Fried Green Banannas (besser als tomaten)

Mood: grateful, reflective
What I'm Reading: Das Perfekte Ende by Andreas Merkel (yup, 152 pages in German. Impressed? I'll let you know when, or if, I finish)

My day began with brotchen and kaffee at Sigrun's house. As we talked, we also de-fleaed the puppies. They've only been in this world two weeks, and already they have fleas! Unfortunately, they are too young to use flea powder on them, so for the moment we must simply kill the fleas by hand.

From Sigrun's I met some of my classmates at Mayersche bookstore on Neumarkt. They had a 90% off sale, so many books were only 10 Cent. I splurged and bought 90 Cent worth. Among them is a book titled, ''Women's Fantastic Adventures'' that made me think of my friend Sally in Ukraine. It tells the story of a group of Latin American women who made an expedition to Antarctica in 1909. The author says, ''I look back with regret only to those friends who wished to come with us but could not, by any contrivance, get free -- those who we had to leave behind to a life without danger, without uncertainty, without hope.''

After browsing for a while, the eight of us headed to an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant. My favorite dish was fried banannas soaked in honey. We had fun getting to know one another, and now I'm at Neumarkt about to head home. This weekend is set aside for sprucing up my apartment. I'm touching up the paint, fixing some moulding that is coming off of the wall, and washing the windows among other things. I found some fabric for 1 EUR/meter and have begun sewing pillowcases to match a persian rug I found on the street last week. I took my twin bed apart so that I would have more floor space, and I am hoping to get enough pillows together so that I can make a more middle-eastern feeling room that will also feel a bit more spacious.

I'll try to post some pictures when I'm at the Bonnets this Sunday.