Ice fishing

A lake near town had ice thick enough to drive a car on, so some guys took some axes and fishing rods and tried out ice fishing Wednesday afternoon. Only a few perch were caught.

German school refugees

Here is an article V pointed out to me about a German family that wanted to homeschool and had to get political asylum in the US to do it.

http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/201001260.asp

Some quotes from the article:
"rather than being concerned about the welfare of the children, the government was trying to stamp out parallel societies" -- I see this kind of sentiment a lot here in mainstream Germany. This also applies to unpopular religious organizations (not Catholic or Lutheran but "cults" like Jehovah's Witnesses who, in contrast, are not allowed to talk about their religion at work). Germany seems to want to force people to believe the same thing, and not have any dissenters, and is perusing this on the religious and education ends.

“This is simply about the German state trying to coerce ideological uniformity in a way that is frighteningly reminiscent of past history. Homeschooling is a growing social movement all over the world, and the Germans want to stamp it out based on a fabricated notion that homeschoolers are a ‘parallel society.’" -- ...

Also, there is the discriminatory side of this against non-Germans (not in this linked article). Turkish children suffer from lower expectations and marginalization, and we have heard first hand that teachers have "their own" kids to teach (German) and don't have time to teach "our" children (not German) even though they are in the same classroom.

Also, someone I know from Poland has privately told me that the only reason they will have to leave Germany in the next few years is because their children are getting close to school age and they don't want them in the German schools.

There are lots of things I like about living in Germany, but ignoring the problems won't help them go away. The public school system has been our biggest problem in living here and the " coerc[ion of] ideological uniformity" is frankly scary.

Even colder

It was an unusual (for winter here) clear sky last night so it got very cold. It was -18.5 C at the Luebeck airport this morning and -19 C in Selent. The coldest I've seen it here. The big lake froze over as far as the eye can see. People were way out skating on it and police were going around yelling at them to get off. It was sunny and clear and cold all day today!

Brrrr

It is cold this morning. The offcial temp at the Luebeck airport is only -8 C but it feels much colder. The snow is still hanging around and not melting, we've had snow on the ground all month long. The lake is chirping this morning like demented crickets. Ice is trying to form but it gets broken up and pushed to the shore by the wind and waves and is making the sounds.

Licenses

I finally got my US drivers license replaced! (The German drivers license office here took it before they would give me my German license.) It has taken several months and I had to request it more than once but finally, after having it sent to my brothers address and him remailing it, I have valid US ID. We had some trouble with bank accounts a few months ago because they would not take only passport ID and wanted to see a US drivers license for US citizens. Now that I have my US ID back there nothing stopping V from getting here German license now and helping with the kids commuting back and forth from school.

And

My Christmas present for myself; it is nearly impossible for me to get a fishing license in Germany because I am a resident now and would have to take extensive classes and tests in German (rather than a tourist license). Plus all lakes and streams, even if they are public, are controlled by private local fishing organizations and even if you have a fishing license you have to arrange for site specific temporary permits from them. On the other hand, Denmark is right up the road. So I was able to get a year-long non-resident Danish fishing license online (link) for only about 18 euros. It is good for any public fishing areas in Denmark and the kids can fish as well as long as they are with me.

PS - I stopped by the apartment in the afternoon and while T and I were there there was a loud, deep sliding and thumping noise and a lot of snow had slid off the roof with some getting caught by our balcony.

Haiti Relief Fund

https://donate.mercycorps.org/donation.htm?DonorIntent=Haiti+Earthquake

Above is a link to donate with Mercy Corps for the earthquake relief effort in Haiti.

Drifts

There are some deep drifts by the road on the way to the kids school.

Stopped Snowing

It seems like it has been snowing each day since New Years, but it has also been melting a bit each day so there is only 6-7-8 inches or so of accumulation. Today it has been overcast but there hasn't been any additional snow. A week ago the large lake started freezing over in spots, which is a rare event, but now the ice is gone and only the smaller lakes are frozen over. This week it has been hovering around freezing and not getting lower than the negative single digits (Celsius). School has been closed since last week so the kids have had an extended winter vacation, but we are expecting them to be open tomorrow now that most of the roads are clear. The snow and cold in Europe has made it into a lot of news reports (NY Times). V and I took the car out to the grocery store today to check the roads and get out of town for a bit.

Merry Old Christmas

Grandma and J are back off to the US today. They came on New Christmas and left on Old Christmas. I dropped them off at the train station this morning with V for the 5:15 to Hamburg.

Back from Palma

It was warm and sunny, just what we needed for a break from N. Germany. There was snow on the ground when we got back, and it is snowing today. I will upload some pictures soon.