And the past few months went where?

I've been keeping a list of things I WANT to blog about but I just haven't been taking the time to do the blogging since I actually feel like I've been having a life here in Deutschland!  It's hard to believe that November is 1/2 over...where does the time go?  The fall season is beautiful here, it is so similar to Upstate NY but I actually think it might be a little prettier :)


This is looking over the town of Alsenbon from a trail near our house.

Our Shadows!

This is a lake/pond on the property of a house near us - we are on the trail behind it.

The weather had been quite warm, allowing for nice pleasant walks in the woods but once daylight savings came (a week before the US) it just turned dark, cold and foggy!  It was time to turn to inside chores...I thought...such as putting away the summer clothes and getting all of the winter clothes out which would include a complete ROYGBIV makeover of all of my drawers and hung clothing.  Yes I do that, it's easier to find things when it is all color coordinated! 


I thought we were done with the yard for the season but the landlords have been watering away like crazy.  Apparently they think it's dry.  Um, it's freezing at night so one would think it's time to unhook the hoses but not yet.  I feel so guilty when they are here just working away in the cold.  I don't mind doing it, but not when it's cold! I think they like to do it.


Cold it is.  We do not have a central thermostat so controlling the heat is a bit of a challenge.  I'm constantly freezing.  Contstantly wearing a hoodie, a blanket or my snuggie.  Maybe I just need to turn the radiators up?!  Sounds logical.  I can't see having them on in rooms that we aren't in.  I don't know, our landlady said that she was going to have the heating/cooling guy over to explain it all to me.  I  do know that I am supposed to air out my house everyday for 10 minutes a day to help bring fresh air into the house.  It's economical for the heating system because there is no return air coming into the house.  I've been pretty good at doing that daily but I don't hang my bedding out the window like the rest of the Germans do!


The Nordic walks are still going on 2-3 days a week, even as it gets colder but it surely gets harder to get out of bed to go! Luckily I have had the car a lot since Dave has been traveling and that makes it a little easier to get up and get going. The classes at Fitness First are great though; I absolutely love going to Zumba, and Step and a few other strength training and toning classes. I have yet to do a spinning class but soon! It's a little intimidating because everyone in there has on "biking apparel" and those spiky little shoes! I've been settling for the stationary "regular" bike for now. It's been great to go though, especially when I have the car but when I don't I can take the bus, I'm a big girl and now.


Over the past few weeks I've been obsessively making jewelry that I took to a local craft shop to sell on consignment. I'm pretty excited about this and hope that it sells!  I priced everything and took inventory of about 50 pieces.  

This is a picture of everything I took to the shop:

I've been to a few craft fairs and have stocked up on supplies and beads galore.  Bonnie even bought a bunch of stones to have me make necklaces and bracelets for her.  We found a great deal on natural stone beads and semi-precious gems at an enormous craft fair in Wiesbaden.  I was in jewelry making heaven.  Although it was a bit overwhelming, there were so many crafters and suppliers there. 

That is what I've been up to.  Next project = learn German.  Next week I start an intensive 5 hour/day for 4 weeks class that hopefully will teach me more than just the basics.  I can get by now but I'd really like to have a conversation with my German friends!  I don't like the idea of being class for 5 days a week for 4 weeks straight but the timing was actually really good and I really do want to learn the language.  I think I've done pretty well over the last 4 months trying to at least communicate a little...grasping for my rescue sentance each time someone talks to me..."Bitte, Ich spreche wenig Deutsch."  I speak little German, of course.  I'll get there, I'm not putting super high expectations on myself even though my brother is a language learing genious.  I don't think I inherited those genes, although, I think I've mentioned it before - the French I learned practically 15 years ago has been surfacing to the forefront of my brain ever since we got here!

The class is what I need, no doubt.  I have totally reached the level of feeling "at home" here or "normal" so to speak.  We always have the attitude of making home where ever we are and even though it's a different country, it's still home.  I remember our relocation specialist telling us that the first 3 months are hard, really hard.  The next 3 are definitely easier and after 6 months, we are expat experts!  I wouldn't say that the 1st 3 months were really hard, but yes, difficult for sure.  Interesting, sure.  Challenging, f'sho.  I could write on forever about some of the funny/interesting/challenging things we've encountered but I'll end this post here for now.