You Go Nate!

Always Looking a Head

(fixed/updated)

This week has gone by very fast. On Sunday Wolfgang drove me to the Lüssow train station where I bought a ticket to Rostock.

Here is the Lüssow Grand Central Station.

In earlier days when cars weren’t the standard, each small town had its train station with a ticket counter, waiting room, and maybe even a small café. Now, the station is boarded up (actually, concreted-up) and all that is here is a lonely automatic ticket machine.

After the 30-minute train ride I walked to the Rostock LDS branch house and arrived right at 9AM which was the time of the first meeting according to the sign outside. The doors, however, were locked and nobody was around. I wasn’t worried because the Church’s website had the first meeting listed as 10AM. So I walked around for a little bit and studied my German grammar.

Sundays really are a day of rest here as far as working goes. Everything is closed except a few small bakeries and cafes, but even they open later on Sunday. The streets are virtually empty.

I got back to the branch house a little before 10AM and still it was locked and dark. I know sometimes with smaller branches nobody is there until 20 or even 15 minutes before the meeting; but when the time was 9:55 and still nobody was there, I was starting to get worried.

Finally at 9:59 a man walks to the building wearing a white shirt and tie. He is equally flabbergasted at the empty building at first. Then he realizes that today was an area conference in Neubrandenburg. So… no church for me.

I expored the city a little bit and walked back to the train station where I took the next train back to Lüssow. I think it’s a bit ironic that I make all this effort to find and get to church only to have it be one of four days in the year with no meetings. (General Conference, and I know when that happens, and Stake or Area Conferences, which I don’t know.)

Back in Lüssow, Wolfgang and Sybille were heading out into the yard to work on pruning and other gardening activities. I helped gather the fallen sticks and later we burned some of them out by the canal behind the house. Sybille provided me with some “Speck” or, pig fat, and some bread. I roasted the fat over the fire and let drippings go onto the bread. (Az az… egy Szalonna Sütés). I know it’s not so healthy, but boy is it good!

Monday and Tuesday were sleepy days with a lot of grammar study, and of course, my daily piano practicing at the school.

On Wednesday I went with Gunnar and Family to a swimming place in the nearby town of Güstrow. It wasn’t as big and fancy as the one in Wismar, but there was nice pool with a little “lazy river,” a hot tub, and one fairly decent waterslide. It was fun.

On Thursday I woke up at 6AM so I could go to work with Wolfgang. He works at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma-Physics located in the town of Greifswald, about an hour and half east of here on the Baltic coast.

When we arrived, he dropped me off in the center of town, gave me his cell phone, and said I could make my way to the Institute before 4pm. So the day was mine to explore another new city! I was lucky to have very good weather after many days of cloudiness.

Greifswald is a very nice city of which about a third of the population is students and faculty at the University of Greifswald. It has a very attractive market square and church.

The "Greifs" in Greifswald is for two Griffons that play a part in the story of the founding of the city. Thus the Griffon is the seal of Greifswald and can be seen throughout the city.

I was able to spend time studying German in a café with a fresh pastry and hot chocolate, then go about the city taking pictures.

You can see the layers of brickwork on this house. The earlier brick dates back to the late Middle-Ages, while the "newer" brick is from the 1600's.

If this picture doesn't scream 'HEY THIS IS GERMANY, PEOPLE!" I don't know what does.

After spending time in the main part of the city, I took a bus out to the coast. The waterfront along the mouth of the river was bustling with fishermen returning with their catch and seagulls waiting for their share.

I ate lunch at a fish restaurant literally across the sidewalk from the fishing boats. I enjoyed a great meal of flounder and roasted potatoes while watching the fishermen gut herring and load it into crates for shipping.

Here is the draw-bridge on the riverfront.

After lunch and a brief stroll on the beach, I visited the nearby ruins of a monastery. It was getting cloudier as the day went on, but the sun did come out for a brief moment and I was able to snap a couple of good pictures.

I then had to hoof it the Institute to make it there by 4pm. I cut it pretty close.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics...

Wolfgang showed me his office and introduced me to his Hungarian colleague with whom I was able to speak in Hungarian. It was weird, and a few German words slipped in, and even a few Spanish, but I was surprised at how quickly I was able to switch into Hungarian mode after not speaking it hardly at all for six years.

On the drive home we had a nice view of the city as we drove away and there was a beautiful pink sunset.

That night we went bowling and I lost.

On Friday I went with Sybille to Putlitz again, where she had some business. We didn’t spend much time there, but I was reminded that I am in the former East Germany…

Saturday (today) is a bit rainy, so no golf. It is, however, the first day of Motorbike season for S&W because they only insure the bikes for part of the year. So I can hear Wolfgang outside right now waking his bike from hibernation.

Tomorrow I will go to Rostock again for church and hopefully attend.

On Thursday I take the train to Krefeld, near Cologne on the Rhine, to stay a few days with S&W’s daughter Solweg and her family, then it’s back to Munich.

I’ve been corresponding with a language school in Munich and hopefully I will be teaching in about three weeks. So this is good.