Plane ticket is booked.

After our 3-0 loss to Elte on Saturday, I spent the evening recuperating on the couch switching between "Star Wars: Episode VI" and "Das Netz." It's strange that I hardly notice that almost all of the movies here are dubbed over.

Sunday afternoon was accompanied by absolutely beautiful weather, which made for a nice time as we celebrated my host cousin's 12th birthday outside. I'm going to have to take some of these cake recipes home with me.

Thankfully, it is getting warmer and staying warmer, but that might present some problems in three weeks when I head to Austria on a school ski trip in Easter Break. We may do more hiking than skiing.

"But, hey! You posted yesterday, didn't you?"

I know, I've got some catching up to do.

Last weekend was beautiful down in the Pfalz. I'll show you.

This was our hotel the first night: a recently renovated prison.

The Hambacher Schloss was the site of the beginning of German democracy. 

Our hotel on the second had a little better of a view... and bed.

 At the Technik Museum in Speyer, they had a wonderful model train section, and I caught Godzilla red handed trying to do what he does best. 

Our last stop was at the Heidelberg Schloss where we ran into several other tourists. Should have brushed up on my Japanese a little...

I wrote an essay test today.

I would go jogging in the beautiful weather this afternoon, but I'm dead tired from losing our soccer match last night.

Public Service Announcement: Fun sized Butterfingers sent by airmail are crummy. Don't worry they still taste good.

Here's a little of what my free time looks like!

Mr. John Doyel (above) looks a little boring in the photo above, but he's fairly funny and wrote the perfect book for my situation. 

My blog was indirectly called "unreliable."

Me, thinking about posting more pictures.

Here are some night shots of the Kölner Dom.

What do you want to see?

Postage

I would like to thank each and every one of those wonderful people who sent me mail in the past month, but what those people don't know is that they were unknowingly entering a contest of sorts...

Here was the winner!

A package for my birthday fillled with chocolate cake mix, noise makers, matching "Happy Birthday" napkins and paper plates, Silly String, and ballons as packaging. Oh, and Inception (which does't work in German DVD players, so we watched it on the computer).

I guess I can have a second birthday party?

Honorable mentions in this contest go to the Ferguson and Graham families with their awesome letters and drawings from even the littlest of children, and my small group from church for sending me the most amount peanut buttered items I've ever seen together in my entire life.

It wonderful to know people are still thinking about and praying for me back in Oklahoma.

Few Photos

 An evening in Münster with most of my host family and Christoph Goez,

 the German exchange student of my mom's family in the 1970s, and his wife, Ruth.

The Tannenbaum we set up on the 22nd. 

I dropped a glass ornament while we were decorating the tree,

but it didn't break.

Michael then told me that no one in the history of the Lohaus family had dropped an ornament before while decorating the tree.

A moment later Anja dropped an ornament. Her's broke. 

Unfortunately,

this part of German doesn't really have any hills were we can go sledding,

but being pulled by a car somewhat simulates the feeling 

of speeding down into the concrete bike trail 

at the intersection of Highway 169 and the Creek Turnpike. 

Especially the concrete part.

Seemingly Pointless Post

I have not been a consistent blogger by any means. 

Blaming my busyness doesn't satisfy my obligation to blog. This is where I make an analogy about my blog being a living thing, all living things need to eat to live, and if I don't "feed" my blog it's going to die.  

The consequences are drastic. 

So on this wonderful snow covered Christmas day, I will give to you, readers of my blog, a song for your listening. It's what I'm listening to while my host sisters listen to their music, my host parents take a nap, my host brother plays his Harry Potter 7 computer game, and I wait for my family back home to wake up and get on Skype.  

And the angel said to them, 

“Fear not, 

for behold, 

I bring you good news of great joy 

that will be for all the people."

-Luke 2:10-