This is really one of the coolest houses I’ve ever been in. And I think my host father, Eckhardt might have designed it (he’s a retired architect). But, my room is in the basement, alone. One wall is a lovely red color and my sheets are orange and red. There’s a super big window that faces west-ish and there are about twelve different pieces of artwork all painted by Herr Brause. The house is actually filled almost to the brim, but tastefully, with his artwork. He paints as a hobby and has done different styles and even some mixed media. One piece I initially thought had been used as a dart board, but there are actually nails driven into it when I looked closer.
But, there are sooo many windows. The upstairs living room has a wall of windows, basically, which look over St. Georgan. There’s also a small loft above the living room. Then the kitchen and dining room are also upstairs. You’ll just have to look at the pictures, once I take them, to see how awesome this house is. I also have my own bathroom right next to my room. Right now, the only downside to the house is that it’s quite cold. This is mostly problematic, because I feel like I can’t walk around in a sweatshirt all day, because I’m trying to blend in with the Germans and they don’t really even have sweatshirts.
A bit about my host parents now. This is their second marriage and have all together six kids, who are all grown. Herr Brause is a former architect and paints for a hobby. He also acts in the local theater. Frau Brause worked in
I slept in, accidently, till eleven am on Saturday. I’d woken up around nine-thirty, but decided to sleep a little longer. I ate breakfast and glanced at the newspaper. Herr Brause had the radio on, which was funny since all they play is American music. I heard some U-2, Blondie and Billy Idol today. The Billy Idol was the best. Herr Brause also asked me if we had Crossword puzzles in
After breakfast, I got dressed and completely unpacked my suitcase. I don’t have a dresser, but just a hanging closet type of thing. Which is fine, since I have a good bit to hang up. Then I started writing the continuation of this blog. I did that until about one thirty, when I was called for lunch. Frau Brause had made a hot lunch, some meat patties (I have no idea which kind of meet, but I don’t think it was beef), a potato and cheese casserole, and some mixed peas and carrots. It was all quite good. For dessert, which Herr Brause insisted upon (apparently he has a sweet tooth, which might be more than mine), we had some stracciatella ice cream. Unfortunately, it was the brand I got sick off in
Then, in Spanish form, we all took a siesta. I didn’t really need a nap, since I’d slept in so late, so I just wrote more. We had already decided to go see the Schoenwald Waterfall after the siesta, so I got ready for that a little before three pm. The drive there was really pretty, because it’s basically a bunch of mountains and valleys with villages that we drive through. Of course these are interspersed with fields of green, green grass, cows (they must be very happy cows) and dandelions. I don’t think dandelions are considered weeds here…no one seems to weed them from their yards.
The waterfall cost to see it, but we took a hike down to an Upper Ropes course. For those who don’t know or can’t remember, URC are those things with the monkey bridges and zip lines I did at camp and that the family did at Trout Lodge that one year. But this one is crazy. There were five different courses up there, very high in the trees, and five was the hardest. While safety was an issue, they took it fairly lightly.
At camp, you have a buddy on the ground who talks you through everything and repeats after you every step of hooking your carabineers on another line. For example, you’d yell as you “Hooked, Locked, Checked and Flipped” each of your two carabineers onto a new wire and your ground partner would echo you. This is to make sure you don’t forget a step and then die. But here, I had a two minute instructional on how to use the carabineers and the rules (always have one hooked in, don’t hold the wire you’re sliding down on the zip line). Two minutes to learn it all and no ground partner. Good thing I already knew what I was doing.
Up I went and I chose #3; I figured it would be a good warm up for #5. It was pretty easy…nothing too crazy. The first zip line I had was a little challenging to do. I had to remind myself that propelling myself off a platform in the trees was a good idea. But once I was “zipping (?)” I was fine. Herr Brause followed my progress on the ground and every once in a while I’d heard a noise like he couldn’t believe I was doing it without fear.
After number three, I went on to number five. I wanted a challenge, and I knew I’d never hear the end of it if I came home and hadn’t done the hardest one. It started out easy, but did get harder. This was because the bridges were easily twice or three times as long as the other course. And there was a lot more balancing to do. And I have a disadvantage because I’m short, so my legs didn’t comfortably reach to all of the foot holds on the bridges. But I survived, albeit, with red palms (no gloves either). And that was that. Definitely an odd but awesome find in the middle of the
On the way home, we stopped and saw the largest cuckoo clock in the world. It’s the size of a small house. And all the cogs and weights and bird were hand-carved out of wood. Sadly, my hands must have been shaky from the climbing that my pictures turned out shitty.
Once at home, I finally sat down to look at my emails. Thank you all who write, I feel very loved. And when I respond, it takes a while because I write so much, so I was on the computer for a while. I also have very slow progress because of the difference in keyboards I’ve mentioned before. I wrote people back for over an hour and then it was about time to go out again.
A friend of the Brauses’ had invited us to watch a soccer game this evening. I told them I did like soccer, so we went. The hockey game was also on, but sadly I witnessed
We ate some hors’d vours type food during the game. Once again I refused alcohol, though the friend of the family, Uwe, did offer more than once and said I ought to at least try some Uzzo, whatever that it. I said no and was content with my bubbly water. The game was good…I have to recall my patience for soccer watching since it’s a very long game and not quite as fast paced as volleyball. I’m still not sure who everyone was rooting for…the game was between Bayern and I think, Innenmailand. But I’ll have to check that second team name. However, it was clear that Germans do not like the Italians.
Every time a member of the non-Bayern team fell over in “Pain” Uwe would yell something at them with having to be Italian Sometimes it would just be “Italian!” or “Spaghetti Eaters!” and every time he’d also gesture like a stereotypical Italian. If this is unclear why the Germans hate the Italian soccer players, they are gigantic rivals for the World Cup. It was quite funny every time he yelled, because he actually looks exactly like Dustion Hoffman, with maybe a skinnier head. Freaky, really.
Later he made fun of me for not knowing who the Steve Miller band was. Or Chris Rea. But he and I did have a great conversation about all the bands we like and all the concerts he’s gone to. He’s seen U-2 and Snow Patrol, Paul McCartney, REM, Foreigner, Paul Simon just to name a few. He also had a pretty sizable collection of American music, including the Eagle’s last CD (Long Road Out of Eden, which I do own, courtesy of Gavin Martin). He’d even heard of Ska and Don McClean and likes heavy metal. Pretty cool. Every time he wanted to emphasize how much he liked a band, he’d kiss his fingers like the chefs do sometimes and say, “Fantastic.”
I’m beginning to think my host family likes partying more than I do. We didn’t get back home till almost midnight. So, that concludes today and I really must go to bed. And, I’m even all caught up with my blogging for this week, even though it’s not yet on line. So there.
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