Day 14: Palm Sunday

We awake refreshed and ready to tackle the day. We decided to go to the contemporary service at Panzer Base. It starts at 10:30am. We decide to take our laundry with us and then go to Kelley to do laundry after church.

The car has to be loaded up with the laundry bags, soap and bleach. We grab our bibles and off we go. The streets were so deserted that we were able to get there in 15 minutes. The chapel is used for multiple types of services from Jewish to Protestant to Lutheran to Catholic and even Islamic!

It's 10am so we decided to get something quick to eat before church. The BX/PX has a German bakery in it. There we get a quick snack and head to church.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the worship portion of the service had songs just as we were used to. We were handed palm fronds as we walked in, it being Palm Sunday and all. After announcements, they took prayer requests from the congregation and asked for Praise Reports...something I hadn't seen in church in a long time. I guess with a small congregation, this can be done. And while the service was a little different than I expected, nonetheless, it was good to hear the Palm Sunday story again. I never tire of hearing it.

After the service, Ted introduced me to his boss who insisted that he was Ted's peer and not boss. I thought that was generous of him! He introduced us to his three sons who were exceptionally well-behaved. He called them "Gentlemen". Ted thinks his boss was in the military before working as a civilian. His wife just had a baby girl and he was in charge of the three boys: twins (11) and the other brother (9).

We needed to go to the BX/PX to pick up a few things so we did. We ran into several couples who had attended the sane church service. These bases are very close knit groups.

With our purchases in hand, it was time to hit the laundromat. UGH! My least favorite thing to do but a necessary evil! When we got there, I was dismayed to see how many people were there doing laundry...and 98% of them were men!

I decided I was using the big commercial washers because they are front loading machines and I didn't like how our clothes came out last week with the top loaders. Ted's co-worker was there and he sat and chatted with him while I loaded the machines. Many of the military personnel, nodded at me and said "Ma'am". It definitely is another lifestyle!

Ted then went to check our mail...nothing...which isn't surprising since I just gave out our mailing address a few days ago. The mail takes time to get here.

After completing this chore, it was time to get some lunch (or dinner). It was about 4pm and we still needed to do grocery shopping! So back to Cafe del Sol for dinner. We were somewhat disappointed in the dinner selections. They did a great job on the brunch so that's what we will use this place for. It seems Germans can't cook anything (including Chicken) without using some sort of pork or ham!

Now it's on to Patch Base to do the shopping. I had a list so the shopping went quick. Ted needed to fill his gas card so he could fill up and he did that at the Patch service station. Normally, we would be getting our gas on base at the U.S. price. But because the car we have is diesel, we have to buy it off base. Luckily though, we can get the same discount at any ESSO station in Germany. The last fill up had we gone through the economy would have been almost 50 Euro. It only cost us $26 and change. So we are definitely happy about that! However, we do have a ration. No more than 400 liters per month. That's a hefty ration so we probably won't be using more than that per month.

Now we have to tote all of the groceries and laundry up the stairs and put it away. After yesterday's time on the stairs, I didn't want to look at another set of stairs. Although I think my legs are adjusting to it and my stamina is increasing which is a good thing!

Ted backed the car in the driveway and proceeded to unload the car into the front hallway of the apartment while I carried the groceries up stairs. Within 10-15 minutes the groceries were put away and the place was back to it's normal self. I didn't, however, put the clothes away. I knew all of them had to be refolded and placed neatly into the cabinets. After all, I needed something to do tomorrow!

So we checked email and Ted had promised to take me to the ice cream place near where we live. We've been wanting to try it forever but it's always been late when we think about it. So we decided to check it out at about 7:30.

At the appropriate time, we go to the ice cream place. It appears it's an Italian ice cream shoppe! Terrific...now Ted can taste some authentic Italian Gellato!

As we look at the selection, I ask the clerk if she speaks English. She says, no. Uh oh. Now what? Then I caught wind of a conversation out of the corner of my ear and it sounds Italian. I then ask her "Parle Italiano?" (Do you speak Italian?). she answers Yes! Wonderful...now we can communicate! Ted wanted Chocolate and Banana and I wanted Chocolate and Hazelnut. It's the best. We sat and ate our ice cream and Ted said...even the U.S. version of Gellato pales in comparison to this ice cream.

I wanted to converse some more with the woman so I go over and we had a conversation. They are from near Venice. I forgot to ask her how she came to be in Germany. I asked her if there were a lot of Italians living in Bonlanden. She told me there were quite a few. I'll have to find them!! It will definitely make me feel more at home knowing I can speak the other of my fluent languages but I still have to learn German. No question!

Ted asked me if speaking Italian made me happy. Of course it did, silly!

Time to get home and relax. It's interesting. We have not had any television for the past two weeks and the only thing I miss is NCIS (our favorite show).

Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!