Three months- WOW!

Holy moly guacamole I can't believe that today is April 17th marking three months to the day that I boarded a plane at the Portland airport and began this journey. I do not know how it feels for those of you at home, but for me time is flying by.

This also means that we are eligible to begin applying to other departments. There is a posting right now for Front Desk Operations and one for Bartender Trainee just popped up. As of right now I am not planning to apply for anything else. Hours in housekeeping have picked up substantially. I am very excited to see what my paycheck looks like that I get this coming Monday. It should have a little overtime on it. Although we'll see if we keep getting hours now that our boss (Chief Brody as one of our leads calls her) has returned from a two week holiday. I also feel like time goes fast in housekeeping. I don't get bored and I get to feel a sense of accomplishment not only at the end of the day but throughout it as I clean each room. Seriously if you all only knew what your hotel rooms looked like before the housekeeper went through it you would be so much more grateful and might be more inclined to leave a tip or at least a thank you note. Although we don't hear whether our time off requests are accepted until the schedule comes out a week before I have yet to hear of anyone being denied their request and for that reason I also am inclined to stay. Ryan and I already have requests for time off for both May and July and will be making another one for June once we find out when my Mom is coming. These are my reasons for staying and Ryan agrees with them. But now that there is a post for a Bartender trainee and I think that if Ryan really wants to pursue Bar tending he should go for it and at least apply. It is something he has talked about for a few years now and I think he would be really good at it. He even talks about wanting to go to Bartending school when we get back. I guess only time will tell where we each end up.

This last weekend we had was Wednesday through Firday. Three days and once again we didn't plan a trip. I think it has been good for us to rest. And just because we haven't road tripped doesn't mean we haven't experienced new things. Wednesday we took the train with a couple other guys Ben and Mike to Nuremberg. We left Garmisch at 9 and got to Munich and hour and a half later. Our next train left at 11:00 and got us into Nuremberg at 12:45. Nuremberg is known for having a great Christmas market, obviously it is the wrong time of year for that now, so I guess we might need to go back around the holidays. We just wandered most of the day. We went into a beautiful (they all are) church. We walked up a hill to a castle and saw a stunning view of the entire city. We wandered through a market in a square. We paid thankful not a lot to walk through a museum that had a lot of old German stuff with no significance to us. And we ended the day having an early dinner at a Bratwursthaus before heading back to Munich and then to Garmisch from there. We got home a little before midnight and I think it was a good day. Nuremberg is definitely worth a day trip.

I honestly can't think of what I did on Thursday, but Friday was fun. Ryan and I went to the farmers market in the Marianplatz. There were a lot of vendors, more than I expected. We could have bought some of the best looking strawberries I've ever seen. Now I'm not sure why we didn't. I have a roll with lacks on it from a man selling fish. Ryan and I bought a huge round of flat bread, olives, tapenade, and a pepper spread from a booth with Mediterranean foods such as what we got and more, and we bought a bottle of Mead (aka Honey wine) that I can't wait to try and compare with what I have come to love in Bellingham. I'm so glad we went and I can't wait to go again next time I am in Garmisch on a Friday.

After the market we headed to the thrift shop on base. I am so excited I got a dresser for only $5. Now I don't have to store my socks and underwear in my suitcase under my bed. It is making my life much more organized and for me a more organized life is a better and happier one.

I also used my weekend to work on my Rosetta Stone program to learn German. I have now completed 3 units for level 1. One more unit to go and I'm done with the first level. I think I am learning, but it is hard to notice very much since what I know I want it to be able to carry on a conversation in Germany with someone. Or be able to understand what people are saying at work. I think it will take a few more levels to get there.

Well I wanted to fill you in on what we did this weekend and I hope I've adequately done so. Nothing was extremely exciting, but it was a good weekend. What is exciting is what Ryan and I will be doing Monday and Tuesday. We have been asked to be extras in the same movie again. But this time we are going to be snowboarding and we'll be doing it, I believe, at eh Zugspitz. This is going to be awesome. I can't wait to tell you all about it!