My German-American family

     I'm going to write you about something that I first noticed Friday, dismissed, but now that I'm sure of.  My family, as some of you may know, lived in Findley, Ohio for 4 years.  What I've decided is that they became quite "Americanized" in that time, and so, when they returned back here, they kept some of the American culture.
     The first thing that tipped me off was when, on my first night, we had Leberkaese for supper.  Unless you've been in Germany for any length of time, you'll probably think, "Yeah, so what?"  I'll tell you what.  Most German families (at least, all the ones I've met) eat sandwiches for supper.  I, at first, just brushed that off as it being my first night here, so they wanted to do something special for our first meal together.
     Then I came down for breakfast the next day, and was surprised to find cereal bowls on the table.  And then Gabi asked me which type of cereal I wanted!!!  Again, maybe I just stereotyped too quickly, but I've always heard (and from my experience, seen) that Germans eat bread and sandwiches for breakfast as well.  Sure, they don't have as many different flavors of cereal as my family, but usually there is only one, and that is something like granola!  Any kind of cereal was a surprise to me.
     But tonight sealed the thought.  We went out to eat at a restaurant.  For supper!  It caught me off guard when Uli announced that we were leaving for dinner in 15 minutes, and I had to listen really close to the next 5 minutes of conversation to make sure that we really were going out to eat.  We walked to the restaurant, which was about a two miles away, but I appreciated that.  And afterwards, we walked back, which helped my meal settle a bit better.
     One of the things I love about this family is that they all speak English pretty close to fluently, from what I've heard of them talking in it.  Don't get me wrong, I don't ask them to speak in English, and when they address me in it, I answer in German.  But it's nice when, if I don't understand a word, they can give me a rough translation, or at least explain it.
     And one more benefit of their time in America-- they know a lot of little phrases that we use.  For instance, earlier I heard Uwe say "Don't judge a book by its cover."  Yeah, his accent made it a bit hard to understand at first, and I didn't have a clue why it fit because I had tuned out of the conversation.  But don't you see, that's exactly why it's so great when they throw in English a bit; it draws me back into the conversation and I start to listen again!! It grabs my attention, and my thoughts stop wandering and focus again.  Gabi knows a bit of Spanish, too, so she also throws in some little phrases in that, too.  That's really fun, because I get excited when I can actually understand what she's saying in Spanish and know how it fits into the German conversation!
     Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I hate how Americanized my temporary host family is.  Quite on the contrary!!! It is really awesome to meet a family who enjoys many other foods besides their hundreds (okay, so I exaggerated a bit) of kinds of wurst and cheese, and who knows enough English to make my transition into nothing but German a bit easier.
     Well, tomorrow is my first day of school!  I'm excited to see my YFU friends again, but I'm a bit nervous about how I'll get around and whether I'll get lost....  God will keep watching me and make it all work out, though.  Goodness knows that He sure did good by giving me this family!!!