Ahhhh...the weekend :)

We had a fantastic weekend!! It was so relaxing and the weather was perfect. The sun came out to play and we soaked up every second we could. Saturday morning we ventured to Weinheim for the farmer's market at their MarktPlatz. There is just nothing like fresh produce. It is insane how much better fresh tastes compared to what we get at the commissary. We ate lunch at a cafe and snagged some fresh produce, jam, and a bottle of white wine that was produced in one of the local regions. Then we hopped back in the car and went back to post for a baby shower. One of the females in Paul's unit is about to pop, so some of the other women in his unit threw her a shower. The best part was that we had no idea who she was, nor did most of the people attending the shower. Oh...I forgot another tidbit of information. The shower was held in a back room at the bowling center. Love it. Elizabeth and I managed to scoot away quickly, leaving Paul and Lenea stranded. Well not stranded exactly. They had a car. We couldn't help it. It was a beautiful day, and the thought of waisting it inside bowling was devastating. We decided to hop on the train to downtown Mannheim. We originally were going to try to buy some train tickets to Paris for next weekend until we got to the DB desk and the clerk told us it was going to be 276 euro. Whomp. Whomp. We decided that was out of our price range for a day in Paris. It is only a three hour train ride, so we were going to try and go just for the day until we heard the outrageous price. We will have to save that for some other weekend. After our feeling of defeat we landed in the shopping district. It is amazing how shopping seems to soothe the soul. After a couple of hours of walking around looking for a purple dress for Nicole's wedding, (which I found...YAY!) Paul and Lenea called so we headed home. That evening we went to the movie theater and saw Valentine's Day. It was so-so. Nothing I would rush to see if it is still in theaters.

Sunday we returned to Weinheim. This time we took a ginormous blanket and went straight to the park. It was gorgeous. I took a book and Elizabeth brought her homework. Paul and Lenea walked around Weinheim and eventually met up with us at the park. When we arrived at the park we were met with a surprise.

I think it must have been some sort of family day event, because they had all sorts of games and tents set up for families.

The greatest part of the day was the sun. I even got a little pink on my shoulders. It was so nice. To top it all off we ate Greek for dinner. The weekend was so relaxing and perfect for a new and fresh week at work.

I started a full week of work on Monday with paperwork and training. Not my favorites, but I guess they have to be done. It feels like I have signed my life away. I signed and initialed what felt like 100 papers. I am not sure how much of an exaggeration that is, but sadly it probably isn't too over the top. During the afternoon I was able to observe in different classrooms to see what happens in each room. I spent a few hours in Strong Beginnings (this class is for 5 year olds who didn't make the September birthday deadline), and concluded my day in infants. Thank goodness I am not in infants. I don't think I have the gusto to survive in that room. It also proved to me that I am no where near ready for kids. Sorry mom. It will be at least five years before that happens. After work we headed to the commisary for groceries. Our refigerator was beverageless...no water, tea, or soda. We also needed a few random things like lunch meat, apples, yogurt, etc. It was a good start to the week, but I am so ready to be in my own classroom instead of seeing everyone elses.

Today was good. Not nearly as much paperwork, and I was able to spend a little more time in my room. I made a to-do list of things that need to be done in the room after observing in the other classes. I saw some great ideas in the other rooms, and remembered some things from my wonderful time in Kindergarten that I would love to add to the room. We are going to have a team meeting on Thursday where we will be able to brainstorm and collaborate on what needs to be done for the kiddos. I am pretty excited about my room and my team. I heard several awesome remarks concerning their work ethic, so we should work well together. I am the preschool lead and have four assistants. It is weird to be in charge of others, but I am excited about it. Unfortunately I am going to loose one of my team members because we will have too many staff members in the room now. The ratio for preschool is one adult:10 kids. The room has a capacity to hold 30 kids (YIKES) and we have 28 on the roster. I am pretty sure I had the deer in headlights look on my face when they told me this. I was expecting somewhere between 12 and 20 kids, but not 28. I was told that I will have 30 kids by the end of the month, which is quickly approaching. I have the largest room in the building, so space is not a problem. Chaos is the problem. 30 preschool kids between 3 and 4 years old in one class is pandamonium. I am going to try to figure out a way to group the kids so that we aren't so many kids in one area at a time. The classroom looks like it was once two classrooms and part of the middle wall was knocked down. I don't know. It will be lots of brainstorming with my team, but I am sure we can do it. I know that I am qualified for this. I just have to turn my noggin on and think it through. Most of today I simply observed some more in different classrooms. The staff was really supportive everywhere I went, so I didn't feel like I was intruding. They didn't treat me like an outsider, so I am thinking that this will be a good thing. We shall see.

Tomorrow is filled with videos. Yes. Videos. Luckily they have my transcript, so I am going to be able to bypass some of the training due to the courses I took in college. I also found out that Thursday I will see what it is like to open at 5:30 am, so I will be getting off at 2:30. Friday I will close at 6. Next week I will start my normal hours from 9-6 with an hour lunch break. I am not crazy about the time slot, but I have no choice. All lead teachers work the same hours. Luckily the sun stays out until about 9 pm, so I still have several hours of sunshine after work. I am loving life!

I got a job!

Wednesday I was lazy! Did some laundry with Lenea and finished the fifth book of Harry Potter. 870 pages. Oh yes. It was an accomplishment. It is an odd and satisfying feeling to finish such a ginormous book. I invested so much time in those 870 pages that I almost felt empty once I finished. Luckily there are more books in the series. Don't judge me. Our bookstore is not so bueno. I am reading whatever Elizabeth suggests, and she thought it was a sin that I started and did not finish the series. I must admit that I am enjoying it. It is that little kid inside of me that wants to believe in magic. Anyway... I finally got a hold of someone at Human Resources. Yahoo! They scheduled me for in-processing on Thursday at 2:30. We also found out Wednesday night that Elizabeth had been nominated and won the youth volunteer of the year award for 2010. The ceremony for all of the volunteers was to be held Thursday evening at 6 pm. The only problem was that Elizabeth was currently in Frankfurt for MUSS (Model United States Senate) where the students act as senators and try to pass bills amongst themselves. It is pretty cool. I never had my stuff together like she does when I was 15. She is pretty stellar. All of this to say that in order for Elizabeth to attend we were going to have to make a 45 minute trip to Frankfurt to the volunteer ceremony and a 45 minute trip back to Frankfurt for her to finish her conference deal.

Thursday finally arrived and I had tried to contact the Human Resources in Heidelberg for my in-processing all morning to try and change my appointment time, but I could not get a hold of a soul. I wanted to move my appointment to an earlier time so that I could ride with Paul and Lenea to Frankfurt after my appointment. They were in a meeting all morning long, so my appointment time stayed at 2:30 pm. We were hoping that it would not take more than 30 minutes, since I was just going to be signing the last of the paperwork. This was not the case. Luckily I arrived about 10 minutes early and was able to start on some of the paperwork. What kills me is that a large majority of the paperwork are things that I have already filled out numerous times. Why do I have to answer the same questions over and over again? Grrr to the military. Back to the story... I finished my paperwork and spoke with a woman from Human Resources who told me more about my benefits and the behind the scene details of my job. I have full benefits... health and life insurance, 401k, retirement plan, yadda, yadda, yadda. I don't feel old enough to be dealing with some of this. As of 3:40 pm on Thursday I no longer have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for my independent Cobra Plan. I have Aetna! and it is SOOOO much cheaper than what I was paying. That is one of the small benefits of being employed! I can now go to the doctor and not have to pay a 500 euro deposit. Sigh. I can breathe easier knowing that I am not going to be screwed over quite as badly by my insurance company. Since my appointment ran until 3:40, Paul and Lenea went to Frankfurt to snag Elizabeth so that we could make it to the ceremony on time. I rode the train home and we all headed to the ceremony together. It was nice. Nothing grandios, but nice. The food was yummy and the awards were for well deserving people. After the ceremony we quickly left the building so that Elizabeth could return to her MUSS festivities. It was a whirlwind, but fun. Once we arrived back at the apartment, I went to sleep to rest up for my first day of work. I'm a big kid now (in the old theme song of Toys 'R Us... at least I think that is what it weant to).

Today I arrived at work at 7:55 am. That sounds so much nicer than the 5:30 am I was originally told. I found out that I will only have to show up at 5:30 am a couple of times a month and will only be required to stay until 2:30. Aparently the CDC doesn't pay overtime. They roll extra hours into a cumulative tank where they are stored for paychecks that I did not meet the full 40 hour work week. Whatever. It is just another way for the government to screw me over. I would much rather be paid time and a half, but what do I know? Once I arrived I was escorted to a conference room where I spent the first half of my day reading Standard Operating Procedures. Whomp. Whomp. I was allowed unlimited breaks, but I didn't use them. I wanted to read all of the manuals/guidelins/rules and just be done with it. Halfway through the morning they had a staff meeting, which I was able to sit in on. It sounds like there is a lot of work to be done at the CDC, but they seem like good people. It should be interesting. After the meeting I returned to my table and finished up the SOPs. Then I walked back to the apartment for my hour lunch break and chatted with Lenea some about the day thus far. When I returned after lunch I was given more "weekend reading." Boo! The good part is that instead of reading the papers right then, I was able to observe in my classroom. I actually got to interact with my kiddos and meet the people I will be working with. Shocker, eh? There are 28 kids on the roster, but only 20 were present today. The room fills at maximum with 30 kids. I am sure I had the dear in headlights look when they told me this. 28 kids? and I could have 30? The possibilities for mass chaos are outstanding. The ratio for preschool kiddos is 1 adult:10 kids, so there will always be 3 adults present. All of the people seemed to be really nice and very encouraging, so I think this will be a good thing. All in all it was a good day. Only one kid pooped his pants on the playground, and the best part is that I didn't have to change him. Score one for the hometeam. :) Monday I will continue the same routine. Training in the morning and observation in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we are going to Weinheim to the MarktPlatz. I can't wait for fresh fruit and veggies. Mmm mmm good!

Thank you Mr. Volcano

Monday was an eventful day. First, Elizabeth started school again. Spring break was last week for her, so Monday was a brutal morning. Fortunately I slept in. I am soaking up every opportunity to sleep in until my job starts, which should hopefully be any day now. We shall see. Must love the military. I really didn't sleep in too late. I woke up around 8 and called Human Resources to check on job stuff. Not much to report. Whomp. Whomp. Then I called the University Clinic where I met with the German doctor who so generously gave me my insulin to check on my 500 euro deposit. It had been 2 1/2 months since my visit, and they had not called. The man I was talking with in the International Patient Office told me that the doctor did not input my information into the system yet, hence the reason he was unable to give me my money back. He called the doctor and did his business, so that I was able to meet him at 2 pm and get 420 euro back. Yippee!! Thank goodness for small treasures. This period of unemployment has been rather expensive, but I have loved every second of it. I am not going to lie though. I am ready to start working! This sense of freedom of no working schedule comes with a large feeling of laziness and I don't like it. Since I was getting so much money back from the doctor, Paul decided to escort me. He was originally leaving Monday morning, but flights were still cancelled due to the ash. We decided to drive this time instead of taking the train. It was a success. We made it to the hospital without a glich. The only set back we faced was parking. We followed the parking signs to an underground garage. We get to the machine to get our ticket to park, press the button, and nothing comes out. Paul repeats the process with the same results. Eventually cars began to line up behind us. Go team USA. The closer we look, we notice a small sign at the corner of the machine that says, "Premium Parking." Great. Are we parked in the wrong spot? Is this only for doctors? We have no idea. Then we sill a smaller button hidden under a metal flap, so Paul decides to push it. Immediately a German voice responds, to which Paul says, "uhhhh... we may be parked in the wrong spot, but we can't get out because cars are backed up behind us." The voice does not come back, so we press the button again. This time an English voice comes on and replies, "Two minutes." Okay. Two minutes and then what? Eventually the green button that is supposed to give us our parking token begins to flash, so Paul pushes it and recieves a yellow token. I don't get it. Why did we have to wait two minutes? We find a parking spot and walk towards the clinic. Somehow we managed to park directly under the main entrance. I love it. Something worked in our favor. Once we walked in we asked the magic "i", aka: information, where the international patient office is located. The man sends us on a wild goose chase, so I called the man I had spoken to earlier on the phone. He generously offered to come and pick us up. He lead us to his office, had all of his paperwork ready on his desk, and gave me 420 euro in cash. Fantastic. I was so excited. All of this happened in 5 minutes. I kept telling the man at the international patient office thank you, to which he simply chuckled. He said, "Why do you thank me? I am only doing my job." I wanted to tell him that he had obviously never been to a hospital in America nor had he worked with the military. Instead I just smiled. We then successfully made it back home. This is much more of a victory than it sounds. You know how you print out directions to go some place, but you don't print them out for the return trip and get terribly lost. We did not. Small victories my friends. Small victories. Once we returned we waited for Elizabeth to get out of school, so that we could go into Mannheim and look around and have dinner. We ate at Vapiano's, one of Elizabeth's favorite restaurants, since Elizabeth would be leaving the next day for her conference. Then we headed home for a good night of sleep. Well, Paul had to stay up to call his people due to the repeat cancellation of flights. Since Paul wouldn't be able to leave until next Saturday, his planned have been canceled and he gets to stay! Yay! One point for the home team.

Today we sent Elizabeth off to her conference. She is leaving us until Friday. We will miss her witty banter. After that we headed to the Rheine Neckar Harley Davidson Dealership. Paul needed some oil for his bike, so Lenea and I tagged along. Of course along the way we did what we do best. We got lost. Somehow we loop-de-dood our way there and managed to make it home without getting lost. Crazy, right? We stopped at the American restaurant located on the other side of the gates of post and had some yummy colas and a good meal. I had a club sandwich and BBQ chips. The best part was the fact that the Dixie Chicks were playing on the speakers. Kind of ironic eh? After that we came home and stopped at the shopette/video store (yes- imagine a corner store and video store with 1/12 of the selection smooshed into one) to pick up The Box and Boondock Saints 2. They were out of Boondock Saints, but they had The Box. It was terrible. Very sci-fy and not my element. The movie rolled to credits and I sat there regretting the last 1 1/2 of my life I wasted on that movie. It was that good (that's me being sarcastic- I realize it is hard to translate that in text, so I thought I would just tell you).

Still battling Human Resources to start my job. Grr! They are so unorganized it is driving me crazy. In addition, they do not communicate very well between departments. Must love the government.

On a high note... the weather has been absolutely amazing! The sun has been shining every day! It is truly phenomenal!

Heidelberg Castle!

Saturday we drove to Heidelberg, which is a heck of a lot closer by car than by train. 30 minutes in the car and 45 minutes or 1 1/2 hour by train, depending on the route you take. We originally planned to leave by 10 AM, but that didn't happen. We did not even wake up until 10 AM, so we left the house by 1 PM. Go figure. As we were pulling into the city we noticed some construction on the road, which altered our Google directions a bit. Then we saw this delightful sign. This is one of the reasons I am not hip on driving over here. I don't know what I would do if I was driving down the road and saw this. What are all of the arrows for? Why is the arrow in the lower lefthand corner pointing towards another arrow?



Once we arrived in Heidelberg Lenea and I had to pee. We were so excited when we found a public restroom that was free. That was until we entered the stall and saw that it wasn't even a real toilet seat. It was simply painted on. I think I would rather pay 5o cents for a toilet, than use this one for free.



Once we parked the car we set off for a grand adventure to find the castle. The directions from Google had us parking right by the castle, but the construction threw us off and we ended up parking a little ways away from it. Not too bad of a walk, though. We were able to see more of the city that we hadn't seen, and the weather was gorgeous!



What a beautiful city! Mountains in the background and fun architecture on the buildings!!



The Rheine. I think I spelled that correctly :)

Another fun street with cobblestones.

Another fun part of our Saturday was seeing fraternities and sororities from the region meeting up in Heidelberg. The best part could have been the fun hats they were strutting around in. This isn't the best picture, but there hats were similar to pilot hats of various colors. Some of the hats looked like they had giant horns on the front of them. They were awesome.

If you walked through the gates, then you would walk over the bridge to cross the Rheine.

The path that leads to the castle. There was a metro train that lead up the mountain, but Elizabeth and I decided to walk it. It was a trek! I don't think you can tell quite how steep it was, but my calves were bumpin' by about the third step.

This was our view once we made it to the top of the trail that lead to the castle.

A view of the city from one of the windows in the wall that surrounds the castle.

Same view, just zoomed in on my camera for this one.

I really liked this wooden door, and of course the Germans had to graffiti it as the Germans do.

I like this one better :) You can't see all of the graffiti.

This pathway lead to the inner courtyard of the castle.

Another view of the pathway.

View from the window.



Playing with my camera settings. I am trying to collect black and white photos for my room.

This bad boy is located below the castle in the wine cellar. Believe it or not, there is an even bigger one of these on the other side of the wall. I couldn't get a clear shot of it, because the castle was overflowing with people. It may not have been the best idea to see such a landmark on a Saturday, but the weather was beautiful so it made up for some of the crowdedness.

Fun little wine guy on a wall in the wine cellar.

The sun was kickin', so several of my pictures appear to be glowing. These are two walls from the inner courtyard of the castle.

A sun dial and some renovations. Yay! In case you were wondering, the time on the sun dial was off by a couple of hours. Another problem with sun dials is that it requires the sun. If you were living in a sunny place (anywhere other than Germany), then this would not be a problem. We don't have a lot of sunny days in Germany, so I can only imagine how much fun they had with this fun invention.

Once we paid to see inside the castle, we found out that we were only paying to see inside the courtyard. If we wanted to see inside the castle, then we had to pay for a guided tour. Luckily for students, Elizabeth and I, it was only 5 euro total. For adults, Paul and Lenea, it was 9 euro. Not too bad considering this was a full day's worth of activity.

This is a mdel of the castle, as if you couldn't have figured that out for yourself. :) Look in the lower lefthand corner. The ramp going up to the castle is the donkey path Elizabeth and I walked to get to the castle. The previous picture is a view out to the gardens, which are located on the righthand side of the picture.

If you turn your head sideways (sorry for the inconvenience), then you will see the toilets. Thank God for modern plumbing. Can you imagine the smell outside?

The goodies that dropped from the toilet would have landed right where I was standing to take this picture. Joyful.

This is the gaming area, where they kept deer and other wild creatures for hunting. Look how green the grass is. I love Spring!

The other end of the gaming area.

This room is located directly above the ginormous wine keg. There is a direct line that taps into the keg for wine on tap. How elegant.

You can rent this room in the castle for birthdays, weddings, or any other shindig that you would need to invite 500 friends to.

Another wall in the courtyard, but this one shows how intertwined some peoples' religions were back in the day. The top layer has all of the Greek/Roman gods, while the middle floor is decorated with Jesus' closest disciples. The ground floor has all of the gods. I guess they just wanted to make everyone happy.

View of the inner courtyard.

This wall had deer horns mounted all along it in between the windows. The wall directly in view is a painted picture of a deer's body with an actual deer head on it. Yuck.

Awesome door. Unfortunately this is not original to the castle, but it is still pretty old.

Part of this tower collapsed. Whomp. Whomp. The walls were crazy thick. I could not imagine building something of this magnitude.

Walking towards the gardens...

The view of the city from on top of one of the walls surrounding the castle.

Pretty flowers in the garden.

You can't have a garden without the statue of a naked man in a fountain. It would be un-European.

Ahhh...the garden :) It was so green! People were lounging all over the place. I tried to avoid getting random people in my pictures as much as possible, but it was unavoidable at some points.

This wall surrounded the garden with an awesome forest on the other side. The German word for forest is wald. Kind of cool since our stop from the train is Kaefertal Wald. The only downer is that we aren't surrounded by an awesome forest like this. Boo.

More garden.

Crumbling castle.

Fun times at the castle. I have realized that I take way more landscape than people shots. Thanks to Lenea we have this people shot.

This was the walk back down, but on the opposite side that we walked up. We were a bit confused on the way down, but we eventually found our way to food and the car.

Today we had a lazy day filled with laundry and Greek food. Both Paul and Elizabeth had to pack for their upcoming trips. Paul leaves tomorrow for two months if the volcano allows it. All of the flights are cancelled for the time being. We are selfishly hoping his flight is cancelled so he can't leave us. Elizabeth leaves Tuesday for a conference with her school and will be gone until Friday. it will be a very quiet house with just Lenea and I. What will we do? I am sure we will figure something out :)

So sorry I have not updated the spring break trip anymore. I will do my best to get that completed soon. Until next time...

...back in the swing of things

Wednesday I was on official work business. Haha. They still have not officially told me my starting day. Boo! I thought it was going to be Monday, so I called Thursday to check in with my Human Resources homie. There was a section of my physical paperwork that needed to be signed by the doctor, so I picked that up and had her initial and sign. Then Lenea and I headed to the post office that is not technically on our post, but on the one right next to us. The army makes everything so confusing. Grr! I shipped some goodies that Kristin had purchased while she was here and was unable to squeeze into her bag. I also mailed some fun goodies I had purchased for Jordan for Easter and forgot to pack for my trip back to Texas. Whomp. Whomp. She will be excited to get a package in the mail, so I guess it all works out. The shipping wasn't too bad. We found some flat rate boxes that were much cheaper than finding some random box and having them weigh it. That would have been expensive! It was much better to go the flat rate route. Note to all wishing to ship something overseas...flat rate boxes. :) Hint. Hint. Then we scooted out the MarktPlatz in Mannheim to pick up some fresh fruit and veggies. It is incredible how much better the produce is when it is straight from the farmer and not from the commisary, which is a poor excuse for a grocery store. The bread arrives without an expiration date, so you have to check the bag for mold. You also have to check the date on yogurt and milk, because if you aren't looking then you might possibly eat something that is extremely expired. Loads of fun that would be for your stomach. Lenea and I then ate lunch at the Maison's Creole which is the closest thing to Mexican we can find. No chips and salsa when you are seated. Boo! but it is pretty much what we expected. We would be hard pressed to find some good ole TexMex. Then that afternoon Elizabeth and I went shoe shopping. We wound up at The Blaze. I don't know why Germans have this obsession with ghetto New York, but they do. One of the big stores is The New Yorker. It is fantastically sleezy. We don't shop there.

Today I woke up at 1 pm. I haven't done that in a LONG time! It felt good. I rolled over at 7:30 am and said no. I am not ready for the day yet. Then all of a sudden it was 1. I pretty much wasted the day and I loved it. We goofed around the house. A coulpe of random dance parties and a movie. Then tonight we went to see Clash of the Titans. It was pretty good. Now I am off to enjoy a root beer float and a couple of shows of The Unit. Get excited :)

Welcome back to Germany :)

I have made it back to the land that I love! It is a bittersweet feeling. Being home surrounded by family and friends was phenomenal! I loved being able to pick up my phone and dial without having to enter country codes or crazy numbers on the calling card. I could text whomever I wanted to without it costing a fortune. I didn't have to worry about time differences or a language barrier. I was home and comfortable. Now I am back here in the land of chaos. The army has no standard. They are constantly changing policies, or simply not obeying them. Grr! I am so glad to be back with Paul, Lenea, and Elizabeth. They are my oasis in this craziness. I just wish we could live off post. I think it would dramatically change our experience if we could wake up everyday and not feel bound by these prison walls. Once we escape from the barracks, the world is good. Germany has so much to offer. The people are great and the beauty that surrounds us in the countryside is breathtaking! I just have to step outside of my comfort zone and know that I will occassionally fumble and wave my ignorant American flag because life here is so different. Some of the social norms are very different than the states. For instance, when we go out to eat here it is much quieter. We often find ourselves telling us to whisper because we are so painfully loud. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world, I just wish there was a way to moosh my two worlds together somehow. With the help of skype I am getting to do that little by little. It helps being able to see familiar faces and hear encouraging voices. It was absolutely fantastic to see Paul, Lenea, and Elizabeth at the airport. I know I probably didn't show my enthusiasm as much as I would have liked, but I was excited. They picked me up at Frankfurt Main and we drove back to Mannheim. I was extremely lazy and totally played up my jetlag. We ate a big lunch at this awesome restaurant burried in this ginormous park in Kafertal. Apparently this park is the biker's portal to several surrounding towns. I can't wait to discover more of it! After lunch I made a terrible mistake and took a nap midway through the day. I was exhausted. I physically could not keep my eyes open any longer. I slept for 2 hours then watched mindless TV. I thought about updating my blog, but my brain said no. I eventually went back to bed at 9 pm and slept until 11:30 am today.

I felt glorious when I woke up. Absolutely glorious. I stopped by Human Resources to get some paperwork my doctor forgot to check off for my pre-employment physical, took it to her, and then walked back to the apartment. This afternoon we went into Weinheim to check out the new Galleria. Elizabeth has a super special conference next week with her school and she is required to wear a suit, so she needed some fancy shmancy dress shirts. Of course we shopped at H&M (It would be like if Old Navy and Target had a baby, H&M would be there child). Then we came home in time to catch some of American Idol. I then took the next hour and a half to unpack. Major bummer. I really don't like the whole packing deal. Not my cup of tea. Since then I have spent every moment blogging. Oh the joys of blogging :)

Well folks, I have all of the pictures uploaded on my blog. Thank you Jesus. The only thing is that I don't have all of the fun stories to go with the pictures. I will try to get everything up and running as soon as I can. I have been back in the states for three weeks and life has been nothing but insanity. I mean that in the most loving of terms, but we have done nothing but run run run just to get a sense of normalcy back. Yeesh. It has been crazy, but I have loved every second of it. I will be returning to Germany on Monday. Time has flown by way to quickly. I will be writing soon, but until then thanks for the interest in my blog :)

Spring Break and such...

March 10, 2010- Slept in to be well rested for our long day of travel. Before heading out I stopped by the education building to print out some of the travel documents to reassure some of our online reservations. Paul took an extended lunch break to take Lenea and I to the train station so we didn't have to walk a mile to the train station with our oversized backpacks stuffed to the brim. Thank God for Paul! We arrived at the train station at 3:20 pm and our train didn't leave until 5:35 pm. Can you tell we were a smidgen excited? For the next two hours we hopped from one train station cafe to the next. We hopped up on coffee and fruit from the outside markets. Delicious combo. At about 5:15 we walked to the train station platform to wait for the I.C.E train. I have no idea what those letters stand for, but I do know it means that our train is super fast. Only four hours to Amsterdam, and we packed plenty of snacks to make it on a full belly. While we were snacking a funny announcement came on. "Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but we are 1 minute behind schedule; we took off in the wrong direction." Really? A train can only go in two directions, forwards or backwards. Go figure we get on a train where the conductor can't find the right way to Amsterdam. Another two hours into the train ride and another announcement is made. Our train is experiencing technical difficulties, so we will be changing trains. First emotion: Panic. Second emotion: Calm. I must roll with the flow- it's an adventure. Upon exiting the train we must have had lost American plastered to our foreheads because several people stopped and helped us make it to the correct platform for the new I.C.E train to Amsterdam. OH! One big difference is that when they made the announcement, the Germans chuckled. They didn't throw a fit. They laughed. Their calm attitude definitely helped us maintain composure instead of freak out. Once we successfully found the new platform for our new train, we only waited 10 minutes and then we were back on our way to Amsterdam. It was the most controlled chaos I have ever witnessed. We somehow managed to find our hotel after arriving at Amsterdam Central Station in the dark, only to find that our reservations were lost. Through a series of events the hotel found the reservations only after they charged us twice for our room. Whomp!

March 11- We woke to find this ginormous head waiting to be collected by the trash. Yes. This was the view from our window. Once we showered and got ready for the day we walked to the train station to meet for Sandeman's FREE New Amsterdam tour. That's right...FREE! Our tour guide walked us all over Amsterdam for 3 hrs. It was wonderful! Our group was about 20 people from all over- Brazil, Canada, Phillipines, and the states. After the tour we walked to Boom Chicago, an improv comedy club that serves traditional Dutch food. Potatoes and sausage. It was yummy, but it looked very funny on the plate. Hmm..

The Ginormous Head. It felt like something someone made in art class with paper, glue, and a little paint.


Our tour guide, Amy. She was from Australia, so she had a delightful accent. She is standing in front of the Old Church in Amsterdam. Yes. The Dutch really refer to this as the Old Church. They are really original in their naming. This is the oldest church in Amsterdam, so naturally it would be called the Old Church. It is geographically located right next to the port, so that when sailors came in they would go to the red light district (which is about 10 ft from the right side of the church) and then come to the church to repent.

Down a random alleyway in Amsterdam. This is pretty much Amsterdam in a nutshell. Bikes, graffiti, and cafes.

Our walking group. I am sure that we looked totally ridiculous to the Dutch, but it was one of the best tours so it doesn't even matter how stupid we looked.

Fun tulips and a poster for tourists. The answer is no. We did not go to either one of the tours. Wax people freak me out, and the Amsterdam Dungeon is a ploy to conn tourists out of money.

This was one of my favorite little gems in Amsterdam because it screams Dutch humor. One night a random artist dug up some cobblestones to put this piece of artwork on display. It is refered to as "The Hand on Boob." It was taken out after only being on display for 24 hours, but the Dutch did not like this so they protested. After much protesting the art was put back in it's original location... around the corner from the church.

Canal. Amsterdam has canals running all through it. I love it!

Amsterdam is like New Orleans in that they are both tragically under sea level. This is the lowest point in altitude in Amsterdam.

More canals and bikes. Apparently it is a popular game to throw unchained bikes into the canals. It is a popular joke that the canals have three layers. The first layer is mud. The second layer is bike. The third layers is water. Every now and then they will scoop the hundreds of thousands of bikes out of the canals, send them to shops located on the outskirts of town to be fixed up, and then they sell them back to the poor folks who probably had their bike thrown into the canal.

This was a hidden Catholic church. Catholicism was shunned for a long time in Amsterdam, so 400 people would come to worship in this tiny building until they were allowed to worship freely in their own church.

This fun little cafe at one time was a place of discovery for young doctors. They would examine corpses and learn the ways of the human body. Now people come here to eat. Yummy!

Here is where things get tricky... the pictures of the Heineken tour were actually taken on March 13 when my girls arrived, but here they are on March 11. Go figure. The Heineken tour was very informative. It takes 28 days to make a bottle of beer. I had no idea the process was so intense. I mean it is just water, barley, hops, and yeast. Four ingredients and they take a month to process. Yeesh. Anywho...these four ingredients are turned into the magic known as beer. Mmmm! Heineken is so much better in Amsterdam than in the states. With your ticket purchase you recieve a wristband with two tokens attached to it. Each token is good for a free drink at the end of the tour. This is a picture of the brewery with little tourists sprinkled in the mix.

I don't know what these do, but I thought they looked cool.

This yummy mixtures is made up of water and barley. It is surprisingly sweet with a bitter aftertaste.



Back to March 11...

The yellow cylinder with a cone on the top at one time was a free public restroom for women. The key word in that sentence is free. Free toilets do not exist in Europe. Lucky for men, they can drop their trousers anywhere. Not women. It is a highly skilled process that must be done with accuracy or you will pee on yourself. The Dutch women thought this was outrageous that they had to pay every time they wanted to pee so they protested. This was no ordinary protest. They met on a bridge, lifted up their dresses and peed. The women threated to do this on every bridge in Amsterdam if they were not given free public toilets. Since Amsterdam is filled with canals, the government met the peeing protesters demands by building these stalls. Unfortunately in the '70s people started using these public toilets for drug use and make-shift housing. Of course this terrified women, so they refused to use them and the government locked them all up. Now they are used as billboards. Fantastic. Now me must pay to urinate again.

The Dutch love to ride their bikes. Man I miss my bike. Tear.

The women's prison. The woman on the left is spinning wool while the woman on the right is getting the daylights beat out of her for refusing to spin. What did they need a women's prison for? To house the prostitutes during the weekends. Politicians haven't always outwardly supported the red light district in Amsterdam, so they built a women's prison to change things up. I don't think the elder politicians did much, because the red light district is still thriving. Disgusting, but thriving.

I know what you are thinking. Odd shape for a monument in the middle of Dam Center. It is indeed. Yes this is Dam Center. At one time there were two rivers that ran through the heart of Amsterdam, but the Dutch dammed them to create this city center known as Dam Center. Original, right?

Pigeons, anyone?

What is that straight ahead? Palace? Nope. Ginormous shopping arena. The palace is on the left, but is being renovated so you can't really see anything but sheets and scaffolding.

This building is lined with plaques that at one time marked the homes in Amsterdam describing the industry that the homeowners were involved with.

More fun plaques.

You can buy stamps here. I just thought the humongous arm coming out of the wall was peculiar, so I took a picture of it.

While still on the walking tour we walked through a part of a museum. Here you can see David and Goliath. Look how masculine Goliath looks, and then look at David. Hmmm.

No, your eyes are not decieving you. That building is totally leaning. Must love Dutch craftsmanship. Did I make that word up?

This was a garden. Someone special lived here, and if I remember who then I will tell you. So sorry.

This little tunnel ran from the garden above and back to the street. Pretty awesome.

The men's prison at one point in time was located here. Now it is a shopping district. Oh the irony.

Lenea and I on the walking tour. It was windy and cold. That is my story for my bad hair and I am sticking to it.

After our free tour Amy, our tour guide, took us to eat a traditional Duthc meal at Boom Chicago. This is what we got. Lump of potatoes with a sausage log on top. It was actually really delicious, and you could get a second plate for free. I couldn't do it. I could barely finish this beast.

Hey look! Boom Chicago :)

All of the buildings around the area were really interesting, so I took pictures like the tourist that I am.

A row of bars/pubs.

Awesome bedazzled gladiator sandles in the walking district of Amsterdam. Lenea wanted me to try them on, but I opted not to because they were entombed in glass. I figure that meant they were really expensive, and I didn't want to play with them.

While walking home we passed the flower district. Gorgeous! This shop was my favorite by far. After I took all of my pictures I noticed a sign that said, "No pictures please." Yes. It was written in English for ignorant American tourists like me. Gotta love it. Who can resist taking a picture of a cow in a flower shop? Obviously not me.

Then after I see the cow I spy this little man sitting in the midst of the floral jungle. How can I resist?

Look at the awesome ceiling with fanastical flowers hanging from it. Amazing, right? Oh yes. Love it!

The bikes were all over!

That night we headed to a pub to just chill out and chat about all of the amazing things we had seen thus far in Amsterdam.

March 12- We set out for the Van Gogh Museum. I was so excited! This was my second trip to Amsterdam and I had never seen the museum before. We stopped at a cafe before going to the museum becuase we had walked a bit and were a little hungry. We arrived mid afternoon to the museum, and it was perfect. No crazy long lines like we were expecting. The only line we waited in was to check our coats and umbrellas because we were not allowed to take them with us on our journey. Why? I don't know. After we toured the awesomeness know as Van Gogh, we picked up our coats and umbrellas from the coat check. I thought they had lost my scarf, but it was just shoved in the arm of my jacket. Of course I found this out after I went behind the counter in a frantic search. On our way back from the museum we spotted this awesoem sign.
There are two of these signs in Amsterdam. I wonder how long they thought about that catch phrase before making this beauty.

After Van Gogh we went back to the hotel to freshen up for a nice Argentinian steak for dinner. Mmmmm! It was yummy! We hit the hay pretty early, because the next morning Lenea had to hop on a train at 8 am and I had to pick my girls up from the Amsterdam Airport.

March 13- Successfully found the platform for Lenea's train and I was off to the airport. Somehow I missed the girls at baggage claim and hear, "Ms. Kailey Dautrich from Dallas, TX, your party is waiting for you at the information booth." Super! A little humiliating, but super. We were very giddy and loud! We played the American card in full force. Lots of screaming/jumping and hugging.

We then walked to our hostel which was on the other side of Amsterdam, only to discover that we couldn't check in quite yet. Fortunately they let us store our bags there, so that we didn't have to lug them around while we were sightseeing. I don't think our hostel was quite what we thought it was going to be based on the fantastic reviews online, but it worked. It reminded me of the scene from Pinnochio when he turns into a real boy and runs wild in the land with all of the other rambunctious little boys. Do you know what I am talking about? We are pretty sure the online reviews were all written by 17 year olds, because there were teenagers everywhere. After storing our bags, we decided to set off for Van Gogh. We did not make it to Van Gogh because we got sidetracked by the Heineken Museum (previously mention on March 11 due to crazy picture uploading).

Along the way we found some house boats! I would not want to live on one of these simply for the fact that their water is stinky. It doesn't stink like in Venice, but it stinks coming out of the pipes. I know this only because I stayed on a house boat last spring break and one of the girls I was with took the first and only shower on the boat. She smelled worse coming out of the shower compared to what she went in smelling like.

From here we found the yummiest panini shop and filled our bellies with sandwiches and coffee. Delightful combination. From there we stumbled upon the red light district. It is madening. You would be shocked by what you see in the windows. Who knew there was a market for oversized women scantilly dressed? Not me. We didn't take pictures. We were told that if you do, then the women will come out and throw pee on you. Yuck. Not that you would want to take pictures of that anyway. Just seeing it made me want to rip out my eyeballs. Yeesh. After this tragic event we tried to find a fun pub to sit down for a while. Through a series of awkward events, we found a small pub that was comfy enough for us to just sit down and have a drink. The only problem was that our table was located right in front of the restrooms. Not ideal, but it worked. Our waiter came back and asked us what we wanted to drink. He brought our drinks to the table and then went into the men's restroom to grab us some straws to go with. Why he entered the men's restroom we do not know. We told ourselves that the men's restroom must be a door that leads to the men's restroom and the storage closet. Needless to say we did not use the straws. Then we walked back to the hostel because the girls were pooped. We had made sandwiches with some yummies that we bought at the supermarket and had a picnic on the floor in our private room (meaning we had our room and bathroom. Praise Jesus!). We then climbed into our rickety bunkbeds for a good night of sleept. Not! The hoodlums in our hostel were running down the halls all hours of the night shouting ridiculous things that are not suited for a family blog. Grrr!

March 14- We woke semi well rested and headed down for our free breakfast which consisted of bread, salami, cheese, and boiled eggs. Breakfast of champions. The good part was the endless supply of yummy coffee! From here we walked to Dam Square to meet up with the free tour. This time our tour guides name was Joe, and ironically he too was from Australia. He was fantastic. The Australians have a great sense of humor. I was a little worried that the tour would be boring the second time around, but it was even better than the first. Some of the same stories, but with a different spin and several new stories to boot.

See the tiny red building in the center? That is the tiniest building in Amsterdam. I bet those stairs are steep.

Motorcylce and a sidecar. Love it! This is reserved for Nicki and Evan :)

Who doesn't love a little graffiti?

Canals everywhere! After the tour we opted for a falafel instead of the traditional Dutch meal. It was so yummy! That night we went on a Pub Crawl. Probably not the smartest thing we could have done, but it was fun. We met people from all over the world. The crawl started at 8:30 pm and ran until 2 am, stopping at 6 pubs. There was no way we were going to last, so we hopped out early at the fourth pub and walked home.

March 15- Our tour guide told us about a flea market that he said was pretty cool and located near the old Jewish quarter of town. The first thing we see is this creepy tree with stuffed animals tied to it. Eeek!

The flea market was just like any other flea market-filled with lots of crap. One can only have so much fun at a flea market, so we opted for some warm coffee.

We mapped out a game plan to the Anne Frank House, but of course we got extremely lost. Thank God Amsterdam is a small city that only takes about 45 minutes to walk from one end to the next, or we would have died. Our legs would have fallen off and our hearts would have stopped pumping. If there was a straight shot to get somewhere, we took a circle. It was fantastic.

This is the old Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. During WWII the Germans ripped all of the Jewish people out of their homes and forced them into concentration camps. Amsterdam is one of the few cities where the people actually fought against the Nazi Party to keep the Jewish families in their homes. They did not see the Jewish people as anything other than Amsterdamians. Unfortunately they weren't strong enough for the Nazis because the Jews were all torn from their homes or forced to flee. After the war Amsterdam had a huge economic crisis, leaving the people searching for food to eat and wood to warm their homes. The Dutch started looking for wood inside the old Jewish Quarter to warm their homes. Eventually all of the wood was stripped from these homes, forcing the old Jewish Quarter to be torn down and rebuilt. In their infinite wisdom, Amsterdam opted to let the architecture students of the '60s come up with new housing for the old Jewish Quarter. As you can see. the results are terrible. It is one of the ugliest parts of Amsterdam.

They tried to make up for the ugliness by having beautiful flowers strewn down the alleys. Just kidding, but they should really conisder that as an option. Aren't they beautiful? This kind of makes you want to forgive the poor architectural students a little bit.

Fliers/posters/beer bottle labels...art?

After we made it to the Anne Frank House (Sorry no pictures. It just felt weird taking pictures there, so I opted not to.), we went to a wine and cheese tasting. One hour of unlimited wine and cheese for 10 euro. Great deal, right? Well we couldn't do it because the man working was working a solo shift and two people must be working for tour. Bummer. Instead he allowed us to taste all of the cheese they had displayed and sample the wine for free. Yay! Meanwhile we recieved an education in cheese. The proper time it requires to make good cheese, what varies in European cheese and Wisconsin cheese, yadda, yadda, yadda. I know more about cheese than I ever cared to know. With our proper cheese education we decided to buy some good cheese, salami, bread, and other random snacks for the long overnight train Berlin. 9 hours of fun! Yahoo!!

I am going to take a break for today, and update you tomorrow on Berlin. Friday I should have Paris up and running. I hope you have enjoyed everything thus far. There are plenty of stories to come!

Berlin, Germany

Frankfurt, Germany

Weinheim, Germany

Paris, France