Asher Otto is here!!

He's finally here! He arrived at 9:22 pm on the 24th. He's beautiful and fun and looks a LOT like Micah. I think the main differences are his widow's peak (from his daddy), and his eyes. We can't really tell yet, but we think he has my eyes. Too bad we don't have my baby pictures here to compare side by side.
So, as we should have expected, Germans even induce birth differently than Americans. In the US, BreAnne went into the hospital, was started on a pitocin (artificial oxytocin) drip, given an epidural, and enjoyed the next 12 hours or so of "labor." Here, well, now we know why people thought she was crazy when she said she wanted an induced birth. So, we showed up at 8 am, but were told to wait a moment before they could take her. After the hour-long moment was up, we went into a prep room, where a midwife (there aren't any nurses in maternity wards here, they're all midwives, and they were all very nice and extremely competent, but couldn't understand why US hospitals aren't swarming with their American counterparts) injected a hellish substance called PG Gel onto BreAnne's cervix. The purpose of the inhumane substance was to soften the cervix and induce contractions. After the injection, they told us to go for a walk and "enjoy the weather." (I don't blame them, the weather was nice). About a block away from the hospital, we had to turn around. BreAnne thought she was going to die. I thought she was going to die. Facing her imminent death we went back and asked if it was supposed to hurt her so much, etc. They proceeded to inform us post facto that yes, in fact, it was and that the contractions caused by the evil viscosity actually tended to hurt quite a bit more because they weren't coordinated like natural ones are. They injected some anti-contraction stuff into her to slow them down and give BreAnne a break. They couldn't start an epidural until she was 3 to 4 cm dilated because it would more than likely stop the contractions. The next 5 hours or so consisted of BreAnne breathing deeply, me letting her dig into my arm with her fingernails as much as she wanted (and she dug), starting an IV with that anti-contraction stuff at some point, finally being dilated to 3 cm, and getting an epidural. Once the epidural was there, BreAnne slept, I went and got some errands done and we waited for our boy to arrive.
The rest was fairly uneventful. At one point the epidural wore off and it was back to the morning routine for about ten minutes. The anaesthesiologist was in surgery and a midwife told us it was supposed to take at least half an hour. Luckily it wasn't nearly that long. About an hour or so later, BreAnne told the midwife she was feeling a lot of pressure and it was hurting. The midwife, who had just started her shift, said, "OK, but let me have a look first." She looked, got excited, showed me my sons head and said BreAnne should push with the next contraction. Three pushes later he was there! Our first thought was, wow, he looks like Micah. Anyway, here are some numbers:
Weight: 3200 g/7lbs
Length: 50 cm/19 2/3 in
Head circumference: 37 cm/ approx. 15 in

And, what you've all visited the blog for: the pictures (in chronological order)...

Micah before we sent him off with some ward members to spend the day and night.

Waiting for my wife to be admitted...

Post-bad morning. She was standing and dancing (swaying her hips) to help Asher along.

Some shots of the room.

Here he is!!!

Don't let the stressed-out look fool you, he still hasn't cried! He's so quiet it freaks me out.

He looks a little more relaxed here. And you can see his eyes really well. They're definitely not BreAnne's. We need to find a picture of me to compare.

I love my new boy!

And so does mommy.

He's pretty much been asleep since. I forgot how much they DO sleep.

Micah loves him! Here he is meeting him for the first time the next morning.

He's so pretty!

His first smile. He's happy to be out.

His proud big brother, welcoming him home!

I like tie-dye, I like burritos, I like Asher. So, we made a tie-dyed Asher burrito. Thanks Tante Kami!

Micah decided that he needed to read to Asher. It was cute. He looks so big next to Asher!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. We'll add more soon. I think our computer is broken, so as soon as we figure that out and get internet at home, we'll be posting like crazy.

Pregnant BreAnne

First off, a lot of you have been wanting to see pictures of BreAnne pregnant. She didn't even look pregnant until about a month and a half ago, but here are a few fairly recent pictures of her. The one on the left was taken on the 22nd of November (two days before the delivery).

Another Rejection and Answers

I received a notice that Mayo Medical School is choosing not to consider my application any further. I guess that's OK, because (unlike Pritzker) I didn't actually want to go there. It's a pretty good school and all, but who really WANTS to live in Minnesota?
Here are some answers to common questions I've received in regards to studies, etc.: Yes, I'm interviewing at Ohio State during the same trip to the US as the Dallas Interview. That way, we buy one ticket (to and from Dallas) and we have frequent flier miles to pay for a round trip flight between Dallas and Columbus. So, I'm flying out of here Nov. 8th to Dallas, flying to Columbus on the 13th, flying back to Dallas the 14th (after my interview there) and then flying back to Germany Thursday morning (the 15th). It'll be fun.
Yes, classes are hard here. The Physics department here was recently named the best in Germany, and the German department is fairly rigorous as well. The University was recently declared "elite", meaning it's in the German Ivy League. So, I'm getting my arse kicked and I wonder about every 23 minutes or so why it is that I actually like Physics, let alone Physics in German.
Speaking of Physics in German, here's a list of some of my favorite new vocab words:
Wahrscheinlichkeitsdichte
Transmissionskoeffizient
Reaktionswirkungsquerschnitt
Ladungsträgerkonzentration
It's a very descriptive language, so I haven't had any trouble understanding it, but it's weird doing it all in German. That's all for now.

A Rejection

So, as the list to the left shows, I got rejected to Pritzker (University of Chicago). I really hoped for an interview there, but hey, not everyone gets rejected by Pritzker I guess. As long as I get into UT, it'll be OK. I hope they accept me before I end up wasting more time and money on interviews at other schools.

Americans living in Germany......

So, one of the many adventures we have had living in Germany has been living with out a car. It definitely has it's benefits. One being I have only gained about 15 pounds this pregnancy, verses the many (I maxed out at 199) I gained with Mikah. One can only feel my pain and understand my insecurities when they picture Patsy, the small, but, oh so wonderful man I married. At any rate, we walk everywhere. We found ourselves at the ER/maternity ward last Sunday night. I was bleeding a little and had some pain. At about 10 pm we woke Mikah up and threw him in his stroller and walked to the hospital. It was weird not being able to just jump in the car and head to the hospital with such a problem. All though everything with me and the baby are fine, it turned out to be a learning experience. Firt off, the doctor was probably younger than me, and was a nice looking guy. Understand, I don't typically check out the fresh meat at the hospitals, but, when you realize that some young guy is going to be exploring such an area, I would prefer he be old, and ugly. At any rate, he asked the regular questions and then told me he was going to make sure everything was okay. So, I sat there, and then we both waited, smiling uncomfortably at each other and he finally said that I should take my pants off. Keep in mind, Mikah is running around with a huge "birthing ball" and Patrick is trying to keep him in the room. I was a little confused because he continued to sit there and look at me. I took the hint, and stood up and followed the orders. I quickly sat back on the chair. He was kind enough to comment on how things were probably done a little different at home, and handed me a napkin that I was to use as, I guess a loin cloth. Then, I felt myself being elevated really high into the air. So, there I was in all of my pregnant glory, hovering 5 feet in the air. I will spare further details.





To give a brief update, I will be 34 weeks tomorrow. I am going to be induced the end of November. Mikah is doing great. Patrick started school last Monday and has been adjusting to learning fun new German vocabulary from his Physics classes. He flies to Texas on November 8th for his UT interview! I finally got a hair cut and that is about all the news we have for you.

Another Interview!

Good news for family and friends in Texas! I'm interviewing at UT Southwestern in Dallas on the 9th and 10th of November! We were really excited to get this invitation because it's a very good school, and because living there would mean being with family (since the U of U is out of the running)! I hope I get in. Anyway, I promise to add a REAL post soon.

An Interview!!

This one will be short. We just heard back from Ohio State University today, and they invited me to interview! I'm so excited! That mean's I've been narrowed down to one of around 650 students out of 4 or 5 thousand applying! The interview is November 14th, so it's time to buy a ticket! It'll be weird flying there without BreAnne and Micah. Plus it's only about 2 weeks before our next boy will be coming! Well, that's it for now. When I have a little more time, I'll catch up on the posts, and I'll be sure to have some more pictures.

Home Sweet Home

So, we moved in Thursday, the 30th of August. It felt so nice to have our own bed (it's about queen size), kitchen, and bathroom! The people before us sold us a kitchen table with chairs, a desk, a bookshelf, a nice shelf, a bed with a new mattress, two nightstands, a huge closet (they're not built in here), and a coffee table. We went to BigPommes to celebrate moving in. We went to IKEA on Saturday the 1st and bought dishes, silverware, hampers, a strainer, cutting boards, mixing bowls, a shower curtain, a duvet, duvet cover, and some other necessities and settled in. All we still need is a couch. They even left two GI Joe action figures, an aircraft carrier toy, and several little airplanes. Micah named both of his GI Joes "Peter" (pronounced like the Germans, pay-tur). They left a bike helmet that Micah loved to wear. We threw it away because he wanted to wear it in public. Not that I have anything against it, but if you don't need to wear one everywhere you go, then you shouldn't wear it.

We thought we were going to have to buy Micah a new bed, but our wonderful ward came to the rescue and a family loaned us one for him. It's a toddler-sized bed, so sometimes he ends up hanging off of it since he's used to a twin, but he likes it.

I was finally matriculated at the school. As mentioned in earlier posts, the system here is a little different. Students aren't coddled like they are at home and I sort of miss that, but the university is great. I'll be taking Theoretical Quantum Mechanics, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Electronics, Biochemistry, and two German literature classes, both dealing with the Romantic era and 18th century literature.

Oh, another thing, Micah is currently in love with Babe, BreAnne's stuffed pig, so sometimes she has to do without sleeping with Babe so that Micah can. He wants to take him on walks sometimes, too.

Why Living in Our Own Apartment is Better Than Living With a Crazy Old Lady

First off, I've updated the med school status list. My letters should get to them any day now, meaning that I can now officially be rejected or invited to an interview. I just want to get in. Once I'm in (somewhere, anywhere), I can just concentrate on school here.
As promised, here are the details of our stay at Carola's house. So, when I initially emailed the international center asking for some assistance in helping us find a place for the 3 weeks between August 11th and September 1st, they replied with an offer from an older lady. The guy at the university said it would be two rooms and come to 590,€ in all. Shortly after making contact with Carola, saying that would work, I got a reply from her saying that she was excited for us to come and that, by the way, it would actually cost 650,€. I sent her an e-mail asking her why exactly she felt it necessary to charge us 650 Euros rather than 590 for us to stay for 20 days with her in her house. I received no reply. I sent a second one asking how much it would be. No reply. Mind you I never actually agreed to the price of 650 Euros, but, in all "fairness" said we would probably have to stay there anyway, but to please inform of the source of the significant discrepancy in prices. I reminded/informed her that we wouldn't be there for more than 20 days, in case that would change the price (for reference, 650 Euros is 915 US Dollars at the current exchange rate). After a week and a half more of no replies, I finally e-mailed the university again saying that I felt it was a bit pricy for 20 days of living in a house with someone else, and to please let us know what the actual price was. A reply! Not from Carola though, because her husband had just died and rendered her unable to answer my e-mails. But she was apparantly able to call the university and tell them to e-mail us to say that, and I quote (translated from German), "although she normally charges 600 Euros/month, she decided to charge 500 Euros since you will only be there for 20 days." I was pleasantly surprised and sent her an e-mail with our condolences and figured everything was set.
We arrived and paid her 500 Euros. She didn't count the money right away because she said she trusted me, being a physicist and all (that's how she put it). It was only one room, with a bathroom, but we got it for 500 Euros, so we weren't upset. 3 days later, she started this weird conversation about how strange it was that I asked her in a later e-mail what her address was, although she had already given it to me. I told her I had deleted the first e-mail. She then went on to wonder why I was confused about the price when she had already said that it was 650 Euros. I told her it was because I had neither agreed to the price, nor received an explanation as to why we were told 590 Euros in the first place. I then asked her straight up if she wanted 650 Euros instead of 500. She said we were good. End of story? No. A few days later she, out of nowhere, said she didn't think it was fair that we only paid 500 Euros and that she would make a compromise with us and meet us halfway by only demanding an extra 75 Euros (over 100 Dollars). I said we didn't have the money at the time and would have to wait until October. She started throwing questions at us like, "well, don't you have an account at home that you can get the money from?," "didn't you bring enough money for unexpected occurences?," and "can't you get it to me earlier?" I told her we used our reserves just getting to Heidelberg and that had we known it would have been that much more to stay with her, we wouldn't have stayed/been able to stay, et cetera, then said if you really want the money, you'll just have to wait. End of story? Oh goodness, no.
So, although I wouldn't want to make light of her husband's death (he was apparently chronically ill), she just should not have brought on the added stress of having strangers in her house in her obviously emotionally fragile state. She kept telling us crap like how symbolic it was that everything in her house (like doors, cupboards, dishwasher, washing machine) was broken or breaking, considering the recent illness and death of her husband. What do you say? Oh, wow, that is profoundly symbolic, you're right. I think I'll sit and waste my time talking to you, as a stranger, about the death of your husband and the metaphorical vicissitudes you've come to appreciate as a result. Wait, I'd rather eat, send family an e-mail and go get to know the city that will be our home for the next year. Good hell.
We found out the reason she was so set on us coming to stay with her is because she has a "guy-friend" who lives in Cambridge, with whom she has a creepily close relationship (creepy because she's in her 60s and he's around 40 maybe). He came to visit her and she wanted to fly to Cambridge as well. I didn't check ticket prices, but my guess is that they're somewhere around 600 Euros for round trip fare out of Frankfurt. Anyway, our theory is (i.e. we now realize) that they're lovers, despite her being a few decades his senior, and she wanted to visit him. When she left to fly to Cambridge, she forgot her passport, came storming back at 1 in the morning (this was on the 27th of August, I think, she was leaving us alone in the house for the last few days of our stay), frantic that she couldn't get the earlier flight. She "just had to get away," and then she started crying to me and asking me if I took her seriously about the extra 75 Euros. Yes, Carola, I suppose I do. "Is there any way you can give it to me tonight?" No, damn it! OK, I didn't say it like that, but I did say, no, I've told you we won't have it until October. She cried some more and told me again how she just needed to get away. I find it all but impossible to be sympathetic to people who have burned me and my family, so I just went upstairs and went to bed. The next morning she was gone, so I guess she made her flight an everything. Again, I really to think it's terrible to have a death in the family, but why bring strangers into the mix? All in all: bad experience. But, we got to move into our apartment a few days early and we love it here.
Privacy is the key to happiness, I've decided. We have been so happy, so relaxed, and so much better off since we got out of that lady's place. Well, that's enough for now. Pictures coming with the next post.

Stop Complaining! More to Come...

For those of you who complain that our blog has not been updated, I can unfortunately offer no apology. We just don't have an Internet connection. Now we can walk two short blocks and use the library's wireless. It was a complicated process that will be explained in sickening detail that will make you all wish I wouldn't update our blog anymore. Well, it wasn't too bad, but we have some amusing, tragic, and otherwise interesting stories to tell, so keep visiting!

Good News, Accomplishments, and the Merits of Socialism

Today was a pleasantly eventful day, and we didn't even intend it to be. First, I received an e-mail from my exchange coordinator here saying that she had some paperwork that I needed. Getting paperwork it normally hardly something to get excited about, let alone enough to inspire a blog post. But this paperwork will allow us to register with the city so that we're good and legal, and also get us health insurance from the state. The reason this is good news is because Germany is so wonderfully socialist in just the right places. Now, Germany is not a socialist country, but it has a social government, like you Republicans out there love to see (yeah right). There's something to be said about socialized health care. As the current situation in the US has proven, Capitalism and health care are not the most fitting of bedfellows. This isn't to say that a completely socialized health care system doesn't have its (also major) flaws, but at least virtually all people are insured here, which is a lot more than the land south of Canada can say. The reason I'm lauding the virtues of the social state we're living in is because this means that for about €350 a semester (or €700 for the duration of our stay), we can have prenatal visits, deliver a baby, stay in the hospital for 5 or 6 nights afterward, get all the check-ups we need, get medication, and sleep soundly, knowing that we will be taken care of in case of any accident. Last I checked, private health insurance in America can't do that for even $478/month (that's €350. I'll exchange Euros to Dollars at the current rate to give any idiot supporters of the current insurance farce in the States the benefit of the doubt). By the way, for that per semester cost, our whole family is covered, even the coming baby. That's right, the cost doesn't go up. I'm rambling, but I just wanted to convey my excitement on finding out today that we will be coming home with at least $6000 less debt than we would have were it not for my eligibility for public insurance here.

After this good news, we ran into our landlord-to-be, who informed us that the previous tenant would be dropping off the key today, so we get to move in tomorrow! We are ecstatic! We can't wait to take all 6 suitcases of our life into our new apartment and finally settle in to our HOME!! We're sick of temporary arrangements. Granted, this is also temporary, but 11 months is a lot better than 3 weeks here and 4 weeks there and looking forward to the accompanying luggage hauling.

Oh yeah, I apparently get one month more of my Baden-Württemberg scholarship, and my exchange coordinator is trying to convince the state and school to give us 6 more months of the stipend. Even if we don't get the extra 6 months, the extra 1 month is nice. We can pay rent with cash!

The attentive reader will notice that I haven't necessarily addressed the "accomplishments" so proudly written in the title of this post. This is Micah's accomplishment. Yes, he craps in the toilet. Now, it's not a regular feat, but it has occured on two occasions, and his progress is promising. He tells us now when he needs to produce a bowel movement, after which he assumes the position, with varying success. So, for his future embarrasment, out of our pride as parents, and because we haven't posted a picture of anything for a while now, here he is, in all his toddler glory.

An Anniversary in Heidelberg

We didn't have gifts for each other. We didn't even get cards. I wanted to draw something for BreAnne, but I didn't have time (at least not much when I wasn't with her). The challenge became finding out how much we could do with about 20 Euros. First we let Micah play on a playground that's really close to our future apartment. He had fun and was finally brave enough to climb up this ladder thing on his own. Then we set out to find a place to have our big anniversary dinner. After walking around down town for about two hours looking for a chinese restaurant that we saw last week (we never did find it), we settled on a Thai restaurant and ate there. It was good and relatively cheap, especially since we just brought our own bottle of water. We didn't feel like spending 3 Euros per 6 ounce glass of water at the restaurant. Germany needs to work on the drink price situation in restaurants. At least you're not obligated to tip (as much anyway). After that, we got some ice cream and found a bench to sit on and eat. The pedestrian zone is always packed here. A lot of them are tourists here for the summer, but there are a lot of natives in town all the time, too. We headed home after some window shopping (i.e. pricing items we'll need for our new apartment: hand towels, sheets, etc.), where Micah refused to fall asleep (it's so ridiculous living in one room, with no other room to go to while he falls asleep!). I went to Penny Markt, since it's open late, ad bought a 700 g tub of Smurf gummi candy, a bag of chips, and two rolls of Doppel Keks (with milk). That was our real celebration. Had we spent our anniversary like this back in Salt Lake City, I would have been disappointed, but how many Americans can say they spent their anniversary eating ice cream in Heidelberg? On top of that, Matt and Emmy's website said "Happy Anniversary BreAnne and Patrick!" That was an exciting extra. Sorry about there not being any pictures. We'll have more soon.

Music, Church, and Road Rash

Micah has developed a near-obsessive love for music. He plays my harmonica as loud and long as he can. He's hilarious to watch; he moves his hands, fingers, and head while he's playing like he's imitating Bob Dylan or something. I don't know where he gets it, but he has fun. If I start playing the guitar to accompany him, he says, "No, Papa, zu laut," (too loud) so I have to stop and just let him entertain us until he's finished.


We went to church for the first time in Heidelberg today and loved it. We have honestly never been welcomed so warmly into any ward, ever. It was amazing. There are a couple of Americans in the ward, and a guy from England, and they're all great. Micah went to nursery and was just fine. As soon as he came and found us afterward he told us how he got to eat in nursery. We're looking forward to our year here. It'll be nice once we get in our new apartment. It'll be downtown. I'll post more about our drama with the current living arrangements some other time.

On the way to the train stop after church, Micah was running along, racing us as usual, when he tripped and tried to stop his fall, but succeeded only in landing on his left arm and slamming his left temple and forehead into a nice bit of asphalt. It sounded like thumping a cantaloupe. He cried, bled a little, then fell asleep in BreAnne's arms. We got pictures just in case something so amusingly unfortunate doesn't happen again for a while. The flash on the camera sort of washes out the color, but you can still see his road rash, especially if you click on the photos to enlarge them.

Oh yeah, if you pull up our blog and the polls are unavailable, just click refresh and they should come up. You should submit your vote. If you don't, there'll be a new poll topic someday and you'll kick yourself for not voting on this (especially relevant and important) one.

In case you care...

So, this post is here to tell you all a few things: what I (we) do with all this time on our hands, give a luggage update, and introduce some changes to our blog. School starts here October 14th. I've never had such a big break from school since my mission. In case you're curious as to what we do with all this "free time," then keep reading. First of all, we have a few details to attend to before I can actually start studying. We have to open a bank account here so that our rent can be automatically stolen from it every month. We need to apply for (student) visas. We need to acquire and provide proof of health insurance (the insurance we had in Kiel just expired). We need to come up with our first month's rent and deposit, as well as money for med school application fees (more on that later). We also need to register with Heidelberg so that we're legal residents, but we can only do that once we've moved into our apartment. Once that is all out of the way, I need to sign up for classes. Signing up for classes is much less convenient than in the US. I have to go to each professor and request a seat in his/her class. Usually, I'm told, this is simply a matter of signing my name on a list. With some classes I may have to show that I've fulfilled certain prerequisites, etc. On top of that, if the class is only offered as a lecture, and not a "seminar," I need to request that the professor grade a paper or give me a test to receive a grade for the class. To get a grade for the class, I also need to have the professor sign a certificate at the end of the semester. Then, I take the certificates to the international office, where they're copied and kept on file. I have to take those home to get credit for my classes. Anyway, I'm a little off the subject, but I just wanted to let you all know how spoiled we are in the US with such user-friendly universities. Besides the more bureaucratic tasks at hand, I spend most of my time filling out medical school application materials, including writing essays for the applications. We added a list to our blog (on the left) that shows all of the medical schools I've sent a primary application to. The key at the bottom explains the rest. The list was BreAnne's idea, so that I don't have to write it all in seperate posts, and it's a neat, organized way to keep track of it for ourselves. That way, for any and all of you wondering what the latest news regarding my applications is, you can come to the blog and easily find out. The secondaries I've actually submitted, or that I'm ready to submit, are Johns Hopkins, Washington, and Dartmouth. I was really excited to hear from all of them, so we'll see how it goes from here. We got our luggage today. Everything was even in it. We're excited to be able to wear something else for the first time in a week. With the arrival of our luggage, we said goodbye to the luggage poll. But in its place is the new "Poll of the Week." Tell your friends. I'll try to have a fresh, interesting, or otherwise new poll for our faithful blog readers every week. That's about all for now. I'll post some more pictures soon.

Baby Boy needs a post, too.

So, even though our next little boy won't be here until the first week of December, I decided to let everyone have a look at him. He looks like a skeleton right now; skeletons don't have penises, but Baby Boy does (see the arrow in the picture?). That's how we know he's a boy, not a skeleton. Excuse the fact that we don't have a scanner. BreAnne just took a picture of our ultrasound photos.

Auftrag erledigt!

I hate to disappoint the two naysayers who took it upon themselves to add insult to our injury and actually vote "no" on our poll, but the two words in the title of this post say it all: our luggage was picked up. Whether or not we'll ever see it again, one can only guess. So, to keep a lively spirit of pessimism alive for as long as possible, I'm keeping the poll until the luggage is in our hands, or until we are convinced that its contents have been distributed throughout the Balkans, or any other region with an active black market (I guess that would be most of the world, wouldn't it?).

Waiting for luggage, walking for fun.

Yesterday afternoon (I'm almost caught up on our blog!), we went for a walk down town. Micah ate a pizza from a bakery pretty much all by himself. BreAnne and I got "fish n' chips" at a place called BigPommes (Pommes is almost universally European for french fries). The name says it all. For 3 Euros, we got a big paper cone of Pommes with some fish on top. Neither one of us could eat all of the Pommes. They even smothered them in ketchup and mayo at no extra charge, and that is quite the deal in Germany. Usually you get charged for asking for more than the allotted one napkin per customer. After our visit to BigPommes, we went to a playground just down the street from our future place of residence. It was great, nobody there was a native German speaker. I've never seen so many young families in one place in Germany.

After the playground, we went back to our train stop. On the way back, there was a guy throwing a flaming stick around. Just for Micah (he said), he would do an extra trick, which was putting the fire out in his mouth. I love it here. It's a very diverse city. There are Germans, Turks, Italians, Spaniards, Americans, and Asians all over the place. They're not just tourists, either. A lot of the population is students and military personnel.

Wir lieben dich Heidelberg! (We love you, Heidelberg!)

I know, I know, you're in no mood to appreciate beauty after that last post. Or maybe you are. I am. The greatest thing about arriving in Heidelberg is knowing that this is our home for a year! We're not vacationing, we're not passing through, we're not missionaries! We get to enjoy the city and region thoroughly!

First things first, we took a nap from about 9:30 until 16:30. Micah called Oma, as promised. If you want us to call you, just deposit money in our account, and we'll buy a phone card and call. Phone cards are typically 5, €. You can check the exchange rate online yourself. After calling (oh yeah, if you e-mail us your telephone number we'll call, too), we went on a walk in our new home town. One of the coolest things about the city is that it's on the river. It's wedged between some hills and the river and it makes for a very scenic city. The city's downtown area apparently used to be medieval, but was largely destroyed by the French (!) around 1700. So, almost all of the houses are built in a baroque style. Some noteworthy exceptions are the Heiliggeistkirche (built 1400 - 1441), the Haus zum Ritter (built 1596), some university buildings (like the library that we'll live about 100 m from, built around 15-something), and most of the gi-freaking-normous castle on the hill (different sections were built between the 12th and 17th centuries).

After walking around downtown, we crossed the old bridge and appreciated the old town from the other side of the river. The bridge is a lot bigger than I had imagined. In our picture you can see how small the people are compared to it. We went back to the old town side and ate a crepe. It was good.

We found our soon-to-be apartment. It's in the old town, very close to a lot of pretty things and conveniences. We'll post pictures of that when we move in on the first of September.

On Sunday, we found the church, although we didn't go that morning. In case you're wondering, no, we're not going to go to the American ward. We're in Germany, we speak German, so why not go to the German ward? Exactly.

To end this entry, I'm just going to post some more pictures we took that first day...

Good riddance Kiel!

Please understand, I (we) didn't hate the city, people, or my education that I received while staying in Kiel. Quite the opposite. But the program in general was flawed in that it lacked some very basic organisation usually present in any kind of program/event/party/semester/(fill in the blank). So, we had been told that we had to leave Friday, but, we could stay as late as needed on Friday, which was nice of them to let us do, seeing as how we paid so much for BreAnne alone to come and "participate" (i.e. pay rent and go on a VERY long day trip with the group). So, since we couldn't travel on the weekend (which is much, much, very much cheaper), we had to get a night train to Heidelberg. The problem with the damn things is that you can't bring any more luggage than what you can carry on a night train. So, we had the option (i.e. were forced) to have our luggage picked up by a courier service. The problem was, the dork didn't show up on Friday (departure date) to pick up our luggage. I called the service to ask them why they felt it was necessary to leave us out of their fun and was told that said dork had made an "attempt" (Versuch was the word) and was unable (by no fault of his own, I'm sure) to find us at home, even though we sat at home from 8 to 18 o'clock, as any good customer would do. Since we didn't have money to buy new tickets, we decided to give the courier service the necessary code, in order to be able to get into our stairwell, where we left the luggage. Everything was settled.

We hurried to catch our train and ended up in Karlsruhe, 40 km past Heidelberg. This happened because there was an accident on the tracks and we were detoured past Mannheim, didn't stop in Heidelberg (at least not on a platform), then were dumped out in Karlsruhe to find our way back to Heidelberg. After arguing shortly with a man, who by the way couldn't speak a reasonable dialect to save his life (welcome to southern Germany), we had to buy tickets to Heidelberg. In Germany, it's never anyone's fault. Things just are the way they are and you damn well better accept the fact. So, even though it didn't actually stop in Heidelberg, it really did.

Later in Heidelberg (more about the city in the next blog, I'm not finished with my treatise on incompetence just yet), we found out that the courier again failed to pick up our luggage. Basically, we had to pay again, with the hope that the first order will someday be refunded, and gave them the original orders again. Tomorrow (Wednesday the 15th) is the scheduled pick-up date. We'll see what happens. Until then, we will curse the disorganisation of the Kiel/U of U Study Abroad program. I haven't explicitly said why our situation is justifiably the fault of the program coordinators. The thing is, we found out a few hours before our departure, that we could have actually stayed until Sunday (despite, as the attentive reader will recall, being told to get the hell out by Friday). Had we known that, we could have all made it here on Saturday, bringing our luggage with us, for 33, € instead of what is, so far, about 300, €. That is why I am angry. That is why leadership and accountability is necessary in a Study Abroad program (Reader! You now know as I do, that we can't assume such amenities to be present in the real world). And that is why I didn't include pictures with this post. It's supposed to be ugly.

Strande und Schilksee

With Lübeck behind us, and Heidelberg before us, we spent a Saturday enjoying what our home-for-a-month had to offer. We took the bus up to Strande, a small, seaside village where a fair was going on. Micah had fun petting the goats, although he wasn't quite brave enough to let any of them eat out of his hand. After we'd had enough of the goats, we set out to find something to eat. We found a stand with Haribo (R) instead, so we bought Schlümpfe (Smurfs) and some other sorry excuses for sustenance and went on our way. We ran into a carousel of sorts that had cars. Given Micah's obsession with sitting in toy cars of almost any sort, we were naturally obliged to let him have a ride. It's funny how seriously he takes it. I don't think he noticed that we were waving at him until the 13th or 14th time around, because he was too focused on the road, which is understandable in that kind of traffic. He didn't want to get out, but he gave in and we walked a few minutes to Schilksee, a beach resort town right by Strande. We bought Micah a little bucket and shovel and went to play when suddenly BreAnne spotted a lady dancing topless with her kids (approx. 12 and 10 yrs old). Now, since BreAnne warned me, I was spared having to gaze upon her glory, but I understand she was really something. We migrated south along the water and found another nice spot to play without the marred view.
We finally got a Fischbrötchen. BreAnne got a fish pattie of some sort that ended up not being very good (but was about the only cooked fish available) and I got a Matjes fillet. Raw fish is good. It's kind of weird, since it's cold, but it's usually pickled or otherwise seasoned and tastes good.

Before we left, Micah threw some rocks at the seagulls, told them to shut up (he really does this), then started looking for a rock for Oma. Then we walked around and took pictures. Before I came here, I don't think a bunch of docked sailboats would have been the first thing that came to mind when I thought of pretty things, but just look at it!

Lübeck

At this point classes were in full swing. We spent our last weekend (or a day at least), in Lübeck, a very pretty, medieval city south of Kiel. This gate was built some time in the 15th century. I thought it was pretty impressive. Somehow, the island that the downtown was built on was spared during World War II, leaving us with plenty of 600 year old buildings to look at. Besides the novelty of looking at something that was built before Columbus was born, I thought the architecture was interesting enough in and of itself to warrant a visit to some of the buildings. The picture on the left is just old buildings on a narrow street next to a church (you can't see the church in the picture, but it's there). After going through the gate and looking around, we bought some marzipan. Lübeck is really famous for the marzipan they make there (Niederegger Marzipan). If you're like BreAnne, and you don't like marzipan, then you should be ashamed of yourself. Then we made our way to the ginormous Marienkirche. The ceiling inside is apparently the highest vaulted brick ceiling in the world. It's just short of 40 meters tall inside (just over 120 feet, for those of you who didn't pay attention to unit conversions during grades five through 12). Since that was impressive, we took pictures. Right after that, BreAnne entertained my need to see where Thomas Mann grew up (the Buddenbrooks house), which was right next to the Marienkirche. Then we went and saw the house where Günther Grass grew up. He's still alive and lives close to Lübeck. I wonder how that would be, to be alive and have a museum made out of your childhood home? I guess if you win a nobel prize you have to deal with that sort of thing.
After seeing the laureates' houses, we went to the old town hall, also built sometime in the 14th or 15th century (or maybe both, there were two parts to it). We thought that was really neat, so we took some pictures of that, too. There was a restaurant right next to the old Rathaus, and we were hungry, so we decided to eat there and enjoy the medieval view. After we ate (good food), we found the old hospital, which is, according to all available accounts, the best preserved medieval building of its kind. It was built in the 13th century, making it even older than most of the other buildings in Lübeck. We didn't get to go inside, but it was still fun to see. After that we walked around and went and saw the dome (but it was closed, too), then went and sat by the water and enjoyed our time together like the happy family that we are.