Deutschland

Hi there! Doesn't "ups" look goofy to English-speakers? It's how you spell oops in German. There are a lot of those in German - sounds with the same pronunciation but a completely different spelling. My favorite is, now that our cats our German, they say "miau."

A long time has passed since my last post. Unfortunately, that's because we've done nothing interesting. The only big event was a city-wide festival in July that - there was jousting and general swordplay, lepers marching alongside acrobats amidst archery competitions.




We haven't made any big purchases. We haven't met anyone new. Elizabeth's English classes are on summer break. Our next trip isn't until late September, but I'm sure we'll have fun things to post about by then.

We also haven't had any German language classes in a few months. We prefer it if you don't ask us about it :)

I now work in a new building on the opposite side of the city. It takes a little longer to bike there, but at least there's air conditioning! Too bad we don't use it often enough - people in Germany are accustomed to toughing out the hot temperatures. My department is pretty small, but it's a really good group. Oftentimes at lunch we'll go for a walk outside, giving some of us time to catch some Pokemon. Others of us take naps.

Our closest friends are leaving Germany shortly. One is the German family who had helped us out so much is moving to the US later this month. And a few days ago we learned that our only American friends are also moving to the US, too! We're going to develop some severe abandonment issues.

I read lots of books recently. I started the Night Angel series (though I only have the first book). I read a Book Club book, A Friend of the Earth about how we're going to destroy the planet (it's more upbeat than it sounds). And I read Animal Farm and 1984 - because somehow my education skipped right over that one. Now I'm starting the Lord of the Rings because I've never read those either. That'll likely keep me busy for a few months.

We've heard that this summer in KY has been brutal. Elizabeth and I are happy to report that the German summer has been very mild! Though Germans hate it when we celebrate cold weather - they love the summer heat. more than anything in this world. Last year was absolutely unbearable, and so we were nervous about spending another several weeks in 90-100 degree heat with no air conditioning in sight (so much chocolate wasted!). I don't know if it has hit 90 more than once or twice. Regardless, we still hate you and your cool spaces. On far too many occasions I've had to sit at work at a desk 100% soaked through with sweat with coworkers laughing and teasing. Apparently I sweat more than anyone they've ever encountered.

Um... that's about it. We just started watching Preacher and Mr. Robot on Amazon.com. They are both very entertaining. But at 10 episodes each, they'll only last us a week or two. Check 'em out!

Have fun. Stay cool. See you at Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone

This blog is long overdue for an entry. The past 3 weeks have been exceptionally busy. For the first time, my parents visited our apartment in Germany, and then the 4 of us proceeded to travel together around Italy. Forgive me if I mix some of the days up. It all began Wednesday, June 8th…


Elizabeth hopped on a train that morning to meet my parents at the airport in order to escort them to Schwäbisch Gmünd. Although their original flight was cancelled, they managed to catch another flight a few hours later, still arriving roughly as planned. I worked a half-day, but was able to beat them to the apartment – allowing me to spend a few more moments tidying up.

It was wonderful to see my parents. They were exhausted from the flights, so we gave a quick tour of the apartment, ending promptly in their bedroom for naptime. That’s not to say that they slept the day away. They were too excited for that. Within an hour or two, they were up and ready to see the city. Well, at least a little... for beer.

Dad loves beer, and has made a hobby of trying many varieties. You can find him on ratebeer.com under “rondphoto”. His goal during this vacation was to sample as many beers as possible (within reason). We started early, picking up nearly 20 different beers on day 1. Considering that we had already selected 5 for him in advance, that beer lasted a while.

We ended the day at the most popular Döner restaurant in the area (I asked around), Ali Baba. While taking pictures of the meat tornado, mom was pulled behind the counter by the staff and given a very large knife to wield. Unfortunately, I was in charge of taking that photo, so I’m certain it was blurry and unusable.

Day 2 was even more delightful. We set up a large breakfast buffet in the apartment. There were breads, meats and cheeses, eggs and yogurts – all of the typical breakfast foods provided in the region. We wasted no time and were quickly back out into the town. Elizabeth and I showed them the usual sights: the old towers, churches, ice cream parlors, etc. My parents “ooo”-ed and “aaa”-ed. Dad spent an unreasonable time taking pictures of dilapidated gargoyles.




Later, we bought fancy chocolates, which my parents forgot to take home with them. They won’t ever see those again. We stopped for a beer at the Forum (I did, at least), and climbed the shiny tower in Wetzgau. Mom, while afraid of heights, still made it more than halfway up! That evening, we met our German teacher, Susanne, at Paulaner for dinner outside in the Martkplatz.

Susanne volunteered to watch our cats during in our vacation. We are extremely lucky to have her.




On Friday the real fun began. The entire day was spent on planes trains and automobiles. By some stroke of luck, we successfully made *most* all our connections. One of our planes was the size of a matchbox and had propellers. Mom lost her new raincoat somewhere along the way. I fed 2 vodka-guzzling Germans some apples (literally: standing at the train platform drinking out of full-sized vodka bottles). After our taxi death ride to the hotel in Pisa, dad insisted we experience the town (at 11:00 pm). We wandered through the sea of 20-somethings and landed in a small deli. Using hand signals and apologies, we persuaded the gentlemen to construct 4 unique sandwiches for us. Good times all around.

Before you ask: no, we didn’t visit the tower of Pisa. There was no time to venture to the other side of the city. Early Saturday morning we rushed to catch our train to Florence.

Florence was fantastic. It took a while to learn the layout of the city, and once we lost each other for a good half hour. We also jammed 2 museums into the day – causing Elizabeth to reach her wits’ end (Don’t worry, we all took turns being overwhelmed during the trip). Okay, so maybe the first day wasn’t the best. But it only got better from there. At the end of the day, we stopped at Brew Dog Brewery, which helped us relax a little.

And let's not forget the main attraction at the museum: the real (and gigantic) statue of David!




Sunday was our bike trip! A van transported us far out of the city, into the beautiful surrounding hills. The journey started badly, with rain and hail. We waited out the storm, eating an early lunch and mingling with the other bikers. One family from Florida had family living in Schwäbisch Gmünd! Eventually, the rain stopped and we began biking again. Our trail ended with a steep uphill. Despite everyone’s 5-minute head start, I was the first to the top! Unfortunately, they didn't distribute awards. Afterwards, the guides took us around an old castle/winery, where we sampled fresh wine and olive oil.

For dinner, we found a brewery called Mostodolce. It was great! The food was fresh and interesting, and the beers were different and plentiful. We left with more beers in bottles as well as some of their sticker labels. It was a much better experience than Brew Dog.

Early Monday morning we hopped on the train for Venice. The city is beautiful, despite being an unsolvable maze. We rode in a gondola and visited some old buildings and churches. It goes without saying that the food in Venice was absurdly unreasonable. But that’s to be expected; the tourists are literally trapped. This was the day that dad reached his wits’ end. Don’t ask him about it.




Tuesday we cooked! The group started in the center of Florence, where we were taken on a walking tour of the city. After an hour or two, we, again, were driven to the wonderful outskirts of Florence. An old Italian lady taught us how to cook several traditional dishes, with the help of a few translators. We made bruschetta, pizza, noodles, pork, Bolognese sauce, and two desserts. The class ended at 5:00 pm, but, needless to say, we didn’t need dinner that evening. But we still needed beer! The evening was spent in Archea Brewpub, sampling beer and spectacular 90s music.




Wednesday was yet another big travel day. We took our itty-bitty plane back to Pisa, and then on to Frankfurt, where we stayed for 3 days. Somewhere around here, mom got deathly ill. When we arrived in Frankfurt, mid-afternoon, she fell into her bed and remained there until morning. The rest of us went to dinner at a bar called Naiv. It was just terrible... or so we told mom.

Thursday, mom was still somewhat sick, and Elizabeth was about to join her. Nevertheless, it was a big walking day for us. We toured the city gardens and the Goethe house/museum. Lunch was at a local brewery, BrauStil. We tried all of BrauStil’s beers and ordered wild sausages from a neighboring deli. I can’t remember what else we did. Anyway, we went to Italian for dinner (seemed a bit odd, since we had just come from Italy). Luckily, they offered many “daily” dishes, which were heavily influenced by Frankfurt cuisine. Elizabeth and I tried our first apple wines.

Our last morning in Frankfurt, we toured the old town (south side of the river). We came across an outdoor market. We walked along the river, where I insisted on buying fish from a boat, but that was all. We hurried to the train station and rode back to Schwäbisch Gmünd. I think we ordered pizza for dinner? Something easy. We were all tired.

The next day began at the local flea market! After picking up tasty bakery treats, we headed over. Dad was not nearly as enthusiastic as one would hope. He didn’t buy a single glass, war medal, or beer sign. Mom, on the other hand, jumped right in and began to haggle. We kept the day easy, which was important because the next day was to be another trip! We spent all day Sunday (Father’s day) in Bamberg sampling beers. Bamberg was beautiful, and the weather couldn’t have been better. We stopped at 3 different places for beer (the smoked beer is just awful).

Monday was the last day for my parents. We were back in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Mom was mostly over her cold, but Elizabeth was getting worse. I walked my parents around the city while she slept. We ended the day together with local cuisine from the Forum followed by more ice cream.

Our 2-week vacation was wonderful. It was a nice mix of sight-seeing and travel. The travel gave me time to finish reading “Autobiography of a Yogi” and “Treasure Island”. I decided to refrain from running during the trips, which helped me relax even further. But, of course, now I’m back to the grind of work. Back to no English being spoken around me (which means that I say zero words during the day). I haven’t yet worked up the motivation to run again. I’m a little concerned that I won’t ever – and that I’ll be walking the Berlin Marathon. In any case, Berlin won’t be fast, which is okay.

The hot season has just begun here, with today reaching the low 90s. There’s no air-conditioning anywhere in the city. Please pray for us :)

Until next time.

May 2nd was our 1-year anniversary of living in Germany. One year is a long time (despite the fact that we have another 20 months before we come back to KY), but it's really short considering how much has changed since day 1.

When we first arrived, we were given a company car (which neither of us knew how to confidently drive - something someone should have considered discussing with us in advance) and a short-term apartment 6 miles from the city. We had no cell phones because both of our previous carriers were being overly difficult with regards to unlocking our phones. The apartment was very small, and it included no oven and (virtually) no freezer. We were only given one set of keys, and the closest grocery store was 3 miles from the apartment... which, added to the fact that we spoke 0 German, basically meant that Liz was confined to the apartment all day long.

We immediately tried to buy furniture, but ran into trouble at every turn. No store wanted to accept our credit card(s) or our Paypal. Instead, they wanted our German bank account information. That was less than ideal because we wouldn't have enough money in that account until one month later.

Those chaotic times did eventually end. We moved into our real apartment in the middle of June and slowly began receiving furniture and appliances. Of course there was not a kitchen yet, but we were on top of it. With the help of friends, we ordered a kitchen from Rieger.

Everyone knows this story already. The kitchen was delayed. Rieger told us 2 months later that they never processed the order (even though we paid 800 euro upfront). And they told us that the contract would be cancelled and rewritten because they didn't charge us enough money. Blah blah blah.

Finally, everything settled down on the homefront, allowing us to relax a little for the first time. Our speaking skills were slightly improving with each class (inside of class only - the teacher speaks extremely differently than everyone else in lower Germany... because no one wants us to learn the language that we need?). We lived close enough to walk to the grocery store and bike to work. We even started taking vacations.

First we visited Weiden, Germany, where I ran my first European marathon, and then on to Prague. Beautiful city. Don't let Liz's anxiety regarding large crowds deter anyone. Next we visited the Netherlands, which was also fantastic. It was there, in Spijkenisse, that I ran my 2nd European marathon. Our third vacation was to Barcelona, Spain, where we saw my old boss and where I ran my 3rd European marathon. And last week we visited Chartres, France for the heck of it. Very enjoyable church light shows at night.




Chartres is also the location of the prayer labyrinth - the same labyrinth that Barry drew on our church parking lot 15 years ago.




We found time to visit KY twice - in December, when we also picked up our cats to join in the Germany fun, and in April, in order to meet our newest nephew and friend babies.

And obviously, we enjoyed ourselves closer to "home". I ran a 25K / 15 mile race in our home town with our friend other Kyle. We watched a giant horse parade in Bart-town. We attended Fruehlingsfest, Oktoberfest, and Weinfest in Stuttgart. And we witnessed 10 or 20 marching bands dressed in matching Halloween costumes parading through the streets (in... January?).

In March I transferred to a new department, underneath an old friend. And tomorrow I physically move to a new office on the other side of town. Liz has just started tutoring individual English students as well as teaching full-sized English classes. We've made new friends, while some old friends joined us in Germany and others have left.

We still have so much time in Germany. With our language classes officially over, I realize now that I will never be able to speak it while I am living here (as an extracurricular student for one year, I'm the equivalent of a first-grader), but that's okay. I can't conceive of how our remaining time in Germany will be a fraction as memorable.

Oh, and also, it's our 2-year wedding anniversary today. So, you know - champagne and ice cream.

Alles in Butter.