1/31/11: Wassup? Not Much...

Lena and I had a quiet weekend in Warstein. We stayed at the barn until about 3:00 pm each day, riding all the horses, and then watched German TV and relaxed at the house until heading off to bed. Yesterday, I was pretty bored around 5:00 in the afternoon and searched online "things to do when you're bored at home." I found lots of interesting lists! It's actually shocking how many different lists of 150 Things To Do When Bored can be found using Google. After reading countless options, I selected two that sounded appealing: 1. write a letter to a celebrity and 2. take a bubble bath. So, while filling up my bath, I wrote a postcard from London with a picture of Tower Bridge on it to Johnny Depp. I can't wait for some random official Johnny Depp fan mail opener to read my British postcard sent from an American in Germany!

After putting my Johnny Depp postcard in the mailbox this morning, I headed out to the barn to ride. My knee is feeling much better! I rode Lucy and Lillibeth (one of Lena's horses) on Friday and Saturday, then I just lunged Lucy on Sunday and didn't ride. This break was great for my knee, and it felt almost back to normal today. This morning, I tacked up some horses for Alois and Simone before getting to watch Marcus Ehning try a horse. It was amazing to watch him ride and jump a horse that I have ridden before! The horse went beautifully for him of course. I rode two of Alois's horses and Lucy afterward, and I tried to imitate Marcus's soft yet determined way of riding. Needless to say I failed dismally! I flatted Lucy using a chambone today. She was a little fresh because I only lunged her yesterday, but she's starting to accept my leg and getting much smoother in her transitions. I absolutely love her. Tomorrow I plan on riding a few more horses and I'll see how my knee holds up.

I'm still working on my German. I'm starting to understand a little more during conversations at the dinner table, but I am still pretty clueless. While trying to learn German, I'm also trying to teach English to Sabi, who only speaks German and Hungarian. So far, he's learned "What's up?" and "Not much." At least he'll be able to greet people if he ever comes to the US! Tomorrow I plan on Americanizing him a little more by teaching him "awesome" and "cool."