For Summer

The past two weeks...

First of all, Carolin somehow ended up with Scarlet Fever, an illness which I thought had died along with the heroines of countless novels up until the 19th century. The main effects were that she was rather more subdued and not allowed to attend Kindergarten for a week.










Also, on Sunday I saw this incredible car...



...except that it was driving on the street, not through a mountain pass of ice and marble.












And this guy came to my house to clean the chimney and I forgot to shake his hand for luck, but I'm not sure I could have managed because my hand was already occupied with holding Felix (my goodness that kid is getting heavy).

For Amy

I just recieved an email from my dear friend Amy, in which she recalled a visit to Bavaria just before Easter. After reading it I realized that the festivities here as I described them can only be understood if you have indeed visited Germany for the holiday. So I decided I would include the only two pictures I remembered to take to commemorate the holiday. The first is the Easter egg tree which I described in my last blog (utilizing the proper, prettier branches), and my favorite of the eggs hanging from it.
My apologies for the poor quality, but it was midnight after a long cold day when I took them. I was the last one in the kitchen Saturday before Easter boiling two dozen eggs to devil the next morning my my church's brunch. I figured that deviled eggs would be something of a novelty here; which indeed they would have been if I had not forgotten them on the kitchen counter.
In other news, I have finally begun to make plans for my re-entry to the United States, and will disclose them in a blog devoted solely to news.

Busy, but alive.

I find that I must once again assert that I am alive. I have been rather busy the last couple of weeks celebrating Easter and welcoming Josh to Germany. Easter is not a small holiday here. That is evident in that they decorate the house in honor of the day. Not just with flowers and a pair of bunnies... they go to rather more trouble. First someone is sent out to collect green branches from which to hang the painted eggs that are often the result of years of collecting. Then there are the other easter ornaments that get hung all over the house. It was rather baffling for me to take in, and when Carolin and I were originally sent out to collect the branches, our mutual inexperience led us to branches that were more like small walking sticks than graceful decorations and a second collecting expidition was required.
Just before Easter, Josh arrived rather tired in Germany. After several somewhat chaotic days- in which we managed to all get sick, travel to the furthest edge of Niedersachsen to visit Goslar and see the Kaiserhaus (pictured below) where it was snowing, celebrate Easter, hear German spoken with a very thick Irish accent (a concert at the local Irish Pub)- we sent Josh on his way to Berlin and we have spent the rest of the week trying to get through all of our illnesses. It is currently nearly 1:15 am here, and my thoughts have been fuzzy for several hours now, so I am going to cut this very short, but I hope to be able to write more soon and more consistantly again. Liebe Grüße!

Introductions

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls I would like you to finally meet my charges:

Felix...
...is bigger now, but he looks just the same when he's sleeping on my arm.

Carolin...
...likes making messes when she bakes, and even when she doesn't

Felix
is in here twice because he's so cute, and I think this picture is funny

So now you have met them.

Photos von Urlaub

I promised that I would actually put up a couple of pictures of things here, so I will try to do that the next couple of blogs. My apology in advance, that my pictures with Katie and Matt haven't made it onto my computer just yet.

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I last talked about my day with the street musicians. Here are those charmers. As you can imagine, there was always a huddle of 16-25 year old girls freezing themselves and listening. I found out later that Dave (far right) connected with his girlfriend while he was "busking," as street entertaining is called. They are (from left, just like reading): Dominik, Samuel and David.


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Katie woo took this picture of me walking through the monument to the fallen Jews in Berlin. It's an awesome monument. Really solemn and yet really alive, with people usually running through it.















<------- On our one day tour through Berlin, I made Katie and Matt wander around with me until we found Fassbender & Rausch, Chocolatiers Am Gendarmenmarkt, again so that I could buy amazing chocolate even by German standards. This is a picture of a model of two famous buildings in Berlin (I only remember that they're nicknamed the lipstick and powder box) but the whole model is made out of chocolate. They also have a model of the Titanic, which is probably 5 feet long. It's deeply tempting, but that little placard at the base says not to touch, and for some reason I tend to obey the placards.

Trying something new

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I am trying a lot of new things at the moment, but I will tell you about the ones I have in mind. First, I tried a little house church in Bremen that and it was great. I hardly understood anything, and the music was terrible (I have been told that it is usually better but the musicians were all on vacation), but they fed me and were very kind and friendly. I then spent the day touring the city with new friends (via Seanne), Tobias and Mareike, and got to see all sorts of amazing sights such as building that were built more than three, four, or in some cases, six hundred years ago, and the Bremen town Musicians, and a couple of clowns with very Irish accents from Belfast. But really the new thing that I am trying is to blog some pictures of that trip because Josh gave me a tip about a program, and so many people have asked for pictures and if this works, it might just satisfy some curiosity. So here goes.

The Bremen Town Musicians

These guys are not as big as they seem. The legs of the donkey are polished because you're supposed to hold one of his legs and make a wish. Mareike and Tobias didn't tell me if the wish is supposed to come true of if you're just instructed to make one for your own self-analysis, but I did it anyway. I'll let you know if it comes true, but I'm not telling you what it was unless it comes true, so don't even ask.