PS

I forgot to mention - my Wednesday lunch date that I have every week with a group of women from all over the world - well, last week a few of us also when to Adriana's on Friday to eat some Mexican food!!!!!! Adriana is from Mexico, married to a German she met in Vancouver. She made Mexican for me, Ning, and Charlotte (who is now over a week due!). I consumed tortillas covered in guac, salsa, black beans, hot peppers, and lemon juice. yummmmmmm. It was amazing. We also drank this delicious Mexican rice drink that is kind of like rice milk with cinnamon in it - oh it was amazing. I'd never heard about it before.. Don't know where you can get it in Oregon. Yesterday we went to a cafe called Barcelona in the middle of the city and soaked up the sun for two leisurely hours and ate some yummy food (I split Spanish style potatoes with grilled vegetables with Ning) and desserts (Split fried strawberry apple yumminess with vanilla sauce with Adriana).

I miss hiking with the dogs and friends&fam (whit! brian! jen!). I miss the smells of the forest. I miss Oregon wine. And wine tasting with my girls. Yes I do. I'm on my way out to find some wine stores and scour the shelves for Oregon wine. Wish me luck! And then I'm getting my hair cut - first time since I've gotten here! I need my Kayleen. Then to the bake sale at the kids school, which I made some cupcakes for. Each class performed a piece for the parents Tuesday and again today. Emily and Oscar's class did Green Eggs and Ham. Oscar was the main character (did a FABULOUS job) and Emily was the mouse (so CUTE!). I was very proud. :)

Officially not staying with the family - still searching for jobs around Frankfurt but also the rest of Europe too. Any hints, advice - let me know! :)

Home sweet home German style.

This weekend I got to spend with my wonderful Schödels. I got to Regensburg, where Johanna is going to University, very late (well, later then I expected). Maria picked me up from the station (her and Esther had come into town to play too!) and then we walked to Bini's place (Johanna's cousin) where we (Johanna, Murat, Olivia, Bini, Esther, Maria, and I)  ate some spätzle and steak that he had made (me no steak) and then ate this delicious fruit torte that his friend Murat had made. We were a jolly group and it was great to be in all their company. We drank some wine, apfelschorle with Amaretto that was very tasty and played a German version of Memory and some Changa. Next day Maria, Esther, Johanna, Olivia, and I walked around the city, seeing all the old sites. The Dom was super cool - old German Gothic.

This city is very old and original because a lot of it was not destroyed during the war. The old stone bridge was built in the 12th century and the 2nd and 3rd crusades used it to cross the Donau River. Their is a staute of the devil in the middle of the bridge where he is looking up at the top of the Dom. There is an old story about a competition between the master builders of the Dom and the stone bridge which were built at the same time. The master builders each said that they would be done building their structures first and the stone bridge master builder used the help of the devil to finish his and then we don't really know the end of the story. I'll have to look it up. Here is a picture of us on the bridge. Johanna used to live in the pointy building second from the right.

Then the Mama Schödel came to town to wander a bit with us, have some lunch/Maria and I split French fries, and then we headed out to Eichstätt. I love going back to Eichstätt to hang out with the family, play games, snuggle with Esther, eat lots of good food, morning/evening walks with Maria, catch up with my wonderful Johanna, embarrass Benjamin, hear funny stories from Papa Schödel, listen to Mama Schödel's laugh, speak German/Bavarian, and just hang out with my lovely German family. They are always so great to me. Olivia came and stayed the weekend too so that was a lot of fun! We went for a nice walk/jog/run around Walting and it started to pour rain in the middle of it. Oh so fun! It felt good to be out somewhat hiking in the forest. Made me miss hiking at home with my lovelies.

Had a great run this morning - I'm loving the sun!!!!!! It's supposed to be in the upper 50s today, the sun is shining, and I am happy.

oh. my. goodness.

I went for a run this morning - do you know what that means?! IT IS WARM OUTSIDE!!!!!!! As in 16 degrees as in above 60 degrees fahrenheit! Wow. I'm overwhelmed. I must go outside now and soak in as much as I can.

PS I babysat last night for a family from Seattle - just a little bit closer to home. :)
PPS I get to see my Schödels tomorrow!! SO EXCITED!!

Have a baby by me, baby be a millionaire.

Feeling a bit under the weather - so ready for the warm weather. I am SO ready for it. I've discovered I am not a cold weather person. Tomorrow I was going to go on a day trip to somewhere but really I have no motivation to do anything in this freezingness. Not okay! I need my crazy friends. Ok it's supposed to get about the 50s by the end of the week so I am stoked - and I'm going to be with Johanna and family so that will be even better. :)

Been working on my resumes (with much help from my wonderful friends and family), one business and one teacher version. Now just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself during my job searching. Or am I coming home? Hmm. Stress. Volunteering in a warm climate for a couple months? Why not. Or doing sex ed in Africa? Sounds good. I'm reading a book based on Kinsey's work right now - very interesting. It is fiction but integrates real facts about Kinsey's life and of course his research. I like it.

Amsterdam trip booked - end of May for three nights. So excited. Maybe I can convince some of my other German loves to come on the wild trip with Katie and I.

Watched Valentine's day the other night - I though it was cute! It's the valentine's version of Love Actually! So funny. I heart McSteamy. Maybe I'll find him in Frankfurt!

Back to the book.

Schwarze Piste Bitte!

Got back last night from skiing fun with the family in the Alps. We left Wednesday night for Grainau which is right outside of Garmisch-Partenkirche where the tallest mountain, the Zugspitze, in Germany is. We, that is Phillip, Andrea, Oscar, Emily, me, Anki, Nico, Moritz, Lily, and Nico's daughter Katherina (whose wedding we are going to in Tuscany in July!!) stayed at a great aunt's inherited house. Thursday morning we grabbed our skis and headed up the mountain where it was completely covered in fog. Literally you could not see twenty feet in front of you. I decided this was a good thing. Since my experience skiing with my Schödel family with Amy where I fell down 500 times in two days I think not being able to see how steep the hills were worked to my advantage! By the end of the day I was a pro! Well, almost. Ok not even close but WAY better then when I went with my Schödels. Sheesh I wish I could have skied this well when I was with them - I would have been a lot more fun. Ha! In the four days I only took one big tumble and that was the first day. By the forth day I was going down the black diamonds - the hardest slopes - and racing Oscar over the bumps. I was completely impressed with Anki and Nico, who at 75 and 62 years of age could go down the black diamonds. Crazyness I tell you. Yep we skiied down all those hills shown behind Oscar. So much fun. Now I'm sad I have to wait a whole year to do it again! man. Now back to school. Look at the nerd with her eyes closed in this pictures. Bah!

Yikes!

So I walked through Grüneberg today on my way to and from school because I was curious to see the damage done from yesterdays windstorms. I saw FOUR trees down plus giant branches torn off of other trees! The ground was completely littered with branches of all sizes. Four giant trees ripped out of the ground! And one was lying across one of the paths. Scary! So that happened sometime between when I went running at noonish and 5PM when Jed went running. Wild. Thankfully no one was hurt! I only got hit by one tiny twig and got lots of debris in my eyes. Probably wasn't the best day to go running. Today after class I walked back towards the main part of the city with a girl in my class from Romania and she was telling me all about her experiences working in the show business such as in Circus's and riding elephants! Crazy. She is dating a German who is actually a pretty famous jongleur I guess! She gave me his name and I found him on youtube. Pretty cool stuff - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIeuttIfYl8

Bed time - I'm reading The White Tiger. It's hilarious! I wish I knew more about India so I could get more of the jokes.