Carnival time!!

My friend Kimberly and I have met a new friend. Her name is Mara. She's in our german class and we love her. We went today to a carnival with her and had a blast!! The german's do carnivals totally awesome. We went on almost all of the rides, had slushies and walked around until our feet hurt. I played one of the games in the boothes and totally won a glass!! I had to throw ping pong balls and try to get them in the glasses. I wasn't so good at first, but then I noticed the little 10 year old next to me. He was bouncing the ball on the counter in front of us to get it up into the glasses and that totally worked. I copied him and I won too!! Our friend Mara tried out the big hammer thingy, but it was really heavy. We had such a fun time. It was nice to get out into the community and try to practice our german...that didn't go so well, but we did get the chance!!

Holland

Kimberly, Jason and I went to Holland yesterday. It was so much fun! We got up and left at 1:30 in the morning yesterday and got back around midnight last night, so it was a full 24 hour trip. We booked it through a local travel company, so we rode a bus and had a tour guide. It was about a 5 hour bus ride, not too bad. We first stopped at a bed and breakfast farm type place. We got breakfast there which was delicious. We had tons of different cheeses and ham, yummy dutch coffee, and most people tried the milk. I wasn't really wanting milk just freshly milked from a cow, but Kimberly said it was super yummy. They (the owners of the farm) took us through thier wooden shoe making factory. The man showed us how they make them and gave us a breif history on the different kinds shoes. They have the rounded toe shoes which were for the protestants and the pointy toe shoes that were for catholics. They have wedding clogs and farm clogs. Basically, they have clogs for everything. Next they took us through the cheese making process. I've discovered I love gouda cheese! The process didn't really gross me out as it did some people. I do, however, wonder why little miss muffet ate curds and whey. The lady showed us what curds and whey look like. That's a little gross. Our next stop was Keukenhof. This is the huge (and famous) tulip garden. It was amazing! There was a working windmill there that we culd go up into and look around. We spent a couple of hours walking around and looking at the millions of flowers they have there. We didn't see everything, and we were there for three hours. Our last stop for the day was Pier Sheveningen. It's on the North Sea. This was beautiful. Holland is like Germany in the fact that it's super clean. The beach front was gorgeous. They have hotels and shops and resturaunts. We went to an aquarium, which was fun. The dutch language has a lot of english-y words in it, so it was pretty easy to understand a lot of the people. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It was nice to get back home to Blake. He wasn't able to come with us because he had to work. I'm defentily going to plan a trip for Blake and I up there. It was beautiful!

Hexen Nacht

April does not seem like an overly Halloweeny month to me...but I guess that makes me even less German! The night of April 30th is Hexen Nacht or Witches Night. It's an old tradition that says that witches come down from the mountains as cold winds and such, and cause slight mayhem in the towns. Nowdays, moms and dads take their kids out in the early evening and toilet paper trees, bushes, cars and streetsigns. It's all innocent fun. The bigger kids come out later in the night and do some shaving cream and doorbell pranks, but nothing too bad. The most valued prize, however, is the trashcan. They look for them all over town and they steal them. The next morning, you have to go to the center square in your town and find your trashcan. We put our away in the basement so this wouldn't happen to us. My German teacher, Chrystal, was telling us of a Hexen Nacht many years ago that happened to her. She, at that point in time, worked at an orphanage as a secretary. She lived up the hill from the office she worked in and had decided to go into to finish up a little paperwork. As she was coming down the hill, she noticed there was a rather large crowd outside her building. As she got closer, she realized why. Her office, the exact way she had it inside, was now on the roof! She laughed so hard! A couple of boys came up to her and stated "Look what the witches did to you!". She, of course, new it was them. They helped her get everything back into her office and nothing had been harmed. She just laughed as she told us this. This is what Hexen Nacht is all about. Harmless pranks. I just thought I'd share this with you!

Guten Tag!

Ich lerne Deutsch.

(Ish leerna Doych)

I am learning German.

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Wie heissen Sie, bitte?

(Vee HIGHsenzee bitta)

What is your name, please?

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Ich bin Rebecca.

(Ish ben Rebecca)

I am called Rebecca.

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Wie geht es Ihnen?

(Vee-GATE-ess ee-nen)

How are you doing?

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Danke, gut. Und Ihnen?

(Danka, goot. ooond ee-nen)

I am good, thanks and you?

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Wieviel ist sieben plus zwanzig?

(VEEfeel ist zeeben ploose svansig)

How much is 7 + 20?

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Sieben plus zwanzig ist sieben und zwanzig.

(Zeeben ploose svansig is zeeben ooond svansig)

7+20 equals 27.

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Here endeth the lesson for today.

:)

April 17th...Happy Birthday to Us!!

I have had the extreme pleasure of sharing my birthday, my entire life, withmy wonderful sister, Jessica. This year, we turn 26 and 30. It was a little strange this year. My birthday started 7 hours earlier than hers did. What a strange feeling to have my own birthday for a few hours. I was telling Blake that it just didn't feel normal. It never feels normal unless someone else is celebrating with me. I have been so blessed to have Jess as my sister. She's the person I can go to when I have the greatest news in the world, she's the one I go to when I'm in tears, she's the one I call when I have a problem and need an answer. She's always the one that has the answers, and even though we live half a world apart at the moment, she's still the best big sister anyone could ask for! I love her to the end of the world and beyond!
I love you Jess!
Happy Birthday!

My New Plants :)

Kimberly and I went out and bought plants today. She was mainly looking for plants to go outside her house, but we couldn't find a huge selection, so we bought inside plants. I got a ficus and an african violet. The african violet is pink! I've never seen a pink one, I'm very excited about this. We found really cute pots and replanted them (they did, in fact, need it). I'm super hoping they don't die. I'm not the best with plants. I killed a cactus once....I'm sure this will be different. It was a beautiful 85 degrees today. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I guess its unusually warm for this time of year, but I'll take it. Everything is green and blooming and wonderful! It's fabulous. Okay, thats all for now :)

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter to all!
We had a wonderful Easter here in Germany. We got up and went to church with our friends, Jason and Kimberly, and then we went over to thier house for dinner. Church was fabulous. The pastor at the base chapel is fantastic. Blake and I have decided to go there permenantly. I made an Easter cake which turned out lovely. I was quite pleased with it. Kimberly made all the rest of the food, so I did desert. She wanted a bunny cake, and that's what she got! It tased pretty good too. Lots of frosting. We didn't get a picture of just Blake and I, but I'm hoping to get one taken at some point here. Now life is back to normal again, just living life day to day. Kimberly and I start a German class on the 16th. I'm pretty excited about that. It will be nice to understand the locals! Well, I guess that's it for now...

Life continues in a wonderful place

So there hasn't been much to report here in Deutschland.We have just recently switched to dayshift, so it has been an adjustment. Blake has started taking me to the gym to play raquetball with him. That's been fun and it gets me out of the house, although I'm not very good at it yet. I'm hoping, with practice, I'll get better. They also give cardio/kickboxing classes which I'm thinking about taking. It's so easy to fall into the "I don't feel like doing anything, so I won't" rut. I'm working on my quilt, which is coming along very nicely, and still trying to come up with some type of routine. It snowed one last time a couple of days ago, and the last remnants of the snow have finally dissappeared. Spring is here and everything is starting to turn green. I'm excited because this means more walking outside and getting to see this beautiful country we live in. I guess we live very close to a very old place where the kings of old gathered. It's a bunch of really big stone chairs, but it sounds interesting! Easter is the next big thing to hit for us here. We are planning on spending it with our friends, Jason and Kimberly. We will be going to the service on base and then coming home (to thier house) to a wonderful meal of roast beef. I'm pretty excited. I won't have to do much of the cooking (to everyones delight!), but I might make a cake for the occasion. Our newest news is that we might be going to England in May. That should be exciting. Blake's cousin's husband's cousin is getting married there and we were invited to come and join them. It will be nice to see a face from home. His cousin lived only a couple of hours from us when we lived in Texas, so we got to know her pretty well. It will be nice to see her again. I was just thinking about my mother being in Georgia. They really love it there and it's nice to see them home again. Blake and I love Georgia as well, however, we will most likely end up in the panhandle of Florida. That's close, though. Only about a 6 hour drive. Now all we need are Bud and Amy and Jess and Craig to make it down to that part of the world. Well, this is it for the moment, not a whole lot going on here, but I did want to at least update everyone on the apparent nothingness :)

The Black Forest

The largest kuckoo clock in the world.
Right outside the cafe where we ate our black forest cake.
The gnome...
The clock we traveled all this way to see. Not the largest, but pretty impressive.

The big squirrel.
The river that comes down from the waterfall.

Coming down from the waterfall walkway.

Kimberly and I went to The Black Forest today. It was quite enjoyable. We saw the worlds biggest kuckoo (sp?) clock. We ate black forest cake and saw the tallest waterfall in Germany. We actually didn't climb up to the very top of the waterfall, but we still saw it and it was beautiful! There are tons of clocks everywhere and the scenery is wonderful!!! It took us about two and a half hours to get there, but the drive was definetly worth it. The german's are sooo into the gnome thing. The squirrels are really big in the Black Forest, too. Now, I'm just waiting for Blake to get home from Spain. He's due in tonight and I can't wait to see him!!!!

Home again.

So, I'm back home again. It was a nice couple of weeks. I enjoyed spending it with my sister and it was very fun getting to know my sister-in-law better. I came home to my Valentines day gifts. The coffee table, two black bookshelves, curtains and pation furniture. They are beautiful! So, life is getting back to normal again. Blake is in Spain until Saturday or Sunday, so I havn't seen him yet, but I've talked to him. Gratch was so happy to see me. All I did was walk into the house and he started purring. My friend Kimberly's parents are in town, so we have a week of fun things planned. We are going to the Black Forest on Saturday. That should be intersting. I'll post pictures.