We left Cloppenburg earlier than what's normal for us. Ahmee and I didn't really want to go because Cloppenburg was about to have a really fun festival. Before we left we walked to the piggy fountain to take a picture and walk back. The walk there and back was the fun part. We got to look at all the preparations and at all of the sales that were going on in the stores. We stopped at a woolmarket and grabbed not wool but a package of loofta's, and a present for one of my friends. Tehehehehehehehe I'm starting to make a whole lot of notes as to what I'm going to be getting people and (more importantly) how I'm going to give them to those people. The way you present the package often determines the mood.
I was thinking these things as we got on the road (this was before we hit the highway and then I started typing up my blog for the previous day).
One example that I can think of to give you all is a really fun gift I got for one of the guys in showchoir. Many of you know I'm in Southwestern High School's showchoir group called Esprit. Many of you don't know that this showchoir group has a party at least once every year. The one party that we always have is a Christmas party and at this party we give each other gifts. To ensure everyone gets and receives a gift we draw names prior to the party. Most people write their name down and then write a few things they'd like. I drew Gage's name, and he had not written down what exactly it was that he wanted for Christmas. When we were taking our group pictures I got my friend Elizabeth to ask him what he wanted (in front of me of course so that he wouldn't suspect it was me). He laughed and said, "I want a leopard print thong!"
After he'd left I was grumpy at first that he hadn't given me something I could get him, and I asked the people around me for more ideas. After a few minutes of them debating I realized that getting Gage a thong would be a brilliant idea because it would shock him and be hilarious at the party. Elizabeth then said that instead of me writing my name down next to the From I should write Jordan's name.
I got him two thongs: one made out of candy, and one his classic leopard print, and then I got Rob to write down the To and From on the card. When Gage got his present he didn't even look at who had given it to him, he just tore into the bag. After looking dismayed at the candy thong he said, "Who the fuck gave me this!?" Laughing, we all told him to check his card. He did and looked at Jordan and said, "Jordan! You gave me this thing!?" Jordan turned bright red-making himself look guilty and said, "I didn't do it!" After a few minutes of Gage looking around the room asking, "Who got me this? Who got me this?" I spoke up and said I'd done it, and that there was more to it (he hadn't looked at the leopard print thong yet).I now have two different gift ideas for two other showchoir members for this year. One of which is meant to astound, the other is meant to be a fun laugh. I can't wait to put them together!
Obviously, I wasn't thinking about this the entire time we were on the road. As I said before, I was writing the blog.
I didn't stop until we stopped for lunch, before which taking a drainage pill (getting rid of the damn cold), then we all went into the restaurant/hotel and grabbed a huge bite to eat. I wasn't able to eat everything on my plate, let alone the salad and the french fries that went with the meal. I was actually glad for once to have gotten the gas-water. What I mean by gas-water is that the water is fizzy unless you specifically ask for tap water, occasionally I forget and end up with the nasty-tasting bubble water. This bubble water helped my digest things though.
Later I got another "digestive" when a German man came in and sat down at our table and started talking about how he'd been stationed in Texas in the German Airforce. His name was Charlie, and while he was nice and friendly and truly fun to talk to, he'd had one too many drinks (and this was at 2 in the afternoon). The bartender made an x mark on his napkin for each beer and "white-water" he'd gotten. The napkin was full of them. Other than talking to us about his airforce time he also: gave us directions to Hannover, talked about the partying that'd be going on in Munich or Berlin (can't remember which), and talked about how he and his wife couldn't travel to America anymore-just too long of a flight. During his talking the bartender/waiter brought us a tray that had three shotglasses on it that were filled with an almost lime-green liquid. He told us what it was, but it was too fast and it was all in German, and then he urged us to drink it. After he left Poppy and Ahmee moved their drinks off the tray, as if they were about to take the shots. I left mine on the tray, figuring that the drink was alcoholic and that I shouldn't even bother taking it off because both Ahmee and Poppy would object to it. We continued talking to Charlie, not touching the shots that were set down in front of us.
When the waiter got back he looked at the shots and then stood there saying, "Cheers! Cheers!" Ahmee, Poppy, and I grabbed our shotglasses, klinked them together, and downed the contents. This would be my first shot, and I must say that whatever was in that glass was REALLY REALLY good. It tasted wonderful, and I had to agree with Ahmee that downing a drink like that in one gulp was "such a waste".It wasn't too long after we drank our shots, or as Ahmee put them our "digestives", we got back on the road and headed towards Hannover (going the way Charlie suggested but then turning around because we knew we shouldn't take directions from a drunken man). I was done with the computer for the time being, seeing as the battery was getting dangerously low, and so I sat back and looked out my window at the countryside. It didn't take long before my head started getting very light and then I started getting unnaturally sleepy. I thought in amazement that the shot must've been super-strong to create those effects. Then I realized that I'd forgotten that I'd taken medicine 20 minutes before I'd eaten lunch. Ooops! I didn't worry too much about it though, because these things were there and then were gone fairly quickly.
When we arrived in Verdin we had a fun time trying to find an information center. We never did find one. Instead we stopped at a place that we thought was the town Post Office. Turns out we were wrong about that, it was a Post Bank. The people in there were incredibly friendly and did their best to help us, even printing off a map of the area to show us how to get to various towns closeby that Poppy needed to scrounge around in to see if the Clausens were there. They also pointed us in the direction of the best hotel in town, which we went to immediately after that to get our rooms and to drop off a few things. Originally Ahmee didn't want to stay in this hotel because normally when someone says it's the best in town it also means it's the most expensive. The thing that changed her mind was the fact that I needed internet connection to post these blogs and to check and send emails. I had two important things I needed to send on the computer: my study guide for unit 2, and my blogs. My unit 2 studyguide wasn't done however and I needed to spend time working on that. I decided that if worse came to worse then I'd finish it up on the road the next day and send it when we got to the resort the next day (it wouldn't make sense for a huge resort to not have wireless internet), and then went with Ahmee and Poppy to look for Clausen graves.
We checked out three towns: Oiste, Magelesen, and... Eisendorf. The first we stopped in was Oiste, where we looked around the main church's graveyard. I found two Clausen's buried there. Then we got directions from a woman who we think was directing a youth group to Eisendorf where she assured us that Clausens were. We went to the main church there and searched through the massive graveyard, only to find 3 Clasens, people who had similar pronunciations but who weren't our ancestors or relatives at al. We then moved on the Magelesen and to the main church there. This church was white and was in use while we were hunting around in the graveyards. It was here that we found most of the Clausens, we think we even found the gravesites of the two sisters who'd been left behind (the men who came to America left their two sisters in Germany). These two gravestones however were so worn that we could barely read them. Normally, we'd all just look at the stone and say, "Ah! I can't read that! I'm moving on." This time I decided to take a closer look. I knew that it was a Meyer stone (was in the Meyer section), but what I wanted to know was whether or not the woman who had died had the maiden name of Clausen (they do show this on their stones under their married name). I was excited when I was certain I'd found the old-fashioned form of the name Clausen. This old fashioned form is one that has rather a really long line instead of an s. I tried changing my angle so that I could see the shadow of the carving and thus possibly be able to read it, but this didn't work. After running my finger over the carved letters I decided that I'd definitely found something worth investigating, so I called Ahmee over and showed her the carving. She took a look at it and then said we needed to do a rubbing to check. Poppy, who'd done rubbings before, came over and tried water and then dirt to see if that would make it more legible. This didn't work, so he and I went back to the car to get a led pencil and a piece of paper. As we walked back the people who'd been in the church came out. Poppy and I said hello. I kept walking, wanting to get back to the stone and do the rubbing, while Poppy slowed down and started talking to people and telling them he was looking for Clausens. Most of them knew no English, and only a few of them spoke a few tidbits of it. I think they thought we needed help because two women came and talked to us. The one who knew less English talked to me and showed me where the pastor lived (at least I think that's what she said- also think she might've been talking about documents there-maybe not though, she might've just been having a good time talking to me). She thought I spoke a bit of German. I don't speak any German, but for some reason a lot of people over hear think that I understand more of it than Ahmee and Poppy. I had two women prior to this ask me if I spoke German, I told them both no, but I was able to dissern what they meant. Ex: at the place where we ate lunch at the museum we asked if they served lunch, sandwiches, those things. She said (using a few words of English here and lots of German in between) that they were but we'd have a little bit of a wait for our food. When Ahmee said, "So you aren't serving food...." She said no and repeated herself. I told Ahmee that I thought she was saying that yeah they serve food, but we'd have a bit of a wait. Ahmee and Poppy ordered the special, saying that they'd take it even if they didn't know what it was. At this the lady tried to explain what was in it, and Ahmee said that it was alright, they'd just take whatever it was. I told her I'd take a specific sandwich. Before we left to go to our table she asked me in German if I spoke German. I told her that no I didn't.
The woman who spoke to me and took me over to the house behind the church spoke almost completely in German and I'm fairly certain thought I knew a lot of what she was saying. I didn't, lol! Was much more difficult to figure out what she was saying whenever I couldn't see all of her face, and whenever I couldn't read her body language (didn't use as many hand motions, and she was standing closer to me than the other woman).
I was very happy when the other woman came and started talking to us in English. She told us about how all of the old tombstones were going to be demolished in 30 years, and she and Ahmee spoke for a while while Poppy and I worked on trying to get a rubbing of the stone. It was difficult for Poppy because he had a harder time telling where to place the paper. It was difficult in general really, because the led pencil was difficult to work with-we really needed chalk or a crayon.
After trying and failing to figure out what the stone read with the led pencil and the piece of paper we stood there for a bit talking to the lady who knew a bit more English. Ahmee told her about the two sisters who were left behind in Germany while their brothers went to America. She wondered if this was on of them. From the position I was in I could make out the name above the Clausen and that was Dorothea Meyer. Her maiden name, like I said before, was Clausen.
We ended up heading back towards the car, talking about how we needed to get chalk and come back early the next morning. Before we walked all the way to the car we went into the church. The inside was very lovely. It was a small church, or at least it didn't have very many seats. Most of it was white and every now and then a touch of gold was there. Course, I might've imagined that. The main thing I noticed was the chandelier, which was a sparkling sensation from the sunlight coming through the door. Another thing I noticed was that the windows were not stained glass. They were a very old, clear glass. In my opinion old clear glass is just as pretty as stained glass. It's just the way it runs and distorts things. Very pretty to look at.
After this very successful mission we went back to the hotel where I wrote on my blog while Ahmee and Poppy went out shopping. Something I must mention is that the town we were staying in (Verdin) was having a blue's and jazz festival. The hotel we were in was having a huge party where they had set up so that a band would play while everyone ate. I couldn't wait to finish up my blog so I could post it downstairs and eat while listening to the jazz music in the background. When Ahmee and Poppy got back from their walk, with chalk I might add, we went downstairs to grab a bite to eat. As we ate we each took turns on the internet. I told Ahmee and Poppy to go ahead and check their emails and things and go ahead and email people. They checked them, but at the time I wasn't certain whether or not they'd replied to people. During the time that Poppy was on our waiter came by and asked what all we'd like to eat. I ordered duck, which surprisingly wasn't the most expensive thing on the menu. We learned that the waiter was working both the bar in the party room and the tables in ours. I thought it sounded like an insane job to have.
When it was my turn to get on the computer I immediately went to my blog page. I was a little miffed that the title up at the top was in German (the thing I click on that says Add New Blog or something like that). I tried the button that I thought would take me directly to where I could copy and paste and I found that I'd run into a problem I'd had before: I couldn't do anything because Ahmee and Poppy's email was in the email address. I'd forgotten how to get rid of this though, and the German words that were staring at me on that page didn't help me out at all. So, I did something else, something I knew EXACTLY how to do. I went and checked my emails. I found that two of my teachers had emailed me, so I downloaded what Mr. Owens had sent me and I copied and pasted what Mr. Johnson had sent me. After that I looked to see who had written me. Iain and Sara had written. I looked at their emails, desperately wanting to write to them but knowing the food would be there any minute. After I read both of their emails I went to try blogging again. This time I got it to work (remembered to keep hitting enter until I was able to get the box to appear where I could type in MY email address). I copied and pasted blogs until Ahmee and Poppy's food arrived. Then I shut the computer down. The waiter told us that the duck would be a while longer: tis tender meat. I told Ahmee and Poppy to go ahead and start without me so that while I'm finishing up eating they can get anything else they want to get done on the computer done.
At first they said no and ate very slowly, then they started talking about how they wanted to reply to Juana (Ahmee's friend) and how they wanted to register to vote (outside of the U.S. it's been difficult in the past for U.S. citizens to vote while on the road).
Ahmee asked me how much more I needed to copy and paste. I told her that I honestly had no idea. Then I started talking about the things that I wanted to do on the computer. I started by saying that I wanted to finish copying and pasting, and how I wanted to email people. Ahmee asked me who I wanted to email and I told her that I wanted to send Momma an email and Daddy an email, and that I should send an email to Sara and to Iain since they'd responded to me.
Her response was: "Well since Rachel *has* to reply to all these people then...." Course I jumped in and said that it wasn't a have to thing, it was a want to. Poppy started saying how I was going to do the blogging first and then the emailing and I immediately jumped in there too saying, "Yeah, of course. I did say first that I was going to copy and paste right? It won't take too long."
I ended up waiting a long time for the duck and by the time it came Poppy had already cleared his main plate. The duck meat was incredible at first, but then after a while it got to be too rich, it felt too greasy for me. After eating very healthy food for a month it can be nauseating to eat something that tastes greasy. I had to slow down to finish it. I surprised myself by clearing my main plate and then eating the salad. I was hungrier than I thought I was.
Once I got done eating I got to get on the computer. I finished posting my blogs and then wrote very short emails to Iain, Sara, and Momma. I decided I would have to wait and send Daddy an email later because I wanted more time for his email. I didn't want to have to rush through that. Course, I didn't want to rush through any of the emails.
What was pushing me to hurry was I knew that Ahmee and Poppy were wanting to head up to the room and they didn't want to have to wait around for me. If I had emailed people like I wanted to there's a possibility that Poppy would add more to his speech of me needing to get other things done before my emails, that other things were more important. In this case he probably would've used sleep as more important - which it is.
I don't like not being able to send Iain, Sara, and Momma longer emails whenever I haven't been able to contact them for days. I like giving them more insight than: "In _____ now! Such and such reminded me of you! Missin ya tons!" Not that that's what I sent them, but those really short emails are typical of Ahmee and Poppy. I think that one of the longer ones I've seen Poppy write was about a paragraph. Ahmee doesn't like to type it much, it's difficult for her to type fast. She still doesn't want me to give her typing lessons, so when she's emailing she's doing a two finger search throughout the keyboard. I really wish she'd let me teach her. If she knows French and could learn Spanish in her upper 50's then she can learn how to type. Especially since she's played the piano and the flute. I have no doubts that Ahmee and Poppy could learn how to type, they're both smart enough for it and they'd get plenty of needed practice when they type to their friends. Ahmee is astounded whenever Juana sends her over 4 paragraphs in an email.
I like typing those types of emails, especially to Momma, Iain, and Sara. It really doesn't take long for me to type them! What takes a bit is me trying to figure out what I should tell them, because I know that all three of them talk to each other, I know that it might be more fun if they exchanged news. I'm my mother’s daughter.
My Momma, when she writes, she writes a lot. We used to both be on a role playing website together and my mom would always write posts that were almost too long and that always contained huge amounts of details. My writing isn't as good as my mothers. My writing is pretty vague and plain compared to hers. Actually, all of the people I send "long" emails to are really good at writing. Only one of them cares for punctuation though and that's Sara. Iain, Momma, and Sara are the three people that I always send long emails to. I miss them all so much!
While I've been on this trip I've had my Aunty Jen tell me that I'm a good writer and that these blogs are like reading a book. I'll write here what I wrote to her in my responding email: these blogs aren't anywhere near my best. Like all of my past journals, they have major spelling and punctuation errors. Like most of my past journals, there are probably times where I don't make much sense. Last but not least: I'm not including near as much detail as I would like to. My blog for Giverny is probably the best one I've done so far.
Jen Jen Jenny's compliment did have two effects: 1) I had a stupid grin attached to my face for at least half an hour, 2) made me want to keep my blog more up to date (I'll do my best to post these as soon as I can-no promises here).
In the past I was told by Sara that I had the potential to be a great writer, maybe if I work on it and "cultivate" it while I'm here I can take a few steps towards getting better.
All of the thoughts above were what I was thinking when we walked back up to the room. On the way there I grabbed a fashion magazine. While Poppy was in the shower I was in with Ahmee, looking at the German magazine.
(It's now getting late when I'm writing this so I'm going to do a bit of summarizing)
I took a shower, I made Ahmee and Poppy laugh by wearing the robe and slippers that were on my bed, I brushed my teeth, and I went to bed.
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