Winterzeit

Whew, it's been a long time since I've written. OK, I guess a week is not that long, but still. Last week was really busy. Stephanie was in the hospital having an operation, so that meant that I had to get up early every day and work late every day. I felt bad for her though, because she was supposed to come home on Wednesday, but she ended having to have another operation. Poor gal (hahah). But she came home on Friday afternoon, so that was nice.

The kids were pretty good this week, although Johanna was a lot clingier than usual. I think she was a little bit sick, combined with missing her mama. Side note: the kids call their parents Mama and Papa, which I think is so funny! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that what I learned in German class wasn't right, since there have been a lot of things that are different than what I learned! (What we learned was that kids call their parents Mutti and Vati, but Dominik told me that none of his friends call their parents that.)

I had an adventure on Wednesday morning when I had to go into Heidenheim to get my visa extended. I had to go to the Landratsamt (I know what it means, but I don't know what it is in English) and that part was pretty easy. All I had to do was give them my passport, my insurance card, and my visa application and I was done. And luckily, they let me take my passport with me so that I'll be able to leave the country this week! (more on that later) After that I had to go to the Gesundheitsamt (an office about health) because I had an appointment with a doctor whose job was pretty much only to talk to visa applicants and figure out if they have tuberculosis. I cannot figure out the obsession with tuberculosis here! I mean, I could understand being required to have a test before entering the country, but I've already been here for two months. If I have tuberculosis, I've been spreading it around to everyone I've met for a long time now. Also, they refused to accept my skin test as valid proof that I don't have tuberculosis, even though that would have saved everyone time and money. Anyway, so I went to the Gesundheitsamt and it turned out...the doctor was sick. And she's only there on Wednesdays. Of course. I made an appointment for this Wednesday, but now I can't go because Dominik has the week off from school. No biggie, it just sucks that this keeps getting pushed back. I also have to get an x-ray (to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I don't have TB), which I couldn't do, because I couldn't see the doctor, because she was sick.

So, in my 2.5 hours that I had to kill until the bus left, I went and got a library card. The library is not exactly huge, but they do have a bunch of DVDs with an English-language option, plus a section of books in English, plus a huge section of travel books which I will be taking advantage of. The only thing that sucked was that I had to pay for the library card--12 euros for 1 year, which isn't bad, but still! If all those taxes the government collects aren't paying for the libraries, what are they paying for?

Hmm, then this weekend I did.....nothing! It was really great. After having to work so much, it was really nice to relax and rot my brain out watching TV and stuff. On Saturday night I went to Gegenwind, the youth group, which was pretty good. I'm getting to know the people there a little bit more, so it gets better every time.

And today, Dominik and Johanna both went to Oma and Opa's at 12, so I had the afternoon off. For lunch I actually cooked for myself (!!!!), soup with carrots, onions, and noodles. I'm impressed, because it ended up being really good. I never really have an opportunity to make stuff that I really want, so it was nice to have some free time! After that I went into Heidenheim and just walked around for a while. It was a really nice day, and (comparatively) not that cold. It was in the low 50s, which was a nice improvement. I also bought a battery charger for my digital camera batteries (10 Euros), and another 1 GB memory card (also only 10 Euros). I am quite pleased with my 1-gig card find. I would really like to buy a new digital camera, but 1) I can't find any I like that also have a viewfinder, and 2) they're all really expensive here! I guess I'll just have to wait til I get back to the US, but it would be so nice to have a new one here, where I'm taking tons of pictures.

And.....finally, the reason I need my passport is that I'm going to Budapest and Bratislava this weekend! I'm leaving Wednesday night and going by night train to Budapest, arriving Thursday morning, going direct from there to Bratislava, Slovakia, spending the night there, and then returning to Budapest the next day. I'm spending the rest of my time in Budapest, then Sunday night I'm taking the night train back, so that I can be back in time to pick up Johanna in kindy on Monday at 12. The only thing that sucks is that there were no sleeping berths left for the Munich-Budapest trip...at least none in my price range. I didn't really want to pay 200 Euros for that. I got one for the trip back, but the train leaves at 8 PM and arrives at 6 AM, so I still won't get a really good night's sleep. Oh well, either way, I think it's going to be a really good trip. The only thing I'm worried about is the language thing, but from what I've read, the two foreign languages spoken most often in Budapest and Bratislava are German and English, so I think I'll be ok.

Whoo, I'm really excited! I've spent quite a bit of time planning this trip, so it sure as heck better pay off! I've also started planning my Christmas trip to Italy--I've already booked a flight, in fact. It looks like I'll be spending Christmas Day in Rome, so I think that will be pretty cool. Oh man, I love planning trips!

Oh yeah, weird thing here: Standard Time starts one week earlier than in the US, so right now I'm only 5 hours ahead. It's also really weird that it starts getting dark at 5 PM. Seriously, why is winter already? Can we please have the warm weather back?