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Monday, August 14, 2006

So I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

The last couple days have been mad awesome fun. I'm back with my family on the Baltic. I spend my days sailing, riding, baking cakes (can you believe this family can finish an entire cake in a day?), picking blackberries (I have open wounds down both forearms from this one), going for long walks, hanging out in a tiki bar, bike riding, reading, playing music.

They wanted us to play at a wedding. Actually, they wanted R. to play at a wedding, but she doesn't like performing and agreed to do it only if I did it too. Problem was, I arrived on Tuesday, the wedding was Thursday, and we had only the interim time to practice. We were supposed to play Air on a G String from Bach. Which is pretty, sounds like a funeral piece, and is only slightly familiar to me. We figured we would just be background music, but it turns out this song has a particular meaning to the bride, who started to cry upon hearing it.


we're in the background. with the violins.

I go jogging every morning. Except this morning, 'cause I've been going every morning and it's cold and wet and rainy and I don't want to. Usually it's unbelievably gorgeous, and I go at about 6:30 or so.


The coast in the morning...

I've been riding quite a bit as well. I don't have any pictures of that, but we did one long ride from the barn in the next town into our town, where we visited our house and then went to the beach and rode in the water. It was tons of fun but our ponies misbehaved somewhat. R. almost fell off her horse when the saddle slipped, one girl lost a stirrup in the water and was later kicked by another horse. But we had a ton of fun, galloping through wheatfields, crashing through the water (no surf at this point) and steering among the moored boats. R. and I went riding a ton when I lived here, and since then she has gotten so much better I don't know if there is much more I can teach her.

Recently, a bar called "Sunset" opened here. It is way on the outskirts of town, right on the beach to the northwest, and from the windows you can see the sun set. Thus the name. Anyways, they have wonderfully cheap (if unhealthy) food (most items less than three euros) and smoothies. Whatever kind of smoothie you want, he'll make. The best ones are tropical, cherry-banana-maracua, strawberry-peach-mango, and amaretto. You order one smoothie, and throughout the course of the evening you'll usually get at least one if not two or three on the house. Last time we got daiquiri-style cocktails gratis, two pieces of cake for the price of one, etc. The guys that run it are really fun. We've spent many of our evenings there.


The bar...the floor is of sand...

Sailing has been fantastic. I've only been out twice, but it's been great. It's been fun trying to remember the names for things, in either english or german, but it's all coming back. A. and I can still sail the boat alone, which is pretty good considering it's a 42-foot yacht. I want to go every day but either our schedules or the weather has not cooperated. It will probably rain all day today, so no luck there.


Our ship, with me as helmsman, trying my best not to steer like a hyperactive six-year-old on gatorade...

Yesterday was my birthday. R., the middle daughter, was taking part in a triathalon. They were doing it relay-style, so she was just the runner, her uncle was the bicyclist, and a friend of theirs swam. Just as their wave was about to start weather pulled in, so they delayed the swimming for an hour on account of lightning. R. ended up running in a steady drizzle, and would have ranked highly had she not been sent out for an extra half lap. Because she hadn't learned the route very well, she wasn't in a position to argue, and that added another three minutes or so. But it was great fun even if we all got soaked. We came back, dried off, had lunch/dinner, opened presents, and went to a movie, "Lives of Others" or something similar. It's a film about life in the GDR, in East Germany, during the 1980s. Excellent film, I recommend it. Then A2. and I did yoga. It was pretty funny. She took it relatively seriously, though we had problems doing some of the exercises because we found them so hilarous. Anyways, that was my birthday, and I got lots of birthday wishes from lots of people, so that was good and made me happy.

So that was my week so far; I arrived in this town a week Tuesday and will probably stay about another week or so, then it's off on down the road. I'm not sure exactly where or when, though.

Cheers---

1 comment:

Cait said...

It sounds like you're having so much fun. I'm glad your birthday was good.

The one and only time I went sailing I managed to fall off the boat, so at least you're faring better than me. And the bar, Sunset, sounds like a blast.

Keep having fun!