Life in Germany: Intro to Freundebücher

I'm going to write a riveting series on life in Germany for new folks/future residents. Mid-term elections are just around the corner, so I just want to give my fellow US Citizens some options about a Plan B escape. Plan A is being civically involved either giving money (thank you Oregon Political Tax Credit) or time if you don't have money, do not live in the US, or if you are like me - averse to giving into this nauseating problem with money in politics. We do give to one campaign aside from our Oregon Political Tax Credit. Paul's college friend, Brooke Lierman, is an exceptional person and candidate. The US needs more politicians like her. As is often the case, I get waylaid with political commentary... 

My last post was inspired by my sorting through photos for a Kita Friend’s Freundebuch or Yearbook. Usually a child will leave the book above a friends' cubby, and we all take turns filling it out. Here is Hugo's page:

Crosby carried the team, as he often does, when it comes to Kita "homework".

I went for the photo of Hugo being a boss "cooker".

Meh zucchini muffins + Chocolate glaze = Happy campers

Crosby also helped with Carmen's page:

I wasn't actually sure what Crosby drew under the bicycle in the tree. Snot coming out of her nose? Barfing? Nope, that is Carmen eating pizza. I wrote "Essen" or "Eating" on top, just for clarity. 

I had the book for about a week, which is bad form, but shocker, it is hard to find a photo of the kids wearing clothes. This is Carmen's photo:

As you can see our kids are very German, embracing coffee and cake culture.

Speaking of going German, look who's learning German:

Two nights a week, Paul is holing up and studying with linguist Micheal Thomas. It's an online program highly recommended by maven friend Amber. Maven = Malcolm Gladwell's term for someone who knows everything.

There is current talk in Germany about making dual citizenship possible. The requirements are not completely laid out yet, but likely it will be similar to the current requirement for German citizenship: passing a B1 level language test (the equivalent of 200 series US university level language), passing the German citizenship test (we will likely know more about the German constitution than than the US here soon), residing in Germany for at least 6 years, and so much paperwork that I just don't want to think about yet. I'll likely be taking tests in the fall and then help Paul get ready to test in the spring.

Speaking of other awesome German things, from June-August local rail travel will cost 9 Euros / $10 a month to go anywhere on local transportation. Our favorite English language news The Local wrote an article on how to get across Germany using the eligible local trains. If I was in a different phase of life, I would be all over this. Please, please someone do this and give me the full report.

This summer we'll be in Berlin hosting family and friends. Expect to see more photos of this:

And this: