Founder's Day Outhouse Racing

On Saturday, August 13, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when Josh invited me to accompany him to Dushore, PA, for the annual Founder's Day Outhouse Races. We arrived at Dane's house to see a large gathering of people all wearing red shirts emblazoned with Super Septic Suckers on the back and a trailer holding the 3-time champion outhouse. Everybody was busy chatting and gearing up for the big evening while Josh and I took in our surroundings eating our Subway sandwiches.
Soon it was time for a few announcements. Dan gave a valiant speech outlining the integrity of the Super Septic Suckers, or SSS. He described how the torch would soon be passed to the Second Super Septic Suckers and the hopes that their endless training would pay off. Group pictures were taken and strategies were discussed amongst the teammates before we all loaded up onto the truck and trailer to cruise into the bustling metropolis of Dushore. Some marched behind the trailer carrying a large American flag, while the remaining members waved from the trailer as the team was announced.



After unloading the famed outhouse, the teams involved took the traditional walk through of the course before the racing began. The Super Septic Suckers took part in the first race against the Dushore Poo-lice. All was going well until the turn around the monument when the SSS rig had a wheel malfunction. They had to come to a complete stop and finish the rest of the course without the use of the left front wheel, but they still managed to cross the finish line in a stunning 45 seconds and move into the round of 8. There was much drama surround the Second Super Septic Suckers semifinal race due to the fact that one of the pushers fell right before the finish line and was not holding onto the outhouse when it crossed the finish, which gave them a 4 second penalty, taking them out of the final race. The final race came down to the Super Septic Suckers and the Dushore Poo-lice following the penalty, and unfortunately, SSS fell to second place for the first time in 4 years. They raced valiantly, but unfortunately, tired legs just couldn't come out on top. I would definitely recommend this event to anybody who happens to be in the Dushore area on the second Saturday in August.

80 Mile Kayak Excursion on the Delaware River

 On August 4, Chrissy and I set out down the West Branch of the Delaware River around 6:40am. There was a light mist falling on us as we set out, which made for some pretty cool pictures. We passed by the Buckingham Access after about 1.5 hours and reached Lordsville in another hour after that. We would snack every once and awhile and Chrissy got the "Goldfish" song stuck in my head for at least an hour. We stopped in Stalker for lunch around 12:40pm before setting out to conquer the rapids by Red Barn Campground. We came across a group that was kayaking down to Callicoon and I happened to know the three guides. They were kind enough to inform me that they had seen my dad a half hour before up in Stalker. We continued on and made it to Callicoon around 3pm. I stopped there to re-coat myself in sunscreen before meandering on towards Damascus. I helped out a fishing tour boat by returning an oar to the guide as I was paddling downstream. By this point it hurt a lot to move my arms and my paddle felt like it weighed about 20 pounds. When I caught up to Chrissy, we decided to just relax and float for about an hour. During this hour we decided that it would be best to only paddle for 3 days to see how far we got as opposed to attempting the entire length of the Delaware River. We finally reached Skinners Falls campground around 6:30pm, which is where we decided to stop for the day. Luckily this happened to be my place of employment, so we were able to just pick a campsite and setup our tent.
After we got situated, I started hearing sirens coming from both sides of the river. A pickup with lights pulled into the parking lot across the road, followed by a fire truck. I assumed that the old Victorian house was on fire, but I didn't see any smoke. I went inside the store at Skinners Falls and asked my co-worker if she knew what was going on and she informed me that she had gotten a call that there was a missing 18 year old. That was when every possible vehicle from police cars, to an ambulance, to the park service started arriving and I knew that it couldn't be a good situation. I watched as numerous men put on scuba gear and air boats were sent into the river to go search for the missing swimmer. A couple hours went by until, unfortunately, an EMT came in asking for tarps, which meant that they had found the body and had to set up a tent in order to wait for the coroner. It was a very sobering moment and a good reminder to always wear my life jacket and to be thankful that I am alive.
Given our long evening and extremely sore muscles, we decided to sleep in until 8:30am the next morning. We got up, disassembled the tent, and gathered our gear before setting off on Day 2 of our excursion. We passed through Narrowsburg and avoided the eel weir on our way to Ten Mile River. After hours of paddling, we made it to Minisink around 4pm. We stopped and ate lunch and I used the phone to call my house to inform my parents of our progress. My goal was to reach Knights Eddy, but given our exhaustion and tendinitis, I knew in the back of my mind that wouldn't be possible. We kept on paddling down the river and saw an eagle, which was pretty cool. I was able to float down directly underneath the eagle and got some good pictures while it was perched in the tree. It was slowly getting dark as we approached an unmarked eel weir near Pond Eddy where I happened to spot my mom on shore waving us over. We paddled over and were informed that we could leave our kayaks there overnight and sleep at my parents that night. We were very grateful for a warm house to sleep in and some hot dinner.
The next morning we awoke at 8am and my mom drove us down to Pond Eddy. We set off down the river once again despite our sore arms and hands. Our boats were much lighter since we kept the gear at the house because we were only paddling another 3 hours to Matamoras, PA. I was very grateful for this considering the rapids that we encountered on our journey, which were definitely the most fun we had the entire trip. I got some pictures and video along the way, which are compiled in a short movie at the bottom of this post. We definitely enjoyed ourselves and plan on doing the rest of the river in increments until we do the entire length, including the Delaware Bay. I will definitely post again whenever we decide to continue our excursion.

Bad Nauheim: A Town Known for Elvis, Saltwater, and Alligator Farms

On Thursday, our last full day in Germany, I had my usual breakfast of a buttered sesame seed roll and a cup of coffee. During breakfast, Uncle Winfred called and told Oma that he was going to take Nick and me to Bad Nauheim at 1:30pm. Since I assumed this would take up the majority of the day, I decided to run some errands in Oberursel-Mitte and pack before he arrived.

The trek to Bad Nauheim via the autobahn was only about a half an hour. As we got closer to town, my uncle started pointing at these brown signs that had a picture of an alligator and the word "farm" on them. Apparently on the outskirts of Bad Nauheim there is an alligator farm; go figure. My uncle parked on the street and as soon as we got out of the car, he pointed to the Cardiology Center that we were next to and said he had stayed there for three weeks at somepoint in the last year. This didn't really surprise me considering he has 5 stents already and he is pretty much a walking heart attack who smokes like a chimney. We then wandered over to what appeared to be a giant wall of roots with a water wheel, which is apparently one of many places where saltwater is mined and pumped to the surface in Bad Nauheim. We continued to wander through the park and into the main part of the town to the information center where there were banners advertising the upcoming Elvis festival. Apparently Elvis Presley was stationed in Bad Nauheim for 2 years while he served in the US army, and the town has lived off his legacy ever since.
Up the street from where we were was the Hotel Grunewald, which is on the corner of Elvis Presley-Platz. There is a monument erected in his memory across the street, which happened to have some flowers and candles placed on the ground in front of it, since people who can't make it to Graceland in Nashville tend to use this as a memorial to the King of Rock 'N Roll. After gazing at everything Elvis, we decided to have lunch at Wiener Kaffeehouse. I opted for a slice of chocolate cream cake with a cappucino, which was a marvelously delicious decision.
On our way home from Bad Nauheim, Uncle Winfred drove us up over the Feldberg and into Bad Homburg so that we could see some sights in the park there, including a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm, a Thai temple made of gold, and a fountain. Soon we were back at Oma's for our dinner of schnitzel and potatoes. Oma spent some time meowing at me and laughing because my cat back home is named Schnitzel and she has always been confused that I might actually eat my cat. The joys of a language barrier yet again. I guess the big surprise for everyone, though, was the fact that Uncle Winfred was actually drinking water out on the back patio. From my interpretation, I guess he typically will not eat or drink at Oma's because of the dog. The rest of the evening was spent chatting with Oma, Aunt Edith, Uncle Winfred, and Monika before heading off to bed for some sleep since we had to get up at 5am for breakfast before Herta and Ralf drove us to the airport.

As you can assume, we landed safely at JFK. Chrissy was kind enough to pick us up from the airport to drive us back to East Stroudsburg. I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with her about life from the past two weeks since we both have had a lot going on. I made sure to stay awake until 11:30pm in an attempt to get me back on a normal sleep schedule. This has only partly worked because I have been wide awake since 5:15am. Oh well, I have plenty of time to catch up on sleep and recuperate before I dive into the real world and try to find myself a job.

Pepper Grinders Are My New Weapon of Choice

Since I know tomorrow will probably be hectic with relatives coming in and out to say goodbye before we leave, I thought it best to update my blog tonight instead of tomorrow to limit my time out of the house. In doing so, I had to venture out into what I thought was a passing rain storm. This storm seemed to progress with my each and every step towards the internet cafe with whipping winds, donner und blitz (no not felt-tipped antlered reindeer for Christmas in July, but thunder and lightning), and eventually hail. So I am now sitting with wet pants and shoes (despite my umbrella) as I am typing this, so please appreciate the effort put in to bring this information to you.
Last night we went out to dinner with Aunt Edith, Aunt Herta, and Ralf to Pizzeria Giolio. Considering I know how the Germans make pizza, I opted for spaghetti and tomato sauce for the evening. We had appetizers of bruschetta, while Ralf had what appeared to be tuna salad. He asked the waiter for ground pepper, which in America, wouldn't be an intimidating task. Alas, in Germany, they must disperse pepper with Theodore Roosevelt in mind. The Germans live by the rule of "talk softly and carry a big pepper grinder" being as I'm pretty convinced this monstrosity was nearly three feet long. The remainder of dinner was very pleasant with casual conversation about sports, news, the weather, and how nothing in the world beats Apple products, at least according to Ralf.
As we exited the establishment, Ralf was hoping to get a picture of us all standing on the sidewalk. This went well until about 2 seconds before he took the picture, which was when Aunt Edith thought it would be funny to open her umbrella to block all of us from his camera. Eventually Ralf did get his picture, though it did take some coaxing. We then wandered to the Eis Cafe on the corner for some icecream and cappucino. I opted for the "Pinocchio" eis, which was a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate with two M and M's for eyes, and a cone for a hat and the tip of a cone for the nose so that it actually resembled Pinocchio. I ordered this for two distinct reasons: I enjoy being a kid and it was the smallest amount of icecream available. Following our icecream, we wandered back to Oma's for some rest.
Today I was awoken by Oma's version of an alarm clock; her knocking on the pipes in the kitchen with a pair of scissors so that the vibrations travel up to the radiator in my room. I soon wandered down for a breakfast of a buttered sesame seed roll and cup of coffee (13) and promptly entered into the most awkward breakfast conversation ever (yet strikingly normal for Oma). First she mentioned my late uncle and a trip she had taken with him, my dad, and one of my aunts when they were kids. Then she brought up how my Opa had a stroke in 2001 that impaired the left hand side of his body. This was followed by her stating that Opa told her that she wasn't Amalie, but his oma because she had gray hair and Amalie had black hair. To make things more interesting, she brought up how my aunt Edith's ex-husband used to be the one to take care of Opa when he was still alive. And to top things off, she asked me how my other grandmother is doing and that my dad really liked Pete (my late grandfather). After swallowing all of this and my breakfast, I went to retrieve Nick from upstairs so he could eat and we could leave with Uncle Winfred and Monika for our trek to Rüdesheim and Koblenz for the Bundesgardenschau (BUGA 11).

We left Oma's around 9am after Nick prayed for us in the garden. Our first stop was Rüdesheim, which is a quaint little town on the Rhine River. We wandered along cobblestoned streets, passed old hotels, and into shops. Monika bought some chocolate that she shared with us all. This chocolate was filled with Asbach, which is made in this region. Oh, I forgot to mention, but Asbach is cognac. Nothing like two cognac filled pieces of chocolate before 11am to give you a little extra jolt in the morning. After we finished wandering, Uncle Winfred donated our parking pass to a family from England so that they didn't have to pay.
He then drove us on a scenic road aong the Rhine that took us the 54km to Koblenz. The best way to describe this drive is as follows: Castles. Vineyards. Castles surrounded by vineyards. Vineyards surrounded by castles. Okay, so that last one might not be so accurate, but you catch my drift. Some of the names of these castles included Schloss Stolzenfels, Pfalzgrafenstein near Kaub, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Braubach mit Marksburg, and my personal favorite, Maüsturm. In Koblenz, we saw many flowers and another castle. Koblenz is where the Rhine River meets the Mosel River, which can be seen best from the gondola that goes up onto the hillside across the rivers. You can really see where the rivers meet because the Mosel has darker water than the Rhine. We also found time to wander through the Basilica of St. Kastor before catching a bus to the castle gardens. It was truly an experience to see all of the various flowers and architecture in and around Koblenz.

Following numerous hours walking around, Uncle Winfred drove us back to Oberursel via the autobahn. It was a pretty relaxing drive home, but he made sure he got the adrenaline pumping by going 180kpm (about 111mph). We got home safely, which this blog post is a testament to. Oma made eggs over easy, potatoes, and salad for dinner, which I washed down with some Coca Cola.
Tomorrow brings packing, cleaning, more coffee I'm sure, and the procession of 'goodbyes'. That for me is always somewhat awkward being as I never really know when and if I will see some of my relatives again. But no time to think about that. Time to head back to Oma's since the lovely little storm has now passed.

Friends, Fellowship, and le Tour de France

Nick and I awoke early on Saturday so that Uncle Winfred could drive us to the airport at 5am. This was so that we could catch our Air France flight to Paris. Other than the flight being delayed for 30 minutes, all went smoothly and we found ourselves in Charles de Gaulle airport by 10am. We wandered through the crowds to a tourist information booth in order to purchase our Paris Visite pass, which would allow for unlimited train travel for the next two days. We then wandered down to the tracks to hop on the B line to Saint Michel-Notre Dame. This was our first taste of French train travel, and it was pretty interesting.
Once we emerged from the train station, we found ourselves in the hustle and bustle of Central Paris. We made our way to a bridge across the Seine River, which gave us a spectacular view of Notre Dame Cathedral and Palais de Justice. We slowly walked in the direction of Notre Dame, taking numerous pictures along the way. To my chagrin, and Nick's amusement, I have very much turned into my father since I take numerous pictures of the same structure, just at different angles. We walked the perimeter of Notre Dame and I stopped briefly in a souvenir shop to purchase a Tour de France shirt for my Uncle Bob and myself. Soon we found ourselves on the steps of Shakespeare and Company, which is a local English bookshop that Nate had recommended to us. I thoroughly enjoyed this quaint little shop, and ended up buying a book by Bill Bryson on Shakespeare, which I'm sure will be hilarious.
After our stop in the bookshop, Nick and I ventured into the Latin Quarter. Everywhere we turned, we were intrigued by new sights and sounds. It began to rain, but instead of getting discouraged, we ducked into Le Petite de Cluny, which is a nice little French cafe. The food culture of France worked in our favor because by the time we finished sitting and eating our meal of a panini (Nick) and ham and cheese sandwich, the rain had cleared and we could venture on without getting completely soaked.
The next stop on our list of things to see in Paris was the Louvre. We took a train from the Latin Quarter to Chatelet, where we transferred to the 1 in order to get off at Louvre-Rivoli. If you haven't ever had the chance, I would highly recommend trekking to the Louvre because it is a spectacular piece of architecture. Nick and I could not get over how massive it was, and thoroughly enjoyed gazing at the structure. We didn't have time to go inside, and that would have been difficult anyway due to the fact that we had our backpacks with us. We then wandered off in the direction of the Arc de Triomph before veering off along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower. Nick and I were constantly pointing and saying, "That looks so cool! What is it?" We would then get out our map and realize that it was number 15 on the map, but we were too lazy to actually look it up. (Number 15 happens to be the Grand Palais for those interested). Other sights that we walked past but refused to look up at the time included Sainte Chappelle, Conciergie, Musee de l'Armee, Musee de Cluny, Musee de Orsay, and Petit Palais. We finally made our way to the base of the Eiffel Tower and spent a lot of time just gazing up at it in wonder.
Once we got tired and realized it was getting late, we decided to head back to the train station to make our way to Massy-Verrieres, which was where Nate was planning on picking us up. This, of course, was not an easy task given that part of the C line was under construction. This meant that we could take the C line from the Eiffel Tower to Invalides, where we had to hop the 8 train to Concorde and then the 4 train to Chatelet before we could get on the B line towards Massy-Verrieres. Nate and Kaden were very happy to see us once we arrived and we had a pleasant car ride back to the apartment, where I thoroughly enjoyed the comfort and simplicity of watching Cars with Kaden and rolling a marble back and forth on the floor.

It was nice to have a vacation within our vacation with Nate, Erica, Kaden, and Luca. Nothing quite like spending time with English-speaking, Christians in my book. We had a lovely dinner of paninis, which Nick is very astute at creating and making, to the point that we believe he should bail on his nursing profession and open up his own little panini cafe. We enjoyed pleasant conversation and shared understanding of the difficulties in the language barrier and how sometimes you end up agreeing to things you don't mean to agree to.
Sunday morning we had a breakfast of croissants before wandering to Eglise Reformie Evangelique for church. The sermon of course was all in French and I could only understand the word "Jesus", but I still felt very much at home with my fellow believers. Apparently the message was based upon Peter's denial of Christ, which is found at the end of Matthew 26. I passed my time by copying down the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed in French from the back of the hymnal for a friend back home. After the sermon, I was approached by I woman. I told her that I did not speak French, and she promptly spoke to me in English and asked me if I was associated with the language school. I said that I had relatives in Germany that I was visiting and that I knew Nate and Erica. Apparently this woman has a 27 year old daughter living in Germany that she and her husband were going to be visiting for 8 days soon before travelling to Ireland. I was then approached by another woman dressed completely in magenta. She was very friendly and apparently her name is Evelyn. We had a very lengthy conversation about how she grew up in the Champagne region of France and how they have plenty of vineyards and strict quality codes to follow in order to make champagne. She isn't a fan of the cheap champagne that is produced in California, which I can understand. She shared about her younger years, which apparently included a 3 month kabutz in Israel. She was very happy that I taught her that in English, a portable is a cell phone. She actually took out a little notepad to write this down, which I thought was cool. I also informed her that the German's call it a handy before parting ways.

I went outside to find Nick and Kaden playing on the playground. We soon wandered home for a very quick lunch of sandwiches before Nick, Nate, Kaden, and I went into Paris to watch the last stage of le Tour de France. We staked out a spot on Rue de Rivoli, just up from the corner of Rue de Moldovi, which is across the street from the Louvre. First, there was a parade of random cars advertising everything from water to lighters. Then all of the team cars and buses drove by. Then came the long wait for the cyclists. I knew that they were coming due to the helicopter flying above us, obviously filming the race. I got some pretty cool pictures and video of the racers flying by on 4 of the 7 loops that they do. We decided to bail early so that we could go to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.
We took a train to a station that apparently has a lot of stairs, so we waited with everybody else to get on the elevator. I was surprised to see how massive this elevator was; probably the combined size of my kitchen and living room at my apartment in the Burg. We went up one floor and foolishly got off, bringing some unlucky people with us. We then had to walk up four flights of a spiral staricase before we reached the exit of the station. We were greeted by more stairs up to Sacre Coeur, but the view over Paris that we got was definitely worth it. Nick and I did the quick walking tour of Sacre Coeur and then enjoyed the street performers. There was a guy on a pedestal performing amazing tricks with a soccer ball, along with a man on the steps playing acoustic versions of "Let it Be" and "Wonderwall". We then went back down to the base of the stairs so that Kaden could end his day on a high note: the carousel.
Around 8pm we wandered back into the apartment for another delicious meal Erica prepared. This time it was sausage on a bed of white rice with tomato sauce, green beans, and French fries (my first time ever eating them in France). It was a very relaxing evening filled with fun conversation, a tasty chocolate chip cookie cake extravaganza, music, and prayer. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to gather in fellowship and pray for one another before crawling into bed.
Monday, Nick and I found ourselves on a plane back to Frankfurt. We landed around 11am, and ended up taking a scenic bus ride through Frankfurt to Süd Bahnhof because we got on the 61 bus instead of the shuttle to Terminal 1. We then hopped on the S5 back to Oberursel, where we wandered the streets of Altstadt, had lunch at the bakery, and sat and relaxed on the steps of St. Ursula's church. When we arrived back at Oma's, we were greeted with cake and coffee. Uncle Winfred and Monika were there and giving us details on the trip we will make to Koblenz tomorrow. I was also greeted with the surprise that I had actually won €27.50 when I played the lotto for Oma the previous week. I also learned that Winfred has an astute sense of hearing because he told us to be quiet and listen to the car driving by; apparently it was a Ferrari. Who knew my family was filled with such fun secret talents? The rest of the afternoon was spent lazily watching television, eating a dinner of rice and chicken in white sauce, and chatting with Aunt Edith. A very long, but relatively refreshing day.
Finally, for those interested in the score, it's Kayla 12; coffee 0.

Which Way to Oberhochstadt?

During dinner Tuesday night, I thought I would ask a harmless question about how much the bus fare is to Oberhochstadt. Due to communication issues and my Oma being who she is, this turned into a phone call to my Aunt Edith informing her that Nick and I were coming for a visit. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, especially because I was exhausted from wandering around Frankfurt for hours. Instead of trying to explain, it was much easier to just get on a bus and go visit my aunt.
Another pitfall in this situation was that Oma didn't really explain where to get off the bus very well, and the bus driver was none too helpful to put it nicely. Needless to say when we did get off the bus at Sodener Straße and started walking, we came across a sign that said Kronberg 2km and underneath that was the word "Oberhochstadt" crossed out in red like a "no smoking" sign. Being as my aunt lives in Oberhochstadt, this was definitely not a good sign. After wandering around a bit, though, we finally came across Feldberg Straße and saw Aunt Edith perched on her balcony. She didn't mind that we were late, but ever since Tuesday night, Oma has made sure to tell anyone and everyone that we got lost and didn't listen to her. I'm pretty sure as they are reading this, my parents are chuckling because they have already been informed of this bit of information. Ahhhhh the joys of family. If I happen to comeback to the states resembling an alligator, it's due to the thick skin I have acquired.
Wednesday was a relatively uneventful day. I decided to remain at Oma's to read and watch le Tour de France on television with Oma. Aunt Herta and Ralf stopped by after work again and about an hour later, Uncle Winfried and Monika stopped in. After sitting around the kitchen table for an hour, Uncle Winfried (who I refer to in my head by another name because I swear he resembles a recently deceased dictator) offered to take Nick and me to Bad Homburg. I find their apartment complex to be almost James Bond-like because you need a key to open the gate to the underground garage. He showed us my cousin Bernd's motorcycle before we went inside. Bernd was on his way out the door, but he stopped long enough to show Nick the owner's manual to his motorcycle and give him one of his Rolls Royce work shirts. Uncle Winfried then drove him to Maiburg to visit his girlfriend and made it back in record time, which probably had a lot to do with him driving on the autobahn at 200 kph (that's about 120 mph for those scrambling to do the math or those who are too lazy to do so and just vaguely nodding in feigned understanding). Monika explained to us that Uncle Winfried's heart isn't doing so great. He has had 5 stents put in and the doctor will not let him work. He is also on betablockers and a bloodthinner, which caused him a 1 week trip to the hospital last year due to a 4hr long bloody nose from a burst vessel in his sinuses. Being brave, I told Uncle Winfried that his smoking was nicht so gut. He laughed and now gets my attention everytime he goes out for a smoke. Can we say stubborn German? Good to know it's genetic, as is the love of guns because Uncle Winfried also showed us his collection. Monika also invited us to come with them to Koblenz next week for the bundesgardenschau, so that should be fun.
Yesterday the sun was out for maybe a half hour before it started pouring. I read for awhile until the weather cleared up and then Nick and I took a train to Bad Homburg. We wandered through the park, which was stocked with endless modern art. There was one piece that I liked that had two large wine glass tipped over with red and white flowers on the ground representing the spilled wine. We walked through Karstadt and down Louise Straße. Ate lunch at the bakery before searching for the castle and witch tower (Nick said that could be my new home. I can sense the love, especially since Tuesday night he said my new home could be with the dementia patients at my aunt's work haha). We strolled through the garden's of the castle, which is where I started to note some unique and slightly out of place occurences.
First off, there was a four-poster bed in the lake by the castle. My take is that this is either some form of modern art, or the newest, most literal version of the water bed. Next, I saw a nun walking her bicycle across the street and I chuckled to myself wondering if she makes a habit out of it (now that I have elicited either a collective eyeroll or confusion, let's move on). The last intriguing sight in Bad Homburg was the Fiat (type of car) we came across. Apparently this model was the "Panda" model, and I have course desperately hoped it was run on some new bamboo biofuel.
We soon made our way back to Oma's for hamburger, mashed potatoes, and red saurkraut (yes, I fail as a German and tend to be quite bitter towards saurkraut). Aunt Edith also came over for a smoke. We happened to be in the middle of watching a documentary on the Hindenburg catastrophe, so I finished watching that before wandering into the kitchen. Somehow we got talking about where the coffee came from and Aunt Edith was hoping it wasn't from Poland.
My final note, for all of you who have been wondering, I still have the ability to corrupt people while in Germany. When in Germany, one is supposed to wait until the sign turns green to cross the street. How do I know this? Because there is a sign at every street corner that says, "Only walk when it is green or else you will set a bad example for the children." Me being me, (and also because there was no old ladies to scold me or club me with an umbrella) I have crossed the street when the sign is still red. It's the American way and I must set a bad example for the apparently easily corruptible German children.