Germany - Tennis, Vacation, and World Cup
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June 28th, 2006
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Some of my best memories in my life come from Germany. In the 90's I played professional tennis and competed for five years in the prestigious German professional tennis league. I lived there for a couple of months every summer, played lots of tennis, made some good money, saw some of Europe, and had lots of fun. I had more fun during those years than a lucky person has in a lifetime. We are now back in Germany more than ten years later and it feels good to be back. We visited friends in Munich a few times before we had Daniel but that was for pure pleasure. This time it's a combination of tennis, great friends, and vacation.
It's a little weird that we made it back to Germany at this time. It all happened kind of by accident and the whole deal came together very easily. Robert, one amazingly funny guy, played on my team the last time I played in Germany and he contacted 
me half a year ago to see how I was doing and asked if I was interested in coming over to once again play in the league. He knew that I was still playing and had seen that my team here in Sweden won the Swedish Championships a few times. But there were certainly a few factors that could have stopped us from traveling. The last time I saw Robert and his wife Heike was more than ten years ago and neither one of us had any kids. People can change a lot in ten years but that strangely never entered my mind. Sandra is also very pregnant and on our departure she was in the 32nd week. It's a very short flight and we can fly until week 36 but it's still cutting it pretty close. Her stomach is simply HUGE and as you know it isn't too pleasant to walk around during this late stage of the pregnancy. I also wasn't sure how good my tennis still was and I had some troubles with my calf, which I tore in December. The past few months I was working out a lot and everything was fine, but three weeks before the trip something happened and I had to take a break from training because of severe pain. I emailed Robert and told him I probably wasn't going to make it since the calf was not doing well. I was depressed over this setback but just before the trip the calf miraculously got better and is now back to normal. Then we had the issue with family and Daniel. 
I could have gone alone but I didn't want to be away from Sandra and Daniel for two weeks so they would have to come with me. That makes accommodations more difficult but Robert and Heike were kind enough to let us stay with them in their house. They have three boys so the thought was that Daniel could play a little with them and have a nice time as well. That he has a nice time is priority one for us. But since we never met the kids, or knew anything about how their parents were raising them, the possibility for a disaster was certainly there. What if the kids were spoiled little shits and just terrorized Daniel? What if Robert and Heike had changed completely and were now assholes? What if the teammates were unfriendly? Staying two weeks under these conditions would be a nightmare. A nightmare can easily happen, just like our last trip to Baja California which was something I would love to forget.
As you can see there were many things that could have made us decline the offer but we decided to go and actually made the decision without hesitation. It may sound strange but we never thought about the possible problems and just went with our instincts. 
Somehow I just knew everything would be great. And I was sooooo right. Robert and Heike are just as awesome as they were ten years ago, except they now have three kids. Three awesome boys, 9, 8, and 5 years old. They are the nicest and most well behaved kids in the universe and Daniel is having the time of his life. The kids play with him all day long and take care of him like big brothers. They are just amazing. And can you imagine how perfect a house with three boys is for Daniel? It's full of great toys. Daniel is in heaven and there is no way he will ever want to go back to Sweden again. For him its like living at ToysRus. Their house is large and has a fantastic garden complete with a soccer field (!), playground equipment, sandbox, and anything else you can ask for. It's just perfect. Which is why I have named it Château Sibbel. We've got our own car, the tennis club is nice, all members are happy we are here, and World Cup in soccer is taking place right around the corner. It's just perfect.
Coming up shortly. Château Sibbel and a fantastic end of the team's tennis season.
Sounds so fantastic! I wish I could be over there too! Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to vacation in the back yad again…maybe I could teach the 5 year old to mow!
Jul 17th, 2006 at 8:04 am
[…] To kick it up a notch we moved from tri-lingual to quad-lingual during our two weeks in Germany. I speak pretty good German although I have forgotten some since I don't use the language much anymore. I've been focusing more on Spanish instead. But my German is still in the back of my head and it came back very quickly. Daniel is used to us speaking three languages at once but moving on to four is perhaps a bit of a stretch. We stayed with some very good friends during our recent visit and they have three young children who speak little English. So I was of course speaking German to the children. I would ask Daniel something in Swedish and Sandra would add something in Spanish. We would at the same time be chatting to each other in English and I would also be speaking to the German kids sitting next to Daniel in German. In the beginning, our son would look at me in a funny way as I spoke German. He would chuckle, laugh, and say "Pappa, Pappa….." the first day as to point out that I was acting strange. But it's simply amazing how quickly children adapt. After a day or so he was used to it. I wish I could still adapt at the same pace as my son! Daniel even picked up a few German words during our two week stay which sounded odd but very cute. It's completely normal for me to juggle three languages at once without thinking about it. I do it every day. At first, I kept thinking in Spanish when I tried to speak German but that quickly changed. I think it's great to force my brain to do some different things as I'm getting older and more set in my ways. But the reactions of the people around us in Germany was one of astonishment. They were impressed/scared/wanted to call children's services, especially the older ones, because we were using all these languages with our son. 99% of the people in Sweden speak excellent English and they are rarely surprised over someone using two languages with their children. They tend to react when we use three languages but are always supportive and point out how great that is for our son. The reactions in Germany tend to be more muted and it's not very common that a family uses several languages at once. Hardly surprising since the Germans are hopelessly conservative and at least ten years behind the rest of the world in many areas. When mentioning internet, email, credit cards, stores open on a Sunday, or a global economy the Germans get that puzzled look in their eyes. What, are you saying the world is not exactly the same as 30 years ago? Well, we don't care, we refuse to change! They are even worse than the Swedish at handling change. And that is very scary. […]
Jul 28th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
[…] Last summer Daniel was all over the tricycles but at 15 months old he was simply to small to reach the pedals. Or even reach the ground. At the end of the summer, when he started day care, he fell in love with their tricycles and used them daily. Not being able to reach the pedals he moved back and forth "Flintstone style". Incredibly cute! We put off getting a bike until this year and in April we excitedly bought our first tricycle. We rode around the neighborhood but Daniel never fell in love with the tricycle we got him and he started to become more interested in larger, real bikes instead. During our two week trip to Germany a month ago we made a quick stop at an amazing sports store called Decathlon. It's a huge place which has a test track for bicycles in the store. I was looking at some clothes and told Daniel to go and check out a lonely kids bike which was parked next to us. It was too big for him but I figured he could at least play with the bell or just look at it for a few minutes. Before I know it I hear Daniel calling "Pappa, Pappa!" and as I turn around I see Daniel riding through the store with a huge smile. I was surprised to say the least, since the bike was way to big for him (14") but somehow he managed to reach the pedals. We stayed in the store for an extra hour and Daniel rode back and forth, excited by his new skills. We decided then that we had to get a new bike, a real bike, for him as soon as we got back. […]