I see you! :-)

It's stopped snowing for now, but here's a look at my balcony. Yep, that's about 30cm of virgin snow piled up there (Metric system for life, Right Jim?).

And here's a great reason not to leave your bicycle parked outside long-term. This bike is still parked right around the corner from my house. There are many others that share the same fate. I have ridden my bike to school twice now, and with the Schwalbe Marathon xr tires, the grip really isn't the greatest. I definitely wore my helmet! I am not going to buy studded tires for now, because I have a strong feeling that the snow will be gone in a week. Right now the streets are just a brown slushy mess, but at least cars aren't sliding around as much as they did on the first day.

I've been checking out my sitemeter recently, and it's pretty interesting to see the pattern of visitors. I can see how many hits I'm getting, how long people stay on my site, and where they are from. It seems that I have a couple regulars in San Francisco ( eine grosse Tasse Cafe!) and the bay area as well as in Minnesota and here in Germany. Perhaps my writing isn't exciting enough for everybody to leave comments, but please do!

I had two tests this morning, both of the German language. I've been pretty stressed out the last couple of weeks due to those and other reasons, but I only have one more test left on Tuesday. Then it's 6 weeks of relaxation, adventure and some soul searching. My life has changed in dramatic ways since I've been here, more than the last time I lived in Germany. On a positive note, my parents are coming to visit me from March 1 until the 10th or so. I am so excited about this, because I haven't seen them for almost 6 months, and because my dad will be turning 50 during the trip. He lived in Germany during highschool, and we're going to visit his old house, as well as various other places in Germany, Austria, and perhaps Switzerland.