Hot Air Balloons and More

I guess I'm on a once-a-month-posting pattern. I have gotten TERRIBLE at posting. And I"m not sure why, because it's not like there isn't stuff to write about. Like there was the time we jumped into the Neckar River in our clothes and it was FREEZING! But somehow, I just don't get around to posting about it.....

Last Saturday, we went to the Allgau for a hot air balloon ride. Marc made a bet that he lost and the price was that he had to pay for his buddy's portion of the hot air balloon ride. It was an amazing experience! Here's my certificate, which christens me with my balloon name: Princess Sarah the charming airborne Amazon from the Föhn clouds. (Föhn is a regional term referring to winds in the Alps.) It also says that we went as high as 1200 m (almost 4,000 feet), but the driver (hot air balloons are driven, not flown) told us that we went up about 350 m (almost 1150 feet). We have pictures, too, but they'll come later...
The weather here has been terrible. It's been raining and not warm. But the weekend is supposed to be nice. I hope it stays that way!

I got the new Harry Potter book two days ago. I'm so excited to read it! It doesn't come out in German for another two months or so, so I'm really ahead of the crowd here.....

Yesterday I had a very interesting experience. I went to the Dermatologist. Now I know that's not that interesting. But she was pretty interesting.....she practices holistic Chinese medicine. I didn't mean to go to a Chinese medicine practicing dermatologist, I just found her in the internet. But it's very interesting, I'll be drinking tea and tracking my diet and going for a facial. Not your run-of-the-mill treatment plan for skin problems.....But I figure, I've been fighting with my skin for more than half of my life, so as long as she's not telling me I have to eat turtles or stand on my head, I'm willing to try what she's offering. I'm very curious to see what happens.

Who knew?

I have a very un-German last name. And despite that, there are lots of people in Germany with my last name....From www.verwandt.de

Happy (Belated) Anniversary to me

Amazingly enough, I have been here in Germany for one entire year. (My actual anniversary is June 24th, but like almost always, I didn't manage to post on time.)

It seems pretty amazing that it's been an entire year. There have been some extreme highs and some deep lows. Overall, there have definitely been more highs than lows. I've been very fortunate to have made some really good friends here and they make my life here really, really great. And Stuttgart is an amazing city. There's no end to the activities here. And it's beautiful, really beautiful. My job is a challenging, but it's also pretty great. I never dreamed of having the opportunity to travel on business trips as I have in the last several months.

But I wouldn't be honest if I said it was all roses. At the beginning, it was very hard. I struggled with the language, I was totally afraid of picking up the phone at work, because I thought I wouldn't understand the person on the other end. And I spent a lot of time alone when I first moved here. And I'm very far away from my family - when you live five minutes away from family, you take them for granted. When they're not so close, it's, well, I still have homesickness some days. And then there are the days - let's call them the "foreigner days"...Most days I do feel at home here, but these foreigner days are the days when I am very aware that I am living in a "foreign" country.

I would do it all over again, though. In a heartbeat. I have learned so much about myself and about what I am capable of. I've improved my German. I've made amazing friends. I bought a car all on my own. I've lived in three different places in one year. I've been on 3 different continents in the last four months. All in all, it's been one amazing year.

Back home again....

I arrived home again on Saturday evening. I was awake for an entire 24 hours on Saturday. Quite the achievement. I'm tired now, but not terribly. I think it's so much easier to fly from east to west than from west to east.

Japan is a very interesting country. I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to be here. At the same time, I'm really, really glad to be home again. I'll try to get the pictures uploaded soon.

I guess this will be a short post today....more about Japan to come. :o)

What to do in Japan when you can't sleep....

There's no English programming on TV, so.....

You Are Very Mature

Even though you may not always feel like it, you're a full fledged adult. And while everyone should be as mature as you, most people aren't!

Are You Immature?

There might be more, we'll see...

Greetings from Japan!

Hello from Prince Kawagoe Hotel! Kawagoe is about thirty minutes from Tokyo with the fast train or two hours from the airport with a bus (in the upperish left corner of the map).

I arrived in Tokyo this morning after an 11.5 hour flight from Zurich. The flight from Stuttgart to Zurich is short - less than an hour. Unfortunately, we had to sit on the tarmac for thirty minutes to wait to take-off because of traffic in Zurich. So I had to book it to make my flight to Tokyo, because the airport in Zurich is huge. I had to take an underground train from the terminal I arrived in to the terminal I departed from.

I had zero problems at customs in Tokyo, I'm happy to report (always a really happy thing to get through customs with ease!). The guy actually didn't ask me a thing. He stapled something into my passport, stuck a sticker in there and handed it back to me. Easy as that. Guess I look harmless.

I had been given instructions to take a airport transit bus from the airport to my hotel in Kawagoe. But when I went to the ticket counter, the lady told me that their buses don't go to Kawagoe. So I asked her which bus did and she pointed me to a counter further down. That lady informed me that their bus goes to Kawagoe, but only to the train station, not to the hotel directly (these buses generally make stops at each hotel). So I asked her how I could get from the train station to the hotel (it was only supposed to be 7 minutes walking or so). But she didn't know. Without other options, though, I took the bus to the Kawagoe train station. Because we took the freeway, I didn't see much of Tokyo (plus, I dozed off a lot!). My only impression is that the buildings are really, really close to one another.

When I got to the train station, I didn't see any special signs for the hotel or maps of the area. So I went to the nearest taxi, showed him the print-out from the hotel's website and asked if he knew it. He nodded, said something in Japanese and started to put my suitcases in the trunk. So I guessed that he would take me there and I got in the taxi. Well, the hotel is about 3 minutes drive from the train station. That three minutes cost 660 Yen. (The conversion rate at the airport was 156 Yen to 1 Euro. In the Internet it's $121 to 1 Yen). They have 500 Yen coins and 100,000 Yen bills!

Mom, you'll be interested to know that on the way here, I saw a 7-11! Slurpee anyone??

The hotel is a very different style. I don't have a Japanese-style room (I do have a bed and the table does have legs), but it's not typical American or European. The toilet has so many buttons, that I'm glad I could figure out how to flush it. The bathroom reminds me of a RV bathroom, only a little bigger. You have to step up into it, for reasons which are not clear to me. They have CNN on TV, but everything is translated into Japanese and you can't hear the English behind the translation. So there aren't any stations that aren't in Japanese.

Twice since I've been here, the Japanese Democratic Party has driven by, with a loudspeaker and some announcement/propoganda/??. If only I knew Japanese......

I took a nap when I got here, because I was so tired and it was raining anyways. Around 5 pm, it had cleared up, so I went to the front desk and asked for a map. At first, she tried to give me a Japanese map, because they didn't have any in English. I must have looked not too happy with that, because she asked me to wait, went running away and came back with a map in Japanese, English and German. She asked where I wanted to go and I asked where I should go. So she marked on the map where the old district is and where the shopping district is. I went walking for about two hours and took some pictures.

My camera battery ran out, so I went into a grocery store to buy a new one. If I read correctly, then an onion costs 85 Yen! 4 AA batteries cost 398 Yen. Imagine always having to have such large amounts of money available. Because the Yen is so devalued, this probably doesn't seem like a lot of money to the average Japanese, but it sure seems like a lot to me. I have to keep doing the math to convert into Euros to assure myself that I'm not giving away the farm while buying batteries.

Because I saw absolutely nothing in English at any of the restaurants, I decided to come back to the hotel for dinner. There are multiple restaurants in the hotel, including French, Chinese and Japanese. Being that I am in Japan, I chose the Japanese restaurant. I sat at the Sushi bar and told myself I would at least try everything placed in front of me. First, he brought me a menu in Japanese (I appreciate that it seems that people think you can speak Japanese, rather than assuming you can't), so I had to ask for a menu in English. He brought me one, but to be honest, it wasn't too helpful...."5 seasonal appetizers", "Salad"....not too descriptive. The cheapest menu was 3,000 Yen, the most expensive was 10,000. So by American or German standards, it's an expensive restaurant! I selected the most inexpensive Tempura menu, because I knew that meant at least part of my meal would be cooked (Tempura is lightly breaded and fried). I received a salad, a pickle dish, the Tempura (fried crab, fish, eggplant and another vegetable I couldn't identify), 5 slices of various raw fish, another bowl with shrimp, tofu, vegetables and some more fish, soup and rice. And Japanese tea, of course. I ate almost everything, including most of the raw fish, except for the soup. And all of it with chopsticks (a fork wasn't offered). I wasn't sure on the soup, are you supposed to pick up the bowl and just drink it? (No spoon on the table.) So I left it completely alone. Then came dessert. No idea what it was, but it was delicious.

Now it's a little after 8. And I noticed that Starbucks is next to my hotel. So I'm going to go get a coffee and hope that they have a Japan mug for me to add to my collection.

It's going to be a very interesting week......

Lego Land

Yesterday we went to Lego Land. What an awesome place! Unfortunately, the weather didn't play along. It was about 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) and raining buckets. Even with rain jackets, we still got pretty much soaked through. The kids were troopers, though. We saw the whole park, went on almost all the rides. And they hardly complained about being soaked and cold.

I'm not a big fan of roller coasters. But I rode them anyway....hey, if a 7 year old who also dislikes roller coasters can cut it, so can I! And it was scary, but it was the fun kind of scary.....

And the Lego displays were amazing. Nearly life-sized animals in the safari area. And then displays like the airport in Munich or the harbor in Hamburg or the capital building (Reichstag) in Berlin. Absolutely astounding what can be done with Legos.....

This and that....

I have a fabulous four day weekend this weekend. It's so great to know that tomorrow's Sunday (well, actually, today is Sunday, because it's already 1 a.m. here), but I don't have to go to work on Monday.....or on Tuesday!

The weekend started yesterday at 3:30. I decided a while ago that I really wanted to buy a bike. There are so many great places to bike here. But I hadn't gotten around to really shopping for one. So yesterday, Marc and I went to 3 different bike stores to look at bikes. But we didn't find "the one." Either the color was too ugly or it had more features than I needed or.....It was a good start, though, and gave me an idea of what I would be spending on a bike with enough features to maybe be able to do a weekend biking trip, but not one that would let me trek through the Alps.

Then, last night we went to the Opera. We also went to the Opera several weeks ago, to see a modern Opera piece. It was horrible. Absolutely awful. So, because it was so awful, it was absolutely necessary that we go to the opera again to wipe away the bad taste of the horrible piece. So we went to see La Traviata by Verdi. It's a tragic story, but absolutely beautiful. And the music was amazing. The set design was a little funky, but the music was amazing....It was wonderful. (If you've seen the movie Pretty Woman, it's the Opera that Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts to.)

Today was the Day O' Shopping. First, we went to Ikea and had breakfast (1.50 Euro for two rolls, jelly, cold cuts and cheese and unlimited coffee....!!!). Then, we bought stuff....I bought a new bench for my apartment, which I'm really excited about. We left Ikea and realized we had forgotten something. So we tested how long it takes to buy a shower curtain at Ikea from the time you switch off the motor in the car to when you switch it back on.....our result: 15 minutes. (I think it should be an event on the next Amazing Race - it's really not as easy as it sounds!) And then we went to another bike shop....this is cool - Marc looked in the internet to see which bike shops were around the Ikea. He picked one randomly and we went there. The guy was totally helpful (which, in the customer service desert that Germany is, is not always to be expected) and they had a bike, which was perfect for what I needed, a good price and a good brand. And it's a lower bar than the trapezoid frame, so it's way better for short persons like me! So I bought a bike. Another cool thing happened....we were driving along and Marc's mom called to say that she wanted Asparagus and if we passed a stand, could we please buy some. As he was still on the phone with her, we passed a stand. So we stopped and bought fresh asparagus and strawberries. We promptly ate tons of the strawberries....they were delicious! Then we wanted to go to another city, but took, for some reason, the surface streets and not the Autobahn. The view was fabulous and then another great thing happened....we drove past the Ritter Sport Factory......Do you know Ritter Sport? Well, it's chocolate. Do you know me? Well, I love chocolate. So Marc had to turn around and go to the Ritter Sport Factory. We bought a bunch of chocolate (some of it will be gifts). It was great! Then we went to a furniture store and Marc bought a new dining room table. It's absolutely gorgeous, real solid wood, made in India. And I bought cushions for my bench. It was a very Shop-O-Rama day.

Tonight we watched Stuttgart play for another title (they won the German championships last weekend). Unfortunately, they lost tonight. But it's not really so tragic and watching the game was really fun!

And now I'm going to bed....shopping is exhausting!!

Exhale

So, it's almost the end of May. It's also almost the end of a conference here in Stuttgart that I was responsible for organizing. I purposely avoid work issues on my blog, but this is nothing negative, definitely very positive and I will intentionally write generically......we have an annual conference where the colleagues from all over the world gather in one location. Last year was in Vienna directly after my move to Germany. I had to pay really close attention, knowing that the responsibility for the conference would be transferred to me. So this year it was my turn. And I was so nervous that something would go terribly wrong or that I forgot to think about something. All of the preparations have been totally stressing me out for the last couple of weeks. Well, the conference started on Sunday and it will end tomorrow morning. And with the exception of the problem of the beamer going out during the presentation of a senior engineering VP, it has run extremely well. There have been very good discussions. And the dinners have also gone very well. Yesterday we toured a winery and then had a wine tasting. And tonight we had dinner at a cafe in the middle of a big park in Stuttgart. It's been really nice. So I'm happy to report that barring any totally unforeseeable dramatic events in tomorrow morning's 1.5 hour session, the conference has been a success! Tomorrow afternoon, it's back to the normal workday. But only for a couple of days, because Monday is a holiday and Tuesday I have the day off to go to Lego Land with the Dressler clan. Should be really, really fun, especially because the adult to child ratio is 1:1. :o)

Also, if it didn't make the international news, the soccer team in Stuttgart won the German Championship (Meister) on Saturday. I have never seen anything like it.....they put up a big screen in the middle of Stuttgart on the square in front of the castle (Schlossplatz). So Melissa, Rene, David and I wanted to take the train to the city to meet Marc and watch the game. Melissa and Rene live a few stops further out from the city than I do and Melissa called to say that there were about 400 people at the train station and she didn't think they would make the train. As I was standing at the train station in my town and talking to her, another train drove through without stopping, because it was so full. So they got in the car and drove to David and I. We drove together into the city (we had to park pretty far away - actually not in the city center (Mitte), but in the West) and went to the Schlossplatz. But it was so full, they had already closed it, 1 hour before the game even started. We looked for a place to watch the game (on TV, it was only being shown on a premium channel or satellite, which we don't have), but everything was so full. I have never seen Stuttgart such a mess - bottles laying everywhere. And another "odd" thing, the police were filming the crowd, so that if anything happened, they would have record of it. Anyways, we ended up driving to a whole other part of Stuttgart (Bad Canstatt) and saw only about the last 7 minutes of the game. (Live and learn. Next time we'll go 3-4 hours beforehand to the Schlossplatz.) But anyway, they won and the whole city celebrated until the wee hours of the morning (I was in bed by 12, no worries....). On Sunday, we were in the city again and it was absolutely disgusting....McDonald's bags everywhere, broken glass from bottles. (I bet the rats had a field day! Yuck....) But they won, which no one was expecting at all at the beginning of the season, so I guess it was worth the clean up.

In other news, I got my first ticket ever. No points, but I was caught by one of the "Blitzers", going 15 over the speed limit. A blitzer is a radar detector, which takes your picture when you are over the speed limit. So, I got to pay the city of Stuttgart 25 Euro for speeding. First time in my life that I got a speeding ticket.....

Happy Birthday, Buddy

15 years and nine months ago, we were a family of 5. And had been for 10 years. And then there was a suprise. A surprise named Seth. And while the addition of Seth to our family was a suprise, it was a surprise only in the best sense.

When my Mom said that she was going to have a baby, I hardly could believe it. When she gave my Dad the positive test wrapped in a gift box, I think he could hardly believe it. It was all so exciting...another baby....would it be a boy or a girl? (I have to admit that already having two brothers, I was pretty much hoping for a little sister....but Seth, I wouldn't trade you for any sister in the world.) When the ultrasound said you were a boy, the debate over names started and was only made more difficult by the fact that the siblings wanted a say, too. Mom wanted to name you Eli. But that seemed waaaay too old-fashioned. (Now I think it's a great name.) I think Seth was Mom's idea, too. I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled with it, because the only Seth I knew was a boy in my class who ate the core of his apples and was a real nerd. But it's a great name, a strong name, which means "placed" or "appointed" in Hebrew. And that you are, you're placed by God in our family.

I remember the day you were born. Mom had a scheduled C-section and we three kids got sent to school. I could hardly concentrate - I just kept staring at the clock, waiting for them to call my name to the school office to tell me that you had been born (Mom promised that someone would call school to let us know). And then finally, FINALLY, they called Andy and I to the office (Josh was in the other building in elementary school) and told us that you and Mom were both fine.

You were the most adorable baby I had ever seen. And you were good. You'll have to ask Mom, but I really don't remember you crying very much. I do remember cuddling with you. Especially when you were sick, you liked to cuddle. So that time you had the stomach flu, I had the pleasure of wearing the contents of your stomach....But I didn't mind, because I was so happy that you wanted me to hold you and nobody else. One of Andy's favorite stories also has to do with bodily fluids....the first time he babysat for you, you had it "coming out both ends" as Mom says. You even threw up in his shoe. I'll let him tell the rest to you....it's too gross for this blog.

For a long time, we thought you wouldn't talk at all. You just pointed at whatever you wanted, said "uh" and someone got it for you. Too many older siblings, I guess. But then once you started talking, well, you hardly stopped. I don't know which parent that comes from, but you and Josh definitely have that in common. And once you started talking, we had to be careful of what we said in front of you.....I found it pretty funny when Mom told me that she was driving with you and you were talking to the drivers of the other cars - "What are you thinking, driving like that?", "Yeah, nice cut us off..." and so on. She couldn't figure out where you had learned that. And then I had to confess that you had learned that from driving with me.....Boy, was I glad that I hadn't used any bad words!

I see all three of us "big kids" in you. You and I share a major love of reading. Andy was always the sportier one and you like to play football. You and Andy also look very much alike. And your sense of humor reminds me of Josh. But you're also very much your own person, too.

You're your own person on your way to being an adult. But I have to tell you that no matter how old you get or how far away from me you are, you're always going to be my baby. (I won't embarass you (further) by using my nickname for you, but you always be that to me, too.) I'm so proud of you, of who you are and I'm very excited to see who you'll become.

I love you very, very much. Happy, happy birthday!!
Sis

My New Apartment

Hello again from Turkey! For the second time within three weeks, my work travels have brought me to the lovely city of Bursa. Since I have some time (and since the hotel has free wireless internet), I thought I would post some pictures of my new apartment.

Here's my living room. You can see the doorwall and the windows, it's really bright and sunny. The balcony starts just outside this door, continues in the direction of the windows, past the bedroom and wraps around the corner. It's narrow, but really long. Since I took this picture, I hung sheer curtains as well, so I'll have to get some new pictures. I can't tell you how happy I was to have my couch! And I really like the terracotta accent wall. The floor is also really nice, it's some kind of biological wood, so it shifts a bit, and my landlord is really attached to it, so I worry about it getting scratched, but....

Standing in front of the couch, here's looking into the dining "room" (more like the dining corner). Here's another doorwall, but there's no balcony, it just looks out over the street. But I get a really good cross breeze with all of these windows. You can see from the picture leaning against the wall and the coat tree in the middle of the room that I'm not finished moving in yet, but in the last few weeks, I have come much farther than I ever did in Feuerbach. At least the coat tree is now in the basement. If you continue past the picture to the left, there is the kitchen:

I have no idea why this picture is sideways and I can't seem to turn it. The kitchen is basically a perfect square. It's not huge, but it's sufficient. (And blue!) I didn't photograph the bathroom, which is just to the left of the kitchen. My washing machine is in the bathroom and I also have a bathtub, which I didn't have in Feuerbach. To the left of the bathroom is the front door to the apartment.




And the last room then is my bedroom. You can see the door to the balcony (the shutter-like window cover is down). The bedroom door is to the right of the ladder shelf which is to the right of the couch in the living room. At the foot of the bed is also a window, so the apartment really is very bright (which is great. As you face the bed at the angle, behind you is the Kleiderschrank, which ended up fitting with room to spare in the corner for the vaccuum cleaner, ironing board and stepladder (if you remember, I was worried that the bed and the Kleiderschrank wouldn't fit....they do). You can see in this picture also that I'm not all unpacked.

And since I had a bunch of hair cut off, I thought a picture of me with short hair might be good:

Hello from Turkey!

This week my work travels have taken me to Bursa, Turkey. Therefore, everything on my screen right now (except for this text) is displayed in Turkish. Hmm, good thing I know blogger pretty well. The best thing is that the hotel in which we are staying has free wireless internet! That's not true in very many hotels.

The hotel is a very old building which has been renovated. The room was absolutely gorgeous. I took a picture, which I will upload when I get back to Germany. It's located on the edge of the botanical garden, so each morning we (my colleague and I) have been getting up extra early to go walking in the garden. It's cold here, but it's been sunny in the mornings, so it's a nice way to wake up.

Unfortunately, as is typical with work travel, I have not seen very much of Bursa. I have seen, from a distance, the mountains. But there is a lot of smog here, so the view of them is not very good. I have seen a couple of restaurants. The first night, I ate octopus (it was already cut up on a plate and didn't look like octupus at all). It tasted good. I let my Turkish colleague order for me, because he knows the food here better and could make a recommendation. So, the main course was fish and my fish was delivered in full body style, meaning that it still had it's head. I am proud to say that I ate it anyway (not the head of course, but a few years it ago, it would have been unthinkable for me to even touch a fish with it's head still on).

Yesterday, we ate a lot of various dishes, a lot of kebap. The meal was delicious! This afternoon, we will head back to Istanbul, about a four hour drive. Then tomorrow morning we plan to do some sight-seeing before flying back to Germany.

In Germany, it's nice and warm. In the 70s in April! We've already been to a beer garden.....

I have pictures of the new apartment, which I will also upload when I'm back. And in other news, I got a pretty major hair cut. My hair was below my collarbone and is now just below my jaw line. It's a little bit too short, but I remembered why I like it better short - less drying time in the morning!!

I just saw our driver pull up......more when I'm back in Germany......hopefully with pictures from Istanbul!!

By the way....

I tried out the new garage yesterday - absolutely lovely! I no longer fear parking in my own garage. :o) It's good.....

And there's an elevator from the (underground) garage all the way up to the fourth floor!!!!! No more carrying impossibly heavy things up 99 stairs. Imagine that...........

Moving Day!

Who would have thought that after only 8 months in my apartment, that I'd be writing that phrase already?....Wow and that means that I've already been in Germany for 9 months - I think that time really does fly!

Anyways, today is the big day. The cats already moved on Saturday and Jemma is totally freaked out in the new apartment, because she can't find any place to hide herself. It was so pitiful, when we went in yesterday, she was standing in the corner trying to make herself invisible. So I stacked some boxes on the kitchen counter and put her behind them, which made her happy until my friend starting drilling into the ceiling to make holes for the light fixture. Then she decided that the bathroom sink would be a good place. It was so cute.

So thanks to a very productive friend, all of the light fixtures were removed from the Feuerbach apartment yesterday and installed in the Fellbach apartment, along with a couple others that I bought at Ikea. (The old place already had some fixtures, the new place didn't have any, so I was short a few.) It's looking good. The whole time we were there, I kept expecting the neighbors to ring the doorbell and complain about the fact that we were drilling on a Sunday and until 9 p.m.!! But they didn't. They probably just sat there and thought evil thoughts about this new inconsiderate neighbor....Seriously, I think two or three drill bits were flattened by the ceiling, which apparently is made out of concrete or something similar.

Here in Feuerbach, almost everything is packed and what isn't will be in the next few hours. (Thank goodness for friends and a week of vacation!!) The infamous Kleiderschrank was disassembled yesterday and I think that (if I measured correctly) it should fit just perfectly into the Fellbach apartment. (If it doesn't, you'll be able to hear the grief I get from my "Engineer" friends all the way in Michigan.) (And I think I might cry if it doesn't fit.)

Yesterday we painted over a few spots in Fellbach, too, so the new place is looking pretty spiffy. Pictures are coming, I promise. The batteries in my camera are dead (if you looked at all the pictures I uploaded to Flickr, you can see why - overusage!). Plus it will look better/more interesting with furniture in it anyways. I have to get in touch with the moving guy today to see about getting my couch delivered out of storage. (yippeeeeee!!)

(I have to say how glad I will be when moving is over - so much to do, I am exhausted and the really hard work is coming this evening...)

To Brazil and back....

Okay, here's the deal. There's a lot of stuff that I don't blog about. Why? Because I don't want the whole world to know everything about me. So when something's stressing me out or bothering me, but it's something that I won't blog about, then I just don't blog at all. And the past few weeks were pretty stressful. On top of that, I had the worst cold I have had in a really long time. On top of that, I flew to Brazil for a week for work.

Last time I posted, I promised pictures of Dresden would be forthcoming. I've finally uploaded the pictures from Dresden to Flickr. I also uploaded pictures from the trip down the Romantic Road a couple of weeks ago. There's really nothing that romantic about the Road in my opinion. And then, we got lost. It's a pretty weird feeling when you're driving along and you suddenly see a sign "Welcome to Austria!" Ooooops, how did that happen?? And then, you have no idea where you are, cause you're in the middle of the boonies and all you can think about is how you're probably going to run out of gas before the next station and you'll freeze and starve before someone finds you. But other than that, Austria was really beautiful. It was so funny, it was really snowy (as you can see in the Neuschwanstein photos) up in the mountains. But as soon as we got into the city (in the valley) it was sunny and beautiful. Neuschwanstein is pretty (it's the castle after which Disney modeled Cinderella's castle). But I personally preferred Schloss Ludwigsburg, which was actually lived in, had a much better tour and is much closer to home!

After returning home from the Romantic Road, I noticed that there was water creeping up my walls in the hallway. I didn't upload those pictures, but I now have these lovely yellow water stains on my walls. I called my Landlord, who said "ach du gruene neune!" which Leo translates as Gorblimey! (Who knows, something British.) I had no idea what he meant, so I repeated it out loud and asked what it meant, which had my colleagues all laughing out loud at me. He asked my neighbor to have a look. My neighbor decided that it happened because the floor of the shower wasn't caulked completely. So he caulked and it should be all better. (Can you tell that I'm thinking that's not what caused it? It's an awful lot of water for some little holes in the caulk.) I'm pretty sure there's water under the floor and in the walls. Lovely.

Not because of that, but that's just another good reason, I've decided to move. For many reasons. (Hopefully my landlord doesn't read my blog.....I haven't told him yet.) I'm moving out of Stuttgart to Fellbach. I'll sign the contract tomorrow. I think I have the absolute best new address: Bahnhofstrasse 123....."Train station street 123." It's in the middle of the city and 5 minutes from the train station (on foot). There's an underground garage (yea, no more hating my garage!!) and an elevator (yea, no more lugging suitcases and cats up and down 99 steps - although I might have to join a gym since I won't have the 99 steps any more).

In Germany, you have to give three months notice. So instead of paying three months on two apartments, I'm going to look for someone to rent the Stuttgart apartment myself. Basically, if I find someone, my landlord pretty much has to take them and let me out of the notice period. Hopefully I'll be successful!!

Last Sunday, I flew to Brazil. I was so sick. And Saturday night was the Long Night of the Museums. So we (five friends and I) had dinner at my apartment (my first dinner party here!! :o) and headed to the museums. We didn't see much, because we had to wait in line a long time. It was really fun anyways. But I was really dragging by the time I got home. I got about 4 hours of sleep and took a taxi to the airport. I flew from Stuttgart to Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt to Sao Paulo (11.5 hours!). When I got to Sao Paulo, I stood in line at passport control. Then I stood in line at baggage control. Then I stood in line at the check-in counter (I totally associate Sao Paulo with standing in line). The ticket agent told me to hurry to the gate, my flight would be boarding soon. I stood in line for security check. I got to the gate and no one was boarding. So I sat down. An older Italian gentleman leaned over and asked if I knew that the flight had been delayed. Delayed for 5 hours until 1 am (local time - or 5 am in Germany)!!!! Nope, didn't know. I was so tired. I had been traveling for 18 hours. I went to the counter and asked if there was another flight to Curitiba - nope. I told the guy that there was no way I could stay in the airport for 5 hours, I wanted to be put in a hotel. He said that was fine, but I had to go all the way out to the ticket counter, find one specific lady and tell her that he said I should get a hotel. I thought about it, but it seemed harder to do all of that, then to lay down in the waiting area and sleep for a few hours. So I did. I've never slept in an airport before. But I was soooo tired. About 12:30, they let us board. I checked into my hotel at 2:30 a.m. on Monday, a full 23.5 hours after I had left my apartment on the previous day.

The week was full of meetings, but was very successful. I'm only disappointed that I didn't get to see more of the city. It's a really interesting place. Security is a serious issue - everything has gates or fences or barbed wire. And the difference between rich and poor is really noticeable. They don't have many garbage trucks, because there are people who pull these wire carts around the city collecting garbage. And apparently there's a whole hierarchy behind that and if you work your way up high enough, you can buy a horse to pull the cart. The weather was beautiful - 25 degrees celsius every day. Meanwhile, it snowed in Germany! I would like to go back to Brazil someday.

On the trip back, the plane left Curitiba late, but that was no problem, because the next plane left Sao Paulo late. I slept for 7 hours straight on the flight (after watching the new James Bond movie). Can I just tell you how much I love business class??? You can make the seat into a bed! I've never slept so well on a plane before. Because the plane was late leaving Sao Paulo, I got into Frankfurt only 20 minutes before my train left for Stuttgart. I pretty much counted on the fact that my bag wouldn't make it. It didn't. So I asked the lady at the train station to call me when it came, instead of sending a taxi, so that I didn't have to worry about being home. But then there was a shift change and the new lady didn't get the message. So when I stopped by that evening on my way to a housewarming party, the bag had been sent to the airport (which is much farther from me) for delivery by a taxi. So they sent it away to bring it back. Because I knew I wouldn't be home, I asked them to bring it back to the train station and call me when it got there (sound familiar?). So I ended up getting my bag on Sunday.

This morning, I went to the Turkish Consulate to get my visa for my trip in three weeks. It was just pure luck that it was a Tuesday, because they only issue visas on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which I really didn't know. My passport is filling up fast - German work permit, visa for Brazil, visa for Turkey, stamps from Poland, Brazil, Germany.....I'm worried that I'll run out of pages and have to get a new passport. Or I heard that they'll tape extra pages in for you, but it apparently looks really hillbilly.

My cold's much better, but still not gone. And I'm looking at everything I have to pack and wondering why I wanted to move? Because there's no move from Bosch this time. Fortunately, I have a bunch of really good friends who have promised to help. And just think, I'll get to have my couch back!

Next week I have vacation, which is perfect timing. I can pack and move day and night. And then on Friday, 10 Americans are flying together to Lisbon, Portugal for the weekend. It should be really fun! And I learned some Portugese in Brazil to use in Portugal - obrigada is thank you.

My house in MI still hasn't sold. So I think it's going to go up for rent in the next week or two. If you know anyone who wants to rent it, send them my way!! It's a cute house!

That's what's going on here.....pictures of the new place to follow. :o)

Man, these things are good.....

You Are a Mac

You are creative, stylish, and super trendy. You demand the best - even if it costs an arm and a leg.

Are You a Mac or a PC?

I LOVE my Mac!!!!!!!

No surprise here....

If you know me, you will not be shocked to know that:

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you're not super cutting edge, you're high quality. People love your company - and have even been known to get addicted to you.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Still here

I kind of fell off the face of the earth.....I know. It's been a busy, stressful and emotional time here of late. And I just haven't had the energy to post. Thanks for the emails and comments asking where I am....that's really nice.

So what's been going on in the last couple of months?

Among other things, I've taken weekend trips to Poland, Dresden and Cologne. I have pictures, but I haven't uploaded them. I'll work on that.

I've worked a million, billion hours. There's a lot going on at work right now. I leave for Brazil two weeks from today for a week. I'm looking forward to it, but there's a lot to be done before then.

This upcoming weekend, my friend S. is coming from the States. I'm also looking forward to that. We're going to check out the Romantic Road here in Germany, including stops at Rothenburg o.d.T. and Neuschwanstein, the castle that Walt Disney modeled Cinderella's castle after.

Then, in the first week of April, about 8 Americans are going together to Lisbon, Portugal for four days. A friend and I are also considering going to Prague during that week as well.

What else? Well, the weather's generally been awesome. Considering that it's cold and snowing in Michigan, sun and 50-degree weather in Stuttgart has been a treat. Even if it has rained a lot as well. Of course, this mild weather is making the Germans nuts, because "it's just not right" and it's a sign that the world is coming to an end.....well, that's dramatizing it, but it really does make them upset. The general consensus seems to be that if the Americans stopped driving their big SUVs and started recycling more, this wouldn't be happening. You'll all get right on that, right? Oh and to do "our part better," we're going to be getting these delightful little stickers for our cars. They look like this:

They are color-differentiated to indicate the emissions that the car releases - red, yellow, green and none. Some specific cities in Germany will start with a pilot and one of those is.....you guessed it.....Stuttgart. So when you enter into the city, you'll see a sign that looks like this, which says environmental zone and by the little color circles underneath, you'll know if you're allowed into that city's limits or not. I guess this officially became effective March 1st, but I haven't seen any cars with the sticker yet and I don't have one yet. Maybe I'd better get going on that. In principle, I have no problem with this system and I certainly think that the idea behind it is noble. My problem is....what are you supposed to do if you get up one morning and hear on the radio that no "3"s are allowed in Stuttgart today and you drive a "3." I don't live near a bus stop or a train stop, so I would have to walk a good distance to work if I wasn't allowed to drive. Which is just a little crazy, isn't it? Because it's not like you can call in - "Hi, I can't come to work today, because I'm not allowed to drive my car within the city limits." Well, we'll see.....

So, that's what's happening here......I'm going to try to be better about blogging and I'll be uploading pictures shortly - maybe today.....

Now this is funny.

If you haven't yet seen this video from the White House Correspondents' Dinner, you have to watch it!

Run-down

Okay, I've been totally deliquent about posting. Almost seems like that's becoming the theme of this blog, doesn't it?

My weekend went like this: on Friday night, we celebrated my friend Ira's birthday.

On Saturday, I painted at Rene and Melissa's new apartment. The lady that lived there before them must have never cleaned - the walls were filthy, with cobwebs and dirt everywhere. We painted the kitchen white and it looks much better! Their building is really old and the apartment needs a lot of work, but when they're done, I think it's going to be really nice.

On Saturday night, we celebrated their return to Germany with a fondue night. We had 8 different kinds of fondue, including 2 chocolate fondues. It was delicious! And really, really fun. On Sunday, I was so tired from all of that, that I came home from church and went to bed. Later I went to Ira and David's to meet some other friends of theirs. We went walking (typical Sunday activity), even though it was quite windy and cold.

Monday after work, I went back to Rene and Melissa's and helped take down wallpaper. It was not particularly fun, but the company was good.

Yesterday afternoon it started snowing. So after work, I came out to a car covered in snow. And no snow brush. Oops. So on my way home, I stopped at the home improvement store and bought a snow brush and an ice scraper. It continued to snow all night long and all day today. I don't know how much snow we have, but it must be close to a foot. This morning, after backing out of the garage, I got stuck in the snow. Fortunately, two people from the next building over decided to be really helpful and they came over and pushed out the car. And then on my way into work, this guy offered to share his umbrella with me. Somehow, people were just very helpful today!

Traffic was a mess. One of my colleagues didn't make it into work at all and another need four hours to get there. I'm really glad I bought those winter tires now!

It was funny to come home today, because my windows that are on an angle in the roof are all covered with snow, so I can't see out of them at all. Fortunately, I have a few "regular" windows, so I can still see some things.

Today, I also started filling out my tax organizer. Now, I have to admit that I have the "luxury" of having a tax advisor, who will be completing my taxes for me. But it's amazing what I have to report: how much I spent in utilities in Germany, how big my apartment is, how long my bank accounts have been opened, what the balance is, what the highest balance in 2006 was. It's soooo much and it takes a long time to look up. And of course, I'm finding out that not all of this information is available online. For example, the bank that I use only provides statements back six months. Which means that I had to write and ask them questions. Good thing my info isn't due until March!