Squeeeeee!

I just booked my flight half-way home. By which I mean that I booked a flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, and it only cost me 500 Euro. Thankyou, Qantas. I'm going to meet Mum (and hopefully Jill, if she can get the time off of work) in Singapore for a few days of sightseeing and relaxing. I'm ecstatic about it all. So, I'm now counting down until March 18th. Ok, not really counting down, because time here is flying by and I'm constantly amazed at how long I've been here. But my final exam is on March 12th, and I've left a few days leeway (ok, I left a week - it pays to be paranoid!) in case of Oral exams and the stresses of packing up one's entire life (again). I plan on selling my furniture, if I can, and shipping my things home (ok, books and clothes) by freight. Things that don't suit the take-home category get donated to Steffi or Charity. Or anyone else who wants them, really.

I know it's still a bit early to be thinking about that kind of stuff but it really does affect my purchases here. Things need to either be in the "so cheap it doesn't matter" category (like bakeware and bedding) or "worth carrying half way across the world" (like books, which I'm banned from purchasing, because I have so many already). Clothes will definitely be subjected to a wardrobe cull, which is ok because lots of them are getting worn out anyway, but I also have more than enough replacement tshirts to get me through. (Oh, and can I put in a good word for certain underwear items made by Berlei and owned by nearly every woman I know? Seriously, that line lasts foreeeever.)

So, back onto life at present. I've been a bit sick this week, with sore throat, cough, crazy-high temperatures and a general lack of energy. I also had two days where my skin was sensitive and hurting, which always makes me feel a bit sour, but thankfully that's over. I should be better in a couple of days. It's definitely my own fault for not getting enough sleep lately - sometimes I forget to prioritise. But that's ok. So, I last wrote... hm, ages ago. So, I'll write about last week. The German class was nondescript and outside of that I didn't really do anything interesting. On the weekend, however, I went first to the Dom Markt, where I found curly kale (win! It's now appearing pre-shredded in massive bags, which is awesome) and bought incredible amounts of fruit. I've been eating a lot of fruit this week.

Saturday I also took the train to Muenster, and rented a bike. Matt met me at the station, and we cycled along the Aasee back to his & Tash's house. They'd baked lemon cupcakes (ohh delicious!) and I'd baked pumpkin scones and brought vegemite, so lunch was a treat. That afternoon, we all headed out to the Herbst Send (Autumn Fair)... I was wishing I'd worn my lined boots, because my feet were freezing. The weather didn't seem to dampen the kids' enthusiasm, and the bear & I had a great time on the dodgem cars (especially chasing after Matt and the monkey, in order to run into them!)... what can I say, I'm a bad influence on other people's children. I bought a sprinkle-covered toffee apple, which got eaten a couple of days later (I couldn't deal with that much sugar in one sitting), stole more than my fair share of the popcorn, and puchased a disgustingly artificial fairy floss that was nothing but disappointment. I still ate it, though, because I hate wasting food. Especially when I've paid for it. I also went on a Matterhorn-type ride, which was good fun, and got to laugh at Matt and Tash being all cute about the engraved bread boards for the kids. Seriously, cute overload. :)

So, it was nice to get back to the warm house and have a cup of tea! Dinner that night was stir-fry, cooked up by a team effort, and Matt discovered that the secret to good eggs is a sprinkle of vege stock... MSG, pure umami deliciousness. After the kids went to bed, we got to do adult things like sit around drinking wine, which is definitely up there on my list of "favourite ways to spend time". Their upstairs neighbours came around for a few drinks, which meant that the conversation switched entirely to German. I was mighty pleased that I was able to keep up with what was going on, and enjoyed listening, though at some point I got tired and probably didn't say much. All of a sudden it was 1am, and I realised that I'd been up since 6am, and that my eyes were trying to close. I slept like a coma, until the kids decided that it was time to get out of bed. I enjoyed the proximity of my mattress to the TV, and watched German cartoons with the bear without having to even get out of bed. Win.

We went down to the swimming pool (awesome Sunday routine, I approve entirely) and I got to swim some laps and enjoy being in a sub-tropical climate for a while. The pool in Muenster is nicer (and yet cheaper?!) than the pool here. No wolf whistles from the bear this time, but he did make a really loud comment about how hairy some man's "boobs" were (his choice of words! to be fair, the guy was pretty porky) and I had to try to keep a straight face, and remind him that it's not nice to comment on other people's bodies, even if they do have incredibly hairy boobs! ;)

After the pool, Matt dutifully took the kids home (Tash has clearly done a good job of the husband-training there) and she and I went for another look around the Herbst Send. I bought some sugared cashews, which were every bit as delicious and crunchy as the name implies, and some roasted chestnuts. We headed back to Fitz-house for seedy bread rolls (the best kind!) for lunch. Delicious! I could live on fresh bread, I really could. I went home in the afternoon and caught up on some sleep that night.

So, onto this week. German class every morning. Met with Manfred on Monday night, and got my job options decided. I filled out some paperwork, which I brought back on Tuesday, only to discover that I had a lot more paperwork to fill out, too. I'll have to do that this weekend. I was feeling a bit miserable all week, but am in pretty good spirits now that I'm feeling a bit better. Tuesday night I went over all the stuff that I'd gathered for Wednesday's class, and did a fair chunk of photocopying. Hopefully people actually read it so that we can have a bit more discussion next week. But the response was good, from both Manfred and the students, though I did catch myself talking a little too fast sometimes. It wasn't perfect by any means, but the last speaker of the presentation before me was absolutely dismal, which made me look pretty good by comparison. So I'm feeling better about next week. I'm going to use this weekend to write a couple of weeks worth of stuff, so that I don't have to stress about it this time. Plus now I know that the room has a LCD projector, so it's Powerpoint all the way.

Yesterday I went to bed ridiculously early, simply because I didn't have any energy. However, I didn't manage to get to sleep at all - I was just vaguing out and daydreaming, which is nice enough, except that I probably could have used the extra sleep. Steffi heard me coughing up a storm at about 11am and knocked on my door to offer me cups of tea and not-quite Vicks vapour rub. I took her up on the latter. The smell of Vicks (the brand here is Wick! hahaha!) makes me think of Poppa, because when I was a kid, he always used to have the Vicks nearby. Somehow I don't remember him smelling like that in his last few years... either he stopped using it so much, or I just grew used to the smell over the years. Either way, it helped me to breathe a little better, which is always nice.

This morning I got up early (can't screw up my routine, it's finally starting to feel normal again!) and went to the markets. Didn't buy any fruit (oranges were a bit expensive and I'm kinda sick of apples and pears after last week, haha!) except quinces, which I've simmered into soft cubes. Still undecided about what I'll make. The Quittenmus was awesome, but I feel like something with a bit more texture. Maybe quince and cinnamon muffins. Or I could just buy some natural yoghurt. Yum. Anyway, I stocked up on kale, brussels sprouts and potatoes (rare buy for me! I want to make mash, though) and a few other veg for the week. I've made a green soup (green veg) for lunch so I might eat that with some more onion baguette... which was breakfast. Tash generously donated to me half a jar of homemade harissa from a friend of theirs, because she wasn't sure if they'd use it up fast enough. I ate it slathered on bread, discovering that the best way to handle the heat was to eat it quickly, so that you only had to endure the burning sensation when you finished eating. Seriously, it was so good. I'm going to have to beg for the recipe. I could live on it.

I've rambled enough for now. Time to organise some eats, and maybe finally post a box of goodies to Kari. I finally posted Jesse's birthday present to him yesterday, so it should only be a few days late...