Forster's Adventures in Europe: Final Fall

Fall is in full effect in Europe. There is a smell that reminds me of growing up in Pennsylvania. I think it´s a mixture of leaves, German cooking, and the type of light you can only get when the sun sets in the fall. This feeling of home was augmented by two visits over our fall vacation by my family. My mom came out for the first part of the vacation. This was filled with lots of quality grandchildren time, a trip to Dresden, and a nice boat ride on the Elbe. My brother and father came over for the back half of the vacation, this was my dad’s first trip to Berlin so I got to play tourist in my own city, something I had not done in a while. It´s always good to explore the city through new comers eyes and I feel like everyone I show around the city helps me see a different part of this city I have learned to love.

I think fall is the shortest time of year in northern Germany, but it might be one of my favourites, the air is crisp, the leaves are on fire, the weather for running is about perfect, and you still have the hope, however naive it might be, that winter in Berlin will not last for 13 months.

Since we are on the subject of falling, I should mention that Addie took a good fall yesterday. Erin was home with her already, because Addie had lost hearing in one ear due to an ear infection, I was at work getting ready to eat lunch when Addie tripped over a her bike and landed head first on a square piece of wood that joins the floor to the wall in our house.

Dresden with Nana

Now some might say there was a time in my life where getting stitches was a hobby for me, but things are a little different when you have to hold your little girl down to the table so the nurse can stitch up her forehead. She took it like a champ, and gave me several more reasons to be a proud papa. The first new reason came when the nurse asked her if she wanted her to speak English or German to her, Addie said she could speak German to her. How cool is that, my daughter has blood running down her head and she is telling the nurse in German that she can speak German and English? They went on to have a conversation about what happened and the nurse filled her in on what they were going to do to her all in German. The next new reason to be proud of her is how she yet again did something that made her very uncomfortable, getting stitches, and was able to work through that discomfort both physically and emotionally.

On another note, Erin and I turned in the paperwork, Germans love paperwork, that stated we would be returning home after this school year. We will land in Denver on July 3^rd, 2014, just in time to celebrate the 4^th! We are excited to return home to family and friends, but nervous about all that we have to do to re-establish

a life back home. I have already started filling out generic applications for school districts (even though the hiring season does not start until April), planned what cars we are going to buy, and started to makes lists of the hundreds of things we need to do to get back home.
We hope you are all enjoying fall, and for our Colorado friends have been able to get back to some kind of normal since the flood. We love hearing from you and are starting to look forward to seeing you in a few short months.