Long Time, No See

One day, about two weeks ago, I was checking my Facebook and saw that I had a friend request. I clicked the link to see who it was and it was John Bartolomeo, a friend that Josh and I both knew in high school. I accepted the friend request, of course, and sent him a message asking what he and his bride were up to. As it turns out, he is stationed in Grafenwöhr, which is an hour outside of Nürnberg. He asked when we could get together, offered to pick us up, and that very weekend we went over to his house. We had an absolute blast hanging out with John, his wife Becca, and their son, Jack, who is nine months old. We were invited to stay the night and had just as much fun the next day as the first! They invited us over for the next weekend, even before we left, and of course we accepted. This past weekend was our second time to visit and we had even more fun than last time, something which none of the four of us thought was possible! It is so great to see old friends and also make new ones (Josh and I hadn't met Becca or Jack), especially when they live so close!

They have a store on base that is basically like WalMart and we've gotten to buy things that we either needed or missed, such as Dr. Pepper. They even have a hair salon and a spa in the same building! When Josh and I were at the Bartolomeo's, I mentioned that I was wanting to cut my hair and Becca offered to take me with her to her hair appointment the next day and see if they could fit me in. I was elated to find out that they could and when the lady who was cutting my hair asked what I wanted, I showed her the picture, she said, "Ok," got a cart from the other side of the salon, grabbed her scissors and WHACK! off went four inches. I got so excited and was beaming the whole time. It must have bothered the lady because she asked me if I was ok. :D I absolutely LOVE this haircut, as does Josh, and I will be wearing it for quite some time! It's short, it's cute, and it makes me look older and more mature in the best ways. I think I could pass for 25 ;)

It's short, I know, but it's all I have time for now. Have a great day! Tschüs!

Enrolled in Classes

I'm enrolled in language classes! The earliest one they had available was 22 February, so that's my first one :( but at least I'm enrolled! They also only let you take one class at a time, so I'm forced to take the "slow" track, but Josh is confident that when we leave Germany, or slightly before then, that I will have better German (speaking, reading, and writing) than he does. I am super excited about starting class! The classes will be Monday through Thursday from 09:15 to 13:30 every week for one month. I'm going to take as many classes as I can before we leave; hopefully it'll allow me to CLEP out of the first year or two of language when I get my degree!

Josh and I went to the pool with Karin, Tobi, and Helena yesterday. It's a huge facility with four pools; one is for kids only, one is a smaller pool, one is a very large pool, and the fourth is an outdoor pool with access from the inside. All of the pools except the large one are warm. In the large pool there are several diving boards, each at different heights. The shortest is 1 meter, the middle is 3 meters, and the highest is 9 meters, but the tallest board is only open to the diving team, never to the public (which is fine by me). My favorite pool was the outdoor pool, simply because it felt awesome to be swimming while there was snow on the ground, roofs, and trees. It was a lot of fun and pretty cheap and I think Josh and I may end up going regularly.

I haven't slept well for the past four nights. I keep having strange and scary dreams; the night before last I was dreaming of a woman who had noticed that her husband had started acting strange and she knew he was going to kill someone so she went to the police. She told the officer everything she knew, then led him to her husband. The husband got angry and shot the officer and fled the scene. The woman was brought in with the police for protection and a female officer was trying to get her to go into witness protection for her own safety, but the woman refused and continued to live in her house to wait for her husband to return. On the way back to her house, my view became first person from the wife's point of view. Her husband came up behind her and tripped her and she fell onto her stomach. He said, "You told them everything, didn't you." Then before she could respond or even look up to see his face, he shot her in the head and ran off. A ripple went through my head, down my spine, through my legs, all the way to my feet. I didn't feel any pain, but my head felt cold and I could see the blood dripping off her eyebrows from the top of her head and pooling around her face onto the grass. Then I felt cold all over and very sleepy. When she closed her eyes, I woke up. I couldn't get back to sleep because every time I closed my eyes, I saw the grass, then the blood dripping.

Last night I dreamt about John. I can't remember the dream exactly, I just remember him being murdered in gruesome ways and I was forced to watch. It was one of those dreams that replays the same basic story in different ways. No matter how long I stayed awake, I went straight back into the dream, watching horrible things happen to John as I sat helpless and crying. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep better the next few nights, with no bad dreams, too.

I'd better be off. Frohe Weinachten! (Merry Christmas)

Much Better

We met with Percy last night, which is a story in itself, and we are able to stay here until he gets back from Japan at the earliest. We're hoping that this means that we can stay until we leave on July 2, but we've learned the hard way not to count on this hope.

Recently I've been going over to Karin and Tobi's house once weekly to help Tobi take care of their daughter, Helena. She's a great kid, it's just difficult for Tobi to get anything done when he's the only one that can watch her. I watch her while he goes to the bakery to get breakfast, help feed her, read to her (she really just wants to point out the animals she knows and make the sounds), and play with whatever toy she chooses. I also help when we go on a walk and when we go to the playground, which is my favorite part of the day! As of yesterday, I now get to go twice a week! :D I will be going on Tuesdays and Fridays and I am so excited about it!

Helena has grown up so much in the three weeks that I've spent with her. She recognizes me now, but she doesn't know what to call me. When I showed up yesterday, she got all excited, smiled, pointed at me, and said, "Da!" which means 'here' or 'there' depending on context. When Tobi asks her where I am, she points and says "Da!" I'm not sure what she'll start calling me; my name is rather difficult. Speaking of names, three days ago she walked up to a mirror and said "Lena." When she sees her plastic plates or cups or clothing that's hers, she says her own name. It's so cute! She also just started saying "Ja" (yes), "Nein" (no), "Hase" (rabbit), and "Nase" (nose). She is the sweetest little girl! I can't wait to see what she says next!

For Christmas, Germans celebrate three days instead of only two. They celebrate on the 24th, the 25th, and the 26th. For these three days, EVERYTHING is shut down and everyone is with their families. Josh and I had been contemplating about escaping to Austria during the Christmas break, but then we realized how foolish we were; Austria will be celebrating Christmas, too, which means even if we went, we wouldn't have time to see all three cities that we wanted to go to. So we decided to put it off. Right about the same time, Karin invited us to go to their house for Christmas dinner. They want to cook a goose for Helena (the Germans eat goose at Christmas instead of ham or turkey) so that she grows up having this every year, but they have never cooked a goose before and didn't want to embarrass themselves to their family. Karin's sister lives in Regensburg and is apparently extremely picky when it comes to food. They don't want to cook it for her, but they know they can't eat a whole goose by themselves, and they don't want us to be alone on Christmas, so they invited us to eat Christmas goose with them. I am super excited! I'll definitely take the camera with us and take lots of pictures to share on Facebook.

I got to talk with Kelley and Christina on Skype within the past week, which is awesome! Kelley said she'd try to get both Christina and Angela over to her computer so they can all three talk to me at the same time. This makes me happy because I miss my friends so very much! Josh's dad said that he would take his laptop with him to Aunt Kim's for Christmas so that we can say hello to all of our family there. Apparently we're going to be on the big tv screen!

I am finally going to start a hobby that I've been curious, but never serious, about starting until now: bonsai trees. I have done a ton of research about them and have purchased a book and gotten advice from Tobi, who has been growing bonsai for 30 years now. I figured between the books and Tobi, I'll have what I need to learn how to keep the tree alive and start to shape it before I leave Germany. My plan is to give the tree to Tobi when I leave as a thank you gift for everything that he and his family have done and will do for us. They have been so great to us so far (despite the awkward first month with Karin) and I really want to do something nice for them. Plus, it helps me learn bonsai so that I can take care of them on my own at home. I also hope to make my dad proud. He has quite the pair of green hands (I don't think he's killed any plant that he's touched) and so far I can't raise a bean plant for more than a month. But I know I can do it and I have the patience and time to care for this little tree and help it grow into a bigger little tree and make it as beautiful as can be.

With the help of Google Translate and the five words that I know, I found the language courses on the Bildungzentrum website. They only have classes on Mondays, which I thought was strange. The classes go from A1 to C2, each number divided in half, i.e. A1.1, A1.2, A2.1, etc. I have created a couple of "plans" for myself, a fast one and a slow one. The fast one involves two classes per week, all of which are intensive courses, which means classes are on Mondays from 08:45-17:15, each month until July. For example, I'll take A1 from Jan. - Feb., A2 from Feb. - March, and so on. I can only complete up to B1, because level B2 spans June - July and I leave July 2, which means I'd stop classes on the last day of June. At that rate, I may have learned two years worth of German in six months. Awesome! The slow track is only taking one half-level at a time, for example: A1.1 from Jan. - Feb., A1.2 from Feb. - March, A2.1 from April - May, etc. I personally like the fast track better, but it may be too much for me. I think I'll start it that way and if it's too much I'll cut back. I haven't spoken with Josh about it yet; he's still at school, but I'm anxious to see what he thinks about it. He'll help me decide which I should do.

Nora gave me the New Moon soundtrack for Christmas! I can't wait to listen to it!

Well, I'm going to go now. I want to get some laundry done. Josh is out of socks. Tschüs!

Anxiety and Stress

It's been so long. I lost the drive to post; I don't know why. Things are getting shaky here. Percy is going to Japan for 5 months; we aren't sure if he'll return. We aren't sure of a lot of things, like, will we be able to stay here? will we have to move? where will we move? can we find an apartment to move to in time? if we stay, will we have to pay extra for Percy's room? who will we pay rent to if Percy isn't coming back? how will we pay the electricity and water?

In all honesty, we're starting to regret the decision to move here. Josh isn't feeling fulfilled, I'm not doing anything useful, and we're both sorely homesick. We're looking into language classes for me, but even after I've completed it, the only good things coming from this experience are my having learned a little German and Josh gets to put another word on his resumee: Fulbright. And it's one we are not happy with. They've made this as difficult for us as they can, they don't help us at all, and they didn't accurately prepare us for what we are experiencing. Right now the cons are outweighing the pros and we're both feeling the weight of it now.

Is that one word worth it? It'd better be, because we can't go home; no one would hire either of us for only six months and we don't have a place to live. Once we know where Josh is going to graduate school, we'll be fine, but we don't know that now, all we know is California or New England, so it's not like we could find a place to live near the school.

All of this is compounding my homesickness. It's even making Josh really homesick. I just wish there would be an obvious answer floating in the air or something, "Go back to the states" or "Stay in Germany, it'll be worth it." Unfortunately God is usually more cryptic than He is obvious. Hopefully He'll make it obvious; that's what I asked for, anyway. I suppose we'll see.

Tschüss, bis zum nächsten Mal.

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!

News!

Josh finally got rid of his cold. He gave it to me. :( Literally the day he felt back to normal was the day I started feeling poorly. That's how married life works, I guess.

I have some great news...my baby brother is engaged! John asked Ruthy to marry him and she said yes! I am so proud of him and so excited for both of them. Ruthy is a great girl and fits John perfectly. They won't get married until Ruthy's done with school, which is in about three years. John will be getting out of the Air Force by then, so it works out great!

The apartment room we're renting is nice. I wish we were staying here for longer; it's tough to get used to one place and then have to settle in to another, ya know? Percy has been gone for three days; it's odd, even for him. He's been really nice when he is here and actually out of his room.

We haven't really been out to see much. We went on a Wanderntag with Josh's school last Wednesday to this huge indoor playground thing. It's a lot like Leaps and Bounds used to be, but this place is MUCH cooler. I should be putting the pictures up today. We're going on another Wanderntag with Josh's other school this Wednesday; they're going to Würzberg. I'm not sure what they plan on doing there and Josh doesn't know either. I just know that the school is kind enough to let me join in on the fun! I'll take lots of pictures and put them on the blog.

Josh and I started watching (re-watching for him) Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, an anime about some high school age kids and a Cotton Festival. It's pretty creepy; so far I can't really tell what's going on, but I'm very intrigued and can't wait to see if the following episodes explain the story a little better. I'm going to introduce Josh to Girl's Bravo, one of my all-time favorite animes. It's absolutely hilarious!

Not Much to Say

We're doing ok in the room we're renting. The biggest problem we had/have is the lack of a clothes dryer. We knew we would have to use a clothes line and don't have a problem with it. However, the only clothes line that Percy has is in his bathroom and is very SMALL. We can't even fit a whole load of clothes (which is tiny in and of itself) on the clothes line. Plus, it takes FOREVER to dry clothes when they're inside, even when the window is open. We took our jeans off the clothes line after four days and even then they were still damp in the waist. On the up side, I found out that my little ankle socks are nearly dry when they come out of the washer, so I don't have to hang them up but for a few hours. We have learned the hard way that we do not wait until we have no more clothing to do the laundry.

Please pray for Josh as he has a cold and can't seem to get rid of it. We don't have any cold medicine with us and we can't find it at the stores. He should go to the doctor, but we haven't called to make him an appointment yet; he doesn't really want to go. I think he should; he was making these horrible vocal sounds while he was sleeping; it really creeped me out!

I think that's it for now. Have a good day! Tschüs!

Apartment Time

Well, we're moving into an apartment tonight (at 9:30pm). We have 8 bags with us, so we're moving half tonight and half in the morning; leaving the bags we're taking tomorrow in their lockers at the hostel. The apartment is actually a room in a man's apartment. In November, he's flying to Japan to visit his wife and he's not allowed to rent his room when he's not living there, which means that we have to have another apartment found by October. I was so hoping to be done with apartment searching once we found one.

It's going to be awkward for me to live there with a strange guy. He speaks German with a very heavy Spanish accent and it's difficult for even Josh to understand, which means I have no hope of communication with the man. I'm really not looking forward to it, but then again, it's only for a month and a half; very temporary.

I am exhausted. I haven't been able to sleep for the past four nights for various reasons; drunken people across the street from the hostel who partied loudly outside, right next to our window, people who snore so loudly the windows rattle, or it's just plain cold. It's also been difficult sharing a room with up to seven other people (only males have shared our room so far) and being married, if you know what I mean. This whole situation doesn't feel right; it feels too forced, too awkward.

There is one great thing that happened. I met a girl named Rebecca. I lovingly call her "wench" and she loves it. We're very much alike; so much so that it's scary. She's older than me, 25, and she's a nurse. She lives in Massachusetts. She's staying in München (Munich) now and leaves on Saturday, but tomorrow Josh and I are going to München, meeting up with Wench, and are going to Dachau together (Dachau is a concentration camp). I can't wait to see her again; I missed her company yesterday afternoon after she left for München. Josh and I met her at the hostel the night before last, spent the whole night together eating out (at the oldest sausage restaurant in Nürnberg), playing Phase 10, talking, and watching silly videos online. We spent the next morning together as well; I made enough breakfast for everyone, then we all sat and chatted until she had to leave for her train. Josh and I walked her to the station and we said our see-you-laters there. I can't wait to see her tomorrow - she's a ton of fun and has a great sense of humor!

Well, I have to run. We have an appointment with Deutsche Bank at 15:00. Tschüs!

Wir sind jetzt in Deutschland!

Hallo from Deutschland! We've explored Nürnberg and taken lots of pictures, have tried Ice (Gelato - Germans LOVE ice cream!) and other German foods, have had the best bratwurst in the world, and seen some pretty cool sights. We're still searching for an apartment, though. We get to see one tonight and I hope it works out for us. I'm going to start our picture blog this afternoon some time; I'll put a link to it in the sidebar for you.

We have to go to the grocery store now. I know this post is short, but I'll make up for it on the picture blog, I promise! :D Tschüs!

Tomorrow

We leave for Germany tomorrow. It just hit me this morning. Germany has been a plan, an idea, for so long that I haven't even considered the reality of it. It seems so strange to think that I will actually be in Germany in just over 24 hours. Crazy, isn't it?

I'm going to go play a video game with Josh and Austin, then go to dinner with my family. I just wanted to post a blurb before we start the big move. It may be a few days before I post again; it really depends on how the apartment hunting goes. Bis später. Aufwiedersehen!

Leaving Soon

We leave for Germany in two and a half days. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. We don't have an apartment rented yet; we wanted to see it before we put down a deposit, so we've made reservations at a hostel for four nights, which gives us five days to find an apartment, which should be plenty of time. I'm not worried about finding one, honestly. I'm more worried about where to put our valuables before we find it.

Gotta run to dinner with the Gunter family!