The problem with breaking your arm in Europe!

I hear people say all the time about how much they love the USA because everything is "easier." And to be honest it is-I mean drive thru's, bulk food shops, stores that are open on Sundays, stores where you can buy more than one type of thing(ie food AND clothing!!)- but to be honest up until now those have been some of the reasons i have loved living in europe. With a broken arm, however, i am missing a few of the "easy" things about the states:

1. Dishwashers- oh the joy of being able to stick those dirty dishes in that machine and let it go after the grime! I was getting so sick of my dishes on Monday that i washed them one handed-try it sometime-its not fun. it took me an hour to wash about 5 bowls, 3 plates and some silverwear. Tuesday night my awesome friend Fiona came and washed my new dirty dishes!! Love you fiona!!

2. Dryers-Haven't had one of those for over 3 years either. wouldn't it be great to throw your clean clothes into a machine and have them come out dry? No- i have been trying to hang them on the rack i have and then once they are dry i cant really fold with one hand so most of my clothes are just in little piles in my closet:) don't look!!

3. Automatic cars-most people in the states have automatic cars so that if you have a broken arm you can still drive with the other one. Not so here in europe-most cars are stick. Which means if one of your arms can't be used you can't really drive-lucky for me Paul has an automatic car so we have swapped for now!

I may add to this list but for now that is all i can handle typing one handed:)!

Garmish adventure/broken bones!!

ok so most of you know by now that while driving to Garmish, Germany to go snowboarding we were involved in a pretty serious car wreck. Thankfully most of the people involved only had very minor injuries but one of the students, Maria, broke her back and had to have surgery and i broke my wrist and had to have surgery. The whole thing was pretty surreal and i think we are all still processing through it. There were some pretty funny moments in it too-like when Paul thought I was bleeding to death cuz of a pool of "blood" by my feet. We found out later it was some fluid from the car but the look on his face was pretty priceless!! We got to meet a lot of great Germans along the way-and so many spoke english which was super! We had the accident in a little town-Fussen- and then headed to Garmish the next day. They are used to broken bones there since it is a ski resort town so i figured it was a great place to have my surgery. I went in last Sunday and they put in a t-plate and seven screws(at least that's what they told me they were going to do-i never saw the after x-rays).
This is us on the way down-before the accident- at a Burger King stop.

This is the morning after the accident. We only had about 40 miles to get to Garmish but because of traffic it took us about 6 hours!!

That same evening showing off my German cast and the facial scratches from the airbag-that thing was powerful!!

Sunday evening after the surgery. The doctors were trying to hold me captive in the hospital but my wonderful friends came and broke me out so I could go back to the hotel with them. When they did the surgery they put a tube in to drain blood-So yes- I am holding a container of blood in my hand

This is Monday morning-we dropped the rest of the group off at the slopes on the way to the hospital to get my tube taken out and cast on. Just showing off my blood again! Lizzy says-yuk!!

This is my arm today. The "cast" they gave me is just one of those wrist guards you would wear skateboaring so I can take it off which is nice when it itches.

and here's a little closer up.

so there you go. I am typing this one handed so sorry for the lack of details.