Germany!

now we are in Germany!

the flight over went well...Apart from being really tierd after our 6hrs transfer in China!  
When we were still in Australia when I realised that it had been such a long time  since my last big trip, and that I no longer knew what having jetlag was like any more! We i can say it sucks, and even more so with a todder who has no idea why she is waking up at odd times of the night and why she feel tierd, not to say grumpy most of the day... It took us  good 5 days to get totally over it and into the European Summer mode!  

One of the hardest things was getting used to the fact that night falls only around 11pm...then first few days, i could not get my head around it, could not get dinner to Tullula on time, or even thought about getting her to bed...in the end she would fall asleep, with out dinner and me stunned and confused at the fact that it was in fact 9 or 10pm....   Our frist 4 days in Paris we exhausting...
Now we are in Germany, and relaxing with my friend who has her first little boy of 4 months was what we needed! Taking things easy every morning and spending most of our afternoons by the lake. Some shopping and early nights for all. it has been 10 days of perfection and warm days!  

My greatest amazments has been the cultural diferences, that i have been told some are specific to east germany, and tullula with her french progress!   So we actually did hardly no sight seeing...but we sure did see a lot at the lake! To be more specific, a lot of poeple go topless or even naked...My previos experiences in Gernamy of such exposure had somehow been mostly men; not this time! At first one is shocked, unconfrotable, not too sure where to look and then it all becomes natural and unimportant!
Tullula at first would staire, at my friends breats as she breast fed or had a real good staire at a mans bits a it hang there just in front of her...but within a few min, was no longer interested and it no longer mattered nor was anything any different!
Well apart from her wanting me to go in naked! :-)   I have had a long think of the matter, and had good talks about it and my conclusion is that its actully healthy...Being naked no longer means that one can hide behind fashion (trust some look way better dressed or in bathers). it means that being with someone is not about the way our bodys are but more about who we trully are! Surly it has to be healthy for children to grow up in such freedom?
And it makes me wonder if such exposure takes away some sexism that non exposed countys may have!   Anyway, one thing is for sure, you have to be brought up that way to be free to do so! And i wish my upbrining with no such exposure, i definatly was not able to do so nor do I know if I ever could...

So for the first time in Tullula's life, I have talked to her at times only in English while in Germany...See i know that when around non French speaker, I talking to her in french isolates us. I did not want to do such a thing to my friend so i switched when ever around her. Well the funniet thing is that Tullula has switched a lot more to French. How ironic is that, I start talking to her in English and she starts talking French!

Tuesday Tullula

enjoying the german lake side