First Day of School & Laundry Day

First Day of School
For most kids today was the first day of school. Logan started last week, August 25th. He had a great week. The week before he started at new kid orientation he met another boy named Owen from Oregon. Owen didn't speak any German either and loves all the same things he does; Star Wars, Legos, Playmobils, tag and generally being loud and crazy. Great for Logan (and Owen too). He had Monday off as it was a holiday in the US (Logan gets all US and German holidays off) but is back at it again today.

Logan and Owen
















This is Logan's teacher Frau Pape.  She's the one holding the sign.

Logan's home room.

Logan, Owen and other classmates in home room.

Laundry
So if Connor will let me I'm going to do laundry. I've got lots to do so I'm sure it will take all day. Chris and I purchased a washer and dryer (along with other appliances; fridge, dishwasher, microwave, toaster oven, etc.) about three or four weeks ago and they only hold about 6 kg which isn't much. Normally I could do all that I have today in two loads but with what I have here it will be more like 5 or 6 loads. YIKES! Hey it's better than going to the wash center or using someone else's nasty washer/dryer.


Furniture
Chris is out looking for filing cabinets so we can put them under the table tops (really doors from the hardware store) we purchased last week. Everything we own for the most part is on the floor or in suitcases. We purchased armiors (no closets in the apt.) or schranks (what they call them here) so we could hang up our clothing but we don't have dressers yet. We hope to get those soon. It's really a bummer living out of a suitcase for so long. At least I was able to get the kids clothing out of their suitcases. That has made my life a little easier.

Here is one of the Schranks. This is the largest of the two and the oldest. It's like 150 years old. Also if you notice to the right I found a german version of the diaper genie!!! It doesn't work as well (still a bit smelly) but does the job the best it can :-)

Here is the 2nd schrank. It's in the bedroom that Logan and I share. Chris is sleeping with the baby at the moment. We hope Logan and Connor will share a room and a schrank in the near future :-) This schrank is about 120 or so years old.

Here is some detail of one of the schranks. This is the top right corner.

We hope we can ship these home with us. They would look great in our 100 year old home in MN.


Transit
Connor and I headed out for some groceries. We have to walk or take the transit here as we don't have a car. It's not a problem. The trains (above and below ground), buses and trams (light rail) are wonderful. For this outing we only needed to walk down the street to get some food. After we stopped by the park to play in the sand and take some rides down the slide.

Here is the map we use for the U & S - bahn rails. If you are interested check out http://www.u-bahn-berlin.de/ and http://www.s-bahn-berlin.de/. Our station is on the U9. We have to take the U9 and then transfer to the S1 to get to Zehlendorf where the JFKS is located.

Okay, the day is wrapping up and it's time for Logan to come home from school.

More later.