It's snowing....!!!!

That's how our darling daughters greeted us at 6 am this morning (27/11/10), at the top of their voices! Outside, everything was silver - even without sunlight - as it was several hours before sunrise! It was an impressive cover for the first one of the season. And with temperatures forecast to stay below 0C everyday this week, it has not turned to slush. So we have two very happy daughters.

Our path to school usually takes us less than 15 min - but today it took us 35 min! The girls resembled hyperactive rabbits, hoping, slipping and skipping all over the place. They crunched it under their boots, scraped it off cars, left crazy footsteps across the lawn and made about 6 snowballs a minute. I think 4 snow balls found their targets - good that they are such bad aims!

Marching and more

I am constantly trying to figure out how it is that there are so few overweight people here. They seem to eat kilos of Fleisch (wurst, leberkaese, schinken, salami etc etc) every week and mountains of cream - and yet they are soooo much slimmer than the average Aussie.

One possible explanation is that they do love to walk. It's simply too difficult to drive - the roads are narrow, visibility is poor due to the rain and fog, car parking is non-existent and petrol is expensive. So they either catch trains or walk (catching trainings also involves a lot of walking).

Everyday the kids and I walk to and from school (along with everyone else) (3.5km/day). Then we walk to friends occasionally (2km/week). I do regular small shopping trips after school drop offs instead of the weekly mega-shop (food goes off here so fast - it's the only way to eat half fresh produce - and probably why they don't eat veggies much - unless they are frozen) (1.5 km/day). I walk to my German lessons twice a week (5km). Yesterday the school library was locked (they couldn't find the key) so quite spontaneously the teacher walked the entire class into the city to the Stadtbibliothek (6km). So far I estimate the children average about 20km/week and I walk about 30km.

But there's more . . . last week was the Catholic Saint Martin's Parade. It was a miserably, wet, windy, cold night. But everything stuck to schedule with the children walking at least 3km in the rain, singing songs and swinging home-made lanterns. It was really quite lovely - especially when accompanied by a mini brass band and a colossal Saint Martin upon his horse.

Despite all this - I still don't look Teutonically slim. I will have to start eating just a couple of slices of bread for dinner like the locals.

Off the tourist trial . . .

Apart from discovering numerous new places both within and outside Germany, we have also had a few unexpected excursions to places not usually sought after - namely the interior of emergency medical departments at hospitals both here in Essen and in Bonn. And unfortunately our visits seem to last several weary hours.

Our first 'emergency' occurred in Bonn, a lovely historic city, the former Capital of Germany. However, instead of exploring the historic Altstadt or Beethoven's birthplace we visited the local hospital. Somehow Mia's teeth had torn a significant flesh wound into Steph's scalp. It was a completely unintentional collision on a trampoline. Steph's scalp was cleaned and glued back together. Mia's teeth took 5 weeks to re-settle and stop wobbling (one is now dark grey).

Our second 'emergency' occurred here in Essen. Mia was testing her new cycling skills - obviously to the limit. She hurtled down a steep, slippery, ash felt slope - decided to slow down - slammed on the brakes. The biked stopped but she flew chin first onto the tarmac. Two old ladies mopped up the blood, while they waited for a responsible adult to arrive. So Mia was rushed to the local children's hospital where she was stitched 6 times. There was a moment of comic relief, when the young German doctor mispronounced 'sew' and said "don't worry I'm just going to saw you a little". Mia was not the only one temporarily worried.

Interestingly medicine is generally free (well 43% of their taxes) so the Emergency Departments had no mechanism to charge us - so we received free treatments.

Later that evening our friendly neighbours had heard the commotion and enquired what had happened. When informed, all four stuck their chins out and said - we've had stitches there too!!! It's obviously the done thing in Essen.

Mia also fractured a molar - which was dissected and capped by a very friendly and very expensive local dentist, whose billing mechanisms could accommodate even foreigners like ourselves.

Mia and Steph are now fully healed and jumping and cycling as wildly as before!