The threw us quite a going away party, according to the letter... (again)

During the nine months that we've lived in Heidelberg, we've learned to discount several myths. For example, we had heard that Germans tend to be fairly distant toward strangers and nonexpressive, but this couldn't be further from the truth. We've had to say goodbye to so many people who have really become special to us this year.

To start off with, it was hard to say goodbye to our students-- we really feel like 57 new cousins have been added to the family. We can't believe it went so fast and we're looking forward to getting together again in August in Malibu. Many of them are keeping up with us on Facebook and we love it.

Unfortunately, Daniel Daugherty, the program director, was sick for the final banquet with the students, but we were glad to have time to spend with wonderful colleagues and friends like Mary,

Ulla,

Christina, Martin, and Bruno. Along with Daniel, these colleagues have warmly accepted us, and it's been a pleasure to work side-by-side with them this year.

Outside of the Pepperdine community, though, we've been shocked by how many others have warmly accepted us, helped us, laughed with and at us, and made us feel like we have another home.

Thanks to Stacy's friend Verena (you'll find out more about her below), she's been part of a book club "Literaturkreis" this year. It makes her laugh to go to a German book club because she doesn't even attempt to read. She goes and listens, nods, and smiles. And the women have become friends and been accepting, tolerant and patient. Not to mention lots of fun! To show her thanks for the great year, she invited the club to the Moore Haus for a dinner. Oh, yes, and to discuss yet another book she didn't even try to buy much less read. So here's the faithful six (down from about 15 the first night - including the "founder" of the club who I think was able to come once): Sitta, Nicole, Verena, Meggie, Stacy, and Gabriela.

Steve said goodbye to his Monday-night Kegeln club. One of his best sets of memories of this year is of this bowling club. One tradition of this group is that a person will bring dinner for the entire group on the week of his or her birthday. Since everyone was on Christmas vacation at the time of Steve's birthday, he never cooked them dinner, so he took this chance to make an American dinner for them, complete with tacos, mojitos, and brownies. They gave a very kind speech for him, and gave him the coolest book we've ever seen about Heidelberg. His biggest accomplishment, however, was that he was finally-- on the last night-- able to drink the pre-bowling shot of schnapps in one single drink-- that's strong stuff.

I hope I'm not mis-spelling any of the names, but my kegeln friends were (back row) Phillip, Hanspeter, Karl (thanks from inviting me and driving me every week!), Siegfried, Heinz, (middle row) Doris, Hedi, Rosa, (front row) and Gerhard.

The boys said goodbye to the friends that they made at school.

Ian's wonderful teachers (Miriam, Carolin, and Melanie) had the kids in his kindergarten make a memory book for him, where each of them told him what the were wishing for him. Two of his best friends are Kai (who wished for him something about a chocolate and a white house-- I don't think anyone really had that figured out), and Alex (who wished that he wouldn't have to leave).

Dominic said goodbye to his great teacher (Frau Attree), and his favorite memory of his last day of class was that all the boys rushed over to him and lifted him up into the air.

In addition, one of the families that we've become very close to (the Koch family) threw a goodbye party so that Dominic and Ian could have one final party with some of the friends they've made.

We also had several families that we wanted to spend time with before we left. We went with Daniel, Karen, and Lisa Daugherty to Europa Park-- a really cool amusement park, where each region of the park was designed to look like a different country in Europe.

We went out to eat with the Drehsels, who introduced us to a great restaraunt that was well-known for a springtime delicacy called spargel-- white asparagus that is apparently very complicated to prepare, but can be made into wonderful soups and side dishes.

Finally, we had dinner with Verena, Mattius, Luis, Joni, and Tino, a great family that we have really become close to.

Another family who's meant so much to us this year is Tilmar, Meike, Bente, and Sander Hummerich. Bente and Sander befriended Dominic and Ian our very first week in Germany, long before the boys were speaking much more German than "my name is...". Just a few weeks later Meike ran into us on the Hauptstrasse. It was Dominic's first day of school and we thought Ian's too, but Steve, Ian and I had just found out that the school fell through and we were all three sad for Ian. She walked us to what became his Kindergarten, took us to the Director, and helped us both with paperwork and with Ian. She also helped us with some things at Dominic's school. They invited us to celebrate both Tilmar's 40th birthday and Christmas Day (Weihnachtstag) in their home. We walked on St. Nicholaustag to find a statue of St. Nicholaus and never found him, but had a nice walk, anyway. And in April after the students had left, they came for dinner, with the four boys having fun adventures all over the big, empty house. And in all that, no picture!! I'm still not sure how that happened. Hopefully we remember to take one of all of us when we visit again in June before we return home. If not, Stacy will be forced to draw a picture and you will be forced to make heads or tails of it!

Church at Gemeinde Christi was another special group of people for us. They've been gracious to us in a thousand ways including taking the time to get to know us, and by inviting us to their homes or to do things with them. They do an invaluable service by welcoming any student or faculty and their family that choose to visit there during their time in Heidelberg.

It's been really hard to say goodbye to so many people who have become so important to us in such a short amount of time.

Well, now the title of the blog isn't accurate anymore-- the Rouses are no longer in Germany. We're going to spend the next two months in the Netherlands, and we just arrived at our new temporary home in Nijmegen two days ago. As soon as we get our bearings, we'll update this blog again. Several people have asked how to be in touch with us while we're here, but we still have easy access to our e-mail (steve.rouse@pepperdine.edu and stacy.rouse@pepperdine.edu), and we are still using skype (our username is stevenvrouse) and our Skype phone number (310-929-5828) still costs no more than a phone call to California (and you never have to worry about getting time zones confused because we only have this running when we are awake and our computer is on).

We love hearing from you! Take care!