I could learn to love you

A great weekend was spoiled by a week of work. The weather has reached top bottom. This bone chilling type of mist covers the Northern German landscape and in the middle of it, Aachen.

Toto, we're not in Florida anymore.

It's November 15 and the low for tonight is expected to be 26 degrees. My apartment is freezing. My room thermometer says 68F but it feels much colder. I took a nap and woke up shivering from the chill. I'm now wearing long sleeves, a sweater vest and a sweater on top. I'll be wearing it to work tonight too. Its just really cold and windy. The Taxi driver that picks me up every Tues and Wednesday tells me though while it is colder in December, the weather is dryer. That is something to look forward to.

Germany is famous for their Christmas Markets and Aachen is no exception. Monday workers began assembling wooden houses in the middle of the square. Its rather quite odd. Next Saturday thousands of people will descend on Aachen from all over to visit the Markt. Glühwein (mulled wine) will be served hot with ginger cookies. This part of German culture I'm looking forward to celebrating. Having thousands of people daily in front of my office being loud no doubt something I'm not looking forward to.

I've been drinking coffee as if it was the essence of life. At least two cups in the morning before I leave the house followed by coffee at lunch often. In the evening, Starbucks might get a little visit. I've discovered this amazing chocolatier in Aachen (from The Netherlands) who makes their own hot chocolate. They bring you a cup of steamed milk, then you go to the counter, pick a flavor of chocolate (its chunked onto a spoon) and then you dip the spoon into the milk and stir. Bam! Amazing hot chocolate. I'm going to take back the states lots of these little amazing chocolate spoons. Then you get a slice of cake or brownie or amazing apple strudel for €5.00! So cheap! Its so tasty too. :) Their website can be seen here. While it has no information, you can look at cool pictures of it, chocolate company.

Speaking of Dutch companies, its amazing really how much Dutch I am able to read and understand. I've watched a Dutch movie before and was able to understand about 65% of the script. Dutch is a mix of German, English and I believe a dash of French. For example, the word for chocolate milk in Dutch is chocomelk. Especially when I see something in context its really amazing my level of understanding.

Thanksgiving is next week and its so hard to believe that I'm doing nothing for one of my favorite holidays this year. :( It is certainly something that I will miss. In other news, to get my German drivers license, it turns out I don't have to take any exams at all. Only get a translation of my current license, which inlingua offers, take an eye exam at a local optician and go wait in line. Nice.

And now i have to teach.