It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day to get groceries . . .

(And now I will probably have to sort through the hate mail from everyone who ends up with the Mister Rogers song stuck in their heads for the next 48 hours . . .)

This morning I went to the store and the bank.  I thought I'd give you a little photo tour of my neighborhood errands, just for fun!

The three places I go most often are:
3) Budni, the drugstore. It's like CVS in the States; the full name is "Budnikowsky."
2) Haspa, my bank. The name is short for "Hamburger Sparkasse," which means "Hamburg Savings Bank."
1) Rewe, the supermarket.  I go here more than anywhere else!

All three of these are on Jarrestraße, the street just around the corner from me.  I like this street because it's not too large or busy.  It's just a two-lane street.

Rewe (roughly pronounced "RHEE-vuh," though it's hard to describe the German accent) is a really awesome grocery store.  There are other chains like Aldi, Penny, and Lidl, which are maybe a little cheaper, but I like Rewe because it is close by and they have lots and lots of fruits and vegetables (and everything else) to choose from!  It's basically identical to a grocery store in the States.

The Ja! brand is the one I buy most often, because it's the generic brand and is the least expensive.  Most of the items are less than 1 euro, and I rarely pay more than 2 euros for any one item.

No matter what time of day, it seems like Rewe is always crowded!  The checkout lines are usually full.

And this is Kaemmererufer, my street, which is just around the corner from Jarrestraße.  It's a quiet street that runs right along the canal, and I love it.  I'm convinced my student housing is the best of them all!

This afternoon I did some prayer time, took a walk, and did a few chores and some art.  I had fun tonight experimenting with beet juice, carrot juice, and spinach water to see what kinds of colors they would make on my drawings!

Pasta primavera for dinner.  I was hoping to make banana bread to go with the leftover soup I have in the fridge, but our oven door is currently broken and hasn't been repaired yet.  (It came off its hinges the other night when Indra and I were making croutons to go with the soup--Indra just shook her head and said this has happened before at least once.)  So the banana bread will have to wait.

I wish I could describe how cool it is to see spring happening!  It was surprisingly warm today (cloudy, but the humidity made me hot when I went walking), and there are flowers popping out everywhere!  I wish I knew what they all are.  Fruit trees with white and pink blossoms, daffodils, a bunch of kinds of bushes with small flowers in yellow or white, pansies, tulips, crocuses, snowdrops . . . it's amazing.  They stand out so brightly against all the green.  You see them all over the place in people's gardens and in all the public parks and other grass areas.  Today when I was walking along Alster Lake, I saw these insanely bright flowers that were almost a safety orange! (Mom and Dad: I Googled German wildflowers and I thought they might be a campanula, but I'm not sure--I think they might be something else.) And oh my gosh, the TULIP MAGNOLIAS!!!  They are everywhere and they are so beautiful! (Sorry . . . yesterday it was a classical music rant, today it's the "daughter of a landscape architect" rant.)

I'll try to get pictures of a tulip magnolia for y'all . . .

Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments and sending notes, by the way!  It's great to hear from you!  I honestly can't say I miss home, really, because I've been enjoying everything here, but today I actually got kind of homesick for a bit.  I guess I do kind of miss home, because I miss seeing everyone AT home.  And no matter how much fun I'm having here, it always makes my day to get any kind of note from back in the States!

" . . . would you be mine, could you be mine, won't you be my neighbor . . ."

Now I'm singing it too.