One old church and two new shoes!

Hi Friends!

For those of you who like to get right to the point, I'll give you the High/lows, as we used to call them at Fox. The highs this week have been exploring Freiburg with a new friend, lots of fun conversations with my hosts, and buying new shoes (black flats, purchased today). The lows have been sparkles in my water, and wishing every single day that I understood German better.

Today I went to Freiburg with a friend from the church. Everyone else was either at work or school, so I would have been holding down the fort on my own. Peter and Vitaly and Mr. O all work at the same place up the road and they come home for lunch every day. Mrs. O had to work today, so the original plan was that I would cook lunch. When they found out I was going someplace the guys were like, "WHAT? NO! you can't go! what are we going to eat!?!" But they apparently managed, and I was sort of glad to not have the pressure of having something edible pulled together when I don't know where anything is in the kitchen, am not familiar with the food they have in the house, and can't read anything in German.

But anyway, back to my story. We went to Freiburg, and that is one cute town (see pics)! I'd like to live there, but so would everyone else, so it's expensive. The point was to take pictures, and I learned a little more about how to use my Nikon. Daniel had a nice Digital SLR too, and he knows how to use his better than I do.

Sunday I went to the Black Forest with Olga and family and took a little boat ride...visited a waterfall...stuff like that. The BF looks a lot like our corner of Oregon, except with better architecture and higher hills. They both have that rich evergreen presence that we Oregonians love so much. It's colder there than in Oregon, though. A guy from church told me that his house in the black forest is at 700 meters. Olga and I babysat for this guy and his wife Saturday night. They have lovely children, but babysitting is a lot easier when you speak the same language as the kids, lets just say that. In all honesty, Olga babysat and I happened to be there.

Monday I went with Peter and Mrs. O to Switzerland to meet my land-lady-to-be and see my room. The house is in a quiet neighborhood, and my room overlooks the garden. I'm happy about that. The room is an ok size--not big, but not much smaller than my room at home, so it's fine. Everything is set for me to move in Sunday afternoon.

Enjoy the pictures! Talk to you soon!