Grüß Gott! My two weeks in Deutschland are coming to an end... two weeks full of new experiences, new friends, exposure to a new world. I am living in Ostendorf, a tiny village in Bavaria near the Black Forest. Under 400 people live here, and it was kind of a shock coming here from Paris, a city of 7 million... took some getting used to. I experienced a strange sort of loneliness when I arrived, just because of the strangeness of it... I walked down a cobblestone street lined with red-roofed cottages and rose gardens, and wondered, "Where is the world?" But I have come to love it here. It is like something out of a fairy tale book. Children run barefoot through fields and old, wrinkled Omas spend hours tending their gardens. On a good day, castles can be seen on the distant mountains, their towers piercing through the fog. They are simple, hard-working peasant people who take joy in the most simple things of life.
