Coffee talk...

Hey all! Happy Wednesday to you! It's a late blog entry today, as it's been a busy day for me... I met up this afternoon with the wife of one of Brian's coworkers (from Detroit) who is in town for the week. We had dinner with them the other night and I told her to give me a call if she got bored this week... seeing as how I'm pretty much always around. :) So, she called and we met up at Cafe Aran, a little coffee shop downtown, where we got a bite to eat for lunch. I was quite proud of myself because I was able to remotely decipher the menu for her AND I ordered for both of us in German.... The best part was that the waitress completely understood what I ordered... Woohoo! :) Such a good feeling to be able to communicate in their native language! :)

So, anyways, we ate and then we sat and talked, and talked, and talked... for about 3 more hours! It was so nice to be able to chat with someone from the U.S... I didn't realize how much I missed being able to talk to people until today!! I know that I've been able to communicate with all of the new girls I've met here just fine, but the English that I use with them is not the same English we use in the U.S. The English I use here is more proper... I speak slower (shocking!!), and use less slang/sarcasm... and it just doesn't flow quite as well as when you talk to someone from the U.S. (And for all of you that know me, I talk fast... and to have to slow my talking speed down has taken alot of getting used to! :)) So, needless to say, I had such a nice time being able to talk to a fellow American today... I was able to talk my usual speed, use slang expressions, and even sarcasm... and it felt great! :) I may get the chance to chat with her again tomorrow as we discussed possibly taking a trip to Konstanz to do a little shopping... Fun! :)

Right after I got back to the apartment from afternoon full of "coffee talk", Brian and I got ready to go rock climbing with Maike. We went to the rock climbing gym in Ravensburg, called the Ketterhalle, and climbed for about 3 hours... Very fun! We just got back a short time ago and ate dinner... I was so excited to finally be able to eat a salad with Ranch dressing (that I've been craving for weeks! :))... yum!

Oh, in case you're wondering... I managed to get my groceries yesterday. Let's just say that I didn't exactly make the wisest choices when putting items in the cart. I got to the cashier and paid, and then I proceeded to try to pack my 3 bags full of all of the groceries I purchased... That was where it got interesting. :) It took me about 15 minutes to finally manage to get all of the groceries packed into the bags! And then I had a 25 minute walk back to the apartment, where I was constantly looking behind me to make sure that nothing was falling out of the bags...Nice! :) I must have looked real cute walking down the street with 3 bags chuck full of groceries!! Needless to say, I won't make that mistake again... I was just so excited about making my salad that I got a little carried away with all of the ingredients I purchased to put into the salad... oops! :)

With that said, I'm heading off to bed. I hope you're all having a great day! Miss you!