Since I've been going nuts lately doing the work of at least 3 people, 13-hour days, etc, I haven't had any time to post. So I'm going to be lazy and copy in the email I just sent to my sister, who lives near Hamburg:

Oooh! We got our package today!!!  We hurried up and made ourselves another batch of coffee to have with the Schoko Zwiebacks…

And the little tank top is very cute! Thank you!

And I’ll read the paper later. Just curious (I had meant to ask when we were on the phone), since I see that US politics were making Die Welt headlines back in January, what do people there seem to think about Obama? That’s who I and the kids voted for, in fact I changed my registration to Democrat last Fall just so I could vote for him this spring, and his campaign is the first one I’ve ever donated money to or volunteered for. I just think he would represent the US far better in the world than any of the other candidates, as far as working toward restoring our tarnished image. Among other reasons, but that’s my main one. He seems so sincere and reasonable all the time. [end of editorial]

And I’ll make some of the Bärlauch suppe tonight, maybe using one of the recipes on the back.

And champagne chocolate bars??? Lime-strawberry gum??? What’ll they think of next???

I have to admit to wondering about the kids’ candy till Al reminded me that I’d asked you to send some for the neighbor kids, heh. I’ll take it over to them this afternoon – I’m sure they’ll think it’s pretty cool.

Thank you, thank you! Packages from Germany rock!

Love,

S

PS – In our own news, Alex will be home from DC on Monday – 2 of his high school friends drove my car down there yesterday (apparently without incident), they’re all going to a Radiohead concert Sunday night, then driving him home on Monday with his stuff. He’s able to leave all his furniture-type stuff there because his roommates are keeping the apartment and subletting to other guys over the summer and next semester while Alex is abroad. Alex went to the DC United soccer match on Thursday, with his friend Phil, who just got back from his semester in Berlin. DC lost, but Alex said it was lots of fun – we saw it on TV, looks like they’re getting big crowds for soccer now finally, and lots of flags and singing, like in the rest of the world.

Nikki is going canoeing today on some lake in some park over there in Ohio, with other members of the camp staff. She has to eat worms & ants for the wild edibles class she teaches – which I would never have thought she would do, but she’s become quite the woodswoman at this camp – she’ll be great to have along on camping trips now (that is, even more great…).

We went to M&D’s house last night to watch the Penguins easily beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the first game of the Eastern Conference Championship series. Woo hoo! We’ll go there again tomorrow night to watch, because the games are being televised on a relatively new sports channel called Versus, which we don’t get but they do. Plus they have that nice big-screen Hi-Def TV, which we don’t. Plus, it’s fun to watch with them.

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