Oh Geez.

Oh man, I really have no excuse. Let's be real, it's not like I've been busy, except I have been; it's a strange concept. I can't believe it's been over a month. Let's see, this past month we had our one year anniversary (we celebrated by going to the Black Forest for a long weekend and buying a pretty sweet cuckoo clock), FINALLY got our household goods (after they sent them to Schweinfurt by mistake) and got to spend a good amount of time at home (although it went by too fast, as it always does).

Home. Home was wonderful. As I expected I didn't get to do half the things I wanted to do or see half the people I wanted to see but it was still a wonderful 10 days. Our flight left Nuremburg at 6:30am and it had, of course, been snowing steadily, so we left our apartment around 2:30am and got to the airport at 4. Unfortunately the desks didn't open until 5 so we sat around and waited. From Nuremburg we had the pleasure of connecting via Amsterdam three days after what happened in Detroit. I have never had a full body pat down before that day. Quite the experience. We finally got back home aroudn 5pm, had a big dinner with JM's fam and my parents. The whole first week was spent celebrating various Christmases with various sides and sizes of both our families. During the day we did various things, JM went hunting and I went shopping (so cliched, I know but I was SO happy to finally know where to go shopping and have someone to go shopping with!) or we'd laze around at either house. The second week JM and I did some errands (banking, etc), and the day before we flew out we finally made it up to Madison.

It was a busy vacation and I think if we did it again we'd do it differently and maybe not have so many planned events but all in all I can't really complain. I already miss home, the culture I'm use to, and having friends nearby. I'd forgotten how nice it was to be able to go familiar places with familiar people and just enjoy yourself. It's kind of nice to not be the constant tourist and not get stared at everywhere I go.

Lots of people asked me how I was liking (or adjusting to) Germany when I was home and it really made me think. I know I haven't been here long at all but the best response I could come up with without sounding melodramatic was that I'm trying to appreciate being here knowing I'll never have this opportunity to live abroad again but that by the time our time here is up I will be more than ready to come home. Lately these days I feel like I sound blatantly patriotic but, damn, I miss America. More accurately, I miss the midwest.

Soon more jobs should open up though and then I will be more occupied. Right now we are still trying to get our apartment organized (I feel like I never, ever stop saying that) (since our stuff arrived just 6 days before we left), there are boxes everywhere and paper/mail/stuff is just piling up. And now our suitcases from our travels are half-empty, half anywhere in our closet room. But today I made a big dent in organizing and did a ton of laundry. Tomorrow will be more laundry and more organizing but hopefully that will mark the end of the big time organizing.

This weekend JM has a three-day weekend so I'll make him do some heavy lifting for me. =) I think I'm going to take my first stab at chili (as both dad's have sent me recipes) and we'll just have a cozy, calm, relaxing weekend. I'll try to update more regularly, I promise. I want to do this for me too but I also like to keep you all at home updated!

PS: Sorry for the typos, I'm not proof-reading this, it's too long, haha.