Busy, Busy, Busy....

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while! Things are still going great on this side of the pond. This past weekend we were meant to go to Mannhiem, a National Show in Germany, but Catherine decided we should stay home and prepare for the upcoming shows. So we had a relaxing weekend. The weather has been beautiful. Lots of sunshine and the gardens are in full bloom. The Germans are very serious gardeners. I see several people out in their gardens everyday weeding and planting new seeds.

Catherine took Natalie, the Australian rider, and I to the Sage Cemetery on Friday afternoon. I know it sounds grim, but it was actually really neat and quite moving. Sage is a nearby village. It is very small and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The cemetery is dedicated to the soldiers that lost there lives fighting in World War II. The soldiers died specifically in Sage fighting for Germany's freedom from Hitler's reign. Most of them were pilots that were shot down. It was small cemetery with a little over 900 graves. It was a more intimate setting because it was smaller. We spent some time reading the names and epitaphs. The most terrifying thing for me was reading the ages of the men and women that died. It was so sad, most of them were 19, 20, 21 years old. Thats younger than me!! There were soldiers that came from all over including Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and England.

On a more positive note, there was another German holiday this past Friday. Guess what the Germans do?? Drink, Drink, and Drink. It was a holiday to celebrate the new crops of "spargel" or asparagus. There is both white and green asparagus over here. The white asparagus is usually prepared by boiling it in milk, butter, and sugar. As you can imagine it is very sweet and creamy!! Not to mention delicious!! To celebrate, Germans have Friday off from work and take little red wagons filled with beer and snacks and walk around town and eventually make it to the forest where the spend the night drinking. It was quite the sight to see people of all ages walking around with little red wagons and drinking out in the streets!!

German Television is quite comedic. I have to admit when I first got here it was hard to watch an entire show. Of course, I couldn't understand everything that they were saying but it was more frustrating because everything is dubbed. There are several American TV shows that are dubbed in German and it is horrible to watch. But, I have found one show that I am addicted to, its called "DSDS" or German Idol. Everyone from the stable is addicted to it. It is hilarious, there are several German singers that sing all American songs, except for one girl who sang only German shlogger (its a very scary type of folk music). Thank goodness she was voted off early. It is on ever Saturday night. This past Saturday we all went over to Catherine's and grilled out. Catherine is a super cook!

Other exciting happenings this week... I have been learning to drive the big lkw (pronounced "lkv") It has been an adventure. It is over 20 years old and the steering wheel is twice the size of a tire. Its a standard and you have to jump on the clutch to shift gears. It has a fog horn, which is lots of fun to use, but is illegal! This coming weekend we are going to Mebbane to a National Show. It is only a 2 hours away so we are going to be driving back and forth each day. It will be my first big outing with the big truck. Wish me luck...

Thanks for reading....

Meaghan