Winter weather

Hey guys,

As most of you know, January was deprived of entries due to a hospital stay. But it was fun. I got to listen a lot to the Trier dialect and I learned lots of new words like "dizzy" and "nauseous" and "chest tubes". Chest tubes was definitely a fun one.

Since then I've been getting back into the swing of things. My mom was here for a while and after that my friend Maggie, and after Maggie's departure Friday, I'm now officially "on my own" again. But no worries. The only thing that's going to be tough is finishing up the semester. I have three papers to write, two within the next three weeks, and then my semester is finished! Right after the first two are due, my mom and brothers are coming to visit, and after that I'll be doing some traveling of my own. A friend from home, Heather, recently made it to France and is a measly five hours away, so I'm definitely going to see her. I'm also hoping to go with some friends down to Switzerland for a few days...and maybe Southern France. I don't know. All I know is I want something relatively inexpensive and relatively warm.

It's snowing here again today, and the snow is absolutely beautiful...but only because I'm watching it from the warm and comfort of my bedroom (and I've still got on multiple layers). I love snow. I'm a big big fan, as most of you know, and I'll still love snow after I leave Germany. That being said, I'll be more than excited when I get to wear short sleeves again. What really weirds me out, though, are those hard-core runners I see every once in a while running outside through the snow in much less clothing than I would ever even think about wearing. And I just want to tell them to go home.

The good thing about the weather is that it's provided time for Alydia and me to decorate the apartment a little more. We both have fresh calendars on the walls, the posterboard Christmas tree has been replaced with a Valentine's heart, and Alydia has the alphabet above her bed. We've also spent lots of time playing Memory, having tea parties, and dancing to Veggie Tales.

Last night a few friends came over and we watched Pride & Prejudice. We watched it in English (because the speaking is slower), but with German subtitles. And everyone was still confused. Leah (my American friend), Elina (a girl who studies in Britain and who had already seen the movie), and I spent half the movie explaining what was going on. There were six of us. Five girls and a poor outvoted Anthony who tried to save his masculinity by rolling his eyes at the romantic parts and telling us how this would never happen in real life. We told him to hush.

I really enjoy our movie nights. I like them more when they're in German, because I really want to practice my listening skills, but I like being with friends no matter what. Two of my friends are staying next semester like me, and we've already started a list for the break and next semester. I'm also watching some German movies on my own. I watched the Baader-Meinhof Komplex (yet another political protest movie --almost all German movies are protest movies) two weeks ago, and am determined to find time in the next three weeks to watch Auf der anderen Seite by Fatih Akin, who is a really famous Turkish-German director. The English title is "The Edge of Heaven", but that doesn't mean I'm recommending it. I haven't seen it yet, and I don't always like his movies.

This is my hodgepodge catch-up post. The next one will hopefully be a little more directed.