John worked on Thanksgiving from 7:30 am until 7:30 am on Friday, so we postponed our celebration until Friday. We used the opportunity to cook together and coordinated dinner around the start of the UT v. A&M game, which kicked off around 9:30 pm here.
We didn't have a turkey, because that would have been pretty difficult to cook in the barracks, but we made everything else: sweet potatoes, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit salad, rolls, green bean casserole, cranberries and pumpkin pie.
The dinner was great, and despite the outcome of the game, we had fun. Enjoy our pictures!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
on the way home, we stopped in Ulm
John and I had made the decision to stop for lunch somewhere along the way back. The problem is that we did not have much of a choice of places on the way back, because we mainly just drove alongside small towns. Most of Germany is like this. However, on the way down to Garmisch, we drove through a town called Ulm that had looked pretty cool. On our way back, we decided to stop in Ulm for lunch. (We later found out we were really close to the Danube, which runs through Ulm and that Ulm was the birthplace of Albert Einstein. Pretty cool.)
When we exited the autobahn, we noticed a really tall steeple not too far from where we were. We decided to head in that direction. (We were also unsure of where we could eat. Most places are closed on Sundays in Germany.) We parked near the church's steeple and started walking in that direction. This is what we found:
The carousel is part of the Christmas market they were setting up. Most towns have Christmas markets. I'll write another post about those soon, because Schwetzingen's is about to open - I'll have a lot more information and photos then!
I don't think cameras were supposed to be taken inside, so I turned off the flash and snapped this one really quick down at my waist. I wish I could have photographed throughout - it was gorgeous.
It turns out this church has the tallest steeple in the world!! I think it's so cool that we just happened upon it.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about the church, Ulm Münster (also called Ulm Cathedral):
"Ulm Münster is a Lutheran church, the tallest church in the world with a steeple measuring 161.53 m (530 ft) and containing 768 steps. Located in Ulm, Germany, it is a famous example of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture. After climbing to the top level at 143m there is a panoramic view of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria and, in clear weather, a vista of the Alps from Säntis to the Zupspitze. The final stairwell to the top (known as the 3rd Gallery) is a tall, spiraling staircase that has barely enough room for one person. The church is not a cathedral in the proper sense as it has never been the seat of a bishop. This is indicated by the single steeple (where cathedrals generally possess two towers). The responsible bishop of the Evangelical Church in Germany resides in Stuttgart. Like the famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) - another building of the Gothic era - Ulm Cathedral was not completed until the 19th century."
We didn't know the background or anything about the church until we got home and looked it up, because everything inside was in German. It was neat to look around, though. Oh, and it was very cold. There wasn't any heating - we could see our breath even indoors. The sanctuary was beautiful. There were statues of Biblical figures all around, beautiful stained glass and large crucifixes (one of which was pretty intense).
The neatest thing we saw, though, was a prayer wall. It was a large bulletin board where people had written prayers on pieces of paper and attached them up all over the place. We saw prayers in at least 5 or 6 languages including Turkish and Arabic.
After our wonderful detour, we located a McDonald's (one of the few places open on a Sunday) to eat lunch. John is really good at being able to order in German, but the lady that was taking our order was incredibly rude. He started off saying (in German) "I'm sorry. My German isn't very good," and he proceeded to order. The lady then tried to ask him something, but I swear she didn't say it above a whisper. We couldn't hear her, and John leaned over and cupped his hand to his ear. She then turned around and yelled for help with the English-speaking customers. Rude. We were trying to order in German, and I know she could have understood him. Ugh. That still annoys me a little, and it's been over a week since it happened.
Speaking of ordering in German, I finally ordered something in German the other night. Before I said it, though, I had John tell it to me several times. I said "Zweimal Glüwein bitte," which means two glasses of mulled wine, please. By the way, I did NOT like the Glüwein, but John did. Lucky him...it really seems like it would keep me warm, but it tasted so gross.
Coming soon: a very late Thanksgiving post
When we exited the autobahn, we noticed a really tall steeple not too far from where we were. We decided to head in that direction. (We were also unsure of where we could eat. Most places are closed on Sundays in Germany.) We parked near the church's steeple and started walking in that direction. This is what we found:
The carousel is part of the Christmas market they were setting up. Most towns have Christmas markets. I'll write another post about those soon, because Schwetzingen's is about to open - I'll have a lot more information and photos then!
I don't think cameras were supposed to be taken inside, so I turned off the flash and snapped this one really quick down at my waist. I wish I could have photographed throughout - it was gorgeous.
It turns out this church has the tallest steeple in the world!! I think it's so cool that we just happened upon it.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about the church, Ulm Münster (also called Ulm Cathedral):
"Ulm Münster is a Lutheran church, the tallest church in the world with a steeple measuring 161.53 m (530 ft) and containing 768 steps. Located in Ulm, Germany, it is a famous example of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture. After climbing to the top level at 143m there is a panoramic view of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria and, in clear weather, a vista of the Alps from Säntis to the Zupspitze. The final stairwell to the top (known as the 3rd Gallery) is a tall, spiraling staircase that has barely enough room for one person. The church is not a cathedral in the proper sense as it has never been the seat of a bishop. This is indicated by the single steeple (where cathedrals generally possess two towers). The responsible bishop of the Evangelical Church in Germany resides in Stuttgart. Like the famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) - another building of the Gothic era - Ulm Cathedral was not completed until the 19th century."
We didn't know the background or anything about the church until we got home and looked it up, because everything inside was in German. It was neat to look around, though. Oh, and it was very cold. There wasn't any heating - we could see our breath even indoors. The sanctuary was beautiful. There were statues of Biblical figures all around, beautiful stained glass and large crucifixes (one of which was pretty intense).
The neatest thing we saw, though, was a prayer wall. It was a large bulletin board where people had written prayers on pieces of paper and attached them up all over the place. We saw prayers in at least 5 or 6 languages including Turkish and Arabic.
After our wonderful detour, we located a McDonald's (one of the few places open on a Sunday) to eat lunch. John is really good at being able to order in German, but the lady that was taking our order was incredibly rude. He started off saying (in German) "I'm sorry. My German isn't very good," and he proceeded to order. The lady then tried to ask him something, but I swear she didn't say it above a whisper. We couldn't hear her, and John leaned over and cupped his hand to his ear. She then turned around and yelled for help with the English-speaking customers. Rude. We were trying to order in German, and I know she could have understood him. Ugh. That still annoys me a little, and it's been over a week since it happened.
Speaking of ordering in German, I finally ordered something in German the other night. Before I said it, though, I had John tell it to me several times. I said "Zweimal Glüwein bitte," which means two glasses of mulled wine, please. By the way, I did NOT like the Glüwein, but John did. Lucky him...it really seems like it would keep me warm, but it tasted so gross.
Coming soon: a very late Thanksgiving post
Monday, November 26, 2007
Garmisch Part Zwei
All right. I'm back to finish my previous post about our trip to Garmisch. Before I begin, John and I figured out something that happens to be one of the most ridiculous things that has ever happened to either of us. We were looking at a map and trying to trace our route back from Garmisch to Schwetzingen. The routes we were finding weren't making sense. We didn't recognize any of the city names. The only route that made sense...went through Austria! We actually drove for about 40 minutes through Austria and didn't know it. I feel jipped! If I'm going to go to Austria, I at least want to know about it. There wasn't even a sign saying something like "Willkommen nach Österreich!" or an equivalent when we got back to Germany. When you cross a STATE line in the States, there are signs all over welcomming you to a new state. Apparently when you cross a country's BORDER here, you get nothing. My trip to Austria was a sham.
So back to that whole Garmisch thing...
John and I exploring a main street in Garmisch.
Being ourselves...aka silly happy Texans
We went to a little Italian restaurant for lunch, and I had one of the best pizzas I have ever had. Mmmm I wish I could have eaten more of it, but it was huge. So was my beer...I think this is the first draught beer I have had while in Germany. Mine is on the left.
Don't they look like tusks?
Another shot of Garmisch:
We love the mountains!
When we got back to Edelweiss (the lodge), we decided to check out the hot tub. The view was amazing! We enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub for awhile and taking in the amazing view.
When we got back to our room, clouds were rolling in about halfway down the mountain. Again, very pretty...
We decided it was time we made a snowman. Unfortunately the face recognition feature on my camera did not recognize Frosty here and chose to focus on the mountain instead.
We wanted to go out for a celebratory dinner that night (Saturday) in honor of our engagement. John asked a man working at Edelweiss about his recommendations for local restaurants. The man sent us to a restaurant that I believe is called Werdenfelserhof. When we got there, the restaurant was full. Apparently, it is customary to sit down wherever there is a seat available, even if it's with another random group of people. We ended up at a table with 6-7 people all over the age of 70. Across from us was a table of three drunken Germans. One of them took off his shoe and walked around to nearby tables to show them something about it. We were laughing, because it was ridiculous. This brought the drunk young man's attention to us, and he started spouting out German. We just smiled and laughed and nodded. He could have said "I'm going to punch you" for all we know. He looked jolly when he said it, though, so I don't think he wanted to hurt us. :o)
Soon after the shoe incident, this table of drunkards ordered a life-size glass boot filled with beer. They called John over to their table and started coaxing him to take a gulp. See...here they are trying to brainwash him:
It looks ominous, doesn't it? Anyway, John decided he would just take a sip and not a gulp. It turns out they were playing their own little game. Whoever they could get to take the first gulp of the beer would have to pay for it. John insisted that because he sipped it instead of gulping that he was not held to these rules. Language barriers and the mens' inebriation prohibited their understanding of this. We eventually wandered back to our table to drink our colas. Yes...cola. Not coke...ugh. It's so called a coke.
Here we are with the big boot and crazy drunk Germans.
Our food was pretty gross, by the way. The menu was seriously something like 25 pages long, and it took us a LONG time to go through. It was overwhelming! Out of all 25 pages, all I could find to order were potato pancakes (think hashbrowns). They came with a side of applesauce I was supposed to smear over the top. They were pretty good, but not a great dinner...ya know? John's dinner was not so good. He ordered a steak cooked medium. It came out close to rare. Because we don't speak much German and the steak had sauce poured all over it, we figured it would be a pain to send it back to the kitchen. He ate as much of it as he could. That whole restaurant experience was quite the German adventure. When we got back to the lodge, we went down to one of the lodge restaurants and ordered a drink and shared a Snickers pie. That was yummy for sure.
Sunday morning, we checked out. This was the last view we had of our room, Mr. Frosty and the mountian:
Leaving town...
Bye Garmisch!!
I have another good story from the drive home, but this post has taken me well over an hour. It's quitting time for now. Check back soon!!
So back to that whole Garmisch thing...
John and I exploring a main street in Garmisch.
Being ourselves...aka silly happy Texans
We went to a little Italian restaurant for lunch, and I had one of the best pizzas I have ever had. Mmmm I wish I could have eaten more of it, but it was huge. So was my beer...I think this is the first draught beer I have had while in Germany. Mine is on the left.
Don't they look like tusks?
Another shot of Garmisch:
We love the mountains!
When we got back to Edelweiss (the lodge), we decided to check out the hot tub. The view was amazing! We enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub for awhile and taking in the amazing view.
When we got back to our room, clouds were rolling in about halfway down the mountain. Again, very pretty...
We decided it was time we made a snowman. Unfortunately the face recognition feature on my camera did not recognize Frosty here and chose to focus on the mountain instead.
We wanted to go out for a celebratory dinner that night (Saturday) in honor of our engagement. John asked a man working at Edelweiss about his recommendations for local restaurants. The man sent us to a restaurant that I believe is called Werdenfelserhof. When we got there, the restaurant was full. Apparently, it is customary to sit down wherever there is a seat available, even if it's with another random group of people. We ended up at a table with 6-7 people all over the age of 70. Across from us was a table of three drunken Germans. One of them took off his shoe and walked around to nearby tables to show them something about it. We were laughing, because it was ridiculous. This brought the drunk young man's attention to us, and he started spouting out German. We just smiled and laughed and nodded. He could have said "I'm going to punch you" for all we know. He looked jolly when he said it, though, so I don't think he wanted to hurt us. :o)
Soon after the shoe incident, this table of drunkards ordered a life-size glass boot filled with beer. They called John over to their table and started coaxing him to take a gulp. See...here they are trying to brainwash him:
It looks ominous, doesn't it? Anyway, John decided he would just take a sip and not a gulp. It turns out they were playing their own little game. Whoever they could get to take the first gulp of the beer would have to pay for it. John insisted that because he sipped it instead of gulping that he was not held to these rules. Language barriers and the mens' inebriation prohibited their understanding of this. We eventually wandered back to our table to drink our colas. Yes...cola. Not coke...ugh. It's so called a coke.
Here we are with the big boot and crazy drunk Germans.
Our food was pretty gross, by the way. The menu was seriously something like 25 pages long, and it took us a LONG time to go through. It was overwhelming! Out of all 25 pages, all I could find to order were potato pancakes (think hashbrowns). They came with a side of applesauce I was supposed to smear over the top. They were pretty good, but not a great dinner...ya know? John's dinner was not so good. He ordered a steak cooked medium. It came out close to rare. Because we don't speak much German and the steak had sauce poured all over it, we figured it would be a pain to send it back to the kitchen. He ate as much of it as he could. That whole restaurant experience was quite the German adventure. When we got back to the lodge, we went down to one of the lodge restaurants and ordered a drink and shared a Snickers pie. That was yummy for sure.
Sunday morning, we checked out. This was the last view we had of our room, Mr. Frosty and the mountian:
Leaving town...
Bye Garmisch!!
I have another good story from the drive home, but this post has taken me well over an hour. It's quitting time for now. Check back soon!!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Finally... Garmisch!!
Finally I'm getting around to posting about our trip to Garmisch. I'm going to leave out the part about John proposing to me because you already heard about that.
The five hour drive to Garmisch brought us in when it had been dark already for about 3 hours, so we really had no idea what our surroundings looked like. All we knew is that it was cold. The thermometer in the the car read -7 degrees Celsius which is about 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Just so you know, the whole time we were there the temperature hovered between that and just below freezing. BRR.
Saturday, we were going to tour Neuschwanstein Castle, but we decided against it because the tour ran from 7:30am until 5:30pm. (That time included an hour and a half ride on a bus each way.) Instead of the tour, we decided to take it easy and enjoy Garmisch. When we woke up, we were blown away by the view from our room. We couldn't see ANYTHING the night before. This is what our view looked like:
Disclaimer: I edited these the day we got back, but I am posting from John's computer with the unedited copies. Sorry :o(
Also, here are the remnants of our snowball fight that took place right after John asked me to marry him. I totally nailed John in the face with a snowball. It was awesome. Also, snow down your shirt is cold. That isn't so awesome...not that I speak from experience or anything.
This is the front of the lodge. Beautiful!!
Lots of snow! Pretty! And cold and wet...ew
We went out to explore the city and ended up walking around for a couple hours. Here are some of the things we saw:
This last photo will be it for tonight. It's already half past 11 here, and I have been a little under the weather today so it's time for bed. So for your final photo of the night here is John on a "cooowwwww-ch." He decided that was the name for it, and we were laughing about it for quite a bit.
I promise that I will finish this post about Garmisch tomorrow, so stay tuned!
The five hour drive to Garmisch brought us in when it had been dark already for about 3 hours, so we really had no idea what our surroundings looked like. All we knew is that it was cold. The thermometer in the the car read -7 degrees Celsius which is about 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Just so you know, the whole time we were there the temperature hovered between that and just below freezing. BRR.
Saturday, we were going to tour Neuschwanstein Castle, but we decided against it because the tour ran from 7:30am until 5:30pm. (That time included an hour and a half ride on a bus each way.) Instead of the tour, we decided to take it easy and enjoy Garmisch. When we woke up, we were blown away by the view from our room. We couldn't see ANYTHING the night before. This is what our view looked like:
Disclaimer: I edited these the day we got back, but I am posting from John's computer with the unedited copies. Sorry :o(
Also, here are the remnants of our snowball fight that took place right after John asked me to marry him. I totally nailed John in the face with a snowball. It was awesome. Also, snow down your shirt is cold. That isn't so awesome...not that I speak from experience or anything.
This is the front of the lodge. Beautiful!!
Lots of snow! Pretty! And cold and wet...ew
We went out to explore the city and ended up walking around for a couple hours. Here are some of the things we saw:
This last photo will be it for tonight. It's already half past 11 here, and I have been a little under the weather today so it's time for bed. So for your final photo of the night here is John on a "cooowwwww-ch." He decided that was the name for it, and we were laughing about it for quite a bit.
I promise that I will finish this post about Garmisch tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! No, I haven't forgotten about blogging, but this week has been crazy. Between getting back from Garmisch, starting wedding planning, preparing for Thanksgiving and John working a 24-hour shift on Thanksgiving, I have been a little busy. I promise to post a good catch up post tomorrow.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I have to get back to the UT game now. They're airing it live here, but it's super late (quarter past midnight). I hope the Horns pull it out...YAAAAAAY as I wrote that, Cosby ran a kick off back for a touchdown!!! (91 yards!) Hook 'em! There was a bunch of screaming and yelling just now in Germany :o)
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I have to get back to the UT game now. They're airing it live here, but it's super late (quarter past midnight). I hope the Horns pull it out...YAAAAAAY as I wrote that, Cosby ran a kick off back for a touchdown!!! (91 yards!) Hook 'em! There was a bunch of screaming and yelling just now in Germany :o)
Sunday, November 18, 2007
So will you?
John asked me to marry him!!! As you already know, this weekend we took a trip to the south of Germany. We stayed in Garmisch, which is a small town in the mountains, at a lodge called Edelweiss. We made the 5-hour drive Friday, setting out around 3. When we arrived at 8, we got checked in and hurried down to dinner because we were rather hungry. We had a fancy dinner at the lodge restaurant with steak and red wine.
After dinner, I was pretty stuffed and just in the mood to relax. We went back to the room and, being tired and stuffed from dinner, I promptly took off my shoes and laid down on the bed. John sat on the nightstand next to the bed and started telling me a story about a time while he was in basic training, he had a dream that he had asked me to marry him. He pulled out a letter about the dream, which he had written in basic training and saved until now, and read it to me. Then he asked me to sit up and moved over to the bed and sat down next to me. He told me that he loved me very much, and then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I don't really remember what he said exactly, but I do remember that at the end he couldn't even finish what he was saying... the question came out "so will you?" I was very giggly, but I said "of course," and I hugged him. Then John said "don't you want to see the ring?" and opened the box that he had been holding in his hand. He put it on me, and I thought it was beautiful.
A few minutes later, I glanced down at my hand and exclaimed "OH THAT'S WEIRD!" and immediately sat on my left hand. Two days later, however, I will say that I am definitely getting used to it. I really like the way it sparkles too.
I have a lot more to say about this weekend, but I figured this was enough for one night. I will write about our weekend adventures in another entry tomorrow. Now for the pictures people always ask to see!
After dinner, I was pretty stuffed and just in the mood to relax. We went back to the room and, being tired and stuffed from dinner, I promptly took off my shoes and laid down on the bed. John sat on the nightstand next to the bed and started telling me a story about a time while he was in basic training, he had a dream that he had asked me to marry him. He pulled out a letter about the dream, which he had written in basic training and saved until now, and read it to me. Then he asked me to sit up and moved over to the bed and sat down next to me. He told me that he loved me very much, and then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I don't really remember what he said exactly, but I do remember that at the end he couldn't even finish what he was saying... the question came out "so will you?" I was very giggly, but I said "of course," and I hugged him. Then John said "don't you want to see the ring?" and opened the box that he had been holding in his hand. He put it on me, and I thought it was beautiful.
A few minutes later, I glanced down at my hand and exclaimed "OH THAT'S WEIRD!" and immediately sat on my left hand. Two days later, however, I will say that I am definitely getting used to it. I really like the way it sparkles too.
I have a lot more to say about this weekend, but I figured this was enough for one night. I will write about our weekend adventures in another entry tomorrow. Now for the pictures people always ask to see!
Friday, November 16, 2007
out for the weekend
Just a quick note to let everyone know that John and I are heading down to a lodge/resort near Garmisch for the weekend (in the Alps). I'll be sure to post photos and maybe even some video when we get back.
I heard through the grapevine that the Alps had some early snowfall this year, so maybe you will get to see some good snow photos when I get back. Haben Sie ein großes Wochenende! (Have a great weekend!)
I heard through the grapevine that the Alps had some early snowfall this year, so maybe you will get to see some good snow photos when I get back. Haben Sie ein großes Wochenende! (Have a great weekend!)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
powder and a short German lesson
Yesterday around 2:30 in the afternoon, I glanced out the window and realized it was (barely) snowing! I was so excited and wanted to go outside immediately, but I had a problem. I was wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants...not weather-appropriate. I spend about 10 seconds running around in circles trying to figure out how to fix this in the quickest way possible. I quickly grabbed some jeans, pulled on a sweatshirt and got my boots zipped up. I looked back outside, and surprise, the snow had stopped. I was bummed, so I went outside anyway. I think a flake or two fell on me, but I couldn't tell for sure.
This morning, when I got up (circa 6:10 am), there was a light dusting on the tops of cars, the roofs, etc., but it all disappeared rather quickly. A little more has fallen today, but nothing is sticking. Once there is something to really see, I will take pictures and post them.
Yesterday was pretty boring, so sorry I don't have much else to say. It's (in my opinion) hard to get around from where we are without a car - especially when John isn't around. I might try it sometime, but not yet. I had been in his room all day while he was at work, and when he got home, I really wanted to get out. We went to the barber so he could get a haircut and decided to stay out for dinner. I had actually been curious about the McDonald's over here. I haven't eaten at McDonald's in YEARS, so I don't really know what it's like in the States anymore, but the McDonald's I had here was very different. The decor definitely didn't seem like I was in a McDonald's. I'll have to go again and bring my camera. Forgive me for not realizing that a trip to McDonald's would be a photo op. :o)
Now for your German lesson. I didn't realize I didn't explain this, but it's definitely something I didn't know until John explained to me. The German character that looks like this ß is called an esset and makes a sound like a double s in English. Therefore, straße (street) is pronounced something like "strawssuh." I hope this helps!
Oooooh it's snowing for real....gotta go outside. Be back...
Ugh, ok...it was cold and more like ice than snow. Nevertheless, I took some photos:
Maybe if you click on the photo above you can see the streaks how ice/snow and how it was falling. I took it against the background of the black car to hopefully give it some contrast.
Pulled back a bit, you can see the weather is really nothing to speak of (other than cold).
One more photo to add, though. When John was home at lunch, he decided to take some random photos, including one of him with the camera down on the ground shooting straight up at him. I was just trying to watch the Lakers/Rockets game, and he came after me with the camera. Result:
All right. This post is already pretty long, but I did take two short (under 10-second) video clips of the ice/snow, so I'll leave you with those. Tschüß!
This morning, when I got up (circa 6:10 am), there was a light dusting on the tops of cars, the roofs, etc., but it all disappeared rather quickly. A little more has fallen today, but nothing is sticking. Once there is something to really see, I will take pictures and post them.
Yesterday was pretty boring, so sorry I don't have much else to say. It's (in my opinion) hard to get around from where we are without a car - especially when John isn't around. I might try it sometime, but not yet. I had been in his room all day while he was at work, and when he got home, I really wanted to get out. We went to the barber so he could get a haircut and decided to stay out for dinner. I had actually been curious about the McDonald's over here. I haven't eaten at McDonald's in YEARS, so I don't really know what it's like in the States anymore, but the McDonald's I had here was very different. The decor definitely didn't seem like I was in a McDonald's. I'll have to go again and bring my camera. Forgive me for not realizing that a trip to McDonald's would be a photo op. :o)
Now for your German lesson. I didn't realize I didn't explain this, but it's definitely something I didn't know until John explained to me. The German character that looks like this ß is called an esset and makes a sound like a double s in English. Therefore, straße (street) is pronounced something like "strawssuh." I hope this helps!
Oooooh it's snowing for real....gotta go outside. Be back...
Ugh, ok...it was cold and more like ice than snow. Nevertheless, I took some photos:
Maybe if you click on the photo above you can see the streaks how ice/snow and how it was falling. I took it against the background of the black car to hopefully give it some contrast.
Pulled back a bit, you can see the weather is really nothing to speak of (other than cold).
One more photo to add, though. When John was home at lunch, he decided to take some random photos, including one of him with the camera down on the ground shooting straight up at him. I was just trying to watch the Lakers/Rockets game, and he came after me with the camera. Result:
All right. This post is already pretty long, but I did take two short (under 10-second) video clips of the ice/snow, so I'll leave you with those. Tschüß!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
photos from Deutschland and one very tired Sarah
Attempt #3 at posting these photos here...let's hope it works. (Slideshow at the bottom of the post. Sorry I don't know how to have it not start automatically, so you might jump in at a random point. It does let you pause and scroll through at your own pace, though -- just an FYI.)
Yesterday the sun was out - a rarity - so we took advantage and decided to venture out to Mannheim. Unfortunately, John isn't here right now to help me remember what all we did so I might have to fill in some of the details later.
We ate lunch at a place on post called Wingers. It was a burger place...oooh hold on, I don't have my contacts in but it looks kinda like snow out...gotta go look. Ok, I probably need to put my contacts in, but that's just some very cold rain. It might be borderline sleet. Ew. John got put on detail over by where the PX (post exchange...kinda like a Wal-Mart) is and said he would probably be working outside. How miserable!
Ok, so I was talking about lunch, but who really wants to hear about what I ate? (bacon ranch burger...) We drove around for awhile and I wanted to stop by a pond/part of the river (maybe?), because it looked somewhat like Town Lake. We went for a walk and saw quite a few other people out for walks. Apparently Germans are big on taking walks. A number of the photos I included in my slideshow are from the walk.
Afterward, we went for a drive up something that isn't quite a mountain, but I also wouldn't describe it as a hill. It's bigger than the hills in the Hill Country. So we went on a drive up this mountain-hill-thing in Heidelberg (I think?). A majority of the other photos are from this adventure. I'm sorry my photos don't do it justice at all, but I couldn't do too much skill-wise from the inside of John's car. The rest of the photos are pretty much all from a driving tour (again, from John's car) of Heidelberg.
I know I'm probably leaving out some key points, but that's all I've got for now. One last thing before I leave you to the slideshow - it was SO weird getting up today before yesterday was officially over in Texas. I got up at 11:00 CST. It's now 8:46 AM here, and I'm ready for a nap!
Yesterday the sun was out - a rarity - so we took advantage and decided to venture out to Mannheim. Unfortunately, John isn't here right now to help me remember what all we did so I might have to fill in some of the details later.
We ate lunch at a place on post called Wingers. It was a burger place...oooh hold on, I don't have my contacts in but it looks kinda like snow out...gotta go look. Ok, I probably need to put my contacts in, but that's just some very cold rain. It might be borderline sleet. Ew. John got put on detail over by where the PX (post exchange...kinda like a Wal-Mart) is and said he would probably be working outside. How miserable!
Ok, so I was talking about lunch, but who really wants to hear about what I ate? (bacon ranch burger...) We drove around for awhile and I wanted to stop by a pond/part of the river (maybe?), because it looked somewhat like Town Lake. We went for a walk and saw quite a few other people out for walks. Apparently Germans are big on taking walks. A number of the photos I included in my slideshow are from the walk.
Afterward, we went for a drive up something that isn't quite a mountain, but I also wouldn't describe it as a hill. It's bigger than the hills in the Hill Country. So we went on a drive up this mountain-hill-thing in Heidelberg (I think?). A majority of the other photos are from this adventure. I'm sorry my photos don't do it justice at all, but I couldn't do too much skill-wise from the inside of John's car. The rest of the photos are pretty much all from a driving tour (again, from John's car) of Heidelberg.
I know I'm probably leaving out some key points, but that's all I've got for now. One last thing before I leave you to the slideshow - it was SO weird getting up today before yesterday was officially over in Texas. I got up at 11:00 CST. It's now 8:46 AM here, and I'm ready for a nap!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
i went to IKEA in Germany because the one in Round Rock was too far
Waking up today at 8:30 was very hard seeing as how thats 1:30 in Texas. I got up and had breakfast at my first non-American place since I've been here, Utz Bakery. I had a snake noodle, which is the literal English translation of the German for cinnamon roll. When we left it hit me again that I was in Germany. It's very, very gray here, especially today. Also, you don't see very many if any trucks, and everyone drives BMW, Mercedes, etc.
We then went to IKEA and on the way had to take the Autobahn. No me gusta. Through everything today I have tried to remember the words that John taught me, one of which is "eingang" which is entrance, which I learned at IKEA. IKEA is huge and they have to have arrows on the floor to direct you. Otherwise I would have been lost and probably still there right now.
After leaving IKEA we went to the hauptstrasse (main-street) in Heidelberg. On the way it started to drizzle/kind of rain. Which is apparently more common here than most people would probably prefer. We parked under the main part of the city which reminded me a lot of the underground stuff in Dallas. We walked down the street, and with all its twists, it ended up being a lot longer than I first thought. The street takes you all the way to a good viewing distance of the castle. On the way there, the rain got a bit worse plus we were already a bit wet and the wind picked up. So on the way back, my ears and even my forehead started to ache from the cold. I am relearning how to dress myself properly.
We went for lunch at Cafe Xtra-Blatt. Lunch is the main meal of the day and restaurant service isn't the same. Servers aren't trying to turn their tables as fast as possible. Anyway, for lunch, I had some green tea and decided to sample the potatoes and some chicken tenders. Afterwards we went shopping at the Commissary on post for groceries for the week. This was about 4:30 and it was already getting pretty dark out. With my internal clock all messed up it felt like bedtime.
The rest of my day involved movie watching and eating dinner so no German adventures to report. I have pictures from today but will have to get to posting them in the next couple days, so stay tuned.
Tschüß!
We then went to IKEA and on the way had to take the Autobahn. No me gusta. Through everything today I have tried to remember the words that John taught me, one of which is "eingang" which is entrance, which I learned at IKEA. IKEA is huge and they have to have arrows on the floor to direct you. Otherwise I would have been lost and probably still there right now.
After leaving IKEA we went to the hauptstrasse (main-street) in Heidelberg. On the way it started to drizzle/kind of rain. Which is apparently more common here than most people would probably prefer. We parked under the main part of the city which reminded me a lot of the underground stuff in Dallas. We walked down the street, and with all its twists, it ended up being a lot longer than I first thought. The street takes you all the way to a good viewing distance of the castle. On the way there, the rain got a bit worse plus we were already a bit wet and the wind picked up. So on the way back, my ears and even my forehead started to ache from the cold. I am relearning how to dress myself properly.
We went for lunch at Cafe Xtra-Blatt. Lunch is the main meal of the day and restaurant service isn't the same. Servers aren't trying to turn their tables as fast as possible. Anyway, for lunch, I had some green tea and decided to sample the potatoes and some chicken tenders. Afterwards we went shopping at the Commissary on post for groceries for the week. This was about 4:30 and it was already getting pretty dark out. With my internal clock all messed up it felt like bedtime.
The rest of my day involved movie watching and eating dinner so no German adventures to report. I have pictures from today but will have to get to posting them in the next couple days, so stay tuned.
Tschüß!
Friday, November 9, 2007
ich bin hier in Deutschland
Hi everyone, just a quick note to let everyone know I got here ok. I haven't slept since before I wrote my last post, which was about 26 hours ago. It's about 6:30 PM here now, and I'm getting ready to eat dinner and then go to bed. It's been hard trying to stay awake today, but I was determined not to let myself sleep. This resulted in me nearly falling over a couple times. I felt like the earth was undulating beneath me. Apparently my stance showed it...John said I was swaying sometimes.
Tomorrow I will probably explore stuff some more. Today was kind of consumed by just trying not to sleep.
Other stuff: I got in to Frankfurt on time and at the very end of my 8.5 hour flight, I made a new friend. Figures that I'd be on a flight that long and not talk to anyone until I was deplaning.
The guy at customs looked like he absolutely hated his job. Seriously did not smile once...or even attempt to talk to me. Whatevvvvver.
John and I took the train from the airport on into Schwetzingen. I'm amazed by two contrasting thoughts: 1) German looks like someone just messed up typing a bunch of letters and 2) I actually understand some of this mess. (but just a little)
No, I haven't eaten German food yet. I was too tired, so I ate at Taco Bell. Yeah, whatever. I have 2.5 months to eat nasty sauerkraut so get over it.
Ok...pizza time. Byeeeeeeeeeee.
Tomorrow I will probably explore stuff some more. Today was kind of consumed by just trying not to sleep.
Other stuff: I got in to Frankfurt on time and at the very end of my 8.5 hour flight, I made a new friend. Figures that I'd be on a flight that long and not talk to anyone until I was deplaning.
The guy at customs looked like he absolutely hated his job. Seriously did not smile once...or even attempt to talk to me. Whatevvvvver.
John and I took the train from the airport on into Schwetzingen. I'm amazed by two contrasting thoughts: 1) German looks like someone just messed up typing a bunch of letters and 2) I actually understand some of this mess. (but just a little)
No, I haven't eaten German food yet. I was too tired, so I ate at Taco Bell. Yeah, whatever. I have 2.5 months to eat nasty sauerkraut so get over it.
Ok...pizza time. Byeeeeeeeeeee.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
it's finally here
After nearly 4 months of waiting, it's finally here. I am all packed and about to head to Best Buy for one last thing.
Warning: Ashley, Kim and Brett - you all will probably roll your eyes at me for this.
I decided against bringing my digital SLR (aka nice digital camera with interchangeable lenses). I would have had to carry it on, and I really didn't want to have to deal with/worry about it. Also, I didn't really want to lug it around on all our excursions on the chance that I might see something I want to photograph. Normally, I would go for this 100%, but with everything else I have to bring for 2.5 months of being away from home, eeeeeeh. So...I have a really crummy 3-4 year old Nikon Coolpix for my point-and-shoot digital camera. It was decent when it first came out, but by today's standards, is not very desirable. I had planned to buy a new one at some point anyway, so some point is today. I'm headed out to get the Canon Digital Elph SD870 IS. I know I could get it cheaper from B&H or Newegg.com, but I don't want to wait 2 weeks for it to ship to me.
Alright, so that's that. The other thing I wanted to note is commenting in here. I will read all your comments and reply to them here and there. However, this is a quick fyi (I just learned this). Once you post a comment, you won't get e-mail alerts about subsequent comments (related to yours or not) on the blog entry unless you click the little box underneath the comment area that says "E-mail follow up contents to [your email address]." You can also unsubscribe from that at any time by going back to the post and clicking the unsubscribe button.
THAT was interesting, I'm sure, but I wanted to get that out early in the blog. I need to get to Best Buy now. My parents will be here in less than an hour to go with Andrew and me to Hula Hut for lunch (I will definitely get the banana boat rangoon for dessert - yum!).
In case anyone is interested, here are my flight numbers:
American Airlines 1372 from Austin to Chicago O'Hare
and
American Airlines 84 from Chicago O'Hare to Frankfurt
I'll write again from Deutschland! Until then, tschuss!
Warning: Ashley, Kim and Brett - you all will probably roll your eyes at me for this.
I decided against bringing my digital SLR (aka nice digital camera with interchangeable lenses). I would have had to carry it on, and I really didn't want to have to deal with/worry about it. Also, I didn't really want to lug it around on all our excursions on the chance that I might see something I want to photograph. Normally, I would go for this 100%, but with everything else I have to bring for 2.5 months of being away from home, eeeeeeh. So...I have a really crummy 3-4 year old Nikon Coolpix for my point-and-shoot digital camera. It was decent when it first came out, but by today's standards, is not very desirable. I had planned to buy a new one at some point anyway, so some point is today. I'm headed out to get the Canon Digital Elph SD870 IS. I know I could get it cheaper from B&H or Newegg.com, but I don't want to wait 2 weeks for it to ship to me.
Alright, so that's that. The other thing I wanted to note is commenting in here. I will read all your comments and reply to them here and there. However, this is a quick fyi (I just learned this). Once you post a comment, you won't get e-mail alerts about subsequent comments (related to yours or not) on the blog entry unless you click the little box underneath the comment area that says "E-mail follow up contents to [your email address]." You can also unsubscribe from that at any time by going back to the post and clicking the unsubscribe button.
THAT was interesting, I'm sure, but I wanted to get that out early in the blog. I need to get to Best Buy now. My parents will be here in less than an hour to go with Andrew and me to Hula Hut for lunch (I will definitely get the banana boat rangoon for dessert - yum!).
In case anyone is interested, here are my flight numbers:
American Airlines 1372 from Austin to Chicago O'Hare
and
American Airlines 84 from Chicago O'Hare to Frankfurt
I'll write again from Deutschland! Until then, tschuss!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
the preparation is in full force
I keep telling people I'm going to let them know how to look up my blog, but I figured I should write something in it first. Finally, I have a couple minutes tonight to write. I do need to get to bed here in the next 15 minutes or so though. I am trying to start the time adjustment a little bit early. I also have been up since 4:30 this morning in an attempt (which turned out to be successful) to catch the 6:05 am flight from Lawton, OK, instead of the 4:40 pm flight I was scheduled on.
Tomorrow is my game/movie night so I can say "see ya" to as many people as possible before I head out. I'm meeting my friend Kelli for lunch on Tuesday, and Tuesday night is our roommate (old and new) dinner at Curra's (love the avocado margaritas). Wednesday lunch and dinner are reserved for Andrew, and Thursday is for my parents and then they will take me to the airport. I leave Austin around 3:30 pm if I remember correctly. I fly to Chicago O'Hare and then on to Frankfurt.
Yup, this is all I can muster for tonight. I'm exhausted. I'll do my best to keep this updated, though. I figured creating a blog that could be read voluntarily would be a much better decision than constantly inundating everyone with e-mail updates.
Tomorrow is my game/movie night so I can say "see ya" to as many people as possible before I head out. I'm meeting my friend Kelli for lunch on Tuesday, and Tuesday night is our roommate (old and new) dinner at Curra's (love the avocado margaritas). Wednesday lunch and dinner are reserved for Andrew, and Thursday is for my parents and then they will take me to the airport. I leave Austin around 3:30 pm if I remember correctly. I fly to Chicago O'Hare and then on to Frankfurt.
Yup, this is all I can muster for tonight. I'm exhausted. I'll do my best to keep this updated, though. I figured creating a blog that could be read voluntarily would be a much better decision than constantly inundating everyone with e-mail updates.
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