December 29th

We left Heidelberg for Janina's Dad's place which is in Vreden close to Borken. If the names appear funny to you, it is because her dad lives close to the Dutch border. Of course we had problems on the train on the way there. From my experience, Germans (not all) can be quite impolite when it comes to space and their possessions. They were all placing their luggage where Janina was supposed to get through with her wheelchair and we politely asked them not do this so that if Janina had to go to the restroom or when we had to get off the train that this wouldn't be a problem. Of course they got angry because this is just howw Germans react in a situation like this. Even when we were trying to get off the train everyone is in such a hurry, that they can't wait two minutes for the wheelchair lift to let Janina off the train. This time though the man helping us started yelling at the people trying to push through. Germans go crazy when it comes to getting on or off of something. This includes buses. A woman was also very rude with us in Heidelberg when we were trying to exit the bus. She had to get on before we got off because God knows the bus would have left without her. Although I have seen this happen before, it does not justify her behavior. When we finally arrived at the train station in borken, Janina's dad and his girlfriend Petra met us there. From the station we headly straight to Winterswijk, Holland. The plan was to get fresh fruits and veggies from the market there and then walk around a bit. It was very nice. There were of course cyclists everywhere as Holland is famous for, but it was almost like being in Germany. The architecture was a bit different and the language slightly varies from German (it is a combination of English and German, which makes it easy to read but hard to speak because you don't know which pronunciation words take, the German, English or a mixture of the two). We went into a very nice cafe to warm up after walking around the town. After we got back to Janina's dad's place, we had dinner and then went for a walking tour of Vreden and its Nightlife. Her dad took us to the Brauhaus (Brewery) where they make their own Beer in the Restaurant.

December 30th

We headed to Muenster which was about a 45 minute drive from Vreden. I had never been to Muenster, so I was excited to see what it would be like. I had heard that it was a beautiful city and it turned out to be true. They had the city decorated nicely for Christmas and the architecture and churches there were quite impressive. We spent an hour or two just walking around the city taking pictures and then went to a cafe for something warm. After that we went to get dinner at a Doener Restaurant (mentioned in my previous entry as a favorite fast food of the Germans). We had tickets for the theater at 8 p.m. so we left the restaurant and headed to the Theater. It was a dinner/theater but we didn't get tickets for dinner, just for the show. It turned out that the show we were watching was a variety show and half of it was in English, which was great for Kim, since she wouldn't have gotten to appreciate it as much had she not understood it. The performance was called Oben Drauf and was basically about who is at the top today, men or women. The answer that they came up with was women (of course! : ) ). The show consisted of comedy performances and dance and gymnastic/acrobat numbers. It was hillarious and completely amazing at the same time. This was a great end to a great day in Muenster.

December 31st

We decided to take it easy this day and just walked around Vreden taking pictures and went to rent a movie. Her father and Petra had guests in the afternoon for coffee and cake and we joined them. In the evening we went over to a friend of her dad and Petra's. The woman and her husband have four children, the youngest two were twins and one of the twins took quite a liking to me. He must have been about five years old and his mom was laughing becuase he didn't stop talking after I started paying attention to him. She said he likes to flirt. I enjoy playing with German children because I can practice my language skills and because they don't even realize that you aren't from Germany. They can most likely distinguish an accent but wouldn't ever ask you where you are from based on hearing it! We started dinner around 8 p.m. when we got back to her dad's house and their guests for the evening had arrived. We ate raclette, which is a traditional German dinner for New Year's. I had had this once before at my friend Kathrin's, when I spent New Year's 2005 with her in Deinstedt. Raclette is a variety of veggies laid out on the table and each person can choose what he or she wants to eat. Everyone gets a little pan to put the food in and then you cover it in cheese and put it in this little machine that resembles a George Foreman (closest thing that we have to it). On top of the machine you can fry meat, which cooks at the same time. The reason this is a tradition in Germany is because the meal can then last as long as you want it to. You prepare your own pan each time you are finished eating from it and the meal then continues until you are no longer hungry. Usually bread or potatoes are also served with raclette. After we were finished eating, we played games. This was an interestin experience for Kim and I, as the guests that her dad and Petra had were quite competetive. Kim and I just wanted to play to have fun. We played Uno and a game I had never played before, where you had to place a round card on a top and spin the top and then everyone had to guess what the picture was on the card before the top stopped. This was a lot of fun. We watched the clock countdown on tv just as in the U.S. and toasted champagne for the New Year. We didn't really celebrate any differently than in the U.S. and after this we stayed up chatting
and then went to bed because we were so worn out from all of the traveling and late nights.

January 1st 2008!

A new year has begun, which is a bit hard to believe. Everything is closed on New Year's day in Germany so we decided to sleep in and woke up around 10 or 11. We had plum cake and coffee in the afternoon and then watched the German movie Barfuss, while her father and Petra entertained guests. We had dinner with the guests and this was pretty much all we did that day.

January 2nd

We went to Enschede, Holland. You could immediately tell that it is a bigger city than the one we first went to. There were a lot of square housing complexes like in Germany (once again an issue of population and space) and there was a huge shopping square/center. We wandered around a bit, went to a cafe, and window shopped. You could tell there had been quite a New Year's bash there becuase there was still a lot of trash on the streets and confetti everywhere.