Well, I cannot possible tell everything which has happened since last I blogged. I didn't have internet in London and then I have been resting and I didn't have internet in Germany really until yesterday-- my own fault, Johannes or Nico would have been happy to help me, I just didn't get it done.
I am in Germany at the Baaders' house now. It is an early 18th Century house. I will try to put up pictures later today because it is so amazing. The front door looks like a castle door with metal plates across wooden planks. This is the parsonage to go with the Baroque church across the street where Friedrich (Tabea's dad) is the pastor. The church is also very nice but a bit overly ornate for my taste, but that is the Baroque period.
Since I have been in Germany, I have been practicing my German and doing pretty well. Some words now just enter my head in German and not English. On the other hand, my grammar is going slowly. But for 3 days, it is okay. Everyone is very helpful. Tabea's mom helps me a lot. Her brothers also help.
Johannes is doing his year of volunteering, helping at the hospital and he has grown A LOT. Not only is he taller, but he is just not the little village boy I knew last time. He is a young man now, starting to think about his future. Luckily he has not quite entered the age where he is too cool for Tabea and I. The first day I was here he spent most of the afternoon talking to me about cameras. Friedrich had gotten a new one for his birthday from Barbara (Tabea's mom) and Johannes was excited to show me what it could do. It is a very nice camera. After it was dark we went out on a little walk and he showed me how to take pictures at night-- he took some of the stars, etc. It was cool. I knew intellectually that such things were possible, but I had never really tried to do it. Johannes must understand everything, like Matt. If he understands it, there is no reason for him to study it or practice it. If he does not understand it, he will put forth herculean efforts to understand it. And if someone does something illogical to him, he believes he must have seen something or perceived the event incorrectly because it is far more possible in his mind that his eyes played tricks on him then that people would behave illogically.
Nico is doing HVAC training as nearly as I can tell and he is excelling at it. But then again, I remember from last time that if you put something mechanical in front of Nico he will take it apart and rebuild it better than it had been before. Nico also just bought a 2 person kayak. The other night he and I took it out on a nearby lake while Tabea and Johannes swam. It was a bit cold for swimming for me and I would have only been a drag on Tabea and Johannes because I am not German and therefore not part fish. So we were on the boat which was fine with me. We also discovered that we are quite fast at paddling because Tabea and Johannes were thinking of tipping us over.
I had written a lot more but somehow it got deleted. I will try to find it and add it later.
w
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