Good Apartment News!

Percy told us that we were able to extend our contract, at least for another month, which means we're clear to stay here until 17 November. He handed us a contract last night that was dated from 18 November; it did not have an end date. He said he was going to talk to the landlord people and he'd get back to us tonight about whether or not we can stay the whole time!

Good Friends, Good Times

Choir practice is tonight - I can't wait! :D

Yesterday when Josh got home from school he said, "Hey, if you want to, we're meeting at Nora's (a teacher friend) at 15:30, but we have to hurry because it's already 15:00." I said, "sure!" and we put on shoes, made a sandwich to take with us and headed over to Nora's. She lives on the north side of Altstadt and we live on the south side, so it's about a 40 minute walk to Nora's flat. On the way over, I asked Josh what we would be doing. He said we were going to walk somewhere, but he wouldn't tell me where. It turns out we were invited over to watch the Twilight movie. When Josh and I went there for the football game, Nora asked if we liked the Twilight books and we said how much we loved them, then she asked if we had seen the movie. She was appalled to find out that we hadn't seen it and invited us then and there to watch it with her. She didn't know when she would be able to since fall break is next week and she's going to New York for the week, plus she has a bunch of school stuff to do as well. We told her to call whenever she was free, even if it was last minute, so she did!

We watched the movie while sipping coffee and a drink which I cannot remember the name of. It's basically fruit juice (it's thick and syrupy, too heavy to drink by itself) mixed with sparkling water. It's delicious! We were also served krapfen which is basically a jelly-filled doughnut. They were all quite tasty! After the movie, Nora showed us some extras on the DVD, then we left because she had to go to French class. A great time was had by all. We also have plans to try and watch a special matinee that they have in Germany; they're showing the first and second Twilight movies back to back for only 12€! They are apparently selling tickets quickly, so to get three seats together we need to hurry!

Josh is renting a trombone from the school for 10€/month (cheap!) and they are allowing him to play in their band! Band practice is at 14:30 today and we don't know how long it will be. If it's two hours long, Josh will barely have time to come home and eat before choir practice! I was going to go to band practice with him, but it didn't work out today. Maybe next week.

One of the teachers at Labenwolf is letting us borrow her bicycle. It's a smaller one, so Josh has assigned it to me. He rode it home yesterday and said that it wasn't as small as he thought, but still on the small side for him. He said it is very fast though and he didn't know if that was because it's a street bike and he's used to riding a mountain bike or what was making it seem so fast. Anyway, we got a bike lock for it last night so it won't get stolen and I can't wait to ride it! Josh took it to work this morning; I made him take it so that he could eat breakfast. :) I'll ask him tonight how it worked out for him, though I'm sure it did fine.

A new episode of Deutscher Explorer is being uploaded to Facebook as I type. It has pictures of the apartment and a story or two. It's really just to give you an idea of the place that we're living in right now.

Speaking of which, Percy said that we could stay longer/extend our contract, but he's still going to Japan for the month of November, so I'm not sure how the situation has changed. Maybe he spoke with his landlord people and they're going to let us stay? I'm skeptical of the situation mainly because nothing circumstantial has changed and we can't talk with Percy about it because he hasn't been here for a week. He said he'd be back by the end of this week, though, so at the very least, in theory, we should be able to have spoken with him by Monday. We'll see how it goes.

Day #7
Today what makes me thankful is... I have a husband who loves me and takes good care of me.

Today what makes me happy is... the sun is shining brightly; not a cloud is in the sky! And I have choir practice tonight! :D

Today what makes me free is... God's love and protection.

Well, I need to go get ready for the day. Deutscher Explorer is up and ready for you to view and comment on! Have a great day, tschüs!

A Haunting

I feel haunted. Ghosts of my past keep wandering around in my head during the day and taking over my brain at night. When I wake in the middle of the night yd.f won't let me forget them, they won't leave me in peace so I can rest. I am not sure how to get rid of them. I am so tired.

My cold has come back with a vengeance and extra symptoms. The medicine is barely working. Maybe I need to go to the doctor this time.

Rebecca is sick, too. She has a tummy-ache. Pray that she has a speedy recovery so that she can get back to work.

Day #6
Today what makes me thankful is... that my husband and I have a safe and warm place to live.

Today what makes me happy is... my dear husband.

Today what makes me free is... cross-stitching; it keeps my hands busy so that my brain can be as active or inactive as it needs to be.

Please pray for Josh, that his graduate school and fellowship application essays don't prove to be too difficult for him. The deadlines for the applications are coming up soon, but lucky for us, they're all online so nothing has to be "snail mailed."

Married life is going well. We watch television shows online in most of our (Josh's) spare time. We are following: Dexter, season 4; Dollhouse, season 2; Vampire Diaries, season 1; Flash Forward, season 1; Heroes, season 4 (even though we both hate it); House, season 5; Numb3rs, season 6 (even though Josh hates it); and Gossip Girl, season 3. We are also watching two animes: Case Closed, we're on episode 51, and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, we're on episode 27. Episode 28 is supposed to come out on Monday or Tuesday.

I really can't wait to start German classes. We bought a German-English dictionary so that I can start reading books while waiting for classes to start. We have two German books, Maus and Twilight. I haven't tried reading Maus with the dictionary yet, but I figured I'd tackle it before Twilight because it's a comic and I can use the pictures to help me figure out the words I don't know, or at least try to. Josh is reading Twilight right now, though, and says that it's doing wonders for helping him learn words that he'll actually use. Maybe I will try reading Twilight tomorrow.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Tschüs!

Choir Practice

Yesterday we went to choir practice. Tina, one of the teachers at Josh's school, had invited us to go at the dinner the other night. She's an alto, like me, so it's easier for me to learn the parts because I don't speak German, so asking someone who may or may not know English wouldn't be as helpful. The choir director is super nice; he is very good at what he does. If he isn't a choir director for a living, he should be because he is fantastic. I just wish I could understand his directions. :)

There are 5 songs, all but one of which are in English. The director asked Josh and I to read the lyrics of the English songs so that everyone could know what the words are supposed to sound like. I was nervous to read the words because they're all Olde English and some of the words Josh and I purely guessed as to what they sound like. The phrase that gave us the most trouble is from a song called Psalm 5, music by Felix Mendelssohn Barthodly and lyrics by Heidi Kirmße: "Whor hat'st alike the man in blood." There was much confusion over how the word Whor was to be pronounced; we thought, at first, that it was supposed to be a conjunction, who are, or who're, but the hat'st got us because it's past tense. It ended up sounding like "hooor" when we were singing it, so I guess it works out. I had a ton of fun, though and I'm really looking forward to next week's practice. Josh said he had fun, too, and that he would try and sing with the guys next time.

It has gotten cold pretty quickly here. It's 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the high all this week. Brr! We went on a walk with Karin and her daughter yesterday and her daughter had this puffy pink coat on and sat inside a sheepskin sleeping-bag looking thing, all stuffed inside her stroller, or pram, as the Brits call it (they learn British English in school). She looked all toasty, but I wasn't. I had on three shirts, two of which were sweaters, and a scarf and I was still cold. The sun didn't come out yesterday, so it didn't get warm in the afternoons like it usually does. Ah, thus is the life of a German citizen. I'll be cold, but I'm looking forward to my first real winter!

Day #5
Today what makes me thankful is... that I have something to look forward to in addition to Josh coming home every day. ;)

Today what makes me happy is... choir practice last night, and next week, and the week after...

Today what makes me free is... my warm clothing. :)

Have a warm day, folks! Heh. I have to run to the store and the post office, so I'll catch ya later! Tschüs!

Football!

When Josh got home from work yesterday, he said that his mean teacher (story to follow...she might be nice!) invited him to a teacher dinner that evening. We went to a restaurant called Bratwurst Röslein. I had Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, which are different than American brats, specifically in size. Here's a picture:

As a side note, the brats are usually served on a tin plate, a heart shape if you order a dozen, and a side of either Sauerkraut or Kartoffelsalat (potato salad, always warm). Another side note; Sauerkraut is always served warm in Germany.

Anyhoo, we ended up sitting near Nora, the teacher we went to Würzburg with on the Wanderntag last week. We got to chatting with her and she invited us to watch the football (soccer) game with her, her boyfriend, and some friends the next evening. She also invited us to have coffee and cake with her before hand. Needless to say, I am über excited! I love to watch football, especially over here, where they know what they're doing. Tonight's match is between the German National Team and Russia and is supposed to be an important game. This game decides whether or not the Germans go to the World Cup qualifiers (or something like that, her boyfriend was talking really quietly). This will be our first real outing with German friends; I hope we don't do something to offend them on accident.

So apparently Josh impressed his mean teacher the other day; she kept asking questions in class about his topic (something to do with immigration or something like that) and she and one student were asking a ton of questions and covering many topics. All of the questions that were asked Josh answered and she said she was surprised he was so well informed. Later that day was when she invited Josh to the teacher's dinner. Hopefully whatever was making her so upset before is now gone; I can't imagine how miserable Josh would be by the end of this if she was mean to him all the time. I think he did take pleasure in the fact that whenever she was mean or rude he was the nicest person ever back to her, kind of like how Gary was to Stan in the South Park Mormon episode.

Well, I had better get Josh out of bed and get breakfast made. Have a great weekend! Tschüs!

Day #4
Today what makes me thankful is... I had a good night's sleep last night.

Today what makes me happy is... getting to watch football with friends.

Today what makes me free is... being able to have and make friends.

Sick and Tired

I'm tired. I went to bed early and I still want to sleep. Maybe it's the illness? I'm tired of being sick, that's for sure. The symptoms keep changing and mixing and matching every day. One day my ears are plugged up and I have a sore throat, the next day my throat feels fine but my nose is running, and the next day I feel back to normal except my nose is plugged up, and so on and so forth. I have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow afternoon. Apparently when you call them you just plan for a time to visit; they don't care why you're there, they didn't ask, anyway.

My hormones are stupid. I don't know why we have to have them. Well, I do, but I don't like it. I don't like the way they make me feel. They change my mood so often and I feel things without knowing why I feel them; it makes me feel uncomfortable and out of control, along with whatever mood they feel like making me have at the moment. I wish we could turn them on and off, only use them when we want to use them. That would be nice.

We still haven't started looking for an apartment yet. I'd look during the day, but I can't read German and most of the sites don't have an English translation. I know some key words, but that's it. I know zimmer (room) and tielmobliert (partly furnished, which basically means with a kitchen). That's all I can think of at the moment. In the afternoons, after reading a forum and watching whatever new show is out in the States (we're following several), Josh usually starts on his grad school applications. Granted, this isn't bad, because it needs to be done, but it took us so long to find an apartment the first time and I'm scared that if we don't start looking now, we'll have to be homeless (or stay in a hostel) again. I keep reminding him to look, but he never ends up doing it. Maybe my hormones are making me worry for nothing.

I got to talk to Rebecca for four hours the other day. It was great! The two of us are so much alike it's scary. She's such an interesting person and always has fun stories.

Day #3
Today what makes me thankful is... I don't have a busy, hectic life at the moment.

Today what makes me happy is... the sun is out today, at least for a little while.

Today what makes me free is... God's love and protection.

I'm getting hungry again (hormones, probably are the culprit) so I'm going to go make myself a sandwich. Have a good day! Tschüs!

Think Positive

Day #2
Today what makes me thankful is... Josh is a good husband.

Today what makes me happy is... that I have a doctors appointment on Thursday.

Today what makes me free is... the laundry doesn't need to be done.

We Didn't Go

The morning we were supposed to go to Munich, the alarm went off on Josh's phone; he turned it off and set it for later. That one went off, too, and was turned off. I didn't know he had set an alarm, so I wasn't prepared to get him up when it went off. Consequently, we didn't get up until the train we were going to take at 9:00 had already left. There wasn't another fast regional train until 14:00. I was still prepared to go, though I honestly had mixed feelings about it. I really wanted to take a peek at Oktoberfest, hoping that it really was more than a bier fest and we would stay there all day. I also really wanted to go to the Deutsches Musem which is basically the German equivalent of the Smithsonian. We found a train that left at 13:08, but Josh hadn't gotten ready because of his own mixed feelings. I was disappointed because we didn't get to go and now the regret of not going to Oktoberfest is setting in. I really should have made him get up and go, but I wasn't sure if I was up to going, either; my cold is still here and not getting any better. Now I really am kicking myself. I knew I would regret it, but that wasn't motivation enough, apparently. Maybe we'll go next year; get a group of people to go with us or something.

I'm ready to go home. I need something familiar. I'm tired of eating stuff out of boxes because they don't have anything else at the grocery store. I feel like a horrible wife because the only useful things I do are cooking, dishes, laundry, tidying up the room, and posting pictures on the internet. I won't start language classes until we move into the new apartment. I can't leave the apartment during the day because I don't have the key and the front door is the type that you need the key to close (latch) or open the door from the outside. I can't talk with my friends and family on a regular basis at all; Rebecca is the only person that is as crazy about being online as I am, so I get to talk to her quite a bit, which is so good. I'm probably in the homesick phase. We were talking with a guy in the hostel's common room a few weeks ago and he said that when he traveled for over a year, he would get into a homesick phase about once every month or two that would last a couple of weeks. He said after the homesick phase he went into the i'm-glad-i'm-somewhere-new-and-exciting phase, and that the two phases just played back and forth. I'm comfortable where I am, I know where the grocery store is, I know where the subway entrances are, I know where the train station is, I know where the nearest Döner Kebab place is (right around the corner from the apartment!), but I don't feel at home. I am so bored.

I need to start over with Robyn's idea. I haven't done this since January. I stopped at day #12. Oops.

Day #1
Today what makes me thankful is... that I have a husband that takes good care of me.

Today what makes me happy is... the sun is shining!

Today what makes me free is... I don't have a job or classes to take away from my time to spend with Josh.

Have a great day! Tschüss!

Pictures Up!

After much thought and discussion, we realized that putting the pictures on a new blog or another site would be rather inconvenient for you. We decided that putting them on Facebook would be much easier for everyone involved. At first, we were going to make a new album for every section we wanted to post. But we couldn't write much in the album itself. Then we decided that in addition to the album, we would write a note to correspond with the album, and in the album we could make reference to the note. What I ended up doing is making a note and posting the pictures in the note. It works exactly like we were wanting the photo blog to and it's more convenient for everyone! It does take a while to create one of these notes, only because I can only upload one picture at a time. The good thing about it is that I can be writing about the picture as I'm uploading it. I have named this photo blog note Deutscher Explorer; be looking for these on my Facebook!
I have some catching up to do with the Deutscher Explorer, but I think one episode per day will be enough to get caught up.

I'm trying to get Josh to go to Munich this weekend; we may be able to tour the Oktoberfest grounds and take pictures without having to buy any beer. We had decided not to go to Oktoberfest because neither of us really care for beer and if you don't get there early in the morning, you can't get a table, and if you can't get a table you can't get beer. We never heard anything else about Oktoberfest, so we figured all that was there was beer and it's pointless to go if we don't like beer. But if we can get in and shoot some pictures, that'd be great! We also wanted to look around Munich and see some sights there. I also want to get Josh some Lederhosen. I got a Dirndl last time we were there, when we visited Rebecca, but we decided to wait on the Lederhosen because they're a bit pricey. I'll put up pictures when I get them.

I hope you are all having a good day. I hope the weather is better there than it is here; gray and cool...yuck. I miss the sunshine! Have a wonderful day, all! Tschüs!

Wanderntag II

Yesterday Josh and I went on another Wanderntag (Hiking Day) with one of his classes. The all female class of 14-year-olds, 26 in all, their teacher, Josh, and I went to Würzburg for the day. The group was split into pairs and gave presentations at different parts of the city. We got to see the outside of a lot of buildings; Josh said we could go back soon and see the inside of all the buildings.

During the lunch/shopping break, Josh took me to the Chinese restaurant, called Asia-Kim, that he ate at all the time when he was doing his study abroad in Würzberg. The food was fantastic and came out in these miniature woks set atop a holder with a tea light under it, to keep the food warm. It was delicious! Josh got the green curry, of course, and I got the fried noodles with pork. I tried some of Josh's curry and I actually liked it! None of the other curries he's gotten were anywhere near as good as this; he has been searching at every Thai and Indian restaurant to find a curry to top the one at Asia-Kim and he hasn't found one yet! So delicious!

After lunch, we all went on a boat ride down the river. I got some pretty cool pictures. We had a great conversation with his teacher during the ride; she's such a nice lady!

I got to talk to Mom last night; that was really cool! Unfortunately, she and Dad are home, sick with "flu-like symptoms" according to their doctor, but they did swab their noses for Swine Flu. One kid at Mom's school has it, which, I assume, is why they checked Mom for it. I talked to my coworker the other night and she said that Swine Flu is circulating at work. I guess I left just in time, huh? ;) Just kidding, Jen.

Speaking of illnesses, I still haven't gotten rid of my cold. I'm starting to wonder if it's more than a cold; I've had a sore throat for a few days and I can't seem to get rid of it. We have exhausted our supply of Sudafed and taken a huge chunk out of our Tylenol supply. Right now all I can take is Mucinex, Benadryl, and Tylenol, and hope that the Mucinex will get the drainage out of my throat while the Benadryl stops the drainage from happening. The Tylenol keeps me from feeling like I'm swallowing glass every time I swallow. I checked for the white speckles on my tonsils to make sure it isn't strep. I think I'm ready to give in and go to the doctor. Maybe.

Well, I'm going to go make breakfast for Josh and I. I'm getting pretty hungry. I'm going to make a fried egg sandwich. Mmmmmmmm. Have a good day, all. Tschüs!