july 22nd

yo.

alright, easy day. i woke up at my usual time and went down for some breakfast. lean... coffee, bread, meat, juice... actually, typing this, it looks like the same stuff that we have for lunch everyday... hmmm. boring. but good and filling. i came back to the room to find bruce awake and ready for some tennis and, as i'd promised better tennis from the day before, we went. bruce stole two rolls from the breakfast room which is against the rules on the sign, but he's done it just about everyday and hasn't been caught yet (not that it would really matter).

alright, tennis. much better. we actually were hitting the ball and i wasn't playing bad-mood tennis. i almost did though at one point, but i fixed my brain and kept on playing. and, even though i double faulted two full games away to bruce, i somehow only lost the first set in a tie-breaker... and then lost the second 6-3... which was ok, i felt better about my playing and i was a bit tired. everything was better.

as tennis finished, it was almost time for the train to oberaudorf where we'd promised christine that we'd meet her sometime after midday. thursday is her day off of work and we've tried to do things with her most of these days. we met her at her place and drove to gießenbachklamm, which is a canyon in the area. we hiked around and walked up to the little river were we just sat in the cold water and hot sun and talked... fighting off horseflies the entire freakin time. it was pretty, we threw rocks and relaxed. nice.

after that, seeing as how bruce and i hadn't eaten our normal lunch and it was already 2, we were hungry... and best of all, because we were in oberaudorf (which is close to kufstein) and there is a mcdonalds in kufstein... well, there was just no decision to be made... we were going. bruce and christine had gone the night before on their night out, but we were going again. and you know what? first, mcdonalds is the greatest place in the world anyone can eat, obviously. but second... they have an ice machine and unlimited refills. this is important, this is important... europe doesnt have ice. but mcdonalds does... and so we gladly ordered our royal mit käse (1:02 in the video) and pommes value meal and drank the death out of ice cold coke and sprite. unbelievable. and the funniest thing is that there were instructions for the germans on how to use this incredible invention of the ice machine. first, it said, fill your cup with ice. second, fill with your drink. third, enjoy. it was funny because it is so foreign to them to have unlimited, or even any, ice. weird. we knew how to enjoy... we didn't need the instructions. thanks though.

we got the food... and we ate. went back to oberaudorf and walked up to the ruins of the old city fortress. it was that big castle for which the town is named after which apparently was burned down by the turks in the 1500's or something. we weren't sure how a stone fortress could burn but something happened to it as there are only a few remaining walls and structures remaining. it was pretty cool and oddly there were a ton of llamas at the fortress. christine told us about some guy in oberaudorf who wanted a llama for himself for like his 40th birthday... and after doing research to find that llamas like german weather, he got one. but then one wasn't enough... so now he has like 20... whatever. they were cool and were not afraid of the people at the fortress. bruce tried to give one some of his sprite, but he (she) wasn't interested.

time to go home, christine took us back to the almröserl, and we parted ways. it was sometime after 4 and bruce, after resting for a bit, got ready to take the train back to oberaudorf for the youth music practice at the church in which he'd promised the pastor's daughter that he'd participate.

this is where our stories divide... i, your humble first author of the night, stayed home, showered, got most of my med school application stuff together (just in case), and read a little german pop culture magazine while eating almost an entire jar of pickles. i wasn't sure when bruce was coming home, but i figured it wouldn't be too late... i'd hate to eat dinner without him again. it was pouring rain and even hailed here, so it was really awesome to watch the lightning and storm move across the mountains from our balcony. lean.

[bruce's train to oberaudorf was nearly 20 minutes late -- almost incomprehensible for a german train. that meant, the 20-minute walk from the train station to the church was much more hurried and stressed than usual -- something not needed, as he was already going into a foreign environment in every sense of the word. thankfully, they were a bit late getting started, so he didn't miss too much. about one song in or so, someone from the group asked about the strange guy sitting over in the corner; after that, it didn't take long for bruce to be at the keyboard. he played with the 4 other instrumentalists and the roughly 15 singers for a good hour and a half, practicing translated common worship tunes we'd sing back home for this sunday's jumpstart (evening modern worship service). the practice was great, many of the germans loved trying out a couple english words here and there, and even a couple were pleased to meet the 'bruce moser' that's printed in their song book as having written two of the songs.

once practice was over, bruce tried to make it to the adult choir practice -- where christine had invited him to go once youth band practice was over. the adults had already started, and having used up his courage with new people for the day, bruce decided to try to make the train back to flintsbach. trouble was, it was 10 till, the train leaves right after the top of the hour, bruce still had to buy a ticket for the return stretch, and it was pouring down rain. nothing a little sprinting through cow pastures won't fix. thanks mainly to the frequent tennis outings and german's relaxed understanding of property rights, bruce made the 20-minute walk in 5 minutes, running directly through anything and everything to make as straight a line as possible. ticket in hand with 2 minutes to spare, the rain quieted down and bruce had enough time to catch his breath before immediately having to talk to the train man asking for his ticket.

back in flintsbach, benjamin had thankfully waited for dinner, so we both went to our favorite and got our favorite -- beer. dinner was awesome as usual, we came back for a game of cribbage and a short conversation with carissa, then bed.]