A Fantastic Saturday

Wow, today was a really good day. I woke up around 9:15 (not to an alarm!) and just relaxed until about 11:30, when I went upstairs to see if my friends wanted to go to lunch. We went to this little Asian restaurant (Asia-Wok), which was pretty good (even though we accidentally ordered mineral water, which was disgusting). We just chatted and generally had a good time.

Then I looked at my phone (which I am using as a timepiece currently, since I don't own a watch yet) and saw that it was 1:45, and we were supposed to leave for our hike to Comburg (an old monastery) at 2:00. I didn't have my camera with me, which was a little disappointing, but Courtney (from Texas) decided to go, and she had hers, so it was okay: I'll just get the pictures from her, and it probably actually means we'll have more people pictures and ones with me actually in them, which I know some of you will appreciate.

The group that went to Comburg (probably a walk of a couple miles) consisted of Stephen (one of the Zivis -- short for Zivildienst, a service alternative to mandatory military time-- who are basically responsible for organizing the activities for the Institut), Courtney, me, Andrei (from Romania), Peiter (from somewhere in the Middle East, I'm not sure where), and Hideki (from Japan). We had a lot of fun taking pictures, especially me and Courtney and usually Andrei. Coming down from the monastery, there were some old statues, possibly of saints, along the edge of the path, and Courtney and I took turns posing in front of them mimicking (sp?) the statues (we were particularly excited about those pictures; they were fun)

On the way back, we passed by a tiny pond that was frozen solid, and we decided to go out on it and "skate" (us girls from the Southwest being particularly excited, as we would NEVER see that at home). Eventually (after some silly pictures), it evolved into kicking around Courtney's half-full waterbottle as we stood in a circle -- it slid marvelously on the ice. :) That eventually turned into a game of 3-on-2 (Stephen had gone on back at the pond) makeshift ice-soccer (or Fuss-wasser, as we called it, "foot-water", like "football"). We set up a little "goal" on the edge of the pond, marked with sticks, and whenever we kicked it out of bounds (off the ice), then it was the other team's ball. It was a long time before anyone scored (the goal being rather small and thus easily defended), but eventually my team (Peiter, Hideki, and I) scored (I kicked the goal!!) At that point, we decided to stop, since we were getting a little tired, and then Courtney and Andrei kicked the bottle through the goal while we were standing around, so we called it a tie. :P

We got back just in time to freshen up before Kate, Courtney, and I got on the 5:10 bus to go have dinner with Frau Dr. Ursula Utz, a really nice older lady who is part of a club that helps out the Goethe Institut, at here apartment. Se-Rin (from Korea) was also invited, but I guess she didn't get the memo, which was a little sad. I think she might have been with the group that went to Stuttgart this weekend.

Anyway, Mrs. Utz (as I will call her for simplicity's sake) was really sweet. She showed us all around the area where she lives, which is up the hill from the Old Town, which is in the valley spanning the river. It's full of really modern buildings that were put in in the early 70's, but there was also a nice little park, and an incredible view of all the fields south of Schwabisch Hall.
She cooked Käse-Spätzle, a German specialty that's basically macaroni and cheese but better. Spätzle are little round noodles made from flour, lots of eggs, a little salt, and a little water. Then you put the dough in this nifty little gadget that's like a deep square cookie cutter that slides over a bigger version of a flat cheese grater with round holes a little smaller than a dime, and slide it (in the square part) over the holes, into a pot of boiling water, and it comes out in little teardrop-shaped pieces. After they cook for a minute or two, you take them out with a slotted spoon or something like it to drain them, into a baking dish, and sprinkle lots of freshly-grated white cheese on top. Add a little butter, and stick it in the oven to melt. Repeat until you run out of dough. Yum. We also had a salad with homemade dressing (she thinks it's really sad that we have basically the same kinds of dressing all over the US), and for dessert we had yummy apple stuff that we later found out was apple sauce, cinnamon, and whipped cream mixed up and then frozen.

It was really neat that she takes so much interest in the Goethe students. She's recently retired, and this is now what she chooses to do with her time. We talked for a long time, and she was really helpful and nice and really interested in what we were doing. She had us write our names, addresses, and e-mails in the little "Guestbook" that she's starting for the students who come, and invited us to come back again next Sunday, when she's having another group there as well (if everyone comes, it will be 8 total)

All in all, it was just a fantastic day. It's really cool to think that I can have this much fun with people that I've known not even a week, and some of whom I can barely speak with, depending on how good their German/English is. I can't wait until I have the pictures from today to put up!