From one side of me, there's warm summer air pouring in from the open window above the trains. On the other side, I've got the smell of baking pie from the oven. How fantastic!

I know it's been ages.  Where do I start? There were exams and then there weren't any anymore. There were visits from parents, and then they were gone.  Then the semester was about to begin, and now we're two weeks in already. Kind of crazy how that happens.

First of all, I had a brilliant vacation. I exercised a ton and enjoyed every minute of it (taken to listening to audiobooks while I work out -- so far, I've re-listened to all of Philip Pullman's books, plus listened to Dune and am in the middle of Sherlock Holmes for the first time! :) ). I also watched lots of cooking shows (Chopped and Worst Cooks in America being some of my favorites - I refuse to call them guilty pleasures -- see here) and tried out several things on my own, including ravioli (yes, with the dough made by yours truly), sweet-and-sour duck breast, pie crust (this evening!), fantastic steak marinade, and my own salad dressing.  It's been loads of fun. I saw several people including my parents and my dear friend Erin - she and I had the best sushi I've had in at least a year in a fabulous place in Cologne - if you're going to the city, let me know. I'll hook you up with the restaurant's address and a recommendation.

Now the semester has begun and it is shaping up to be much more chill than the last. I mean that. :)  I only have ONE math course this semester (Linear Algebra II) and two German-As-A-Foreign-Language classes - one in Intercultural Communication, the other in Phonetics of German.  The professor in those two classes is the same and is a lot of fun. I actually find my math professor quite charming as well, which not all of my fellow students can understand. :)

The pie needs to come out of the oven soon, so I'd better go.  I'll try to check in again soon.  Enjoy the warm weather, for those of you who have it!