I am so glad it's Sunday. Yesterday felt like Sunday, but I am glad I can just relax all day today and worry about work tomorrow. We have yet to go to Heidelberg. I really want to go, but it's just the commitment of all of us to head there. Maybe next weekend I will feel inspired and more willing to get out of my warm bed. It is snowing right now :) Love it. 

Thursday and Friday were pretty crazy and busy with a few rude people here and there. We still have yet to get our visas. We were supposed to do it about 2 weeks ago, but we don't have a car and our Project Coordinator (PC) isn't around. So a very kind man named Leonard has been helping us out tremendously. So on thursday our PC came to help us with the visas, we get to the building, which was only open Mon, Wed, and Fridays, so we were out of luck then. After a disappointing effort, we returned back to work. After work we booked our reservation for PARIS. we are heading there Friday the 13th and heading back Monday the 16th. YAY YAY YAY. Alex's friend lives there and she studied there for a year or so, so it will be nice to have someone take us around.

Friday, we tried to get the visas again. This time our PC was not with us, but Leonard came to pick us up at the Center where everyone is except me (my old center where we trained.) So we worked for about an hour or so, then Leonard took us around. I forgot my passport so we had to stop back at the apts. We finally get to the place where we get the visas, but it was the wrong building, so we go to the right building, which is right next door. A nice American man told us what we needed to do (he was trying to get a visa too). We needed our pictures taken, but the machine at the building wasn't working, so we had to go to the train station, the machine was being silly, but we finally got our pictures. So we head back to the visa building enter one of the rooms (the rooms are split up by last names), we went into the A's room, where a man exited swearing in German, I think. He was not very happy. So we walked in and asked the sitting at the desk if he spoke english, he said no. We got Leonard, who was waiting for us in the car to translate for us. (Leonard is from Cleveland, but he has been living in Germany for the past 17 years. We always joke to each other about the Cleveland/Pittsburgh rivalry, but I always win because the Steelers are better.) Mike asks Leonard to explain to him that we are here for a semester, so we need an extension, hence the visa. Leonard says to us "he understands you," we all look at each other, one of us says.... "he told us he doesn't speak english..." Silence.... Leonard asks the man if he speaks english.... the man says "yes..." I think all of us in that room rolled our eyes, even the english speaking german visa man, but he doesn't look up, he kept staring at his computer as we all stared at each other. The guy leaves to go talk to someone else for a minute, then comes back and hands us papers that we need to fill out and bring back, which are all in german. As we leave Leonard tells the man thank you and to have a nice weekend, the man says nothing and doesn't even look at him...

As we were leaving Leonard says; if you guys weren't here I would have given him a piece of my mind. Then continues saying that although most of the younger germans speak english because of schooling, they don't want to and become rude about it because all they hear about americans is on the news, but the older germans are very nice and accomadating to americans because of how much we helped them in the war. Very interesting I think, just to experience the generational differences. 

After our experience at the visa office, we head back to work. Although, I head back to my tiny center on the other base. I ended up being in the infant room for the rest of the day. There was only 3 babies but IT WAS HARD WORK. I was telling them that I am not having kids after that experience. Alex, Megan and Trent ended up having to work till midnight that night, so mike and I decided to go explore the night life a little bit. That was totally unsuccessful as we got lost in downtown Wiesbaden and randomly ending up at familiar places, which was pleasantly surprising, but I would not have been able to tell you where or how in the world we got there. It was fun none the less. Saturday was relaxing and uneventful. We headed to the train station and mall to see if we could get minutes on our phone. I gave up. My legs hurt from walking around so much. I am bummed that we didn't go to Heidelberg yet, but I have about 3 and a half months to head there so I am not really worried I am going to run out of time. 

Monday, mike and I have to work because we didn't work friday night, but alex trent and megan get monday off because they did. I think that is pretty fair. 

I will write later with more stories.

I miss home, and mashed potatoes. Love you all.