Kanu!

Canoeing! We made an adventure trip on Wednesday the 23rd--we took a canoe trip! Hanne, Simon, Olly, Edith, and Dominik all came down from Muehtal and they organized a excursion day for all of us. We drove about 45min away and reached the boating dock and from there we headed out! It was rather fun; we had a four person canoe with Christian, myself, Simeon, and Johannes. Our route was 17,4 kilometers long, and it took about eight hours or so to do (including a lunch break for grilling), but it was good nonetheless. It was odd to canoe on the river and then see a castle or a cathedral every so often. Another really interesting thing is that the river was operated and maintained by floodgates, so there were four floodgates (canals) that we had to operate and allow to be filled and then drained. I haven't seen anything like those before, at least, not on a normal river for boats such as canoes.

The same day also happened to be Juergen's birthday, so we went to his house afterward and celebrated, grilled, and watched the German game against Ghana.

The night before that, Manu (the only other worker in Stahlhofen) invited us to her home for a game night and dinner. Manu's husband, Danny, is Canadian, and they're moving to Sweden in August to work/live at Holsby Brunn, a Torchbearers university there. It was a really cool time at Manu's. We ate together, and her husband is a big Disc Golfer, so he has his own discs but also his own "hole" contraption. We set it up in the park next to their house and played a round of ten with everyone and it was fun. My team had never played before so it was a brand new experience--and I also realized that I should probably get my skills in shape for the fall.

After Disc Golfing, we went inside and played board games for a bit. One thing I found really interesting is that for most of the time, we all communicated in Germany, including Danny and I. It was a bit odd, but interesting to speak in German to another native English speaker. I think it to be ironic, but it wasn't bad or wrong, just interesting. All these situations and things I’m learning concerning language really interest me. I kind of wish I could have studied language more than I have because I find it fascinating the way language grows and changes, but even more so how language is learned. To me, that stuff is really interesting.