Alles Gut Zum Geburtstag !!!

Thursday I didn't have my German course and ran some errands.  I went to the Dr. and had my yearly checkup (so much fun-not)  I had a very long relaxing bath.  Afterwards I met Robert for some Falafel.  He ate a Döner and then most of my Falafel because it was HUGE!!!  Afterwards Robert and I went to the Ice Cream shop and got some delicious ice cream.  I had Nougat flavor.  It was the first time I have had this and it was terrific!  Once we finished spending an hour and a half together I did some shopping and looking around for fun!  I looked around a cosmetic center and perfumery for quite a long time!  It was a lot of fun.
      Friday I had my German course which was incredibly hard.  We are learning about the second present perfect which is a little confusing.  Once my course was finished Robert and I went to Lidl and picked up some groceries.  Once we finished buying groceries we looked around the city for some cards for his sister and mom.  His mom's birthday is the 27th of February and his sister's is the 28th of February.  Afterwards Robert came home with me.  He always leaves work around noon on Fridays.  It is his one day that he comes home early.  We both had pumpernickel sandwiches for lunch with soup. In the evening Robert made the fantastic onions, potatoes, and sausage that he made last week!  In the evening I watched the documentary called 'No Impact Man.'  It's about a man and his family living and making no environmental impact what so ever.  VERY interesting and cool documentary.  I recommend it if you are trying to pass some time!
      Saturday Robert had an away handball game and it was Robert's mom's birthday.  She asked if I could come in the afternoon and spend it with her and the family before all of her guests came and such. So, around noon Robert and I arrived there from the train.  Robert's sister, her husband, their two kids, his mom, and dad were all there.  His mom made some noodles for lunch and so we ate lunch together before Robert had to leave for his game.  Once Robert left I took a long bath and slipped into a dress my mom gave me for Christmas 2008.  I wore it in past blog photos.  It's a grey dress I wore with fuscha  tights.  I wore it with black wool tights this evening.  It looks more chic and sleek.  Between 6pm and 730 the guests arrived.  There were about 25 people total and she made some food as well as had a caterer come!  The food was AMAZING!!!  We ate and drank wine and champagne together.  Her friends were amazing and I really really enjoyed myself as well as them.  This was the first time I had met everyone.  Robert's grandparents from his father were there too and this was the first time I had met them.  They were adorable and I had a lengthy conversation with his grandfather about living in Poland and what his past jobs were like..etc.  Around 11pm Robert arrived from his game which he won!  So, he was in a really good mood.  He would have been anyway because it were two special ladies' birthdays!  Midnight came and we all celebrated his sister's birthday!  Around 1am Robert and I went to sleep.  I was incredibly exhausted from the day and needed to lay down.  I think he could have stayed awake longer with everyone else, but I couldn't do it anymore this evening.  I brought my camera and am incredibly regretful that I didn't take any pictures.
      Sunday I woke up to two children touching my back and asking me to come downstairs and please play with them.  Eventually I gave in and went downstairs around 1030am to play some board games with the two of them.  Once Robert's sister's family left to head back to Berlin Robert and his dad went outside and spend about an hour together while Robert's mom and I stayed inside while drinking coffee and having a very very good conversation.  This conversation moved from the wintergarden into the kitchen where she began making lunch.  After some time Robert's parents, Robert, and I ate lunch together in the wintergarden.  After lunch Robert and I went upstairs to lay down and watch a movie.  We watched Shrek 3rd which shocked me because Robert is not a fan of movies of that sort.  We fell asleep almost immediately!!!  So, we weren't able to watch so much of it.  We woke up around 330 pm which is when I had a bath and then Robert's mom had to drive us into town to catch the train back to Halle.  From the train station our friend Kuhni picked us up and dropped me off at home.  Robert is now at his manager's house like every Sunday evening watching a Soccer match and then will follow it with the Hockey game of America vs. Canada!!

Sorry this entry is so vague but I have SO MUCH German homework to catch up on.  The weekend was very busy and I did not have time for my homework!  I must get to it and promise for the next entry to have PICTURES!

I hope your weekends were lovely!

Put it on Repeat

Let me start this post off by saying how in the WORLD does a flat get messy so quickly! Lately I have been realizing that I am getting a little bit sloppy with putting my clothes in the strangest places! Next to the toilet, under the table, behind the couch. I need to work on this. It makes for too much cleaning up. Everything has it's place and as soon as one is finished with something it should be returned to that place.
Monday morning I spent the afternoon cleaning the flat again. We seriously cleaned the flat SO good Saturday and so I have no idea how it became messy so quickly. Terrible terrible thing. Once I finished cleaning I made myself some curried rice which turned out fabulous! Around 3 O'clock I walked to the book store which is about a two minute walk from the flat. I browsed through many books and thoroughly enjoyed myself. They have SUCH great cookbooks in the bookstore. I really love German cooking and would really love to learn more of it especially because Robert's mom cooks completely traditional German Meals almost everytime she is cooking. I would like to give Robert this luxury even though he is with an American girl. That and like I said, I love German food as well. Robert left for practice almost straight away when he came home from work. While he was gone I worked on some music. For dinner Robert ordered my favorite Sushi and Wanton Soup! YUM! I haven't had Sushi in quite a while and I had been talking about how I really missed a good sushi roll! I had California Maki and it tasted fantastic as always. The soup was superb as well. As I said, it's my favorite. We watched Who Wants to be a Millionaire. We like this show and have been watching it a bit lately!

      

Tuesday I spent a bit of time walking around Halle.  I went to Rossmann,DM where I played with some perfumes and makeup, the bookstore, bought some brötchen, and looked around a home/craft store; the one that is like hobbylobby.  LOVE that store!  Robert gave me 20€ in case I wanted to buy something.  I only ended up buying a brow pencil, brow comb, and picked up a German wellness magazine.  I think it is a good to begin reading german magazines about makeup and wellness.  It's something I am interested in.  And a magazine seems easier to read and translate than an entire book.  I even got a free sample of sensitive face cream inside!  The DM offers this magazine for free.  It's great! I arrived home and made some Chili noodles.  They were ok, I am not sure I would make them again.

Wednesday Robert and I were going to get Ice Cream after my German course but we didn't because Robert stayed home from work and wasn't up to going and getting ice cream.  I spent the whole afternoon and evening writing and producing a song about falling in and out of love with someone, finding out they are not the right person and then finding the right person for you.  I honestly think it one of my favorite songs I have ever written.  A lot was put into this one.  

I hope you are all staying busy, being creative with your hands or minds, and finding happiness everywhere :)

A-P-P-L-E .... Apple. (watch di vinci code...you will understand!

Thursday I had a little bit of a hard time getting up for my German course.  I felt extra tired!  My course went really well though.  We had an important lesson and so it was nice to be there!  There are some mornings where I really don't feel like going and I always go (of course) and in the end am very happy that I went.  I was actually upset that we didn't have any homework this evening because we ended course with taking an exam.  We are moving onto a new chapter tomorrow and so there is no homework this evening.  I think it is the first evening we haven't had any new homework!  Also, we have 4 new students in our course.  Sadly, only one of them seems slightly interesting.  We will see though!  After my course I came home and had lunch, spoke with my mom for a bit and then took a nap until Robert came home and woke me up ! (17:30) We spent some time together and then he left for practice.  While Robert was gone I took an hour long bath, looked through some notes from the days lesson and then cleaned the kitchen up a bit.  For Dinner I made a stir fry with chicken and various veggies in rice along with Red Cabbage as a side.
      Friday German course was incredibly good.  We had a pretty big homework assignment of writing a fairly long story about a few embarrassing experiences we have had.   I had a pretty fun time with this.  It took a bit of time but was well worth it and I learned some new vocabulary on the way!  After my course Robert picked me up from my course and we went to the Gourmet Soup Cafe and ate my favorite Soljanka soup!  I feel like we haven't been there in forever!  Once we finished our soup, Robert and I went to Netto for some grocery shopping.  Afterwards Robert and I spent 3 hours thoroughly cleaning.  While Robert was gone to Handball Practice I made some noodles with sauteed sausage, onions, red peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms.  I then made an alfredo sauce and put some various spices atop.  It was incredibly good.
      Saturday was a relaxing day in the afternoon.  In the morning I walked to the Bäkerei and picked up some brötchen for Saturday's breakfast as well as Sundays.  I did this because nothing is open on Sunday's and so we wouldn't have any brötchen Sunday morning if I don't pick some up on Saturday.  After breakfast I took a bath for almost two hours and watched the movie 'Fantastic Mr. Fox!' it was a really great movie and I definitely recommend it.
Check out the trailer if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2igjYFojUo
I will not say too much about it because I don't want to give anything away in case you plan on watching it.  It was great though.  I was entertained the entire time!  Afterwards I went through some of my makeup and read a bit.

In the evening Robert had a handball game which they lost :(  He was pretty upset about it.  Around midnight Robert and I walked over to our friend Axels house where Axel was, Steffen, Kuhni, Leo, and yes, another Leo.   I was the only girl.  But that was ok because I already know these guys and I did not have a problem with it at all.  We left Axel's house around 2:45am and walked to Flower Power which is like the WORST place ever in Halle.  We only went there because  a friend of ours named Robert works there and we can get free drinks.  This wasn't worth it because I did not want or have anything to drink and Robert had one drink.  The other guys had a bit more.  We only stayed until 4:30 and went home because the music was so terrible and it was just a bad choice.

Sunday I woke up and looked out the window to see this!  It was great to wake up to beautiful snowflakes falling from the sky.  You cannot see it in the picture so well but the flakes are quite large and really gorgeous looking.  I always feel really happy to see it snowing.  Something about it is so fascinating and breathtaking for me.  In the morning Robert went to his Parent's house.  Last night they arrived home from Africa on Holidays.  I didn't go with because I was having a sore stomach and wanted to relax in bed.  He left around 10am which is TOO early for me!  His mom bought me some ADORABLE pot holders from africa with lions, Elk, Zebra, and Elephant on it.  AWESOME!  Around 1 O'clock Robert arrived home from his parent's house and we took a nap.  We slept until almost 5pm.  Afterwards we were both hungry and so Robert made us Rice.  Afterwards we watched the movie The Da Vinci Code.  Oh my god, great movie.  Keeps you thinking and me talking about what I think is going to happen.  It reminded me of what my mom always does while watching movies.  And I always said to her,  ''Mom, just watch the movie.''  But now, here I am doing the same thing !!! For dinner Robert made some Couscous with eggs, sausage, onions, peppers and tomato, it tasted so so good!  For a snack Robert had Caramel Apple Cheesecake bars and some Caramel Ice Cream.  I ate a plain joghurt with some Honey Knusper.  My Favorite!

Relaxing on a Sunday is always the best thing :)

Monday it was good to be back at my German course after not having gone for some days.  We have two different teachers: Betina (26 yrs) who teaches on Friday and Monday and Frau Lenka (56  yrs) who teaches Tuesday-Thurs.  Betina was teaching Monday and that was nice I really like her. She teaches really well and really plunges us into grammar which I love! Afterwards I came home and worked on my german and spent the rest of my evening producing music.  This is becoming something I am doing on a regular basis and I am falling in Love with it.  You would never believe how much goes into writing and producing a single song.  I would have never believed it until I have done it myself.  The final product is amazing though and so well worth it!

After my German course on Tuesday I walked around the city for a little bit.  The weather was FREEZING but I didn't feel like staying inside the flat just yet. And so I walked around and ended up in the book store once again.  There are so many amazing books that I wish I had all of the time in the world to spend reading and learning from them!  Afterwards I went to the bäkerei and bought some brötchen.  Once I arrived home I played on the guitar for a while and worked on some lyrics for some songs I am writing.  Afterwards I folded the laundry that was hanging and washed/hung to dry two more loads of laundry.  Once Robert arrived home we laid together for a while and talked for an two hours or so about random things.  Afterwards Robert made Dinner for us.  He didn't go to handball practice because he is still feeling sick.  He made an amazing dinner though!!  A traditional German one!  First me peeled and sliced some potatoes and then put them straight in a saucer with a little bit of olive oil.  Then he added some strange spices such as nutmeg (to POTATOES!) mustard, onions..etc.  I cannot give everything away as it is top secret.  He had actually never made them before but had seen his mom make them and he said they are one of his favorite.  I was incredibly skeptical after seeing the nutmeg put into the saucer.  Along with the potatoes he made some little sausages with onions and random spices inside as well.  On the side were more sauteed onions.  Let me just tell you...the potatoes were AMAZING.  They were so good and reminded me of something my dad would cook.  Made me feel like I was back at my parent's house some minutes.  So so so good. Afterwards it was 11pm and we knew we had to get up at 7:45 so we better lay in bed.  We both read for a while and then drifted to sleep!

      Wednesday German course was a bit hard.  I am struggling a little bit, but it is nothing I cannot handle.  When I arrived home I worked on my German homework straightaway and followed it with little sausages for lunch with mustard.  Afterwards I spent more time working on a new song I am writing.  I was creating the piano for it and have moved onto lyrics and such. Afterwards I met Robert at the Ice Cream at the Italian Ice Cream Cafe.  Afterwards we came home and relaxed together before he had to leave for Practice.  While he was gone I took a really long bath and continued to work on the same painting I was working on Last week.  Robert arrived home around 10pm when we ate brötchen with a huge variety of cold cuts, sauces, marmalades, and spreads.  We had planned on having chicken and Rice for dinner, but we are not so hungry for that this evening and so we had 'Abendbröt' (what you would call this meal in Germany) It's something we love and haven't had it in the evening for a while so it was a good change of pace. 

(by the way, this is what I wore Monday and Today-Wednesday!) Let me know if you think that is a fun idea.  Taking a photo of random outfits of the day!

Ich gehöre hier hin

Thursday I made some incredibly yummy Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars! They are incredibly tasty and are perfect with a scoop of ice cream!  I went for two long walks; one in the afternoon and one in the evening (around 5:30pm)  The first walk I simply wandered around listening to the people speaking, laughing, looking, etc.  And the second one I walked around with my headphones and just listened to my thoughts.  I ended up venturing into the bookstore and looking through a couple of books and then went to Rossmann and bought a new lipliner which is a shade darker than my lips (just what i was looking for!)  When I arrived home Robert had arrived about 20 minutes before me.  He was wondering where I was and apparently called me a couple of times.  Whoops.  We watched the simpsons together and then he had to leave for practice.  But because he wasn't feeling so well he only went to see the film that they watch before every match of the team they will be playing.  While he was gone I prepared dinner.  I made some cubed and sauteed potatoes with oregano, paprika, and a little salt and pepper to taste and some steak.  After we ate dinner I gave him a massage because his muscles are hurting really bad lately from practice and he is starting to feel really sick with a terrible cold.  We watched a documentary on freemasons afterwards and then fell asleep.  I cannot remember the last time that we went to sleep so early!  I would say that we fell asleep around 10:20 or so!  This is really early for us to be laying in bed and relaxing.  But I can understand this because Robert had to work from 8am - 6pm.  this is one of the longest days he has worked in a very very long time.
     Friday I decided to catch up on my book because I feel as though I have been slacking on it lately.  In the afternoon I spent a bit of time working on a painting I started Thursday evening.  Afterwards I took a bath and while in the bath I realized that the bathroom hasn't been cleaned in a week and so it needed to be done.  Thus, I cleaned the bathroom thoroughly afterwards! I spent hours completing our chapter in German so that I don't have to work on it over the weekend - this took too long.

      Saturday Robert was still feeling sick and so we relaxed the whole day because a friend of ours had a birthday party that evening and rented out a floor in the Palette (a place for dancing, hanging out, a bar, etc) and so we wanted to be in top condition to enjoy ourselves.  The birthday party was really fun!! We left a little before midnight and arrived home shortly after 5am!

      Sunday was valentines day. For Valentines day, Robert bought me a beautiful white Orchid and  we spent the whole day together  and made spaghetti together around 9pm and watched the movie The Beach afterwards!  Terrific terrific movie if I must say.  I know this has been Daniel's favorite for a while.  I am not sure if it is still his number one, but he was the reason I first saw the movie.  And for Daniel (being the critic he is) to say the beach is his favorite movie MUST make it a must-see!  And it is JUST that!

  

blish blam bloo

Monday I spent a lot of time studying German, reading, and yes you guessed it: CLEANING!  Afterwards I watched the movie 'Up in The Air.'  Which was pretty good.  I enjoyed the message behind it and the acting was enjoyable as well!  For lunch I ate the other half of my ice cream which was very tasty!  I am happy I refrained myself from eating all of mine Sunday and saved the other half for lunch!  
      Tuesday Robert and I went to the salon where I got my hair re-coloured and trimmed. He got his hair cut as well.  I feel a lot better having the roots touched up as they were incredibly outgrown.  When Robert and I returned home we made some coffee (from our lovely new coffee machine) and relaxed in the living room and caught each other up on our mornings.  Robert also told me that we are going to this place next Sunday !!!! http://www.mayamare.de/Sauna/Willkommen/  How exciting will that be !!! I have never been to such a nice spa and such.  It will be incredibly relaxing and nice.  Oh how this boy spoils me :)  So, I will definitely look forward to Sunday!

      And today is Wednesday.  Today the day went really fast.  After German class I felt really sick with a stomach ache and so Robert wanted to come home from work and snuggle with me for a bit because he was feeling bad I wasn't feeling well and wanted to 'take care of me,' as he said.  In the evening after my stomach started to relax Robert and I went grocery shopping together and bought a lot of food.  It’s always really nice having a full refrigerator!  We bought cereal this time and that is something we have not bought since October!   And we also bought my favvvooorite joghurt with knusper inside.  It’s like a  really crunchy granola-ish type of thing.  Sooo tastey!  It is definitely one of my favorite things to have for breakfast or a tasty dessert! Once we arrived home from the store Robert snacked on some ice cream while I ate a carrot.  I finished up some Laundry and cleaned the kitchen up a bit while Robert played a videogame on the computer ;)  Around 7pm Robert had to leave for Handball Practice.  While Robert is away I will make Chicken with Curried Rice for dinner.  These first three days of the week have been incredibly exhausting and I look forward to tonight's sleep.

yummy in my tummy :)

PHOTOSHOOT!!! WOOT WOOT

Thursday I spent the entire morning from 9am until 4:30pm cleaning the entire flat. I cleaned every single room except for the kitchen.  Robert has a HUUUUUGEEE wardrobe and has more clothes than most girls I know.  The shelves have not been dusted or washed in what looks to be since he moved in.  I dusted and washed them, re-folded all of the laundry and re-organized everything to make it more tidy.  I washed the bedding and put new bedding on the bed, re-organized our shelf set in the living room and put new items in and atop the case.  I am not sure whether or not it looks too crowded.  What do you think?  Afterwards I re-arranged the couch and chair situation as well and put some knick-knacks away that were around the television.  In the bathroom I put everything we use into a huge floral hamper type of box with different tupperware inside to help organize.  Now we do not have items cluttering the bathtub, sink, and ledge by the window.  The bathroom is small enough as it is and we do not need everything cluttering the room.  It makes me feel stressed to have too much clutter!!!  The only room that I did NOT clean is the kitchen.  This is weird because it is usually the first room I begin cleaning as it ALWAYS needs to be cleaned.  I will clean it up a bit tonight.  I am waiting to clean it thoroughly until tomorrow when I buy some organization items in the City for the kitchen! 
      Don't worry!!! I relaxed as well and had a nice bath midday and sat down for lunch.  Once again I had the soup Robert's mom sent home with us on Sunday afternoon.  This is the fourth day in a row I have eaten it for lunch! 
In the evening while Robert was at practice I needed to catch up on my book, so I read that a fair bit.  For dinner Robert and I had Potatoes and Spinach.

     Friday I went into the city to Edeka and picked up a couple grocery items we were out of.  I spent around 15€ this week because we spent so much last week and we have to make sure to hit our goal of 100€ or under a month.  Afterwards I went to the post office and picked up the third book to the series that I am reading.  I guess they came to drop it off on monday of last week and no one was home and so now I have to go pick it up.  Its about a 15 minute walk from the house.  AFTERWARDS I went to a store which I cannot explain what it is even ABOUT because I have no idea.  I would say it has household items as well as some crafty things as well.  Possibly 1/5 the size of a hobby lobby.  Maybe it was that kind of store...I am not sure how to explain it, haha !  I picked up some helpful organization items as I said I would yesterday.  Once I got home, I went straight to the kitchen, put the groceries away, and oooorganized!! Woot Woot!  In the evening Robert had a handball game which was away and so I spent the majority of the evening reading my book.  AND GUESS WHAT !!?  I FINISHED IT!  Two exciting things in one day man! Getting organized and finishing my book!  How cool is that ?! Now I can get started on the next book called Eldest!  Cannot WAIT!
      Around 9pm Saturday evening Robert and I went out with friends to a lounge/restaurant/bar.  Its a really cozy relaxing slightly more upper place.  There were five girls and six boys!  We all sat at the same table (obviously)  and spoke German the entire time (I included of course) and it was just amazing.  I really shocked myself as well as our friends with my German!  We stayed at the place until 1am and then ventured out into the cold!
     Sunday Robert and I watched a film called 'Projekt Gold'  It was a documentary following Germany's handball team the year that they won the World Championships.  (2 years ago) Believe it or not it was a terrific film and I really enjoyed watching it.  We finished the movie around 3pm and then I told Robert I really wanted some ice cream from the fancy italian ice cream shop where we have purchased Ice Cream before, so he ran to the Italian Ice Cream shop and bought us each a small serving of ice cream!  I had chocolate, hazlenut, and then some weird flavor he surprised me with containing raisins ?? Strange, but very very good.  Afterwards I spent the entire evening reading from my book.  I am really enjoying it and look forward to finish the series.  I am in no real rush though because I enjoy enjoying the series!


I am feeling like these blogs are incredibly repetitive.  Let me know if you would rather I write when I have a random highlight or bake something, etc.  Or do you LIKE this repetition of 2 blogs a week?  Let me know what you think.

I find myself divine, and no I am not a megalomaniac

German course was good today.  I was given a new seat next to a 17 year old Girl coming from Cuba named Lizabeth.  I am very happy with my new seating arrangment as before I was sitting next to Andrej who was too talkative and taught me the wrong things.  This is why my teacher moved me.  He was messing up my grammar and was too talkative.  While walking to and from my course, the weather was bearable this morning.  Lately it has been incredibly cold to the point where my lungs begin to hurt.  It could be the altitude as well.  I am not sure.  

Robert suprised me outside of my German course this Monday morning.  He hurried to finish his work this morning so that he could leave work early.  He did this because he said he missed me too much!  We came home and ate lunch together.  I wasn't so hungry and so I ate a Joghurt for lunch and Robert had some rice with fish and asparagus.   Afterwards we moved Robert's desk from his bedroom into the living room so that we can share it.  It isn't very personalized yet, but worry not...customization is my middle name :)  Afterwards I made these Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies from the Martha Stewart website!  They were WONDERFUL!

Tuesday Robert took the cookies I made Monday evening to work with him and shared them with his co-workers.  Some of them think peanut butter is incredibly awkward tasting, but the majority loved them!!! Robert ate most of them himself as the batch made A TON of cookies!  In the evening Robert and I watched Flight Plan with Jodi Foster.  It was incredibly suspenseful, but very good as well.  I would watch it again.  Robert and I spoke German the whole evening!

     And today, Robert met me after my German course once again.  We bought some brötchen for the afternoon and tomorrow morning (we like to keep it fresh and buy it daily)  Afterwards we came home and ate some soup with brötchen.  We followed this by relaxing in bed with a book.  I am almost to page 500 of my book and hope to finish it by the weekend!  Around 5pm Robert had to leave because he has a handball cup this evening in another city.  Throughout the rest of the evening I will study and do some German for my course, possibly watch Road to Perdition or Harry Potter, and READ!!!

What will YOU do to relax this evening ?!