Well, the time has come that many have been waiting for. My parents flew into Frankfurt on Friday morning, and I picked them up at the airport at 9am. They claimed that they weren't tired, but they sure enjoyed their hour long nap before lunch. I took a quick picture of them standing in front of the LThH sign.
We ate lunch with the students in the cafeteria, and then they took another short nap and/or rested. Then we walked around Oberursel; I showed them what a typical German town looks like, with its "Old City" and "New City." I acquainted them with the pedestrian-only parts of German cities, and the various shops on both sides. We then at at the Oberurseler Brauhaus, and we all had very German food and beer. I had schnitzel, potatoes, and salad; my dad had very tender pork, cooked red cabbage (very popular here), and boiled potato ball (I'm not sure how to describe it); and my mom also had sauerkraut and a fried ham-hock (which is the Brauhaus's speciality, and also way too much for her to eat- she gladly shared, and took some back with us). The beer was good; I had a boch and my dad a pilsner. Mom has a Riesling (white) wine with her food. After walking back to campus, we just relaxed, drank some more beer, and talked.
I let them sleep in on Saturday morning, and we had a brunch at about 11am. I had bought some delicious German bread, and we ate them with meat, cheese, jam, and Nutella- not all together though. Then we toured Frankfurt and did a lot of walking. Pictures will come up later, once I can get them off their camera. We saw the Römer (the old part of the city), the small church in the area, and the large St. Bartholomew's Cathedral. It was so cloudy that we decided against walking up to the observation platform on the top of the tower; we could barely see the top of some of the skyscrapers in Frankfurt.
We returned with enough time to rest for about an hour, and then we spent the evening at Pastor Wenz's house. My dad and he had studied together at Fort Wayne; Pastor Wenz had been an exchange student to Fort Wayne, which makes it funny, because I am an exchange student to Oberursel and study here with his son Michael. It was an enjoyable evening, and my parents learned a lot about Germany and the SELK that I wouldn't be able to tell them.
The next day (Sunday, today) we went to church at St. John's in Oberursel, where Pastor Wenz is a pastor, and my parents got to experience a German church service. The liturgy is fairly similar, and all of the hymns were recognizable. It being the first Sunday in Advent, we sang "Ein Feste Burg"- the appointed hymn for this Sunday in the One-Year Lectionary Series.
Then after that we ate lunch and traveled to Eisenach. We found our hotel rooms, left our bags there, and then toured the city a bit, taking pictures in front of the Luther statue. We started to go through the Bach museum, but didn't have enough time to finish it before it closed; our tickets are still good for tomorrow, so we'll finish it up then. We also have the Luther house and museum to visit, as well as three churches. The English tour at the Wartburg is at 1:30, so we'll make it up there for that.
From Eisenach we go to Erfurt, and then Eisleben and Wittenberg. I'll try to update this blog as often as possible, and hopefully include more pictures in the future. Until then, Tschüss!
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