Newsletter Part 3

After our Pyrenees adventure we came back to Freiburg to start fresh in a familiar city but a new appartment. We had neither low nor high expectations for our appartment... we happily accepted when we were made an offer in early June, but acknowledged that it wasn't our dream flat. Having that said, we are continously surprised - even now after living here for five months - with how much we like it! This is mainly due to one false assessment we made when we visited in June: no light. And what did we want while we were optimistically searching? Sunlight! Quiet! Enough rooms so we each have our own space! We thought this appartment really only would fulfil one of those goals, the rooms (it does indeed have wonderful rooms). But to our pleasure, it's full of sunlight! The whole damn day! There are windows in every room. It's almost blinding walking into the white-tiled bathroom it's so bright. It's not a particulary quiet appartment, it's between two big streets, but it ain't that loud eitha. It's cheap. It's in a great location (proximity-logistically speaking). And the kitchen, by far the most important space, is very functional and big enough for dinner guests. We both feel... at home! How lovely.

Marina's brother and sister and our friend Raphael were nice enough to spend a weekend helping us transport and move in... after a very long Saturday we set to cooking our first meal in the new kitchen with no table and no chairs... but silverware and a little fridge we bought that day :).

We've since made progressive in strides homifying the place up, although there's plenty more to do, and have turned our kitchen into Haslach's best secret veggie-burger joint!

with home-made buns

 and pita-bread,

a flying cook,

 classic carrot-potato-onion burgers with feta,

 the freshest of herbs,

 rejuvinating variations with pomegranate, lemon and couscous,

guacamole burgers with breaded zucchini patties, home fries on the side...

and many more burgers that are consumed quickly before anyone has time to think of taking a photo. Guten Appetit.

Since September I've been working as an intern at a forest kindergarten. Kindergarten is different in Germany. It is not a 'pre-school' institution, there are no classes. It does not focus on academic learning but on encouraging hands-on experiences that build the basis for interactive learning and growth throughout life. It is a nurturing center for personal strength, discovery, individual-responsibilty and capableness, for social, emotional and language skills. It promotes personal recognition and worth, exploration of inner motivations and interests, the joy and aid of social interaction and ways in which people can relate beneficially and peacefully with one another. These are the fundamental capacities we need to manage and thrive in our life, to become who we are and to share this with our world. Academic education is very important, for the sake of understanding, of relating, of exploration, not for the primary sake of serving and fortifying a performance-based soceity in which the one-dimensional aspiration for more (bigger, faster, stronger, higher!) overtakes and eventually blots out our essential human-ness, our individual uniqueness, effect, power and love.
The kindergarten I work at is in the woods. We have 21 kids 3-6 years old who play outside everyday, mainly with sticks. Sometimes also with ropes, pots, pans, matches, saws, hammers and nails, shovels and of course crayons and paper. We have a boxcar that we heat with a woodstove. We do not have toilets, running water or electricity. We bring canisters of water everyday, have candles for light in the morning and go the bathroom in the woods. With shovels. There are no walls, the kids can move as freely and broadly as they please (almost).
Starting soon (March to May) I will have tests to see if I can become an official kindergarten-care-provider, not just an intern. I am a little anxious, but confident. Looking forward to it really. If all goes well, I will continue working where I am now, but with full-time and not intern benefits! :)

In other news I have, in line with my yearly habit, found a new (or discovered an old?) hobby: climbing! What fun. I took a lead-climbing class in December and have tried to get out on the rocks on every warm day this winter has provided. Here are some pictures from Marina and I's outing a couple weeks ago:

Me and a tree on a rock.

A side-view from about two-third's up the climb.

Marina down below...

Marina up above!

It's been a lot of fun to see the black forest with new eyes now, always looking for big rocks, it's brought me to new places and new landscapes, even if they're just a 30 minute bus ride away from Freiburg, like this place.

If you've made it this far reading my 3-part newsletter, chapeau.

Well wishes for health and curiosity,
Ben