I am alive I promise.

Berlin Highlights:

We were in Berlin for a week. The kids and I left on the Sunday before xmas and the parents got there on Wednesday. Berlin was covered in snow when we first got into town but that turned into dangerous ice two days later. I thankfully did not fall on my butt once. I wandered the city on Monday and saw all the main sites - last time I was in Berlin was 5 years ago with friends Regina and Julia before heading to Sweden! Not much has changed since last time but it was fun wandering the city and enjoying the xmas festivities. The kids and I and Anki (the grandma) went to a museum on Tuesday and then the kids and I walked over to the main train station and had fun getting lost around it. For xmas Phillip's brother Moritz, his wife Judith, and their daughter Lilly came over. I got some pretty neat gifts including a few bath items in my favorite smell from The Body Shop, a cute sweater from Anki, the book The Tender Bar, two shirts (one featuring a giant heart saying something about being a great aupair:) ), and chocolate! Side note on The Tender Bar - Granny and Poppop's Rabi mentioned this book in a lecture he gave and I've had it on my list of books to read. Well. A friend of Anki's was at her house the first two days the kids and I were there and I had talked to her about the book (as well as about the amazingness of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle!) and on Christmas Day I open a present from her and it is the book The Tender Bar! Can you believe that?! How thoughtful of her! I was and am so touched. I finished the book five days ago and I must say it is hilarious and ya'll should read it. It's about a boy pretty much growing up in a bar. Not the type of book you would expect a Rabi to recommend but nevertheless. . . It inspired me to listen to Sinatra and read The Catcher in the Rye since these were two favorite things of the author. Let the musical education begin!


Amy got in at 10AM on the 27th and after about an hour of searching for one of her bags she found it on another luggage rack. So dumb. But we got out of there, back to the house, unpacked and repacked her bags and then headed to Katie's to drop off our bags, dropped the car back off at the house and then walked to Katie's before walking to the train station to catch our train at 2PM. Sheesh! It was only a little stressful. But in the middle of that I got a super SWEET and AMAZING jacket from some of my bestest friends in the whole wide world. Kayleen, Jennifer, Mallory, Hilary, and Landers got me this awesome winter jacket that I so needed for the following two weeks. It is so sweet. And Mal made me a scarf and Landers made me a hat, and Kayleen got me earrings, and Jenn got me a scarf and chocolate. I might have mixed up some of the gifts but basically I got a super duper amazing fabulous xmas package from my loves. I love you guys!!!!!!! Amy brought me some essentials too, especially herself. :)

Prague Highlights:

Prague was so much fun. Our group included me (dropbear), amy (drama), Katie (Charlie), johanna (mom), Alex (kaiser), Stefan (rock), Susi (roll), Maria (5%), Ben (), Anthony (Bummel), Louis (Von Schnodel), and Bini (Knife and fork). We were quite a rambunctious crew with the boys being loud and drunk for most of the trip (amy did not appreciate this). They bought fireworks (or what they like to call bombs) and Bini burnt his hands because he held the fireworks in his hands as they went off. Ben through them out our hostel window where they landed a little too close to cars.

Day One (night one)

Katie, Amy, and I made it into Prague safe and sound but then had a bit of trouble finding our hostel. We had to take three trains to our hostel and we didn't realize that the currency was different in Prague. So after changing in some Euros (1Euro = 25 Cronons???) we just bought a random ticket which we didn't know what it actually was for and then jumped on what we hoped to be the correct train. Thankfully it was. After speaking to a nice guy on the phone with a french accent (turned out to be Anthony, silly anthony) we got off on the right stop and now just had to find our way "across the train tracks." We crossed the train tracks and wandered back and forth on this one street and at one point I could have sworn I heard Anthony yelling my name (and he was). Some police were coming down the street so we asked them if they could help us find our hostel - they were not helpful AT all. In fact they were kind of mean. We were "stupid Americans" after all. Well we finally figured out that there was a bridge crossing over a bunch more train tracks and that was actually the one that we needed. Anthony met us on the bridge (big hugs!!!!) and led us to the hostel which was like 3 minutes away. Oh how I missed my Anfernizzle from Brizzle. For those who don't know I met Anthony in Australia when I studied there - he might have been in a class with Kristin and he might have dated one of the loves of my life Megan for just a wee bit. (Steph - "uhh I think you left something behind" MWAHAHAHAHA)  ;) ANYWHO. After unloading at the hostel we all went out and wandered the streets but lets just stay no one really wanted to let in a rambunctious crowd of 12 so we ended up just walking around the city and seeing the beautiful buildings and catching up with each other.

Day Two
Wander the city, taking pictures of everything, seeing the sights. Eating yummy food.
(night two)
Somehow Anthony, Louis, Katie and I got separated from the group while taking pictures up at the giant Castle (largest in Europe or the world). We had a lot of fun though - went to two different dance clubs. Creep hits on me - I run away, he moves on to Katie and she dances a bit with him and then he tried to grab her hands and she keeps dancing while shaking her hands and saying "no touching!" so so so funny. Then the other club was so smokey I could hardly breathe but Anthony helped me work on my thecno dancing techniques. Needless to say I fail. Katie and I left after enjoying the four guys wandering around with no shirts on that were slightly sketchy. We walk around for 40min in the freezing cold before deciding to get a cab. We got back at 4AM and I jumped in the disgusting dirty shower (forgot the rule about bringing flip flops - sick.)  to warm up. So cold.
Day Three
Katie and I head into the city, see the sights. I send her off to try and catch the others who are meeting at the astronomical clock at 3PM and somehow she miraculously makes it back to the restaurant we were out with the whole gang. Thank goodness since who knows what would have happened if she didn't since she had no phone and no map. Gracious me Katie.
(night three)

It SNOWED!!!! Wild snow fight between everyone but somehow Amy, Susi, and Stefan snuck off in the middle of it to head back to the hostel. I get snow all over my face (thanks Louis and Bini) but I get my revenge. So much fun. When we got back to the hostel my plan was to crash but then I ended up crying laughing in my bed until about 3AM as Ben serenaded us with "Wictim of Love" and other sayings. Too much fun. Ben is so funny. He just makes you laugh constantly. He enjoys throwing firework bombs out of the hostel window. At least he didn't get burns on his hands from fireworks like Bini did! Painful. And then Bini decided to jump on Maria and he fell funny and had a horrible limp the rest of the trip. Bad job.

Day Four
- Packed up and left the hostel at 8AM to catch our train back to Eichstaaaaatt. We couldn't find our train and for a minute I saw Johanna running in front of me and I thought everyone else was behind me but in the next moment I'm alone at the train station in Prague with no clue where anyone is. I try and ask the Police people there how I get to the train to Munich. They were not very helpful. Strike two on the Prague police.

Sick in Eichstätt for a couple days completely exhausted from lack of sleep in Prague but SO happy to be back in my German family's house. I love my  Schödels. And it was a lot of fun having Anthony and Louis there too. They are pretty awesome. We had fun shaving all three of the boys hairs. I don't even know why this was decided but next thing you know we are all in the basement taking turns shaving the guys heads. Hilarious. Even Esther got in there and shaved the boys! Now if only they would shave their beards - Anthony just shouldn't have a beard. lol. Love you!

The travelling aussies headed out New Years morning for a wild party in Dusseldorf and Maria and I stayed in as we were sick babes. Amy went out with some of Maria's friends and didn't get home till noon till the next day - I was shocked! Maria, Esther and I went outside at midnight with Momma and Pappa to watch the fireworks, light our new years hot air balloon (a tradition for them, I guess it is actually something they do in China??) and do a few of our own fireworks. This pic is of Hanni and Momma Schödel. Love them.

Thankfully I got better in time for the Skiing trip in the Alps. Maria didn't come because she was still sick and she had a lot of homework to catch up on. Sad day. Amy and I had fun doing some down-hill skiing with Momma Schödel with Papa Schödel as our teacher. On the second day I braved the red slopes and Esther, Alex (johanna's boyfriend), and Johanna were excellent patient teachers. My hips were very bruised from falling a lot. Oops! But it was a lot of fun. Next time I will take a real course though. I'll be skiing in the Alps again in March with the Frankfurt fam! In the evenings we enjoyed yummy food and then had fun playing games including one card game called Rage that is a lot of fun. Amy is in the right hand side of this pic right before she fell and busted her knee. Oops. The one time she falls she kills her knee. Very frustrating for her. But she was an excellent skier for her two days of experience! I was very proud. The third day we wandered around Langgries at a very slow pace. She'll be going to the doctor on Monday. Uh oh.

Back in Eichstätt Amy, Maria, and I went to the Streller's. I hadn't been to their house since I went home from school with Sabine five years ago. Maria left us after enjoying some amazing cappuccino's and plum cake. Then Amy, Anna, her boyfriend Patrick, and I went and visited Sabine's grave. She has such a beautiful grave stone with sunflowers on it. Tears. Then back at the house we played some monopoly (Amy won of course) before heading back to Walting to the Schödel's.

Now I am back in Frankfurt. Missing my wonderful German family - Momma and Pappa Schödel, Johanna, Benjamin, Maria, and Esther. I can't believe I was away from them for 5 years! Well not all of them, but still. The kids get back tomorrow morning with their parents from Thailand and then school on Monday! I woke up this morning to two inches of snow at least and it was so beautiful. I watched some movies, did some grocery shopping (it is VERY difficult to bike in the snow) and did some laundry and got settled in. Many details are missing but as they come back to my memory I shall update ya'll. Miss and love.

10 days til Christmas! 12 days till Amy gets here/Prague! 16 days til New Years!

I'm drinking a tea right now that has a main ingredient called Fennel. That is right. I'm drinking a vegetable. Very strange. It tastes good though! Just thought I should share. This is a picture of Katie and I on the bear statue in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. We thought it would be great fun to get a picture on it. It took a couple tries to get up and it was freezing. And I'm bearfoot. Ha!

We - Claire, Lucy, Katie, and I - went out Friday night but started the night out at Katie's. It was a late night at Waxy's and O'Reilys!

Sunday I woke up feeling a bit sick but got it together and biked as fast as I could to the train station to meet up with Katie and Becca to go to Heidelberg for the day! It is a really cute town about an hour away that is known for it's cuteness, the University there, and there is an American army base there too. On the train we saw that it had snowed outside of the city - so pretty! And then it was lightly snowing while we were wandering around the cute town! Loved it. It was freezing though. The high temperature for this week is 0 degrees celcius and the high on Thursday is -7. So basically it's really cold, but there is now precipitation aka no snow. LAME. Anyways. . that was a total side note. So our friend Claire comes and meets us in

Heidelberg and we grab a beer/tea/bloody marry/hot chocolate and sit and chat about how much her au pair family here stinks and how she needs to run away to one of us. She is leaving next Sunday though so that is good news for her! But now we just have to convince her to not work all day Saturday and instead go play with us! I mean - c'mon it's her last day in the country! Sheesh! So we walk through the xmas markets some more, I got a delicious spinach cheese crepe and hot apple cider wine. Yummmmmm. Claire got soup in a bread bowl because she had never even heard of it before.
Our train is at 5:24. We leave the markets at 5 thinking we can grab a taxi easy peasy. Not so much. We can't find one anywhere! So we start running. One passes but it is full of people. Another passes but doesn't see us. Finally we catch one jump in likitysplit we are off. The driver thinks we are from Sweden. Umm no.  As we are driving I'm trying to get the money ready to pay and just keep adding coins to my hand and I can barely carry everything, we keep hitting red lights, and then I see that it is already 5:24. Bad news Bears. We pull up to the station I through the money at him and we run inside at 30 after. Running through throngs of people down the stairs and there we see our train - JUST PULLING OUT aka if one of those damn lights had been green we would have made it! I ended up just buying another ticket - only cost 9.50 and got a quicker train back so that I would be back in time to take the car to pick up the fam (who had been in Dresden for the weekend) from the other train station. So since I was already feeling kind of ill I think after all this crazyness I can't be surprised that I got sick. My German teachers Mom died last Monday- Sad day! And she had to teach classes all last week. SO strange. How could they not just find a substitute for her?! Anyways, yesterday was the funeral so I didn't have class which ended up being very very nice since I spent almost the whole day in bed with a slight fever!


Baking Party!!! Since I can't bake a bazillion mas cookies at home I'm just going to have to try and bake a few here! Katie and her friend visiting her, Becca, came over and made/decorated sugar cookies with me on Saturday after we wandered the city and Christmas markets. It was a nice way to end the day! Katie made some potato wedges and I made guac and we feasted! lol.

Why do I like Vegemite now?

For some reason it has grown on me. And if Vegemite can grow on me you'd think that beer could. But alas, nope nope nope!

Santa came to Andrea's work on Friday and he brought all the kids there gifts - including me! That was a surprise. It was cute and we all ate a lot of chocolate. Surprised?

I babysat for a baby this morning and I've decided I do not want a baby. Not that any of you were worrying right? Ha! No thank you, not for a long time!

I went and saw New Moon on Sunday and that Jakob Black is one hotty with a body. Damn. Jail bait. I loved the movie (Kayleen you're expectations are just too high!). Going to see it again next week. Woot!

I've been off milk products for a month now. Sure I've had a little bit of butter here and there and of course a lot of chocolate but I stopped having yogurt and cheese everyday and I think that is a huge change. But I do not feel any different. We'll see what happens after I bake Barbara Maloney's delicious banana bread that has yogurt in it. Eeeck!

Missing the family. My momma just sent me the recipe for Hot buttered rum (thanks mom!!) so I'm excited to make that and the kids and I made sugar cookies and had fun decorating them.


The kids are away tonight at their school's country house doing something with baking and a lot of playing. So the parents and I are having a nice evening - big kid dinner and then watching Mama Mia! Maybe some wine? Oooh or popcorn! I ate a whole bag of chocolate covered popcorn that I got at the Christmas markets on Sunday. It just smells so good. Mmmmmm.

Dinner time! Lovelovelove C

WEINACHTMARKETS!!!!!!!

 The Christmas markets started last Wednesday aka I've been a few times! :) I love them!!! I have missed the Glühwein. Katie is getting right into loving it as well! They also have a eggnog liquor drink that looks amazing. I will have to try it soon. Maybe today. lol.

It's raining! Ah! I went for a run and it felt great having the rain on my face. I made a pumpkin soup this morning before 9AM. I'm turning into my mother. I'm going on a hunt for almond extract today so I can make the yummy sugar cookies we always make at x-mas time. Then I will make the dough and eat half of it.

The last au pair for the fam go in on Friday and she will be leaving to go back home on the 7th. She seems nice but as one of the cleaning ladies put it - "you are like day and night." The kids have been good and healthy and very happy the past few days since the 24 days of x-mas have begun and that means every morning they get a gift in their stocking-ish from der Nikolas! I got Advents Kalander Tee which means everyday I get a new tea! It's super cool. We have continued working on our snowflake collection which just keeps growing! We have almost covered 6 windows now. And we finished all of our styrofoam ball ornaments.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake pie on Sunday! It was delicious. But seeing as I haven't eaten milk products (besides chocolate) in the past two weeks I got a little sick that night and in the morning still felt a little bit like crap. But Katie felt sick the next day too so maybe it was something else. .  No turkey was made for our faux Thanksgiving- me being a vegetarian and all. But my friend Katie made some yummy potato wedges and I did a roasted onion dish thingy. The pie was the yummiest part naturally.

Mr. Pakistan got a little too interested for my liking. Kept on crossing over onto my desk and popping my bubble. Sent me a poem in English (we normally talk in German) about people being beautiful or something. Creeped me out. I blocked his number but then I answered the phone when I didn't know the number and it ended up being him and he was like I called you yesterday a couple times when I got off work to see if you wanted to hang out and I then told him I have a boyfriend and he is just okay with that idea. He was nice in class on Monday, still sat next to me but I think he got the hint. He is a bit too old for me and just so not my type!


Tickets for Prague have been bought! Yipee!!!!!! We are going the 27th through the 30th and it seems that our group is continuing to grow and we are up to maybe 13 people? It's going to be crazy!

Going out tomorrow night to the Irish pub! I'll be looking for the guys in suits. lol. Or just having a lot of un people watching. Karaoke. OH DEAR. Shall be a lot of fun I'm sure. :)

24 DAYS TILL AMY GETS HERE!! Gotta love her. So excited!

Oh my goodness.

So he's done it. The guy from Pakistan asked me out. And then he popped my comfort bubble by scooting closer to me in the classroom and crossing over the OBVIOUS boundary between our desks. Next class I'm telling him I found out my boyfriend is coming to visit me for Chrismtas and I am SO excited. Hopefully he will get the hint because obviously body language (scooting my chair as far away from his as possible) isn't universal. Bah!

Katie and I went and bought our tickets to Prague today! WOO WHOOO!!! And then the cleaning lady at her house who is a beazy told me to play the piano quieter in a very mean voice because she is working and she is not at that house for pleasure but to work. She is just not a friendly person.

I got my library card! Yay!!! I checked out "the story of edgar sawtelle" and today I got the ball rolling on my bank account. Having a passport is really helpful in getting these things done. I'm also reading "inkheart" in German and although I don't understand all the words I get the gist of things so I think I'm doing good! We took a test on Monday in class and I left half way through the class because: 1. I don't need to take the real version of the test and 2. I was bored to death because it was quite simple. Turns out I got a 39 out of 45 on the first part which according to my teacher was "sehr gut!"

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Seeing as the only thing about thanksgiving I actually like is the desserts and getting together with my family it's a bit difficult for me to make a thanksgiving dinner. I shall try though.  We are going to do a "thanksgiving" dinner on Sunday. Their last au pair is going to be here starting on Friday and she will be here for just over a week before flying back home to the States. She has been walking the pilgrimage to Santiago for the past two months. Crazy! Anyways. I'm doing good, life is good.

Who's the piggy now??

I got my Visa!!!! I can leave the country!!!!! WOO WHOOOO!!!

Sunday Katie and I went on a long bike ride to outside of the city to a small town called Höchst. It's still part of Frankfurt but in total we were gone for over two hours so I think it was a pretty good ride and after we got through the stinky smelly factory areas it was quite beautiful! 

I'm pretty sure Emily has the swine flu. She has had a slight fever since Friday and has been home this week so far. She got tested on Friday for Swine flu but we are still waiting on the results. Needless to say I'm pretty sure she is stuck at home this week. Maybe when Oscar was a bit sick two weeks ago he had the swine flu. Who knows. Andrea and Phillip leave Thursday evening for Istanbul and will be back on Sunday so I will have the kids this weekend. The plan was that they would both stay the night at a friends house on Saturday night so I would have 24hrs free but I don't think that will be happening with Emily sick and all. I'm healthy! I made the mistake of giving my Pakistani friend from my class my number and now he keeps texting me. He's very kind. He called last night while he was at work to see how I was doing and told me to be careful with getting sick. Oh dear.

Art projects: Snow flakes, sparkly ornaments, and painting! Lots of crafts! Emily took this picture of the birds. I thought it was very well done!

Last night I went to Monday movie night and met up with one of the Americans I met there a few weeks ago. His name is AP (short for apopolis or something crazy). He has been here for two years almost through the full birth scholarship teaching English in German schools. I'll be hanging out with those teachers a bit and getting ideas from them on ways to stay here longer! :)

Emily fell asleep in my arms the other day while we were dancing to Abba. I didn't know whether I should be offended or just think it was adorable. I'll go with the second option. She is a total cuddle monkey. My new favorite cuddle buddy. She has also decided that my boobs are her pillows. Oh dear.

I find not eating yogurt EXTREMELY difficult. Especially when the kids have it almost every morning. To compensate I'm eating an OBSCENE amount of schokolade. I love chocolate. Something strange - I eat veggiemite almost everyday. Weird..

Quick Update

Happy Friday the 13th! That means it's time for an Aussie Turkey Party!!! I miss you girls!

Incidents on the bike this week:
 - Yesterday I was riding my bike down the path on my way to Katie's and I'm coming around a curve of the path and there is a hedgehog hanging out and I'm very distracted looking at it that I almost run into a guy coming around the corner so thinking fast I yell out "There's a hedgehog!" I'm sure he understood me. Not.
 - On my way to class on Monday I was riding past a person on the Ziel who frightened a pigeon that then decided to run into my bike wheel. I ran over a pigeon. Ooops. I didn't look behind me but instead just kept on riding straight ahead, pretending that I did not feel that bump. Needless to say, I didn't see any dead pigeons later on that day in that general area.

Other happenings:
- Katie and I went out last night to an Irish pub called Waxy's that had some live music that was definitely not Irish and the bartender was definitely Asian. He did a lot of cool bottle throwing tricks though and gave us free shots since there was about 6 people in the bar - two people making out, their third wheel looking miserable, Katie and I, a Lesbian with her tongue and nose and eyebrow pierced (who hit on Katie hard core), and the three musicians.
- I went for a walk today in heels. . . who am I?!
- Emily is sick and a bunch of schools are closed because most of the students are infected with the piggyflu. Oh great.
- I have stopped eating milk products (except chocolate because that is just not possible) in order to support my younger brother who can't eat just about anything since apparently he is allergic to everything. Super lame.
- I miss my wonderful family and friends.
- Planning a weekend trip to Nürnberg and Heidelberg in December with Katie and a friend of hers who is coming to visit.
- I picked up my Passport today - I finally have my visa!! It says I can stay here until next November. . with this visa that is! :)

The parents are super busy every Friday and Saturday night until after Christmas which means I'm in babysitting. Stinky winky. Next week they are gone for four days in Turkey for a Wedding! Yikes! I'll get one night off while the kids are off to a friends for a night. I'm babysitting tomorrow morning for the family we visited in Austria on our way to Northern Italy. I babysat for a neighbor on Sunday night. Just some extra cash for buying my cute boots and saving for trips!!!

Lovelovelove