A Cootie-Infested Weekend

Guess what? This morning I slept in! Without the morning kindergarten rush and without the constant waking due to my congestion, I had a better night's sleep than I've had in the past two weeks! I am almost recovered from my Kinder-cooties, which unfortunately followed me this weekend to Marburg. Well, actually we went to Homburg, which is near Marburg. But it's almost the same thing.
My house mother's brother, B*, lives in Homburg. B is a  pastor at a really old church. He also speaks English, so we had a long conversation about the differences in the American and German church systems. But I won't bore you with that right now. Last August B married T, who has a son named Felix. I think that Felix is the coolest name on the planet, besides Nebuchadnezzar. Felix would make an excellent American. He doesn't like to practice his English or Latin, insists on eating donuts for breakfast, drinking Coke instead of water, and plays video games in his room for 15 hours a day. He only emerges to eat and feed his cats. Surprisingly, he didn't eat any of the chocolate chip cookies J and I made last weekend. This puzzled me for a fat kid named Felix. (My house mother calls him fat, so I think it's okay to say that.)
 The rest of the Germans, however, stuck to German-y things, such as eating delicious bread and Nutella for breakfast, playing classic Karneval board games, and visiting Marburg, a nearby city with a castle, the Elisabethkirche, and a pretty cool well, all dedicated to St. Elisabeth of Hungary (she was the princess). She was married at 14 to a very important German guy to help reinforce alliances between Hungary and Germany. She was a pretty remarkable gal. She liked using her power and wealth to help the poor and the sick. She died at the young age of 24. Thus, everything in Marburg is Elisabeth something-or-other. Here are some of the Elisabeth things we visited (you'll have to excuse the blurriness of some photos. It was snowing that day):

This well was built in 1596 in honor of St. Elisabeth. Apparently, it was where she quenched her thirst and had a chapel built. 

The inside of the well.

Elisabethkirche from the back. It's the oldest Gothic-style church in Germany.

The new million-Euro organ they put in the church.

One day I will have doors like this on my house :)

Statue of the Kolner-Dom in front of the Elisabethkirche. That thing's EVERYWHERE.

And here are some of the non-Elisabeth things we visited:

The watch tower we visited. I'm not sure how to rotate it :(

Here's the really foggy view from the watchtower. In the center is the Landgrave Castle.

These little bricks in the sidewalks are in honor of Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. They are all over Germany's sidewalks and streets. These ones are to the Isenbergs, a couple killed at Auschwitz.

The seminary B studied at.

The view from the Landgrave Castle!

The city of Marburg.

One view of the Landgrave Castle.

Castle...

The castle again.

The castle from the bottom.

B and T going down the 150 steps. My house brother counted.

Church that B pastors at.

We visited these places by car, which involved getting in the car, driving for five kilometers, getting out, taking pictures, and hopping back in the car and driving again. The Germans have this funny thing about riding in the car with coats on. So, before we got in the car we had to take off our coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. Then, when we arrived at the next location five minutes later, we had to dig everything back out again, layer it all back on, and take pictures. This was repeated multiple times, adding considerable length to each stop. I got pretty annoyed at the dressing and undressing, so I simply said "Maybe next time we should leave our coats on in the car!" The looks I got from my house family were so horrific, I was suddenly convinced I'd grown a second nose. Or not. 
Besides the stripping and dressing, the trip to Marburg made for a pretty cool weekend. In church on Sunday B made me stand up in front of the congregation so they could welcome me. Of course, I didn't understand much of what he was saying, so whenever the people laughed I felt the need to make sure I didn't have snot on my nose or something. Oh well. I suppose that's just another embarassing moment in my life.
This week I have many adventures planned. Tomorrow I meet my bestest German friend Lotta in Cologne (I also saw her last Tuesday). On Wednesday I will go back to Cologne to see the King Tut exhibit, and then come back home to have a cooking class with my house brother, J! On Thursday I will go to school with J, and on Friday there's something big going on. Unfortunately, my brain translator wasn't working while my house mother was explaining it to me. Therefore, I'm not too sure what it is. I just know it's something big.
Until then,
Gabbie


*My house family has asked that names and faces do not appear on the internet. I'm not sure if this means their relatives as well, but we'll play it safe. Except for Felix. That's just too cool of a name to pass up.