The Prying Eyes of Frau Zumner

Our "house" is technically a 3 bedroom apartment within a large house made up of other apartments. However, I'm pretty sure the square footage of our apartment is bigger than my house in Missoula so I've referred to it as a house. The landlord is this little old woman who happens to live across the street. She frequently sits out on her front steps watching the activities of the neighborhood. When she's not outside you can see her peering through her curtains continuing to watch what's going on. I was washing the kitchen window when I realized she was sitting there watching me... so I waved to her. She smiled and waved back. Mom and I went for a walk around the town yesterday (to walk to each side of the town took a whole 5 minutes) and we could see the landlord watching us go. Frau Zumner seems a befitting name. It turns out it's not just my landlady who watches what is going on. As we were walking yesterday there were plenty of people who were sitting in their windows or on their front steps staring as we passed. The other night we went out to dinner and the waitress brought us English menus simply stating "You look like Americans." Hmm. So we do.

Since we got here my mom has been helping me to attempt to get organized and unpacked... which has been a bit challenging. German houses don't usually have closets... so we have a couple of different wardrobes in the house. It is strange to have clothing and cleaning supplies in the same space. I never realized how much I used a closet until there wasn't one. We have discovered that we need some extra cabinets/storage spaces in the kitchen and the bathroom. The bathroom is also lacking a towel rack. Aside from the minor things we need to buy we've been doing a lot of cleaning. Our house doesn't have any carpet, only tile... which makes for a lot of sweeping with two cats. The cats are adjusting to the tile as well because they can't seem to get any traction when they run.

We took a break from our cleaning to go exploring the other day and took a train to Koln. I went to Koln with Josh when I was here in April, and thought it'd be something my mom would want to see. It was her first time on a train, and it's the perfect train ride for someone to take because the train follows the river and there are vineyards on either side of the train. One of the big things to see in Koln is the cathedral. When Josh and I went the area around the cathedral was completely packed with people... however when Mom and I got off the train there was no one around. It was strange... and it turns out everyone was just on the other side of the cathedral at some sort of ceremony. We unknowingly picked a German holiday to travel on... and so the cathedral was closed for viewing in the morning while they had this large outdoor church ceremony. Some ushers tried to hand us programs to follow/sing along... but we wandered off instead and went through the Chocolate Museum (yes, you read that right. Chocolate museum. It's as glorious as you'd think). The other challenge of the day beings that it was a German holiday was most stores were closed. Koln has a lot of shopping... but we were only able to window shop. Later in the afternoon the cathedral opened back up and we were able to wander back through. Mom seemed to enjoy the trip into the city even if things were closed and more quiet than normal.

My mom took 5 years of German in school. My great grandfather, her grandpa, was from Germany so she had someone to practice speaking with. As we were traveling I asked her if she could understand things people were saying, and she said she could. If I ask her what the word is for something she can tell me what it is... however she refuses to speak. Even with people in stores she'll speak English. I keep telling her to try... and she keeps saying it's been too long and she wouldn't be able to. I think she's got a better chance than either Josh or I at speaking...