friends make things better.

surprisingly, my start at fulbright has not been all that i thought it would be.

"jennifer, sad in europe" sounds to me like an oxymoron.

but actually, it's not!

not loving my living situation and town

plus having issues with my paycheck

kind of inhibits my absolute happiness

but things are slowly getting better...i think.

regardless, the past 2 weekends,

i've had friends visit me.

and that's kind of a sacrifice

since my town offers NO attraction whatsoever.

there is literally nothing to do here

except hang out in my kitchen

and cook

and eat

and bake

and eat.

so that's what we've been doing.

my friends are fellow fulbrighters

"stationed" around bavaria.

so the fact that they have come to visit me

two weekends in a row

is quite nice, really,

since it costs them to transport themselves here

and they could be in far more exciting places.

so, to look on the positive side:

at least i have friends!

even if they don't live in my town.

last weekend: cupcakes and Katherine

Katherine came from Passau, Germany

(so close to Salzburg...lucky her)

and we made Funfetti cupcakes

(her mom send her the cake mix from the US)

which was a little slice of American heaven.

we invited other friends over

and the 5 of us consumed 18 cupcakes in 24 hours.

...whoops.

this past weekend: food, food, music and food

Emily and Gemma, who are teaching in Forchheim

as well as Andy, teaching in Erlangen

came for cooking, eating, music, laughing,

etc.

Andy is a DJ so he brought his iPod

which was a special treat.

(he is in the process of planning

a Halloween dance for his school,

which he himself will DJ.

if it happens,

i will be there).

friends are kind of essential to life, i am learning.