How much for this tractor?

Good news!  The snow has finally melted and green grass has been patiently waiting to make its fabulous debut.  And oh, did it! I forgot how much I liked the landscape here when I first arrived; it can be breathtaking. We're still a few weeks away from the blooming flowers and good old garden work, but spring is in progress.  I've even been able to go for two nice runs.  Sadly everybody in the house has a cold or some junk so I haven't felt like running more, but hopefully I can make up for that this week. Right this minute it's crazy windy and rainy.  Usually it just drizzles, so it's kinda nice to hear the weather make a decision and toss around out there. I'm so very happy to be out of the constricting snow phase, but I guess I haven't given the nice elements of the snow and ice their due.  I loved that the neighborhood kids managed to find the one hill in the whole town and make an ice slide with a hump at the bottom that sent the little ones flying.  Ohh, it was fun to watch. Piet made me so proud by just going alone, but after a few times he was even doing twists and spins!. My little boy is growing up : )

Piet and I continue to play well as he challenges my creativity (That sounded very social worky, sorry, that Boston application has affected my brain). Anyway, one of our best ideas is a little tribute to my lovely Daddy.  Piet pretends to own a tractor store and I pretend to be the various people he must go through to keep it running.  First he comes to me as the banker to borrow money, then he comes to my tractor dealership and buys his tractors.  He sets up his store nicely and then I come as a customer and he has to be a real salesman.  He tells me how much fuel the tractor needs, how often it breaks, and whether or not it has a warranty.  Then I buy a tractor and take it to my farm where it breaks and we have to take it to the kitchen, I mean, tractor repair shop, and fix the problem.  There we take out his pretend tools and we go to town trying to figure out the problem.  If only I knew how tractors really work!  Regardless, he really gets into the game and of course has modified it so that he can sell trains too.  He's engine crazy, but it's cute.  We took him to a model train exhibit last weekend and he might as well have died and gone to heaven.  His parents made videos so we've been reliving the experience all week : )

Oh, another cute Piet story.  Here they celebrate Carnival; I don't know the history behind it and I'm too lazy to wikipedia it, but people dress up like it's Halloween and party like it's Mardi Gras.  The big festivities are held in Cologne and other big cities, but Oldenburg didn't celebrate to my knowledge.  Piet's kindergarten celebrated though and all the kids wore costumes to school. Oh man, brace yourself for Piet's totally awesome idea for a costume: a lighthouse.  Hilarious, huh?  Piet and only Piet could make a lighthouse costume totally adorable.  He loved it and so did everyone at school. I just love him.

Aside from Piet, I'm still enjoying my host family and I've had lots of time with Yvonne, Elisa, and Daniele.  Last weekend the girls and I met my friend Liska for another grunkohl tour which was nice, but struck by a random snow storm, so short lived.  Other than that we've just been doing the same old same old around here, hanging at Yvonnes and going into Oldenburg for the weekends.  It's kinda nice that we can just hang out without doing anything big.  The other night we just ate pasta together and watched Aladin because it was the only English movie on.  Simple, but comforting.  I'm really lucky to have those ladies.

Big news! I finished my Boston University Application Friday night!!  I'm just tickled pink to have submitted it, but now I'm dreading the month or more of waiting for an answer.  If you could send your prayer up that either Boston works out or the right opportunity opens up instead, I'd really appreciate it.  I just want to be busy and to be a resource to somebody somewhere. Anyway, Saturday I woke feeling all giddy about being finished with it and then realized that it was sunny and the Easter flowers I'm growing  in my room started to bloom. Birds were chirping in my head when I walked into the kitchen to find my face in the Saturday morning paper!  Want some back story? Yeah, I thought so.  Sooo, last week a fella came to the vegetable place where I volunteer and did an article about the organization. I think you can see it here:
http://www.nwzonline.de/Region/Kreis/Ammerland/Edewecht/Artikel/2266937/Zur+Pause+in+den+K%FChlraum.html
Good luck translating! I don't have a clue what it says, but as you can see from the picture above, I kinda stick out there.  Because of this, the reporter wanted to know why I was volunteering there.  After squelching any possibility that I may be a criminal doing service time, a lady there explained that I'm an au pair and I like to volunteer because I studied social work back home. He thought it was cool that I'm doing what I'm doing and wanted to do a full story on me.  He came to my house last Tuesday and we hashed out who the real Katie Dotson is over coffee and cookies.  I don't know if he captured the real Katie Dotson, but a bunch of German words were printed about me in both the Oldenburg and Edewecht newspapers. Perhaps I'm being called an axe murderer, who knows. I kinda like the mystery.  When I get a pdf version of it I'll post it and try to get someone to translate it.  It was flattering for someone to recognize that being here is kinda crazy and people might like to hear about it.

Other good news: I've booked a flight to go with Julie to London during Easter.  She's got a friend living close by who we'll meet and then we'll just check out the touristy stuff.  Something nice to look forward to, for sure.  I'm also planning to take a train to the Harz Mountains this weekend for a little birthday getaway.  Elisa, Daniele, and Andre are the only ones who can make it, but it should be nice to take in some natural beauty after the months of yuck weather.  So yeah, birthday week will soon commence and I'll do my best to call you guys since you can't call me like you would at home.

I miss you still, and I'm grateful that I've had such rockin people in my life for 23 years.  It's really cool to move to the other side of the world but still feel tremendous love and support.  We're over the half way mark now and the harsh months are behind us!  Just gotta keep making the most of Edewecht until the end of June then I'll be teaching English camps for a couple weeks.  And then!!! Mamma and Daddy join me for a Dotson family vacation!!!! I don't think they even have passports yet and we don't know where we want to go, but it's in the works and I'm insanely excited.  Any suggestions of amazing European destinations? I've heard that Greece and Spain are great in the summer but maybe Vienna would be nice.  I don't know, I don't even know how to talk like that in regards to a Dotson family vacation, so anything we do will be amazing.  Ahhh, so lucky to get to see all this stuff and have so much planned for the future.  I just pray that the right doors open and I get to experience beautiful things with the amazing people in my life. Anyway, enough of my blabbing, I should get some sleep.  Take care!

Freezing but Friendly

     Alas, another nice week in Germany.  I've actually been quite busy lately and have found myself in the company of great friends.  Last weekend was absolutely fabulous.  On Friday Elisa invited me to her house for a tropical fish dish, or a "let's pretend it's not icy and freezing outside" dish.  She also invited a girl who's dad works with her dad, who happens to be American!  Yvonne is from Chicago but now lives in Edewecht with her parents.  Her Dad is German but worked in Illinois as a horticulturist for a long time. Anyways, I'll chat more about them later.  It was great to meet her last Friday and we all had a nice, uber girly evening.
     Okay, new paragraph for Saturday, because it was a big, awesome day.  We woke up early and drove to Jorn's parents' house.  It was actually a pleasant, snowy drive with a little sun along the way. Oma and Opa were lovely as always and Piet was thrilled to be the center of their attention.  We stayed there for a bit and ate some tasty pizza and just tried to enjoy being warm, since we knew we'd be bleary cold the rest of the evening.  See, we were preparing to embark on an odyssey the Germans like to call a Grünkohl Tour. Grünkohl translates as German kale, but it tastes and looks more like collard greens than anything. I think the tour used to serve as a celebration of the harvests, but now it's just an excuse for old friends to get together and have fun.  So the tour is led by the Grünkohl King and Queen who were titled the year before.  It's their job to decide where everyone will walk and which restaurant they will end up in to eat the Grünkohl.  They also pack a wagon full of alcohol, which helps everyone stay a little warmer and makes the goofy games a bit more fun.  We began the tour at a Jorn's friend's house and then proceeded to walk for about four hours in the snow.   It was cold, but we kept a good walking pace so it was tolerable.  Although I was the only person younger than 30 except for one 13 year old boy, everyone was super nice and pulled me right into the activities.  We were divided into two teams and started the our Grünkohl games with a good old bean bag toss.  Next we tied balloons to our ankles and tried to pop the other team's balloons while protecting our own.  I mistakenly popped the balloon of my own teammate in the first 10 seconds which was really embarrassing and somebody got me out immediately after, so that game didn't go so well for me.  I did better with next game in which we had to put a spoon with a long yarn attached to it through the sleeves of our jackets and pass it on to the next person.  The silliness was fun, but for me the best part of the walk was seeing the sunset for the first time in ages. The sky was an unreal painting of oranges and pinks above vast snowy fields. Simple breathtaking.   But after the sun set the cold intensified and I was ready to be inside.   Luckily it wasn't long until we made it to the restaurant and were quickly served the Grünkohl with a tasty sausage called Pinkel and boiled potatoes. At the restaurant I was feeling a bit bored and tired of not understanding all the German being spoken around me, but after the food was consumed more drinks were served and that room of 40-somethings came alive.  They played music that they all listened to in high school and everybody was dancing and having a great time.  My host mom just loves to dance and is really good, so she pulled me onto the dance floor and I did my best to keep up with her.  We danced for a couple of hours and then became extremely exhausted so we went back to Jorn's parents for much deserved sleep.  The next morning Oma and Opa prepared a tasty breakfast of rolls and eggs and then we made our way back to good old Edewecht.
        Monday night Julie, the au pair from California who we visited in Hanover back in September came to visit me and just like before, we hit it off really well.  We ended up staying up late chatting about the crazy emotional ride of being an au pair and being so far from home and all the little stuff that's been challenging to get used to. As with Hannah, I find it so refreshing to talk to girls who know exactly what it's like to do this job.  So Tuesday I had hoped to show Julie around Oldenburg but the weather was a dreadful mix of snow and rain so we decided to stay in.  Elisa joined us and we played cards with Piet and Catrin served us tasty apple cake.  I really appreciated how accommodating my host parents were for my friends.  They really are lovely host parents.  Julie had to leave that night but we have high hopes of traveling again soon.  We've both applied to work the same English camps this summer before returning home, so maybe we'll even get to work together for a while. 
        The rest of the week was pretty normal.  I don't think I mentioned earlier that my German course ended in January and I've decided not to spend the money on another one.  I liked it but it's pricey and the bus money was adding up, and it's already served it's purpose of introducing me to friends, so I'm okay with my decision.  I've still been cleaning the vegetables once a week and have continued to really enjoy it, even if I never know what anyone is saying.  So I did that Wednesday and then Thursday was invited to have dinner at Yvonne's house.  Her parents are absolutely lovely and have graciously opened up their home to Elisa and me, even after we burned popcorn in their kitchen and stunk up the whole apartment : ) We've all clicked really well and have spent a lot of time together these past few days. Friday we went back to her house to watch a soccer game and yesterday we all went to Bremen to meet the buddy we met at Avatar a few weeks ago.  So, my social life has gone from sporadic to constant and busy lately, and I'm absolutely loving it.  I'm happy to be in a group of girls who are all in a new environment and who I think will take very good care of each other.  It's also nice to have Yvonne's parents around.  They've helped manage exchange student programs in the past and understand how it is to be young and in a new country, and are willing to help us out with little things like driving us the little ways home so we don't have to walk on the icy sidewalks.  My host parents have been great about driving me to the bus lately too, but I don't feel comfortable asking them to pick me up when I'm just out for fun.  Good Lord, I'll be happy when the snow and ice are gone though and I can walk around town with out freezing or ice skating.
     After all the girl time I've had lately that hasn't included my old buddy Daniele, I decided to spend today with him for a lovely Sunday drive.  We drove to the north sea in hopes of seeing the sun shine on the harbor, but of course, the sun was hidden.  We ended up spending several hours in a restaurant where only very old people eat and getting lots of funny looks as we giggled about ridiculous English jokes that we just hope no one understood.  We walked in the icy sand to see the water, decided it was really too cold to be outside, and then spent another hour giggling over cappuccinos.  He'd be angry if he knew I was depicting him as a giggly girl, but he really is hilarious and we laugh together a lot.  He's another friend that I'm glad is here to share this experience with.
      So nothing to whine about at all.  I've got a sturdy group of friends at the moment and things are going nicely with my host family.  Piet and I have had some really good days lately and his imagination is getting bigger and bigger so the games are more fun.  We've enjoyed checking out videos on howstuffworks.com so he can see how train engines work. I don't know how much of it he gets, but I'm hoping it will jump start his little mechanical mind.  If he grows up to be a mechanical engineer, I'm taking full credit : )   It's going to be so weird to see him grow up after I leave...hrm, don't want to think about that.
      I hope everyone back home is making it through these bleary months until spring gets here.  I know it will be here before I know it, but warm weather can't come quickly enough.  But, when it gets here the time will fly and I'll have to start again with new friends in new places, and I'm not ready to do that.  I'm trying hard to enjoy every moment here and make the best of it all.  I would appreciate if everyone could keep my future plans in their prayers. I'm still working on my statement of intent for Boston University and I desperately need inspiration in making it grad school worthy.  I'm confident in my blogging skills, but remembering how to write academically is a whole different ball game, especially when I have to talk about myself.  But, it'll get done and I've got faith that I'll end up where I need to be.  Your prayers have gotten me this far so I'm trusting that the future will play out as it should.  I'll keep you all in my prayers too.  Missing and thinking about ya, can't wait to see you again soon!