Sparkly

There's this point where moisture, pavement, dark, and light all combine to make walking down the street some sort of magical trip through a land of glitter. Maybe you have to be kind of tired from Audrey-Hepburn-related-staying-up-to-late-ness, but in any case it was really pretty this morning. Also, the word sparkly is so nice to look at. SPARKLY.

Yesterday, I discovered a new and fascinating sport: the Cross-Country Skiing/Shooting Biathalon. Sort of a random combination, I know, but apparently a big deal in Europe, and I was so upset that some terrible Frenchman defeated our German king. There was an American in like 12th place, too, which is pretty amazing! Today was the women's sprint version of the same thing, and the German women dominated in their beastly way, taking places 1, 3, 4, and 8 (some Slovak got 2nd) because they are awesome. It was very exciting. We tried to determine if there were Americans involved, and did briefly spot one or two around place 80, but mostly this is clearly not our/their sport. Also, the host parents and Anja and I went to the Uni last evening to check out a super-old Spanish illuminated Bible that was pretty cool to see, and also incredibly graphic in its Middle Ages-style. And then there was an awesome Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movie on last night- Charade or something like that, and it made me all happy.

So I'm sort of upset that I didn't read the Vertretungsplan closer yesterday, because I got to school knowing history (first period) wasn't happening, only to discover that English (second period) also "fell out." Now, when it's just first, I have to go to school at normal time because the train is infrequent. But when it's first AND second, I get to take the train that comes an hour later, and thus sleep in an hour later. My only comfort is that I got to see the sparkly sidewalk. This is very slight.
First Pause brought Christmas Punch, though, because Fridays in December are Christmas Punch days! Yay!
Chemistry is awesome because we never take notes anymore, just get 5 handouts a class. This means that class is super-super-long, though, because I have nothing to occupy myself (like writing things down) and get very bored. I miss Hoof writing me passes to skip half of Chemistry. There aren't even passes in this country.
Bio seriously went five times faster than Chemie, which is sad because Bio is actually interesting. Yes, I understand relativity. No, I don't want to accept it.
Second Pause was hilarious because Konnie spilled water all over Maria's lap and of course Maria had quite a large and embarassing wet spot and we spent the remainder of the Pause making fun of her and making sure to point it out to everyone who came in. Max took at least one picture, because Max takes pictures of everything.
Math was sort of exciting because I understand it totally, but it is SO boring.
German was also boring, but fun moment of the day:
Herr Friedl: Were you there Wednesday, David?
David: Yes.
HF: What a shame.
(Explanation: lots of people disappeared on Wednesday because of Thursday's big test. Friedl went through the roll to figure out who was and wasn't there, and was upset when people were there for whatever reason.)

Tonight is Youth Group Cookie Baking Night! We are forcing the boys to come along, and they aren't exactly excited. Obviously they have forgotten or are not aware that one gets to eat cookie dough when one bakes cookies.

In Other Exciting News, Phillip is Awesome and has made my computer work (Christoph is totally jealous that I have a computer and he doesn't, but I am still older than him- we worked it out to be something like 10 hours, which is enough). This means that I have gotten myself Google Talk equipped, and you should, too, if you want to have Fun with Time Zones and try to talk to me- there are multiple invitations winging their way toward you, and if you don't get one, then I have somehow misplaced your e-mail address- drop me a line (oneseventy@gmail.com, as always) because I have at least 57 more invites to send to whomever I please.

Post-Cookie-Baking-Night Report (22:03 pm): of course we also dealt with the video (tonight was laying voice tracks for the UFOs and narrator and whatnot) and baked. Piff, Anja, and I chose the easiest recipe with the most opportunity for snacking along the way: chocolate-covered cornflakes (yea, not exactly cookies. get over it.) And of course they were awesome, because I am awesome, and had to expend all sorts of energy protecting my pot of chocolate from testing fingers because Nadja is a very, very bad example. We had extra chocolate and corn flakes, but in totally wrong proportions to be useful to us, so I made a batch of barely-coated flakes for our snacking purposes (the others being for selling at church) and Christoph made a mess, of course.
Yes, I am updating more frequently now that I have my own computer. Enjoy the luxury.