A long walk, a fabulous dinner, and SKYPE! =) (oh yeah, and emoticon!)

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SUNDAY -- Day 5

Another day off for me! Beth was out of the house by 5:30 am to go do rounds at "The Big Farm"; I stayed in bed and slept as if I were on vacation. 😊

In the afternoon we went for a walk on the path beside the road going away from Hofheim, then cut over, went through another little town, then made our way back home. Today wasn't as sunny as yesterday, but still warm enough. Some of the trees are holding their fall yellows and reds beautifully! And then we got to see the sun set as we walked back toward Hofheim. It was gorgeous with the outline of the town against the pink sky and the church steeple rising up from the rest of the houses. Absolutely lovely!

Back home Beth started dinner, a traditional German meal, similar to a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, but with red cabbage too. While the roast was cooking we got to video-skype with Beth's family back in Michigan, which was fun and educational since Beth's brother's taught me something about Physics: Force = mass x acceleration. I made them promise to quiz me on it later! 😊

The dinner was DELICIOUS!!! We finished everything and I had a nice little "pot roast baby" going on afterward! Along with learning how to cook I've got a goal of gaining another 5 pounds during my time in Germany. 😊 With all the AMAZING breads, meats and cheeses I don't think that'll be a problem!

We also spent some time this afternoon planning out our holiday trip! Beth took 6 days off of work so we can travel a bit. We've decided to go to Dresden and Berlin, both new places for Beth (I spent a day or two in Berlin when I was here with Aaron). So Wednesday we'll leave by train to Dresden, pass a few nights there, and then spend another couple nights in Berlin, coming back home next Monday. We booked out tickets and hostels on line and were quit proud of ourselves for our decision making abilities! he he he 😱

(I just realized I'm using the little emoticon smiley faces a lot. Do you think it's too much?)

After Beth headed to bed I connected with my friends Daniela and Joel from Honduras over Skype! I'm finding out more and more the frustration of being in a time zone 6 or 7 hours difference from friends and family. They're still sleeping, or just starting their day when we're finishing up with work. And then we're going to bed or already asleep by the time they're available to chat. So I took advantage of getting to Skype with Joel and Daniela AND getting to video with them too since Beth has a web cam!

The time difference is interesting. I had about a day of jet-lag, simply because I wasn't able to sleep the whole time on the plane. But after a solid nap and super-good night's sleep I haven't felt the difference. In fact the first couple days I didn't even want to think, "Oh it's such and such time back in Michigan". Now the weird thing is to be sitting here at noon and think, "Wow, it's only 6 am in Michigan". Or to be going to bed and think, "Huh, it's just 3 o'clock in Honduras." Weird. Definitely never going to complain about the one or two hour time difference between Michigan and Honduras after this! 😱 (one more, just because I can!)

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Photos

One of our many self-portraits
I didn't realize the camera was zoomed in a bit ... but I like how it turned out. :)

"Which way do we go?"
I love that at practically every cross street, fork in the road and T there are sign pointing to what town is next in each direction!

Another sign ...
I like the signs here!

Sitting down to our Traditional German Meal
Beth pretty much made it all, but I helped roll the potato balls (I don't remember what they're called, I'll need to ask her when she gets back), and I cut up some of the carrots. :)