October 8 Offenburg

Today we are left Dresden and the Saxony region.  May times while we were there we ask ourselves is this real, or just a dream.  It is such a beautiful area and we got to see many interesting sights, although I am told we could have seen much more if we had the time. 

We started off the day by visiting the Saxon "Farm Bureau" and meeting the people who work there.  Jorg had a meeting in another town so he could not be there, our translator was a man who we had meet twice before (he was wearing the same sweat pants and shirt every time).  The translation was not so good, but the people were all very friendly and seems like they do much the same types of things that Farm Bureau in America does.  They have an "Ag in the classroom" type program, a PR department that works with the local newspaper, an on staff lawyer, and they lobby elected officials.  They loaded us up with gifts (after we had just mailed home boxes on the way there), and fed us a wonderful breakfast that we were not expecting.  As we were driving to the Train station, we heard someone honking at us, Paul had left his computer at the office and they had chased us down to return it.

We were almost 7 hours on the train to get to Offenburg, these train rides are a great opportunity to catch upon writing, and sleeping.  It helps us survive the busy schedule at each location.  We were met at the train station by Thomas, who we had met earlier in Berlin.  He drove us to our hotel were we had dinner and visited, Thomas showed us his pictures from America and talked abut his experience in the fellowship last year.  We were wondering what Germans would want to see in America, to us it seems like we got the best end of the deal.  He talked about the wide open fields of Kansas and California, and the sugar cain and craw fish from Louisiana.  He even got to see Occupy Wall Street in New York, which he said was a disappointment because there were not nearly as many protesters as the media reports said (welcome to American media).  He said he would have liked to seen the Grand Canyon, they have nothing comparable to it in Europe.  I guess it just depends on your perspective and what you have grown up with.  It sounds like the Fellowship is equally fascinating for both countries.