Jeweled Concrete

This blog has been a constant companion over the last 6 years.  It originally was started to capture my attempts to find a project in Germany so I could pursue both my career and a relationship, and if successful, to follow my experiences as an expat and in an intercultural relationship. In the meantime, life happened, and both the relationship and my career as a consultant are well behind me.  Meanwhile I have found the blog has grown rather stale.  While I still enjoy writing...

I was at lunch on Wednesday, the weekly lunch I call the Mommy lunch, and a friend mentioned that she had a good article for beating the baby blues and making sure you keep an identity outside of being a mom.  I replied that I guess we all have different challenges, even with so much in common at the moment.  In this case, there are no women I have met at the Mommy lunch who have any concrete plans for a return to work.  It's a 'someday/maybe' kind of thing for them right now.For...

Back in August last year, I posted about the paperwork and bureaucracy nightmare we were facing with the arrival of Pea.  It seemed overwhelming all of the paperwork we needed to fill out, we had choices to make about citizenship and we wanted to be sure we did not miss out on any benefits we were eligible for but did not know too much about all the rules and how to apply.So now it's five months later and how are we doing'German birth certificate - the hospital took care of sending in the...

 Christmas Party.The Saffa and I decided to host an open house holiday party this year.  We thought it would be fun to invite our friends by for some food and drink so we could see everyone before the end of the year and before we headed off to the States to spend the holidays with my family.  Knowing it was a busy time of year, we made the invitation for an extended 8 hours and asked people to drop by when convenient for them and stay as long as they liked. The Saffa and I went...

Decorate the Christmas tree.As a child my parents usually got us an advent calendar, the kind with the little doors that opened to reveal a chocolate surprise inside.  I always loved that although I am not sure how commonly children in the United States have them.  They have these same type of calendars in Germany.  All of the chocolate manufacturers produce at least one version, if not multiple.  I haven't had one in years and decided I would get one for us this year....

Today Pea is five weeks old.  I've been in my own little world in these last happy weeks, barely noticing much else besides my son's beautiful big eyes, coos and gurgles, button nose and endless facial expressions.  Summer has retreated once again and the days have become shorter and shorter.  Whenever I say that I always think of my father saying 'No, the days aren't getting shorter.  They are still 24 hours long.' yuk yuk.My mother came to spend 10 days with us.  It...

The weather has transitioned towards autumn and we are enjoying beautiful sunny days with crisp dry air.  The sun is still keeping us warm but not with the intensity of a couple of weeks ago.  Whenever the weather makes this annual shift, my comfort food craving kicks in and I start thinking about roasted dinners, warm, rich soups, hearty stews and casseroles and above all pumpkin pie.This year I decided to try to make some things from scratch with pumpkin.  Canned pumpkin is not...

Pea is here!He was born on September 14th at 18:41 CET by emergency c-section. Emergency c-section after 12 hours of labor, full dilation and beginning to push. Nothing like a dramatic entrance to the world!I'm not sure I will post the full story as I am sure it is too much information for the blog but I think I will capture it for his baby scrapbook. I may come back to a few points that may be of interest for other expat women given birth in Germany at a later time. It was an amazing...

Back in July I took a flight with the Saffa for the weekend to London for a special visit. We were going to meet this children. The Saffa, like me, is divorced and, unlike me, had two children in his first marriage. I had to get permission from the doctor to make the flight as I was past the airline cutoff but it was a trip that we really wanted and needed to make. Since things had moved so fast with us, practically nothing fell in quite the right sequence in our relationship so it was...

Last night the Saffa and I did a little baking. He made his South African version of lemon meringue pie and got to experience firsthand the fun of trying to back one of his usual recipes in Germany. It looks delicious to me but didn't come out as he expected (been there, done that!). I made some cupcakes and we decorated together. Needless to say, both are not allowed on the diet but today we will have an exception for the shower. It's a gorgeous day in Munich; the crisp air feels like a...