January always feels like a long month. Do you agree?
Oddly, January 2021 has flown by! Perhaps it’s the monotony of lockdown life. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
A quick update on life here in Munich.
We’ve been in partial lockdown since the beginning of November and a total lockdown since December (i.e., only the essentials are open), but it does seem to be working. The numbers in Germany are decreasing – they are still high, but decreasing nonetheless. Back in December, Munich was considered a hotspot (200+ cases per 100,000 people), but as of yesterday, we were down to only 63 cases per 100,000. The most recent change is the FFP2 (N95) mask requirement. Now, shops and public transportation require an FFP2 mask, or you’ll be issued a fine. The hope is that FFP2 mask use will continue to drive down the numbers, which could allow non-essential shops to reopen. For now, we’re in lockdown until Feb 14, but with the new variants and a slower than hoped for vaccination pace, I expect it will go longer. The goal is to have the country down to 50 cases per 100,000 people before lockdowns are eased. So… we wait!
Oh, and Munich has a friendly reminder…
Anyway, on to January joys!
My Birthday!
Shane made cupcakes (with glitter!) and bought me a Soda Stream so I can drink “fluffy” water to my heart’s content!
Sparkling water is called sprudelwasser in German, which is really fun to say and has made its way into our day-to-day Deutsch-lish (ya know, a German/English mix).
“Can you sprudel me some water please!?” and “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts, sprudely doodely…”
…lockdown life. 🤷♀️
New apartment stuff.
The apartment we rented is furnished, and we never intended to be in Munich this long. So, we never bothered to spend any money to personalize it. I mean, we brought some stuff with us from the Netherlands, but it was a hodgepodge of things, and we were hesitant to buy stuff just to put into storage later. However, the longer we’re here, the more we felt the need to make it feel a little more… adult. Like, perhaps we should have a matching set of sheets.
To add to it, we’ve not been able to go to the gym since November. We’ve been getting by, but it was getting boring.
So, we bought some new fancy LED lamps and some fake plants to brighten up the basement, some new sheets and pillows to minimize the ‘college dorm’ aesthetic, and a pull-up bar and some dumbbells to add to our studio home gym.
Game. Changers!
We should have done this sooner.
SO. MUCH. SNOW!
I would say we’ve easily gotten two feet of snow this month.
All this snow has its pluses and minuses. Plus, it’s gorgeous! Minus, we can’t go snowboarding (and it’s the “best winter in Germany in years” 😐). Plus, we’re the weirdos who like shoveling snow. Minus, Shane still has to bike to work.
We haven’t seen this much snow (outside of snowboarding trips) since we lived in Pittsburgh. The seasons in Groningen were pretty indistinguishable (cold wet winter, slightly warmer and dryer summer). It’s been really nice to have a “true” winter season!
Not the happiest of snowmen… 
Chillie dog!
Much to Meatball’s chagrin, we have won over our landlady’s dog, Chillie. It’s becoming a morning routine. Chillie is sent outside to pee but instead comes straight downstairs and barks at the door for some love. I can’t say I hate it.
Meatball though – she hates it. 😂 Chillie is small enough and so full of energy that Meatball isn’t quite sure what to do with her. One day, Chillie ran smack into Meatball and started licking her face (unfortunately, I was out for a walk when this happened). Shane said that Meatball sat in shock for a moment before it occurred to her “wait, I don’t like this!” and started hissing.
But how can she resist this face? I think the more Chillie comes to visit, the more Meatball will like her. Probably not, but we’ll let her come visit anyway.
That’s all I have to report for January. In all honesty, the lockdown hasn’t felt so bad, but I am getting really tired of walking the same neighborhood loops, and I am ITCHING for some travel. Anywhere. Just to see something new. But for now, we wait.
Fingers crossed for some relaxed restrictions in March! 🤞
Tschüss,
The Shwits 