Das alphabet in Deutschland...

Hey there! Today is the first installment of the A,B,C's of Germany :)

The letter Ää in German actually translates to 'ein' meaning one. The 2 dots are most commonly used to represent vowels. Here are a few things we found to represent the letter A in our experience so far...

Adolf...yea, yea Hitler and Germany we get it! But he has a specific connection to the town Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Garmisch and Partenkirchen were separate market towns for many centuries with very unique identities, which are still seen today, Garmisch is a bit more modern as where in Partenkirchen the streets are cobblestone. It wasn't until 1935 when Adolf Hitler forced the two mayors to combine their towns in anticipation for the 1936 Olympics that it became known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen!! In the picture below you can see the train line runs horizontally through the town...the top portion is Garmisch (West) and below the tracks is Partenkirchen (East)...we took this picture on top of the Wank (last week's post) and it was cool to see it this way, instead of the street view.







Apfulstrudel is a type of layered pastry originally from Austria. It is filled with sliced baking apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and bread crumbs...the filling is laid onto the extremely thin rolled out dough, then the dough is rolled up and placed in a baking dish arranged like a snake....after it has baked, it is sliced and served either sprinkled with powered sugar or vanilla ice cream, yummm!








Ausfahrt (owws fart)...meaning an Exit for vehicles, not to be confused with an Exit for pedestrians (Ausgang). The American kids here try to use the word as much as possible, oh who am I kidding?! I use the word as much as possible too, occasionally calling Donavan an Ausfahrt, just cuz I can!








Auf Wiedersehen (owf veeder shin)....goodbye! I finally got comfortable saying this term, not that I didn't want to say bye to people, it was just an intimidating pronunciation!

So, there you have it! A few "A" things/terms we see/use/eat (jk about the eat) daily! I'm sure a whole bunch of really cool "A" things will come along this week while I'm working on "B", that's usually how it happens, right? A real quick updat on us: Donavan is still studying for the board, the other night I lit some relaxing candles, turned on classical music, gave him a slice of carrot cake...and told him to get studying!! He sat at the table for 3 hours :) Hoping and praying it pays off! On Saturday I volunteered for the Anti-Terrorism Force Protection Drill here on post. It is a real life scenario exercise that both our MPs and the German Police are able to work together. The set up was at the school on post, an angry husband of one of the teachers stormed into the school and began a shooting spree. The guy acting as the shooter was very convincing and took his role seriously, he took about 15 hostages (volunteers) and held them for 5 HOURS! The Polizei were able to respond with the MPs and use their negotiator, there were real gunshots, the Red Cross came and did make up for the shooting victims with fake blood and wound prosthetics (they looked so real, gross!). I played a distraught witness who was able to escape...I ran out into the street to flag the MPs down...hahaha funny because I see them everyday and I was trying to work up some tears! The second exercise was a kitchen fire...I played an unconscious woman on the couch, the building was full of 'disco smoke' as the Germans would say, I couldn't see 6 inches in front of me! So basically I was reduced by some cute German firefighters, not a bad way to spend my Saturday ;) We're going to London!!!!!!! Yep, October 6th-10th...we figured we better go before I start working, the only problem is Donavan took off work and planned it the same week our household goods are supposed to arrive :) Oh well, it's London! Planning the train/flight/tube/bus routes is proving to be the most challenging...I want to have it all planned before we go. I told Donavan I'm trading the time of frustration there on vacation for now on the Internet! I am excited...getting to visit places I'd never thought I'd be able to, such a blessing to be here!

Hope you all have a great week ahead and lots of love to you all!






-D & K