I wish I could wake up every day and see mountains again...

It has been quite the strange week here, and I apologize for not writing a blog post sooner. Writing a blog post for me, by the way, takes on average about three hours. Blocking out three hours of time where I'm not working or exhausted or needing a break is hard!

But I was able to have from noon on off yesterday, so I decided, because the weather was so nice, that I was going to do something fun. I was determined to see mountains. And real mountains. Not the Appalachian kind. So I jumped two trains, total of two hours, and landed in the middle, literally, of the Bavarian Alps. It was an experience I have been waiting to have since I was in Jackson Hole, WY where I was waking up everyday to an extension of the Teton Mountains. (You know how some people want to get lost in the woods? I want to get lost in the mountains.) I really wanted to hike an Alp, but I didn't want to be out too late, and these mountains were a bit too tall. In fact, I saw the tallest mountain in Germany: the Zugspitze, measuring in at 2,962 meters (9717.847 ft)! I had the option of taking a trip up, but it was 24 Euros, more than the round trip ticket was to get there and back from Munich! The surrounding towns: Garmisch, Partenkirchen, and Grainau were absolutely gorgeous with so much to see and do. There were so many little stores and restaurants, it would take me a very long time to explore them all. I got to go for a nice walk around, spent maybe three hours or so there. This may not seem like a very long time, but unfortunately, it is only March still, and the sun has a thing with setting on the early side, and with a setting sun comes cooler weather. I will be going back, don't you worry. I still plan on hiking an Alp. Also, included with the pictures below I have provided a map (courtesy, obviously, of Google Maps) showing you where I was in respect to Munich, and then where I was in respect to Austria (the Austrian border is literally at the top of the mountains). I want to visit Salzburg!

Alps from Garmisch.

Walking a little closer to Alps...

Welcome sign...

There it is: the Zugspitze!

Went for nice walk around. Lots of farm-like land.

Found this waterfall run-off during my walk.

This was my view from the train station before I went back home. So beautiful.

Okay so "A" is Zugspitze, Munich is clearly labeled, and the red line that I marked is the border of Austria. Cool, huh?

Let's talk about time change, shall we? Many of you, I say many because not all areas in the U.S. and the world practice the time change, experienced "spring forward" and lost an hour of sleep. Well, I found out this week that Europe does do the time change as well... two weeks or so after the U.S..  The States have their time change the second Sunday in March, and in most European countries, the last Sunday in March. There is not necessarily a reason for this, it just is. Now, there are three "countries" in Europe that do not practice Daylight Savings Time, and those countries are Belarus, Iceland, and Russia. Iceland does not do this because of their location on the Earth, and with the amount of hours of actual sunlight they get the time change would mean very little (the idea is similar to northern Alaska getting 20+ hours of sunlight in the summer). Belarus and Russia underwent their final time change last spring (spring 2011), and have decided not to continue with the process. Now I said "countries" in quotations because there has been quite the debate over whether Russia is an Asian or European country. If you look at Russia on a map, it clearly looks as though it belongs to Asia. However, anthropologically speaking, the physical features and culture of that of Russia compares more to that of a European country, not to mention Russia seems to define itself with Europe more. So which is it? Winston Churchill said, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. But perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” Russians themselves are trying to decipher their future, as told by Russia, Beyond the Headlines. So there's a bit of fascinating history for you today!

Moving on, Paris is still on my list of things to do. The hotel that I cancelled with in Athens did refund my money, and therefore I will hopefully have enough for either the hotel or the trip there, and with the money I make here I can cover the other side. The host mother gave me the days in late May that I can take off, and because Paris is a bit on the expensive side, I am hoping that I can travel to Venice during this time as well! It is a lot of fun for me to live my dream of traveling, and more so now after being in the Alps. Experience is something that American culture has really downplayed because everyone is so focused on "who they are" and "right now." I see this oftentimes with American celebrities. They do a charitable event in Africa, talk about it for a small magazine page or a ten minute news interview, people say, "oh how very nice," then wonder what movie they'll do next. It's a very sad, but unfortunately a very true aspect of our culture. I am a firm believer of charitable work, having done a lot of it myself. When I was younger, I really thought that charitable work was stupid because you don't physically get anything out of it. But you do and it's more than just something to put on your resume. It's something that opens your eyes and lets you know that someone really does have it worse than you, and you're making a difference even if you help one person. Or animal, as the case may be. I would like to, while I'm here, to see if there is an animal shelter that will let me adopt a dog for a day so that the children can have fun playing fetch and running around and all the fun things that children like to do with animals. My host family tells me they'd really like to have a dog, but they say they don't know who will take care of it during their vacations, which are numerous. (The children tell me I can take care of it while they're gone. I was half flattered because I think it was partially a way of telling me they'd like me to stay around for a while, but I was half offended because I'm not exactly here to do that.)

Back to food. I did end up making the vegetarian Reubens and they are delicious! I have one more serving left, then tomorrow I will be making a black beans and black rice dish that I am very much looking forward to. Yesterday I made "Oatmeal Energy Bars" which are delicious, but I forgot to add the peanut butter which would have made them a little more moist. (After tasting them though, I'm glad I didn't add the peanut butter. It would have made the flavor a little funny. Cashew or macadamia butter would have been better.) I don't have a picture for the Reubens, but I have a picture for the bars, shown below. I love to cook!

Yum! The recipe was so easy too: basically, 3 cups oats (you can use gluten-free), 1 cup milk (you can use dairy free), 1 egg (you can substitute ground flax seed), 1/2 cup coconut flakes, 1/2 cup pureed dates, 1/2 cup nut butter, 1/2 cup (or less) agave syrup, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix all together until cookie dough like consistency, then press into very lightly oiled square glass baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celcius) for 25-30 minutes. Very healthy for you, too!

As I said before, it has been a very strange week for me. First I found a few swollen lymph nodes on my person which made me nervous (they are gone now), I discovered that the bicycle that is reserved for au pair usage is broken and not worth repair, the cleaning lady had off on Monday which effectively meant I cleaned for her, the host mother told me that I need to take better care of my bathroom (note: my bathroom was clean. I had no idea that the little drain thing in the tub could be unscrewed and therefore all of my really long hair be removed, and apparently my toilet bowl wasn't perfectly spotless. Because of those things she essentially told me I didn't clean it well enough), and I can't seem to kick this virus as I am still coughing and not sleeping that great. I find myself low on energy and it's very hard for me to get myself out of it. So that being said, what did I do with the children? I decided to set up an obstacle course in the play room and time the children to see how fast they could go. Wow. I had no idea they'd love it so much. It was a lot of fun actually, and we did this for quite a while. We also experienced some really great weather this week, and I got to play with the kids and the girl across the street outside for a while. The two youngest children haven't really felt that great this week (the littlest girl actually started throwing up yesterday while I was gone) so I decided to introduce origami. The children really loved making things out of paper, and I'm learning that the children like me for doing these things. I have included these sites to share with you in case you are interested in some origami for yourself:

Monkey and the Mountain

Jumping Frog

Face Changer

Glider

I have discovered another really neat craft project to do with the children and I will provide pictures and information on it when I do it. I was also able to show half of Aladdin to the children, in English. Nothing like celebrating 20 years of "A Whole New World" (Aladdin was released in 1992)!

I went a little nuts with the origami...

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Now, normally I would provide a "Special Holiday Blog Post" on this, but since I have already provided everyone with a week's worth of activities and pictures, plus information on the time change and Russia, I will provide a bulleted list of information on Saint Patrick's Day that I think you should all know:

• Saint Patrick was not Irish. In fact, he was born British and was captured, fled captivity, studied for twelve years under St. Germaine, became a bishop, then felt called to go to Ireland.
• Under the Pope's approval, he went to Ireland to convert many Gaelic Irish (who were Pagan) to Christianity.
• St. Patrick used a shamrock as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, which is why we have the shamrock as the symbol for today.
• The original color of St. Patrick's Day was originally blue, but changed with the times to green.
• The 17th of March is used to commemorate the anniversary of St. Patrick's death.
• The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years, but the first official day was set aside in 1903.
• Saint Patrick's Day was also used as break from Lent, therefore feasting and drinking was acceptable.
• St. Patrick's Day is celebrated all over the world, as an official holiday in Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador, and in Montserrat, but also as a celebratory day in the U.S., Argentina, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and of course, in other parts of Europe.
• Of course, many parades, drinking parties, and dying of rivers green happen on this day as a modern way of celebrating (personally, I think this is all very environmentally unfriendly).

(Sources: www.wikipedia.com, www.history.com, and www.theholidayspot.com)

I have included a picture of my plants below. The tallest pumpkin plant fell over sometime yesterday while I was gone, and I need to hold it up with something (although maybe it just needed some more water!).  I also received a rose from the mother of the little girl from across the street who likes to come over to play, and I was so touched by this act of kindness that I took lots of pictures of the flower, but only one picture is shown below.

Sorry the picture is a little dark. Took it last night. I lost two bean plants (it happens unfortunately), the pepper plants are really growing, the apple plants are getting there, and the pumpkin plants are crazy!

My gift. It was so nice of her.

I hope everyone is well, and I will try to get another blog post in sooner. Athens is coming up for me pretty soon, and I am very excited about it! Everyone should be prepared for a very exciting blog post on that when I get back.

Spring is right around the corner!