New Host Family

I moved to my new host family this weekend. I have been trying to pack all this last week, and now this week I get to unpack! My new house is about 10 Km (every 3 Kilometers are 2 miles) from Esens and about 4 Km from a little town called Dornum. If you look on the map here (click on it to make it bigger), I am about 2/3 of the way from Esens towards Dornum (and Esens is not far from the coast in about the middle of the penisula). In the opposite direction is Wittmund, where Diana lived. Mario, from Mexico lives in Carolinensiel. To put things to scale, it takes about 45 minutes from Esens to Wilhemshaven, way on the east coast; a little less than an hour and a half to Oldenburg.

My new little town is called Roggenstede (sort of like Dog, only Rog- gen-shtay-duh) with 280 people. Every window I look out of I can see fields of giant windmills in the distance. When the windows are open and it is a windy day you can hear the whoosh whoosh of one of the windmills in the back yard. Otherwise, I can hear lots of birds and if it is a cold day there are Boßeln (bow-zeln) players out in the streets.

...Boßeln is the ''national'' sport of Ostfriesland where in most cases (but not all!) a small round ball (I've seen rain boots being used) is tossed down the street as far as it will go. There are 2 teams and the both try to get a series of throws to go the furthest... often several kilometers. I don't know the exact rules, but I do know that between throws a shot of schnopps is drunk. And when everything is done and over with, everyone eats Grünkohl... (green cabbage, shreaded up with spices and eaten with wurst!)....

I already know my new host family because they have been taking me to choir practice all year. My new host mom loves to cook and even wants to cook stuff with me! I have 2 rooms, one is a room for my bed and my closet (... there aren't really closets, they are these cabinet things) and the other room has a couch, a bookshelf, a desk, and a door that goes out onto a balacony that I share with my host brother. I have 3 host siblings, the youngest is a boy- Jelle (Yell-e), the middle child is a girl- Clara (19), and the oldest daughter lives somewhere in Holland.

So far, I have only spent a lot of time talking with my host parents and unpack most of my stuff. This morning we decided that all of my clothes needed to be rewashed and hung outside so we have been trying to get through the mound a little at a time. My last host family smoked in the house and so everything I own reeks!

My new address is...

Rebecca Volzer
c/o Familie Groppe
Alte Dorfstr. 12
26553 Dornum

The computer here is much faster so I will be able to post more pictures here on the blog rather than at Ringo.... make things a little more intersting! Sorry I can't explain more now, the washer and clothes lines are calling me.