19th March 2006 - Day 153

I woke up early for a Sunday in order to catch the train to visit my host family somewhere near Darmstadt. For those who are wondering, this is the family which I stayed with for my language immersion course in 2004.

Cornelia and Kayleigh were already at the Bahnhof when I arrived. The rest of the family were at home. It feels good to see them again before I leave Germany.

It's always great spending time at their place. It makes me remember about the time when I was doing the language immersion course. So much so that I forget that I have to go back to Karlsruhe.

Seems like there were some problems with their internet connection. The problem was fixed when Liam and I took out the old network card and installed it in the new computer.

I was pulled in by Kayleigh to do some rope skipping. It helped confirm the fact that there are indeed reserves of fats which I do not know of.

The afternoon program was going to some hall to see Kimberly take part in some dance competition. I think I'm the only Chinese looking guy who infiltrated into this event. I didn't even pay the entrance fee!

I noticed some time ago, that on almost every large sheet of glass windows, there is a black shadow of a bird pasted onto it. At first, I thought it was for decoration purposes, though I do not think that the black shadow looks exceptionally artistic. Then I concluded that it could be used to warn people that there is a glass there, so that the Putzfrau has no excuse not to clean the window properly.

Cornelia told me that it was to prevent birds from flying into the glass. She looked quite surprised that I didn't know.

Seriously, I do find the explanation quite unusual.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the living room talking to Geoff and Cornelia. Next week, there will be an election for their area. Pretty much the same as back home, except that we all could make an educated guess at what the outcome would be like.

Then it was some more board games with Kayleigh. After dinner, it was Kniffel. The last time I played it was when I was still staying with them. Almost 1 year and 9 months ago.

I was quite entertained by Kimberly and Kia with their "dance to the music" segment while playing the game.

Soon, it was time to leave. I felt sad that it would be some time before I would see them again. In der Zukunft, so sagen wir. No doubts about it. I am really lucky to have been housed under them during the immersion course.

I heard from Cornelia that they might be taking in another immersion student this year. I hope I did not raise their expectation of the next student.

So, back from a dream and preparing for a lab tomorrow.