Charlie and Norman's adventures in Amsterdam

Home safe and sound from a fabulous trip to Amsterdam! The weather was perfect - sunny with a slight breeze, the people were super friendly, and the experiences are ones to remember for a life time! Katie and I arrived at our hostel late Friday night.

Saturday

We got up and had probably the best breakfast I have ever had at a hostel. Lots of fresh fruit, eggs, and a large selection of breads and some cereals. Nutella and Pb sandwich is my new fav. Thank you Marai. Wandered around town, starting our habit of getting lost in the city. We happened upon a cute street market where we both purchased dresses - they came in very handy over the weekend. We then found our way over to the National Monument/Palace so that we could hop on one of the fabulous "tips only" tours. Our tour guide was Australian (I'm moving to Australia) and I think Katie and I were laughing a lot more then the rest of the crowd. . , Strange blokes. We meandered through the city, learning about the history and checking out some of the main attractions: The Red Light District and the Coffee Shops. The Red Light District and the Church in the center of it have a strong bond that has been developed over the centuries. Very interesting.

Found a boardwalk to lay on and take a nap and try and recover from our lack of sleep from Thursday (Katie's birthday night - a crazy randevous in Frankfurt) and Friday. Found our way back into town (walked in a few more circles) and went in search of the restaurant that Katie's host mom had reserved a table for us at. We only went in three circles before we eventually found it. It wasn't what we were expecting, at least not what I was expecting. Small and petite with pretty much no English translations Katie signed us up for the 5 course meal. Very fancy Schmancy and very European, it lasted 3 and a half hours. Let's just say Katie was ready to get out of there! It was delicious food and I think I challenged the chef with my picky eating - although I failed to mention I didn't like mushrooms or asparagus on top of all meat. Naja. It was very delicious nevertheless! And the bubblies were delicious! The bill reached the three digit Niveau. Then we wandered through the red light district for an hour or so. It's so interesting! I think the oldest lady we saw was in her 50s, although we were looking for the 80 year old. We also saw the blue/red lights aka Transsexuals. We tried to find only blue lights but it just wasn't happening. We searched more rigorously the next night, still to no avail. ;)

Sunday

Started the day with the delicious breakfast and then found our way to a boat tour. It was fun to be on the river. I would love to have had my own little boat for drinking wine and eating cheese (goat's of course) and sailing with friends but Katie and I coped with the canal cruise. :) There are so many canals! I didn't realize that Amsterdam is a mini Venice! I love the architecture - the skinny buildings with the super steep and narrow stairs. Housing tax used to be (or maybe it still is?) based on the width of the house aka the house could be as tall and as long as it wanted to be but the wider it is the more you were charged! One of the "houses" was just barely wider then a door - I want to go in there! Walked around town some more, bought some flip flops, found Vondelpark, or fondle park as I named it  (after 2hrs of walking in circles) where we laid out and got burnt while people watching. Then we headed to the Anne Frank house. This was a very eye-opening tour. I hadn't realized how much space they had! I mean, it was terrible - they couldn't leave for two years and then only the father survived, but the father was a very smart man and had set up this whole little apartment for them to hide in at the back of his store.

We went and bought a brownie, had a photo shoot on the canal, and then went to a pub to have some Heineken where I was hit on by the bartender and then Katie attracted over some goofy Irish lads who then accompanied us the rest of the night. Drinks (on Katie's part :) ), wandering the red light district (in search of blue lights but then we discovered there aren't any or they are not what we would want), cheering on the women who got business, had more drinks, and then we ditched them to crash at the hostel. I must say that I have never felt safer in a city. Even in the Red Light District at 1AM - one does not feel threatened in the least. It is such a clean city and the people are so friendly and I think their tolerance and acceptance of all people is what makes Amsterdam such a fabulous city! I loved it.



Monday

We were hoping to catch a bus to the beach but it didn't end up working out so we went wandering around town again, working on getting lost some more. The market we wanted to see was closed (WhitMonday) so we sat on the side of the canal people watching and chilling. We were approached by a native Amsterdamer who had just finished up at an after party (at 10:30AM) and wanted to continue the dance party with us. He was definitely still on something! Very interesting guy. I asked him about his experiences in Amsterdam and he told us he had had two experiences with the prostitutes - the first lasting 15min and costing 30euros and the second 5min for 15euros. Our tour guide told us the average price was 50euros for 15minutes. Mr. Dancer eventually danced off, bestimmt to find the next dance party.

Katie and I wandered some more, picked up some food, and found another canal to sit next to. A man was standing a bit of a ways from us and he was smiling and I couldn't tell if he was smiling at me (I had my sunglasses on being very stealth) or at someone behind me. About 10min later he came over and started talking with us. We were then also approached by his brother who informed us that he had seen us earlier when we were sitting in a different square and wanted to approach us but we had got up and left. Kind of strange how he ended up hanging out with us anyways. The next three hours passed hanging out with the two giant dutch brothers (6ft 5in) who treated us at a coffee shop and to some drinks later. They didn't get our humor very much - I tried to teach them about sarcasm and I think brother 1 got it but brother 2 did not, or he was just a few beers too deep to catch on. Brother 1 said that our flight was canceled and we could not leave. Brother 2 said we must stay forever. We got some quite valuable quotes out of these two gentlemen! We said our goodbyes Dutch style and headed off to catch our train/plane back to good ol' Frankfurt. I would say our Amsterdam was an absolute success!

After a hot weekend it has been raining a lot! I got stuck in a down pour this morning on the way to class my jeans were soaked in about one minutes time. It's warming up now though. Phew!!

Eichstätt! Scratch that... Walting!

I spent this weekend with my wonderful German family in Walting while the family here was away visiting friends in Moscow. It was a long weekend, no class on Friday, so we all fled from Frankfurt on Thursday morning. At the Schödel's house I got to catch up with the fam, eat a lot of amazing food (aka stop my three and a half week strike on chocolate), listen to Klaus, Ben, Johanna, and Maria play their fabulous Bavarian music at a neighborhood festival, go on long walks with my girls, go shopping with friend Olivia, cousin Bini and Burgi, and Esther, bake with Johanna, and go and see a funny movie called "Vincent will meer" (play on words which means Vincent wants the sea basically). It was a fabulous weekend and I am always grateful to be back hanging out with my German family. The weather was pretty crappy the whole weekend long - on the cold side and sprinkling. It is supposed to warm up again this weekend - in perfect timing for AMSTERDAM! Oh I hope it is warm! Katie and I leave on Friday. She has it all our adventures planned out so I'm pretty excited. Her birthday in on Thursday so hopefully we will get to celebrate then too! Tomorrow I'm over to Ning's house for our Woman's lunch. She was in China last week and is bringing back Pecan nuts - so yummmmmy! Here is a picture of me in front of a house in Eichstätt that is covered in over 30,000 butterfly cutouts or something. Crazy! Maria and I wandered around the city on Saturday night and we saw... oh 5 people maybe. Not really a city people go out in! Ha!

Loving John Mayer (edge of desire, heartbreak warfare) and Airplanes right now.

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! :)