Gemütlich

The title of this post describes my life in Hall perfectly; gemütlich translates to cozy, comfortable, homey, and leisurely in English. Not having much to do besides class every morning really allows you to enjoy the little things, and take time to do things I wouldn't normally in Ann Arbor or East Lansing. For instance, on Thursday I went to the Solbad with two friends and spent over three hours just relaxing in the saltwater pools. Friday I spent the entire afternoon bowling with a group from Goethe, then this Tuesday, I'm going to a beginning ballet class with friends! Like I said, not having much to do lets me do interesting things and appreciate them more.

Bowling with three new friends from Japan,
one from Brazil, and two other Americans.

This Saturday was Nele's much anticipated 9th birthday and party. It was very similar to my birthday parties when I was younger I think, especially the part where she got extremely cranky and sassy when things weren't going her way. The absolute best part of German birthdays is all the cake though... Between yesterday and today I've had probably 10 slices, since we celebrated it with three different groups of people! Anne, my oldest host sister that lives in Bremen, came home for the weekend and Nele's Geburtstag, so it was nice to get to meet her since she only makes it home a couple times a year. She is an "art therapist" and has worked with disabled children and people in jail previously, as well as spent significant amounts of time in Mexico and Nepal. She invited me to visit her in Bremen which I can hopefully do in one of these next couple months!

Monika, Nele, Anne, Ines und Thomas at the table where we eat all of our meals.

Side note, writing on my blog is the only time I ever really write in English (besides chatting online but that hardly counts) and I keep wanting to use German words, which has to be a good sign!