Thanksgiving continues. . . .

So far we have had two Thanksgiving dinners- both nontraditional except for the "eating with friends" part! We had our Canadian friends over on Saturday (they are from Victoria) and they are expecting their first baby next spring. We ate salmon which seemed appropriate for us BCers for giving thanks! Then on Monday night I invited our neighbors Katie and Mary Anne as well as Jesse and Dominick for dinner. Dominick was busy so the 7 of us enjoyed a rather splendid dish of macaroni and cheese with cranberry sauce!! Sure tasted like "thanks" to me!! Strangely there were no left overs. . . . .  we will be going to another more traditional Canadian Thanksgiving dinner this weekend which should satisfy the October need for turkey. :)

We had dinner over at K and MA's Thursday evening. They (especially Katie) are having a really sad time in their lives right now. That was the day that they were to be expecting friends visiting from Portland. Tragically they both died in a murder-suicide at the beginning of September. Guns are just so wrong. Ami and Mimi are such a great healing conduit for both Katie and MA and we have been making sure that we go on lots of adventures together during this difficult time.

Last night we had a potluck/BBQ out in the courtyard with at least 6 of the households in our complex. Another reason to give thanks. A neighbor who lives kitty-corner from us came by yesterday afternoon with her darling little 16 month-old girl Koko. They have been coveting our grass as they have no yard at all and finally wandered in yesterday for a visit. Koko was so delighted to be at Nichols and we were happy to get to meet a neighbor and to share in the bounty of this place. Koko did NOT want to leave. I could feel that the woman was wishing she could live in such a complex- especially when it became apparent that we would all be eating together. It will be a culture shock when we move from here. This is the way that people are supposed to live I am sure.

First Blog Post ever

I wanted to start my recounting of our time in Berkeley from the beginning but the days are going by so fast and the experiences we are having are so numerous that I think I will just start with today and hope that one day I will have time to write about the first week in its entirety.

Today, August 30 2008
Starts out a bit cooler than it has been this past week. A bit of fog on the mountain to the east of us and overcast. Afternoon saw bright sunshine and warmth again.

Garage sales today – mostly not fruitful but we got a kitchen table and 4 chairs from Ikea for 20$ and … we didn’t have to go to Ikea! Our GPS takes us all over Berkeley to the sales listed on craiglist and the Berkeley Parents Network (an amazing online resource for parenting and just general living!) in the area.

Lunch of omelet and green beans from the freezer– kitchen not yet full of food for meals since we have been eating in the refectory all this week.



Grocery shopping trip with Heather my neighbour here at the CDSP family housing. She has 2 kids as well (ages 8, Simon and 10, Frances) and is in Martin’s class. I see her a lot because Ami and Mimi love her kids and A and M love to go over to Heather’s house to play with all their stuff and climb on the loft-bed etc etc.
Heather (our neighbour) gifts us real cutlery from her trip to Ikea last night
No more plastic cutlery!!! Now if I could just have some real knifes to cook with! Heather and I go to one of her favourite stores Trader Joe’s. It has lots of really nice looking food, cheeses, dairy items, snacks and hard liquor at the grocery store! Bottles of wine for $1.99 or less if you buy a case! Reminds me of Famous Foods somehow- if only Famous Foods would carry alcohol!
Then the GPS takes us on a beautifully scenic route along the bay to...
Monterey Market-akin to Donald’s Market only much much more! Cross between a farmers’ market and a bulk store and a neighbourhood market – wow. We didn’t even see the bulk section until we were at the till. Next time… We asked when the best/least busy time to shop was and they recommended Wednesday –which is great for us! Heather and I are planning on carpooling for shopping trips in the future too. I bought Heritage variety tomatoes- enormous and miniature, plums from the 7 or so possible locally grown organic varieties, California strawberries which taste so much better than any California strawberries I’ve ever had in BC, beets in 2 colours, and our favourite breakfast cereal- Mesa Sunrise!

Martin and Miriam pick lemons from the tree in the neighbour’s yard – SO fragrant and JUICY!! I put half a lemon in the salad for dinner! Yum
Dinner of purple and yellow beets, humus, greek salad, naan bread and corn tortillas with strawberries for dessert. YUM! We drink Riesling from Australia acquired on my Safeway shopping expedition the other night.

Evening Bears game at Cal – screaming crowds, airplanes flying overhead, fireworks, traffic mayhem. Stadium is about 1km from our home.

The kids activities, quotes and cutes

Miriam
“Ah-Ami” (repeated all day long) I think it is from me saying Our Ami. She devotedly follows him around wanting to spend lots of time with him.
Licking her whole finger when reading a book in order to turn a page. She loves books “buhs”
“Noss” (nosh) while dragging me to the nearest chair…
Amiel
Enjoying the kids’ culture of our family housing– getting more and more into varied creative play (not just diggers and ferryboats!)
Is sure that his package sent from Panos of a new red digger with a red low-bed will arrive any moment. He is looking out for delivery trucks on the street at all times. We get notifications every time a truck goes by…
Last night at the pizza parlour when drinking water “ I am drinking poison, but it isn’t poisonous”. Today after being out all afternoon-

Martin-“We have to wash our hands because the outside world is full of germs”
Ami- “and the night is full of dreams”