Few days ago we decided to organise our secretary which is filled with many important but also unimportant documents. Mixed in between was one folder with our wedding certificate, Nathan’s birth certificate, other important certificates and also our passports. Okay you might think what’s so special about few passports…well we are three people in the household and the number of passports is a bit higher than that.
Let me start:
Wife: Chinese passport
Me: Finnish and German passports
Nathancuty: Finnish and German passports + Chinese Travel document.
All in all those are 6 passports/ official documents allowing travel abroad and I guess it is a clear sign of having an interracial family.
Are those all mine?
I understand that the travel document is not 100% a Chinese passport BUT it allows him to travel to China without any visa!
Hopefully China will recognize soon dual/ multiple citizenship as it would mean for my wife that she could apply for the German nationality and maintain her Chinese nationality but also that Nathan would be allowed to keep his current greyish borderlinish triple nationality.
Thanks to the Finnish and German nationality both Nathan and I have a huge variety of countries we can travel to without visa but sadly this does not apply to my wife. A list of the strength of the different passport you can find here. This entire blogpost is partly inspired by a similar one written by Carissa Hickling from Everyday Asia.
Do you have several nationalities?
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And the “sightseeing” tour continues! Our past travels had brought us to Kiel and to Lübeck however this time we didn’t go to any city as I was in no shape to drive too much and the weather was rather poor as well. So I came up with the idea to visit some nice spots in the surroundings villages of my hometown. Needless to say my wife and my crazy Chinese mother-in-law were not really that interested as one main aspect would be missing in that tour: Shopping…
Just moments before her feet are getting soaked…
Indeed it took me a while to convince them that it might be nice to get out on that day even though the weather wasn’t that great. Furthermore MIL barely saw anything of this town except the city center and some grocery stores around our apartment. After a while I succeeded and hence our tour started by going to the north to visit Lake Einfeld (Einfelder See). It is a small lake in the northernmost part of my hometown and the district itself was 1970 a small village but got integrated into Neumünster due to changes in the county border/ district management. During warm summer days the lake is full of people trying to escape from the heat but on this particular day it was just too windy and rather cold resulting that only few people were windsurfing without anyone bothering them. Our little Nathan tried to hunt down the geese but they were tough opponents and in the end he had to escape himself. MIL wouldn’t be MIL without anything happening and she actually managed to get her feet soaked in the water and Nathan’s as well while posing once again for some pictures.
View over the lake
After the lake we drove to the town Bordesholm to visit the old abbey and the old lime tree which is called just “Bordesholmer Linde”. What is so special about a lime tree you might wonder, well it is a pretty old tree as it is around 700 years old. It is located in the historical center of the town and the diameter of the trunk is 2,30m. Even though the tree is taken care of by professionals it is still slowly dying due to the environmental changes. Behind the tree is the abbey dating back to 1332 so the tree pretty much was there from the beginning on. The original monastery to which the abbey belongs was torn down somewhen in the early 1700s as due to the reformation nearly everyone became Lutheran and thus the monastery lost all its members over the decades. In the abbey are several tombs of old dukes and other high-ranking people of their time. Right next to the abbey is these days a retirement home in which is also a museum about the history of the area and there is also an entrance to the old vaults of the monastery which had been found during the construction of the retirement home. Furthermore there are some small parts left of the old monastery wall including a tunnel leading into the vaults and other secret places.
Our last destination for that day was the Boxberg, a “mountain” here with a height of 76,8m over the sea level. It is located in the Aukrug Nature Park and the Boxberg is part of the moraine landscape. At the base of this huge mountain is a restaurant in which we strengthened ourselves with coffee and cake before attempting the dangerous climb. It was so steep that even Nathan had troubles getting all the way up himself but in the end he managed and was faster than his mother and grandmother! From the top we had a wonderful view of the surrounding area and it really felt peaceful there and secluded even with a herd of goats in the background. Seriously, why on earth was there a herd of goats? Because of them I could not even read several information boards regarding the history of this area as they were inside the goat enclosure which was protected by an electric fence!
Moraine landscape
Even though all these places are located in the surrounding area of my hometown it took us the better part of the afternoon until we were again back home. Remember that MIL and my wife were in the beginning not really interested due to the lack of shopping possibilities? This changed and in the end they were rather happy that I convinced them to do this little sightseeing tour as it was a nice day and a new experience for them. I must also admit that I had never visited those places before in my life (except the lake) and was truly amazed what wonderful secret spots are so nearby my home.
Geese are getting ready to strike back
THE TUNNEL!
Pretty old tree
Crests of former eastern territories of Germany located the the abbey
Obelisk
Old tomb stones
The abbey
View from the restaurant at the Boxberg
Damn you goats, I wanted to read those signs!
Nathan climbing his first mountain
Stonemarker on the top of the mountain
Stunning nature all around
Did you ever find some “hidden” places near your home?
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It is once again time to say farewell to my Chinese mother-in-law. This sunday she will head back to China and thus her three-month reign of terror will come to an end. It has been her second time to stay with us for three months and it makes me wonder what is the difference between those two visits.
Nathan feeding his granny
First of all I have to mention what did not really change at all when comparing both three months visits. There is still the need for her to go shopping but then again she is just addicted to it. She is perfectly fine to be left alone in the Outlet Center for several hours or dropped of in some shopping district in a random city. Then there is the thing about taking pictures which only slightly changed. She surely still takes pictures and videos of nearly everything she sees but especially of Nathan. Every single day she wants us to take pictures of her together with Nathan. She is so camera focused that whenever she sees a camera just slightly pointing in her direction she starts posing, I am not joking. For example when we were in the submarine there were some guys from India taking pictures. So when they wanted to record the machines which were standing behind MIL she immediately started posing and putting on that “fake camera smile”.
So now to the things which have changed since the last time. She got better in cooking! Okay still there were times when she refused to put in any salt because it is too unhealthy but minutes later she would stuff herself with a litre of ice cream. But overall she indeed improved and these days I really love many of her noodle dishes which we have at least every second day. I think few of those noodle dishes I will miss till we go to Xi’an in August, something I would have not expected to ever happen with MIL’s cooking.
More posing with Nathan
There are also few new things which pop into my mind when reflecting about the past month. She really seems not willing to learn anything new/ get rid of bad habits. I think I don’t need to mention the lovely kitchen rag anymore but she still cleans really everything with it (I did secretly change the rag multiple times though). But there is another thing. Each evening when we try to get Nathan to sleep we take him first to our bed, play with him shortly and let him slip into his dreams. Each and every single day MIL came into our bedroom checking on Nathan when he is just falling asleep resulting that he wakes up again and being very very grumpy. To this day there has been no exception to this and she truly believes that he starts crying because he wants to be held by her…it does not even cross her mind that she is the cause of him getting so upset every night.
All in all I can say that the three months passed by quickly, actually too quickly as she was a big help when it comes to take care of Nathan and preparing all the food. My wife has less time these days due to her business and I am just trying to help out whenever I am able somehow. Did you notice that I didn’t show any pictures of the apartment/ kitchen? Well, it looks like a hell here and I do not even dare to check out the kitchen myself.
How would you survive in case your mother-in-law stays with you for three months?
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Crazy Chinese Family 