Category Archives: Our cute son

Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Germans, Our cute daughter, Our cute son

Study time for the children

October 27, 2019 CrazyChineseFamily 10 Comments

Here in my hometown we got to know over the years other Chinese-German couples with kids. This town is not big but it is interesting to see how many Chinese leave here by now (compared to my childhood when the only Chinese here were running restaurants). We never really thought much about it until we met last month for a hot pot round at a friend’s place and we had suddenly eight mixed children running around and making some noise. Back then we (okay mostly the mothers) were thinking how great it would be for the kids to come together more often and play and talk in Mandarin.

Some of the kids during the first lesson

Just a week after our eating round we decided to meet several times a month for a little study round for the kids. Actually it can’t be really considered real studying as it is more about having more access to Mandarin for the children such as reading books, learning some about the numbers and characters. As we are no small round it was difficult at first to figure out where to have these meetings but one of the couples are also managing a club home (in fact the very same club I used to be a member in during my swimming days) and there is more than enough space for all of us. Best of all is that the club home is located very close to us so it is just 10 min away by walking.

And another picture in that awful phone camera quality

The children always “study” a bit for half hour, play together for half hour and then study a bit more. Children that young are not really fond of just sitting still for such long time so the playing time helps them to let out some energy. All of the kids are really looking forward to each Sunday as they can meet their friends and play. Our Nathan is the oldest with his five years and the youngest one is just half year old though she is not yet participating and usually clings on her father while we chat. We were always wondering how to get our children more access to Chinese and never thought how many in the very same situation as us are already living here. One couple just moved here from China this summer and they are certainly happy to meet up with other parents with the same background here in this little town.

Did you visit similar “meetings” in your childhood or sent/ are planning to do so with your children?

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Crazy Family, Our cute daughter, Our cute son

Weekend activities with the kids

September 15, 2019 CrazyChineseFamily 13 Comments

The past weeks the weather has been not our best friend here. Most of the days, just like today, everything is just grey and it is raining the entire time. However we also had some nice days on the weekends and we used that time to go on some mini trips with the kids. Here in our state we have visited most of the “sights” and by now we have an idea what the kids like to do.

On one of the weekends we had some enjoyable hours at St. Peter-Ording beach again which we had visited back in August already. The weather was great, sunshine and warm water. This time we even had swimming clothes for the kids and they loved to play in the shallow water. Both can’t swim yet (don’t ask me why, but everyone refuses to learn swimming from me inlcuding my wife) so we could not go very deep with them. During the time of our visit there was high water once again just like last time so we had no chance to go discovering animals you find during the low water such as crabs, shrimps and all kind of small fishes. Appearently the day was so exciting for our Nathalie that she fell asleep immediately when we went back to the car and she was placed in her safety seat.

Nathan in front is doing okay, Nathalie in the back with me is a mess

Last weekend we revisited Zoo Gettorf again. We have been there last time in 2017. Surprisingly on the day of our visit this time they had a family day event and thus the tickets were much cheaper and there were many events in the park. Nathan enjoyed some pony riding (Nathalie was terrified sitting on the pony) and everywhere you could get very close to the animals. Nathan also wanted some children make-up but the queue was too long at each station. Needless to say the kids had also here tons of fun. Best thing about this zoo is the distance. By car we only need 30 min to get there and this makes me wonder why we have been there only twice so far.

This weekend is another story entirely. As mentioned before the weather is really letting us down so we are bound to stay home with the kids. I must say there are more enjoyable ways to spend time with the kids. Especially Nathalie gets really grumpy after some time (Thundergoat) so it is really hard to keep both somehow entertained. In case you have some ideas for such days, please let me know! We have tried board games, drawing, reading, watching shortly some TV but it all doesn’t last long.

By the way, no crazy stories from China in the past weeks. Would love to keep you updated but it is eerily quiet for now. Something like that never happened before so I expect each day now some disaster striking in form of some really weird stuff.

What are your ideas about spending time with kids during weekends?

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Crazy Family, Our cute daughter, Our cute son, Travels

Hagenbeck Zoo 2019

August 25, 2019 CrazyChineseFamily 14 Comments

We have sunshine here in North Germany again! What felt like ages with only constant rain (three weeks or so) we have no a period of good weather once again so we took the kids to Hagenbeck Zoo. Last time we had been there was back in 2014 when Nathan was just two months old and we loved it. We planned each summer to go there but well, nothing happened as always got in the way. Sadly we could not take Haruki the Shiba with us as dogs are not allowed there. At first I was confused why it would be forbidden till I realized again that the entire park is filled with small animals running around. You got the basic chickens and peacocks everywhere but also other animals such as Maras and Capybaras. Dogs would be no good in such surrounding.

As I had mentioned back in 2014 there are barely any “cage bars” in the way as most enclosures are surrounded by a moat or something similar to prevent animals to escape. Especially nice was the Penguin Area as those little feathered bros can just jump out of their enclosure when they feel like it. Due to this I got some nice close-up picture of few of them just standing right next to the people. One guy who tried a selfie with one got his hairs searched for food by one penguin. So far the Hagenbeck Zoo is my favorite one as it is just such a nice place. Everything is clean; the whole park is really like a park full of old trees and fields. It just feels so relaxing to be there.

Wherever you are you have some animals nearby to watch / some maras or capybaras come to you to check out the situation for food. Of course you are not allowed to feed the animals there with some exceptions. At the entrance you can buy a bag full of fresh vegetables and fruits to feed for example the Asian Elephants. Those big ones are pretty much the stars in the zoo as they reach with their trunk over the moat to pick up the food from your hand. But there is also staff watching that you do not sneak in any wrong food. MIL had the idea to give the elephants some sweet bread but we were able to stop her.

In case you have some holidays planned in North Germany and enough time I really recommend visiting Hagenbeck Zoo. Additionally to the Zoo they have a Tropical Aquarium area, however it requires its own entrance ticket. We did not visit it so far as the Zoo itself was already plenty enough for us and we had to get home in time for Haruki, don’t want to leave him alone for the whole day either. The aquarium area has of course a lot of fishes and whatnot all but also other animals such as ring-tailed lemurs (King Julien) running around freely and many birds.