Italian At Heart...

Hey all!  I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Brian and I spent ours at Lago di Garda, Italy... And, wow, what a fabulous weekend it was! :)

Lago di Garda is a lake nestled between the mountains in northern Italy.  The area is very well known in Europe as being a great place for outdoor enthusiasts.  It's known for its mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing (which Brian and I took complete advantage of!!), and, most importantly,  wind surfing...   Apparently, as the sun warms up the mountains, the warm air from the mountains, and the cold air from the lake combine to make a thermal wind which is supposed to be great for wind surfing.  Needless to say, I've never seen so many wind surfers in my life! :)   

We left very early (5:00 a.m... ugh!) on Saturday morning, and after 4 hours of driving, we arrived in (what I like to refer to it as) "paradise"!  The area was absolutely gorgeous!!  We set up our camp and then immediately began exploring.  The town that we stayed in was a little tourist town called Torbole, and about 5 km from there was a town called Arco, which Brian and I really wanted to check out.  Apparently Arco is the place to go if you're a rock climber.  They have a huge rock climbing championship there every year, and it also has a wide variety of rock climbing stores that we wanted to take a peak at. :) So, we walked the 5 km into Arco and spent the day wandering around the town...  It was such a pretty little town!  As I walked through the streets,  I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in Italy... It felt so surreal to be there!  :)  The buildings and streets and monuments looked exactly like all of the pictures I've always seen of Italy... But, the fact that I was actually there, seeing everything first-hand, was such an amazing experience! :)  

While we were in Arco, we found out where we could do some rock climbing in the area, so we were quite excited about that.  We also felt the need to take part in the Italian culture, so we ordered some gelato at a little sidewalk cafe.  Yum!!  Of course,  I still don't actually know what flavor I ordered... I saw one that looked good, but it didn't have the little sign next to it that said what flavor it was, so I simply just pointed at it when I ordered! :)  Nonetheless, it was still quite tasty! :)  After spending the day in Arco, Brian and I headed back into Torbole, where we met up with our friends, Katrina and Benjamin, and went out for a delicious Italian dinner.... Mmmm! 

On Sunday morning, Brian, Katrina, and I headed out for a little outdoor rock climbing.  It was great!!  The rock face that we climbed was about 40 feet high, and the view from the top was absolutely breathtaking!  Our friend, Katrina, had never been rock climbing before, so we were literally "showing her the ropes" that day...  And, for her first time, she did extremely well! :) I have to say, that the scariest part of the day for me, was not the fact that we were climbing up a very steep rock face and the valley down below was quite a ways down, but the fact that I was climbing up the wall at one point, and I as I reached for a handhold on the wall, a little lizard ran out from behind it, and scared the living daylights out of me!! For those of you who know me, you know my dislike for most types of reptiles! :)  Needless to say, I let out a scream and let go, but luckily for me, I had a pretty good foot hold and an extremely good belayer (that would be Brian, and he was the one holding the rope in place) on the ground! :)   

After our morning of rock climbing, we decided to stop at a small roadside cafe that overlooked the lake and mountains, before we headed back to the campsite.  This is where we had our "Easter Brunch" of panini sandwiches and Corona! :)  We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the town of Torbole, soaking up the sun, and enjoying the sights and sounds of the Italian culture.  And later on that evening, we had our Easter dinner at a small Italian restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious pasta and Italian wine! :)  And, even though it was hard not being with our families for Easter, we still had quite a memorable holiday. :)  

Overall, our weekend in Italy was fabulous!  And we definitely plan to go back and visit again, hopefully sometime in the near future. :)  Over the weekend, I did come to the conclusion that I love the Italian culture!!  I enjoyed everything about their culture... the language, the food, the countryside, the style, the vino... I'm beginning to think I'm Italian at heart! :)

On that note, I'm off to run some errands... I'm getting some flowers for our balcony today... woohoo!   It's supposed to be another great day here... mid 70's and sunny... so I'm off to take advantage of it! :)  Enjoy some of the pictures I posted of our weekend... Sorry there are so many to look through, but I had a hard time narrowing it down to just these! :)  Have a great Tuesday!  Miss you much!

Sunrise in the Alps... On our drive into Italy...

Driving in Italy... Lots of twists and turns through the mountains...

This is where we spent our Easter weekend! :)

Lago di Garda, Italy...

We took a walk on the beach when we first arrived... We were both completely speechless when we first stepped onto the beach... Absolutely beautiful!! 

The view from our campground...

Our friend, Benjamin, windsurfing...

Ok... so this was my first experience with camping in Europe, and needless to say, I was a little concerned at the time... I walked into the bathrooms and this is what I found... yikes!!   Yes folks, that is the toilet... a hole in the ground.  Then I realized that the "old style" bathrooms were on the left side, and the "new and modern" bathrooms were on the right side... Crazy!! :)

The view of the lake and mountains from our campground...

The view of the Italian countryside on our walk into Arco... Beautiful!! 

Downtown Arco...

A sidestreet in Arco...

Camping is a little different here... Unlike the U.S. where you get one tent per site, they tend to try to cram as many tents onto one site as possible! :)  We had 2 tents and half a camper on this one...

When in Italy, you've got to drink some wine!! :)

The view of Torbole, Italy...

Brian as the "belayer"...  I love the view in the background!

The view from the top of the wall...

The valley below us...

The rock face we climbed up... Notice the rock face closest to the trees towards the bottom of the picture?  That's approximately where we were climbing...

My first climb of the day...

Brian giving Katrina some pointers before she headed up...

She made it all the way to the top on her first try! :)

Brian on his way up...

That's me midway up the rock face... Shortly before the lizard ran out in front of me! :)

Notice the fancy footwork... The water was slightly chilly! :)

Sunset in the mountains...

Happy Easter!!

I just want to wish you all a very Happy Easter!!  Enjoy spending time with family and friends!!  We'll be thinking of you as we're soaking up the sun on Lake Garda in Italy!! :)  Have a fabulous holiday and I hope the Easter Bunny is very good to you! :)  Miss you much!

Welcome to Apartment #3!!

Hey all!  There's two exciting things to celebrate today... First, we're officially moved into our new apartment... yay!  And, secondly, this is my 100th post... woohoo!   It seems crazy to think that I've written 100 posts!!  I've just been blogging away as of way of staying connected with everyone back home, and here I am at post #100. :)  

Today was the first day of a 4-day weekend here in Germany.  I'm noticing that they sure do love their holidays here! :)  Brian and I spent the majority of the day organizing the apartment, and we can now say that we are officially moved in.  And, I have to say, that I was a bit hesitant about moving at first, but I actually really like our new place! :)  And, because I know that you are all curious about what this new place looks like, I've taken plenty of pictures to share with you. :) Check it out...

The view of the garden from the spare bedroom...

Our spare bedroom/office... Yes, folks, we no longer have a bed in our spare bedroom.  We now have a pull out sofa... :)

The Master bedroom...

The other side of the Master bedroom...

The kitchen...

The view from our kitchen...  

The dining room... I love the curtains! :)

More dining room... :)

Our new living room... Love it!!

From our balcony, we walk into this garden... Very pretty!

Our balcony... We still have quite a great view of the lake and mountains! :)

And, as an extra surprise, our landlord had this in the backyard waiting for us this morning! :)  And Brian is loving every minute of it!! :)

We feel very fortunate to be living in such a great apartment!  At times I feel as if we're simply on an extended holiday! :) We're actually beginning to wonder how we're going to readjust to life at our house in the U.S. after living here! :)

Well, I'd better get packing... We're heading to Italy to do some camping over the holiday weekend... yay! And we're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning... So, my goal is to have everything packed tonight, but for those of you who know how easily I get distracted, we'll see if that actually happens! :)  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!  Miss you much!

Moving Day... Again...

Hey all!  Yesterday was spent trying to recover from staying up all night on Monday night to watch the MSU game... And, after staying up that whole time, I have to say that I was quite disappointed with the result of the game... Grrrr!  Even though they did get beat quite badly, and I stayed up until 5:30 a.m. just to witness it, I still have to say that I'm quite proud of MSU for making it that far, and I'll always be proud to be a Spartan!! :)  

I took a trip to Lindau yesterday with my friend, Alex.  We spent the afternoon wandering through the city and looking through all of the little shops... Very fun!  The weather was gorgeous yesterday too...  68 and sunny... It was such a perfect spring day! :)  Here are a few pictures of our day... Enjoy!  (If you're interested in learning more about the city of Lindau, click here to go to its website.)

On that note, I have to get busy.  It's moving day today, so it's time to get moving! :)  Needless to say, I'm going to be SO very happy when today's move is over... We'll finally be situated, and we won't have to worry about moving the rest of the time we're over here... yay! :)  Have a great day!  Miss you much!  

Lindau... on the lakefront...

The view of Austria and Switzerland across the lake from Lindau...

The view of Austria across the lake... Alex and I took some time out from shopping to sit here and enjoy the view... Very nice! :)

I loved the vibrant colors in this little roundabout median!!

A sidestreet...

The downtown shopping area...

The old town hall...

This is the famous landmark that welcomes travelers to Lindau as they enter through the harbor... a lion sculpture and a lighthouse.  Lindau is actually a small island in Lake Constance and it belongs to the state of Bavaria.  This is the only lighthouse in Bavaria. 

Sights and Sounds of Spring...

Hey all!  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  Brian and I certainly enjoyed ours! :)  The weather was great, we spent time with friends, enjoyed the outdoors, and most importantly...  MSU won the Final Four game on Saturday night and we were able to watch it!!  Woohoo!! :)  I mean, you really can't ask for much more than that! :)

The weather here was absolutely gorgeous outside this weekend... high 60's and sunny (Sorry to all of you back home in Michigan... I'm honestly not trying to rub it in! :))...  On Saturday, Brian and I decided to be ambitious and we headed out for a bike ride to Lindau... It's a town located about 15 miles from here.  The bike route to Lindau is very scenic and it felt so great to be outdoors in the sun.  Well, about 45 minutes into our ride, Brian realized that his tire had quite a large hole in it and was not holding air all that well... So, we turned around and rode as quickly as we could (stopping every 5-10 minutes so that Brian could pump more air into his tire) back to the apartment.  Our goal was to get as far as we could before his tire was rendered completely useless...   Fortunately, we were able to make it all the way back to downtown Friedrichshafen, and from there we only had to walk about 40 minutes back to the apartment... It was definitely quite a trip! :)  

On Saturday night, we had some friends over to watch the MSU game (mind you, the game started here at midnight. :)).  A few of our friends had never watched a basketball game before, so we tried to quickly educate them on college basketball, the rules of basketball, the NCAA Finals, etc. before the game began...  That was quite a task! :)  Needless to say, we're not sure how well they ended up understanding everything, but they seemed to enjoy themselves so that was good enough for us! :)  

Brian and I spent Sunday enjoying the outdoors.  Brian spent the morning studying German outside on the balcony, while I sat out there and read a book and soaked up some sun (I know, such a rough life I lead at the moment. :)).  Around noon we walked downtown (we found a new walking path that takes us directly downtown... much more scenic and by the lake... so now we're taking full advantage of it!), and we were quite surprised when we arrived.  The downtown area was packed!!  Brian described it as that "it looked as if an alarm clock went off in the afternoon, and the town of Friedrichshafen officially woke up"... There were so many people just wandering around downtown, walking along the lake front, sitting in all of the cafes lining the waterfront... It was great to see!   You can definitely tell that summer is on its way... yay! :)  While we were downtown, we ran into our friend, Eva, and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with her by the lake... Very nice! :)

Well, I have to get moving... I'm trying to get all of my cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping done this morning, so that I can do something outdoors this afternoon... It's supposed to be 68 and sunny! :)  Have a great Monday!  And make sure you cheer on the Spartans tonight... Let's hope they win the Championship!!   The game will be starting at 2 a.m. here, and I know I'll be up watching them! :)  Go Green!!  Miss you much!

During our bike ride on Saturday... pre-flat tire! :)

Finding out that we have to turn around because his tire is flat... :)

The daffodils are all in bloom... Easter is on its way! :)

Our new walking path to downtown that we discovered this weekend... Love the scenery! :)

Friedrichshafen is known for their zeppelin (similar to our Goodyear Blimp).  While we were sitting outside yesterday, it flew over our apartment.  A ride on this costs about $400!!

Eva and I down by the lake...

The "beach" in Friedrichshafen... Notice all of the rocks??

The Palace Church (Schlosskirche) is Friedrichshafen's famous landmark.  This is the view from the new path we discovered... :)

They're off to the Final Four... Go State!!

Happy Friday to you all!  This is going to be quite an exciting weekend, what with Michigan State playing in the Final Four on Saturday... Let's go State!! :)  And, go figure, the year I move away, is the year that my favorite team makes it to the Final Four, which is conveniently being held in the city I live in... And I'm not there!!  Crazy!! :)   And considering that we live in a foreign country that has absolutely no idea what NCAA basketball is, it's not like Brian and I can head out to the nearest sports bar and catch the game on TV...  So, Brian and I are planning to head over to our friend, Cornelius's house, to watch the game... He claims that he has found a way to get the game over the internet, so we'll see if that's the case. :)  Wish us luck!  For the rest of you in the U.S., I'm expecting you to cheer on the Spartans this weekend! :)  

The past few days here have been pretty interesting.  For those of you that don't already know, Brian and I have to move to the apartment downstairs next week.  The apartment we're currently staying in is considered a "holiday flat" so it's been rented out (prior to us even signing the lease) for a couple of weeks during the summer.  Originally we were going to just take vacations during that time so that we wouldn't be in the apartment, but we still would have had to move everything out and then back in.  Well, the lady who lived in the apartment downstairs decided to move, so our landlords told us that they would let us stay down there so that we didn't have to keep moving... And, as kind of an incentive, they're pretty much renovating the entire apartment for us... Meaning new furniture, new floors, new light fixtures, etc... Very nice!  However, the lady just moved last week, and apparently our landlords rented out this apartment starting in two weeks, which means that the apartment downstairs has to be renovated within this week... yikes!  Needless to say, it's been quite chaotic around here the past few days!  Furniture is coming and going, people are coming in and out to do painting and wiring, etc... Craziness!

In the meantime, I've just had one of those weeks, where things are just not going as well as one would want them to.  And, when you live in a different country, and things go wrong, it's not as easy to "fix" them as it would be if I were back home... For instance, yesterday I managed to get stopped at a stop light while on a hill (which, being that I'm terrified of driving a stick shift and getting stuck in this position, I was quite nervous upon being stopped!)... Well, the light turned green, and as I took my foot off of the brake and pressed on the gas, I discovered that instead of going forward, I was going backward... uh, oh!!  As I frantically searched for the brake so that I could stop, the car ended up stalling on me, and then that's when I felt a slight bump... You guessed it!  I rolled back into a car... Great!  At that point I was quite a basket case, being that I wasn't sure how I was going to even talk to the woman to tell her I was sorry!  Fortunately for me, the woman appeared to not be bothered by this and as I'm frantically gesturing and apologizing to her in the rear view mirror, she simply smiled and waved me on... And, I didn't stop to see if she'd change her mind.  I started the car right back up and gunned it all the way up the hill and out of there!! :)  

In Kickboxing class at the gym, I was the only one who had no clue what the instructor was saying... Which made it quite interesting when it came to the point where he told the class to go get a mat so that we could do ab work.  I stood there completely confused wondering why a mob of people was running towards me, until I turned and noticed the mats that were sitting in the corner... Ahhh! :) And then, during the ab workout, while everyone else is following along with the instructor, I'm stopping every five seconds to sit up and see what he was doing.  But, the best part for me, was at the end of class where the instructor rambled on about something and then turned out the lights and everyone just laid on their mats on the floor... for what seemed like forever!!  I was constantly sitting up and looking around to see what everyone else was doing, and then when I noticed two other people leaving, I thought it was ok to join in and leave with them.... Wrong!!  The minute I put my mat back, he flipped on the lights and started doing more exercises... With me standing in the middle of the room... Lovely!  So, to avoid further embarassment, I joined in with everyone else and finished the exercises with the rest of the class...  Fun, fun!

And, today's mishap takes the cake... I went into our bank and tried to transfer money from our U.S. account into our German account.  I had Brian's ATM card for the German account... I took the money out of the U.S. account and then went over to another ATM-looking machine so that I could put the money into the German account.  Well, I put Brian's ATM card in, and then take out my iphone (which has a German-English translator on it) and started trying to translate all of the words that were listed on the main screen.  After standing there for a few minutes, the woman who was standing next to me noticed what I was doing... She asked (in English) if I needed help.  When I told her that I was trying to deposit money, she informed me that it was the wrong machine, and that I had to use the other machine... Great!  After she walked away, I searched the main screen looking for the end transaction button.  I finally found it and pushed it... The machine started beeping at me, and then the ATM card came out... But, as I went to grab it, the machine sucked it back in... Not good!!  So, I stood there frantically pushing buttons for a few more minutes!  I then tried calling Brian to see if he could help (being that the employees there don't speak English...).  I tried calling, but each time I hit dial, the phone told me that the "Call Failed"... So, I kept hitting redial again and again, until ultimately my phone completely froze up... Great!  So, I was stuck there with no ATM card, no phone, and no ability to communicate my problem to the employees... Things were just getting better and better! :)  Fortunately for me, the same woman who had helped before, came walking back out of the bank.  And, after seeing my frazzled expression, she immediately came over to help... She ended up getting the bank manager and translated for me while I explained to him my situation.  Luckily he was able to get the ATM card out of the machine and he ended up just taking care of the deposit in the bank... Whew! :)  

Needless to say, I'm so looking forward to the weekend!!  This week has been quite interesting and I'm hoping the weekend will be a little more "easy-going"!  :)  Well, I'm off to fix some dinner.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!  Miss you much!!  Go Green!! :)

Just One of Those Days...

Hey all!  Lately, I've been feeling pretty good about how I've adjusted to living over here... I feel much more comfortable about getting around on a daily basis. I can take trips to the grocery store without mass chaos erupting, I can now drive the car from Point A to Point B without freaking out about stalling or gunning the engine, I can communicate well enough to get by... Or so I thought!

I spent today running errands... I took a trip up to the Bodensee Center to pick up some groceries, as well as some items from XXX Lutz (their version of Bed, Bath, and Beyond), Media Markt (their version of Best Buy), and OBI (their version of Home Depot).  It was around lunch time when I was doing all of this running around, so I was getting slightly hungry.  So, I opted to stop at the little bakery located inside OBI to buy myself a brezel (yes, that's how they spell pretzel here).  I went up to the counter and stated as clearly as possible "Ich mochte einen brezel, bitte." (I would like a pretzel, please.).  The lady simply looked at me with a very puzzled expression on her face, so I simply repeated myself.  She continued to look at me very puzzled.  I repeated myself one more time, this time holding up one finger and pointing, with my other finger, to the pretzels... She was somehow still confused.  So, I decided enough is enough, and I looked at her and said in my clearest English, "One pretzel please", while still holding up one finger and pointing at the pretzels.  To which she replied, "Einen brezel" as she held up one finger.  Seriously?!  I said it three times in German, but the minute I said it in English, she understood?!  What's that all about?? :)  

She then rang me up and told me, in German, how much I owed.  I didn't quite catch what she told me and I couldn't see the cash register to read what the price might be, so I was somewhat unsure of the price.  Now, the sign advertises three brezels for one euro.  But, since I only ordered one, I wasn't sure how much it would come to.  So, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of euros and handed her one.  She looked at the euro, and then back at me, and started babbling something in German.  I was under the assumption that I owed more than one euro, so I handed her another euro to cover the cost.  She took that euro, shook her head at me, and motioned for my hand.  I held my hand, with all of the coins, up to her and she started picking up all of the coins and looking at them.  She ended up giving me back one euro and taking a 50 cent coin.  She then proceeded to give me back 1 euro and 50 cents as change... Hmmm.  In all honesty, I still don't know what I paid for my brezel exactly... I have to say, I'm still a little confused by the whole process, but I wasn't arguing with the woman.  

I then went to pick up my brezel, and found that it was gone...  Great!  Now, you have to understand that I always try very hard to avoid alot of commotion when I go places, considering that I don't know how to communicate with people all that well.  Well, once the cashier realized that I didn't have my brezel, she started questioning all of the other cashiers and customers, who in turn, became very concerned about my missing brezel... They then began asking me questions in German, to which I was unable to respond.  At this point, all I wanted to do was crawl out of the bakery, and leave my brezel behind...  I was so embarassed!!  Needless to say, the cashier finally found my brezel and handed it to me... At which point, I turned around and hightailed it out of there! :)  

Nevertheless, I got my brezel and went on my merry little way...  But, the one question that has remained, is whether or not I'm going to ever feel as if I fit in around here?! :)  Oh well, I guess time will tell...  Well, I'm off to fix dinner before we head to the gym... Have a great day!  Miss you much!