Steph's year in Tübingen: January 2006

Jo & Jeremy told me to write this

Jo and Jeremy are the best house guests ever. They are very clean and tidy, chip in for everything, and wash up very well. They are looking for accommodation on people's floors all over Europe... Any offers leave us a comment!

Let's talk about the weather

This one is for all of you reading my blog from Australia.

It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cold here.

The end.

The last month

I'll be home in one month today.

Anyone who wants to come over to Germany with an empty suitcase, to then help me carry my stuff home, is more than welcome to visit! Malaysia Airlines rejected my very polite request to be allowed to take excess baggage home next month. Gotta pack it all up and post it then!

It's so cold here that we are storing our ice cream on the windowsill at the moment... And the buses stop running from time to time when the rain or snow freezes on the streets and it's too slippery.

Can't think of any goss, except that it seems to be wedding season at the moment and I am looking forward to quite a few of my friends' weddings this year! Never really thought that would come around, did I...

Also can't wait to hit the beach when I get back to Australia (don't care if it's already "autumn") and go bush with my tent... I am going stir crazy in these constantly heated buildings where every public space is filled with cigarette smoke!

But when my assignment is finished in 1 week I am definitely going to be making the most of my last three weeks in Germany. There will be an excursion or a party every single day, don't you worry!

Back to the grind, for 2 weeks at least ;)

Yes, it has come around to that time again. My major assignment is due in two weeks, or 12 days, or something like that. It's SO hard to get motivated! I have this tiny bedroom where I sleep, eat and work too. It's too small! And the research itself involves a lot of translating... Ahh enough about that. I'm even boring myself

It snowed last night for the first time in a few weeks, so instead of dirty puddles of snow (the type commonly to be seen at Perisher in Australia) we have a white blanket over everything again. The average temps at the moment are about -6 overnight up to 2 during the day if we're lucky. The Neckar river has started to freeze over, which is most exciting!

My grandparents are now on the cruise ship (click to see the webcam!) somewhere on the Atlantic on their way to the Caribbean after a few food-filled days in Tuebingen. This is a picture of us at the Tuebingen Castle after visiting the surprisingly interesting Archaeology Museum there that belongs to my uni (free entry for the students)!

On the food front, I am still going through my Tim Tams, and this week have cooked a really tasty Pad Thai dish and a chicken lasagne. Tonight might be Schupfnudeln (translated in some German restaurants as "finger noodles") with a creamy mushroom and smoked salmon sauce.

And I also made cocktails with Absolut Vanilia, pineapple juice, and some triple sec imitation i found for under €4. We snuck ice cube moulds into our flatmate's freezer (we don't have one) so we even had ice cubes in the cocktails, albeit in limited supply: one ice cube per drink.

It is surprising what you can do with our dodgy student kitchens if you really put in the effort - this is Susie & my attempt to make gingerbread houses for Christmas!

So, only 2 weeks til Jo and Jeremy come to visit! (I hope you guys get a chance to sleep on the plane because I have so much planned for our couple of weeks together!!! I hope you like castles and thermal baths and views of the alps and....)

And then when they leave, it's only a few days til I fly home. Wow.

Chilly Christmas trip

Just got back from my Christmas trip to Prague, Krakow (in Poland), Vienna and Munich. The snow storms caused one of my trains to run 160 minutes late, and the cold meant that, for example, this Viennese swan only had a tiny hole left in its pond that wasn't frozen solid!