Today was the last day of my first session of German class (I am signed up for the next session, so this is my half-way mark).  We celebrated with a little party, in which everyone brought food from their home country.

 

I know, right?

Here I am with a couple of my classmates, Mary and Liz.  Mary is from Pakistan, and Liz is from America.  I am sad that Liz won't be continuing with the course, but I have her info so we can get together. 

This class has been so good for me.  I semi-dreaded it, but now that I am half done, I am a little sad that it is passing so quickly.  I have met some absolutely delightful people!

I wish it were possible to photograph a sound, since that is really what this post is about.

This church is up the street from my house, and the thing I love about it is that the church bells ring every hour.  I don't always notice it, but when I do, it makes me smile.

BYU had the bell tower that chimed, and I could also hear church bells from our house in MI.  Something about them just makes me feel grounded and at peace.  I think the soundtrack of my life should always include church bells.

Meine Hausaufgaben

I don't have a ton of homework for my German class, but I do have a little to do everyday.  It's not bad as long as I have a glass of Coke Zero close-at-hand.

Today when Jessica got home from school, she flopped down on the couch and proceeded to tell me all the things I am doing to ruin her life.  It was super fun.

After a while, it got downright comical (but not in a good way), so I grabbed my camera to document the moment.  This only made her more grumpy.

The good thing was that me standing there with my camera waiting for her to move the pillow made her mad enough to get off the couch and storm up to her room.  I didn't miss her.

Today was one of those perfect autumn days, and Pepper and Adam made the most of it by heading to the park for a pick-up soccer game.

Dad's homemade salsa is a Sunday tradition at our house, and everyone gets involved in the Salsa-making Factory.  Brad upped his game today by making fresh guacamole, too.  Me gusta!

Tonight, we went to the musical put on by the YSA's in our stake to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Berlin Stake.  It was quite entertaining;  they had a slide show with photos, newspaper clippings, etc for each decade since 1961, then they would do a song and dance number to showcase that decade.  

 This stellar pose was from "Footloose", the number they did to celebrate the 1980's.  It was delightful, but I did take issue with their costumes.  We did not look that dorky in the 80's!  

(Or did we?  Now that I think about it, there were an unfortunate amount of mullets and side-ponies...)

I also have to include a photo of this number showcasing the Stasi.  Apparently before the Berlin Wall fell, church members were occasionally allowed into East Berlin to attend youth events.  However, they were usually accompanied by Stasi, the DDR's secret police.  

I live here and everything seems so normal (for the most part), so I forget that not too long ago Berlin was such a different world.  Amazing.