Spring is Almost Here!!

Ahh... what a great weekend! The weather was warm and sunny, the flowers started popping up everywhere, and spring was in the air! :) Friday was spent outdoors soaking up the sunshine, Saturday was the perfect day for a bike ride to Meersburg and having our friends over for dinner, drinks, and wii in the evening, and Sunday was spent rock climbing... Oh, and MSU made it past round 2, and is now on the way to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Basketball Tournament... Woohoo!! And to top it off, the healthcare bill was finally passed!! It doesn't get much better than that! :)

Here are some "snowbells" that have now popped up in our front garden...

Spring is on its way... :)

We stopped to snap a picture of the castle during our bike ride to Meersburg... What a pretty day it turned out to be! :)

The crocuses in our back yard... How pretty! :)

March Madness

As we all know, March Madness is upon us! This is one of my favorite times of the year! For those of you unfamiliar with March Madness, it is the time of year during which the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament takes place. Meaning that it is the time of year that I get to cheer on my school and all-time favorite team ... Michigan State!! :) (For those of you that didn't already know, Michigan State has a REALLY good basketball team... Last year they played for the NCAA Championship!) This past Thursday and Friday was the first round of the tournament, and yes, Michigan State won and is now going on to the 2nd round. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they can go all the way this year... How happy would that make me?! :)

And, as for my brackets (my tournament predictions for victories/eliminations), I'm currently at 23 - 9 after the first round (basically, out of all the schools that played, I correctly picked 23 out of the 32 to win in the 1st round)... Woohoo!! :) Not too shabby considering I'm living overseas and haven't been able to watch any basketball this year! :)

Here's hoping that Michigan State does well in Round 2 of the tournament... They'll be playing tomorrow at 2:30... Let's Go State!! :)

Erin Go Bragh!! :)

As many of you already know, today is one of my favorite holidays... St. Patrick's Day! I love everything about it... The Irish culture, the shamrocks, the wearing of the green (it reminds me of MSU), the green beer, the great Irish quotes and sayings, and the general feeling of happiness associated with this day. :) For so long, a wish of mine has been to be able to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland... I've always wanted to visit the "Emerald Isle" and I've always been curious to see how the Irish celebrate the holiday (being that my only experience is celebrating the "Americanized" version of St. Patrick's Day). Well, part of my wish came true last weekend! :)

We headed to Munich bright and early Saturday morning to participate in all of the St. Patrick's Day activities that we thought were taking place. Our plan was to take part in the festivities that we thought were taking place in the downtown area, do a little sightseeing, watch the parade, and then take part in the St. Patrick's Day kick-off party that was scheduled for 7 p.m. that evening... However, upon our arrival, we discovered that the actual celebrations didn't start until Sunday and then they carried on to today (the actual holiday)... Oops! The only St. Patrick's Day related activity taking place on Saturday was the kick-off party that we were planning on attending later in the evening... But, that didn't deter our St. Patrick's Day spirit... Instead, we headed out to do some sightseeing and shopping... Definitely no complaints there! :)

By mid-afternoon, we were quite chilly and were ready to sit down... So, we found ourselves an authentic Irish Pub and headed on in... We soon found ourselves surrounded by Irish folk, drinking beer, and watching Rugby (how much more authentic could we get?! :))... We spent the majority of the afternoon and evening making some new Irish friends and getting a crash course in the culture... All in all, it was a very fun time! After we left the Pub, we then headed off to Hacker-Pschorr Brauery to participate in their St. Patrick's Day kick-off party... We spent the rest of the night listening to Irish bands, watching Irish dancing, and having a grand ole time! :) Overall, it was quite a fun day! I can now say that part of my wish of celebrating the holiday with the Irish came true... Yay!! Now, if only I could convince Brian to take me to Ireland!! :)

I hope you all have a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! Make sure to wear lots o' green and drink lots o' green beer today!! Slainte!! :)

Our annual St. Patrick's Day pose... :)

Brian, me, and Maike making up part of our St. Pat's crew...

Majella and Tanya making up the rest of the St. Pat's crew... :)

Guinness... Real Irish beer! :)

Gotta love all of the Ireland decor! :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!! :)

Ich Liebe Blumen!!

Oh how I love all of the flowers they have over here! Before moving here, it never occurred to me to buy fresh flowers for the house... Nowadays, I can't imagine not having fresh-cut flowers in the house at all times! :) They're always so bright and cheery, and you just can't help but to smile when you see them! Here's my latest purchases... I love how they make the apartment feel so "springy"! :) (Can you tell that I'm ready for winter to be over and spring to arrive?!)

It makes the apartment feel so "cheery"! :)

Another reason to love the flowers over here... They're so cheap!! This bouquet of 15 long stem roses cost me 5 euro!! And I absolutely love the colors! Notice that the coral roses are the same as the ones we had in our wedding? :)

And I couldn't pass up the 2 euro bouquet of tulips either... How pretty! :)

Number 200... Already??

Wow! It's hard to believe that I'm already at my 200th post! It's crazy how fast the time has flown by! I was just thinking about that the other day... We've already been living over here for a year and a half (well, minus the 3 months that I was sent back to the U.S. for visa issues... so for me, it's only been a year and 3 months... :))! We're literally at the half-way point for our time over here (For those of you that didn't know, we opted to extend Brian's contract for another year... So, instead of coming back this July, we'll return to the U.S. at the beginning of July 2010... :)). And, judging by how quickly the time has gone since we arrived, I can only imagine how fast the next year and a half will go... Yikes! Needless to say, Brian and I are trying to make the most out of the rest of the time that we're here... So, most likely there will be alot of traveling in store for us over the next year and a half... I'm definitely not complaining about that! :)

As I thought about that the other day, it made me think back to when I first found out that we were moving to Germany... I was absolutely horrified! :) When Brian first approached me on it, I was adamant that we were not moving over here! I tried every argument in the book to convince Brian that we shouldn't come over here... I argued that I would have to quit my job, put my Master's program on hold, leave all of my family and friends, leave the comfort of my own home, etc... I remember trying to convince him that we couldn't move because we shouldn't miss out on our nephews and nieces growing up, or that we should consider remodeling our house instead of moving, or that our families would be devastated if we left so we shouldn't move so that we wouldn't have to make them feel bad... I also told him that Riley couldn't handle the flight over here, so if he wasn't going, then I wasn't going... Lovely! :) Oh, trust me, the list just kept getting bigger and bigger as I came up with every excuse in the book not to move! :)

And, now that we're over here, I literally cannot imagine not moving here! At first, it was quite a difficult adjustment and there were ALOT of pitfalls along the way... But, now that we've settled in and made friends and made a life for ourselves over here, I can't imagine not being here! :) It'll never be "home", but it's definitely turned into a place that is very dear to me. :)

I also feel as if I've grown so much as an individual through this experience... I now know that I can survive outside of my "familiar surroundings" that I was always accustomed to. I now see the world through different eyes... I've always believed America is the greatest country on earth and that it never had any faults... Now, I still believe that America is a great country and I'm proud to be an American, but I now realize that it's not perfect and it does have it's share of problems that it needs to resolve. I've also learned to face my fears since we've been here... When we first arrived, I was terrified to go anywhere by myself... I was afraid to drive the car, I didn't like to go to restaurants by myself because I didn't know how to order anything, I tried very hard not to have to communicate with anyone (if I had a question about something, I just wouldn't ask it), I didn't do much except for walk around Friedrichshafen as I didn't know how to get around by train or bus, and the simple task of grocery shopping was an all day process and oftentimes a very traumatizing experience when it came to having to deal with the ladies at the checkout! :) Nowadays, I'm totally comfortable driving the car (a stick-shift at that!!) and I'll pretty much take off and drive anywhere (well, except for in Italy... they're a little crazy there in terms of driving! :)), I get around by train and bus on a pretty regular basis, I can now communicate with people (in my limited German) and get by on a daily basis, and grocery shopping has been transformed from a 4 hour process to about a 30 minute trip... I feel as if I've settled into quite a comfortable life here, and it not only makes me happy, but pretty proud of myself at the same time. :) Plus, we've made so many wonderful friends and we've been able to partake in so many amazing experiences... I realize just how fortunate we are to have this wonderful opportunity! Now, I look back at the girl who was petrified to move to another country, and it makes me smile to think about how far I've come. :)

On that note, I've got to head into town... I'm meeting some friends for lunch... Plus, I've got to purchase our train ticket to Munich tomorrow... yippee! We're going to Munich with a group of friends to take part in the St. Patrick's Day activities that they have taking place this weekend... You know me and my love for St. Patrick's Day, so I'm sure you can imagine how excited I am! :) We'll be taking plenty of pictures and I'll tell you all about it when we return! :) Have a fabulous weekend!! We miss you much!

Easter Plans Finalized...

Well, it's official... After a great deal of back and forth over where we were going to go for Easter weekend, we've finally made a decision... Whew! :) The list included places such as Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, St. Petersburg (Russia), the Florence/Tuscany area, and Prague... I know, it sounds like a rough life we lead over here, doesn't it? :) We spent the past couple of weeks looking at the pros and cons of each location (traveling in early April can be tricky for making plans... for instance, the tulips won't be in blossom in Amsterdam yet, St. Petersburg is quite cold this time of year and the days are very short, the streets of Venice are currently flooded which makes strolling around not so much fun, we've already been to Florence, and we would really like to see Paris in the summer)...

So, after all of that, we finally decided that our destination for Easter weekend will be.... drum roll, please... Prague!! :) Our hotel has been booked, an itinerary is in progress, and the countdown is on! :) I can't tell you how excited I am! I'll now leave you to click here and check out some of the sights we will be seeing...

Have a great week! :)

Austrian Ski Trip...

Wow! I seem to have been on quite the hiatus from blogging recently! I apologize for that! Things have been rather busy here over the past couple of weeks... Between our ski trip to Austria, spending time with friends who were visiting from back home, our friend Benjamin's 30th Birthday party, teaching/tutoring, and the many other day-to-day activities, blogging seemed to take a backseat to everything else... But, it appears as if things are slowing down a bit, or at least for the time being, so it looks like I'm back to business... yay! :)

In my last blog entry, I mentioned that we were heading to Austria to do some skiing for a weekend... Well, the trip turned out to be a very fun time! We went with a group of friends, and we rented a house just outside of Innsbruck, Austria. Our original plans were to ski both Saturday and Sunday, but due to weather conditions, those plans were changed... We literally woke up on Saturday morning and it was so foggy you couldn't even see the top of the mountains! That would have been a recipe for disaster... at least for me! :) So, we opted to do some sightseeing in Innsbruck instead.

Innsbruck was a charming Austrian city. It's nestled in the mountains and it has so many beautiful buildings. Had it been a clearer day, I'm sure the views would have been stunning! We wandered through the streets for the majority of the day, stopping to look in many of the small shops. We also stopped for lunch at a cute little cafe where we took advantage of the opportunity to eat some delicious Austrian Apfel Strudel (the best strudel I've ever had is in Austria!! :))... YUM!! On the way out of the city, we stopped at the Olympic Park to check out the ski jump that was constructed when Austria hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976. Not only did we have the opportunity to see the ski jump, but we also were able to see the Olympic Rings symbol at the top of the hill... Very cool!! However, I have to admit that after seeing the ski jump up close and personal, I just can't imagine what possesses a person to think that launching oneself off of a huge hill and then proceeding to fly through the air (all the while on a pair of skis) to see how far they can go before landing is a good idea... In my opinion, that just seems like a trip to the emergency room just waiting to happen! :) To each their own I guess... Overall, our day in Innsbruck was alot of fun!

We woke up on Sunday morning to clear skies and great temperatures, which meant that we were able to spend the day skiing on Stubai Glacier. What a great day for skiing it turned out to be! I was just happy to be back on skis... Being that Brian can't ski this year because of his leg, this was my first (and probably only) chance this year to ski... And did it ever feel great! :) It was also a day filled with a couple of other "firsts" for me... It was my first time skiing on a glacier... Needless to say, I was quite nervous at first as I imagined myself skiing on a sheer ice face, but once I got there, I realized that it was no different than skiing in the mountains... And, it was also the first time I've ever gone down an intermediate level run in the mountains... Not by choice, mind you. Let's just say that we accidentally took this run thinking it was an easy run, but instead it turned into a very steep, intermediate run filled with lots and lots of moguls... Lovely! :) Needless to say, I stood at the top of the hill for about 15 minutes or so trying to figure out how I was going to get down (I originally tried to sidestep my way down... that is until my legs completely cramped up from being so tensed up... Not fun!)... However, once I got over my fear, I managed to get myself down to the bottom of the hill (without falling I might add!!)... It only took about 45 minutes or so... Nice! :)

While everyone else spent the day skiing, Brian strapped on his crampons and walked up some of the runs to take pictures... He said that it wasn't quite the same excitement as he would have skiing, but he enjoyed it nonetheless... Plus, he was able to get some really great pictures! :) So, overall, the day was a success for everyone! It was definitely a great day in the mountains! :)

On that note, I've got to head into town... I have to get some more passport photos taken. Fun, fun! We're trying to plan a trip over Easter and, as of now, we have to options... St. Petersburg, Russia or Prague... (If we head to Russia, we need passport photos and visas... And we know my luck when it comes to visas, so it looks like I'd better get myself into gear and get things together just in case! :)) So, does anyone have any advice as to where we should choose to go... Prague or Russia? Feel free to comment... It would be greatly appreciated! :)

The Triumphpforte Arch in downtown Innsbruck, Austria...

Kinga and I in front of the arch...

A great little Italian shop we found while wandering around... The food was delicious! :)

A doorway in Innsbruck...

Our crew (with Na-Tah-Ka) standing in front of the Golden Roof in Innsbruck...

Downtown Innsbruck, Austria...

A busy side street in Innsbruck...

The view of the mountains from downtown... Gorgeous!!

Bergisel Ski Jump from the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck...

A view of Innsbruck from Olympic Park...

The Olympic symbol... Very cool! :)

The Bergisel Ski Jump...

A monument in Olympic Park...

This is where we stayed for the weekend... Very cute and the view was great! :)

Kinga and I at Apres Ski (translated, it means "after ski" - after skiing everyone goes to a bar for a few drinks...) Mind you, we didn't actually ski, but we wanted to see what the Apres Ski was all about... Very fun! :)

Brian and I at Apres Ski...

The view of the town we stayed in... How pretty!

Great skiing conditions on Sunday! :)

This is the intermediate run that I actually skied down... Craziness!!

Beautiful!!

The views were absolutely stunning in every direction! :)

Brian's crampons... :)

Oh how I love the Alps!!

Brian refers to this as his "self-portrait"... :)

It got a little windy (actually VERY windy) towards the end of the day!

One of the runs I skied down...

Eva, Kinga, and I getting ready to hit the slope...

Looking like a professional... or not! :)

Someone had to be taken by helicopter... Brian could really appreciate this after his accident...

The view from the lift... Those are my skis on the left... Love them! :)

Just us girls...

Heading home after a perfect day of skiing... :)