Heiko's Birthday

Dear Jack,

[Transcribed from handwritten journal. Links added for enhancement]

Today Heiko went to get his drivers' license, so I went with Jewe and JP to school. At school, Jewe was helping close down the computer lab, so JP and I were allowed to play computer games. We played "block Out". It is a 3-2 Tetris game. It was fun at first, but got boring quickly. At 11:30 we met Heiko at the front and he drove us home, but he had to go back for a math test, so I went to Jewe's house with JP next door.

[The families lives in a "Hof Complex". I was told that eight families built the complex around 1984 out of wood. Heiko's family and Jewe's family were part of the original eight families. The handwritten journal has a drawing of the complex layout.]

At Jewe's we talked, listened to music, and horsed around. Jewe has a linguistics computer that speaks English...so we tried af ew words and phrases. Around 1pm Jewe's step-mother Monica came home with Gypsy their dog...who had got to the vent to remove a cataract. Gypsy was out cold, and her tongue flopped deadly in the wind.

Monica's aunt came also. She was very nice and was born before the war. They fixed lunch for us of Hot Dogs, and hot potato salad with white asparagus. It was very good. The women went upstairs for a nap, and Jewe went to the bank. JP and I hung out till 3 when Heiko came and got me.

Back at home, Heiko's grandmother and cousins were visiting for Kaffee... a special one for Heiko's birthday. 5l3 made many treats...the best being Apfelstrudel. Hekio's aunts also came and two of his friends... Sabah his ex-girlfriend and Samona... a female friend. With everyone speaking at once, I started to loose interest and concentration.

At 7m Heiko drove to the 13th grade graduation. It was fairly formal with tables and servers. Heiko and I sat with Ute and the other teachers. There we ran into David and he joined me to talk. It was nice to have someone who I could understand. We then had a buffet and finished the commencement ceremonies. I must say I miss the non-smoking sections in the US. We got home around 13:30 am.