You Go Nate!

26 Over Par in Teletubby Land

On Saturday morning at 11, I checked out of my hotel and met up with my distant relatives, Sybille & Wolfgang Edelberg. If I understand the genealogy correctly, Sybille is my 4th cousin twice-removed... or maybe thrice-removed. Anyway, it's distant.

In the 1970's my mom was doing genealogy work and got in touch with Rudolph Schumacher, her great-grandmother's second cousin. (Correct me, Mom or Mike, if I get this wrong). We were able to come to Germany in 2000 and meet "Onkel Rudi" and his niece is Sybille. She was our guide during that first trip to Germany, and our families have been friends ever since.

Sybille & Wolfgang have two children, both grown and living nearby [UPDATE: they have another girI didn't know about who lives near Cologne], and they have many hobbies including motorbiking and golf. In Hamburg on Saturday was a large Golf Convention. So that's where we went. I didn't realize it was such a big sport here, but there are golf courses all over Germany. At one point during the convention, we all gathered in a huge auditorium. There were strips of astroturf in long stretches with 6-Irons and wiffle-golf balls spaced evenly apart. We all went to one of the "stations" and from a large podium in the center, some guy gave a basic golf lesson to everyone, with hundreds of clubs swinging on the count of "drei." The folks from Guiness were there (the record book, not the ale) and we broke the world record for "Most Participants in a Golf Lesson." That's right... I was there! We even got to keep our 6-irons which say on the handle "World Record for Most Participants in a Golf Lesson."

After the convention we were headed out to the country-side. We made a stop on the way to Lüssow at an enormous edifice in the middle of nowhere. Inside this building was a huge indoor ski slope complete with ski lift and a half-pipe for snowboarders. We had some cake and refreshment while watching the skiers and then continued on to Lüssow.

Lüssow is a very small town with only a few hundred residents. Wolfgang & Sybille's home is right across from the old church, and there is a nice guest room in the basement which is where I am staying.

S&W have a great sense of humor and are fairly easy-going. Sybille speaks some English and Wolfgang speaks less, but they have been good to speak to me in German, and patiently help me learn and speak myself.

Today they wanted to take me golfing. So we went to their golf club in a nearby town and played 9 Holes on the course. I haven't played nought but putt-putt golf in nigh on 14 years. So I might as well have never held a club in my life. We did some driving and then went on to the course. I had a few decent swings but overall I played a pretty pitiful game. It was fun though, and I learned some more German words like "Golfball" = "golf ball," "Putter" = "putter," "Divot" = "divot," "Bogey" = "bogey" and so on.

This part of Germany is quite beautiful, even in winter. It is somewhat rural with rolling green hills and large patches of forests. Driving past all of these smooth curving hills covered, even in winter, with green grass, made me feel like I was in Teletubby land... except without the baby in the sun.

I have internet access at S&W's house but it is a little bit slow and I cannot connect to my laptop. Thus blog updates, particularly with pictures might be less frequent in the coming days. Never fear, I am still here and making headway on my German.

I still don't know exactly when I will return to Munich. I have a telephone interview with another school on Tuesday, so I could leave as early as next week or, at the very latest, the middle of March.

Here is a map of Germany with Lüssow added in special by me.