bitte schun

We wrapped up the British portion of our course in our finest clothes from the depths of our suitcases, an excellent meal including freshly baked, cheese-filled bread, and champagne on Thursday evening. This celebration followed a visit to Wakelyn’s Agroforestry center, where Martin Wolfe talked with us between the bountiful rows of hazelnuts with an alley crop of potatoes. Then, it felt nice to actually do a little work, measuring a distance with a long stick from the eight species of trees with wheat as an alley crop, as Martin rode on the cute little combine (1.2m wide). We kept the bags of wheat which were right next to the trees separate from the other wheat, so they can see if the proximity to trees affects the wheat yield. A few evenings before, a much larger combine harvested wheat from the field across the street from our house.We all stood on the brick wall outside, watching it harvest against the sunset, then getting covered with a storm of dust and straw, but it exposed sunflowers across the emptied field. Friday morning came in the blink of an eye, culminating our stay at the old (new part built in the 1600s) brickwall farmhouse, and we reluctantly said goodbye to our German students, as they left to drive to Germany. Then we drove down to Cambridge, where we were entertained by two magicians in the park, ate lots of cheese, and stayed with Kelly, a COA alum of the master’s program, who gave us some ideas about secret places to stay for the first few weeks of fall term. Saturday was a looong day, beginning with Suzanne singing to us at four in the morning. Roger dropped us off at the airport, and a flight and three trains later, we were picked up by our German friends in Witzenhausen. While we waited for the trains, we practiced our key German phrases, like ‘ich sprechen cain Deutch’ (I do not speak German) and ‘ich leibe dick’ (I love you). The streets were decorated with sunflowers and wheat wreaths to welcome us, and our friends had picked flowers for us! After some food and a cat-nap at our newest home, the third story student housing which used to be an old abbey, we went for a drive in the much hillier and more forested land of central Germany, and explored two castles. Then we went food shopping, where we were impressed to be able to buy everything we wanted organic. It felt great to finally sleep last night, and we woke up to an amazing German Sunday breakfast prepared by our wonderful German hosts, including croissants, rye rolls, seed spreads, jams…and complete with candles. We spent most of today finishing up presentations for the jam-packed week ahead, but took a break when we heard music approaching, dashing out to the street to see a parade going by, with marching bands playing Paul Simon, princesses, horses, candy, and much more. We had quite a dinner of bier-chips and bier outside with Professor Angelica Ploeger and her husband, professor Hardy Vogtman. Feeling quite full, we returned to our newest home to rest before our last week begins, but I can hear the Thanksgiving carnival going on outside, where the band just played ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘I love rock and roll’. Goot nocht!