Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Dear Bob and Jo,
I hope this finds you well and that things are going well
for you. We are loving it here and
learning a lot.
Our new thing to do is go to the grocery store. We really do need to find something
different to do. I think we have found
a couple of stores that might be less expensive so we will keep looking
around. Jens from work is taking us to
a couple of stores and going to help me understand what I am trying to
buy. I think I will have Sister Asplund
go too because she wants to know how to buy things and what she is buying. She and her husband arrived the same day we
did. Marv works with them in the Centers
for Young Single Adults. I love the adventure. We turned in our plastic Coke and soda
bottles yesterday and that was cool. We
got a refund for almost 5 Euro. So I
guess we have drunk a lot of soda.
I got my first haircut yesterday. I paid 15 EUR. She did a good job. It is a lady from the Philippines that cleans
house for the Mission President and prepares meals for big functions at the
mission home and then every two weeks she comes to an apartment of one of the
missionaries in the building next to the office and cuts hair for the
missionaries. She has a son who was
born totally deaf but he has had the implants and now he is doing pretty
good. He is 15 years old and she is a
single mom plus she is supporting her father in the Philippines. She seems to be a hard worker and she was
very nice. She actually told me she
thought I was in my 40’s and couldn’t believe I had 10 grandchildren. Nice way to get a big tip – tell me I look
younger than I am. It was a great self
esteem builder.
The German lady who works with finances came to train Marv
yesterday and trained him for 3 ½ hours so we didn’t get to lunch until after
2:30 p.m. and I was so hungry. Marv was
getting teased about how she really liked him because I guess she can be pretty
stern but Marv was a good student. He
admitted to me, he isn’t really sure what he learned but it will all come
together once he has a payment request and has to actually do something with
the programs. She talked to me after
and I’m not so sure she likes me as much, oh well. (It was cute because Brother Asplund was
telling me, how she liked Dad because he even saw her pat his arm.) Poor Marv, she speaks English but with a
very strong German accent. You know he
has a hard time accents and with hearing sometimes so he just smiles and she
thinks he is understanding her.
The weather is starting to be rainy over here and the skies
are gray overcast. We have had a lot of
sunny days since we arrived which we were told is unusual and that we must have
brought the sunshine with us. I like it
so much better when the sun is shining but that is probably why things are
getting green and the trees are starting to bloom. Everyone has flower pots on their homes and
the fields are getting green. It is really
starting to look pretty.
I am learning how to make a lunch for us each day. That is interesting trying to come up with things to eat. If you have any good ideas for lunches,
please pass them on. There is a little
store next to our office so sometimes we run over there to get a drink or
something but most of the time I try to plan ahead.
Marv is funny with our car because it is really small and it
shifts on its own hard. He keeps
threatening to have me drive it because I am laughing at him. I’m afraid to drive it because I will
probably do worse than him. I am just
grateful for a car and for not having to walk everywhere even though that would
be good for me. I would spend less at
the grocery story because I would have to carry it all home. We are hoping to walk around our town and
stuff when we get time and the weather is nicer. There is a river we can walk by and the town
is really quite cute.
I think we will watch conference on the internet. We will watch Saturday morning session at
6:00 p.m. here and we will see if I can stay awake to watch the afternoon
session at 10 p.m. I think we have
decided to stay home and not go to the church to watch the broadcasts.
Last weekend our neighbors that are senior missionaries took
us to Fulda. We left late in the
afternoon so we really didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked but we
saw the Residence and the Cathedral.
Both really impressive. I do
have to tell you the funny part was trying to find a place to eat dinner. Finally we found what appeared to be an
Italian Restaurant – not sure that it was.
Anyway, the menu is all in German, of course, and so we can pick out a
few words, like Pizza and basil. We
asked the waiter if he spoke English and he said a little. Anyway he was trying to explain what was on
the pizza and he said like salami or that is what I thought he said which is
their pepperoni over here. So I said
that would be fine. It was a pizza that
he hand tosses. Anyway we got the pizza
which is covered with this fresh green stuff (basil) and so we cut it and start
to eat it. The meat looks a little like
bacon uncooked but I ate it thinking it probably isn’t uncooked bacon. It was really thin sliced a little hard to
eat but not extremely bad tasting. The
couple we were with ordered the same thing and all of sudden we hear her say, I
can’t eat this raw bacon. Marv and I
looked at each other and at the pizza again and started to laugh. We pulled off the bacon and ate the pizza and
green basil. Not Marv’s favorite
thing.
Anyway at work I was telling one of the guys about our
experience and he looked at me like I was so stupid. Then he proceeded to tell me that I was
eating raw bacon and that they love it.
It won’t hurt you he said. He
then told me of another favorite dish, which is raw hamburger on a bun. Trying to tell me that it is really no
different than eating a steak rare. I
eat my steak well done. So I hope we
don’t order the hamburger somewhere.
That could really be a waste of money.
Well, I guess I will close.
You are in our thoughts and prayers.
Love ya,
Marv and Vickie
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