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Sonntag, 7. Februar 2016
New Year, New Fun
durhamfamily, 18:46h
It has been a long time. Let's just say, I wanted to guarantee that no one was "over-Kyled" after spending the Christmas break with me. I also needed time to collect enough stories to keep everyone entertained (myself included).
Most everyone knows of the biggest event so far this year: bringing the 2 cats to Germany. It was better than I had imagined. In fact, not a single thing went wrong. Fascinating story, right?
Honestly, I had never been more exhausted than I was that day. It wasn't about what WAS happening. It was about what COULD happen. For all 18 hours, my attention was glued to the cats. I didn't sleep. I hardly read or watched anything. All I did was stare at the cats, looking for signs of distress, waiting for the worst to happen. I took the cats into the bathroom as often as I could, trying to encourage them to pee. To no avail. Instead, the cats simply never peed. Like, at all.
After arriving in Stuttgart, Liz and I spent the following hour scouring the airport for someone to tell us what we needed to do with the cats. There was sweat, there were tears. And the final answer was, "Nothing". We didn't need to do a #@&!$ thing with the cats in the airport.
Anyway, the it took a few days for the cats to be comfortable with the space... and a few weeks for them to be comfortable with us leaving them for any amount of time. However, I sincerely believe they are happier now in this space. I believe Liz is happier. And can only suspect that Eric is much happier.
What else...
Liz has been on a scheduling rampage. I think every vacation for the next 2 years has been completely planned out. It is fantastic. We should have plenty more pictures and adventures to share in the future.
Babies are happening this month. I could be an uncle any day now. And Liz's dear friend delivered only a few days ago. So, while we are back in Germany now, it's hard not to wish we were in Kentucky again. I'm sure this will be just the 1st of a great number of significant moments we'll miss while we're here. I'll try to convince Liz to spend more time in the US when things like babies are happening... but she can be quite the stubborn lady.
Anything else?
Our German-American friends invited us over to their home again. Mostly because of their great generosity, and partly because we had thousands of dollars worth of their Christmas presents in our luggage :) I'm getting back into the rhythm of work. It has been a rather difficult year so far, but I expect it to improve soon enough. And I'm running casually these days, to build a solid base for the summer, when Eric will kick my behind.
Our German lessons have begun again. Our speaking skills look less and less promising with each passing lesson. I know I can't expect more, considering we have 3 hours of classes per week. That's half the amount of lessons a child receives. In other words: we should be as good as a kid who has taken a language for one semester. Or even worse, considering kids learn languages much more quickly than adults. Still, I deeply despise being this publicly bad at something. Something that I'm constantly reminded of and quizzed on.
Egal.
Here's a cat playing with my coffee:
Most everyone knows of the biggest event so far this year: bringing the 2 cats to Germany. It was better than I had imagined. In fact, not a single thing went wrong. Fascinating story, right?
Honestly, I had never been more exhausted than I was that day. It wasn't about what WAS happening. It was about what COULD happen. For all 18 hours, my attention was glued to the cats. I didn't sleep. I hardly read or watched anything. All I did was stare at the cats, looking for signs of distress, waiting for the worst to happen. I took the cats into the bathroom as often as I could, trying to encourage them to pee. To no avail. Instead, the cats simply never peed. Like, at all.
After arriving in Stuttgart, Liz and I spent the following hour scouring the airport for someone to tell us what we needed to do with the cats. There was sweat, there were tears. And the final answer was, "Nothing". We didn't need to do a #@&!$ thing with the cats in the airport.
Anyway, the it took a few days for the cats to be comfortable with the space... and a few weeks for them to be comfortable with us leaving them for any amount of time. However, I sincerely believe they are happier now in this space. I believe Liz is happier. And can only suspect that Eric is much happier.
What else...
Liz has been on a scheduling rampage. I think every vacation for the next 2 years has been completely planned out. It is fantastic. We should have plenty more pictures and adventures to share in the future.
Babies are happening this month. I could be an uncle any day now. And Liz's dear friend delivered only a few days ago. So, while we are back in Germany now, it's hard not to wish we were in Kentucky again. I'm sure this will be just the 1st of a great number of significant moments we'll miss while we're here. I'll try to convince Liz to spend more time in the US when things like babies are happening... but she can be quite the stubborn lady.
Anything else?
Our German-American friends invited us over to their home again. Mostly because of their great generosity, and partly because we had thousands of dollars worth of their Christmas presents in our luggage :) I'm getting back into the rhythm of work. It has been a rather difficult year so far, but I expect it to improve soon enough. And I'm running casually these days, to build a solid base for the summer, when Eric will kick my behind.
Our German lessons have begun again. Our speaking skills look less and less promising with each passing lesson. I know I can't expect more, considering we have 3 hours of classes per week. That's half the amount of lessons a child receives. In other words: we should be as good as a kid who has taken a language for one semester. Or even worse, considering kids learn languages much more quickly than adults. Still, I deeply despise being this publicly bad at something. Something that I'm constantly reminded of and quizzed on.
Egal.
Here's a cat playing with my coffee:
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Mittwoch, 9. Dezember 2015
Almost Home
durhamfamily, 17:12h
Happy Holidays!
As we will travel home by the end of next week, this will likely be my final blog post of 2015. I cannot speak for Elizabeth... but odds are that she won't be posting anything either.
The past 10 days have been extremely eventful. I'm sorry for not posting anything over the weekend, but we were busy making memories! I don't have much in the way of photographs, but I'll see what I can dig up.
The fun began last Tuesday, when we visited the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). We hopped on our usual train to Stuttgart, plus another short subway ride to Esslingen. Esslingen is a town near Stuttgart, which hosts a large, medieval-style Christmas Market. We were very impressed by the hundred+ booths and several stages of medieval performers (acting, dancing, torch-throwing, racquetball eating...).
Of course I don't have any pictures of that cool stuff. Elizabeth does. Bug her.
When it became simply too cold, we found a fancy Glühwein establishment which included an inside section, rescuing us from the cool drizzle outside. There, we found some FIREBALL Glühwein. Clearly, they had good taste. So far, Elizabeth and I have not found any Fireball whisky (or anything similar) here in Germany. But we have not given up hope!
Then work happened for a few days...
On Friday afternoon, Elizabeth and I left for the Netherlands! There is a direct flight from Stuttgart to Amsterdam that is unbelievably inexpensive. We traveled there so I could run a small marathon in Spijkenisse. I wasn't prepared at all, but that's never stopped me before!
The Netherlands is beautiful. The landscape is completely flat and covered with water. There are plenty of windmills around. Elizabeth probably has some pictures of those as well.
Spijkenisse itself was very cute. It is surrounded by water, and we immediately came across a public petting zoo. Of course, we were the only adults not accompanied by children. The food in the town is more expensive than I'd prefer, but that's to be expected. Our little town Schwäbisch Gmünd isn't exactly a tourist hotspot.
The race, late Sunday morning, was killer. The flat terrain seemed like a good idea, and being surrounded by water sounded nice. But I have never run against so much wind. The smartest of the runners stayed in close packs, in order to benefit from each other. I tried that for 40 minutes, but I grow bored and too competitive... to my own, slow, steady, gruesome demise. You can see me in the picture below, having just passed one small group and about to catch up with (and pass) another small group. Because I'm an idiot.
Long story short, at mile 23, the race turned directly into a strong wind, once again. My body erupted with a strong protest. The final 3 miles of walk/running are ones I'd like to forget.
But as always, the race ended, and life went on. Elizabeth and I celebrated briefly with a literal bucket of french fries before jumping back on the subway to Amsterdam.
With our remaining time (half Sunday, half Monday), we took in all that we could. We ate fresh seafood. We drank craft beers. Walked all around the city. And visited both the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
Although we spent little time there, Amsterdam was a terrific place. I wouldn't mind returning for another visit.
The best part of the story was... "Nothing happened"! Despite the fears of travel, we went everywhere we wanted without incident. I hope this will be a big step in making us feel more confident that we can travel places without fear of dying. The only thing that sucks is that we were told to buy subway cards - which cost of 15 euro and gave us the privilege to pay for subway tickets. They expire in 2021. Hopefully we'll either use them again or at least find 2 people who'll make use of them.
Lastly, we did come home with a virus. It caught Elizabeth first, and then dragged me down a few hours later. We were lucky that it didn't hit until right as we arrived home. After spending all day yesterday in bed with fever, we dragged ourselves out to the scary German doctors and got medicine. It was unbelievably easy. We should've done it sooner.
At this point, I still need to figure out where to send different things (I have a receipt for medication that I think I need to mail to the insurance company), but that's the easy part.
Anyway, that's all I have. Here - I stole some Netherlands pictures from Elizabeth:
As we will travel home by the end of next week, this will likely be my final blog post of 2015. I cannot speak for Elizabeth... but odds are that she won't be posting anything either.
The past 10 days have been extremely eventful. I'm sorry for not posting anything over the weekend, but we were busy making memories! I don't have much in the way of photographs, but I'll see what I can dig up.
The fun began last Tuesday, when we visited the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). We hopped on our usual train to Stuttgart, plus another short subway ride to Esslingen. Esslingen is a town near Stuttgart, which hosts a large, medieval-style Christmas Market. We were very impressed by the hundred+ booths and several stages of medieval performers (acting, dancing, torch-throwing, racquetball eating...).
Of course I don't have any pictures of that cool stuff. Elizabeth does. Bug her.
When it became simply too cold, we found a fancy Glühwein establishment which included an inside section, rescuing us from the cool drizzle outside. There, we found some FIREBALL Glühwein. Clearly, they had good taste. So far, Elizabeth and I have not found any Fireball whisky (or anything similar) here in Germany. But we have not given up hope!
Then work happened for a few days...
On Friday afternoon, Elizabeth and I left for the Netherlands! There is a direct flight from Stuttgart to Amsterdam that is unbelievably inexpensive. We traveled there so I could run a small marathon in Spijkenisse. I wasn't prepared at all, but that's never stopped me before!
The Netherlands is beautiful. The landscape is completely flat and covered with water. There are plenty of windmills around. Elizabeth probably has some pictures of those as well.
Spijkenisse itself was very cute. It is surrounded by water, and we immediately came across a public petting zoo. Of course, we were the only adults not accompanied by children. The food in the town is more expensive than I'd prefer, but that's to be expected. Our little town Schwäbisch Gmünd isn't exactly a tourist hotspot.
The race, late Sunday morning, was killer. The flat terrain seemed like a good idea, and being surrounded by water sounded nice. But I have never run against so much wind. The smartest of the runners stayed in close packs, in order to benefit from each other. I tried that for 40 minutes, but I grow bored and too competitive... to my own, slow, steady, gruesome demise. You can see me in the picture below, having just passed one small group and about to catch up with (and pass) another small group. Because I'm an idiot.
Long story short, at mile 23, the race turned directly into a strong wind, once again. My body erupted with a strong protest. The final 3 miles of walk/running are ones I'd like to forget.
But as always, the race ended, and life went on. Elizabeth and I celebrated briefly with a literal bucket of french fries before jumping back on the subway to Amsterdam.
With our remaining time (half Sunday, half Monday), we took in all that we could. We ate fresh seafood. We drank craft beers. Walked all around the city. And visited both the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
Although we spent little time there, Amsterdam was a terrific place. I wouldn't mind returning for another visit.
The best part of the story was... "Nothing happened"! Despite the fears of travel, we went everywhere we wanted without incident. I hope this will be a big step in making us feel more confident that we can travel places without fear of dying. The only thing that sucks is that we were told to buy subway cards - which cost of 15 euro and gave us the privilege to pay for subway tickets. They expire in 2021. Hopefully we'll either use them again or at least find 2 people who'll make use of them.
Lastly, we did come home with a virus. It caught Elizabeth first, and then dragged me down a few hours later. We were lucky that it didn't hit until right as we arrived home. After spending all day yesterday in bed with fever, we dragged ourselves out to the scary German doctors and got medicine. It was unbelievably easy. We should've done it sooner.
At this point, I still need to figure out where to send different things (I have a receipt for medication that I think I need to mail to the insurance company), but that's the easy part.
Anyway, that's all I have. Here - I stole some Netherlands pictures from Elizabeth:
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Sonntag, 29. November 2015
Holiday Season
durhamfamily, 13:32h
Greetings! The holidays are upon us.
Although, we miss out on a lot of them over here in Germany. No kids running around in costumes demanding candy. No pumpkin pie or turkey with stuffing for us. It was strange not having a Thanksgiving. To not see our families, to not play games and overeat. To actually WORK. It was weird. I hope that never happens again.
I might talk Elizabeth into a Thanksgiving trip home rather than a Christmas trip home next year. The biggest argument I have is: it'll be our only chance to experience a German New Years Eve (Silvester). I think Christmas will be special no matter where you are. Thanksgiving is decidedly not special over here. I want it back.
On the plus side, the Christmas season (Weihnachten) practically begins in October over here. Everything is all gingerbread and hot spiced wine (Lebkuchen und Glühwein). And now that it's nearly December, the real fun begins. Cities all around the country have put up charming decorations and Christmas-themed outdoor markets.
Look at Schwäbisch Gmünd, for example. They've even turned the city building into a giant Advent Calendar. How cool is that?
That is just a small glimpse of the market. You can get a better look from the city webcam, here:
http://www.schwaebisch-gmuend.de/353-Webcam_Schwaebisch_Gmuend_Marktplatz_I.html
Take a look between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM EST when it's dark and full of life. We'll wear bright colors and wave to you :)
The rest of the city, outside of the market, is beautifully decorated as well. Here's a picture of the street that leads into the city center.
There are many Christmas markets that, we're told, are too good to miss. On Tuesday, Elizabeth and I are spending the day in Esslingen, which has a particularly famous market. Very medieval and festive. There are others we hope to visit next year - like Nuremberg and Strasbourg (not Germany, but close).
In other news, Elizabeth had a disappointing birthday last Sunday. It's not nearly the same, not being able to spend the day with everyone we miss from home.
Yesterday it snowed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. I really enjoy watching the snowfall. Elizabeth and I went for a snowy walk over to the Fleamarket (Flohmarkt - held once or twice per month)... only to learn it was cancelled due to the snow! We were very disappointed. So we went grocery shopping instead. I bought "American" brand chocolate chips cookies to numb the sadness. Before you ask, yes, American brand foods are very common here. I don't know if they are popular or not. Heck, sometimes cannot even determine what the products are (the "American" sauce is a good example). I'm pretty sure our peanut butter is "American" brand.
Did we tell you about peanut butter over here? It only comes in tiny jars, perhaps half the size of the smallest jars in the US. Compare that to Nutella, which we can buy here in the largest jars imaginable.
But that's not the worst of it. Take a random poll, and many German people wouldn't be able to tell you what peanut butter is used for. Our German teacher, who is a mother of 2 teenage boys, hadn't even heard of pb&j before! Combining pb with j had never occurred to her.
Is there anything else?
Our short marathon trip is quickly approaching. I'm nowhere near ready (which might be good if it causes me to slow down... very bad if it doesn't), and Elizabeth is anxious about traveling anywhere due to possible threats of violence. I can admit, it feels unsettling to be closer to some threats, with no ocean between us and ISIS. However, I'm still confident that I'm safer here than in the US. The US might not have ISIS, but it's certainly not free from extreme and unpredictable violence.
On that cheery note, I'll go for now! We miss everyone. Be safe, and embrace the magic of the holiday season!
Although, we miss out on a lot of them over here in Germany. No kids running around in costumes demanding candy. No pumpkin pie or turkey with stuffing for us. It was strange not having a Thanksgiving. To not see our families, to not play games and overeat. To actually WORK. It was weird. I hope that never happens again.
I might talk Elizabeth into a Thanksgiving trip home rather than a Christmas trip home next year. The biggest argument I have is: it'll be our only chance to experience a German New Years Eve (Silvester). I think Christmas will be special no matter where you are. Thanksgiving is decidedly not special over here. I want it back.
On the plus side, the Christmas season (Weihnachten) practically begins in October over here. Everything is all gingerbread and hot spiced wine (Lebkuchen und Glühwein). And now that it's nearly December, the real fun begins. Cities all around the country have put up charming decorations and Christmas-themed outdoor markets.
Look at Schwäbisch Gmünd, for example. They've even turned the city building into a giant Advent Calendar. How cool is that?
That is just a small glimpse of the market. You can get a better look from the city webcam, here:
http://www.schwaebisch-gmuend.de/353-Webcam_Schwaebisch_Gmuend_Marktplatz_I.html
Take a look between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM EST when it's dark and full of life. We'll wear bright colors and wave to you :)
The rest of the city, outside of the market, is beautifully decorated as well. Here's a picture of the street that leads into the city center.
There are many Christmas markets that, we're told, are too good to miss. On Tuesday, Elizabeth and I are spending the day in Esslingen, which has a particularly famous market. Very medieval and festive. There are others we hope to visit next year - like Nuremberg and Strasbourg (not Germany, but close).
In other news, Elizabeth had a disappointing birthday last Sunday. It's not nearly the same, not being able to spend the day with everyone we miss from home.
Yesterday it snowed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. I really enjoy watching the snowfall. Elizabeth and I went for a snowy walk over to the Fleamarket (Flohmarkt - held once or twice per month)... only to learn it was cancelled due to the snow! We were very disappointed. So we went grocery shopping instead. I bought "American" brand chocolate chips cookies to numb the sadness. Before you ask, yes, American brand foods are very common here. I don't know if they are popular or not. Heck, sometimes cannot even determine what the products are (the "American" sauce is a good example). I'm pretty sure our peanut butter is "American" brand.
Did we tell you about peanut butter over here? It only comes in tiny jars, perhaps half the size of the smallest jars in the US. Compare that to Nutella, which we can buy here in the largest jars imaginable.
But that's not the worst of it. Take a random poll, and many German people wouldn't be able to tell you what peanut butter is used for. Our German teacher, who is a mother of 2 teenage boys, hadn't even heard of pb&j before! Combining pb with j had never occurred to her.
Is there anything else?
Our short marathon trip is quickly approaching. I'm nowhere near ready (which might be good if it causes me to slow down... very bad if it doesn't), and Elizabeth is anxious about traveling anywhere due to possible threats of violence. I can admit, it feels unsettling to be closer to some threats, with no ocean between us and ISIS. However, I'm still confident that I'm safer here than in the US. The US might not have ISIS, but it's certainly not free from extreme and unpredictable violence.
On that cheery note, I'll go for now! We miss everyone. Be safe, and embrace the magic of the holiday season!
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