It's never to early for a little Christmas cheer

I've been stuggling a bit to get back into things the last couple days. I was a little dissapointed that I didn't exactly feel happy to be back in Munich like I was hoping I would. But in Oslo it was nice having Phil to talk to and meeting his friends, and in Berlin it was nice having Caroline to talk to and meeting other Fulbrighters and then coming back here.... no one to talk to, no good friends, no one to pick me up at the station and welcome me home. I miss all my friends at home horribly, especially Chelsea and Alexis (I hope you two are saving up your money, because you better come visit me!!!). And I miss all my friends who are scattered around the country and the globe, I'm looking forward to Shannon and Jackie possibly visiting in the spring. I feel so disconnected and like it was crazy to ever want to go off and spend a year an ocean away from everyone I care about. Sigh. School's been fine, I just still feel like I'm not particularily needed. It's getting better and teachers are asking me to do more now, but it's still kind of awkward and I don't always know where to go when and what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh, side note, yesterday I was leading a discussion on alternative energy sources and writing notes on the board and I made not one, not two, but THREE spelling mistakes during the class which the teacher corrected. Brilliant Anne, way to know you're own native language... Anyway besides my terrible spelling, things are improving and I'm looking forward to seeing my conversation class again on Thursday. As far as my social life, I just have to get back in gear, several more people e-mailed me about being language partners... so I guess I'll be meeting some new people! and Peter and I are going to a museum or something together this weekend I think. I did have dinner with Katie last night, which was nice. In my effort to reaclimate to Bavarian culture I made Spaetzle with cheese, it was tasty.

Anyway, I was sitting around my messy room not wanting to do anything this afternoon and I finally decided to go to the grocery store just to get out for a bit and there I found these adorable little lights:

I came home and hung them on my window and I'm now feeling considerably better about being back. It's amazing what a few little plastic snowmen can do for my moral... I'm pretty excited about being here for the Christmas season. For all their whining about American commercialism they sure go all out for Christmas here, there's been Christmas stuff in the stores for a few weeks now already, before Halloween was over even. In a few weeks the Christmas markets will be opening up which I'm really excited for. Gluehwein is so delicious... Also in about a month and a half the Schwalbe family will be diving into Munich, much like our namesake, the swallow. I'm a little sad to not be going home for the holidays where I could see everyone... but I'm super excited to show my family around Munich and it's nice that they will get to see where I'm spending the year.

Hmm, maybe I should clean up around here... nah, feels homier with a few piles of clothes on the floor. I think I'll turn on some Christmas music and look at my happy little snowmen for a while :)