Wir erwarten ein Baby (We are expecting a baby)

OK, so you knew this already (well, if you didn't, I suspect you stumbled on this blog site by mistake!). But now we are expecting a baby ANY MOMENT NOW. It is now exactly 1 week before the official due date, however it is very common to be up to 2 weeks before or after this date. Jo is getting quite uncomfortable now, and is keen for the baby to arrive slightly earlier rather than later.

We have almost everything prepared. Here is the storage for all the clothes, toys and nappies. It also doubles as a change area. Chances are your baby shower present is visible here or in the drawers and shelves.

Important is a place to sleep. We have borrowed a kinderbett from friends at church.

And all ready to hit the road. If you remember one of the earliest posts, you can now check out a real German kinderwagen (pram). Note the very large wheels, solid construction and winter protection.

Kinderwagen and autositz are borrowed from generous friends, also from Church.

The Baby Björn Carrier (Baby Björn carrier - yes that's right, it's called the same thing in German!) was bought here. As you can see, Nathan is practising carrying our 'baby' around. He says it makes him feel good. We just need to put a few weights in the teddy.

Die Farben des Herbstes (The colours of autumn)

Autumn (der Herbst) is definitely here. The colours are absolutely gorgeous. It's great to live so near to parks and to pass the red, yellow and orange trees on daily travels. The leaves make a wonderful "swish, swish, swish" as you walk your way through them.

The weather in the past few days has been perfect - warm enough that we can even eat ice cream. We wouldn't have dreamed of this two weeks ago, when we were buying heavy coats to ward off the coming winter. Here are a few shots in Johanna Park.

Jo's Schwangermode (Jo's pregnancy fashion)

We thought we'd better put some pictures of Jo here as so many of you ask about the bump.
It is certainly bigger. In fact, some of the tops Jo was wearing no longer completely cover the bump. She is quite sick of her clothing options and cannot wait until she can wear some more 'normal' attire.

The bump is quite active too. Quite frequently we see the bump change shape. It's very strong and continues to find new spaces to stick it's limbs.

Leipzig

As mentioned in a previous post, we went on a tour of Leipzig last weekend. Our guide was a historian who attends our Church. Until that time, we had done surprisingly little "touristy" things in the city. Here are a few pictures.

Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Leipzig for over 25 years, at the Thomaskirche (Thomas Church). He was at the Thomasschule (Thomas School), and led a boys choir that still exists today. He also composed many of his works in this city. Here is a picture of us at his statue, which is located outside the Thomaskirche.

The MDR building is one of the highest in the city. It used to belong to the university, and was built in DDR times. From the top, you have a great view of the whole city.

Here is a picture of the Neues Rathous (new town hall) from the top. It was finished in 1905, and doesn't look that new... but the old one was built in 1557! The neues Rathaus was built on the site of an old castle, so the architecture was designed to remind you of this.

Here is another view from the MDR building. This time, you can just see in the distance through the fog, a rather large monument. The monument is called the Völkerschlachtdenkmals (memorial to the battle of the nations). It's a large monument to commemorate the battle between Napoleon and a coalition of other nations, which occurred at Leipzig. This was one of the three significant defeats for Napolean. The other two being the failed invasion of Russia, and Waterloo.

Another famous church is the Nikolaikirche (Saint Nicholas Church). During DDR times, this church held a prayer meeting/service every Monday to pray for peace. Afterwards, the people would make a peaceful walk throughout the city. During the turbulent times in the 1980s, where communism crumbled throughout eastern europe, more and more people started to come to the Monday prayer meeting and the subsequent march. Not everyone was interested in prayer, though, and only joined for the march, which was called Montagsdemonstration (Monday demonstration). The march was at pains to ensure no violence, and so they held candles (it's hard to throw stones and run around while nursing a candle, and you can be easily seen from a distance). Within living memory was a violent put-down of popular protest in the early days of the DDR - there was a real fear that this might happen again. The turning point came when the Stasi (DDR secret police) were ordered to arrest all the protesters. Unfortunately for them, on that day there were far more people than they were expecting, and there were not enough places to store all the prisoners if they were to follow their plans. The Stasi reported this to main headquarters and waited for a response. While they waited, they did nothing, and then it was too late. The marchers had spread out throughout the city and were unstoppable. Parallel protests throughout the whole DDR forced die Wende (the change) to occur, the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the reunficiation of germany. Even now, Monday is still the day of protests, and many Monday afternoons you will find a demonstration marching through the city. All this started at the Nikolaikirche monday prayer meeting. Unfortunately we don't have a photo of this church for you, but here is a link to a photo of the Montagsdemonstration.

www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/DieDeutscheEinheit_photoMontagsdemonstrationInLeipzig/

LEC Zehnjahrestag Feiern (LEC 10 year anniversary celebration)

LEC = Leipzig English Church. On Nathan's birthday 10 years ago, the LEC held its first church service (Gottesdienst). This year, on the weekend of Nathan's birthday, LEC had its anniversary celebration.

On Saturday, there was a tour of Leipzig, which we and Nathan's parents joined (more of that in another post). In the evening was a reunion dinner, where many current and old members attended from all over the world. We worked out how many different countries were represented there, and there were too many to remember. Some of the countries: Australia, Hungary, UK, Germany, USA, Canada, 3-4 african countries, China, Korea...

On Sunday there was a special service in the Lutheran church, where Martin (pastor) reflected on the past 10 years. He spoke on 2 Corinthians 4:7 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us". He suggested that this verse characterised LEC best. It is a church that is made up of ordinary and unspectacular people, but somehow God has used the people to grow a church from nothing and affect so many people through the treasure of the Gospel.

Here is a picture of us just after the "official" photo was taken. Unfortunately a bit messy, as everyone was anxious to get some snacks made by the church members, and therefore quite varied in style and origin. Jo made a Pav, which although is claimed by both Australia and New Zealand, can be passed off here as Aussie - especially since there are no Kiwis to argue the point.
The Pav went down well. "Sehr lecker" - very delicious!

Unsere Eltern (Our parents)

There's been a drought of posts over the past month, mainly because we have been quite busy with family visiting. Both Jo's and Nathan's parents have been in town, and all have stayed with us in our apartment (for a few days everyone was together, making it full but still comfortable). It was great to see them all after a few months way from home.

Here's a picture of all of us having a birthday dinner for Jo and Nathan at one of our most often visited restaurant in Leipzig. It's a funny restaurant. We've only sat outside, which is quite normal as you can see. On the inside, however, you lie on beds, and eat off tiny tables placed in the middle of the beds. A bit like the romans, except you have to feed yourselves. No photos, unfortunately.

A few updates also on some of our earlier posts.

Rugby League - the Tigers won the NRL grand final!! Nathan was disappointed he couldn't see ANY footage of the game over here.

German election results - after many weeks of negotiation, the "Grand Coalition" has been formed, with Angela Merkel (leader of the black CDU party) becoming the first woman and first East German chancellor. Schroeder, the leader of the other coalition partner (the red SPD) has decided to step aside from the leadership. No-one is sure how this coalition is going to turn out. It will be an interesting time for us to observe this political situation first hand.

Man darf hier rauchen (One is allowed to smoke here)

We found this absolutely shameful ad in Leipzig. You know how you notice something once and then it seems that you see it everywhere...well, this ad was everywhere! It's an ad for cigarettes and says it's Australia's number one brand - as if that's a reason to smoke it...

Considering that smoking is banned from so many public places in Australia and that advertisements in Australia are about how bad smoking is for you (Quit hotline etc), this just ad in Leipzig is so wrong.