Hot in Hessen!!!

Guten Tag,

I am doing well here this week, although the heat has been pretty extreme the past few days. I miss AC SOOOOOO much! I am staying in the 4th floor of the house and it is even worse up there in the tower. Oh my, I lay there wishing I could live in a cold bath or stand in the cold shower all night, but...as this is a farm and there are many, many people who stay here I would/should feel guilty about using up all the water. So, I suffer in silence...well, almost silently...I am complaining on here I suppose. But, this to shall pass and I know that I will return to the AC capitol of the world (USA) in December; by then I know I won't need AC, but it will be comforting to know that I have it just in case! ;) I have been with my second family for 9 days now and in that time period I have been to 7 BBQs, they really know how to kick back and party! But, they work, work, work first and then, party...which is the correct order of things I suppose! My Host Mother Charlotte took me to see a few sights in Mannheim today and one is the Wasserturm (water tower), this is Mannheim's landmark and we also visited the Schloss (castle)...Mannheim University in the palace. Of course we took a break for 'Eiskaffee' (ice coffee), which was lovely considering the extreme heat of the city! I have included (because I just learned how) pictures of both the water tower (left) and schloss (upper right) for your viewing pleasure. That is all I have to report at the present, I hope all of you are doing well and it isn't quite as hot there as it is here...and if it is...crank up your AC and think of me here suffering! (HAHAHA, just kidding!) Es ist sehr schön hier!! (It is very beautiful here!) Bye for now, Tschüss!

New Faces, Spaces and Places!!!

Hallo, Guten Tag....I have discovered that dialects are extreme around here in Deutschland! I am living now with a family in Hessen, in the town of Hofheim. Every town in Hessen...or pretty much every town has the ending of "heim," such as Manheim, Lampertheim...etc. So, I write to you from this location, which took me around 7 hours on the train. I changed trains 3 times and was on one train for over 6 hours...boy that was a long, LONG day!!! Enough of the travel details, the important thing is that 'I made it!'

Now for the fun part! I have been in Germany for 4 & 1/2 weeks and am having a great time! My first host family (Familia Röhr) lived in the North (between Hamburg & Lübeck) in the little town of Reinfeld. I lived with them for 20 days and I enjoyed every single day! During my stay, I went twice to Lübeck, the Marzipan Capitol and was enchanted with it's old buildings and surrounding Trave River. I also had the pleasure of learning how to make Marmelade and I was introduced to "Horse Beans." That is the direct translation and they are basically very large snow peas!!! I saw the local 'little castle,' Stiftung Schloss in Ahrensburg...a lovely white castle that even had a moat. I swam in the Baltic Sea on another beach adventure...although, it cost me 2.60 Euros for that pleasure...(yeah, I know...I couldn't believe that they charged for going to the beach either!) In America, we could make a fortune!!! One of my host sisters goes to University in Oldenburg, so I spent one weekend with her there...experiencing the 'German College Life,' which isn't much different to that of U.S. students except that we took bicycles to the pub and back on Friday Night!!! :) I took in the Deutsches Auswandererhaus (German Emigration Center) in Bremerhaven with my host sister Gesa during my stay with her and it was a lovely museum...partly for the information that I took in during the audio-tour and partly for the simple and utterly fabulous fact, they had it in ENGLISH!!! Ahhhhh bliss!!! I never thought that I would get such an uplifting feeling by hearing those words, "Yes, we have it in English!" A taste of the many delights I had with my first family.

So far with my second host family (Familia Bär), I have participated in 3 consecutive BBQ's that began on the first night I arrived...a great start! I have tasted many, many delicious wurst! I have learned the popular Nordic Walk skill...basically you have two ski sticks...except you are walking with them on roads instead of with skis on snow. LOL. Here in Germany it is very popular!!! I must say it does work out the arms quite well! On Sunday we went to Kurpfalz Park, which is an amusement/wildlife park. It was mainly geared toward children but I had a blast on a paddle boat in the shape of a swan and an entire bird exhibit in German, but the man who was giving it was SO active and excited about these birds that it was a great show...even if I didn't understand more than 5 words the entire hour! ;) I am learning to just 'roll with the punches' here in Germany...I think it is an IFYE requirement! One woman at a cookout told me that I must be a very brave woman to be participating in such a program, I was flattered...but have overcome many an obstacle by using my humor. I believe that the key to any language barrier is laughter; I am extremely glad that I had a little of that before I left the states...but I tell you I am gonna have a heck of a lot more when I return I think. So, those of you who I am in close contact with, BEWARE!!!!!