sunshine on my face

It's amazing to think that the ground was completely covered in snow a week ago and now the flowers are already sprouting up out of the ground and making me smile. The sun is here and hopefully to stay! Today it got up to 14! I ventured out and went for my first real run in months. The day I chose also happened to be a day that was super windy. Today the winds were over 50mph around here. Apparently there is a large hurricane/winter storm going through Europe and over 30 people have died. When I was running through the park I had to watch out for the falling branches. This evening Jed went for a run and he said that there were three trees down in the park! I'm going to head through there tomorrow so I can see! So yes, very strong winds = debris in your eyes and the danger of things falling on your head.

We leave this weekend to go Skiing w/ the fam = Phillip, Andrea, Emily, Oscar, me, Anki, Niko, Moritz, Judith, and Lily. Shall be fun!

Maybe going to Paris next month. Woot.

I'm loving on the songs Nothing on You, Body Language(thanks katie), and Hurricane(thanks weener).

Working on staying here another year - heard from a school but they wanted me to start now and work full time... not really do-able. I talked to my friend Kelly and she encouraged me to keep searching for teaching jobs - 3 months vacay people!! Much better than an office job right now I'm thinking. :) Still searching! Amy goes home on Wednesday so, yes Mom, I'm jealous. Look at my pretty sisters. Love them.

Spring yet?

It got up to 12 degrees Celsius today which is about 54F which is SO WARM!!!! Compared to the freezing temperatures we have had since.. I don't know - December? - 12 is super exciting!!!

Last week on Monday Katie and I went to Mainz to celebrate Karneval - kind of like the German version of mardi gras. The WHOLE city was shut down and EVERYONE was dressed up. Except Katie and I. It was hilarious! And insane. The ground was covered in confetti and broken/empty alcohol bottles and there was a giant parade - pictured. Katie and I also got to witness many men peeing on the street, including right infront of us as we were eating bagels in a shop. I told Katie not to look. A bit of shock I would say. That's just how they do it! Needless to say the women's bathrooms had very long lines and all cost money. Yay for Lent and for people giving up food when they don't even believe in the actual things that it represents but just want an excuse to diet! Ugh. Don't get me started.

I started my new course on Monday and am back to three days a week of class - love it. My class is relatively small (around 12 people) and everyone can speak pretty good German! Definite plus. There are 4 or 5 au pairs in my class and my first American. She is in her late 20s I would say and is from Sanfran. She moved here because her boyfriend is German. She seems okay. Not that great. Today I had lunch with a group of ladies - we do lunch every Wednesday at a new restaurant to practice our German. One of the women is about 32 I'm guessing and wheres leggings with four inch heels that have heels the width of a pencil. Insane. They are a fun group of women though - one is a Yoga instructor/Ballerina/Dancer from eastern Europe, another woman from Mexico, one from Paris, one from Poland, and one from China. All are in their 30s and married to Germans. Today we had yummy Thai, which we actually had when Amy was in town as well and came with me.

Next weekend I go with the family skiing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a long weekend and then the third weekend in March I'm off to Regensburg to visit Johanna and then to Eichstätt and then the fourth weekend going to Berlin to stay at Anki's for Easter with the fam.

Nothing too exciting going on.. searching for jobs - heard back from one already but they wanted me to start immediately and full time and that doesn't work out. Naja.

Missing family and friends. Love you all.

Harry Potter Land and Ich bin Taub. Grow up Peter Pan.

Phew it has been busy here!! Last weekend Amy and I headed to London for a bit of fun. We stayed at a comfortable hostel in Hammersmith - the beds were so comfortable! I guess I was just used to the very uncomfortable ones on the Gold Coast in Australia. :) Remember how hard those were my turkey girls?! Sheesh. We were in London for three nights and had a great tour through the town by a native Londoner named Coupes - tattooed on his bum during a wild night in Aus. He was entertaining and we got to hear a lot about the history of London and what not. My wonderful, Erin, lived in London for a while and sent me a list of things to go see - one of my favorites being the Portobello Market in Notting Hill. I could definitely live in Notting Hill. It's such a cute area! And I love markets. I miss my Australia markets. I fell in love with a wallet (ok a few) at this stand at the Market but my stupid ATM card wasn't working (actually turned out that I had been putting the wrong PIN in but the machine would never tell me that, well not until I got back to Germany and figured out I had been doing the last number wrong. GRRRRR.) and I ended up running all over London (which is HUGE) trying to find a Deutsche Bank ATM (because I thought I just needed to use my particular bank ATM machine to get money out) so this took a long time. Well, my efforts were to no avail. I didn't make it back to the market before it closed. Next time I will be back and get those wallets!!!! Amy had her audition at LAMDA and she said it went ok. Had AMAZING Indian food on brick lane our last night - forgot about how forward those guys are! Reminded me of Melbourne when we ate Indian and got that free bottle of wine and that very colorful street.... Almost missed my bus in the morning to the airport. . ran a bit around London some more. Good times.

Amy was supposed to leave on Tuesday but her flight got delayed (until Sunday - today) because of the insane snow storm on the east coast which was where she was flying to. So she planned a trip for us to go to Würzburg which is halfway between Frankfurt and Eichstätt. Her and Maria met up there on Thursday and then Ben and I headed there on Friday. My train got delayed and I did not end up getting to Würburg till 930 which made me pretty angry. Maria picked me up, we went back to their friends house that we were staying at where Ben and Amy were waiting for us, had a couple shots, and then headed out to a big dance party in the city. The music was pretty lame, I mean for the kind of dancing that Amy and I like to do ;), but we made the most of it and danced the night away. Ben and Amy were adorable dancing. Amy was trying to teach Ben how to Salsa - so cute. I'm excited for their wedding. Oops. :) We walked back to our home stay around 3AM (after some drama involving mine and Maria's zipups getting lost but don't worry we got them back the next day when one of the workers found them!) and slipped around a bit in the snow. It was really pretty out though. I really liked the town. Maria and I got up "early" and hiked up to the fortress on the hill. This is a bit difficult to do in heeled boots. But I'm glad I finally found cute brown boots after the disaster with the last ones I bought (the literally moved the bone in my left foot. It's fine though now Mom really I promise). Maria thankfully caught me a few times before I fell on my face. Then we went and picked up some chocolate at the store and some Bretzeln and then went back to the apartment to have breakfast with Amy and Ben and one of the roommates. Between the four of us we ate about 3 bars of chocolate and a bag of schoko bon bons. Love chocolate. Then we went into the town to get our zipups from this guy and then to meet up with Nena  - who I lived with after I lived with Ben and Maria's family when I was in Germany in highschool. I haven't seen her in 5 years! Crazy! But it was great seeing her and she is planning on coming to visit me soon in Frankfurt since we are only an hour away now! Then I jumped back on a train to Frankfurt (slow train - the trains were just hating me for some reason!). Amy got back around 930PM and by then Katie was over and we were already having some wine and ready to go out. We ate a bit, drank a bit more and then headed to one of the University sections of Frankfurt where we found a GIANT party with people all dressed up - KARNEVAL!!!! We had a lot of fun watching the people and having some very classic moments. Dropped Amy off at the airport this morning - hope she makes it there safe! She is actually supposed to land in like 5 minutes . . Then the kiddos and I went sledding (aka it is STILL snowing here) in Grüneburg Park and then played on the playground for a bit. Lots of fun. Katie and I watched New Moon - beautiful Jacob, Yumm - And ate a lot of chocolate that she gifted me. So kind. Now I'm going to sleep! Well after I call Landers. I'm sending you lots of warm thoughts!! Stay strong. HAPPY VALENTINES/SINGLES AWARENESS DAY EVERYONE!!!