A lovely Easter

Yesterday I spent the day with Almuth and Fabian and their three girls, Merit, Julia and Lily. I took the train out to their town, about 15 km south of Frankfurt. It was wonderful to get out of my apartment and even better to spend time with nice people. I am glad to have had my first subway/train trip here, and now I feel like I kind of understand the system. Hopefully this means that I will be confident enough to make some other journeys before the family arrives.

Almuth was the exchange professor from the University of Frankfurt and she and her family were in NJ in the fall of 2006. Their oldest daughter, Merit, still understands and speaks perfect English. Julia, who is 6, understands what I say, but she speaks exclusively in German, and Lily neither speaks not understands much English. They live in a sweet house in the old historic part of town. While their new place is new, built to look as if it is old on the outside, their last house was over 300 years old. We had a delicious lunch in the garden- salad, pasta and chicken. Both of their older girls are vegetarians because they don't believe that killing and eating animals is acceptable. I think that Charlie and Merit will get along very well! She has invited Charlie to come to school with her for a day- she can translate for him and her class does take English lessons, so I think that would be a fantastic opportunity for him. Given Julia's lack of English speaking, and henry's shyness, I am not sure whether he will be able to attend a German school for a whole day, but perhaps he could at least visit. Fabian is a high school biology teacher and they have several interesting pets about the house- two turtles who get let out to bask in the sunshine in the garden and an aquarium full of these insects that look just like sticks. Apparently, they are terribly easy to keep, just chuck in some blueberry leaves and spritz them with some water, and they reproduce like crazy. There must have been 25 of them in various sizes. I got to hold one of the largest.

After lunch, we took a walk around Lagen. Many of the streets are cobble stone and the houses are right on top of one another. Surround the village is the original fortification, built in the 1300s. Two towers and a stretch of wall remain, on the other side of the wall is a meadow. Julia showed me where she buried a black bird that she had found dead- the little grave was marked with a stone, a homemade cross made of twigs and some flowers. We continued on our walk, going past the church and the town fountain in the main square. This area of Germany is known for its special drink, Apple wine. At the end of June Lagen has an enormous festival to celebrate the Apple wine harvest. The streets are closed down, people set up little pubs in their yards and the fountain runs with apple wine instead of water. It lasts for several days and culminates with a team event on Sunday morning- teams of 5 people compete in wheel barrel races, egg and spoon races and the like. According to Almuth, this type of festival was popular before the wars, but the tradition stopped after the first WW. Somehow it got started again in the 70s I believe and it is a really big deal here in Lagen. Apple wine itself is the drink of the region, but I got the impression that the festival is a Lagen tradition.

Almuth's parents also live in Lagen, and we then went to her mother's home for some Easter desert. Her father and his girlfriend were also there, as were her sister and her husband, and her 3 brothers. Her youngest brother's wife has just had a baby, and she was there as well. We sat in the garden enjoying coffee and cakes, while the girls played on the swing set in the back. Everyone was kind, speaking to me in English, but the also carried on their normal conversations as I sat listening. Almuth's father and girlfriend are taking a 3 week train journey through Africa and there was much discussion about the train route- this is a conversation that I could actually follow in Germany- Mozambique and Zimbabwe sound the same in both English and German. At one point the conversation turned to Lagen's traditions and to apple wine. Everyone proceeded to try and describe it to me. It is essentially a fermented apple juice, but it is not sweet at all. Almuth described it as medicinal and sour! At least three people told me that the first glass tastes awful, the second is tolerable and the third is refreshing. Apparently, few people drink it straight, and it is usually cut with water or lemonade. After much discussion, Fabian searched the house for a bottle, but alas there was none. Not to be discouraged, he tried the neighbors who happened to have a bottle of non-alcoholic apple wine. I had a glass cut with water, and while I wouldn't call it delicious, it was not nearly as bad as they had led me to believe (I guess that was their strategy). Almuth's father then returned from taking the girls on an Easer egg hunt at his house and said that he had a bottle of the real stuff there, Fabian dashed off to retrieve it. So, then I got my second glass of apple wine, and this one was alcoholic. I must say that it was better than the first, but I didn't have a third, so I am not yet confident about the three glass rule. In addition to the special region drink, there is also a particular regional dish, some sort of soft, low fat cheese, served cold with salt, pepper, onions and carraway seeds. Mmmm, sounds yummy! I have been challenged to try that one before we leave!

Well, today I am off for lunch and a walk with Cornelia Rosebruck, a dean here at the University. Enjoy the photos and I will try to post again tomorrow when my internet connection comes back on.