Saturday, November 10, 2007

First Snow


Hi all,

As I lazily rolled out of bed today and wandered into the kitchen, I was struck by a beautiful sight - large, globular snow "flakes" plummeting to earth to melt on the cobblestones. I'm the large tree in our courtyard would be considered a majestic sight - if only it hadn't just been cruelly hacked to a nubbin the day before yesterday. As it was, I decided to make the best of the situation and do some laundry.

Laundry is always a fun affair. I get my clothes together, grab coins and my keys and amble down the 3 flights of stairs in the hope that no one else is using the machine. (Yes, Singular THE machine). It's always fun because they are constantly tour groups passing through and hearing a talk about our building and so either I get to hear about the college students living in the dorm ("cheaply" - ha!...) and sometimes get accosted by curious bystanders in rapid German. Anyhow, maybe it's the Walker tourism resentment buried deep inside, or perhaps it's just boredom, but today I decided to make it worth my while - in honor of the beautiful snow. I figured if I was going to be gawked at, I might as well be worth looking at. So I wore my flipflops down (this may not seem too bold, but they don't wear flipflops outside here even when it's hot - a complete fashion taboo apparently...). I know, I know...I'm such a rebel....

Last night was Sara's birthday and so I spent a good part of the day working on my present to her - a couple of delicious cakes for her party. Thanks to baking soda, all went smoothly and got rave reviews. It was a pretty low-key event. We went out to dinner at an Italian/Mexican restaurant, which had pretty good food. Susanna (from Augustana...small world) ordered Fajitas and they came with corn and kidney beans (but no meat...) - so I can't really attest to the authenticity of the food...Later we came back to the dorm in our "party room" and had cake and gluehwein ("glow wine") which is simply a spiced, heated wine that is very popular around the holidays. There was a huge group of people that showed up (hence the pic) and I think everyone had a good time.

For my theater class this week we had to sign up for what roles we'd like in the play "Das Ehe des Herrn Mississippi" (The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi). There's only one strong female lead and 3 strong male leads. Right now my German is really not up to it, so I signed up for building sets and maybe learning how to work lights and sound. There will be more opportunities next semester so I'm not concerned.

Anyhow, nothing too exciting going on in my world and I should probably go and amuse the tourists again by fetching my laundry in my flipflops...
Hope all is well...
Steph

2 comments:

Lois Templin said...

Hi steph:
You can send a reply to ltemplin@arvig.net and I will forward it to mom. We are getting snow here, too!
Lois

Anonymous said...

Hi Steph - I wrote a note on a different dated blog (the one about cattle wrangling) and I don't know if you'd see it when you go to blog or not...or do you get a notification that someone commented? Sounds like you're having a good time, and quite a learning experience. Good for you! Leanne