Hallo aus Hamburg, Deutschland!

Big News! My oldest sister, Amy and her husband Alex Steele, had their first child this morning at 6:00am! Hip Hip Hooray! He weighed in at 8lbs 8oz and is 20.5 inches long. Oh yeah, his name is Ezekiel Foster. Cute! I really wish I was there to see him (and the parents, too :) ) and that was one reason why I even went to KY before coming over here...Oh well, I will get a little bundeled surprise when I get back and he will get cool German stuff. We just all win, now don't we?

It is 10:15 pm here on Mon. night and I'm finally taking some time to fill you in on the happenings here. Basically, I'm loving every second of it...Well, ok not really. When I woke up this morning at 2:30 and couldn't go back to sleep until 8:30am, I was a little disappointed. Although it did allow me ample time to read like 10 chapters of Lonesome Dove, my Bible, stare at my calendar for about half an hour, use the restroom, listen to the birds chirping precisely at 5:00 and scrutinize a J.Crew magazine that I had originally brought to give to Claudia...Other than that, I have beent treated wonderfully by the Spincke family. They are a Christian family who have 6 kids and the youngest two are still at home. Claudia (20) is the girl I met in Portugal. Her sister, Johanna, is going to be an exchange student starting this fall in Arlington, TX! I am planning on meeting up with her. She was the one at the airport with her mom to pick me up so I got to spend some time with just her. She is the youngest with older sisters so she is already cool. Claudia was in Croatia playing tournaments so I saw her on Sunday.

One of the sisters, Stephanie (26), was married last summer but is still close to her family and came over for dinner twice this weekend. I asked her where her husband was and she responded, 'Oh, he's getting ill...' as she was having a big warm meal at her mom's, leaving him with only the tv. Haha, she is hysterical and has a huge smile and is always laughing or making others laugh. She will play on the club team as well. We have our first match this Thursday at 9:00am but it is supposed to rain..we'll see.

So my first time on red clay was a HUGE shock to me, but not in the way you may be thinking. It is so incredibly similar to American green clay that I was almost disappointed in how 'easy' it was to adjust. I still play much more tennis on hard court, but I have played on clay since I was young. There are a few differences and i have not played a match on it so it may end up being harder than I think. This does not make sense, but green clay feels more slick like ice because it has that layer of sand. I don't seem to get my footing on it. The red clay is just clay, kinda just dirt. It is much easier to slide on and I love dropshotting people. I am so excited about this Thursday as I represent one of the best clubs in Hamburg, 'Blasenese.' We won't have any fans, no music, no body paint or even a mascot. It will be different with 3 singles matches playing at a time while our teammates are on the court coaching us. Following the singles will be the doubles and Europeans really don't play doubles. Old, young, good, bad, everyone pretty much just plays singles. I have not seen one court of doubles on the surrounding courts since I have been here.

Today Claudia's dad (a President of a bank) and her mom (church board member and volunteer) took both cars so we biked! Oh, I loooooooove this! I use her mom's bike...they are the 'old fashioned kind' I guess with wide handle bars but are much more comfortable to ride than the hunched over kind I am used to. Claudia says I bike slow because I am not used to it...She's probably right! It takes about 20 minutes to get from her house to the club...we start out going down country roads with horses and fields on both our right and left. If I didn't know better I would say I was in a small town in Kentucky...pretty much identical with green green grass, huge trees and horses. Then we see a sign, 'Hamburg', and the scene changes a little bit with more cars, little shops and bakeries. The cars yield to bikers so I feel pretty safe. I like this biking because it is a good warm up and cool down and because Claudia and I talk the whole time. I feel like in cars the coversation starts and stops so much for some reason, like when we get in and out of the car. We played for about 2 hours and it started drizzling. I was surprised at how long the ladies (3.0, maybe 3.5 level) playing singles of course waited until they took a break because of the rain. I am used to the panic stricken woman grabbing her way expensive purse and scurrying off incase she gets a little damp. That reminds me, Claudia says this is one of the nicest and richest clubs in Hamburg. Cool!

There is so much I could say, but if I keep a more consistent account hopefully I can portray my time here to you fully.