Short and Sweet

Hello my great canadians! I think of you often as I try and keep updated with the Olympics, however I have not watched much of the games as I do have to sleep while most of Canada is watching hockey games and snowboard tricks!
Life in Thomoshof is going well, the weather is getting nicer and all our snow is gone. It gets a little lonely at times as there are very few people who speak proper english, which in turn makes me homesick. But I do start a german course in about a week and a half, so I am hoping to meet some other english speaking foriengers there!
I wish I had more to tell you but life is pretty routien here and I have only been here 3 weeks so nothing too exciting has happened! I did make canadian pancakes for my roommates the other day which they all seemed to enjoy and yesturday I went to visit Ruth, a committee member from Intermenno, and her family and that was great fun. Ruth has two horses that I will be allowed to ride when the weather is a bit nicer and the ground in the stalls has dried (right now the horses are covered in mud cause it has been rainy!).

Anyway thats all for now! I hope all is well back home!
Today: sleep in, movie, work

The picture is of my new bedroom, however this picture was taken when it was actually clean! hahah :)

new year, new town, new job

Hello all!
I am writing this time from Thomashof. This is a VERY small town close to a town called Karlsruhe near by the french border.
On Monday all the other trainees left from the conference center to go to their respective placements where as I stayed here to unpack and settle in. After unpacking and setting up my room I met some of my other roomates and found out my work schedual and other things of that nature. I learned that when working in the kitchen there are two different shifts one can have, "fruh" or "spater", early or late. The early shift starts at 7 which means you are up at around 6:30 and the late shift starts at 12. Each shift is 8 hours with breaks for meals. For my first shift on Monday I had an early shift. After waking up at 6:30 and making it downstairs half asleep I was told by my boss that I cant wear any jewlery in the kitchen, i.e. nose peicings or ear peircings. For those of you who dont know me at all, I have had a nose peircing for 2 years (that I love) and therefore this news was not fun to recieve (at all!). Anyway, the shift was fine and I am slowly finding my way around more with every shift. Although another change (on top of no peircings) from my other job is that 99% of things here are in german. At my other placement I had spoken both in German and in English where as at my new job mostly everything is in German. This is great practise for my german however my german is not yet good enough so follow the lunch and dinner confersation is a tad confusing, also when someone asks me a questions or I am asked to do something in the kitchen I have to ask a few times for them to repeat themselves.
As for my house/apartement. I live with 5 other people in a staff apartment above the conference center. There are 2 girls (plus me) and the 3 guys. All but me and Tobias are from south america and Tobias is from Germany. Tobias is 18 and is doing his cival service year at the conference center. Amandos is 24 and is from Paraguay, Laticia just turned 19 and is from Uraguay, Thomas is 25 (I think) and is from Uraguay and Janette is 18 and is from Paraguay. We all share a bathroom and a common room (with a kitchenett). There are a few couches in the common room so when you are bored or just feel like talking there is normaly someone in there to sit and hang out with, or watch one of the 5 channels we get on our tv (dont worry one channel is MTV so we are all good)!
So far I really like it here, it is hard sometimes everything being in german but once Im on my computer my brain goes back into English mode. (Its a nice break for my brain! )

Thats about it for this post but some other random updates include:
- I will most likely be starting another german course soon.
-I went into Durlach, the closest town near by, by bus and managed to not only find a hair dresser to get a much needed hair cut, but I also didnt get lost!
- Getting a hair cut was interesting becasue the hair dresser didnt really speak english and although my german is ok, I dont exactly know how to say layers or split ends to try or how to describe what I want for a haircut. Anyway, I managed to get out of there with a decent hair cut and not a shaved head so I was happy!

Today: broke my first glass at work, broke the handel of my work table drawer (makes it very hard to open it), feeling weird with no nose pericing, :)

Lots of love to everyone back in Canada and Ingolstadt! xoxo

Ich habe keine Bock!

Again another long pause between posts, I apologize.
Right now I am 3 days away from both moving placements, and hitting the 6 month mark for my Europian adventure.
Moving placements is extreamly bitter sweet. I would love to stay here in Dorndorf for the next 6 months as I have made some really good friends and I feel very setteled and at home at the schowalter house. However moving also means a new job, and a new place to discover and that is very exciting. For my next placement I will be living in a small town called Thomoshof located about 2 hours to the east of Strasburg (a town in France) on the other side of the Germany/France Border. Here I will be working in the kitchen of a conference center, washing dishes, cutting fruits and veggies and other things of that nature. Thomoshof is another town of 500 people, like Dorndorf, however it is close by other towns with more people and things to do so hopfully I won't get too bored by myself!

The 6 month marker is another bitter sweet event. In the past 6 months I have learned so much about myself and Europe, and knowing that I am already half way through my time here makes it seem like I have no time left at all. There is still so much I want to see and do and it seems very over whelming to try and fit it all in on top of work and moving etc. However knowing that I have visits from my sister and parents to look forward to does sweeten the mile marker that I am about to pass. (Also there are a few very good friends back home which I cant wait to see this August when I come home!)

Before I sign off on this short and sweet update I want to say thanks to Marie for taking me out in Ingolstadt one last time before I move last Friday, I had so much fun!

Today: Pack, chap stick, skins

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