Here is a picture of Oscar and friend Clara rowing away on this lake where the family has friends who have a cabin. Andrea, the kids, and I went up there for afternoon cake. I was a bit surprised that the kids were allowed to go out there all alone. Really no one was watching them but I mean they did have life jackets on but they just rowed themselves around the lake. Quiet impressive I thought for six year-olds!! He later took me around the lake - so romantic. :)Today I played Candyland and lost. I mean lost bad. Oh well. The kids and I then read a lot of Disney stories. Weird to think that they don't know them all like we do. So we read Sleeping Beauty, The Rescuers, and Alice in Wonderland. I love that they can be so enraptured with a book for so long! The rain is raining on my parade! Yep I said it. There was a huge thunderclap today. Just one though. Today I went on a walking tour of the city. It coast 10 Euros (really cheap I would say!) and this woman originally from Ohio took a group of five of us on a tour around Frankfurt am Main. One girl was from Sydney - just finishing up her 9 week long tour or Europe, two girls from Chicago going to school in Spain, and a Primary school teacher from Spain who spoke very little English but I appreciated his enthusiasm! The tour was supposed to be from 1030-130 but we actually went on till about 3! The rain stuck us inside a bit but no worries - we just had a bit to nibble on and then continued on our way. I learned a lot about the city - most which I will not remember except for that it is a really old city. One really cool thing I got to see was this wall that surrounds a Jewish graveyard and on the wall are all the names of Jewish Frankfurter's who died during WWII.
One of which was Ann Frank!
We also saw lots of cool churches but most of the middle of the city was destroyed when us Americans bombed the heck out of it one night. Lovely. The lady who led the tour was a bit odd I thought. lol. She's been in Frankfurt for 23 years now and her newest husband she found on classmates.com. Yeah. And her teeth were gross and I am such a teeth person. It was either from smoking or coffee. Not sure.Last night the Dad, Phillip, made me an amazing thick smoothie. Just thought you should know. Oh and today at snack time Emily and I ate these rice cakes things we have in the US but with chocolate all over one side. Yumm!!
Talked to Johanna today and she is going to come up and visit me in the next couple of weeks and I might get a ride down with some friends of friends to go to the Oktoberfest and meet up with people there. Woo whoo!! The weekends with the family are pretty booked until halloween-ish so it will be nice to have Johanna and whoever come up and visit me. :) There is an airline company called ryanair and you can get flights for only 5 euros to all over Europe. Of course they are really good at having these sneaky extra costs - like if you don't check in online it costs an extra 20 euros. And of course getting to the airport and back and into the city costs something and then if you have a bag more then 8lbs or something you have to pay 20 euros. So maybe if I want to go somewhere just for a night that is the way to go. I still have to plan my visits to Kim in Copenhagen and Libby in Italy! I have two weeks to travel after Christmas so I'm trying to figure out where I want to go. Johanna mentioned Amsterdam so maybe there?
Hopefully the sun clears up tomorrow! I'm going to go to the store and pick up some ingredients to make a vegetarian dish - which actually the family VERY much appreciates because they don't eat a lot of meat, make something, and then go meet Meika downtown to hang out before picking up the kids at 4.
Now I'm off to read a bit about the undercover economist and then watch a little bit of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire :) SWEET!
