Germany

Its already been a week here, and I haven't written a stitch! Sorry for that.

We'll start from the beginning...
The flight from P.A. to Frankfurt was two hours behind schedule, long and boring. I had no chance to call Melanie and tell her the flight would be late, so when I got into Frankfurt I was confused by the time difference and being two hours late didn't help either. It took awhile for me to figure out where the baggage claim was(everything being in German, sometimes with English on the bottom of the sign) and trying to find Melanie in the process. She said she had made a sign with my name on it and that she would be in the terminal I got off at, so she would have been easy to spot, but she was nowhere in sight! I seachered everwhere possible(within reason) until I was about ready to sit down and cry. First time overseas traveler who doesn't understand any German. I'm sure they would forgive me for breaking down....it had been a long two days.
Back to the story, while I picked up again and searched more I found a U.S. Military man who offered his cell phone for me to call Melanie. I wanted to hug him. And cry. I finally got ahold of Melanie and half an hour later we found each other. It took me a total of two or more hours to find her.

I've never experianced jet-lag before, and I was bobbing my head the whole car ride back to their house. From what I remember its very beautiful country side here, hills apon hills of vineyards, orchards, corn and tons of small or large gardens. Of course there were also the old buildings, villages, and towns too. Bietigheim isn't as small as I thought it would be. I'd roughly say its between the sizes of Chehalis/Centralia or Portland. The town looks old, but in some areas its very modern looking. The town Centre is nice, has many types of stores; grocery, market, clothes, traveling agencies, book store, etc. The book store is quaint, but I can't read or understand German yet so its kinda pointless for me...
When we finally reached their house, I got my things in my room and settled in. Its a large house with lots of stairs(probably good thing for me, Germany being quite the place for chocolate an such) and a basement. The house is very modern looking and has a lovely garden outside. In the morning, at noon and in the evening the Catholic church bells ring and its very beautiful to listen to.
Well, as of the moment I need to start picking up on the day again. Thanks for all your prayers, I'll start trying to write more often!