Schneeee!

It's been such a beautiful winter. We've had lovely white snow since before Christmas which remains lovely and white because we get always get new layers to cover up the gray and brown yucky yuck (not to mention the yellow spots from the neighborhood dogs). Up until a couple weeks ago, it hadn't even been too cold. Now I rarely leave without my long underwear, but hey, it does the trick! The Hamburgers keep telling us how unbelievable the weather has been this winter, as winter here usually consists of constant gloomy gray drizzle. Last Saturday was especially gorgeous.

It started on Friday night as I walked home late late from the bus stop after my second to last performance in the midst of huge white flakes falling softly everywhere. It was gorgeous. Gorgeous. The air was so fresh and clean and quiet that I walked extra slowly to take in as much of it as possible.


There was another similar evening a week or so before that, during which I made Liz Chase come outside and make snow angels with me behind our dorm. Snow angels then got a little violent and a mini Schneeballschlacht occurred, which I think did us both good. Sometimes a snow angel and a few snowballs are all you need to get back on track. I'm sure all the people watching us out their windows thought we were nuts, which is only partly false.

But anyway, I awakened the next morning to an incredible blue-skied and sunny Winterwunderland. It was magical, even from the top of the fire escape at the end of my hall.

The view from my kitchen. The big building across the street is an elementary school that is currently celebrating its 175th anniversary.

Looking down my street in the mid-afternoon sun.

A few of us Smithies decided it was the perfect day to walk down to the Alster (big lake in the middle of the city), as we'd heard the ice was thick enough to walk on. When we arrived in Hamburg, everyone told us that if we were lucky, this would happen, though it hadn't frozen over in more than ten years. Our first glimpse of the Alster that Saturday took my breath away. As it turned out, over a thousand other Hamburgers had the same idea as we did.


The lake was covered in wonder-filled people. They were walking, skipping, sledding, pushing baby strollers, biking, flying kites, drinking hot beverages, clearing patches of snow off for skating and sliding, everything they could think of to express their joy at this spectacular natural phenomenon. There were lots of dogs of various sizes dressed in various silly jackets that looked like they had died and gone to doggie heaven, well, all except for one teeny Chihuahua that looked terrified as it tried to navigate around the cavernous footprints. I decided not to mention growing up on a lake that was covered in ice shacks, trucks, and plowed by giant snow plows. Didn't want to steal their thunder.


The feeling of giddiness was infectious. I was especially tickled to see giant flocks of birds flying through the sky, though I couldn't tell whether they were joining the party or peacing out.

Once back on a bridge overlooking it all, I realized what the scene reminded me of and couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner.

Why, it looked exactly like a scene out of a Where's Waldo? book!

Amazing. This adventure happened just a couple hours before the last theatrical performance, as detailed in my last post. It was a long day, but a beautiful one.

Lastnight Liz Chase and I decided to make a hearty vegetarian chili. The final product was spectacular - a real thing of beauty. On top of the basic chili recipe, we threw in all the older veggies from our fridge, fake German salsa, taco seasoning, and the leftover spiced sweet potatoes from the gastronomical delight of the night before - Sweet Potato and Brie Quesadillas. (We were too hungry and they were too delicious to be photographed - make them!) But anyway, I also made cheddar garlic biscuits (a.k.a. the crack biscuits from Red Lobster) to go along with Liz' chili masterpiece. Yummmm.

What? You want a close-up of that beautiful beautiful biscuit? No problem!

Tonight I made cornbread to go with the chili leftovers. The flavors of homemade chili and warm cornbread (the middle piece, undoubtably) made me feel incredibly nostalgic, as it's a family winter staple meal that would often last for many days at a time. Nostalgia has actually popped in to visit quite often in the past couple weeks as my first round of homesickness has finally hit after over five months. Nothing terrible, just gotta keep on trekkin'.