German Lovers – Aged Six and Five – Try to Elope to Africa

It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries – the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year’s Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun.

The children left their homes at dawn while their unwitting parents were apparently sleeping, and took along Mika’s seven-year-old sister, Anna-Lena, as a witness to the wedding.

Donning sunglasses, swimming armbands and dragging a pink blow-up lilo and suitcases on wheels packed with summer clothes, cuddly toys and a few provisions, they walked a kilometre up the road, boarded a tram to Hanover train station and got as far as the express train that would take them to the airport before a suspicious station guard alerted police.

“What struck us was that the little ones were completely on their own and that they had lots of swimming gear with them,” said Holger Jureczko, a police spokesman. He described Mika and Anna-Bell as “sweethearts” who had “decided to get married in Africa where it is warm, taking with them as a witness Mika’s sister”.

Anna-Bell told the German television station RTL: “We wanted to get married and so we just thought: ‘Let’s go there.’ “

Mika said: “We wanted to take the train to the airport, then we wanted to get on a plane and when we arrived we wanted to unpack the summer things and then we wanted to go for a bit of a stroll in the sun.”

Mika and Anna-Lena’s mother, who was not identified, said she had known nothing of her children’s plan. “I’m still in a state of shock. I thought ‘I’m playing a part in a bad movie.’ When we realised the kids were missing we went looking for them.” But only when the police called did they realise what had happened.

Asked why they failed to let their parents know, the children said they thought they would not be gone for long.

Mika told police he instigated the plan having been inspired by a winter holiday with his family in Italy. “Based on this the children began to make plans for the future,” Jureczko said.

To allay their disappointment at being caught, Hanover police gave them a tour of the police headquarters. Jureczko said: “They’ll have the chance to put their plan into action at a later date”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/05/german-children-elope-mika-annabel
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I almost cried in the office at Aliya’s school this morning. We were waiting for the nurse to arrive so she could check Aliya’s head, and two boys brought another boy in to see the secretary. They said that the lunch lady told them to bring him to the office because he didn’t know where his classroom was.

The secretary was confused. The kid looked like a 3rd- or 4th-grader. How could he not know where his classroom was at this point in the year? She kept asking him questions and finally figured out that he wasn’t enrolled at the school. His mother had dropped him off in front and sent him in without registering him. It made me so sad. He was just sitting there waiting for the principal to figure out what to do with him.

I have a “thing” about being the new kid. When I was little we moved a fair amount, and we were sporadic about Sunday School attendance and didn’t participate in a lot of other activities. I hated the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing the routine or the rules. I was very insecure about it, and it affects me to this day. I’m obsessive about making sure that the kids don’t miss the first practice/meeting for anything – soccer, swimming, skating, etc., and that they start at an early age so they’re not the lone 10-year-old who has never played soccer. My kids don’t seem to share my insecurity – they can walk into a room full of strangers and find a new best friend. I’m really glad.
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This is a public service announcement.
Lice are really really tiny.
Almost invisible.
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Aliya has been complaining for a week about an itchy rash on her neck. I’ve checked her at least 3 times for lice because the rash looked exactly like a symptom of lice that I saw online. I could never find anything on her head. So last night I was online again to research whether she had flesh-eating bacteria or whether there could be another possible answer, and I saw yet another photo that looked exactly like Aliya’s mysterious rash. You guessed it – it was a photo of someone with lice. So…I checked again, and just as everyone was sitting down to dinner, I saw one. Ugh. I had a stash of lice treatment from one of the NGCC scares, so I treated her right away. I sent Ben to Walgreens and proceeded to treat the entire household. Since I had specifically looked for them on Aliya and missed them, I wasn’t taking any chances. By the time we had stripped every bed, plastic-bagged every pillow, and soaked every head, I sat down to dinner at 11:10 p.m. I had lost most of my appetite anyway.
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Today I took the kids to Snip-Its so I could keep a close eye on the situation without all of that hair to distract me. The stylist wouldn’t cut Aliya’s hair because it was too soon after treatment. I think that’s baloney, but whatever. It didn’t help with Aliya’s ultra-sensitivity to the problem. She came to me at bedtime and said that she was worried about her classmates finding out. I’m pretty sure she got them from school, so my guess is that the head-check will turn up some other victims. Aliya probably has the most louse-free head in first grade at this point. I have literally spent hours going through her hair strand by strand. I have not seen anything alive since the treatment, but the nits and eggs are extremely small and don’t come out from shampooing. You have to pick or comb them out. I talked to my own stylist today and she is going to cut Aliya’s hair after school tomorrow. Ginny spent the entire day washing laundry, for which I am eternally grateful.
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Fun Facts About Lice:
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~ The term “feeling lousy” relates to an allergic reaction to lice.
~ A nit was found on a human hair in a 10,000 year old archeological site.
~ Nit combs have been found in Egyptian tombs.
~ Lice outbreaks were uncommon from 1945-1975 because of DDT use.
~ 6-12 million people nationwide get head lice every year
~ Lice prefer clean hair – having lice is not a sign of poor hygiene.
~ Children age 3-10 are most often infested.
~ White people get lice more often than other ethnic groups in the U.S.
~ Girls get lice more than boys (they like the warmth of long hair).
~ One louse can lay up to 10 eggs per day.
~ Lice live about 30 days but only survive 24 hours if they leave the head.
~ Eggs take about 7-10 days to hatch.
~ Natural remedies include a coating of mayonnaise, vaseline, or olive oil.
~ Lice don’t like tea tree oil so shampoo with this may be a good deterrent.
~ Moroccan lice are way bigger than American lice.
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Some of the Mommies and I just returned from a whirlwind trip to the Spa at the Norwich Inn, in Norwich Connecticut. We packed into Dana’s new urban assault vehicle, which seats 7 but only if all 7 people plan to wear today’s clothes tomorrow, go commando in the pool and hot tub, and use the hotel’s toiletries. Since this was my virgin spa excursion and I didn’t get the memo about packing light I brought the most crap, but somehow we were able to squeeze in all of our snacks, belly-dancing attire, books, magazines, beverages, and pj’s, and we were on our way.

The trip went off without a hitch until we reached Route 9, when Nancy the Navigator assured us that we should take the more scenic Route 20 instead of the Mass Pike. Personally I like taking the scenic route. Now I know how to get to Sparky’s Gun Shop and the adjacent Toy/Lingerie/Video store and Yummy Chinese take-out place. As we (finally) flew down 395, Nancy messed with our heads again by telling us to exit the highway 18 miles before our destination. I could have sworn that the Google directions said the spa was only 2 miles from Route 395, but who am I to dispute Nancy? So over the river (via the Butt Bridge) and through the woods we went. Gia and I felt right at home, having grown up in New Hampshire and Vermont, and we tried to keep the ladies occupied with our tales of bucket rings and other backwoods customs. By about the 12th mile through Connecticut’s version of Appalachia, patience started wearing thin, which made our arrival at the spa that much more festive.

We went for a quick lunch in one of the inn’s restaurants, but “quick” in spa-time is similar to “kimagamaga” in Africa-time. We finished and got down to the spa just in time to don our robes and go to our first treatment. As we waited around the pool, a completely bald man (who reminded me so much of one of my competitors, Scott Tobias) called my name. The massage therapists were at least 95% female so I wasn’t expecting a rub-down from Ken, but I recovered quickly and followed him to a small dark room. The next hour was pure bliss, and eventually I stopped thinking about Scott Tobias working the kinks out of my back. (Jenny – Ken didn’t actually use his bald head during the massage and hopefully it was too dark for him to see that I kept smiling while thinking about telling you that he did.)

My second treatment was a facial with Rhonda. Luckily Rhonda didn’t remind me of any hardware people. Another small dark room, another heated table – very cocoonlike and relaxing. Part of the facial was a hand treatment, where she lathered up my hands and put them into heated oven mitts which were connected together like hot handcuffs. Rhonda relaxed me with several layers of creams and eucalyptus-infused hot towels, and then after putting on the handcuffs and sticking cotton pads on my eyes to catch the tears, she flicked on the spotlight, pulled out her gardening trowel and started digging stuff out of my pores. After the torture she soothed me with more lotions and towels and an upper-chest massage, so I didn’t report her obvious blackhead-fetish to the manager.

We spent some time in the steam room which helped drain my completely congested head so I was slightly less miserable. After a little relaxation around the pool (the Relaxation Room would have put me to sleep for hours), we checked into our rooms to read, jump on the beds, drink Lana’s black apricot-infused vodka, and eat junk food until the wine tasting. At the wine tasting we hooked up with the Needham Mommies and had an altercation with the inn’s butler when we started rearranging furniture. After we loaded up on wine and cheese we went to belly-dancing class. The class was actually quite a workout and a lot of fun. Gia took top honors…I’m pretty sure she has one of the little coin-skirts and an instructional video at home. After class we had a couple more hours for junk food and bed gymnastics before dinner.

The spa offers a “silent dinner” (WTF?) but we opted for the standard seating so we could eat, drink, and be merry. Dinner was delicious but again, we were on spa time, so by the time our entrees arrived Gia was sleeping on my shoulder and we had exhausted all of our self-entertainment ideas including plate-balancing and drink-mixing. We had a very patient waitress (Kristen) who supplied us with register tape for Dana and Gia’s bathroom bowling, and honored Lana’s coupon for a free entree. We rolled ourselves up to our rooms and hit the hay. The room Jenny and I shared had one queen-sized bed but the only time she touched me was when I woke up having a choking fit and she gave me a few pats. Unfortunately I kept her up most of the night with my coughing, which I slept through. (Sorry Jenny!)
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On the drive home today we used the old-fashioned method of reading signs to find our way, and we arrived home in no time. I walked in the house and went directly to bed for 4 hours, which is why I’m still awake to post this. It was a great time and I can’t wait to do it again. I can honestly say that I haven’t laughed that much in years. Send me some pics, ladies!

For some reason, this video of Pam doing a bed-roll (which is one of the two videos clean enough to post) cracks me up. I think it’s because of the hysterical laughing.

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Here’s a video of belly dancing class (the darkness adds to the *mystique*):
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