Camping in the Forest

After an awesome day at the Stapler Cup and meeting Leni's parents,

Leni and I took off to go camping with a Scouting group she belongs to. It's kind of like a Co-Ed version of scouts in which people of all ages are involved. Anyway, the camping spot was only 25

minutes away so it was a quick drive, but along the way was a really cool small town. All the small towns I've seen are awesome btw. White houses packed together with lots of windows, gardens, red roofs, and skinny streets. The towns seem much more friendly than any small town I've visited in the U.S. The people are also much friendlier, but I'll get to that some other time.

So the camping spot was in the middle of a densely packed forest, where the trees are just starting the change color. Whe

n anyone asks me what I think of Germany so far, I always mention the trees. It really is something else. Probably similar to Seattle, but definitely different. Anyway, the spot is designated for group retreats, and thus had a a few small buildings with bathrooms, a kitchen, and an activity room where some of us ended up sleeping.

Everyone was extremely friendly when I arrived, and the older kids and I quickly got along as they practiced their english with me. haha This trip/event had special significance and had more

kids than adults, so there were about 15 kids total ranging from 9-26 years old, and really only one dad. It's not uncommon for Leni's parents and other parents to go on most of the trips tho.

Highlights

- Huge dinner (sweet and sour chicken/rice, HUUUUGE pizza cooked in their special camping oven; see picture)

- Bonfire all day/night

- Talent show (One guy stuffed his mouthful of gummi bears, I played the hand whistle and serenaded one of the guys haha)

- Beer! Lots of Beer! Their version of camping includes lots of beer. Did I mention beer?

- Campfire songs! (In german and english. haha I even taught them a few songs I knew that my family would sing)

- Drinking Game: Hammering nails into a log. Lots of variations. I did pretty well, and was practically addicted to this game. haha

- Burning my hand. Badly. I was helping move/adjust a 12 foot log that was in the bonfire, the log swung down and hit my hand very

hard with the flaming side. The impact scraped skin off my knuckles and burned the right hand of my hand worse than I originally thought. It hurt all night and still looks pretty gnarly (see picture)

- Jokes with the germans (I got to hear a fair amount of "bad"/racist jokes)

Thoughts

- Germans can speak pretty good english. I'm impressed considering most people rarely ever speak it. Most germans can understand/"hear" english well though, its just speaking it that is a problem sometimes.

- I learned about a whole new side of Leni this trip. I would have never guessed she would have been involved with scouts, or even liked camping. haha She was always the girly girl to me who liked shopping and going to starbucks. This makes me realize that I need to ask my friends more questions about themselves/their childhood to get a better idea of who they really are.

- I wish I could remember all our family camping songs better (Ex. Going on a Lion Hunt...)