March 2006

Oh my… yesterday I got to go to the Dom cathedral in Cologne and it was breath-taking. The ceiling was so high and the stained glass with the light filtering in on the old stone pillars made it look like a computer graphics movie!

And here are the troopers that climbed the 512 (yes, five hundred and twelve) stairs to the top with me! They were narrow, cramped, steep, spiral stairs and you just kept walking in circles thinking you would never reach the top. It was a cement enclosure with tiny rectangular windows every so often that were blocked by all the graffiti people wrote… (Johannes, Carla, Judith, Gabriel and Lena)

I wish I had one of those extra-sensitive national geographics cameras so I could capture the beauty of this cathedral, but here it is:

this was (with all due respect) either some dead composer or some dead bishop guy:

In the wise words of Sherri Dupree (from the band Eisley), “This man has no idea he’s on the internet right now”

So last Thursday, Friday and Saturday I went to Lüdenscheid where I stayed with a family with two daughters. What and experience! Waking up in the morning before the sun is up and treading through the snow to the bus stop to go to school… it was marvelous.

Here’s a primary school. Apparently it was a really old house before:

The early morning:

The first class in school was English (the teacher asked me to read the text so they could hear a native speaker :D). The reaction I got from school wasn’t really what I expected: as soon as I walked into the room, all the kids gathered around me and started asking me all these questions about America (Have you ever seen a movie star? Do you know what snow is? Have you ever been to Hollywood?). When the teacher got there and found out I was from America he said, “Oh, you’re from New York?” and all the kids said, “No, California!” and then he said, “OH- You’re from Los Angeles! You’re from HOLLYWOOD!” and all the kids were completely amazed, saying, “Whoa!! Hollywood!!” Ha.

New friends:

*sigh* Crazy kids..:

Wanna know how small Lüdenscheid really is? Well, as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, Unkel Willie is to Lüdenscheid:

It’s a pretty town though:

And I got to go to another castle! Apparrently it had the oldest youth hostel in the world. A youth hostel is a place boys and girls could stay when they don’t have a lot of money, but they sure had to work for it and it was a little less than comfortable:

Germany, home to the most beautiful doors ever:

And today is Carla’s Birthday… she turns 4!! So… Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag to her!! (try saying that ONE time fast)