As most of you already know, I am living in Germany as a foreigner “for a few years” because my son is not foreign to this nation or to the USA and I wanted him to get to know Germany as well as the USA during his youth but be able to have “Mommy and Daddy” – as well as any step-parents (as what happened made it so that he had some) available throughout his youth.

There is no doubt about it: I do know Germany better now than I did when we first arrived over 2 years ago now.  It is not really ‘how I had thought’ which both surprises me and doesn’t….we had both visited before but not stayed for so long.

This is also the first time I have spent more than a few weeks in the countryside since I was age 5 to …well…put it this way, the son had never lived in the countryside before we moved here…and I had not lived in a place like this – ever.  I guess this is normal for Europe, but it is really a densely populated village with farm animals around many a corner.  It is not like American rural – there are loads of people here…4000 or so within about 2 square miles!…but Mavis the dairy cow lives right next to the Schmidt family…and the Weiters have like 30 chickens running around in their front yard…and a 20something woman who lives as a goat herd here in the neighborhood even sports a goat tattoo on one of her shins.  If it isn’t that, then it’s the horses.  Farm animals and brick houses….