Papa's day

7:45 am 150-200 completely white-clad physicians from the Trauma Ortho, Neurosurgery and Intensiv Care departments meet for the 'Morgenbesprechung' in a room with a light floor, white walls and ceiling: It feels like a meeting in heaven...
The meeting starts ontime as soon as the boss arrives: suddenly all chatting is stopped, cellphones are silenced. Professor Bühren opens the meeting and always closes it with some short remarks. The meeting itself is shorter than 20 min, but all hospital-wide admissions and events over night are presented...and the Hospital is the biggest Trauma Hospital in the region!
Nurses and staff are very friendly and helpful: On the ward (Station 34 is my assigned ward) doctors and nurses share breakfast and snacks throughout the day. 'Visite' or rounds are being done twice a day with nurses, PT's and the 'Controller' (Coding and Hospital administration). Patients are being admitted still the day before their operation, even though that is not covered anymore by insurance companies, but Professor Bühren still sees it as a special 'bonus' that the hospital provides for the patient. Patients stay much longer in the hospital as well which is partially supported by the budgeting for this non-for-profit hospital: If less patient days then last year were reached the hospital budget shrinks...
There are five doctors on this Spinal surgey ward. Only one is in the last year of his residency, the rest of them has had 1-10 years of experience. Two of them are 'Oberärzte', three are 'Assistensärzte'. This team is being lead by 'Leitender Arzt' Dr. Gonschorek (on my left in the picture)...Lots of hierachy, but the atmosphere is very nice and personal , on first name basis, a little unusual for a german hospital, maybe?
3-5 Spine surgeries are being performed daily by the Trauma Orthopedic department, about the same amount by the neurosurgical unit. Patients are either covered as part of their mandated workman's compensation insurance or by their regular personal insurance. There is a 10% contingent who come from the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) due to a governmental contract. A large group of patients comes directly by helicopter from the surrounding ski resorts.
I am in the OR a lot and I am scrubbed in with all of the endoscopic assisted transthoracic spine surgeries and hope to bring these skills back home.
Due to my status as visiting surgeon I leave when I want: no paperwork, no dictations, no discharges, no records... like heaven for me. Once I take my white clothes off I am back to earth: help with German homework for the kids, garbage recycling and driving to skiing, soccer, figure skating and gymnastics!

A Tribute

It goes without explanation how well loved Peter is for his nice personality and good sense of humor. Living here in Germany with his family, it is obvious where Peter gets these wonderful qualities. His whole family, father, mother and sister (and her husband and kids) are all so warm, lovely and funny people. We could not have made such an move without the help and support of Peter's amazing family. Peter's mother, Inge, takes care of the entire family, kind of like Mother Teresa. She cares for her 98 year old aunt and always watches the grandkids when parents go away.

Inge has been with us for almost 2 weeks. She decorated our home with paintings she, Peter and Gia painted. Out house feels so cozy with their works "from the heart" hanging. She keeps everything in order. She is not used to having so many people around, but this place is so neat with her here. The German orderliness missed our little family. I swear it as if Inge follows everyone everywhere straightening up as she goes, yet we have also enjoyed having coffee and chatting up a storm. How does she do that? She helps the kids with their homework and taught me most of the German I know. Her patience is truly appreciated. We also appreciate having the input of a garbage expert.

Inge is open to do anything. She loves being outside and very athletic. She just raced the boys sledding. We are so lucky and appreciate how well she takes care of us!

Inge is extremely caring and we are so lucky to have her in our life. No one could ever replace her. -Gia

Inge helps out everyone in the family by cleaning up, making food, and helping out with homework. She has made the move so easy and fun. -Annika

We love when you come and visit us and we come and visit you. -Tobi and Hansi

Susanne is a wonderful sister-in-law, sister and aunt. She spoils the kids and they love it. She always brings her positive attitude and easy-going ways so nothing can really be that bad when she is around. She is like the horse-whisperer and really has a great connection with the animals. She took the kids riding, and a horse was getting feisty with Annika, but between respect, kindness and understanding, she smoothed that situation right out.

Susanne is fun loving and an amazing aunt we love her so much. - Gia

Susanne is athletic and funny. She balances our family out and I will miss her when we go back to the US. -Annika

We love being around you. Tobias and Johannes

We are lucky to have these times together as we become truly attached to the whole family.


Happy Birthday Inge and Susanne.

Mama's day

Now that I have an EC card and functioning bicycle, I feel like I fit right in (ha,ha). We wake up every morning with the beautiful church bells ringing throughout the town. Many people have asked what I do all day. The kids leave for school at 7:30 and come trickling in from 1-3, depending on the day. In that time, I recycle, grocery shop, study German and work out. The afternoon consists of chauffeuring, cooking and studying.

We sort garbage at home, and then I take glass to be recycled and return the returnables to to store. Yesterday, I returned so many bottles (all our water is bottled) that my bread, eggs and bananas cost me only 0,06€!! Wednesday is farmers market ( photos attached), snow, rain or shine. The best veggies, meat, cheese and fresh pasta sold at the market. I also go to the store 3-5 times a week for many reasons. Our fridge does not store much as it is office-fridge-size (see pic). There are few preservatives or genetically modified foods, so nothing lasts long. Everything is fresh including the yummy bread. However, everything closes Saturday afternoon until Monday, so planning is required. I got hosed last weekend when I forgot to buy bread on Saturday, but I think Monday morning will be a pancake morning.

Since I'm talking chores, this would be a good place to mention clothes washing. it takes about 90 minutes for a washing cycle and the machines are very small- 13 shirts clean 90 minutes later. However, it can really whiten whites, which US machine lack that skill.

Working out here is called gymnastik or sport. I joined a nearby club, called Pro-line. Its interesting how things differ here. First off on my gym tour, I had to keep my composure when they showed me the spa. We were in the women's dressing room and they showed me where the steam room and sauna were. Lo and behold, I ended up fully dressed among many naked (old i might add) men (no pic). I take mat pilates and I have not found a reformer in town. Wasn't Joseph Pilates German? Instead of balls, they have what I call eggs ( pic). I often do milon training. The pic from milon circuit has the green tube in it. The green light and bubbles go for a minute, then there is a pause for 40 sec. When the bubbles come, we work out. Milon is a 48 minute circuit training consists of 10 machines, 2 of which are cardio. I have a individual card that I insert in the machine and the machine sets itself to my setting. No slacking allowed: the machine keeps track of velocity, range of motion, watts and count. In spinning and on many bikes, they have videos of trails. So far I have seen trails from Vermont, Humbolt county, Utah and I think the screen saver is Tahoe! After training, I use the rolling massage machine and invert to stimulate "lymph drainage" as they say. Some stay for coffee.

Although Ill never "fit in" because I am an "auslander", I can function and keep our home/life running.

Schaefflertanz

We just had a parade in town: The Schaefflertanz. We were lucky to see this parade as it occurs every 7 years. its 150 year old dance performed by the small business people in town. Street parties bring out the smiles.

Garmisch Skiing

We are so lucky to be 20 minutes from the site of 1936 Olympics and World cup. Here are a few pics from our go to ski places.
First off we have our things in super slick ski lockers at the base of Hausberg gondola. These are the best lockers- a far cry from the metal and wood boxes that we have used before. The lockers are attached to our ski passes, so to open the lockers we wave our pass in front of the detector (the metal circle below locker numbers in the photos).The lockers are organized so our boots are on boot heaters and the skis stay in the long compartment. We are learning how to get a place on the bench as every time we leave boots or something on the bench and go back to the locker for something, our boots are moved and the space absconded. We have to carry everything in one trip, if others are in the ski locker room. The German line culture applies to seats and benches too.

We tend to eat lunch at the Kreutz Alm. It is so cute and these waiters are so nice and funny. There more service restaurants than buffet style on the mountain. Our kids are getting could at figuring the line so they load the same chair. This particular chair has padded, heated seats and the bubble and ski rest lift automatically. FANCY!

Tobi and Hansi's blogging how their US and German schools differ

The name of our school here in Germany is Seidlgrundschule. Our school is very different than Lowry Elementary. First we will tell you about the things we do not have here in Germany. Then we will tell you things we have here that we do not do in DPS.

Germans do not say a pledge of allegiance, which went away with Hitler. There is no school pledge either. Is that there is no nurse and no line for anything. The front doors are always wide open and the administration office is hidden from the doors so you can
physically walk right out whenever you want. We don't have lock downs here. People don't carry guns here in Germany, except for the police, so their is little concern for gun violence, at least in our Markt. There are no hall passes. If you need to go to the bathroom, you point outside. To signal the teacher that you want to talk, you raise your pointer finger.


We are southern Germany: they are Catholic here. Some rooms have crosses on the walls. Every morning Tobi's class says Schulegebet, or have prayer. The teacher turns off the lights, the student clasp their hands and they say a prayer. Hansi's class does not have Schulegebet. We take a coarse on the lutheran religion here. We could choose between Catholic, Lutheran and ethics. When signing into town and school, you must say what religion you are. They do not have Jewish studies and since we are also, Lutheran, from our Dad's side of the family, we decided to learn about Lutheran. We learned knitting and will do wood shop in school. We must wear house shoes while we are in class. We change shoes again for sport (P.E.). Every 2 hours we get a 20 minute recess. We go to school from 8 am-1 pm and eat lunch at home. We take a city bus to and from school, so we ride with first graders through high schoolers and adults. Since we arrive when it is still dark out, many students have glow in the dark stripes, so they can be seen by cars. This picture is us walking to the school front doors. There is a crossing guard who meets us when we get off the bus and walks us the few blocks to school. They also walk us to the bus after school.

In Tobi's class, one student tells the class the date. Here in Germany, we say the day then the month then the year. Here we separate the numbers by dot (not hyphen or slashes as we write in the US). In math, they use commas instead of decimals so 5,38€=5.38€. Everything is measured in the metric system.

Our sisters have their own blog and you can see how they see school here. Some pictures from Gia and Annika's gymnasium, or school. Attached are pics from library, climbing wall, lockers, chemistry hall. their link:
http://sisterstogetheralways.blogspot.de/2012_12_01_archive.html?m=1

First week of school under the kids belt. All feeling happy and have friends! So far, so good :)

living and learning

Basically we all live and learn how things work here. Yesterday, most of us learned about the bus.


Before school got out, I thought Anna and I could bike to town for market day. We have bikes here, but apparently not used since WW2: every tire was flat and this pump has an interesting valve, which only fits 1 tire. Most of the flat tires have creased rubber and the valve of the other pump I found disintegrated in my hand. So off we went to bike w flat tires to the gas station. Anna particularly enjoyed biking up,a hill with flat tires. However, partly up the hill we found a relatively new pump in the bike bag and happily bikes off to market. The farmers market is absolutely gorgeous with colorful organic fruits and veggies and super fresh italian pastas, which I way over-indulged, but made the nice Italian man's day.

After market, Anna and I met Hansi at school and planned to take the bus home with him, while Peter, who happened to get off of work early, took Tobi skiing. Well, thinking buses come frequently, I stayed and chatted with Tobi's teacher. By the time we followed the cute little footprints to the bus stop, we missed the bus. The next bus left from another stop, so we walked across Murnau to catch it. Unfortunately we misread the bus schedule, which (as you can see from the photo) I am fairly confident I wasnt the first person to do so. Hansi, however, was not the least bit amused as he had not eaten lunch yet (he gets out at 1 pm so they eat lunch at home) was anxious to get home. As it turned out the next bus, according to the school day schedule, actually left from another stop at the otherside of Murnau, so we thought it would be faster to walk. Hansi eventually made the best of our little adventure and he took pictures of the incredible scenery, the local farm and cows. We agreed that we are lucky to be living in this beautiful corner of the world and learning about life here.

We actually live in a neighborhood of Murnau, called Hechendorf, . Although Murnau is our mailing address where so many of you so kindly sent us your holiday cards that we look at daily on our wall. Murnau is not large enough to qualify for a city, so it is a "markt" and Hechendorf, is an ord. Our little "Ort" sounds like it comes right out of the dorms from Harry Potter or smurfville. Anyway, I took a picture of the signs informing people that they are leaving Murnau and entering Hechendorf, which we were happy to see ourselves.

The bus saga continued for Annika and Gia as they also wanted to try the bus. When they were not home 90 minutes after school ended, I assumed they too had a bus glitch, but I freaked. I was so worried that the girls had no phone, did not really know Murnau and only had 1 hour of daylight left. With no car around, I hopped on the bike and went looking for them. Fortunately, they had just entered Hechendorf walking. They too missed the bus, but because they thought it was heading the wrong direction. I was quite proud of the girls' resourcefulness, as they bought a map, water and gummy bears as their survival kit. I found them happily walking and proud they had beat their bus. They explained their survival kit and Gia said, "at least we will be fat hobos and keep warm" smiling as she told her story.

Today the kids profited from yesterday's lesson and everybody successfully took the bus. It is amazing how complex learning the basics can be. We are living and learning daily.

A note about this blogsite: I try to coordinate pics and story, but it shows pictures in a random order from how I download them. Sorry for any confusion.