Week Three: The Cemetery

Gotta say guys, not much happened this week. Not much at all, but that's okay! Next week looks to be an exciting one. This week I mostly worked on scholarships, and getting the job situation settled. Speaking of the job situation, I now have one. Yay!

I work for....Burger King! That's right, Burger King. This is the glorified job of a college student who will one day be an aerospace engineer. I'm going to stick to it of course. It's going to be tough, because my dislike of fast food is pretty up there, but at least it will be a job. Supposedly I'll be working in the evening, huzzah.

Let's see. I also took two walks throughout town this week. I managed to get only marginally lost on both, but I quickly found myself again. The first one, I was admittedly exploring where we live. I think I may head in the opposite direction next time. We seem to live somewhere on the outskirts. I can't tell exactly.

The second walk I took with the little sis. We headed up the the graveyard nearby for about an hour. Let me tell you, American graves have nothing on German graves. In fact, in comparison, American graves are weak and puny, with certain notable exceptions. These graves had flowerbeds, bushes, trees, statues, garden statues, and were for the most part incredibly well tended.

They almost all had a spot for a candle on them. There is some significance to this, for religious reasons but I don't quite understand what. According to the little sis they stick a candle in and light it every 5, 10, and 15 years after the death, but when my dad's wife tried to explain it to me it was a no go. Didn't understand at all. Anyone want to weigh in on this one?

They had family gravestones as well. One that we say had five people buried there. They all had the same last name, and we were a little confused.

Have to say though, these people know how to treat a dead person right. The graves were gorgeous and it was more like a walk through the park than it was a walk through a cemetery. Either way, it was an alright way to spend a day. The oldest thing we say there looked to be some sort of memorial stature. A soldier on the back of a rearing horse, with the dates 1914-1918 listed. The words were too faded to read, but I'm assuming it's a World War one memorial to soldiers who died in battle.

Amusingly enough, the soldier seemed to be spearing an alligator or a crocodile. No I could not tell which, erosion had seen to that. I'm still not certain which it was.

There were no super old graves there. The oldest we say were from the seventies. Apparently, the local tradition is that you rent the burial plot and once the rent is up the bones are dug up and crushed, and the gravestone removed as well. This makes it available for another burial.

My inner historian gasps at the lost history of course, but it would rather explain a lot. Besides, I can almost understand this. Otherwise they might have more graves than they did people, considered the age of Germany.

But it has taken away my home of seeing any really, really, really old graves. Oh well. I can always go back to the US for that one, or perhaps to another European country.

One Final Byte: I wouldn't mind flowers planted over my grave.