Germany Journal

Since I won't be able to post any more pics. for awhile (see post below), I thought I'd share from what I wrote on our trip. I tried to note things for the girls to help prepare them for the move.

2/4/11

Dear Robyn, Carly, and Macy,

Since I wanted to tell you all about our trip, I figured I'd write to you. Right now, it is 11 AM in Germany, but it is the middle of the night for you! You would NOT believe how big this airplane is. (Daddy told me it has to be big enough to carry enough gasoline to get us over the ocean). There are 2 aisles with 2 seats, 4 seats, and then 2 more across. We are in row 52 and are not all the way in the back. They have 5 bathrooms downstairs. I was brave and ordered my drinks in German. They had to ask me to repeat, and I told them I was practicing. I love just listening to the people speaking German. I can recognize the words I learned on the CDs from the library.

While we were waiting in the Denver Airport, we met a really nice woman from OK who taught international writing classes, and was on her way to visit her grandkids in Africa. I love meeting new people and seeing new places.

While I was in the bathroom in the airport, I heard water and then a woman using bad language. I thought her cellphone had fallen in the toilet. It turns out there was no counter, so she set her purse in a sink, which triggered the automatic faucet, and her purse started filling up with water! She was very upset about it. I tried to help her feel better.

2/5/11

Dear Girls,

We'll have to remember to take you to a really cool McDonald's spaceship in Terminal 2D of the Frankfurt Airport.

Yesterday, Dad and I called you from a payphone in a red telephone booth. It was so good to hear your voices. It was 4PM here, and you were just getting ready for school there.

We took a walk around this little town called Friedricksdorf. The houses are so cute! There is some graffiti, but other than that, everything is super clean and well kept. Each house/business is a little bit different and has character. For example, the store where they sell eyeglasses has a big pair of eyeglasses for the door handles, and the shoe store has...yep, you guessed it, a wooden shoe for the handle. Later, I saw pretzel handles on a bakery door.

The most crowded shop was a bakery. The cakes in the window looked very pretty and really good. They had marzipan in the shape of monkeys and elephants. A nice mom talked to us for a minute. We commented on her little boy's bike. It was a running bike, like some of your friends have, Macy, except that it was wooden.

Many things look a little bit different, but most is the same--moms, dads, and grandparents out for walks with strollers, people buying groceries (we bought little breads, a creamy cheese, and salami), and kids walking home from school with backpacks.

We also got to walk to one of our temples, which was neat. There is a church building where 2 wards (congregations) meet on the same grounds, too, along with a really cute house and some apartments.

Someone knocked on our hotel door, along with others @ 8:30AM. We were surprised since we didn't ask for a wake-up call. Oh, well. It's helping us stay on the right schedule (since we're jet lagged)... We found out later that a group of Italian boys were staying in several rooms by us, and it was accidental.

2/7/11

Yesterday, we went to church. We arrived just in time for the German service in Heidelberg. A nice older couple, the Rosas (I learned that people introduce themselves with their last names), greeted us, told us all about the area, and even translated the service for us. The woman speaks 4 languages--German, English, French, and Spanish. This is not uncommon here, as the boarders of the different countries are all so close.

I was really inspired by the people's stories during the meeting. They testified of Heavenly Father knowing and helping each of them individually, which is what I feel like we need while we're here looking for a place to live, etc.

Then, we stayed and met Megan (Melissa's sis) and her 4 kids. It'll be fun for you to meet them. They go to the English-speaking military congregation. I met Jessica, whose mom works by us, and Jaros y Sandra, a really nice couple from Peru.

During Gospel Doctrine, we discussed the story in the Bible about leaving everything and dropping our nets. In Relief Society, we talked about emulating the Savior. I enjoyed hearing the Primary kids singing the same songs you sing when I was walking through the hallway.

It's nice to feel at home at church where ever it may be. Megan invited us (and her friend Jayma and her kids) for lunch at her place. She is very friendly, outgoing, and positive like Melissa. We had chili, chips and salsa, and brownies. We brought some fun wafer chocolate cookies with musical instruments etched in them to share.

Everything is bigger and smaller than I'd expected. How is this possible? Well, the city is big, but everything in it (like the cars, parking places, washing machines, you name it) are tiny. We are staying downtown Mannheim for Daddy's Conference. Parking is hard to come by (and the 30,000 students are on break right now). In many places, people park on the sidewalk or half-way on the sidewalk since the streets are so narrow. When we first arrived at our hotel, we went down into its very narrow parking garage, only to discover that the gate was closed. We had no idea how we could ever get out of there! Daddy went and talked to them, and they opened the gate. In the teeny tiny garage, many of the spaces have elevators so that 2 cars can park in each spot. (Kind of like the Fisher Price garage).

We are realizing that having a car is very expensive ($10 gallon for gas, taxes, parking fees, etc) and not very convenient. So, we'll look for a place to live by a train stop.

Despite the big-city-ness, there are many green fields on the sides of the autoban between citites.

Robyn, Carly, and Macy,

We went to 2 grocery stores, where we learned that you must bring your own bag or basket. We also learned that you should bring change for a deposit in order to use a cart. We tried some really good cheese and yogurt. We also bought what we thought was squirt cheese to put on some crackers, but found out that it was mustard! (It looks like a tube of toothpaste). We bought some fresh bread and sausages, which we boiled in our hotel room, and put the mustard on. Dad and I were laughing in the grocery store because one little girl wanted to push the cart just like you, and was having a little trouble steering. I guess this childhood need is universal. They have many kinds of juice, treats, cheeses, and breads that are fun to try here.

Many people smoke here. It's sad to see, especially for the young people. They have vending machines just for cigarettes. Some of the packages say, "These will cause a slow and painful death."

At church, we got to hear 3 young men speak who talked about how much joining the church has changed their lives. They said it has given them much hope.

2/14/11

Dear girls,

Today is Valentine's Day. I'm glad to be on our way home to you. I love you!

Germany ended up being more like The States and less like the stereotypical Germany (with cuckoo clocks, etc) than I thought it would be. The downtown areas of the big cities with the big department stores reminded me of Chicago.

The people were friendly. Everyone we met was happy and helpful. Sometimes, people spoke English to us, and other times they let us struggle with the little bit of German that we know. This happened one time with a friendly woman in the immigration office who smiled a lot. Daddy thought he was asking her for a map of the city, and later we realized he was asking her for a briefcase! No wonder she was smiling. I'm sure she thought we were funny.

I think it's better to try the language and make mistakes than not to try. This is the only way to learn and get better. Yesterday, we attended a different German ward in Mannheim. A missionary who'd been there for 6 months could hardly say anything. This worried me, but Dad said his companion was also from the US, and they spoke English with each other. It takes a lot more effort to speak the language, but the more we practice, the easier it'll get, and the more people we'll be able to interact with.

There will be many fun things to explore and discover together!

Ich liebe dich!

Mutti