Friday we went to our first German youth hiking club meeting. We were invited by the lady who runs it when we went to the Sunday local hang out last weekend. Brian was working, so he met me there late. I drove up the hill since I wasn't sure that I could wear Bobby and push Judah in the stroller on the dirt road uphill alone. Driving was possibly just as hard since my giant van had a hard time of it as all the parents were dropping off their kids and leaving. This caused a problem because roads around here can be for two way traffic, but only be wide enough for maybe 1.5 cars (and I am being generous!) Add that to it being muddy, and my trip up the hill was tricky. I'm going up and car after car are coming down. I couldn't pull over at all because Germans don't know what a road shoulder is. The cars had to pull over as far as they could into the mud and I had to get on the edge of the road. Then there was a very steep sharp turn where the road widened a bit, but the car coming the other way made me have to take the curve too sharply for my van to handle. I got a little stuck, but was able to back up and try again after the other car moved out of the way.
Once we were there, things wet even better than I had imagined. There was only one other mom that stayed and she spoke English. Turns out she has five children which is rare anywhere, but especially here.
The children were all so nice, many of them hovering around my kids and asking them questions and oohing and aahing over Judah and Bobby. Speaking of, Bobby (spelled differently, I am sure) is a girls name in German so they had a laugh over that. And when given a choice between Judah and Benjamin, they all decided Benjamin was easier to remember. They pronounce it 'Ben-ya-mean." It's a common name in Germany. Brian was happy about that small victory. Especially, since Judah can spell his name now, and you better believe he spells it "J U D A H." Big victory for me. ;)
We walked around the woods and the guy on the ladder hung up the bird houses the kids had painted at their last meeting. They had four extras that they let my oldest four put their names on and carry around until it was time to hang them.
One eleven year old girl followed Hannah around very closely and asked a million questions, one of which was if she could play together the next morning. Turns out she lives on the street attached to ours. Yay! We are thrilled to find a girl close to us to play with. She came over the very next morning and stayed until we left for our day trip around noon. She seems very sweet. The girls taught her to play Life and basketball.
When we got back to the hut from the hike, the leaders of the group grilled bratwurst and frikadelle. They had sodas and bubbly water as well. Brian had joined us by then and we really enjoyed ourselves.
We're going to miss the next few meetings due to traveling, but we are really looking forward to being a part of this group.
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