An update

We're Yanks...but deep down, we're still a little German. An update.

1. I spent Sunday at IKEA and purchased, among other treats, twin duvets and covers. No more stolen blankets!
2. I cannot coupon. Yes, it's a verb here in early 2011. No, I can't seem to get on board with it. Is it that I can't hoard toilet paper and shampoo? Is it that I secretly long to go to the market daily with my wicker basket upon my arm? Is it that I just don't have the time in my day to read about coupons when I am so busy reading fiction?
3. Fiona still speaks fluent, native-speakerish, German. "We" have concocted a good recipe of high school student tutor, German class with teacher and native speaking kids, German play dates, daily German stories on CD, and Saturday German Movie Night. Exhausting. Exhilerating. Effective.
4. We persist in using "S" in place of Z (German, British, we just like to be Euro) although iPhones correct it. They seem to correct a lot of things. I am forever embarrassed by my texts.
5. We pepper our sentences with "Ah So" and refuse to eat until we've said "Guten Appetit."
6. We fondly call our children "Finchen" and "Maevechen." These might be Americanisations of Germanish expressions but they certainly sound foreign to our friends and family.
7. We repeatedly excuse ourselves for anything and everything (not following a TV series/ news story/ fashion trend, not knowing about a new restaurant/movie/book, not having a new appliance/technology/working knowledge of apps or Twitter) by saying "We just got back from Europe." Which is decidedly inaccurate. It's been ten months. But it serves as a conversation detour which is helpful.
8. We do not buy more than one package of cookies, two boxes of cereal, or one flavor of ice cream at the store. Old habits die hard. Small freezer/no cabinets/extortionate tax on packaged foods=very few processed treats. We're trying to maintain this habit for health and financial reasons. This results in poor couponing. See #2.
9. I find myself wishing for warm weather so I can dry clothes outside (not sure how. Not sure I'm quite German enough to rig up a clothesline. Maybe stand-alone drying rack on the patio?).
10. While we are so grateful and happy to be home with our friends, our family, and our home... we miss spring in Weimar. We miss walking and biking to school. We miss bakeries, Bratwurst, and beer. We miss the ease and convenience of the city bus, the trains (even that rinky dink RB) and the S-bahn. We miss festivals and markets and general outdoor merriment. A colleague once told us that spring in Weimar is magical. He was right. We feel the magic calling us all these many miles away, and we try to hang on to it in our little, duvet-and-language ways.