Our life in Weil: Fall has arrived in a big way

First, I need to sincerely apologize to anyone that endured physical, psychological or social pain due to the picture of Roquefort cheese that I posted last week. It was not our intent to harm any of our friends or relatives by displaying the picture. However, we had some more last night and it was sure yummy...

Delynn is snuggled over on the couch doing her German homework (wearing headphones and practicing her German listening and speaking skills with a CD). Did I mention before that Delynn and most of the other teachers are taking weekly German lessons? It is so good of our German instructor, Herr Hermann, to stay late on Mondays to teach the teachers. Since our apartment is so small, we use headphones as much as possible to avoid bothering each other.

Well, the weather here has turned in a decidedly fall-like direction. We have even had a few flakes in the air in the last week, but nothing that sticks to the ground. Our high one day last week may have hit 0 (that's in Centigrade). Psychologically, it feels colder whenever the temperature hits a negative value (it was -2 this morning) because we are so used to Fahrenheit temperatures where -2 is REALLY cold. However, when one walks everywhere, -2 Celsius is still pretty darned cold. It is so different without an automobile - last Sunday morning we bundled up with multiple layers (I like 4 layers personally) to get to the bus, transfer over to the tram and then make the short walk to church. Once inside, it is a bit like unpacking to get all the layers off and stowed away so they don't get in the way during worship, then packing it all back on as we make the return trip to Weil a. R. The Swiss have a saying: "There is no cold weather, just poorly dressed people." We'll see how poorly dressed we are when winter does get here... We also find that we do not keep our apartment nearly as warm here as we did in Vancouver. In our apartment, we have radiators rather than thermostatically controlled forced air for heat, so we have to conciously turn them on/off and adjust them. As such, we don't turn them on as much but choose rather to wear more layers, sweaters, etc. even when at home.

I am quite looking forward to chuch tomorrow. I have the privilege of joining one of the praise teams to lead singing during worship. We had a great practice Wednesday and I know most of the songs - there are a couple of new ones but it will be great to help lead worship songs again.

I took my fizzy vitamin C this morning to help fortify my immune system against the weather. Oh, yeah - another thing we find interesting is all of the fizzy tablets. You know: a tablet that you drop into water, like Alka-Seltzer. Well, almost all over-the-counter vitamins and minerals are sold in these tablets. We can even find aspirin in fizzy tabs. Fortunately, the vitamin C (with Zinc) has a palatable taste which goes down well.

Found out something else new this week: for those of you in the States that support your public TV or Radio stations, I applaud you. Here in Germany (as I think with most of Europe), we get to pay a TV & Radio tax. If you own a TV or a radio or both, you pay a monthly tax to help fund the standard TV channels. The tax applies to EACH television and radio you own (if I am reading the form correctly...) even if you only use it to watch DVDs. The thing is, these channels (some national, some local) still have advertisements, so it's not like we are paying to keep the programs commercial free. And, it's not like we watch a lot of German TV... I probably watch more than most because it does help with my listening comprehension. And, I am starting to enjoy the odd football game now and then. Luckily, before we filled out the form to pay 17 €/month in taxes, we talked to our landlords and found out it is covered already in the "associated costs" we pay with our rent.

Oh, we have to tell you about the wonderful tarts we bought the other day at the Lörrach Farmers Market. We were just walking down the aisles when we came across a pretty looking Apricot tart. They are sold in quarters (just enough for two) so we also picked up an apple tart for Sunday. In talking with the stall keep, we found out that she bakes them herself at home and brings them (along with all of the fresh fruits and vegitables) to sell at the market. Seems like I am talking about food alot but that's what my family does :-)

By the way, just look at this pumpkin! It is so striking that I had to take a picture of it before Delynn cooked it up for storing. It will make a wonderful pumpkin-something-or-other I'm sure.

Here are a couple pictures from our school's "Crazy Hair Day" - some of the kids did a great job don't you think? I have been thinking about RIA and what makes is so different and one thing that hits me is that here, no student can get lost. We know every child; recognize how special God has made them are and can motivate, encourage and love them as individuals, not just as a class. That is really cool.