Spring flowers

Today I planted my spring flowers in the flower boxes on our balcony. Was a good day to do it, as it rained all afternoon. I do see, however, that the night time lows a couple nights next week are predicted to be very close to freezing. Will have to watch that very carefully. Also used "God's car wash" today - took the car out of the garage and left it out, and then after the rain I went out and wiped the car off with towels - had a lot of dirt on it from the winter! Not as good as a "human car wash" but it will have to do for awhile! Wait, did I just say something from God wasn't as good as a human something?! That's not right!!!! Sorry, God!!
Last week we had a real taste of spring as it was in the upper 60's and low 70's a couple of days. Now it is back in the upper 40's - low 50's. We definitely are ready for spring and summer. Things are greening up very nicely, tho. I love the tiny green leaves on the bushes!
Looking forward to our first Easter here. Services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday evenings, and only one service on Easter morning, following a breakfast pot-luck. We will have to remove all the chairs from the sanctuary, put up tables for the breakfast, and then remove the tables and put the chairs back up for the service! It's just the way it is here - nobody complains, they just all pitch in.

A Blessed Easter to everyone!!

Our church choir

Our church choir at Trinity is wonderful. We have people from all over the world - India, Poland, Germany, China, the U.S. and others I can't think of right now - ages from early 20's to senior citizens. I have learned so much about music and singing from our director, Dr. Jerrode Marsh, who is from the states and married to an opera singer who sings mostly here in Frankfurt, but also travels to other parts of Europe to sing in other productions. Jerrode is a professional pianist and a great director of music at Trinity. She is beginning to plan our "Messiah" presentation for spring of 2011. We are starting our learning of the Messiah by singing some of the easier pieces in church on different occasions, beginning with this coming Sunday when we will sing 2 pieces. I never thought I would enjoy singing this type of music, but she has made it fun - and the caliber of the singers has helped me a lot.

Attached are some pictures of our last rehearsal. We have a "tea table" set up for those of us who want to sip on tea during rehearsal. The picture of the choir was taken at the beginning of rehearsal, and we almost doubled the size by the time everyone got there - hard to get started on time!!!

Visit to the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt

We went to the U.S. Consulate here this afternoon to view a display of art by several Consulate employees and their families, including Lynn Monreal, a member of our Trinity congregation. They were also celebrating the opening of the new building on their grounds where the art show was displayed. Nice to see our U.S. tax dollars at work over here in Germany!!! Thanks to Lynn's husband, Tony Monreal, of the TSA office, for escorting us on the grounds. We also saw several other Consulate employees who worship with us at Trinity.
No pictures available as we are not allowed to bring cameras or cell phones on the grounds.

Getting around in Germany

Rita has been impatiently waiting for the letter from the driver's license bureau to come back and pick up her license. That letter finally came on Tuesday, March 9, so on Wednesday she drove down to pick it up - took all of 10 minutes to do!! We had applied for them on Jan. 3 and Bob got his notice the end of January and picked his up then. Needless to say, she was getting a little worried as to why hers was taking so much longer than his. All in all it was a very easy process. Since AZ has reciprocity with Germany, we didn't have to take any tests, just get our AZ licenses translated into German, show our residency permit, pay them 30 Euro (about $40-45) and then wait. And they don't ever expire so we are good forever.

Driving in Germany is much more intense than in the States - you have special intersections that you have to watch out for (who has the right-of-way - it is usually the car on the right, UNLESS it is otherwise marked!), cars and trucks stopped in the driving lanes to unload or park for a few minutes, and lots of bicyclists and pedestrians. Sometimes right in the middle of a block there is a marked pedestrian walkway that gives the right of way to the pedestrians - doesn't have to be at an intersection. Also, there are no right-turn-on-red except at a very, very few intersections that are marked as such, and the streets are very narrow - sometimes a residential 2-way street is only wide enough for 1 car so you have to pull off onto the sidewalk a little to let an oncoming car pass by.

And then there are the signs - what can we say - it is just very confusing until you ask a lot of questions and learn what they mean. There are Americans here that have been driving for 10 years and still don't know what they all mean!!! And signs on the highways don't include the direction (like if you want to exit on Hwy. A66, it will say only A66 and city names - not east or west - so you have to know what big city you are headed toward). We are adjusting to the system though, and some of their ways are actually quite a bit better than in the States.

All in all we are getting around just fine. We do use the public transportation system most of the time as it is easier and faster within the city of Frankfurt. Parking is at such a premium, also. At our church, we do not have a parking lot - only street parking which is used by the many apartment dwellers around the church. Many people have to walk a few blocks from their Sunday morning parking places, and nobody complains about it - it is just a fact of driving in Germany. We both ride the U-bahn train and bus to church on Sunday mornings to avoid the parking problem.

So there you have a little glimpse into how we get around in Germany. We are adapting as we become more knowledgeable and learn the little nuances of the system.

Opera Attendees

We went to our first opera on Sunday - a more modern adaption of Lucia di Lammermoor - at the Frankfurt Opera. Our 2 men from church both had significant parts which made it even more interesting. It was sung in Italian with German sub-titles - didn't help us much. Thankfully we had read the story before we went so we had an idea of what was happening. We struggled through 50 MPH winds to get there, but it was well worth it.