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!
Donnerstag, 30. April 2009
Montag, 27. April 2009
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!
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!
Freitag, 24. April 2009
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.
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.
Freitag, 17. April 2009
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!
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!
Dienstag, 7. April 2009
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)!
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)!
Freitag, 3. April 2009
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!
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!
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