In 2018 we continued on with this life, that at times seems right out of a movie, and recognized how lucky we are to have this experience. This resulted in the following top lists.
Top 2018 Family Stuff:
- Cassandra took on the GEV chairwoman role: the lead parent representative/liaison between the parents of new school (which she helped form), the school administration and the Berlin City Education Ministry. This is for Cody's school (soon to be named The Wangari Maathai International School), while Jasper continues on with third grade in the same building at Nelson Mandela International School.
- Kids started an instrument carousel class: at a local music school that introduces them to various instruments over the course of nine months and with a class once a week. So far they liked the drums best, followed by piano.
- Jay changed groups at work: and will now be part of a dedicated analytics team instead of the strategy team. It remains to be seen if anything major with change with his everyday, however.
- We all took our bikes on the Autobahn: (they closed it down) for the annual Sternfahrt bicycle ride, Europe's biggest bike-activism event.
- Cassandra took German lessons up until the A2 level: This, even after we passed an impromptu language exam at the foreigners office and were granted our unrestricted permanent residence permit!
- New crop of new friends at school: from various foreign lands. Always there are new people with interesting and wild backgrounds there. Favorite, most international is new friend is a boy in Jasper's class born in Shanghai to a French mom and German dad who then went on to live in Tallinn, Estonia before moving to Berlin last summer.
- Jay finally got back into yoga: and managed one class a week. Somehow, he also averaged 20 push-ups a day for the year. He also did a single-day 210 km bike ride and avoided dying.
- Jasper now writes in German: It's the big thing they start teaching to English Mother-tongue kids in third grades at his international school. (Math has been in German from the beginning!)
- Cassandra quit her job at the agency: last day 31 December. She then held her third annual Christmas Craft party. Top item: toilette paper roll lanterns.
Top 2018 Trip Moments:
- Kids went downhill skiing: for first time. We went down to Oberwiesenthal on the Czech border, placed them in German ski lessons then we took off on cross country skis to enjoy the forests.
- Jay met up with former work buddy John Seasholtz in London: to retrace Karl Marx's onetime pub crawl and dig deeper into the British Museum.
- Attended Easter celebration in a small mountain town in Sardinia: where crowds of people fire off shotguns (blanks we're fairly sure) from the rooftops for two solid hours to ward off the evil spirits.
- First family camping trip: in the Brandenburg countryside. "Stockbrot" (stickbread) around the campfire, canoeing, and lots of naked people swimming in the lake.
- Poppy and Nanny visit: featured a trip up to Copenhagen to see cousin Katie and Michael, then some Berlin hangout time and a jaunt down to Leipzig to stay in the old "Baumwollspinnerei" (cotton spinning) factory district.
- A week in Bulgaria: for mountain hiking, exploring Roman ruins and then soaking up the sun with a bunch of Russians at the Black Sea town of Sozopol.
- Cassandra and kids back in the US: for Eagle Crag / Bloomfield visit.
- Touring Northern Spain with Pam & Hank, specifically seeing the Plaza de Toros in Pamplona: kids ran around acting like bullfighters. Jasper collected a handful of sand from the center of the ring to save in a jar. For what, we aren't sure, but we thought it was cute.
- Cassandra and Elena in Venice: on an impromptu girls weekend.
- Jay's solo trips to Bulgaria and Bosnia: exploring war ruins and abandoned Brutalist architecture masterpieces.
- Early Christmas trip to Finland's Arctic Circle with Nana & Poppops: to see Santa Claus, Reindeer and the Northern Lights. Unfortunately the Northern Lights were busy for this trip and did not appear.
And now some pics of it all:
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| Groupon Photo Shoot! |
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| Started our year off with a visit to Italy and Elena. Venice's Grand Canal. |
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| The Tiergarten lakes froze over enough for ice hockey. |
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| The kid's first Hertha BSC soccer game. Some friends came along. |
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| Ski Bums at Oberwiesenthal. |
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Oh the time we spend on trains around here!
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| Seahsholtz and Jay meet up again in London for some high-brow touring. |
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The locals are armed in Sardinia. Especially for Easter!
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| After the shooting everyone hits the cafes for cocktails. This was one place where we felt we may have been the only Americans in town that day. |
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Beach coast of Sardinia.
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| Cody, on one of our summer train & bike rides out of the city. The sun came out in April and basically shined continuously until November, making it the best summer by far for outdoor excursions, biergartens and sidewalk cafe dinners. |
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| Jay's abandoned places research takes him to some pretty crazy spots. Here is the Rundlokschuppen in Pankow. |
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| Kreuzberg's Admiralbrücke at night. |
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| Buzludzha, former Communist party HQ in Bulgaria's central mountains. |
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| Leipzig tower with Rocky & Colleen. |
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| Cass encourages Cody as we roll down Charlottenburg's Bismarckstrasse after exiting the Autobahn. |
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| With Wiebke and Dan at Cafe Am Neuen See for the Weltmeisterschaft. In which Germany lost. |
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| Berlin anniversary drinks at Bayerischer Platz. Year #3 already. |
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| Seven Lakes Hike, Bulgaria's Rila Mountains. Stacking cairns. |
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| The fourth lake of the seven lakes trail. Top three hike for us: high reward scenery, short approach (chairlift) and the kids demonstrated their willingness to do the real hikes without whining and complaining. Milestone! |
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| The Rila Monastery, hidden away in the mountains of the southwest part of the country. |
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Astoundingly, the kids agreed to a photo shoot.
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Jay and bud Jani in Hamburg for the Cyclassics 100km race.
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The Muslim cemetery in Sarajevo. The history of this city is insane.
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| Brunch on Sauvignyplatz to celebrate the sudden and unexpected permanent residence visa! |
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| Cassandra stands by her (and Cody's) new school. |
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| Katie and Michael down from Copenhagen for a visit with Lukas. Thankful to have expat cousins over here! |
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