Adventures in Deutschland: Days 36 and 37

The past two days have been beautiful. There was only a little drizzle at lunch yesterday (Monday). Other than that, we've had blue skies and warm sunshine providing us ample opportunities to take walks and play outside. Yesterday Therese and I walked all over the city. We were looking for a laundromat to wash her clothes in. We have a washer and dryer here at the CDC guesthouse, which is where I have done our laundry for the past five weeks. As I've mentioned before, Reese has terrible eczema. It has come on strong again, only this time the weather had been cold and rainy so it wasn't the heat or sunscreen (I know sunscreen bothers it) and she's been barred from eating chocolate and oranges... So what could it be? I noticed this weekend that there were distinct lines ending her eczema wherever her diaper was. On closer inspection, I found that the rash was only where her clothes had been touching her. So now I have a new theory: the wash machine here smells TERRIBLY of mildew from students washing their clothes and leaving them in the machines over night (and sometimes for days), so now I think it is mildew on her clothes that is causing her rash. I brought our sensitive skin laundry detergent with us so it can't be the soap... Anyhow, with this theory in mind I set out to find a place to wash Therese's clothes where the washer doesn't nurture the growth of mildew. After traversing the city, I learned that they don't have laundromats in Radolfzell. They only have dry cleaners or laundry services that do wash for you. Todd managed to convey our needs to a local dry cleaner. They will have Reese's clothes until tomorrow. Hopefully this helps.

On top of our laundry quest, we spent part of the day searching for a night light. Remember my post last weekend about how the number 6 was working? Well now it's not. Therese was up 3 times Sunday night. I discovered what is equivalent to a dollar store (a Euro store) where I bought a small LED light that runs on batteries. Last night was a success :-). It's amazing how a little sleep makes everything seem so much better...

We've had a lot of fun the past two days. Therese and I have spent generous amounts of time at the playgrounds and in front of the lake. Reese loves switching between a kid's swing that has a bit of a harness and a big swing shaped like a saucer that she can lay in. It's hilarious watching her take turns with other toddlers who speak German. She gets shy and looks wary. Being the funny kid that she is, she claps and cheers whenever the other kids take a turn on the swing or slide, even if it's supposed to be her turn. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll learn to stand up for herself soon enough.

I had three different people speak to me in German within 10 minutes today, all asking me directions. Man did they ask the wrong person. Luckily I've been carrying a map around so I can usually point things out to them on it. Of course, a woman stopped me in the store yesterday and said, "I heard you speaking English to your child. Do you live in Radolfzell?" I told her that I am only here for a few weeks. She was inviting me to be a part of an English-speaking Radolfzell group - my first official invitation to join a Verein. In Germany, there are thousands of official social groups. If you have at least seven people who commit to getting together for a specific reason at a specific time, you can apply to become a Verein which gives you official status and government funding. That's right, Germans value community and socialization based on common interests enough to fund it. Amazing. Unfortunately, I had to explain to the woman in the store that I will not be able to join hers or anyone else's English speaking groups as we have less than 3 weeks left in Germany. Wow, we have less than 3 weeks left...