The Biking Conundrum...

Hey all!  Well, it looks like our computer issues might be under control now, so that's a very good sign! :)  

I just got back from "Girl's Night" at Maike's, where we made a pumpkin soup (It was quite tasty, if I do say so myself. :)) and watched Sex and the City...  As usual, it was a fun and very laid back evening. :)  And, to make it even better, I was able to practice my German... woohoo!

So, I think I'm gradually getting adjusted to how they do things around here... and I'm feeling much more comfortable here.  However, the one thing I have yet to figure out is how to ride my bike, or simply take a walk, on the sidewalk without the fear of getting into some type of biker/pedestrian accident!  It's crazy!  I think I've managed to figure out what side of the sidewalk I should walk on, and what side I should bike on...  But, for some reason, I come across people on a daily basis who test my judgement on this matter. Let me give you an example... I rode my bike to the gym today.  I was riding along, minding my own business, and riding on the appropriate side of the sidewalk... Well, up ahead I see this woman coming towards me, so I veer towards the right hand side of the sidewalk so that I can get around her (seems like the logical thing to do).  Now, I assumed that she would veer towards her right side so that we would simply pass one another... That's where I was wrong!  As I veered to the right, she followed me.  Now, this means that we're still riding towards each other, head on.  I then veer to the left, and the woman proceeds to do the same... Meaning that we're still coming straight at each other!  So, I try one more time to veer to the right side in the hopes that she'll wise up and not follow me... No such luck!  She veered towards the same direction as me, and we were coming towards each other rather quickly... It was only a matter of seconds before we hit head on!  In a last minute effort to avoid a bike accident, I veered further to the right, into the road and into oncoming traffic, where I frantically tried to regain control over my bike so that I didn't get into a bike/car accident. After regaining control of my bike, I stopped on the side of the road and noticed that the woman was just biking on off, with no concern about what had just occurred... Yikes!  I was highly ticked off at that point considering that she was the reason that I was in that predicament, and she didn't seem to notice!   The thing that makes this most irritating, is that this isn't the first time that something like this has happened... I seem to have this type of problem on a daily basis.  If a bike is coming towards me, I try to be polite and veer to the side in order to avoid them... and every time, without fail, the people always follow me!  I'm currently very confused about this situation and I'm not quite sure how to appropriately handle it... I'm thinking that from now on, whenever someone is riding towards me, I'll just initiate a game of "Chicken" and hope that they veer out of the way before me! :) Hmmmm... we'll see how that goes... :)  

Well, on that note, I have to head to bed... I need to get up early tomorrow to finish packing and run some last-minute errands before we head off to Berlin... yay!! :)  I hope you have a great day!  Miss you much!

Sprechen die Deutsch... Not So Much...

Hey folks! Hope you're having a great Wednesday! This is probably going to be a very short post today, as my computer is really acting up... Hence the reason for not blogging yesterday. I almost finished writing my blog yesterday, and I was just getting ready to post it, and suddenly my computer crashed... lovely! And now today, it's having a hard time just staying on... It keeps shutting down on me... Ugh! So, needless to say, I'm going to type fast! :)

We had our German class again this morning. On Monday, we learned alot of vocabulary words, so today, our instructor wanted us to simply practice talking... Now, if this was back in the U.S., I would have been extremely happy to oblige! As most of you know, I tend to be quite a chatterbox, so having an excuse to talk during class is great! :) However, when it comes to me speaking German, that's an entirely different story! The German language is not the easiest language to learn... They have different ways of setting up their sentences (e.g. when asking a question, the verb comes first in a sentence, but when making a statement, it goes someplace else... ), they assign an article to every noun in their vocabulary (some nouns are considered feminine, some are masculine, and some are neutral... and you have to figure out which ones are which), and then some of the sounds in their language are unlike any sound I've ever had to make in my lifetime!! So, when it comes to speaking in German, I tend to get extremely tongue-tied. There have literally been moments during our class, when our instructor asks us something in German, and I simply look at her like a deer in headlights... Too confused to even get any words out of my mouth... Lovely! For some reason, when I hear people speaking German, I tend to panic and then I can't even make sense of any words that they are saying... Needless to say, I've got alot of studying ahead of me... oh joy! And, to make matters worse, I was actually making fun of Brian the other day for being so "studious"... He had made flashcards and was taking studying so seriously, so I told him that he was being such a "engineer" (they tend to be very "studious"... :)). But, now it looks like I'll actually have follow his lead, because it looks like he might be on to something when it comes to studying German... Great! :)

After class today, I met up with the English-speaking women for lunch... After speaking (or at least attempting to speak) German all morning, it was rather nice to speak English. :) And, now I'm off to the gym, and then Brian and I have to go pick up our translated Marriage License... In order for me to get my visa, we had to have our Marriage License translated into German, and I just received the call today that it's been completed... So, now we just have to pick it up and then I'm one step closer to getting my visa... woohoo!

I hope you all have a great day! Miss you much!

The German Movie Experience...

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! Our's was pretty low-key...

We went to see James Bond on Friday evening. That was definitely an experience!! It was a good movie, but not quite as good as we were expecting. There was alot of action, but not alot of substance... However, I must admit that Daniel Craig (a.k.a. James Bond) looked very good! :) The movie experience in itself was rather interesting... The movie was scheduled to start at 10:45, so we arrived a few minutes early and found our seats. When you buy the tickets online, they assign a seat to you, so finding our seats was quite easy. (Oh, and for those of you who may be wondering... We were able to find the "fetching automat" and we were able to "fetch" our tickets very easily! :)) Well, we sat in the theatre for a while and waited for the previews to come on... At 10:55, I looked at my watch and realized that it was already 10 minutes past the time the movie was scheduled to begin. Now, in the U.S., if a movie has to start late, then there is usually an announcement explaining the situation... This was not the case here. :) Instead, we sat waiting for another 10-15 minutes before the previews finally started. (Mind you, the previews were all in German so we had no idea what they were about... Great!) Well, after about 5 previews, an advertisement for ice cream was shown... After the ad was over, the screen went blank and the overhead lights came up... Hmmmm? So, we all sat and waited some more, all the while trying to figure out what the hold up was... Well, about five minutes later, we finally figured it out. The "ice cream" man was walking around through each of the individual theatres selling ice cream... So, after waiting for him to arrive in our theatre for almost 10 minutes, he finally showed up... and then we had to wait some more so that everyone could buy their ice cream for the show... Lovely! After the ice cream man finished selling his products, the lights went out again. At this point I figured that the movie was about to start... Nope, I was proven wrong! Instead, we sat through about four more previews! Once those were over, the movie finally started... almost 45 minutes past the original start time... ugh!! Since we've been here, I've noticed that they have a very laid-back attitude when it comes to time, and this just proved how laid back about it they really are! It's crazy!! Let's just say, that we probably won't be going to too many movies while we're over here... I don't think I have the patience for them! :)

After all of the "excitement" at the movies, the rest of our weekend was pretty uneventful. I did get to practice driving on Saturday. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I did fine with the navigating and whatnot... I wasn't even too bothered by the fact that the streets are so narrow. It was driving a manual transmission that was the problem! I drove about 5 miles and somehow managed to stall the car 6 -7 times... Great! We'll just say that I need alot more practice before I start taking any road trips! :)

On Sunday, we had coffee with a Scottish couple that I've met since moving here... So, it was nice to visit with them. After coffee, we ended up spending the rest of the day studying German... Fun, fun! At this point, we know how to introduce ourselves and how to order drinks at a restaurant... (I've got ordering coffee down to a science! :)) Watch out... at the rate we're going, we'll be speaking fluently within the next few weeks! Ha, ha! :)

Well, I should probably head to bed... We have a pretty busy week ahead of us, and then we're heading to Berlin on Friday... yay!! :) I hope you all had a great Monday! Miss you!

Dinner and a Movie...

Happy Friday to you all! I spent most of the day today painting... And, I have to say, that it was actually quite fun. :) Val and I arrived at the theatre around 9 a.m. and we were given directions about what our task for the day was... We had to paint 4 big panels and a doorframe. Luckily for us (and for them! :)) we only had to paint them one color and it didn't involve us being artistic in the least. :) Being that I've done my fair share of painting over the years, it was quite an easy task. There were about four of us, and we spent the morning painting and chatting away.... I know, such a tough life I have over here! :)

I also learned a little history while I painted. The building that we were in was part of an old army barrack that the French Army used during the War. Apparently, there is an entire tunnel system underneath the barracks... I, of course, asked if we could go see it, but unfortunately I wasn't able to today... The woman in charge wasn't too familiar with the underground tunnel... But, she did tell me that she would get in touch with the gentleman who is familiar with the it, and then I can go have a look for myself... Very cool! :)

Once we finished painting, the woman in charge (her name is Sharon, she's from Canada, and she's lived here for 11 years) invited us over to her apartment for coffee and sandwiches... So, we spent the afternoon there... I'm actually very happy that I managed to get myself talked into helping out, because they're such a friendly group of people and I've enjoyed getting to know them. :)

Brian and I are now getting ready to head out for dinner and a movie... That's right, we're actually going to the movies here... yay!! We found out that the new James Bond movie is being shown here in English, so we immediately got online and purchased tickets for tonight! From what we've been told, they show a movie in English about every three months... and it's usually a very popular movie, which means that they sell out extremely fast. (For example, the last movie they had in English was Sex and the City, and I'm sure you all know how big that was! :)). Once we found that out, we immediately got online to buy tickets... and that was quite an adventure considering that the website was all in German... lovely! :) Needless to say, it took a long time to try to "decode" the website and figure out how to actually purchase tickets... But, we finally managed and we were quite proud of our accomplishment. It was kind of funny to translate the information on the website from German to English... We'll just say that some things are literally lost in translation... For instance, after we purchased our tickets, a paragraph popped up onto the screen, which (after translation) informed us that we are to "fetch our bought tickets at the fetching automat in the entrance hall". I have to say, that's definitely not something you hear everyday, and what exactly is a "fetching automat"?! :)

On that note, I'm going to head on out... Brian and I are off to "fetch" our tickets to James Bond at the "fetching automat"... whatever that might be! :) I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! Miss you much!

Shop, Shop, Shop...

Hey all! I hope you had a fabulous Thursday. I fully intended to have this blog finished early this morning, but somehow the day flew by, and I'm just now getting the opportunity to write anything... crazy!

I had the opportunity to meet another English-speaking person today... I'm actually quite surprised at the amount of English-speaking people in this area!! It's definitely helped to make the adjustment process a little easier. :) I made contact with this woman through a website that they have over here. The website gives information about the area and different events and groups that they have here. I posted a question on the website when we first arrived here in August, asking if there were any English-speakers in the area. After I posted it, I didn't hear anything until just recently when this woman, Sarah, emailed me. She explained that she's from Scotland and that she and her husband have been here since February. They're in their mid-thirties and they have a two month old daughter. She then asked if I would be interested in meeting for coffee. So, we set up a meeting for today... and we had a great time! She's very pleasant to talk to and she said that she hasn't had too much luck meeting English speakers over here... she was quite shocked when she heard how many English-speaking people I've met since moving here. :) Either way, she's planning on joining me the next time our English-speaking group gets together for lunch or coffee... It'll be nice to add another member to our constantly expanding group! :)

After meeting Sarah for coffee, I headed back to the apartment to meet up with Maike and Katrina (the American who works with Brian). We then headed to Konstanz to do a little shopping... yay! :) We spent the evening shopping in downtown Konstanz and at the mall, called Lago. Being back inside of a mall made me realize how much I miss shopping in the U.S.! :) I have to admit that I don't have much luck shopping here, being that everything is so outrageously expensive!! I tend to stick with window shopping... I figure that with the money I save by not buying things over here, I'll be able to go on a massive shopping spree when we come back to the U.S. in December... hee, hee! :)

Well, I'd better get going... It's time to get some sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow so that I can help paint props for the upcoming play that is being put on by the English-speaking theatre group... That's right, I've somehow managed to get roped into helping with the props. Apparently, the shirt that I painted for Brian to wear to the Halloween party, made an impression on the people in the theatre group... For some reason, they seem to think I'm "artistic" and they've asked me to help... If only they knew! :) I guess we'll see how it goes... It'll definitely be an interesting experience. :)

I hope all is going well for you! Miss you much!

Proud to be an American!!

Hey all! What an exciting day it's been! Brian and I started our day early this morning... We woke up around 6 a.m. (which is about midnight in Michigan...) so that we could see the results of yesterday's election. We were hoping to find that Obama won... and lucky for us, we ended up turning the t.v. on right as Obama was about to give his acceptance speech... so, we were able to watch the whole thing! Yay!! :) I have to say that he gave a fantastic speech, and it was such a historic moment for the U.S.! I also have to admit, that watching Obama give his speech in Grant Park in downtown Chicago (which many of you know, is my favorite city!!) made me somewhat homesick, and extremely envious of all of the people who were able to be there!! :)

After the initial excitement of waking up and finding out that Obama will be our new president, Brian and I got ready and headed off to our first German class. Wow! What an interesting class that was... Let's just say, learning German will most likely be quite challenging for us! :) We worked on the vowel sounds and a few verbs today... Just trying to make some of the sounds is a task in itself... Their language is very "gutteral", meaning that many of the sounds come from the throat, and those that don't come from the throat, sound alot like the "sh" sound... I kept trying to sound out the words and make the sounds, and to be quite honest, I felt like I was spitting at our instructor for most of the session... Great! :) Needless to say, learning the German language will definitely be interesting! :)

After class, I headed to the gym, ran some errands, and cleaned the apartment... so it's actually been quite a busy day. Now, I just have to get dinner together, and then Brian, Maike, and I are heading off to go to the Kletterhalle to go rock climbing for a few hours... fun! :) I hope you have a great day! Miss you much!

Get Out and Vote!!

Happy Election Day to you all! Make sure you get out and vote today! My vote's been in for about a month now, so I'm very anxious to hear the outcome of today's election! :)

We finally have some good news in regards to our German classes... Brian received a call at work yesterday, giving him the ok to register for classes... yay!! It's been a long road... They've told us yes we could take classes, then no, they yes again, and then no again... It just kept going on and on for the past 10 weeks or so... ugh! So, before they could tell him no again, Brian went down to the Language School and registered for classes. :) Our first class will be held tomorrow morning from 8 -10, and from then on we will have class Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8 - 10... We're both pretty excited! However, being that we're both pretty competitive, we're sure this will turn into a competition between us to see who can learn German more quickly! :)

Well, I'm off to meet up with the English women for a "Tea and Brunch" at Val's apartment. And then I have the opportunity to observe in a Kindergarten classroom today, where the children are learning to English... It should be pretty fun! :) I'll fill you in on all of the details tomorrow... :) I hope you have a great day! Remember to vote! Miss you much!

Volcanoes, Vineyards, and Castles...

Hey all! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! In case you haven't already noticed, I decided to get a little patriotic with my blog in honor of the upcoming presidential election. :) I can't believe it's already November and election day is already upon us... Time sure does fly!

Our weekend was pretty relaxing... We went to the Halloween party on Friday evening and it turned out to be quite fun. Our costumes turned out very well, and we actually received compliments on them... what a bonus! :) Here's a few photos of us...

The Halloween Party was hosted by a theatre group called the Bodensee Players, which performs English-speaking plays in the area. They had Halloween games set up for everyone to play, along with Karaoke and Guitar Hero (which made Brian extremely happy! :)). Overall, Brian and I had a great time meeting everyone... They were all so friendly and it was just so nice to be in a group where everyone spoke the same language. :) By the end of the night, I somehow managed to volunteer my time to help with the upcoming play, which is scheduled for November... That should be interesting! :) Some of the members also tried to convince us to act in the next performance they have scheduled for May, but we quickly put an end to that... Brian was definitely not thrilled about the idea, and I already know that me, as an actress, spells disaster!! :)

Saturday was a very quiet day for us. It was a religious holiday here (similar to the "Day of the Dead") so all of the stores and some of the restaurants were closed, which meant that there wasn't a whole lot for us to do. Luckily our gym was open so we were able to at least workout for a couple of hours. Outside of going to the gym and going to get dinner, we literally did nothing for the entire day... Brian loved being able to relax, but, with me being such a busy body, I was going out of my mind with boredom! :)

On Sunday, Maike called us to see if we wanted to join her on a hike. Considering that Sunday looked like it was going to be just as uneventful as Saturday had been, we decided to take her up on the offer! :) We ended up driving to a city called Singen, which is about an hour away. This city consists of the largest castle ruins in all of Germany. The most interesting part is that they are located on top of an inactive volcano! It took us about an hour to get to the top (we somehow managed to take the short, but very steep route... lucky us!). The hike to the top wasn't all that bad though... Part of the path took us through some vineyards, where we proceeded to pluck grapes off of the trees and eat them... yum! :) When we arrived at the top, we were able to explore the ruins of a castle which dates back to the 16oo's, with some parts of it actually dating back to 1000. It was pretty amazing to be up there! There were quite a few buildings still intact, such as the church, artillery tower, the cellars, etc... The best part, was that we were just able to wander through everything... We weren't required to stay within a certain area. I have to admit that I could have stayed there all day just exploring all of the nooks and crannies... There was just so much history there! But, after a couple of hours, Brian and Maike were ready to leave. :) I also think that we picked a perfect day to go up there... It was a dreary day with quite a bit of fog, and it was such a fitting backdrop for walking through the ruins of a very old castle... It had a very mysterious and spooky feel to it... It was a perfect trip for the weekend of Halloween! :) We took plenty of pictures to share with you as well! I'll be posting all of them up on our picture site, but here's a few of the highlights....

Brian with the city of Singen in the background...

The vineyards we hiked through...

The grapes were pretty sour, but definitely tasty! :)

That's me exploring one of the many nooks and crannies the castle had to offer. This one led into a cellar...

This was once a restaurant on the castle grounds...

The view of the ruins from atop the church tower...

The view of the castle on our way up the volcano...

If you look closely at the bottom right of the picture, you can see the three of us... :)

Well, I'd better run. It's about time for me to start running some errands... fun, fun! I hope you all have a wonderful Monday! Miss you much!