Momma said there’d be days--
I mean weeks--
like this . . .
I mean weeks--
like this . . .
Hmmm, how to say . . . criminally crummy? lambastingly lousy? repulsively revolting? simply Scheiße?
You be the judge: we rolled back into Berlin late Sunday night after an exhausting week of traveling during Easter vacation to find my laptop computer stolen, our belongings rifled through, the kids’ wallets emptied, all our documents strewn around the office, and a toilet full of unflushed feces. It wasn’t quite the homey atmosphere we’d been anticipating.
The next day an email arrived on Jost’s computer saying that someone had found Lara’s American birth certificate on a street in East Berlin. Jost’s birth certificate remains missing, but they thankfully ignored all our German and American passports, the kids’ Social Security cards, and our other birth certificates.
My laptop, of course, was the nerve center of the family, and I’m sure we’ll never see it again. All the photos we’ve taken this year in Berlin, all my email addresses and correspondence, all my clients’ documents and the hours I still needed to bill, all our snail-mail addresses, all our banking, tax, and credit card information—gone! A good argument for backing up regularly.
BUT, we’re still okay. True, we’re a little shaken up. On Monday morning Hannes said he’d be happy to get on an airplane and fly back to America that same day, but he came home from school on Tuesday cheerful and contented again. It’s been a frustrating experience for Jost to reestablish our office and configure my new laptop—as I write on Thursday we still have no Internet connection, which is a real liability with Internet-dependent jobs like ours. But again, we’re all okay. As Anna wrote in a letter to Grandma and Grandpa, “it’s just another new experience—a city experience!”
P.S. I’d be grateful for help in rebuilding my email address book. Could you please shoot a quick email message to kzetzsche(a)internationalwriters.com? (Remove the (a) and replace it with @, please.) No need to write a note unless you’re feeling especially communicative—but I’d love that, too!
You be the judge: we rolled back into Berlin late Sunday night after an exhausting week of traveling during Easter vacation to find my laptop computer stolen, our belongings rifled through, the kids’ wallets emptied, all our documents strewn around the office, and a toilet full of unflushed feces. It wasn’t quite the homey atmosphere we’d been anticipating.
The next day an email arrived on Jost’s computer saying that someone had found Lara’s American birth certificate on a street in East Berlin. Jost’s birth certificate remains missing, but they thankfully ignored all our German and American passports, the kids’ Social Security cards, and our other birth certificates.
My laptop, of course, was the nerve center of the family, and I’m sure we’ll never see it again. All the photos we’ve taken this year in Berlin, all my email addresses and correspondence, all my clients’ documents and the hours I still needed to bill, all our snail-mail addresses, all our banking, tax, and credit card information—gone! A good argument for backing up regularly.
BUT, we’re still okay. True, we’re a little shaken up. On Monday morning Hannes said he’d be happy to get on an airplane and fly back to America that same day, but he came home from school on Tuesday cheerful and contented again. It’s been a frustrating experience for Jost to reestablish our office and configure my new laptop—as I write on Thursday we still have no Internet connection, which is a real liability with Internet-dependent jobs like ours. But again, we’re all okay. As Anna wrote in a letter to Grandma and Grandpa, “it’s just another new experience—a city experience!”
P.S. I’d be grateful for help in rebuilding my email address book. Could you please shoot a quick email message to kzetzsche(a)internationalwriters.com? (Remove the (a) and replace it with @, please.) No need to write a note unless you’re feeling especially communicative—but I’d love that, too!
