Happy New Year's Eve

Well, I'm back.

I had so much to say, but now I have no desire to type it.

The flight back was fine. The guy next to me kept sticking his arm on my side of the armrest. I slept for the first half of the flight, during which multiple babies were screaming incessently. Then I watched The Santa Clause 3 and Dodgeball. I only watched the latter because there was just a little more than two hours left in the flight by that time and the movie was just 91 minutes long. They discontinue entertainment a little while before they land and I wanted to be able to finish what I started.

We went directly from the airport to Grand Rapids, where I got to see my adorable niece. Anna is really amazingly cute. I played with her and chased her around the house and colored with her. She is just so cute.

Today, I'll have my Christmas with my parents. Sigh. Home again... and I miss Nidhal.

Walk Blindly to the Light

I don't like Stephen King. Maybe he writes good novels, but his short stories are kind of crap. I don't like his writing style. And I don't like how he ends his stories.

Nidhal is sleeping. He's a little sick. I miss Nidhal.

Today, we had to get up really early to go to Karlsruhe where I had my first job interview ever. Meh. It was ok, and probably not an accurate representation of normal job interviews. It was at a language school... Berlitz. I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. Nidhal thinks I'll be offered the job, but I think it's more of a long shot. If they find someone that can start sooner than I can or who simply seems better than me, then I'm out. I don't even know if I want the job.

I slept about one hour last night. That was not cool. But it didn't really have an effect until the train ride back from Karlsruhe. Because I was so tired, I felt really cold. During the first half of the trip, I was fairly awake, but the second half was tough. I was so cold that Nidhal finally told me to not sleep because I wouldn't feel so cold then. But I kept drifting off without realizing it.

There is a little snow in Freiburg right now, but there is more in the cities to the north. From the train, I could see the trees covered in snow. But it wasn't a blanket of snow. It looked instead like it was spring and every tree and bush was covered in bright, blooming, white flowers.

It's really cold, but I think it was sunny most of the time I was here. Today it was cloudy and drab, as though it knew that it was one of my last days. I want to be home with my family and friends, but I don't want to leave Nidhal. I want the best of both worlds simultaneously.

I think one of the main reasons that I like being in Germany so much is because there is German everywhere. Being surrounded with German is so much more interesting than being surrounded with English. German is a challenge (or more of one, at least). English is nothing.

Kyrie Eleison

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! Fröhliche Weihnachten!
Happy Holidays! Seasons Greetings! ...and a Happy New Year!

So, I must admit, not being home on Christmas is a little lame. As a child, I looked forward to this day the entire year. And now I'm missing it voluntarily. But I got to spend some time in Freiburg and some time with Nidhal, so it was probably worth it. Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful day filled with beauty, love, and family.

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNHPGp9CyL0
It's a recently favorite Christmas song of mine... because it's just so beautiful.

Maria durch einen Dornwald ging

Maria durch einen Dornwald ging
Kyrie-eleison
Maria durch einen Dornwald ging,
der hat in sieb´n Jahr kein Laub getragen.
Jesus und Maria

Was trug Maria unterm Herzen?
Ein kleines Kindlein ohne Schmerzen,
das trug Maria unter ihrem Herzen.

Da hab´n die Dornen Rosen getragen,
als das Kindlein durch den Wald getragen,
da hab´n die Dornen Rosen getragen.

In English, I think it's called Maria Walks amid the Thorns. And I think this is the good translation of the words:

Maria walks amid the thorn,
Kyrie eleison.
Maria walks amid the thorn,
Which seven years no leaf has born.
Jesus and Maria.

What 'neath her heart doth Mary bear?
Kyrie eleison.
A little child doth Mary bear,
Beneath her heart He nestles there.
Jesus and Maria.

And as the two are passing near,
Kyrie eleison,
Lo! roses on the thorns appear,
Lo! roses on the thorns appear.
Jesus and Maria.

I like it. Old favorites include O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, I Wonder as I Wander, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, We Three Kings, Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming, One Small Child, and I'm sure others.

Investment is an Omlette

The title is a result of my wonderful hearing ability.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Things are continuing in Freiburg. There isn't any snow, but the overnight frost just never goes away. So everything is pretty and frost-covered.

Everything is closed. Yesterday was the last day of the Weihnachtsmarkt. Today, grocery stores were open in the morning. But tomorrow and the next day, everything is closed.

I went for a walk with Nidhal in the Seepark this afternoon. It was cold, but we played catch with the football anyway.

Two nights ago, l learned a new card game called shcoba (I have no idea how it's spelled). It was quite fun and I played it last night with Nidhal and two of his friends. I've spent my spare time over the past few days making a Sequence game board. It was finished yesterday, and hopefully I'll get to play with Nidhal tonight. Sequence und shcoba. I've also spent my time watching even more Friends and I also started watching Samantha Who.

Whole milk is definitely too rich for me. I prefer the watery skim or 1/2%. 2% is also fine. I actually can't tell the difference between any of those three except when I see it move in a glass. But whole milk really has a different taste.

My One Weakness

So I'm hanging out in Freiburg. The Markthalle is open again. It's like a food court. It had closed for remodeling sometime in the summer, I think, and it was still closed when I left. It gets dark at 4pm and everything closes at 8pm, so I spend quite some time watching Friends on the internet.

Today, Nidhal took me to buy my Christmas present. He said, he wanted to get me a pair of black shoes but he wanted to be sure that they fit before he bought them (which was good because he thought my size was 39 when it is really 40). We had looked around yesterday and the day before already, and we found some quite nice ones today. He bought them for me and he also gave me some samples of perfume. Each sample is in a little glass tube, enough for several uses of each. And the shoes are really nice. They're not dressy really, but they're not tennis shoes.

Ah, I love shoes. They are my clothing weakness. You can never have too many pairs of shoes. Shirts, pants, socks, hats, underwear, coats, and whatever else are all well and good, but shoes are where it's at. Brown shoes, black shoes, white shoes, blue shoes, running shoes, dressy shoes, boots, sandals of all kinds. Ah, shoes shoes shoes. Nidhal picked a good gift. He actually likes shoes too, but I think his clothing weakness is dress clothes like ties and suits and such.

And so now I'm sitting here getting my daily ration of second-hand shisha smoke while I wait for an episode of Friends to load.

Ich bin so froh, wieder zurück zu sein.

Well, the flight was completely normal. The guy next to me had bad breath, but he was nice. I watched The Bourne Ultimatum, Ratatouille, and The Aristocats. Overall entertaining.

Nidhal was at the airport to pick me up. He had been there since 3am and I got to him at 8am. He's cute. We took the train back to Freiburg, and we both slept. Then in Freiburg, we had a Döner. Yum. And then we slept. After that, he went to work and I slept. And then we ate dinner, watched parts of a couple movies, and slept. I didn't get up until about 3pm today, about an hour before the sunset.

And today we went into the city and did a little shopping. After about an hour, he had to go to work, so I wandered around for a while. The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) is up and running, and I looked at that, but it was really crowded and basically the same stuff as last year.

It's weird being here again Nice, but weird.

I saw my old roommate on the way back from the city. It was really good to see someone randomly that I knew. He actually recognized me first. I was walking with my stack of breadrolls, milk, and cream cheese and then suddenly I heard someone say "Sarah?". And it was Marco.

And Nidhal is like a 5-year old with his presents. He looked around in my suitcase and found one gift less than about an hour after I landed. And then this morning, I wrapped a present while he was in the shower. He saw it and I said that it was for him, and then I went to take a shower. After my shower and everything, I went out to the kitchen where he was, and he was sitting on the couch with the present already opened. Just like a child. :) I laughed at him.

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.

So I leave for Germany tomorrow. Too bad it's only for a couple weeks.

I had three exams today: French listening, Syntax, and GeoSci. They were all mediocre. The GeoSci started off completely simple, but then somewhere in the middle it got more confusing. Oh well. French followed the same pattern. And Syntax was just weird... but he gave us Skittles.

This evening, I was planning to drive home so I could drop off my car and pick up my suitcase. But that plan was fatally wounded this morning at 11am when I got a phone call from my mother. Apparently, they were too sick and the roads were going to be too bad for me to drive home. And that just screwed everything over. And then after frustratedly arguing with the parents, they kind of said to just come home. But then I couldn't because it felt like I had a better chance of dying if I went home after they told me not to than if I had just gone home without a warning. Meh. So I'm still in Ann Arbor. It's the parents' loss though. I was going to spend Christmas-season time with them and also wrap their presents and put them under the tree. They'll just have to continue thinking that they're getting coal for Christmas.

And that is that. I should probably go to bed now (1:22am). Goodnight.

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

I was watching on DVD for the first time ever Santa Claus is Coming to Town this afternoon. It was one of those Christmas TV specials, but I had never seen it before. As it turns out, the mayor of the drab town was called Burgermeister Meisterburger. Burgermeister means mayor in German, and the guy had a German accent. It surprised and happified me. There was also a really cute penguin named Toppers. I can't believe I had never seen that TV special until now.

Lunch was Chinese. I walked to the Chinese place, which was right by the gas station because I didn't know if there would be parking. There was, and so I ordered the stuff, went back to my car, scraped the ice, drive to the gas station, got gas, drove to the Chinese place, and picked up my food.

Other than those two things, I really haven't done much today. I watched a bit of TV: Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Little Drummer Boy, a Discovery Channel special, Friends, and A Christmas Affair. And I studied all the while.

I can't wait until Christmas!

Random Tidbits

I had a linguistics presentation and a French test today. I think they went well enough.

It's so cold outside.

Lunch was leftover hamburger helper, which was tasty.

Christmas is coming! I don't know what to get a lot of people. Hmm...

I'm flying to Germany soon! That should be fun (not the flight... the Germany). I kind of want to travel somewhere while I'm there, but I would also be content hanging out in Freiburg the entire time. Less stress.

I have three exams on Tuesday. Yuckity yuck yuck. ...meh, and there's really not much more to say about that.

Vernors is good. So is apple butter.

Mmm... cookies.

Today was a long day. 12-1 French. 1-2:30 lunch, bank, e-mail, class sign-up drama. 2:30-4 syntax. 4-5 Volcanoes and Earthquakes. 5-6 linguistics group project work. 6-7 German. 7-9 linguistics group project work. Ugh. Long day.

I think I'm tired.

SNOW!

It's snowing like crazy! There's already about four inches of snow on our front step! I'm excited... except that it could cause problems for me going back to Ann Arbor tomorrow. Meh, oh well.

I had a Starbucks peppermint mocha on Thursday and it was tasty. It basically tasted like liquified thin mints. I also bought a bag of coffee and I got a free coffee with that. So I was walking around Ann Arbor with two coffees in my hand. The free coffee was weird. I think it was Sumatra blend, or something like that.

Driving home with minimal traffic was wonderful.

I had lunch with Lyne today. That was quite enjoyable as it always is.

This afternoon, I made sugar cookies... soft, wonderful sugar cookies. We'll decorate them tomorrow.