Rain

I haven't seen rain in forever. So guess what it was doing when I woke up?

Things should be nice and icey tomorrow. I hope it warms enough to melt it, because I have no interest in walking to school in the ice on Monday. I mean, it's not too bad here, but Aichach is the end of the earth and is always frozen over.

Filmed 2 (well, sort of- scenes 5.1 and 5.2) scenes today in the rain because we are hard core- even managed without our Mary, which is pretty interesting when you're doing the Christmas Story (the one from the Bible, not the one with the bb gun and the leg lamp). . . I made my cameo as Friendly Farmer Woman (no, I didn't know there was one of those in the story, either- apparently it's a bit different over here) and we tried not to stand in the rain too long. . . I'm very worried that we actually got terrible footage because we simply didn't want to be outside anymore.

Church bells here ring at the weirdest times. . . quarter-til, quarter-after, just about any time but on the hour. Craziness.

You know what else I did this afternoon? I took pictures!

Look! It is Phillip, in the classic "Hey Phillip! My mom said I should take a picture of you!" pose.

Then I made Christoph do the same thing. Basti was Elsewhere, but maybe my Ninja Photo skills will capture him for you yet.

This is actually a pretty good picture of my host dad Gerhard, eating a kiwi.

Host mom Eva, knitting.

You can tell a lot about a person by their desk. Contents: computer (still doesn't work, but I haven't bugged Phillip to try to fix it yet, either), Advent calendar (Milka), fake flowers Mom sent for birthday in mug Nina gave me for birthday, Chemistry homework, wallet, planner, empty Mezzo Mix bottle, nearly-empty Limo bottle, passport, latest read (Patricia Highsmith's Edith's Diary), Stabilos (awesomest pens ever), collection of college literature, pile of books: diary, photo albums, German-English dictionary, crossword puzzles.

My bulletin board presumably also tells you about me. . . note the shooting schedule for the Video, and the invitation to the K12/K13 Party. Also, pictures of people.

Planner. This is what the blog looks like before I type it up- close examination will reveal to you that just about every anecdote that appears on here gets written down there first, color-coded, of course. See how organized I am?

I made this picture back in September or something, and I still think it is very pretty. I figured you might, too.

More pictures of People I Like on the wall, beside a large map of Germany.

I am apparently fascinated with my own walls (note the artist-signed orignial Wondermark print! That is how great of a webcomic geek I am!)

Astute readers will realize that it took me overnight to get all the pictures to you. . . see, I started, then it was dinnertime. Dinner is important. After that, Phillip, Christoph, and I went to pick up the pre-ordered Harry Potter tickets for Family Movie Night. The drive to the movie theater included the fun of Frozen Cars and Christoph and Phillip playing Tic-Tac-Toe on the windshield, especially interesting because Phillip was also driving at the time. Anyway, we got there safe, picked up tickets, and headed to wander the mall while we waited for the rest of the family. Malls are kind of big deals in Germany, and this one was all decorated for Christmas, complete with the Animatronic About-To-Maul-You Bear. I am sure it has a long tradition in Germany, but I simply found it creepy. Otherwise, we spent as much time in Saturn as in the rest of the mall, because, you know, boys. (For the clueless, Saturn is Germany's version of Best Buy.) The movie was awesome, of course, and we also got home in one piece, where Christoph found ABBA Mania on tv, which is always an entertaining way to end one's day.

Also, I wrote something last night that I will sometime share with you, unless, on reading it when I am fully awake, I decide that it is silly. In any case, thank you, Dad, for the book- it is the most awesome thing this side of Shaw. Nice choice.