to sleep in the morning after... The first time since we were back in the states. Life, which all of a sudden turned into a rush at the start of June began slowing down. As it became more manageable, finally John and I could regain our bearings and replan our trip which went spiralling out of control in the days past. It was 3:00 in the evening. I hopped in the shower after john and after getting dressed the two of us went down the stairs towards the living room together. Mrs. Lamerz, greeted us and asked us how we were doing and if we slept well. Perhaps it was some of the best sleep i have had in ages... who knows?

"Are you hungry?" She asked john and I in her shy, but fluent english. Surprisingly since this trip has started, I have been eating the most i have ever eaten in my entire life. Perhaps the food doesnt seem as filling overseas as it does in the united states, or perhaps because of all of our movement we have been hungry. Regardless of reason, I was still famished so we set out on the porch and ate steaks. The family spoke german most of the time, however after having been in barcelona and madrid, and losing our minds to being "out of the loop" as john and i put it... At this point, we were somewhat unscathed by being surrounded by German.

In the afternoon we headed over to Tubingen. We set out for the small town at around 5:00 in the afternoon but first picked up Judy's boyfriend, Julian. She stopped at his house and walked up to the door and rang the bell. The door opened... I looked down to move some bags and other miscelaneous items john and i failed to remove from judy's car after dinner the previous night. The door popped open and then closed with a robust clap. Julian was now sitting in the front seat, and I behind him. "Julian, this is my friend Cliff" Judy said as a young man with welcoming bright blue eyes, a thick beard, curly blond hair, and hairy knuckles and forearms reached out to shake my hand. I realized after arriving in tubingen, that he was shorter than I by about 3 inches. He was heavy set... by heavy set I mean thick, Not fat. If he were at VES, he would have been one of the football players and I would have presumed that he played some sort of contact sport if I didnt know that he was a chain smoker.

John, Julian, Judy, and I headed down to the river where there were drunk frat guys jumping 10 feet into the water from the beer garden across the way. We waited, Judy, more anxiously than myself as I quickly realized that she wanted to impress John and I. finally we got on the river.

Nacht... The house was sleeping now, and John was sitting indoors talking to people on the computer. Judy and I sat on the patio outdoors and talked. The night was nice and bright with stars, however, the moon seemed to be a forgotten entity in the sky. She asked me "Cliff, what do you think of julian?" in the midst of our conversation. Even after leaving VES, people still ask for my opinion on things... Alex, asks for my opinion on girls, Melissa still asks for my opinion on life, and Judy asks for my opinion on Julian. For many reasons, did this question vex me. Obviously, its difficult to say "oh yeah, hes wonderful" but its also hard not to say "i'm better." Deep down inside, i know that i am not better than he is... and that if he spoke better english, this fact of life would be further accentuated. Deep down inside, I knew before ever meeting him that he was better than I for the fact that based on what she would tell me in emails, he seemed like a good man. Perhaps prior to my coming over, i felt the need to make myself excited for everything that I did not want to see, but would have to subject myself to a little bit further down the road. I knew this day was coming, and as much as I tried to feel happy about everything before meeting him, I was not... this disappointed me. Once again, everything that one could not touch, obtained flesh, bones, and breath... and while most of it was good... other aspects were difficult. NowI met the next man she would fall madly in love with, and I would finally now, become a very very distant memory.