Work, Learning, Friends, Health

Well, since I obviously can't update you on everything that has happened since I last posted a serious blog, here are some highlights:

I've been getting up at 5 each morning to slave away in my room, using the idea of writing essays writing essays from the start while on vacation as motivation. No, I didn't leave the apartment, yes, I had the heat cranked up (not that it turns on until 7:06 AM each morning), and yes, I smelled bad after a few days. PLEASE, I need feedback. If anyone is willing, let me know, and I'll send you what I have. I've asked several people, but no one has gotten back to me yet.

I've been offered a teaching assistantship! Yes, I will be getting paid, no, I won't be allowed to work very much because students are limited to a certain amount of money per month, yes, the contract is complicated because they post-dated my other job (I can either not get paid for the last three months of work, or I can not be considered a student anymore according to hours being worked and I will have to pay a fine each month), and yes, the subject freaks me out (who knows why they picked me for this?). I will be teaching Society, History, and Politics I.

I got freaked out by a giant spider which proceeded to look alive even though I had smashed it twice. It never wiggled to death, its legs just let go of the wall, one by one, after a few hours. (Then I threw him out the window.) Now you can see what they look like in Germany. (Not as freaky as big hairy brown ones or the yellow ones with googly eyes or the quicky, black ones.)












I went to get some feedback from my professor on one of my finished, 15-page essays and was told that I was "ready to start." AHHH! I have started, but will I finish? It looks like the first one and a half days in Utah are going to be a race . . .

I can now say I've eaten glass. Story to follow.

Jule and Philipp enjoyed family home videos with me (which inspired them to buy their own video camera), while I enjoyed eating their food and playing with their kids and working on my essays somewhere other than my desk.






Jule and Philipp have taught me so much. Philipp is a profy cook. Yesterday he showed me how to massage paprika into pork skin. He was wearing a Ben Harper t-shirt, but he didn't know who Ben Harper was, so I had to play some Ben Harper and "Walk Away" is my new favorite song. Jule taught me how to make people think that you're breaking your nose. Philipp tried, but you can't be good at everything.







I played the best game of football yet. Holy cow, it was good. We played so hard we were all huffing and puffing. And, my team won, so that's always good.

My toe gets swollen and sore every other day or so. It is getting uglier and uglier and it looks like it's growing a new nail. Again. I wonder if I should be bragging to Half-Fast that I have lost my toenail because of jogging. It probably doesn't help, anyway. Mike helped me figure out how to get travel insurance in case I have to get my toe operated on in America. Since it's a pre-existing condition, there may be issues there . . .

No, I have not planned the trip. I don't even know where our hostel is or how to get to it. No time.

I've made corn bread three times, once kind of flat (I didn't have an egg). I whipped up some random food that turned out really good. It was kind of like tuna on toast (but I didn't have toast). I made a really flour-y white sauce with water (I didn't have enough milk), with tuna, corn, pickles, chopped up garlic, and salt (I didn't have any pepper). I substituted rice for the toast and voila!














My throat has been hurting me, but not as bad since the elders gave me a blessing that was beautiful and really helped me through this week.

I've had to write two practice chapters for work and edit several of them according to new guidelines.

Here's the link for my NPR debut: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19120213