I am a Jelly Donut

During his historic visit to West Berlin, President Kennedy, in an act of solidarity with the inhabitants of the capitalist enclave, declared, "ich bin ein Berliner," meaning "I am a jelly donut." What he meant to say was "ich bin Berliner," but the crowd still understood what he was trying to say, just as the Berliners seem to understand my rusty language skills. I am now a registered resident of the city, and am officially a jelly donut. 

It's been only five days since my arrival and everything is still very new. Time is constantly speeding up and slowing down as it tends to do in times of transition, it seems slow in the moment because you are paying attention to all the details, but when the moment is over it's gone in a blur. It took me a couple of days to adjust to the time change and recover from jet lag, and have caught a little sinus infection from their two year old son, Dairhe. His daycare is not only a great place to learn social skills but also for the transmission of germs and I'm sure this is only the first of many little colds I'll catch as a result. I hope you can forgive me for a relatively short post today, as the cold makes it a bit difficult to be creative. Dairhe is a blond little sprite who understands both English and German but only responds in the latter. I am supposed to speak English with the children but sometimes have to clarify in German as I can tell that he does not always understand me because of my American accent as he is used to hearing English from his mother, Maeve, who is Irish. Caoihme is their wide-eyed daughter of not quite a year and is starting to become pretty chatty. The children are sweet and well behaved, but like many young children they are slow to trust new people so it wasn't until the last couple of days that they really took to me. It also did not help that my arrival coincided with their mother having to go to Ireland on official business for the first four days I was here, and the kids couldn't help but associate my coming with her going. She is now back from the longest time spent apart from them and they are beginning to forgive her for her absence.

Both Maeve and her husband Wolfram von Heynitz work for the diplomatic corps of their respective countries. She works at the Irish embassy here in Berlin, while Wolfram works on foreign policy planning, continuing his family's tradition of public service that goes back to the days of Prussia. They have a beautiful apartment decorated with a mixture of modern art and a portrait or two of Wolfram's aristocratic ancestors. I am lucky to have a view of the dome of the national cathedral, the city hall, and the iconic TV tower constructed by the East Berliners in years past as a sign of the superiority of the communist system. I'm sure the children mostly like the fact that their flat is only block away from a park and playground. No picture of my room's view this blog post, it's been a bit hazy the last few days and I'm waiting for a clearer day to take a picture. Next time I'll have some pictures of the neighborhood.

My training continues next week and the week after is when I get into the full swing of the gig. It's been quite a few years since I have taken care of children this young, and I forgot the propensity with which they can defecate, but changing diapers is like riding a bicycle. I also forgot how truly miraculous and touching it is to be around tiny human beings that have yet to be corrupted by the world, who are so sweet and utterly sincere, whose smiles and laughter are the stuff heaven must surely be made of--they are utterly inspiring, one cannot help but love them.

Again, sorry for the short entry but this head cold is making it difficult to write and I promise to have more good stuff next week, thanks for tuning in.