Month 2

As expected month 2 was easier than month 1 in Germany. I truly enjoyed going back to my month 1 posting and re-reading my first impressions. The first 2 months have gone by quickly and I believe we have adjusted very well to our surroundings, thanks to our diligent months of planning and preparation in India. Ben has done everything possible to ensure that I have a smooth transition. He enrolled me in intercultural class, forced me to drive stick shift even though I was scared, and supported me during my worst cooking dissasters as I try to adjust once again to new ingredients and conversions. While we are not completely settled we can atleast say we have pictures on the wall and a general routine to our lives.

The highlight of the month for me was finding work and meeting the lofty goal that I established for myself in my month 1 posting. I remember writing "I will find work" and laughing because I didn't think it would happen so quickly. This is a sign that writing your goals really does help! June 1st I start work and then I can tell you what my job is as right now I'm still a little confused.

I think the main thing missing from our lives, is friends. Yes, we have met the neighbors and found them to be friendly and enjoyable people, but they are locals and already have their friends. Ben has friends through work and his old group of friends from his youth, but no local friends. I have not met many young German woman my age who are not chasing after kids. The women I do know are classmates and mostly speak Russian, but not anyone that I would want to be friends with and spend time outside class getting to know. All along I've told Ben that I need to find one woman who I bond with and can form a friendship. Ideally if I found another American it would be the easiest. The language barrier is getting smaller for me, but it is still definitely a huge hurdle. Tuesday I've invited 5-7 neighbor ladies over for coffee and cake in an attempt to form relationships with someone. All of them are older than me and a few could be my mother, but they are nice and they are my best hope for networking. It took every ounce of courage I had to go around the neighborhood, ring doorbells, and personally invite them for coffee. I've never had problems talking to people, but it literally took me 1.5 weeks of planning to build up the nerve to do it. Now that I have invited them and they all received the invitation with excitement I feel a huge relief. Prayers that my carrot cake turns out and then all will be ok.

Thank you for your continued emails and encouragement as we adjust to civilized life.

Crop Report

Here it is, live from Niedersachsen, the one you have all been waiting for, the CROP REPORT! Located 100 meters behind our house is a corn field and as you can see it hasn't been sprayed for weeds yet. The corn is up and 6-8 inches tall. The migrant workers are diligently working on picking the full fields of strawberries east of town and the potato crop is looking strong thus far. Niedersachsen has a lot of diversity in their crops from winter wheat to fields of white asparagus (Spargel) to giant areas of raspberry bushes. I guess fruits are popular and grow well around here, no complaints from me. Recently I've seen several farmers cut what appears to be barley or oats and then make it into silage. They cover their piles with black tarp and old tires just as we do on the farm in South Dakota. The machinery is not near the size as it is in the U.S. but the fields are also much smaller. I've seen 4-6 row planters and lots of little tractor mounted spraying units. Massey Ferguson and John Deere Tractors make up the majority, but I've not taken any statistics on which is more popular. Once my German is a bit more fluent then I will start conversing with the local farmers (bauers) to get more details.
The animals in the area are 70% pigs, 20% milk cows, and 10% horses, but these are just estimates from what I've seen. I do know that the pork ribs I ate last weekend off the grill were not as meaty as the American ribs so we can make the assumption that their pigs are not as pumped with steroids as ours or they are simply smaller boned animals. Stay tuned for the full LIVESTOCK REPORT!

DOWNTOWN

Ben's brother and girlfriend stopped by last weekend for a quick visit on there way back from a wedding. We grilled ribs, played Sequence, and enjoyed a leisurely walk through downtown. The weather was cooler and rainy, but we still managed to get in a few laughs. It's always wonderful to have visitors and motivation to clean the house.

May Day

May 1st was a big holiday here in Germany. Thankfully we met our neighbors before the big festival so that we could get all the details and register that we wanted to participate. Ben described May 1st as American Labour Day. The tradition where we are living here in northern Germany is that you walk into the forest, cut down a tree, carry it back to your street, decorate it with paper streamers, and then put the tree up and grill bratwurst and drink beer after it is standing. Our street has around 12 families that got together to participate in the afternoon event. As you can see in the pictures it was not a small sapling that they chopped down, but instead a good 15 footer.

As of today, May 15th, the tree is still standing along with all of the neighboring street's trees, however I think at the end of May it comes down. The afternoon and evening of celebration was really a great opportunity for us to get to know our neighbors and learn a bit more about each of them. I was honestly surprised how friendly and inviting all of them were towards the lone American. The main reason I believe they accept me is because I can speak German and they can understand me. If my skills were not at the level they are it would make living in Germany ten thousand times worse. The first month would have been miserable instead of wonderful.

The unique twist on May Day is that you are suppose to stand under your tree all night to protect it. Instead we were in a garage down the street as it was cool outside. The town youth make it a sport of stealing neighboring streets trees and hiding them just for fun. During the evening I think our tree went down 3-4 times, but every time the men went out and put it back up. A really great evening!