Vier Wochen zum zu gehen

This seems to have passed us by mercifully.

Tomorrow will be drei Wochen before we get on the plane. It's hard to describe how much I want this trip to begin. I'm very emotional every time I think about it. The only reason for hoping it comes slowly is so that I can make progress on my German. I regret the 20 years I have not been learning this beautiful language.

So, tomorrow I will write the next chapter. In the mean time, I continue to plan the trip. Visit the 3rd chapter of the story again if it's been some time. I re-wrote the itinerary to include a lot of links to sites for the destinations. Now I'll focus on drilling in on the destination sites to narrow down our choices of what to do on our days "off".

I have the very intense pleasure of living next door to a German native. And her nephew Freidrich (Freddy) is here for the year in American High School to learn english. I spent some time with Freddy yesterday and he is encouraging me to visit the Dachau Memorial. On a lot of levels I am very scared of this visit. When I asked Freddy if the Memorial was fair to the German people he said "no, it was not kind to the Germans". I don't want to the be typical American tourist out to villianize the Germans. That chapter in history has passed. Every people have their demons to deal with ... for Americans, slavery is a tragic part of our past. Is it equal to that period in Germanic history? Maybe not, maybe so ... that is for you to decide. Both Nationalities have problematic past, though, so how can we pass judgement fairly???

You've (hopefully) read about my past through meine Großvater. I've decided to find (dammit why am I upset) the article that I wrote based on my interview with he and meine Großmuter. It is brief but intense. And apparently very important to me.

Strangely enough, when meine Tante heard about our trip, she sent me a package of stuff from the things Opa and Oma left behind. I've been through their remaining possessions a few times, but there are so many piles of pictures and things that they kept from their travels, it's impossible to latch onto everything. How Cheryl knew to look for and find the little booklet on Garmisch-Partikirchen I'll never know.

Dammit, I miss them so much. I'm beginning to wonder if I can keep it together for this trip. I apparently can't keep it together long enough to write this blog.