Anissa in the Park

Today we went on a nice bike ride in the Clara Zetkin park; the first time since our bikes arrived earlier this week. The park has many nice features and will be a theme for our stay without a doubt.

Anissa, the kid that didn't want to come the most, is doing pretty good. Here she is in the park.

Just Around the Corner

These photos are from my morning walk with our hund Hector. Yes, Leipzig has some not-so-attracitve areas, but it is continuing to be renovated because the mass-exodus of the 90's is over and money and people are flowing back into town. A new grocery store is under construction just down the street and this make living even easier for us. Anyway, it's possible to walk for long distances and feel like you've turned a page in fairy-tale book when you turn a corner - like the images show here.

Leipziger More Market

The Leipzig Expo Center, or "More Market"as it is locally known, was host to the Games Convention mentioned in the last post. It is absolutely ginormous with four huge halls connected by a center hall which is a multilevel glass arch. We were dog-tired after walking this all day. Note the cool walkway through the water.

Leipzig Games Convention

Today was "Julian Day." We all made the effort to accompany Julian to the Games Convention at the Messe expo center in the north part of Leipzig. It was huge, loud, crowded and overdone. So much hype for the newest video games. But this is the attraction for technologically placated amongst us. Julian had a good time watching some demos and also getting to play some. The more popular games like Gutiar Hero had hours long waits for poeple to get their chance to have a contest on stage in front of the bulging throng of spectators and maybe win a prize. Julinan didn't do this, but he and Sierra said they easily could have beat the contestants we watched. For the rest of the family, the most interesting thing was watching the German youth; particularly those dressed in costume to emulate their favorite game characters.

The Opera Singer

The picture in this post was taken at dusk with my camera phone and was quite blurry. I post-processed it some more to make it painterly. It has nothing to do with today's post.

A Russian opera singer has taken the flat above ours. His wife, a choir director, and daughter and son are coming to Leipzig as soon as their paperwork clears. He practices at home, so things could get musical around here pretty quickly.

He has a 14 year old daughter and a 10 year old son and his wife. So maybe all the kids will hit it off.

Taking Julian to the massive games convention tomorrow at the "Messe" which is an expo center. So I'm sure there will be adventure in that.

Kulture Park Clara Zetkin

Here are a couple of images taken from one of the walkways in the large park adjacent to our neighborhood. One shows the International School from the back of the building and the other is a nice apartment building with a beer garten adjoining it and the park entrance. Maybe we'll post more about the park later today. I saw a huge beach volleyball tournament going on and large soccer and tennis facilities amongst the bike trails and such.

Settling In

The girls, Anissa and Sierra, have their own apartment next to ours (John, Diana and Julian.) So they are somewhat independent and get to keep their own house, make their own meals and generally live like young adults - but with the possibility of unannounced vists from mom, dad and brother at any time. The photos show them settling in in their very own Leipzig flat.

The Demonstration

In my last post I referenced the demonstration in Augustusplatz that played a key role in the fall of the Berlin Wall. I Googled the event and found this picture and this link

I confess it brought tears to my eyes seeing this image of thousands of peaceful demonstrators acting for the freedoms of many against the will of a few.

I don't know who to credit for the image; it was posted at this site

Dog Walking

Well it's a beautiful day in Leipzig. Started out with a crystalline blue sky but now we have a few clouds. The photo is taken from a bridge along the walk I took Hector on today; just a short distance from our flats. In the opposite direction is the largest park in Leipzig which we look forward to exploring this afternoon. The Headmaster's assistant told us it's possible to bike for hours in the park with its many bike trails. This will be fun when our bikes arrive in the air shipment scheduled for delivery in about 10 days.

Later today we are going to a free concert in the Augustus Platz which, according to brochures, is the largest square in Germany. It was the sight of a massive but peaceful demonstration in the 1980's which helped catalyzed the fall of the Berlin wall and set the stage for German reunification.

The Hauptbanhof (The Main Train Station)

This afternoon was spent shopping for necessities at Leipzig's shopping and transportation Mecca, the Hauptbanhof. It is truly spectacular and rivals the Miracle Mile in Chicago or even the best shopping venues in NYC. The photo above shows the second of three floors of shops and services. I should have taken a photo of the trains; they're lined up about 20 deep under the atrium in the top of the photo.

The kids got hungry for their favorite comfort junk food.

Finally the girls bought a few things at the "Totally Sexy" shop. Just jeans and such; nothing risque of course.

Burnin' Down the House

Actually, just a spark. I did not get to Julian before he grabbed a plug adapter (adapter, not converter) and plugged in his Wii. The lights immediately went off at Konneritzerstrasse 78. I'm pretty sure the fuse just blew in his power supply and the Wii is just fine. I'll have my colleagues at work open it up an replace the fuse (proprietary fasteners must be drilled out or slotted with a Dremel for removal with a flat blade screwdriver.) Worst case, we saw a dual-voltage supply online for $15.

We got the lights back on with the flip of the circuit breaker.

Now Julian has received a North American Vs European power distribution lecture as well as a lesson from the best teacher - experience.

Das Ei

We walked to neighborhood grocery store to get a few items for the next day's breakfast and walked around and around the store looking for eggs. I overheard an English couple talking that looked like locals and asked them where in the world (or the store) the eggs might be. Turns out eggs are not refrigerated in Germany. We thought about this for a bit and it makes sense - hens don't have refrigerators in their butts do they?

Arrival

We have arrived in Germany. Flights were good except we were delayed in Leipzig about 40 minutes while a new plane was readied to replace a broken one. The photo from my mobile phone camera and shows our dog Hector getting offloaded in Leipzig. He's on the conveyor in the front of the plane - click on the picture for a closer view.

The airport veterinarian could not read Hector's ISO compliant microchip but this was waved off as a technicality and Hector was admitted to Germany. At least he doesn't have to apply for long-term resident visas like the rest of the family will. I already have one from my long time working in Germany.

Oh - and we will receive a bill for 30 euro for the vet's inspection fee.

We were met by a van driver from my work (Calyxo) and the relocation coordinator. After some organizing, we drove our three-vehicle entourage from the Leipzig airport to our new home in the southwest part of town, unloaded our luggage, and collapsed for a few hours.

We finished our day at another amazing Viet Namese run Asian restaurant just down the street. Very good Thai food. I'm friends with the Viet Namese restaurant owners in Wolfen; the town that I work in.