Jon's classmate's (Michael), wife (Kati) has a friend (?) who knows an American (Susan) that has lived here in Leipzig for 10 years. Not only that but she has an 11 month old daughter ta'boot. Well, Kati told her friend, who told Susan about me and Susan insisted that I contact her for a play date. So Susan gave her contact information to the friend who then gave it to Kati who sent it on to me. I emailed her the same day - I didn't want her to forget about me. ;o) We played email-tag for about 2 weeks and then finally we found a day when the sun was mostly shining, the kids were mostly healthy, and our schedules were mostly open.
I walked from my house to the huge park, which only took an hour and a fifteen minutes. I was so nervous. I felt like I was on a blind date looking for the man with the red rose. Rather in this case it was the lady with the long brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, a pink jacket, and an infectious smile. As I was walking towards the park I instantly saw her looking just as she described, except over the top of her pink jacket was a red baby carrier - so she was a little bit hippie too - this could be good. She was chasing after her best friends six year old son and didn't see me. I didn't want to interrupt the oh so important game of chase so I hung back and quietly watched. Already I liked this woman. She wasn't afraid to run around the park looking like an idiot (not that she looked like an idiot) climbing on the playground equipment having a ball. As she came around the tire mountain she saw me and let her little chasee get away. She walked toward me and said Charmian? Yup, that's right, she pronounced my name correctly. Ja, we're definitely going to be good friends.
We started talking, the basics at first; where are you from, what do you do, kids names and ages, husbands names, how you met. At one point in the conversation her husband picked up her daughter Ella and as her little tooshy passed in front of my face I noticed a hint of green. I grabbed Susan's arm and pointed out the green - "Do you cloth diaper?" I asked. "Yes, how did you know?" she replied. "Diapers in Germany aren't that colorful. We both laughed and went off on a tangent about how it's nearly impossible to find cloth diapers in Germany, what brand we use, what soap we use, how we like them, what problems we've been having. I definitely had a lot in common with her. We filled two hours and before we knew it we were headed home looking forward to another get together soon. We've since emailed back and forth and she has sent me the names of the "hippie" stores in Leipzig that carry baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all natural toys. After her girlfriend and my friends go back to America we are going to get together again. I'm so glad that I have another new friend and one that shares in some of my weird hippie-isms. :o)
I walked from my house to the huge park, which only took an hour and a fifteen minutes. I was so nervous. I felt like I was on a blind date looking for the man with the red rose. Rather in this case it was the lady with the long brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, a pink jacket, and an infectious smile. As I was walking towards the park I instantly saw her looking just as she described, except over the top of her pink jacket was a red baby carrier - so she was a little bit hippie too - this could be good. She was chasing after her best friends six year old son and didn't see me. I didn't want to interrupt the oh so important game of chase so I hung back and quietly watched. Already I liked this woman. She wasn't afraid to run around the park looking like an idiot (not that she looked like an idiot) climbing on the playground equipment having a ball. As she came around the tire mountain she saw me and let her little chasee get away. She walked toward me and said Charmian? Yup, that's right, she pronounced my name correctly. Ja, we're definitely going to be good friends.
We started talking, the basics at first; where are you from, what do you do, kids names and ages, husbands names, how you met. At one point in the conversation her husband picked up her daughter Ella and as her little tooshy passed in front of my face I noticed a hint of green. I grabbed Susan's arm and pointed out the green - "Do you cloth diaper?" I asked. "Yes, how did you know?" she replied. "Diapers in Germany aren't that colorful. We both laughed and went off on a tangent about how it's nearly impossible to find cloth diapers in Germany, what brand we use, what soap we use, how we like them, what problems we've been having. I definitely had a lot in common with her. We filled two hours and before we knew it we were headed home looking forward to another get together soon. We've since emailed back and forth and she has sent me the names of the "hippie" stores in Leipzig that carry baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all natural toys. After her girlfriend and my friends go back to America we are going to get together again. I'm so glad that I have another new friend and one that shares in some of my weird hippie-isms. :o)
Charmian
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