Sunday, November 8, 2009

A trip to Minnesota

Two weeks ago Cass and I were in Minnesota. I flew to the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) annual conference in Minneapolis and planned to be gone for approximately a week. Paul and Lindsay Erickson are some good friends of ours and live in Madison, WI (it was at their wedding in May when I killed my ankle) and decided they would drive over to see me for the weekend. I told them that Cass was really disappointed to miss seeing them for a second time in a row, and a few days later we got an email suggesting that they fly her to MN using their frequent flier miles. We called them and discussed the idea for a bit, that we were initially uncomfortable with their extreme generosity, but in the end all decided together that we would be happy to take the unique opportunity to be all together. So, although on different airlines and on different days, Cass and I flew to Minnesota a few weeks ago. We hung out with them for most of the weekend and had a wonderful time talking with kindred spirits, eating American food, and exploring the biggest mall in the world. It was wonderfully encouraging to both Cass and I and we were (are) deeply grateful for the generosity of our good friends - who have taken to loving my wife as much as they loved me before they met her. Here is a picture of the four of us taking a walk at a park in Minneapolis:


In addition to the fun we had with the Ericksons (that still sounds a little strange after 5+ years of them dating ...) I also had a good time at the conference. The trip was somewhat impromptu. I had already been to two conferences this year, and will also attend another in San Francisco in December, so this one was a bit superfluous in some sense. In addition to sharing a poster of some of the work I've been doing for the last six months, however, I wanted to have a meeting with people from TSI, which is a company that sells a large percentage of particle instruments that people in my field uses. They sell (for ~$130,000) that has become the mainstay of one area of my research, and I wrote some "software" that analyzes the data and puts it in a form that is useful for presentation. I made a little (very amateur) 5-minute video to introduce the software to them via email in the hopes that we would find some way to collaborate as a result. I didn't figure the meeting would go far, but thought that meeting in person would be useful, and since the travel funding at my institute is very flexible my boss decided it was worth a trip. So I had my first "business lunch" that Wednesday with five members of the company, from a software engineer and aerosol scientist to a couple marketing managers. Several of them individually said to me that they were "very impressed" with my software, which I thought was a little humorous and even embarrassing, because the only thing they'd seen was my emailed presentation with some video screen shots and microphone voice-over done with little preparation by myself in the lab. It was a good conversation, however, and they were interested in lots of details about how the software was useful for me and what kind of things I need provided to me as an end-user of their instruments/products. One of the marketing guys said that my software was exactly the type of thing that they would like to offer with all of their instruments (since they offer no data analysis capability with anything they offer). They asked if I wanted to sell it to them and be done with it, but I responded that while that would be tempting, that it is more important to me as an early career scientist to build collaborations with other scientists and find ways to further establish myself in my research, and that by selling this to them I'd give up those rights. So after talking around different aspects of the ideas they said they'd get back to me.

Later that afternoon I went to a tour of the nearby TSI headquarters with 60 or so other conference attendees. That was another good opportunity to schmooze, and I did my best to channel Paul Erickson's suaveness in these things. I must have done a good job, because over the course of a couple hours or less at a reception in their lunch room I met several other people who came up to me and were "very impressed with my software." It kept startling me how far and wide my email had already gotten, but it was fun to talk to everyone from the perspective not of a graduate student, but as one who is granted scientific respect. I talked about the research I was doing and why their instrument helped me do that, and several people I talked to said something like "Who you really need to meet is so-and-so" and so they'd introduce me. I got passed along several people in a row, got to the VP of product development and talked to him for 20 minutes about my ideas for research, how TSI fit in the game, and how I thought they were in a unique position to capitalize on opportunities coming along in my field of science. He seemed also impressed, and asked me lot of questions as if I were the expert, which was fun for me after recently moving beyond the threshold of graduate school into a very different role. After we talked for a while he grabbed a guy in a suit walking by (side note: "lowly" scientists *never* wear suits - so I knew he was different) who turned out to be the president of the company. We also talked for a bit about all the things I'd talked to with each of the previous people, and also chatted about my experience living in Germany etc. So who knows where all that will go - maybe nowhere. The good thing is that I went into the week expecting to have a meeting, but one that would not lead to any tangible or immediate benefit for me. That may still be the case, but the meetings gave me the opportunity to meet people (both scientists and members of the company) who may prove to be useful collaborators in years to come. It was fun for me to learn to see myself in a few light as a scientist already established, in one sense, in my field and who is respected as having perspective and experience that is useful to others. Another conversation with a trusted senior scientist who I've worked with in the past said to me something along the lines of "The sooner you start thinking of yourself as a senior scientist, and acting like it, the more you'll get done, and faster. Don't think of yourself as a postdoc and you'll be much more successful and productive." It was interesting advice, and the conversations with TSI were a good case example of that.

While I was having these meetings, Cass was in Colorado visiting family, where she had flown after spending a few days in MN. While the travel was brutal, she had a great visit with her family - including Luke, Holly and the two kids, whose plans to move to Barbados are a bit on hold and so they are still in Colorado. Cass also got a chance to meet our new niece Finley Zumwalt, which was very jealous of. If she ever gets time maybe she'll write a few things about that trip.

I wanted to give some of you an update on my meetings, since a number of people had been interested in the out-come. I also wanted to give you a snapshot of some of the things going on in my professional life at the moment and from time-to-time. In parting, however, I give you a picture of our trip to the Mall of America. It truly is an impressive shrine to American materialism. We walked around with worshipers and tried not to be too overwhelmed. We were impressed, however, by the entire amusement park in the interior courtyard of the four sections of the mall. I'm not sure how to sum it all up, but it was impressive - no doubt.

Cass and the baby both continue to grow. We would be happy for your prayers as time marches on and as we have our scheduled doctor's visits that share more information about this new creature inside. Life is certainly a miracle, and not to be taken for granted.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A week of marriage in Germany

This week marked the 2nd anniversary of our wedding. It seems like the time has been less. It was now just over 2 years ago that we had a wonderful Fall afternoon in the hills west of Denver where the beautiful sun and relative warmth lasted through all of the afternoon that we required, and the snow did not begin until the party was winding down. Even though we've now been married for more than 730 days, the years we had under our belts as mere "friends" have left their mark on my psyche. There are still moments when I snap out of both reality and the moment into the confusion of thinking that Cass and I are still just "friends." Fortunately, however, as time goes on those moments are becoming less frequent and less pronounced. More importantly I find myself curiously deeper in love with her now than I was when we were first betrothed. Maybe it took some time to wear past her laughter during the "I respect you" bit of our vows, I'm not sure. Either way, I am lucky to have an amazing wife that supports me in so many ways - beyond what even she could have understood when she signed on. She had to weather my months of solitary confinement as I finished my PhD, lovingly bringing me snack plates to the desk in my cave. And then this year when I tore ligaments in my ankle she again had to bear the brunt of all of life's tasks because my crutches made doing most things beyond simple locomotion beyond my ability. Fortunately, in her pregnancy I've gotten the chance to take care of her some as the pendulum has swung the other direction. I can't imagine I'll ever push the scales out of my own debt, but I'm glad that I have the opportunity to share some practical care back that she has so selflessly given to me.

Since no week is ever normal for us (or anyone, I suppose), I thought I'd give you a quick summary of how things went down this anniversary week.

Monday - The day started normally. I went to work, but stayed late, because I figured I would need to leave early in the coming days. As I went to leave, however, I noticed that my wedding ring was not on my finger. While most days are not good days to lose the symbol of our marriage, it didn't strike me as particularly appropriate to choose the late evening on anniversary-eve. I did a once over scour of my office, but figured the ring must have come off when I removed my gloves that morning as I got off my bike from commute. I used a light to do a little initial searching outside, but after not having eaten for 8 hours I wasn't thinking so clearly and gave up for the evening. I reluctantly told Cass I lost the ring, and was torn up both about not having it and about my apparent carelessness. Even worse was the fact that, not even having finished two years of marriage, I had then lost my ring two different times. The first it appeared in my backpack where it slipped off my finger stealthily, but I found it two days later.

Tuesday - Our anniversary! Cass joined my bike commute this morning in order to lend a second pair of eyes to the search for the ring. We scoured the outside paths and fluffed the piles of fallen leaves, with little hope of finding a small ring in so much foliage. After an hour of dejected failure, we went back inside in hopes that the ring had lasted on my hand until I made it to my office. I told my office mate that I had lost the ring, and he stood up with purpose and said that he would immediately help look. Immediately, however, he pointed and said "Well, your ring is right there!" pointing under the extra chair in the room. Apparently, in my brain's energy-starved state late the evening before, I had missed some key search areas in the office. No matter. The ring was back, and a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. Cass returned home, where she was to have four clients in a row. I think she took too much energy on her 50-minute round trip bike ride and ring search, however, because not long after she got home I got an email saying that she was so desperately tired that she was cancelling all her clients for the day. I heartily agreed, and she spent a good deal of the afternoon asleep.

As promised, I went by the grocery store on the way home to cook an anniversary meal. I called home before leaving, however, to see how she was feeling - and she said that she wasn't feeling very well and that a fancy anniversary meal wasn't really appealing. So based on her request, we had a fancy dinner of one frozen pizza with some bag salad. Sometimes when you don't feel well, you just don't feel well. So we happily celebrated our marriage over a €2 pizza and the hope that we could cash the moment in at a later date. After dinner Cass used the last remaining ounces of her energy to finish packing for her trans-Atlantic flight to Minnesota, where she will be for a week to visit Paul/Lindsay and where she will continue her journey to Colorado for a few days. It was hard for her to finish what she needed to do, but she got it all done.

Wednesday - We woke up at 7:20, which is much earlier than her (currently) usual sleepy schedule and raced around for a bit to get ready to catch the bus, which would take her to the train, which would take her to the sequence of planes, which would eventually get her to Minneapolis. It was going to be a long day for a pregnant woman in the throws of hormonally charged sickness. She did okay almost until we were ready to go out the door, but then, with little apparent warning, the baby inside demanded more food - and often uses sudden nausea as preferred form of communication. Cass unhappily threw up for a few minutes, and we immediately ran to the bus a little later than planned as a result, but just in time. Here is a picture of her with kreppel (jelly filled Berliner donut) in hand as she feeds the beast within and as she waits for her train to the airport.

Thursday - Alex wakes up in his bed for the first time in Mainz alone. It is a strange feeling to walk around the house with no one to talk to. After so many years of deep and enjoyed independence, it has been very rare that I have even had a few hours at home alone without her. It is odd, enjoyable, and already even somewhat lonely. I go to work, however, and have plenty of tasks to fill the day. This evening I then led the Bible study that meets at our house. I wasn't sure if anyone would show up, since Cass typically leads and is the main attraction because of her keen insights. I was a little hesitant to pinch-hit for a star, but the normal numbers (5+me) appeared and we had a great discussion through Matthew 5. Then I finally got a chance to call Cass, and we had possibly the longest conversation we've had this strange week - this time it was 2-hours on the phone across the ocean.

Friday - Tomorrow I will finish packing and fly to Minnesota myself. We'll have a little time together, some greatly anticipated time with Paul and Lindsay, and maybe even an "anniversary" meal if we can squeeze it into the right time for her stomach and the baby.

It has been a week of strange events, but each day has reminded me how lucky I am to have the trust and love of a woman of deep faith and character by my side, or sometimes walking ahead of me to pull me up the hill. And at the end of the week, I still have my ring.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Sorry we missed you (again) ...


... Cass ist schwanger (and hasn't been feeling very well). She's now in week 13, however, so she's hoping that every morning is the last that she feels horrible. We've also been to the doctor a couple times the last few weeks, and all is well for the two of them. Both Cass and I have had a lot of adventures in life, but this one will be sure to top them all (both the birth of a German baby, and the rest of the ride).

We kind of fell off the blog wagon in August, but since then we've been busy with trips and life around Mainz. Here are some of the things we've been keeping ourselves busy with:

- 3-day trip to London for a U2 concert
- Day-trip to medieval Braunfels, Germany
- 5-day driving trip around Scotland
- An evening visit to the traveling circus
- Cass' first sermon
- Our first German birthday parties for several friends
- Alex's out-of-town conference #2 of 4 for the year
- Day-trip celebration up the Rhein for the 40th birthday of Alex's boss
- Arrival our new niece (finally adopted by Alex's sister Amy in Colorado from Russia)

We'll have more updates soon, hopefully in the next few days. We'll also continue to be busy for a little while, however, because Alex will be flying to Minneapolis for a conference for a week at the end of this month, and Cass will be joining him for part of that time and also a few days in Colorado.

As always, we'd love to hear from you. Alex (and Cass)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Alex missed the train

As long as I have to be up waiting for Alex to call, I'll give you a peek into our *very* current life.

This week, Alex is gone to a European conference in a town about 2 hours away by train. He was planning to come home this evening, but a colleague from Australia that he'd like to collaborate with said she'd talk with him tonight. So, he called this afternoon, and I used the internet here to find the next train he could take after meeting her. It was a great plan, except he missed the train as it was pulling away.

The first call tonight was to tell me he missed the train by about 3 seconds and to ask me to find the telephone numbers of colleagues who might be able to come get his bike. He's only coming home for a day, so he could collect it when he returns later in the week. It wasn't the absolute last train that he missed, but it's the last train tonight that has a bike compartment (unless he wants to take 5 hours and some minutes to get here). Although the high-speed train was yet to come, there was no hope for leaving the bike there. All colleagues were too far away to get ther in time. So, the next call was to ask if I could find a hotel near the train station that's available, and by the way, his phone is about out of battery, so I should just call when I find one.

I did it. With the help of the very smart internet, not only could I find hotels near the train station, I could also find out roughly how much they cost. Some of them even told me they had no vacancy before I had to call. I only had to check about 5 or 6...Alex is currently in a hotel watching CNN in English! What a treat! I was also able to check for when he could get home tomorrow morning (with his bike) in time for our sight-seeing day with friends.

All in a day's work. I'm off to bed.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Sorry we missed you...we were eating.

Since it's summer, we've been having a lot of adventures. There is a lot around here for us to explore, thus I've gotten behind on updates.

Really, it had to do with two weekends ago when we had 4 eating engagements/celebrations. That Friday I went on the military base in the city nearby to buy for our Mexican extravaganza that we prepared for Alex's colleagues on Saturday. So, between cooking, shopping and cleaning that killed almost two days. The food was great, and we enjoyed hosting all our friends from work. The trick in cooking Mexican food for the group was spice- for Germans and Japanese, not too hot, for Indians and Chinese, not too bland. Plus, no one had ever eaten Mexican food except the Europeans who had lived in American before. So, the whole experience was foreign- even the words. In addition to getting to light the tea-lights that I used to decorate our courtyard as it grew dark, one of my favorite moments of the night was when a Chinese woman asked me what the shredded Colby-Jack cheese was. When I told her it was cheese, she seemed skeptical, but her daughter gobbled it up!

Sunday we had a potluck at church. Fortunately, I still had enchiladas and beans left over so no cooking there. After that, we had another party in the evening, also at a church. Our friends at Kirche in Action (Church in Action), a Nazarene church plant were celebrating the 1 year "birthday" of the church. So, there was a lot of food and fanfare at church that night.

The next day, I spent the day back at the church where we'd had the potluck. Our American friend who is a professor at the University here in Mainz was hosting a dinner for his students from his class, Religion in the South. So, I spent the day making biscuits, peach cobbler, sweet tea and sausage gravy. Plus, I helped prepare other Southern specialties that came out of a box (also from the military base). It was great fun to hear German students talk about what they thought of gumbo, succotash, and corn-bread. They weren't too fond of gravy, but loved the cobbler and pecan pies. Alex and I were thrilled to eat good pulled pork bbq! It was also fun to talk with students who had been in a religion class. One lady pointedly asked me, after learning I am a Christian, "In class, we learned about 'the conversion experience.' Did that happen to you, where you felt a strong presence of God?" So much for small talk! It was a good conversation.

It took us the rest of the week to eat all the left-over Mexican food...I guess I should have remembered that not all people can eat tacos like Alex. But, it was fun to each day remember that I didn't have to go to the grocery store!

To disprove what you might be thinking, that we're mostly driven by food, I offer these pictures of our trip to see family from last month. What a blast! Truly, it was the most relaxing vacation we've had since being here. We are certainly sad that we won't be able to spend more time with Luke, Holly and kids, but we're also really excited for this next chapter of their life as they move from Scotland!
I guess Noelle wasn't as excited to see me as I was to see her...
Bag-piping boys!
For those who haven't seen Alex hold a baby.
Haircuts in a foreign land can be hard, so Alex had been saving up his haircuts to get one where they speak the same language. This barber shop seemed especially appealing- if the haircut goes poorly, they offer whiskey to ease the pain!
We went to St. Andrews both to see the family and to try to help them with the moving process. They told us that one of the most helpful things we could do was go with them to the Cathedral ruins to do a family photo shoot. Isaiah was determined to climb as high as he could while Noelle had her picture taken. No wonder they wanted two extra helpers!
Team photography- Mommy shoots and Daddy keeps the attention, looking for a smile.
Not a bad place for breakfast. We sat here one morning overlooking the "Chariots of Fire" beach as we enjoyed chai and blueberry muffins- who says all British fare is bad? We can hardly find those things in Germany.
Exploring at the beach. Isaiah was fascinated by seaweed.
Isaiah didn't like this headband for himself, but he really wanted Noelle to wear it. I wish we would've put her on a bike. I have a picture of me at the same age in a headband and diaper on a yellow 10-speed.
Maybe you don't recognize this game. It's actually Hide n Go Seek. Isaiah would hide himself and as we sought, he would say from under the blanket (which he covered himself with in our presence), "No, don't look there!" Human development in real life.
Another summer day in St. Andrews. On Sunday we were able to stroll the Old Course and marvel at the sand bunkers. Luke was an excellent tour guide. We also got to meet up with my aunt Paula and uncle Rick who came up for the day. It's pretty cool that, rather than sitting down to chips and salsa together in Tucson as we usually do, we sat down to fish and chips across the world!
Old stones and sun- a beautiful city!We appreciate travelling Ryan Air. We flew round trip to Scotland for about $85 for both of us. It's pretty unbelievable. At the same time, there are some issues that cheap flights bring. For example, middle management doesn't really exist. Here we are waiting to board our flight...or what we think is our flight. We had already been on the tarmac and tried to board two other flights which were not ours. We had made it onto the plane in both cases, before flight attendants checked our tickets and told us we were on the wrong plane. In fact, we had left the airport from a gate that was not the gate from which we were departing, but given the many, many people in the small, poorly organized space, we couldn't see the dog-leg turn that took us to our gate. We had just followed the flow of people. So, we were outside in the rain wandering between airplanes looking for an indication that one would take us to St. Andrews. We didn't find one. When we returned to the gate and explained that we didn't know where our flight was, they laughed, gave us back our ticket stubs and sent us around a bend into the right room. Pretty funny and unbelievable for our American sensibilities.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Le Tour

We live close to France. Alex is an avid Tour de France watcher. So, of course, since the Tour includes a stage within 3 hours of us that also includes a category 1 (0 is steepest) climb, we took the day off work (okay, he did) and went. The ensuing occurred:

We borrowed a car that had been given to it's current owner because the previous owner didn't want the hassle of trying to sell it. Why? The speedometer didn't work. The engine was a little loose in it's fittings, so it vibrates. The fuel sensor didn't regulate correctly so it often dies when you take your foot off the gas (corners!). And, the sensor that maintains the anti-theft device needs a battery replaced. Oh, there was also no wiper fluid. Otherwise, it ran great and saved us a lot of money over renting.

We got out of town about 2 hours later than anticipated, so when we made it into the biggest town near where we were staying, we ate at the first place we came to: Melody's Diner.That's right, our first French cuisine was a hamburger and fries. But, the fries had mayonaisse and we drank fizzy water- I mean, we were in France. We did enjoy the Eagles reunion tour on the big screens...what a strange place!

Our hotel room was in a 13 room establishment and had decor from all around the world and from many decades. It was entertaining. The amazing lightning storm in the middle of the night took the cake, though! And, we thought that might be good for our chances at staying dry during and prior to the Tour. The rain keeps everything lush and green. We liked watching a fly fisherman fish in the stream that ran near the hotel.
Since the roads were all closed from the early morning on, we packed our backpacks with all we might need for the day and set out. It was beautiful and smelled like mountains! The scent of pine trees and damp forest soil gladdened my soul! We walked about 2 kilometers to get out of town. I liked looking at their washing machines...this one has a lady's outfit in it with a bar of soap and a brush at the top. Very interesting! Others were made of hollowed out logs. The area we were in was not far from Germany or Switzerland and we could see it in the architecture. However, the attention to detail and beauty was evident in every yard and home. It was truly delightful!We saw lots of bicycles- real and created. Even a spray painted tricolor neon one hanging from a church steeple under construction!
We wanted to be well into the hill climb so that perhaps the riders would be tired and the peleton might have strung out. That way, we'd be able to see the riders as the came a bit slower and not in such an intense clump. So, we went up and up and up. We hiked about 7-8 km up gaining between 2,000-2,500 feet. It was fun.
We enjoyed seeing people setting up camp, grilling and eating,putting out national flags and other encouraging paraphrenilia for the riders, and others (mostly on bikes) trekking up the hill. We finally settled on an area near to the end of the climb. Along the way we stopped to pick tiny, sweet wild strawberries and admire slugs. And, then we waited.

You might think that since we are from Colorado, we could've guessed what the rain and a bit of altitude would do to the forecast that we'd seen for the town down below. But, we weren't thinking. It is, in fact, the middle of summer. But, it got cold and windy. We had on all the clothes we'd brought. Many people were unprepared- like the 3 guys next to us that had only what they'd worn to cycle up the hill. They were shivering with goosebumps covering their bodies. So, we gave them the table cloth we'd brought to sit on.
At last, the race Caravan came by. We didn't know what that meant, but we quickly figured it out: Funny cars and free stuff. Even people near hypothermia get animated by free junk thrown from a moving vehicle. Plus, it meant that the riders were on their way. We'd been checking in occacionally on the Tour progress at the flatscreen that one of the campers had set up outside of their van under an awning.

Finally, the racers arrived. So fun! The crowd went wild as the first riders arrived.
And, they were strung out.
It gave us a chance pick Lance Armstrong (next to the boy running in the black wig and his boxer briefs) out of the crowd and to appreciate the struggle of the riders as they cleared the hill.
Then, a race car came through saying, "Thanks for coming." So, everyone loaded up and took off down the hill. But, about 5 minutes later there was one more rider. It was chaos! Poor guy! Finally, he passed and we began our walk, still in the rain, completely soaked, down the hill. Down. Down. Down.

Along the way, we talked about how we might get warm and dry. We didn't really have warm, dry clothes to wear as we had on several layers each that had gotten quite soaked in the previous 5 hours of rain. So, we decided that if we ate dinner at the hotel where we'd stayed before, they might let us use the "relaxation facilities" so we wouldn't be shivering drowned rats in their establishment.

They did. We went in the sauna, a shower that shot water from the top and from 6 other side angles, and the hot (cold?) tub until our core temperature returned to normal. Then, we put on the remaining dry clothes we had and dined in style. We had the "Tour Menu." The first course was a salad with what Brits would call a Pastie. It was a meat pie. We were confused and thought we'd miscommunicated or misunderstood since the portion was a full meal. But, after they took those plates, they brought us our main dish. Alex had chicken and I had fish. His had all kinds of unique veggies and mine had noodles and pastry puff. Then (after not eating so much of the main course) we had dessert. I ordered sorbet and had 3 balls of some kind of berry. Alex had what we would call blue berry cobbler and we both gobbled it up even though we were full. It was SO good. And, it turned out tongues and teeth blue.
After dinner, we made a short stop to see "little Venice" in Colmar, France, and then headed home, still in the rain. We were in bed, after hanging wet clothes and backpacks from every possible place in the house, by 1 am...it was just about 30 hours of fun!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Last Weekend (was full!)

Lately, Alex has been working like a dog. Somehow, he's managed to try to publish 3 first-author papers at the same time. Granted, 2 are from his PhD process, but still...3 at once? Feeling that since we'd gone to Italy I'd been largely neglected, he offered himself to me for as long as I wanted him last weekend. I took him up on the offer.


Friday night we went to Prom. It was put on by the Nazarene Youth in Mission team and the church where they're serving. They told us it was "Tacky Prom," so we dressed accordingly. It's quite a benefit that our church runs a second-hand clothing store! We were named, "The Whos" of Dr. Seuss fame for the evening. I think it fit. Here are our cheesey prom pictures.

The next day, knowing that Alex did need a bit of time to work, I took the chance to go to the women's breakfast and Bible study that ladies from church do once a month. I was the only non-German there, so it was also a good culture and language experience for me. We ate fruits and veggies, meats and cheeses on fresh bread with coffee and tea. Then, we heard a great lesson on how to deal with hurts inflicted and felt by the church community. But, my favorite part, in terms of a unique experience, came at the end. That's when they broke out the hooch. It was quite sophisticated, really. Our hostess brought out a classy box full of chocolate cups, smaller than shot glasses. Then, she brought out the liqueurs she had made from fruit and vodka. There were two kinds: kiwi and banana-limon. We were served our choice. And, of course, as women do, recepies were solicited with many compliments went to the chef. (Pureed fruit, water, sugar, vodka...makes for about 10% alcohol content, so they say.)


The bus line I'd taken to get there was on a wacky schedule because of a festival. So, I went home, collected Alex and we went, not really sure of what it was. It was a wine festival. That meant that there were tons of boothes in the small, picturesque town. They sold all kinds of fancy foods (not your typical bratwurst), and regional wine by the glass. I bet there were about 40 different wineries there. There were rides and face-painters for kids, and it was fun to watch people.

But, we had to be off. We had a double date scheduled for another local festival- in our own town. We had an amazing experience. I'd seen in our newspaper that an interesting restaurant would be open for tours. What we already knew is that the restaurant is underground, has middle-ages "hosts," and they do tricks and fire-eating type things. We also knew that it was a banquet type restaurant, not usually open to the public. When we got there, long story short, we were told the history and taken on a tour. Here is the history in short:


There was a castle in our town built in 1116 and destroyed within 100 years. (Stones taken across the river to build another castle.) The Weisenau family owned it. The bishop lived there. The Emperor brought his crusading armies there.


A brick making operation bought the land later and began to tunnel for supplies to make bricks. That's why there are now over 4 km. of tunnels under our city! We got to explore some with flashlights.

In those tunnels, after the brick makers left, a champagne company began to produce and store champagne there. It was as such during WWII, when the vaults were used for housing the 4,000 residents of the city during air-raids. We saw the room used for surgeries and birthing. 6 babies were born there underground in almost complete darkness during the war!


Now, the restaurant has several banquet rooms in the vaults and runs a small hotel. If you're interested in getting married here, your guests can have a flash-light tunnel tour as a part of your dinner package! Too fun! A vault for making champagne. This is where the person who cleaned it climbed in.
Then, we went and enjoyed the tasty treats of the fair. It wasn't really that exciting, but we did enjoy the fireworks at the river on Monday night.


Sunday after church, a big group spontaneously went out to lunch together. It's fun to eat out with Germans because they order things that they want us to taste. The strangest this time was a dish that was boiled, peeled potatoes (small ones) and hard-boiled eggs (about 5) cut in half with a green, creamy sauce featuring the herbs that are currently in bloom... I ordered a salad that came with sauteed mushrooms called "oyster star mushrooms" on top.


Monday, Alex was back to work. And I took the chance to play tour guide. I took 6 other women- 5 here for summer missions, and one (who ended up staying with us this week) who is here visiting her boyfriend from our church- up the river to tour a castle. I loved hearing, "I think this might be the best day of my life." The 4 youth in mission ladies are leaving this week- we've really enjoyed having them around. We had them over on Tuesday, ate jambalaya, chased down an ice cream truck (yes, running), played a game, and then exposed them to "good" music...we are about 10 years older! I'll miss them.

And, we're taking off for the night to try to see the Tour de France live tomorrow...


Mom, this is the cut-your-own field that we went to. Now there are gladiolas and sunflowers.