Nuremberg, Germany

End of November already and as of today Carissa has been here 7 months.  We’re feeling comfortable and at home, but not long from now we are going to have to start getting ready to pack up and leave.  Part of us wishes we would’ve made a longer commitment because it certainly would’ve changed they way we’ve had to go about living here in Germany from the house we chose, to the vehicle we purchased and packing all of the travelling in, but we just liked our house and probably moreso our neighborhood and community too much to do that.  Oh well, Carissa and I are hoping to get another shot at living in Europe after the kids are in or out of college.

We’ve been pretty busy the past two weeks.  The Friday before last Carissa had another girls night with the women from work.  They went out to a restaurant in Graf while the kids and I had a movie night.  Saturday morning we decided we needed to get some Christmas shopping done so we drove into Nuremberg to visit for the first time as tourists.  We basically spent the day wandering around the old town, which is quite expansive and has a ton of shops.  After seeing it we wished we would’ve gone to visit earlier, but it’s we’ve also enjoyed our non-travel weekends just relaxing at home.   While we were there we got a little bit of a preview of their famous Christmas market.  All of the stalls were in place, and the vendors were getting their inventory set up, and the town was beginning to be decorated.  We are probably going to head back one of the first two weekends in December to check it out, especially since after 4-5  hours of ‘shopping’ we came away empty handed.

Sunday we were invited to go back to Nuremberg by a collegue of Carissa’s for church.  Dr. Chee is a Korean man, and had told Carissa and the other contract dentist John that we should come see their church.  It’s a completely Korean congregation and is filled with talented musicians and singers from the Nuremberg school of music.  We carpooled with John and his wife Clarise and it turned out to be a great service.  All three kids were welcomed into Sunday school and although it was all in Korean they had a good time.  This meant that we were able to enjoy the service without distraction and it was pretty amazing the amount of talent in the room.  The choir was unbelievable as was the trio of musicians (cello, violin, viola) that accompanied them.  We learned that a few of the choir members also sing in the Nuremberg Opera.  The service was in Korean as well (with German subtitles).  Following the service we attended their weekly meal  prepared by 2 or 3 families in the congregation.  We were served a bowl of ground meat, lettuce, carrots, bean sprouts and some long rectangular shaped gelatinous stuff that turned out to be finely ground acorns mixed with water.  To this we added sticky rice from common plates and mixed it all together.  Needless to say Lydia was pretty hungry after the meal. 

On our way home John and Clarise treated us all to sundaes to McDonalds.