Hello, again. It's been a while.

In the time that I haven't been writing, I've been getting to know the bus and train system here in Mainz, been running to and from the store, been spending HOURS in Ikea, a few hours in transit to and from Ikea, and then several, several hours putting together the things we BOUGHT at Ikea. I'm now very familiar with all the wooden bits and wonky screws that come in those plastic bags. I've also learned how to iron wax out of a new placemat (from Ikea). :)

I've also been marveling at the uncanny nature of dishes to get dirty time after time, and been pleasantly surprised at the ability of a cup of tea to get rid of almost any bad mood I'm in. I've helped to hang up curtains, gone to the bank, and talked to my family in the past week. There's been plenty to do, and there's still plenty more.

I chose to upload the picture that you see above because it represents the two main things that are going on right now. In my one hand, you can see my keys to this apartment along with the adorable little sheep charm (bought that today!) that I've hung on it, and the keys represent all the things that are still in the works that have to do with the apartment right now. In my other hand, I hold a deck of Sopio cards (if you don't know what Sopio is, go check out the channel called 'nerimon' on YouTube. ;-) ) which was a fabulous gift from my friend Erin, whom Claudia and I will be visiting next week. This deck of cards represents all the things that are going on in life right now or will be going on soon that have more to do with me and the fun plans that are ahead -- less to do with wonky screws and flimsy Ikea lamps that leave sawdust all over the living room floor.

So, on the keychain und so weiter front (I can't help but think in German part of the time these days, so bear with me), things are looking rather okay. We've put together two lamps, one and a half bedside tables, a small table to go in front of the couch we don't have yet, and one very lovely office filing cabinet thingie. Still left to go is the other half of the second bedside table and (gaaah!) the ginormous dresser. We'll see how that goes. Also, in a lovely twist of fate, on the way out the door this morning to hop on a bus (reluctantly) and go buy a >200€ washing machine, we saw a sign on the door of one of the other apartments in this building that the person living there was moving out and couldn't take her washing machine with her, though it worked quite well, and she wanted to sell it for 60€. We called her and met with her this evening, and it all looks pretty fantastic, except that we will have to carry it up the last five flights of stairs, but I'm sure we'll manage somehow.

The downside to this meeting with our fellow apartment dweller was that she told us about some rather unsavory characteristics about our landlord that one would only come to know when one was about to move out of this building. We'd heard a few reports like this before, but they came from a person we've deemed "The Crazy Lady" who lives below us, so, as you can imagine, we didn't take them too seriously. However, now we're reconsidering, and I don't want to go into detail here, but we have a plan and I'm confident that it will all work out well, although the news did put a damper on our evening for a while.

Now, on the other hand (literally - like in the picture! :D), there's some fantastic stuff going on. We're going to see Erin in Scotland next week!!!! I have never been to Scotland, and neither has Claudia, and I haven't seen Erin since May, which is FAR to long to be without her witty, charming, intelligent and tea-loving presence! I'm THRILLED to be getting to go see her, and to get to see Scotland and be overwhelmed in lots of fun accents. I may have to put a leash on Claudia to stop her from running off with a Scotsman, but - eh. What can I say? I'm pretty sure she'll stay. ;-)

The other exciting things are 1) We found a really charming, pleasant pub the other night called 'Nirgendwo', the German word for 'Nowhere', which seems to be a brilliant name for a pub, and I'm quite excited to go there again sometime! 2) After the trip to Scotland, my first week with all the other Middlebury students will begin, and it's a week full of 'Cultural Activities' among more academic things, and I think it'll be good fun! And finally 3) I'm making a video! I am in the editing process right now, and it will be up soon - I think it'll be a great way for you all to see some of the area around my apartment, in the city a little, and - yeah. Just to hear some of my thoughts. A great opportunity for me to practice my video editing skills as well, and I hope you all like it!

(If you think this Erin person sounds intriguing ((which you should!)), go check out her youtube channel! Here!)