MAY DAY!

Tomorrow it is May. Scary. And yet so exciting! Here is a picture of the roller coaster I went on a couple weeks ago. Oh how I LOVE roller coasters! Now just have to wait for the fastest one in the world to open up in Nurburg. Eee!

Megan and Stephanie are officially both going to be arriving in Athens, Greece on July 17th where we will play and then scadaddle off too one of the islands (Santorini) for 5 days. I'm so excited!!!!!! Then Steph will leave us and Megs and I will continue island hopping until the 1 of August when we will head home. We're going to GREECE!!!!!!

I'm really loving sixteen cities "come as you are" right now. Some talented guys there. :)

Feeling a bit sick tonight. It's probably because the weather changed and decided to get "cold." Yesterday it was 80 degrees!! Oh it was amazing. I met up with "the women" for a late dinner, well I actually just had Apfelwein. Hehe. Adriana is going home to Mexico for 6 weeks on Tuesday. I will miss her! Charlotte (france), the baby and I had lunch on Tuesday and it was sooo beautiful outside. I love the long meals here. We sometimes are "eating" for 3 hours. That just would not happen in the States. And plus other people do have that crazy thing to do called work. :)

Might go on a day trip to Sraßburg on Tuesday. The kids will be gone Monday through Thursday at their schools country house so I have all those days free! Well, I have class on Monday and Wednesday but besides that nothing. Straßburg is famous becuase it is where the European Parliament is and the city was sometimes part of Germany sometimes part of France aka it's right on the boarder. Now it is technically in France but it's very German. We'll see if I make it out there.

Last weekend I went hiking! On Sunday Katie and I went strolling around a Cloister - Kloster Eberbach and then went to nearby Wiesbaden and wandered the city. Then on Sunday it was also such great weather so I thought I would take advantage of it and go out hiking in the nearby Taunus hills. The forest is just not the same as at home though. Naja.

Just for you Kayleen :)

Four Shows I Watch:
1. Skins
2. Private Practice
3. Brothers and Sisters (but not since I got here - so behind!!)
4. Movies....

Four Things I'm Passionate About:
1. EATING! (fruits, veggies, nuts and desserts.)
2. Recycling (although no where as extreme as my daddy-o)
3. TRAVELING!!!
4. Good times with the family and friends :)

Four Phrases I Say A Lot:
1. And when I say (whatever I said)... I really mean (what I really meant).
2. That was definitely not what I meant.
3. That's what she said.
4. Tender (thanks Kayleen.. or Crystal!)

Four Things I've Learned from the Past:
1. The children are dying.
2. Look for the Good :)
3. Time FLYS! AHHH!
4. Family and Friends are most importante.

Four Places I Would Like to Go:
1. Paris
2. Barcelona
3. Scotland/Ireland (that counts as one...)
4. Kenya

Four Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Went to an interview at an international school. I didn't like them - although they offered me a job.
2. Went to Ning's house to have a delicioius 3hr lunch with "the women."
3. Worked on planning my GREECE trip with Megan and Stephanie!!!!!!
4. Babysat for the neighbor girls.

Four Things I'm Looking Forward to:
1. GREECE W/ MEGS AND GOOGS!
2. LAUREN COMING!
3. Italy!!!!
4. Visiting the Schödels again!

Four Things I Love about Winter:
1. Hot buttered Rum
2. Baking a lot of cookies
3. Family time AND Friend time.
4. New favorite - SKIING!!!!

Four Things on My Wish List:
1. Travel a lot more.
2. Find an amazing job - preferably doing something good for the earth.
3. Have many more fabulous times with friends and family.
4. Travel. Yep I love to travel.

I love you weener. Come play soon.

I love the sun!

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day! Got up about 8:30, read some harry potter with Oscar (almost to page 500 of the fourth book. woot!), ate my favorite meal of the day, organized, and then met Katie in the park near her house to do some boot camp. We've been pretty good the last week doing boot camps every couple of days. Quite entertaining on Thursday at her house working out on the heated floor trying to avoid the ants and doing some wacko work out from one of the trainers from that fat people show. Good times. After our boot camp we jumped on our bikes to go up to the Goethe Turm which is a nice uphill ride outside of the city. It is 147m above the city and, today being a wonderfully blue sky kind of day, offers amazing 360 views. It was beautiful. Too bad my camera was dead (idiot!) and the after four pictures Katie's died (redonculous). So we will be back. The weather was perfect - light wind and almost 70degrees. We rode down into the city and wound our way around the flee market on the river and then found a park where we just laid out and chilled for a bit. Then into the city to the Hauptwache where we got to witness the huge organized pillow fight!! So mad my camera wasn't working. If whit was here I would definitely have been involved in that pillow fight with her. :) There was probably 100 plus people all with pillows going crazy hitting each other. Good times! Then we were off to the grocery store. Picked up some goods and then headed to my place where we made the amazing flourless chocolate cakes, guacamole, a giant salad, and consumed a lot while sitting on the terrace with a nice glass of wine. I miss Oregon wine. Have I mentioned that? I'm on a search to find some at a wine store here. I should probably be drinking the wine from here though huh? Right. I'll work on that. It was a lovely day - the warm weather just makes everything so much better. I love spring!!!!

MEGAN BOUGHT HER TICKET!!!!!! AKA we are going to Greece!!! Stephanie is coming too but we aren't sure yet how long yet. SO EXCITED!!! We will be going to Athens then to three of the Greek Islands - Mykonos, Naxos, and Santorini. So stoked. ALSO I talked to my good friend Lauren last week and she is coming to Germany for a month or so this summer!!!!!!!! A;SLDKJA;SLDKFJ She will be visiting another friend of hers who is now teaching here and then when I'm back from Greece I will be playing with them as well. Oh good news. It is a good day. Now just need to get a job for next year!

Here are a couple pictures from Berlin:
Jewish Memorial - a lot of people playing hide and go seek in here! The stones get about 10ft tall. Potsdamer Platz in the background.

Berlin Cathedral

 Sanssouci Palace is Potsdam






That is all for now folks. More pictures to come soon. :)

Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter!

I'm listening interchangeably to Led Zepplin and Andrea Bocceli in honor of my parents. Ha! I've been in Berlin since Wednesday with the kids and then Andrea arrived on Thursday and Phillip yesterday morning. We've been having a nice time. I met up with Julia who was at Westview for a year doing an exchange. She is from Potsdam and was in the city this weekend so we met up and walked all around Potsdam and caught up on what's been going on in life. We walked through the beautiful Schloss Sanssouci gardens, where she took me 5 years ago around New Years with Regina who is now her sister funny enough.

Today Anki and I and the kiddos - Oscar, Em, and cousin Lily went to a Easter party at a friend of Anki's about an hour outside of Berlin. It was a very pretty place - big house on a lake, big garden, but I think the youngest besides us was about 50. Yeah. The kids had fun playing with the two dogs - one who was completely like Hercules (except could still run around) and the other black like Tanker but definitely not as great as my wonderful Tank. We wanted to take Hercules's look alike home with us. It made me miss the dogs! They roasted a lamb - SICK. As the body twirled around the fire I could just picture it with a head on it and fur. Sad day. I ate a lot of chocolate instead. Naturally. I drove home and on the way got pulled over by the police. I was driving along when a car drove past us and flashed their lights at us so then I though I had my brights on. See, it wasn't dark enough yet to really tell if my lights were on or not, so I figured they were. Asked Anki if I had the brights on and she said yes. Turned the switch down one. Two minutes later a person steps into the road with a sign and pointed me onto a dirt road - I thought we had to take a detour. Nope, it was a Policeman. The Polizei!! Rolled down the window - Anki handed him the registration. I didn't have my license with me as I had traded bags to put all the kids things in. Uhhhh. . . A Policewoman comes over as well. We have a little chat. She says she'll believe me that I have my license, as it is Easter, and that the reason I was pulled over was because my lights were off. I then explained that not two minutes ago someone had flashed their lights at me so I thought I had my brights on and turned my lights down. She laughed and said they were warning me that there were Police up ahead. How friendly of them! Bah! Alles klar. They let us go, Frohe Ostern, etc and off we drove, ticket-less. Phew! First run in with the Polizei and I got off free and clear Gott sei Dank! hehe.

Hope everyone else is having a safe and merry Easter eating lots of chocolate like me.

PS

I forgot to mention - my Wednesday lunch date that I have every week with a group of women from all over the world - well, last week a few of us also when to Adriana's on Friday to eat some Mexican food!!!!!! Adriana is from Mexico, married to a German she met in Vancouver. She made Mexican for me, Ning, and Charlotte (who is now over a week due!). I consumed tortillas covered in guac, salsa, black beans, hot peppers, and lemon juice. yummmmmmm. It was amazing. We also drank this delicious Mexican rice drink that is kind of like rice milk with cinnamon in it - oh it was amazing. I'd never heard about it before.. Don't know where you can get it in Oregon. Yesterday we went to a cafe called Barcelona in the middle of the city and soaked up the sun for two leisurely hours and ate some yummy food (I split Spanish style potatoes with grilled vegetables with Ning) and desserts (Split fried strawberry apple yumminess with vanilla sauce with Adriana).

I miss hiking with the dogs and friends&fam (whit! brian! jen!). I miss the smells of the forest. I miss Oregon wine. And wine tasting with my girls. Yes I do. I'm on my way out to find some wine stores and scour the shelves for Oregon wine. Wish me luck! And then I'm getting my hair cut - first time since I've gotten here! I need my Kayleen. Then to the bake sale at the kids school, which I made some cupcakes for. Each class performed a piece for the parents Tuesday and again today. Emily and Oscar's class did Green Eggs and Ham. Oscar was the main character (did a FABULOUS job) and Emily was the mouse (so CUTE!). I was very proud. :)

Officially not staying with the family - still searching for jobs around Frankfurt but also the rest of Europe too. Any hints, advice - let me know! :)

Home sweet home German style.

This weekend I got to spend with my wonderful Schödels. I got to Regensburg, where Johanna is going to University, very late (well, later then I expected). Maria picked me up from the station (her and Esther had come into town to play too!) and then we walked to Bini's place (Johanna's cousin) where we (Johanna, Murat, Olivia, Bini, Esther, Maria, and I)  ate some spätzle and steak that he had made (me no steak) and then ate this delicious fruit torte that his friend Murat had made. We were a jolly group and it was great to be in all their company. We drank some wine, apfelschorle with Amaretto that was very tasty and played a German version of Memory and some Changa. Next day Maria, Esther, Johanna, Olivia, and I walked around the city, seeing all the old sites. The Dom was super cool - old German Gothic.

This city is very old and original because a lot of it was not destroyed during the war. The old stone bridge was built in the 12th century and the 2nd and 3rd crusades used it to cross the Donau River. Their is a staute of the devil in the middle of the bridge where he is looking up at the top of the Dom. There is an old story about a competition between the master builders of the Dom and the stone bridge which were built at the same time. The master builders each said that they would be done building their structures first and the stone bridge master builder used the help of the devil to finish his and then we don't really know the end of the story. I'll have to look it up. Here is a picture of us on the bridge. Johanna used to live in the pointy building second from the right.

Then the Mama Schödel came to town to wander a bit with us, have some lunch/Maria and I split French fries, and then we headed out to Eichstätt. I love going back to Eichstätt to hang out with the family, play games, snuggle with Esther, eat lots of good food, morning/evening walks with Maria, catch up with my wonderful Johanna, embarrass Benjamin, hear funny stories from Papa Schödel, listen to Mama Schödel's laugh, speak German/Bavarian, and just hang out with my lovely German family. They are always so great to me. Olivia came and stayed the weekend too so that was a lot of fun! We went for a nice walk/jog/run around Walting and it started to pour rain in the middle of it. Oh so fun! It felt good to be out somewhat hiking in the forest. Made me miss hiking at home with my lovelies.

Had a great run this morning - I'm loving the sun!!!!!! It's supposed to be in the upper 50s today, the sun is shining, and I am happy.

oh. my. goodness.

I went for a run this morning - do you know what that means?! IT IS WARM OUTSIDE!!!!!!! As in 16 degrees as in above 60 degrees fahrenheit! Wow. I'm overwhelmed. I must go outside now and soak in as much as I can.

PS I babysat last night for a family from Seattle - just a little bit closer to home. :)
PPS I get to see my Schödels tomorrow!! SO EXCITED!!