Willkommen in Bamberg

My sister and her family are spending another year living in Bamberg, Germany. Since her husband, Casey, arrived in Germany three weeks ago, Brittney asked if I would help her and her two girls with the trip overseas. We arrived in Bamberg last night after 24 hours of traveling. All things considered, the flight wasn't bad. It was a definitely a different experience than flying with adults, but the girls were very good. I played with Ellie for half the flight, then kept on eye on Peyton for the second half. The hardest part of the trip was actually the airport in Paris. The transportation workers in France are on strike, which meant we waited and extra hour to get on our plane (sweating to death because it was so hot!) then sat at the gate for 2 more hours all because they didn't have enough workers to fill the plane with fuel. Apparently we are lucky our flight wasn't just canceled. It ended up being a long trip, but we made it.

As soon as I arrived, the driver that picked us up from the airport gave me a ride to Casey's first preseason basketball game. It was the only game I'll be here for, so I decided to go even though I was exhausted and dirty. We made it there at halftime. It was packed! The game was held at a practice arena, which was just like a small high school gym with stands only on one side of the floor. It was so crowded that when Lindsay, the wife of another player, found and led me inside, we had to squeeze in on the floor a foot away from the court to watch the rest of the game. It was still fun to be there, even though my feet were falling asleep from sitting Indian-style on the hardwood.

Today we played, saw some of the neighbor kids (Ellie was a little shy and hesitant to speak German to them again), ran some errands, picked up the loaner car, visited with friends from the team, and went to dinner. The girls are trying to adjust to the time change, so that makes things interesting. :) I'm adjusting to the time change a little too and fighting against a sore throat, but so far doing well. I'm looking forward to exploring Bamberg and some surrounding areas this week!