Rainy Day

Today was rainy and gross out for the most part. Emilian and I took our daily walk just in time. When we left it was still a little bit sunny and only starting to get cloudy when we finallly came home an hour and a half later. Usually on our walks Emilian falls right asleep and will stay asleep until we come home--and sometimes for even an hour or so afterwards. Lisa and Kai suspect I take him to a nearby bar and have him take some shots of whiskey or so to fall into such a deep sleep like he does ;) But today this was not the case. His little eyes stayed open for the first 30 minutes or so of our journey until he had finally had enough and began to cry. When this happens I know that he just wants to be held, so I pick him up and walk with him and push an empty stroller (I'm sure people walking by think I'm retarded, but hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it). While holding him I had stopped for a quick second for him to look around and for me to just look at the Rhein a bit. An old man, probably in his 70s or so, approached me and I had my first little German conversation. He asked about Emillian and how old he was and what not and I was afraid I was saying everything with horrible grammer so I apologized for my bad German. The man told me not to worry, and that it is good :) So that was exciting. He then asked me (auf Deutsch) if I was from England. I said no, and that 'ich komme aus Amerika'. He immediatly asked me "Texas??" I had to laugh, and said no. The average German (or non-American for that matter) knows about 3 places in the US. They all know New York (the city--the state not so much) and California because it's "cool" and lastly Texas because it is where the stereotype of the dumb "cowboys" with terrible accents are (Another reason why so many foreigners saw George W. as such a moron--although his speeches didn't help ;) . I talked a little bit about this topic to Kai and Lisa one night. The US is HUGE. And every region and state is soo different from the next. It's hard to really say that one type of person is an 'American' but I suppose it is like this for every country.

Besides the holding and walking with Emilian, I have found something else on our walks that often calms him down. I sing :) But not just anything, I can already tell he is going to be an awesome guy because he enjoys Jack Johnson and Taylor Swift songs best :) Also, in preparation for the upcoming concert--on SUNDAY, I AM SOOOOO STOKED--I sang him his first Gov't Mule song, I was happy when he enjoyed it as well :) Maybe I'll make him a little tye-dye shirt and a glow stick necklace.....

After we came back from our long walk, Lisa, Emilian and I all went to the grocery store. We broke the golden rule--never go grocery shopping when you're hungry. But luckily we didn't buy too many things that we didn't need. On the way to the store we were passing the little town where we are currently living in (until their house is finished being remodeled we are staying a little further outside of Bonn, we should be moving back to their actual house in the next few weeks) and Lisa told me about how the day before I arrived, they evacuated the area because they found an undetenated bomb in the Rhein from WWII, so they had to bring the bomb squad in to set it off. CRRRRAAAAZY! It's so nuts, because back home, you learn and talk about the war, and watch movies and shows about it and read books, but no matter how much you learn about it, it still all took place on another continent and seems like so long ago and so far away. But this is where it all really happened. Living history, ya know? It's just all so interesting to me. Being the history nerd I am, this kind of stuff fascinates me. Lisa then told me of a really famous bridge that is not far from here that a huge battle took place at and the Allies ended up blowing up, and that this bridge was like hundreds of years old. Kinda sad. So hopefully I'll make a journey to see what is left of it now. And speaking of going to historical places, Lisa also told me that at some point this year her and Kai want to take me to Berlin. Oh really??!!??! Count me in! :D

Ain't life grand.

xoxo

Meg