OH YEAH

I almost forgot! Well, I did forget, and then I remembered again. I want to show you all the video from my time at the Festaburg!! Well, here you go. :)

New Year's at the Festaburg (Public Version)

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525,600 Minutes...

Yes, RENT. Another new favorite musical. The story is...interesting, but my gosh is the music incredible. I've been singing it all week, and physically cannot get it out of my head. There's constantly a mixture of at least 4 songs running around, and I love it. :) I think I'm going to go watch it again....for like the fourth time this week...and I've watched all the extras, too.... :) Oh, and I think I'm in love with the character Mark Cohen. I haven't fallen in love with a movie character since...well, Legolas doesn't count, but before that was Han Solo, or Garrett from Quest for Camelot. This one beats them all.

Anyways, there is another reason for the title. One year ago today, I heard about this job and wrote back. A very simple e-mail, asking for the information just for information's sake, never believing I could actually DO it. I just wanted to know all about it so I could dream and think how cool it would be. I wasn't serious when I told my mom and Aunt Pam about it two days later in line for the VNSA booksale. I'd been looking for nanny jobs around Phoenix, and when she asked how it was going, I said, "Haha, I've found the perfect nanny job."
Oh, really?
"Yeah, guess where?"
Where?
"Germany. Wouldn't that be amazing? Too bad I could never really do it."
Why not?
"Mom - it's Germany. Pack up for a year and just go?"
Yeah, why not?

Well, apparently, she was right, because here I am a year later, 3 months away from the end of my year here. One small step back then...and look how far it's come. It's interesting to think back to what was going on then, with school and choir and OneVoice and trying to find work and roommates and Southwestern and just everything. I miss it. I can already say, I cannot wait to go home. I'm gonna miss it here, and I love Germany, but I'm so close to being ready to come home. Once Rob's deployed, I'm ready to leave here.

The Weather

Yes, this is a blog about the weather. You know, everyone always talks about talking about the weather as if it were a last-ditch conversation effort, but really, sometimes it really is worth mentioning! If it's been raining for a month solid and you get a morning of blue skies and sunshine, Yes! the weather is an exciting topic! If you live in Phoenix and the sun shines and bakes and fries and broils every single day of the year, and you wake up to the sound of raindrops, Yes! the weather is very exciting! And if it should happen to begin to really storm, YAY! call your friends (we were always 'storm buddies') and get excited together because the weather is so darn exciting!

I cannot wait to go back to having rain be something to look forward to instead of dread. It has rained every day for longer than I can keep count. I can hardly wait for spring. I love rain - in Phoenix. Here...it's just another day that we're mostly stuck playing inside, and it's cold and wet and muddy out. The weather has been mild, between about 2 and 10 degrees over the last couple weeks. Then today's weather was just . . . wow. I woke up to a partly cloudy sky, very excited to see blue. Then it was fully cloudy. Then fully sunny, with dark clouds on the horizon. Got some rain. More sunshine - actually got to wear my sunglasses! Then SNOW. Then sunshine. Then rain. Now it's dark and we can't see the weather anymore. But it's cooold. Woo-hoo. At least the sun has started getting up around 8 and going down at 5:30ish, instead of the mid-winter up at 9 and down by 4. Every day is a little longer....by the time I leave, it will be up at 5ish and down at 11ish. Yay sunlight!!

An Expensive Mistake

So, I accidentally used up all my phone money. Which is saying something. :( Calling home from my landline here is really super cheap, and I had approx. a 20 euro per month limit. No problem, I maybe used the full twenty once or twice so far. Well, then came this month. Apparently, calling a german cell phone from a german landline is much more expensive than calling an American number from a german landline - who'da thunk it? So, this month, my phone usuage was pretty much the same as normal, just to a different kind of number - and there went the rest of my year's phone money. Ouuuuuch. So, now I get to pay my own phone bill, woo-hoo! I really don't mind that at all. I just feel bad, cause I really had NO IDEA that it cost that much more, and that's a lot of money I used up. I'm not going to mention the number. But I feel bad - more, I feel they're a little, well, disappointed isn't quite the right word, but maybe disapproving? But honestly, it was an accident - I had no idea at all. Dang it.

Ha, and to make things even 'better,' my pre-paid cell phone needs to be re-upped. I never use it, hardly, and haven't had to put more money on it since like July, but the timing would happen right after I have other phone/money issues. Joy.

So, just pray for me? That I don't feel so guilty about this or worry about it so much. Honestly, I hardly slept last night for worrying about it. See, originally there was only one number I couldn't call, and I could still call home and other stuff, so I was confused as to why it wasn't working, and then it stopped working all together, and I knew I'd used up all the money - and spent the whole night worrying about what I had done and what the consequences could be. Fortunately just a mild lecture and having to pay my own, but still.... :( I do feel badly. Very badly. Why does calling a german cell from a german landline have to be so darn expensive???

Growing Up is Uncomfortable

So, seeing as there's really not all that much going on here, I decided I'd take a break from telling you about my day to day German life and talk about something else.

Who am I? Really. I have changed so much this year - and still am - that I hardly recognize myself anymore. I've become, in some ways, a totally different person than the girl I was when I left home, but I still carry around that old image as if it were still who I am, which causes some serious internal conflict when the contrasts collide. Sort of a conflict between who I was, or who I thought I was, who I really am now, who I think I am, and who I think I should be. I think part of this comes from being so isolated, I have too much time to spend with myself and think about me. I cannot tell you how wonderful it will be to come home to my friends! I really do have a lot of time for reflection, for introspection. I'm not always sure I like who I see. I'm not always sure the changes are good - and then I'm not always sure who I was before was as good, either, even though I was perfectly content to be that way. Part of me wishes to go back, part of me wishes to leap forward to who I can be, but most of me just wishes that who I am wasn't such an uncomfortable jumble of confusion about who that is.

Something Worth Mentioning

I just got my first kiss! From Flori, that is. He and Benni have been running into my room all night and running back out again, but just now they ran in, and Flori said, "Nacht, Nacht, Nacht Joua!" (pronounced Yo-wa, and "nacht" is "gute Nacht," which is goodnight) and then made little kissing noises, and gave me a good night kiss! And then Benni said, me too! I feel so loved by my boys. First kiss after 8 months!

For Daddy

Dad is complaining that I haven't blogged recently or often enough for him to enjoy living vicariously through my foreign living arrangements, so here I am! Not much of note has happened this last week or so, which is why I haven't had much to say. The weather yesterday was odd, though, because it was a good 10 degrees outside, the sun was shining, and I was able to go outside in short sleeves and drive with the windows down and use sunglasses. HOW FUN IS THAT? I tell you, I am so looking forward to being in Phoenix where it's warm and the sun shines. I know it's hot - miserably, unbearably hot at times - but it's better than being cold! The days are slowly starting to get a little longer here, which is exciting, too. And I saw my most colorful sunrise yet the other day!

So, there you see how exciting the week has been - a blog about the weather! hee hee I promise the next one will be more interesting, cause this weekend's gonna be fun. ;)