It's time to travel!

Lenka, Stephy and BF in Köln

Thursday was a drunken night at a nearby English pub with Katie. Met the owner, nice guy. Maybe he will give me a job. Friday watched Germany lose. Saturday went to a street festival with some friends. Sunday jumped on the train with friends Stephy, Lenka, and her boyfriend and headed to Cologne and then to Düsseldorf! We were all very much not impressed with Köln but Düsseldorf was much more lively and we had fun wandering the streets, walking around the market on the waterfront and watching the performers.

Lenka, Stephy and I in Düsseldorf

 

Wood Carvings like PopPop's! :)

Weltmeisterschaft 2010!!!!

Go Germany!!! Go Australia!!! Go USA!!! The world championship has begun and this soccer crazy country has gone wild! Oh it is good times on the streets.

I had my first horrible stomach ache since the surgery. Bah! Katie and I made some amazing tasting apricot upside down cake. I don't even like apricots. I decided to put some whip cream on top of my piece. Maybe this is where I went wrong? 6hrs later my tummy was still killing me. Thankfully it was distracted for a couple of those hours by two gentlemen (those are kind words) from Tunisia who approached Katie and I whilst we were people watching in the middle of the city. Three hours later I was walking hand in hand with one of them while he whispered in my ear that he was in love with me and was taking me out for breakfast the next morning after we got a babysitter for our kids (he decided Emily and Oscar were his kids and my pregnant belly, sticking out because of the stomach ache, was his third child and was a girl, named Denali of course). It was quite the entertaining night. Katie just enjoyed laughing at me as Mr. Tunisian tried to dance with me in the streets and kiss me. Oh vey.

Sunday I got creeped on by a guy from Croatia while laying out in the park. Then I headed into town and watched the fans from Siberia gathering to celebrate their country playing in the World Cup. I loved watching all the guys greeting each other with three kisses on the cheek. So much more personal than a handshake. I wonder how they measure a man - by how firm or flimsy his kiss on the cheek is?! Then I chatted to a man, probably aging 65-70 from Italy for about an hour. He bought me a water - how sweet. He told me to move to Italy and marry an Italian. Italy has great food, great wine, and more relaxed and humorous people. Sounds great to me!

Today was a beautiful day - very beachy weather - windy but sunny. I had fun rolling around in the grass, reading, eating, and running errands. The kids talked to their next au pair tonight! Crazy!! 9 1/2 months schon vorbei....

We're not in Kansas Anymore

It has been so beautiful the past week! Gorgeous gorgeous weather. Well, except for two nights where it was storming like crazy! Lightening, winding so hard, and thunder that was so loud. I'm shocked that I haven't seen any trees down. One of the nights I hear Phillip racing around the house closing the windows and doors that keep slamming from the wind. Branches down all over the city and on my way to school I saw three Porta-potty's tipped over along the waterfront. Sick. We survived though with no losses - Roof? Check. Gingko tree I was sure was going to fall over? Check.

Tuesday Charlotte, Marlene and I went rollerblading on the waterfront, which was kind of amusing seeing as Marlene has pretty much never roller bladed and was clinging onto either my hands or Charlotte's back/the stroller thingy. It was sprinkling when I left the house but thankfully the weather cooperated and we had sun the whole time we bladed. Then Ning met up with us for Lunch at Helium - a bar where Katie and I had some very interesting experiences back in November.

I just woke up from a dream where I was in Vegas. Guilty feelings for missing Jen's wedding I'm sure. While I am not going to Vegas, I am going to PARIS!!! Andrea gave me the go ahead and I will be going with The Women at the end of June! Charlotte is from Paris and her parents still live right outside the city so we will be staying there and getting tours by a real Parisian who likes us! Charlotte has lent me some pretty funny books about a British guy living in Paris. I'm pretty stoked. Side note: 34 days till Greece. SO EXCITED.

Andrea was gone a couple days this week in Portugal for work so the kids were stuck with mean-ol-cara. They lost their sweets one night but went to bed beautifully and got up on their own and were super easy. It was fabulous.

The past few days Katie and I have been baking/cooking up a bit. Susie, a friend of the family's, came into town Friday and left last night. Katie and I made a tofu-veggie-stir fry w/ quinoa that was pretty yummy, and then an AMAZING apricot upside-down cake. After eating a couple of pieces of that and daring to put a very little bit of whipped cream on top I suffered an owie stomach ache the rest of the night. :( Thankfully for part of the night I was very distracted. Katie and I went out into town to people watch and try and walk off my stomach ache and were approached by two guys. One asked us if we had a light while showing us his lighter that worked. Later he showed us an empty pack of cigarettes with another lighter in it. Oh well, it worked - the conversation started and ended a couple of hours. A few awkward moments, I got a marriage proposal, and we laughed a lot.

Yesterday Katie made some chocolate wafers - the dough was so yummy that we contemplated not baking it. We did though. I finished the caramel popcorn I made last week and Katie is going to be needing to make again some of the delicious white sangria she made last week.

GO USA! TV's are up and going all over the city watching the soccer world cup games. Today is the war in my house - Australia vs. Germany. O-lay o-lay o-lay o-lay OR Aussie Aussie Aussie oy oy oy!!! I am one confused child.

In the 70's all this week - Yes.

I feel good about this general direction.

It has been a busy week! The sun came out to play and so did everyone else! Tuesday evening Charlotte and I participated in the very professional all city rollerblading event. A couple hundred participants were involved and they were all decked out in the top gear with the newest skates. I was using Charlotte's twenty year old blades that only have three worn wheels. Led by a police escort, we bladed throughout Frankfurt and outside of the city: in the middle of the main streets of the city, on side streets, and on the autobahn. After the second hour I was ready to cry. Let's just say, old skates with three worn out wheels don't really match up with everyone else w/ four/five brand new wheels. positive note: I never feel. Yipee! I had my wrist guards and helmet on just in case though. Definitely was not up to par with the rest of the participants rocking all of the other protection - I even saw a guy with what looked like a bullet proof vest on. We would stop for a two minute break or so every 10km and Charlotte and I would always scoot up to the front only to end up at the back being pushed by other participants - ok that was just me literally having someone behind me pushing me so that I could go faster. All in all it was a fun evening and I will probably participate again - maybe with newer blades though next time. I learned my lesson!

Wednesday was normal lunch with the women. We went to Bar Celona where I ate this amazing potato/vegetable grill. So delicious. Thursday the women (well, just Charlotte, Ning, and Marlene) and their men and Katie and I drove out to Rüdesheim, did some delcious wine tasting (FINALLY!), then we jumped on a boat to do a Rhein River tour. It was a 6 hour tour in total and we were able to see all the old castles and ruins along the river. It was perfect weather and the company was great. The last stop on the tour was Loreley where (Katie says it is famous) there is a story about a mermaid luring all the sailors into the rocks or something. We took a bus up to the top of the rock to see the "mermaid's" view before jumping back on a boat to head back.

Me on top of the Loreley rock.

Ning, Marlene, and I in Rüdelsheim where there was a Motorcycle tour going on.


Marlene and a ruin in the background.



Yesterday I went to Katie's guest family's lake house with her and the kids. Got a little burnt, swam in the lake, and had a jolly good afternoon. My guest fam went horse riding from Wednesday evening till last night with some friends. It was a holiday on Thursday so no school Thurs or Fri. Yay for long weekends with 70/80 degree weather!!!!

Here are some pics from last week when the women and I went to the capital of Hessen, Wiesbaden, for a day.

Charlotte and her very fashionable stroller.

Ning, Charlotte, Marlene, and of course baby Leanne!

In front of the casino - everyone lost their 2 euros on the first round. Oh well!