It's a hurricane!!!

So, yesterday school was dismissed early due to a large rainstorm that was approaching. Apparently, this storm, dubbed Cyril, was the biggest that Europe has seen in years. They were calling it a "hurricane" on the german news.

Now, I understand that it was REALLY bad by European standards. I understand that they don't get storms like that here. And I admit, it was pretty windy....but...there was soooo much fear and sooo much hype and EVERYTHING shut down and so I was expecting something huge.

I guess my "huge" standards are far too American. I mean, we get some bad storms back home. Like, really bad storms. Like, way worse storms than what happened here. That said, we are used to such storms too--we know what to anticipate, we have sirens and t-storm warnings and tornado warnings and all of that stuff. Here there are no tornados, no violent storms rolling in off of lake michigan, none of that. They don't know what to anticipate, how to react, etc. So, I get that, to them, it was bad. But to me...I just couldn't get what all the hype was about. Plus, it did a lot of damage, so I am sure it was far worse in different parts of the country, across europe, etc. But when we were let out of school early, I was kind of nervous, thinking "what kind of storm is this?!" and then...it just didn't seem so bad. But I did nap for a while, so maybe I just slept through the worst parts. Maybe? I do tend to sleep through bad storms at home...so...

Anyhow, what else is new? Jack is supposed to come visit this weekend but the Berlin Hauptbahnhof has been shut down since yesterday, so I just hope he is able to make it here. (Yes, they shut down the main trainstation and no trains were running yesterday). He's supposed to arrive tonight. I hope it works.

In other news, the reading game that I am organizing is coming together quite nicely...there seems to be a lot of interest and some excitement about it. I think it just might work! I hope!

And finally, I woke up this morning with what felt like the start of a cold. I hope not. I am taking preventative measures as we speak. MMM...nothing like a meal of soup washed down with a glass of Airborne!