so far.

we landed in DE about 9am local time. as i'd never traveled oversea, i wasn't entirely sure what to expect. it was far easier than i had imagined. the bundeswehr polizei looked at my passport, and sent me on my way. that's it.

when we got to the exit, after waiting for our bags, we were greeted by Miriam and her mother Elisabeth. ran out to their car, and made our way from düsseldorf to leverkusen. along the way, we stopped at a bakery with amazing smells, and beautiful sights! i'd never seen so much delicious bread!

when we got to their house, we made sure to stay awake, so we had a huge breakfast of breads, jams, cheeses, and spreads. i had the most delicious gouda, and a "butter cheese" as well. we spent much more time socializing with one another, and then met Miriam's older brother Samuel. he built a foosball table with a friend of his. it's brilliant! he's even made it record the speed of the ball!

then we took a tour of altenberg dom. this place is magnificent! it was a cistercian order of monks that built it, so it is considered quite "plain" - i assure you, this is only in comparison to the churches we went to today! we walked around altenberg, and had a nice time.

after that, we had dinner, made by samuel and Elisabeth. but, we were exhausted from not sleeping ~30 hours so we went to bed early.

today (thursday) we took a trip up to Münster, a gorgeous city! right now is the fasching, so it is full of people in costume and just plain joyous occasion. (btw, we went on autobahn, obviously, it was so fast!)

we spent much of the time looking at churches, the most impressive being the st. paulus dom. it has this gigantic astronomical clock inside, absolutely gorgeous! it is so loud, and it plays at noon with a glockenspiel and bells and a horn. then the three kings come out of these doors and bow before madonna and child. it also marks all of the easters from ~1350 to 2071, and includes all the days, too!

we got to experience a german deprtment store, very nifty, and i got my first euros. i was incredibly embarrassed because we had coffee at a place in münster. which did not take credit card.. now i have my euro and that will not happen again!

we went to a german pharmacist, because scott is still feeling bad. Elisabeth spoke with the pharmacist, and they got some medicine to help him feel better. now, my friends, i think i am going to sleep. it's around 11pm, and i'm awfully tired still (especially with so much walking!)

ps, since i am being inundated by it, i am starting to pick up on some deutsch! sehr gut!

guten abed mienen freunden