Brrrr.... it‘s cold outside

Winter has arrived.  It was 32 degrees when we got up this morning with an expected high of 45.  We knew it was coming, but we went from pretty nice weather to yuck in just a couple of days.

We have finished Week 5 of our language class and it was a busy week.  On Wednesday, our landlord Bernie invited us to meet his family and cooked dinner for us.  It was a fun and relaxing evening.  Then on Friday after class, we went with our classmate Justin to a local brewery, the Altes Mädchen.  Justin is from New Zealand but has lived here with his German girlfriend and son for the past seven years.  He showed us around the district near the old slaughterhouse, the Rindermarkthalle which has been converted into a food shopping area.

There‘s a craft brew store next to the Altes Mädchen with primarily local beers, but a few from the US as well.  I found a caramel chocolate beer that I‘ve brought home to sample the next time we‘re feeling adventuresome.  These are the kind of places that don‘t show up in the tourist books and why we like to live in places a bit longer.

I have successfully ventured into a beauty parlor and had my hair done with no major issues.  Paul had an interesting trip to the barber.  His hair looks good and the barber also offered to remove hair from his nose and ears.  Paul felt something warm on his ears, and found the barber was using fire to singe the hairs off.  It works!  Then came the nose hair removal.  Paul described it as two sticks with some kind of substance shoved up his nose.  Occasionally the barber would feel them to see if they were ready.  Then when they were ready to go, he quickly pulled them out.  Paul said there was no pain involved and the hair is gone.

Time to get back to the books ....