Rainy Weather

Thursday, February 18 I was June Cleaver. I made beds, cleaned house, and did laundry. Lenea was not feeling good, so I decided that I would take over household responsibilities for the day. So far everyone has taken turns with some kind of nasty cold. First it was Paul, then Lenea, and now Elizabeth. Somehow I have managed to go unscathed, but I have a feeling I have just jinxed myself. My next post will probably mention something about how crappy I feel. For the moment I am feeling fine. I will have to make sure I take all of my vitamins and thwart off any bad juju. Where was I? Ah yes...sorry for the rambling, but I was talking about my June Cleaver-ness. Paul had a training on our barracks where our apartment is located, so he got off of work early. He came and got me so that we could go check the mail which of course is on another barracks that is 20 minutes away. I love the army. Nothing is convenient. :) My mom sent Elizabeth and I a Valentine (I got a cute v-neck from old navy and my favorite mascara-that is the one piece of makeup I absolutely could not live without) in the cutest valentine package. It was a padded envelope that had hearts and flowers all over it. Precious I tell you. Precious. I love getting mail here! It is exhilerating to get mail overseas. I don't know why. It just is. I think mail is fun, as long as it is not attached to a bill of some sort. That kind of mail I just want to stamp "return to sender," because I certainly don't want it.

Friday I wore my new shirt :) I am a girl. I am surprised I didn't put it on immediately when I got it. Lenea and I had errands to run which were a lot easier with the car. We currently only have one car which Paul drives to work everyday. It is a '94 BMW staionwagon. It is fantastic. the right rear passenger door does not open from the inside. If you accidentally take this seat, then someone must open the door from the outside to let you out. We didn't find out about this little gem until the Howards came to pick me up from the airport. One more bonus... it doesn't have a radio. This might sound miserable at first, but it is actually quite nice. No radio means that we must actually talk. GASP. Unheard of eh? Anywho...we had the car today because Paul still had his class in our barracks. We went to the commisary to get groceries, housing to get lightbulbs for the bathroom, Bauhaus (which is like Home Depot) to get some green plants for the apartment, and a couple of other places to get out of the apartment. It was a pretty nice day minus the rain. It was the drizzly rain that you convince yourself isn't that bad because it doesn't seem like you are getting very wet until you look down and you are completely soaked. Grrr. I was having a good hair day too until the rain. I have been in search for a small compact umbrella. Something little enough to carry around with me, but kind of cute. I am in Europe. These kids are trendy. I can't seem to find an umbrella for less than 20 euro. My last umbrella was free from Home Interiors. It would shield myself and a small army from the rain. It was huge. That night we ate a family dinner and then Elizabeth and I went to the movie theater to see Dear John. The movie theater on the barracks only offers one movie a day during the week, while on Saturday and Sunday they offer two. Instead of showing previews for upcoming movies they play the National Anthem. Everyone stands and salutes our country. It is pretty cool. Reminds us of why we are here and able to have the freedom we have in the States. Putting all political mumbo jumbo aside, there are a lot of people who willingly serve our country and put up with a lot of crap to do it. These men and women deserve a littl more recognition for what they sacrifice in order to serve our country. Okay. I am off of my platform and back to the movie. Dear John was good. Typical girly romance. Love, pain, anger, and reconciliation.

Saturday it was gorgeous outside. We decided not to waste such a beautiful day since they are so few and far between. We showered, hopped on the train and headed to Heidelberg. Of course once we arrived in Heidelberg it started to rain. Whomp. Whomp. We ducked out of the rain for the first time and found a delicious Chinese restaurant. Oh my goodness it was fantastic! We knew it would be good when we looked behind the counter and saw only oriental friends working. It was legit Chinese food. Mmmm. After lunch we had to walk off the mounds of fried rice, low mein noodles, and sweet and sour chicken we ate. Of course we walked through that nasty drizzly rain again. Boo! At this point we started going in more stores simply to find shelter from the rain. We ended finding our second oasis at The Dubliner, which is an Irish Pub. I know. I am sorry. You could have figured that one out on your own :) Luckily for us there were a few soccer/football games to be seen on TV, so we had a good time. I enjoyed a nice glass of german beer and a lot of people watching. I like soccer, but sometimes people watching is a lot better. Pubs over here are a lot different. 1. Children are welcome. In America we call that redneck. In Europe this is common practice. Children run around and play while mom and dad drink. Sitting across from our table was a man holding a baby. At one point he was holding the baby's hands as the baby walked across the bar. I tried not to stare, but I think I gave myself away. 2. People bring their pets to pubs. Let me rephrase that. People bring their pets everywhere. Let me list some of the places I have seen pets where I have thought, "Hmm. That is kind of strange."
-the mall
-grocery stores
-restaurants
Those would be my top three where I could have thought of several better places to take your dog rather than bringing them there. After a little time at the pub we decided to venture out into Heidelberg some more. Then we got really cold and realized that we needed something to warm us up and keep us a little drier from the rainy drizzle. That is when we found these.

All of them are very unique, not your everyday hats. Elizabeth's hat is a pig. The shop also had monkeys, mice, and pretty much any other animal with ears. Mine is Dr. Seusical. It has a brim, which I love, but it also is very large on the back of my head. Lenea's is just Lenea. It is very simple in the style of the hat and the color, but it is very intricately woven to create some crazy designs. Paul decided he didn't need one.

Today we ate Greek. We were going to introduce some of our neighbors to Greek, but they bailed on us so we went alone. Totally okay with us because we ate Greek anyways. We are regulars now. Not a week has passed that we haven't had Greek. The restaurant is run by a woman who serves as hostess/waitress, her husband the chef, and her brother who is a waiter/bartender. We love it because it feels like they are inviting us into their home. They know what we want to drink. They know what sides we choose to go with our meal, and they always come to talk to us after our meal is over. They are great people who serve AMAZING food!