We had a nice, easy going week at home. Matt and I are both getting Lasik, and I went first this week. I was so nervous, I made the choice not to read anything about the procedure prior to my appointment in order to avoid scaring myself out of it. My appointment was at 2pm on Friday. We showed up at about 1:30 and they were able to take me back early. The procedure was quick, and they propped me up to look at the clock once it was over- I could see it said 2:15pm! I was so relieved that it was over, I sobbed for about 10 minutes. After a short recovery at the doctor’s office, we were back home by 3:30.
I do have to report that it was not the painless procedure I expected it to be. The burning in my eyes was so intense by the time we got home. As it turns out, Lasik surgeries performed in the US are accompanied by a prescription pain reliever. In Germany, they advise you to get by with over the counter Tylenol and Ibuprofen. As I had chosen not to do any research beforehand, I had not taken any. I did get a dose in as soon as we were home and used several ice packs until the burning and pain were under control. I had also expected to sleep until the next day once I returned home. Instead however, I had to put in eye drops every 20 minutes, alternating antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and lubrication drops. Finally at 8pm, I was able to go to sleep for the night and slept until late Saturday morning.
Brooklyn had her last tennis matches of the season on Saturday. Matt dropped her off early so she could set up with the team and instructed her to send us a text when she was up next- I really wanted to see her play one last time. By mid-morning, we hadn’t heard anything so Matt checked in and she replied that she was already done! Her turn had come up really quickly and she didn’t have time to text. She won and had really dominated the other player this time too! We were so disappointed to have missed it, but so happy that she finally had a singles’ match win under her belt. She had a doubles match scheduled for the afternoon so we were hopeful we could see that after my follow-up appointment with the eye surgeon.
We made our way back to Stuttgart for my follow-up appointment. By then, I was starting to be a little worried about my eyesight. For background, I had really, really bad vision beforehand. My prescription was -6.75 (close to blindness) and meant that they needed to use a special laser called the Femto. Everyone I knew who had done laser, told me how amazing it was to wake up the next morning with clear vision. That did not happen for me though. I woke up and definitely could see way better, but still not clearly. I didn’t need to walk around anymore using my hands to feel along walls, but things started to get fuzzy about 10 feet away. As we drove to the appointment, I noticed that I could not read the road signs. Once there, I was unable to read the two bottom lines on the eye chart. The doctor said that things could still get better though. Keep using the drops as directed, and we would check again next week.
We rushed back to the High School to try and catch Brooklyn’s doubles’ match. At this point, it was pouring rain. A little while after we got there, her second match was called off. It was a pretty disappointing day.
Sunday when we got up, it was a beautiful day. I really wanted to get out of the house so we met some friends at the Echterdingen Krautfest. This is one of my favorite fall festivals. Kraut is the German word for cabbage and this festival celebrates literally everything about cabbages to a comical level.
Some of the cabbage themed activities included Cabbage Carols sung by cabbage singers, cabbage decorating, cabbage bands, and a group of cabbage horns. There was an open-air market and several tents and biergartens set up.
It was slightly chilly so several stands were selling homemade gluwein, the first of the season we’ve had.
The highlight of the day is the Kraut shredding contest. Contestants take turns shredding cabbage to see who can shred the most kilograms in one minute. This year, Matt decided to enter himself into the competition (after a lot of urging from me). After a long wait, it was finally Matt’s turn. Since he was the first American so far, he got a lot of attention from the presenter and the crowd. The presenter asked Matt where he was from and why he was there. Matt got huge laughs from the crowd when he said he was there because he loved ‘German culture,’ and because ‘My wife told me I had to do this, so here I stand.’ in perfect German.
When it was Matt’s time to go, everyone was cheering so loudly. Matt, proudly, was able to shred 11.3 kilograms of cabbage. The presenter told him he did a great job and also told him he spoke, ‘sehr gut Deutsch,’ or, “very good German.”
Afterwards, we celebrated with some Baileys on the Kraut Blatsch, aka Bailey’s out of a cabbage leaf, and enjoyed the rest of the festival before heading home for the evening.
Gilcrests Abroad 