First Full Week

Ten days down and no children dead or wounded. Our first full week included some bureaucratic triumphs--getting our domicile registered and securing library cards. We found some nearby playgrounds and grocery stores; Lia joined some sisters from the ward on a heroic venture to IKEA, after which we became the proud owners of hangers, tupperware, and a laundry divider; and the girls finally overcame the last lingering outbursts of jetlag.

Our solitary cultural crusade (aside from the visit to Charlottenberg Palace on Tuesday, reported in an earlier blog) was a trip yesterday to the Gemaelde Gallerie. The girls were less excited to see real-life masterpieces in the flesh than they generally are to read about Fancy Nancy's field trip to see fictional masterpieces. Katharine rebelled outright, and Lia had to take her out of the building. Julia and Eli trotted around with me good-naturedly, until some of the more gruesome paintings (depictions of the crucifixion, and one of a dog eating a bird) took their toll on Julia's sensitive stomach and spirit. "I want to go home," she said, so we did. Eli was less squeamish; she wondered only why so many of the painted figures were naked, and what was that strange grass covering the male figures' middles.

We also went to a children's museum this week--really a giant indoor playground designed with themes taken from stories by the popular German children's writer, Cornelia Funke (I take it her novel Inkheart sold well in English translation). There was a lot of dress-up, which delighted Julia and Eli; and there was a tiny log cabin, which thrilled Katharine. Actually Julia's favorite part was the discovery that two of the men who worked at the place spoke English: out came everything Julia knows or thinks about every subject under the sun.

Church today was wonderful again. We have a magnificent ward--full of stately patriarchs and matriarchs and their progeny. We have something like four former stake presidents, some of whom have also served as temple president, mission president, and area authority seventy. Our current stake president is also in the ward. He very kindly gave us a ride home from church in his very sweet car (and it takes a lot to get me to notice a car). President Reiner, a father of eight, owns a consulting company with headquarters near the Church. He travels endlessly for his work, but is always in town on Monday evening for family home evening and Tuesday evening for stake interviews. A remarkable man.

This afternoon while Lia and Katharine napped I took Julia and Eli for a bus ride to Alexanderplatz. They loved riding at the very front of the upper deck of the bus, and it was a fun way to see the center of Berlin. We walked around down town for a bit. I let the girls wade in the fountains in front of the Altes Museum and the old GDR television tower space needle. It wasn't quite the Leitner Family Observatory with its quaint old swing, but one has to make accommodations when residing in a foreign metropolis.