Monday
September 29, 1969
Dear Mother, Dad, Serena, John, and Mary,Hi! I have been putting off starting this letter for about three hours because it seems like there is so much to tell you I hardly know where to begin. First of all, I was glad to get your letter of Sept. 21 today at school. I am going to check tomorrow about the possibilities of meeting you. Dr. Spaltmann may be more liberal (?) than Stavig and Fugate. Can you send me some precise dates? We are going to Berlin from Oct. 18-25.
Now, to go back in time a ways . . . . Last Thurs. morning we were to arrive in Cherbourg at 6AM. So Wednesday night everyone said their sad farewells to those going to France. All would have worked out as planned except at 3:30 AM one of the crew, reportedly drunk, went overboard. International law requires that six hours be spent searching so for six hours our huge ship drifted around in the endless ocean, lifeboats were sent out, etc. but he wasn't found. As a result we got to Cherbourg several hours late, skipped Southhampton entirely, and were only about two hours late getting to Bremerhaven. We didn't have to go through customs at all. All Kalamazoo luggage was unloaded, we picked it up, walked out of the station and got on special buses for Bremen. We arrived at the Übersee Hotel about 8 PM (Fri.) and since I was really tired I just walked around a little and then went to bed. It has some reconstructed medieval streets.
We were awakened at 6 on Saturday morning, took our luggage downstairs. The room number was 327 but it was equivalent to an American 6th floor. The price of a single room without bath was $4. And breakfast (consisting of hard rolls with butter and jelly and tea or coffee) is included. Buses took us to the train station and at 8:15 we got on the train for Münster. It was quite a sight with half of us on the train pulling the luggage in through the windows as the other half passed it to us.
All 24 of us were suffering varying degrees of fright and nervousness so the 1½ hour trip to Münster went very quickly. I wasn't exactly scared -- just kind of numb not knowing what to expect next. Dr. Spaltmann (who had met us in Bremerhaven) herded us into a private room at the station where we were served sandwiches and then the families began arriving.
That concludes part one of this letter so take a break and rest your eyes before reading on. Thanks for sending the letter from Sue -- it was a well-traveled letter and a bit out-dated. I also got letters from Alice Fisher and Mike which Kalamazoo forwarded to me, a letter from Dave with the latest baseball statistics, and my grades. They were better than I expected, C- in history, and B's in English, German and Archery.
Now, to continue . . . . Ann Burt and I are sharing a family, the Volkers. Mutti remind me alot of you, Mom. She is short with short dark hair and speaks only German. She worries about my not eating enough but I'm beginning to get through to her that one helping of everything is plenty. Vater is a beer brewer and although he speaks to us occasionally we are usually ignored as he works at his desk. He knows a little English which he learned as a prisoner of war. There are three sons: Wolfgang is 20 and is learning English in the university, Peter is 18, and Klaus is 15.
Our house is about a 20 minute walk from the school and downtown is about a 20 minute walk on the other side of the school. Ann and I went downtown on the bus this afternoon. It costs about 12½ cents one way. It was our first real venture out alone and we managed fairly well. It's rather frustrating to be surrounded by so many peple speaking a strange language which we are only beginning to understand. Just buying some paper in a department store felt like a major accomplishment. There is a Woolworth's although I didn't see any jacks or jump ropes. I didn't feel up to asking. Wait until I get a bit more proficient.
John, I wanted to get you a birthday card but the only cute ones I could find had more German than I could translate very well. So, I hope you have a happy birthday anyway and I'll be thinking about you. I was in a post office this afternoon but there were lots of people in lines everywhere and I wasn't quite confident enough of what I wanted to wait in line and ask for it. Give me a little more time yet.
Yesterday we went to a town about 60km. (40Miles?) away and visited some friends of Vater and Mutti. The town was in the middle of the coal and steel industrial area.
It's getting late so I'l tell you about the school and what else I've been doing in my next letter. Good night!
Love,
Catherine
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