Wow, am I lazy. When I can't even muster up the energy to write a blog in almost a month, just to say what's been going on, I know I'm really lazy. Part of the problem is that the internet connection in my bedroom sucks and only works when it wants to. So when I want to write a blog I have to take my computer and charger downstairs and write it in the living room, which I don't like doing when the kids are running around or when Esther and Olaf are watching TV or preparing dinner. It just feels weird, for some reason. So right now the whole family is gone, and I'm sitting on the sofa with Amelie watching Office Space (in German) and I'm going to attempt to bust this thing out before everyone gets home.

All in all I guess there's probably not too much exciting to talk about. For starters, Gustav has basically been sick for a month. It started a month ago right when I got home, and I mentioned already that he had antibiotics and this vaporizer/inhaler machine that he needed to use. He was home from Kindergarten for a total of 2 weeks with that deal. Then, while Esther was in Mallorca with her sister for a few days (they went to celebrate their birthdays) Olaf and I got the feeling that Gustav wasn't hearing so well. He was constantly fumbling around with his ears and asked Olaf to repeat basically everything he said. So Olaf took him to the doc again, and found out that Gustav wasn't hearing well out of his right ear because of unequalized pressure in his middle ear that had resulted from his clogged sinuses (the cold that caused his lung thing). So then he had this little thing that he had to shove in his nose with a balloon attached to it and he needed to blow up the balloon with his nose. Then last week on Tuesday he complained about his ear hurting, so Esther had Jörg check him out and now he has an inner ear infection. So he's back on antibiotics, he needs to continue using the inhaler thing, he has ear drops, and he stayed home from Kindergarten 3 days last week. So in the past month, Gustav has been to Kindergarten a total of a week and a half. Awesome.

Right now I'm sick. It started with a slightly sore throat last week on Friday. Then Saturday I went into Köln to hang out with Elena at her apartment and spent the night there. I woke up feeling pretty crappy Sunday morning, spent most of the day sleeping, and then didn't go to class on Monday so that I could stay home and sleep all day. Tuesday I took a nap to get a little extra rest in, but still got a lot done with the laundry and other things that I generally have to do during the week. Then, as I said, from Wednesday on Gustav was home from Kindergarten, so aside from going to class Wednesday morning I was home taking care of him the while time. I went out again Friday evening, possibly not the best idea but it was a pretty calm night so it wasn't a problem. Anyway, I still have a stuffy nose and for some reason feel a little light headed, but not too bad.

I do have good news about my university application, though. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but after going through a big hassle to get everything mailed to Berlin one day after I arrived back in Germany, I received a letter from the organization handling the application that they were not going to forward it to the university because it was incomplete. Reason: I had not included a notarized copy of my TestDaF results, and I had not included a notarized copy of my transcripts. Okay. So the TestDaF results I was only able to pick up after the application deadline and therefore could not send them with the application. As far as the transcripts go, I sent an original, sealed copy of my university transcripts and my original high school diploma, which I did not have time to get a notarized copy of. How anal can you be if you won't accept original documents because the rules state that a notarized copy should be sent? Anyway, Esther had called Uni-Assist to find out if there were any way to alter their decision, and they said it wasn't up to them, it was up to the university. So I called the University of Köln on Wednesday to try to get things figured out. When I explained the situation to the woman on the phone, she right away said that rules are rules and there were no exceptions. Dang it! Then she asks, out of curiosity, what my results for the language test where. When I told her she replied, "Oh! Well those are very good results." Then she asked what field of studies I was applying for, and when I told her it was a Masters degree in archaeology she again said "Oh!" and told me that because it's for a Masters and not a Bachelors, there might be something they could do. She passed the info along to her colleague, who handles Masters applications, and he called me back telling me to send the missing documents to Uni-Assist as soon as possible, and they will forward the application on to the university. Sweet! So I still haven't been granted an admission, but they've agreed to at least review my application, so there's still hope for a spring semester admission. That's some exciting news.

The only other thing that I can think of that's worth mentioning right now is that Esther had her birthday on the 4th. That was the same day that Gustav had to go to a kid's birthday at a place called Silly Billy's, which is kind of like Chuck E. Cheese's but without the animatronic characters and an idiot in a mouse costume. Since they don't know this kid's parents at all, Esther and Claudia had me go along to this party to watch over Gustav and Dominic, and Pauline came with me. Then in the evening we had Esther's birthday party. I actually spent a good part of the time putting Pauline in bed, reading Gustav a story and putting him in bed, making sure that everything was okay with David when he started crying in Esther and Olaf's room, and that sort of thing. That was okay, though. I was actually pretty tired from the kids' party earlier, and the kids here were all well behaved so it wasn't a problem taking care of them.

And two side notes: Elif is walking now, and the Schwarzes (Jette, Malte, Britta and Markus) moved to Hamburg. It's so cute to watch Elif walk because she's still really unstable, so she's constantly looking for things to hold onto, and she has that cute little stammering drunk walk that babies always have. It's precious. As far as the Schwarzes go, I'm a little bummed that they're gone. Britta was such a sweetheart, and Pauline played so nicely with Jette. They had to move, though, because Markus's job is now in Hamburg and it doesn't really make any sense to have his family here where he only sees them on weekends. When my family moved from Monrovia to Temecula I was just a little older than Jette, and I don't really remember my friends from there, so I never really missed the old neighborhood or anything. So as far as that goes I don't think the move will be a problem for the kids. Either way, I'm a little sad that they're gone. We're looking forward to meeting the new neighbors when they move in, though.