BERLIN VACATION!

By the Original Berlin wall (there is still 20 meters of it still up)

The 20 meters of Berlin wall still standing

This is the library. Beautiful.

This is the post office.  My post office isn't this pretty.

 Jewish Cemetary dedicated after WWII.  Peaceful place to visit. So many stones:

Germany Capital building (I think this was).  First time I've seen a Germany flag flying with pride (minus the soccer games)

"The Gate" pictures of me and McCord and mccord with the soldiers for tourists, etc.

The Gate

Hauptbahnhof = Train station.

The Center of the city

Destruction purposefully left from WWII for historical reasons.

2 same companies that were on each side of the wall and now they are right next door after the wall was taken down.

The Berlin Museum

Poseidon's Fountain

Spider-Man Saves Child With Autism

COACH

Münster Mammuts Report:

We just got done with our 2-day camp. It was fantastic! We should have done it 2 months ago instead of 2 weeks before the first game. For the first time I'm starting feel like the offense is organized, people know their positions, and that the receivers know their routes. We saw some good things and some things that we need to work on. We gutted the play book and made it more simple. All of the players simply seem more comfortable. It's going to be an interesting season. Too bad I'll only be here for half of it. The Juniors have their first game next week. I'll let you know more later.

Fair in Münster

The fair came to Münster this weekend. So we took the train downtown, past the musical people...

Over the river....

To the FAIR!

Everything was pretty much the same as any stereotypical traveling fair: rides, arcade, games for stuffed animals, cotton candy, etc. But I took some pictures of some things that I thought were out of the ordinary for the enjoyment of everyone back home.

Of course, at any German event, there must be BEER. I took a snapshot of one of the little pubs that was traveling with the fair

If you look close, this is a coconut fountain. you can buy slices of fresh coconut:

These guys made pizza in an old fashioned stone oven. They were dressed funny, and having a great time.

These big brown things are meat. If you order a "hiro" (a greek dish), they cut a huge long piece of meat off these huge pieces and put it on a plate for you with whatever topping you want.

If you can see...Yes, these are dentist tools. You can buy your own dentist tools to do your dental work at home. We will forever be talking about how weird we thought this was. =)

We had a great time at the fair and were sure glad that we went. Not too many differences, so it was nice to eat cotton candy and some roasted nuts. Mmm.

Top 10 Differences between the US and Germany:

10 - Wood houses vs. cement houses
9 - Bakery located every 10 ft in Germany.
8 - No grocery bags or baggers at the german grocery store
7 - Average family has 1.2 children in Germany.
6 - Bunny rabbits, and mole holes EVERYWHERE.
5 - Thousands of years of history vs. hundreds of years of history
4 - Freedom of choice vs. little choice (work and school)
3 - German's idea of having fun is drinking and talking. (legal drinking age is 16)
2 - No customer service in Germany
1 - Socialism vs. Capitalism!

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Take a minute and listen! (sound is must for this)

Larsen Family growing and growing

The Larsen family continues to get bigger. We have 2 new additions to the family:

IAN JUSTIN LARSEN
Happy parents: Justin and Alesa Larsen

Addition #2 is Dallas's beautiful new wife:

BRITTANY FOSTER LARSEN

We are so happy that our family continues to get larger and larger. We are so lucky to have such a great family (on both sides). We love you all and miss you!

Football Coach

GO MUNSTER MAMMUTS!!!
(Posted by McCord)
For those of you who don't already know this, I have been hired to coach the recievers and quarterbacks of the Munster Mammuts (Mammoths) football team, here in Germany. We're getting ready to start the season and we've got a long way to go before we're ready. In the past, there has been one coach and no support from the administration. This year however, we now have 5 coaches, a new benifactor that has given us some money for new equipment, and some new players. The new administration has been working very hard by getting us some news conferences, posting some pictures in the newspapers, as well as helping us with some recruiting from the surrounding areas. I just wish that everybody would show up to every practice. That would be sweet! However, Germans are not used to being pushed. They're also not used to getting hit. One of my recievers has a bruised arm that the doctor said is going to take him out for 6 weeks. It's crazy. On a positive note, one of my recievers, who has never played football before this year approached me and said, "I have played soccer for 20 years and have accomplished many things. I have not had a team that I felt like was my family. I want to be here for MY team." This is a point that the coaches have tried really hard to stress. So we must be doing something right. This league is what they call a division 4 league. They are good here they have the opportunity to move up to a professional level. So we are doing our best to teach them the skills that they will need to be successful. We'll see how the season goes once we're actually able to put 11 guys on each side of the field. More later...

End of March classes

Today marks the end of a great first teaching experience for both of us. The students took their test today and most of them did fantastic on the written and speaking part, which was graded by us.
This is McCord's class. He says that he really enjoys teaching. Especially this class. He says that he will miss them.

My class is in the pictures below. I have one picture of the guys and one of us girls. We all went bowling together this last week and it was a blast. That's where the pictures were taken.

I have had such a great experience with these students and certainly will never forget them. I've loved our discussions on the differences between germans and americans, and the many other discussions we've had about life, family, religion, and politics. I wish each and every one of them the best of luck in their lives. I hope I have left a good impression. It's been super teaching. I also hope that I have converted at least a few of you to watch Chuck.

CARNIVAL SEASON!!!

Carnival Season is here! This week we will see tons of costumes and parades in every city. It's bigger than the 4th of July in America. Everybody dresses up in funny costumes. This was a parade that we went to in Wolbeck. Anine and tobias, friends from our branch brought us to their house for the parade. the parade was marching right down the street in front of their house, so we opened the windows and cheered from the inside. Sarah and I went upstairs and they threw candy etc up to us.

All the kids waited at the window of their house and people threw candy to them.

This is Anine and Tobias' youngest daughter, Sophia.

I tried to get the best picture I could of the crowd that attended this small town's parade. It was packed everywhere.

Many and many crazy, drunk dancing in colorful or political costumes. They throw out shots to the adults and candy to the kids. There was an Obama float, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Inside each float was at least 12 cases of beer. They go nuts over this traditional holiday. This boat had the most beer inside, I think.

I had to take a video of the crazy chic conga line:

The girls, at carnival, cut the guys ties and give them kisses. I assume these girls were doing a lot of that. The LDS missionaries are allowed to take their ties off for carnival week.

Koln Chocolate Factory/Museum

The chocolate museum in Koln was the next stop after the Dome. We started by all going up in a "Willy Wonka elevator". Looks like it, doesn't it? The first floor was all about the history of chocolate. Sarah and I are by the staue trying to be silly like her.

The second floor was all about how they make the chocolate. The assembly line and workers. We went from where they put the cocoa beans through a grinder, then through a series of adding things process. They mixed it up in an ginormous automatic mixer, which was fun to watch. This is where the chocolate was put into the trays.

After that, then the little chocolate bars go through the chilling chambers and come out to this point. Those 2 black rods twist each tray like you would an ice cube tray.

Then it's dumped into out of the trays down to get wrapped. Check out the video. It shows how it wraps the candy:

This is the machine that they put chocolate in when molding the chocolate into things:

Then it goes down a shoot to the ladies that put them in bags and sell them to us. And POOF chocolate! Mmm. So good.

They had a fantastic chocolate fountain. It was a tree made of cocoa pods and it drizzed chocolate out of 6 little tubes and also a big drain. We got free samples dipped in this fountain. The chocolate in Germany is the best. They don't add wax like they do in the states. Mmm.

They had blocks that you could pull up to see how much chocolate different countries eat compared to each other. Check out how much the states have vs. Germany. (and they say we are fat because of chocolate...pft)

After the chocolate museum, we walked around Koln and down the Rhine River for a bit. Check out their curbs:

This is my favorite picture of the trip. This picture says so much. Tristan and McCord have been best friends for years. They have both meant so much to each other and helped each other out in many indescribable ways. This picture of them walking tells it all. It was a candid shot and they can just talk forever together. Priceless!

Carnival season is here! Everybody dresses up in funny costumes even a week before the celebration day. "to get ready for carnival" is what they say. They also drink a lot to get their bodies ready for the huge carnival where there is more beer than ever. These are pictures of some fun costumes (above and below)

After walking around Koln after we visited the Dome and saw all the fun people all over, we went into a "cafe" for some REAL GERMAN CAKE! Here are some pictures of this "cafe". It looked like the inside of the Ritz hotel, and the cake in germany is heavenly, just amazingly delicious!

This "cafe" was simple gorgeous. It's how I imagine a plaza hotel to look like with crystal everywhere, white and felt chairs, mirrors all around reflecting the enchanting lights, gold lining everything. There was also a live piano and violin playing to set the mood even more. I managed to swipe some pictures casually, with no one noticing.

After the cafe, we started on the train ride home. Here's a picture of us on the train home:

This is random, but I thought I'd take a picture of the public trash cans in the train station. They all have the separate bins for the rubish (as the British would say)