Day 1

It's hard to post new things because the internet connection here is not good at all.  Today in Germany started out with Dr. Bhuvana and I riding with Dr. Braun to his house and we got here (a little village near Pforheim) around 9ish (Europe time).  Dr. Braun’s wife had made us breakfast and I had a croissant, a bagel with some good jam (it was homemade marmalade), some coffee and some tea.  I miss the plain old tap water without carbonation (I can’t seem to find water without it here).  After breakfast, Dr. Braun and Dr. Bhuvana took me to the stables with Annalinna and I got to groom some of the horses and help out in the stables.  Eventually, I got to actually ride one of the horses named Dika and I rode around getting used to riding horseback.  

The driving here is insane! People go so fast and no one pays attention to stop signs.  Apparently, it’s alright to go 20 km over the speed limit and you won’t get fined a whole lot.  I got to watch Annalinna train a 3 year old horse how to obey commands and let a person sit on its back, which was cool.  Dr. Braun bought us some sweets (they looked like cinnamon rolls but they were filled with a crème and they were delicious).  We got back to the house and it started raining, but Dr. Braun’s wife had made us strawberry shortcake from some freshly picked strawberries that were grown locally by a farmer who owns about 12 huge fields that are just for strawberries.  After we ate that, we walked about 2 miles to accompany Dr. Bhuvana to her hotel in the neighboring village and we walked past some cherry trees and through a forest and past a lot of farming lands.  By the time we got back to the house it was 6ish and we had walked a total of 4 miles J I took a shower and after that we went out to eat in downtown Pforzheim at a restaurant called Kupferhammer and I asked Dr. Braun’s wife to order for me, so that I could have a German dish.  I have no idea what it was called that I ate, but it was actually really good.  It was like a rolled piece of beef and inside it were onions (I know- shock!) and cucumber (by the way the E. Coli incident occurred in the Northern Germany and it was due to a specific batch of vegetables).  I also had spatzle with it which was delicious and red kraut (cabbage) came with it and I at least tried it, but I wasn't a huge fan of the cabbage.  I ordered Pepsi to drink and they brought me out a wine glass and a small bottle.  Also, in the back of the store I thought it was funny that there was a whole fenced in area with barbed wire protecting cases and cases of beer in the back.  After we ate dinner, we walked through Pforzheim and beside a river that was created from the merging of three rivers, one of them coming from the Black Forest (which is gorgeous by the way).  We got back to the house around 11pm (it was still bright outside until 10 that night so we had no way to judge the time).  I slept like the dead until I woke up at 12 this morning.  I think I'm going to need an alarm clock :) Pictures should be coming soon!