Today was officially the first real sticking snow in Ilmenau. There was snow on the ground yesterday morning, but it melted by the time I went to school. Today, we probably got at least four inches and it was fairly blizzard-like at times. In Frauenwald, which is more in the mountains, they got half a meter last night. It is going to be a long winter, especially since last year it apparently didn't snow at all the entire time. One of the things Dave and I were talking about the other day was that it must be a pain to shovel all the sidewalks (since they are mostly cobblestone). It's not. They have little mini-plows that plow the sidewalks. They are nice, except then you have to walk around them in the road.
Last Saturday, we went down to the new ice rink here in Ilmenau (which is beautiful) to watch an Eisstocksport Tournament. Eisstocksport is curling - but it was German curling, meaning no brooms and it's not such a precision sport as the Canadian version. Instead of pushing the stones across the ice, you bowl them. The Ilmenau team was pretty bad. They kept throwing their stones and they would land crookedly and sort of wobble across the ice. Most of the time they didn't even make it into the target zone. Oh well. The stones are different as well. They are smaller and lighter and have interchangeable bottoms. It would be my guess that the different bottoms have different coefficients of friction.
And now I need help from all of my readers out there: I am teaching one of the German social studies classes in two weeks. They are about to start learning about the United States. I have been asked to do a short introduction. One of the questions that the teacher wants me to address is: Why are Americans so proud of their country and of being America? Please write me a comment and tell me what your answer would be. Your own personal opinion, please.
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