Bleh

I'm in a bleh mood. There's nothing to write about. Except that I know that even though I said that, I'll go on to write a really long post.

For some reason I did not sleep well at all this week. Even the days that I didn't have to get up early, I couldn't get my act together and just go to bed at a reasonable hour so that I wouldn't be tired when I woke up. Then, when I did have to get up early, I went to bed on time and slept badly. So right now, I'm on one good night's sleep in the past 6 or 7 days. I can't really complain though, because I did NOTHING today. But I have to get up super early tomorrow and Wednesday (just regular early on Tuesday), so I'm not looking forward to that.

Things that have happened this week: It was really nice on Monday and Tuesday, nice enough that I didn't need a jacket to go outside, then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it was freezing. Literally. It snowed this morning. Granted, not enough to actually stick, but it was real snow. It sat on the ground for maybe 30 minutes before it melted. It's October! How is this possible?? I'm really glad that I bought some new sweaters, otherwise I'd freeze to death here.

Speaking of sweaters, can we talk about how my wardrobe is clearly not adequate for a German winter? I guess I'd been lulled into a false sense of security by South Carolina winters, where the coldest it gets is 30, and that's only early in the morning. I think 30 might have been the high for today here. Anyway, I really only have long-sleeve shirts--you know, the ones that are pretty much like long-sleeved T-shirts and provide no added warmth except for keeping a little bit of wind off of your arms. Yeah, that's what my wardrobe consists of. Fortunately, I have some camisole things that I can wear under those, so that helps a little bit, but I had to break down and buy two sweaters, since I previously only owned 2. This was bad for two reasons, because 1) I'm really cheap, and 2) Clothes are really expensive here. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Clothes really are more expensive. My family here always buys stuff from Esprit and they told me to look online and see if there was anything I wanted to get bc they get a 10% discount (they're frequent Esprit customers) so I could use it if I wanted. Ummm, all the sale stuff was like, 40 Euros! And that was the cheapest! Not that I'll ever wear Esprit anyway; I refuse to. I'd only been looking because I was hoping that maybe some stuff was actually really cheap and then I could buy it. But nope, wayyy too much. Seriously though, Esprit! I had no idea their stuff was so expensive. And besides the whole clothes being expensive thing is the exchange rate. So all that stuff that's, like, 40 Euros is now close to $60. It really sucks to buy stuff with a credit card right now because the exchange rate is so bad, but sometimes it's unavoidable and I have to. I ended up buying two sweaters (not from Esprit, don't worry) for about 16 Euros, which is about $22 or $23, so I think that's pretty good.

In other news, I decided that if I ever move to Germany, I'm opening up either a bakery or an ice cream shop, because those seem to be the only places here that consistently do tons of business. I'm always a little surprised at how many people I see walking around with ice cream because it really hasn't been warm out for a while. Everyone always seems to have it though, but that could just be because it's delicious. Really, it's waay better than American ice cream, and cheaper too. Every time I'm in the city I buy ice cream. And Laugenbrot, which I am secretly addicted to. I even go to different bakeries to buy it because I'm ashamed of my habit.

Hmm, other things. I went to Ulm on Friday, but I didn't really do that much. I forgot to bring my camera unfortunately, plus it was freezing out, so all that=go in lots of stores to keep warm, AKA buy stuff. I bought two books in German, because I've decided that reading is how I'm going to get my German exposure. I mean, I hear German all the time and I speak it with the parents, but I don't get to speak it nearly enough. I think reading will really help me. I also bought a hat for €1, which turned out to not be as warm as I thought it would be, but can I really complain for €1? No. I also bought.....a Coke! I have had approx 4 Cokes since I've ben here, so this is a real luxury. I didn't drink the whole thing; instead, I saved it and brought it back here and I have been drinking a little bit every night. I am savoring it; I still have half the bottle left.

On a completely unrelated topic, I've decided to go to Italy over Christmas, and I'm eagerly planning my trip. So far on my agenda I have: Rome, possibly Ostia Antica, Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Florence, Pisa, Milan, Venice, and possibly Cinque Terre. Planning travels is maybe my favorite thing to do, and I'm also planning another trip! I'll have 4-5 days off in two weeks to travel, so I really want to go to Budapest and Bratislava. The only thing is, I have to get my visa extended this week, and if they take my passport, I can't leave the country (obviously). I'm hoping they will either a) be fast (highly unlikely) or b) let me take my passport and bring it back when they're ready to put the visa in it (I feel like this is probably also unlikely). But seriously, are they allowed to just...take my passport? What if I have to go back to the US for some reason? I mean, not that that'll happen, but if they have my passport, I'm stuck here. And while I want to see more places in Germany, I want to save that for shorter weekend trips.

OK, this post ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be. In that case, I'll go back to doing my favorite thing--planning trips! I'm even planning trips that I don't even know when I'll take. It's so exciting!