Aachen, 4.7.2010 Family celebration

Berlin, 10.7.2010 Alexanderplatz

We took a look at Berlin from 34th floor at Park Inn Hotel. Beautiful, and the only building being that high!

Denmark, 12.7.2010 Vacation

In transit, 20.7.2010 The move

We had left Berlin in 2004 with three suitcases, altogether only 70 kg of luggage. We had sold a lot to the couple who rented our old apartment, but we had also brought tons of stuff to our parents homes. Finally, time for reconnection came. We rented a truck with a driver, and I had thought 5,5 tons of space would be more than enough. I was proven very wrong, since the truck was already overloaded, and still half a garage full of stuff left in Kassel! It was strange to unpack all those boxes we had packed an eternity ago, so many things we had forgotten about: coffee mugs, eggcups, all kinds of bits and pieces of a life long ago. But even stranger was, NOT to find some of our most precious belongings: the kitchen chairs, knives and especially the coffee machine. Where the hell did we put all that? Our most precious Berlin friends brought enlightment: "Don't you remember, one of these last days, you told everyone to grab whatever they wanted because you were simply sick of boxing?" Actually, I don't remember, but at least our pots and pans found their way back in the meantime...

Berlin, 27.7.2010 Botanical Garden

Berlin, 11.8.2010 Our website

Originally we set up this website for our parents, family and friends in Germany so that they could participate in our live in Shanghai, take a look at our pictures and listen to the smaller and bigger challenges of our life abroad: we wanted to let our beloved ones know how we slowly got used to China and the Chinese, how our kid grew, what happened to us and how we felt about it.

But time passes, and it's definitely time for a change. It's been exactly six years since we grabbed little Moritz and built a home for us at the other end of the world. And even though I would've wanted it that way, Berlin, our 'chosen' city, is no longer 'home' - home is what we left behind when we left Shanghai. The guard we said good morning and good evening to, the Ayi who helped looking after the kids, the apartment with all our stuff, the school bus, the local supermarket, the playground and: our friends. I was asked so often what feels more difficult, expatriation or repatriation, the only thing I can say for sure is that you can't compare the two, especially if you have kids who don't care where you put them when they are little, but who definitely care once they made friends themselves.

I wanna keep posting news for the ones we left behind in Shanghai, and for the ones who left to Australia, India, Japan and all kind of countries far, far away. And for better understanding I will try my best to post in English, so that most of you can understand. It was great to get to know you, but it is awful to know chances are rare we are ever going to be neighbours again!

Kassel, 14.8.2010 Corn maze

Berlin, 28.8.2010 School boy

Finally, Moritz had his first day at Berlin Zinnowwaldschule! All grandparents came and visited, and we were all pretty excited. After church, there was a big theatrical play using black light. It was about Swimmy, a tiny fish who loses the entire shoal he belongs to (they are eaten up by a predator), and starts again, and better, with new friends he meets in the ocean. Actually, the moral of the story is how a big group of friends, no matter how small each of them are, can turn out stronger than anyone, but to me, I felt touched because of the fact that Moritz and Mia are also two tiny tots, starting completely anew, with kids and teachers they don't know yet, in an environment completely unfamiliar... good luck for them to meet great people!

Shanghai, 31.8.2010 Incomplete

Gross Schoenebeck, 11.9.2010 Mushroom chase

With a hot month of july followed by a wet month of august first thing we did of course on our family weekend in september was to go on a mushroom foray in the north of Berlin, right after visiting the wildlife park in Gross Schoenebeck. Tobi and I used to come here before, but with the kids we took a horses carriage and got an introduction to the parks animals and numbers. I was mostly impressed by the comparison of the eleven Przewalski horses living on the same size of area as the whole Berlin Zoo with its 15.000 inhabitants, thereof more than 1.000 mammals. It feels good to be able to make the choice in between... We had such a great autumn day, few people, enough animals to watch and even more mushrooms to find in the adjacent forest, almost like a treasure hunt with Moritz and Mia very excited about who would find (and cut) the next porcini or Slippery Jack...

Berlin, 20.9.2010 Settling, slowly