Travel Adventures With The Tool-Kid: Tidbits from Home

"Konstanz has a real peaceful vibe" my husband informed me today and I guess he is right. There is something peaceful and relaxing about this place. It's small, full of tourists, retirees and students beautifully situated between the lake and Alps - one a clear day you can now the see the snow-capped peaks of the "Seealpen" (lake alps). Currently the sun is shining, the trees and flowers are blooming, the medieval buildings have mostly been beautifully restored, roman walls have been dug up and the city is buzzing with people shopping, kids playing and people enjoying their copious spare time. On every corner there is a bakery with the real bretzels and little sweets, cafes, bars, restaurants, wine bars abound. Fancy clothing stores, goldsmiths and high-end opticians line the streets and on the surface of it life couldn't be more perfect (mind you its May, when the fog decends in November its a very different story). So when I come back here - usually in May or September (another of those generally perfect sunny months) - for the first 24 to 48 hours I wonder - silently or aloud - why the hell did I ever leave this perfection? What posseses me to live in the 'burbs in California?

After that grace period, though, the stories trickle in and I start making experiences that remind me why I had a hard time living here and why now -after all those years away - I would have an even harder time. I am not talking about major issues and problems, but the little stuff that make life miserable for no good reason. To give you a couple of examples: next door there live two families with small kids, in a three family home. Sounds perfect to you? Kids playing together, parents sharing experiences, sitting together in the garden, baby-sitting for each other? Well, something insignificant that I have no knowledge of happend and they are not talking to each other anymore and haven't been for a while. How awkward and stupid is that? They are all in the garden both parties chatting amicably with me and both sets of kids playing with Max and they don't even look at each other? Can't you just get a grip, sort it out and enjoy life? Another: the kindergarten Max will attend for 3 weeks has a ban on sweets. No kid is allowed to bring any sweet stuff for a snack and that includes not just chocolate, sugar-covered cookies and other obnoxious stuff but also sweetend yoghurt. Even bread that isn't whole wheat is only grungingly tolerated, ideally every kid would bring real dark bread, no butter, some organic wholesome spread and a few carrot sticks. I mean give me a break already, I am the mother and if I think that my super-skinny kid should have a little sweetness for a snack than who are they to tell me I am a bad mother and he can't have it. Surprisingly, when I voice these sentiments they get met with incomprehension. I get that the kindergarten-people aren't bad people, they just want the best for the kids but that their idea of correct food is enforced whether the parents like it or not seems to bother only me. I guess I have lived in the US where for too long - where the sheer mention of such a rule would cause riots and outrage. Do I fancy the idea that my kid gets burgers and fries at school every day and the only "veggie" it sees is ketchup? Hell no, but do we have to go all the way to the extreme opposite?

Okay, one last: there is that beautiful large house in my neighborhood. I know the guy who owns it and have always envied him for that beautiful property right by the lake. It is off the major streets and can be reached by a little private street that a few other people also use. Cars are forbidden, cool, I can totally see that but please, there ought to be an exception once in a while under special circumstances. But no such luck one guys seems to be enforcing the "no cars ever" rule as if his salvation would depend on it. So for a recent renovation project they had to carry the materials in by hand because: no cars allowed, no exceptions - ever. The guy seems to be sneaking around taking pictures of every car violating that rule and if I hear such stories I just feel sick. Do people really have nothing better to do than terrorizing their neighbors? How low can you sink if that's what makes your day? I am not saying that this doesn't exist anywhere else but at least in Sunnyvale I have never encountered such behavior, people are just not, well, inclined that way.

So here it goes I have already started on the expat agony: better here or there, upsides, downsides, where do we go from here?

On a lighter note: you should check out Konstanz on Google Earth - it's crystal-clear. The resolution is much better than that of Mountain View, where - after all - the headquarters of Google is located. You can see the car of my parents friends standing in front of their garage and the small herb "snail" (a spiral shaped planting bead for herbs) of Jasi's father. You can't exactly tell whether he is planting basil or thyme but pretty darn close.

The Max-man seems happy here. Lot's of room to play, adoring grandparents, kids to play with three seconds away, dangerous tools in Oma's cabin and Opa's ga

rage and an even larger audience for all of his stories about pistols, firecrackers, all his houses and the fact that he is a policeman (when he happens not to be a baby-bird or a baby-dragon) who arrestes bad men (in his world there seem to be no bad woman, I view this as a compliment). Let's just cross our fingers and hold our breath that the weather holds! (The picture shows Max with Omi Moni)