But Scotty Doesn't Know, Scotty Doesn't Know

Ballet class in Germany is something completely other what I have been used to. All in German (of course) and with perfectly accented french terms. Getting used to the terminology has been difficult, but it's teaching me a lot. The latest of my discoveries has been "spielbein", which means "play leg" . . . for which we say "working leg" -- pretty cool! I take class with a former Hamburg Ballet ballerina named Ulrike. Since September, I have never seen her use a student as a good example (bad -- yes), because she is so talented. But today, she picked me! She told me to come to the front and do the whole exercise for the class. Yay!
Monday I went to Bremerhaven (4.5 hours away one direction) in order to visit the Auswanderer Haus. It was an incredible museum -- Ellis Island on steroids. At the end, it was grat because there was a research center with 5 different databases for me to look up our relatives. I found my great great great grandparents Sigmund & Anna Renz's immigration records from 1872 when they left Bremerhaven. At least, it appears to be them. I also found records of my great great gandparents Steven & Teresa Petrovitch and their immigration out of Bremerhaven in 1905 and 1906. It was an incredible feeling.

Other events of note since Sunday:
-My stammtisch guys told me they couldn't believe a "girl like [me] could be single for so long"
-Wolf whistled at by my 10th grade guys . . . wearing my purple coat and baggy jeans
-Sean locked himself out of his apartment, without a wallet or cell phone. Came to my place to call Julian (and chill out) but it turned out my cell phone was out of minutes. When Julian called back later, he thought it was me (as it was my phone) and I happily told him that it was Sean who was the idiot of the day . . . for once. hehe

On Sunday night:
I feel fantastic. Albeit tired. I just got back from a 3 mile run and made myself some dinner, which I am thoroughly enjoying. Elle Woods was so right in saying that people who have high endorphine levels are happy -- because coming back from running I always feel great -- no way I could ever kill my (non-existent) husband. Downside: it leaves you a little confused. As in, I'm trying to remember the things I wanted to tell you in this blog, but can't. Hmmmm. If I wrote about everything that's happened, in detail, you'd be reading forever. Sooo here are some bullets:
-Sunday we took Eileen to Cron & Lanz after mass. Then we hung out for a bit and put her on a train back to der Nahe von Heppenheim.
-Saturday went with Eileen, Sean and Andrea to Hamburg for a few hours where we met up with Caitlin and had a great time walking around for a few hours, before heading back same night. Exhausted, we chilled out and watched Eurotrip.
-Friday Eileen arrived and we got caught up, which was amazing! Later Sean and I showed her Goettingen and then we made a stupendous American brunch that we shared with Julian. Went out to see Twilight in English and then out to Thanners.
-Thursday Philipp finished his law degree so Sean, Julian, Tina the rugby guys, etc. and I celebrated -- it was great. Night included 90s music, Resevoir Dogs, "Polynesian" through the Uni library, Rac's interpretive theater stuck, Irish Pub
-Wednesday I went to the Deutsches Theater with Eva and Sabine and we saw Der Menschenfiend by Moliere. It was modern-ly staged and they spoke way too fast for me to understand.
-Tuesday we showed "Super Size Me" to our Stammtisch, which was hysterical. Bad news is that a Doener is about 1200 calories. No Saturated Fat, though! Afterwards, I went to the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in the Altes Rathaus. A Dutch survivor gave a speech about how he was hidden, which I didn't totally understand, but it was interesting. Later, Sean & I ate baklava and watched The Fall, which was an incredible film that I will purchase.
-My 8th grade class with Arne is making me speak Bayerisch whenever they do well on class tests. crew-tsee-feex = crucifix
-Sunday went to Mehmet (my new Turkish tutee)'s house to meet his family. Was concerned about returning unknowingly married, but ended up just eating delicious kurdish food, hearing a lot of Turkish/Kurdish and speaking German with the father who can barely speak it. Mehmet is super enthusiastic and very excited to be working with me.