Rest Day in Schenefeld


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Published: July 5th 2014
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Today was a rest day. We had breakfast and lounged about the living room blogging and facebooking, and then Barb and Ulf and I walked to the grocery store to get things and supplies, which required me to get dressed. When we got back, Andrea's parents, Arnold and Doris (aka Oma und Opa) had arrived from Ettlingen. After introductions were made (wherein I gave a somewhat butchered version of "Pleased to meet you" auf Deutsch), a demand was made for Oma's punch, so Andrea and her mom went to the store again for more things and supplies.

Pretty soon, it was time to depart for Anne's school where she would receive her Abiturzeugnis (loosely, a diploma; think of it as her graduation; it's different, though, so go read the wikipedia article if you want to know more). Before the ceremony, everyone milled about in some common room, drinking Apfelsaft oder Mineralwasser, and chatting and visiting. Then we all filed into the auditorium and listened to at least 239827958 speeches, all auf Deutsch, where I tried and mostly failed to understand what they were saying.

After, we went back to the common room for sparkling wine and other refreshment, and it was announced that the Germany-France match would be on in one of the rooms if we wished to watch. Once we were done, it was time to get Anne back to the train station so she could go back to her seminar, and we had just enough time to stop by the Altona street fair, where we found a Flammkuchen booth, so we sat down and ordered a bunch, and bought some beers and sodas. Flammkuchen is kind of like a pizza, with a very thin crust and a cream sauce and little or no cheese. The closest I think we could find to the crust in the States would be Imo's (which is delicious, by the way, and I disagree with anyone who says otherwise). We eleven of us consumed fifteen of them, plus Bier und Mineralwasser. And then, we had to tell Anne goodbye, and we were all sad, and Anne was sad, but it was okay, and we piled on the bus to get back to Schenefeld.

Once we were home, Oma finished making the punch, by pouring in 3 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of sparkling Riesling. This punch was quite tasty, and deceptively alcoholic, and we had a giant bowl of it. What's more, Ulf told us we could not go to bed until the punch was gone, so we got to work. The conversation was wide ranging and in two languages, sometimes simultaneously. Finally, around midnight, we bid the final glass of punch a fond farewell, and Oma and Opa went back to their hotel and the rest of us to bed.

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5th July 2014

Graduation
Interesting graduation.... is Anne really finished with school after the seminar? She didn't go home with you. The description of the German school system is confusing. Bet you slept good after that "punch"!

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