Author: home here and there

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. You can read more about it on San’s blog the in between is mine. #nablopomo2022

I had a busy Saturday because we were getting ready to celebrate a birthday. It’s not my daughter’s birthday quite yet, but we will be out of town the weekend before and after, so she invited a bunch of her friends early. I love to see then interact. They are very supportive of each other and hearing their laughs is music to my ears. I am so happy that she found such good friends.

Before coming to the US I never ever celebrated a birthday early (supposedly it’s bad luck – like opening presents early – even though it does not make sense at all). Now that I am Americanized I don’t mind 😉 Another superstition: don’t gift white flowers – my grandma always said they are funeral flowers. I find white flowers very beautiful but it still reminds me of what my grandma said. Any superstitions in your family? I tend to avoid them these days – with a scientist husband and a scientist myself I need solid data.

Here come a couple of pictures from my day:

Laundry always first. It was sunny today so I got everything dry by the evening.

Since we had guests the house was cleaned up and ready to go.

I thought the frogs were so cute. I love the someone seems to have inherited my craft passion.

There were lots of murals near the escape room so I did some exploring while waiting for them to escape. In the last couple of years they are showing up everywhere around town – Oakland, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond,… Is that just something that got popular here or is it a trend? I hope it lasts. It’s better than the grey walls.

With the time change the sun was already setting when we drove back. As usual lots of traffic on the freeway. Quick view on the Oakland freight harbor through my dirty car window. It’s sitting under a tree most of the week and especially with the rain it tends to get dirty quickly. Car wash next week! At least from the inside it’s clean since yesterday.

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. You can read more about it on San’s blog the in between is mine. #nablopomo2022

We thought long and hard about the names for our kids. We spend weeks before their birth coming up with a list of names we both liked and then ranking them with a number system finally deciding on one with the highest score. Neither me, nor my husband have middle names (San wrote about middle names in one of her older blog posts), but both of our kids do (they are Americans and Germans after all). I like the idea of middle names because I always thought it would be nice to have another option in case you did not like the first name in the end. Who knows if they would like the name we came up with (luckily for now they seem to be happy enough).

One important thing to me was that the names work in both languages. My daughter’s name is even pronounced the same in both languages and my son’s name is at least obvious when it comes to the spelling. It’s funny since he will say it differently in English and in German depending which language he uses to introduce himself. My name is a different story. If I order in a restaurant I never know what to say when they ask my name. Meike is not a very common name here in the US. I always say it’s pronounced similar to Michael without the l in the end. If I wrote it Micah, it gets the closest pronunciation in the end. I don’t though. If I spell it out for the cashier at the coffee shop it always is a surprise what name they will call. I really don’t mind though when someone pronounces it incorrectly. I actually find it interesting – and I mispronounce my fair share of names (and words), too, so I consider it payback for that.

I tried for a short while to use a different name when ordering, something more American. The problem was that I always reacted late to that name when called since I was not used to it. It did not last very long.

Meike or Maike is a fairly common name in my generation in the northern part of Europe and comes like many other girl’s names from Maria/Mary. Apparently my mom wanted names that couldn’t be shortened into something else. She did a good job. She probably did not think I would to move the US.

When writing this post I remembered a picture book I read with the kids when they were little. It is called ‘The Name Jar” by Yangsook Choi and the story is about a Korean girl named Unhei who arrives to the US from Korea and thinking about taking an American name to fit in better. In the end she decides to keep her name because it is beautiful to her and it has meaning (grace). I thought it was a really heartwarming story and taught something about acceptance and diversity.

Did you ever think about changing your first name? Never crossed my mind.

I always try to get names right but I also hope that all the students with unusual names forgive me for not always managing as much as I forgive everyone to not get mine right.

Interestiong fact: It’s very unusual to change your name in Germany (if it’s not through marriage) and you need a good reason for it.

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. You can read more about it on San’s blog the in between is mine. #nablopomo2022

“Alle Jahre wieder”, “Every year again” is the beginning of a famous German Christmas carol. Every year again Christmas sneaks up on me. I have tried to push the creeping panic down the last couple of days but going shopping, starting to hear Christmas songs on the radio, getting mail, the lights that show up in the windows and in the streets – there is no denying it anymore. I am not a list maker but maybe I should start one?!

The first question that is usually involved with Christmas is already answered: “Are we going to Germany this year to celebrate with the family?” – Answer: “No, we are not.” For me it’s always a hard decision, because I love to visit my family for Christmas but it is also a long way to travel, and it’s dark and wet and cold. This year the school break is not ideal. We struggle with jet lag and I never found a good way around it – so, one miserable week (maybe longer since it’s winter and there are fewer daylight hours), traveling back likely on New Years and then straight back to school followed by another miserable week because of jet lag. I asked the rest of my bunch and my kids said they wanted to be home for Christmas so that’s what we are going to do.

I was briefly thinking about squeezing in a short visit to my dad before. I need to sort through some boxes I still have at his house and I never manage when I go with everyone else (and thought I might sneak in a Christmas market visit). With Covid though I got too nervous about potentially getting sick and being stuck overseas just before Christmas and “celebrating” without my husband and kids.

Since I am not going, that means I need to get my act together if I want to send over some Christmas presents. Mail has become super expensive the last couple of years and before the holidays it takes up to four weeks to get there – that puts me right in the Thanksgiving week and we are not even at home but visiting friends – aaaah.

The only list I usually make is a list with gifts for Christmas but this year I have not even started on that yet. Breath Meike, you can do this.

Deep down I know that everything will work out. I will get out our decorations and make the house festive when we get back after Thanksgiving. I will scour German websites for presents for the family overseas and I will sit down in the next few days to finish the calendar I make every year for the grandparents. We will decorate our front yard with lights (the one thing my husband enjoys about the holiday to keep up with the neighbors) and we will bake cookies (what I now have time for since I am not going to fly to Germany). I even saw that there is a Christmas market in the next town over this year on one weekend. Everything will be good. Maybe not perfect, but sometimes not perfect makes for good memories, too.

Maybe you can help me out with the presents? Any great websites or ideas that you are getting back to over and over again?

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. You can read more about it on San’s blog the in between is mine. #nablopomo2022

Whenever I go up to the steps of our front door I feel happiness. For one: we have a red front door now (it was red before but it was more of a brownish red, now it is a red red) and red doors make me happy. Our house is yellow now and yellow houses always make me smile – yellow houses feel like sunshine.

I feel so fortunate that this yellow house is ours. I still remember how stressful the whole house buying process was. It’s crazy in the whole Bay Area, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Berkeley, you name it. When I stepped in the front door I just knew that this was it and it was perfect (at least to me). It was an off market sale and in our price range and everything fell into place. Sometimes you just have to be lucky. Before we moved in I chatted with the previous owners and the woman said she felt the same way – maybe that’s just how some houses are?

This yellow house is home now. I love the neighborhood that we walked for many hours during the pandemic. I can ask our neighbors to get the mail and water my garden when we are gone. Even when visiting my family in Germany now, I don’t mind leaving anymore because I am coming home to the yellow house.

There is this German word that I did not find a good translation for: Heimat. If you look it up it comes up as home country or home town or just plain home. But in German it means more than that. It’s a place of belonging, a place where you put down roots. It’s an emotion as much as a word to me. I am glad to say that now it finally feels like my Heimat is in both places.

When I came up with the blog title it was more or of a wishful thinking but now it feels real. I guess that also means I need to come up with a new subtitle since I think I know where I belong – it’s with family here and there, both places home.

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. #nablopomo2022

At the beginning there was a post about a hat and I commented that I lost my favorite hat but that it eventually would show up again. And it did! I knew it had to be somewhere. I found it in between my daughter’s hats when I was looking for something else. The pattern was the Milanese Lace Topper. I used it before but the 2nd time around I actually blocked it and guess what? The rim does not roll up. Oh the revelation.

I am a friend of shortcuts, and sometimes they do work, sometimes they don’t. Beginning to actually block my knits definitely improved the outcome (no real surprise there). Also ironing like crazy when sewing something is another thing that I tried to skip in the past – not so much anymore. Sometimes people who know are actually right 😉

The hat was made with Malabrigo Yarn Rios and was a leftover from my Foxtrot Cardigan, another project I am very proud of, because it turned out how I imagined it would.

I do love knitting. Somehow I feel better if I can do something with my hands. It makes TV watching feel productive or sitting through a class. I still remember my history teacher in high school being mad at me because I was knitting a sweater in his class (he actually threw his keys at me missing on purpose). I had good grades though and was paying attention after all and used wood needles (which was quiet) so he gave in in  the end. I actually fell like I can concentrate better.

As I am finishing up this post I am getting back to my latest project, the Aliso Creek Top. I so hope it turns out.

Tell me, do you have a favorite hobby? Are you currently working on anything?

When the kids had their engineering class on the UC Berkeley campus this weekend, I had another little walk. It was raining in the morning, so it was quiet and beside s a couple of walking tour groups there were almost no people around.

The one building you almost see from any corner of campus is the Campanile or Sather Tower. It was completed in 1914 and is the third-tallest bell-and-clock-tower in the world what I find impressive. It has a carillon at the top made up of 61 bells. I had to look up what a carillon is and Wikipedia describes it as pitched percussion instrument. You can see how the one in Berkeley is played if you get up the tower in time for the daily concert. The observation platform you can access through an elevator is at the same level as the keyboard that plays the bells (which sits inside a glass box). On our first trip to Berkeley, we stayed in a hotel close to campus and I still remember hearing the bells each morning what was really lovely.  As far as I know there is a special class and most of the players are students at Berkeley. One of the undergrad students who worked in our lab was one of them and he told me that there is an identical keyboard on the lower floors to practice with headphones (what is probably a good thing because I imagine it sounds awful when you don’t get it right). You can hear the daily concerts even in my corner of campus (what probably means you can hear it anywhere on campus). The viewing platform also gives you an incredible view of the bay including San Francisco. It’s worth it in my opinion and almost all visitors we had so far were taken there. It’s nice that for university employees and students the ride up to the top is free.

What is one thing you usually do around where you live if you want to take someone sighseeing?

Fun fact: since 2017 there is a pair of peregrine falcons nesting at the campanile. They have their own website and if they hatch their eggs again next year it might be fun to watch since there is a webcam.

It was raining, so I just took a step back and took out the watercolors – just for me. I needed a little relaxing after my son’s German homework (we are both taking a break now). Sometimes staying calm through all the complaining and arguing is so exhausting, but I did it and he even finished the story he had to write (he hates writing even in English with all his heart). I am going to be back with more words and comments but am all worded out for today.

I am so glad it’s the weekend. The week always goes by in a blur and on Saturday I feel like I can take a moment and finally breath. I am trying not to schedule anything on Saturdays since it’s mostly my catch-up day – catch up on house cleaning, grocery shopping, phone calls with the family in Germany, garden clean ups, laundry, you get the idea. And my plant babies are taken care of, too. Until we bought our house in 2018 I never got plants. Somehow, I was always hoping we would move back to Germany rather sooner than later and it was more thing to give away if we would. Leading up to the house purchase we had some serious conversations about the plans for our future and where that would be and well, ended up buying the house. That settled it (at least for now) and I started getting plants. I never had a green thumb but now most of them are thriving (and multiplying). They seem to like the weekly attention even though I don’t do anything special. Maybe I should not write this down not to jinx it? I can be a little superstitious sometimes.

Actually, I take it back that I never make plans on Saturday. Today I signed the kids up for an engineering class where they get to make a prosthetic hand out of cardboard and straws. It’s run by UC Berkeley students, and I hope they have fun. It’s not enough time to go home and come back so my plan is to sit somewhere in a café while I wait for them. Maybe read a little (I am inspired after reading all the book posts yesterday)? Or take a walk on campus? Berkeley has a beautiful campus. I will show you sometime.

And then next Saturday I am organizing a little early birthday gathering for my daughter with a couple of her friends. So there it goes, no Saturday off for me. But with Thanksgiving coming up and a week long school break it’s a special month.

The other plan for this weekend was to get family pictures taken. Usually, I have the kids pictures taken each year but I thought it would be nice to have the whole family for once. We do have family pictures here and there but it’s hard to catch a good one. And I so want a good one with all of us looking our best. We will see if it happens this weekend as there is rain in the forecast. It already got moved to Sunday instead of today. Do you ever have a professional take you family photos? It’s the first time we do it.

I also should take down the bats in our big front window and finally finish the t-shirt that I already cut out and that is waiting to be put together. Last weekend the dining room table was still filled with Halloween costume and art supplies but those are gone for now so there is space for a new mess. For us those things always happen at the dining room table. We have a little breakfast nook next to the kitchen that we use for our meals so no need to clean up every time.

And I want to read some more of the blogs I discovered this week through NaBloPoMo. The list got a little longer and you can find all participating blogs on San’s side the in between is mine who got everyone organized. Thank you for that again! I am glad I decided to go for it even it is overwhelming at times. It’s starting to become a little bit of a fun routine but I have a whole new appreciation for people who do this on a regular basis.

What are your plans for the weekend? Are you as excited about it as I?

The title is maybe a little misleading. When you look at the population (~117,000 in 2021) it sounds big but there are some parts that don’t feel like it at all.

I work at UC Berkeley and parking around campus is painful. The days I do take the car to work (because I need to pick up my son from school or aftercare right after work or because I have a doctor’s appointment or need to do grocery shopping or…) I park in a free parking zone where I can leave the car for the day. That leaves me with a 30 minute walk each way if I don’t want to take the bus what is totally fine with me. I always try to exercise more but most days lately seem not to have enough hours to make it to the gym or to go for a run. This is my little trick to get at least some more steps in. On days when I have some extra minutes, I may take a little detour and explore. Berkeley has some really nice areas especially up in the hills. Leading up to our house getting painted I was wandering around taking pictures of houses I liked, and I still do that sometimes always having the next house project in mind. Berkeley’s hillside is dotted with secret staircases that still surprise me. Just google it and you will see.

Yesterday was a beautiful morning and I decided to visit one of the rock parks to enjoy the view for a moment. I meant to walk to Grotto Rock Park but ended up at Cragmont Rock Park instead. They looked close enough on the map and I guess I did not really pay to close attention. I am so glad I didn’t though. Cragmont is a little higher up, so the way ended up longer than anticipated. It was a new to me park and the views were amazing. The pictures don’t really do them justice but maybe you get the idea? It was such a clear morning. During the day the view hazes over and in the evening we sometimes get the fog so this was perfect. We had the first real rain of the season on Tuesday and Wednesday (hopefully many more to come, we need it) and that means clear skies on the following days. I said for a long time California does not have a real fall, but that is not true. It’s just different. We even turned the heat on the other day and the evening light in the fall is just magic. Do you like fall or do you prefer another season?

I ended up getting to work later than planned but it was so worth it.