October 2, 1969
Dear Mother, Dad, Serena, John, Mary,Hi! I was glad to get a second letter from you today. Thanks for the clippings. I'd appreciate your sending me all the diet-wise ones you run across as in the Münster paper they have similar items however there is the slight language barrier. It's a real challenge to read the newspaper. I usually tackle it between school and lunch.
After having had only four school days my life hasn't really formed any set patterns but I can tell you a little bit about what I have been doing.
I got a used bicycle from some neighbors for 30DM ($7.50) It was just fixed up tonight so I can hardly wait until tomorrow to ride it. Ann hopes to get one too but she's going to have to check in the ads on Saturday as the neighbors only had one and I'd already made arrangements.
Tuesday night we went to a party or kind of a group get together. We started out at Klein's which is the home of Bruce and Chuck, two guys from K. The party was actually for their German brother, Reiner, who was at K this past summer. We pretty well filled up the place so after an hour or so we moved to a discotheque down the street. They were really happy to see us as it wasn't too busy a night and we gave them a lot of quantity. It was after the buses quit running when we came home so the four of us there from this neighborhood got a taxi. He drove right by where we told him we wanted to go so we ended up paying more and we almost got lost coming back here.
Yesterday Ann and I spent some time away from each other. It was kind of strange. She went home with Bruce for lunch and spent the afternoon with him while I did my homework. And then last night she did her homework while I went to visit Martin Lohmann, a very close friend of Flo and Francis (my friends in K.) Martin speaks perfect English so I talked to him for about a half hour in English. Then his mother came into the room to sew so we switched to German. After about 20 minutes I was mentally exhausted. This speaking German has got to get easier, it certainly couldn't get more difficult. His mother warned me I should remember I was in Germany and not the United States and it just isn't safe for girls to walk alone at night.
Mutti (my German mother) asked me what I had to wear to something really dressy. (for example we go to the theatre or opera or somewhere in Berlin). I showed her my vast selection of dresses, evening gowns, and other assorted formal attire. She has a black dress with a white lace collar and a velvet front which I am helping her remake. She has also offered to shorten my raincoat (which I hadn't even noticed was too long) and she told me I should wear my skirts shorter.
I guess Ann and I are really lucky as far as food is concerned. Alot of the kids complain about how hard the bread is, etc. Two guys even said they haven't had any meat yet at all. We get an egg every morning for breakfast. I'm beginning to really like the way we have them, too. They are just a little short of being hard boiled, so they aren't dry. And it's really neat to eat it out of the shell. We also get a hard roll (which are really good) with butter and jelly, cheese, or meat.
Alot of the kids get sandwiches and/or apples from their families to eat during our morning school break. We haven't asked, it hasn't been given, and it isn't really necessary. We can buy milk at school for 90pf (a little over 20¢) a week. I've skipped that too so far. The milk is delivered to the school at 6AM and since they have no refrigerator it sits out in the hall until 10:30 or so.
Lunch is the big meal. Vater usually gets home at 1:00 and we eat at 1:15. We've had soup every day except one, and then there is always the boiled potatoes (one day we had rice instead). On Sunday we had french fries instead. Usually there is some sort of meat in a sauce to go on the potatoes, occasionally salad or red cabbage, peas or beans (soup beans). For dessert is pudding. Coffee to drink at breakfast, nothing at lunch, coffee about 4:00 (only coffee during the week) and tea for supper. Supper is either fried potatoes or potato salad and open sandwiches which are eaten with a fork. Eating with my left hand comes really naturally now, too.
How did Roberta make out at NCR? Does she have Irene's address? Sunday, I'm going to Konigswinter and next weekend on a Rhein trip. Write soon! I'm anxious to get some mail here at home.
Love, Catherine
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