Pictures, finally!

Ok here are a few pictures from Germany so far. I have taken a ridiculous number of pictures thus far, but I've chosen a few representative ones to give you an idea what it's like here in Frankfurt this summer.

My apartment:

My room in the 2-bedroom apartment. I now, finally, have a roommate. When I came home from work on Tuesday there was another person in the apartment.
Beautiful evening sky outside my apartment on Becher Strasse:
The King of Bratwurst. Hehe. Such a goofy sign that I randomly found when walking home from the city center.

Giant strawberry near a strawberry cake fest that I attended. Strawberry season is serious business in Germany.

Hessen's largest Erdbeerkuchen (Strawberry shortcake) they sold pieces with coffee for 2 euro and it was delicious. It was a fundraiser for a local kindergarten (genius idea!).

As is Spargel season (white asparagus). The Germans go crazy for Spargel.

The Ginnheimer Spargel. This is the TV tower near my apartment. It is affectionately known as the Ginnheimer Spargel (Ginnheim's asparagus) because it's in the Ginnheim part of Frankfurt and looks a lot like an asparagus. It likes up bright pink at night. It's a great landmark because I can always find my way home.

Elevator at Fleming's Hotel.

It's essentially a human dumbwaiter and super awesome!

Infamous bunnies of the Siedlung. Rumor has it they are diseased and at some point in the year they all go blind and die. I don't know if that is true, but they have sure overrun the place (they are everywhere! One night I was walking back to my apartment and saw at least 30 different bunnies and there were probably a ton I couldn't see.) I also found a hedgehog the other day and even touched it. They feel like hairbrushes. :-)

How many bunnies can you find in this picture?

So Sore!

I participated in a Run/Walk-a-thon (Sponsorenlauf) yesterday and in 2 hours and 40 minutes of continuous movement, running/jogging/walking, I managed to circle the 400m track 40 times. That comes out to about 10 miles. This was an enormous accomplishment because I am not a regular runner and certainly don't exert myself nearly that much in one go. But it turned out to be super fun and we raised a ton of money for GospelTribe, the organization that I went to Egypt with in the spring of 2007.

I am sorry that I haven't gotten my pictures up yet. I really will try to get on that this week. I have gotten them uploaded to my computer at least, but now I need to sort through and find the best ones. However, I will use my incredibly sore limbs and aching muscles as my excuse for now. Every time I get up from a chair I can feel all 10 miles over again!

After the event a bunch of the other runners and I went to watch the Germany-Australia World Cup game at one of the local churches in Karlsruhe. They had a big screen set up and there were a ton of excited German soccer fans. Every German goal was a celebration which meant it was nearly a continuous party as Germany defeated Australia 4-0. I'm not usually much of a soccer fan, but watching it with so many excited people around you, it's hard not to get caught up in the fever a little. Although I did feel bad for Australia, so I'm clearly not a true German fan.

Those are pretty much the most exciting things I have done recently. I'll try to post again soon once I remember what I've been doing for the past couple of days. Right now I am exhausted. I didn't get back to Frankfurt until about 1:30am this morning, which didn't leave a lot of time for sleep before work. I will definitely be going to bed early tonight!

Another German holiday means another day off work

So my work week this week will be a grand total of 3 days. Monday was Memorial Day and today was Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi), a Catholic holiday celebrating the body of Christ in the Eucharist. Not all German states take a day off for this religious observance, but luckily Hessen (Frankfurt's state) does. So last week was 4 days of work and this week is going to be 3, does that mean I only work 2 days next week?

Well, work is going well. I got travel orders yesterday, so now if they take me on any outreach trips for work then I can get per diem and be reimbursed and what not. I also got my badge on Tuesday, which means I no longer have to rely on the kindness of strangers to swipe me in to my hallway in the morning. I can move freely about the building.

I am dog-sitting again and yesterday Fenway(the dog) and I explored a really neat park across the road from the American ghetto. I found a Greek Orthodox Church, a Hundenwiese (literally "dog meadow" but obviously translates to dog park), and the site of a former palace-type house built by the Rothschilds, which was called Grueneburg. It, however, was taken over during the Nazi-period and then destroyed by bombs during WWII so there isn't anything left except the plaque that tells you what used to be there, along with a mysterious black column. But given the vast size of the park area, you can imagine it must have been a pretty amazing house and place to live. Today Fenway and I went back to the park and I took my camera so that I could get some good pictures. Weather was gorgeous today, so I think we've gotten through the cold, rainy stretch and should be moving into a warm, sunny summer. Since it was a holiday and beautiful weather, there were a ton of people at the park (some not fully clothed -- sadly, to be expected on a warm day in Europe).

Not a lot else to report, except that I intend to upload pictures on to my computer this weekend and post some on the blog/facebook. To get your imaginations going I will leave you with these two keywords: bunnies and asparagus.