Wow, it's really been a while since I've posted an update on what's been happening around here. On the one hand nothing really happened, and yet on the other hand there's a lot to write about.

Last weekend was kind of interesting. On Saturday after breakfast Olaf, Esther and the kids drove to Münster to visit with Silke and Opa. They were going to stay the night and then visit Olaf's aunt the next day before coming back home. They had to pack up so much crap for the kids that it was ridiculous, totally not worth the effort to stay one night. Anyway, after they left I headed into Köln for a little bit, just to get out of the house. I had been stuck here all week and it sucked, so it didn't really matter to me that I had nothing to do. It was getting really cold and I was bored, so I started heading back home at round 6 or 7.

While I was waiting for my train, this guy sat down and started talking to me. It turns out that he grew up in Djerba, Tunisia, and actually worked at the resort that we're going to be staying at when we go there in May for vacation. It was a really weird coincidence that I met this guy less than a week after finding out about our trip to Djerba, but he told me he was from Djerba and named the resort before I had even said a word about it, so it didn't feel creepy or homicidal or anything. To the folks back home, however, it was a little too weird. It doesn't help that my dad had literally just watched the movie Taken (stupid idea!) and is now more paranoid about my safety than he was before. When I mentioned that he had asked me to meet up with him and go to a club that night Lee and my parents flipped out. Of course I got the whole spiel about being careful, don't go anywhere private with this guy, never leave your drink unattended, all that stuff, plus a few extra precautions were made in terms of being able to check up on me. Unfortunately my phone didn't work so well in the club, and this caused a minor panic back home, but in the end everything was completely fine and I had a great time. I even met a really sweet girl named Camilla who used to be an au pair in Santa Barbara. We were standing in line together waiting for the bathroom, and she was drunk and talking to everyone. I got her phone number and I need to give her a call to see if she wants to get together some time.

Because of getting out of the club so late, and the fact that a lot of the trains are only running once every hour at that time of night, I ended up not getting home until 6 or 6:30 in the morning. Needless to say I was exhausted and slept all day on Sunday.

Unfortunately most of what happened this week was a continuation of my crappy last week. The only thing that I actually accomplished was retrieving my package from customs so that I could finally open my Christmas presents from Lee: the new Zelda game for the DS and all 7 seasons of Star Trek TNG on a computer hard drive. Awesome! Other than that, though, the week wasn't so great.

Being home with Pauline and Gustav while they were sick all last week of course made me sick, so that sucked. To make it worse, Maria was also sick this whole week with some sort of stomach infection. On Tuesday, just as I finished cooking my lunch, I got a phone call from Esther telling me that I had to pick up Gustav at the Kindergarten at 12 because he wasn't feeling well and wanted to come home (which, by the way, was complete crap because he was perfectly fine). More importantly, Maria wasn't able to take care of the kids because of being sick, so Jörg was going to be bringing Pauline and David to come and stay with me for the rest of the day. So here I am, feeling like complete crap, hardly able to breath, with a swollen throat and absolutely no energy, and I have 3 kids I'm supposed to be looking after. Now, I know that this kind of thing happens when you're a mom and whatever, but I'm not a mom and all I wanted to do was sleep all week so that I could simply get healthy. Not happening. It really wasn't too bad, though. After I gave them some lunch I made bottles of warm milk for all the kids and told Pauline and Gustav to stay in their rooms and be quiet for a while so David and I could take a nap. I put David in my bed against the wall and then laid down next to him and curled up around him. At first he was just kind of sitting there, playing with a toy car, but then I gave him a teddy bear, lay him down under the covers, and he didn't move until I woke up from my little nap. Later that afternoon Jörg came back over with Fabio, but he stayed and Esther was here, so I went to bed. It was only about 5:30 in the evening, but I couldn't stay awake anymore.

Pauline ended up having to stay home the whole week because Maria was so sick. On Wednesday I had to dump both the kids with Britta in the evening because Esther was at a seminar and I had to go to my language course. Apparently that night Pauline was a monster until about 10:30 when she finally shut up and went to sleep. I guess her nap was a little too late in the afternoon, and Esther wasn't very happy about it.

Yesterday Britta had a doctor's appointment so she dropped Jetta off at around 10 and picked her up just a little before 1. Normally Jetta is a child who likes to scratch and pull hair when she's "provoked" but yesterday she was an absolute doll. Pauline, on the other hand, was not. At one point early in the visit she bit Jetta's finger, and then later she smacked her in the eye with a plastic doll. Poor Jetta was so upset. She was screaming and crying, and she begged me to take her home. I felt bad. But she let me pick her up, and rock her in my arms, and she cuddled up against my chest to calm down.

We also had a little celebration in Gustav's Kindergarten yesterday afternoon. The kids in Gustav's group acted out the story of Frau Holle, and then we had coffee and apple juice and cake and whatnot. Esther had me bake some muffins while she was at work using a recipe from the book I gave her for Christmas. They were blueberry muffins, but they were made with whole grain flour, raw sugar, and hazelnuts, so they were kinda healthy and not particularly sweet. They were really delicious, though. All the mothers think it's so wonderful that I do all this baking and stuff to help out Esther, too. That would never have worked with Louva.

Today I had a lot of fun. The neighbors/friends were all supposed to go to the studio for another painting session and they asked me to go along. Because of the snow (we got a ridiculous amount of snow last night and today!!!) and various personal reasons, it ended up being just Britta (Julia's mom) and me. I had wanted to paint one of the photographs I had taken of the woods in the snow, but our sessions are only 3 hours and it was going to be really difficult and complicated, so I used a photograph of a cornflower, instead. This time my painting is 100% original, not a copy of another painting, so I think it's pretty cool. Tomorrow I'm going to hang it over my bookshelf. I already know exactly what I want to paint next time, too. It won't be an original, but it's pretty rad. When I got home this afternoon I pretty much just relaxed and did nothing until dinner, and then again after dinner. It's nice, after these last 2 crazy weeks, to be able to do nothing.

So I was stuck at home all day with a not sick Gustav. He apparently had a slight fever last night (what they refer to here as merely a temperature because it's not high enough to be called a fever) and he told Esther and Olaf that he was still sick this morning, so he stayed home. He was totally fine, though. He didn't have a fever, he wasn't tired at all the entire day, and his stomach only started hurting when he ate too much for lunch.

I, on the other hand, am probably catching what Pauline had. I don't feel that crappy yet, but my throat is sore and my lymph nodes are swollen in my neck, and I feel absolutely exhausted. Tomorrow, once again, I will be taking care of Pauline all day until Esther gets home from work. Gustav is going to Kindergarten tomorrow and afterward he's going home with Domenic to play for a little bit, so hopefully I'll get some relaxation time in the afternoon. This weekend the family is driving to Muenster to visit Silke and Opa and they'll be staying over night there. I'll be home with Amelie, and it's supposed to snow, so we should have fun. Hopefully I won't be too sick, because that always sucks.

I made my second attempt at a pumpkin pie yesterday and it turned out much better than the first one. The crust on the first pie was pretty crappy. It's the first time I've made a pie using butter (because you can't buy shortening in Germany) and it sucked because it wasn't salty enough and the butter melted and made it tough and oily. So this time I used less butter and doubled the salt, and it was much better. Esther and Olaf liked it better, too, but that was mostly because there was less filling in it (I had used almost 2/3 of the pumpkin in the first pie) and they like when the ratio of filling to crust is closer to 1. The only problem with this pie, really, is that I over cooked it a little bit because I turned the temperature up to help keep the crust from being soggy and weird. All in all, not too bad.

All of my plans so far this week have been put on hold indefinitely. That mostly just means taking care of a few errands in Cologne. I have another package that's being ransomed by customs and I have to go back to the custom's office in Porz to open it and (hopefully) prove to them that I don't need to pay any taxes on it. They made me pay taxes on my Christmas gifts from my parents, which was just stupid, and I'm hoping I don't have to pay for this one.

The reason I haven't been able to get anything done is because I've had to stay at home all week with sick children. Pauline got sick over the weekend and had a fever for 3 days, so she stayed home on Monday and yesterday. She really felt miserable, and her eyes looked so sad. It was really pathetic, and I felt bad for her. Yesterday she was feeling a little bit better so I was supposed to only let her nap for an hour so that she would go to sleep at night. I was supposed to wake her up at 3, and instead Esther woke me up at 4:45 when she got home with Gustav. Oops. I felt like an ass, but I ended up getting home so late from my class on Monday that I needed that sleep. Pauline needed it, too, and although she was pissed at Esther for making her go to bed at first she got over it and fell asleep shortly after Esther left to pick up Olaf at the station. When she left she told me that she really wanted to go to the Brauhaus and get a beer, so I told her that she and Olaf should just take their time and enjoy themselves and I would make sure Pauline was ok. Then today Gustav stayed home from Kindergarten because his tummy was really hurting. He was so cute. He just wanted to cuddle with me all day, so we just hung out on the sofa most of the day, and then we took a nap in my bed because he was tired and needed to sleep but still wanted to cuddle. We slept for a couple hours. He's such a love.

When I got home from my class tonight I took Amelie for a walk, and it was really pleasant. Even though it's still really cold outside, it doesn't feel cold because it was so much colder before when the snow was here. At one point we were walking past a field where there were weeds and some brush growing, and it smelled like home when it starts to rain and the brush is damp. I think it's the first time since I got here that something has really reminded me of home, but it still didn't really make me miss it. It made me happy to remember something (other than people) that I like about home.

Olaf and I went to the football game in Cologne tonight. We took Gustav with us, but Pauline stayed home with Esther because she's sick and had a fever. That's actually part of why we had Gustav, was so that Esther could take care of Pauline and not have to worry about him. He was so proud and felt so important because he got to go to the stadium. Before we left he was telling Pauline "I get to go to the stadium, but not you, because you're too small." He was all excited to be there at the game. Then, about 10 minutes after it started, he started asking, "Papa, when is it over?" He got bored really fast, but he was really well behaved the entire time. I think more than anything he was interested in the people and the cheering.

Unfortunately Cologne lost the game, but we easily could've won. When Olaf bought the tickets he picked a game where the score was likely to end up 0-0 because Cologne's offense sucks and Dortmund's defense is their strength, so it kind of evened out in the sense that we didn't have a strong offense to worry about. Anyway, the final score was 2-3, and the last 2 of Dortmund's goals were scored during the stoppage time. Most of the action and excitement happened in the last 10 minutes or so of the game. We were losing 0-2 by that time, and then in the 83rd minute we scored a goal off of a set play that was headed in by one of the defenders. Our second goal was also scored by one of the defenders (because defense is cool like that) who made a run up the field 6 minutes later. It was kind of exciting because all of the scoring (except Dortmund's last goal) was done on the side of the field we were on. Olaf got us seats as close to the hardcore fan section as possible, so we were way down at on end of the field. Unfortunately, Dortmund scored again during the first minute of stoppage time, and there wasn't enough time to recover (although there were some decent attempts). All in all I thought it was pretty exciting and I had a great time. I forgot how much I missed playing soccer.

After the game we saw some chick try to pick a fight with an old man. We don't know how it started, but he hadn't even left our seats yet and were trying to make our way to the end of the row when this woman starts yelling and pushing this old man. She pushed him down into a seat, and then some guy (maybe 2 guys) that were with her were yelling at him and she was trying to call him out into the aisle to start something with him. It was really classy. I guess situations like that, and the fact that they can escalate really quickly when high class folk have had too much cheap beer, are the reason that the stadium is surrounded by riot police on game nights.

There was another classy move by somebody while we were trying to get on the tram to go home. It was packed full because everybody walked out of the stadium and tried to get on the tram and go home right away. Olaf was holding Gustav and they were able to get on okay, but I had been sort of pushed to the outside. The doors stayed open for a little while longer than usual to allow people to make themselves fit, and when it started beeping to signal that the doors were going to be closing I squeezed in so that I was just barely out of the way of the door. Then some A-hole next to me reached his arm in front of me, grabbed the rail to my left, and scooted himself over to push me out of the door just as it closed. Olaf and Gustav had to wait about 5-10 minutes for me when they got to the station because I had to wait for the next train. At least they were running every few minutes to help clear out the stadium, so they didn't have to wait too long.

After having a long day on Wednesday, I basically slept most of the day on Thursday. I had set my self an alarm so that I could get up and be ready to go before Emma got here at 8, but I ended up sleeping through Emma's visit and got out of bed at around 12. I don't think Emma minded, though, because it's just one less room she had to clean.

When I picked up the kids at around 3:30 I took them back to that hill again to go sledding. Gustav wasn't happy at first, and he kept asking why we have to go sledding every day. I explained to him that soon the snow would be gone (and I was right, because it's raining outside right now) and then we wouldn't be able to use the sled anymore so we were going to have fun with the snow while we still could. That was a good enough answer for him. It turns out that we actually couldn't do any sledding, though, because the snow was too wet and the sled kept getting stuck. At first we were all kinda bummed, until I remembered that although the snow sucked for sledding, it would've been perfect for building a snowman. So that's what we did instead. It was my first real snowman, and it was a lot of fun. Gustav and Pauline cannibalized some coffee beans and a carrot from another snowman that they decided to destroy as soon as they had gotten out of the car and we made him a hat out of snow. Gustav wanted me to put the snowman on the sled when we left so that we could take it home and no one else could come by and ruin it, but obviously that didn't happen. We were going to build another one in the back yard when we got home but the kids were too tired and cold, so that never happened.

Yesterday I took Pauline to the market in Frechen again. Esther needed me to buy some stuff for dinner this weekend. Right now Esther and Olaf are downstairs having dinner with Domenic's parents to celebrate Claudia's birthday, and yesterday Esther still didn't have all the stuff she needed.

I also bought stuff I needed to make my pumpkin pies, though I ended up not making them yesterday. I couldn't find a normal pie dish anywhere. All Esther has is a dish to make tortes and a free form pan for cakes and cheesecake and stuff. That's the one I ended up having to use when I finally baked the pie today. I'll have to make the second one tomorrow, since there's only one pan. We still haven't tasted the pie, so I have no idea how it turned out. I kept having to add more and more spices to it because the filling tasted so bland. Then I realized that it was bland because I forgot to put the salt in it, and once I did that it was delicious. For the crust I had to use a recipe that uses butter instead of shortening because Esther says that shortening doesn't really exist here. I've never used butter to make a crust before, and when I was rolling it out I wasn't a huge fan, so we'll have to see what happens with it tomorrow when we try the pie.

The package I sent to my parents for Christmas finally arrived yesterday, too. It got to their house literally right after I got off the phone with my mom, so she immediately called me back. Luckily everything made it in good condition, including the artwork that I made for Mom for her birthday. I had collected a whole bunch of leaves from the woods and in the city and I glued them to a canvas to make a little picture for her, since she loves fall leaves so much. It actually turned out pretty cool, and now my mom has a little piece of Germany to display in her house. Now she just has to send my gifts to my sister in Seattle and my brother in Hawaii. It's a really extended Christmas for the Bush family this year.

Today was a pretty uneventful day. I went into Cologne this afternoon to get my hair cut by the woman who cuts the family's hair. I think she did a really good job, and I'm happy with it. It had been a while since I got my hair trimmed so it definitely needed it. I also went back to Tally Weijl (that's the clothing company that Olaf works for, and they have a bunch of stores around here) in Neumarkt to buy a few more shirts, because they fit well and they're really comfortable, not to mention the fact that they're half price right now. After that I came home to help feed the kids, put them to bed and help Esther finish preparing their dinner. I had originally intended to go back into Cologne to hang out for the evening, but Pauline's sick and has a fever so I stayed a little longer to make sure she fell asleep ok. Then it started raining, and it was after 8, and that's just too late for me to start my evening. So I'm at home right now, just kind of hanging out for the rest of the night. It's not such a bad thing because I'm tired. And at least the kids are sleeping, so I can definitely relax before I go to bed.

The Longest Day

When I think about it, that's probably not the most appropriate title for my blog entry (considering what that movie's about and where I am right now) but today is seriously going to be a long day. I had to get up at 4 this morning to take Olaf to the airport in Dusseldorf. He's on his way to Denmark and then Sweden for the rest of the week on business. It would've been really cool to be able to go with him, but obviously I couldn't because I have to help Esther with the kids. Anyway, he had to be at the airport by 5:45 so we had to leave here before 5 am, and I didn't find this out until 8 last night so I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare myself for an early morning. It wasn't too bad because I just brewed us some coffee to take with us, and Olaf drove to the airport so I had time to wake up before I had to drive back home. And there was absolutely no snow on the Autobahn, so it was a really smooth and easy drive.

My intention was to go straight to bed when I got home, but I thought it was probably a good idea to just take Amelie for a walk instead, since I was already up and dressed to be outside. We were out in the field for about 40 minutes, and it was one hell of a workout. It's been really windy, so all of the snow had been blown all over the field, filling all the little dips and leveling the surface. At times I was walking through ankle-deep snow because of this, in addition to fighting against the wind, so it was hard work. Amelie's always crazy out there when it's dark, too, so she was barking at the wind for a good part of the time, but she had a lot of fun.

When Amelie and I got back I still didn't get to go to bed because it was so close to the time Esther and the kids needed to get ready to leave that I figured I would just stay up and help get them ready. It's a good thing I did, because Esther didn't hear her alarm this morning and they would've been late if I wasn't there to get Pauline dressed and help them put on their coats and stuff. We have to dress them up like Randy from Christmas Story every time they go outside, so it definitely takes some time. Then, since it was almost 8:45 and the hot water turns off at 9, I had to take a shower before I was stuck with ice cold water. I don't really have any thing to do until 3, though, so there's still plenty of time for me to take a nap and get rested before I have to go to my class tonight.

Yesterday was a really easy day. I didn't really have any actual work that I needed to do. Esther needed the car, so she took the kids in the morning and all I needed to do was walk Amelie and then get the car from Esther's office in the afternoon to pick the kids up. So to pass the time I got my nails done. It's something that I've been wanting to do since I got here, partially because I can (now that I'm not working for Starbucks) and partially because I've always had really ugly, unhealthy nails that, in my opinion, make my hands look ugly and mannish. So anyway, now I have pretty nails, and the woman who runs the studio here in Koenigsdorf is really cool and sweet, so even though it's a little expensive I'm going to keep going to her. Besides, she's done a better job than anyone else ever has on my nails, so it's worth it.

After I picked up the kids I took them to the retirement home behind Gustav's Kindergarten to go sledding for a little bit before we went home. It was already 4:30 in the afternoon and starting to get dark, so we weren't there for very long, but the kids were tired so it was ok. Gustav went by himself each time now that he feels comfortable going down the hill alone. That was a big thing for him when he did that this weekend. After going once with me, Pauline wanted to try going alone, too. She was so proud of herself when she got to the bottom of the hill. She wouldn't even let me help her drag the sled back up the hill because she wanted to be a big girl and do it by herself.

Olaf got to the train station at 6:30, so Esther stayed at her office to meet him and they walked home together. In the meantime I made some cocoa for the kids, got both of them ready for bed, put dinner together, set the table, and put Sandmeanchen on for the kids to watch. Esther and Olaf were both really happy to see everything done and ready when they got home. The little ones didn't give me the slightest bit of trouble, either. None of the drama started until after Esther and Olaf got home, as usual. Apparently they feel they need to act like little turds around their parents, because they don't do that for me. Once they were in bed, though, everything went smoothly.

The package that my parents sent me for Christmas finally arrived yesterday, too. It took an entire month to get here (don't ever use the USPS to deliver packages!!) and I had to pay 6,81 Euro in taxes on it, but it made it here. Amelie loves her little squeaky toy that "Bailey" sent for her, and there was an adorable little necklace that Mom sent me from Tweek. She even drew a little kitty paw on the tag, which said "To Mama, From Tweek." She is too funny. Aside from the orange that my mom had, according to family tradition, placed in my stocking, everything made it here in good condition. We still don't know for sure, though, if my package ever made it into Egypt.

I keep forgetting to mention a discussion that the kids had amongst themselves a few days ago. Last week one day Gustav asked my why I say "Hi" every time someone says "Tschuess" to me. I explained to him that what I was actually saying was "Bye" because that's how we say Tschuess in English, and I really emphasized the B so he heard the difference. A couple days later I was upstairs in my room and I could hear Gustav and Pauline downstairs talking. Gustav asked Pauline if she knew why I always said "Hi" when they said "Tschuess." Pauline's response was "Nein, man sagt nicht hi, man sagt Tschuess" ("No, you don't say hi, you say Tschuess"). Then Gustav gave Pauline the same explanation that I gave him, so now they both know what I'm saying when I tell them goodbye. It was really freaking cute to hear them, by themselves, having a discussion about English. Another thing that I love is that when I say something to Gustav that he doesn't fully understand, you can see the concentration in his face as he tries to process it. He doesn't always get it right, but he tries so hard and that's a huge difference from 3 months ago when he didn't want to hear it at all. By the time these kids start school when they're 6 they will be so far ahead of everyone in their English. Esther is really excited about that, and I am too.

Back to School Night

Today was the first day of my new language course. I was really nervous about it (again) because I was concerned about how difficult it was going to be to skip the one class and jump into this one. I'm not worried anymore, though, because it shouldn't be a problem. It will be a little more challenging than last time, which is good because I'll definitely get more out of it, but it's not going to be too bad.

I also met an American today, for the first time since I got here. He's actually in my language course, too. He's from Garden Grove and he's living here to finish his last year of high school as part of an exchange program. Even though he's attending a German school he's taking this course to help improve his grammar. It's kind of nice because his vocabulary is better than mine and my grammar is better than his, so we can definitely help each other out. Plus, he likes to go places and do stuff, so now I have someone in town that I can hang out with that wants to meet and hang out with other Germans, which is really cool. I already feel better about this course than I did about the last one.

This morning was an interesting start to the week. The car wouldn't start because the battery was dead and we had to have one of the neighbors come and jump it so that I could take Esther and the kids. Luckily the battery in the BMW is in the back, because otherwise it would've been a bitch trying to jump the car while it was in the garage. Then, since I had to drive the car around to make sure that the battery was charged up enough to start this afternoon, I got to drive on the Autobahn today. I didn't go very fast because it was snowing, but it was cool because I was on the Autobahn. Then I had to hurry back home because Emma was coming at 10 and I had to be there to let her in. I didn't get to take Amelie in the woods this morning because of it, and she was a little sad, but we had a nice long walk this afternoon to make up for it.

Just after Emma left I got a phone call from Olaf asking me to look for a very important paper that he needed for a meeting today but had left at home. It had to do with finances of some sort and he was supposed to bring it with him to Basel this morning but forgot it. I had to run it over to Esther's office so that she could scan it and email it to him. It's a good thing that I was here and able to do that for him, because that would've sucked.

After I walked Amelie in the field this afternoon I was going to go pick up the kids at around 3:30 and take them sledding on this hill at the retirement home right behind Gustav's Kindergarten. We all went over there yesterday, and it's a pretty nice little place for the kids to play. Right before I left to pick up the kids, though, it started raining. Esther and I had agreed that if the weather was crappy it wouldn't be a good idea, so I waited until later to pick them up and then grabbed Esther at her office at 4:30. It was crazy, though, because it started out with little tiny drops of rain, and then almost instantaneously the temperature dropped like 3 degrees and there were big snowflakes floating around all over the place. It was really cool. I'm going to miss the snow when it's gone.

Global Warming?

Anyone who knows me knows exactly how I feel about global warming, but with the weather we've been having here lately it doesn't seem like it could be possible. We've already had more snow than is typical for the Rheinland, and tomorrow there's going to be a huge storm coming through Germany. Up here in the northwest it won't be too bad, but Bavaria and Berlin are in for some serious weather in the next couple of days. Esther was telling me yesterday that, here in the Rheinland, they only get this much snow about once every 10 to 20 years, and otherwise there's very little snow here at all. Apparently all of the cities in this region are already extremely short on their salt supply and aren't able to salt the roads or the Autobahn anymore. I know that it really doesn't make people very happy, and it definitely makes travelling difficult, but I'm really excited that we're getting so much snow.

Tomorrow we were all supposed to drive to Muenster, where Olaf is from, because it's Silke's birthday and we were going to celebrate. Because of the snow and the road situation, though, it's really not a good idea for us to drive there. Esther doesn't want to take the train, either, because if there's a problem on the train then we (along with everyone else) are going to be stuck there for who knows how long with 2 tired, bored, angry, screaming children. Not fun. So basically the plan for tomorrow is to stay at home, maybe go sledding with the kids if it's not snowing too hard, and I think I'll probably head into Cologne again. Like I said, it's not really travelling weather but I think it'll be nice to go out and do something. Plus, I start my language course on Monday at a new school, and I need to figure out how to get there on my own so I don't have a repeat of last time.

The guy in the chicken suit from last weekend is getting married tomorrow. He's been emailing me every once in a while to let me know what's going on with all of them. We all had a lot of fun and they plan to come visit here again in the next few weeks, so they've been keeping in touch about it. I told him that I hope he and his fiancee like the snow, because there's definitely going to be a lot of it. He doesn't seem to mind, which is good.

Other than that there really hasn't been a whole lot going on here lately. Olaf went back to work in Basel yesterday morning and he came back this afternoon, and with everyone back to their old schedule and me starting back up with my language course, everything will be back to normal again on Monday. Next Sunday Olaf and I go to the game in Cologne (hopefully the storm will have passed by then) and I plan, weather permitting, to resume my travel and exploration adventures after that. I've kind of been slacking on the travel bit lately, but I'm still having a great time so I'm ok with it. I realized the other day that I probably haven't stopped smiling since I got off the plane in October, and that's what really matters. As much as I'd like to see everyone back home, I'm definitely not ready for this trip to end. Thank god I've still got 9 months left! :)

This weekend was a blast!! I didn't have anything to do this weekend, so Saturday afternoon while there wasn't really anything going on here at home I decided to go into Cologne. I didn't really have any plans or destination, but it was snowing and I didn't want to be at home. I think it was about 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon when I finally left the house and I had intended to be home by dinner at 6:30, so it was just going to be a quick trip. Or so I thought.

When I got to the Hauptbahnhof I headed straight toward the U-Bahn so that I could purchase my monthly train pass for January. That was really my only set objective while I was in Cologne that day. I never ended up making it to the U-Bahn because on the way there I got distracted by a drunk guy in a chicken suit. He was running around the train station and in front of the Dom talking to people and his friends were all taking a bunch of pictures of him posing with random people that were passing by. There were 9 guys total, and they were trying to sell this little bottles of plum schnapps that they had a box full of. They tried to get me to buy one, but I gave it back to them and was getting ready to go about my business when the chicken wanted to take a picture. So I figured, whatever, it's harmless. I got to talking to them (mostly because they were trying to get me to drink this schnapps, although they weren't going to make me buy it) and it turns out that they were there celebrating the chicken's bachelor party. Needless to say, they celebrate that a little differently over here. They got excited when they found out that I was American, and then they immediately all wanted to speak to me in English (even though, for a few of them, their English wasn't any better than my German).

Anyway, they asked me if I was in a hurry or had anything to do, and since I didn't they invited me to go to dinner with them at this place called the Haxenhaus. It was basically my first opportunity to hang out with Germans since I arrived in Germany, so I couldn't say no. The Haxenhaus is this ancient building (established in 1231!) right along the Rhein and they serve really amazing authentic German food. So we hung out there for a couple of hours and they bought me dinner and everyone was drinking Koelsch and having a great time. The chicken (his name is Damir) ended up passing out for a little while at the table, and when he woke up he puked on his chicken suit, so he left it in the alley. It was kinda funny at dinner because most of them were slightly inebriated by the time we got there, so they kept asking me the same questions over and over again, like where I was from and why I was in Cologne and do I honestly like it in Germany, things like that. Some of them, including Damir, were from Croatia (though they all live in Frankfurt now) and aren't nearly as fond of Germany as I am. At one point a few of them got slightly concerned because they had forgotten how old I said I was, and I could hear them asking eachother in German and hoping that I wasn't 15. They apparently forgot that when I met them I was speaking to them in German and could understand a lot of what they were saying.

After dinner they asked me if I wanted to continue on with them to this pub called Keks. Again, I didn't have anything better to do and I had already called Esther to let her know I'd be out late, so I went along with them. Just around the corner from Keks was the ice skating rink at Huemarkt, so we decided to do that for a little bit before we went to the pub. Most of them had never even been ice skating before, and yet I was still the first one to fall on my ass. Awesome. We did that for about half an hour until the session ended and then we headed to Keks.

The pub was almost empty when we got there because it was still pretty early, only like 8:30 or 9. We staked out a nice spot in the back where we had a couple tables and a lot of room, and they immediately bought a minikeg. We ended up hanging out in Keks until about 3 in the morning, just dancing and hanging out and having a great time. I told them that if this had been a bachelor party in the states, everyone there would've thought I was a prostitute, or a stripper in the very least. That was really funny to them, because over here it's just so different. I haven't danced in a long time, so now my legs are exhausted and my knees are a little achey, but it really doesn't matter. It was so much fun.

When we left Keks it was snowing, and walking back to the Dom was the most beautiful and peaceful experience. I think they all think I'm a little crazy because I was so enthralled with the snow, but that's ok. At one point I actually sat down in the courtyard in front of the Dom and laid my head back to look up at it. I was still burning up from being in the club so it wasn't really that cold, but even if it was it wouldn't have mattered; it was too beautiful.

We had a while to wait for our trains once we got to the Hauptbahnhof, so we went to McDonalds (it was literally the only thing open) and hung out for about an hour before we had to leave. I ended up getting back to the house around 5 or 5:30 in the morning. I tried to be really quiet but Amelie got excited and knocked an empty water bottle down the stairs and into the cellar while she was dancing around in front of me. Once I got upstairs I got straight into bed and didn't get up (except to get a drink or go to the bathroom) until about 5:30 yesterday evening. I basically got out of bed, went downstairs for dinner, sat around in a stupor for a couple of hours, and then went back to bed. I couldn't sleep at first, though, because my knees and my right shoulder where so unbearably achy. I had to take some Tylenol pm just to stop it from hurting enough that I could fall asleep. Once that kicked in, everything was fine and I slept like a baby.

Today the kids had to go back to their usual routine, so they were gone all day, and Esther spent most of the day in her new office. Olaf doesn't go back to work until Thursday, so he's happy about that. And there's still a lot of snow outside so Olaf took the kids sledding when he picked them up this afternoon, and I taught them how to make snow angels in the back yard before dinner. They got a kick out of that one. Other than that, all I really did today was rearange some of the furniture in my room so that now my bed is near the window. I don't know why, but I always like to have my bed near a window if it's possible. It was kind of a pain in the ass, though, because the bed is designed in a way that it has to fit a certain way in the corner or else it's like sleeping in a cage, so I had to rebuild the bed in order to move it where I did. I don't think I want to do that anymore, so I think the room's going to stay the way it is, and now I'm going to finish decorating.

Happy New Year!!

Yesterday was a long and pretty busy day. I got up early to walk Amelie because we were going to Ikea for breakfast. She still had a bit of a tummy ache from the night before, so the walk took a little longer than expected, but it was ok. We took the Autobahn to get to Ikea, so that was awesome. It's the first time I've been on the Autobahn since I got here (except probably the day I arrived, but Olaf didn't drive very fast) but we were only going 140 kph because it was raining.
When we got to Ikea we had breakfast first because the store wasn't open yet. All 5 of us ate a full breakfast for less than it would cost to buy 2 Venti lattes at Starbucks. For 1,95 Euro you get a slice of lachs, some cheese, salami, strawberry jam, 2 rolls and a coffee. Beat that, Denny's. There was this one little punk kid in the play area where we were eating that I wanted to smack. At first he was throwing stuffed soccer balls at Gustav's head, then he started throwing them out of the little enclosure area at people and tables and stuff. Little turd!! Eventually his mother dragged him out and made him sit down. After breakfast we went through the store, and I bought bright green rug for my bedroom while Esther picked up a few little extras she needs for her new office. The rug perfectly matches the curtains I bought a while ago that I tried to take back but couldn't because it had been more than 2 weeks, so I guess I should go ahead and use them now. The size of the rug is perfect for my room, and Amelie absolutely loves it. Esther says she doesn't think Amelie will ever leave my room now.

We didn't really do anything that special last night for New Year's, but we still had a lot of fun. I didn't have any parties or anything to go to (both because I don't really know anybody to party with and because I've never really been concerned with NYE parties anyway) so I spent the evening here with the family. We had raclette for dinner with a bunch of new recipes that Esther tried, and they were really good. One was chicken with garlic, green onions, tomatoes, and vanilla butter, and there was one with seasoned mushrooms and sour cream, and I think my favorite was the prosciutto with melon and mint. They sound kind of weird, but it was amazing. Olaf and I both ate so much it was ridiculous.

After dinner Olaf, Gustav and I went outside to light fireworks. A bunch of the neighbors had already been setting some off for a while. Apparently it's illegal to own fireworks in Germany except on Silvester, so from the 29th to the 31st they can be purchased, and they can only be lit between 9pm on the 31st and 1am on the 1st. At midnight people were lighting fireworks everywhere. It was like we had our own little Times Square fireworks show, but we were making it ourselves. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, when we first went out with Gustav to light fireworks Pauline stayed inside with Esther because she was scared. Gustav was a little on edge a couple of times, and for some reason at one point he was afraid that Olaf might throw a lit firecracker at him (don't ask why, he was just afraid of it). Every time Olaf would go to light a firework Gustav would come over to me and sit on my lap while I squatted down to his level and I would wrap my arms around him so he felt safe. Then when it exploded he would start laughing. It was really funny, though, because it wasn't a typical little kid's giggly laugh, it was more devious, like a teenager who learned you can make a coke explode by throwing it off of the balcony of your high rise hotel room. Olaf was getting a big kick out of Gustav's reactions.

As much as they tried, the kids were not able to stay up until midnight. They probably would've made it if they had taken a nap when they were supposed to, but they didn't. Pauline was still a little scared so Esther went to lay in the bed with her at around 11 and Gustav decided that it was time for him to go to bed, too. I took Amelie for a quick walk while Esther and Olaf were putting the kids in bed. The poor little thing got so scared as she was running toward the field because she saw fireworks go off in Brauweiler right ahead of her. She stopped, looked at the fireworks, and then turned around and came running back to me. She was very quick to do her business and then started heading back home before I had even put her back on the leash yet. Just before midnight Olaf put her in the cellar because you can't hear the fireworks very well down there, so she didn't have to be scared.

At 2 minutes to midnight Esther woke me up (I was half asleep on the sofa) and told me to hurry outside. All up and down the streets and everywhere you looked you could see people lighting fireworks. Some of them were pretty hardcore, too. Esther and I had some gold and silver sparklers (which I discovered this morning had burnt small little holes in the left sleeve of my down jacket) and everyone was drinking sparkling wine and toasting one another and watching/lighting fireworks. Once it was done I was prepared to go home, but they wouldn't let me. The neighbors across the street had set up an enclosed canopy in their courtyard and inside they had a barbeque, a heater, tons of bread, cheese, drinks and food of all sorts, and two girls (8 and 14) tending bar. The neighbors wanted me to participate in the after party with them (since they had been pre-partying all evening) so I went with them and ended up staying there for about 2 more hours. They had this really amazing soup in there that, although I had already eaten too much raclette, I had to have. You start by putting cinnamon apples in the bottom of your soup bowl, then you add cream (like whipped cream but not really sweet) and a little bit of oil (I don't know what kind of oil it was, but it was dark) and top it off with the pumpkin soup. It sounds really weird and maybe even gross, but it's freaking delicious. So I ate some soup and talked to the neighbors (sometimes in German, sometimes in English) until we were all way too tired and everyone went home to sleep.

I'm really glad that I didn't go to bed when I wanted to because it was great hanging out with the neighbors. I learned that one of them has two daughters that are 21 and 24, and she said she's going to call them so they can come and meet me. One of the husbands that lives across the street speaks nearly perfect English, as well. I think they all speak at least some English, so if I get stuck they can still figure out what I'm saying or repeat what they're trying to say to me.

When I got home I laid down on my new rug with Amelie and fell asleep cuddling with her. I woke up a couple hours later and got in bed, but I wanted to cuddle a little bit since she had been so upset all evening. And it was snowing!! It started snowing just a little after midnight and I could see the tiny little flakes falling outside my window. Snow on New Year's was definitely a new experience, and I love it.