Saturday, March 14, 2009

I would not have made it through this week without God's help! When the weather changed from hot to cold, I managed to get a slight sinus infection which took away my energy. I really thought about taking a day off from school. However, Susan (who was subbing) fell and broke her ankle! I was asked to take her class and mine. Then, to add to my trials, we had two new Saudi boys show up unexpectedly. They both failed at another language school in Pennsylvania and have been given to me. With God's power, I'll teach these boys to speak English!!!

A Lesson In Socialism

With all of the changes for good and bad going on in the US Government, there has been a lot of talk about the new bent toward socialism. I don't pretend to know much about politics, but I do listen to Fox and CNN every night. Lately, I had a flashback to a trip that Bill and I took with Mom and Dad while they were living in Germany. Dad loved driving on the autobahn and didn't tell us exactly where we were heading, except that we were going to see the Wartzburg Castle where Martin Luther threw the ink at the devil. We arrived in Eisenach (birthplace of Bach) in East Germany. The Wall was still in place and it took us hours to cross. We stayed in a hotel that had been very plush in 1930. Not knowing where we were going, Bill and I felt strangely out of place while eating in the diningroom in our Disney World sweatshirts! The entire city was old and dingy. Every car looked exactly alike, and no one was smiling. On our way to the castle, we were stopped every mile to have our passports checked. The next day we discovered that the hotel had changed our money on the blackmarket. Since we had no bank receipt, we could not exchange our East German marcs before going back to West Berlin. We had all the souvenirs we could find, so decided to buy some food for a picnic. We went into a store with a line of people. We were told that we had to have a special paper from the government, and that the bread had run out at noon. Okay!! When we reached the West German border, the guards tore out the back seat and put large mirrors under our car. They also asked for a piece of paper that Dad knew nothing about. Suddenly, I remembered that I had been given a receipt that I had tossed into my bag. When I produced this paper everyone seemed friendly again. I'll never forget the feeling of relief that I felt when we had left that Godless, socialistic country! Americans who want our country to be socialistic have no idea what they asking!