Hello world (or the 3 people that read this...), just popping in to tell you that I haven't forgotten to update about our amazing Thanksgiving festivities last week, I'm just planning on making a VLOG for it! Hopefully I can get it up by the end of the week, but you just never know!
I've been surprisingly busy these past couple weeks. Aside from my rigorous 12 hour work week - which requires little to no planning - I've been working on a 20+ page translation from German to English, enjoying the company of visitors (Gemma's parents came for a weekend), visiting other ETAs around Bavaria, and just generally enjoying life in Germany! But things are calming down before the winter break (exactly the opposite from home, were finals hit right before the holiday and you get so stressed and busy you want to pull your hair out before it all comes grinding to a halt just in time to go Christmas shopping and settle down for a couple days of holiday), so I'm hopeful that the posting will pick up.
I would like to commend Germany on being right on time with its Christmas mood-setting. Like clockwork, it started snowing on Thanksgiving, and by the time we woke up the next day, there was snow on the rooftops and tree tops and hillsides in the distance. Things really picked up this morning when I woke up to at least an inch of snow on the ground - and it's still coming down. I decided I would live on the edge and try to ride my bike to school despite the many warnings against such ideas. After riding my breaks all the way down the hill of our street to the main road (which I take all the way into town) I found the bike lane to be covered with all the snow pushed aside by cars. So I rode on the painted white line, barely visible beneath the sludge, separating the road from what was previously the bike lane. I made it no more than half a block before I was splattered by not one, not two, but three cars! at this point I decided to ride on the side walk, safely away from the cars kicking up dirt and snow slush onto innocent bikers. The rest of my ride proved more frightening than actually dangerous. When I got to the end of this road I had two choices: 1. continue on my bike up the hill and across the bridge, or 2. carry my bike down to the pedestrian walk way under the road and not risk hills and bridges. Having already worn out my sense of adventure for the day, I opted for the latter, carrying my bike down and walking it safely to the other side of the train tracks. When I reemerged from the pedestrian tunnel at the train station I knew I had to decide if I should continue on bike or foot. While standing and deciding I saw several other bikers pass by - if they can do it, so can I! Then I looked pass the bikers and saw the cars. Those fast driving, sludge slinging, road hogging cars. I locked my bike up safely at the train station and continued the rest of the way on foot. It was really a nice walk, I got to take a lot of pictures and actually enjoy the snow, instead of fear it. Looks like I won't be doing much biking till Germany thaws out, but I can't say I didn't try!
But why were you going to school this morning? I'm sure your first thoughts are all concern for my standard three day weekends... Well, I'm swapping my off day this week (Monday) so that I can meet my Aunt and Uncle in Frankfurt on Thursday while they have a 12 hour lay over. I'm very excited! My first familiar faces in almost 3 months!
So keep your eye out for a the next Vlog... and until then, you can find me making snow angels all over Germany!
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