-I met up with my German/English tandem partner. I haven't seen her in a month so it was nice to catch up. She spoke with a mutual acquaintance from one of our groups and the other woman could tell the improvement she made in her English. It's not from talking with me, since she works very hard on her own, but I'm happy to be a positive agent in her journey. She already speaks English quite well so it's fun to work on more complicated speech constructions. We spoke some German too.
German Partnerin has served me some sambal oelek in the past. I really like it; it's a paste made from ground chilis and it tastes great on rice, noodles, etc. Normally I'm a wuss about really spicy food, but I can handle a little bit of this as garnish. I'd say it's about as spicy as hot salsa from a can in the US (i.e. Tostidos, etc.). I bought a jar last week but wasn't sure if it was the right name. I mentioned it and GP gave me a new jar of hers. It was so sweet of her.
-I had to take my car in for a repair. The shop had told me that it would be "a few hours." To me, that meant two hours and so I had told my boss that I would come in to work for a few hours. It ended up taking the whole dang day!
I took a bus back home and picked up my bike. I didn't have enough time nor was I in good enough shape after being sick so much to bike all the way to my particular work location. Instead, I biked to one of our colleagues' locations to work a bit. It wasn't the most fun bike ride ever because my bike tire was mostly flat and my air pump wasn't working correctly. I huffed and puffed on the ride, but I would like to say that it was because of the bike tire. It was nice to see our colleagues, though, and they welcomed me warmly.
I huffed and puffed my bike to the bike shop afterward. I asked the bike shop owner what was wrong with my bike pump or if I was being stupid and not using it right. The answer was actually both of those things, but he answered, "This [holding up my pump]? Sh*t. This pump is sh*t." I tried not to burst out laughing because he was blunt and to be honest, it was what I was thinking too. Keep in mind that in German, the equivalent word for sh*t means something more like the word "crap," so when Germans use the English word, they're not being as shocking as it would be to say in English. I bought a new pump from him that I hope won't be sh*t too, put more air in the tires, and was on my merry way.
I biked back to pick up my car to find out that they couldn't do all of the repairs and the one repair that they could do, fixing a burned out headlight, was $96. Egads! That was super expensive. I loaded my bike in the car (getting grease and dirt all over myself in the process) and took myself out to dinner to console myself over the expensive repair since it makes total sense to spend more money when whining about an expensive car repair. I'm just thankful that I have the money to pay for it and it's not a hardship.
I then visited my friend, who tried to fix my cell phone. His girlfriend, who's also my friend, was over too so we enjoyed chatting. J wasn't able to fix the phone, which still works, but isn't giving an optimal performance. I soon left. I was glad to get home because I was completely exhausted after biking 12 miles, working, and trying to juggle everything I had to get done that day.
-I took the placement for the non-credit university class I'll be taking. On my way to the test, I ran into two of my friends. I wasn't sure where to take the test so they walked me there and asked (in English) if that was where I was supposed to be. That cracked me up; though I can do this all on my own, I thought it was kind of them to help me out.
I wasn't sure what class to take. At the Volkshochschule, I'm taking A2.1, which I think is a bit too easy for me (not that it's bad to review and practice). I noted on the university registration form that I was interested in either A2.2 or possibly B1.1. My test results indicate that I should take B1. I hope that I'm not in over my head because I'm good at guessing on tests.
-I had a friend over for dinner. We were going to go out somewhere but she wanted some Moo-time so I cooked dinner. I also baked pumpkin bread for two parties that were coming up. I had made an additional batch of pumpkin muffins that were vegan but something went wrong on the cooking front so they were horrible and I had to throw them out. It was weird because I had made a batch the week before and they were great. I think I didn't have the oven on hot enough.
-Some Kaiserslautern friends and I went to Mannheim to celebrate Halloween with our friends there. It was fantastic! We met some new people who are interested in getting our groups together more. We went out dancing and came home around 4:30 a.m. I was sure tired the next day since I didn't really sleep, but enjoyed the time that we spent in Luisenpark.
-Saturday also was the start of a pact that one of my friends suggested and I agreed to do: we will be vegan for 40 days. Egads, that is a long time.
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