Today was Sophia's last day of ballet. She could have gone through the end of the school year, but I felt like she was missing quite a bit so we just called it good. I don't know that we will continue with ballet. She enjoyed it quite a bit when she had a lot of friends in class and before it got hard. She likes playing games but doesn't like doing flexibility or endurance drills. The part that bothers me though is when she was upset after class one day and said that she was the thickest (fattest) girl in class. She is six. I don't particularly care for an environment where six-year-old girls look in big mirrors and talk about who is the "fattest." When I look at this picture of Sophia I see ribs and really nice calf muscles. Perhaps there's a better activity out there for her. We will look when we move. One of the things I love about moving all of the time is the opportunity to try new things.
We also did a bit of house hunting this weekend. Other than our short time in Charlottesville, we've always been assigned a house. This time, we're on our own to find something.
Sophia and I went to a fest in the village where our friends from Fort Irwin live. Whenever I introduced myself I said that we're moving to the area in about six weeks and we're looking for a house. One man said he knew of an available house that is two doors down from my friend. His wife and daughter-in-law weren't so sure the house would be available to Americans. I was surprised that this reservation was said aloud and when I raised my eyebrows the daughter-in-law shrugged her shoulders like that's just the way it is. Nevertheless, the man took us to the property and showed us around the outside.
When we said it looked nice, he loaded us into his car and drove us to see the landlord in the next village. My friend came too and the man is her neighbor so we weren't riding around with a complete stranger.
We pulled into a farm and found eight or ten people sitting around an outdoor table having their afternoon cake and coffee. My introverted self was alarmed at this type of aggressive networking but my goal-oriented self was desperate to find a place to live. So, I played along. At first they didn't seem excited to rent to Americans. They need to do some renovations on the house so I'm not sure they were entirely ready to rent to anyone just yet. But the neighbor man said that Americans pay very well. I spoke with them in German and said that our daughter will be going into second grade in German school and we need to have an address so we can get her transferred. The people around the table nodded in agreement and before I knew it they were asking me if my husband could come out the next day to take a look.
Luckily, today was a holiday so Kenny was able to take a look at the house with me. They are replacing the floors, redoing the bathrooms, and painting inside and out. The carpenter was there today too taking a look. They only wanted to give us the bottom floor but it is only one bath and two bedrooms so we said we wanted the upper floor as well. They hesitated because they have an elderly uncle in assisted living and they wanted to keep it free in case he could move home, but really that is not going to happen. So, we told them to get the renovations underway, think about it, and we would be in touch in a few weeks, hopefully with an English-speaking real estate agent in tow to help us communicate.
The kitchen is painfully small, but if we got both floors I would have two small kitchens. Maybe the one on the bottom floor could be for everyday cooking and the one upstairs could be non-ordinary activities like baking and juicing. The yard is huge and fenced. Sophia and Kicsi and their friends would have a great time in that yard. And, it is full of mature fruit trees.
So, it was an adventure and I don't want to get my hopes up, but at least we have a lead. My friend picked up the classifieds for us and there were only a few options listed and they were all under 1,000 SF.
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