Door:1 Haley:0

I didn't do much yesterday. As mentioned before, I slept until 1; then, I ate some traditional German sausages with Lucia's father and sister, read my book in the garden, listened to the rain, watched them eat again later in the evening (my eating schedule hasn't caught up with the time change yet!) and talked for awhile with Lucia's father about Augsburg. We watched some German news television and he went to bed. That should be the end of the story. I should say - I watched some English news and went to bed shortly thereafter. But I didn't.
I did turn the tv off and intend to go to bed.

Let me first explain the layout of Lucia's home. When you enter the front door, there is a flight of stairs on your immediate right that leads up the second level to some bedrooms, the computer room and a bathroom. The third level has more bedrooms (where I sleep). From the front entrance you walk forward a few steps and on your right there is a door that leads to a hallway from which there are other doors leading to the livingroom, kitchen, another bathroom, the dining room, etc, etc. So, last night while I was watching television, I closed the door to the bedroom area of the house so as not to disturb Lucia's father and sister.
When I got up to go to bed, the door was locked. Completely. I had locked myself inside, and therefore outside of the part of the house where I wanted to be. I tried absolutely everything to free myself from this dreadful situation, including removing the door handle and trying to jimmy the lock. I tried to phone Lucia in Canada, I tried numerous keys and other possible entrances to the other part of the house, but to no avail.
So, I slept on the couch.
I was woken up this morning by Lucia's sister asking me to 'open the window' so that she could come in through the garden.
Not only had I locked the door, but I had also broken the door. At 6am this morning, Lucia's father had to call the locksmith the disassemble the door that the crazy Canadian had massacred. Well, he didn't really explain it like that, and reassured me that the door had broken itself, but I have my suspicions...

And so... lesson number one from Germany:
****Never close the doors...make the Germans believe that you, as a Canadian were 'born in a barn'

Auf Wiedersehen

Hallo aus Deutschland!

I have successfully arrived on the other side of the pond, and aside from the difficulty I'm having with this keyboard - it's very good to be here!
I arrived yesterday around 12:30pm, and while I waited for Lucia's father I realized that there are many other people who arrive at airports not knowing who it is that they're meeting. The first man asked me if I was Emilie (who, as it turns out is a French exchange student), and when the second man told me that he was not Herr Knoll (Lucia's father) and that I didn't look like Tim Collins (who it turns out was a hockey player) I sat myself down and waited patiently. Within no time, two German children became very interested in me and the fact that I speak very little German. As I've experienced in the past, children are the best people to learn another language from - they're very patient, have relatively small vocabularies and are totally uninhibited about asking you questions - including 'Wie kommst du?' (their mother scolded them for being so informal) and 'du heiße?' (once again, a scolding for being so bold). Luckily, besides the German love songs that I'm able to rhyme off at a moments notice, I was able to confidently answer 'Ich heiße Haley. Ich kommst aus Kanada' They were incredibly excited that I was not Amerikana!

So. Lucia's father and sister are absolutely lovely. Lucia asked how the German was, and I explained that her family's German is very good, and my English is very good, so we get along quite well.
Lucia is from Schwabmunchen - about 1 hour from Munchen. So far, I've only seen her family's house and garden, and the inside of my room where I slept for almost 19 hours... but perhaps tomorrow I'll venture out and see the rest of the town.

Auf Wiedersehen

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

And I find myself home again. Home on the Island of my birth for the weekend.

It's been a long time since my last post - days, weeks and months filled with everyday life, many adventures, good friends and quite a bit of laughter.
Lucia, Mandy and I trekked from St. John - Boston- NYC - Kingston - Ottawa - Quebec City, enjoyed great welcomes, lovely meals and good company. Aaand... I'm going to Germany on the 28th. I'll have the true pleasure to see where Lucia grew up, drink some delicious German beer and watch some world cup soccer. And three weeks later I'll return to Cape Breton.

As so often happens in the Spring of the year, I've been faced with many decisions, including what to do come the fall. I made it as far as a visa application so that I could join a L'Arche community in southwest England, and then I was offered the position of house leader at one of our higher needs houses in Orangedale. "Orangedale?" you say? Well, it's not a particularly exotic locale, but it gives me the opportunity to play with the idea of establishing a life for myself, working on some self- development and not leaving behind many good friends as I've been apt to do in the past. So, instead of essentially living the same year again as a new house assistant in a new place, I've opted for a brand new year. I imagine that it will be full of struggle, and difficulty and plenty of heartache.
And I seriously can't wait.