I’ve never been a big “ice person.” I hated when fast food places loaded up your drink with ice because it would water down the pop. If a drink came out of the fridge I never put ice cubes in my drink, and if the drink were sitting on the counter I would use 2 ice cubes in a small cup and 3 in a large cup, no more than that. My Opa (German for Grandpa) never used ice and my parents told me that people in Europe don’t either, so I figured I would fit right in.
What they failed to mention was the fact that not only do the Europeans not use ice, they don’t refrigerate their drinks either and they drink everything (even milk sometimes) room temperature. This didn’t bother me for the first week and a half, but then I started to crave cold water, cold juice and cold milk, and I began to agree with Jesus when he said “If you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth.” But I didn’t want to let these little cultural differences annoy me, so I did my best to ignore it although warm water doesn’t do much to quench your thirst.
Warm water aside, the food in Germany has been amazing! And the best part is that since I have so much family in Germany we are eating ALL home cooked meals. It has been great getting to know so many friends of my grandparents and hearing stories about my grandparents when they were much younger. I learned a lot about my family history this week, but it was also a little hard sometimes too. My Oma (Grandma) passed away a few years ago and this week I ate foods that only she made, and they tasted just like hers. I heard all kinds of stories about her, how amazing she was, and that she was all the nieces and nephew’s favorite aunt. There were even pictures of her and Opa on the wall in the nursing home of the man who introduced my grandparents. Over all, it was tough, because I miss her a lot and everything in Germany seemed to remind me of her, but she is with Jesus now and there is no better place to be.
We spent a large portion of the week with Oma’s niece and her husband. They have always been very close with my grandparents and they are so fun to be around! They speak English, which was nice because I don’t understand German, so they translated a lot for me and over the course of a few days I began to feel like I had known them my whole life. We had our final dinner in this part of Germany in their house and of course, the food was incredible. Frieda has hosted many American families because they were missionaries years ago and she noticed that there was one thing that Americans always seemed to miss on the mission field and in Germany, and she also noticed that I am no different from all these other Americans. So she put the food on the table and went back into the kitchen. I heard a familiar cracking noise and she returned with a giant pitcher full of water and ice! “Just for Courtney!” She said. It was one of the best glasses (well, multiple glasses) of water that I have every had. Gotta love family, and ice cubes
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