Dead goats and hoarfrost.

Hello and Merry Christmas!

I understand yesterday was the Mennville Christmas Program. Sorry to have missed it.

We are in Germany at Dayna's, finally. There is hoarfrost on all the trees (i hope everyone knows what that is, but just to be safe here is an explanation: if there is fog during the night in winter, it freezes on the tree branches and twigs making them all white and sparkling; it is not a woman of questionable morals freezing on a tree branch [check the spelling]) and it is beautiful.

The plan is to stay here for five days, until Christmas day when we take off for the Czech Republic to watch the Canada game. Some interesting stuff happened to us in the last few days, particularly in Marseille, where we were for a day before coming to Germany.

We went to a Morroccan market there, and boy was that an experience. There as a long line up when we got there to get into some kind of compound where there were a dozen (at least) sheep in a pen. Of course i asked what was going on, and didn't get a clear answer, at least not in english. The guy made a throat cutting motion, so i put my hands up and backed away slowly. I didn't know if he was threatening me or if he meant the sheep were being slaughtered, so i figured i should play it safe and get the heck out of there. Later i figured out that it wasnt a threat, because there were morroccans running around all over the place with dead skinned sheep over there shoulders.

For some reason the markets always smell hideous (actually i know the reason, it is the smell of all the fish that are left out in the hot market for who knows how long - i don't think the ice unerneath is helping any, guys) so of course lindsey walks around with one of seans socks under her nose to filter the smell, which, if you'll remember form some of my precious posts, tells you how bad the smell is.

All in all, it was an amazing cultural experience, especially after the disappointment of not being able to get to Morrocco. Well, i am off for lunch, so i will write more again some other time.