Happy Birthday!

First off, I would like to say…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ILKA!!!!!!!!!

You’re a wonderful person and I am very grateful for being your friend!
And I hope you’ll always stay the same, cause there’s nothing about you I would change ;)
I am very much looking forward to spending the weekend with you and the Xanga-girls :) we’re going to have a blast!

Ok, and here’s the update of the rest of the week. Tuesday, my sister and I had planned to meet with my cousin Nicki. Unfortunately she called and said that she hadn’t felt good the last couple of days and that her doctor said she might have an appendicitis :( so we couldn’t go and spontaneously decided to go to the ESPRIT Outlet in Ratingen :) I love to shop there, although it’s always packed. You can go there any given day of the week and it’s always crowded :( but you can usually find some really good deals…. and I bought a top and sweater for only 15 Euros!

Wednesday, I had to go to a funeral. Ellen’s Mom had died. I used to play softball with Ellen and it was a very unpleasant event to see her and the other softball girls again after two years :(

I was so sad for her. Her Mom was only 56 years old… as old as my parents! I really can’t imagine what she is going through right now. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not have my parents around anymore. Both my parents lost one of their parents [both my grandmas] when they were still under 33. This is way too young to lose a parent :( and I was not yet born or still too young to understand what it must have been like for them.

Later that afternoon, I visited my Granddad for a little while. He seemed to be doing pretty good and I am glad he’s recovering so well from his surgery last month.

At 5 p.m. I went over to my friend Melanie’s place. I know her from school and we have always kept in touch after our graduation. It was fanstastic to see her again. We had some coffee and talked and talked and talked :) she filled me in on some news from people from our school, because she was one of the few people that attended the 10-year-reunion at our highschool.
She has a new dog, a Great Dane [deutsche Dogge] and his name is Caesar. He is huge! :) I am really not afraid of dogs and Mel said that he’s the most obedient and gentle dog there is, but if this huge thing is coming at you… wooh… it’s kind of authoritative *lol*

Here’s Mel and Caesar and Mel and I :)

Yesterday I went to Cologne [Köln] with my parents. It’s one of my favorite cities in Germany :) We went shopping for a little bit and had lunch at “Bei d’r Tant” :) a very typical tavern in Cologne where the whole menu is written in the local dialect :) I was thinking that Jon would have had fun to try and figure out what to order from this menu!
In the afternoon my aunt came over and we had coffee and dinner together.

And TODAY I’ll meet Kim in the evening and we’ll drive to Ilka’s together *yay* I am so excited. It’s so weird that we haven’t seen each other before and yet it feels like the most normal thing to plan this all out and go to Siegen together tonight :) we’re going to have a total blast this weekend! We’ll stay over at Ilka’s tonight and in the morning, Sanni and Ines will join us… so all the Xanga-girls will finally be together :) Can’t wait to hug you all.