Hallo from the Heinemann Family! Am Dienstag, 16 Juli, Ich
komme aus Crailsheim am Bahnhof zu Delmenhorst und den bei auto zu Stuhr zu
Heinemann Family Hause! (On Tuesday July 16, I came from Crailsheim to
Delmenhorst and then by car to Sturh to the Heinemann Family’s home.) At the
train station I was met by Ihnes and two very shy children: Talina and Bjarne.
The children were not shy for very long. As soon as we got home and started
playing, they were no longer shy. Talina taught me a new game with the
trampoline and a tiger-or “Through the Tiger Back” as I call it. (Talina loves
the trampoline and there is hardly a day where she is not on the trampoline
playing, and often times I am playing with her!) By that evening I was tired. I
remember now why I was always so tired at the end of a school day-regardless of
the age, kids take a lot of energy and leave you drained-but yet excited. Oh,
and Bjarne loves the sandbox! He played in the sandbox for quite some time on
his own. Kai got home for work and came to join in on the fun. Introductions to
my second family: Kai, Ihnes, Talina (4), and Bjarne (1 ½). Stuhr is located in
Northern Germany in the state of Niedersachsen. We are very close to
Delmenhorst and Bremen. Stuhr is a small city of 1000-2000 people living here.
-Normal Day
So ein normal tag im Heinemann
Familie ist: waking up to hearing the
children playing upstairs. The children are usually up around 630 am. Some
mornings I hear they kids playing other mornings I generally wake up around 730
and we eat breakfast at 830-ish. After breakfast we may run errands, go to the
park, play games inside or outside, work in the garden, or maybe even jumping on the trampoline.
Mittag (lunch) is usually eaten around 12noon and is a simple meal of brotchen
(rolls), fleisch (meat), und kase (cheese). In the afternoon is playing with
the kids some more. Supper then is after Kai returns home in the evening and
the family has a bigger meal. Sometimes it is traditional German food, but generally it is
more modern-ish meals. After supper it is time to get the kids ready for bed.
Sometimes this includes a bat (bath), and other days it is only brushing teeth,
preparing for bed, and reading a book of their choice before saying goodnight.
I get to read off and on throughout the week, and sometimes I get to read to
either Talina or Bjarne or both.
So this past week, we have done a
lot of different things. Like I said typically playing with the kids and
errands are the normal aspects of the day. But in addition to this, we have
also visited friends or to other areas as well. On Friday evening I went to
Bremen with Kai as he had an interview there and then afterwards we met up with
a coworker and US correspondent to their workplace. While Kai was in the interview,
I walked around the Marktplaz and went into the St. Petri’s Dome Cathedral.
Although I could only go through the open section (not into the museum or up
the stairs to see the view) it was still phenomenal and overwhelming to see. I
don’t know why, but churches always seem to affect me in some way. I took time
to sit down and look around at the construction, the statues and the
craftsmanship. I also counted the number of organs within the church -5 in
total. After leaving the church I
walked around and took photos-a lot of photos! When everyone finally met up, we
went to supper at Pauliner’s. Two of the group ordered traditional Southern
Germany food, while two of us at Northern Germany food-can you guess which I
ordered? If you guessed Northern Germany-you are right! Now that I am in N.
Germany I want to eat what they do now. After supper we toured around the
Schlachte, Schnool, Marktplaz, and I think that’s it. It was getting dark but
we meandered around yet too. It was quite fun to take random photos throughout
the evening-especially when I gave my camera away to have photos taken-those
are probably some of the funniest photos.
On Saturday we went to a nearby
zoo. It was a smaller zoo, and here it is actually called an Animal Park
because it is geared for younger kids. As we meandered through the animal
exhibits, there were also dioramas of different fables, primarily by the
Brother’s Grimm. Some stories like Cinderella or Snow White and Seven Dwarves,
were familiar, but there were many other stories that were not so familiar like
the Bremen Musicians. Then about half-way through the park, there is this huge
playground area with paddleboats, swings, trampolines, ziplining for kids, a
jungle gym, a water play area, and more. It was so crazy how much there was
there! But it is definitely the highlight of the zoo. As we moved on we paused
at the ponies, and Talina decided to feed them leaves from the tree nearby. And
finally we came across the sea otters, and it was so cute! They have so many
different sounds that they can make as they are talking. I couldn’t stop
watching them. And we also got to watch them eat. I won’t share in case you
don’t like hearing those stories.
On Sunday, Kai took me to
Bremerhaven to the Immigration Center. There is a museum of what it would have
been like to immigrate from Germany as far back as the late 1600s when the
first immigrants left Germany up through parts of the 1900s on the ships.
Throughout the museum you can listen to stories, and history, and records from diaries
about people’s experience on the ships and upon entering America. Each person
also receives and individual person’s story to follow through the museum. The
person I had left Germany in 1939 because her family was Jewish. They were also
doctors that when they reached the US-their medical degrees were no longer
valid. It was a long and complicated process for her family to come to the US.
I learned too, that at Stanten Island you were asked 28 questions, and had 30
seconds to answer each question. We went through a simulation of these
questions in order to find out if we would be admitted or not. Luckily we got
through. There was also a room where you could research about your own family’s
history. Since we have little information about the Funk’s I emailed home for
all the information we had for both the Funk’s and the Frantz sides. I was able
to track our family back to the first Funk’s, but I was unable to find out when either the Funks or the Frantz immigrated as the records from
1860-1900 have been destroyed due to lack of space during that time. But it was
still awesome to look up the information and find out more about our history.
When I put in my Great Great Grandfather’s name and it came up my response was
literally “hey that’s him!” My goal now this next year, is to put a family tree
together for my Dad’s side and to make it current, so that we have our history
written down as that is very important.
I think I will stop there and start
with Monday on the next blog, since that is due to be posted in a few days
anyway. Sorry for the late blogs-you know I am no good at posting these on
time. A few observations/learning:
·
Dogs can go just about anywhere! Even at the zoo
they had a place for the dogs to play a game and cool-off from the heat.
·
So University here for students does not cost
the students anything but a few hundred euros to pay for parking and a few
other fees. Everything else is covered by the federal government and states.
·
The Waste System here seems a little complex at
first hearing about it, but it really isn’t and it is something I think the USA
can learn and utilize to eliminate so much trash. They have three trash cans
and recycle paper in one; plastics in another, and finally everything else in
the final one. And most people have a compost pile. In some areas in the USA
you can recycle things, but this seems very efficient and easy for everyone to
do.
·
Also-I think I finally understand the school
system here! It was confusing and too confusing to try and explain here. So if
you are interested, send me an email or a message and I’ll try to explain it,
or wait until I get back.
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