Atherton Family Notes

This is almost three-week-old news now, but it was an interesting experience, so I wanted to write about it.

We had to go to the consulate in order to get Sadie’s passport and a certificate that she is a US Citizen born abroad. These items will, shall we say, make it easier for us to bring Sadie to the US when we come home, and reduce the chance she will be held as a terrorist.

On a good day, Frankfurt should be a 3 hour drive from Niedereschach, but since our appointment was on a Monday at 9:30, we had to travel during rush hour through some of the more densely populated areas of Germany. So we left here at 5AM.

As it turns out, that wasn’t early enough. In Mannheim, there was an accident in a construction zone that completely closed the south bound lanes, and left only 1 narrow lane on the northbound side. Fortunately, we were northbound, so we only got delayed for about an hour.

After we passed the blockage, we saw that the traffic jam on the southbound side was almost 11 miles long.

The closer we got to Frankfurt, the heavier traffic got. Fortunately, the consulate itself was fairly easy to find, but it was after 10:00 when we finally arrived.

That’s when the day got interesting:

Mistake #1:

I thought it would be a good idea to take our camera bag, containing our digital camera and our video camera, with us to the consulate. I thought that they probably wouldn’t let us take the camera into the consulate itself, but we might want to take some pictures on our walk.

We had to wait in line to get into the consulate, because there are really tight security measures, especially since 9/11. The security checkpoint has interlocking doors– the inner door can’t open while the outer one is opened and vice versa. Only a small number of people are admitted to the security screening area at any time, and all of them are completely screened before the next group is allowed it. It takes a long time to get inside. We were lucky because we had an appointment and small children. It was pretty cold outside, so they let us cut to the front of the line. It probably saved us an hour.

However, it was obvious by this time that the cameras were going to cause problems. We were told that there was a place outside where the items could be stored, and Sandi decided to take the camera back.

It turns out we were right that the cameras would cause problems: the guards wouldn’t let me into the building with my car keys–we have keyless entry on our car, and the security regulations do not allow any electronic items to be brought into the building.

Sandi was already on her way to store the cameras. We thought that the storage area was at the main guard post, but it turns out it was at a newstand down the street. Worse, the storage wasn’t very secure, so Sandi decided to take the camera back to the car.

Mistake #2:

Sandi didn’t have her keys, so she didn’t have any choice but to go back to the consulate, and have me take the camera to the car.

Mistake #3:

Sandi didn’t have her passport. I had it so that I could fill out the paperwork while she was taking out the camera.

As you can imagine, Sandi’s frustration level was starting to get very high.

She finally convinced the guards that she had been to the consulate earlier that day and that I was already in the consulate. At this point, Sandi learned one additional important detail: Not only were you not allowed to take cameras into the consulate, but a video camera cannot even be left at the checkpoint. The gaurds finally let her go inside, with the understanding that I had to come out immediately to take the camera back to the car.

Which I did. At this point, we did one smart thing (probably the only smart thing we did all day): I took CeCe with me. So when I returned to the consulate, they let me cut to the front of the line again. Heh heh.

So we finished up the paperwork, gave it to the officials, and then left as fast as we could to return to the land of sanity outside the doors of the consulate.

In all, the whole ordeal took only 2 hours. Sandi is scarred for life, though, I think. She told me this morning she has been having nightmares about the experience.

On the plus side, we have already received Sadie’s passport and certificate. That’s good news for our planned trip home in July and August.

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Celia turns 2 on Saturday so I sat down to get a picture for her birthday. I thought it would take a couple of days because she is not that thrilled with sitting still. Low and behold, after lots of candy bribes, we found a couple of good ones. Here is the one I like the best:

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Thursday marked the start of the celebrations that will run until Fat Tuesday. Known locally as Fastnet or one of several other names, the celebration is extremely popular here in this predominantly Catholic region.

Because Fastnet is not an official national holiday, it’s been interesting to hear about people’s plans at work. Those Germans who grew up in the area (or are married to someone who is) are taking the entire Thursday-through-Tuesday period as vacation (or at least Monday and Tuesday), and those who are originally from other parts of Germany are often taking no vacation during this time.

I am doing a little of both. I took 2 hours off on Thursday so that we could take the kids to the “Kinderball”, a parade for kids (and to a large extent by kids) in Villingen, and I’ll probably take off all of Fat Tuesday so that we can go see the sights in Rotweil.

It was beautiful in downtown Villingen yesterday. It was almost 50 degrees in the sun, so it was a good day for a parade.

Carissa was excited because all of the kids at Kindergarten dressed up for school also. In this sense, Fastnet feels kind of like Halloween, except that all of the kids are either Princesses, Fairies, Witches, Cowboys, or one of the really traditional Fools.

We let the girls wear their dress up costumes to the parade also. During the parade, the people in the parade throw candy to the kids, who put the loot into bags they’ve brought along for that purpose. In that sense, Fastnet is kind of the reverse candy delivery mechanism as Halloween, because you just stand there with a bag and other people come to you and give you candy!

The parade itself is interesting because to a large extent, it is very traditional. Many of the groups marching in the parade are the same groups that have marched there for hundreds of years, always in the same costumes. In fact, there is a specific set of costumes that are associated with Villingen’s celebration:

This costume is called Narro Villingen, or roughly the Villingen Fool. The costume and mask is very expensive, and tends to be passed from one generation to the next.

This is the female traditional costume. I’m not sure of its official name though.

The parade, I guess in keeping with the “Kids” theme featured a lot of mothers and their children riding in antique prams. There were a lot of unique styles.

There were a lot of other groups in the parade: schools, children’s groups, and bands. There is another parade in Villingen on Monday, and I understand it features the adult versions of many of these same groups.

There was a lot of interaction with the crowd, too. There were chants that the crowd would say to get the marchers to throw candy, and the marchers would sometimes lead these chants, too. There was also a lot of simple call-and-response chants. The marchers would call out a word–I think the word was “Heili!”, but it sounds like “Ah-leeee”, to which the crowd responds, “Heilo”, which sounds like “Al-loooh!”. This repeats a few times, then the crowd gets pelted with candy.

I don’t think that Villingen’s Fastnet is quite as wild a party as New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. For one thing, it’s probably too cold to convince women to pull up their shirts for a string of beads (not that I’ve tried). I hear that in the late evenings that some of the parties can get wilder, but during the day, it’s very genteel.

On the other hand…

Even the cops can’t escape being part of the party. This Polizist, in addition to his fine clown makeup, has an odd German phrase drawn onto his bald spot. And don’t even ask about the guy in the background with the Homer Simpson sticker on his forehead!

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