Our lows have been in the teens again. Brr. Really.

We have some friends coming for a visit soon, and I really want the weather to be nice for them. I have been checking the forecast every day, and every day it’s drastically different. First it was supposed to be cold and rainy the whole week they’re here. Then it said it was supposed to be sunny and in the 60s (what? early spring? YES!). Today I checked the forecast, and it says we should have a mixture of snow, rain and sun with highs anywhere from the 30s to the 60s by the end of the week.

Oh my goodness, I would LOVE for it to be in the 60s even for just a few days of their visit. Maybe we will even get to see some blooms. Maybe.

We woke up at 9:40, which was the latest we have slept since before mid-March. It was nice to sleep that late, but I also woke up in a panic because it was already so late in the day. We made it out the door an hour later and went to Schwetzingen to check out Spargel Samstag (Asparagus Saturday). Schwetzingen is known as the Spargel capital of the world. Yes, we moved from the music capital of the world to the asparagus capital. Exciting, I know.

Anyway, things were just getting started at the festival, and there wasn’t much exciting to do except maybe have a beer and watch older ladies model European fashion for their generation. Slightly entertaining, yes, but worth our time? No. I had really wanted to eat Spargel at the festival, but surprisingly, there were no booths like that. Oh, I must show you – this is what Spargel looks like:

Image taken from www.alibaba.com

Apparently, the farmers cover up the asparagus with soil in order to prevent photosynthesis. Thus, the asparagus tastes white. I have yet to taste it, but I have heard it’s sweeter and tender than green asparagus. C N Heidelberg posted her attempt at making Spargel mit Kratzete (white asparagus with pancake bits) here, and I’d really like to try to make it as well. It looks yummy!

Ok, I’m getting off track. Back to our day… since the festival wasn’t what we expected, we decided to grab a table at the Kaffeehaus and enjoy sandwiches for lunch. We headed back home to take Béni for a quick run to the park before doing the fastest change into nice clothes ever and going to the college graduation of a woman in John’s office. We left as soon as she walked the stage, which was about 2 hours later.

After running an errand or two, I convinced John to head over to Leimen, which is where I went to the Apotheke (pharmacy) earlier in the week. When I was there, it looked like they were also setting up for a festival, and I wanted to check it out.

It was a cute little spring festival, and we really had a good time. We both had bratwurst and a local beer while wandering around. I especially loved examining all the really old architecture in the city. Like Schwetzingen, Leimen dates back to the 700s. Crazy, right? These cities are 1,000 years older than the US!

One other thing that was great about the festival was the live music. An old man stood about 8 feet to the right of the conductor and did his own conducting and dancing to the music. It was incredibly endearing as well as entertaining!

I’m sorry if the play-by-play account of our Saturday was a bore. I really wish I had taken some photos to spice up the post, but I left my camera at home (probably a first for me!). Next time we’re in Leimen, I’ll be sure to take some good photos to share with everyone!

- Sarah

Back in September, we went for a walk along the same path. If you click the link, you’ll be able to scroll through all the fall photos from that walk. This time around, there were much more vibrant greens and the wonderful smell of fresh flowers.

I spent the afternoon editing the photos, but the color is still off, so for now, I just have two photos to show you.

The blue got a bit skewed in the upload. In my original file, it's much more vibrant.

Being a city girl, there's something so fascinating to me about farms and tractors.

As soon as I can get the color balanced to my satisfaction in the other photos, I’ll post them. As a side note, we watched Bolt last night. Even though it’s a kids’ movie, I really enjoyed it. (Who am I kidding? One of my favorite movies is still Beauty and the Beast.) Regardless, it’s worth renting once it comes out on DVD.

- Sarah

Thank you, spring!

Enjoy the slideshow:

- Sarah

As an ode to my countless hours of norsk studying, I bring you week’s Nostalgic Friday. The clip is a minute-long segment from our 15-minute video project. We were reading the Norwegian book Kurt, Quo Vadis? by Erlend Loe, and our professor assigned us a project in which we had to “make a movie” out of a section of the reading. In my group, we rotated who played which character depending on the scene (in order to get enough “air time” for each of us). In this scene, I was climbing to the top of a ladder to think and think and think. Oh yeah, and I’m playing Kurt, who works in construction and has a nice handlebar mustache. I think my favorite part of the clip is how the hat is way too big for me.

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Also, for your viewing pleasure, John stumbled across this ADORABLE video of a “whistling” puppy. Enjoy!

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Last night, we finally got to try out the restaurant Die Kartoffel (The Potato). Their main attraction is that you can order a steak that is served on a hot stone and cooked at your table. Knowing that was enough to pique my interest and send us over there last night. It’s not in Heidelberg, but it’s close enough – it’s about 15 minutes down the A5 in Ladenburg, which is essentially in Mannheim (it’s an outlying town, but it’s close to the city). The restaurant is in a medieval 16th century home and the food was tasty, so it’s definitely a place to bring visitors!

Have a great weekend!

- Sarah

I was supposed to go to Schwetzingen’s Faschingsumzug (Faschings parade) yesterday, but I was a little under the weather and stayed home instead. John promised me we’ll go to Heidelberg’s next year. I really wanted to be able to have some great photos and videos from the celebration to post today, so I’m sorry…you’ll have to wait until next year!

I will link you to one video from what appears to be a street party during Faschings 2007 in Heidelberg. In the video, the crowd is just counting to ten auf Deutsch (ein, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn). To see the video, click here.

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Every couple of months, John and I like to look at homes for sale via the internet. Last night, I found one I love. It’s on a huge piece of land (4 acres) in Austin. The house needs renovating, and the land needs some care, but I see a lot of potential.

I ended up getting really frustrated, because I wish we could be in Texas and be looking for a house – perhaps even getting this one. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality.

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I tried to post a video today, but no matter how many times I reformatted and changed things up, I could not get the video to work. Stay tuned for another video tomorrow (hopefully!).

- Sarah

Tonight we ordered a pizza, and when we left to pick it up, we realized it was snowing. And it was snowing hard! It was a fun trip through the snow, but I was still a little scared since I’m not using to driving in the snow. (John was driving the car, but I was nervous just being the passenger.) It stopped snowing now (11 PM), and the streets are melted, but there’s still snow on the grass and trees. Oh wait, I just looked outside. It’s snowing again. )

Enjoy the photos!