I am now in a tiny little black forest village called Salzstetten. I am staying with a host family whose numerous members seem to constantly come and go so that I can't tell who actually lives here. There's the older couple, their grown sons and daughters, one of the daughter's two young children, and a guinea pig. The two little kids are both very animated- with the exception of the son while he watches episodes of sponde-bob spuare-pants, during which he might as well be comatose. The rest of the time he is running around, playing with everything, constantly bringing me random household things, and throwing tantrums. I guess he must be almost 4. The little girl is almost two, but already understands everything you say and can talk pretty well. She is a little angel compared with her wild brother, but they get along really well.

Their mother spent time as an exchange student in Los Angeles, but so far I have only spoken in German with everyone, so my conversation ability has improved already... the grammar is all still a little beyond me- trying to remember that past tense transitive verbs use 'have' and intransitive ones use 'been' trips me up a little. I haven't even tried to nail down the article declinations in conversation, either. But my german class starts tomorrow, so I'll start to work on all that.

I practiced in my host family's house for the first time today. They said that they'd hosted a Taiwanese student a few years ago who was also a bassoonist. I played some well-known tunes for the kids, who were intrigued, and the family insisted that I was a better player than the other musicians they had previously hosted- probably out of politeness, seeing as my reeds are all on their deathbed and my technique is shaky after weeks of sparse practice. They said that I can practice here as much as I want, but I will try to see if there is some other place in the neighborhood I can go to practice- a church or community orchestra space.

I'm surprised by how beautiful the summer is here- maybe it's a consequence of living without real seasons in CA for 10 years. Here everything is bright green and when there's a breeze you smell all the plants. most of the buildings here are centuries-old farmhouses with flower gardens and fruit trees around. Traveling here, I have hardly ever been on what could be considered a highway by US standards. Everyone drives through fields and hills on little windy roads. At least one californian ran to puke in some bushes after our bus arrived in this rural area.

The food is pretty good here, too. We had a picnic yesterday, during which the two little kids climbed naked into a fountain and chased each other around screaming. I was pretty impressed by the quantity of various food items comprising the lunch: different sausages, breads, cheeses, fruits, salmon and beer. The Kebab places that everyone told me about are pretty good, but it's a strange sensation- it tastes like real food when you eat it, but afterwords in feels like you've just eaten a hot dog.

At our orientation in Tubingen, they tried to convince us to buy liability insurance, which covers anything that I destroy out of carelessness or recklessness during my stay in Germany. A lot of people signed up for it, too. I guess most people in Germany have it, but I felt a little weird paying for something that I've never heard if and have lived without for the rest of my life back home. Hopefully I don't carelessly set fire to any buildings or I'll regret my decision.

I have a cell phone now. my number is 0716-35718250. I think that the German country code is 49. I really don't know how one calls from the US. I think from skype you don't put in any country code- just the number... maybe without the zero... I don't actually know.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone, but remember that it's 9 hours later here.

germany

I'm here in Endingen, which is a tiny town among so many tiny towns each with lots of pointy red roofs and a few churches clustered around medieval town centers. I have been mostly spending my time practicing bassoon and enjoying a large variety of cheeses.
I spent my first week in Europe as sort of a camp counselor for German middle school kids who go to Switzerland each year to hike and canoe. We camped by some little town that, despite boasting a population of 66, dates back at least to the 17th century- probably older. Once on a hike we passed a bridge which spanned the Franco/swiss border. I was excited enough to walk across for a couple minutes, but none of the European kids was as impressed by the possibility of casually strolling across an international frontier.
We all sang campfire songs- most of them in english, actually. T was impressed how much English these kids can speak at such a young age. Definitely a few 11 to 14-year-olds whose English unquestionably surpasses my German.
The kids were all pretty interested in hearing about California and such. I entertained them with some circus tricks and dance moves which they then requested for the rest of the week.
A couple days ago I went to France with Julian, his sister, her husband, and their infant son. On the way to a medieval castle we stopped at a sort of monkey petting zoo. I politely fed the monkeys popcorn and didn't mention that I've always hated monkeys. They're like terrible little perverted, bad-mannered people. The castle was really cool, though. It had been restored in the first years of the 20th century under the order of Keiser Wilhelm II when that region was still in Germany.
Tonight Julian, his brother, his father, and I went out to a winery/restaurant for some local cuisine (potatoes, sausage, mustard...). The owner and his wife were honored to have a foreign guest, so they hot out the accordion and sang some German songs. Then they brought out a guitar and I played some willie nelson and elvis and then Julian dug into his endless repertoire. There was a brazilian lady there as well who ended up singing a few of the well-known bossa novas, and who turned out to be Julian's neighbor. We all played and sang late into the night while the owners kept bringing wine.
Tomorrow we will go to Freiburg, where I hope to open a bank account and to activate a cell phone that Julian's sister had extra. The next day I'm off the Tubingen to meet the other CA kids and to start my German program.