada close enough. But when you're on a whole different continent, it's amazing what "close" becomes). Canada's was gorgeous though. I wish I took a picture. It was one of the first I came across. Maybe tomorrow.

Very typical symbol for the U.S. I wasn't necessarily disappointed, just was looking for something different. Some were pretty elaborate with quite the pictures.

And on a different note: Maybe you're thinking, "wow, that's a decent picture of Brycen". Well, I remembered what my brother Mike did while we were in AZ to get Brycen to look at the camera. "Brycen, how many fingers am I holding up?" Brycen was in the process of saying "2". Sometimes it works like a charm.

And other times...

...Not so much. Brycen was actually saying, "No cheese!" in this picture. (And can I just say, this climate is perfect for his curls! Adore them.)

So this store is right by our apartment and we pass it several times a day. You see lots and lots of "nice" cars here in Berlin. But like Bryce pointed out, what we consider "nice" cars in the U.S. are Germany-made. Lots of Audi's, BMW's, Volkswagen's...line every street. On Saturday, we passed by what was probably a 1960s Ford Mustang--not in the best shape, yet some people were out taking pictures of not the brand new, shiny black BMW sitting next to it, but the Ford Mustang. I have always LOVED Ford Mustangs so it made me happy.

Overall opinions and thoughts for the day:

1. Germans smoke too much. Not sure why but they inhale it like it's water and apparently missed the memo in health class or on every box, that smoking kills. Everyone smokes and they could careless if they light up with your child sitting a foot away.

2. They also love their dogs. Dogs are everywhere. Go on Buses. Trains. Stores. I don't mind too much though, free entertainment for the little guy. He loves spotting them!

3. Having a stroller and child does not buy you anything over here. I never really put much thought into it and I know this is a very general statement but people in the United States seem to be alot more considerate than the people here. I first noticed it on our overnight flight to Amsterdam. I was waiting in line for the bathroom on the plane with Brycen in my arms when I realized that the bathroom on the other side of the aisle was empty. So, I took the effort to go back to our seats and climb over Bryce to go to the other side. Meanwhile, the little boy (probably 10 or 12) that was in front of us in line, saw was I was doing, and was then encouraged by his parents to hurry and beat me. I was just about to walk into the bathroom, when the little foreign boy cut me off and shut the door.

Without having Bryce with me, there's no one that will hold the door open to push the stroller in and people actually rush ahead of me to claim the seats on the bus and subway before I can. I really don't mind too much since I definitely have a tendency to be independent but it did open my eyes to the things that I often take as expected in the United States. Back in Indiana, it's very rare that someone doesn't stop to open the door for Brycen and I or pause so we can go first, etc.

I also almost got ran over while pushing Brycen in the stroller today.... while using a cross walk that said, "walk" by a van that stopped, saw us, and decided that he could hurry and make it across before we got to that point (after we were already halfway into the intersection). Everyone is in too much of a hurry here...like most cities. They all would do well by reading, Dieter F. Uchtdoft "Of Things that Matter Most" talk. :)

3. A/C. Very foreign concept here. It seems as only the American based hotels (Holiday Inn, Hamption Inn, etc.) even offer the luxury. Our apartment is on the 5th floor and can become rather toasty (sweating as I'm typing here). We're looking into buying a fan tonight. With the windows open, it's really not bad but with being right by the subway that runs 24 hours/day--we can't afford to have the windows open during naptime or the night as no one will get sleep and Brycen wakes up every hour wanting to go on a choo choo ride.

Buses, subways, restaurants....windows it is! Now I see why people eating outside is so much more common here and in movies filmed in foreign countries. Restaurants I have passed by, usually have all their windows open and most their tables and chairs outside for the climate really is pretty pleasant....(just a tad bit stuffy on the 5th floor and in crowded bus and subways). And I, personally, love the look and feel that it adds to the city life but it never clicked to why it might be so common until now.

4. It's a good thing we are here for 3 more weeks. Besides the fact that it has taken days to adjust to the time difference, Brycen runs on his own schedule and would be completely satisfied switching between bus rides and choo-choo rides all day. There's only so much sightseeing that can be done before Brycen decides that he wants out of the stroller and then that it's his turn to push. So we end up moving at caterpillar speed, bee lined for the nearest bus...which is usually a sightseeing tour bus that I must explain to him we can't get on and must look for a "yellow" public transit bus. And then I'm locked into the next bus ride commitment.

I really don't mind. He is very pleasant to travel with. Always wants to be on the move and would love to sit in the stroller and go on walks and rides all day (he actually pleads to stay outside when we come back to the apartment for lunch, naptime, and dinner and protests by staying in the stroller when brought inside...haha!). It's when it comes to stopping so Mommy can look at signs and sights that he gets bored. So, I love that we are in no hurry and I have several days to see what I want to see and lots of the rest of the days to leave it up to Brycen where we'll go next.

P.S. Love reading your comments. It is so nice to hear from people that speak the same language. :)