Laura Beth in Germany

Long time, no post! The past few weeks have been busy and not-busy at the same time. The month of May has four bank holidays in Germany, two of which fall on Thursdays, and so most Germans usually take Friday - the Brückentag ("bridge day") - off too. Good for relxaing, bad for the freelancer's wallet. Whatever.   Some exciting updates:   1. I got a new bike! My very own, used-but-perfect blue bike! Last year I used the old red one from Fabi's aunt, but this year one of Margit's friends upgraded and just gave me her old one. It's much lighter and all the gears work. Yesterday Fabi and I took it for a spin to Gronau. He dropped off a copy of his Bachelor's thesis on his boss' desk, then we peddaled to Oberstenfeld and got ourselves some Bailey's ice cream before heading back. Between Großbottwar and Kleinbottwar we coincidentally saw Margit on her new, borrowed racing bike, so we rode the final stretch home together.   2. On Monday, I

Yesterday was a lovely bank holiday! The 1st of May is called International Worker's Day and is basically the equivalent of Labor Day, celebrated in almost every Country except the U.S. Everyone celebrates it differently in Germany, according to region. And once more, I am happy to find myself in the Southern part of Germany, where there's a big tradition to live up to: hiking through the woods with a wagon of beer and a 'ghetto blaster' (A.K.A. an obnoxiously large boombox).   photos taken by Jessi Hegendorf   We started around noon and hiked up the vineyards into the woods past the forester's house, then made a big loop around a few lakes, bought some sausages from the Red Cross tents in the middle of the forest (where hoards of Germans were gathered, naturally), and passed the residence of the Graf von Adelmann (the former earl of Kleinbottwar), before heading back down to our garden to BBQ for dinner. The fields were blooming yellow with dandelions an