TO ALL
OK, so Fasching is an event not a location. And the Strohm's have been safely tucked away at home in Heidelberg Germany for the past month . . . well . . . . . more or less.
On Feb 8, Amy came home from her morning Germany class and told me that there was a Fasching Parade on the Hauptstrasse (Main Street) in Heidelberg that afternoon and invited me to go with her to check it out. Fasching is also known as Shrove Tuesday. It is the day before Lent starts and is the German version of Mardi Gras. Schools are out. The parade turned out to be kind of a fun event (I'm sure some of you are choking over that statement!!!). It was long - lots of floats with people in costumes throwing candy out of them, upbeat music, various kinds of bands, school organizations, groups of adults representing various organizations and stores, confetti, etc, etc. Lots of spectators in costumes, funny hats, etc. Except for the fact that some of the organizations were pouring little cups of wine and handing them out, I'd vote for Fasching over Halloween any day. Unfortunately the batteries on my camera were dead so I got a sum total of ZERO pictures. Anyway it was a fun afternoon . . . . . until I broke my arm. Amy and I were headed for the strassbahn (streetcar) to go home when I turned my foot on some piece of trash on the cobblestone street and went crashing to the ground. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Of course we somehow managed to NOT have a cell phone with us, so we couldn't call Mike to come get us. Believe it or not I managed to get myself to the American hospital via the strassbahn. But not without TWICE getting on the right strassbahn going the wrong direction! Now I know I've lost all credibility with some of you, but honest to God I did NOT accept any of those intoxicating handouts at the parade. My brain was just somewhat befuddled from the fall and Amy was doing the best she could to help but she didn't quite have the hang of how streetcars work in Heidelberg.
As we were getting on and off streetcars, the temperature outside was dropping and getting rather miserable, but once we actually got on the right streetcar going the right direction we got warm and, other than having to protect my arm from the entire city of Heidelberg trying to ride the strassbahn at the same time, things started improving.
The American Hospital just happens to be on the same strassbahn line as our house - 4 stops further down the line - so that was convenient. To make a long story short, I broke my arm (the olecrenon? - the bone that goes to the tip of the elbow) in 2 places so they had to do surgery to get it put back together. (Yes, I sprained my ankle, too, but I never brought that up with anyone except my family). Fortunately the OR room was available and my stomach was appropriately empty and so they were able to roll me into surgery within about 2 hours of arriving at the hospital. Unfortunately, the doctor came in the next morning to tell me that he had failed to check things out carefully enough after he finished putting in the pins and they were in too far and he needed to go in and do it over. They couldn't get me into the OR that day (somehow my situation just did seem to rate over some lady who had to have a C-section!), so they sent me home for the night and did it over again the next morning.
I came home with a huge, heavy plaster cast - by the way this is my RIGHT arm - and I resigned myself to wearing short sleeve knit shirts for the foreseeable future. Three days later, Mike left for a visit to the states.
The church in Loveland, Colorado that Mike pastored before he joined the Army just finished Phase Two of their building program (Phase One happened while we were there) and several people had expressed a desire for some or all of the Strohms to be there for the building dedication. Fortunately we had decided that Mike should go alone - it's always fun to see friends, but it would have been a rather miserable trip for me with that cast I think. Also fortunately Amy was here to help me with stuff while Mike was gone. I did start driving the car right away - with my left hand and under the influence of Percocet! - but as little as possible. Amy hasn't gotten around to getting her German driver's license, but Mike was able to get her a temporary permit for the week that he was gone.
Mike had a really good week in Colorado. I've been back there many times over the last few years, but Mike has not been in a LONG time and he thoroughly enjoyed seeing old friends and rejoicing in the good things that are happening at OBC (Orchards Baptist Church).
Last Thursday I got the cast off and the stitches out. They don't leave casts on long any more because the resulting stiffness and muscle atrophy can be difficult to reverse. It is nice to have the cast off - but I don't enjoy always feeling like I should be doing things with that arm even though it hurts in order to regain my range of motion. I'd just as soon skip the next few weeks of life. Enough complaining.
When the tech at the hospital was taking out my sutures, the doctor came in and said "Looking good. We'll have you back to modeling again in 3 or 4 months. " I said "You know I really don't care about modeling, but I would like to play the piano." He said, "Did you play before?" There has to be a clown in every bunch
I did teach my Bible study last Thursday BEFORE I got the cast off and I discovered that, even if I could somehow manage to write legibly on the white board with my LEFT hand (which I did), not having a right hand somehow interferes with one's thinking - or maybe that was the Percocet! Anyway, I can now write with my right hand again and hopefully by next week I will be off the Percocet and will be a little more focused and my class with give me another chance!
So - on to other news. Alan is about to graduate from Harvey Mudd College and has 2 hot job offers that he trying to fine tune to his satisfaction. One is with Microsoft in the Seattle area and the other is with Google in San Jose. Google also has an office in Kirkland, Washington and he has expressed his interest in that option and has been told "that's not a problem" but some details have to be worked out yet, so he's trying keep Microsoft talking to him, in case somehow the Google/Kirkland option doesn't work out. Mike is somehow surviving this new exercise in humility - both of Alan's job offer involves a salary that is close to Mike's PRESENT Army salary. Needless to say we are proud of Alan. Thanks for letting me indulge my pride for a bit.
We are also proud of Amy. She has her application complete at Whitman College once again - third time is a charm? We hope. I keep telling her that applying to only ONE college and one that is fairly selective at that is a little risky - one should have a backup plan. But I don't seem to be winning that argument. Anyway, I'm getting more serious in my praying that possibly a year from now we could have both Alan and Amy living in the same state - that state being one where I also have friends I'd love to keep up with. Having my parents in Estes Park, Colorado has sure facilitated maintaining friendships in Colorado - some kids in Washington state could work in that way there, too.
Travelwise, here is what the future holds for the Strohm's: It turns out the Alan's spring break is a week that Amy also has off, so we are meeting in Paris. Unfortunately, Deanna is not off that week, and Mike is going to run out of leave soon if we don't quite gallivanting around the world. So Mike and Deanna will only be with us in Paris for the weekends on either end of Alan's spring break. I am a little nervous about how this is going to go with my half-healed arm and my limited range of motion and the need to ride the Metro, etc, when Mike is not there with the car. But it is 2 weeks away yet, so probably I am just borrowing trouble - sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Amy will go from Paris to Madrid for a one week class she is doing there with the University of Maryland. She spent last weekend (President's weekend) in Switzerland with a Swiss girl that she met while working at Redwood last summer/fall. She has a Eurail pass and is planning to go back to Switzerland again after her class in Madrid. Get this -- when we drove to Switzerland last Sept it took us 6 hours to get there by car. Last weekend I put Amy on the train in Heidelberg - one of those high speed, bullet, ICE trains - at 7:20 on Saturday morning and she was in Zurich Switzerland by 11:00AM in spite of spending 30 minutes sitting in a station just over the Swiss border waiting for another train because the one she started on broke down!
So, Paris in March, then in April, during Deanna's spring break, we are headed for Madrid and Rota, Spain and hopefully the coast of Africa across from the Rock of Gibraltar. Hopefully Amy will still be here then and can act as our interpreter in Spain. She has an application in for some Student Conservation Association jobs again this summer - several in Alaska - but they don't start until May.
In May, Mike and I are headed back to the states for Alan's graduation. It will probably be a one week trip for Mike, but I'm toying with the idea of staying longer. Maybe I can ride with Alan up to Washington????? Or figure out a way to get to Colorado for a while?
Deanna is considering going with the FBUP youth to Camp Bighorn this summer. Unfortunately the dates are the same as Bootcamp at Precept Ministries, so she's having to make a choice that she was hoping not to have to make. We'll see how that turns out. She seems to be somewhat happier with school now - she dropped AP English at the semester break and that seems to have been a good thing. Somehow the combination of lots of pressure and no friends was not a good thing.
So that's the news from the Strohms. A couple of personal notes and then I'll close --
Julie Arndt - is John at Ramstein yet? Due to a fluky set of circumstances, we ended up going to chapel at Ramstein yesterday morning - it was a really good contemporary service. If it hadn't been 1:00AM in the morning Wash time when we arrived at church I would have been tempted to call you and see if you knew how we could look John up. Amy spotted someone way across the room during the service that she thought for a while was John, but she eventually decided not.
Bye for now,
Nancy
