So, some of you asked some questions after last week’s post. Here are some answers!

What are you studying?

I am in my last semester of an online Bachelor’s Degree in Professional Studies through BYU-Idaho and Pathway Worldwide. Professional Studies is just a way to be able to offer a degree with more than one focus. My two areas of focus are Administrative Assisting and Graphic Design. This semester I have Adobe CC Basics (which I should have taken a year ago, but I think they really just added a few months ago), Organizational Leadership, (which is a business class), Professional Projects (which is kind of like an internship, but more project-based), and Teachings of Living Prophets. I stuck in a photo of the project I did this morning. I had to prove I know how to use Adobe Illustrator, so I had to build a robot out of assigned shapes. I have been able to do classes in these areas that I already had experience and interest in, so that has been great. I have absolutely no plans for my degree after graduation, except that I want to continue to be available to offer my expertise to my family, friends, and community. The Pathway program has been great because it has been entirely online, meaning that I can (and have!) completed my coursework from wherever I am, whether that is home or not. It’s also super affordable. I was kicking around during the pandemic, digging around for projects to keep myself busy and one day I just thought, “I have a degree that I never finished. Maybe that should be my project.”

What does a typical day look like? How do you pass the time in the evening?

Well, much like a day a home. We get up fairly early, like 5:30 or 6:00. We exercise; Nathan often goes for a run and I do a workout of some sort at home. We get ready for the day and then we study. Nathan listens to podcasts, reads books that interest him, practices and instrument or two, studies languages, watches lectures from Wondrium (The Great Courses) or Masterclass. I work on my courses. Sometimes I listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I work on design projects. We take periodic breaks and have something to eat or drink. It’s flexible so that if the grandkids call or we need to go run and errand, we can break away. Sometimes we are in separate rooms and sometimes we are together. At the end of the “work day” we will do things that need to be done, like shopping, food prep, or other chores or projects. I might draw for fun or do some knitting. We make dinner together and maybe watch something on Netflix or some other streaming service. We will often take a walk. We also have to do research and planning for whatever travel or outings we have coming up, which actually takes a surprising amount of time and discussion. We head to bed around 9:00 because (let’s face it) we aren’t spring chickens.

Where do you shop for food?

This is actually a hard one to answer. Since we are still newish to Germany, we are still figuring out how to get our hands on some of the things we want or need and how to do that without spending a ridiculous amount of time or money. We have been to maybe 5 different grocery stores in the two-and-a-half weeks since we arrived. We have also gone to the pharmacy AND the drugstore (because those are two different things) and (to no one’s surprise) bakeries. We have figured out that Lidl has the nicest produce and nuts, but there are more choices for other things at a store (kind of like Target) called Kaufland (which means “Land of Buying”). Sometimes we can’t find something for a long time, like some sort of non-coffee, non-tea, non-sugary drink mix. Sometimes we stumble on something excellent, like a 1.5L bottle of Vanilla Coke Zero (my fave). We are slowly figuring it out just in time to move to a new apartment and probably a new neighborhood in a couple weeks.

What’s your apartment like?

The apartment is, as I mentioned, on the 5th floor of a building much like every other residential building in the city. It is brick and stone and many of them are covered in stucco. They are old enough that they have nice trim and accents around the windows and doors and they have tile roofs. There is a set of big double doors at the street entrance so that when they are both opened, a vehicle can drive in. That leads through a passage to a courtyard. Most courtyards seems to have common garden space. Ours has a tiny garden with one little table, but mostly it is used by the construction company that occupies the first floor of our building for their vehicles and inventory (windows and doors). The building has about 15 apartments in it and all of the windows face the street. We walk up and down old wooden stairs that are sturdy, but so creaky. The building is surprisingly quiet and we don’t hear the neighbors much. The apartment itself is newly renovated and decked out with IKEA furniture and fixtures almost completely, which is very common here in Europe. Usually, if you are renting an apartment, it doesn’t come with kitchen cabinets or appliances. You are responsible for putting that stuff in and you take it with you when you move. There is an entryway and the kitchen is directly across from the entrance door. It’s a narrow galley-style kitchen with a small refrigerator (about my height) with a freezer below. There is a cooktop and a small oven. There is a dinky microwave and a teeny tiny countertop dishwasher, which seems like a luxury. There is also a small washing machine, another luxury. To the right of the entry is the living room, with a couch, some book shelves, and a dining table with chairs. To the left of the entry is the bathroom and then the bedroom. One odd thing about the bathroom is that the vanity mirror/medicine cabinet is mounted really high. I can only see my face from about my eyebrows up.