Spring in Leipzig

Spring in Leipzig has been a real treat. We've actually had spring, unlike the usually sudden transition in Ohio (like this year!) where it's freezing one day and within a week people are using their air conditioners.

We have so many more photos that we should post. Maybe next week I'll get to our Easter photos in Paris. Anyway, enjoy these photos from Leipzig in the spring.

The Diary of Anne Frank - Leipzig International School 2009 Production

The following slideshow are some images from the Leipzig International School's 2009 production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Direction was by Tom Baily.

My daughter Anissa played to role of Mrs. Kraler. In the actual story, Mrs. Kraler was a man and a business associate of the Frank family. He hid the Frank's and others in an annex of their business.

The play was excellent and it was hard to believe that the students were only 14 to 18 years old.

Click on the slide show to the images in a larger format.

Praha (Prague)

Well folks, it's been a long dry spell on the Bohland Family in Leipzig blog. There would be more, but the work - and rest - schedules just haven't allowed it. This week however there are photos galore from our three day - two night jaunt to Prague in the Czech Republic. If the Germans are sometimes socially challenged, the Czechs are surely socially gifted.

I guess if 60% of your economy is based on tourism, you learn to be friendly. And friendly they were. From the driver hired by our guest house to collect us at the train station to the wait staff in the restaraunts to the laughter in the streets late at night, we enjoyed the pleasant contrast. I'd highly recommend this beautiful old world city to anyone that can make the trip. As they always say.....more later - for now enjoy the slide show (and if you click on the images I think you can view the pictures at higher resoultion in their Web gallery.) Enjoy!

Snow, Snow-Figures and Cold

We returned to Leipzig from the US under a cloudless day last Saturday. The weather was cool and there was a little bit of snow on the ground and ice crystals on the trees. Then overnight we were pummeled with what the natives say was the heaviest snow in 10 years. I took a long walk in the park last Sunday night and took a few photos of snowmen (and snow-women) that were built during the day.



Since the snow, it's been really cold - around -20 C most nights which is borderline for even a modern diesel engine to start. Luckily my car is in the basement garage where it stays a few degrees warmer and I haven't had a problem getting going in the morning (well, at least getting the car going.)

How to be German

I sometimes follow, and now have added to the bloglist (at the top right of this page) a blog called "German Joys." A large part of our daily conversation is the cultural differences that we notice between Americans and Germans. The blogger of German Joys is, I think, some kind of professor in Berlin. Here is an excerpt from his recent post on his evaluation of the degree of cultural integration of a Ghanian cab driver he recently encountered on holiday in Duesseldorf:

A case in point is the cab driver who took me back from the airport after a holiday visit. I fly into Duesseldorf, and to my delight, I find that it's well below freezing, and there's virginal snow everywhere. But that's exactly what's pissing off Joseph, my tall Ghanaian cabdriver. "I hate the snow," he explains in excellent German. "You clean your car, and then 5 minutes after you start driving, it's completely covered in dirt again." On the successful-integration scale, score that +7 for bitching, +5 for daily car maintenance.

But Joseph wasn't done bitching -- not by a long shot! Further targets included "morons" who don't know how to drive in the cold, and "blind" tram drivers who cut you off without even realizing it. Score +10 for yet more bitching. But then he worked himself into a real lather reminding himself of something that happened at breakfast, taken in the form of a sausage on a roll eaten at a roadside stand (+3). A car drove by and "purposely swerved into a puddle, just to cover me in dirty water!" At this point, Joseph became truly outraged: "Imagine that! He went out of his way just to splash me! What is this world coming to?"

But then Joseph did something that, however delightful, dented his integration score: He literally raised his fist and began shaking it, repeating over and over: "May God punish him! May God punish that man!" My analysis: cursing general depravity of fellow citizens, general decay of public morals: +5, but shaking fist: -5, apparent belief in Supreme Being: -5, and mentioning same to stranger: -5.

Oh well, I say we let him stay anyway.

Könneritzstraße Bridge

The really great thing about Leipzig, as I've probably mentioned in previous posts, is beauty in abundance within a short walk from anywhere. The photos in the embedded slideshow are from the Koenneritzstrasse bridge, just 2 or 3 hundred meters from our apartment complex.



The pretty Mandarin ducks have just recently joined the swan, the mallards, and the ginourmous muskrats that we see and occassionally feed with stale bread from the bridge.

Working

November has been very difficult at work. A corner has been turned however and it should be easier from here. The last few weekends one or another kid is either at a friend's house for a sleepover or someone comes here. This weekend Julian spent Friday and Saturday night at his friend Max's house and the girls had the two friends in the picture over Friday night for a sleepover.

Diana and I escaped Friday night for a nice dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant. We continue to love our new flat; it's a lot more comfortable than the old one. Got in a little nap today and now time for the next work-week to begin. We're all looking forward for our two week holiday over Christmas.