In the cold November rain

Well hey again, Ye Olde Interweb Worlde! Gosh, long time no post... sorry 'bout that... even though there be much a-goin' on here, yarr. Alas, as Amy points out, you get all these ideas when you're nowhere near your computer; but then there appears to be some kind of inverse relationship between how much contact is currently being exerted upon your fingertips by your keyboard, and the quality & quantity of aforementioned thoughts sloshing around between your ears. So how about I just start somewhere, and shake some of these incoherent thoughts out onto the keyboard, and see what comes up.

Lessee... Anna's buddy Mark from the States visited last weekend, and we had a grand old time. He was actually in England for a friend's wedding, and so just hopped across the creek to come see us Teutons on the continent, in exchange for a promise by Anna to pour lots of beer down his throat. And so we did! Thursday night, we sat around at a cozy little Gaststaette somewhere on the Weinstrasse and got thoroughly toasted. Friday, we wandered around Heidelberg, and then concocted some Gluehwein -- hot mulled red wine, with orange juice and sugar and spices, mmm! -- to ward off the cold evening. (Anna, I will never forget The Face!!) Sunday, we had the honor of being the only guests at this funny little medieval-themed pub downtown, where we polished off two liters of honey mead (mmm, mead...), strawberry wine, and blueberry wine. There's been quite a bit of alcohol flowing these last few days! No wonder I'm putting on weight, even though we must walk like ten miles a day!

Speaking of warm beverages, though, it's amazing how fast it turned cold here! I mean, richtig *kalt*. (For us Arizonans, at least... ;) ) Yesterday, I wore some thigh-high socks that Shauna sent from Seattle under my jeans, an undershirt, a sweater, another heavier sweater on top, gloves, a scarf, a wool coat, knee-high leather boots... and was still a weeeee bit chilly. Didn't help that it's kind of a wet cold around here... and they say this is the warmest area of Germany. Yikes! Though Nico and Ivan both rang to report of snow in Muenchen, sigh. Alas, Anna and I were unable to hold up our end of the pact to come down and roll in it. Well, it'll probably be a long winter. :)

Which reminds me! My birthday is this Friday. It's strange to type that: "my" birthday. Weird. Let's try this again: *our* birthday is on Friday. :) And since any occasion is an excuse to travel and meet up with other friends here in Europe, we're all meeting up in Leipzig! Yay! A city close to me heart. :) Even Matt Johnson is flying in. I'm so excited to see him! We will take tons of pictures. But anyway, so I've booked a hostel for 8 for Friday and Saturday nights, and we'll all meet up Friday evening somewhere (maybe Auerbachskeller, though that's kind of an expensive restaurant) and then play, play, play until tottering home Sunday afternoon. I'm so happy that everybody is willing to spend the time, money, and effort to come join us... Anna, Conny, Nigel, Ivan, Nico, Matt, and probably Bert, too. Heck, if I'm going to turn 26, I'm going to do it in a city that I remember fondly as a place of happy irresponsibility. :)

Oh, yeah, and work is going great... I finally put together a specific schedule, and got all the "good" classes to teach for the rest of this semester! Mostly the somewhat older ones, whose English is good enough to hold more meaningful discussions, and with whom it therefore makes more sense to talk about cultural matters with a native speaker (yours truly). And the other teachers continue to be fun and friendly, and constantly invite me to go do stuff with them. We're even all planning on cooking Thanksgiving dinner together! And sometime this week I'm supposed to catch up with a bunch of them for drinks... yeah, more alcohol. Well, I *am* engaged in cultural studies, you know. ;)

Allrighty, jetzt an die Arbeit. Hugs to all!