...yes, she does still have DISTANT relatives living in Germany.

I'm still not exactly sure just how distant they are.

As I understand it, Carrie's great-great-great-great (something like that) grandpa had a brother. Carrie's GGGG Grandpa came to the US, while his brother stayed in Germany. And for generations, the families have kept in touch.

Which is very cool long-term communication if you ask me.

So, back to the present-day, Carrie's family lives on a 30 acre nursery, which they own and operate.

Also very cool.

On the 22nd, we toured around the nursery a bit and spent time getting acquainted.

I really enjoyed getting to know Elsbeth who is having her own house built there at the nursery and is retiring this year, Sabine (pronounced sah bean uh), and Joern (pronounced yourn). Joern is Elsbeth's son, and Joern and Sabine are basically our age.

We also met their three-year-old son Kevin.

We'll likely have more to say about this, but it was so neat getting to practice our German with someone who speaks at our level of vocabulary and understanding in German. It made communication much easier, though it does make you feel a little funny to know that you really communicate at the level of a 3-year old.

Ah well. Such is foreign language.

On the 23rd, Sabine was nice enough to drive us in to Oldenburg.

Most people reading this probably don't know, but when I did my study abroad in 2001, I studied German at the University of Oldenburg.

I wouldn't meet Carrie for another six months, but the entire time I was studying in Oldenburg, Carrie's family in Germany was less than 15 minutes away from where I lived. In fact, on the 22nd, we had to go through Oldenburg's train station in order to get to Bad Zwischenahn.

It really is a small, small, world of amazing connections.

So, in the afternoon on October 23rd, I spent some time showing Carrie around many of the old places where I used to hang out when I was an exchange student.

The most recognizable building in Oldenburg is the Lambertikirche (Lamberti church), but the church was closed for renovations, so Carrie and I walked across to the Schlossgarten (Castle garden - now more of a city park), and took a picture of us with the Lambertikirche tower in the background.