Sledding on a castle hill....

Yup... That is when you know you are in Europe. Last weekend I went on a lovely trip with my host family to Kassel, Germany. It is about 2 1/2 hours North of me, but let me tell you, that last half hour felt like forever! That would be because I was in the back in between two overly large car seats in an already small car. The trick to getting in was wedging your hips in and leaning forward at the same time... It was interesting but fun.
We got there Friday night and we stayed with Mattius's sister. Mattius thinks it is the most amazing thing that I don't drink so pretty much any chance he gets he tells people I don't drink, usually in an excited kind of way. Not like I am a freak at the circus, merely a side show :) It is all in good fun and it makes me laugh because I don't have to understand German to understand when he is telling people. Their shocked faces says it all.
It was especially entertaining this time. On hearing I don't drink, there was the shock, followed by a "but this is only juice" explanation. "It only has 2 % alcohol." And that my friends, is German juice :)
Dinner was divine can I just say!!! We used a raclette grill

it was delish! You put things on top to grill, and below you mix things like pineapple, ham, bell peppers, and onions, then top it off with a slice of cheese and put it under the grill to warm up and melt the cheese. I want one of these and someday I will have one!!
Nikki also started doing something at dinner. She had me memorize how to say 5 things at the table. So now I have ananas(pineapple), paprika(bell peppers), Zwiebeln(onions), Karofeln(potatoes), and Käse(cheese) ingrained into my brain. You may be thinking, how are those words going to help you? Funny enough they helped the next day.
We went to a birthday party where I ate... Ok I don't know the name of a single thing I ate. All I know was that it was so yummy!!! I... I love the food here (granted there are still a few things I can't quite bring myself to eat yet...)! The only problem at this party... I was the only English speaking person there. Oh well. I just listened a lot to the conversations. There was one conversation where I only caught three words. Mom, Dad, and... wait for it... Potatoes. Yup. Potatoes. No idea why, all I know was that I knew that word and I felt rather happy about that fact.
After the party we went sledding. Everyone else seemed to find it totally normal, but me, I was in awe. We were sledding at a castle!!! Things like that just don't happen back in the states, for obvious reasons, but still!
It was the castle of Napoleon Bonaparte's brother. That guy was crazy! He spent more money partying and building thing for his entertainment than Napoleon did with the fighting and such. He bathed in red wine (which is why people in Kassel wont drink wine, because apparently they re-bottled the wine... yum.), and he also built castle ruins around the castle. There are places that look like old castles that are falling apart and have some medieval story about them, when in fact he just built them cause he thought it was cool. It was a very interesting place and I would LOVE to go back when it is green and not so cold!
Since we were still in Kassel on Sunday, I found a branch there are joined them. Relief Society had a total of... 5 women when it started. Me included. They even had me say the opening prayer, they told me it would be ok to do it in English since I can't pray in German (this is a total German ward, not like my happy little English in Frankfurt). It was a nice lesson, I think. I enjoyed it. They also gave me the manual in German. I may start taking that with me to church so I can connect things. Could work right?
Then in Sunday School there were about 7 of us total there. It was really funny because the opening prayer was in German, and when the teacher has us all read a lot of scriptures in order, she had us read them in whatever language we could. So it went like this- German, German, English, German, English, Romanian, German. It was fantastic! The teacher knew I only spoke English so every once in a while she would translate what she just said for me. She was a sweetheart and I really appreciated it a lot. The class closed with a prayer in Romanian, and since I had to leave so we could head home, I left after that. I really wished I could have stayed. I have picked up a liking to singing in German. No, I don't sing any better that I do in English, I just get to laugh even more at myself for it all. I am going to work on it more, so then I can come home and sing in German. Just to mess with people.
That about sums everything up, oh except that I went longboarding here today and it was fantastic! The looks I got from people were amazing. There aren't people who skate here all that often. When you do see someone with a board, I have yet to see one for the record, apparently they just hold them and walk around. Sort of as a coolness status. That is what I hear at least. People on the roads kinda freak out and don't know what to do. I don't get it. I take up the same amount of space, if not less, than a bike. They understand that, what is the big deal? No I am not going to dart out in front of you, I like life thank you very much. Maybe by the end of my year here they will finally be use to it. It is a pretty small town so that is plenty of time to get over the fear of a little longboarder.
The thing that cracked me up the most during my ride was this guy.


It is a cop on a horse, I tried to get a picture of him chillin at the stop light, but I wasn't fast enough. People didn't freak out about a horse walking down the street. They politely didn't run him over. Is it me, or is a horse stopped at the light more odd than a longboarder? Keep in mind this is not a little farm town. Horses aren't normal like in Lehi and Cedar Fort. I don't get it, but I can handle my own. I understand they don't know how to deal with me, so I am easing them into seeing me around. I can't wait to take my board with me to other countries too! Paris here we come :D