Mostly Pictures from Walks

We decided that it was time to explore the area that's west of us. I didn't know that it was west before we got back and I looked it up on a map, but it was! We took a Sunday afternoon walk and saw some new countryside, leaves, and enjoyed a peaceful afternoon. 

These buildings looked very beachy to us. 

We found a pile of leaves and jumped into it. I made the mistake of sort of diving/sliding into it which made breathing a bit difficult, but all's well that ends well, right?

This blurry picture shows bunnies. There are so many rabbits here! I have seen one squirrel in all of Germany, but hundreds of rabbits.

 We walked past this shrine.

And fields

And found a playground with no children (it was pretty cold, I don't blame them).

This basket is fun. You sit in it and turn the thing in the middle to make it spin. Our hands were icy cold and so was the metal so this was difficult.

Google told us that there WAS a place with Pad Thai in town! We checked it out one evening. It was pricier than most of the meals we have out, but I think it was worth it.

The Super Moon happened, and we tried to see it. We remembered right after Carson got out of the shower and after we'd gotten ready for bed, so we bundled up and headed outside where we saw... nothing. Note Carson's footwear. It was under 30 degrees.

We went out several times hoping to catch this huge moon (on our walk home the night before we'd noticed a low and large and very orange moon but didn't know about the super moon). The last time, I thought I could see it from the back yard, so I climbed out the window. Not successful, and it's pretty hard to climb back in a window when you're short.

A few days later, we walked out the same way we had a few days before. My phone battery got too cold and shut off that day (I've read this is a problem with lithium ion batteries, even when they're not close to dead), but I wanted to take pictures of the pretty flowers and things we'd seen on our walk home. So I kept my phone warm in my pocket and it was fine this time. These were so lovely to me, and pretty good for an iPhone, right?

We walked through a couple of the grocery stores in Mecklenbeck (that's where we were, my map app said). It's fun walking through stores here because the things they sell are so unique!

I've been wanting to get a lamp or something so that we had some softer lighting than just the bright overhead lights. I decided Christmas lights were the way to go and then found these little light balls. I draped them over the bookcase in our room and they're perfect!

 I found some star lights for a corner in the living room too.

I saw a video online about these 3D scanners that you can step into and get a little model made of yourself. Well, I guess there's one here! I can't think of a reason I'd want to do this of us, but I think it's actually pretty neat.

The lighting is weird here but here's what I've ended up with on our living room wall: postcards from our trips here and some cards we've been sent! The desk is just under this and houses the toaster oven.

London Video

Here's our video from London! 

It was a bit hastily made and edited so I apologize for that!

We were better about getting video clips than we usually are, but I still want to work on remembering to take videos when we do things because I think it adds a different perspective!

Weekend Adventures

Here's our weekend two weekends ago!

 We started off our Friday evening with a very important purchase - our toaster oven! I'd included the story of that in this post, but it got too long so I had to copy-paste and make it it's own post. Priorities, you guys!
Anyway, after we'd purchased it and deposited the toaster oven in Carson's office, we headed to the courtyard behind the Historic Rathaus (city hall) for a tour. This was an event offered to international PhD students in Munster, and when Carson signed up, they had two spaces left - yay!

Our guide was dressed as a night watchman from 1668, and described the city to us from the perspective of his character. It was really interesting to learn what life was like way back then, and it made me really glad to be alive in 2016! Some important history happened here though, like the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, that ended the Thirty Years' War, and a significant year-long takeover of the Anabaptists in the 16th century (Munster Rebellion). We learned more about those, but also about daily life in Munster in the middle ages. Several streets in the Altstadt have names that mean something like "salt street" (Salzstrasse), "fish market" (Fischmarkt), etc. and those streets are where those wares could be purchased in that time. I'm not clear why say, salt, would have had its own street, but found it interesting nonetheless. We learned that the main threat to life in those times was fire, because the roofs were made of straw and the homes of wood, and we also learned of some crazy corporeal punishments going around at the time. Let's just say that I'm glad we have Netflix for entertainment these days.

We didn't walk very far, but our guide stopped in several places around the city and told us about them. The monastery (has a green roof, market we've been to is in front of it) was a big head monastery way back when, and the name Munster came from the Latin for monastery, so that was new information to me. The guide talked a lot about the monks and how their quality of life was so much better than the average person, and how they contributed to the society here. Munster is still a primarily Catholic city, so the churches are still used for masses and things, although I don't think there's a monastery running anywhere near here.

It was a bitterly cold evening (in the high 20s and windy), so we huddled around when we'd stop in a new place and despite the boots and hats and gloves we had on, our toes and fingers were freezing. Still, the tour was really informative and presented in a really interesting way. My hat was pulled over my ears so I couldn't hear very well (not that I can hear that great to begin with), so I didn't catch the guide's name, but he was fantastic. He gave us samples of the "black bread" that Munster was known for. I thought it was disgusting, and it confirmed that I'm really glad to live in an age where there's variety in food!

We went back to Carson's office to grab the toaster oven and picked up dinner on the way home. We huddled in front of the heater when we got back. What a cold night!

Julianne and Ben came to town the next day! We met them at the train station at about 12:30 and had lunch at King Döner across the street. It was delicious and we sat and talked for awhile before continuing downtown. Ben has visited before, but we were pretty new in town and couldn't remember our way around, so this was a little more thorough tour of the city. We stopped in the market to walk around, and I introduced Julianne to apfel Berliners. They're sort of like an apple doughnut and they're delicious. I didn't get one, and I'm still regretting that. Carson and Ben had a little trouble staying with the two of us, and they were continually walking behind us and getting too engrossed in their conversations. That was fine, because it was really nice to walk around and chat with a friend!

There was a big celebration in front of the Rathaus for St. Martin's Day. St Martin's Day is in honor of St Martin of Tours and is celebrated on November 11. This was on November 12, so I'm guessing that we missed the parade (there's usually a lantern festival and parade the night of the 11th, and when we'd arrived for our tour the night before, we had seen a bunch of people in funny hats lining up for something). In Cologne, where Ben lives, there's a Karnival for the weekend that's really big and crazy and it leads up to a series of celebrations that culminate in an event in March (I'm not sure if this has something to do with Lent or Easter or something!).

Carson had his first Gluhwein of the season. Gluhwein is a mulled wine that's really popular in Germany and very popular during Christmas markets, which are coming soon. I had a taste and I did not enjoy it.


Julianne and I went into St Lambert's Church where the organ was being played and sat and listened for awhile. The guys still had some Gluhwein in their cups, so they hung outside the the doors and talked. Next we walked to the Dom and explored the inside, including the big astrological clock.

We walked to the Schloss and behind it to the Botanical Gardens next. The greenhouses were nice and warm, and I'm thinking now that anytime I'm craving a little heat and humidity, I may walk down here!

We'd heard that there was a pretty cemetery nearby, so we found that and walked through it. It's kept up very nicely.

Back past the Schloss again because Julianne wanted a picture!

We'd seen a few fun stores, so Julianne and I decided to go check those out and left the guys to their deep conversation. We had trouble reconnecting with Carson and Ben (my phone didn't send my reply text to Carson so we went to the bakery where they'd been waiting for us and they went to the store where we were) but ducked in a few more stores while we tried to meet up.

We found a little pub looking restaurant for dinner. I don't know the name of my dish, but it had mushrooms and I really enjoyed it. Too much food though!

We went to the bar next door for happy hour where they had fun drinks with gummy candy for each person.

We had to run to make it to the last train back to Cologne that night, which was difficult since we had full bellies. They made it with time to spare thanks to our speediness and we tried for a picture with better lighting.

The next day, we went on a walk and relaxed a little bit, since we'd had two full days of walking (I ended Saturday 27 steps short of 30,000 and I'm still mad at myself for taking my fitbit off when I walked in the door because I would have had it!). It's cold here but we're having fun!

Quite an Oven-t

At long last, we have an oven - this is a big deal! 

We've been cooking on only a stove since August, and three and a half months of stovetop food gets a little old. I'm a big roasted veggie fan (and I despise steamed veggies so...) and it's so great to do that again. It's nice to have toasted sandwiches (we eat a lot of sandwiches), and if we have leftovers to warm up, it's nice to not heat up pizza in a pan on the stove. 

We've been looking at toaster ovens for awhile but were waiting to get one until we got our housing subsidy. That arrived, and it was the push we needed! 

We were on team Crockpot for a long time because that's the machine I use to cook most back home, but when we looked, we were told they didn't sell crockpots in stores, only online, and paying for shipping and not being able to check them out beforehand? no thanks. And a microwave was briefly considered, but we rarely use ours back home (ovens are way better for heating up that aforementioned leftover pizza, and I think the only thing I really microwaved was butter for stovetop popcorn). 

So we finally settled on a toaster oven! We looked at a few department stores, but found this one at Saturn and proudly took it home. I did notice once we got home that behind Carson in this picture are what appear to be crock-pots, although everyone said they aren't sold in stores. I may go back just to see if that's what they are, even though I'm happy with the toaster oven choice. 

We had an event the evening we bought the oven, so we couldn't take it home right away and test it out. We stashed it in Carson's office while we did a walking tour of the city, and then by the time we came home, it was 11pm and not the time to heat something up. We didn't end up using it until several days later because we just weren't home! When we did though, Carson dashed across the street to buy a frozen pizza. He's been dying over not being able to taste the frozen pizzas here, so that was our inaugural "meal". He chose one with green onions and ricotta on it and it was different, but I thought it was pretty tasty.

Here are some roasted potatoes, mushrooms and garlic we also made in the oven. So much better than on the stove! 

As far as a home for our oven, well, it's living on the desk in the living room. It's not very big, but is too big for our tiny counters. A bonus to having it in the living room is that you can watch it bake if you're in there, and it provides a little heat, which is always welcome this time of year!

I'd originally typed this up in a post with other pictures, but quickly realized I had way too much to say on the topic. I told you this is a big deal to us!

Hodge Podge Life

Have you ever been around a person who is trying to be quiet, so they drag out every noise and instead of being quiet, they actually are super loud? Carson is that person when he's getting ready in the morning. Even opening a granola bar wrapper is frustratingly loud, because it's prolonged by trying to do it quietly, so in hopes that we'd curb some of that, I've started setting his outfits for the next day out in the living room. A bonus for him is that he doesn't have to poke around his shelves in the morning, trying to check and see if he grabbed the gray sweatpants or gray dress pants, and a bonus for me is that I'm not wildly annoyed. It's benefitting both of us, and if I had somewhere to go every day that involved picking out an outfit, I might start setting outfits out as well. As it is, I have a sort of outfit uniform - shirt, scarf, sweatshirt/ sweater, black pants/ jeans... and I brought far less clothing than Carson did, so my choices are a lot simpler. If I'm on my game, I pack a snack for Carson too. 

There's a place nearby that sells pizzas for 4 euro, so Carson will sometimes pick one up on his way home. The funny thing to me is that they don't automatically slice them for you. I think you have to ask for the pizza to be sliced, and we never remember to ask, so Carson's stuck in the kitchen trying to get the very dull knife here to slice through. 

Since the time change happened on October 30, we've been especially bad about paying attention to the time - is it 6pm or midnight? We don't know! The sun has been rising close to 8 in the morning and it sets at around 4:30 in the afternoon. It gets pretty chilly once the sun has set, so we often come home just after dark and warm up, eat dinner, watch a show or two, and I paint or organize something while we watch or sometimes we'll both read. We need to get better at going to bed on time though because it's been pretty late! We've both been under the weather lately too and that's not helping - I've accidentally fallen asleep for three hours mid-afternoon and am wide eyed and awake until the wee hours.

I thought this was funny - thanks, Carson.

I've been listening to podcasts or sermons and walking around the lake during the day here. It's nice to get out and walk by myself!

This was a night where I was up very late and got up very early. The night of the election, I was up refreshing the results, dozing off, and then checking again. I was so surprised to find out in the morning that Donald Trump was the President-Elect. I think the next four year will be really interesting, and the months leading up to the inauguration will be rather tumultuous. I'm hopeful though that once the news blows over a little bit, we can look toward the future with a little less doom and gloom on our minds. We don't know what kind of president he'll be just yet, although I guess suspicions are pretty strong. I know a lot of people are very hurt and scared by this news, and perhaps they will have a reason to fear. I hope fears are unfounded though, and I think it's probably better to wait and see before we assume the worst and start rioting in the streets for no reason. Maybe he'll surprise us all and be the best president ever? It could happen.

Moving along, someone recently asked if we had a freezer and I said yes, but I thought it would be funny to show you the size of that freezer. For size comparison, that's my hand in front of it. If I were to ball up my fist, I would probably touch all four sides of it. Soooo we aren't exactly stockpiling frozen veggies here (there were popsicles in the freezer when I took this and the two of them filled it over halfway).

Trees are getting more bare, but I'm loving the fall colors while they stick around!

There are lots of places around here that sell waffles so we tried one at the weekly market recently. We wanted a regular waffle with cinnamon sugar, but Carson thought Spelt flour was probably better and fancier, so he ordered that (it's healthier but that doesn't really make for a great sweet treat) and they heard powdered sugar instead so we didn't really get what we wanted but for 1.20, it was still pretty good!

We went to the top floor of a local department store the other day and discovered that it was the children's section. Not only did they have children's clothes, but there was a large toy and game section. We enjoyed browsing the games and spotting familiar ones in a different language. The Game of Life has always been a favorite of mine. We did notice that these games, which aren't too pricey in the States, were quite expensive here. We were looking for a puzzle because we thought that would be an inexpensive thing to do together, but I don't think we looked in the correct spot!

A care package from Mom! I haven't been able to find any of these things here, plus she sent our mail which was pretty great too! I check the mail excitedly every day and there's rarely even junk mail, so it's so nice to get something fun! Carson sent me a letter from his office one day last week because he wanted me to find something in there for me - haha! If you'd like to send a postcard or something, let me know and I'll give you our address!