Four blogs for the price of one

A note from Ian:

"Dear All of my Friends and Family, I like about Germany that it's so cool and it's different about California. Because of the Kinder Eggs and because of the many tootsies that they have here in Germany. It's cool because they have big and little chupachups. Well, I liked going to the candy store. That's where I got my Spiderman Kinder Egg. I really liked Luisenpark and the Zoo. The Zoo was so fun I can't remember how fun.

(Playing in the water at Luisenpark)

The Moore Haus is so fun. And once we played hide and seek in our whole house except in the lockie thingies (wardrobes). BYE! From, Ian"

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A note from Dominic:

"Dear Everybody in the Whole Wide World,

I really miss Pepperdine. And I really miss my friends and family. But the Luisenpark and the Zoo, and the Hauptstrasse and the Schloss ... I've had a really good time. We found a bunch of poker chips and my dad's going to teach me how to play poker. Not the gambling kind. I really miss you all.

This picture is of some beautiful flowers at Moore Haus. I took this picture.

This is a slope next to our house. It is a picture of our back porch. I took this picture too.

From, Dominic"

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A note from Stacy:

So last Monday we went to Luisenpark in Mannheim (a neighboring city) with the Drehsels. It's a great place! A huge area with many play areas, eating areas, water play, bumper cars, trampolines, and a small zoo, as well as indoor areas and even a boat ride.

Here are the boys and I practicing our Flamingo look:

Last Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we played in the rain. We enjoyed getting umbrellas and tromping around in the puddles.


On that Thursday we went to a family's home from the Gemeinde Christi and had lunch. Die Mittagessen war sehr schmeck. I hope that means lunch was very good. So was the company. They were very welcoming.

On one of the days the boys had a huge Squattie war (squatties are what our boys call the small StarWars figures) with Titans for backup (their stuffed animals).

Boy versus Boy

When it cleared up again over the weekend we went on a hike in the woods near our house. It was great to be exploring.
We ended up finding our way around and down to the garden grounds of der Schloss.

It was fun to look around and see cool water bugs and tad poles in the fountains but there were no frogs or lilypads.

The view over Heidelberg is beautiful!

It's fun to become acquainted with the area and the people around us. We've met our neighbors on one side. Sometime we'll give you a tour of the inside and outside of the house. As laid back as our schedule is right now, I find it doesn't take much to wear us out, so even though we're doing well, we're still in the adjusting phase.

We love hearing from you all! Love, Stacy


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And last of all, a note from Steve:



So my biggest adventure this week was my introduction to the German sport Kegeln. Karl Drehsel plays most Monday nights with a group of his friends, and he invited me to come along this week. Very fun.







It was described to me as 9-pin bowling, but there's some big differences. The ball is about half the size, and either has no holes or only two holes-- and it doesn't curve like in American bowling. The lane itself doesn't have any arrows or lines-- just a big open lane. The biggest difference, though, was that there's not just one single game-- where you try to get the higest number of points. Instead, there are a huge number of variations, and after every game it switches to a new set of rules. For example, in the first game we played-- translated Foxes and Hounds-- everybody rolls one ball, and the two highest rollers are the Foxes, and everyone else is a Hound. After the Foxes get a one-roll head-start, each of the Hounds try to roll high enough that their total overtakes a Fox's total before the Fox reaches 50 points. My favorite variation (translated something like Thief, or Con Artist, or Cheater) has everyone roll one ball, one after each other, and the total of all of the players are added together. Everyone tries to avoid being the person who breaks a total of 25, because that costs you. Once the total rises above 25, you try to avoid being the one to break 50 (which costs you more), then 75, then 100, all the way up to 200. I liked this game because it was the only one where it actually was good to roll a 0!


The other Kegeln players were great-- very welcoming and hospitable. Even though I sat through a night listening to friends joke and good-naturedly insult each other in a language I don't yet understand, it was great. Even though I played like, well, an American who was used to an entirely different sport, they were encouraging. Best of all, they told me that since it was my first time I didn't have to pay for anything but my beer. If I come back, though, I pay like everyone else. I tried to keep track of what I would have owed if they had made me, and it was somewhere around 7 Euro-- which would be a great value for a great authentic German experience.




Looking forward to next Monday night.



Thanks for reading this long post!

Steve