Gabriel's haircut

I took Gabriel to the barber shop today. I thought I asked the barber (in German) to cut Gabriel's hair 1 cm shorter. But he definitely has cut more than 1 cm, and Gabriel's hair is now shorter than 1 cm...hmmm.. Fortunately Gabriel likes his spiky hair style.

Heidelberg

Our friend Anett suggested that we should go to the annual Heidelberg Herbst (fall festival) yesterday. Much of Heidelberg turned into a party ground, and perhaps not the greatest day for sightseeing.

After an hour of train journey from Karlsruhe, we arrived at the Heidelberg train station late in the morning. Then we took a bus to the Bismarckplatz end of Altstadt (old town). Hauptstraße (literally the "main street") was lined with stalls (in front of existing shops) and was already packed with people. We grabbed a quick bite and slowly made our way to the other end of Altstadt where we could get up to the world famous Heidelberger Schloss (the Heidelberg Castle). Not only did we cherish the view there, we enjoyed strolling around the Deutsche Apotheken Museum (German Pharmacy Museum...it isn't clear to us why there is a museum on pharmacy in the castle though). Jocelyn was excited afterwards.

There were many food stalls on Hauptstraße. Here you see Glenda learning how to make flammkuchen, a Rhine valley version of thin-crust pizza with sour cream, onion and bacon bits as toppings. The most intriguing food stall sold hot dogs with 50-cm (~2o inches) long bratwursts! The bratwursts were cut four-folds in order to fit in the baguette length-wise.

We crossed the Neckar via Alte Brück (the "old bridge"), and walked along the river bank. Here you see Gabriel on the bridge with the castle in the background.

By 5:30 PM, the kids were already tired, and we tried to make our way back to the train station. But there were even more people on Hauptstraße than earlier in the afternoon. In fact people started streaming in and the party was just beginning. The sea of people really reminded me of Mong Kok in Hong Kong.

There are more pictures from our trip at this link.

Solving the car problem

Karlsruhe has an excellent public transport system. We live close to the town center and don't need a car every day. But we do need a car occasionally, and buying a used car just for this does not make sense.

At the advice of one of the graduate students here, we explored the possibility of car-sharing with Stadtmobil, similar to Zipcar in North America. Armed with the city-issued local address registration form, our residency permits (hence passports), California driver's licenses, and international driving permits, Glenda and I registered as members at the Stadtmobil office a couple of weeks ago. We paid the initiation fee of 600€ (and we will get back 460€ when we return to the US and terminate the membership next year), signed a few forms. From now on, we pay a monthly membership maintenance fee of 7€, and we can take out cars for hours or for days at a time. Most of the cars need advanced reservation (on the web or by phone), but there are also cars that can be signed out for up to 48 hours without prior reservation as long as they are at the lot. The cost for taking the car out each time is reasonable: a 1€ processing fee, a hourly fee (ranging from 0,98€ to 3,45€ per hour depending on whether you are checking out a subcompact or a transport van) and a mileage fee (ranging from 0,19€/km to 0,28€/km). The mileage fee includes gas and insurance. There are also special rates for daily, weekend or weekly check-outs. Each car also comes with a child booster seat (which means we only need to buy one booster). The car problem is now solved.

Fleischkäse

One of the lunch specials at the cafeteria today was Fleischkäse ("meat-cheese"). It sounded too heavy for my taste, so I had the salad bar instead. Then my German colleagues made a few jokes about the "meat-cheese" and got me interested. A quick search on the internet got me to this hilarious piece, where a picture of the "meat-cheese" is front and center.

Is this Alan or Gabriel Alan?

For those of you who do not think that Gabriel bears a striking resemblance to Alan, please see the picture below. Gabriel put on Alan's spare pair of glasses last night so I decided to snap this photo. What do you think? Sorry about the red eyes...

Day trip to Basel

Deutsch Bahn has a special fare that is perfect for day-trips. A day-pass that is valid for a group of up to 5 family members traveling within the issuing state (in our case, Baden-Württemburg) can be purchased for 27€. The B-W pass even includes Basel, Switzerland as a destination, and the transfer from Basel Bad. train station (the arrival station) to Basel SBB train station (where most of the museums and tourist attractions are) is also included. Off we went to Basel, the third largest city in Switzerland, yesterday!

The train ride took about 3 hours as we had to take the regional train (and not the direct InterCity Express...remember, the total ticket cost was only 27€ for our family of 4!). The train stopped at most stations and there was a train transfer. We got to Basel just before lunch, and Gabriel and Jocelyn were eager to take a picture outside Basel SBB.

Our first destination after lunch was the Puppenhausmuseum (Doll's House Museum), where there was a huge collection of dolls, teddy bears and other toys. The kids really enjoyed it.

We then headed to the world-famous art museum Kunstmuseum Basel. Its permanent collection is impressive, and the paintings (even those from the 1500s) have been well preserved. The collection features quite a few by Picasso, Rousseau, and the impressionists such as van Gogh, Cézanne and others. Several Picasso pieces were donated by the artist himself. The museum has a good collection of Giacometti's work, but they are too surreal for me.

The kids wanted a drink after strolling through the museum. We thought the price of CHF 4 (US$3.60) for a shot of expresso at the museum cafe was too high; so we went to a local Starbucks instead. Well, it was not cheaper. A tall (small in Starbucks lingo) cup of drip coffee was CHF 4,90 (US$ 4.40)! At the Starbucks in Karlsruhe, a small drip is only 1,90€ (US$ 2.70,a price that is still substantially higher than the US, but inlcuded 19% of value added tax). Our two cups of coffee and bottled juices for the kids came to over CHF 20.

We then headed to the Münster (the cathedral in Basel). It is quite an impressive building on the bank of the Rhine. Behind the cathedral is a path down to the river bank. Here is a picture of Glenda and the kids by the bank.

We just strolled around Marktplatz for the remainder of the day. The Rathaus (town hall) is stunningly beautiful. We found a chocolatier across from the Rathaus. The chocolate selection was huge, and we bought (perhaps) too much chocolate. Jocelyn was enjoying one on the train on the way back.

I can sum up my feeling for Basel in three words: beautiful, friendly and expensive.

Violin!

Gabriel missed his violin practices since we moved to Karlsruhe.  Today we finally rented a 1/4-size violin for a monthly fee of 15€ from a local violin maker Frau Charlotte Hepfer, whose workshop is only two blocks from our flat.  Garbriel couldn't wait to play a few tunes for us.  The violin sounds great, although Gabriel technique is a bit rusty.  Next, we need to find him an English-speaking violin teacher.  

An afternoon at the city park and zoo...

On Sunday we took the tram to the City Park and Zoo, which is across the street from Hauptbahnhof (the City's main train station). The children had fun looking at the animals, particularly the flamingoes and the polar bears.

They also enjoyed the petting zoo, where they were able to feed the sheep, ponies and goats.

There was also a huge playground in the outskirts of the zoo, where the kids ended up spending most of their time. Gabriel liked climbing around the rope structure while Jocelyn preferred to play on the swing.

And as the name suggests, there were also beautiful gardens at the site. There was a lovely rose garden, a Japanese garden and countless other gardens that we didn't have time to explore.

The weather seems to have changed rather suddenly here in Karlsruhe. Fall is definitely around the corner and it is more noticeable here than it is in the Bay Area. Luckily I finished Jocelyn's hooded sweater just in time. This was made using the Knit Child's Raglan Cardigan pattern, free from the Lion Brand Yarn's website. I used slightly less than 3 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in the Redwood colorway. I also added a knitted flower as an embellishment, which Jocelyn adores.

Eis in Karlsruhe

"Eis" (the Italian gelato variety) is cheap in Karlsruhe. For 0,70€-0,80€, you get a single scoop on a waffle cone. Alan's favorite in Berkeley, Naia, is pricier. Needless to say, our family has been enjoying a few cones a week. Alan is worried that he may lose his bet with Lindley...

€ vs $

For a few months in the spring, we were really worried about the cost of living in Europe. The falling $ did not help. Then (all the sudden) in August, $ began to gain ground on €:

Here are what we found about currency exchange (some are our own experience, and some are advices we got before we left the US):

1. Avoid exchanging money at foreign currency kiosks or counters at retail banks. Their rates are usually 4% (or more + commission on top) worse than the interbank rates that you find in the finance section of newspapers or on the web. Alan had enough leftover € from his previous travels that we did not need use this option before we found an ATM.
2. The rates you get from your ATM cards are by far the best. This is how we get cash these days, and the rates are consistently slightly higher (0.6-0.8%) than the interbank rate. There are two caveats however. The first is that you have to make sure your own bank does not charge you a fee for accessing foreign ATMs (or any ATMs that it doesn't own). Before we left the US we opened an account at Wells Fargo that would not charge any ATM fees, or we would be paying $5 per transaction (which would wipe out any gain from the better exchange rates). The second caveat is that the amount of money you can withdraw daily is limited. That's many trips (i.e. many days) to the ATM before enough has been withdrawn for the kids' tuition!
3. And that means it's necessary to wire money to the school's bank account. Wiring $ from the US can be a cumbersome process. It usually requires a trip to a local branch, and filling out some papers (and then a not-so-desirable retail exchange rate is offered). The biggest logistic problem for us would be going down to our local branch in the US whenever we need to wire money! We were advised to set up an international banking account before we left. With this account, we could just fax our wire order to the US. However, the exchange rate is not so good for this option. It is not as bad as the retail rate, but is about 3% higher than the interbank rate (as opposed to <1%).
4. The credit card exchange rates are usually 2% higher than the interbank rate. but then we get 2% rebate on purchases with our credit card, so that breaks even! But if we use our ATM debit cards (which have a VISA logo on them) to pay for purchases here, we would be paying the same rate as ATM withdrawals. Options, options, options...

Five Stars Chinese Restaurant

Our adventure took us to a Chinese restaurant today. We first checked out the reviews of Chinese restaurants in Karlsruhe and decided to go to Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) China Restaurant 五星飯店 at Mendelssonhnplatz, which is only several tram stops away, for lunch.

We were offered the lunch buffet. Glenda checked out the buffet offerings and thought ordering à la carte was probably a better option. Then came a menu in simplified Chinese characters after the waiter decided that Alan knew enough Chinese to understand it.

We ordered several dishes, mostly northern Chinese dishes:

• Dumplings 鍋貼
• Drunk chicken 醉鳼
• Shrimp dumpling 蝦蛟
• New year cake 上海炒年糕
• Fried rice 楊州炒飯

Prices were higher than those in the Bay Area, particularly the water we ordered for the kids. One thing we learned about dining in Germany is that water is not free. But we did not expect to pay a premium for two glasses of water. In any case, the dishes were not too bad and we enjoyed them (although we have had better...well...we spent three weeks in Hong Kong this summer). Here are a few pictures of the dishes.

There is a huge supermarket (Edeka Markt) in the mall Scheck-In Center next to the restaurant. It is by far the largest supermarket we have found in Karlsruhe. There we found clementines, our kids' favorite fruit, and brought a few home.

Registration and resident permits

It is important to get a bank account (Girokonto) when living in Germany. This will be a future blog as I haven't really gotten a fully functional account yet. But before you can get a bank account, you first need to register your new address with the city. This registration is different from acquiring the legal resident status in Germany. For that, you need a resident permit (aufenthaltserlaubnis). This sounds complicated; and indeed it is.

Fortunately, Mr. Gerd Aye, the go-to guy for guest scientists at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, did all the hard work for us. He and his staff filled out the forms (Glenda and I have signed a lot of forms in the past two weeks), took them to the appropriate government offices, and even provided home delivery! He brought us our passports with the resident permits affixed this evening. Thank you, Gerd!

Trip to the State Natural History Museum

We took the kids to the State Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe on Sunday afternoon. On our way there, Alan discovered his new dream car. It is a sporty version of the Smart Car.

Unfortunately, it is a limited edition model and has already been discontinued. Poor Alan!

Anyhoo, back to the museum. The museum is housed in a renovated historic building so the exterior was restored to its original splendor. Alan, in typical Alan fashion, noticed the sign outside of the museum which announced that admission was free that day. Others must have noticed that sign too, since the museum was packed with people.

Jocelyn liked looking at the fish and she squealed in delight whenever she saw a weird looking one swim by. This one happened to pose for a photo. Don't ask me what type of fish it is - all the descriptions were written in German.

Gabriel prefered the mineral exhibits, where he was able to touch the rocks and conduct mini-experiments to discern whether they were magnetic. Jocelyn also enjoyed playing with the interactive exhibits.

There were a lot of exhibits to peruse through, with rooms that house dinosaurian, insect and animal exhibits. After spending several hours there, we headed over to the nearest eis cafe for a break before returning home.

I also finished work on the Koolhaas Hat for Alan. This was knit using Jared Flood's pattern, which was originally published in Interweave Knits Gifts, Winter 2007. I decided to make this hat for Alan while I was packing for Germany. He didn't seem to have many hats to keep his head warm during the winter. (and of course he wouldn't need a hat during the moderate Bay Area winters). And since I had a skein of Rowan Pure Wool Aran in a dark, brooding color, why not? Gabriel is modeling the hat in the photos below, since Alan refused to pose. He did take the photos, however.

Lychees

We went a bit further to Rewe in Ettlinger Tor to do grocery shopping today (of course, we had more ice cream at an eiscafe in the mall).

What a pleasant surprise to find lychees 荔枝 there! Gabriel and Jocelyn liked the good selection of Kellogg's-brand cereal there as they don't like the local breakfast Müsli very much.

Here are a few more pictures of our family.

Physikbücher

We had to pick up Gabriel's German textbooks at Thalia in downtown Karlsruhe today. While browsing around the store, Alan couldn't resist taking these pictures for his physics-geek friends:

Classical Electrodynamics - J.D. Jackson (in Deutsch)

Quantum Mechanics (Vol. 1 & 2) - Cohen-Tannoudji et al. (in Deutsch)

Okay...These books bring back too much painful memory. Here are a few memorable ones:

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (3 vol. set, in Deutsch) and one of Alan's favorites:Thinking Physics by Lewis Epstein (in Deutsch)

First week of school

Summer vacation has ended for the children - they just started their first week of school. Gabriel and Jocelyn have been very brave, and seem to be adjusting well to their new surroundings.

Gabriel started Grade 2 on Tuesday. He is in the English section of the European School and his teacher is Frau Maddoch. Gabriel has also started to learn German - learning how to speak a second language is mandatory at his grade level. He seems to be having fun, despite the fact that he's already received several homework assignments. Gabriel is also very eager to resume his violin lessons, though we still need to find a teacher for him.

Jocelyn started Kindergarten on Thursday. She is also in the English section of the School and her teachers are Miss Els and Miss Julie. Jocelyn, being Jocelyn, started out rather reticently and didn't say much on her first day. But by her second day, she had already made a couple of new friends. She also taught me a song that she learned in school, so this tells me that she is comfortable with her new school. Here is a photo that she took with Miss Els and Gabriel (we didn't get a chance to take a photo with Miss Julie).

To celebrate their first week, I took them to McDonald's for lunch yesterday (it was a short day on Friday). McDonalds (and most other fast food for that matter) is like a rare delicacy for them. They chose the Millenium Falcon toy from Star Wars. The only reason why I even know the name of that ship is because Gabriel is such a Star Wars geek. Here is a photo of the children with their new toys. Whoops, I didn't realize that I accidently cut-off part of Gabriel's ship in the photo.

We also moved into our larger apartment this week (yes, we've been busy). Here is a photo of the children lounging on the sofa. Gabriel's homemade sundial is on the coffee table.

Here is also a photo of the view from our living room window.

Though it's still the beginning of our sojourn, I think we'll all be fine here in Germany.

Drawings from Gabriel and Jocelyn

Gabriel and Jocelyn drew pictures of what they saw in the past few days:

- Schloßgartenbahn (Palace garden rail) -Jocelyn
- Bierbörse (beer exchange...where are the beer stalls??) -Gabriel
- A butterfly -Jocelyn
- A local city tram heading to hauptbanhof (train station) in Karlsruhe -Gabriel