Snow is in the air!

Just as wetter.de predicted, this morning the rain turned into mixed snow and rain. It is supposed to be right around freezing the whole weekend, with a decent amount of precipitation. I was planning to spend the day in Berlin tomorrow - that may turn out to involve more time warming up in cafes and less time walking around than I had originally anticipated.

On the other hand, I am also planning to have some people over for gulash and spaetzle (a type of German noodle) on Sunday afternoon. Cold weather is certainly good for warm soup!

One nice thing about the rain is the sound it makes on my room and skylight. As I live on the top floor of the building, I get to enjoy the gentle sound of the rain bouncing off the metal roof and gurgling down the drainpipes. It is also nice to sit at my desk overlooking the hof (courtyard) and watch the snow fly past.

The system of having a hof or some other central opening in the building is really nice. It provides a way for everyone to have windows which don't face the street. My neighbors also have community gatherings in the hof during the summertime - we've had several BBQs and even watched the final game of the European Football Championship (in which Germany lost to Spain) there. Finally, the hof gives us a place to park our bicycles and grow some plants.

One final note about the snow: Today I worked at home in the morning and took the noon bus to the institute. On the bus was a group of pre-school kids returning from a field trip at the park. They were all very excited by the snow (and also very excited whenever the bus passed a playground), which made the bus ride much more interesting than usual.