Bonjour!

Monday through Wednesday I spent in Paris with Charlotte, Adriana, Ning, and Marlena aka The Women. It was a great time but definitely not enough! We stayed at Charlotte's parent's place just outside of the city which was very sweet of them. Her father could speak German pretty well and her mom could speak a very little bit of English so between all of us it was a bit of French, German, and English. Three days is definitely not enough time in Paris though. But now I have gotten a general view, seen what I need to go back and spend a lot of time seeing, and can speak a few more French words. :)

Sights seen: climbed up the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame (personal favorite!), the Louvre (about 10% of it), climbed/rode up the Eiffel Tower (saw the light show as well), Champs Elysees (not impressed), Versailles (just the garden because the wait to get inside was 2 hours w/ a pass as well!!), Sacre Coeur Basilica (where I was held hostage for a second by a man REALLY trying to sell me something), Sainte Chapelle, and many other sites on a bus tour. We tried to use the VeIib bikes (1 euro to rent them for a day but you have to trade in the bike at different stations all over the city every half hour or you have to pay 2 euros and then 4 euros or something) but it didn't really work since there was 5 of us and the bikes are very popular so it is quite difficult to find any 5 at one station. Naja. We went on a nice tour by foot. Tuesday night we went to a restaurant to celebrate Charlotte's cousin's birthday and that was a lot of fun. I love listening to French! My French is terrible. haha. I also went to a Boulangerie with Charlotte to pick up some fresh bread. French croissants are soooooo yummy. Oh vey! I had a bit of a cold in the mornings and Ning kept on telling me how erotic I sounded because I was speaking so low. Let me tell you, it is very strange to be told in German by a Chineese person that you have a very erotic voice! I really really liked Paris and can't wait to go back!!! Hear are some pictures.


Louvre

The Mona Lisa was bigger than I thought! 

In front of Quasimodo's bell. :) Really hot bus tour! 

View from Arc de Triomphe 

In front of Versailles 

Touring around the Versailles Garden 

My future home.

Wednesday we are off to Florence for a wedding! So excited. 

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

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!

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.