Moin, Moin

This last weekend I took the train north to Oldenburg to visit a friend from my Exchange Student year. We went together to the 25th "class reunion" at our school in Nordenham.....which was a complete time tunnel for me. They are all teachers, dentists and managers now -- the baggy mohair sweaters and turquoise earrings are gone -- but by midnight, it was a slice out of my past watching several of them (still!) rolling their own cigarettes.

I loved-loved-loved being in the north again. These are the images I have when I think of Germany -- thatched rooves and red bricks and sheep grazing on the dikes -- and thin slices of whole grain "black bread" with strong Ostfriesan tea at breakfast. I'd forgotten so many tiny things that make the north different and special: when the first person said "Moin" to me I wanted to jump like a child (the greeting....it comes out of Plattdeutsch, spoken in the north and in Ostfriesland. Plattdeutsch, as a language, has a wonderfully coastal history with seaports and shipping -- I'm partial to sailors, after all... ;-))

These days I live in "postcard" or "famous sites" Germany -- and that's nice, too. But, I am so grateful I had that experience in the north 25 years ago. On the walk along the dike last weekend, a fat black mole ran across the path. It was like stepping into a Beatrix Potter story -- but, in German. I can't resist loving the north best.

:-)

Just under the roof of a house along the dike: Lever Gott bewahr dit Huus, vör Füür, Water un Stormgebruus (Dear God protect this House from Wind, Water and Stormflooding)