Gutentag! Happy Chinese New Year!

This is the year of the Rabbit. I guess it doesn't mean much to us except that lots of Rabbit-looking paraphenelia are hanging all over Taipei. Rabbit cakes, rabbit balloons, rabbit posters, rabbit banners and of course, rabbit statues. Taipei is such a neat little city.

But it's still an exciting time of celebration for us because it means one thing: HOLIDAY!

This year, since we had stayed in Taipei for Christmas, it was our chance to visit Germany and to finally - celebrate our marriage with the rest of the family/relatives who were unable to attend our wedding celebration(s). I was most looking forward to spending time with Oma, who is Jens's last living grandparent, on Gerda's side. She is a link in Jens' family history which I really value, especially since she spent a lot of time babysitting Jens as a child, and there are several memories that he has with her. (I especially love the story of him falling off a bar stool and knocking his two front teeth out when he was 8...which is why he has a cap on both his front teeth now). These stories keep the memory of our family lineage alive & real to future generations. And I want to be able to share as much family history with our children, both german and chinese....so it meant a lot to me, to spend time with Jens's grandmother and extended family this time around.

CHINESE NEW YEAR in TAIPEI
But, prior to our trip, we wanted to celebrate CNY with our Chinese relatives and give Hong Bao (Red Envelope) to our elders. So, on the weekend before we left, Dad, Jens and I took a trip out to Taoyuan to sit with Ama & Agong, Jiu Jiu, Jiu Puo and the cousins. Agong is old & frail now, 87, almost fully blind, but he was still so happy to see us. Although he can barely see, I hold his hands and try to communicate my love through touch. We have a hard time understanding his broken Mandarin/Cantonese. They don't have much now, and live in a dilapidated building covered in dust and old junk. It feels like a different world when we visit the Chang family. I love Agong dearly, because he was so much a part of my childhood up to my early teens. After chatting for 1.5 hr, we left and drove south to PhongYuan, Taichung to visit Nai Nai and Wang relatives. We were treated to a tour of Dad's childhood city, visiting his old school where Nai Nai and Yeh Yeh had taught for 30 years...and a touching visit to Yeh Yeh's grave. I teared up, since it was the first time we visited YehYeh in 10 years. He also held a soft spot in my heart, probably because he spoiled me as a kid and always made me feel very special. I wish Jens had a chance to meet him.

Then, we had lunch with the "usual suspects" (Nai Nai, Jiu Gong, Jiu Puo, Shu Shu +wife and my eldest cousin's family who live closeby). It was amusing to discover that Jiu Gong (Grand Uncle) could speak a fair amount of English as he was a Professor of Education Admnistration and had spent time working with foreigners on Education philosophies in the University. He'd taken a long vacation in Germany, so spent plenty of converstaion time with Jens on famous tourist spots. We were able to even get into a deeper conversation about Jens' perspective on WW2, racism of the Nazis and Western-style education. It was a delight for me to observe my husband interacting with my Taiwanese family. It's hard enough with a language and culture barrier...but of course, the Wang relatives do not have a loss for talking, stories or gossip....so I guess that helped ease Jens into colorful interactions.

A GERMAN HOLIDAY...
Then...at last, Friday arrived and we gladly left behind all worries and stress from work and headed to the airport! We arrive to Frankfurt early morning. I knew it would be cold...but MAN WAS IT COLD!! -3 deg C COLD to be exact. I braced myself; living in Taipei has really weakened my cold tolerance. We were upgraded to a nice rental Mercedes Benz E class, which of course, Jens was ecstatic to drive. All the better for the no-speed limit Autobahn!

It took us 2 hrs to drive home to Gladbeck. There, Papa (Werner) and Mama (Gerda) were waiting for us with huge smiles & outstretched arms. They were so happy to see us. One thing I love about my In-Laws, they are always, always smiling. Werner is Santa Claus anyways. Their warmth and love for us, is clearly, visibly evident. I feel very blessed.

Upon arrival, we were offered coffee. That would become a repetitive theme throughout this entire vacation. Coffee is unanimously the choice drink at any time of the day in the Huelsermann household. The pot's always on brew!

REUNION!...In the evening, we went to a gathering of Jens' old friends and coworkers at My Garden, a local restaurant people used to hangout at. There, I met his cousins, Dennis (the polite and reserved engineer) and Robin (the vegan ska rocking college student )and Kate (the sweet talkative Polish gf of Dennis). They were really happy to see me, and we immediately got along. It was a warm reunion with about 20 ppl or so. I felt much more comfortable than last year, since I had already met most of his friends last time, and half of them were in our wedding party too. We stayed out late, enjoying great food, drinks and conversation. What I really enjoyed about that night, was spending time with 12 yr old Hannah, Jens' god-daughter. The girls were such a silly delight to be around even though we couldn't communicate directly...give any child paper & markers, and friendships & drawings will develop! I know she holds a special place in Jens' heart.

On Sunday, thankfully we got to sleep in. Now since we stayed w the parentals, we had only one room available: Jens' childhood room. It felt like the size of Harry Potter's room. JK. but it was really a mini room to fit two grown adults in. The funniest part is that they bought this makeshift lawnchair twin bed just for us. Really! It was very sweet but kind of funny. I slept on the couch and Jens slept on this lawnchair that kept collapsing whenever he moved side to side.

Sunday afternoon was a fun & eventful day for us. Werner & Gerda had invited family and close friends over for afternoon coffee and cake. A reunion of some sorts...Jens had not seen some of these guys in awhile. I met Monika (the wife of his deceased Uncle) Monika's mom, Gabby (close family friend), Oma and all their new significant others. The tiny Huelsermann house was filled with people, laughter, broken English and of course, LOTS of coffee and delicious streudels, cakes and afternoon sweet treats. Gerda was definitely the accomplished hostess.

MARRIED with an APOSTILLE...Monday, we went to the Standesamt to officially register our marriage in Germany!! Finally...after going through major hassles in getting the right documents with notarizations and Apostille (an internationally recognized notary given only by the Secretary of State...Mom actually drove to Sacramento to get it for us!!) , we could finally apply for our German marriage license. I later learned, that Jens' parents were married in the same small courtroom right next door to where we signed the license. Kind of cool.

From Monday to Weds, it was a whirlwind of spending time with friends and family. We celebrated Werners' 59th birthday, had dinners with Malte&Nina, Christoph&Mona (the OG crew), our favorite families Rene& with our lovable Henri and Michel, and Harald, Pam & Konstantin. It was great to catch up with our friends and eat unbelievably good German dishes. We also spent a sweet afternoon at the nursing home with Oma, drinking coffee and eating streudal cakes (of course) while listening to stories of how she met Opa and what it was like to raise her family back in the 40's. The best part was just getting to know her, even if Jens had to be our translator the whole time.

AUSTRIA...Finally, on Thursday, we were off to our own, personal vacation time! Hooray! I was ready to spend some quiet time with my husband. We packed up and drove south, towards the Alps. I took many pictures along the way, especially as the scenery changed from factory to farmland to city to snowy mountains. We planned to go skiing in Ausria for 2 days, and ended up at Kleinvasertol Mts. Our little chatel was a 3min walk to the lifts. SO COOL and SO NOT TAHOE!!! The Alps were....breathtaking. I couldn't stop taking pictures of those perfect snow capped mountains...Just like what I imagined from The Sound of Music. Luckily, both days were sunny, almost t-shirt days on the slopes. (I was still cold).The neat thing about skiing in Europe, is that almost EVERYONE on the slopes is at int/adv levels..they are just darn good skiers! Perfect forms of parallel skis swooshing side to side with even curves trailing behind each well dressed skier. And, there was surprisingly a lack of snowboarders. Maybe I'm just used to the whole montage of snowboarding crowds in Tahoe; it felt weird to be amongst a majority of skiers.

MUNICH...After our 2 days of skiing heaven, we drove to Munich for my first tour of the city. Munich is the richest city in Germany, so when we arrived in the posh downtown area, I felt out of place wearing my ski boots and hiking turtleneck. We were in walking distance of the city center, and enjoyed strolling through all the cafes, restaurants, old haufbraus, bars, stores surrounded by steep church towers, municipal city buildings and beautifully carved courthouses. We also walked through a tiny part of the English Gardens, the biggets park in the city similar to Central Park in NYC. We saw tons of joggers and baby strollers. And, at every cafe or restaurant, no matter what time of the day, there were huge mugs filled with beer. Man, these german sure know how to drink!!

Oh, we succumbed to the Asian-Shopping fever. I pulled Jens into a Zwilling J.A. Henkels shop to buy our first (and last) set of super powered steel knives. OH HOW I LOVE THESE KNIVES. I totally believe (brainwashed) in the German steel and design of knives, so I'm happy that Jens and I finally have a real knife set, and not some crappy Ikea knife block that can barely cut an apple.

AUSCHWITZ...While in Munich we set apart a day to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp. One of the things that I'm trying to understand more is the history of Germany in WW2 and the Holocaust. Although Jens is not directly connected to it (in fact, I'm learning more that many Germans today completely disance themselves from anything associated with the Holocaust or WW2 or Hitler and will not even "go there" in discussion -- which is interesting as an entirely different topic) - I guess I feel that it's important for me to understand WW2 in its entirety, not just from an American education standpoint, but because it IS a part of Jens' cultural history and it has affected the way he perceives racism, prejudice, persecution and gov'tal leadership. For our family - there may never be an emotional connection to this part of history, but it is now, also a part of MY history that I desire to understand.

Auschwitz concentration camp was actually a bit of a surreal experience for Jens and I. Mainly because it didn't match what I was expecting in my head. Not really sure what I was expecting...but I thought some originality of the camp would be preserved. That wasn't the case. The grounds were completely renovated, original buildings were removed and rebuilt, even the gravel was clean and even....so it felt a bit...manicured. (We didn't get to see the gas chambers, which I heard were very real and shocking, with piles of clothes and shoes layed up). The museum alone took us 3+ hours to walk through so we pretty much spent the entire day wandering through it. Very intense stuff. I learned a lot of history about the Third Reich. But by 3pm..I think I was emotionally exhausted from absorbing so much details....I was ready to leave. The most shocking of it all....was that actually...not 50 meters outside of the concentration camp, was a local neighborhood. Yes, family homes..with swings & yards facing the camp....built right behind those ugly barbed wires. Jens and I thought it was reallly weird...borderline creepy.

PINARELLO IN ITALY...After a very belly filling weekend in Munich (filled with LOTS of bavarian sausages, ham, mustard, potatos, wienershnitzels and schweine (pig) and more potatos...) we made our way towards....ITALY! Yep...a last minute plan to drive into Merona, a small town past the border of Germany to hand pick out Jen's dream bike: The Pinarello Dogma. Jens has been dreaming about this bike since I met him..and after many long discussions on just how realistic it was to buy a very expensive bike...we decided that dreams were meant to come true. So we made our way into the romantic wine country - and I'm not kidding you - there were vineyards in every possible empty land space not utilized by a road, house or railroad. There were grape vines growing EVERYWHERE! It was a beautiful sight to see. We spent 2 days in Merona, enjoying their natural spring water at a local spa house and relaxing in our hotel rooms. Jens and I are avid readers during our vacations, so we got to dig into some really good books at that time.

FAMILY TIME...Then we made the long 9 hour trek back to Gladbeck. We had to go back to Gladbeck for one last signature on the marriage license after all documents had been verified. Now I understand what the term, "Germans are incredibly thorough" means. But, it was a great excuse to spend a few more nights with Papa & Mama. We ended up going to a variety theater show with them...called Cool Men. Yes...there was a male cross dresser "hosting" the night and lots of half naked men. Werner laughed the whole night through and I understood nothing. It was a great evening to spend with the parentals. Next morning, they pulled out the family albums and showed me pictures of their childhood, wedding and travels in the 60's and 70's. My In-Laws were (and are still!) major partiers! Pretty hilarious considering how tame Jens and I are comparatively .We are in bed bye 10:30pm and rarely drink alcohol. On the other hand....Werner offered me a beer at 11pm while starting a midnight movie...so I guess I can say my kids will definitely party with their grandparents!

It was hard leaving them. I didn't realize it, but over the course of the last 2 weeks, I had grown closer to them in becoming more comfortable, being myself and just relaxing and spending quiet time together. I didn't realize it, but they had creeped into my heart and now the thought of waiting another whole year before talking and laughing together in our broken English/German was heart-wrenching. As we stood in the foyer saying good-bye and hugging each other, I could see tears in both their eyes. Gerda hugged me several times. Jens is their only son, and now I have become their only tochter. I could see how much they loved us and it just struck a deep chord within me. I had grown up fearing a broken relationship with In-Laws as I observed from my own parents...and here, amazingly, God was redeeming that fear by giving me a taste of what a healthy parental relationship felt like. I could literally, count my two dear blessings.

But...before we left, we had planted a seed that gave them both a lot to look forward to...that the next time we see them...there might possibly be a third huelsermann in tow. I guess we'll just see about that one!

FRANKFURT...Back on the road again..we made our way to Frankfurt, our final destination for another day. We visited Pascal, an old friend of Jens, who showed us around the City. Frankfurt is known for its only skyline in Germany, and the abundance of financial institutions in the city center. We walked a lot, ate a lot, talked a lot....and even made it through the red district. That was weird. Pascal is an interesting character...he is like one of those sitcom characters that rubs people the wrong way and yet is the most hilarious thing you've ever heard. I think people either hate him or love him. For me and jens, it's the latter, but luckily, I don't get offended easily by MANY off colored remarks & jokes. Pascal... what an interesting personality.

Finally...we left for the airport. It was a bittersweet departure...saddened to leave our friends and family behind, but DEFINITELY looking forward to sleeping in our own bed and using real sheets, not sleeping bags! :) HOME SWEET HOME.