Grandparents

In my last post I alluded to spending three days, and surviving, in a house full of chain smokers... those chain smokers would be Fabian's grandparents on his mom's side.

Their names are Hans and Gabi, two very typical German names. They live in a small village named Muensingen, which is south east of here, in Bayern. The city itself is in the alps, and the whole area is simply gorgeous.

We left here on Christmas afternoon (we meant to leave Christmas morning) and took a nice drive through some gorgeous, small towns on our way into the mountains. Except that they aren't really called towns in german. In german one of these small towns would be called a "dorf" which means village, because they really are just small villages. Anyways, after a four hour drive we arrived at our location, a tiny little house in Muensingen. And by tiny, I really mean, tiny. You walked into the kitchen. Attached to the kitchen was his grandparent's bedroom and a bathroom (where the sink and tub were). From the kitchen you go into a hallway/dining area, and from there you go straight into the living room. Attached to the living room is the toilet room (yes, in germany they have usually a separate room for the toilet, which is literally only a toilet, and is usually unheated and cold in winter). That's it. That's all they had. A cute little house for two people, a bit cramped for the five that were now in it.

Also, upon entering the house you notice their decorating style. What is it, you ask? I like to call it, "mixed art." In other words, all sorts of random things hanging on the wall, with a mixture of furnishing styles also, and everything. Very very interesting to look at, to say the least (actually, it made it kind of homely).

So, we got there around eight-ish I think, and after a quick hello, ate some dinner (bread with stuff on it, yum! {no really, it is yummy! they have the best bread down there.. we bought three loaves to bring home with us}). Over dinner I got told a brief history of Hans, Ellen's biological father (Gabi is only her step mom). He lived in an area (I don't remember which) that was part of Germany back in the 1940's, but which isn't any more. When he was about eight years old or so, they were forced to flee the area due to Russian bombing. Him and his family then boarded one of the two boats which were waiting to take them to Denmark (i believe). They boarded one boat, and were on their way: the other boat got hit with a bomb, and everyone on board died. They were so blessed to have gotten on this boat and not the other! From Denmark they eventually made their way to the southern part of Germany. Fabian's biological Grandma (who now lives in Spain) was also from this former area of Germany and had moved to the south of Germany, where the two met and were married. One of the really spectacular things about this story is that the winter during which they fled, was so cold, that many many people starved or froze to death. Many children passed away as their families fled. It really is a miracle that he (and I think his whole family) survived. I thank God, because had they not: the guy I love so much wouldn't be here today! It really is amazing how things come together, even decades before my birth, to make sure that things are the way they are today. Also, Hans's story is quite sad, and a little more of a personal reminder of how horrible WW2 (and 1) was for all people involved: Russians, Americans, Japanese, Germans... every one. Not just the "good guys."

Anyways, after this story and dinner we went and sat in the living room with everyone and just talked. Hans speaks Schwaebisch, which is the dialect found in Bayern (and hard for even Germans to understand), so I couldn't understand him really at all. Gabi was a bit easier to understand usually. I learned during this time that Ellen had a sister who died in a car accident in 1987, that Fabian's grandparents have the cutest pic of him from when he was like five, and that when Hans was younger they didn't have birth control pills, so they had to be really careful while making love. Yes, you read that right. Like I said, I didn't understand everything and sometimes I would not understand, and then ask what was said, and it would turn out to be something weird. Like talking about birth control. Or another time, I found out that Hans's new name for me was "Mausie beinchen" which means "little, cute mice legs." uh.... don't ask me how he came up with that.... I'm not sure he actually called me that the next few days, but I was termed "Maus" the entire time. I am now a mouse. how cute. actually it was cute.

Fabian and I slept on an air matress in the kitchen. This air matress had a built in pump, but unfortunately, it lost most of the air during the middle of the night, forcing us to repump it at about four or five in the morning. waking everyone up. needless to say, we slept horribly the whole time.

The next morning, after a nice lunch (they eat their big meal in the middle of the day, which is traditional in Germany) we went sight seeing with Hans, and saw all sorts of cool places and towns. We also eventually went to a nice restaurant and had some yummy hot chocolate, desserts, and a wonderfully smoke free atmosphere. :)

The next day we met Gabi's daughter and her children. A cute little 8 year old in third grade who has been learning english for 2 years already, and a cute little ticklish 2 or 3 year old. they were sweet. This time, after lunch, we went driving around to look at the country side with the 8 year old, Tiffanie. On the way up to see some castle ruins (they are everywhere here, i wish america had castles) we got stuck in the snow (I forgot to mention: they had gobs of snow! it was wonderful, except of course the two, yes two times I got shoved into it) and had to push the car. anyways, we then saw the castle, and drove around some more, with the top down, in the winter. we got some crazy looks, but it was fun. and a bit chilly. We also saw a beautiful monestary, light two candles for my friend Tiff in Iraq, and then headed back to the grandparents. That afternoon we left and came back here to Saarbruecken.

It was a lot of fun. His grandparents are extrememly funny, and caring, and all around good people. They talk about the randomest things, and kept us laughing most of the weekend. The worse part was that they smoked, a lot. I swear his grandpa had special cigerattes which smoked more than most of the others. Unfortunately, Ellen also turned from a normal smoker into more of a chain smoker over these three days, so the air inside that house was literally deadly. I absolutely hate cigarette smoke, and even avoid Ellen when she smokes in the apartment, so that was pretty bad. But, we survived, and other than the smoking and bad sleeping, it was lots of fun!

hope everyone else had just as wonderful as a holiday as we had. :)