15 or 30 cm?

Well here's a funny difference between the US and Germany: I went to Subway for lunch and when it was my turn to place my order the girl asked, "15 or 30 centimeters?" It caught me off guard at first, but then I realized she was asking me 6 inch or footlong? Ha. Loving that...

Wednesday, we both took our German driving exam and passed. There are a LOT of signs and things to know. Right of way, right before left (not to be confused with right of way), and priority road signs are neverending. Plus, when a stoplight is red here, you get a brief yellow light before the green light. I found out it's a "get ready" signal. 95% of all cars here are manual transmissions and that's their cue to shift into gear and be ready to go. Very different, but again, makes perfect sense.

Sam began teaching Thursday. I was offered (and accepted) a kindergarten position Thursday. I filled out all my paperwork Friday and begin teaching Monday! WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!

In the meantime, Sam's and my sponsor, Ed, who has turned into a tourguide, took me to Rothenburg Thursday.

All the streets looked like this. It's an extremely old walled city, dating back to approximately the 1100's. It has been well preserved and is quite a sight. Soooooooooooo gorgeous.

We are finally adjusting to the new time zone. We've stopped napping in the afternoon and can now stay awake till around 8:30 or 9 when we absolutely go into a coma till 6 am.

The food is soooo delicious. Pork is a big deal here. Hello...we do live in Schweinfurt. (Schwein = Swine = pig) I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Our hotel gives us scrambled eggs at breakfast each morning and there's always some cheese melted in along with little bits of juicy cut up bacon and ham. YUM.

I've had a sudden and rather harsh interuption in my sugar intake. I've been using splenda for years now, but my tastebuds are really having to adjust to a less sweet diet. I eat yogurt each morning and both strawberry and plain is offered but neither are sweet...or at least not compared to American yogurt. I add granola, raisins, coconut, flax seed, applesauce and berries to it, which gives it a much more satisfying sweetness, but even real sodas here don't seem as sweet. Sam thought it odd that there were brownies out for breakfast, but once he tasted it, there certainly couldn't have been much caloric damage going on. It was as if there were no sweetener in them. Plus, they weren't all buttery ooey-gooey fudgy like we think of them...much more cake-like.

On the way home from dinner tonight at Brahaus am Markt (Brewhouse on the Market) we noticed a McDonald's down the block. We didn't go in there, but wondered...do they offer a Euro Value menu? I guess we'll check it out if we get to feeling homesick for some junky, American fast food.

tschüs ("choos") = see you!