Sounds of Home

Usually Maddie and I go to school on the train, but today I decided to drive. The train is always easier because it's impossible to find a place to park, but we were running late this morning, and it was easier to hustle Maddie into the car than to hurry her along all the way to the train stop.

Realized in the hustling that we forgot her backpack. I say she forgot it. She claims I forgot it. Anyway, I had to get her into class and then turn around for the backpack and deliver it. I tried not to stress over the fact that this would make me late for an appointment with my vacuum cleaner.

Throughout the driving I was listening to the British Armed Forces Radio Station. I came in on the tail end of a competition the morning personalities Mark and Lynne were having. Apparently each had brought in a song from home--one of their all-time favorites. I didn't hear what the songs were, just the updates on how the votes were going. As I was pulling into the Maddie's school with her backpack, the results were in and the song was played. None other than Glenn Campbell singing Rhinestone Cowboy. I still know all the lyrics.

Am finally in at my workout club. My friend Melanie caught a cold and we switched appointments, so I got in earlier. The big plus of this gym (to balance out the smoking and beer drinking) is that the tvs get CNN. You can plug your headphones into the treadmills, stairclimbers or bikes and get all the news in English. This is where my friend Joy and I learend of Ed Bradley's death. Kind of sucked all the endorphins right out of us.

As you might guess from my excitement over English radio and television, my German has not improved much. I was waiting until we got our house settled to embark on German lessons, but since that still hasn't happened, I need to get going on that. But what I have learned is that learning German in Germany is really expensive. Many of the companies who have American and English workers pay for employees and their spouses to learn German and many of the schools and private tutors have rates that reflect that. Am looking into a few other options. Even though you can get by in this part of Germany without learning the language, it just seems rude not to at least try.