Back to the gym...

Hey everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your Thursday... Just think, it's almost Friday! :) The past couple of days have been going very well here. Last night, Brian and I went up to the local gym and purchased our memberships... yay!! I'm so excited to finally get back to the gym! :) On our way back to the apartment, Brian and I were discussing how this gym is so different from the gyms we belonged to back in the U.S. First, the gentleman who signed us up is supposed to be a personal trainer; however, the buttons on his shirt were very close to popping... and let's just say that it wasn't because of his "bulging muscles"! :) We'll just say that this guy was no Grant Pierce! :) (For those of you who are wondering who Grant Pierce is, he was my extremely "fit" boss at the gym I worked at...) Brian and I were also chuckling about the fact that this new gym offers a juice bar, which is included in the membership. And they're really excited about their juice bar... As soon as you enter the gym, they offer you a drink from their fabulous juice bar. Now, in the U.S., a typical juice bar would serve fruit smoothies, health drinks, etc... This juice bar serves apple juice, coffee, and water... Nice! :) Being that we signed up for a membership yesterday, we received two brand new water bottles with the gym's name on them. We were then told by the "personal trainer" that we had to wash them before we used them (always good advice! :)) and he recommended that we use them instead of the glasses that they offer at the juice bar... He explained how those glasses aren't always the cleanest... Now that just makes me want to run right up and get a drink from the juice bar!! :) Irregardless of all of that, we now have a membership at a gym and I am as happy as a clam about that! :)

This morning, we headed up to city hall to find out about me getting a visa... We learned that, for the time being, I can apply for a residential visa. However, if I choose to get a teaching job here, I have to go back and reapply for a work visa... Although, getting a visa here isn't quite as difficult as I was thinking it was going to be. All I need to do is fill out two forms and Brian's work needs to type up a letter for me. I already purchased my passport photos (which are definitely not the best pictures I've ever taken... they don't let you smile in them, so I look really mean in my picture. :)). So, we're hoping by next week I'll get my visa... let's just keep our fingers crossed though... We know how slowly they tend to do things in this country. I'm just excited about the visa because I can add it to my passport... As many of you know, I get pretty excited just to get a stamp from the country I visited in my passport, and a visa is much better than just a stamp. :)

As I said in yesterday's blog, we are supposed to be getting our new car today... Finally!! :) Brian is supposed to pick it up during his lunch. I'll definitely take some pictures tonight so that I can post them tomorrow for all of you to see. :)

One more thing before I head out... I've found a way for us to post all of the pictures that we've taken here. We've taken so many pictures, but I'm only able to post a few of them in the blog. So, if you're interested in viewing the rest of the pictures, feel free. The website is http://kristinandbrian08.shutterfly.com/ . As of now, you don't need to use a password to access it. I'm still gradually adding the pictures (it takes a while to upload all of them), but I'm hoping by tomorrow, I'll have most of them uploaded. After that, I plan to add pictures as we take them. So, bookmark the site if you want and check back often for new additions. We hope you enjoy it! :) On a side note, I have to say, that I can't take credit for finding this website... My friend, Missy, who also has a blog, added this site to her blog and I liked the idea, so I borrowed it from her. Thanks Missy! You know us teachers... we like to borrow ideas from each other from time to time! :)

Well, I'd better get going. I'm heading to the gym... It feels so good to be able to say that again!! :) Hope you have a great day! Miss you!

Rock Climbing, Castles, and Beautiful Scenery...

Good morning everyone! I was so excited about the events of yesterday, that I couldn't wait to start blogging today! Well, actually, to be honest, I had to get up super early this morning so that I could let the maintenance man into the apartment, so that he could check out our moldy wall in the kitchen... lovely! I assumed, or had hoped, that he would actually attempt to fix it today, but I was wrong. He came in, took some pictures of it, moved a tool up and down the wall until it beeped, mumbled something in German that didn't sound very good, and then packed his stuff up and started to head on out. Now, being that I don't speak German and he doesn't speak very much English, I had a difficult time understanding what he was trying to tell me before he left... The only thing I completely understood, was when I asked him how bad it was, he replied with "Very Bad!!" (which isn't exactly what I was hoping to hear! :)) ... and then he told me something in German, pointed to a name on a piece of paper, shook his head, and then rolled his eyes and said "Germany"... And then he left. Now, I'm not sure about you, but from that short amount of conversation (if you could call that a conversation), I'm going to assume that what I was thinking was correct all along... Things don't move very quickly here in Germany, and I'm thinking that this wall isn't going to get repaired for quite some time! I guess for them, having mold growing in your kitchen, isn't that big of a deal... Needless to say, Brian and I are not very pleased with the customer service we've been dealing with here in Germany... They might have a beautiful country, but their customer service needs alot of help!! I'm attaching a picture of the kitchen wall to the end of this blog so you can see for yourselves...

Well, on a good note, I had a great time rock climbing with Maike yesterday! We climbed for about 3 hours and it was so great to be back in the gym!! Plus, I found that Maike enjoys rock climbing as much as I do, so we're making plans to do it at least once a week... yay! After we went rock climbing, we went to have lunch. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside at a small cafe... We were in a small village and the streets were all cobblestone and the flowers were all in bloom, and at that point I realized how lucky I am to be able to have this opportunity! I mean, I am able to travel around a beautiful country and learn about the culture for two years... And as often as I complain about being homesick and some of the weird cultural differences we're dealing with, I do really appreciate the fact that I can be over here enjoying this adventure with Brian. :)

So, anyways, after lunch, Maike said that she wanted to show me her favorite place in this area. We hiked through the woods for about a mile and then came across the ruins of an old castle that was built in the 1300's. Now, me being the history buff, I was instantly in awe of this place! It was a pretty cool experience to walk through the ruins of this castle, and of course, I went picture crazy! I mean, you don't get too many opportunities like this in the U.S. (unless you're at Disney World), so I took quite a few pictures! :) However, the best part, was when we hiked up to the top of the castle and saw the view... The view was of Lake Bodensee, the Swiss Alps, and all of the small German towns which are dotted across the landscape... Absolutely gorgeous! And, since it was a beautiful day outside, we were able to see all of the sailboats on Lake Bodensee... Let's just say, it was quite an experience! :)

After we returned home, I got an even bigger surprise though... Brian was able to get all of the necessary information to the cell phone company, and he got me a cell phone! (I have a pretty great husband! :)) And it's not just any cell phone... I am now the proud owner of a brand new IPhone!! Yay! :) Unfortunately I can't make international calls on it (we're still waiting for our landline to get installed... shocking! :)) but at least I have a phone with internet access... pretty cool! :) After the initial excitement about the phone subsided, Brian then informed me that we would be getting our gym membership tonight and we're supposed to be getting our car on Thursday... woohoo! Yesterday must've been my lucky day! :)

Well, on that note, I'd better get this posted and head on out... I have to go get my picture taken so that I can go get my Visa tomorrow...otherwise, I'll get booted out of the country in November. Apparently, you can only stay in a country for three months without a visa... Anything longer than that requires a visa. Well, wish me luck... I'm not quite sure how I'm going to communicate with the shop owner that I need to get my picture taken for a visa.... Should be interesting... it always is! :) I hope you're all having a great day! Miss you!

The view from the top of the castle... It was gorgeous!!

Maike and I

Looking through a walkway of the castle...

A view from the cafe where we had lunch.

Walking up to the castle

Standing on the inside of the castle...

Now, looking at this picture of the kitchen wall, how long do you think it would take to get this fixed in the U.S.? The yellow is where the water leaked... If you look closely you can see the mold... It's all of those small black dots that are all over the wall... Isn't that something you all want in your kitchen?? :)

Strange occurances...

Hey all! Hope this finds you all well! :) Things here have been going well, but I'm hoping that today goes better than yesterday afternoon did... After I finished yesterday's blog, I left McDonald's and headed to the grocery store to buy some groceries. After careful observation, I have finally figured out what side of the sidewalk I'm supposed to walk on so that I don't get taken out by the bikers... I feel so accomplished. :) Anyways, I was minding my own business and walking on the appropriate side of the sidewalk, when all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a very large object approaching me. I turned to my left and had to literally jump out of the way of an oncoming car! That's right... a car was driving on the sidewalk, and it was coming at me quite fast! Now, being that I've never been in a circumstance quite like that before, I was caught slightly off guard, so I jumped out of the way and watched as the car preceded to drive past me and then drive off the sidewalk onto the cross street directly ahead of us. As I watched this take place, I was in completely baffled and wondering if I was just imagining it... Not so much. After the car drove off, I turned to see where it had come from, and realized that the driver apparently did not want to sit in the traffic at the stop light, so instead he chose to just drive onto the sidewalk and then turn onto the next side street. Now, I know that I'm an impatient driver at times, but never in a million years would I decide that it was ok to drive on a sidewalk... especially when there are pedestrians walking on the sidewalk! However, what I've come to realize, is that this is quite normal around here. I've found that people don't like to wait at traffic signals, so they simply drive onto the sidewalks and catch the next side street. Or I've also watched people drive up onto the sidewalk to park their cars so that they don't have to walk as far to get to where they're going... It's craziness here! Now, not only do I have to worry about getting taken out by bikers, but now I apparently have to worry about getting hit by cars while walking down the sidewalk!! And just in case you think I'm exaggerating, I've attached a picture so that you can take a look for yourselves...



Yep, that's a car parked on the sidewalk (the actual road is on the right)... And the worst part of it is that it's parked in the walking section of the sidewalk... So, now pedestrians must walk over to the bike section and risk getting taken out by a biker, just so that they can get around the parked car. Sometimes I wonder about this culture... :)

And then after the sidewalk incident, I attempted to cross the street at a crosswalk. As I was about 1/4 of the way across, the light turned red and within .3 seconds of it turning red, I had to jump out of the way of a van that had come barreling around the corner! And, the worst part, was that even as he saw me crossing the street, he didn't even try to slow down. As I stood and watched him tear around the corner, he motioned at the crosswalk to show me that it was red, which meant that I shouldn't be crossing at that moment... At that point, I was highly ticked off from almost being hit by two cars within a 5 minute time frame, so as he motioned to me and gave me a dirty look, I used a few choice words of my own to let him know that I had indeed tried to follow the rules, and I wasn't just jay-walking. :)

What I've come to realize after that incident is that when a crosswalk or traffic light turns from green to red here, they don't give a time delay before the next light turns green. So if a crosswalk is green and then turns to red, the minute it turns to red, the traffic light turns to green which gives the ok for oncoming traffic to go... If that makes any sense... Needless to say, after that incident, I practically ran home and stayed inside for a while, away from all types of moving vehicles! Once Brian came home, I decided that I would try to venture out again... I'm getting the feeling that there's more safety in numbers around here. :)

Well, I'd better get going... I'm going to go rock climbing with Maike (I found out that I've been spelling "Micah's" name wrong this whole time... oops! :)). I can't wait to get back to the gym!! I'll let you know how it goes... :) Oh, and before I go, I promised Stacy that I would post this picture of the snail I took a picture of. I have to say, that before moving here, I've never seen snails that are this big! The snails here are like monstrocities!! They're huge and after it rains, they are all over the place... We actually have one on the roof over our balcony at the moment... eew! Let's just say, that Brian and I have learned very quickly that we have to carefully watch where we walk after it rains around here!! :) On that note, I have to run... Will write more soon! I miss you much!!

This is actually a smaller version... Most of them are alot larger than this one.

Moving along at a snail's pace...

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I'd like to first start off by saying congratulations to Steph and Mike on the arrival of their new baby girl, Lucy Ann! I'm so happy for you guys! :)

Brian and I had a pretty low-key weekend... On Friday, I spent the day with Micah in Uberlingen, which is a small town about 30 minutes from here. I have to say that Uberlingen is such a pretty little town. It's an older town and it has quite a bit of history... The town is actually still surrounded, in some areas, by a wall that was built in the 1200's to protect it from outsiders. There are 5 guard towers standing in different areas of the town which were also built at the same time as the wall. Micah and I were able to wander around the town for a couple of hours and she showed me parts of the wall and the guard towers. We were also able to walk up to the top of one of the walls and walk across it. I have to say that it was quite an experience! How often can you say that you are standing on top of a wall that was built over 800 years ago?! I've attached a picture of one of the watch/guard towers and then a couple of pictures that I took from on top of the wall. It was quite a view from the top. :)

After we wandered around the town for a few hours, Micah took me to visit one of her friends who lived in Uberlingen. She warned me before we arrived at their house, that most Germans do not live like her friend. I didn't quite know what she meant by that, until I walked into the house. Her friend lived in, what seemed like, the lap of luxury! She lived in a 3-story house (most Germans live in 2 bedroom apartments) which overlooked the city of Uberlingen, along with a remarkable view of the lake and the Swiss Alps! Wow! The side of their house, which faced the lake, was entirely made up of windows and the view was gorgeous! The three of us took complete advantage of the beautiful afternoon, and we spent about an hour sitting out in her garden, drinking lattes, playing with her new puppy, and enjoying the view... It was a pretty rough day, don't you think?! :)

Micah and I finally managed to pull ourselves away from the scenery, so that we could head home. On the way back to Friedrichshafen, we stopped at a Catholic Church, called a Birnau. Micah told me that it was a site that I had to see. After walking in and looking around, I could see why she said that. The church was built in the 1300's and it has a Baroque feel to it in regards to architecture and artwork. The outside of the church had a nice view overlooking a vineyard and the lake. The inside of the church was amazing... Micah and I both stood in awe the entire time we were in there... There was just so much to take in! I wasn't exactly supposed to take a picture while in there, but seeing as how I had my camera on me, I took one anyways. :) Micah told me that if anyone said anything, we would just have me talk and tell them that I can't read German so I didn't know any better... Shortly after we said that though, we realized that we were standing inside of a church and plotting a way to lie to the employees... Nice! At that point, we decided that we had better just head on out before lightning managed to strike to two of us. :) On Saturday, Brian and I were uncertain what the day held in store for us. We thought about attempting another boat trip to the city of Konstanz, in the hopes that this boat trip would actually take us to our destination. :) However, the weather wasn't looking very promising, so we decided to walk downtown to see what was going on down there. We figured if the weather cleared up, then we would be able to take a boat trip, otherwise, we would just wander around downtown for the afternoon.

While we were downtown, we decided that we would go into T-Mobile to see if I could get a new phone. When we walked in, we quickly found out that there was only one employee that spoke English, so we had to wait for him to finish up with his current customer. About an hour later, we finally got the opportunity to speak with him... like I said, they have a very laid back culture here... they are in no hurry at all... While we had waited to speak to the representative, Brian and I had decided on what phone and package we wanted, so once we were able to talk to the rep. we told him exactly what we wanted, in the hopes that it would hurry the process along. We were wrong. As he started to write up the contract for the phone, he told us that he needed to see our passports, which, as luck would have it, we didn't have on us. So, we had to tell the representative that we would be right back. We then had to hike back to our apartment (1 hour round trip) to collect our passports. When we got back to T-Mobile, with our passports in hand, we had to then wait another 45 minutes to talk to the representative again. When we finally had the chance to speak with him, he finished writing up our contract, and then told us that it would be a 30 minute wait for it to go through the computer system, at which point, we decided to wander around downtown. When we went back into T-Mobile 30 minutes later, we were told that they system was requiring additional information from us. We needed to prove that we lived at our current address. This could be proven by giving a phone number from that location (which we don't have yet), showing proof of registration from our car (which we don't have yet), or showing proof from City Hall that we live here (which is proved through Brian's visa). We gave him Brian's visa at that point, he made the necessary copies, and then told us that we'd have to wait another 30 minutes for it all to be approved. So we waited some more. After the the 30 minutes were up, we thought we would be able to walk out with my brand new phone. We were wrong. After the 30 minutes were up, the representative approached us and informed us that their system was having technical difficulties and we'd have to come back on Monday... Lovely! That was a great way to waste a perfectly good Saturday! And for all of you that know how impatient I am, I'm sure you can imagine how happy I was at that particular moment! :) So, Brian and I left and decided to get a bite to eat... and at that point, being that most of the day was wasted at T-Mobile, we opted to head home, where, for the remainder of the day, we watched the only two channels we can get on the TV (MTV and CNN), I read a book, and we took another walk around the area... Good times!

On Sunday, Brian was very excited to go to Eurobike, which is this huge bike show... apparently the largest bike show in Europe. Oh how exciting! I didn't quite realize how large the show was until we walked into the exhibition hall... Now, I've been to my fair share of bridal expos and reading conference expos, but I wasn't exactly prepared for the bike expo. The size of this expo was like taking all of my reading conference expos and bridal expos, and mutiplying them by 100. It was chaos! I never knew that bikes consisted of so many different parts or that bike companies could offer so many choices for the consumer... There were a few cool parts to the expo. We were able to watch some BMX bike races and BMX stunt riders... That was pretty interesting. We also walked by a booth where the company name was the same as the last name of a good friend of mine... Tomac (And Steve, we took many pictures for you. :)) We stayed at the expo for a good 4 hours, at which point, I was ready to leave, but as many of you can already guess, Brian was loving every minute of it. :) Boys and their toys... what can I say. :)

I was able to learn something about the culture from the bike expo though... They do not have the same feeling about personal space as we do in the U.S.!! In the U.S., we like to maintain a short distance from people around us... We tend not to get too close to people. It's the complete opposite here... I had so many people run into me without apologizing, and at one point, I had a woman who stood so close to me that I could feel her standing against my back, and being that she was about a foot taller than me, I could feel her breathing on the top of my head. Now, you know someone is close to you when you can feel their breath on top of your head.... Let's just say that it was a little too close for comfort for me!! And it didn't stop there... I had a man stand right next to me, to the point where we were brushing arms, while I was looking at a bike display. Now, in the U.S., that wouldn't be tolerated. If you ever got that close to a person in the U.S. (even in a crowded dance club), elbows go up and dirty looks are given, and if you're not careful, not so friendly words would be exchanged. I do have to say that it was definately a learning experience for me and it's a culture trait that I don't care to bring back to the U.S. with me. :)

Well, on that note, I'd better get going... Oh, one more thing, I went back to T-Mobile this morning to see how things were coming along with the phone. And after waiting about 45 minutes to speak with the only English speaking representative, I found out that nothing was approved. We found out that we have to go to City Hall to get some type of paperwork that states that we live in our apartment... So, as of now, I still have no phone, and by the way things tend to move around here, it'll probably be another two weeks before City Hall gets that paperwork to us... So, I'll keep you posted on our progress... :) I hope all is going well for all of you! I miss you much!!

A display at the bike show...

The company Brian purchased his bike from...

A BMX race about to begin...

One of the five guard towers in Uberlingen.

Standing outside of the "Birnau"...

Taking my "illegal" picture inside the church... Isn't it gorgeous? :)

Part of the wall in downtown Uberlingen...

A stroll through a rose garden in Uberlingen...

A beautiful day in Uberlingen...

A view from atop the guard tower...

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Hi there! I hope you're all enjoying your Thursday.... only one more day until the weekend! Yay! For all of you teachers, you're almost done with the first week of school! Isn't that such a great feeling?! :)

Well, I've got some pretty good news to share today... We found out last night that they approved us to get that apartment we looked at the other day... So, as of January 1st, we will be moving into a fabulous new apartment!! Yay! No more musty smelling kitchen and not so pretty decor! :) In case you didn't check out the website, I'm uploading a few pics of the apartment so you can see for yourself what a great apartment this is! I'm so excited now for January to get here! Well, I'm more excited for December to arrive so that I can come back to the U.S. and see everyone again! :)

The kitchen... It actually has a microwave and it doesn't smell musty! :)

The view from the balcony... There's a pretty garden to the left side.

This kitchen table is so much more modern and attractive than our current one. :)

The bedroom... Everything in it actually matches! :)

The living room..

The dining room... I love the fact that they have cushions for the window seats!

We also found out yesterday, that all of our possessions should be arriving in Germany on September 18th... Finally! For all of you that don't know, we were told that our clothes and things would be air shipped to us so that they would be here within the first two weeks of us moving here... Well, somehow down the line, something got screwed up, and the moving company decided to send all of our things by ship... So, all of our things are currently sitting somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... lovely! Luckily, me being a person who tends to overpack, we have enough clothes to get by until then. :) But, it's very good to know that we only have to wait about 2-3 more weeks before we can get all of our belongings! :)

Last night, Brian and I went over to his coworker's (Norbert) house for dinner. His girlfriend, Micah, made us a delicious dinner. We had a very nice time... Micah and I really hit it off... She's another person who enjoys speaking English and speaks it very well. She also enjoys working out, rock climbing, shopping, skiing, and watching Angel and Bones (she's a big fan of David Boreanaz like I am! :))... so we have quite a bit in common. The two of us are actually taking a trip to the town of Uberlingen tomorrow and she's going to show me around... She told me it was a very old city with alot of history, so I'm pretty excited about the trip! :) She told me that I'll definitely need to bring a camera, so I promise to take alot of pictures to share with all of you.

Well, I should probably get going... I've been sitting in McDonald's for quite some time, and I think it's time to head out... It's been raining ever since I got here, so I've been waiting for it to clear up, seeing as I still don't have an umbrella and I don't feel like walking 30 minutes in the rain. :) But, it looks like the rain has stopped, so I'd better try to make it back to the apartment before it starts raining again. I hope you're all doing well.... I miss you much!

Baby Steps...

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a great Wednesday. I'm currently sitting in McDonald's trying to type up this blog, all the while listening to a group of about 12 very obnoxious preteen boys... Fun, fun!! So, I may have to cut this short today depending on how much more of their yelling and arm wrestling matches I can handle. :)

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I met up with Eva for coffee again and she introduced me to a friend of hers, Alex, who is the girlfriend of Brian's coworker. Alex seemed very sweet and she also speaks English very well. We all ended up hitting it off and the three of us sat and chatted over coffee for about 3 hours yesterday afternoon. It was very enjoyable! :) Unfortunately, Eva had to head back to her hometown last night... She has to go back to school and start setting up her classroom as school starts for her next week. However, before she left, she mentioned that she will be teaching U.S. History and Geography to her 8th graders this year, and she asked if I would be interested in coming to her school as a guest speaker at some point. As you can guess, I said I would most definately be interested! :) I think it would be a great experience to be able to observe in classrooms here... just to see how similar and/or different they are from schools in the U.S. So, I'll keep you all posted on whether or not I get that opportunity. :)

Oh, I have to tell you how accomplished I felt this morning. We live about a block away from a bakery and Brian and I have recently been craving a bread that they bake there... It's called "selee". It's a long, slender loaf of bread with seasoning on it, and I have to say that it is mighty tasty! :) They also have it with cheese baked into it as well... that's called "kase selee". So, anyways, I decided to test out some of my German skills today. Yes, I haven't started classes yet, but I have been listening and observing and picking up a few words here and there. Well, I walked down to the bakery and after standing around observing customers for a few minutes, I walked up to the woman, and placed my order entirely in German (granted, it was in German, but with a bit of stumbling over some of the words)... and the best part was, that she understood what I said, and I didn't even have to point to the bread for her to understand! :) Woohoo! :) She placed my "selee" bread into the bags and rang it up for me. At that point, I felt like I had made some huge accomplishment and I couldn't stop smiling. I actually paid for my purchase and I'm pretty sure I walked out of the bakery with a little extra bounce in my step. Now, I realize that all I did was simply order two loaves of bread and it may seem a little odd to get so excited about that... But, for those of you that know me, and know how concerned I am about learning the German language, this was a huge step for me. :)

So, over the past couple of days, I've been managing to feel a little more adjusted here, and I was feeling much more positive about everything. That is, until Brian informed me last night that our house in Livonia was broken into... Isn't that something you always want to hear when you're thousands of miles away from home?! Yep, apparently the house was broken into over the weekend... They pushed the side window screen in and climbed in and out through there. The thing that makes me most angry, outside of the fact that they broke into the house, was that when they left, they left the window open, which meant that Riley was able to get out... Luckily, Riley is too scared to go very far from home, so he was still sitting outside the house when our friend Aaron came over and saw what had happened. Riley is a pretty smart cat after all! :)

Being that we brought most of our valuables with us or left them with our families, the thieves did not walk away with too much.... thankfully! But, it's still such a creepy feeling to know that someone was in your house and going through your personal things... and to also think that if they aren't caught, will they try to come back and take more of our things now that they've seen what we have? We talked with a detective from the Livonia Police Department today and they're doing what they can to find the culprits. Let's just hope they find them... Needless to say, this is definitely something that we could have done without... :(

Well, I have to run. Brian and I are having dinner with his coworker and his coworker's girlfriend this evening. Brian seems to think that she and I will hit it off, so I'm looking forward to meeting her. :) I hope you're all doing well! Miss you much!!

Apartment search...

Hey all! First, I want to start off by saying good luck on the first day of school to all of the teachers out there!! I know how you're feeling right now, and in a way, I'm wishing I was right there going through all of that first day excitement with you... But, instead, I'm chillin' in McDonald's, drinking a coffee, surfing the internet, and sending positive thoughts your way! :) Good luck to you all!

Second, I want to say thank you to all of you who have been checking out our blog! I've received alot of positive feedback from it and that makes me so happy! :) In a way, this blog is my way of feeling like I'm still connected to everyone back in the U.S... it's great therapy when I get lonely during the day (considering that I can't really talk to too many people, I just type out what's on my mind now! :)), so I'm glad you all are enjoying it! :)

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Brian and I signed up for our German bank account on Friday and we also signed up for our internet/phone line... Unfortunately, it'll take about two weeks for it to get installed, so it looks like I'll be making the hike to Mickey D's for a little while longer! :) Oh well, it's pretty good exercise, so I don't really mind. :)

I'm sure that many of you haven't heard about our other apartment woes (outside of the really bad decorating! :)). We had a slight problem in the kitchen that occurred last week. Brian kept telling me that he was smelling something musty in the kitchen, but for the first two days, I couldn't smell anything. However, on the third day, it was another story. We woke up to an awful stench coming from the kitchen! We spent almost all day trying to figure out where it was coming from (you wouldn't think that it should take that long considering how small the kitchen is... :)), and then we finally located it. In the corner of the kitchen, water was running down the wall from the ceiling... Apparantly it had been leaking for quite a while... So, we called the landlord, and he called the maintainence man, who came to the apartment to check it out. The only problem is that he didn't speak English and the only thing we managed to figure out was that the apartment above us, where no one is currently living, had a leak in their bathroom, which ended up leaking into our kitchen... eeew! The maintainence man then looked at the wall, said something in German and then left, and that's all we've heard about it since.... And that was 4 days ago... lovely! So, as of now, nothing's been fixed and our kitchen still smells... Gotta love the laid back German culture... ugh!! Needless to say, we've decided to see if we could find another apartment to move into after our lease is up in this one (which is in December).

So, Brian made a few contacts at work in regards to rental properties and yesterday, we checked one of them out... Let's just say, I fell in love with the place... It's decorated entirely in orange (which is my FAVORITE color!!) and it's ultra modern... I felt like I was stepping into a house they would have on "The Real World" on MTV. I'm attaching a link to the website, so you can see for yourself... http://www.bodenseetoskana.de/ . After you click on the link, you'll have to click on the small Great Britain flag in the top right hand corner of the page to translate it into English, and then underneath the flag, you'll see a long, skinny, brown box with writing in it... Click on Apartment ROSSO, and the pictures that come up are that of the apartment we looked at... It's quite a place to say the least! :) The only downfall is that it doesn't allow pets, which breaks my heart, because I was hoping to bring Riley back with us in January. :( So, we'll see what happens with everything... All we know now, is that there are definately better living arrangements out there for us... whew! :)

In today's blog, I'm attaching some pics of some of the things I've seen here, that are just so different from things you would find in the U.S.... One of the first strange things that we saw alot of this past weekend, was the amount of cars driving on the sidewalk.... Very odd! Also, there are tons of Smart Cars driving around here and they just look so weird when you see them driving by... They are so little!! I also saw their postmen delivering mail the other day, and it was just different to see... They are dressed all in yellow, and they ride their bikes around with big yellow boxes attached to the back and deliver the mail. Lastly, as we were walking back from our ordeal on Sunday, we came across four wheelers just driving down the street... Apparantly, it's perfectly legal to drive your four-wheeler on the main roads here... So, of course, me being the picture fanatic, had to take pictures of all of these sightings to share with all of you back home! :) As for the picture of the postman, it's not a great picture, but I figured they may think I was kind of crazy taking a picture of them while they're delivering the mail... so I just waited until they rode past me and took a picture from behind! :)

A "Smart Car"... they're so tiny!! And the people here park them virtually anywhere!!

The postman on his daily delivery...

The random 4-wheelers riding down the street.

Well, I've got to run... I am meeting Eva again today. She's actually leaving to go back to her hometown so that she can start teaching, but she's introducing me to another wife of one of Brian's coworkers today. Apparantly this girl is new to the area and she speaks English as well... woohoo! I love meeting new people who I can talk to! :) I'll let you know how things go.... Hope you're all doing well! Miss you much!!

The Language Barrier...

Happy Labor Day, everyone! Unfortunately we don't get to enjoy a 3 day weekend here, unlike many of you! :) Brian had to go to work today, and I'm on my own again...

Brian and I had a pretty enjoyable weekend. As I wrote in Friday's blog, I met up with Eva for coffee and we had a very nice time! :) It was so nice to be able to sit down and chat with her. She is very sweet and we had alot of common, especially with us both being teachers! :) She speaks English very well and she enjoys speaking English so that she can practice. She also helped me with some words in German, which was extremely helpful! :) After coffee, we wandered around Friedrichshafen. As we wandered through town, we came across a fruit/vegetable/flower market. They had fruit, vegetable, and flower stands set up throughout the streets... It was actually pretty cool. The flower stands had a huge variety of flowers, of which you could choose what types of flowers you wanted, and they would make them into floral bouquets while you waited. I really was wanting to purchase some, but I didn't considering that I didn't want to have to carry them around with me for the rest of the day. However, I found out that they set this market up every Friday from 8 a.m - 2 p.m., so I am determined to go down there again this Friday and get some flowers, fruit, and vegetables. They also had quite a few cheese stands; however, I decided to steer clear of those based on our prior experience with cheese! :)

On Saturday, Brian and I decided to celebrate Labor Day... German style! :) We met up with the other American, Katrina, who works over here through Brian's company and we decided that we would grill out by the lake. Katrina's boyfriend is from Germany and he provided the authentic German potato salad (which was delicious!!). We grilled steaks and indulged in some other German and American cuisines and enjoyed watching the sunset over the lake... Overall, we had an enjoyable Labor Day celebration... for a while it seemed like we were back in the States. :)

Brian and I on the lake during our Labor Day celebration.

On Sunday, Brian and I decided to be adventurous and we took a walk downtown to check out the Katamarran to Konstanz. I found out about the Katamarran and Konstanz from Eva during our conversation on Friday. Konstanz is a small German town on the other side of Lake Constance (the lake we live on). Apparantly, unlike the city we live in, it wasn't destroyed during World War II. Since it was so close to Switzerland, it wasn't bombed. Therefore, it still has all of its original buildings intact and from what we hear, it has alot of history and culture... so, considering that Brian and I are both history buffs, we were eager to check it out. Plus, I found out that it also has a Starbucks! :)

Anyways, when I had talked with Eva on Friday, she had told me that the Katamarran to Konstanz left daily at two minutes past the hour, every hour. She also showed me how to buy tickets for the boat. Well, walking up to the dock on Sunday, Brian and I noticed that the Katamarran was leaving at 2:35, which we thought was odd, but we didn't really think anything of it. So, I used my newly acquired skills to purchase our tickets (which I was very proud of, I might add! :)) and we hopped on the boat. A few minutes after we took off for what we assumed was Konstanz, Brian got a very serious look on his face and said that he didn't think we were going in the right direction. At that point, we thought that the boat may be possibly taking a different route to Konstanz. After about 10 minutes of going in the entirely wrong direction, we knew we weren't heading to Konstanz. So, we tried to figure out where we could possibly be going. At first, we thought we were headed to Lindau (which wasn't too exciting for us considering we've already been there and it doesn't have much to offer). But, after passing Lindau, we realized that that wasn't our destination. At that point, we started to slightly panic. We were headed towards Switzerland, which wouldn't be a good thing being that neither of us brought our passports. So, if we docked in Switzerland, we wouldn't be able to get off the boat... Great! Well, we ended up not going to Switzerland. Instead the boat, which had been following the shoreline, did a 90 degree turn and started going right through the middle of the lake. Brian and I were completely confused at this point, so we proceeded to just sit and wait to see where we ended up. About, 20 minutes later, we noticed that Friedrichshafen (the city we live in) was up ahead. As we noticed that we were getting closer to Friedrichshafen, we finally realized what we had done. We had somehow managed to read the sign wrong when purchasing tickets, and we had purchased tickets to go on a 40 minute tour of Lake Constance! Instead of going to the city of Konstanz, we ended up on a boat tour of the lake, which we never really took in considering that we were so confused about where we were going! :) Lovely! However, I did learn one thing from the Katamarran ride... they serve delicious coffee on the boat! :) I may just have to buy tickets for the boat tour on a more regular basis... I could ride a boat around the lake and enjoy and very tasty cup of coffee! :) It would make for a very relaxing day. :)

After our ordeal with the boat tour was over, we decided to wander around Friedrichshafen for a while, and then we got a bite to eat at an outdoor bistro and sat and watched all of the people walk by. On Sunday all of the stores are closed here (the restaurants and gas stations are the only businesses that stay open) and it's considered a "family day", where families come out and everyone just wanders around the city. I was actually quite surprised at how many people were out and about! After we ate, we tried to rent a paddle boat to take out onto the lake, but by the time we got to the rental station, the paddle boats were all occupied... Oh well, there's always next Sunday. :)

Overall, we had quite an eventful weekend. After this weekend, I've started to realize that the way of life here is slower and more relaxed... Unlike the U.S. where people are constantly rushing around to get from one place to another (which I am extremely guilty of!!), the people here actually take a minute to slow down and spend time with their family and friends. It's kind of nice... Brian loves it and seems to fit right in, although, with me being such a "busybody", I have a feeling it'll take a little more time for me to adjust to the slower pace of life. :)

That's us on our boat tour of Lake Constance... we figured we'd capture the moment! :)

A view of Friedrichshafen from the Katamarran...

Well, I'm off to run to XXX Lutz (it's the city's version of IKEA... I love it!!). I have to buy myself a pillow... The pillows here are either way too large or way too small, and we only have one regular sized pillow in the apartment, which Brian and I have been trying to share... let's just say, it's not working so well! :) I hope you're all enjoying your Labor Day weekend! I miss you all very much!!