Save me from the German Polizei
Has anyone ever seen the show "Mommy Swap," where 2 mothers switch families for about 10 days to experience life in another family? I've only seen a couple episodes in America, and as usual in American TV, the drama level was high as the families tended to be extreme opposites (ex. big city cosmopolitan family vs. hut in the woods folks), thereby producing a very conflict-prone situation.
Germany's version, "Frauentausch," is not only less dramatic, since most of the families are generally pretty similar, it's about 2 hours long. So the result is a looong show about basically nothing. But I still like it, of course.
Last week's episode, however, everything other than boring. The first family was a orthodox Catholic single Russian mom of 3 and the other family was a black cloak-wearing gothic family with lots of kids. The climax of the show was when the gothic dad made the Russian mom take part in a rabbit sacrificing ceremony. I was pretty amazed that they showed it on TV, but they actually killed the rabbit. The Russian was so upset by the situation that she cried before, during, and after the process. She convinced him to not make her kill it so he agreed to let her just hold the head while he cut.
As disgusting and, in my opinion, cruel as it was (where was the German PETA?), the families learned a lot from each other about open-mindedness and not judging based on looks. They actually had really nice mom-mom reunion where they shared stories from each other's households. They each commented the the other one had a warm heart. It was pretty interesting....and gross.
I played my oboe solo on Wed. during our studio's recital. Overall it went pretty well. It was a very technically challenging piece and though there were a couple wobbly spots, I mostly got all the passages that I was worried about. One of the girls from the studio recorded it on mini disk so I got to listen to it on Friday. It was strange to hear myself play. I'm using a different oboe and reeds than my last recorded recital (May 2004). So after hearing myself from a different perspective than listening to myself while playing, I caught some things I want to work on.
Next Wed. is our last performance of this year and it's in the nursing home again. We get cake and coffee and then are each playing a slow movement of a piece. After that it's a gift-exchange within the studio and a nice Christmas dinner. The next day, Thurs., I'm planning on driving to Hamburg to visit Bethany. After that I'll probably join Matthias' family again in Bonn for Christmas.
It's hard to not be home over Christmas yet again. This will be Christmas #3 away from home (exchange year in Freiburg and these 2 years in Berlin.) At least I was able to fly home in Sept. and am hoping to fly in March again during our semester break. But that doesn't make up for the fact I'm missing Christmas with my family. I'm also not looking forward to the post-Christmas bleakness of Berlin. The weeks before Christmas are filled with lights and Christmas markets. After Christmas it's just kind of sad and dark here in the cold months to follow. But at least I can look forward to spring.
So the neighbor's son decided to come back the past couple weeks and do his usual routine of screaming in the middle of the night. I called the apartment owner's office and complained again. She said that after speaking to a lawyer, there was nothing legal they could do about the situation, i.e. kicking the old Frau out of the building. She's 85 and a welfare receiver. That means she is protected from anything and more or less treated like a queen, and the son gets to benefit from the flawed system.
The only thing left for me to do, she said, was to file a report at the police station. So after the very next visit and screaming session (the 3rd that week), I filed a report online for the police. Much to my surprise, the next day the landlord (who's family lives in the building), said the police had already been there that day to talk about the report I filed. The police told them the next time the neighbor's son comes by I should call the police and he will be taken away based on disturbance of peace. We'll see if that actually happens or if the men in uniform walk away with their tails between their legs like usual after getting a scolding from the little old lady.
In the meantime, I can pay 10% less of my rent. If you have a problem that isn't being taken care of (for example no hot water) you can pay a certain percentage less of your rent if you write a letter explaining why. 10% is the usual amount. We'll see what comes of all this!
p.s. Thanks to Megs for the Christmas card!!
Germany's version, "Frauentausch," is not only less dramatic, since most of the families are generally pretty similar, it's about 2 hours long. So the result is a looong show about basically nothing. But I still like it, of course.
Last week's episode, however, everything other than boring. The first family was a orthodox Catholic single Russian mom of 3 and the other family was a black cloak-wearing gothic family with lots of kids. The climax of the show was when the gothic dad made the Russian mom take part in a rabbit sacrificing ceremony. I was pretty amazed that they showed it on TV, but they actually killed the rabbit. The Russian was so upset by the situation that she cried before, during, and after the process. She convinced him to not make her kill it so he agreed to let her just hold the head while he cut.
As disgusting and, in my opinion, cruel as it was (where was the German PETA?), the families learned a lot from each other about open-mindedness and not judging based on looks. They actually had really nice mom-mom reunion where they shared stories from each other's households. They each commented the the other one had a warm heart. It was pretty interesting....and gross.
I played my oboe solo on Wed. during our studio's recital. Overall it went pretty well. It was a very technically challenging piece and though there were a couple wobbly spots, I mostly got all the passages that I was worried about. One of the girls from the studio recorded it on mini disk so I got to listen to it on Friday. It was strange to hear myself play. I'm using a different oboe and reeds than my last recorded recital (May 2004). So after hearing myself from a different perspective than listening to myself while playing, I caught some things I want to work on.
Next Wed. is our last performance of this year and it's in the nursing home again. We get cake and coffee and then are each playing a slow movement of a piece. After that it's a gift-exchange within the studio and a nice Christmas dinner. The next day, Thurs., I'm planning on driving to Hamburg to visit Bethany. After that I'll probably join Matthias' family again in Bonn for Christmas.
It's hard to not be home over Christmas yet again. This will be Christmas #3 away from home (exchange year in Freiburg and these 2 years in Berlin.) At least I was able to fly home in Sept. and am hoping to fly in March again during our semester break. But that doesn't make up for the fact I'm missing Christmas with my family. I'm also not looking forward to the post-Christmas bleakness of Berlin. The weeks before Christmas are filled with lights and Christmas markets. After Christmas it's just kind of sad and dark here in the cold months to follow. But at least I can look forward to spring.
So the neighbor's son decided to come back the past couple weeks and do his usual routine of screaming in the middle of the night. I called the apartment owner's office and complained again. She said that after speaking to a lawyer, there was nothing legal they could do about the situation, i.e. kicking the old Frau out of the building. She's 85 and a welfare receiver. That means she is protected from anything and more or less treated like a queen, and the son gets to benefit from the flawed system.
The only thing left for me to do, she said, was to file a report at the police station. So after the very next visit and screaming session (the 3rd that week), I filed a report online for the police. Much to my surprise, the next day the landlord (who's family lives in the building), said the police had already been there that day to talk about the report I filed. The police told them the next time the neighbor's son comes by I should call the police and he will be taken away based on disturbance of peace. We'll see if that actually happens or if the men in uniform walk away with their tails between their legs like usual after getting a scolding from the little old lady.
In the meantime, I can pay 10% less of my rent. If you have a problem that isn't being taken care of (for example no hot water) you can pay a certain percentage less of your rent if you write a letter explaining why. 10% is the usual amount. We'll see what comes of all this!
p.s. Thanks to Megs for the Christmas card!!
posted by Heidi at 5:34 AM
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