Group photo taken 28 April

¡Happy Cinco de Mayo from Ingolstadt! Imagine the Director’s surprise last week when he found out it is a national holiday over here. Our student from Vera Cruz also appreciates the holiday. It would be much better if one could find decent tortillas over here. They are hard to find, and what they have is obscenely expensive. As a last resort, the director made his own. Although they were somewhat edible, it was not a sight for the faint of heart.

This letter is a bit long to get everyone up to date before the end of the SCSU semester. The pictures should break things up nicely.

On the 16^th of April, we had our first annual “Burn what you Brat” cookout in the back yard. There was a relatively small group since it was a popular weekend for travel, but we had a good time. In addition to Chris, Michael, Kerwin, Arnaud, and a director to be named later, Malec, Kowalik, and Szozda showed up a little later. The director did a fantastic job arranging the weather. How often is the weather appropriate for shorts and a hockey jersey? The others had soccer jerseys, so that was the closest thing available.

Maryam had a birthday party at the villa on the 20^th of April. With the Villa residents and her friends from school, there were about 30 people making noise attending.

Chris and the director made a second assault on the Deutsches Museum on the following Saturday. Michael came with us to hang out in the English Garden (everyone there seemed pretty German to me) and we successfully got to see the Glockenspiel do its thing this time. After only three hours on our first visit to the museum, this time it was almost six hours for just the two of us. Finally, after two visits and about nine hours, we have finally seen most of the museum. Only about ½ of the first floor left to see. We met Michael in the Marienplatz after the museum closed and also ran in to Arnaud and five of the girls. Maryam, Murielle, Suzanne, Emma, and a friend of Maryam’s came down for some shopping and Arnaud joined them. It was amazing that after a full day of shopping, there were only a few tiny bags. Seth and Eric were in town with a third group for a Bayern München soccer game, but we did not see them.

Murielle stayed in the guest room for two weeks. She is the niece of Anne-Marie Schanckertz, from a small town near Strasburg and gave the director time to brush up on his French. We finally made another attempt at a group photo on 28 April and Murielle stood in for Michael and Kerwin. Before the picture, the director officially christened the Husky Tor. München has the Karlstor, Isartor, and Sendlinger Tor. Ingolstadt can now boast the Kreuztor and Husky Tor as shown above. If you can’t tell, the Husky Tor is on the right.

After the photo session Chris and the director went over to the Blues festival. This was the second trip we made it to the festival. The first singer was Geoff Muldauer from Tennessee. Next was the Phil Bates Duo from England. Tuesday we had seen the Elizabeth Lee Band from Texas. Ingolstadt really is a cultural hotbed. On the downside, three blues acts and not a single song starting with “I woke up this morning.”

There is still some travel going on. Seth and Eric spent a few days in Ireland. We still have our trip to Berchtesgaden planned for the first weekend of June. A class for Seth and Eric was rescheduled for the Saturday of our planned Berlin trip, so that has to be moved.

As long as the director survives a 13-hour train ride to Clermont, France on Friday the 13^th there will be another update around the end of the month.