Dom and Dumber

(author's note: because I didn't have internet for the first week or so, I wrote up these entries and am posting them all at once. However, I'm resetting the date, so when I look back, I'll have a somewhat accurate timeline. So if the date looks off to you, don't worry -- I did that on purpose. :D)


Today is Saturday, so no school for the bitties. Instead, we went for a walk through the old part of Frankfurt -- the Altstadt -- almost to where I'll be going for language school. That was the goal, actually, but the stroller started to break down about halfway there and we decided to turn back. Anna will walk me there tomorrow so I know the way.

Most of the old city isn't actually very old, but has been rebuilt in the image of the old, old buildings since the end of the war. Many parts of the city were leveled by Allied bombs, but a few things still stand, like the Dom Römer (aka, St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, the only Roman Catholic church in Frankfurt until about 150 years ago), which was only bombed about halfway down. It was rebuilt painstakingly using the fallen stone, which makes the top part of the bell tower darker because of the charred stone. It's a beautiful building, with far more personality (albeit a somewhat cranky one) than any of the modern skyscrapers in my end of town. Some of the other parts of the rebuilt-Altstadt have a Disneyworld kind of feel to them, but the Dom is wonderful. I'll be passing it every day on my way to language class.

Anna's husband Victor came home today (he works in Africa) and they drove me out to to go an open house thing at Bethel International Baptist Church, an English speaking church on the north-east outskirts of Frankfurt. Unfortunately, when we got there it was all dark and locked -- turns out I had the dates wrong, and it's not until next week. *head-desk* I felt like such an idiot, especially since they don't drive often and it was a special trip. Gah. On the good side, though, I got to meet the (equivalent of) the associational director and his wife, who was very kind and invited me to their church too. They were from Texas, and very friendly, and hearing their accents was the first time I felt very homesick. It was so nice to be able to relax and just have a conversation instead of having to sort through accents and foreign words. (*laughs*)

Victor found me a cable that works for my laptop and plugs into the German outlet, so my laptop is alive again (hallelujah!) and I did a literal happy dance around my room when no one was watching. He'll set up my internet sometime next week.

More later!

~Mags