I am a German princess: )

I've been in Germany for about three days now and I've enjoyed every moment of it...well besides the excruciating hours that Sabine forced me to stay awake when my body was screaming GO TO SLEEP YOU IDIOT! haha. For future reference, don't take two tylenol PM to sleep on an overnight flight to Europe. Bad idea. Actually let me tell you about my flight:

First of all, I boarded the plane and put my hiking pack in the overhead bin over my seat. There was a lady there preparing to sit down in the seat next to me when I heard her say, "OK yeah, you want to sit here?" So then she switched seats with a guy and it did make sense because he was sitting next to her children, but he seemed a little excited about sitting there. He was 21 and also going on a Euro-trip backpacking adventure, but alone. He was studying to be a rocket scientist at a university in San Diego and well...he was nice but I didn't really want to talk to him too much so I jumped at the opportunity to watch the movie they were showing, 17 Again. He watched it too. haha. Anyway, after that I popped the two tylenol and tried to sleep. I was out in a blink but woke up about 30 minutes later with a stream of drool pouring out of my mouth and my blanket a bit wet. He was still awake and no doubt he say my little puddle and probably took some pictures with his fancy little phone. I'm sure they will be up on the internet soon.

I tried to go back to sleep and I did for another few minutes but then woke up again. This time EVERYONE was asleep. But I was awake and feeling drugged out of my mind. My skin was crawling and my hands were tingling. My muscles felt weak and I was going in and out of consciousness with sleep. My only thoughts were, "oh no, how am I going to carry my pack off this plane...how will I get off the plane. Oh...they are going to have to carry me off!!!" Between panicked thoughts, I would occasionally start to doze off again. The problem was that this crazy sensation only worsened when I started dozing off so the best thing for me to do to survive my near-overdose on Tylenol PM was to keep myself awake. However, my eyes did not stay open very easily so I fought sleep for the next three hours praying that the meds would wear off. They did enough that I could carry myself AND my pack off the plane without needing a wheel chair. Wheew. I was delirious for the rest of the afternoon though. I don't think I embarrassed myself too bad in front of Mr. Horst and Mrs. Monkia though.

Once I was finished with my sleep ban I crashed at about 9pm and slept for 13 hours straight. The next day, I felt great and was completely adjusted to the time. As far as activities go, Sabine and I have just been hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Leeheim is so cute and so are the neighboring towns. We went to the lake where Logan proposed to Sabine and it was such a beautiful place and a beautiful day. Mr. Horst and Mrs. Monika have been grilling some amazing dishes for us. The food is sooo GOOD! Logan finally arrived today and a little while after he got here I left to go visit with Mrs. Heidi. I ate lunch with her and her daughter and her daughter's friend and then we spent the afternoon talking. It was great. She will be so good for me and I'm so thankful that the Lord has put her as my mentor while I'm here. I am so blessed with good people in my life.

After our time there, she brought me back and we had a big Appel/Crouch family dinner: ) More amazing grilled meats. Mr. Horst loves grilling lamb, steak, turkey, and of course, BRATWURST! It is amazing! yumm: )

They've also been pleasing my tummy with some really good turkish foods. Cream cheese stuffed olives and peppers and seasoned mushrooms and turkish pastries and oh man. savannah would be so jealous. I took a picture just for her: ) The only bummer is that I can't post pictures until I can buy the right chord. I think I brought my mom's or something. I dunno.

So tomorrow we're having a big german breakfast and then we'll be going for some river adventure. I'm excited: ) I'll let you know how it goes.

Above it all...I feel at home and in the will of the Lord. It is so sweet and I will cherrish every moment of this season: )

Tschuss!