Last week was just a practice run... here's the real thing

As you can see from the back of the Stift, we got enough snow to make a Stift Snowman. Although by the next day, he had been decapitated. Or maybe it just fell off.

Our first snow in Göttingen...

I have to sneak on the computer for a few minutes while Ben is listening to Brahms Requiem at his weekly meeting. He has been working arduously on applications for next year causing us both to be more than a little stressed lately.

This morning's surprise cheered me up a bit though! On my walk to work, I even saw a boy scraping up all the snow he could find and squashing it into a (pretty pitiful) Schneeball.

Last Thursday: hurricane

This Thursday: snow

The dusting is hardly visible on the steps in front of the Stift, but you can see it better along the old city-wall walking path and on the frozen pond at the University. I wonder if the minnows are still alive. And while I might be interested in learning if it is possible to freeze a goldfish and then unfreeze him back to life, I am not encouraging anyone to actually try it. Although, it would make for an interesting experiment uniting science and theology.

Saturday night= Shisha Bar night

After two years of marriage and eight years together, we still have 'firsts.' For example, our first time at a Shisha bar. (And as Ben must add, "But not our last!") Our friends at the Stift invited us out and after a series of unfortunate bar closings, we ended up at the Shisha Bistro and Cafe.
Osman, from Turkey, demonstrated how to properly smoke a hookah and Ben got a lot of practice in that night. It was about 9 when we arrived and I was surprised to see the tiny place packed with high school-aged kids smoking and drinking. I kept waiting for the Polizei to show up and bust them. But, no, we are in Europe. Here it is normal to see teen aged girls shopping for beer at the grocery store. Does Europe do it better? I'm not convinced. But Ben is.

Osman had taken us to his favorite Turkish place for lunch, so we really had a fun Saturday.

It was a little windy yesterday...
While sitting in our living/computer room studying and watching a movie, Ben and I heard a loud crash outside. I went to the bedroom window and saw this: A giant tree had blown over right next to our room. The blue windows are our bedroom and our living room is around the corner. Crazy German trees!

New Haircut!

Ben finally decided to get a haircut before his professors from Atlanta came to check on us. It cost him only €10 to look this good. If you miss the old Ben, check the collage below!

Portrait of a Hairy Man

Eggs Eier

Here is your average sunny-side-up egg. Ben likes to eat these in the morning and I like to be a good wife and fry them for him.

Eggs make a good breakfast. They are low in calories and protein-rich. They are nutricious and provide valuable iron, B vitamins, and minerals. They are cheap and versatile. Fried, scrambled, poached, baked, hard or soft-boiled, omelets- all delicious.

When I first fried eggs for Ben in Germany, I thought I had gone crazy. The yolks are orange! I am used to good old yellow yolks. Later, I found out that regular eggs look "unhealthy," so German chickens are fed a pigment that dyes the yolks to the darker orange color. Yummy!