I have to make a public appology to both my parents. First, to my mom. My mother has always been so enthusiastic about singing. If that is what you call it. To wake us up, she would sing Home on the Range so out of key that it was more painful to stay in bed and continue listening than it would be to get out of bed (sometimes hours before the sun knew it was morning). The other song I remember Mom singing was an Italian song. She would sing "Oh, sole mio!" and I assumed that she was making it up because it was very apparent to me that she did not know the words. Well, mom. I am sorry. While standing in the tourist office, I saw a big poster for Venice and it had "O sole mio" in big words. Second, I believe is for my father. Apparently the word "kaput" is an actual word, only it is a German word. I wish I knew that my dad was as worldly as he really is. =)
So, to my parents, I must appologize. You deserve more respect than I thought you did. Now that I know this, I will try to keep my eye out for proof that you really are not as full of it as I think you are. =)
Another thing I learned today... "Nix" in German means "water nymph", and here I thought I was a nymph of the woodsy sort. =) Oh, and just 5 minutes ago, I learned that though rum cherries may claim to be cherries, they are really only red balls of alcohol.
My penpal, Katya, is so friendly. Yesterday we saw Baden Baden and today we went to see Hidelburg. Both were great towns, and neither would have been on our list to see if she had not been with us. It is amazing how many great places there are in Europe. Katya has been so patient with us. She is from Russia, and has lived in Germany for the last 3 years. So, she has the pressure to speak in German and translate into English, when neither of them are her native language. She is very good at both. Well, I can only assume she speaks German well... it sounds right to me. Both Michael and I have been surprised by the vocabulary that she and her boyfriend, Dirk, have. Words like prestigiousness... lol... I don´t even know how to spell it. I can not imagine knowing how to say that in French. Heck, I don´t think I use such formal, elaborate words in English!
Dirk´s parents have been very friendly. They volunteered to sit through our pictures, which I am sure they are now just being polite when they said they enjoyed it (and even claim to want to see more). You are all lucky... by the time you see the pictures, we will have deleted the bad and boring ones. This unfortunate German family did not have such luck.
So... in a nutshell... Hiedelburg = pretty, O sole mio is a real song, kaput is an actual German word and Katya and family are amazingly nice. Oh, and German sauerkraut (sp?) does not taste any better than the American version (to which, Michael says "bah"... he has German blood in him).
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