Neighborhood Watch

Our neighborhood is about 40 to 50 years old. Many of our neighbors have lived here for that long. I think of the neighborhood as being a solid, blue-collar area where people walk their dogs, drink beer and root for the Bears. Most people have 2 cars and well kept lawns. Yes, there are a few McMansions around, but we don’t know those people and generally think poorly of them for their choice in large, ugly housing.

no cute dogs live here 

During the first week in our house, we met several neighbors and attended a backyard barbecue. It was an easy, relaxed atmosphere and English was the spoken language which was so great after 9 years of barely understanding what was being discussed around me. There was some discussion as to which baseball team to root for, but mostly I was riveted by the tale of UFOs, lost time, and alien abduction that one of our neighbors had experienced. The description was highly detailed and relayed in such a casual manner that you simply had to believe that it was all true. As you well know, the Chicago area is a hot spot for UFO activity and so I expect that my saucer people experience should not be too far away.

I want to believe...in alien baseball

Most of our neighbors are quite nice and seem to get along with each other. But just like in high school or at the office, there is always the pariah. In our neighborhood there is the house where the "kid" (as the 45 or so year old guy is known locally) simply sits outside with his pals and drinks. All day. Everyday. Sometimes they play music. Sometimes they throw firecrackers for no particular reason. It does make for often compelling window watching since the police have been there at least 3 times and there have been 2 ambulance parties in the last month. It is nothing exciting like Kung Fu fights or UFO abductions. Normally, one of the gentlemen simply falls down/passes out in the bushes and cannot get up. It has just become part of our suburban lives.

a Kung Fu alien fight would be spectacular

This is the Suburban Mailbox!

After just 3 months, I am fully back into the swing of American life. We have embraced the suburbs and I believe the suburbs are embracing us back. We have our house, garage, patch of backyard, fantastic HHR, fence, patio, sidewalk lights, cats, dog, giant TV, high speed internet, outdoor grill, neighbors and a mailbox that is just a little bit tilted to one side.

Last week was spirit week here in Darien, IL. There were lots of days where the kids went to school in pajamas and as super heroes or celebrities. Kimeko did indeed dress up everyday. Sterling mostly went as someone playing himself as a character in a remake of an old show . There was a parade with cheerleaders and marching band and the Homecoming Queen waving like some kind of minor royal, maybe a duchess or something. It was fun. There really is not the equivalent sense of school community in Germany and it was great to be a part of it again. 

We did go to the big homecoming game in which our local team did not win. But the stadium was full and it was a brutal reminder to me as to just how loud hundreds of teenagers can be when grouped into relatively small areas. Kimeko had a great time although she did not watch one second of the game. Sterling perhaps will play on the team next year...they could certainly use the help and Sterling can catch a football. Also, the marching band was fantastic. Worth the admission totally.

multiply by 100 and add copious screaming

The Homecoming Dance was on Saturday night. Jenn ferried Kimeko and her friends around while Sterling and I played video games. Watching Kimeko get ready gave me visions of bridezilla. Scarier than Halloween...

Here is what happened

yep, it's been a while. Here is what happened:

In 2001 we were living in the whimsical small town of Newport, NH. With the lovely town green, the Rite-Aid, the Dunkin’ Donuts and the bowling alley, the town had much to offer. We decided to move to Munich, Germany since the opportunity was presented and we were eager to start spending the exciting new Euro which was about to be introduced. Pretty, colored money made us feel like wealthy colonists moving back to the old country. There may have been other reasons as well, but that was 9 years ago so I can’t really remember.

 our life in 2001...

During our time in Germany our children grew from small, cute kids to big, wonderful, bilingual teenagers. We visited many countries. We ate many pigs cooked many different ways. We shopped at Ikea and Aldi. We made friends with tall Germans and even taller Swedes. We drove an Opel. We adopted 2 cats. We watched soccer, both in the stadium and on TV. We drank some good beer. We had many visitors from the USA. We ate fondue and raclette. I played in some bands. Jenn & kimeko danced. Sterling and I killed virtual zombies. I watched real football at weird times. We rode public transportation. It was a good time.

 

delicious...

Now we are in Darien, IL. It is close to Chicago. Sometimes I say we live in Chicago, just because it is easier than explaining where Darien is. But the “real” Chicago people who live in the city always freak out and make sure that I understand that the suburbs are not Chicago. Yeah, I get it. Take it easy freaks. We are happy to be back. At the moment, I do not miss anything about Germany, but I am sure that will change over time. I am too busy shopping and eating KFC to think about it. The rest of the family misses the old country in different ways, but it is good to be home.

close to Darien IL 

So 8 years 10 months is over. I will continue to write this blog…topics to be determined. I am not sure what the title will be either. Come back next week

May the Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather (part 1)

Well, we have made it to the USA! 

All things considered, the move went remarkably smoothly. We flew on 15 June 2010 and although the flight was named “Lufthansa”, it was actually a United flight. So a poor selection of movies and no free alcohol for our otherwise uneventful 9 hours in the sky. No one even stood up to scream, “We’re all gonna die!” in German, so you know, uneventful.

 

Not United Airlines

We were collected from O’Hare by Michi who was kind enough to volunteer  to drive us around in his typical cheerful way. I was able to get a mobile phone from the office immediately which was great since we were almost 24 hours without a phone. That is not how things work in 2010 as you know. It was strange not being in immediate contact with anyone and not at all liberating as the hippies like to proclaim. 

my new phone

After Jenn and the kids were dropped at the hotel, Michi drove me to pick up my amazing HHR which was waiting for me like a dark gray superhero chariot. It looked even better than I imagined and to drive it off the lot 3 hours after arriving in the country after 9 years of living abroad is the feeling that every communist longs for in his secret capitalist heart.

Since Jenn and the kids had never actually seen the house that we were scheduled to purchase the next day, we did a drive by before dinner. The house looked great and our first hours back in the USA were capped by an evening meal at Chipotle’s discussing who would get which room and where I could put amplifiers and drum kits. By 2pm the next day we were in our new house having our first non-German beer in some time in our awesome bar in the family room. The American Dream indeed...

up next...2000 miles of driving!

Last dispatch from Germany

So this is it...5 days until we leave Munich and arrive in Chicago. As it might be for most anyone moving a family of six (4 humans + 2 cats), it has been pretty hectic the last week or so. The cats really are not helping all that much as it has been quite hot and they spend most of their days dozing in various spots throughout the rapidly emptying house. They seem pleased with their mobile palaces and actually choose to hang out in them from time to time. Of course, they will hate them after 24 hours of travel, but they have not helped with the packing so this is what they get.

The cats will be flying in this bird

The most surprising thing is the amount of paper that we have accumulated. Not boxes or books (although we have a lot of those as well) but sheets of  paper. Where did it all come from? Why do we have it? Really....Our house was simply filled with paper? I made a special trip to the dump today just to get rid of  the mountains of paper (Thanks Henrik!). Paper.

paper!!!

98% of our stuff is now packed and in one of the 3 shipping crates. The remainder of our furniture and appliances will be gone on Saturday leaving us with 2 more nights with 1 mattress for the 6 of us. First one to bed gets the mattress so I will be turning in at about 17:00 on the weekend. I will save room for Catboy. Our belongings will be shipped directly to our new house in Darien, IL. Everything is finally set and we will close on 16 June 2010. Hooray! The Illuminati has been watching our every move and have set up spy satellite over our house...spy view of the Neil house


We will fly in on the 15th, buy a fabulous HHR, stay in a hotel and then move into our new house the next day. On the 17th we will begin driving to NH and CT. Driving will be a pleasure after 6 months of forced public transportation. The kids are looking forward to 15 hours of death metal after staying one night in their new home. We are looking forward to seeing  family and old friends. The next post will be from the USA!

actually I will write the next post from my new lawn mower

a time for stuff to happen...

Since my last post, many things have happened:

• I traveled to Chicago to look at houses. I looked at 16 houses in 2 days. Nearly every house that Jenn and I reviewed until the internet itself begged us to stop was nothing like its real life counterpart. 
• The crappy houses removed themselves from our carefully researched list until I was left with 2 choices.
• I videotaped the houses and uploaded them to YouTube so Jenn and the kids could "see" them. Both great houses...very different but filled with possibility. 
• The YouTube login/password process tried to get me to smash my computer. It failed.
• I drove around a lot in an HHR. I really like this car and decided to buy one since we need a car anyways. 
• Every single person that I told of my auto buying prowess questioned my sanity and even my very humanity. The Chevrolet HHR Facebook page agrees with me.

•  We made an offer on one of the houses. It was accepted. We celebrated. I flew back to Germany. We completed all the paper work. Everything was super cool until the house appraised for much, much, much, much less than we agreed to pay. The deal collapsed like the economy in Greece.
• JaMarcus Russell was finally cut by the Oakland Raiders. Hallelujah!
• We made an offer on the other house. It was accepted. We are cautiously optimistic. The appraisal is not yet done, so we are still waiting for the word. No pictures until the deal is set in concrete.
• We continue to pack. One of the crates is now full. About 30% complete

The kids have finished school for the year. They seem happy about that. I have 3 more days of work in Germany. We will be flying in just over 3 weeks. The house had better be ready!

Helicopters and home layouts

It has been a while since I last wrote something. In that time:

• I sold my road bicycle. I guess my triathlon days are officially over. I have not ridden that bike in about 2 years and the famous drummer that I sold it to has already become a dominating biking force around Munich
• Jenn and I have altered our "top ten houses we want to buy" list about 20 times. We have also had 8 different "favorite house of the day" choices in the last 2 weeks. When it comes to obsessively reviewing houses on the internet, we have no peers. My favorite today is "covered deck". It probably will not be my favorite tomorrow
• I packed another box. That makes 5 now
• We wrapped our winter clothes in plastic bundles
• I went snowboarding for the first time in 8 years and dislocated my left shoulder

Yep, first time attempting a winter sport since we have lived in Munich and I injure myself. It was really just a simple fall, but my arm was in the wrong place and my shoulder popped. After 1 failed attempt to put it back in on the mountain, I took my first helicopter ride to the hospital where they put it back in to my immediate relief. The relief was like being in a car for a 6 hour trip while you drink 8 German beers. When you finally get out and pee, the relief is profound. Just add pain to the mix.

Many people asked me later how the helicopter ride was. I have no idea. It was short and very painful. I imagine it will be different if I ever take a helicopter ride around Hawaii, but my experience for now is short and painful.

I guess I was inside one of these

I will be in Chicago next week with the goal of buying a house. It will be interesting to visit a structure that I can actually go in and see in real life. Our decisions up to now have only been based on photos (and people often take astonishingly bad photos of the house they are trying to sell...why a close up of the toilet??), views from Google Maps & Street View, and views from Bing. Since we are trying to figure out home layouts from photos and map views we sometimes get confused and I am mildly worried that the houses that I have constructed in my head will look nothing like the real thing.

lots of open space in this house!

Once I get back from Chicago, we will be in the stretch run and the time will go quickly. We are excited for the move and to be in a new place full of possibility. The cats seem pretty relaxed about the whole thing even though I frequently tell Catboy that he will need to live in a box for a day. I think he will love Chicago.

Catboy's moving crate

boxes of many different sizes

It struck me today that our lives are becoming more and more focused on boxes. There is the most obvious way in that we must now take only our most precious possessions and place them into boxes so that we can place those boxes into some bigger boxes, which will then be placed in some huge metal box and placed on a ship for a lovely cruise across the Atlantic. Today I packed box number 5 which contains some kimonos, a few books, a painting by Kimeko, my baseball glove and only 30 Oakland Raider hats. Yes, I have sacrificed some of my beloved hats...mostly the ugly ones from the early Nineties. I kept the cool ones.

It is true that we are really trying to get rid of stuff and only placing those extremely important items into the series of boxes. This may lead to some awkward moments when you come to visit us in the Chicago suburbs where you look around and realize that the beautiful thing that you gave us is nowhere to be found. Let me apologize now and just explain that the thing was mighty pretty indeed, but it was not more vital than my book on Swedish Death Metal, and now some German dude has the pretty thing in his house and absolutely loves it. It's a win for everyone!

We have purchased animal carriers for Catboy and Leo. These are very special boxes that the cats will live in for about a day while they enjoy their first trans-Atlantic flight. We have them set up around the house (currently on Kimeko's bed) so the cats can check them out and get comfortable with the idea that they must live in a box for a day. They seem pretty excited about the whole thing.

Our search for the biggest box of all has started to pick up steam. Jenn and I look at houses on the Internet almost every day. On Sundays we typically look at our "favorites" list to try to calculate the exact equation from the house details that will result in the home of both our dreams and our budget. We have not stumbled upon this mythical formula yet, but when we do I will be sure to sell it to you from my internet site. 
Our normal routine is:

• 08:30 - Decide that we absolutely adore a house. This is definitely the house we will live in forever and we should make an offer, even though we have not actually visited the house.
• 12: 41 - Decide that the house we loved earlier is actually too small or too big or in the wrong location or is ugly. We hate it and will remove it from our "favorites" list.
• 18:51 - Actually, that house is OK and maybe I should look at it when I am in Chicago in April.

5 more weeks to go and then I should be able to show you pictures of the suburban American dream.

One more midnight Super Bowl + 4 boxes

On Monday 8 Feb 2010 I can cancel my subscription to Kabel Deutschland since the only reason that I have cable TV is to be able to watch American Football (as if there is any other kind...) on ESPN America. The programming is actually pretty good since they show the live feeds of the games starting at 19:00 Sunday evening, plus they replay the later games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Great for me although Jenn, Sterling and Kimeko do not seem to enjoy it as much as me. I will say that I am a bit tired of seeing the Patriots and Tom Brady's big chin although this year was better since the Pats were not shown every other week like during the past few "dynasty", video cheating, tuck rule (It was a FUMBLE!!) years.


The big event is the Super Bowl of course.

Sterling and Kimeko can skip school the next day if they watch the whole game...No napping. If they fall asleep, then they must go to school. Rules are rules. They both have watched the game for the past 2 years and the Giants win over Tom's undefeated chin was particularly thrilling 2 years ago. Jenn never watches the game, preferring to sleep or whatever. 


I have a few German friends who enjoy football (although they root for questionable teams like the Titans, Bengal and Chargers) and we will watch the big game together for the last time this year. The game starts at midnight and we will have a typical big game meal of beer, chips, nachos, and hamburgers from the grill at halftime while the Who have heart attacks at midfield. Burgers at 2am...what could be better? 


Update on getting rid of stuff:
Paul's Book & DVD club has been wildly successful and I think that this week will be the last. In its place I will be starting up a sort of shoppe where we are free to give away all sorts of junk and hopefully people will provide generous donations. So far we have moved a squash racket, a table and a pair of ladies ice skates. We have big plans for getting rid of furniture and stuff...but I will save that for another time.
I cleaned out an area in the basement where we have started placing packed boxes. So far there are 4!!

135 days left in Germany and already 4 boxes packed. We are in amazing shape.

The Holidays are over

Our last holiday season in Germany is now in the history books. We have spent most Christmas holidays in Germany since we moved here. I think we only went back to the USA for vacation during Christmas twice...And one of those trips resulted in a very sore back while sledding on Foisy Hill. At least Brian Kennedy (son-in-law #2) was there to witness my crash and then continue working on the sled path and jump while I lay at the bottom of the hill. 


We have had the good fortune of several friend and family visits during the holiday season. Munich is really nice in December and it is fun to visit the markets that are set up in the town squares and drink warm mulled wine in the streets. Of course, thousands of other people are doing the exact same thing so fighting through people to get your wine is part of the charm. I must take this opportunity to unequivocally state that Germans are the worst at standing in line. The worst. People will cheerfully cut the line in front of you from every direction. There is no use struggling against the tide, so dive in, knock that old lady out of the way and get your wine!  Frohe Weihnachten!

Christmas dinner 2008: Miche, Kimeko & Jenn

The New Years Eve tradition is to buy as many fireworks as you can afford, drink, and then go light them off from about 11pm until 1am. I must admit that it is really fun, but it is safer to swim with sharks than to be in the streets at midnight. Fireworks are flying around in all directions with no regard given to proximity to other people. Despite the noise, one is able to still make out the distinctive wail of emergency vehicles.Very exciting.

The New Years Day hangover

Update on getting rid of stuff: 
There are now less than six months until we are back and we are really looking forward to it. I started "Paul's Book Club" at work. I bring in some books every few days and people can come take them, leaving a donation if they desire. The only rule is that they cannot give the books back for any reason. It has been really successful so far, so I might try it with DVDs and then maybe silverware or bags of trash. We'll see...

Christmas 2004