My week: January 31 ed.

Phew! I felt very accomplished to have gotten everything done this week, especially because it was a very social time.

-Language learning: I attended the last meeting of the Volkshochschule class, horrified a classmate there, and also attended the other two German classes. I met with my tandem partner and was very touched that her language goal is to sound like how I sound one day. That may or may not be a good thing; next thing she knows, she'll be playing euchre. For the record, I'm not a very good Michigander because I don't know how to play it! I prefer to play Uno at the bar, but that's another story.

Besides my four evenings of language learning, I also crammed in a visit to a newer language group. Everyone meets to practice German (or other languages) through games and other activities. To start with, we played a version of musical chairs. I enjoyed it and plan to go as much as I can, depending on my upcoming schedule. As it was, I stopped by this meeting before attending my German lesson.

-I also planned a baby shower for a colleague at work. Since she's far from her family, we wanted to put together a nice little party for her and we collaborated to make it work; I made the lunch, decorated, and found little games to play online and my colleagues made the cake and brought the decorations. I even made the obligatory lemon pop/sherbet punch.

-Feeling even more ambitious, I planned an outing to Mannheim. We first ate dinner at Bustan, a new Persian restaurant. It was delicious though slightly expensive for those on a budget. From there, we hiked through the rain and a beautiful section of town to Luisenpark for the Winterlights exhibition. The park is lit up with various light displays. We loved a psychedelic paisley pattern over a bridge and took some fun group photos where we took on the appearance of some wildly colorful beasts. Entry was six euros. Would I say that it's worth it? Well, I'd say that if you want to make a trip to Mannheim to see the city, have a good meal, then visit the light show, then it would be okay. However, one can live without seeing the light show.

Most of the group returned home but I stayed in Mannheim with the friends who live there. I stayed up late with L, watching Rick and Morty, a cartoon from Adult Swim. That show is so funny and wrong. I kept getting this Back to the Future vibe from it, even though the humor is a lot naughtier. Later, I read up on the show and learned that it's very loosely based on Mary and Doc Brown. Okay, that makes sense.

The next day, we traveled to Weinheim to visit the sauna. It was a year and one week from the last time we did this. This time, though, my friend's baby was born instead of being in a state of gestation so that was a bit surreal for him to visit the pool. I ended the trip by bashing my finger in one of the slides and cracking my nail halfway down. It didn't bleed much but was an awkwardly-placed injury that's going to take a long time to heal.

Beyond that, it was a great week. It was a pleasant surprise that I managed to accomplish everything. I definitely relied on lists and lists to keep everything together!