HEY!

I miss you!

Post #45

After nap on Monday, we hung out with Mira and Heather and then all cooked dinner together!

On Tuesday, Benji went to Kindergarten in the morning with Sibylle again. I stayed home and baked some bread! After K, Benji went to Obermarkt to get picked up my Opa. Heather and I were going to spend the afternoon in Mannheim, but it was pretty bad weather, so we didn't end up going. We stayed here, bleached her hair, rode the bikes to buy Moritz a birthday present, and then headed to Neustadt. We bought a DVD-player for her new apartment with Alex and then hung out until Robert got off work. He met us at a pizzeria, which was delicious. After this, we met up with Mathias and hopped on the train to Kaiserslautern for Moritz's birthday evening of fun. On the train, we met his friends Pablo and Anita. We hung out at his new flat for a bit and then headed out on the town for the rest of the night, which was pretty fun. His friend Pablo gave him a coconut with Moritz's face drawn on it for his birthday--weird? When we got back to the flat, Heather and I immediately passed out in our sleeping bags, and the others started putting lotion and cream all over us! Not cool at all!

Wednesday morning, Heather and I took stopped by the fruit store and bought some apples and oranges and then took the trains back to BD. Benji was just returning home from Kindergarten with Klaus when we got there, so then I took him over until nap time. During nap time, all of us slept--Benji, Heather, and myself! Moritz came over in the afternoon after nap to pick up Heather and take her back to Alex's house since he was getting home from the Army the next day. I made dinner for everybody, including Mira, which was our last real family dinner. : [

This morning, Benji went to Kindergarten with Sibylle, and I went to W.TH to help bottle, label, and box a million Rieslings! It was really interesting to be a part of, actually. I haven't done much with the wineries like that since I've been here, so I was glad to be able to do it. I went to the supermarket for the last time afterward to pick up stuff some to bake and cook for dinner tonight. When I got home, I baked two loaves of bread and some brownies. Sib and Benji got back from K and headed to W.TH to get picked up by Opa. My work with Benji is now over! How weird is that?! I've spent the day cleaning my room, packing, organizing the kitchen, baking, and cooking for tonight. Alex, Heather, Robert, and Moritz are on their way over to have dinner and bonfire night since it's my last night.

I can NOT believe this is my last post from my journey. My flight leaves tomorrow morning. Thankfully, Robert is driving me all the way to the Frankfurt airport since tomorrow is a "work-free" day in Germany.

Now on to the emotional part. This has certainly been the best opportunity that I have ever taken in my life. I have absolutely no regrets and have truly found myself as a person. I know who I am, what's important to me, and where I'm headed with my life. I want to thank EVERYONE who had ANY part in this happening--I couldn't have done it without you all. Thanks to all of my friends in Germany for showing me a good time and being here for me. I love you all and promise I will be back as soon as I can. If you ever find yourselves in America and/or Florida, know that you will ALWAYS have a home wherever I may be.

Until we meet again,

Tschüss...und ich liebe euch!

So viel Spaß.

Last Thursday, Benji and I went on a morning bike ride to Hit after doing a bit of cleaning. I'm so glad that the supermarket equally entertains both of us as much as it does! Moritz and Robert came over in the afternoon and hung out with me, Heather, and Benji. Benji and I had a dance party to Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan in the living room on the sofa! We also played in the sandbox and all that good stuff. Moritz played guitar for Benji (a real one--not Benji's broken, tiny, string less one!). I made up a soup, salad, and garlic bread dinner, but we ate inside because it was a bit chilly outside. Afterward, we built a fire outside and hung around, chatting and playing guitar. We all layed in the vineyards on blankets and looked for constellations for a little while, as well.

Friday, Benji and I road the bike up to the park in the middle of town and played around the fountains for a while. He really enjoyed climbing up and down and all around! We came back for lunch with everyone, and Benji 'drove' Heather and I home in the bus, haha. After lunch, we hung out waiting for Alex to come back from the Army to pick up Heather for the weekend. He showed up in his uniform, which was awesome/so ridiculous to see him in. I'm pretty jealous of the German flag patch, just sayin'. Mira's mom, Almut, came and picked her up for the weekend, as well, and this was the first time I met her, so that was cool. At night, I put on my dirndl and headed out to meet Heather, Alex, and Robert. I did some unnecessary walking to find them, though! We were heading to the first big winefest of the season up in Kallstadt, which is just past Ungstein. We stopped at this kid named Lukas's house and hung out before. Heather and I ended up falling on one another at this fest, and I ripped my dirndl! But it looks easily mendable, so no worries there. Moritz met us there and took us all home after--how nice!

Saturday, I had Benji in the morning because they're remodeling W.TH, so it's really loud and dusty everywhere...not good for him! We baked some muffins together, washed my sheets, and started going through my stuff and began packing some of it. Moritz came over after Benji's nap. We headed to Neustadt and met up with Robert and went to Globus--the super supermarket! We got some food for a BBQ and headed to Alex's house. We hung out there with Alex, Heather, and a couple of there friends for some hours. We all called it an early night, and Robert and I headed home. I got to talk to my brother that night, though, which is always good!

Sunday, I woke up early and made breakfast for everyone since it was my last Sunday. Benji, Klaus, Sib, and I left around 10 for a birthday luncheon in France! It only took an hour to get there, which is crazy but awesome at the same time. The luncheon ended up being a really fancy 6 course French meal in a fancy restaurant...not one any of us were expecting! Nonetheless, it was a cool experience. The actually tried really hard to give me good vegetarian courses, too, which was great. After (4 hours later!) if was over, we walked around the little town and enjoyed the nice weather and atmosphere. It was a really pretty town, so I now have a better impression of France...although I can't really compare this place to Paris, but still. We got home around 6, and Robert and Heather were here hanging out in the living room. The grandparents were on Skype, so Robert and I got to talk to them, haha. Too bad my silly webcam doesn't want to work with Skype anymore!

Today is Monday--the first day of Benji's first full week of Kindergarten! He only went once last week, but he's going every day this week with either Klaus or Sibylle. Next week, he starts going alone! I stayed here and did a little bit of cleaning, laundry, packing, and biked to the store to get some salad for lunch. And now it's naptime!

Canadians and Americans taking over Germany!

Friday night, I went to Neustadt with Robert, Alex, and Heather to the reopening of the disko that burned down a couple of months ago. There were lots of kids there, but it wasn't THAT exciting because it was nothing really special. Nonetheless, I guess it's exciting for the locals who only ever go to Aqua and now finally have something else to do (no offense, guys).

Saturday and Sunday were lovely days of doing absolutely nothing and just relaxing. We all slept in a little bit both days and just hung around the house. It was rainy and bad weather on Saturday, so we all got to chill and take it easy...a nice change to the usual! Sib was out at a meeting/wine tasting event that night, so it was just Klaus, Benji, and me for dinner most of the day and for dinner. We did some work on Sunday around the house and enjoyed our free time outside. I went on a pretty nice run, and I was very content with the weather returning to sunshine and warmth! For dinner, we had asparagus, which is my favorite vegetable. Asparagus season is really a big deal here, which makes me happy! We wrapped them in crepe-like pancakes and covered them in hollandaise sauce. Yum-o.

Monday, Benji and I spent the morning playing in the sandbox. I had my camera to take pictures of the spring here, and Benji took it and figured out how to use it. He was going around taking pictures and loving it. Around noon, Heather came to W-IH to stay for the week with us. Benji had just been picked up by Opa (the days switched because he went to Kindergarten the next day when he normally goes with the grandparents), so we had to figure out how to entertain ourselves. There was a big BBQ outside for all the winemakers in the region because they had spent the whole morning setting up bug confusers on all the vines. I have no idea what they're actually called, but I think my name is pretty fitting. We road the bikes up to Hit (supermarket) and figured out what to make for dinner (you can tell we were bored because this was like 3pm). When we got back, we went outside in the garden, sat on a blanket, listened to music, and bonded over things. It's so nice to have someone around like that who you can do simple things with whenever you want. When Benji got home, we were barbequeing for ourselves lots of vegetables, feta cheese, meats, garlic bread, salad, and a nice chocolate cake. It was lots of fun being able to cook together. We all ate outside under the big, blossomed tree and had a good time enjoying each other's company.

Tuesday was a morning of vacuuming and cleaning since we had made such a mess in the house already since the cleaning lady came on Friday. Heather worked for Klaus in the mornings in the vineyards. This is the day I found out we have no more gymnastics! There's been a 3 week break for Easter, but we can't go anymore because it restarted on the same day as Kindergarten. Benji went to Kindergarten with Sib for a couple of hours and came home around noon absolutely tired to the point of almost no return! He was so incredibly worn out that he couldn't even eat lunch and had to go straight to nap. Nonetheless, Sib said he seemed to have enjoyed himself there. Robert came over in the evening and had dinner with us. We sat outside again because the weather has been so lovely. When he went to catch the train home, it didn't come, so he had to walk all the way back to my house and sleep there! I was already sleeping and had no idea any of this happened until I woke up and Heather told me.

Wednesday was another Opa and Oma day, so Heather and I took the afternoon off and went to Kaiserslautern because Moritz just moved there. We road up to the train station on our bikes and headed over. Moritz picked us up and showed us around the town. We bought some strawberries, salad, and Flammkuchen. After eating, we headed to the park to hang out and play frisbee. We met some friends there with hip hop music, so we hung out with them...speaking in German and English at random intervals. I love it. I think that's what I'm going to miss the most. Nobody in America speaks German, and I'm scared that I'm going to lose most of it when I come home. When I do say anything there, people either get mad because they have no idea what I'm saying or just don't speak to me unless I promise to speak in English. Lame. Who wants to be my German speaking partner? Anyway, Heather and I took the last train home from K-town to BD. It was really interesting riding our bikes home at night since Heather suffers from night blindness, hahaha. We did end up making it in one piece, though. No worries there.

BAYERN

So I have lots of catching up to do for my virtual followers!

Last Thursday, as in April 8 (I know, I know...it's been so long...sorry!) was another Opa day. I spent my morning with Benji and then the afternoon cleaning, doing mine and Benji's laundry, baking brownies for Robert since he didn't get any cupcakes, getting back into running, biking to the post office, mailing stuff, and purchasing necessities for the upcoming trip to Bayern. I was cooking dinner when Klaus went to pick up Benji from Opa's house, and Sib came home with Andrea (the pregnant rower that I ran for in the half marathon). Apparently, they went to FRANCE for the day! Yeah, sometimes you can just do that in Europe. Awesome. They bought lots and lots of groceries. I had made black eyed peas and rice for them, but they added in a Flammkuchen and made a salad. We had a really later but fun dinner!

Friday was another good day. The weather was still beautiful! Heather arrived in Germany. Her and Alex headed over just as I was putting Benji to nap, but we both ran out and greeted her. She's pretty great, and it was awesome to finally meet in person instead of just talking on the internet. They left pretty soon because she was extremely jet-lagged, but I that happens when you jump 9 hours into the future! Sib also came home around this time and got to see her, as well. Everyone had Friday off for Karfreitag, which is the same as our Good Friday, so she took over Benji for the afternoon while her and Klaus did yard/garden work. I spent the rest of that day baking lots of loaves of bread for experiments and for Mira's get together she was having that night, including banana, chocolate, and cinnamon. Yum! After dinner, Alex, Heather, and Robert all came back over. Robert had to try the banana bread because he thinks that's a REALLY weird thing to make, even though it's probably one of the most common where I'm from AND really, really delicious. He secretly loved it. We spent the evening hanging out with Sib and Klaus and spying on Mira's small party. They were making bread by the fire outside and sleeping there, as well. I still say it's too cold for sleeping outside, though!

Saturday morning, the Fischers came and picked me up to head to Bayern (Bavaria), which is the southeast region of Germany (and the place I've ALWAYS wanted to go to). We left around 10am, stopped for lunch on the way, and probably arrived around 2pm, so it wasn't too bad of a drive. When we got there, I then realized what it must be like when British English speakers try to speak with extremely country American English speakers...because this dialect was REALLY hard to understand! Even Sib and Klaus said they don't get it. So, Robert and I wanted to bake, and we asked the little farmer's wife if we could have a pan...only I couldn't understand her, so Robert was being our translator. The farmer came over and was like, "Doesn't she speak?" and I replied, "Yes...just Hochdeutsch and Pfaelzisch" He laughed, and from then on, he spoke very slowly to me, ha. The cake ended up turning out lovely, and we also made a loaf of bread out of some too-watery-pretzel dough, but it was still good. We went on a bike adventure, played a little bit of soccer, and also explored the farm, which consisted of a fish farm, two horses, two giant bunnies, three cats, and lots of pigs. We had dinner outside by the fire in a little log cabin they had, which was awesome. There's a little girl, the farmer's granddaughter, who's Benji's age and SO cute/smart/hilarious/entertaining. I played with her whenever I got the chance! She called me American, told me lots of stories, explained the playing cards' designs, and even did a little bit of yodeling--great!

Sunday was Easter, so we walked up to the local cloister for the service. It was really interesting to be there, watching all the rituals and listening to everything in German. We were there for about an hour and a half, and I'd say it was a good experience...not many people get to do that (where I come from). Robert and I went back to the house, broke open our Kinder Easter eggs, played with the toys inside, and then made some successful Americanized pretzels (I know--such a daring thing to do in Bavaria, the land of pretzels and beer). We also played our new battleship game, but it was really hard, so we cut the board in the half! Saves paper...gives us more games...and makes us less stressed, haha. After lunch, we went to go golfing, which I haven't done in ages, so that was fun. After golfing, we went to a small village and had some Italian ice cream--my first since I've been here! It was actually pretty good, even though I don't so much like ice cream at all. When we got back, Robert and I went on another bike adventure to a river with a rock-like bridge across it, where we hung out for a while. When we got back to the house, we went out with the parents to another small village for some really Bavarian dinner. We walked around a little bit after and then headed home. We hung out at the house but, again, headed to bed early after a jam-packed and fun-filled day of activities!

Monday morning, we got up and headed to the train station with Herr Fischer to leave for Munich. We had a bit of a delay with the train as they were working on the tracks, but we still made it to Munich around noon or so. We locked our bags up at the hostel and headed to the inner city to get some lunch at Vapiano! This is the same place we went in Stuttgart with mom, Aunt Debbie, Lucas, and Benji when they were all here. We then walked around the city (all the stores and everything were closed because it was Easter Monday) and explored all over the place. We ended up in the Englischer Garten, where we happened upon a group of guys surfing in the river that flows through it. There were actually some decent waves in there, so I think it was a pretty great idea. Apparently, they do this like every day. Why not?! We then headed to the art museum to see an exhibit Robert had heard about. It was a guy portraying America through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, so that was interesting to check out. He did a pretty good job putting those eras straightforwardly, actually. We went back to the hostel and checked into our room and rested for a couple of minutes before we then headed to find the Olympic stadium and the park that's all around it. We hung out there for a while, taking in the sights and all. We went back to the inner city and attempted to find movie theaters to look for showing of The Fast & the Furious 4, but we couldn't find any, so we went to dinner. It's asparagus season now, so we had some delicious asparagus for dinner! We were then advised a movie theater to go to, and there it was! It was beginning right when we got there--how perfect. Let's just say watching my favorite movie in German in Munich was probably the best part of this trip, haha! No, but it was really good. I wanted to see it so badly, and this made it all the more better! Afterward, we walked home and headed to bed--exhausted once again!

Tuesday, we woke up around 8, got showered, and headed down to breakfast. The first adventure we went on was to find the Schloss Nymphenburg, the big castle in Munich. It was SO big and had an even bigger garden going all around it, which we walked through after checking out the ridiculous building. We went back to the inner city because we wanted to do a bit of shopping now that everything was open. I found and purchased a Dirndl dress! Yes--my life is now complete. We had another very Bavarian lunch to regain some energy and then went shopping more. I got lots of souvenirs and presents for the family. There was the Bayern Muenchen vs. Barcelona soccer match that night, so there were fans all over the place drinking, singing, and going crazy. Bayern Muenchen is apparently a really good team, but I don't know much about soccer, so I won't say anything other than I know that they lost, haha. We climbed to the top of a church tower and took in another view of the city, which was amazing. I said that I feel like all I ever do in Germany is go up, up, up! We shopped some more, got some Italian ice cream again, and then headed back to the hostel to put all our purchases away. We headed to the Olimpiapark once again to hang out and so that Robert could take pictures since he didn't have his camera the day before. We then headed to meet up with Jan Fred, one of the really nice guys from the half marathon, who lives in Munich. We met him and his wife and headed to a Biergarten. I mean, I guess you can't go to Munich without going to a Biergarten! It was lots of fun and totally how I imagined it would be. AND the pretzels were like half as big as me, which was awesome since I love pretzels. His wife's also really nice and studies/works in the same field as I do. It was cool because our common language was English, but it was four people from four different countries hanging out together. Jan Fred is from Holland; his wife is from Finland; Robert is from Germany, and I'm from America. It's great how stuff like that falls into place! His wife went home early, but we stayed and watched the first half of the soccer game. When Bayern Muenchen's loss was inevitable, we decided to call it a night and headed our separate ways.

Wednesday, we woke up and had breakfast, checked out of our room, locked up our bags there again, and then headed to the O2 (a cell phone company) tower, where Jan Fred works. It's the tallest building in Munich, we got to have another view...again! On the way, we took the tram to somewhere not even close with poor directions from the hostel worker. We ended up walking for 45 minutes after that when we could have just walked from the hostel in less time in the first place! Oh, well. There was a man on his bike who stopped us when we were almost to the tower. He told us that this part of the city wasn't anything special nor was it beautiful and that we should turn around and go back into the inner city! We told him we were just visiting a friend in the O2 tower, and then he biked away. So weird. The view was pretty cool...every view has been different. It seems like it'd get old, but it doesn't! We then went back to the inner city again to grab some truffles and chocolates I had spotted the day before as well as search for the infamous Hofbrauhaus, which we successfully found. It was so incredibly Bavarian, and we ended up having lunch there. There were some local old guys there having lunch. We discovered that have lockers for their Biersteins...so awesome/a good idea. I watched one friend get there later, head to the locker, pull out his Bierstein, and sit down and have some beer with his buds at a Stammtisch, which is like a reserved table for regulars. Love it! Not to mention they were all wearing Lederhosen and Bavarian-style hats. I decided Dirndls and Lederhosen are definitely my favorite attire...ever. Not that I didn't think this before, though! We went back to the hostel to grab our bags and head to the train station. We were so sad to leave this city! It was definitely my favorite trip thus far in my life. We got into Mannheim around 5:30. I caught a street car around 6 and got into BD around 7, where I walked home and then prepared dinner. Normally, Wednesday is Klaus's night, and Tuesday is mine, but we switched this week. Thanks, mom, for the easy yellow rice dinner since I couldn't think by this point about what to make!

Thursday, I had Benji for the whole day because Opa came on Wednesday instead since I was gone. There were some old bananas on the counter, so we immediately made banana bread! Benji and I went on a bike ride to the supermarket and picked up a few necessities. The weather turned bad that afternoon, so we just stayed inside and played after he woke up from nap. I put up five albums worth of pictures from the trip on facebook, so you guys should all check them out. Then, I made dinner, which included some delicious homemade parmesan wheat bread bruschetta. So good with a leek & potato soup recipe that I got from Emeril!

Friday, we woke up to clouds and rain. This was okay since we'd been having such beautiful weather for weeks--I guess it was time for a little water and an inside day! Benji and I baked some delicious chocolate brownies, did some vacuuming and cleaning of my room while the cleaning lady did the rest of the house, and watched some German cartoons. We had lunch with Arved and Lukas (Klaus's workers) inside since it was bad weather outside. They were really entertained by Benji the whole time! This was the last time I saw/will see Arved, which is weird. I was caught off-guard by already having to say goodbye to someone! Not okay. I can't believe how quickly this has gone by at all. Nonetheless, it's been the best experience/opportunity that I've ever had and taken, and I'm so thankful for every day I've had here. I miss all you guys, gals, and animals back home, though, and wish I could just ship you all here!

Berlin!

All right, SO I went to Berlin on Friday night with Lutz. We picked up Angie and little Christian in Mannheim and then drove to Nürnberg to pick up Manfried (sp?), who took the train there from Munich, where he lives. We continued on through the night, a good 600km to Berlin from the start, and we arrived around 2am. We dropped off Angie at her friend's place and headed to our stop. We stayed with family friends, a woman and her boyfriend and her two 18 year old twin sons. Only one of the sons, Vito, was awake when we got in. The boys all decided to drink schorla and bond until 5am! I couldn't believe it--after that drive and then running the race the next day. I stayed up until 4am, but then I had to call it quits seeing as I wasn't drinking NOR do I drink coffee to keep me up!

On Saturday, everyone, of course, woke up really late. But I got up at 9 and met the mom and had breakfast with her. Little Christian awoke shortly thereafter, but the other two slept in until noon. We hung around while they ate breakfast/lunch, and the little Christian and I set out on the city to go sightseeing. Lutz and the others went to pick up our numbers for the race, watch Vito's soccer match, and go to the sailing club. Little Christian and I went straight through the city, hitting all of the major sites. We even crossed over from West to East Germany! Haha. My feet were definitely hurting already at the end of this day, though, because Berlin is sooo big. We visiting the Victory tower, Holocaust Museum, Brandenburg Gate, Parliament, Castles, the Dom...you name it! It was a beautiful day, as well, so that made it even more enjoyable. We met the other back at the house around 6 or so and hung out for a while, putting our feet up. We went out to dinner at a pizzeria nearby the house. Big Christian finally arrived and met us there later around 10 or so. We all loaded up on our carbs before the big race and headed back around 11:30 to get some rest.

Sunday was race day! We all awoke just before 8 in the morning. All the boys decided to eat spaghetti with pesto for breakfast...pass! I had some fruit and rice cakes with peanut butter, and that was good enough for me. They also had coffee! No, thanks. I had my water! We set out to the train just after 9 and rode into town. When we got there, there were tons of people everywhere. The rollerbladers were warming up, and the handicapped people were getting ready to go. The little kids were also about to do their fun run! We figured out where to drop off our bags and decided on a place to meet. Everything was in order, so we found our starting point in section E. Little Christian was in section D because he's super fast. He beat us all by a long shot! We started out together and were like that for a while, but since they're all SO TALL, I couldn't keep up with my short legs. There were about 5 stations for water, tea, and EMS throughout the whole route. It was actually really awesome because it started out running through the Brandenburg Gate and then on through historic and scenic Berlin. At the same time, it was also REALLY hard because 21km is quite far to run. There were lots of people on the sidelines the whole way cheering, playing music, taking pictures, and collecting clothing shed from their running friends. I was listening to my Zune the whole time, though, because there wasn't constant music going on. I FINALLY finished with a time of 2 hour and 30 minutes, which really isn't so bad with all things considered. The other boys were about 20 minutes faster than me, but little Christian finished with a time of 1 hour and 46 minutes! So ridiculous. At the end of the race, you could see your time in the overhang. Right after passing through, they handed you a medal. There were stands for water, bananas, tea, and beer. Yeah, beer. Only in Germany, am I right? Who drinks beer after running 21km?!

So we got our bags and met up at the dedicated area, some big fountain. Angie and her friend were there--apparently they watched us run or something. We all went back to the house, showered and rested for a couple of minutes, and then headed to the sailing club. What a beautiful place! I was so excited to be on the water again. We sat in the sailboat for a while and visited with everybody as the sun went down. Ah, that was nice. Then, we split up and headed our ways home. We took Manfried back to Nürnberg, and then I got dropped off at W-IH around 1am.

Monday was REALLY hard to do ANYTHING at all! My whole entire body--especially my legs--were completely dead. Let's just say Monday involved a lot of sitting around and barely even leaving the house--we only left to go outside, and even then I just sat and watched Benji play. He understands, though. He kept telling me the story of how I was gone running on the weekend and now my legs hurt, haha. So funny. For dinner, I finally made the quesadillas using the tortillas mom sent. I drained the black bean soup I made last week and stuck them inside with some cheese. They were a hit with salsa and quark! Then, I went for a 20 minute walk just to get the blood flowing in my legs again. It was pretty hard to do, haha. I pretty much crashed in bed immediately after that.

So there was no gymnastics on Tuesday for the Easter holiday or something...even though Easter isn't until Sunday. Whatever. Benji still got picked up by Opa around noon, though. A SWEET Easter package came from my mom with LOTS of cool stuff in it for me and Benji to play with! I headed into town after lunch and mailed some boxes home. ONLY the post office is closed for lunch from 12:30-14:00, so I had to wait around for like 50 minutes until they opened again. I also got a bunch of postcards from Berlin mailed out. After, I rode up to the supermarket and got some important items needed for baking like eggs, yeast, and vegetable oil! I came home and immediately baked the Easter cupcakes from mom, decorated then with yellow frosting and sprinkles, and set them on a bed of green Easter grass (imported from Germany to America and mailed back to Germany, haha). Then I spent the rest of the day relaxing and cleaning up since I'd been gone so long, and the house was now almost a mess! Dinner consisted of test tasting a bunch of items for the After-work parties that Klaus is having for his winery. We had Quiche Lorraine, some broetchen, and some cheeses...and Klaus tried some wurst! Then we all hung out for a while before heading in for the night.

TODAY is Wednesday! Benji and Sib woke up really late today. When they got into the kitchen, he discovered his new Easter surprises from my mom. We pretty much had to immediately go outside and start blowing bubbles, haha. This was after a breakfast filled with a hopping bunny across the table! We also grew the dinosaurs from the little eggs, which he (and Klaus) thought was neat. He's now taking a nap, and we're heading up to W.TH after nap to have a play date with some boys, and they're going to eat cupcakes (not sure Sib will let Benji eat one, though)!

http://www.berlin-vital.de/2009fruehjahr/halbmarathon.en.php

I am participating in the Berlin half-marathon on Sunday--woohoo!
But I'll first pick up where I left off blogging.

Starting with Sunday! In the morning, we worked out in the garden because it was FINALLY nice, spring-like weather. We cleared out all the old leaves, raked, swept, scrubbed, plucked, etc. It was actually pretty fun, and I definitely enjoyed the sun and warmth. After lunch, I went to Neustadt with Sib and Andrea to visit the Hambacher Schloss again. Sib is renovating the wine tasting room at her winery, and one of the architects told her to check out the doors and railing at this castle, so we did! We ended up not really liking it, though. We then drove all over the town for a while looking at every house we went back and taking pictures of ones we liked. We got home, and I went running while Sib made dinner, and we spent the night in watching a little bit of Elmo.

Monday was an easy day for Benji and I. We went on a bike ride, played outside in the sunshine, on the swing, and in the sandbox! I then went on a run in preparation of the half marathon. Mira made a dinner of potato pancakes with broccoli--pretty good. Tuesday was time for gymnastics again, and the theme was animals. We played with lots of animal toys and sang songs about animals (in German), and it wasn't so bad. We visited W.TH afterward, but Benji and I rode the bike home because Oma and Opa were out of town all this week on vacation in Spain (lucky). So we came home, had lunch with Klaus, took a nap, woke up, and did just what we did on Monday--playing and running! Benji has been watching me run, and now he talks about it all the time and runs around with his arms up just like me--hilarious. I made dinner this night--yellow rice and carrots, thanks to mom for the yellow rice. Wednesday was another beautiful day, I'm happy to say. We went bike riding and sandbox playing, coloring outside, running around--the usual. Klaus took Benji over early so I could go on an hour and a half run to see if I could make it, and I did! It actually wasn't bad at all, and I enjoyed it (I can hear the comments coming from my mom right now about hating running). Klaus made spaghetti with brussel sprout sauce for dinner, and boy did I eat a lot of it after that run. Then I took a shower and pretty much crashed for the night. Thursday was AGAIN beautiful (this is awesome) and went down just like any other day.

Friday was the day I left for Berlin!

Happy birthday to Luke week!

Tuesday, we went to gymnastics, and it was the last day the helper boy was going to be there. A couple of weeks ago, the kids made a t shirt for him with all their hand prints and names on it, and they gave it to him this past Tuesday. He pretty much loved it, haha. The theme was Bobby Cars, so everyone brought in their various types of automobiles and rode around the whole time. The sun was in and out on this day, but I did manage to run home from W.TH in a little bit of sunshine to W-IH. I then went to class, where we did a lot of reviewing since this was the last week. After class, I came home and made some dinner, as usual (a spinach, cauliflower, and zucchini soup--yum).

Wednesday, I went for an hour run, and it's actually not any harder than running for 30 minutes. In fact, it's almost easier to just keep going! I, surprisingly, enjoyed it a lot. Who thought I'd EVER say that about running?! That night, Klaus had a meeting, so it was just me, Sib, and Benji. I made rice with grilled veggies (since Klaus was gone), and we got to try the hot sauces from Tijuana Flats again. We definitely thought those were going to last a lot longer than they did! After, we watched the end of Elmo and Grouchland--loved it!

Thursday was Luke's 24th birthday! Happy birthday, best brother in the whole wide world! He thinks he's old, but he's definitely not. He said he's just "too close to being on the wrong side of 25," haha. Despite the fact that it was his birthday, it was not good weather at all! Opa picked Benji up at the normal time, and I went to class in the rain (I waited until the HAIL stopped) and took a test since it was our last 'real' day. I only made one mistake on the whole thing! Awesome. The guys were here installing some more solar panels for Klaus, as well. Those are a really good investment here, I hear. When I got home, Klaus made dinner for me since I made dinner on Wednesday (his night), and Sib came shortly thereafter from Yoga. We started watching Elmo's World Wild Wild West, but it's definitely not as good as the movie, and I don't really think Klaus liked it at all! Oh, well. All that matters to Benji is that Elmo's there, haha.

Friday was another cloud-filled day with random sprinkles, but Benji and I still went outside and played in the puddles (his favorite thing to do with his new rain boots on). When he was napping, I went to class for the very last time! It was just a day to learn about everyone else and their home countries. We brought in pictures, stories, etc. to share with the people in the class. We had to do interviews with each other, and I was partnered with the guy, Zia, from Iraq. It was a pretty interesting interview! Question #4: "What is there to do in your home country?" Answer: "War. Period!" And then we both laughed. It's great that we could joke about it, although it is sad. I was pretty scared of saying something wrong, but it turns out we have the same feelings about the country, so it's all good. After class, the Chinese kid asked me to go with him to find some clothes, hahahah. I told him I had to get home soon, but I joined him for about 30 minutes. So funny. I ended up advising that he buy a green shirt and a purple shirt--which he did! My favorite colors. After this, I went home, and Benji and Klaus were playing outside. We headed to the supermarket shortly thereafter and got lots of goodies. I got a permanent marker, as well, to address the 3 boxes of stuff I packed yesterday to send home so I don't have to worry about it in a month. I'll probably ship them out next Tuesday or something. It's really weird to put my name in both the return and ship to address areas but with different addresses! For dinner, I made some yellow Spanish rice (courtesy to my mom) with some carrots and a salad with special European winter lettuce (mom and Aunt Debbie should remember this). After, I FINALLY got to talk to Valaree! It's been too long. I'm currently planning a trip up there in May for a couple of days, and we're both pretty excited about that--seeing as she's not going to be home until AUGUST! I also got to talk to mom, who's up in NC for the weekend seeing Luke off to Iraq. I'm sad I can't be there for that, but I hope you guys have a great time anyway!

Now it's Saturday morning, a bit overcast, and I'm getting ready to go on a run. Got to wait for the breakfast from 2 hours ago to settle for a little bit longer, though. And then who knows what the day holds!

Monday to Monday!

SO last Monday was the first of a week full of beautiful days, and boy was I ever glad for that! Benji and I took a long walk in the morning and stopped by the post office to get some package paper and stamps. I'm trying to figure out what I should mail home before I attempt to come back with everything--it was too heavy coming here in the first place! We had a good lunch with Klaus, and he put the kid's seat on my bike at night. Mira's friend Anna came over and helped her cook dinner, and then we all hung out together for a while.

Tuesday was gymnastics again! The theme was "Luftballoons", so we had to blow up a bunch of balloons when we got there to play with. I was pretty much already tired of balloons since Benji's birthday was the Saturday before, so we still had them all over the house. Not to mention I don't like balloons in the first place...anyway. It was lots of fun. The teacher was talking to me about tattoos for a good bit of it. She said she wants her next one to be a snail...hm. She also said her husband wants a Snoopy...hm again. After gym, Opa picked up Benji at W.TH, and I ran back to Ungstein from there. It wasn't far enough, so I had to take a couple of detours. My key was sticking in the door, so we had to ring upstairs to this Opa. He came down to let me in and was just laughing--then he proceeded to tell me that door is difficult, especially is it's locked from the inside rather than the outside. I'm just glad there's a bell up to his lair! After lunch, I headed out to go to class, but my bike had no air in the tires! Luckily, Mira was in Heidelberg for the day, so I just took her bike because Klaus was gone at a seminar. I left class a bit early so Mira would have her bike to go to her mom's house when she got home. Sib was home late because she had some important meeting to attend, so we had dinner without her--some tasty tomato and cauliflower soup.

Wednesday was another beautiful day. We got some air in my tires first thing in the morning, and Benji and I headed out for a bike ride. We went into town to the supermarket and the shoe store and had lots of fun in both. It's so great to finally be able to bike anywhere with him as opposed to just being able to walk! After lunch and nap, we went to W.TH to celebrate Sib's 41st birthday! I baked a German Chocolate cake (it's not actually German--my mom sent the supplies from America!) and brought it over. Her parents, Lutz, and Angie joined me, Benji, Sib, Mira, and Klaus for tea/coffee and cake...only I just had water because of my fast! Lame. Is Easter here yet?! Anyway, I went back home with Mira and Klaus in Moritz's car. Moritz came over in the morning and borrowed Klaus's van to go get stuff from Ikea since he's moving. Let's just say riding in a tiny car with Klaus is hilarious! He hates "modern Autos", haha. When we got back, a couple of friends came over, and we had a big spaghetti dinner.

Thursday, we tried to go for another bike ride in the morning, but five minutes into it, Benji said it was "too windy" and that we had to go back to the "Hause", haha. So we just drove around on his birthday tractor instead. Opa didn't come this day because Heide (Klaus's sister/Peter's wife/Moritz's mom) was coming over to play in the afternoon. I left when he was asleep for class. When I came home, they were playing outside on the tractor once again! I went for a run while she was still there. I made a pretty tasty Asian dinner. Sib was late coming home because she was hosting a wine tasting for 45 Finnish men...glad I missed that one! We got a package from my mom for everybody--Benji's birthday presents and some treats for the others. Mom sent some Sesame Street tattoos, and we put on of Bert and Ernie playing soccer on his cheek! Sib got hot sauce from Tijuana flats. When we got home, she tried them immediately--even though it was like 10 at night and didn't go with the food at all! Nonetheless, she loves them.

Friday was another beautiful day. We played outside all morning, and Opa came to get Benji (since they didn't on Thursday) around noon. I had class a bit later, but it was a short day (as all Fridays are). I went for a nice run when I got home. Sib and Klaus went on a date to the movies for the first time in 3 years! So it was just me, Mira, and Benji at night. We had a pretty good time just hanging out, and I think Benji enjoyed having two young girls to himself! He's always, always pointing out girls everywhere we go...and I'm not exaggerating. He's such a ladies man already.

Saturday morning, I woke up early at 6:30 to go running with the sunrise. It was REALLY cold for some reason, but I warmed up halfway into the run anyway. I ran along the Weinstrasse because I wanted the sun to be on me the whole time! Robert came and picked me up around noon, and we headed to Speyer for the day with two of his twin friends. We had lunch outside and then walked around. We went to the Rhein and hung out for a while, watching some rowers and ships go by. I'm still determined to row on the Rhein one day. The bad part was there was a dead bunny on the shore, which I definitely didn't like at all! We headed back home after a couple of hours, but Robert got lost on the way back, so it took like twice as long to get home. When I got back I took a nap and woke up when Benji and Sib got home. We all got ready and headed out to dinner at an Italian place in town, which was pretty delicious. They're friend Christian (the motorcycle guy) was there by chance, as well. I mean, I guess it's not that crazy since there are only 20k people in this whole town. Anna met us there, and then her and Mira left to go to their friend Tobi's for a sleepover party (didn't know you could sleep over with boys at the age of 15!). The rest of us headed home later. I finally got to talk to Luke for a while, and then I crashed early in bed.

Sunday, I woke up before everyone, as usual. When Klaus woke up, he made the pancakes from the mix my mom sent for him! He loves these "American pancakes", as he calls them. We headed out just after 11 to a Bioland farm and forest about an hour southwest of here but still in the same region. We picked Mira up on the way. When we got there, we ate lunch at the restaurant and had some really good Flammkuchen. We set out around 2 to the forest and didn't come back until around 5:15 or so. There are all these rock formations jutting out of the mountains that are really cool. Apparently, they're well-known, and lots of free climbers come from all over the place to climb them. We saw some on one rock, and then Klaus told us a story about how he was climbing it 10 years ago and fell off. He was the first person in the group to go up, and the first person doesn't have a rope, so we got pretty messed up. We happened upon lots of farms and horses along the way and ended up in a random town that wasn't where we were supposed to be, so we went back the same way we came instead of finding the new route back. When we got back, we had some hot drinks, and then Sib and I headed up to climb one of the big rocks. It was an easy one, and the view was amazing. We could look straight down on the Bioland farm, and Klaus and Benji saw us. We all waved and then yelled through our hands and could perfectly hear one another! When we got back down, we checked out the farm animals, said our goodbyes, and headed home. We had a quick dinner when we got back, and then we all crashed in our beds shortly thereafter.

Today, I did a bit of cleaning in the morning. Benji and I went outside and, of course, played on the tractors (his and Klaus's) and in the trailer. Mowgli was driving the tractor for us while we were in the trailer! What a good cat. We also did a bit of coloring and making object out of paper (like clowns and dogs) from a book that shows you how to do them. Right now, he's sleeping, but he'll probably wake up soon, so I must bring this post to a close. The weather today is back to being overcast, windy, and looking like it's about to rain. No good!

Really the last week this time.

Last Sunday, Klaus and Benji went to the swimming pool while the rest of us hung around the house. Sundays are definitely a day or relaxing in Germany, that's for sure. Andrea, the rower, came over and went on a walk with Sib before the weather got too bad. After that, the family and I headed up to Limburg, the other one here in BD that I didn't go to with mom and Aunt Debbie. The weather turned bad pretty quickly, but we still explored it a bit. There's a restaurant inside where we ate dinner. It was not vegetarian friendly at all, but Mira and I still had pretty good salads. Then we colored in this learning/coloring packet they gave us, which was highly entertaining and I attempted to color street signs--not knowing what they're supposed to look like at all!

Monday, the weather was still bad, so we didn't do much at all. I ran in the rain, but Benji stayed inside for most of the day...which he hates to do...so he wasn't much fun! I changed my flight from June 10 to May 1 because of school, so I'll be seeing of you way sooner than expected. Mira made dinner with all the left over feta cheese from the Flammkuchen, and it was quite a feta cheese overload. In fact, it made so much that we ate this dish for the next three days...

Tuesday was better. Klaus has been sick all week, so he went with us to gymnastics--that was entertaining! Normally, it's a mother-kid type of thing, so Klaus was the only male besides the teaching assistant. He had fun, though, and so did Benji and I. Opa picked up Benji at noon as usual, and I did my homework in preparation for the class I then went to. Class was class, as usual. Nothing exciting or special happened except for the fact that I brought them some Girl Scout cookies...and they were all very happy with me then! Sib and Benji went to a birthday party at night, so it was just me and Klaus for dinner. Leftover Mira concoction and soup!

Wednesday was about the same as Monday. Benji and I baked corn muffins, thanks to mom sending me the supplies. I found out that Haylee is going to try and most likely come visit me on her spring break, which is awesome! Hopefully, it actually happens. Klaus had an outing at night, so it was just me and Sib this time for dinner...salad and, once again, left over Mira concoction. After this, we threw it away. Over and done with that, although it was good the first night (I didn't eat it the next two nights because I couldn't handle all that feta cheese...especially since I'm not used to eating cheese in the first place).

Thursday, the weather was still not very nice! Benji and I stayed in and colored, cleaned, and organized in preparation for the spring. Opa came as scheduled at noon, and I went to class shortly thereafter. I made a spicy cauliflower soup for dinner, and it was just me, Sib, and Benji again.

Friday, the weather was looking up! I baked some cinnamon muffins for Benji's birthday so he could eat one the next morning with candles in it (not eat the candles, though). We actually got to play outside! I went to class, but it was short, so Benji stayed home. When I got home, two small boys and their mom were over to hang out. One was a year old, Carlos, and the other one was 3 years old, David. It was neat to see a 1, 2, and 3 year old all at the same time. They had lots of fun. Robert came over later and hung out for a while. We made a rice dinner with some sauce that Lutz's girlfriend Annette made, and it was SO salty. After dinner and hanging, Robert went out and I stayed home...falling asleep shortly thereafter (watching a 2 year old all day every day is tiring)!

Saturday was Benji's 2nd birthday! There were balloons all around the house that he really liked and was almost more fascinated with than his gifts. He had his muffin with candles and made us light them several times so he could blow them out over and over again. He went with Sib to W.TH for the morning and came back after lunch with Oma in time for a nap. I went on a hike in the morning through the mountains to the little chapel on the hill since I'd never explored it before. To my disappointment, it's all locked up! After nap time, we set up for his birthday get together. Klaus's sister, Heide (Moritz's mom), Moritz's sister Leoni, their dad Peter (the carpenter), Oma, and both Opas came over. Oma brought lots of baked goods, which was really hard and tempting for me, but I succeeded! Benji got a tractor, a bicycle, a wheelbarrow, and lots of other really awesome presents. Everyone was over for about 3 hours just hanging out, catching up, and playing with Benji. After, Klaus went to BD because there was a wine event where the winemakers were setting up and selling their wine in the stores, and the stores were staying open until 11 to get more business. I didn't go because it didn't really sound that cool. Sib stayed here for a while and put Benji to bed and then headed up there for a little bit. I definitely fell asleep before either of them got home!

Today is a lazy Sunday. The weather is back to being overcast, and I have no idea why! I just want a beautiful sunny day already. Is that too much to ask?! We're all just kind of hanging around the house because now both Klaus and Sib are sick (hope I don't catch it). We might go out walking in the forest later, but it's supposed to rain tonight, so I don't know if that'll happen. Someone send me Florida weather, please! Thanks in advance.

The Last Week

Thursday, Benji went with Opa and Oma as usual, and I went to class. That class is getting more enjoyable every time, which probably has something due to the fact that we're all able to speak more every time. It's hard to believe I only have two weeks left there!

Friday was a rainy and stormy day, so I didn't go to class because I don't think I could've made it on my bike! Instead, Klaus and I went to the supermarket during Benji's nap time (Mira stayed here with the baby phone). We didn't go to the Turkish man with the bread spreads (since I'm not eating bread), and I think it's a good break from him, too, haha. When we got back, Benji was already up from his nap! Turns out he didn't want to sleep, or so we were told. For dinner, I made a rice, spinach, and tomato casserole with some feta cheese, and it was quite delicious! Mira went out to Tobi's house (told ya, Robert!), so we were without her.

Saturday was a big day. It was the first time we put on this event called Weinbergleuchten (which means, literally, wine mountain illumination). This was a 6k walk consisting of 7 stands where 3-4 winemakers were posted. People paid a fee of 15 euros to enter and walk from stand to stand tasting the wines. So in the morning, I went with Sib to W.TH to help get things from there to bring back here and set up (our tent was right behind W.I-H). Lutz and some of his friends took a week off to go skiing in the French alps beginning on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so there were lots of people there--one couple being from Canada! It was nice to speak in English with them. I also got to meet Lutz's girlfriend, Annette, who is nice but not what I expected. So, after a couple of hours of breakfast and getting things together, we finally loaded up the van and headed back to W.I-H where everyone began setting up. I was taking care of Benji all day (usually I have Saturdays off), so we hung around, ate some lunch, and played in the nice weather...it had been raining all week long, so the sunshine was awesome to see! The event started at 5, and they had a lot more customers than they anticipated! Klaus was saying he expected to go through 6-8 bottles of wine, but they ended up going through 85 (just W.I-H alone)! Benji and I went up to visit when the sun went down. Lutz brought a big wood stove and was making/selling Flammkuchen (really flat French pizza like food) for the visitors with Christian (the guy who went on the motorcycle adventure to Africa for 4 weeks). They sold out really quickly!

TO BE CONTINUED.

Freitag bis Mittwoch.

SO Friday was the goodbye dinner for Lucas! We went to his parents' house and had dinner with Robert and their grandmother, as well. Before dinner, we got to play with and feed the bunnies : ) We then had yummy potato soup and dampfnudeln (not bread!). We then went through the pictures from the parents' visit to Paris (at the same time we went, so there were a couple pictures with me, my mom, and aunt in them). After this, we went to Robert's for a while before heading to Aqua. When we got there, it was soo packed, so we went home early.

Saturday was a nice, relaxing day. I said my goodbyes and farewell to Lucas as he headed to the airport to fly to Canada. At home, I went on a long bike ride in a direction I've never been. I came home and cleaned, did some laundry, read (what?!) a book (to page 32!), and just relaxed. Benji and Sib got home around 5 or 6, and then I got to play with him some more. We had a night in with the fam. in preparation for the hike we were to take the next day.

Sunday was a slow morning for everyone except me! I naturally woke up around 7 and couldn't go back to sleep. We had breakfast together and then prepared for our picknick and hike. We went to the vineyards/mountains/hills about a 5 minute drive from the house. There, we met the parents of Sib and their family friends with their two boys. We took all the picknick supplies to the end of the hike and dropped everything off before we set out. We went back to the beginning and starting hiking. Oma was leading the way! Benji was in a neat kid backpack that Klaus had. The mom of the other kids stayed behind at the end and worked on cutting her vineyards (the ending spot was a picknick area they made at one of their vineyard plots). The weather was wonderful--I was never even a little bit cold! When we first woke up, it was really foggy, but by the time we met up with everyone, the sun was out and shining. So much better!

At the end, we played for a while with the kids and the heated our previously prepared soup up over a fire. BUT we didn't have any method of making a fire, so Klaus went to town and bought a lighter. We had a delicious lentil and vegetable soup and them some freshly baked pretzels (not bread!). Oma made a cake, but I didn't have any. Go me! After we ate, we played some more with the kids, and Klaus started rolling down the hill with them, which was really entertaining. Then, we packed everything up and headed home. All in all, it was a good day.

Monday was a good day. We (Benji and I) woke up and took a walk into town. We went to the store to get more shampoo, soap, etc. and then took our time on the way back. We had lunch with Klaus again, only I had fruits with yogurt instead of bread and spread! It was pretty delicious. After Benji's nap, we went outside and played with Mogli and the soccer ball and basketball. I taught him how to say little ball instead of kleine ball! Klaus took Benji over at 6, so I went on another jog. After, Mira made a pretty good dinner of baked pasta with spinach and cream sauce, and Klaus made a salad (of course!).

Tuesday, gymnastics was canceled, so we stayed around the house. It was a beautiful day, so we went outside several times. Opa came to pick up Benji around noon, and then I went for another jog before lunch. After, Mira came home from school, so we all had lunch together. I headed to class early because I had to go to the post office and then to the store to get some more paper. Class was pretty fun, actually. When I got there, only the Chinese au pair (Kostas) was there. Turns out he also rode his bike--for the first time in Germany, he said! So, after class, he told me to wait and that he was going to ride home with me. This kid is so funny. So we rode home together and then parted ways.

I made a salad with lemon yogurt dressing and a potato, zucchini, and tomato soup for dinner. Benji has been silly calling everything "sour" these days...so he even called the potato sour when it wasn't at all! After dinner, I finally got to talk to my brother on Skype after many days of trying to contact him. I also talked to Julie and tried to figure out the plan for our Europe travel event in May-June. There's much more to figure out that we have originally planned for, haha. But we'll get it!

Today was a successful morning. Benji and I went through all of his old clothes and got rid of any small ones and replaced them with new ones from my mom and aunt, his aunt, and the mom of the two boys that we went hiking with. One of those boys is 4, so she gives Benji all of his old clothes once he grows out of them. After this, we went through the kitchen cabinets and fridge getting rid of another old food, etc. We also went through all of the old magazines and newspapers. Ah, spring cleaning! How I love it : )

I had left over soup for lunch, which was still as delicious as it was last night. Right now, it's nap time, so I get to relax (woohoo) again. I'm thinking Benji and I will probably color (his new favorite activity) more later, and then I'll go for a jog around 6 when Klaus takes him over. Tonight is Klaus's night to make dinner, so we'll probably have pasta again, haha. His favorite meal ever...next to bread and cheese.

P.S. Mom and Aunt Debbie, Benji still asks for "DebbieDonna" every day!

Flying time.

On Monday, everything went back to normal. Mom and Aunt Debbie flew back to America, and I was sad to see them go! We had a great visit overall. Benji was in a good mood, but he kept asking me for DebbieDonna (one word), so I had to try and explain to him that they went back. I said, "Sorry, they went home." He replied, "...sorry..." So sad!

Normal...or so I thought! This week was Faschings week, which is like a big carnival in every town where people dress up in costumes like Halloween. They sing and dance in the streets as a parade goes through. The big show happens on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. I dressed Benji up as a small devil, just like we did for the gymnastics the week before when they had a Faschings-themed class. I'm pretty sure everyone in the entire city was there, by the way. Benji didn't seem too into it, though. He kept telling me to turn the music down, but I couldn't! After, we went to W.TH and had lunch with Sib, Lutz, and some of their friends who also came over after the big event. I was last told that we had class on this day, but I missed Thursday and Friday because we went to Paris, so little did I know it was canceled on one of those days! I went to the building only to find no cars, no peoples, and everything locked. Oh, well! I spent the afternoon researching the trip Julie and I are making in May and June. Did I mention that I'm super excited about that?!

Yesterday was a beautiful day outside...finally! The sun was out, and it wasn't too cold. It's supposedly warming up here and going to be 10-15C on Saturday--such good news! So Benji and I played with his BobbyCar, some balls, and Mogli.

I gave up chocolate/sweets and bread for Lent. I'm sure you all know how hard this is going to be! I've done good thus far...ending day 2! This gives me some hope...but I still have 44 more days to go.

Today, I actually had class...finally! It was kind of boring, though. We took half the time taking and going over a practice test. It's hard to believe that there's only 2-3 more weeks of that class left, and that I'm almost halfway through my time here.

Visitors!

My mom and Aunt Debbie are here!

Friday: late, brickbreaker waiting, exploring cellar I-H etc., shoes, German dinner with LMR, Mira's party, tanzen, bobbycar fahren, baseball (hats), SCHEE-ing, presents, outside "fridge".

Saturday: Neustadt, Hambacher Schloss, snowfight, shoes, pizza, frog sign, pasta/tomato dinner--no free Turkish, no Aqua, buch/poem lesen.

Sunday: Heidelberg, schloss, Katze, STEEP, Schnee/Eis, tour, lions in mote, rowers, delish/ridic lunch, Neckar, durkheimer risenfass dinner.

Monday: Mannheim, schnee sturme, horse machine, ICE, Fasching setup, no purchases, Heller's, Alnature, Universitat Mannheim/campusshop, Mira dinner, winemaking bonding.

Tuesday: Turnhalle Fasching theme, BD tour, cafe, WTH for Opa/labeling, BD, I-H for lunch/bottling, Romisches Weingut, brownies, class, Hardenburg schloss, stir-fry, Heissler grosseltern anniversary.

Wednesday: Stuttgart, schloss, turm, Vapiano, "practicing" with Benji, M-B museum, forgetting Handy, dinner, bye-bye.

Thursday: BD, bye-bye #2, wine gifts, Opa, bakery, driving to Frankfurt, airport, flying to Paris, baguettes!

Friday: pain chocolat, croissants, Tour Eiffel-so high!, cows, spoons, walking, arc de triomphe, champs elysses, nespresson, pomme de pain, river, notre dame, shopping.

Saturday: fruit tarts, pickpocket in metro, manhunt, police helpLESS, the louvre, the opera, jardin du luxembourg, ships, flags, anthony bourdain, anna + dinner.

Sunday: brasserie, shuttle, picking up others, airport, flying to Frankfurt, losing each other, Australian lunch, napping, hot chocolate + carrot cake, figuring out trains, BBC, ICE home, bye-bye for me.

POST.

I finally made the post about the Schwarzwald. Please read! It's from last Sunday.

: )

!

SO MONDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY! Hooray. I'm 21 now. That means I'm old because I can no longer say I was a teenager last year. Weird.

We had a relaxing day on Monday. It wasn't the best weather in the world, but it was okay because birthdays are usually happy days no matter what! I woke up to some beautiful red roses in the kitchen with candles and a present : ) The present was an Isegrim-Hof sweatshirt, which is pretty cool, actually. The other present was skiing in Schwarzwald on Sunday! Later, Klaus returned home with a box of Lindt chocolates! Ah, they know me all too well already. We had a family dinner at night and then just hung out together. I pulled out my gigantic map of Germany that my brother gave me for Christmas, and I planned out the rest of my stay here and the places I'll go and when I'll go to them. So much to do...so little time! It seems like a lot of time, but it's actually going by really quickly. And since I want to do everything possible, I feel like it's a small amount of time. In the grand scheme of things, I guess it really is. Afterward, I focused out of the window and saw it was snowing! What?! My first white birthday. I stepped out in it for a minute, and the flakes were big, but the snow wasn't very strong, so none of it stayed. It was falling really quickly, though!

Tuesday morning was gymnastics again. They started to do themes for each meeting, so this day was lots of colorful balls. Okay? Apparently, that just means we'll play with every ball they have for an hour and not actually do gymnastics, haha. The kids seemed to enjoy it, though. It was raining when it was over, so Benji and I hurried up the street to Obermarkt, W.TH. We ate our bananas regardless of the weather, though! I'm so glad we have the same favorite fruit.

When we got up to W.TH, we played with the cat that lives there. Sib thinks she's pregnant and said I could have one of the kittens. YES. Best after birthday present news ever! I stayed with the cat while Sib took Benji to get his first real haircut. He looks so grown up, and it was only like an inch or so cut off! Klaus likes it long, and when we were talking about it, he says, "Yes, I like the long hair...but I'm just the dad." Hahaha. Owned.

Opa picked up Benji from W.TH and drove me back to Isegrim-Hof (from now on, I-H). I had lunch with Klaus and then got ready for class. The weather was even worse with really strong winds and lots of rain, so I decided I'd take the bus to class instead of riding my bike. I've never taken the bus before, so I went to ask Mira for the times. She told me one comes at 10 after 2, so I had just enough time...headed down to both bus stops...turns out this bus at 10 after 2 only comes on Saturdays. Ah! I walked back home and was already soaked when I got there. Klaus wasn't home to drive me into town, so I just stayed there at I-H. I was actually bummed about missing class since we didn't have it at all last week, but at least I get to go tomorrow. Instead, I stayed at home and Skyped with Valaree, finally! It's been TOO long since we've done that.

I made a potato and leek soup for dinner with a lemon dressed salad. Pretty delicious! Then, Benji, Sib, and I watched 10 more minutes of Elmo in Grouchland. That movie is seriously the best, and Benji is even more infatuated with Elmo now!

This morning was BEAUTIFUL! Benji and I immediately went outside after breakfast and took a long walk around Ungstein and up close to Erpolzheim. We took our time enjoying the nature and the brightly shining sun. I was almost warm for a minute as I stood there in the sunbeams! On the way back from just outside of Erpolzheim, we stopped at the Kinderspielplatz (the playground) and played for a while since it was finally dry enough to enjoy. That boy sure does love the hut/house there!

We came back home and had lunch with Klaus again. Always a pleasure. We built a couple of towers out of blocks and then headed to bed for nap time. I actually ended up taking a nap for an hour or so today, too, and it was awesome. I layed in the sunbeams coming through my windows : )

Once he woke up, we had a snack of apple, kiwi, muffin, and peanuts. I've gotten him to love peanuts and even say the word, haha. Klaus thinks this is so American that it's ridiculous. We went back outside and climbed the mountain to catch the sunset. It was sooo windy up there! We couldn't stay for long because Benji was getting too cold, so we trekked back down to the house...peanuts and all.

We read some books, and then Klaus took Benji over at 6. He ordered pizzas for dinner from the Italian man. Apparently, pizza isn't that big here, and when you have it, it's really real Italian only from really real Italian people. Nonetheless, that makes it all the more better, so it was quite enjoyable.

Now, it's time to retire to bed after another fun-filled day with little Benji.

DISCLAIMER: I promise I'll update all about Sunday tomorrow. There was just SO MUCH that happened that I need time to figure out how to describe it all! But I bet the list of things to remember is keeping you all intrigued...

Schwarzwald.

We woke up Sunday morning bright and early for chocolate chip banana pancakes with a fruit yogurt salad to top 'em off. I would like to take a moment to thank my mom very graciously for sending me so many amazing things via air mail.

After breakfast, we all got bundled up and ready to go--packing the car full of sandwiches, bananas, tissues, and skiing supplies. Onward to Schwarzwald we headed--Mira, her friends Anna and Tobi, me and Robert, and Sib. It took about an hour to finally get to our destination, and the whole way we were thinking...hm...there's not really any snow. Once we got to Schwarzwald, BAM! Snow everywhere! Including a snow flurry and lots of snow to ski on. It felt like a completely different world when we got there. The car we parked next to looked like it had been sitting in a snowstorm for many, many days...I was completely amazed at how covered in snow it was!

Robert and I rented some skis, but the rest of the group brought their snowboards. This would be a good point to mention how snowboarders look AND think they're so super cool 100% of the time. In the ski rental hut, it took a while to figure out how to convert my size from American to European. Apparently, Sperrys are the only shoes without this conversion inside of them. Go figure. Once this issue was resolved, we immediately hit the slopes. I remembered from the only time I ever went snow skiing that I do so at an extremely fast pace...and Robert said the same about him! We'd both only ever been once before, many years ago, so we made a good team and caught on pretty quickly. Nonetheless, it was SO ridiculous how many small children were there that were 90 times better than us. In addition, they were so efficient and nimble in their skiing that we just looked upon them in amazement.

There were two main slopes with two separate lifts, and the first one had a bad lift helper man who seemed to be really cold and hate his life. He wasn't very nice, but I told him thank you anyway for helping us properly get on. These lifts weren't seats like you normally have...they were just bars to hold on to as you went up the mountain! We had to give each other a hoch fünf (high five) for making it because it was definitely not that easy. In fact, they had to stop it several times because people would fall off or lose their grip. At the end of the lift when you get off, we usually had issues...so we had to count together, "Eins, zwei, drei!" in order to get off at the same time AND at the right time.

Once we got up, we looked at the other slope, and it was SO ridiculously foggy that you couldn't see a thing, so we opted to go down the first one a couple of times to get used to it. At first, we thought the other sloped seemed scary, but it ended up being the better of the two after we tried it out! We were definitely hesitant initially, though.

After about an hour, we took a break for lunch. When we were done, we had to reacquaint ourselves with the slopes! We decided to try the other slope now, and it was so much cooler. There was a jump in the middle of it that you could get air on if you went fast enough. At one point, we were waiting for the lift, and this guy behind us was listening to me speak English to Robert and asked, "Where you guys from?" I was like, "America..I mean, Florida. You?" Turns out he's from New Jersey and just finished with his BS and is now teaching English to kids in Austria. That actually sounds really cool!

We took another break later with the others and went to the restaurant they have there. This was the first instance of getting hot chocolate. It was definitely good at that point in time, but little did I know there was better hot chocolate right next door...to be discovered at the end of the trip.

For some reason, when we were talking about the snow, I pronounce it "schnow", and Robert pronounce it "snee". In German, it's "Schnee", and in English, it's obviously "snow". This was completely accidental, but we decided that we're going to have our own language by the time the next four months pass, and we're going to call it "Kinderhoodgermish". The kinder part is because I learn silly things from Benji; the hood part is because he learns ridiculous things from rap songs, and the germish is German and English put together. In this language, we also speak a lot with "Nunna", "los", and "schneller!" These mean downhill, go, and faster. What more could you need to say?!

On the second slope, we found a secret crossroad from the middle of it to the end of the first. This turned out to be very cool and helpful in the end! On the last slope run, we took the crossroad to meet the others. I ended up gaining super speed and almost killed two children on the way. Mind you, the crossroad is supposed to be slow-paced...

When we were finished, we returned the skis to the man and went back to the van. We needed a snack, so we decided to eat the aforementioned bananas...only they were almost frozen! It was probably the coldest banana I've ever eaten in my entire life. Bananas are definitely not made for Germany. It was kind of good, though--like eating banana frozen yogurt! We decided to get some more hot drinks before hitting the road back home, so we went to the other little 'bar' type place at the end of the slope. I got a Zartbitter heisse Schokolade...and it was probably one of the best hot chocolates that I've ever had in my entire life. Maybe it was the time and place, or maybe it was just that darn good.

When all was said and done, we piled back into the van and headed home. We dropped off Tobi and Robert at their respective houses. Klaus had dinner almost ready when we arrived, and boy did we eat so much! A day on the slopes will do that to you, I suppose.

Kiwis and cookies.

So, I ended up making a summer vegetable soup for dinner on Thursday night. It was mighty delicious, if I do say so myself!

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Benji and I went walking around Ungstein in the morning, but it was super foggy and overcast. There were lots of water and mud puddles in the roads, and he kept stepping in all of them! The word of the morning/afternoon was "mud"...until Robert came over and taught him a new word (to be discussed later).

We had our last lunch with Arved, and it was quite entertaining as usual. Mira came home shortly after, so we hung out with her for a bit. I read some of her English homework, and it was pretty good. There were two pages of two different stories she had to write, and I think it was as good as I could speak Spanish at the age of 15!

Benji took a long nap and woke up around 4, right when Robert was arriving in BD. He came over and enjoyed some kiwis and cookies with us for snack, hence the title of this post. This is where the new word of the day, "Booms!", was established, as Benji continued to say this all day. If he was ever upset, Robert simply had to say the word, and Benji would smile again! Fantastic solution. Then we went upstairs to play with the train with Opa, came back down and watched some funny videos from my friends back home, and then played building blocks with Benji in the living room.

We made the yellow rice my mom sent me for dinner with sauteed broccoli, zucchini squash, and onions. Mmm. There was also, of course, a salad involved, but it was pretty simple. We hung out for a bit after dinner, but I stayed home because it was just one of those nights where you feel like staying home.

Today has been a rainy, rainy (two for emphasis), foggy, cloudy, lazy Saturday. It's been filled with research, facebook, Skype, and German TV. All of the above are very entertaining, especially when combined. I was supposed to go to Neustadt this afternoon to rent skis for tomorrow, but the place there only rents for the whole week and not just for a day, so that was a no go. We'll rent them tomorrow at the ski place instead. I am going to Neustadt tonight, though, to hang out with Lucas and Robert!

I just got to Skype with the Grandparents, which is always fun...mostly because I get to see my kittens every time! Haha, no but I really like getting to talk to them. This Skype business changes everything and makes it better/easier to be so far away. Now we just have to convince my dad to get on...

Stadtbücherei.

Wednesday morning, Benji and I headed into town pretty much first thing. We stopped by the bakery to get a laugenbrötchen, which is basically a big, soft pretzel roll, and some heiße Schokolade, which you should know by now is hot chocolate. We went to Weingut Theis Heissler, from now on known as W.TH, and watched the bottling process. It was pretty cool, to be honest. Benji seemed mesmerized with the cleaning, bottling, corking, labeling, stacking, and boxing action going on.

After a little bit of this, we got the library card from Sib and went to the library for the first time. We had to renew the membership since nobody had been in so long! Benji was, surprisingly, only mildly interested in the books. He was way more into the toys set out in the kids' section and the papers and colored pencils on the table for coloring. We colored a picture for Valaree! Then he stopped having fun, and you can always tell when this happens, so we headed home for lunch with Klaus (Arved was at W.TH this day, so we didn't get to have lunch with him. Benji was sad because he really likes that kid a lot for some reason!). After lunch was nap, and I think I took a nap for a few minutes, too. We got up, ate a banana, and headed outside to run around and play. Klaus had a meeting, so it was just me, Benji, and Sib at night because Mira is at her mom's house on TWR nights. We had some broccoli soup and then watched a little bit more of Elmo in Grouchland! I also got to talk to Josh on Skype for a pretty significant amount of time, which was nice.

Today, I woke up an hour early and went running through the vineyards up the mountain behind our house. It was perfect timing to see the sunrise, and it was absolutely amazing and totally worth it. Once I took over Benji, we went out to the Kinderspielplatz because it was finally 'warm' enough and a pretty morning. He LOVED it, actually! We did the see-saw, played on the swings, and climbed into this tower/hut-like thing. I think he turned it into his base because he was tricking me! He'd make me put him up in it (about 4ft high), and then he'd call me over, but once I got over, he'd tell me I couldn't come up! Such a trickster.

Opa came to get him around noon again, so it was just me, Klaus, and Arved for lunch. I baked some oatmeal raisin cookies, and everyone was happy. Then, I took a nap after I realized I was sleepy for some reason, woke up, took a shower, and headed to Erpolzheim with Sib and Mira. We went to the fabric store because we're recovering the seats and bench in the kitchen as well as getting a new curtain for the bathroom. Little did I realize that fabric was such a big, thoughtful deal! I mean, these fabric ladies are really into their work. On the way home, I was lucky enough to also witness the equally as beautiful sunset. I wish I could explain the great energy is gives off, but you'll just have to come see this for yourself.

Benji just got back from Opa's house. Opa is such a great guy! And he apparently likes me a whole lot for some reason, which is definitely a good thing! Now, it's time to figure out what to make for dinner.

Bis später!

Elmo.

Disclaimer: I forgot to mention that while in Mannheim, Robert and I were looking EVERYWHERE for a shirt with German text on it to get Valaree, but ALL of them were in English. ALL. We probably went to at least nine major and gigantic stores. Nothing to be found. Because of this, I am very disappointed but even more so confused. The funny thing is that half of the shirts didn't even make sense with what they said! The search continues.


Sunday night, we went out to dinner (for my first time!) in the town with Andrea and Stefan. Andrea is the world rower, and Stefan is the rowing coach. They came over for dinner once a few weeks ago for the fondue. We went to a place called Weinstube Fridrich, and boy was it ever so traditionally German! It was in an old building with an old couple cooking every meal. There were approximately six normal sized tables inside. Everything was just how you'd figure an old, traditional, German couple's home to be. The meals were equally as expected and also delicious.

I got to Skype with Andrew and Julie and played them in lots of Sea Battle...even stayed up pretty late just to do so! That game is seriously amazing.

Yesterday, Benji and I woke up, had some breakfast and a snack, started the laundry, and then walked into town. We got all the way to Weingut Theis Heissler, so we went in to see everyone for a few minutes. There's a cat there that I love, and his name sounds like the English pronunciation of 'pony'. Still trying to figure out that one. We walked back home in time for lunch with Klaus and Arved. Arved is a praktikant here at Isegrim-Hof. This means he's in his last year of high school. When you get to this point, they make you take two weeks to go experience working in a normal and real job. They feel that, without this, the kids will be dumped into society with no idea of the real world if they have simply sat inside classrooms all day and done book and busy work. I think it's a pretty neat idea, actually. He's a nice kid and has been with us since last Monday, so his last day is this Friday.

This morning, we had gymnastics, KleinerKinderTurnhalle? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it... Anyway, Benji had a blast! He kept wanting to go down the part that was made into a slide. At the beginning of class, the moms and me always make these big obstacle course for the kids, but Benji just loves sliding. He was cracking up every time, and it was making me crack up right back at him. Every time he'd get to the bottom, he'd jump up and say, "noch!", which basically means 'again'. This went on for probably 30 straight minutes. After, we went to Weingut Theis Heissler again to wait for the Opa to pick up Benji. Since my class was canceled, I rode my bike back home for another lunch with Arved and Klaus. Then, I went on a bike ride because today was a very beautiful day. When I got back, it was time for the supermarket! My favorite place. We went to the vegetable and fruit market first and then the big one in the big building. We spent about an hour grocery shopping. Awesome.

I also introduced Hoyt to Sea Battle today and beat him gloriously, but I'll give him some credit for two good games and a fair attempt at destroying my ships. After all, it was his first time!

I got a package today from my mom! It was probably the coolest. There was stuff to make muffins, which I immediately made, and some black beans and rice, tortillas, wraps, cook books, books for Benji, and Elmo in Grouchland on DVD! So I made black beans and rice for dinner with some red pepper, salsa, and quark. Benji loves the books on animals, colors, and first words. We then tried to watch the DVD, but every time we put it in, it said, "wrong region." WHAT! So we watched it in my computer instead. Everyone loves Elmo! We're watching the movie in increments over the next couple of days. I'm proud to say that Benji's first exposure to TV and 'characters' is Elmo.

Then, the rest of the mail came. I got a birthday card from my parents and a sunshine card from my mom. THEN I got a superbestfriendawesome card from Valaree. Thanks for making my day, guys!

Freitag bis Sonntag.

Friday was filled with a morning of cleaning the house and baking. The cleaning lady, Frau Fingela (sp?), usually comes on Friday morning, but she didn't come this time because her daughter has been in the hospital. So, it was up to Benji and I to attempt to clean as much as possible and still do everything else we needed to do! We got the kitchen, living room, and bathroom pretty well, but then it was time to do my German homework and head to class.

Class was at a later time that usual, so Klaus had to watch Benji for two hours while I was away (Friday class is half as long as Tuesday and Thursday). For some reason, we actually DON'T have class at all next week. I still can't figure out why this is, but I'm kind of sad because I really enjoy all kinds of school, class, and learning.

Also, if you read this, Josh, I tried to mail you something last week, and it just came back to me on Friday. I'll make a second attempt to mail it correctly on Tuesday when I go to school again and will be near the post office. Grandmama and Granddaddy, I mailed you guys a postcard last week, as well, and it should get to you just fine!

I was talking to Julie on Skype on Friday before class, and she was telling me how it's funny to read my blog and watch my English get less and less perfect. After this statement, I vowed to constantly correct my English-attempting friends and practice writing every day so that I no longer lose my amazing English skills.

While listening to the radio at lunch, there was news of the diskothek in Neustadt burning down! Oh, no! I guess we won't be going there anymore seeing as it was apparently pretty bad.

Friday night, I made a Mexican style dinner and then went to the train to go to Neustadt for Thomas Tight's birthday at Aqua. It was pretty entertaining, but I was sick the whole time, so it definitely could have been more fun.

Saturday morning, Robert and I hopped on the train to Mannheim after stopping to get pretzels and hot chocolate from one of the 87 local bakeries. Apparently, Mannheim is frequently referred to as a little New York City. I guess I can see why they say this because it's on a grid just like NYC, and it's got the same kind of atmosphere/city life, only on a MUCH smaller scale. We went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch called Heller's, and it was quite delicious. We also went to the Alnatura supermarket and bough lots of chocolate and things to help my cold get better. I think I've gone through a humongous amount of tissues in the past couple of days! In the train station on the way back, I bought some more postcards, so some of you should be on the look out for those.

I rode the train back to Neustadt with Robert and then hopped on the one to get back to BD. When I got to BD, I actually got off at the right stop the first time! Congratulations to me. Then, I went to Müller's, which is probably like a Walgreen's or something, and I got some Ricola, Pulmoll, and Orangensaft to, again, aid in my sickness. I think, collectively, everything is beginning to work. I can almost smell, taste, and breathe again! After, I headed to Obermarkt to ride back home with Sib. When we got home, I immediately fell asleep and napped until dinner time. After dinner, I filled out a "25 things" survey on facebook because it wouldn't leave me alone, and then I played a bit of Sea Battle. I finally fell asleep listening to Iron & Wine, and I remembered how much I love Sam Beam.

Now, it's Sunday. I ate a good breakfast of Special K (tired of müsli for the time being), soy milk, half a banana, some of that Orangensaft mixed with water, and then the rest of a Pfefferminz chocolate bar from Alnatura yesterday. Yes, I eat chocolate after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why not?

And now, happy February! I think this is the best month ever, seeing as I was born in it and all. On my Betty Crocker calendar, the recipe for the month is "Easy Brownie Torte." How fitting! I guess I'll have to make this soon or something. Only, somebody has to send me a box of Betty Crocker's Supreme chocolate chunk or triple chunk brownie mix and then a container of Rick & Creamy chocolate frosting. Thanks in advance!

♥ ♥ ♥

Krank.

Ayo, I'm now officially sick!

Wednesday night, I talked to the grandparents and mom on Skype...after it took them about 20 minutes to figure out how to see me, haha. I also got to see my kittens and virtually pet them/say hi. Then I owned Josh at Hangman and Sea Battle. Just saying. After that, for some reason, Julie thought it would be a good idea to play checkers. Let's just say we couldn't even finish one game because checkers sucks. So then I proceeded to additionally own her in Hangman and Sea Battle.

Class was okay. I was partnered with the little Polish boy to make a conversation about a date at the movies, and it was kind of weird seeing as he's about 12 years old.

I fell asleep when I got home and didn't wake up until Benji was banging on my door. Sib made me some hot tea, which is the first time I've had tea like this, with ginger and lemon.

People weren't available on Skype after the tea break, so, since I was bedridden, I played Super Mario games online and failed miserably.

Laufen

I walked a lot more than I intended or expected to, but it was nice. I really like being outside.

We didn't go to gymnastics-not-in-a-gymnasium on Tuesday because Benji's been sick. I think he's starting to get over it now, but he's also giving it to everyone else! I woke up with a stuffy and runny those and mildly sore throat. No good!

Oma (Sib's mom) picked him up around 11 and took him for the day because I had German class. Speaking of, on Tuesday, I'm pretty sure she said we have next week off. If I heard her correctly, that'd be awesome! On Tuesday, we were working with different cases and making sentences. I had to write one on the board, and it was about rowing a boat. People then found out I'm a rower and think it's really cool for some reason. Maybe it's because it's really rare around here. I don't know.

Benji and I went to Obermarkt (Weingut Theis Heissler) to have lunch with Sib, Lutz, and Angie (a girl who also works there). Klaus has been out of town, so we would have been all alone at Isegrim-Hof (the one where I live), which is why we joined them. He got back at night, though, just in time for dinner.

I also attempted to make my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the morning, and boy are they so different here! The brown sugar is really weird, and the oven is a gas oven, so it's really hard to judge time and temperatures. But, everyone seems to enjoy them because they don't know what they're really supposed to be like, haha. I told them I was going to keep trying, and Lutz said that's a really good idea--so he can taste all the attempts, he means!

After lunch, Benji and I walked the 30 minute trek back to the house, during which he fell asleep because it was already nap time. When we got home, I was taking off his warm clothes and putting him in his pajamas, and he still slept through all that! After nap, we ate some mandarin and got bundled back up and headed to the supermarket. This was a lot farther away than I thought, as it collectively took an hour and a half! But it was fun, nonetheless.

Strange

How I can sit in a class three days a week with people from Iraq and be their friends.
But my friends go kill their friends.
What a mad world.

A continuation.

Moritz picked me up around noon on Saturday, and we rode out to Neustadt. Robert was walking down the street, and we saw him and decided to go with him and Alex to the place where Lucas works and visit him. Lucas works in a coffee shop in a bookstore in Neustadt, so he made us some beverages, and I read about München with Robert in preparation for our trip there. Then I went to band practice with Moritz for a couple of hours. Three older guys popped down in the room and hung out for a bit listening to the music. Towards the end, I finally beat my high score on Brickbreaker, but I'm not telling Valaree what that score is since her's is about 18K or something ridiculous. Definitely not that good yet since I've only been playing for about a week or so. After band practice, we dropped everyone off and had dinner at Moritz's house. Then we headed over to Roberts, and Lucas came over, too. Robert and Lucas played soccer video games and Moritz and I played Brickbreaker again! We went to one of Robert's friend's place for a little bit and visited with them before headed to this place Aquarius, where I met Thomas Tight!

The next day, Sunday, I took the train back home to BD, but I'm not used to trains and was also playing Brickbreaker, so I missed my stop 3 times and had to get off and turn around and go back. It took me twice as long to get where I was trying to go than it should have! I finally made it and walked the rest of the way home, just about 30 minutes or so--a nice stroll. Yesterday was full of cleaning, napping, doing laundry, doing dishes, and what-not. Lutz, Sib's brother, and their friend Christian came over for dinner, so that was kind of fun. Christian is going on a motorcycle riding adventure in Africa for like a month or something extensive like that, so I guess we were getting together because he's leaving. Nonetheless, it was a good time.

Today, we're just hanging out and taking it easy because Benji's sick. I'm actually able to do my laundry, which is a good thing!

Also, I just found out my mom and Aunt Debbie are coming here on February 13. We're going to go to Paris!

P.S. Granddaddy, if you're reading this, I got your call on Skype but didn't answer because I was at dinner and forgot I left my computer on. But now you're on my buddy list, so the next time I see you on, I'll call you!

<3 <3 <3

Hoffnung

I woke up yesterday on time to work because I usually work Saturday mornings, and then nobody was ready doing their normal things at the normal times, so I was soon told I didn't have to work today and that they usually take a big longer to get up on Saturdays. I took advantage of this opportunity by waking up first and then hopping on the bike to explore the surrounding town and area.

I took a way I've never been before and had absolutely no idea where I was for a good 30 minutes or so. I found a skatepark and thought of Buddy, and then I found some graffiti about Nazis and thought of Jared. I mean, that's not a bad thing, so don't get me wrong. I was going to take pictures, but I didn't go the same way back again. Somehow, I ended up downtown about an hour later near where I go to school and Sib has her winery, so I turned around and headed yet another new way. I ended up shortly at the supermarket, much to my appeal. I spent a good while here exploring and reading and listening to people talk. What I left with was some 85% chocolate, school supplies, a cucumber, some hummus, gum, and a lemon drink called Georgia.

Then I found myself across the street in yet another market type place, but it wasn't so good, so I only bought toothpaste. On the way back home, I passed under some bridge and by an old couple going for a stroll. I stopped in the bakery just near our house and got a long pretzel. I took all my goodies home in time for lunch, when I proceeded to eat my delicious pretzel with the hummus and some pickles. Let's just say that's one of the many reasons why I love Germany.

Zeit

I don't do well with this time difference nor am I exceptionally fond of it.

It's weird being from the future.

I don't speak Arabic.

It's a rainy and muddy day. I don't want to walk/ride to class in this. Yesterday, it took me 30 minutes to walk to class, and I'm a pretty brisk walker.

I made stir-fry for dinner last night with some rice and a pretty decent salad. I don't think Klaus has ever had that before, but he seemed to really enjoy it. He asked me if soy sauce was hot, haha. He hates hot things and obviously has never had soy sauce in his life.

Benji thinks it's cool to bang blocks on the glass doors. Not so much. I just made him bring me the aforementioned blocks. Problem solved. Only he keeps trying to regain possession. Not happening. He keeps telling me other things he'll bang them on instead of the window, but I'm not falling for that again! Only now he's trying to take my phone. And now my computer. "This? This? This?" Nope! None of the above. "Bitte?" Still no.

Time to go build towers only to knock them down.

BTW

In my German class, I'm forced to speak the language because my class consists of people from: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Brasil, Thailand, China, and Poland. So our only universal language is German, which is pretty neat.

Today, I picked you a grape leaf.

I'm readjusting to Germany/German time once again. I miss everyone back home, and the trip for a few short days there has definitely made it even harder to come back here and be away. But I do what I must do, and I'll be back home before anyone knows it...

I got back here yesterday around noon. Klaus and Mira picked me up, and we went to a town called Frankenthal to get her new glasses. Klaus was joking saying he has a new daughter because they make her look different and she sees things differently now. Then we went home and ate some lunch. Klaus took me to class, which is at 14:30, and dropped me off with the bike. Class gets out at 17:45, so I then went to Weingut Heissler to say hello to Sib since I hadn't seen her yet. I road the bike back home, and it's so nice to be back on one. It's also surprisingly not cold here. Today was probably around 35-40F. I don't even have to wear a coat anymore! I wish I'd known this because then I could have taken them home with me when I went the other day.

I woke up late today from the jet lag. Ugh. I hate that so much. It was so easy to go back to Florida but so not easy to come back to Germany.

Today, we had some bananas with Nutella and played inside because it was overcast. We had lunch with Klaus, and Mira came home from school shortly after. When Benji was napping, I baked some brownies with supplies that Josh's mom sent back here with me. They turned out well, actually! Benji and I went outside after his nap and played in what is now mud. Good thing we were wearing our boots! He thought it was really cool and pretended to get stuck in it so I would come pull him out. I also had to make dinner tonight, and it, also, turned out well. I think Sib just got home from her meeting with, yes, the Burgermeister.

I got to Skype with Julie and Josh today! Two of my favorite people. I also got a package from my mom containing chocolate chips and softlips chap stick. She knows what's up.