My week: December 21 ed.

-Thanks to a fun and relaxing weekend preceding this week, I didn't feel quite so frazzled.

-In the German class at the university, we talked about Christmas things and practiced other sayings.

I came up with this gem of sentence when we worked further with trennbar verbs: "Die Dummheit meiner Katze nimmt immer zu." Poor Moo.

In the Volkshochschule course, our teacher took us out for a drink following our last class. It was so sweet of her! I enjoyed her class and was always impressed with her mastery of teaching.

-I had a nice meeting with my German tandem speaking partner.

-Moo got his stitches out but must still wear the Cone of Shame because the surgery wound is not healed enough yet. He does everything he can to make me feel guilty about this. I can't wait until he's better so he'll stop sulking.

-I met up with some guys from one of our other groups and we sat by the fire outside at the Kaiserslautern Christmas market, a cozy place to meet. It was supposed to be a tandem speaking night but as is customary, we spoke mostly English. That's okay, because we spent most of the time laughing. For the record, they're German - the stereotype of Germans who don't like to have fun/laugh is certainly not right! To further shatter stereotypes, I'll report this: one of the guys gave me a hearty hug upon leaving and he had just met me. I haven't found the stereotype of unfriendly Germans to fit in my life. I have met so many kind, thoughtful, and generous locals here.

-C and I watched Detroit Unleaded. I loved this movie so much that I actually bought it, which is a rarity for me as I don't like to own a lot of books/movies. She was impressed and of course I enjoyed seeing it again. I love that it's a romantic movie with Arab-American characters set in Detroit that shows the city, warts and all, without exploiting it or the characters. I pointed out the references to Better Made, Faygo Pop (dear diet Red Pop: I miss drinking a can every so often), and I think even City Club pop. Plus, it's on Hulu now so it can be watched more easily. Here's an article about it.

-We went to the Rüdesheim am Rhein Christmas Market of the Nations on Saturday. It was about an hour and 15 minutes from Kaiserslautern. I'll write up more about it, but we enjoyed it and C said it's one of her favorites.

-On Sunday, I had a lazy day. I read two books for fun, enjoying my two weeks off from German classes. When I'm in class, I don't get to read for fun very much because I feel as if I should use any free time to study or do homework.

I then wandered down to the Christmas market in Kaiserslautern to enjoy some hot chocolate. It was hopping with a merry and festive feeling.