As any of our avid blog followers probably have noticed (hi
Mom(s) and Grandma!), we have not been very active this winter. Partly this is because we burned ourselves
out visiting 9 countries last year and we are saving up our vacation days to do
it all over again in 2013. However,
another large factor of why we have not done much lately is that this winter
has been very, very long and dark. Julie
and I had discussed that there just didn’t seem to be as much sun this winter
as last year, and the German Weather Service confirmed our suspicions. This winter was officially the darkest winter
for at least the last 60 years (they
have only been tracking sunshine records for 60 years).
The temperatures have been relatively constant around the freezing
point, which brought a lot of snow this year.
It seems the snow started in October (see previous blog) and has not
let up since: except for Christmas of course when we had a freak period of
warm, sunny weather. We’ve had a few
freeze/thaw cycles in March, but even this week, the first official week of
spring, we had a little bit of snow. So
since our ventures began in Munich back in December 2011, there have been 0
white Christmases and 1 white Easter (last year, 2012). And with just one week to go, the forecast has
us dreaming of another white Easter.
So naturally we have spent a lot of time avoiding the
darkness by staying inside where it is warm. But seriously, what have we been
doing!? We conquered a 5,000 piece puzzle, bought a Nintendo Wii, had Indian food delivered about every Friday,
watched 3 seasons of Downton Abbey, and learned to play/became addicted to the strategy/conquer
board game Die Siedler Von Catan (The Settlers of Catan, also available in the
States). Oh and I can’t forget the
thrilling episodes of “Der Bachelor”, “Deutschland Sucht den Superstar”, and
“Germany’s Next Top Model” featuring Heidi Klum. Only a small price to pay so I can watch
soccer once a week, and it’s good German practice…..don’t judge! I went to the FC Bayern vs. Arsenal Champions
League game...pretty much a soccer fan’s dream come true. Meanwhile Julie was busy winning trophies
beating her co-workers in Go-Kart races…..I’m just glad I wasn’t there to also
be defeated.
I also spent a lot of hours this winter studying German and
preparing for my B1 language exam in February.
Today I received my scores and found out I passed with 93% and received
the Goethe Institute “sehr gut” (basically an A) stamp of approval! Yay!
Now the Mt. Everest that is German grammar looks a little bit smaller.
But don’t worry; our blog is about to get new life because
after Easter weekend we are booked for every weekend until July. We are jet setting to Denmark and Iceland in
early April, then we prepare for 12 visitors over the following 6 weeks while also
making long weekend trips to Vienna, Dresden, and Hamburg. And that doesn’t include the trip to Croatia
in August we just booked.
It is bound to be an awesome spring and summer - we just
have to get through the last days of winter/ our potentially “white”
Easter. Happy Spring everybody!
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