So, because of my camera not having batteries, I have a big back-lash of photos. In any case, my last couple posts were so text-heavy that perhaps it is not a bad idea to have some pics... 

Below is from a couple weeks ago: Look at that gorgeous loaf of bread!! Yeah, my best so far. This day was rockin'. We stayed in PJs, I made that gorgeous loaf of bread. Around 1pm or so we decided to watch Star Wars Episode 1 (en francais--super hilarious). Then we got a little hungry so we paused the film and made up some delish pasta with spinache/zucchini tomato sauce. There was a little cheese lacking so we went with the only cheese in the fridge: gorgonzola. UNREAL GOOD! Highly recommend it. The cheese gets all melty and excellent... Oh man. 

And then we watched more Star Wars. 

And then I went for a good long run, came back super tired (which, strangely, is a great feeling). And then we had that delish loaf with cheese, salad etc. 

And then we watched Star Wars Episode 2 en francais. An all-round win of a day off. 

This, my friends, is a beautiful gluten-free lactose-free Linsen Torte made for our very own Felix's birthday. I think I mentioned it before: Sebastian's birthday specialty! Although the gluten/lactose free thing was a twist. But it was generally well received...

... at this party for this birthday boy depicted below. And I am simply delighted, clearly.

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And another cake: this was not intentional. 

Everyone had been telling us we must go try Stefan's Käse Kuchen from the Münster Markt. Finally, with Theresa (a friend of Sebastian's that I actually met last year in France!), bought some and I ate an entire third (thought I would never want to see it again, but in fact, I am going to have a little more just now--so good! Although David, you still make the best, obvs). 

And this is the Cathedral that looks over the market... I felt like such a tourist taking this photo. But iam a resident! For realz!

 ...the "Markt"...

And now begins an epic tale of fire, bananas, and ice cream. Oh yes. 

It begins with rum, carefully poured out...

And here is the fearless hero preparing himself for this feat of bravery (in fact, this was a "before" picture, just in case something dire happened).

AND THEN FIRE! Oh man. That was super cool. 

And successful, the hero looks over his handiwork.

Aha. It kind of looks disgusting. But it was sooooooo delicious! Bananas, rum (but not for long), walnuts, sugar, margarine...

... and ice cream... with everything. 

And finally, a new discovery: eggs on pizza. I cannot take credit, it was Sebastian's genius and I was even doubtful at first. But in fact, it was fantastic. 

And that's all for now! See you next time on (what seems to have become) Janet's home-cooked food review.

Peace and all good things.

Oh man. I have started this post at least three times and then interrupted myself because I think Sebastian's about to arrive home from practicing. Each time it is just the folks downstairs opening and closing doors.

So much has happened since my last post! I have a certificate that says A2 on it from my language course (yoohoo!) and Sebastian and I sang in a super cool concert yesterday. It was a series of really challenging (as in also challenging listening) pieces set within Stravinsky's Mass (did he have more than one? I don't know...). The first was a choir piece but it was entirely sounds that one would not have likely interpreted as singing, although the choir was reading from a score. The effect was a jungle-like atmosphere where the sounds of animals or water would crescendo and decrescendo as dramatically as any classical choir composition. The second was an organ piece of a similar nature in that it absolutely stretched the bounds of what one would consider music. I particularly enjoyed watching the face of a perplexed and then disgruntled woman in the audience. There was then a percussion piece, again along the same lines, and then the Poulenc I had described earlier which, by comparison, was like a melodic folk song. I love reading far too much into these sorts of things, but indulge me. The Stravinsky Mass is itself challenging--it is an old and sacred text, but his chords are far from certain or comfortable. It did not challenge the text for me, but rather demanded that it get a new attention. By setting within this Mass pieces that very much challenged the definition of musical performance, there was an opportunity to ask one's self who is God? What is God's Creation? It is not confined to Amen cadences (IV to I) or to traditional interpretations. It is far more encompassing and wild. I feel like I may not be able to go much further without wild hand gestures, stopping and starting, half finished sentences and, finally, the wish that you too had been there to experience the music. In any case, here is what is important: God is far more than we could ever imagine... limitless and all inclusive...

And I love it when art, music in this case, challenges and opens the and imagination. So good.

Today, Sebastian and I made Semmelknödel. These are delicious bread dumplings made from rock solid, stale buns, eggs, parsley and milk. Normally they should be served with a meaty dish or some sort, but we didn't have any such thing so instead, I sauteed zucchini in a white wine, onion and garlic sauce. Pretty good, if I may say so myself.

Here below are the Semmelknödel simmering away with the onions frying up for the sauce.

And here is an authentic Bavarian displaying his excitement: a veritable stamp of approval. 

And should you be ridiculously jealous, here is the recipe we used! Super delish. 

And now he's home. Hurrah! Tomorrow I will buy batteries for my camera and then I can take more pictures... And then tell you more of the kick-ass stuff that goes on here : )

In the mean-time, Peace and all good things. 

OK, just a quick one before I go to bed. Today I had a two-hour rehearsal with a choir at Sebastian's school. There is a concert this week-end and they have been generous enough to include me, which a great because I love, love, love singing. We are doing a Stravinsky mass and also excerpts from Poulenc's Figure Humaine. Here's a link to a YouTube playlist of the BBC choir doing some, if you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A04BzES-xRY&playnext=1&list=PLF6B0C06D87E1019F

Sometimes the language thing is a little frustrating because often the words a conductor uses to ask for a certain sound are very carefully selected--language is so complex and subtle. Of course, I am pretty pumped when I can pick up which bar we are going from. Nevertheless, there is something universal and wonderful about music.

It makes me think of Pentecost which was interesting this year for me as language is such a theme. But in fact, I loved being able to recognize the gospel, despite not understanding every word. "Peace be with you. As the Father sends me, so I send you." No matter what language, God is always calling us to share in and be instruments of Peace.

Also today Asami shared her beautiful home-made rice-balls with me in class. I think next time I make bread, I will bring her some too. What a good day--shared food, shared music...


In any case, I am off to bed. Shall I post one more picture? I think so.

This is me after I tried running the Freiburg Half-Marathon route. I did it (21km) in about 2hr45min. And since then, I have decided I want to try training for a full marathon. So, I have been following a training program for about three weeks now and yesterday I did 20km in 2hr18min! Yoohooo!

And with that, I wish you Peace and everything good. Guten Nacht!

I am sooo bad at this. Apparently I deleted my first set of photos. So let me try again. 

Also, we had some visitors! Two students from Finland were staying with us. One was auditioning at the Hochschule and her brother came with her. Not only that, the day of her audition was also her birthday! Sebastian made a beautiful cake, a “Linsen Torte” for the occasion. It is a torte with a ground nut crust and a jam filling: most delicious.

One evening was spent playing Kuh Handel. You probably don’t know the game. It consists of auctionning animals and building up a farm. That sounds simple and perhaps uninteresting but it gets rather intense and Sebastian and I are terribly competitative. In any case, the birthday girl won! Which was rather fitting. 

The next we played Monoply didn't finish because they had to leave super early this morning. They were really really sweet and it was super fun to have guests. 

OK, back to photos.

Below, a favourite and happy snack. Our Finnish visitor said he had never tasted the like. 

We ride our bikes everywhere. Mine is so awesome: a present from Sebastian's dad. 

This is my first pic from Germany. We moved pretty much all our stuff in a smart car and it was packed to the gills!

And our keys with matching L'Arche key-chains : )

Here's a picture from a little way up the mountain. You can see Münster in the background! I heard today that the whole city was quite bombed but the pilot with the instruction to bomb the cathedral simply couldn't because it was too beautiful. 

Typical breakfast: Muslix, apple, yoghurt, cinnamon, coffee, and sunshine.

A little side-ways but so sassy. 

... bike-trip supplies: local carrots and chocolate...

And that's all for now. Guten Nacht!!

So my last post I had no idea what I was doing with the photos. That's way they were so random. But this time I have tried to be a little better organized and I will explain a little for each. I received some feedback that I should put up more photos of the apartment. So I have... Way way way too many, but you asked for it : )

This morning, Sebastian and I met some of the people from my German class at Munster Platz. The class is so cool because we are all from completely different places. Below is a picture of us all with our teacher. We are from Japan, China, Portugal, Chile, Belgium, and Canada. 

Later we walked around the town a little and kept seeing little kids playing with boats in the wee canals that line the streets. I wanted to get a picture but I didn't want to come across as a creepy tourist taking photos of children. Luckily, we found a boat ourselves so I only had to look like a lame tourist taking a cute picture of my boyfriend. He is very obliging. Also notice the spinach purchased fresh from the market. Home-made feta/garlic/spinach pizza has become somewhat of a staple. Mmmm.....

And now begin the endless apartment photos. I wasn't kidding. I started in the most important room: the kitchen where we certainly spend the majority of our waking hours. You can see our lovely basil plant as well as roses that our Finnish guests gave us. 

Again, the kitchen... Note the bottom shelf: homemade rolls and the all-important coffee-cone! 

...more kitchen. I told you it was important!

The shower is small but utterly functional. 

I always forget to turn on the water heater (which is on the left below). But sometimes a cold shower is oddly refreshing. No problem-o!

Now begin the notice how may sky-lights we have! That is a great feature of a third floor apartment. So much light!

The living-room is a little sparse. The cord hanging in the corner is awaiting a TV that is still in Bayreuth... Sehr wichtig für mein Deutsch!

This is the view from the living room skylight. That is Schloßberg in the background. 

And our excellent green pull-out couch... Come and visit!

Bathroom. Sebastian decided I should be in some of these apartment pictures. So here I am. 

Another skylight, this time the bathroom one.

And our bedroom! With the humungous bed that we bought from a Turkish used furniture store--well the frame that is. The salesman looked like he was out of the Godfather, but the frame is beautiful And not expensive and came with a side table! Joohoo!

Another skylight!

We haven't a clothes wardrobe so I cleverly covered us each a set of Ikea shelves. 

This is the view out the front of our bedroom. This side faces west. The kitchen side faces east.

Stadtstraße!

I love, love, love having beautiful music in the house. And I love, love, love this musician!

This is the half-floor landing area...

This is our white board where we write all sorts of things. Right now, it has on it a message from our Finnish guests that they left just before they departed.

The "front" door. 

The view as soon as you walk in...

And me!