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Back in June, Thom and I did in an interview, and it was released today. We had a great time talking to Nicole about our time in Freiburg.
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When Ward visited us in Freiburg last month, he commented to my sister that I parent like a shark: keep them moving. He’s right. I like to keep my crew on the go. This week we’re in Lincoln, Nebraska. For the last few years, I’ve brought our kids to Lincoln each summer for swimming lessons. I had always planned on teaching them myself, but Thom responded much better with another instructor. Our Lincoln teacher is great. She’s tough and doesn’t baby anybody. After Vinnie got her hair cut this morning, I took the girls to a great vintage clothing shop a few blocks away. Neither were brave enough to try anything on, but I think some seeds were planted.  Our flight took off an hour late. We left Paris around 9:30 p.m. and landed in Newark about 11 p.m. The border and customs went smoothly, and we were in Uber home a little after midnight. We pulled into our Princeton driveway at 1 a.m. It was pretty exciting.
Errol is staying in Europe for a couple more weeks. He’s going on a walking tour of Wales with Andrew. I wanted to have my time in Nebraska and decided it was worth taking the kids back to the US alone.
The kids were great. They’re so mad for tablet time that they hardly slept on the flight. I was hardly awake. July 31st could be the longest day of my life. We woke up in Freiburg and went to bed in our house in Princeton.
We are in full farewell mode. Our church gave us a little send-off yesterday, and we made our last trip to Lorettobad today. Tomorrow we take the train to Paris and take a cab to the airport.
One of my favorite people I’ve met in Freiburg turned 60 a couple days ago. He had a big party at his beautiful country house last night. My pal Shawn and I rode our bikes out there which was an adventure in itself. It was about 10K from my house, and the ride was incredibly scenic. At one point, I yelled up at Shawn, “I am really fighting the urge to start singing Sound of Music!”
I had lots of fun at the party. Unsurprisingly, David knows lots of entertaining people. I am very happy our paths crossed this year. Well, my sweet twins are done with kindergarten. Yesterday was their last day. Errol and I were pretty emotional, and Lee and Ned acted like it was a normal pick-up. The day before, Vinnie and I printed 50 photos of them at DM. We met Thom at the library and wrote their names and our Princeton address on the back of the photos in case any of their little friends wanted to stay in touch. Their school experience was a highlight for our time in Freiburg. It was a great place for our little boys to make friends, play soccer, and learn German. We will miss it a lot. FRIAS, Errol’s work base this year, offers catered lunches three days a week. We try to have lunch together one of the off-days. Today we had two guests join us at Omas Küche. Then, we took those lucky dogs out for Eis. The bigs spent their first day of summer vacation doing what they love. Thom stayed home by himself and read while Vinnie was my little sidekick in town. I had my final appointment with my trainer at the gym, and Vin and I were running late. We didn’t have time to grab her bike that spent the night locked to a tree at Stadttheater. She was getting another ride in my basket. We were a block away from my gym, stopped at a stoplight. A Polizei car pulled up right next to me, and the officer in the passenger seat began to speak. I understood what he was trying to say and heard the phrase, “Kein Trasnport” “Meine Deutsche ist sehr schlecht. Tut mir Leid.” (My German is really bad. I'm sorry). I took VInnie out of the basket, and we walked away. |
Anne Thomsen lordWritings on our year abroad. Archives
September 2018
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