Wow....

...have I been deliquent! It has really been a long time since I posted! Oops. Let's see, since I posted I got a cell phone (it's so flat!! The technology here is pretty advanced!), I think I found a car and I met most all of the leadership of Bosch's Diesel System division, including the President. So, the car....it's a 1999 Mercedes A160 with only 14,000 km. That's not even 9,000 miles (thank you Apple for including a unit converter in the Dashboard of my laptop!!). That's less miles that I was putting on my car at home in a year! So I think it's a pretty good deal. But I haven't actually seen it. The older (I found out today that it's politically incorrect to say old) gentleman who is turning it in to the auto dealer is supposed to bring it this week. So the auto dealer is supposed to call me and then we'll go look at it and sign the papers if it's actually as good as it sounds.

The other big news!! My stuff is being delivered on Friday!!! It's not in the bottom of the ocean, it's in Germany! I'm really happy about that. It will be a little weird to live by myself again, but it will be nice to be close to work and to have all my stuff. I don't think that the Lauks (Simi's parents) read my blog, but I'm going to write anyway that they've been amazing hosts. I haven't felt at all like a guest, but instead really like a part of the family. And having homecooked meals all the time is pretty great! We eat pretty well around here! (Thanks, Simi and Mats, for arranging this for me!!)

It's hot here, though. Today it was around 90. We have air at work, but it's not so fantabulous. So, it's pretty muggy. And we don't have air at home. So it's just downright hot. It's supposed to be a record high 37 C on Thursday or 98.6 degrees. Lots of offices don't have air so the government is urging employers to pay special attention to the temperature in their offices and send people home if necessary.

The other thing that happened last week...I took a German test. And I did pretty well...so well that Bosch internally can't offer me any lessons. I have to go to an external company for one on one lessons. So I'm pretty proud of that. Tomorrow I have to go to Bosch headquarters for an intercultural seminar. I guess this is where they're going to tell me everything about these strange German ways. :)

Last Sunday we walked in the mountains and I have some pretty good pictures which I'll put up soon. The scenery here continually amazes me. I love that one minute you're in the city and then 20 or so minutes later, you're in the middle of a cornfield or a vineyard.

I am really struggling with the keyboard here. My keyboard at work is different, of course. And I use that so much that I'm actually getting used to the fact that the z and the y are switched. Or that I have to press shift to get the apostrophe. So then when I come home and try to type, I make all kinds of mistakes and it's (or it"s) making me nuts!

This past Sunday we went to a Backhaus fest in one of the neighboring villages. The women of the little villages used to take turns baking the bread in a "baking house" in the village. So now they celebrate and make these cakes with onions or with cinnamon and sugar (they remind me a little bit of quiche, but not exactly). So we went there and met the neighbors and lots and lots of other people. It was really fun.

Have I mentioned yet that I have to go two towns over for gas? Unlike at home, where there's a gas station on every corner, here you actually have to go aways to get to the gas station. Which is fine, as long as you keep in mind that you might have to drive to get gas. So no more "almost empty tank" Sarah (thanks for that trait, Dad), no siree. When that needle gets to 1/4, I'm at the gas station. Because you never know when you might get stuck in a traffic jam. And the next gas station might be quite a ways away. This morning, the drive that should take me 40 minutes took almost two hours (and that was with my wonderful Navigation telling me to get off the freeway, because it was backed up for 14 km because of an accident - I'm so buying a navigation system for my car!!!!). And then going home was okay, a little traffic, but not terrible, but headed in the opposite direction, the traffic was backed up for 10 km. People were actually standing out on the autobahn, because they really weren't moving. Like I said before, we don't know what we're talking about when we talk about traffic jams!
One last little tidbit....I haven't watched TV since the end of the World Cup! I'm sure my reality TV friends (yep, you know who you are :) won't really believe that!