Getting my Deutsch an: Februar 2006

XXIX : Praha

Dear People,
Please go to Prague someday. It is quite out of the way for most of you, but for real. It is mad good. Beer and food are very cheap if you're choosy about where you go. The churches and streets are just something else. Much of Prague looks very similiar to parts of Germany, but there is still of course something else that really makes this place someplace else. Minutes after leaving our apartment and walking down to find food on our first day here Clay and I started mapping out how we could possibly come back to live and work here for a few years.

There is a particular cafe, the one in which we are sitting to get free wifi, in which we spend most of our evenings before settling into our beds. Over the course of the past week we have made a number of friends, mostly men within the ages of 40 and 70 years I would presume. I really enjoy this.

Today we went to a new part of town, which is really just a shopping district. We bought this reindeer door-knocker for our house. Dudes I am ecstatic.

XXVIII : Ég taldi upp að elsku

Tomorrow I am travelling to Stuttgart to visit Katia and her boyfriend who also just arrived in Germany to visit her. I will spend the night with her, and finally awake to the day that I see my love.

In the meantime I occupy myself with finger-tapping and thumb-rolling. Tonight will be a pleasant evening with Amandine, dinner and then a party. Jenny, the hostess of this party hosted a party we attended last weekend. I met a very nice girl from Scotland there.

I did very well on my Icelandic exam. I am already considering studying for just a 3-month summer term next year in Reykjavík.

XXVII : Heimkoman

Well, everything is official now. Loan money was not secured so I have to leave the study abroad program and return stateside. Mamman has purchased my return flight for 31. March back to DFW. My plan is roughly this: get temporary jobs to earn money and stay at home in Texas for a few months, before Clay and I take me and my things back to Portland, OR in my car. Since I have left home, school and work have never allowed me to stay in Texas for very long, so I am taking this opportunity to get some good family time in. Once I return to Portland and domesticate I doubt the opportunity would arrise as easily again.

My feelings on it are really mixed. I was not prepared to leave Germany so soon and I am missing out on a few potential trips, but I feel as though I have a lot of things to look forward to with my trip home. Like I told mom, I am basically 50/50 extremely disappointed and warmly satisfied. Looking at american dollars now, though, they look so dirty and fake! When are we going to get pretty money?

XXVI : Barnin

I do not want to steal any thunder away from Alice's little peapod which is going to make me an aunt, buuuuut I just found out from my big brother that he and his lady friend are pregnant and expecting at just about the same time as Alice. I get to be two aunts in one! I still cannot help feeling like I am missing out, though. I will not get to be near either of these bulging bellies. I feel as though there is this awesome party happening somewhere and everyone I know is going to it but I was not invited. A baby party. I just need more time. Eventually I will give the world my little Wolfgang von or Alva and I would even consider a little Forrest.

And a Happy Birthday to Gramma!

XXV

Freiburger Münster

February is an extreme month of birthdays, particularly the first two weeks. 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 08, 12, 15, 22. Yesterday I celebrated the birthday of one of my roommates with him and his friends who came over. Next weekend we will probably have another dinner party to commemorate mine. This all happens in the midst of my finals, though, unfortunately. Here is to hoping for a good 22nd. The number 21 looks better to me than 22. 21 21 21 21 21 21 21. 22 22 22 22 22 22 22. See? 22 is too deceivingly round and soft looking. It is hiding under my bed and hiding in my closet. 22 is out to get me. I cannot wait for 23.