Home again, home again, jiggety jig

I have spent the last week in Paderborn Germany. Home of the world's largest computer museum, the ruins of Charlemagne's castle, a cathedral which boasts a stained glass window in which there are three rabbits and three ears, yet each rabbit has two ears...(how do they do it?) Most of all however, this town hosts my sister, whom I have had a lovely week visiting. I have met her friends, seen what it's like to live here, including what food to eat, and what foods they just don't have here. We've visited interesting things all over the countryside around Paderborn, and done our share of shopping and window shopping. We canoed down a river with our respective boyfriends, and Laurel and Fabian got a passenger in their boat, who weirdly, was named Maren but wasn't me. My boat just saw it's share of being clotheslined by the low hanging trees (no, I wasn't steering, and yes, we did get better.) There are a million other stories, and it has been great to see Laurel, but I can't spend forever here at the Paderborn University library, signed in as my sister.
I have decided that while this is a nice place to visit, it is not somewhere I could live... mostly for the reason that they just don't have vegetarian food here. The few things they do have just don't look all that appetizing to me. But the people are wonderful, even when they don't really speak with you and you just have to pantomime. I am ready to come home though, sleep in my bed, cook my own food, speak my own language, and find books in English.
For those of you who read this and live in my neck of the woods, I am looking for an apartment and a job, needing both soon, so if you know of anything, give me a heads up.
One last exciting bit of news... Thomas is moving to Portland, as soon as he can, and I am so happy! So... if you hear of any web marketing jobs, let me know.

Tchuss
Maren