10 days til Christmas! 12 days till Amy gets here/Prague! 16 days til New Years!

I'm drinking a tea right now that has a main ingredient called Fennel. That is right. I'm drinking a vegetable. Very strange. It tastes good though! Just thought I should share. This is a picture of Katie and I on the bear statue in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. We thought it would be great fun to get a picture on it. It took a couple tries to get up and it was freezing. And I'm bearfoot. Ha!

We - Claire, Lucy, Katie, and I - went out Friday night but started the night out at Katie's. It was a late night at Waxy's and O'Reilys!

Sunday I woke up feeling a bit sick but got it together and biked as fast as I could to the train station to meet up with Katie and Becca to go to Heidelberg for the day! It is a really cute town about an hour away that is known for it's cuteness, the University there, and there is an American army base there too. On the train we saw that it had snowed outside of the city - so pretty! And then it was lightly snowing while we were wandering around the cute town! Loved it. It was freezing though. The high temperature for this week is 0 degrees celcius and the high on Thursday is -7. So basically it's really cold, but there is now precipitation aka no snow. LAME. Anyways. . that was a total side note. So our friend Claire comes and meets us in

Heidelberg and we grab a beer/tea/bloody marry/hot chocolate and sit and chat about how much her au pair family here stinks and how she needs to run away to one of us. She is leaving next Sunday though so that is good news for her! But now we just have to convince her to not work all day Saturday and instead go play with us! I mean - c'mon it's her last day in the country! Sheesh! So we walk through the xmas markets some more, I got a delicious spinach cheese crepe and hot apple cider wine. Yummmmmm. Claire got soup in a bread bowl because she had never even heard of it before.
Our train is at 5:24. We leave the markets at 5 thinking we can grab a taxi easy peasy. Not so much. We can't find one anywhere! So we start running. One passes but it is full of people. Another passes but doesn't see us. Finally we catch one jump in likitysplit we are off. The driver thinks we are from Sweden. Umm no.  As we are driving I'm trying to get the money ready to pay and just keep adding coins to my hand and I can barely carry everything, we keep hitting red lights, and then I see that it is already 5:24. Bad news Bears. We pull up to the station I through the money at him and we run inside at 30 after. Running through throngs of people down the stairs and there we see our train - JUST PULLING OUT aka if one of those damn lights had been green we would have made it! I ended up just buying another ticket - only cost 9.50 and got a quicker train back so that I would be back in time to take the car to pick up the fam (who had been in Dresden for the weekend) from the other train station. So since I was already feeling kind of ill I think after all this crazyness I can't be surprised that I got sick. My German teachers Mom died last Monday- Sad day! And she had to teach classes all last week. SO strange. How could they not just find a substitute for her?! Anyways, yesterday was the funeral so I didn't have class which ended up being very very nice since I spent almost the whole day in bed with a slight fever!


Baking Party!!! Since I can't bake a bazillion mas cookies at home I'm just going to have to try and bake a few here! Katie and her friend visiting her, Becca, came over and made/decorated sugar cookies with me on Saturday after we wandered the city and Christmas markets. It was a nice way to end the day! Katie made some potato wedges and I made guac and we feasted! lol.

Why do I like Vegemite now?

For some reason it has grown on me. And if Vegemite can grow on me you'd think that beer could. But alas, nope nope nope!

Santa came to Andrea's work on Friday and he brought all the kids there gifts - including me! That was a surprise. It was cute and we all ate a lot of chocolate. Surprised?

I babysat for a baby this morning and I've decided I do not want a baby. Not that any of you were worrying right? Ha! No thank you, not for a long time!

I went and saw New Moon on Sunday and that Jakob Black is one hotty with a body. Damn. Jail bait. I loved the movie (Kayleen you're expectations are just too high!). Going to see it again next week. Woot!

I've been off milk products for a month now. Sure I've had a little bit of butter here and there and of course a lot of chocolate but I stopped having yogurt and cheese everyday and I think that is a huge change. But I do not feel any different. We'll see what happens after I bake Barbara Maloney's delicious banana bread that has yogurt in it. Eeeck!

Missing the family. My momma just sent me the recipe for Hot buttered rum (thanks mom!!) so I'm excited to make that and the kids and I made sugar cookies and had fun decorating them.


The kids are away tonight at their school's country house doing something with baking and a lot of playing. So the parents and I are having a nice evening - big kid dinner and then watching Mama Mia! Maybe some wine? Oooh or popcorn! I ate a whole bag of chocolate covered popcorn that I got at the Christmas markets on Sunday. It just smells so good. Mmmmmm.

Dinner time! Lovelovelove C

WEINACHTMARKETS!!!!!!!

 The Christmas markets started last Wednesday aka I've been a few times! :) I love them!!! I have missed the Glühwein. Katie is getting right into loving it as well! They also have a eggnog liquor drink that looks amazing. I will have to try it soon. Maybe today. lol.

It's raining! Ah! I went for a run and it felt great having the rain on my face. I made a pumpkin soup this morning before 9AM. I'm turning into my mother. I'm going on a hunt for almond extract today so I can make the yummy sugar cookies we always make at x-mas time. Then I will make the dough and eat half of it.

The last au pair for the fam go in on Friday and she will be leaving to go back home on the 7th. She seems nice but as one of the cleaning ladies put it - "you are like day and night." The kids have been good and healthy and very happy the past few days since the 24 days of x-mas have begun and that means every morning they get a gift in their stocking-ish from der Nikolas! I got Advents Kalander Tee which means everyday I get a new tea! It's super cool. We have continued working on our snowflake collection which just keeps growing! We have almost covered 6 windows now. And we finished all of our styrofoam ball ornaments.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake pie on Sunday! It was delicious. But seeing as I haven't eaten milk products (besides chocolate) in the past two weeks I got a little sick that night and in the morning still felt a little bit like crap. But Katie felt sick the next day too so maybe it was something else. .  No turkey was made for our faux Thanksgiving- me being a vegetarian and all. But my friend Katie made some yummy potato wedges and I did a roasted onion dish thingy. The pie was the yummiest part naturally.

Mr. Pakistan got a little too interested for my liking. Kept on crossing over onto my desk and popping my bubble. Sent me a poem in English (we normally talk in German) about people being beautiful or something. Creeped me out. I blocked his number but then I answered the phone when I didn't know the number and it ended up being him and he was like I called you yesterday a couple times when I got off work to see if you wanted to hang out and I then told him I have a boyfriend and he is just okay with that idea. He was nice in class on Monday, still sat next to me but I think he got the hint. He is a bit too old for me and just so not my type!


Tickets for Prague have been bought! Yipee!!!!!! We are going the 27th through the 30th and it seems that our group is continuing to grow and we are up to maybe 13 people? It's going to be crazy!

Going out tomorrow night to the Irish pub! I'll be looking for the guys in suits. lol. Or just having a lot of un people watching. Karaoke. OH DEAR. Shall be a lot of fun I'm sure. :)

24 DAYS TILL AMY GETS HERE!! Gotta love her. So excited!

Oh my goodness.

So he's done it. The guy from Pakistan asked me out. And then he popped my comfort bubble by scooting closer to me in the classroom and crossing over the OBVIOUS boundary between our desks. Next class I'm telling him I found out my boyfriend is coming to visit me for Chrismtas and I am SO excited. Hopefully he will get the hint because obviously body language (scooting my chair as far away from his as possible) isn't universal. Bah!

Katie and I went and bought our tickets to Prague today! WOO WHOOO!!! And then the cleaning lady at her house who is a beazy told me to play the piano quieter in a very mean voice because she is working and she is not at that house for pleasure but to work. She is just not a friendly person.

I got my library card! Yay!!! I checked out "the story of edgar sawtelle" and today I got the ball rolling on my bank account. Having a passport is really helpful in getting these things done. I'm also reading "inkheart" in German and although I don't understand all the words I get the gist of things so I think I'm doing good! We took a test on Monday in class and I left half way through the class because: 1. I don't need to take the real version of the test and 2. I was bored to death because it was quite simple. Turns out I got a 39 out of 45 on the first part which according to my teacher was "sehr gut!"

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Seeing as the only thing about thanksgiving I actually like is the desserts and getting together with my family it's a bit difficult for me to make a thanksgiving dinner. I shall try though.  We are going to do a "thanksgiving" dinner on Sunday. Their last au pair is going to be here starting on Friday and she will be here for just over a week before flying back home to the States. She has been walking the pilgrimage to Santiago for the past two months. Crazy! Anyways. I'm doing good, life is good.

Who's the piggy now??

I got my Visa!!!! I can leave the country!!!!! WOO WHOOOO!!!

Sunday Katie and I went on a long bike ride to outside of the city to a small town called Höchst. It's still part of Frankfurt but in total we were gone for over two hours so I think it was a pretty good ride and after we got through the stinky smelly factory areas it was quite beautiful! 

I'm pretty sure Emily has the swine flu. She has had a slight fever since Friday and has been home this week so far. She got tested on Friday for Swine flu but we are still waiting on the results. Needless to say I'm pretty sure she is stuck at home this week. Maybe when Oscar was a bit sick two weeks ago he had the swine flu. Who knows. Andrea and Phillip leave Thursday evening for Istanbul and will be back on Sunday so I will have the kids this weekend. The plan was that they would both stay the night at a friends house on Saturday night so I would have 24hrs free but I don't think that will be happening with Emily sick and all. I'm healthy! I made the mistake of giving my Pakistani friend from my class my number and now he keeps texting me. He's very kind. He called last night while he was at work to see how I was doing and told me to be careful with getting sick. Oh dear.

Art projects: Snow flakes, sparkly ornaments, and painting! Lots of crafts! Emily took this picture of the birds. I thought it was very well done!

Last night I went to Monday movie night and met up with one of the Americans I met there a few weeks ago. His name is AP (short for apopolis or something crazy). He has been here for two years almost through the full birth scholarship teaching English in German schools. I'll be hanging out with those teachers a bit and getting ideas from them on ways to stay here longer! :)

Emily fell asleep in my arms the other day while we were dancing to Abba. I didn't know whether I should be offended or just think it was adorable. I'll go with the second option. She is a total cuddle monkey. My new favorite cuddle buddy. She has also decided that my boobs are her pillows. Oh dear.

I find not eating yogurt EXTREMELY difficult. Especially when the kids have it almost every morning. To compensate I'm eating an OBSCENE amount of schokolade. I love chocolate. Something strange - I eat veggiemite almost everyday. Weird..

Quick Update

Happy Friday the 13th! That means it's time for an Aussie Turkey Party!!! I miss you girls!

Incidents on the bike this week:
 - Yesterday I was riding my bike down the path on my way to Katie's and I'm coming around a curve of the path and there is a hedgehog hanging out and I'm very distracted looking at it that I almost run into a guy coming around the corner so thinking fast I yell out "There's a hedgehog!" I'm sure he understood me. Not.
 - On my way to class on Monday I was riding past a person on the Ziel who frightened a pigeon that then decided to run into my bike wheel. I ran over a pigeon. Ooops. I didn't look behind me but instead just kept on riding straight ahead, pretending that I did not feel that bump. Needless to say, I didn't see any dead pigeons later on that day in that general area.

Other happenings:
- Katie and I went out last night to an Irish pub called Waxy's that had some live music that was definitely not Irish and the bartender was definitely Asian. He did a lot of cool bottle throwing tricks though and gave us free shots since there was about 6 people in the bar - two people making out, their third wheel looking miserable, Katie and I, a Lesbian with her tongue and nose and eyebrow pierced (who hit on Katie hard core), and the three musicians.
- I went for a walk today in heels. . . who am I?!
- Emily is sick and a bunch of schools are closed because most of the students are infected with the piggyflu. Oh great.
- I have stopped eating milk products (except chocolate because that is just not possible) in order to support my younger brother who can't eat just about anything since apparently he is allergic to everything. Super lame.
- I miss my wonderful family and friends.
- Planning a weekend trip to Nürnberg and Heidelberg in December with Katie and a friend of hers who is coming to visit.
- I picked up my Passport today - I finally have my visa!! It says I can stay here until next November. . with this visa that is! :)

The parents are super busy every Friday and Saturday night until after Christmas which means I'm in babysitting. Stinky winky. Next week they are gone for four days in Turkey for a Wedding! Yikes! I'll get one night off while the kids are off to a friends for a night. I'm babysitting tomorrow morning for the family we visited in Austria on our way to Northern Italy. I babysat for a neighbor on Sunday night. Just some extra cash for buying my cute boots and saving for trips!!!

Lovelovelove

Riding a bike with heels on - EASY.

The kiddos got sick this week and spent the better half of 2/3 days at home. Oscar was "more" sick with a pretty constant fever but now they are up and running! The new aupair - Maike's replacement - Katie and I have been hanging out a bit. She is from South Carolina and we are kind of similar in the sense that we can't make the small decisions. It's a disaster when we go out. Ok not really but it's funny. We both come from 5children families so maybe that has something to do with it. We went out to a bar on Wednesday night and had some new drinks - one was a delicious strawberry shot that is pictured here w/ Katie.
The bartender likes us. We've named him Fabio. Get the picture? Quite an interesting character. Low cut V neck shirts. Yeah. Anyways we had fun. The next night we just chilled at her place and had some wine. and some little Feiglings!! I missed these cute little shot drinks. They are like a sweet vodka with less alcohol. Very tasty. Katie bought 2 bottles of wine the other day and guess how much they cost. . . 4.98 euros. Ridiculous. We'll see how they taste!
Yesterday one of Amy's childhood friends came into the city to hang out with me. Her name is Katherine and she has been an aupair for an American family in the army about an hour from Frankfurt for the past 2 1/2 months. . She is leaving in a week though - way to short of a stay if you ask me! We wandered the city. The weather was pretty crap so that stunk. We went to the Frankfurt Museum for Modern Art and let's just say with both agreed we just don't understand modern art. Nope nope nope. I think the modern art museum in Chicago was much better. The featured artist was some guy from the States. I forget who it was. I'll work on that. Katie met up with us for lunch. We went to a place called Vapiano which is kind of like a buffet but classier. Maike told us we had to go there. It was so good Maike!! Katie and I split a spinach pesto pizza that was delicious. Then we wandered some more around the city.

We headed into the Katherine's church on the Hauptwache and we ended up getting to watch a huge choir/orchestra practice some songs! It was pretty cool! Katie and I might go back next week - she took not of their practice time so we'll see if they will be there again! Made me think of Singing Christmas Tree - I'm going to miss it another year! Sad day. We took Katherine to the river so she could see the famous Main and of course that is when the weather cleared up the most for the day. Ended on a good note!
We dropped off Katherine at the train station at about 5 and then stopped by Katie's to pick up some goods and then Katie got on the bike for the first time in a long time for her and we biked to my house and helped with getting dinner ready/entertain the kids because they were having 10 people over for a dinner party! It all went pretty smoothly. Got the kids to bed and then Katie and I headed out to the middle of the city to go out. We ended up going to Helium's again which was where we were on Wednesday so Fabio recognized us naturally ;). Then we spent a good half of an hour being assaulted by a guy from Ukraine and his "best friend" from India. Let's just say it was very entertaining. The Ukrainian couldn't speak English, Katie couldn't speak German, None of us but the Ukrainian could speak Russian, and the Indian guys German was pretty crap and his English was okay. The bartenders were just laughing at us. On of the bartenders, named "scary hairy" due to his hair situation kept a good eye on us. We felt nice and protected. At one point it seemed the shirt of the Ukrainian was coming off but that disaster was averted. We headed out shortly after that. Got home and Phillip and Andrea were still up talking to two of their guests so I hung out and chatted with them then we cleaned up a bit and headed to bed - crashing at about 2AM. Late night! lol.


This morning Oscar sneaked in about 7:30AM - "Cara get up come play." Oh no. I held him off till 9Am and then we got up and had some breakfast. Emily and I just worked on our leaf creations. We used the leaves that Oscar, Emily and I had collected a couple weeks ago and flattened in books. We had a pretty good assortment.

Tonight I am babysitting for the neighbors, tomorrow I have class and then it's Monday Night Movie night! Woooo! Love my movies. Now I have to go play the piano - Phillip said my ten minutes this morning was just not adequate. Fifty more to go. Yeah right!!

xoxoxo
C

Endlich wieder mit mienem Deutschen Familie.

I went to Eichstätt this weekend!!!!!! So much fun. Ok but I will start with before that. But that was very exciting. Last week Maike left. Sad day. The new aupair came, her name is Katie, she is from South Carolina, doesn't speak a lick of German, first heard of being an Aupair in July and two weeks later decided to come here, and is great so that is wonderful! We went out to a pub on Wednesday night as a little farewell dinner. The new aupair Katie came and then it was Maike, Tina, and I. We had the Frankfurt specialty - Apple wine! I like normal wine better but it was still good. The other Frankfurt specialty is called green sauce and you put in on potatoes (of course) and it is made of a bunch of herbs and some egg in it as well which kind of is a no go for me but I've tried it before and it was tasty! Tina was supposed to be hear till February but apparently her guest mother was a terror so she left yesterday! So now it is just Katie and I! We met up and wandered the city and had some delicious snickers brownie at my favorite cafe yesterday. We both come from 5 children families but she is the youngest. AND we decided that the children of big kid families are bad at making the small decisions but good at the big ones because she is also as laid back as I am. Trouble. :) Andrea had her trip to London so I had the kids for a night and then on Friday morning I got them a bit decked out in Halloween costumes to wear to school. Let's just say I'm not very good at decorating faces in circus makeup. Well, and they didn't want that much. But they were cute nevertheless!
Last week was my first week of German classes! There are probably a little more than 10 people in my class from all over the world. No one else from the States but instead from: Morocco, Sri Lanka, Japan, Pakistan, Great Britain, Armenia, Russia, Mexico, Korea, India, and a few others. I think it's pretty cool that the only way we can communicate with each other is in German because many don't speak English. But a few do. :) The class is super laid back - we have homework everyday but, at least for me, it isn't very hard at all. And there aren't really grades - it's more just about being at class I think. No test really. There is two tests I could take that are offered every month if I wanted to. One is free and I'm not really sure what it is for but to check your progress maybe?? and the other costs 105 euros and is a certificate which people will then use to get jobs or the equivalent of a green card here. I might do it in March.

Eichstätt!!!! So after school on Friday I came home and got my bag packs and ate a quick lunch while talking to some cute German guy that Phillipp was working with. He studied in Kentucky for three years - who goes to Kentucky?! - and then I walked to the Main train station by way of the PalmenGarten. Love those flowers! The train ride took about 4 hours and I finished my book on the train. It was good! It's the same guy who wrote The Alchemist but this one was about death so kind of depressing but still good. Called Veronika decides to die. I had to switch trains four times which would have been no big deal but since it's five minutes between each train - Ah! - a bit stressful. I made them all though. Only ran once! Got to Eichstätt - Esther, Maria, and Johanna were there to pick me up and I couldn't believe how tall Esther had gotten! She is now 14 and as tall as me and the other girls! This picture is of Johanna, me, Esther, and Olivia.
We picked up some groceries headed back to the house to eat. Benjamin had been sick two weeks with Bronchitis but is now all better. Parents weren't there - on vacation on a small island in northern Germany - but they got back late Saturday night so I saw them Sunday! Anyways it was WONDERFUL to hang out with my german siblings and just chill around the table, eat chocolate, make buttons, and chit chat. Saturday morning Maria and I were the first up so went for a walk in the crisp morning weather. Then after a delicious breakfast with everyone Maria and I went "Knipen" which is when you walk around in this freezing water from the mountains and it's supposed to be really good for your immune system or something. Anyways we biked there and did one loop in the freezing water and then got out, put two pairs of socks on, had a cup or two of tea and then biked back to the house. After lunch Johanna, Esther and I went and picked up Olivia who was Johanna's room mate for a year but has now been dating her cousin for over a year! She is adorable. She's from Spain but also grew up in Frankfurt I believe and then goes to the university with Johanna in Regensburg. So we got her and then came back to the house and made some Coconut cupcakes - yummmmm. Then we decorated them - well Johanna and Olivia did most of the decorating because I had a visitor - Anna Streller!!!!!

She came over with her boyfriend, nice guy :), and it was wonderful to see her again of course just a couple months after she was at my parents house! Then Olivia, Johanna, and I headed out to Johanna's boyfriend's (Alex) house where we would get ready for the Halloween/birthday party of Susi's (my exchange student in high school!) boyfriend. We weren't very creative so we just all through on some black clothes and black makeup and were "the three witches." Sure! lol. Alex is best friends with Susi's boyfriend Stefan and he lived literally two houses down. So we walked to the party with our delicious treats and very creative outfits and I saw Susi for the first time in 5 years! As well as a few other friends from then such as someone I named Mr. Man because his name is Herrman. I didn't remember calling him this but Susi told me that I used to always call him this. And Schneller was there and Gobsi and Nena's (who I lived with for a month 5 years ago) boyfriend Benni!
So Susi and I drank half the bowl of jungle juice with strawberrys in it and had a jolly time. Talked with Susi's sister Julia about the crap health insurance system in the States, Mr. Mann a bit, Susi and I giggled a lot, Nena on the phone because Schneller insisted on calling her, and a cute guy named Lou who is friends with Johanna and goes to school with her. It was a fun night and quite a few people dressed up. I think Alex was the scariest though as the "Nerd of Death."
We slept in Sunday and then after some coffee and a plum cobblerish thing and coffee headed back to the Schödel house to see the Parents!!!!! It was SO EXCITING to see Klaus and Waltraud again. Ah! Loved it. Maria and I got to work on making two pizzas - one vegetarian of course! Then we lunched. I love eating with this family. Everyone together and it is craziness. It's what my family is like when we are all together. Kind of. Haha. After lunch we had a short break before my other favorite time - Dessert!! We ate a Raspberry refrigerator torte that Esther and Hanni had made on Saturday morning, the left over cupcakes, and some yummy big waffle crackers that Waltraud and Klaus had brought back with them from the Island - Amrum I think - and you put whipped cream on top of them and then also some Jam made of this German plum called zwetchgen - same thing I had for breakfast. I find it quite yummy! Then Alex came over and taught us how to play a card game Dominion. I was on Esther's team! Then, sadly, I had to leave in the middle of the game to catch my train. Maria drove me to the train station and we talked about what we should do in life. :) Sad that it was such a short weekend but so grateful to finally be back in Germany and be able to see my German family!!!!!! I missed them so much.

Last night at movie night the people sitting in front of me were speaking American English so I though, what would Whitney do?, and I started talking to them. They are here for a year, the same age as I, and have been here just as long as I. One of them went to school at Lewis and Clark in Portland - crazy, and another studied at the university in Eichstätt last year - Crazy!!! But yes, so exciting. We exchanged numbers and we''ll see what happens!

P.S. It wasn't a horror movie - yipee!! Because that would have just been embarressing to have to get up and leave the theater and not talk more with my new friends because I'm such a lame-o. Instead it was the Ashton Kutcher movie Spread which, let's just stay, is a whole lot more graphic then I imagine it ever being in the States. WOW.

Back to Frankfurrrrrt.

Now that we are back from SüdTirol I am feeling a bit overwhelmed on getting everyone caught up with my adventures. Silly me. Today was my first day of school and I think it went pretty well. . not too far behind from missing the first two classes. It is about a 20min bike ride and it is M,W, and F for 3 hours. Last night I helped correct some more of the European Social Fund project that Phillip is working on. It's nice reading about regressions :) and other statistical information as well. Some parts make me want to scream though because the people make no sense at all. It's called a period people - use it! Anyways. . I go to Eichstätt on Friday for the weekend which I am SOOOOO excited about! My first adventure out on my own - kind of. Ok not really. lol.

           

Now that we are back from SüdTirol I am feeling a bit overwhelmed on getting everyone caught up with my adventures. Silly me. Today was my first day of school and I think it went pretty well. . not too far behind from missing the first two classes. It is about a 20min bike ride and it is M,W, and F for 3 hours. Last night I helped correct some more of the European Social Fund project that Phillip is working on. It's nice reading about regressions :) and other statistical information as well. Some parts make me want to scream though because the people make no sense at all. It's called a period people - use it! Anyways. . I go to Eichstätt on Friday for the weekend, which I am SOOOOO excited about! My first adventure out on my own - kind of. Ok not really. lol.

Here is a bit of what I wrote about the first few days in Italy, which was more like Germany since it used to be a part of Germany. .

Saturday Oct 17th– drove for 4hrs to Pöcking (just south of Munich) to Niko’s house. The kids watched The Last Unicorn on my computer for part of the ride - hehehe! Niko's lifelong friend Bob and his wife Wushy had been staying with him for the past few days so they were there and made us a great dinner. We sat and chatted and I understood almost everything . . . I was very tired and this was a good thing because in my room there was a lot of SPIDERS! AH!! So I passed out and did not feel anything crawling over me during the night. In the morning we had a nice spread of cheeses and jams for breakfast and then around noon we headed out to drive for about two hours to a friends house for lunch in Austria. I drove this leg of the journey and the weather was a bit like Oregon – rainy rainy rainy! So normal. Don’t worry, the fastest I went was just 86mph. So far the fastest that I have gone is 125mph.

We made it safe and sound to the friend’s house, which was way up on a high hill overlooking the mountains. This is a picture from the driveway. Her father and mother joined us as well. Before we began the meal the Mom pulled out a guitar and started singing a prayer. Cracked me up – thought you would appreciate that Mom. lol. We had a lovely lunch – I ate some potatoes with specks of beef still on them from the stew. Bluck. After that we had some cheese (love cheese!) and then a delicious vanilla pudding over fruit. The rain cleared and we decided to take our chance and stretch our legs a bit so we walked up to a neighbours house where they had HUGE rabbits running around outside and some hens and big fatty cows that Emily was afraid of. This particular one was licking Andrea's jacket.

We left soon after that as it started to rain again and made out way to SüdTirol, the northern region of Italy, where we got in around 8PM after we parked the car at a designated spot high up a mountain and then a “taxi” aka a 4-wheel drive car came and picked us up and took us up a very narrow and bumpy road to Gasthof Bad Dreikirchen. We unpacked and headed to our 5-course meal, which is just how they do dinner here! I didn’t sleep very well since my nose was all stuffed up. Super lame. I have my own room with a sofa and bathroom and then the kids are with their parents. The keys are these ancient huge keys. Love it. This “Hotel” has belonged to the same family for the past 200 years and it is really beautiful. For breakfast there is a nice spread of options – nutella on bread and yogurt with cereal of course - and then for dinner you choose the night before what you want to eat from two options for each course basically and it’s all delicious. Vegetarian options almost every time. It is well known I guess for its food. Delicious! On Monday we had our breakfast then headed out to hike – yippee!!! The views around here are gorgeous and the weather was crisp but the sky was clear and you were plenty warm once you started hiking up the mountain. We had no particular places we were hiking to so just enjoyed walking around for a couple hours, with many breaks to have some sweets – to entice the children to keep going. Emily and I befriended a dog, which is quite the feat since Emily is usually afraid of dogs.

Back at the Gasthof we had some cake and coffee – lunch is not included here but they do have a restaurant if you choose to buy something or of course the option of an assortment of cakes. There were only a couple of meltdowns with the kids and Oscar ended up passing out for about an hour. I played the piano a bit, went adventuring around a bit outside with Oscar (yelling really loud and listening to the echo over the hills), played some table tennis and soccer with him and then it was time for dinner. Niko arrived here just before dinner and he will be staying here till Friday with us as well.

Slept a little better last night but still woke up around 6AM. Super lame. We had breakfast around nine and then headed out to hike again! This time we kind of had a destination – about twice the distance we had hiked the day before. Emily and Andrea turned around after about 3hrs total of hiking. We thought that was pretty good for Emily. Their incentive to hike was to be allowed to watch a movie before dinner. There are no TVs here or radio or anything like that but we brought our computers with us to entertain them in the car. Oscar, Niko, Phillip and I hiked on a ways farther and the views were just so beautiful!! We hiked to around 6000ft up I believe and Bad Dreikirchen is just over 3500ft up. It took us 6hrs all together even though we only went five miles or so. Now I am hungry but must wait 2 more hours till dinner time because it is “only” 5:30. Boo.

We went on a hiking adventure the next day to this old ruin and we made it up pretty far before Emily decided she really just could not go any farther so Andrea stayed back with her while I caught up with Phillip and Oscar. I didn't think we were going to find the right way to the old tower but we did and it was so cool. Dangerous rock climbing, standing on the edge of a cliff, and the thrill of climbing. Loved it. Took a couple really cool pictures - including one of this dog that was barking like mad at us but that I loved and want. We named her Kenya :) The first picture here is of the beginning of the trail to the ruin with the ruin very small in the background.

The day after that I think was our last full day and we went to a museum that is funded by a famous mountaineer named Messner. It was really overcast and rainy so that was kind of lame. But the museum was interesting. Then we went to a small city called Brixen and wandered a bit before heading back to the hotel to eat. I distracted Emily while hiking up the steep road to the hotel (which we did versus taking the taxi up because that is just lazy) by counting. She was so over hiking and had been throwing fits here and there so we counted to 211 and that worked pleasantly. And then a couple more numbers. The last day in Italy we walked to Trostburg ( I especially enjoy this picture of Oscar) which is a large castle like ruin and then we jumped in the car and drove back to Niko's. I drove and the weather was disgusting and awful and it took forever to get to his house. Had a nice dinner, slept (spiders!!!!!), got up, breakfast, and off we went to Frankfurt. We got back around 6PM, unpacked, got organized and crashed. I got Oscar The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe for his birthday and he is loving it!! We started reading it the last night in Tirol and now we are almost finished with it. It makes it easier to get them ready for bed though because they really really want me to read it to them :). What will I do when there isn't any more chapters left?!?! Haha.

I'm having a crazy chocolate craze right now. I'm eating way too much chocolate. Ahhh! I just bought a white chocolate mango bar that Johanna had got me when she came and visited and I just ate it all. Ah!! I have a problem. I know. It could be worse though!

Yesterday I went and watched some of the Frankfurt Marathon because Meike was running in it. I saw her and she finished! Crazy!!!! We chatted at her house for a bit with the other au pair friend of hers named Tina. Meike leaves Friday for home - sad day!!!! And Tina just changed her ticket to leave on Monday because her family is horrible. So hopefully Meike's replacement will be super. She got in today and her name is Katie. Might meet her tonight - Monday night movie!!

I'm sure there are a million things I am leaving out but that will have to do for now. Off to pick the kids up from school!

I though I left Oregon?!

It's raining. It's freezing. I'm cold blooded and bundled up. Need to invest in more gloves and scarves. Yesterday I decided to count how many people were wearing scarves. I would say out of every 100 men and women about 75 were wearing scarves. Yesterday it was a high of 39 degrees. BRRRRR.

Have I mentioned that the kids thing gum is the greatest thing ever. Is that normal? Andrea hates gum so they only get it when they are with their Dad, or me, and Andrea is not around. We'll go to get a treat and they'll choose gum over chocolate. Obviously this is something I just cannot understand. This is a picture of Emily chewing a gum ball. So strange. :)

Emily had swim lessons three times this week and one of the days Oscar and I went swimming while she was having her lesson. I drove their rental BMW which is an automatic - weird! They just don't have a lot of automatic cars here. Their car is in the shop getting fixed after a slight mishap with the back of the car and the driveway gate. Wasn't me! This "pool" was actually about six or more different pools connected in some way - outdoor section, wave pool, diving board section, serious swimmers section, kids section, older people section, etc. There is also two hot tubs, a sauna, and two amusement park size slides that we took full advantage of because we were there early in the morning during a week day which means no lines! Emily was happy to join us on the slides after her lesson and we kept going down them like crazy kids until Oscar rammed into the wall and his nose started bleeding. Oops! Maybe all three of us going at the same time wasn't such a good idea. . . lol. We had a lot of fun though.

Later that afternoon we went and wandered around the PalmenGarten and watched the silly fish that follow you around. The kids were leaning way over the rope to watch the fish and were making me a bit nervous. Thankfully no one fell in! Here they are loving on a lion statue there. Tender.

Heard that I won't get my visa for another four weeks or so which means I don't get my passport back for another four weeks or so which means no traveling outside of Germany basically. That's all right. Save my money! Or maybe I can still go places if I take the train. . . Yesterday I went and got my BahnCard or Train pass which will get me 50% off train prices! The card cost 225 Euros and will last for a year. And lucky me - the family pays for it! So I will save a bit on my trips with that. Trips coming up: SüdTirol - Northern Italy, Eichstätt - Southern Germany, Dresden - Eastern Germany, and Berlin.

Yesterday Phillips brother Moritz and his wife Udit (sp?) and 4yr old daughter Lilly came to stay here until Saturday morning. Moritz is a journalist for the big newspaper in Berlin and he's here working - checking out the giant Book Fair. As the website says : "The Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important marketplace for books, media, rights and licences worldwide. More than 7,300 exhibitors from 100 countries, 299,000 visitors and over 10,000 journalists. " So it's kind of a big deal. Sadly I won't be able to go because it is only open to the public on Saturday and Sunday and we leave tomorrow for Italy - which I'm not sad about of course! :)

We leave tomorrow for Pöcking which is in southern Germany where we will stay the night at Phillip's uncle Niko's house which apparently is a castle but I'm going to go ahead and say it's probably "just" a mansion. Then on Sunday we will drive to northern Italy to a place called Bad Dreikirchen or SüdTirol where we will be staying for a week and then back to Niko's for a night and then on the 25th back in Frankfurt. Wird bestimmt lustig. :)

The sun came out which means I'm out!

lovelovelove
xoxoxo
c

Saracen is adorable.

So Monday nights are sneak preview movie nights at a theater in the city and last week I went with Meike. The theater is packed as the movie begins at 9PM, everyone anxious to see what the movie is going to be. The lights go low. On comes creepy music. I'm thinking - oh great this is not going to be good. Sure enough the title comes on: Orphan. After hiding in my zip-up giggling uncontrollably for about two minutes Meike turns to me and says something along the lines of "Cara we can really go, Katie (the last aupair) made me suffer through the last scary movie that they played. Please don't make me do that again." So we sneak out as I try to stifle my giggles. I'm ridiculous. The movie only costs 4 Euros so pretty cheap compared to the usual prices. This week was much better. I braved going out in the cold to make it. It took me awhile to brave going. But I figured it couldn't get much worse than Orphan. The theater was once again packed and there were two seats next to where I was sitting that were broken and people kept trying to sit there and it got a bit annoying after the sixth person. Anyways. Lights dim. Nice music comes on. And then Alexis Bledel comes on the screen and I"m thinking there is no way this is going to be a horror movie. Thank God. It was actually the movie Post Grad and it had one of my favorite fake footballers in it. Landers it was Saracen!!!! He's so cute. Although I would have preferred Riggins. ;) The movie was great - silly, lots of laughter from the crowd and so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Going swimming tomorrow - so excited!! Sorry mom, I'm going in. It will be fine, no skin will split open. AND I jumped a little bit on the trampoline yesterday and played a bit of soccer and redeemed my slow self in Oscar's eyes. I'm pretty good I must say. Haha. The chocolate cake is almost gone. Cut me off people please. Hide the chocolate.
<3

Birthday celebrations!!!

Oscar turned 7 on Thursday!! We had his godfather Jed (one of Andrea's college roommates) and the Grandmother Anki staying at the house to celebrate. I made Anzac cookies for Oscar to take to school to share with his schoolmates. I then baked a spice cake with cream cheesy butter cream frosting and I decorated the top with a horse since for his birthday the plan was to have a couple of his friends join him for a couple hours horseback riding today. Well, the weather has turned crappy today and it is rain rain rain and he is not interested in riding a horse in the rain. His birthday was a success I would say in that he was very happy, with the family, and got lots of presents - the biggest being a new bike! I got him some chocolate, naturally, and the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I think we'll read it on the car ride to and from Northern Italy at the end of the month.

Jed left yesterday for a ran-de-vue (sp??) in Munich and the Grandmother left as well to head back to Berlin. Our next guest was Phillip's roommate at Harvard named Chris who happens to be a film producer. They ask if I've ever heard of Good Will Hunting (uhh duh). Well Chris had been friends with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck before the movie and he was one of the producers and this movie pretty much made all of them famous. Chris was the producer of the American Pie series, Waiting.., and a lot of other movies. Pretty crazy. So it was very interesting hearing his stories and refer to his good friends - all these different celebrities, etc.

Have I mentioned I love this city? On sunny days I park my bike at the big book store and then wander around the streets "downtown" for a couple hours, grabbing a coffee maybe (yes a coffee - shocking), hanging out with Meike here and there, reading my books, etc. It's wonderful.

Right now I'm working on purchasing my ticket to go to Eichstätt for Halloween weekend! Super duper excited to be back in the town and see the people that made me want to come back to Germany. I love my German family!! :)

We just got back from a play that we went to see for Oscar's birthday. Thirteen kids under the age of eight eating cake at the house = INSANITY. Phillip and I and the 13 little ones went to the play while Andrea tried to gain back her sanity. I took a taxi with a group of five. The play was about a little witch. The kids enjoyed it I think and now they just finished eating some pasta. It is crazy in this house! Finally!! I miss the craziness of my house. :)

I'm fighting an itch in my throat. I don't want to get sick!!! Fall break just started for the kids so no school for two weeks!! Emily is taking swimming class four days next week and I was thinking I could jump in the pool also but the doctor says no. I have to wait another week and then I can. Then hopefully I will be able to join a swim team. And also a rugby team!

Off to Italy in a week!!!!