Eiffel

Hallo! Guten Tag!

This weekend we visited the Monastery Maria Laach (St. Mary of the Lake) and got to attend a mass with Gregorian chants (thought of you, Chris; I wanted to record it so you could hear it yourself) and organ music that sounded EXACTLY like the music from Princess Bride (think Wesley running after fighting Inigo Montoya and Fezzik) and the tomb of the noble that supported the monastery as it was being built in 1093. One of the boys on our trip isn't Catholic, and thought that he had to go up to the front when everybody else did and just grabbed the host and walked back to his seat with it in his hand...until a very angry German stopped him and yelled at him with very stern words. Afterward I explained that that was basically the equivalent of punching Jesus in the face, and the moral of the story is to not follow Catholics when you don't know what they're doing.

After that, we went to Schloss Burresheim, which is a castle/palace in the Eiffel region. We got to walk inside (where it was FREEZING...there wasn't a room where you couldn't see your breath) and see all the original furniture and paintings, walk up and down very narrow spiral staircases, and play with the caretaker's cat. Sadly, I walked away thinking only that I couldn't feel my toes and that I wanted that cat. Then we went and ate Schnitzel at a small restaurant and headed for the town of Monreal. After spending every ounce of energy on not letting me freeze to death (I was wearing 3 shirts, a ski jacket, thick scarf, beanie, two pairs of pants, and boots, as recommended), my body said "OH NO YOU DON'T" and instead of walking along an old wall where I could take no pictures (broken camera until further notice), one girl and I went to the cafe where we got free coffee and cheesecake. This was wonderful for three reasons:
1) I got to talk to someone new
2) I was told the wall was "not worth it"
3) I got to try out my very limited German with "I'm learning German" and "Where is the bathroom?"

Then we drove home, and Hans and his wife and mother took me out for steak. I got chicken. We talked about movies and celebrities (they know Colin Hanks) and they told me we have a famous name-relative! Hans said the president of FIFA (?), the soccer federation or whatever it's called, is named Blatter! We should tell everyone we know.

Anyway, after a very terrible night last night (camera broken, computer sort of blew up, terrible nightmares about black widows biting me and Jennifer saying, "Calm down, you have an hour until it's fatal") today totally made up for it. Tomorrow I start classes and I'm really excited to start speaking German and mail my camera back home to be fixed. (Thanks, Cheri for sending me your spare). If you want to send me anything, like a letter or See's, my address is:

Jessica Blatter
AIB
Adenauerallee 7
D-53111 Bonn, Germany

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Love you all very much, Danke shein for reading!
<3
Jess