I was a little nervous going into today. I got to meet someone in person I have only had written correspondence with so far…
We had breakfast at the hotel before catching a series of trains and buses, Destination: Altrip. Altrip is a small village outside of Mannheim, and it is a sister city with Kutztown, Pennsylvania, where Brandon and I once went to college and now live near. A few years ago, the mayors of Kutztown and Altrip created a sister city program with one another. Part of this program involved collaboration from the libraries in each town to create a pen pal program for interested parties to be able to connect and write to each other to learn about each location. When the program began, we were still living in Pittsburgh, but Kutztown’s library left the pen pal participation up to anyone who used to be there or loved it a whole lot :) Knowing we’d be back in the area eventually, and looking for an opportunity to practice my German, I signed up. It took a little while, but I was eventually paired up with a woman named Rita. For the better part of at least the last two years, Rita and I have been writing letters, then emails, back and forth, in German. I got to know about some of her hobbies, her family, and her upcoming trip to Crete, to name a few. I had told her we were planning on visiting Germany and hoped to get to Altrip, and she, like I, was hopeful we could connect in person. Yesterday, on the train, I finally got to answering her most recent email to me (which had been in my inbox 10 days already. I felt terrible!) and after a frantic series of back and forth correspondences, we got to meet today! As I said at the beginning, I was nervous. She was so nice in our letters and emails, and I had no doubt she would be in person, but I always get anxious about how someone will take me, in person, when they first meet me. I think it’s a little bit of a lack of self-confidence thing, but I digress…I was also slightly concerned about how well I would do with my German. She had told me before in her letters that her English is not very good, so even if that meant she was better at it than she gave herself credit for, I was determined to stick to German so she was comfortable. The ride to Altrip was almost uneventful except for the final leg, which involved a “minibus” (as it was listed by Deutsche Bahn) showing up late. Rita and I had exchanged numbers the day before via email, and I was a message from asking her to come get us when a taxi marked with “Altrip” finally pulled up to the stop. We found put as the ride progressed that the reason it was running behind is because the driver was waiting for the ferry (yes, ferry) to take off. So, we got to experience being in a car on a ferry boat, which was very cool! Rita was at the bus stop when we arrived and she was even kinder than I imagined! We got to spend a lot of time at her home today. She made a breakfast spread for us and we ate with her and her daughter, Milena, who is a few years younger than Brandon and I. Her husband, Manuel, joined us eventually and then it was like sitting at the table with family :) We talked and laughed and enjoyed a LOT of watermelon. They also gave us a bag with two coffee mugs from the chemical plant Manuel works at, as well as 6 different chocolate bars! We went for a walk through Altrip, including past the Rathaus where the partner cities signs are. We went on a trail along the Rhein. We also got to meet the mayor of Altrip, who just so happens to be Rita’s great-nephew. He was lovely, and he very graciously gave me a gift, which is a hardback book about the history of Altrip! The town has existed for 1650 years, which I thought was amazing! After the mayor left, Rita and Manuel treated us to dinner at a local Greek restaurant. The food was soooo good! Then, they graciously dropped us off at the main train station in Mannheim so we could get back to Heidelberg. Despite my concerns, I managed fairly well with my German today. Past tenses still get me all mixed up, but Brandon reminded me that I’m a work in progress and reassured me that I was clearly understood because I was getting responses to things I said. I’m just so glad that I was able to finally meet Rita and am hopeful that she and her family may get to the States, and to Kutztown, one day so we can repay the gracious hosting they showed us today :) Tomorrow it is a much earlier departure for us than usual, so let’s hope I’m coherent enough to write and make sense tomorrow lol…Enjoy the photos!
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