Moving Slowly

We are moving today/this weekend. Typical here in Germany is that it takes forever to move. It's absolutely unbelieveable. Even in normal commercial companies, like a realtor, there are only certain times you can reach them and then you have to make an appointment. And most places are closed on Wednesdays, only open in the morning on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and are there on Fridays, but don't answer the phone and leave early. I honestly don't know where the Germans got their reputation for being hard workers. And how in the world did they build up Germany again after the war? They must have been possessed with other spirits at that time. Or this is a new ande lazy generation. It's a wonder they get anything done around here! I'm getting really sick of it. And they complain that their economy is so bad. That's why! No one can get anything done, and if they want to, they still can't because of the other people around them they have to wait for. I have had to learn to calm down and expect that things just take longer. We wanted to move last week. But that doesn't work because they have to write a new rent contract and that takes at least 3 days. Then, we tried to call on Monday, Tuesday and finally got a hold of someone and made an appointment to go sign the contract. Then, after signing the contract we had to make an appointment to go to the apartment with someone to officially get the key. I hope they tie a big ribbon around the house and have big scissors there for us and hand over the key all offical-like as if we were the mayor being sworn in. That's what they treat it like.
On a lighter note...
Ammon was sitting in his stroller the other day singing and talking happily to himself. Most of the time, I just tune him out because I am paying attention to other things. But, once I began to listen to him. He was shouting over and over:
"Come here, Christmas!" I guess he just can't wait. Remember that feeling? And it seemed to last forever. Now Christmas flies by so fast, I hardly even notice it anymore. Maybe this year, being in slow Germany, I will notice it because I'm, forced to relax and go slow.
Lately Ammon has been singing a lot. He sings about Kindergarten, about Dinosaurs, about anything he can think of. One of his favorites is "Rock a bye, don't you cry, we will go to Grannies." Sometimes he sings it normally, but other times he substitutes Grannies for "pet store", or "Laura and Cody's". He thinks it's really funny.
His speech is still quite unclear, but it is so cute. He says for example "Tahfoffen" for Kartoffeln (potatoes). I think that one is my favorite.
When I told him we were going to our new house, he got all excited and said "Then we a see a Grandma and Grandpa?" It broke my heart though. I had to explain to him that our new house is still really far away from Grandma and Grandpa, but that it's close to Oma and Opa. He was sad, but then he said "Oma and Opa have blocks and toys too."

Kneipsches Bad

These days the frost in the morning is so thick you can see the crystals on every blade of grass, every wooden fence, and if you stay outside long enough, on the tip of your nose. And the frost doesn't melt during the course of the day. There's just as much frost at 3:30 in the afternoon when the sun goes down as there was at 8:30 in the morning when the sun rose. The biting wind doesn't seem to stop at your skin, but blows right through your blood to your bones and back out the other side. You're crazy to go out without thick tights under your pants, a thick coat, hat, gloves, scarf, a couple of wool sweaters, thick socks and insulated boots. But the sun still shines often. You can't imagine how the rays dance on the frosty crystals and how your breath almost freezes solid in mid air as it leaves your nose and mouth.
As I tell you this next thing, keep in mind the above weather conditions. Patrick and Matthias like to drive to the lake around 8:00pm and jump in once, twice, or even three times, and then come back home and take a hot shower. With every evening that they go and come back, they do seem a bit stupider. I think some of their brain cells freeze and then die every time. That's why they continue to do it. Matthias says he wants to do it all winter long about 3 times a week.
As for the apartment, we found a better, but smaller and cheaper apartment. We haven't moved in yet. The beginning of next week though if everything works out with it. It's on the third floor (which makes me feel better, because no one can break in, but makes me nervous about Ammon falling out the window. So, I'm getting chains for all the windows so he can't open them more than a few inches. The view is nice, we look out our living room and see trees and a park. The windows are low to the ground, so you can sit on the couch in front of the window and have the sill right by you and look out. Ammon has a little tiny room big enough for a bed, a shelf, and a toy box. We have a room to ourselves for once, and then a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom with a tub. Everyone is donating things to us. The address is Legienstrasse still, but it's number 17 instead of 21. Just once house down, and on the 3rd floor. You'll all have to come visit soon. It would be fun to show you around. You can experience how we live here.

Ramadan

Patrick's sister's husband, Rawad, is a muslim originally from Palastine. His father was kicked out and they went to Lebanon. Rawad was born in Lebanon, and when he was 11 years old, his family moved to Germany to get away from the political unrest. Ramadan is a time of year in Islam where they fast during the sunlight hours. When the sun goes down, they eat together. This lasts for I believe 40 days. Rawads family invited us over to enjoy their last Ramadan feast before the break of the fast the next day. (Too bad we couldn't go to the break of the fast on the last Ramadan day. That celebration is like our Christmas for them.) Unfortunately, I had to go to class on that day. But Wednesday, we were there. They have 10 kids from the first marriage and a new baby from the second. (Their mother died of cancer 2 years ago.) The second wife is from Lebanon and doesn't speak a word of German or English. We had to communicate with her through the children, who all speak fluent Arabic. Arabic television was on in the background the whole time, though no one was watching. There was a calender on the wall that they referred to just for Ramadan. Everyday has a different and exact time when they are allowed to eat. (Before sunrise and after sunset.) When we arrived, everyone shook our hands and we were offered something to drink. Just for us, they had set the table with hundreds of cookies and treats on it. The cookies were filled with figs and dates. The candies were chocolate and marshmellowy things with coconut on the outside. We played with the kids for a couple of hours until the sun went down. All the women and the father were in the kitchen preparing the meal. Just before sundown, they layed a table cloth down on the floor and started bringing in food and setting it on the cloth. The smell was so enticing I could hardly stand it. There was chicken, rice, fish, salad, bread, and dip for the bread. And everything was so beautiful. The rice was made to look like a big flower with different colored peppers as petals. The salad so colorful as well. At sunset, we began to eat. First we were served an asparagus soup. Then we were allowed to take from whatever we wanted on the table. My first bite of chicken changed the way I think about food. It was the best thing I had ever tasted! I said, "This is the best chicken I've ever tasted!" From that moment on, the father watched my plate carefully. Whenever I had finished my chicken, he put another piece on my plate. After the third, I told him there was no more room in my stomach. He understood that, finally. The chicken is baked with yogurt with garlic and 7-land-spice. (That's my translation, I don't know what it's really called in English.) But it has coriander and cummin and cinnamon and nutmeg and I assume 3 other spices in it. Here, you can buy it as a mix already. After that chicken, why eat chicken spiced a different way??!! After we were done eating, everything was carried back into the kitchen and the table cloth was taken off the floor. Then, they wanted to make us coffee, but we told them we don't drink it so they made us fruit tea. They brought out dessert and tea. The dessert were like pancakes folded in half, filled with walnuts and brown sugar, and fried in sugar and butter. That was yummy too, but by that time, my stomach was about to burst. Patrick and Rawad's father talked politics as they ate. I believe his father thinks the the war between the US and Iraq is a religious war and that Bush wants to wipe out the muslim nations one by one. That is what they hear on their news. And you have to admit, that's what it looks like. Now he's bugging Syria. They think: Is Lebanon next? He also told Patrick of his plans to visit Mecca next year. He says the problem is the money. It's very expensive there. When we left, the father told us we could come anytime, without an invitation. That was my cultural adventure for this week.

It's a web made to catch a dream

They call it the "Golden October." And that's what it has been! Today was warm enough for a t-shirt. We found a little house with a grass roof in the middle of the forest. It looks like it's only a weekend get-away for the owners. You should have been there. The brown and yellow and orange leaves looked like they were about to catch fire from the sun, and some were peacefully falling to the earth. The wind blew gently in the trees. Ammon said, "Mama, this is Ammon's house?" with a wishful nod and a smile. I don't think I would really want to live in the house though. It seemed like it would be so damp and cold and windy inside. But the dream is romantic. Ammon was being silly the other day. I told him he was eccentric. I didn't imagine he'd ever understand what I was saying, but he said, "Ich spinnst!" (Which means approximately, "I crazy!") I guess he does know the meaning of the word "eccentric" after all! We found an apartment. The address is Legienstrasse 21. It's pronounced [la-geen'-shtrah-sa]. We moving to Neumünster after all. I prayed about it and we just feel better about Neumünster for some strange reason. The apartment is right by a park and the farmer's market comes once a week just around the corner and there's a grocery store, Oma and Opa, and Mona and Rawad (Patrick's sister and brother -in-law) within walking distance and a bakery and a barber and a pharmacy right around the corner. The bus system is really good so I can take the bus to the train station (15 minute walk though.) And downtown is a 15 minute walk too. Church is far away, but some members would probably be glad to pick us up on Sundays. The apartment itself is nice too. There's 2 bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen and a hallway/entry way. There are big huge openable windows in every room. And there's a big backyard area. Ammon ran into the apartment when we went to look at it and looked around. When he decided which room the biggest was, he said, "This Ammon's room!" That was a couple of days ago. Then, last night, we were reading a book and he saw some stars in the sky that look like the glow-in-the-dark stars you put on ceilings. He said, "That in Ammon's room!" And sure enough, there are glow in the dark stars on the ceiling of the biggest room in the apartment. He notices everything. Ammon ran off the other day. I had just changed his clothes and hadn't put shoes and socks on him yet. Then I did laundry and he was right behind me. When I turned around though, he was gone. I went around the house and looked for him, but didn't find him. I asked Dagmar and Matthias if they had seen him, they hadn't, and they started looking. That was when I went outside to look. Matthias took the car and drove aound the village. Dagmar and Patrick and I looked in the area. I felt so helpless because I didn't even know where to start. Then Matthias came, Ammon wasn't in the car. We kept looking. Matthias went a different way. I went back in the house to look in all the bedrooms one more time because I thought he might be hiding. But then I heard his voice from downstairs. Matthias had found him on a bridge at the end of our street looking down at the water. His feet and pants half way to his knees were wet from the dew. The funny thing was, Matthias had been sitting at the table, and should have noticed Ammon going out, but Ammon has a talent for sneaking out unnoticed. He even shut that big heavy door silently! I told him over and over again that whole day never to do that again. And everyone else told him how dangerous it was...he could have fallen in the stream, gotten bit by a dog, taken by a bad man...Now he's keeps talking about how he could go to Jesus. I hope he understands that that's not a good thing just yet. I told him he can go to Jesus when he's old. So he says, "I old! I three!"

Look out Germany, here we come!

We have officially booked a flight to Germany for September 21st. It's all like a dream to us. We don't really feel like it's actually happening, but it is! I really don't know what to say other than look out Germany, here we come!

Wir haben unsere Flugtickets für den 21. September gebucht. Es kommt uns vor, wie ein Traum. Wir verstehen gar nicht, daß es wirklich wahr ist, aber das ist es doch! Ich weiß nicht, was ich noch sagen soll, außer: Warnung, Deutschland, die Kolleckers kommen!

Camping

This week we got off work and went to Bear Lake. As soon as we caught sight of the lake, Patrick wanted to leave. It's a bowl of water surrounded by desert. We did stay for two nights though. Ammon loved swimming even though the water was a bit cold and there were fish half as big as he is swimming around his feet.

The car battery began to give us trouble and Patrick drove around for a while to keep it working.

On the third day, we managed to make it up the canyon and find a little campground we liked better than the deserty Bear Lake. It wasn't nearly as populated and there were plenty of big pines and a little pond within walking distance. That night we heard coyotes howling, and the next morning we found their tracks by the pond along with moose tracks the size of Ammon's head.

Ammon was in his element, especially when it came to peeing all over the rocks and trees in the area. Since then he's decided he likes peeing in the potty, at least when he gets licorice afterwards. The last day was rainy so we decided to leave early.

When we had packed up the car and climbed in, ready to take off, we realized that the battery was dead. Our nice camping neighbors gave us a jump and we made it to Salt Lake City, where we had no choice but to stop for gas. Of course, the car didn't start again, and Jolynn came and gave us another jump. We made it home late Monday night. Tuesday morning we bought a new battery and the car works great, but the sliding door won't shut for anything, so now we tie it shut with an old telephone cord and we took the bulbs out of the inside lights so it won't run the new battery down.

Oh, the life of poverty-stricken young wackos!

And no pictures because we forgot to buy film for the trip. But we do have a picture from the Dinosaur museum when Grandma and Grandpa took Ammon. He is watching a 3D film about underwater life with Grandma in the picture.

Diese Woche haben wir Urlaub bekommen und sind nach Bear Lake gefahren. Sobald wir den See gesehen haben, wollte Patrick weg. Der See ist wie eine Schüssel Wasser umgeben von einer Wüste. Wir sind aber doch zwei Nächte geblieben. Ammon hat es geliebt, zu schwimmen, auch wenn das Wasser ein bisschen kalt war und es gab Fische halb so groß wie er, die um seine Füße rumgeschwommen sind.

Die Autobatterie fing an, uns Probleme zu geben, Patrick ist mit dem Auto rumgefahren, um es am Leben zu halten.

Am dritten Tag haben wir es geschafft, in den Canyon reinzufahren, und einen Campingplatz zu finden, den wir lieber mochten, als den verwüsteten Bear Lake. Er war gar nicht so bewohnt und es gab auch viele Tannenbäume und einen kleinen See zu dem man gehen konnte. In der Nacht haben wir Koyoten gehört und am nächsten Tag haben wir ihre Spuren am See gefunden. Wir haben auch Elchspuren so groß wie Ammons Kopf gesehen.

Ammon hat sich dort wohl gefühlt, besonders daß er überall auf die Steine und neben die Bäume pinkeln durfte. Seitdem pinkelt er auch ins Töpfchen zu Hause, besonders wenn er danach ein Stück Lakritz bekommt. Am letzten Tag war das regnerisch und wir sind früh nach Hause gefahren.

Als wir alles eingepackt hatten und losfahren wollten, haben wir entdeckt, daß die Batterie ganz lehr war. Unsere lieben Campingnachbarn haben uns einen Sprung gegeben und wir haben nach Salt Lake geschafft. Wir mussten aber in Salt Lake unbedingt tanken. Natürlich ist das Auto nicht wieder angesprungen. Jolynn ist gekommen, um uns zu helfen. Wir sind spät am Montag abend wieder zu Hause angekommen. Dienstag morgen haben wir eine neue Batterie gekauft, aber die Tür geht nicht mehr ganz zu und wir müssen sie mit einem Seil zubinden. Wir haben die Birnen innen rausgenommen, damit die Batterie nicht nochmal lehr wird.

Ach, das Leben von uns, den armen verrückten Schweinen!

Und wir haben keine Bilder von der Fahrt, weil wir keinen Film gekauft haben. Aber wir haben ein Foto vom Dinosaurier Museum, wo Ammon mit Grandma und Grandpa letzte Woche war. Im Foto guckt er einen 3D Film über die Ozeantierleben mit Grandma.

Potty

Yesterday in sacrament meeting a little boy about a year older than Ammon asked him, "Are you speaking a different language or something?" Ammon confidently replied, "Ja! Das ist Deutsch!" ("Yeah, that's German!") Last week he went on the potty of his own accord. He is however very stubborn, and when I tried to put some "big boy pants" on him, he refused to cooperate. So, as a compromise, I put a diaper on him and then the big boy pants over it. He liked that okay. We took him to "Chucky Cheese's" as promised, but that didn't seem to encourage him to continue to use the potty. He says he wants to be a baby. I guess we'll just have to wait for him to decide on his own that it's time to give up diapers.

Gestern in der Abendmahlsversammlung hat ein kleiner 3-4 jähriger Junge Ammon gefragt: "Sprichst Du eine andere Sprache, oder was?" Ammon hat mit Sicherheit geantwortet: "Ja, das ist Deutsch!" (auf Deutsch). Letzte Woche ist Ammon von sich aus aufs Töpfchen gegangen. Aber er ist sehr dickköpfig und als ich ihm seine neue Hose für große Jungs anziehen wollte, hat er überhaupt nicht mitgemacht. Als Kompromiss habe ich ihm die Hose über die Windel angezogen. Das fand er in Ordnung. Wir haben ihn als Lohn zu einem Restaurant für Kinder gebracht, wie wir ihm versprochen haben, aber das scheint, ihn nicht zu ermuntern, nochmal aufs Töpfchen zu gehen. Er sagt, dass er ein Baby sein will. Anscheinend müssen wir einfach warten, bis er sich entschließt, dass es Zeit ist, die Windeln aufzugeben.

August 4, 2005

Jody has applied for teaching positions in northern Germany and in Utah Valley. Patrick is considering a few different things to study in Germany and is finishing up his associate's degree at UVSC this semester. Who knows where we'll end up.

Jody hat sich als Lehrerin in Norddeutschland und in Utah beworben. Patrick möchte vielleicht eine Ausbildung in Deutschland machen und macht sein "Associate's Degree" an der UVSC nächstes Semester zu Ende. Mal gucken, wo wir wohnen werden.


We went to the zoo this week and Ammon had a blast. He loved the train ride and the elephants. He kept insisting we go see the hippo. When we explained to him that it had been transferred to New Mexico, he just said, "No, I find it! Come on, let's go!"
Wir waren letzte Woche im Tierpark und Ammon hat sich ganz gut amusiert. Er fand die Fahrt mit dem kleinen Tierparkzug und die Elefanten am besten. Als wir ihm erklärt haben, daß das Nielpferd nach New Mexiko versetzt wurde, hat er gesagt: "Nein, ich finde es! Kommt! Gehen wir mal suchen!"

Just so everyone is aware, we are phoneless for the time being (broken).
Write our email at kollecker@hotmail.com! We'd love to hear from all of you!

Damit Ihr alle bescheid weißt, sind wir zur Zeit ohne Telefon (kaputt).
Schreibt uns mal 'ne Mail! kollecker@hotmail.com Wir würden uns freuen, von Euch zu hören!