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!

♥ ♥ ♥