Monday, January 10

Today was Gloria’s Birthday! We all got up extra early so she could open her presents before leaving for school. She was so excited!

Mark made me some toast and tea and we watched CNN international where I learned the details of the Arizona shooting of the Congresswoman. She is still in critical condition, but at least still alive after being shot in the head. There was a similar shooting in Pakistan of a Governor, but people are praising the gunman instead of condemning him like in the US. The flooding in Australia will probably take years to subside. I think that's all the world updates I heard....

I ironed until I thought my arm would fall off! Then I played the piano a little bit and said hello to a visitor. I GOT TWO LETTERS FROM HOME! I was so excited!!!

Nancy and I went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and drinks for the kids we were picking up from school for Gloria’s birthday party. We got muffins, candy bars, and Capri suns. Mark met us at the school because we needed both cars to transport all the girls. Then we headed to the TV tower in Berlin. It is super high! We got to walk around the 360 degree windows. We could see all around the city of Berlin! Mark and Nancy pointed out certain landmarks to me and various historical buildings. I saw the ruins of the Franciscan monastery (which was originally built in the 13^th century), several churches, the original site of the kings’ palace before the Nazi’s destroyed it and across the street from that, the king’s church as well as his special hunting forest. You could see areas that were definitely East Berlin because all the buildings are exactly the same and very plain. The East Berliners weren’t allowed to have any advertisements on any of the buildings when the wall was still standing. I was also able to see various government buildings. The Lord gave us a wonderfully clear sky with a brilliant sunset and stars.

For dinner, we went to KFC. Most of the girls had never been there. From KFC, we took all the girls home, but there was traffic to contend with, so it ended up taking us an hour and a half to get back to the house. 

When we got home I promptly took a shower and shaved. I drank some hot water while doing a word search before hopping into bed. I was exhausted!