Emery and Greta in Berlin: Weekend Update

Greta's new dress and boots

We've been pretty quiet this past week adjusting to the new routines. Greta's approval from the kita office came through last Thursday, and we went down to her new school to set up her first day. I was hoping for Friday, but accepted Monday. So it's Monday morning, and Greta is so excited about her first day of school that she's got her shoes on 15 minutes before it's time to leave the house (always her tell). Take Emery to school at 8:00 and head to Wilmersdorfstrasse to kill time before the Woolworths opens at 9:30. Buy the only house shoes (fancy slippers) that are even close to her size and hussle off to school for our 10:00 start time. Greta is sprinting down the street so that we won't be late. Get to school, and the woman we've talked to before isn't there. I manage in German that it's Greta's first day. We head to her class and are told that because the orientation woman is home sick today, Greta can't come today. So we can try again tomorrow at 10:00. Greta's taking it pretty well. Me, I was really looking forward to getting back into the school routine. I might have already planned out the rest of my week. High on the priority list might have been buying a shoe brush. I guess I can see this setback as delaying the inevitable boredom. Sure. Let's just hope she's not sick all week.

Other news, we had our first dinner guests on Saturday night. Linda and Craig came over with their kids for Mexican food. We found a fresh tortilla and salsa supplier in Berlin that delivers, but I didn't place the order in time and we had to improvise. Turns out refried beans are really easy to make. We did surprisingly well considering the non-fabulous tortillas and tortilla chips available at the market. That and my purchase of turkey rather than chicken for the quessadillas. Oops. Henchen, puten, easy mistake.

So, some random pictures from the last week: