Swim Meet

18 Oct - Jamie had her 4th Swim meet and did EXTREMELY well. She swam 3 individual events and had her faster time ever in all three!! She finished 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke and 1.6s faster, 3rd in 50m Freestyle and 2.8s faster and 5th in the 100m IM and 2.4s faster. Her dives are much better and she is kicking better in freestyle. Her butterfly still likes like a bad shark attack but she is improving. The other teams were Hohenfels, Weisbaden and Bamberg. Jamie needs to drop 3 seconds in her 50m free and 50m breast and 6 secs to qualify for the European Championships in Feb in Berlin. She can do it and has many more meets to improve. She is working hard but needs to improve her strength and stroke to make those final time improvements. She is having fun and James is having alot of fun timing and cheering on the kids at the meets. This was the first swim meet at the new pool here at Ramstein Airbase. It is brand new and has 8 lanes. It worked very well. her next meet is 8 Nov at Ramstein again and then 15 Nov in Stuttgart. Jamie will give a shot at long distance - she will try and swim the 400m freestyle in early Nov. Maybe the 800 freestyle????? Jamie ready to go in the while cap in the middle Jamie with her ribbons and the pool.

BERLIN

Jamie at the Berlin Wall Memorial At the Reichstag - Germany Capital At the Brandenberg Gate - an Anarchy rally was on the other side - yeah..... First Class on the ICE Train - travelled at 250 kph - yep 150 mph. Jamie doing Breast stroke Rhythmnic Gynmastics competition Museum to us:))) Kim and Jamie at Castle Charlottenburg Jamie at Checkpoint Charlie 10-13 Oct – We travelled to Berlin for a swim meet against the Berlin Bear-a-cudas. We rode the Intercity Train Express. It took 6 hours with a few stops but was well worth it. We travelled in first class so we had nice seats, a table and electricity for the laptop. Several families were on the train as well so it was fun. We arrived in Berlin and looked for a recommended restaurant but could not find it. We found a very nice pasta place and 3 families had a great meal. On Saturday we travelled by taxi to the swimming pool about 20 miles away. There were just 2 teams at the meet. The meet started at 0900. Jamie won 1st place in the 100 IM despite being 8 sec slower than her best time, 3rd place in 50 m breaststroke again just 2 sec slower than previously and finally 4th place in the 50M backstroke that she entered for the first time this year in 55sec. After the meet, we explored Berlin on our own. We attended the first two rounds of the Berlin Masters Rhythmic Gymnastics event. There were 16 girls from all over the world including Slovakia. It was really impressive to see the gymnasts do the floor exercise with the hoops and rope. There were about 1000 people there. We left at the intermission and travelled to the Berlin Wall memorial – one of two remaining places from the 95 miles of the wall that can be seen in the city. It was really interesting to see it. It was hard for Jamie to understand why the East German govt would put up the wall to keep people from going to freedom in West Germany. After that, we travelled to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag – German capital. There was a large anarchy rally at the Brandenberg Gate when we exited the Metro station with police in riot gear everywhere so that was fun………….. We got some good pictures but not from the best side because of the idiots at the rally. We then walked over to the Reichstag. It was very pretty in the sunset light. The dome was closed for the month so we could not walk up the new glass dome and ramp. We then walked thru the Tiergarten – former hunting grounds - the new Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz. We had a great dinner inside of Jagerschnitzel (guess who ordered that), Pork roast and a plate of Spatzle, cheese and bacon – sort of like Halushky in Slovakia – guess who ordered that!! It was good but Babka’s was soooo much better. We took the metro back to the hotel and stopped at a Turkish restaurant for some Baklava and other desserts before returning to the hotel. We went to sleep watching the German-Russia soccer game that Germany won 2:1. On Sunday, we enjoyed breakfast then took the train to the site of Check Point Charlie – the only entrance to West berlin in the American Sector. It was really neat to see it but most is gone now – only a replica of the guard booth and sector signs. They are making a new museum. We also visited the site of the Gestapo (Nazi Secret Police) and saw a exhibit of how the Nazi’s came to power and some of the tactics they used to maintain power in the seized countries like Czechoslovakia and Hungary and their plan to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies, sick, etc. Jamie had a lot of questions. Then we walked to the Geramaldi Museum to see some art work. Jamie got to see 8 original pieces by Albrecht Duehrer. You might remember him from our Nueremberg trip. We visited his house there. Then we walked to the Kaiser Wilheim Church that was bombed in WWII. It was not repaired and left as a memorial to the violence and destruction of war. I visited the same place in 1980 on my tour so it was really neat to be there again with Jamie. Then we travelled to see the Egyptian Museum that is not there anymore. Anway, we walked across the street to see the Charlottesburg Schloss (Castle). The inside was closed so we toured the gardens. We then we back to the hotel to rest. We walked around the neighborhood and found an Italian restaurant and got Pizza, Rigatini Alforno and baked lasagna. Monday morning we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel, packed and went to the train station for our train home. The train ride was first class again. It was a great trip – expensive – but fun and Jamie saw and learned a lot she will need later in school – hope she remembers!!!!!

Unit Get Together

5 Oct – We had 19 people from James’ office over to our house for a get to know each other pot-luck dinner. It was really nice. We cooked marinated flank steak and chicken strips. The guests brought greek salad, pasta salad, bread, potato salad, brownies, chicken quesadia wraps with homemade salsa and apple tort - beer and wine. We had a great time getting to know everyone a little. The intent was so that the spouses could meet the other people there spouse worked with so when their husband/wife came home – they would know the people that drove them that way :)) One of the joys of command is entertaining...... Welcoming everyone Trent and Andreas loading up!! Tom and the spouses relaxing

Jamie Swim Meet

27 Sep - Jamie had her 2nd swim meet and swam really well. She swam the 50m Breaststroke and improved 4.5 seconds and won 1st place. It was the first time she has won 1st place in her age group at a meet where the best swimmers were competing. Very proud of her. She won the event by 1.5 secs. She swam the 100m IM and improved 5 seconds and finished 4th. She swam the 100M Freestyle for the first time. The coach also put her as the anchor on the 100M Freestyle relay but one of the girls disqualified so the whole team was out. She has only to improve a little in a few events to qualify for the major championships in February in Berlin. She will swim some different events to get qualifyingtimes so we can see where she stands. We are very proud of her. She is practicing hard 4 nights a week for 1.5 hrs each. She earned two Personal Best ribbons and won a 1st place and a 4th place ribbon.

Kosovo Trip

23-25 Sep James travelled to the new country of Kosovo. It is N of Albania, SE of Serbia and W of Macedonia. He travelled with his boss and he got to spend 4 hours of quality time with his boss in theVienna airport...............yeah. Fortunately, his boss is a great guy so it was spent working and ummmmm eating!!!!!!!! We traveled to the Pristina International Airport if you can call it that. Very small only a max of 2 planes on the ground at one time. The difference I saw between Kosovo and the rest of Europe was all the villages looked poor and empty - No flowers, no curtains, no shutters - just black inside the windows. We arrived and drove the 45 minutes to the American Base there. The roads were awful. The drive was educational and sad. The country has 60% unemployment. The ethnic makeup is approx 80% ethnic Albanians and 20 % others. The native language is Albanian. The religious make-up is 92% Muslim, 5% Eastern Orthodox and 3% Catholic. The Muslims are leftovers form the days of the Ottoman Empire where they were forced to covert or die. You would never guess they were Muslim by their dress, actions or anything else. most are not practicing Muslims either. There are Zagot Menorites/Mosques in every town - really looks out of place. The place is very poor. Many broken down cars in lots used for scrap or parts. Power goes on for about 3-4 hrs then off for 3-4 hours. Two main reasons - the power grid cannot handle the increased need for power and people cannot pay the power bills. The Serbs that controlled the area did not improve it much because of the Muslim population. They don't have enough schools and teachers so the kids go to school in two shifts a day. It will take alot of industry to go into Kosovo and get people employed before they can raise the taxes to imrprove the infrastructure. Organized crime and drugs are big problems there. They have alot of Kosovars working on the American base making $4-5 an hour. Not much but it is the labor rate for there and they are thankful for the job. All the people I talked to stated that the workers are very good and efficient. Those that speak English learned it on their own from TV or radio. The US Army also employes about 250 translators for different languages because they ahve a multinational unit there with Ukraine, Polish, German, Belgium, Hungarian soldiers. It is really a unigue mission there on engaging the population and working to make a difference and keep the peace. Store Front in small town small town - notice the kids "playing" Middle of main town in the area