July 30th, 2004 Friday Today has been very busy. the Vonderbanks keep us seeing lots of things, we have a full schedule ahead of us for the next few days that we are staying at their house. We got lost and couldn't find the nearest Autobahn and we drove around for hours looking for it. When we found it, I was a bit scared, because everyone drove so fast. The Autobahn does have speed limits most of the time, up to 130 km/h but there are still the parts where there is no speed limit at all. When the speed limit was 130 km/h, Dad was going about 120 or 125 km/h in the slow lane and people were zooming past us like we were parked! There is grafiti all over everything here, but it isnt too annoying or disturbing. Some of it is so colorful, it is beautiful in an art kind of way. Most of it is in English, surprisingly. Tons of cusswords, even more names/initials, and a few that actually have a message, like "no war" and then one with a girl's name signed with "for my love.." We finally found our way to Neun Kirchen, which is when we got lost again. We asked a woman for her help, but she said that she had only lived there a short time and did not know all of the road names. After another hour or so of driving around in the village, we found Christina's house. They were all on the deck waving to us (Barbara, Wilfried, Christina, Christian, Verena [Velena? I can't tell by how they pronounce it], and Jan). Barbara is Christina's mother, Wilfried is her father, Christian is her long term boyfriend, Verena is her younger sister, and Jan is her younger brother. He is between me and Brett's age, or at least that is what Mom said. Here is a description of their house: (it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, because houses are generally smaller than here with the higher tax rate and all) it is very modern, with all hardwood floors and glass doors. Christina has a ton of hamsters! She insists that I sleep in her bed while she sleeps on the couch. Jan's room is next to hers, with the parents' room on that side also. On the main floor there is the high tech kitchen that is very modern, the foyer, Verena's room, a sun room, the dining room, and a large living room. The basement is finished and has the bathroom that my family will use. The garden is larger than most I have seen so far, with most of the yards being quite small. There is a terrace that connects to the living room, with a set of table and chairs. Mom, Dad, Wilfried, and Barbara had bier on it tonight, while Christina and I drank French cider, which is alcoholic but tastes wonderful--But I'll get to that later. The garden is filled with ponds and flowers and vegetables. I tried blueberries from the garden, they are delicious. Paths wind through the garden and bees so full of nectar they fly around slowly and lazily are all around. It is like the secret garden, and Wilfried grew all of it. (this is a small portion of the Vonderbanks' garden) Today when we got to their house they served lasagna and salad, and then we went out to the terace while Mom gave them our gifts to them. After that we discussed what we would do that day, and the Vonderbanks decided that they would take us to a nearby town called Siegburg, where there is an Abbey of St. Michael on top of a hill. We had seen this town from a distance on the drive to Neun Kirchen, and Brett thought the Abbey was a castle, which I found quite amusing. The abbey was very very old, Mom remembers it saying somewhere that it was built in 1050, but I'm not really sure; its pretty old, whenever it was built. Monks still live there. The climb up the hill was horrible, especially because it was so hot outside. We made it up the hill and then walked up the tiny spiral staircase hundreds of steps until we arrived at the top. We went out on the balcony and took pictures of Siegburg, then climbed carefully down the stairs and the hill into the town. We got icecream, but I was still full from the lasagna so I didn't get any. Mom got some that looked like spaghetti, with strawberry syrup as the sauce and grated white chocolate to look like parmesan. While we ate, someone in the town square was playing a didgeridoo. We looked for this pottery shop that was famous, but when we found it, it had already closed so we went back to their house. After the drinks on the terrace, we decided to get ready for bed (none of us are used to the time zone yet), which is why I am in Christina's room right now writing this. _______________________________ i read about this weird song, it reminds me of the ring...somewhere around 100 people have commited suicide after listening to it, or used the lyrics or the sheet music as a suicide note. its called gloomy sunday. i listened to it, it is quite haunting and depressing. there is something about it that is weird. the one i listened to was a version by sarah mclachlan, and it was especially chilling compared to the weird opera versions that i heard otherwise.