The Two AM Club: "Collecting Stories: A Discussioncast on Embracing Diverse Approaches to Raising Children Around the World.
Welcome to The Two A.M. Club, where we have open and diverse conversations about parenting and partnerships across different cultures. Join us on an amazing journey as we explore the joys and challenges of raising children through the stories of parents from around the world.
Our collection of stories represents a tapestry of cultures and personal experiences. We celebrate our differences and the love we share for our children. While everyone's parenting journey is unique, we find common ground in the experiences that connect us.
Whether you're a new parent, experienced, or simply curious about raising children, The Two A.M. Club has something for you. Expect heartwarming stories, practical advice, and thought-provoking discussions. Our goal is to inspire, support, and connect with parents and partners worldwide.
At The Two A.M. Club, we value open-mindedness, diversity, and honesty. We create a community that embraces the universal journey of parenthood, where love knows no limits. Join us today and be part of a welcoming and supportive community of parents and partners.
We believe that parenthood is a journey filled with joy, challenges, and countless stories that deserve to be shared and in doing so we are collecting stories from parents about their experiences in navigating the intricate paths of parenting and partnership. We understand that parenthood isn't solely about raising children; it's also about nurturing and sustaining strong relationships with our partners.
Our aim is to weave a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the beautiful, messy, and wonderful world of parenting and partnership. Your stories have the power to inspire and guide others on their path to growth and fulfillment. We are eager to share the triumphs, struggles, and lessons learned along the way. Whether you're seasoned parents or just embarking on this remarkable journey, we invite you to listen to the diverse experiences, insights, and advice that these stories hold.
Join us as we embark on this voyage, hand in hand, as parents and partners. Welcome to our discussioncast, where we embark on an honest and unfiltered journey through parenthood and partnership. As everyday individuals, we deeply empathize with the triumphs and challenges that come with these roles, just like many of you. Each episode of our show explores a wide range of topics and features special guests, offering a glimpse into the diverse experiences and perspectives within our global community. Despite our differences, we all share a common objective: navigating these challenges and joys in our own unique way.
The Two AM Club: "Collecting Stories: A Discussioncast on Embracing Diverse Approaches to Raising Children Around the World.
A New Chapter in Germany: Our Family's Warm Welcome
Hello, hello and welcome to our podcast, the 2am club.
Speaker 2:The honey bunnies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with the little baby bunny.
Speaker 2:Exactly Special edition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly First. First episode of season two. Exactly First episode out of Germany episode out of germany hello, my baby. Hello, and we have a special guest today. Yeah, a little baby bunny, the cause of all of this. Hello, you want to say something to the people that are listening to us. Oh, kindergarten, you like your kindergarten one anyway. Oh, it's a good thing. You have three weeks holiday coming up. Hello, hello. How are you doing? My honey bunny?
Speaker 2:I'm very good, it is sunday, um, we have a little baby bunny that came out of the nap.
Speaker 1:A three-hour nap.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and we're like, hey, let's try to record a podcast, our first one, as we're slowly getting into normalcy.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And let's try to do it together.
Speaker 1:After three months having moved to our beautiful new city, vöth, hallo Right, hallo Hallo Kinderg, hallo Hallo Kindergarten, kindergarten.
Speaker 2:And, as you can hear, he already goes to the Kita.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So the Kita is basically the abbreviation for Kindertagesdette, which is German always fun. Which is the stage before kindergarten actually. So to the nursery, which was one of our big topics, right Moving into a new, oh nein, oh nein, oh nein, Let me put back your headphones.
Speaker 2:So Munanui's headphones just slid off and now we're back to hello, hello, oh my god, you're just the cutest boy on the planet. Well, yeah, I just wanted to start the story about what was our fears moving here, especially when it came to Munanui, and one of them was to find a nursery, because we've heard so many stories that in Europe it is very difficult to find nurseries and, yeah, we were very lucky. Actually, the system here in the city where we moved to, which is called Fürth yeah, it was amazing there was one lady responsible for the nursery allocation or information that we have contacted out of Dubai already, and then we send out a couple applications and we actually had response very, very quickly and even could choose between the nurseries. And, yeah, he's going into a nursery, uh, right next to our house, it's a four minute walk and, um, he loves it, as you can hear. Um, we just started a three week summer break well, we haven't started yet.
Speaker 1:It starts on monday, technically that is true you want to touch this one? Yeah, but that's the control center. Daddy controls the control center. Mama controls everything else, but Daddy controls the control center.
Speaker 2:Did you hear that that is for Daddy to control?
Speaker 1:You can speak there in the microphone there, right there. You can speak there, yes, as you can see, we're still going strong with our three languages Me, french, svenja German and then English when we're together. But, yeah, we have finally settled down. It's been three months right since we moved to our new city, new house.
Speaker 1:Exactly Three months ago actually, our container arrived and we got our furniture, so that was really when we settled exactly it feels like so much more time right exactly, but we've done so much already yeah, but it's really, it's, it's a good point, what you and I think we, we talked about this. Yeah, okay, papa. Also that is the fact that, uh, yeah, when we got here, we were so afraid because everyone told us how bad europe is and how everything is going to be either full, there's not going to be any pediatrician, we're not going to find a doctor, we're not going to, and somehow we ended up with how many Kitas that wrote back to us so at the beginning, actually, we got the first spot just two days after I sent out the applications and I sent out the applications maybe.
Speaker 2:When did I send out the applications? February or January for April, and yeah, so that's rather short term I would say, um, and yeah, two days after I sent out my email I already had the first spot. We got the first spot. It was number six out of my six that we applied for is this one in frankfurt or no?
Speaker 1:no, that was here. That was here, because we also got spots in frankfurt, in Frith.
Speaker 2:Correct, correct. But then two days later, we got another spot at a nursery where we preferred to go and, yeah, that was the one that we actually decided to go for, not knowing that the third nursery came in I think two weeks later or three weeks later, the one in Erlangen, no no also here. That's now the one we were going to. So that was actually the one we were going to.
Speaker 2:So that was actually the third spot and then we got another one, actually from a company, just recently. We would have gotten a spot there as well. So, um, yeah, I think we really um, yeah, could choose and are so happy with the situation. Actually, he loves going there. Um, very nice people in the nursery. The what they are doing with the kids is great. So I think one big fear that we had, that the nursery might not be as good as in dubai, definitely did not materialize at all, and I think a lot of other fears as well because, as you said, right like, pediatrician.
Speaker 1:That was another big of our fears because we had an amazing second phone call. I uh, we had an amazing one. I still talk to her, I still send a whatsapp message once in a while yeah, she's great and yeah, not to say if something is wrong, just to send a picture of an update of how we're doing and everything like that.
Speaker 1:That's nice yeah, but pediatrician second phone call. The first one we wanted to go to said unfortunately there was no room. Boom. Second one, she said yep, there's room and no worries whatsoever yeah, yeah, exactly apartment. We found an apartment before we moved here. Beautiful house before we moved here we didn't even see it.
Speaker 2:So that was a typical svenja and mo situation. So that story is also.
Speaker 1:We've never even been to the city before which is by far one of the greatest moves we ever did. This place is awesome. I'm at peace. It's really. It is such a great little city to live in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. We took a risk and we got rewarded.
Speaker 1:I mean your sister-in-law and your brother were just here and they came from Berlin and she wants to move here. Our last words from your brother was well, I guess I better find a job in Fils.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is yeah and that sometimes shows right. You just have to sometimes jump into the cold water and see what happens.
Speaker 1:Do they have a saying like that in German?
Speaker 2:Do they have a saying?
Speaker 1:They're very risk adverse. More like taking insurance out before you jump into the cold water. Yep, yep, pretty much.
Speaker 2:Actually, it doesn't come to my mind whether there is some saying Ah yeah, Nur wer wagt, gewinnt. Yeah, only the one who Alle wachten Alle wachten.
Speaker 2:Oh, nur wer wagt, gewinnt. Yeah, so it basically has the same meaning. Yeah, only if you try, you can win. And yeah, and I think, think we did so, maybe just to start that story at the beginning, um, to start that story at the beginning, um, mo, I mean, we start. Actually, the original plan was to move close to frankf, close to Oma and Opa, the grandparents. Also, I never lived in Frankfurt. I grew up very close to it, but not I never really lived in the city, so that was a city I've always wanted to live in somehow. And yeah, you started looking for apartments out of Dubai already and nothing really appealed to us, and so and I also didn't want to live in a city again.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:I wanted to be in the countryside, somewhere smaller, away from people. Yeah, literally. I wanted cornfields, rapeseed oil, something, 360 degrees, no neighbors, for at least 10 minutes by carway.
Speaker 2:Exactly 60 degrees. No neighbors for the at least 10 minutes by car away, exactly, and so basically, um, he started also looking around the area where my work is, which is actually an area where we didn't want to move to no, I didn't want to move to nuremberg, exactly nuremberg, because that was the city we lived in 2018 to 2020 and we weren't very happy. Um yeah, so somehow Mo found this 300-year-old house.
Speaker 1:That's the reason why. It's because I wanted to find some really old place to live in, like a beautiful farm or something like that, and actually you find them more in the south. It's not so easy to find these types of homes and lucky enough we found this one. So, yeah, okay, cool, and hold on. Let me take the SD cards out of there.
Speaker 2:Muna and I just grabbed the little pouch with SD cards.
Speaker 1:With all of our first season episodes inside. Papa, I want to donate. Thank you, Papa.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and that was the main reason Actually, this incredible 300-year-old house with a beautiful apartment and he's like, hey, let's check it out.
Speaker 1:And when I checked the location, it was… I didn't tell her where it was Exactly.
Speaker 2:He didn't tell me.
Speaker 1:I just showed her the house and she's like, oh my god, it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2:And then yeah and then, exactly, and then I checked the location, I was like, oh my god, it's the city right next to nuremberg, the city where we didn't want to go back to, and yeah, so I was against it and it took some time. I mean, mo kept on, you know, repeating, showing, looking, and at some point I was like, okay, I would say he calls himself the kissinger and the funny thing kissinger actually comes from fifth exactly so I just wanted to make that joke, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, he worked on me a little bit, planted the seed a little bit watered it, and at some point I gave in. I was like okay, you know what, I'm gonna now send a message to the landlord via this app where he saw the apartment. Um, so I get another response immediately and we got a video tour the day later and we signed the contract.
Speaker 1:His first response was do you know what it's like to live in an old home?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's true.
Speaker 1:And then we told them well, in China we lived in a home that was built back in the Ming Dynasty that barely had running water. So yeah, we know.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. So yeah, the landlord at first wasn't too convinced to actually let someone see it, you know, only on camera. But so, um, sorry, it just got distracted. That happens, right, yeah. So I finally wrote him, answered. We had the viewing the morning afterwards. We signed the contract 24 hours later. So that is sometimes how fast we make decisions and, yeah, and honestly, we just listened to our gut feeling because this viewing was great. I mean, we looked at the apartment. It is a completely crooked house. It's beautiful, it has small doors where even I don't fit under, but it has so much character. We saw it via video, via camera.
Speaker 1:It has a soul.
Speaker 2:It has a soul and we just we hang up the phone and we knew we wanted, so we um yeah, and luckily we were also the first on the list from the landlord. So just um a day later we signed the contract and we were just yeah, and we got so excited because we did not know anything about this city, right? So we started to look into. You know what is there in food? I remember looking at this youtube video of the guy that just walks through the city for an hour without any background noise.
Speaker 1:Actually, he just walks and you can see the city center and I was googling all the time on google maps and I saw the little street and the parks next to it, and then we were literally taking all the playgrounds, the forest, the rivers, everything that was surrounding our house, and hoping for the best.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, that was that was literally it right. So, um and yeah, like we said at the beginning, it was the best decision we could have made. We have an amazing apartment, we have great neighbors, we love the city, we found the kita, the nursery, everything is really, really, really great and we're so happy that we made that move. Oh, mama is supposed to paint as well.
Speaker 1:Ah, so, yeah, but it's just been, I don't know. It felt right. And then the worst thing, what we said right, what's the worst that could happen? We don't like it and we'll find somewhere else to live. We'll just move, yeah, that's all. Oh, that's the red door and Munanui is super happy and he's grown so much since we moved here. I feel the fact that we're outside all the time, we're not stuck indoors. Um the nature. He's breathing a lot better at nighttime. The snoring totally went down, the you know no more pollution and our little street downstairs that he can just walk out and there's no cars coming. It's just a. It's just such a great place and the people here are just super, super nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and yeah, that was the biggest surprise, because that was one of the aspects we disliked Nuremberg a lot Was the people we didn't really, you know, connect really. And it was more in the daily life, right Like the seller at the supermarket or the bus driver or I don't know, just in your daily life you wouldn't? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And every time I have to go to Nuremberg to go get something that they only have, I'm so happy to be back on the subway to come back home and it's just. But the craziest thing is that the people of this city hate the people from Nuremberg just like we do, and it's also the first city that actually made me want to learn german, because it's the first city where the people didn't ask me what did I do? You just started something and this is all because of you. I just I recorded it, and this is literally because of you right now. Oh yeah great.
Speaker 2:So our son is painting next to us and I just showed him how to paint his face. Yeah, and now it's gonna be paint everywhere.
Speaker 1:Lucky enough it comes off with water, this one but also the story of this right.
Speaker 2:I think that's just one of the things that we really enjoy in europe, so I went to the store here in the city. By the way, the city has around a hundred thousand inhabitants, I think hundred hundred twenty thousand it's a I call it like a little, a little.
Speaker 1:It's like a little city. You have everything you need within a 10 minute walk and yeah, so we, yeah, we.
Speaker 2:I went to the special store where they sell books and you know all the paper stuff and I and I painted a blue dot on my nose and the seller.
Speaker 1:he's also this little character with a little. He's this old man and he all he wears these old suits and his back is a little bit hunched Right. He's got this little hunch and he walks kind of slow. Oh, there we go, there we go.
Speaker 2:Now we have a red-nosed reindeer.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Do you want to eat? Yeah?
Speaker 2:dear, exactly yeah. And so he's this super nice old sales guy that immediately know you know I go in with moon and ways like him. I need something to paint. Um like, what do I use? I have no idea, I didn't do any research and he just knows exactly. It's like, this is the one that you need. It's water, like you can clean it with water. It's not dangerous for the kid to eat locally made locally made and great.
Speaker 2:You know, and and this is this, has been it a little we have on saturday morning, the market. It's the farmer from around the corner. We have been to the farm and butcher. Uh, the butcher and the cheese maker and it's, it's very, it's been very nice to get out of this golden cage in Dubai and feel more real, I guess and this is also how- my sister-in-law called Furt, why she liked it so much.
Speaker 2:When she was here last week she said it's just authentic. It feels authentic, it feels real. You see people from all walks of life, people are friendly, they greet each other, they help each other. Yeah, it's just so refreshing and has been such a blast, to be honest, with our little guy who drives the bicycle by now and loves the water and spends so much time outdoors. Bicycle by now and loves the water and spends so much time outdoors, sees now all the animals that before he only saw in the book.
Speaker 1:You know the cow, the cat, the um. You know we went to the zoo last week I mean I go get my milk directly at the farm. He can see the cows that give the milk. It's raw, unpasteurized milk. I get the eggs there. It's just. Yeah. I think authentic is the best way to describe it.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and you know, I mean, I had this moment. I remember when we landed from dubai and we stayed at my parents place for the weekend and we went for a walk there in the fields, where I would take the bicycle when I was young to go to school. And then I was like, wow, now it's been 20 years since I left and now I get it. Now I'm like I have been living in megacities since then, or big cities, right.
Speaker 1:Megacities.
Speaker 2:Munich Okay, that's not a megacity, but then Beijing, Tokyo.
Speaker 1:Hong.
Speaker 2:Kong Dubai, so you know the past.
Speaker 1:Is Dubai a megacity? Still it's not really on the I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's a big city, it's a big city, so I don't even. I didn't even know how it is to live in this kind of mid-sized city, small city. I didn't know, I had no experience, and now I'm like oh wow, it's great, I love it, and I didn't even know, do?
Speaker 1:you want milk? Okay, Papa will get you some milk.
Speaker 2:Mama, should I get the milk?
Speaker 1:so let me go to the fridge no, and for me, I was just really done with the cities. Yeah, I really wanted something, uh, more natural, especially with munanui um, you know he was calling plastic trees Baum, which is tree for in German, and I really I couldn't. I mean, dubai for us was finished. You know, that was really it was finished and we needed something more real, more fresh, and this place was the perfect match for us. We were super lucky that we were able to find it, without even knowing that we would find it here. Right, it's really crazy, yeah, and the people are super, super nice.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, I don't speak German, but everyone here speaks to me in English. I try to speak to them in German and they're like, yeah, but they speak to me in english. I try to speak to them in german and they're like, yeah, but they speak. You know, they speak to me in english. And it's also the first place where no one told me in german that I should learn german and why don't I speak german? But the way they say it is a very it's not in a positive way, it's more this, you know, really uh kind of situation that we would have gotten in nuremberg or in frankfurt also, and this is the first place, the first place where I actually kind of want to speak german and actually I think my german has gotten much better right and his german is oh wow, yeah, I mean that was also right.
Speaker 2:How would he react um being here and and what would happen? Would he miss his friends um his nanai? But no, he's been doing great. I mean the language, wow, I mean he speaks a lot of German.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he understands French and. English, which is really crazy because all the stories we heard about children that are bilingual or trilingual. It takes them a while before they start talking, but this guy is just blah, blah, blah, blah blah. He gets that from you.
Speaker 2:Me or you, yeah, no, me, or you, yeah, no. So, um, yeah, it's it's. It's really been been a blast. I can only say um that, uh, yeah also for us now it's important to say the the europe is not it's not what the world thinks it is. Exactly. I think the negative publicity that you have in Dubai about Europe or in other parts of the world is just not correct. I'm not sure, Of course it's not all perfect, but no one ever said that it would be.
Speaker 1:But I think this is where I get. I think the problem is a lot of europeans. It's very easy for them to criticize themselves, they have very easy to self criticize, but it's very hard to actually give praise to their country, and especially germans. I mean a lot of history that goes on there, but you know, it's very hard to say, um, we're actually proud of this in germany, or something like that, whereas it's so easy, it's so easy that for them to criticize, yeah, and whereas in dubai it's the other way around. It's a way easier to give themselves we are the best, we are this and this and this, and way harder to actually criticize anything yeah, it's a cultural thing and that's how we grow up.
Speaker 2:We're not, um, supposed to brag about things, about achievements, etc. So, uh, yeah, I think, um, but I mean it's crazy how it impacted my thoughts and my expectations. Yeah, because I was really worried about the health care system. I was really worried about a lot of topics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went to go get an operation. Yeah, I got a. I already had surgery, her surgery had a hernia and uh, I got the doctor's appointment. Like I went to the emergency room.
Speaker 2:We waited what 30, 40 minutes yeah, even longer, but it doesn't matter, like I mean. The thing is, if you are hurt, you'll get help. That's most important. Right, and look at, this little cutie has a perfect pediatrician. Again, if there's anything we can go, and we already had a bleeding ear, so yeah, and we waited.
Speaker 1:That was a 20 minute wait at the waiting room exactly I mean the operation I got, and then we just got a 10 euro bill for. And then we got what was it like a 20 euro bill or 10 euro bill for some hospital? Exactly full procedure hernia, pushback net and everything yeah, exactly, so I think that's have you felt danger Like people are going to steal your Rolex watch while walking around the streets? Definitely not. Or that you have to put your phone away and stuff like that. It's also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there might be areas where that is the case, but honestly that's.
Speaker 1:Every place has areas. Exactly, that's been everywhere.
Speaker 2:And so, except for maybe, japan, but even in Japanapan, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, those areas just exist. So, yeah, yeah, I think that's been, that's been, um, yeah, such an eye-opening experience, and you also always have to.
Speaker 1:That's why you have to see things by yourself before you judge, because, yeah, I mean we did pay one extra month of rent for an apartment we never saw or lived in yeah, that was out of fear.
Speaker 1:Out of fear, yeah, because everyone was telling us you're never going to find an apartment. It's going to be so hard if you go through. You know a website. I went through emo scout and it was like if you go through the app, you'll never find one. It needs to be from person to person and yeah, it's all bullshit and that's the one thing actually where I never thought about it. But afterwards now I think about I should have asked those people when was the last time you moved? Right, because I'm sure that the last time that those people moved was 10 or 15 years ago, where maybe at that point it really did matter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But everything that people told us would happen, that was bad, didn't happen. True, the only thing that was bad was the texting, but that's the only thing that actually nobody said anything about. Yeah, true, but at the end that was also fixed.
Speaker 2:Unfortunate and, by the way it happened, by admin people in Nuremberg.
Speaker 1:Did you find out? Okay, papa, you found out. Mommy, it's very hard for Mommy to do two things at the same time, whereas for Daddy it's a little bit easier. But yeah, and it's been really nice. And other fears that we had nannies, I mean, we have a great babysitter. She's french. We have an emergency babysitter in case we need the baby, in case the other one can't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, okay, I mean yeah it's uh, it's been actually to organize everything.
Speaker 1:Actually, we had a house cleaner, but she was not good. I mean a little bit of a good-off-all this weekend.
Speaker 2:Papa order a train.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Papa wants an iron train. Papa is going to color a train.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Is it gonna be the ICE?
Speaker 1:No, daddy's drawing a Porsche 911.
Speaker 2:Oh, a Porsche 911. I see, no, yeah, and I mean now talking about parenting when it comes to that move, because, honestly, we weren't too scared of anything. We kind of knew that as long as we were fine, he'll be fine, and that's also kind of what happened, right like he.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it took him a little bit of time. There was a, there was a and the reason you know we were between you were super busy at work. We were with waiting. We were at mama nobi's place, then in the hotel yeah, we're changing places, changing places a lot.
Speaker 1:So for him he didn't really have that. I mean, he had us as a stability, but he didn't have the house stability yet and he didn't know what was going on. We didn't have all of our stuff. So that was a little bit, Remember, because before we left he was sleeping through the night and then we got here and then it fucked everything up.
Speaker 2:But now we're back on track. Yeah, yeah, no. And then you know, I remember his face actually, once our furniture arrived, because he was so happy to see all the stuff. I could really see the smile, um, in his eyes and yeah, he was very happy to see all that and um, I guess, yeah, that was very, very um helpful for him to see familiar stuff. But I wouldn't say I mean it was he was still okay, he wasn't crying every day or he wouldn't didn't stop eating or I don't know something drastic, yeah, like it was. You could feel that he felt something is going on, but he was fine because he knew we were there but he didn't miss the, he missed the nursery because remember when we were walking around the city.
Speaker 2:It's actually yeah, he missed other kids.
Speaker 1:so while we were walking around the city and he saw all the kids with the nursery because here in germany, um, the nurseries, they actually go outside with the kids you know it's uh, and you walk through the city and you see the, the teachers with the kids, and these like these wagons, and uh, they went to parks or, you know, to the forest and stuff, and munanui would see them and he would be like kinder babies, babies, and you could feel that he wanted to go back to school, like he wanted to head back to the nursery. Papa aussi, regarde Nero. Yeah, I mean, that was, and that was the only thing. It was really more the he was missing.
Speaker 2:oh, he was missing the kita yeah, yeah, exactly, he missed children, so I think he was then too. He started then his new kita in first, first of april, so he was two months out of the kita and now he's gonna coloring he's coloring himself a green nose, mixing it with red, and mama started, yeah, um. So yeah, I think, um, of course, it took some time now to set everything. I mean, honestly, for me I did feel, especially because my work got so crazy, it was very exhausting. So, yeah, it took me a lot more energy compared to before, or maybe it's just also because we're older, I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't know, we have a child. Yeah, exactly this was our sixth move and our first one with the child.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean on average. Average, we move every two years, right? So is it every two years? Yeah, jesus christ, yeah, that's our average moving time.
Speaker 1:Um, looking to the past 14 years, if we move again, we keep this apartment and we just just keep our stuff in here and we'll exactly, we'll sublease it, yeah yeah, yeah, your nose looks like a Christmas tree.
Speaker 2:now it's green. What sublites it? Ja, ja, ja, deine Nase sieht aus wie ein Tannenbaum. Your nose looks like a Christmas tree. Now it's green, aber nicht ins Auge. Schatz, not into the eye. You can color here on the cheeks Auf den Backen Genau. Oder auf Papa. Oh ja, and I feel it's gotten us even closer. You know also the three of us. We're just such a team. We're just like I don't know it's just such a team.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, but it was exhausting. I mean, yeah, I think we. I would lie if I would say it wasn't exhausting. I was very exhausted after the first two months, especially because work kept me super busy, which wasn't planned.
Speaker 1:But do you think you would have been exhausted if you didn't have the work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it would have been much better like that.
Speaker 1:I felt.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be there for you two, for the family, to set everything up, which we did still, but at the same time I had to work so hard on these projects, so that was just. I mean, anyways, I would have had to work.
Speaker 1:I mean, don't get me wrong, but it was just additionally, it was just very busy, and the thing is here in Germany, even if the people are nice and everything, you still have to speak German for all this admin stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I mean that is what I do kind of miss from being abroad, in these more expatriate countries. Yeah, I mean, dubai is not the only one that had that service, where it wasn in english, um, but it is. It's much easier when you can do it in english. Luckily enough, this time I didn't have to do any kind of driver's test. That's one last thing that, uh, that was on our list.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true, that was definitely helpful. No, so, and I mean, of course, because we came back out of Hong Kong 2018 and we kind of went through this whole process, so we were also experienced now on what is important to kind of arrange early, and I was surprised A lot of things were now possible to do online, like the mobile phone, also the internet, even the government stuff, Even some of the government stuff.
Speaker 1:I mean that was one of the good things about Germany through COVID you can now pay with Apple Pay.
Speaker 2:Everywhere.
Speaker 1:Everywhere. Yeah, 98% of places there's still some.
Speaker 2:There's still some, some cash only.
Speaker 1:Restaurants, of places. There's still some, some cash only markets, it's still cash but no I mean, digitalization of germany has improved quite a lot. Yeah, and I also feel that people are a little bit nice I wouldn't even nicer, because, covid, you know, there was some kind of social distance and everything and they realize that they kind of need other people, right, maybe that's my own, I don't know I mean I think here they are all super nice.
Speaker 2:I mean the lady from the supermarket. We met her after the second or third week in the subway and she said hey, hello, and honestly I didn't know who she was and I think she saw it in my eyes. She's like, hey, I'm the lady from the supermarket. I'm like, oh yeah, right, so you know the corner supermarket. I mean people greet each other here, so I think that's more of a city thing, because where we are here they just seem to be quite friendly they do yeah, so our neighbors are amazing invited us for, for coffee, for cake, I don't know.
Speaker 2:The third week we were here, or second week, or we had barbecues together already and yeah, it was just, yeah, very good move. And now we're back on the podcast. I just want to share our experience, this time out of a new country, the challenges that go with it.
Speaker 1:I mean parenting-wise. Right now it's not. He's more talkative. So now we're doing I think there's more teaching and learning for him Like a lot of puzzling now, and you know just more. Like a lot of puzzling now and you know just more putting boundaries. You know we have more boundaries that we need to put up here and there because you know he's exploring his world a lot more. Do you want to do it like this? Do you want to do?
Speaker 2:your puzzle Tati, yes, ah, drinking milk. Okay, yeah, I mean yeah, exactly, I think for him.
Speaker 1:Now it's like teaching him how to cross the street.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Ride the bicycle.
Speaker 1:Ride the bicycle Go swimming Exactly Going down the hill. Music Be careful, but also not.
Speaker 2:All right, one second.
Speaker 1:But also not All right. One second, but also not you know.
Speaker 2:Mama holen. Mama holen, mama holen. Okay, mama is supposed to give you the puzzle. All right, one second.
Speaker 1:You know, and I think there's more parenting for me and my wife than for him.
Speaker 2:You can make your tractor puzzle.
Speaker 1:You can make your tractor puzzle, and now it's also a little bit breaking the old habits like peeling vegetables and fruits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is true. The eating part is some headaches but it's getting better.
Speaker 1:It's getting better, so we we stopped giving him milk at night yep um and during the day and by the way he started sleeping through the night.
Speaker 2:I mean talking about night, I mean that went amazing, because once arrived in germany, once being settled in, he slept through the night.
Speaker 1:It's something in the air. I really think it's something in the air. The oxygen is fresher. He's outside much more. There's so many other things. We knew he would be loud and playing on this.
Speaker 2:we knew he would be loud and plain on this.
Speaker 1:He knows how to do that puzzle so much.
Speaker 2:It's so fast oh my god, he's such a cutie. Why? What are you looking at me?
Speaker 1:I'm just looking at you. That's all Judgy A little bit why.
Speaker 2:Because I can see that, because, no, he just wants some attention.
Speaker 1:I know and I just gave it to him.
Speaker 2:Ah, in Bauernhof A farm Weg Is not the right one.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, and he gave me the piece that didn't belong to it. Very good. Bravo, bravo, mon amour.
Speaker 2:Alrighty. So season two, what's coming up?
Speaker 1:Life, everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, all the fun parts and the bits. I mean we have a lot of things that we want to do. Hopefully that we'll find the time to do all of that.
Speaker 2:All the different things.
Speaker 1:We have different spin-offs that we kind of want to do and now that we've kind of we've settled in. Now we're at 98 of settling down. We still have some stuff, some furniture, coming in on monday and some little things here and there, but we're pretty much settled in right now that's true and yeah, I think something interesting for sure I would like to share was my visit at the gynecologist last week.
Speaker 2:Um, that was a lot about pms and why do I feel the way I feel during my period before after so kind of three out? Of four weeks and um, yeah, and and it's the topic of menopause, right and yeah, I would like to share about this because she was amazing, very, very good doctor, very glad I had.
Speaker 1:Do I have to be there?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:If you don't want to, no, but I think that would be really worth one episode to talk about that, because I think this is something that will, at least for me, that will accompany me the next years.
Speaker 1:Only for you.
Speaker 2:And impacting you and also him. Yeah, and I think that also goes into this whole women's health topic, right, that we talked about already in some of the episodes, which is also part of the parenting part, right, exactly the mood swings I mean.
Speaker 1:I get the same. I also get moody. I mean today I was also super moody. But I feel our mood swings go together in the same part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it's difficult.
Speaker 1:right, it's difficult when one person is moody and the other person is also moody. That is true.
Speaker 2:That is true, see.
Speaker 1:The accompaniment is on both sides. Yeah, yeah. And then you just have to work your way through it. I mean, we tried to do a podcast episode this morning. That failed miserably because we were both just these cranky old PMS people and it didn't work out. Because we were both just these cranky old PMS people and it didn't work out. But then when Anouilh woke up from his nap and we were making kissy-kissies on the couch and it was just perfect and we're like, hey, let's do it now.
Speaker 2:Exactly the mood was there.
Speaker 1:It had the perfect energy in right there, and that's what I was saying this morning.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Then there was music. He got up dancing and uh, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:Now we did it together exactly, season two is the chaos of a toddler. This, this is what season, this is season two. Right, here is him and this whole chaos, right and us just tagging along, catching up up, being in front of him, figuring out what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and all that funny good stuff. That is the fun part about parenting, but also such a pain in the ass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the fun part that comes with it.
Speaker 1:But it's also really nice. I mean, you know, I would just want, like the Kita, the principal, what she said the other day, because they're all on holidays. They had such big smiles on their face on Thursday and I couldn't blame them. And all the parents were like, oh my God, three weeks, but she's driving to Italy. And because we were in Carcassonne, 1,500. No to Croatia, oh Croatia, sorry, oh, she's driving to Italy because we were in Carcassonne, 1500 kilometers.
Speaker 1:Croatia, Croatia, sorry, oh, bravo, but we went to Carcassonne 1500 kilometer drive one way right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And how many hours? 15?.
Speaker 2:I think to Carcassonne it was 17 hours and back, I think, 15 or 16.
Speaker 1:And Munanui like a champ I mean all those nepal trips worked out. Actually he slept more in nepal, on the road in nepal, than in the roads in europe, but you know, we just had to make a couple stops here and there. And then we I told the principal he's like, oh yeah, same for us, you know. And then, worst case scenario, we put the ipads in front of them and I was really taken aback, because normally you hear a lot of educators, they would never say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, they would all do it, but they wouldn't admit to it Exactly.
Speaker 1:They would all do it, but nobody would admit to it, and that was something that I really like about Germany. It's just this authenticity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no one pretends anything like in Dubai, right, it was all about pretending, whereas here they're like yeah, I mean, and then if I need it, I'll just use the phone. Exactly, to be fair, I am very proud that we didn't need to use it.
Speaker 1:So we had a 15 and 17 hour drive and we didn't use any gadgets, but I would not judge anyone who would, because this can also, in case we needed it, I would have told a hundred percent, a hundred I mean I was ready to buy the little ipad holder for behind the the driver chair yeah, actually weaponized for me watch a movie, or so yeah, actually I was thinking to get one on amazon for when we have the next road trip.
Speaker 2:Good call.
Speaker 1:I wanted to get one last time but you said don't get one, so I don't get one. I was listening to my wife, as you should, but yeah, it's like this fresh, it's a breath of fresh air that's coming in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm just so happy. I don't know he. I feel he's grown so much.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean since we arrived we also get comments right that see his pictures on instagram or facebook or see the videos that we sent to them. Um that, yeah he, he developed a lot and yeah all righty yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think, um, really, for his development this was super, super, super supportive, just being able now to, to, to touch and see things you know, not only be indoors and not only by book, but, but not exactly not only see the books but see the cow. He knows that the milk is coming from the cow because he saw it.
Speaker 1:The cutest thing. What I taught him is the lecker.
Speaker 2:The lecker? Yeah, Every animal he sees is lecker.
Speaker 1:All animals are tasty with a good sauce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean this for sure. I mean he's able to connect now the dots and and once you you can physically tangible see something. It is different than just seeing it on a book. Yeah, and and oh it's on the floor. Hold on, I'll get.
Speaker 1:I'll get it for you on the floor on the floor I'm so happy he doesn't speak english with like a french accent. Oh, the puzzle pieces on the floor. Thank you, mama. Wow, wow Fimi.
Speaker 2:Would you like to make another puzzle? Do you want to make another one? Do you want to make the bugger? No, okay, then one more time. The tractor no, no, also no.
Speaker 1:You want to read your book yeah. But it is so amazing just to watch him grow every single day. I love it and the new words that he says and you're like where did you hear this? I mean, he even said the word shit last time because mama repeated it, but then he, he didn't.
Speaker 2:He hasn't repeated it since but yeah, so season two is going to be it's going to be a little bit of a.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're gonna do the same old style every two weeks a new episode, um, I will be publishing the older episodes before we left dubai with our friends from dubai, um, that we uh recorded with them and uh, and then we'll have a new. We'll have new um friends on our podcast here in Germany.
Speaker 2:And I'm really looking forward to this new. Do you want to go to your room? Okay, I got it. I'll be there in a second. Ich komme sofort. Yeah, exactly so, I think. Same style. We'll try to in a second. Ich komme sofort. Yeah, exactly so, I think. Same style. We'll try to be again regular. We'll publish the old.
Speaker 1:No, don't try, we will be regular. But we will publish the older. I mean older. What is older? A couple months ago, you know, everything always goes so much faster with us. Everything always feels so much faster with us. Everything always feels so much faster with us and somehow, when we look at the amount of time we've, that we've actually moved. It's only been a couple months.
Speaker 2:I know, I mean, we're yeah, we're always pretty fast with everything. So, yeah, yeah, that's why it feels so much longer, right, we've done already also so many things. We had actually already a lot of visitors. We had visitors from dubai, from lebanon, from um from within germany from within germany, reconnecting with our old friends, family.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's been actually already very busy and we didn't even push ourselves also on the getting settled I mean tomorrow, because, um, I was off, uh, last week and we'll be off the coming week svenja took three weeks off holiday.
Speaker 1:She's never done this in 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you never had a three week no and yeah, so we've been doing this.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'll be, I'm off, and so we said that we will do the last of the apartment stuff, the getting settled stuff, while I'm off. And yeah, so we did the order last week and it will come tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Our son is too quiet.
Speaker 2:You want me to check? Not yet, I'm going to give it a go.
Speaker 1:But he's too quiet. He's getting at that age now where whenever he's quiet, I get a little bit worried.
Speaker 2:There I'm a bit more relaxed. I'm like, oh no, it should be fine.
Speaker 1:I trust him, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:It should be fine, I trust him, but I don't know which room is he Living room or his room Living room?
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Okay, maybe we should check. I'll go and check.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's okay. No, no, it's fine. No because, anyways, I think it's time to finish this episode.
Speaker 2:Time to wrap up.
Speaker 1:I think it's time to wrap up. Okay, so Like a dirty diaper.
Speaker 2:Alrighty, we're just here to say we're back, we arrived well and we can't wait to share more stories. Also, I can hear him Share more stories and yeah, keep you posted.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I love you too. I'm sorry, I get moody sometimes um same here. I'm sorry because of your period of course you had to say that now and cut I love you too. Till Till next time, till next time, till the next period. Is that what you wanted to say?
Speaker 2:Till the cycle closes again.