A Normal Day

On a typical day in Germany here's what we do...

Sleep in. No work for me means that as a general rule, we stay up pretty late and don't set alarms. Not hating this. 

Spend a few hours tidying up or organizing. This takes a few hours in our tiny apartment because I am a procrastinator and also because there are times where I'll randomly decide that the socks all need to be inventoried and matched and that perhaps there's a more efficient way to arrange the bookshelves, so I'll make a mess before I finish what I'm doing.

Walk. There's a lake that's just under 4 miles around and it's about two blocks from our apartment, so on a day where we don't have anything else to walk to, we can often be found taking a lap or two. The views are pretty and the people watching is prime. I find that a walk is a good way to connect with each other as well.

Run errands. We'll head into the heart of the city to visit the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, or out to buy one thing, like stamps or toilet paper. Okay, sometimes I'll make up an errand for myself just to walk into town. I've been known to make the 1.5 mile journey just to try on shirts I'm not going to buy, or price something I could have looked up online. I'd be especially inclined to do these things on a sunny day.

Go to the grocery store. We do this almost daily, because food goes bad faster here, and because we don't have the room to do one weekly grocery trip.

Study. Carson will work from his office at the university most days, but sometimes he will stick around the apartment to get some work done, particularly after a trip or a really late night.

Work...ish. I wouldn't call what I do around here really "work", but I do spend a decent amount of time editing pictures and working on blog stuff. I'm trying to make videos of our travels, and compiling those always takes longer than I'd intended. I've also been compiling photos by year to make photo albums, something I've been meaning to do for years (seriously - I'm working on 2011 right now). A wrinkle in my plan is that MyPublisher, the company whose program I love and have been using, is closing on May 8, so there's sort of a rush to order what I've created asap!

Work out. Carson and I have been doing my old faithful workout program, which is Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. The only reason Carson is also doing this is because he wanted something that gave him structure to follow, rather than just a list of exercises, he can follow along with the video. The first two levels of this program are on YouTube, but I have the DVD back in the States, and I've used it a number of times. Carson also runs around the lake just about every day, and when I'm not being particularly lazy, I will walk around the lake and then run the stairs around it a few times. 

Watch. We spend a decent portion of our evenings watching Netflix (I'd say less now than when it was getting dark at 4pm). We are working our way through Chicago Fire right now, and have recently enjoyed This is Us and The Blacklist. When I'm painting or when I'm on a bus and have downloaded something is when I watch things solo... I have a hard time paying attention otherwise. I've recently watched The Crown and The Bletchley Circle, and looking at my recent Netflix history, I've also started a few shows I thought I'd like and didn't, and there are lots of things on my list I'd like to start but haven't. Carson does a lot of the cooking here because he loves to set his computer on the shelf in the kitchen and turn on an episode of something. He's been watching The Mentalist, and movies like The Hobbit.

When I moved to Germany, I sort of expected my daily life to include things like "buy bread from local bakery", and other charming things. So far, I don't lead a charming Disney princess life (when in my life have I ever bought a loaf of bread to just gnaw on? I mean there are tons of bakeries so I could do this... but why did I think I would?!), but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love all the free time a year here has given me!