Weekends are Pretty Cool

In case, you know, you weren't aware.

I don't really have much Bock to type the whole account up for you, but I love you all enough that I guess I should, and I'll even be chronological, or at least I'll try. I can't promise not to randomly throw German words in, though, so get that dictionary out.

So Friday night started out at the Church Table Tennis and Foosball Tournament, where I proved that I have less athletic talent at Miniature Games than at the real ones. Christoph and I managed to score 10 goals the entire evening in Foosball (and had 20 total scored against us) and table tennis was far worse, but it did involve black light and white gloves and fun. I was a far more successful Mini-Sports Photographer, and I'll eventually load some pics up for you (yes, I took pictures, which is apparently the only thing my camera can do. . . I guess I should have told you first that we re-filmed the bit of the video that my camera killed, after having made an unsuccessful trip to Saturn, where they were fairly certain that my camera model, which I had in my hand, did not exist). After church Phillip (host bro #3, for those of you confused by the plethora (I hate that word) of names cropping up here) and some of his friends were going Out, and I went along. We drove into Augsburg and parked somewhere and set off looking for some bar that we never found, and ended up instead in a random cafe whose main Vorteil was that we could have a table, all the bars being randomly super-super full for Friday at 10:30. So we hung out and it was fun, especially since it was not outside in the cold (Nadja and I have determined that Augsburg is the coldest city in Germany). We wandered a bit post-cafe but decided there wasn't much to do, ended up at Burger King, and came home too late, meaning I slept too late on Saturday. Because I was unsuccessful at Calling Berni (granted, I wasn't home much to try, but the times I did only gave me that terrible "nicht erreichbar" recording) about the Party people at school were going to, I ended up heading over to Anja's apartment, where Phillip got her new laptop set up and un-set up (set down?) her old computer to transport back here for me. I stayed at Anja's and Nadja and Nadja's Stuttgart friend Vivi came over and we made chili (I made dessert because I am awesome) and hung out and played board games- I am in love with the Palace of Allahambra, and not just because I got more points than the game board says is possible. There was also the fun of checking out Anja's Abibuch, which is sort of like a yearbook except that you only get it your final year, and everyone gets their very own page where somebody writes something about you or something like that. We wrapped up our evening with some strange Celebrity Diving Tournament, at Christoph's insistence because he was coming to pick me up and didn't want to miss too much of it while unterwegs. I slept Saturday night to be up for church in the morning, and we spent today FREEZING while getting 3 whole scenes filmed- the whole shepherd sequence is done, but it was very, very cold outside. At least I could be all bundled up- our poor actors were stuck out in a sweater with Random Vaguely Bibical Costume over it, huddling around tea lights in the snow. I used my afternoon for homework (why, yes, I was studious) mainly because I feel obligated to at least look like I tried on the Bio test Friday, and because I have to give Steffi's notes from the whole first two months of class, when I wasn't there, back on Tuesday. Of course, I didn't really want to study for Bio, so I also spent a lot of time trying to help Christoph translate a thing for English class, but it turns out that I don't know German and he doesn't know English, so our combined forces make for pretty pitiful translation. Fortunately, Phillip knows both German and English, so the homework was saved. Seriuosly, though, how would you translate "Earned Income Tax Credit?" How about "Medicaid?" (we found words for both of these and more). Tonight, went to the Christkindlmarkt with Basti and Steffi (Basti's girlfriend, a different Steffi from the one in the last sentence), Simone (Steffi's sister), and Andrea (a friend). Christkindlmarkt is sort of like Christmas Bazaar meets County Fair in the middle of a city- lots and lots of booths selling traditional Christkindlmarkt foods and drinks (Glühwein) and Christmasy crafty things. I am too lazy to take my camera places, so I am going to mooch off Blair's pics (isn't that Christmas tree so tacky? We were all horrified.) Also it is cold, but that is why there are hot, alcohol-based drinks for fair prices. Steffi and Basti had these giant coupon collections from the newspaper, and we based most of our purchases on them. This included trying a drink called the "heisse Oma," (heiss=hot) just because it had a funny name and we got 50 cents off. We bought one and passed it around and it was something like egg nog with white wine or whatever- it was delicious, auf jeden Fall. Unfortunately, the Christkindlsmarkt closes pünktlich at 8 (the stall we were standing in front of, from which we had bought drinks and not yet gotten our 2€ Pfand back, turned its lights out and started putting the blinds down as soon as the church bells started ringing 8 pm) so we were home in time for dinner. Christoph and I tried to get my computer set up, but of course it suddenly doesn't work (it was working just fine at Anja's yesterday, mind you) and of course Phillip is already gone, so we'll see what happens there. Maybe technology doesn't like me as much as I thought. . . in any case, this blog still works, and I'm out of things to tell you. . . there were certainly awesome, funny things that I could add here, but note the "kein Bock" from above, and consider that I have to get up at 6 again tomorrow and I still don't know if I'll get to school on time because the train tends to be slow. So I'm going to take a shower and think about sleeping, maybe.

END LIFE PHASE OBERGRIESBACH