10 January 1977 - Monday
We slept very late this morning (about 10:00) and I found out we had breakfast included with our room. We got down there at 10:45 and the waitress, whose English was quite limited, said we were too late but served us anyway. (She didn’t respond to “breakfast” but did to “petit dejuener”. We had rolls, honey, butter, salami, etc. I had discovered that I could not use my shaver. The sockets are too deeply recessed for the adaptor, and the holes are not right for the shaver switched to 220. I left breakfast early and bought a throwaway razor with which I managed to shave without bringing much blood.
This morning before breakfast I also called London -- Fairlawn Apts., and discovered they were holding our place but were waiting for our £20 deposit. Calling London is easy. The desk clerk gave me the London code, and I simply picked up the telephone in our room and dialed direct. (The bill will show up tomorrow)
It also occurred to us that we probably could send dome of our baggage on to London to the Fairlawn place. Thus, we began to repack and finally got down to where we could leave off two suitcases instead of taking all of them everywhere we went. [1]
The weather was rainy-misty again all day with temperature in the high 30’s or low 40’s.
Greg Jember met us at our room around noon and we walked toward the campus. The scenic route took us through the late medieval, old section with steep hills, and narrow cobblestone streets.
We visited the Stadtkirche (a large church) and walked around inside.
[Susanna's commentary- probably Stiftskirche]
Then we walked on to the part of the campus where Greg has an office, a new, very comfortable building.
We met Jörg Fichte, Profenn of Medieval English Literature and the man to whom Greg is responsible (he’s young, only about 36). He gave us advice on shipping suitcases (take them to station, show Eurailpass as ticket) to London. Also, he pointed out some problems with buying a Volkswagen (American specifications are different, cars are in limited supply, shipping may cost $400).
(Susanna's 2022 commentary: My uncle Tom had the idea to have my parents buy a Volkswagen in Germany and to ship it back to him. This turned out to be not worth the trouble and the idea was abandoned.)
At Greg’s building we each had a fruit-cola drink. Met an American girl from Berkeley (and N.D.) who recognized our speech but didn’t stay to talk much. We left Greg to walk back to our hotel.
We stopped at the Deutsche Bank on Wilhelmstrasse to send £20 to Fairlawn Apts. The banker I got couldn’t speak much English, and if another man who happened to have been standing there (a customer) had not translated for me I don’t think I would have got the message through. I finally did, I think, with a draught for enough Marks to cover the £20. I also exchanged another $100 for DMs.
Meanwhile Alice took Susanna back to the hotel, since she needed to go potty; she didn’t quite make it. When I got back I discovered I had lost the letter from Bob Stark at our Vermillion bank (as a reference, not needed) and that I had given the banker the wrong address in London (WW, II instead of W, II), I started back and found the letter in the hotel lobby-- the clerk had picked it up where I dropped it at the foot of the stairs, I went to the bank and had no trouble changing the address.
The next project was to take two suitcases to the train station and try to send them to London. I found the right place but the freight agent knew no English; this was my most serious language problem, but I finally got the job done; I’ll know for sure when we find the bags at Victoria Station in London. While I was doing this Alice and Susanna and looking at the big Zinsa Department Store across the street from the hotel.
Greg came by at 6:15 or so and we walked up to the Petrovit Restaurant for Yugoslavian (Jugoslävisch) food. We all had Serbish teller (a mixture of several grilled items), and after dinner some slivoritz (plum wine), in addition to adequate beer during the meal. Susanna had a good time playing non-verbal games with two young girls (9 or 10) with a family behind her. Susanna seems not to be aware that anyone should speak any way other than the way she speaks. She has learned to say “danke schön” and sometimes “auf wiedersehen.” But she also seems to have very little trouble making friends even when there is very little meaningful conversation.
When we returned to our hotel, we had another beer at the restaurant and then bade goodbye to Greg.
[1] There is a reference on page 28 of the hand-written journal that appears to be an orphaned reference “* DM 10,50 ( “ It likely referred to the cost of the phone call to London or the cost of the razor.
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