The Parish Family Blog

RampenFest - the Movie by BMW

It's Friday and Lily is traveling. So let's relax some and enjoy a movie. This movie was filmed in Germany and produced by BMW. You can see a larger or higher-definition version at http://www.rampenfest.com

Click the image to make it play. Once it starts there is no stop (odd, but hey, just enjoy the journey).

Have a great weekend.
Tom

Lily in Germany - Thursday June 19th

Hey Dad!

Well, I am at Katrin's house right now, Chase is with me, washing her face I think. My face is so dry! I had a great day today, we went shopping, I didn't get anything, but Chase, Olivia and I did split a giant icecream. You know those Rocher chocolate balls you can get? It was like that. It had one scoop of chocolate one scoop of fudge, one of peanut butter and one of vanilla with cream on top, and macadamian nuts and chocolate stick thingys and some other kind of chocolate thingy and chocolate syrup and Chase added love. It was amazing. If we hadn't have split it I would be in a sugar-induced coma. 

So...a small request, can you (really only if you can) could you put just a little money in the bank for me? I don't need it, but it would be nice to know I have back-up just in case.

That's all! So, LOVE YOU! And I must go now!

Love,

Lily

Lily in Germany Wednesday June 18th

Hello!
     Well, I have just gotten off the phone with my dad and I told him everything! And second time around is never quite as fun, so in a nutshell today was yet another marvelous adventure. I am feeling more and more comfortable with my german and even asked for directions auf Deutsch to complete strangers and carried on a conversation. I was very proud of myself! Well, I still am! It is almost 11 here, and I have no idea how I am going to get to bed because I am so jittery with excitment.

Tomorrow I begin my journey onward! New land ho! I am going to Chase's host sister's house to spend the night because the rest of the people (or at least a lot.) are going to an all night party and I must be ready to leave Darmstadt via the train early Friday morning. So I will leave my much loved adopted home and venture forth into a new one, and then a new city.

Here is the scoop for the next few weeks. We go to Bad Schandau next, where we might hike into the Czech Republic for one day I beleive. It is a 6 hour train ride to get there, so I may run out of reading material. But yesterday I bought Harry Potter if German, so maybe I can struggle with that a little bit. We will stay there for four days, then go to Dresden (I think.) In Dresden, we are going to see a Wagner opera which opened in that same city many, many years ago. I am so excited! I love operas, I just hope that I understand some of it. From there we go to Nürnberg for four days, I am not sure what the exact plan is for that city, but I imagine museums and aimless wandering around (which I so enjoy!). Then we go back to Frankfurt for one night only and fly out early the next day. We will be home again, home again on July 2. And I will be normal again shortly there after, with constant sleep and an occasional pee break.

So that is the plan, hope everything goes accordingly. I am pretty sure that internet access will be hard to come by for a while after that, so this may be one of the last for a while. But I might have time to email tomorrow evening at my friends house!
I love you all!
Lily

--
Om Mani Padme hum

Tuesday, 17 June 2008 with Lily in Germany

Dear Whoever!

     Wow! Today was amazing. The best yet for me. Last night was cold as it is normally. We tell the people in our class that the weather at night is as cold as it is in the Winter in Texas.  But today it got very warm which was refreshing, I even put on a skirt! Which is a big deal for me. At school we had chemistry in the morning, as usual, then...ummm...let me think. Ahh! We had a break and then we went to the seventh grade to tell them about Texas. To be fair, they asked us questions in English and we responded in German. Then we taught them "Deep in the Heart of Texas." which was imediatly (wow, bad spelling) stuck in all their heads. It was cute. They were curious and embarrassed and eager. I saw our class in them a lot. Then we had English class with our class. We stood up in the front of the class and told them about Texas. They of course wanted to know about the stereotypes and everything, which was fun. They tried to get us to talk like Texans and stuff. Then we had a break.

   And this...is when the fun began. Katrin told me to quickly get on my bike and we rode as fast as we could (which still royally freaks me out), to a Turkish restaraunt to get a dish called a Döner, I think. Basically, it is a piece of bread much like pita bread that looks like it has been through a panini press. Inside there is thinly sliced meat, lettuce, tomato, a lot of mayo, and some other goodies. It is extremely messy to eat. I sat on a grassy hill with the sandwhich thing in my hand, my legs sprawled out. Dripping all over the place. It was crazy. I just embraced the un-gracefulness of the moment. When I was done eating, Chase and a girl from the class walked over. Her name is Marie and is crazy sweet! She might do an exchange in Texas, and we are considering her staying with us! That would be awesome. We had music after the break, then Eurythmy, which was very fun in German, and very very similar to Austin class.

    After school, Katie and Chase and I got cleaned up a little and then walked around the little village. We stopped at the bakery and had a pastry and a coffee. Then we just got lost around the city until it was time to go back up to the school for...DANCE TIME! At home, we had prepared a bunch of Texan dances and songs (and one German dance) to show them. When we were practicing them it was so emabarrassing. I mean, here we are, a bunch of crazy, loud Texans who sometime speak Spanish, and we are about to dance and sing. But, it wasn't that bad. We performed our amazing gifts in the cafeteria, for two rows of a tightly packed audience. We sang first songs like Cotton-eyed Joe, Home on the Range, The Yellow Rose of Texas, and ending with The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You. Among many others. Then we danced a German dance, then a very southern one, then one where the ENTIRE audience joined in. Everyone was saying the steps aloud in German. It was so funny! We had a lot of fun. After our round of humiliation, we retired to the gardens for a potluck dinner. Chase and I weren't very hungry, so we split a plate. Overcome with gratitude for the tastiness of the food, I began to make up descriptions for them. Like a particularily ripe strawberry could be, "One small bite transforms the humble environment of the school into a blissfull world of ruby red juice, gushing from every corner, like sweet goodness..." and on and on. Zac chimed in too, and soon we were having Author-offs, as we call them. It was a very intense game.

    At the school they have this weird rotating flying saucer thing, so naturally we decided since we had just eaten it would be swell to go round on it. We spun around, and around, and around for quite a long time, singing Beatles songs, and other songs we know well. It was amazing. Finally, around 9:00, we left, and I am at home now, in dire need of a good long shower!

     Today was the first day I felt completly as though I was giving my undivided attention to enjoying my stay here. The other days I have so enjoyed being here, but I get preoccupied with being homesick or cold, or needing to write every detail of every moment down. Maybe it was because I was mostly with my friends, and so needing to speak German was not as necessary, or maybe it was because it was a little warmer, or that it has been now exactly a week, but it felt like home to me. And that feeling was beautiful. After we danced, as we laughed and sang with our German counterparts, I felt as though I was laughing and singing with my brothers and sisters. They were one part of my many-faceted soul, a part of me. They are so like us, it is amazing. Anyone for even a moment doubts Waldorf, should have seen the intense bond that has been created between us. It is so there it is nearly tangible. We love them for their humanity, and their appreciation of it. We see it, and in it we find our own.

     I miss everyone! And I can't wait to come home. But in a way, I am already there!

Much, much love!

Lily

Germany - Monday June 16 - with Lily

Dear Dad,
     Today was a more normal school day. It was fun to ride along in their daily routine. Of course it is a little more lax now because all the finals are done and so the students have little to do. I woke up early and made my bed and got dressed. It was so cold last night that I slept in all my clothes so all I had to do was put jeans on and brush my hair. I make my bed here every morning because all I have to do is fold two blankets on a small bed! It is much easier here than at home with my giant bed and plethora of pillows and blankets. When I came downstairs Katrin quickly handed me a bread roll and told me we were running late and we were having 'easy breakfast.' She had stayed out late the night before, which is much more normal and tolerable here. Since I was ready to go right away, her little brother Michael took me to school so that we were not late. I was greeted warmly by my classmates and we sat down for Chemistry, which is their Main Lesson class right now. We played Mad Libs and I read, while Zac wrote me a story about Indians and bugs in my journal. That class is kinda boring because we know no German Chemistry terms, so we have no idea what is going on.

After that we went to the little bistro they have in their school where for like 60 cents you can get a sandwich or something. Katie and I split a raisin cinnamon roll with butter. It was of course very nice. Then Katrin had swimming, so I stayed with the other group who had French because it is really cold here and I had no plans for swimming. We watched a really funny French film that included English, Spanish, French and German in the dialogue, so I was completely confused. But it was funny. Then we putted around in the computer lab for a while, which was fun, even though their keyboards were even more different. Then we had lunch, so we went to the cafeteria where we ate noodles with mushrooms and beef and salad and chocolate pudding. 

Then we all walked to a nearby ice cream shop and got ice cream. I split mine with Chase. We had a short break where Chase, Katie, Makayla and I played on this flying saucer-like thing for a while. It was fun. Mr.Toole thought we were completely crazy (well, I imagine he did). Then we had music, but the teacher never showed up so we went and played in the compute lab some more. Lastly we had clay, which was very exciting. At first I was so sleepy I was afraid I would fall asleep, but when we got clay I woke up! We made faces the size of fists, and the only requirements was that it had all the features of a human. Mine was so cute, it had a GIANT nose. We named it Sir Abicus Moore and I imagined it having a very stuffy British accent and sniffing a lot, kinda nasaly. After school we rode our bikes home like we always do, and I met Katrin's dad who was away in Nigeria! He is very kind.

We ate a small early dinner with mangos from Nigeria for dessert and now I have some free time, or a pause as they say before we go to watch the soccer game, Germany vs. Austria, I think. It's a big one! If I knew more about soccer I would be thrilled.

    We are in Darmstadt for only three more days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday morning we leave for Bad Schandau. We will all be sad to leave our new friends behind, but with Facebook, email and everything I hope we can stay in touch. I am very excited about seeing the other destinations of our trip too. I like this city so much I can't wait to see others! And we are going to see an Opera and a particle accelerator which I have a strange fascination with, and of course many museums. There is too much to be excited about! I am bursting.

    On a more random note, I just really looked outside and saw a HUGE pine tree, that thing must be at least 100 feet tall. Why did I not notice that? Man. It's big.

    Well, that is all for now. I will try to keep writing such detailed, lengthy letters, but I am not sure how constant the internet access will be when we are staying in Youth Hostels. We'll see together!

Love you all so much and miss you so much!!!

Lily

Lily -- Germany, June 13, 2008

Today we went to the Rhein and saw many castles and fortresses! It was very neat. We went on a tour of one, learned about it and got to see inside and everything. It was almost 800 years old! After that we went to Austin's sister city, Koblentz (I'm not sure how to spell that). We were allowed to separate and walk around. Chase and I got gelato, it was soo good! I got a few post cards and stuff, then we came home by bus. Now I am at Katrin's house, we just ate dinner of potatoes and a grün sauce that is traditional of Frankfurt. It is made with seven spices, I didn't recognize the names in German, but I think maybe parsley and basil were in it. It was also good, maybe we can get the recipe and make it ourselves.

I am very tired now, Katrin is going out, but I am staying here and maybe I will go to sleep early. That would be good, she says, because tomorrow we are going to celebrate Makayla's birthday from Saturday night to Sunday (at 12:00) because they celebrate into the Geburstag.

    Today my host family said they would not speak English, and though they spoke much less, they occasionally slipped into English to straighten out my confused and often bemused face. I think in German, and have trouble saying English without a German accent or with English grammar, but I am still too shy to speak only in German, but I did some in the cities, though my accent is not good enough to disguise my Americanness. I am trying to learn the money here! It is hard, everything looks different which seems like it should be good, but confuses me even more. Some things are very cheap, like most food. For example, when I bought Chase's and my gelatos, it was only about 2 American dollars. But some things are very expensive, like a lot of clothes that I have seen. Hopefully when we reach a bigger city I can buy a map so I can trace where I was, then I can show you all! Because I am very confused where I am in Germany. I know the area, but not all the specifics.

Everything I have eaten here has been so good! They eat pretty much only food that is in season, like right now the things that are ripe are strawberries, herbs, most berries actually, asparagus and some other things. One day Martina brought home bushels of strawberries and taught me how to make marmelade. It was so good, we now eat it on toast. Yesterday we had asparagus soup, which I was suspicious about but it was so yummy! Their asparagus is white because they grow it underground, and it is much bigger and harder than ours. I think I like it better. I also tried the local würst -- every region as a special würst -- it was very good, but like you, dad, they smother it in Ketchup!!!

Last night we went out with Olivia, Sawyer, Katie and all of our host siblings and a boy named Peter. They showed us around all the old buildings of their village. They of course were all so beautiful. There is one building I got a very neat brochure for Bubba. It was built around a really old fortress wall. The old meets the new and the inside meets the outside. Their motto is 'just open!' Then we went to a restaurant to eat and watch the big soccer or Fußball game Germany vs. Croatia. I had the best tea ever, and apple cake. When we went outside the crowd was crazy and it took us a long time to get home. Sadly, Croatia won. :(

I miss you all like CRAZY! I wish I wasn't staying here for so long, but I am learning so much German, dass ist gut. I like my family and the town and everything, but I am eager to see more Germany! However I think that the rest of the trip after Darmstadt will pass very quickly.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lily, or if I am German Lili (to be said leeeleee).

----
PS from Tom: I received a very sweet note from Lily today for Father's day. She's doing well though missing her traveling companions who are all staying in different homes in different locations. I could detect just a bit of loneliness this evening as she prepares for setting for bed.

She will re-unite with everyone in a couple of days and begin their journey to many other places in Germany. Lily said her German is definitely getting better and flowing more easily.