OK, let’s give it another try… and let’s hope THIS will work this time.

AS FOR NOW, I’LL KEEP PLAYING ON THIS BLOG… [UNTIL THE OTHER ONE IS RESTORED]

TGIF… time to play :) Kristine had another “challenge” for us this week, namely to take pictures around the house.

1. Your Supplies

These are my supplies on my desk.

2. Your Bag

This is the purse I currently use. I have to say, I really need a new one. I used to have another [fake] black leather purse, but it’s falling apart, so I didn’t want to post it here. I guess I am the only girl without a whole closet of purses from which to choose.

3. Your Mail box

This is our mailbox at my parents’ house. It does look different from the US mailboxes. It has a separate slot for the newspaper and the actual box for the mail can only be accessed with a key. As you can see from the size of it, it’ll actually fit the large envelopes without having to bend them.
Also, in Germany we have mailboxes attached to the house… always. There’s nothing like these “street mailboxes” where the mail for all the houses in the street is delivered. Keep in mind, in Germany mail is delivered by bike! I used to work for the postal service and I always wished I had one of these cool US mail vehicles to deliver the mail LOL

So, did you play?

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UPDATE: I am having issues with my new host server… I hope the problem will be fixed shortly.
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Yes, it’s Friday again and I’ve gotten so used to playing SPF on Fridays. This week Kristine asked a lot of creativity from us when she told us to come up with titles and post a picture that goes with it.

1. Song Title: People are strange

Yeah, aren’t we people strange dressing up for carnival [or halloween for that matter]… trying to be something that we could never be in real life. This photo was taken about 3 years back when I went to a carnival party… needless to say that I desperately wanted to be a bear [and if you thought now that I was dressed up as a cat... you're wrong!!!].

2. Book Title: The Outlander

A picture of the world-famous “Lone cypress” at Pebble Beach taken October 2004. The lighting was amzing that evening. Doesn’t it seem like it tried to put itself as far “outland” as possible?

3. Movie Title: The Rock

I just love rocks! I am taking pictures of them all the time and I am glad Kristine gave me the opportunity to post one of my rock pictures again ;)

I hope you all played! And if you did, let us know!

I’ll write certain posts protected if I don’t want to offend people or if I don’t want to write publicly about family issues, work or such. If you want the password to read the post below, please email me or leave a comment.

The weekend at Ilka’s was fun :) I was welcomed with coffee and cake [which you can never turn down ;)] and then we prepared some stuff for dinner and waited for her other friends to join us for the party ;)It was only 6 of us [all girls] but it was fun :)

Today is my dear friend Ilka’s birthday. She’s turning… [just as old as she feels] today! I hope you have a wonderful day, sweetie, and I can’t wait to be there and celebrate with you :) I am so happy and thankful to call you my friend and you only deserve the best.

So, I am going to Ilka’s tonight. I am really looking forward to hanging out with her and celebrate her birthday. I vividly remember last year’s party in the salon with all the Xanga girls. That was fun! Even though it’s not going to be an as big of party this year, I am sure we’ll have a blast.
Even though I feel stuck in Germany, I am thankful that I am here for all these special times with my friends. They really mean a lot to me and it just keeps me from hiding in my room contemplating on when they will finally grant me entrance to the United States to live with my honey. It’s just starting to become ridiculous. I’ve been waiting here for over 6 months now. Everyone is totally baffled when I tell them that you can’t just book a flight and go to the US with your hubby once you’re married. It might seem to be the logical thing to do, but Immigration thwarts you. It’s a huge pile of papers and bureaucracy… and requires a whole lot of patience.
Have a great weekend everyone!

1. Your Spices

Well, these would be my Mom’s spices again… since I am still stuck in Germany and can’t take a picture of the really pretty spice rack that we have in our apartment in LA. I love my Mom’s spice cabinet, because you can almost find anything in there that you need for fun cooking :)

2. Salt and Pepper

Well… I really thought about this one for a while and didn’t really know what to do about this second assignment… I hope you like what I came up with ;)

3. Add a little spice to your picture.

This is the result of playing around with one of my recent pictures [showing me and my friend Annie] and the link that Kristine posted. I do have photoshop, but I wanted to try this out ;)

So, did you PLAY???

One thing I need to talk about is: We’ll have a Subway in my town soon. I would never have thought that we would get a place like that in my town [since it's pretty small and I've only seen Subway in the big cities in Germany]… but I’ve seen the signs up and it will be opened soon! This is so great! If they would mind opening a Starbucks here, too?! ;)

The last few days were pretty busy… I was tutoring again for two hours a day and then we went to a birthday on Wednesday night, paid a visit to my great-aunt yesterday [my sister and I usually go grocery shopping with her and then stay for some cappuccino afterwards] and last night I went to the movies with my friend Ira. We watched “Pirates of the Caribbean II“. I loved it! Johnny Depp is just awesome as Captain Jack Sparrow. He’s just cracking me up. It’s like this role was just custom-made for him! I am usually always very critical of sequels to movies, but this was a work of art again! [I just wish I could have seen it in English - dubbing just takes so much away].

The weekend was awesome. It was nice to get out and use all the “free time” that I have and do something meaningful while waiting for the GC.
I took the train to Düsseldorf on Friday afternoon and from there the ICE straight to Berlin. It was a pleasant ride and it was on time :) My friend Gina and her little daugther Lara picked me up at the train station and then we drove back to their house which was about 50 minutes outside of Berlin.
I met her husband Henning and her other little daugther Lotta and we had dinner together. Lara had already lost her shyness and really started to like me which became clear in all her little games that she wanted me to get involved in. She was really adorable.
We stayed up till 1:00 a.m. waiting for out mutual friend Annie [from Stuttgart] to get there.

The next morning we all had breakfast together and then we, the girls, got ready to drive to Downtown Berlin. We were meeting some other girls at the “Route 66″, an American bar near the Kurfürstendamm. It very much reminded me of Jon’s and my favorite breakfast place in Ventura, the Busy Bee,  because they had these cute red leather seats and little jukeboxes at every table.
I met two more of my penfriends there and we really had a fun time. We took a few pictures afterwards. We were quite a bunch of girls :)

 At 4:30 p.m. we had to drive back to Gina’s place, because Henning was having a birthday-BBQ in their backyard this evening. It was really nice out and we had yummy food and some nice cocktails later on… a very good Caipirinha again :) [I think I might fall for this cocktail now!]
Ade, Sannie, Annie and Gina

Kristine gave us another task for this Friday. We are supposed to post pictures of the following:

1. Something Mean looking.  

The only way to stay cool these days is to move around as little as possible, have cold drinks and ice-cream and go swimming.
And that’s exactly what I did :)

On Monday I went to the public spa pool with my aunt and my cousin Nicki. She had brought her godchild along. Yasmin is 13 [naturally looks older like most of the teenage kids do nowadays] and she asked my cousin how old I was. My cousin told her the truth, but she wouldn’t believe her and asked me again to confirm what she had just heard. Then she told me that she thought I was not a day older than 24. Ah, you must love that girl :)
I have to say, it was the first time in maybe 8 years that I had been to the public spa pool in my town. A lot has changed [we have two of these fancy water slides now], but then again, so much looked exactly the way it was when I was there the last time. The one thing that left me dumbfounded was the admission fee… €3.60 are wholly freakin’ expensive for a spa public pool. 

Yesterday I had two tutoring lessons [which are a pain in the a** on hot days like that] and then Silke picked me up and we went to an ice-cream place in my town [with the best Italian gelato ever, I have to add]. She only lives about 20 minutes from here and it was really nice that we got the chance to meet up and spent the afternoon together.We chatted about this and that and hardly noticed how time flew and the first time we looked at the watch, it was 3 hours later.

Today, I had two tutoring lessons again [yes, I tutor every day right now] and then I went to the spa pool again. It was really the best idea to spend the afternoon there with the occasional leap into the pool. It’s the only way to stand the heat [unless you have a sprinkler in your backyard!]. 

So, I spent Friday with Kim. It was great to have her here with me. We had a fun day relaxing in our backyard, playing SPF, chatting, reading and just enjoying the nice weather. I did my best to cheer her up after feeling so down all week.
In the evening, we had a BBQ with my parents and afterwards I took her to Mönchengladbach for the last-minute rehearsal for Pia’s and Mike’s wedding. The other guys were already “singing and dancing” when we got there. I bet they had a whole lot of fun at the wedding this weekend :)

Saturday morning, my Mom usually goes grocery shopping at a local farmers market and then meets up with some girlfriends for some coffee :) She returned with a nice gift for me yesterday: workout pants from Tchibo. I thought they were so cute.
I love that store. It’s almost as addicting as Ikea. They have changing product lines and they have everything from clothes to electrical equipment to home accessories. It’s awesome and usually good quality.

The rest of the weekend I really took it easy. The temperatures were still well above 90°F and I didn’t move any more than I had to. I read my book, worked on some letters and just hung out in the backyard. Oh yes, and I have this new obsession: Sudoku. Have you played it yet? It’s quite addicting. My Mom, my aunt and I spent the whole afternoon on these puzzles. With some cold drinks and snacks it’s quite a bearable pastime :)

 Stuff Unnoticed

I am definitely not made for this weather. I am sweating without even moving. Is this supposed to be right? The thing here in Germany is that most houses don’t have air-conditioning. Houses here are just not built that way. We’ve had hot summers before.. YES… but not like this year [or 2003 for that matter]. We do have basements though. This is probably the only place in the house where you can go and don’t sweat.I’ve been pretty used to hot weather, because the Central Valley always gets freakin’ hot in the summer. I used to work with long pants and a sweater, because our office was blasting the AC while it was over a 100°F outside. I agree… you shouldn’t freeze in the office during the summer, but it was a lot more bearable than this right now. The worst thing: hot feet. They drive me crazy. I’ve been doing cold feet baths on a regular basis lately.
Browsing through some other blogs, I’ve noticed that we’re all in the same boat right now. So I won’t complain anymore ;)

I went to my gynecologist on Monday. Yeah, I know you probably aren’t too interested to hear about this, but if you are a woman, you understand what a sensitive matter this is. So I am moving away in a couple of weeks… to a different country. What am I to do? I had my gynecologist since I was a teenager. I don’t feel comfortable to go and see anyone else about my private parts.
But now get this: my gynecologist actually offered me to come and see him for the annual check ups :) Even though I won’t have health insurance in Germany anymore in a couple of months and I most likely only come home once a year [if at all]. Isn’t this awesome? There are nice people out there!

One thing we don’t really have in Germany foodwise is Mexican food. Yes, we do have some Mexican restaurants, but Mexican cooking is still very rare… partly due to the high prices for Mexican-style groceries. So whenever I come home for a visit, my sister asks me to bring tortillas… a lot of them. On Tuesday she invited me and her best friend for dinner and she made fajitas – a meal that Jon and I cook on quite often, because it’s easy, fast and soooo delicious :) We also had Caipirinhas… REAL good ones this time and I had three! Thanks God that I went to my sister’s place by bike! Yesterday my sister and I hung out with an old friend from College. She’s dating a French guy, she temporarily has a French roommate and we talked about the “chuckholes” of communicating in different languages. Ha, that was hilarious. We were sitting on the little patio attached to the back of her city apartment nestled between other apartment buildings and probably the whole neighborhood could hear us laugh!  This morning I met with Jessi in Neuss for some coffee. We met online and she’s married to an American as well. I got to meet her hubby too which was really nice. It’s funny how you meet people online who share the same experiences and  [have] face[d] the same problems. It feels really good though to be able to talk to people who understand. Thanks for the great time:) [I know you read this, Jess!]

We went out Friday night – Ira, my sister Nina, Dirk and I. We wanted to have dinner in Düsseldorf and then go to a cocktail bar or something like that. We decided to try out a sushi place…Sushi and Soul. They had this really cool area where you were sitting at these low tables on the floor and where your feet were actually dangling in a whole in the ground below the table :) 

well, we all know who wriggled their way into the World Cup Finals… so I am not even going to mention Sunday night and the outcome. I just want to quote Franz Beckenbauer asked for his impression of the World Cup, especially the gathering of thousands of people from different countries for the public viewing of the games:

“That’s how God imagines the world.”

Well said. The whole World Cup was just amazing and a matchless event :) The host of the next Soccer World Cup will have a hard time living up to the expectations.

I went to IKEA today with my sister and my Mom. I love IKEA. I could buy the whole store :) Unfortunately I have to contain myself since I can’t take much stuff with me to CA… but it’s really, really hard. I couldn’t help but buy a few tiny little things [and if I hadn't bought them, my Mom would have done it... *lol*]. I bought some nice place mats and I was going to buy some very nice sheets and pillowcases – they are so much less expensive here than in the US that I decided to buy them here, but Jon has to measure our blanket so that I can buy the right size.

Oh yeah, and I am little bummed today – because Jon went to see Pearl Jam in concert last night. My all-time favorite band. Of course he had bought a ticket for me as well, because we both thought that I would be back in CA for a while already at that time… now he had to try and sell it and it’s just so unfair that I didn’t get to see them :( It has been much too long. I don’t know if it should be kind of comforting that living in LA will actually give me the opportunity to see many bands in concert on a regular basis. I just hope that Pearl Jam will be among them again. They are usually not playing too many gigs anymore.

…ja so stimmen wir alle ein! Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein, werden wir Weltmeister sein!

Germany played a marvelous game last night. They are the true champions of this Soccer World Cup. In the end, I believe coming out third of the competition is a more rewarding situation then losing the finals. I am so happy Germany beat Portugal 3:1. It’s kind of sad that the World Cup is over now. The whole atmosphere during the last 4 weeks can hardly be described with words… so many emotions of happiness, sadness,  jubilation and despair so close together… and still a huge party of all nations. It was amazing. I wish the World Cup would never end…

I watched the “petite finale” at Frank’s place [he's a friend from College] with about another 15 people on a big screen. It was great to see some of the people I knew from College [P.E. Department] and that I hadn’t seen in quite a while. We had a potluck dinner and a great time! :)

In the afternoon yesterday Ilka came to pick me up and we met Kim and Pia for some coffee in Düsseldorf. It was great that we got the chance to see each other. We sat outside in a nice street café and had some fun chatting time. Pia is getting married next week, so we were exchanging ideas and experiences from my wedding. 

Today we went to see my Granddad and my great-aunt in the afternoon. There was Schützenfest in their part of town and we usually go over to watch the parade [my Granddad is honorary member of the event] and have coffee and cake afterwards :) It’s a nice opportunity to spend some time together. Did I mention that I like those kind of family get togethers?!

This was before the game.

I was really hoping the German team would make it to the World Cup finals. I was all excited the whole day yesterday… I watched at home on the couch again with my parents and my aunt. We all had gotten out our fan accessories *lol* and somehow I was pretty positive that our guys could beat the Italians this time… really beat their asses for the thing they did before the semi-final regarding the disqualification imposed on Torsten Frings.
I mean I knew that it would be a hard game, but when they started overtime with 0:0, I thought they could really hold out for the penalty-shooting. What a bummer!

I still have a lot of respect for the German team. Who would have thought a few weeks ago that they would make it that far? Our guys really owe their success to Jürgen Klinsmann, who did an amazing job as their coach and Jens Lehmann, their awesome goalie. They can be proud of their achievement. They also were very fair and likeable underdogs… disappointed, but still with their chins up :)

Overall the World Cup was a great success for the team and a great success for Germany. The atmosphere during the last few weeks was unbelievable and I think the slogan really fitted well: A time to make friends [well... I liked the German slogan even better: Zu Gast bei Freunden... but the translation didn't work well].

WAY TO GO, GERMANY!

Germany vs. Argentina  5:3

This is just amazing… I can’t believe our guys made it to the semi-finals! 

WAY TO GO!!!

I have to say that I am kind of getting into it… it is indeed fun to browse through your archive or take new photos to share with all of you :) So here we go… and don’t forget to play!

1. Something with a story behind it.

There is indeed a story behind this street sign… and if you have followed this diary closely, you might already now what it is ;) I saw this [street] sign in my sweetie’s hometown Ventura the first time I visited - and it seemed to be a sign for our relationship… San(dra) and Jon(athan) have been together since.

I would love to live on Sanjon Road

2. A Random and Odd photo.

“The Wave” in Paria Canyon [Utah/Arizona]. One of the most amazing photos I have ever seen and a spot that is on top of my “most-wanted-places-to-visit” list.
I don’t want to bore you with the geology of this place, but you have to admit: it looks amazing!
3. A photo of something borrowed.

My sister’s  red Puma Speedcat Sneakers :) I just love them. I borrowed them  from her last summer, because they fitted so well with my outfit… and I haven’t given them back yet!

Look at this tiny, little monkey… doesn’t he look familiar from a children’s book we all know? I can’t believe I got so close to him… with no fences or bars between us.

On Friday, Ira and I went to “Apenheul“, a monkey park in the Netherlands. Ira had told me so much about it, but we hadn’t manage to go there before. It’s a place like a zoo, only that all they have is monkeys and  many of them live in the trees without fences around them. If you want to walk through the park, you get a “monkey-proof” bag at the entrance, because monkeys are intelligent creatures and know how to open zippers and buttons and they aren’t too shy to check out your bags and pockets.
I was already really amazed to see the monkeys so close-up and we also went to see the gorilla-feeding [which - of course- took place in a fenced area], but the highlight of the day was that some of these squirrel monkeys got really trusting and climbed up on my arm and on my head [photos to come], even tried to look into the pockets of my jeans. Awwww! They were so adorable with their tiny little leathery hands and feet. I would have liked to take one home right then :)

I also have to mention this little fellow here, who had no fear whatsoever to walk around between our feet trying to find some crumbs that we dropped from our ice-cream cones :)

Saturday morning, I took my sister and Dirk to the train station. They left to Mexico for their honeymoon :) I am so happy for them! They took a flight from Frankfurt and went there by train.
In the afternoon, I went to the church wedding of a “friend” [in lack of a better word] from school. I wasn’t really invited to the wedding, but we emailed a few months ago and told each other that we were both getting married this summer and I thought it would be nice to show up and congratulate her and her husband. I think she was surprised, but happy to see me. It was a nice ceremony and she looked beautiful in her dress. I also met her cousin who used to play tennis with and who I hadn’t seen in years (!) and it was really great talking to her :) It’s funny sometimes how you can re-connect with people you haven’t seen for a long time.
Besides all that, I was wondering the whole time how the hell my “friend” could get married that day when Germany made it to the second round of the World Cup [haha...just kidding ].
I made it home just in time to throw myself on the couch and watch the soccer game with my parents :)
OMG, what a game. I couldn’t believe they guys scored two goals in the first 12 minutes… amazing! I am positively surprised how this team came around… who would have thought that they’d make it that far?
Like I said, I am really getting into soccer [for the time being] and I am so nervous during the games that I can hardly sit still.

After the game we had friends of my parents over for dinner and my Dad served us a delicious 3-course meal. My Dad doesn’t cook very often, but if he does, it’s always exquisite :) We stayed up till 3 a.m.

Today I was tired, lazy and confused by the weird weather which culminated in a huge thunderstorm in the early evening. It was really coming down hard. Jon would have loved it. [He loves thunderstorms!]
I read a lot today [a book by a German author which is called "Der Schwarm"], took a nap and also watched some soccer. Sundays just go by like that… way too fast.

Ok, I think this is fun… so I’ll participate… go to Kristine’s site and check it out:

1. My drinking glasses

Small and simple. I think it used to be a glass for mustard :)

2. My address book

Part of my brain – I can’t go anywhere without this book. I have actually memorized quite a lot of addresses, phonenumbers and email addresses, but I would be lost without it. It does not only hold all important addresses, it also functions as a photoalbum, birthday calendar, and notebook.

3. Something new

I bought these door hooks [actually two of them] for Jon’s and my apartment. I know I shouldn’t by stuff here that I have to take overseas in extra bags, but I can’t help buying stuff for our home… at least it’s something small ;)

I’ve called the panel physician from the list that I received from the US consulate Monday morning. I need an appointment for a medical examination and the closest doctor on the list is in Dortmund. Great! So I have to go to Dortmund on Monday. I am thrilled I have no idea what they’re going to do with me, but it will cost me another 150€. What a rip off! These people [who shall not be named] definitely know how to get your money!
I’ll still try everything to get my visa and be on the plane on July, 3rd – but to be honest, I believe it’s not going to happen … the mills of bureaucracy grind slowly.

In the afternoon I went to the photographer with my sister to pick out her wedding pictures. It’s funny, but the new grooms were both not very interested in taking part in this… Jon didn’t even consider coming with me and Dirk pretended to be busy *lol* they both trusted me and Nina in picking out the best pictures ;)

Yesterday morning I went out for breakfast with my friend Ilka T.. She originally is from my town, but she’s been living in the US for a quite a while now and she actually lives in Sacramento right now [and I don't *sigh*]. It’s always fun to get together with her, because we both get the chance to vent our frustration and anger about the authorities. She’s been through the visa-jungle as well and we both decided yesterday morning that it would be a great idea to write a book together about our common experiences overseas

I bought fresh strawberries on my way home and then I made strawberry cake in the afternoon:

It was soooo delicious :) My Mom’s cousine came over for some coffee and cake [mainly because she wanted to see some of the wedding pictures], but I made them watch the soccer game, of course.
I turned on the TV a little late and I couldn’t trust my eyes that Germany had scored their first goal in the 4th minute already… how awesome! I really enjoyed the game and I think that the German team played really well together. Is this a sign for the second round?
I must admit… I’ve been kind of infected with the World Cup virus now [since you know me for not being the biggest soccer fan usually ]… I even watched the game Sweden-England in the evening!

Today I went out for lunch with Ira. We went to the Tüschenbroicher Mühle, a very nice restaurant right next to a little lake. Unfortunately, we couldn’t sit outside as it was kind of clowdy and chilly, but we enjoyed the nice view. It was good to spend some time with Ira and recap about the weddings.

Saturday – the day of my sister’s wedding :)
We had to get up damn early, because Nina’s wedding would last the whole day with the Standesamt [legal ceremony] in the morning and the church wedding in the afternoon. I got up at 7:30 a.m., took a shower, got dressed and drove to the florist shop to pick up Nina’s bridal bouquet. I dropped some stuff off at the restaurant and then went to my sister’s. She was already up having Dirk’s aunt do her hair. My aunt Andrea was there, too, to do Nina’s make-up.  It was cool to finally experience the day from a different perspective… Nina was a little nervous – I could tell – but I don’t blame her. It’s such an exciting day!
I went home at 10 a.m. to get ready and then we drove to the Standesamt at 10:40 a.m.
Nina and Dirk looked so beautiful together :) The ceremony at the Standesamt was really nice and Jon performed a song for Nina and Dirk at the end… and they loved it!

We drove over to the hotel afterwards and all got ready for the church ceremony. The church was only a short distance from the hotel, so that we could all walk over there. The church ceremony was beautiful [held by a guy who went to school with us :)] and when Nina and Dirk walked out, there were all the kids from Nina’s class performing a personalized song for them. They were so adorable :)

The reception was held in the beautiful park behind the hotel and it was really fun. Someone took this nice picture of my friend Ira and me and let me tell you, we really had a great time :) My sister and Dirk were just glowing with happiness :) The dinner and party was great as well… we partied till 6 a.m. in the morning again :) Overall the wedding was quite different from our wedding two weeks ago, but just as special and wonderful. We had organized some performances for the happy couple and we also had time to dance :)
Finally I had the opportunity to eat my way through the whole buffet [since I hadn't really eaten much at my own wedding ;)] and I also tried to wedding cake… which was delicious :)

Sunday – I got up at 9:30 a.m. after three hours of sleep and I tried to wake up Jon, who had come to bed at 7 a.m. No reaction whatsoever ;) I decided to let him sleep, got dressed and went downstairs. My parents, Dirk’s parents and his aunt and uncle were sitting outside on the patio enjoying their breakfast. Nina had gotten up also, so we checked out the breakfast buffet together. Then Jon showed up outside [and he looked so tired ;)] and was able to order some breakfast, too [although usually breakfast is over at 10 a.m.].
Afterwards we started packing our stuff and putting all the gifts, leftovers and decoration stuff in the cars. It’s unbelievable that Nina’s wedding is over now as well.

In the afternoon, after dropping off stuff at my sister’s place, Jon and I took a nap. We were so tired. At 6 p.m. we went out to eat  “Turkish pizza” [which Jon has started to love :) and which he wanted to have as the last dinner in Germany] and then we stopped by at my Granddad’s and my great-aunt’s place to say “goodbye”… yes, four weeks are over and Jon is flying home tomorrow.
We had some leftovers from the wedding for dinner, Nina and Dirk and Marita and Jochen came over to say “goodbye” as well and then we started packing Jon’s suitcase.

Monday – I took Jon to the airport at 7 a.m.. It was kind of sad to see him go. Even my parents had teary eyes when they said “goodbye”. I kept reminding myself that this will be the last time I have to take him to the airport and see him go alone. We had some coffee at a coffee shop and then he had to go through security.
It felt weird after having so many people around during the last few weeks that Jon was the last one to leave. I took a nap when I came home and in the afternoon I had a tutoring lesson and then went to my sister’s place with my Mom in the evening.

Tuesday – I feel like I could sleep for a whole week. I am so tired. I wanted to get up at 8:00 a.m., but fell asleep again and didn’t wake up before 11 a.m.. Then I had to take care of some paper work for the visa.
I had a tutoring lesson in the afternoon and afterwards went shopping with my great-aunt. She invited me for some ice-cream later and I had a huge strawberry bowl with vanilla ice-cream :) yummy! In the evening, I watched soccer with my Dad :) 

Wednesday – During the day I was busy with cleaning up my desk. I really have to keep some order with all the gifts, cards and documents that I have.
I watched the soccer game [Germany - Poland] in the evening with my Dad. What a thriller! I definitely think that Germany deserved the goal that they scored in overtime.

Thursday – Feast of Corpus Christi and a holiday for certain parts in Germany :) Yay! I got up at 9:30 a.m., had breakfast with my parents on the patio and then went over to Marita’s house. She had filmed at my and my sister’s weddings and I had promised to help her put the film on DVD… it was cool to watch parts of it already.
In the afternoon, some of my parents’ friends came over, we had coffee and cake and watched the DVD’s :)
Later my Dad started the BBQ grill and we all had dinner together.

Friday – I went to the Bürgerbüro in the morning to order a copy of my criminal record [which I have to present at the consulate at my visa interview] and was also able to pick up my new German ID :)
In the evening, I was invited for Ira’s birthday party and I went over there at 7 p.m. to help her prepare the last few things. The party took place in the winter garden and backyard with a big barbeque, delicious Italian dishes and desserts. The thing that got the most attention was the “chocolate fountain” that Ira had gotten for her birthday. Everybody was totally fascinated by it and of course wanted to try it out :)
It was a really fun night. Nina, Dirk and I stayed till 4 a.m. in the morning. 
Saturday – I only slept for 4,5 hours and I was tired when I woke up. I had some breakfast outside and then slept some more in the afternoon. I seriously need to find my sleeping rhythm again… I am so “off” right now *lol*
I watched soccer with my Mom in the evening [USA-Italy] and … OMG… was that an aggressive game! I watched part of it while talking with Jon on the phone, because he was watching the game, too. It was funny to be able to watch the same on TV, although we found out that the transmission by ABC was 14 seconds behind *lol*
I went to bed right after the game, because I was soooo tired.

Sunday – sleeping in… enjoying the nice weather… relaxing…reading… BBQ :)

Wohoo… I have finally caught up with my diary :) Thank you for being so patient.

first of all… some more photos of our wedding :) as I promised :)

Sunday - Jon and I got up at 9:30 a.m. after 2,5 hours of sleep… yes, we were tired, but happy :) Everyone else was having breakfast already, so we sat with Anke and Hauke and also talked to some of our guests. Lukas was so cute and walked up to me and said: “Sandra, where’s your dress?” :) Awww… that was so adorable [and you bet, I would have LOVED to wear my dress again that morning]. After breakfast, we had to start cleaning up the place… getting our stuff from the rooms, collecting our gifts and wrapping up the left overs to take home…
we sat outside for a while with some of our guests, took some more pictures and finally, when everybody had left, went home as well.
It was amazing, because a friend of the family had already put a photo CD in our mailbox, so that we could see the first photos of our wedding day :) We hung out at our house and had leftovers for dinner ;)
Monday - Two days after our wedding and we were still tired. In the morning, we went over to the hotel where Jon’s parents were staying at to say “goodbye” because they were leaving to Strassbourg that day. Eric was going to fly home on Wednesday and Diana, Chris and Jina were going to take a trip to France.
Chris, Aaron and Maria decided to go to Aachen for the day, so we dropped them off at the train station and had a relaxing day to ourselves :) When they returned in the evening, Chris, Maria, Jon and I went out for dinner to a Greek restaurant. Aaron didn’t feel good and went to bed. It was a pity, because it was their last day.

Tuesday – We took Aaron and Maria to the airport in the morning and then spent some time with Chris in Düsseldorf. First, we took Jon’s wedding ring back to the jewelry store to get it resized [as it was 4 sizes too big - I don't know what happened when Jon told me his ring size... if the people in the US didn't measure the right size or if the convertion into German sizes went wrong].
Later we walked around the Altstadt, enjoyed the view of the Rhine and then went to the brewery Füchschen for some lunch. Jon and Chris had typical German food [Schweinebraten in Biersoße - pork roast in beer sauce] and enjoyed a few Alt beer. At the breweries here it’s typcial that you don’t ask for another beer, but that the waiter replaces your empty glass with a fresh beer as long as you don’t stop him :) Chris and Jon definitely enjoyed that *g* I had a tutoring lesson in the afternoon and afterwards I drove to Cologne to meet with my friend Nic and we went to a concert, while Jon and Chris enjoyed watching soccer at home :)

Wednesday - This morning we had to take Chris to the airport… slowly everybody was leaving one after the other. It was kind of sad after having so many people at our house to see them go again :(
We saw my friend Frank and his girlfriend Nadine for breakfast afterwards. It was nice to have some time to talk, since we didn’t really have the chance to talk to each other on Saturday ;)

Thursday – Jon and I went downtown this morning to get passport photos and apply for my new passport and ID [Personalausweis]. I must admit, I wasn’t aware that my new last name would attract so much attention *lol* almost everybody has something to say about the name “Bond”.  Jon was right – he always said that people commented about his last name, but I never understood what he really meant by that ;)
When I introduce myself as “Sandra Bond” now, people ask “Bond… as in James Bond?” … or “Wow… what a cool name” :) It’s hilarious. I am curious to see when I will get tired of it ;) 

Friday – We drove to the Bridal Store with my sister in the afternoon, because she had an appointment for the dress fitting :) It was great to experience the whole thing from the perspective of the maid of honor and NOT the bride yourself. Nina looked so great in her dress :)
In the evening, Jon and I drove to Mainz to visit our friends Christopher and Karima over the weekend. We arrived at 8:30 p.m. and ordered some Chinese food for dinner :) We stayed over at Christopher’s parents house [because they had more space to accomadate us] and went to bed around midnight.

Saturday – Karima and Cathi [6 months old] came over for breakfast and then Karima’s Mom dropped off Lukas [our flower kid ;)] at 11 a.m. He’s so cute :) We walked over to their house later and spent some time together until I was picked up. Two of my penfriends live in Mainz and I had decided to take the opportunity and spent the Saturday evening with them. It also gave Christopher and Jon some time for a ”men’s night out” :) As far as I know, they spent the night checking out the pubs in Mainz! 

Sunday – Sunday morning Christopher, Karima, the kids and Jon and I went out for Brunch at the Volkspark in Mainz. The weather was really nice -a little cool, but sunny ;) It was a fabulous brunch buffet and Jon and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we all went for a walk.
In the afternoon, Jon and I met with Jakob, one of Jon’s Dad’s friends, for some coffee. He was actually spending the afternoon with some neighbors, so we joined them for some coffee and cake :) 
In the evening, we went back to Christopher and Karima’s house and we had a nice barbeque in the backyard. Karima’s brother Karim came over as well.

Monday – We went over to Chris’ and Karima’s house in the morning and Lukas opened the door. He was obviously surprised to see us AGAIN, because he said: ”Oh, you’re here again!’ *lol* He was so adorable!
We had breakfast on the patio together and then Jon and I decided to take off. We wanted to meet with my two penfriends for coffee downtown and then drive back home. 
We met Michee and Sandra downtown and went to a nice little café close to the “Fastnachtsbrunnen” which is famous in Mainz.  
We drove back to Grevenbroich in the afternoon and then went out to dinner at the Spanish restaurant in Mönchengladbach. Nina and I had received gift certificates for our birthday, so we decided to put them to use ;)

Tuesday – We spent most of the day relaxing at home. I had two tutoring lessons in the afternoon and Jon stayed home reading his book ;) In the evening, we went over to Nina’s place and spent some time with Dirk and Nina.

Wednesday – We drove to Düsseldorf in the morning, because we had to pick up Jon’s ring that we had to get resized. Now it fitted perfectly  and Jon was happy :)
We stopped at a big bookstore and Jon got some books as he really got into reading crime fiction again since he came here. I went shopping later and in the evening we had a big barbeque ;) Fortunately the weather was nice, because Jon really wanted to have a BBQ while he was here.

Thursday – In the morning, I had to run some errands downtown and then my cousin picked up my sister and me and we went to Düsseldorf. Nina had an appointment with Nicole’s friend to get her nails done and Nicki and I just went along [and eventually got our nails done, too :)]. Later in the afternoon we went to Ira’s birthday party. We just stopped by for some cake and then we had to leave again, because Ira went out to dinner with her parents and Nina, Dirk, Jon and I went to my old school to watch a musical performed by the VIP class [Vocal Instrumental Practical class]. Nina’s best friend’s daugther performed in it and it was really amazing. She sang three solo songs and we were really blown away.

Friday – In the morning, I drove to the bridal store to pick up Nina’s dress. It was exciting to know that my sister would wear it the next day and be a beautiful bride :) I took the dress to the hotel and put it in their suite which was already prepared for the next day!
I had to prepare some more stuff for my sister in the afternoon and at 5:30 p.m. Nina and Dirk picked us up and we went to a private “soccer party” for the opening of the WM :) There was a big tent in the garden with a big screen, a keg of beer and a BBQ… Jon loved it… and Dirk, too… as you can see :)

Nina and I left after the first game. I still had to prepare a little video presentation for Nina’s and Dirk’s wedding and Nina met with a friend to prepare the table decoration. She picked the guys up at 11 p.m. and I think they were both a little drunk *lol* Jon went to bed right away!

…to be continued!

It was finally here… our wedding day :)

Nina and I got up fairly early [7:30 a.m.] and went over to my parents’ house. It was good to start the whole day quietly… Nina went to the florist shop to get the flowers and I had some breakfast with the guys. Strangely enough I wasn’t nervous at all…

Jon, Dhevan, Aaron and my Dad went to get some music equipment for the night and then they went over to the hotel at which Jon’s parents were staying to get dressed. Chris Rigg had the privilege in the morning to be the only guy to see the girls’ wedding preparations *lol* but before we got ready, he had to leave as well.

At 11:30 a.m. Ilka and Kim arrived. I had taken a shower and Ilka started working on my hair. First she put all my hair on curlers and then I had to sit with a drier hood for a while… wasn’t that pretty?!
Then she put my hair in a bun and put strass stones around it. It looked so nice… when Ilka was finished with my hair, my aunt took over to do my make up. It looked really nice as well. I definitely have to learn how to do that myself :)
Ilka did my sister’s hair and Kim’s hair as well and then we had some potato salad and leftovers for lunch.
Then it was finally time to step into my wedding dress… uh, it was so exciting :) I kind of started to get a little bit nervous *hehe* I must admit that the whole pampering that morning made me feel really pretty :)
At 2:30 p.m. the limousine came to pick me up… I drove to the church with my Dad.

The moment I dreaded the most was getting out of the car in front of the church… I really don’t like to be the center of attention and so I didn’t like the fact that all eyes would be on me ;) but that’s the way it is on your wedding day, I guess [and honestly, it wasn't so bad *lol*].
We had a catholic and a protestant pastor who picked us up at the entrance of the church and then we walked down the isle together.
We had a bilingual ceremony in German and English and the ceremony was musically accompanied by a gospel group that we had picked out. It was beautiful :) We picked out two common gospel songs and then two contemporary songs [ of which my favorite was "When you say nothing at all" by Ronan Keating :)].
The funny thing was when we finally had to exchange rings that the pastor gave Jon his own ring to put on my finger   I couldn’t help but smile :)
When the ceremony was over and we went out of the church, Jon all of sudden screamed and cheered… it was so funny… and everyone thought it was so cool *lol*

When we walked outside there were a lot of my friends holding heart-shaped balloons… Lukas [2,5 years old] was strewing flowers and he was so adorable.
The whole situation was just overwhelming and I was so happy. After people had congratulated us outside of the chapel, Jon and I, my Dad and Philipp [the boy to whose communion we went the weekend before] drove to the restaurant in the limousine. It was fun :)
Our location for the wedding celebration was an old manor and the reception [Sektempfang] took place in a little room which used to be a stable ;) I must admit – I didn’t get to try any of the canapes and I only had two sips of my Champagne because we had to talk to so many people and to shake so many hands :)
There were quite a few people that I was REALLY happy to see and it was wonderful that they could  be there with us on this special day :)

We got some really nice and creative presents [as we had basically asked for people to give us money since we can't really take anything back to the US - unless we order a big container *lol*].
Then we had to go off with the photographer to take some photos. Unfortunately it kept raining pretty much the whole day, so that we couldn’t take many pictures outside, but oh well… nobody really seemed to care much about the weather… we had sunshine in our hearts :)

The dinner and party took place at the “Tenne” [the old barn floor]… and this was our table decoration. We had a great buffet [which I ate very little of *lol*] and Jon and I were trying to go and talk to everybody for a little bit.
Then there were two speeches by my Dad and my father-in-law and of course some dancing…  I didn’t want to believe it when people told me that the day will fly by, but they were right… time just flew by and I felt like I didn’t really have time to talk to everyone.
It was a wonderful evening/night though… we partied till 3 a.m. and stayed up till 6:30 a.m. in the morning :) Susi, Ira, Dhevan, Dirk, Nina, Jon and I were the last ones to hang out in the hotel lobby before we went to bed *lol* the “wedding night” was accordingly short ;)

THANKS to everyone who came to my wedding or was part of it in any other way :) It was a very special day for Jon and me… in fact, the best day of our lives :)

P.S. I know I still owe you more photos, but I will have to post them later… I hardly get to catch up with my diary here…

I know you have been waiting for my update for ages…  I am sorry but the last two weeks have been sooo crazy. I really didn’t get to the computer at all.

Jon arrived on Tuesday, May 16th. I gave my friend Ira (who’s a flight attendant) a ride to the airport in the morning, because she had to get there right around the time when Jon arrived. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic and Jon’s plane arrived early, so that he had to wait for me… I felt so sorry and he had been scared that I had forgotten to pick him up [...never!] It was just wonderful to finally see and hug him again :)
We had a pretty relaxed day, drove around the city a little bit and then he took a nap in the afternoon.

Wednesday - we had an appointment with our local pastor at 10 a.m. for the Eheprotokoll, a document that you have to obtain if you want to have a church wedding. We spent about an hour with him and talked about the values of marriage and all that stuff. I don’t know if people in the protestant church have to do that but it’s mandatory if you want to get married in the catholic church. The pastor asked us to define the word “sacrament” and fortunately Jon (who went to a catholic private high school) was able to give a definition *lol*
After that we went to the Standesamt to get a German marriage certificate and start a Stammbuch [family register]. Unfortunately -as always – there is always something and so they were asking for a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung for Jon [which is a piece of paper stating that he hadn't been married before]. We were told that we have to obtain that at the American embassy in Düsseldorf. It didn’t make sense at all, because how can you obtain a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung if you already got married and received a marriage certificate?!
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in town and then in the afternoon I went to the bridal store with my Mom for my dress fitting :) Unfortunately it didn’t fit at all – it was too wide around the cleavage – even though they had tailored it already. I was told that I had lost weight and that I had lost 2,5 cm around the chest since the week before [honestly, I don't believe it].

Thursday – My cousin Nicki and her boyfriend Oliver picked us up at 8:30 a.m. to go to Düsseldorf. I had an appointment at her friend’s beauty salon to get my nails done. I never had that done before but I thought it would be a nice thing to do before the wedding ;)
Afterwards we walked to the Düsseldorf Altstadt [old town] and met up with Jon and Oliver who had had their first Alt beer already :) we went shopping for a little bit and then drove home at around 2:30 p.m.
I had two tutoring lessons from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and afterwards went over to my aunt’s, because we were going to try some make up for the wedding.

Friday – I had to make some phone calls in the morning, because there were still things I had to finalize with some people. In the afternoon, Nina and I went to the florist in Bedburg to order the bridal bouquet and the flowers for the table decoration. Later Nina dropped me off at my cosmetician’s, because I had a tutoring lesson with her son. In the evening we went out and had Italian food with my sister. Dirk wanted to come along, but since he had a soccer game the next day, he was staying at a hotel close to the stadium [that's professional soccer for you].

Saturday – Jon and I got up early, because we had to drive to Belgium to meet with our catholic pastor, Harrie de Zwart, who was going to do the wedding ceremony. He used to be the pastor of a neighboring church in my town, but was moved to a monastery in Belgium two year ago.
We left at  10 a.m. and drove to Malmedy, a cute little town in the french speaking part of Belgium. We met our pastor at his apartment, had some coffee [and it was nice to see that he had so many memories from his church time in Grevenbroich on his walls :)] and talked about the ceremony. Since he’s an older man I didn’t know how conservative he would be about the catholic wedding ceremony, but he was actually really cool about everything… he said that Jon and I would enter the church as a couple [and not do the traditional way where the groom waits at the altar and the bride comeand he agreed on the gospel singers that I had booked. He was awesome!
Afterwards we went out for lunch at a really nice Belgian restaurant. We had a three course meal and we really didn't expect it, but he invited us. He was so nice :) We spent about 4,5 hours with him [so he really invested some time in getting to know us :)] and then we drove back home.

Sunday - We went to a first communion in Kleve today. Jon’s Dad is the godfather of his friend Dirk’s son Philipp. We arrived at 11 a.m. at the church and it was a really nice service with lots of music and a ceremony really suitable for children :) After the service, we went to their house and had lunch. They had a very long table in the living room for all guests and it reminded me a lot of my own first communion – which was about 21 ago *lol* We had coffee and cake in the afternoon and Jon and I enjoyed talking to the other guests. We got home around 8 p.m.

Monday – I had an appointment with my cosmetician this morning. I really love to go there :) She started off with a really nice neck massage and then she did a skin treatment on my face and cleavage. It’s really relaxing to be there. When we were finished, she tried out a make up for my wedding. I liked it a lot :)

Tuesday – We left for Frankfurt early in the morning to meet with our protestant pastor, Keith Chamberlain, a friend of  the Bond family. He wanted to meet with us, because he wanted to get to know us a little more since he was going to write and present the meditation for our wedding ceremony. We had some tea and a really nice talk with him. We drove back at around 12 p.m. and had some lunch at an Imbiss place. Then we went to see my great-aunt for a little bit and later in the afternoon Jon and I went to the airport in Düsseldorf to pick up Jon’s Mom and his brother Chris and his girlfriend Jina. We only found Jon’s Mom Diana who didn’t know if Chris and Jina were going to meet her at the airport or not. Communication hadn’t been really clear between them I guess. We waited for about another hour, had Chris paged at the information desk, but he and Jina didn’t show up. So we went home and had dinner with my parents and afterwards we had another make up trial session with my aunt ;)

Wednesday – We drove to Düsseldorf in the morning and went to the embassy to obtain the Ledigkeitsbescheinigung for Jon. The consulate in Düsseldorf is like a small version of the huge consulate in Frankfurt. We had to leave my purse in a locker, we were checked from head to toe and the consulate even has its own elevator in this building. The officer at the entrance has to use a key to make the elevator go up to the third floor and when you step out you have to go through another metal detector.
When we finally talked to an officer about our request, he was laughing at us. He said that he had never heard before that someone who is already married needs a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung for the Standesamt. It’s indeed really absurd if you ask me – but who asks me? Nobody. We had to pay a 25 euro processing fee and then Jon had to make a sworn declaration that he had never been married before marrying me *lol*
After that we went to the jewelry store to pickup our wedding rings. They just looked beautiful. I am really glad I decided on two rings – the actual wedding ring and a second ring with a gem.
Unfortunately, something went wrong with the conversion of Jon’s ring size. It’s either that they didn’t measure the right ring size in the US or the conversion wasn’t right – Jon was about four sizes too big :( We were going to get it resized after the wedding. Oh, and before we left the guy at the jewelry store told us that we were lucky that we hadn’t come to pick up the rings the day before, because they had been robbed by three guys with ski masks and guns. OMG! How scary. I am so glad we didn’t go there on Tuesday!
We went back to Grevenbroich, I dropped Jon off at the hotel his Mom was staying at and went to the Standesamt to get taken care of our paperwork. We were finally able to get the family register and an international marriage certificate which we both needed to be married in church. Also, my name officially changed  to “Sandra Bond” today :)
I went back to the hotel, we had some coffee with Jon’s Mom and then we went over to my house where we received a phone call from Chris and Jina who were waiting to be picked up at the Nikolauskloster [the monastery we were going to get married at]. Don’t really ask me why they weren’t at the airport the day before and how they got to the Nikolauskloster – I have no clue whatsoever!
We dropped them all off at my house and then my Mom and I went to the bridal store again to pick up my dress. I had hoped that it would fit perfectly this time, but… it didn’t. It was too wide again. They changed it again while I was there and then finally I was able to take it home :) Ah, I couldn’t wait to wear it!!!
In the evening Jochen [one of my parents' friends] and Jon picked up Dhevan and Chris Rigg at the airport and then we all had dinner together at our house :)

Thursday – Jon and my Dad went to the airport again that morning to pick up Aaron and Maria. I stayed at home to work on our church booklet, the little frames for our table decoration and the seating chart. Eric and Diana took everyone on a little trip to the city, so that my Mom and I would have time to work on some stuff at home. In the afternoon around 5 p.m. we all met at my parents’ house again and had dinner together. It was fun to have this multicultural get together :) There were my parents, Jon, Chris [Jon's brother], Jina [his Korean girlfriend], Aaron [Jon's best man], Maria [his girlfriend], Chris Rigg [Jon's and Chris' friend], Dhevan [our friend from Davis, now LA] and we really had a great time. Jina is such a sweet person. I am so glad she could come to Germany…

Friday – Friday morning my Dad and Jon wanted to go to Köln, because they both still needed ties for the wedding. Chris, Jina, Aaron, Maria, Dhevan Chris Rigg went along to walk around the city. I went the bank with Eric and Diana in the morning to cash some traveler cheques and then they dropped me off at home. I went to the copy shop with my Mom to finish the church booklets and then afterwards we went home and worked on the table decoration and the seating chart again. It pretty much took the whole day.
My Dad and the Americans went out for dinner that night and I went over to my sister’s at around 9:30 p.m. We had planned that I would stay over at her house that night :) She made me a nice bubble bath, we had some Chinese food together and then she helped me with some last minute preparations. We also talked a little bit and then finally realized it was 1:30 a.m. already – time to go to bed and get some beauty sleep for the BIG DAY!

I am going to end here for today… I know this entry is way too long already, so I don’t blame you if you don’t want to read all of it… my next entry will probably be more exciting for all of you, but I felt the need to let you now what was going on in the last two weeks ;)

… to be continued!

Jon will arrive at Düsseldorf airport tomorrow morning. I can’t believe it… 4 months of waiting are almost over! The last week was so hectic, because I had sooo many things to take care of.

Wednesday I had an appointment at the cosmetician in the morning and then my cousin Nicole picked me up to go to Düsseldorf. We went shopping for maternity clothes, I wanted to look for some underwear for the wedding and then we had coffee with one of her friends. My Dad picked me up in the afternoon and we went to a jewelry store where I finally (!) picked out our wedding rings :)

Thursday, I had two tutoring lessons in the afternoon and then I had some more things to take care of… like translating our buffet list into English! Let me tell you, translating menu items into a different language is so hard! I hope that Jon or his parents will have a look at it and tell me if anything sounds really odd… *lol*

Friday we went to the Bridal store with my sister for the dress fitting. It was the first time in 3 months that my sister saw and tried on her dress again and she looked beautiful! :)
Later we went to Mönchengladbach  to do some more shopping… we looked for underwear, stockings and accessoires for the wedding.

Saturday morning, I worked for my cosmetician for a couple of hours a then at 12:30 p.m. met with some girls from my former tennis team. They had a competition that afternoon and had asked me if I could play one match for them. God, I hadn’t played in almost a year – just one hour with my Dad two weeks ago – and it was a disaster *lol* I really got a caning, but it was fun anyways ;)

In the evening I met with Nina and Ira and we went to Cologne to have a somewhat “bachelorette party”. We had  dinner at a Mexican restaurant, Taco Loco, in Cologne. We had Nachos and Fajitas and it was soooo delicious… I love Mexican Food. At the restaurant there were at least three bachelorette parties going on… I was so happy and thankful that Nina and Ira didn’t think of any stupid games for me to play… I just wanted to have a fun night with the both of them :) We decided to have some cocktails later… I had a Caipirinha and a White Russian and I have to admit, I was tipsy… but in a funny way ;) 

 Today [Monday] I went to Siegen to see Ilka and try some more hair styles… I arrived at 11:45 a.m., we had breakfast together and a nice talk and then Ilka dyed my hair, put some highlights in and tried another hair style on me :) [Thank you hun!]… I think I have found my wedding hair-do :)
I drove back at 6 p.m., cleaned up my room and did some last minute organizational stuff…

I am ready for Jon to get here :) :)

I had a great, but busy weekend… I was gone pretty much the whole time.

Saturday morning, I had a tutoring lessons at 9:30 a.m., then my sister picked me up and we went to the florist where we’re going to get the flower decoration for the wedding. God, it’s so hard to decide on what you want… there are so many choices. Later went to IKEA with our Mom to get some other deco stuff [and I seriously could have bought a whole lot of other stuff at IKEA and I can't wait to go shopping for our apartment in LA :)].

In the evening, we had a family dinner at a spanish restaurant. I was really looking forward to it, because I love family dinners :) It was basically my Mom’s cousin’s idea and she invited the whole side of my Mom’s family. We hadn’t been together like this for a long time… so it was fun! Of course, I took a lot of pictures again and here’s one of me and my cousin Bastian. I just love him :)

We had a great time, really good food and yummy dessert :) It’s always fun to go out to eat!

On Sunday morning, I took the train to Stuttgart at 7 a.m. to meet with two of my penfriends and some other girls. I’ve known Annie and Julie  for about 14 years now and we’ve never met before… it seems like the last few months have been the perfect time for meeting my long-time penfriends finally in person :) It was awesome. It didn’t feel like we hadn’t seen each other before, but like the most normal get together of girlfriends that have known each other for a long time. I am usually not even worried anymore to meet my penfriends, because in 99,9% of the time we just get along perfectly well :)

We had some coffee first, hung out and then later on went downtown and had some yummy food at an Italian restaurant. I stayed at Annie’s house over night. She lives on the “Killesberg” with an awesome view over the city :)

Monday morning we met with another girl for coffee, walked around Stuttgart [it's really pretty] and then hung out at her place for a little more… and at 4 p.m. I unfortunately had to catch the train back to Grevenbroich again. Time always goes by sooooo fast!!! :(

I got home at around 8:30 p.m. and then had to take care of some paperwork stuff regarding the wedding buffet. Oh and I have so many more things to do this week… S.O.S.

God, I am busy. Can you tell? I haven’t updated in 4 days again…
Monday morning I woke up to see this in our garden:

I couldn’t believe my eyes and I was wondering how Mother Duck and her ducklings had gotten into our garden. She was hectically searching for a way out, but when I checked the fence, I couldn’t find a hole or anything where they could have gotten in. Ducks can usually fly, I know, but the ducklings were definitely too small for flying. I watched them the whole morning and when it started to rain in the afternoon, they were hiding beneath a bush. I haven’t seen them since… obviously they must have found a way out of our garden again. Ah, but they were so adorable.

Tuesday I had my tutoring lessons in the afternoon and then I tried to sit down and make a seating chart for the wedding. It is kind of hard to put people at the right tables – especially if you want to have certain people sit together and other under no circumstances *g* I am pretty sure, I will rethink a couple more times :)

Yesterday I had an appointment at the bridal store for the dress fitting :) I picked out the dress in February and I could hardly remember what the dress looked like. I was wondering if I would still like it… but when I tried it on again, there was no single doubt in my mind that it was the right choice.
There was another girl trying on her dress… cute girl and pretty dress…. but the girl was HUGE. I thought it was very unthoughtful from the tailor to ask me to stand next to her in front of this big mirror… I mean, she still looked pretty and I told her so, but I hope she didn’t feel uncomfortable.
My wedding shoes seem to be very comfortable and I am so happy with my choice. The dress fitting took about an hour and it was fun walking around in it. I am looking forward to wearing it a whole day :)
One thing I still can’t believe is: I totally and absolutely forgot to take any pictures… again! *aargggh* I don’t know how you can forget something important like this, but I did. I am so angry with myself. I’ll have another chance to finally take some pictures when I pick it up in two weeks.
I was able to pick up Nina’s veil though and we met with her later, because she got her hair done by Dirk’s aunt… and they were also trying out some more wedding hair styles. I think she has decided on how she wants to have her hair on her big day… I still haven’t  oh well…

I was busy with phone calls this morning… first talked to Keith, a friend of Jon’s Dad and our protestant pastor at the wedding. He was very nice and his German is perfect [well, he's lived in Germany for numerous years now]… and he’ll be helping me with planning the ceremony. This is awesome. He’ll also get in touch with the catholic pastor and talk about details with him. We won’t meet with any of them before the 20th of May, so he really takes some pressure of my chest.
I also called Geneva again… very nice people at the church there, just totally incapable of sending out a piece of paper to my address. I’ve called them twice in the last three weeks and I still haven’t gotten Jon’s baptismal record. I really hope it’ll get here soon!

I ran some errands later and then had two tutoring lessons in the afternoon. I love my new student… he’s so cute and it’s fun to work with him. What really angers me is that he seems to be pretty good with English grammar and all [he can actually explain every rule to me - ok, he's only in 5th grade, but he can actually explain a rule and not just give an example], but he just can’t deal with the phrasing of exercises. In my opinion it’s all about concentrating and really reading and understanding the task.

That’s been my week so far… pretty busy… 

Jon received the approval notice for our petition I-130 [immigration visa CR1] in the mail last week. Sounds more exciting than it is, because we still have some more weeks of paperwork ahead of us… but it basically means that our case was APPROVED  and the necessary steps to complete the process are being taken by the USCIS – forms will be mailed to a different visa center from where they will be sent to the consulate in Germany eventually. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that everything will have gone through by the end of June… I really don’t want to re-book my flight again!

Jon has bought his wedding suit last week :) I am hopeful that I’ll be able to pick out our wedding rings this week as well, although I still don’t know his ring size, but we’ll have a nice talk tomorrow on the phone about the urgent matters… :)
I also have an appointment at the bridal store this week for the dress fitting. I can hardly remember what the dress looks like that I picked out *lol* so I hope I’ll still like it :) I was a little bit surprised when I was told to bring my shoes and my underwear… why my underwear? [Besides, I still don't have underwear... one more thing on the list :)].

Our wedding is in four weeks. I am surprised how calm I am about everything. I still have so much to organize, but at the same time I think I’ve been getting a lot done lately -which is good :)

Yesterday I spent a day with some girlfriends that I hadn’t seen in years! We had set the date for a “reunion” a while ago and it was so much fun! We went shopping [well, just looking, not buying ;)] and had ice-cream and just talked and talked and talked :) I was pretty much gone the whole day…. spent some time with my sister in the evening, because we wanted to talk some more about the deco for the wedding and the buffet.

Today there was the Frühlingsfest [spring celebration] downtown and all the shops were open for business. My whole family went out and -believe it or not – my sister and I bought something for each other’s wedding. I told you that I was still looking for a dress, but now I bought a top and a jacket [and I hope that I'll find a nice skirt to go with it next week]. I am really satisfied with my choice, because I really think the top is beautiful… have a look here. Yeah, it’s true… you always find the nicest things, when you’re not looking for anything ;)

Have a great 1st of May :)

I started to really clean out my room  and I also decided to clean my windows [which hadn't been cleaned in years]. So I decided to use beautiful Monday to do that :) It was so nice and sunny outside…. I completely disassembled my desk, moved the TV set and everything else in front of my windows, even washed the blinds and the windowsills. I had dreaded to do all that for a while, but when you’re finally finished with the cleaning, it makes you feel really good. I had the blinds pulled back for the last few days to really enjoy the clean windows and the nice weather outside… and then yesterday it rained and the windows look dirty again Ok, it was still worth moving everything and cleaning behind the desk and shelfs, but I just hate when the rain makes the windows dirty again… [it's the same when you wash your car and it rains a day later].

I also went to play tennis with my Dad on Monday… the first time to play outdoors this year :) It was fun. It was so warm that I could just wear shorts and a t-shirt. Unfortunately, the sunny weather usually  affects my head which means that I ended up with a damn headache in the evening that didn’t want to go away. I think I went to bed at 10 p.m. that night.

Tuesday I had two tutoring lessons in the afternoon and then went to the movies with my Mom. She wanted to see “Walk the line” and since I really thought it was a good movie, I joined her again… actually, she invited me to accompany her. She usually likes to go to this nice little movie theater called “Hitch” in Neuss. It’s not one of the “normal” movie theaters, but part of the Schauspielhaus. It’s one room with only about 15 rows of seats and with a really cool nostalgic atmosphere. They have an old cash register at the entrance and there are little armchairs and tables and high, heavy velvet curtains in the foyer.
I loved the movie again… and so did my Mom. I really think Reese Witherspoon is a great actress [and Joaquin Phoenix did a great job, too, of course. I still can't believe he's River's younger brother.]

I called Switzerland today. I don’t know if I had mentioned it, but Jon was baptized in Geneva and of course we needed to get his baptismal record. I called the church two weeks ago and was told that they would send out a copy of his baptismal certificate before Easter. I hadn’t received anything until today, so I called them again and the secretary said that she was out of the office and that she had to catch up on things… oh yeah? Maybe she can “catch up” a little quicker – how about that? I mean, am I asking too much to send out a  piece of paper? Sorry, I am slightly annoyed right now about the attitude of some people… including the attitude of the postal workers. I sent out the package with the invitations to Jon’s parents 4 (!) weeks ago and ít still hasn’t arrived in CA. I am so f***ing angry.

I had two tutoring lessons again… I have one new student for Thursday afternoons now. He’s the son of my cosmetician and he’s in 5th grade. Really cute too :) It’s going to be fun to work with him! I really like working on a one-on-one basis. That’s a very rewarding situation for a teacher… in most cases that is! I think the girl who’s attending the Hauptschule is not going to make much progress. She just can’t keep things in her memory. When I practice with her, she’s doing fine, but next week she’ll have forgotten everything that we talked about today. Pretty hopeless case.

My sister and I never really had a “real grandma” growing up. My Mom’s Mom died before we were born and my Dad’s Mom died when we were 6. I still remember the first few years of our childhood, because we spent so much time with her. She was a Kindergarten teacher and she took care of us when my parents were at work. Fortunately, when she died, her sister -our dear great-aunt- kind of took her place. She was always like a grandma to us. She never had kids of her own, therefore no grandchildren either, but she loves my Dad and his brother like her own children and she also loves my sister and me like her own grandchildren.

My Mom’s Dad also used to have a “girlfriend” after my grandma died. Nina and I were about 5 years old and she also was like a grandma to us. She was a wonderful woman and Nina and I liked her alot. Unfortunately they separated after a few years, but we still kept in touch until we were 15. That was the last time we saw her. We kept in touch for a little longer through letters, but then she decided that she didn’t want that contact anymore. Nina and I were really sad, but respected her decision. After a while, it turned out that she couldn’t just ignore the time that we had together and we started writing with her again.

Yesterday my sister and I visited her for the first time after 15 (!) years and it was such a wonderful reunion. We pretty much started where we last left off… there was no distance between us or anything. It just felt like we had seen her last week!

We had breakfast together [her son Uwe joined us for some coffee] and then we talked the whole afternoon, looked at photos, talked, had some coffee and cake and talked more. Time just flew by.
In the evening we went out to dinner and her son joined us again with his son Niclas, who’s 15. He was born shortly after we had last seen her.

It was just a wonderful feeling to see her again and I hope that we can do that again before I leave for that States this summer.

Today I just stayed at home and did NOTHING… I slept in the afternoon [because Jon called me last night, so I was tired] and surfed the Internet for some more infos.

Have a good start into the new week.

I really don’t have much to say these days. I feel like nothing exciting is happening, although I am doing so much every day… but you can’t really write elaborated entries about surfing the Internet for deco stuff and things like that.

Monday evening we had my great-aunt, my grandad and my sister and her fiancé come over for dinner. It was our family Easter dinner and I loved it. My Mom made yummy tomato soup, roastbeef with rosmary potatoes and berry ice cream as dessert. I am really going to miss my Mom’s cuisine and the family dinners that we have.

Tuesday I went shopping with my Mom and my sister in Düsseldorf again. Yeah, I know I said in my last entry that I wouldn’t mention the shopping trips again until I find a dress… but since I kind of found one that I at least considered, I thought it was worth mentioning it :) It was dark brown satin, strapless and knee-length… looked really cute, but they only had it in size 42… way too big for me. So I looked it up on the Internet and I could order it online if I decide to buy it.
The rest of the day was pretty exhausting again… so many shops and so little nice clothes

Yesterday I spent some time with my sister… we talked about some more hair-do’s for the wedding, went downtown to a crafts store to look for deco stuff and had some hot chocolate together later. It was really nice and sunny here yesterday. The first real day of spring!

well, I thought the picture just reflects my mood today… lazy in front of the computer :)

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend… I didn’t have much planned, spent some time with my sister and my family. Oh yeah, and I finished a quilting project – a baby comforter that I made for Cathy’s baby.
Since she seems to be very busy with her new little family, I don’t expect her to read this here and spoil the surprise… I am going to send it to her on Tuesday!

On Wednesday morning, we had another appointment with a [female] singer that had been recommended by a friend… she sang at his wedding and Nina wanted to check her out, if she could sing at her wedding, too. She seemed to be really nice and she has a great voice, so there seems to be one item off Nina’s checklist ;)
In the afternoon we went shopping again but without luck… I’ve decided that I am not going to mention the shopping trips again until I find a dress :(

I called the bridal shop, because I have to get an appointment for the dress fitting… unfortunately, my sister still hasn’t gotten a letter saying that her dress arrived as well, but I want to wait until her dress arrived, so that we can go there together.

I also called our pastor… the one who’s doing the ceremony. I asked if he wants to meet with me some time next week – before Jon comes, so that we can talk about the details of the ceremony, but he didn’t want to and said that it would be early enough, if we meet the week before the wedding when Jon is here. Ok… if he says so.

I hope you’re all going to have a nice rest of the weekend…

Boy, I am busy these days… I hardly get to update my blog, let alone keep in touch with people. Days have been crazy since the last weekend… Saturday, I went shopping with my Mom again… she needed me to help her to pick out an outfit for Nína’s wedding and we ran some more errands downtown.

Sunday morning, I was invited for breakfast at my uncle’s place. My cousin Nicki was there, too and it was great to see her again. She had asked me to accompany her to go to a flea market in the afteroon, but unfortunately I already had two more appointments for that day.

Around 2 p.m. my sister and I went to see my Grandad for some coffee. My sister and I had promised to go and see him all of last week, but were so busy that we had to postpone it till Sunday. He was really happy that we came and had prepared coffee and cake for us.

Later in the afternoon we had a meeting with a musical group that I am considering for our church ceremony. One of the ladies invited me, my sister and my parents to their home and they actually performed 5 (!) songs for us to get an impression of what their repertoire is. I was totally stunned, because it was amazing! We were all equally impressed with the cordiality of these people… we spent 1,5 hours with them and they were so open and friendly. It felt like we had known them before already :)

Monday morning we had an appointment with the lady at the restaurant where we will have our reception and dinner. We had to talk over the whole arrangements, reception, buffet etc. God, I didn’t know it’s so complicated to pick out a buffet for such a huge group of people…
afterwards my Mom, my sister and I went shopping, tried on a whole bunch of dresses and skirts, just to go home with nothing again :( Oh well… I am still waiting for that day when I see MY dress and know it.

Yesterday, I went to Mönchengladbach with my parents, because my Dad needed a new suit for the wedding… he picked one out within 30 minutes It amazes me that men never seem to have problem with buying clothes. Then we also looked for some more outfits for myself and we went to this really fashionable store. I tried on a white skirt and a dark brown jacket… really cute… I liked it… but both together would have been 450 Euros! No way am I  going to spend THAT much money on a skirt and a jacket!

In the evening we went out to dinner for my great-aunt’s 84th birthday. It’s always a nice big family dinner which I enjoy very much. My greataunt was doing pretty well yesterday which was good. She had been short of breath for a long time and she still has a hard time walking longer distances, but she’s doing so much better than a few weeks ago. Now she’s actually looking foward to the weddings and not scared that she won’t make it.

This is the last few days in a nutshell… I am sorry if I have neglected you and I’ll try to be better about updating.
Big hugs to you all!

This week went by so fast… unbelievable. I don’t really know where the days went… but I guess I was busy. First good news, I decided on some wedding shoes. I ordered some shoes on the Internet last week and they arrived on Wednesday and they look great. So I think I’ll keep them. Here they are. They seem to be very comfortable and still have 6cm-heels which is a nice mid-height.

I’ve also been spending hours online looking for potential wedding ring styles. Honestly, I think they all look the same and I really don’t know what I want right now :( I think my best bet would be to go to a jewelry store and look at some rings and try them on… maybe I’ll fall in love with one then.
Personally I don’t believe that the groom should have much say in the wedding ring style at all… as long as you decide on the material [I personally hate golden jewelry and would always go for white gold or silver], I think the groom’s wedding bands look pretty much the same. But with the rings it’s like with the shoes… it seems like all the wedding bands look the same and I want something different. Yeah, I know, I am exhausting :)

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I was gone in the afternoon, because I tutor two students right now. It’s nice to have something meaningful to do… and it’s a nice little financial cushion in these times of being short of cash :) I wish I could have gotten the job at my old school as a substitute teacher, but that unfortunately didn’t work out. Ah well, I’d better try to enjoy the free time as long as it lasts ;)

Wednesday, my great-aunt and -uncle came to visit in the afternoon which was nice and Nina and I also went to see one of Nina’s close friends [the one that was diagnosed with cancer a while back] for a short visit. It was a shocking experience to see him like that… obviously marked by the chemotherapy, but I am glad I went.

Thursday morning I was invited for a really nice breakfast at my friend Ira’s place with two other girls… one of them brought her 7 week-old son Simon… sooooo adorable. I wish I had brought my camera with me. I usually NEVER forget to take my camera, but I had to charge the batteries and took it out of my purse… bad timing!
The breakfast was yummy and so plentiful… muesli, rolls, dark bread, croissants… and all that good stuff! I didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day!

Last but not least, I spent a whole lot of time at my sister’s place because she and Dirk still have some computer problems that I tried to fix. The most annoying thing is that installing new software or working on the operationg system can take so much time. Oh well… at least, I could spend some more time with Nina that way :)

I went to Oberhausen-Centro on Friday to do some more shopping for the wedding… I was hoping that they had some more shoe shops to look for wedding shoes and maybe also some different fashion stores with more variety of dresses. I also met with a few girls for [Starbucks] coffee which was really nice :) We had a fun afternoon together and we took some funny pictures… the actual act of taking pictures was actually the funny part ;) Have you ever thought about why it is so difficult to ask someone to take a picture? It always takes a really long time to pick out a potenital photographer – and you come up with the weirdest excuses why this or that person is definitely not the right person to ask :)

We had a fun time though and it was kind of sad that I had to leave at 3:30 p.m. already to get home in time to meet up with my sister.

She and I spent the night at her school. She had organized a “reading night” for her second-graders and I had agreed to accompany her. The whole event started at 7 p.m. and half an hour later all parents were gone and we were alone with 24 kids :) We started off with some little games in the classroom and later on we went outside for a “Nachtwanderung“. The kids had all brought their flashlights and were totally excited about walking around in the dark!

Afterwards we started preparing the whole classroom for the night – the kids changed and brushed their teeth and then we put all the [air] mattresses on the floor. The whole classroom floor was covered up :)
I read two chapters of a children’s book “Die kleine Hexe” [The little witch] by Ottfried Preußler – my childhood favorite!  – and then they all got ready for bed and took out their own books and flashlights to read by themselves. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised how disciplined the kids were. We had no trouble keeping things in order at all… I have to admit that my sister’s class is like a textbook-class and I know that my sister is allowed to take credit for that. She’s a very strict teacher, but that really shows in her students’ behavior!

The night was pretty short and not very comfortable, but it was ok :) We got up at 7:30 a.m. and had all the students get dressed and cleaned up the place by 8:30 a.m. when two Moms came to prepare a breakfast for everybody. There were fresh rolls and cheese, salami, mortadella, Nutella and jam.
Then all the children were picked up at 9:30 a.m. and Nina and I got home at around 11 a.m.

I stayed up for a while, then went over to see my aunt who broke a thoracic vertebra [she's such an unlucky person... she had just started her internship at an assisted living place and was injured at work].
And at 5 p.m. I was dead-tired and couldn’t stay up anymore, so I decided to take a 2 hour-nap :)

I watched “Wetten, dass…???” later that night and thought that it was the worst show in a long time! The only highlight was Tom Cruise, who was there for about 15 minutes ;)

Today I got up early, had breakfast with my parents and then we went to Roermond to the Outlet Stores. I love Holland for having their shops open on Sundays and it’s only a 30 minute-drive from here! Unfortunately the whole trip was pretty disillusioning again… I didn’t see any nice dresses at all, but one skirt… let alone any nice, white shoes :( I decided to order the ones that I saw at the “Quelle” online store and just wait and see what they look like…

For dinner we went out to a Spanish restaurant in my town. It’s my Mom’s friend’s birthday tomorrow and she wanted to go out for an “early” birthday dinner, since she will be busy all week. It was a really nice evening and I had lots of yummy food… shrimps, veggies, steak,… :)

Ladies and Gentlemen… the wedding invitations are ready to be sent out :) I can’t believe this day finally came. I received a call from the print shop this morning that the prints were actually ready to be picked up and even though I had to pay more than I expected [for some odd reasons], I was really happy that I could finally finish this part of the wedding preparations. I really think the invitations turned out nicely :) I got the package ready which will be send out to Jon’s parents tomorrow [so that they can send out the invitations in the US] and I’ll start giving out the other invitations here in Germany as well. The last three days I was basically busy with addressing the envelopes and helping my sister with more computer stuff… I can’t believe how much time this shit takes. My sister never made a backup of her files, so we’re burning everything on cd’s right now – and I mean, EVERYTHING! We spent two whole evenings on that already! Hey, the good thing is that I get to spend time with Nina and we can do other stuff, too, while the computer is working ;) I must admit that it is really nice to be around her so much… I don’t want to think about the time when I am back in California and all we have is phone and email. She always misses me very much and I miss her, too. I enjoy being around her and do stuff like shopping and hanging out. I really want to use the time that we have until I leave to enjoy her company. It’s funny, because although I am a “family person”, I dare to move so far away knowing that I won’t see my family very often. I guess it’s almost the same as with my friends… even though I can’t see them, they’re always close to my heart. I just wish I never get to the point where it physically hurts me to be away from them so much. Seriously, as a kid I was the most fearful and shy kid you could imagine… I didn’t even want to stay at someone’s birthday party by myself, let alone stay somewhere over night. I don’t know how many times my parents had to take me home or pick me up early. My sister on the other hand was very outgoing and always was my own private guardian. She would always make sure that I am ok, she would ask things for me, if I was too shy to do it myself… my teacher in elementary school even told me in her goodbye letter in 4th grade that I should start standing up for myself and not rely on my sister so much. It’s funny that exactly this shy girl [which would be... ME] ended up traveling the world! :)

Ladies and Gentlemen… the wedding invitations are ready to be sent out :) I can’t believe this day finally came. I received a call from the print shop this morning that the prints were actually ready to be picked up and even though I had to pay more than I expected [for some odd reasons], I was really happy that I could finally finish this part of the wedding preparations. I really think the invitations turned out nicely :)
I got the package ready which will be send out to Jon’s parents tomorrow [so that they can send out the invitations in the US] and I’ll start giving out the other invitations here in Germany as well.

The last three days I was basically busy with addressing the envelopes and helping my sister with more computer stuff… I can’t believe how much time this shit takes. My sister never made a backup of her files, so we’re burning everything on cd’s right now – and I mean, EVERYTHING! We spent two whole evenings on that already! Hey, the good thing is that I get to spend time with Nina and we can do other stuff, too, while the computer is working ;) I must admit that it is really nice to be around her so much… I don’t want to think about the time when I am back in California and all we have is phone and email. She always misses me very much and I miss her, too. I enjoy being around her and do stuff like shopping and hanging out. I really want to use the time that we have until I leave to enjoy her company.
It’s funny, because although I am a “family person”, I dare to move so far away knowing that I won’t see my family very often. I guess it’s almost the same as with my friends… even though I can’t see them, they’re always close to my heart. I just wish I never get to the point where it physically hurts me to be away from them so much.
Seriously, as a kid I was the most fearful and shy kid you could imagine… I didn’t even want to stay at someone’s birthday party by myself, let alone stay somewhere over night. I don’t know how many times my parents had to take me home or pick me up early. My sister on the other hand was very outgoing and always was my own private guardian. She would always make sure that I am ok, she would ask things for me, if I was too shy to do it myself… my teacher in elementary school even told me in her goodbye letter in 4th grade that I should start standing up for myself and not rely on my sister so much.
It’s funny that exactly this shy girl [which would be... ME] ended up traveling the world! :)

I am not easily frustrated and usually a very patient person… but the last few days just really put me over the edge.

First of all, I’ve been trying to work on the church ceremony. I found some useful information on the Internet, but now the problem is: which songs, readings etc. to actually pick out. I am trying to collect some readings I came across, but still haven’t found the “perfect” reading for us. I am also trying to pick out songs, but some have been used a lot for weddings and I really want to find one that fits my relationship with Jon.

Second, Nina and I went shopping in Cologne yesterday. Our goal was to buy some shoes for the wedding - just white shoes, that is. I personally don’t like the real wedding shoes, because they look all the same and I would definitely not wear them again afterwards, because they just look like… wedding shoes. I would like some shoes that I could wear at the wedding AND later on as well. Unfortunately, right now the really pointed shoes are “hip” and I hate them. I really don’t like the style and I know that I would only wear them at the wedding and then never again. The ballerina-type shoes [with heels] are kind of popular right now as well and I think I could be fine with that, but the problem is that there are no white shoes of this kind… and if there are, they have big brown heels *wtf?*
Nina and I spent 7 hours walking around and checking out every single shoe shop and didn’t find any shoes that we really liked. The only compromise would be sandals like this, but the heel is way too high for the whole wedding day… so I am pretty lost right now.

Third, Nina and I also looked for potential dresses to wear as the maid of honor on each other’s wedding… it’s impossible to find one. The problem is: most dresses are too ‘casual’… the more elegant ones are either always black OR they just won’t fit. If it fits around my breasts, it’s too lose around my waist and hip… if it fits there, I can definitely NOT fit my boobs. It’s so frustrating!
I also must say that I don’t like the current fashion very much…  I am considering a two piece- outfit now or just hope for a miracle.
On a nicer note, I met “a friend from the past”

for coffee on Friday which was fun and I bought Tobi’s single :) :) Yeah, I am crazy! :)
I spent Friday night at my sister’s place, because she had someone come over to fix her computer and she wanted me to be there [because she's an computer-illiterate *lol*], and later on we had dinner together and talked some more wedding stuff. [If that seems to be a sentence popping up in most of my posts lately, you are right! :)]

Today I wanted to keep myself busy with addressing the wedding invitation envelopes, so that I can send them out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it seems like there are certain “rules” in the US on how to address envelopes traditionally and of course, I don’t have the necessary information to do that – so I had to contact Jon’s parents again to find out.

There is always something…

OMG! I am so excited… my dear friend Cathy from Sydney had her first baby yesterday and it’s a girl… Sarah! I am so happy for her. I know she had been trying to get pregnant for a long time and when she found out that she was pregnant last summer, she was soooo happy! It’s amazing how fast time went by and now she’s the mother of a beautiful daughter :) Greg and she must be sooo happy and proud!

I’ve been pretty busy the last two days with lots of preparations for the wedding. Well, my sister and I got together to talk about the buffetts, the church ceremony and that kind of stuff to make sure that we won’t do the same things. Although I don’t think it would matter if some parts of our weddings are kind of similar, we both want to make it somewhat unique.

Oh yeah, and since I don’t have much else to talk about today…I got tagged!

* four jobs you have had in your life *
1. Tutor
2. receptionist at a practice for physiotherapy
3. mail [wo]man at the local post office
4. geographer at the USGS

* four movies you could watch over and over *
1. jerry mcguire
2. bridget jones’ diary
3. along came polly
4. reality bites

* four places you have lived *
1. grevenbroich, nrw, germany
2. davis, CA, USA
3. sacramento, CA, USA
4. los angeles, CA, USA

* four TV shows you love to watch * [only four?]
1. sex and the city
2. summerland
3. my so-called life
4. gilmore girls

* four places you have been on vacation *
1. boston, MA, USA
2. gibraltar, spain
3. st. ulrich, italy
4. brittany, france

* four websites you visit daily *
1. gmail.com
2. xanga.com
3. forumservice.de
4. my friends’  blogs

* four of your favorite foods *
1. cereal with yoghurt and fruits
2. tomato soup
3. salad
4. green beans

* four places you would rather be right now *
1. my bed 
2. with my hubby
3. in boston
4. in australia with cathy

* four bloggers you are tagging *
1. susi
2. infineon
3. ellen
4. ute

Yes! Tobi made it… he’s the new german teen idol :) I am so happy… I didn’t want Mike Leon to win [hey, and I usually don't even watch these kind of shows ;)]… but Ilka and I had a fun night on the couch on Saturday night and watched the finale of DSDS. I was so hoping that Tobi would make it. I really think he has a great voice and I like the kind of music he sings. It’s awesome that he won… and I really hope he’ll make it big.

Ok, back to my weekend… Friday night, my sister and I went to Cologne to see a friend for her “farewell party”. She’ll be moving to Sacramento at the end of the week. We went to a bar in Downtown Cologne and I was soooo underdressed :( I thought we would go to a pub and have a drink, but it was more like a lounge-type-of-thing and everybody was dressed up wearing make up and all that. Oh well… I felt kind of “young” between all these dressed up people… don’t I look like 12? ;)

Saturday, I took the train to Siegen at 1 p.m. and Ilka picked me up at the train station at 4 p.m. We went shopping and then had a cozy evening on the couch and watched DSDS [see above]. It was fun to talk and hang out :)

Sunday morning, we slept in and after a nice breakfast, my sister arrived in Siegen and we chatted a little bit and we showed Ilka our wedding dresses. Then we went downstairs and she did our hair :) I was so amazed what you can do with my hair ;) I am still not totally decided on how I want to have it done… but it was good to start trying things out and Ilka did a fantastic job [thanks hun!].

We had some coffee and cake afterwards and Nina and I got home at 9 p.m. and I was kind of tired and went to bed pretty early.

Today my sister and I went to a crafts and garden store near Cologne to look for decorational stuff for the wedding. It’s so hard to decide what you want…
I’ll be able to pick up the invitations at the print shop at the beginning of next week. We had some problems last Friday, because of the file format that I submitted to the print shop and Kim helped me to straigthen things out with them [they wanted to charge me an extra 120 euros for something that they had to change and hadn't asked me about beforehand. WTF?]. Fortunately I talked to them and they said that they wouldn’t charge me the extra costs. They’d better NOT!  So, things are moving along… :)

A few weeks ago, I received an email from an old pen friend who told me about this forum that was opened by a girl that used to write in FB’s [friendship books] back at the time when we were all crazy about NKOTB :) Friendship books [for those of you who don't know what they are] are small paper booklets in which people write their addresses and interests and pass them on to other penfriends. If you receive a booklet and you “like” a person in it, you can write her a letter and become her penfriend :) A lot of my friends were crazy about them back then and many girls corresponded with each other. At my peak time, I had about +/- 30 penfriends and I still love writing letters. There’s nothing better than a real letter in your mailbox :)

So I went online to check out this forum and I met so many girls that I “knew” back then… and now I am online so much chatting with these girls and it’s so much fun! I feel like I am 18 again :) It’s crazy to think that I’ve “known” so many of them for over 10 years!

It’s funny, because I don’t consider myself someone who has a BIG crowd of friends, but only a few close ones. Nevertheless, everybody keeps telling me how many friends I have and that it’s awesome that I keep in touch with so many people. Well, I guess that is just “my thing”. I am a really good penfriend *lol* I’ve never minded that most of my close friends didn’t really live in the neighborhood [let alone now that I live in CA]… but what I am trying to say is that no matter how far my friends live away from me, I never feel alone. Keeping in touch by email and letters is ALMOST as good as hanging out with a friend in person… oh well, I said ALMOST ;) … and every friendship is unique!

As an example, I still keep in touch with a friend from school and whenever I am home, we hang out, have coffee together and catch up. She’s someone I would never go out with, but I like her company and we’re really happy whenever we get to see each other. I do believe that every person has something different to offer and I don’t want to miss out on that.

Finally the paper for my wedding invitations arrived :) I had been waiting for it for over 2 weeks now… it looks so pretty. It’s uncoated paper with all these small rose petals worked into it. I instantly fell in love with it when I saw it. I didn’t want to get the whole card printed, so I thought for a long time what I want my wedding invitation to look like. I didn’t mind to put some work into it myself, so I decided on this nice paper,  parchment envelopes [which I folded myself from some pretty paper I found] and two inlays – a parchment inlay with the “wedding anouncement” and a colored inlay with the actual invitation.
I went to the print shop yesterday morning to turn in my layout for the inlays and went back today with the paper for the cards to pick out a colcor for the second inlay. I hope everything will be ready to be sent out soon.

Now that this project is pretty much ‘off my hands’, I can start looking for the next thing to plan… I think it’s going to be the church ceremony. Gosh, as I mentioned before, I don’t know anything about the church ceremony, but after spending some time on the Internet and on a wedding forum, I got a few more ideas what the church ceremony could look like. I am currently looking for potential songs for entering and leaving the chapel… this is hard!
My sister is already so far ahead of me… her invitations are sitting on her desk, just waiting for me to get everything ready and her church ceremony is almost complete [well, not complete, but she has picked out far more than I have already].
I am also trying to keep some kind of order on my desk and in my room, because I have wedding stuff lying around everywhere!!!
My advice: if you ever want to get married, think twice *jk* especially if it looks like all the planning is going to be your job alone! Nah, it’s a lot of fun, too! Don’t let me fool you! ;)

I want to thank each and every single one of you for all your good wishes, calls, emails, cards and gifts for my birthday :) As you can see, a lot of people thought of me on my special day!

We had a small get together at my sister’s place in the evening with my relatives and some friends. It was a really nice evening it was really special that I could celebrate my birthday with my sister this year.
She LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the photobook. She actually had tears in her eyes, when she unwrapped it. I am so glad that it made her so happy :)
One of my friends from school that I hadn’t seen in a while came by and I was really happy to see her. Then there was my best friend Ira and about eight friends of my sister, let alone our relatives. So, by saying we had a ’small get together’, we’re already talking about  25 people :)

The last two days, I mainly spent on the computer working on our wedding invitation, because I really have to get this printed this week. I am going to the print shop tomorrow and I hope I’ll have everything ready to be sent out soon. I can’t believe how many hours I spent on the computer this weekend, but times goes by so fast when you’re playing around with something. I guess I am lucky that I have time to focus on the wedding stuff right now. My sister is already so far ahead of me that I think I have to start catching up ;)

Look at that… weren’t we just adorable when we were little?
I can’t believe me and my sister are turning 30 today! I don’t feel like 30 [how do you feel when you are 30 anyway?] and I am just going to pretend it doesn’t bother me at all… :) I don’t even know if it really does… age ist just a number, right?

I am really happy that I’ll be able to celebrate this special birthday with my twin tonight [although Jon can't be here :(] and I am going to have a fun time with her. I do believe that there is a special bond between twins, even though we’re not identical and I always miss her very much when we can’t be together.
I ordered a photobook for her with photos from the last 30 years [special thanks to Kim - I couldn't have done that without you, sweets!] and it turned out wonderfully! I hope she’ll love it.

Now here are some real news: Jon told me that he received the NOA 1 (Notice of Action) for the second package of documents that he had sent out about 10 days ago. This was the application for the spouse visa (K-3) whereas the first package that we sent out was the application for the immigration visa (CR-1).

We are basically pursuing two ways of action and will take whatever will be processed sooner. The difference is that with the CR-1 (which usually takes longer to process) I would be a permanent resident and have a work permit upon entering the country. With the K-3 (which usually is issued faster) I will have a temporary permanent resident status [for 2 years] and will have to apply for a work permit upon entry.

Friday I picked up the paper that I had ordered for my wedding invitation envelopes and then I went over to my aunt’s place in the evening and started folding them while she was painting.
My cousin had 15 (!) friends over to celebrate into his 15th birthday that night and I thought I would keep my aunt some company and look out for the teenagers ;)
I must say that they really behaved well for hanging out in a room of only 15 square meters.

Yesterday I pretty much slept and hung out most of the day, because I had a bad headache. I am pretty sure it was because of that weird weather… snow flurry and some rain in between. I know, technically it’s still winter and spring won’t start before the 21st, but I really think we [and especially the people in Southern Germany] had enough snow for this season and it should start getting warmer soon.
In the evening, I worked on the envelopes some more and then I worked on my quilting project and watched some TV.

The most “exciting” project [not] of this weekend was my tax return :( I really wanted to sit down and do it and I thought it would be really easy, because I still had the forms from last year and thought I would just change the numbers. But since I got married on the last day of 2005, I am considered “married” for the whole tax year which means I have to do my tax return differently and fill out different forms from last year :( not fun! I spent almost the whole day on this.
I just took a break in the afternoon and went over to my sister’s place for some waffles with hot cherries :) We talked about some wedding stuff as well, since we’re both trying to figure out what our bridal bouquet and the decoration for the church and the restaurant should look like. Man, there are so many choices!

Sorry I have been slack about the wedding news… actually, there were none.
First of all, I was totally distracted with having Alicia visit me and then I haven’t really gotten any further with my preparations. I was waiting for Jon’s parents to send me their guest list and the layout for the invitation is still waiting for the finishing touch.
I do have a complete list of people now who will receive an invitation/announcement – it’s going to be about 170.  Yeah, I am not kidding you…  I was like this:

I went to the print shop with my Mom yesterday and had a first talk with the printer about the invitations and how we can realize my ideas. I have to bring a paper sample of the paper that I am  going to use for the card cover, so that we can pick out the right printing colors and then we also have to decide what exactly the layout will look like.
I think it’s going to be at least another two weeks until I can think about sending the invitations out.

I am still trying to research on ecumenical weddings. If anyone of you knows anything about ecumenical weddings, please speak up. I would appreciate any help with planning the wedding ceremony. This is what freaks me out the most right now.

I can create the invitations, pick out flowers and all that stuff, but preparing the wedding ceremony really gives me headaches. I have no idea where to start (even though I found some helpful websites that at least give me an idea what the ceremony sequence could be). I don’t know how “strict” the Catholic church is about certain parts of the ceremony… I would love to have some modern music pieces and the wedding vows should be in a meaningful, but not too religious phrasing.
I think I’ll have to talk with my local pastor about this and find out if he can give me any more information on how wedding ceremonies work.
Honestly, having a catholic pastor, who lives in Beligum now, and a protestant pastor, who lives in Frankfurt, doesn’t make things easier.

This seems to be a common theme in our relationship: Why make things simple when they can be complicated?!

On a side note: I went to Cologne today to meet with one of my old penfriends that I hadn’t seen in 7 (!) years! Jay and I went to Boston together in 1998 and we really had an awesome time together back then. We saw each other one more time after that in January 1999. Jay used to live in Hamburg, but moved to Cologne 1,5 years ago. It was so great to finally see her again. We had some coffee at Starbucks [huhu Kim] and then we went to the N.Y. Bagel Shop and had a poppyseed bagel with cream cheese :) *yummy*
We talked and talked and talked and when I took a look at my watch for the first time, it was after 6 p.m. and we had talked for 5 hours straight! Yeah, we had to catch up on a lot :) 

it was Carnival in the Rhineland area and I watched the whole hype from the couch on the TV screen :) I am not a big Carnival fan, so I am usually trying to hide out at home and not go out for 5 days… I had a good excuse this year, because Alicia got here last week on Wednesday night and it was so good to see her. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year, so we really had to catch up and talked until 3:30 a.m. in the morning ;)

So on Thursday, Altweiber, we slept in late and then spent the whole day at home watching Carnival stuff on TV. In the afternoon, my Mom made “Mutzen” [or "Krapfen", as it is called in other parts of the country] and my aunt came over for some coffee. It was a really lazy, but fun day. I was amazed that Alicia knew so many Carnival songs… she actually had my sister burn a CD with Carnival music for her ;)

Friday, Alicia and I took a long walk. I showed her Downtown Grevenbroich and we had some hot chocolate at a coffee shop. It was really great to just enjoy time together. In the evening, we went out to my favorite pizza place with my sister and our friend Ilka. We had a really great time. One of the waiters was really impressed when Alicia started talking in Italian with him. 

Saturday, we spent the afternoon at my sister’s place. She had baked a cake and we had fun playing with her cat, Emma. In the evening we watched “Big Fish”. What a great movie. I like Tim Burton.

Sunday morning, I had to take Alicia to the train station at 11 a.m. and then I drove to Duesseldorf to meet with Kim :) I stopped at Starbucks on my way to get her a vanilla latte that she had been dying for ;)
It was great to spend some time with her and thanks again, sweetie, for the “adobe-teaching-session” :) you helped me a lot!

On Monday, I actually saw a little bit of Carnival when we went to my Grandad’s place to watch a small Carnival parade and have coffee afterwards. We’ve always watched the parade at his place on Rosenmontag. It’s always nice to get together.

Yesterday I went to see Sanni in the afternoon. It was great to see her again and… Sebi and she have a new “roommate”- Finn. He’s a Norwegian forest cat and so pretty! Norwegian forest cats look like this.
I can’t believe she hadn’t told me about him since Christmas (but she said she wanted to tell me in person ;)). We had a really fun time and Finn was so cute.

So, this is my update for the last week…  I’ll write about everything else tomorrow.

Alicia [my dear friend from Davis who has lived in Germany for the last year] called me last night and she’s coming to visit me [probably today]! I haven’t seen her in over a year and I am so looking forward to spending time with her!

There has been this little tit outside of my  window for the past three days. It is so cute. It’s really fun to watch it and it’s so pretty [much more pretty than the common sparrow or blackbird ;)] I am hoping it will build a nest in our hedge, so I can see some baby tits this summer!

Saturday I went to see Sabine. I hit a lot of traffic driving on the Autobahn and I was wondering if there had been some kind of accident or something, when it dawned on me that all the traffic was because of the soccer game Mönchengladbach – Köln. My sister went to see that game, too. She’s a big soccer fan [which comes naturally if you're in a relationship with a soccer player, I guess ;)] while I don’t really care about it at all. In fact, I was really annoyed by the traffic and was swearing about the soccer mania *lol*
Anyway, Sabine had invited me for some coffee, because it was her birthday last week :) We had a great time, chatted about this and that… and reminisced about the past.

In the evening, I watched “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”… not that I am a big fan of the show or anything, but there was nothing else on TV and sometimes it’s quite entertaining to watch that show. Unfortunately -unless I am misinformed- the winners of these shows never make it big, or does anyone still know who Alexander was?! I think it’s really sad, because some of these guys are really good singers and they’re abused for Dieter Bohlen’s music business.

Yesterday we had some of my parents’ friends over in the afternoon and my Mom made “waffles with hot cherries and whipped cream” *yummy* I just love having coffee and cake with my parents and we had a nice afternoon… that’s like the perfect Sunday for me :)
In the evening I watched “Die Sturmflut“ [The storm surge] with my Mom – a movie based on the devastating surge in Hamburg in 1962. The main actors are Benno Führmann, Heiner Lauterbach, Jan Josef Liefers and Katja Uhl (and some other big names of German TV]. I enjoy watching German movies right now and there definitely are some good German movies to be seen.

I hope you all had a good weekend, too :)

I didn’t do much on Valentine’s Day… I didn’t even get a card or anything from my honey :( but at least he didn’t forget Valentine’s Day completely and he promised me on the phone that he’s already working on a nice birthday package for me ;) YAY!

Yesterday morning, I accompanied my Mom and her second graders on their school trip to a children’s museum in Duisburg. I was truly amazed by the museum and the children definitely had a lot of fun! There were three floors with different interactive exhibitions… all of them ready for children to get involved - to play, learn, experiment, explore and have fun! It was a very relaxing school trip for teachers, too, since you could just let the children walk around by themselves and not having to worry about them. Unfortunately, I was told that the museum is about to be closed down. It doesn’t get enough support from the community, which is very sad if you asked me. It’s such a great place for kids!

In the evening, I went to the movies with my friend Ira… :) It’s always a fun trip to the movie theather, because we always treat ourselves to nachos with cheese dip. That’s our routine :)
We watched “Walk the line“… with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. It was totally worth it! What a great movie! I didn’t really know anything else about Johnny Cash’s biography other than that he was a country legend, but I really think the movie was very well done. Joaquin Phoenix [did you know he was River Phoenix's younger brother?] has rightly been nominated for an Oscar for his performance. He was brilliant!

Today I worked on our wedding invitations for a little bit. I kind of have an idea what I want the layout to look like. I sent a draft of it to Jon, so he can throw in his two cents :)
Later my Mom and I went to my sister’s place to look at her wedding invitations. She’s already ahead of me with her planning *lol* but I didn’t expect anything less from her… if someone is excited about getting married, than it is my sister!
I really like the design of her invitations. They look really different from mine, but that was anticipated.
Now I am just hoping that Jon’s parents will send me their complete guest list soon. If we want to send out the invitations by the beginning of March [which I already think impossible], I have to start working on them NOW.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

 I just heard from Jon that we got I-797, NOA1 (Notice of Action) from the USCIS in the mail – Receipt notice for our I-130 application. I know, I am confusing some of you with all of these weird abbreviations and form numbers, but some others might actually be able to follow ;) It just means that we’re getting one step (of still a looong way) closer to my visa. I have an online account with the USCIS now and will receive emails whenever something is happening with my case. This is good. It feels like something is being done. I still have no idea how long this whole process will take, but I am going to be positive and hope that everything will work out until the summer.

I am sorry I couldn’t get online earlier. I thought we would have Internet access at the guesthouse we were staying at, but we didn’t and you all know how much they charge at Internet cafés :(

Anyway, I had a blast!

We arrived early Saturday morning last week, had breakfast and then we spent the afternoon walking around and checking out the area. There was so much snow! Some of the students started a snowball fight… I didn’t get involved, but it was fun watching *lol*

On Sunday morning, we started with the skiing lessons. The students were awesome… I had a group of ten students, three very sweet boys and seven very nice girls – all beginners :)

We played Plumssack to warm up… [I found the game Rag Tag in English and hope it's  kind of the same game that I am referring to] and then I showed them some easy warm up practices on skis.

I picked out one of the easy beginner’s slopes and we did our first few swings… they acquitted themselves very well :) and it was so much fun to see them make progress!

The daily routine looked like this:

7 a.m. get up

7:30 a.m. breakfast

8:10 a.m. bus takes us to the gondola

9:00 a.m. morning lessons start

12:15 p.m. lunch

1:45 p.m. afternoon lessons

3:15 p.m. lessons end and students go back to the guesthouse by bus

6:30 p.m. dinner

8 p.m. meet with all students in the basement lounge

Ususally my Dad, the other teachers and I would meet for lunch and talk about the progess of our groups. By the end of the week, all my students were able to get down one of the “black” slopes [there are four levels from easy to difficult: green-blue-red-black]. They were beaming with pride :)

On Friday, our last day, we had organized a scavenger hunt for the students. My Dad, Monika (another teacher) and I had put teams together the night before which had to go to certain places in the skiing area, find questionnaires and return with them to the mountain station and then together work on the tasks and questions.
It was fun and the students were all for it…  they had to turn in the questionnaires before dinner and then my Dad and I determined the winner team, which was honored in the evening. Every team got some kind of reward though, since my Dad had organized a whole bunch of free gifts from a bank.
Then my group came up to me and gave me some chocolate and a card to thank me for my engagement and let me know how much fun they had during the week :) It’s was heart-warming!

I really enjoy teaching students. It’s not surprising that I actually got my degree in teaching, but then decided that I didn’t want to be in a classroom for the rest of my life… nevertheless, teaching is a very rewarding experience and I always enjoy it [when it's outside of a school building ;)].
I must say that even though we were dealing with a bunch of 15/16 year-olds, the students in my group were fun and there wasn’t any drama at all. Of course, we did have some trouble during the week… some students had alcohol in their rooms, which wasn’t allowed, but which is oh-so normal on a class trip like that ;)
The other, not-so funny incident was that some students was stolen money from and that there was a lot of suspicion on who could have done this going on. The result was that the students were in low spirits for the rest of the week and it was sad to see that someone would ruin it for everyone like that. Luckily, in the end this someone confessed to his class teacher.

The bus picked us up at 7 a.m. yesterday morning to take us back home. We were quite concerned about the weather conditions after hearing about the snow chaos in Bavaria. Luckily, we didn’t have any trouble on our way home and streets were clear. We got home at 6:30 p.m. and some of the students came over to say goodbye… I felt a little bit melancholy that it was all over already. After this one week, we had just warmed up to each other and I would have liked to stay for another week and ski some more with my group! Oh well. That’s how it goes… I hope my Dad will take me on a skiing trip again one of these days. I could clearly tell that he was really happy that I could come along.

 My Dad is taking me on the skiing trip with his school to Austria. We’re leaving tonight! I am so excited and looking forward to skiing again :) I haven’t been skiing for over a year [last time I went was with Jon at Lake Tahoe in January 2005] and I can’t wait. I’ll have to deal with a bunch of 15/16 year-olds, but who cares when you get to go skiing :) It will be a lot of drama [it always is on trips like that with teenagers ;)], but I’ve accompanied my Dad several times before and it was always a whole lot of fun, too! Have a great weekend and a great week! I’ll get in touch when I can.

 my sister broke the news to my family on Tuesday that she and her boyfriend are planning to get married this summer, too. Nina has been talking about marriage for years and everybody thought she would get married before I do… even myself ;) Apparently, Nina and Dirk had set a year and month for their wedding last year already, but they didn’t want tell anyone before they actually had a date, church and location. Then I came along at the end of last year telling my family that Jon and I had decided to get married and Nina didn’t want to say that she and Dirk had actually planned the same. Now you might be tempted to say that this is “what twins do”… doing things in pairs :) and it’s true that my sister and I have always done everything important together :) why not get married together? No, we won’t have a double wedding. We decided that the wedding parties would be too big and too different to have the weddings on the same day. So, Nina and Dirk are getting married two weeks later, but it’s exciting :) I like the idea that I [and possibly Jon] will still be here for their wedding and I will be able to be part of the same fun and excitement planning Nina’s wedding as well! It’s crazy, but it’s exciting! We went to the bridal store, CECILÉ, with our Mom and our aunt yesterday and both decided on our wedding dresses. Mine is beautiful :) That’s all I am going to say. We spent nearly three hours in the store and I ended up trying on some more gowns and Nina and I tried on gowns together to see what they look like standing next to each other :) We have a very similar taste, I must say ;) Today I had to take my sister to the dentist, because she had surgery on one of her front teeth. She has a pivot tooth [due to a ping pong paddle that she "caught" with her mouth when she was twelve] and they cut open her gums to cut off the tip of the [still intact] root which had been infected and take out a cyst *eeewww* I felt so bad for her. In the afternoon, we went to see my great-aunt and my granddad, because Nina wanted to tell them about her wedding “news” as well. Ha, these kind of news are real overwhelming for grandparents – let me tell you. I think my great-aunt actually thought we were pulling her leg. She couldn’t believe that Nina was serious about it. I think that she’s just worried that it will all be too much for her [as she has breathing problems and every step she takes is very exhausting]. I spent the evening at Nina’s place and we talked about a lot of organizational stuff. There is so much to think about… but it’s fun :)

One of my sister’s close friends was diagnosed with cancer last week. He’s in his late 30’s, has a wife and two daughters. I am at a loss of words. This is so terrible. It made me realize once again that you have to be thankful for every morning that you wake up carefree and in good health.

OMG… this was fun! I went gown-shopping with my Mom and my sister on Friday. Nina picked us up at noon and we drove to Düsseldorf. First stop was “HONEYMOON“, a pretty exclusive bridal store. Ahm, yes, and we came without an appointment… big no no! :( [but how should I know - I am pretty new to that business ;)] The lady was pretty nice though and said we could stay. I must admit, it was kind of weird to be in a bridals shop picking out a gown *lol* when I tried on the first gown, it felt a little bit unnatural to wear it, but I quickly got used to the idea :) OMG, the gowns were soooo beautiful and it was so much fun to try them on. I didn’t really know what I would look like in a wedding gown [seriously, you don't have any idea, until you actually wear one ;)], but I can say, the first dress I tried on was MY dress… you know, I pretty much knew right then that this was exactly what I was looking for :) HA! Since I hadn’t really been  in the wedding-mindset for a while, it was really amazing how all of a sudden, picking out a gown could get me all excited :) I tried three or more other dresses, but I didn’t like them as much or they were pretty but totally NOT for me. I was told, I am a “classic bride”… there you go… plain elegance without much knickknack ;)
Well, have a guess… the dress I liked was of course the most expensive one… 1700 Euro! :( *gasp*
We decided to leave and go to another bridal store [which was not worth talking about] and then drove to Neuss. The lady at this store was really nice and I tried about 5 different dresses there and one was really (!) nice – a little different from the one I instantly fell in love with at the first store, but still very nice.

I was totally overwhelmed when I got home that night and believe me, although you think you’ll definitely remember the exact dresses that you looked at, it’s impossible. When you tried on so many dresses, it’s really hard to remember all the details. I spent the rest of the evening browsing the internet for more ideas regarding gowns, hair styles, invitations, etc. :) I am really getting into it!

Saturday morning, we had an appointment at one of the restaurants were looking at. It’s a really nice place (an old estate… I meant to say “Bauernhof/Gutshof”, but “farm” sounds pretty wrong in this case) which is part of an old town center with cobbled streets and an old archway. Really pretty :)

In the afternoon, Nina, my friend Ira and I went to another very big bridal store, CECILÉ,  near Köln. Fortunately, we had called the day before and could get an appointment for Saturday. It was a really nice place with a little coffee lounge with free drinks and many bridal magazines :) We had some coffee while waiting for the saleslady that was going to help us. It was so exciting :) When she came to get us, she asked if I had an idea of what my wedding gown should look like already and I told her pretty accurately what I was looking for :) She found a dress for me, pretty similar to the one I had first tried on the day before, and Ira instantly loved it :) It looks like we all have the same taste in wedding gowns. I also tried a few more, different dresses which were all very beautiful, but in the end we all agreed on which one we liked best :)
Nina and Ira were so excited about it *lol* and I wish I wouldn’t have had to take it off again… ;)

I am going to go back with my Mom this week and try on the three gowns again that I shortlisted and hopefully I’ll be able to make a decision then :)

Today my Mom and my sister went to another potential restaurant for the wedding and also had a look at the chapel in which we’re going to have the ceremony. Let me tell you… this is all sooo much fun, but also so exhausting! All I am thinking about is the wedding right now… I wake up having lots of thoughts and I am going to bed at night thinking about the things that happened during the day. If I am starting to bug you with all this wedding-talk, please let me know… I can “try” to cut back on it ;)

In the evening, we went out to a belated birthday dinner for my Granddad [his birthday was December, 30]. It was a really nice evening with yummy food :) I love family dinners… it’s always nice to get together and catch up… but now I need to go to bed. It’s pretty late… Good night!

So here I am, all refreshed and rested after 15 hours of sleep the night before yesterday :), but still not very happy about leaving Jon and Sacramento…

Sunday we spent all day packing boxes and cleaning out the apartment, since Jon will be moving to LA in a week already. I also had to pack my suitcases and run some more last-minute errands. In the evening, we went out to dinner with Aaron and Maria. I got to pick the place and I decided that I needed one more yummy Caesar salad at Mimi’s Café and it was delicious :)
I cleaned the kitchen in our apartment when we got home [all the fun stuff like scrubbing the oven and stove etc.] and then Jon and I lay down for a little while and of course fell asleep… I woke up again at 1:45 a.m. and had to force myself to get up and finish packing my suitcase. We went back to bed at 3:30 a.m. and our alarm rang at 7:00 a.m. :( just great!

I got up, took a shower, Maria came over at 8 a.m. to say goodbye (before she went to work) and then I went to the post office to give them our change of address forms and mail out the first package for my spouse visa! OMG. I hope I did everything right and things will move along quickly.

We left for San Francisco at 10:30 a.m. and had a bite to eat for lunch and then it was time to say goodbye again. Ah, how I hate these times at the airport :(  but I kept telling myself that it’s going to be for the last time!
I made sure they took out my I-94 at the check-in and when I got to the gate, I checked out again at one of these self-check out counters [that Kim told me about from Chicago]. Honestly, I am not sure if they had been there when I left San Francisco in November, but I swear I didn’t see them and I didn’t use them at all… although a security lady told me that they are mandatory and that you can get into trouble on your next entry [oh well, maybe that's why I was pulled out upon my arrival in Minneapolis?!]
I must say that I think for being mandatory, these check-out counters are not very “visible” and if I hadn’t heard about them before, I would probably have ignored them completely. If they are mandatory, why don’t they have these check-out counters right at the gate where you have to pass them or otherwise can’t get on the plane??
Anyway, I have my check-out receipt and made sure twice that INS knows that I left the country as I promised.

The flight was long, but I like British Airways :) I traveled in a Boeing [big!] and every passenger had their own tv screen in the rear of the seat in front of them. That was very cool because you could chose between 6 movies and decide which one you wanted to watch. Also, I had an aisle seat in the middle row and the other three seats were empty :) unfortunately, I always end up with very rude people, because when realizing that nobody else would occupy these seats anymore, a man switched from his seat to the other aisle seat at the end of my row and -believe it or not- pretty soon lay down to sleep on all three seats next to me. I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t really feel like sleeping at that point anyways, but when he got up to use the lavatory, I put stuff on the seat next to me to make sure I have some more space.
I watched “Pride & Prejudice”, “The wedding crashers” and also finished the book that I was reading [The Kite runner]… but couldn’t really sleep much.

We got to London on time and I had about 2,5 hours until my connecting flight and then I arrived in Düsseldorf at 3:30 p.m. My Mom picked me up at the airport and when we came home my sister and my aunt were waiting for us and we had some tea and talked for a little while.
Then my Dad came home and was very happy to see me *LOL* and we had dinner together [bread and cold cuts :)]. Afterwards I called Jon real quick to let him know that I made it home safe [and it was so weird to talk on the phone again... how I hate going from 100 to 0 in a few hours].
I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. – that was how long I could force myself to stay up – and then slept 15 hours nonstop.

In the afternoon, my sister had arranged a meeting at one of the restaurants we were looking at for the wedding in May… which means I was thrown right into the middle of organization ;) My parents, Nina and I went there at 4 p.m., we were shown the room for  family celebrations and then sat down with the owner to talk about the food for a buffet. I  still want to look at some more places and get other cost estimates for the wedding.

I spent all last night looking at different places online and sending out  inquiries. My sleeping rhythm is totally messed up again, as I stayed up till 2 a.m., talked to Jon and then slept till 11 a.m. this morning. That’s jet leg for you.

Friday and Saturday, my sister is planning to take me gown-shopping… ha, this is so surreal ;) but I am sure it’s going to be fun!

my bags are packed and Jon and I are leaving for the airport pretty soon. We’ll have one more nice breakfast at Bakers Square in Davis and then we’ll be off to San Francisco. I am glad that my flight departs in the afternoon, which gives us a little bit more time today.
My flight details are:

San Francisco (SFO) to
London (LHR)
Flight: British Airways 284
Depart: Mon, 1/23/2006 at 4:15 PM (SFO)
Arrive: Tue, 1/24/2006 at 10:30 AM (LHR)

London (LHR) to
Dusseldorf (DUS)
Flight: British Airways 940
Depart: Tue, 1/24/2006 at 1:15 PM (LHR)
Arrive: Tue, 1/24/2006 at 3:35 PM (DUS)

Oh well, that is it then, I guess… goodbye Sacramento :( I’ll miss you.

the last days were just insanely busy. On Thursday, I went to my old office to meet with Gerald and pick up my recommendation letter. It was the first time since I left last summer to see Gerald again and it was a little bit awkward, but I tried to be pretty cool about the whole situation. Michelle was unfortunately not in the office, because she’s scuba diving somewhere (her new hobby ;)), but Gerald and Justin took me out to lunch at Strings Italian Café. Afterwards we went back to the office and Gerald showed me some stuff that he is working on. I must admit, it felt kind of weird to be in the office and not work there anymore :( Gerald expressed deep sadness that he won’t be able to try and hire me anymore… he seriously thought there would still be a way to hire me back. Apparently, he was also very surprised that Jon and I actually got married recently after I had told him last summer that I didn’t want to push marriage for visa purposes [but that was before he screwed up, so plans change!]

He and Justin had both got a wedding gift for Jon and me and Gerald wrote me a really nice recommendation letter. He also kept saying that he really hopes that he hasn’t seen the last of me and that he would instantly hire me back if things don’t work out in LA and we decide to move up north again … yaddah yaddah. Whatever. I don’t know how serious I can take him… but it was nice and he sincerely thanked me for all my good work (and I am still the co-author on one of the publications he’s working on ;))

In the afternoon, I went to the Outlets with Maria, because I wanted to look for some jeans. Of course, I didn’t find any that I liked and then we saw these cute shoes (actually in dark brown) that looked SO comfy, but I didn’t really want to buy shoes, so I didn’t.
We drove to the Mall later to check out “Claire’s” again for some more earrings (and I also ended up buying a pretty ring) and on the way home stopped at “Panera” to get some baguette.
Jon and I cooked chicken, Spätzle and salad for dinner and then we played some “grass” with Aaron and Maria.

Yesterday morning we went over to Aaron’s place for breakfast. He made Quesadillas, an Omlette and Waffles with Strawberry topic [this breakfast was sooo American *lol*] and in the afternoon Maria and I drove to the Outlets in Vacaville again [to check out some boots that I had seen there two weeks ago, but of course they were gone :( ] and I bought two bras at Kohl’s for $30. This is such a bargain! I love shopping here :)
At 4 p.m. we met with Elcin in Davis at the “Konditorei”, an Austrian Bakery. We had a fun time together, although I had to break the news to her that Jon and I will be moving to LA and that I won’t return to Sacramento when I get my visa.
It kind of makes me sad, because I really hoped that Elcin and I would have some more time to get to know each other better. Well, we can always visit :)

me and Elcin

We got back to Sacramento around 6 p.m. and Jon and I spent the evening by ourselves, doing stuff around the apartment and watching some more X-files.

Today was superbusy as well. We got up early and went to Walgreens and got passport-photos taken for the visa application. They turned out terribly… we both look like criminals, but who cares ;) The girl at the store just took one (!) picture with a digital camera in front of a white background and she didn’t even show the photos to us to check if we were ok with them. Ah, it doesn’t really matter I guess.
Then we went to the bank, got our address changed there and did some shopping.
Back home I started getting the papers ready for the visa application and then went out to make copies of everything. On my way back I stopped at Nordstrom’s Rack quickly (because they usually have good deals on jeans and stuff) and actually found two (!) really cool pairs :) Of course that all took much longer than I had anticipated and I got home at 6:45 p.m., cooked dinner and then Jon and I had planned to start cleaning out the apartment and getting boxes ready as I won’t be able to help moving in two weeks. I am glad Aaron is moving down with Jon at the same time and can help him.

Oh, that reminds me: we’ve got the apartment!!! The guy called us yesterday to confirm. Jon was so excited [and I am excited, too, but also sad that it's getting closer and closer to say good bye to Sacramento...] There is only 1 more day left up here before I fly back home and next time when I come back, we’ll be living in LA *sigh* I think the whole situation is much harder and more emotional for me than for Jon. He’s just so excited to move down there… as for me, as much as I am looking forward to our new place and living in LA, I am sad to leave Northern California. I really liked it up here and will miss it so much :(

Ok, I ended up going to Downtown Ventura on Monday afternoon with Jon’s Mom. Jon wanted to stay home and read, so she and I drove Downtown and strolled down Main Street. They have quite some interesting shops in Ventura, nice boutiques and lots of Antique stores. It was so much fun to rummage in all the ancient stuff ;) some of it seemed pretty worthless, but other things were quite nice!
We had some coffee at Starbucks and sat outside in the sun :)

In the evening, we went out to dinner with Jon’s parents and his friend Ian. We went to a restaurant close to the airport in Santa Paula (about 15 minutes from Ventura) and Jon and I had pork ribs *yummy*

Yesterday morning, we decided to drive down to LA again to look for apartments. I had searched the Internet for some more apartment places and had checked www.craigslist.com as well. It’s a website where people can post things to sell, rent, buy… etc.
It took us about an hour to get to Westwood (West LA) and we had some breakfast at the “Corner Bakery Cafe” – it’s a pretty neat place and I am hoping that we will be able to buy fresh bread there [I have yet to find out about that.]
Then we started our apartment hunt… we parked the car and walked around the neighborhood, checking out places that I had found on the Internet and just looking for renting signs. Since it was just around lunchtime, Jon mentioned that some of the management offices might be closed until 1 p.m., but we still decided to walk on and try different places. Some offices were in fact closed, at other aparment buildings we just talked to a person through the intercom telling us that nothings was available at that time [which was kind of frustrating, since all these places had big "now leasing" signs hanging from their buildings :( ]
Finally we found one place to look at which was a “loft” apartment for $1350 [note: apartment prices in LA are insanely expensive and this price is pretty much as good as it gets... it was by far the cheapest place that we checked out]. The “loft” -which is a two story aparment with an unpartitioned upper floor and high ceilings for the lower floor – looked really nice and we instantly liked it. We had been looking for 1 Bedroom apartments originally, but they were even more expensive, so we were seriously considering this place. I preferred to look around some more, but in the end the loft was the best and cheapest option [and still insanely expensive]. It was 3 p.m. by that time and we decided to put our names and deposit down for that place when we received a call on our cellphone from a guy named Ken who I had called earlier about a place. We had walked by this place earlier and he had a sign out that he was renting a 1 Bedroom aparment. To be honest, it was just a stupid idea to call him, because the apartment he was advertising was in a “condo”-type building [not a huge apartment complex!] and there was no way we thought we would be able to afford this place, but I had called just for the heck of it, because I liked the building and I just wanted to see what we were NOT going to get ;) So we went back to his place and took a look at the apartment, which was on the 2 floor with a separate entrance, a huge living room with bay windows, a big kitchen, a separate pretty big bedroom and a bathroom. We fell in love with that place instantly, but walked out thinking that this must be about $1600 or something. Jon was about to leave, but I said that I wanted to talk to that guy and ask him for the rent… just because I was curious how much that place was.
Ken, a guy in his 50’s, was really nice and we talked a little bit and when I asked for the price, we almost keeled over… Jon was already half out the door when he heard “$975″ and we were like “Excuse me?” We couldn’t believe our ears!
Jon went back up to take another look at the apartment [to check if there was anything "wrong" with it *lol*] and then came back to verify that he had understood him right… $975?
We both were totally stunned. The apartment is  older, but very well kept and just beautiful! The only downside is that it doesn’t come with parking and there is only 2-hour parking on the street, but Jon was positive that he can figure something out (since there are two streets a block away that don’t have any parking restrictions).
This place just really fell from the sky!
Ken said he was going to make a routinely background check and he would let us know. I do hope he calls [hopefully tomorrow!!]

Here’s a picture from the outside. The apartment is on the second floor (the whole front side that you can see). Isn’t it charming? ;)

Oh, and then there’s another cute thing about it… the address is: 460 1/4 Kelton Ave… I feel like in “Harry Potter” :) I have never heard anything like that, but Ken explained to us that this is acutally the “real” address of this place.
I can’t believe how lucky we were… the whole apartment hunting was pretty exhausting and then this place popped up… for $975/month! That is unbelievable! Oh please, let us get this place!!!

Jon and I had some dinner at “Olive Garden” and then stopped by at Dhevan’s place to tell him the “good news” :) We drove back to Ventura around 8 p.m., told the whole story to Jon’s parents (who were really happy for us) and then went straight to bed. We were exhausted!

This morning, we got up early and drove back to Sacramento… I had a nice talk on the phone with my sister and then went out in the afternoon to run some errands. When I got back at 5 p.m., I invited Maria over for some coffee.
Oh, I forgot to tell you… Dhevan got us this really nice Cuisinart coffee maker which grinds the whole coffee beans before brewing. It’s awesome! I had been waiting for 4 days (!) to try it out :)
Let me tell you, you could really taste a difference! I am so excited about it!
We chatted with Aaron and Maria for a while and then I made some dinner for Jon and I and we watched some X-files. We really had to turn our minds of for a while [we both have so much going on right now].

I’ll be leaving here in 4 days and I feel so rushed, because there is so much I have to take care of before I leave and I am so sad, because I won’t be able to enjoy my last few days in Sacramento :(
I really loved living here and it makes me kind of sad knowing

so, we drove down to Ventura on Thursday. Believe it or not, our car broke down on I-5 right in the middle of nowhere… the closest town, about 10 miles away, was Lost Hills. Go figure! All of a sudden, we had this warning noise indicating that our engine was on the edge of overheating. It was strange, because we had driven the car under normal conditions… we made it to the next exit and parked the car. Jon popped open the hood and realized that one of the belts had come lose.
I was so glad we had our cell phone. Jon called “AAA” and they sent out a tow truck to help us out. It took about 30 minutes until the guy with the tow truck arrived.

He put our car on the back of his truck and drove us to the next car shop in Lost Hills (which was basically an old metal sheet building run by Hispanic guys who were constantly talking Spanish with each other). Fortunately, it seemed like they knew what they were doing, because they fixed the car within 20 minutes :) I was so relieved, because I had already seen us stuck in Lost Hills.

We made it to Ventura at around 8 p.m. and we had a quick dinner at “Marie Callendar’s” – I had french onion soup with caesar salad and garlic bread *yummy*

The next morning, we had some breakfast with Jon’s Mom and in the afternoon Jon and I drove down to Los Angeles to meet up with Dhevan.
We went out to a very nice Indian Restaurant for dinner and afterwards hung out at Dhevan’s place for a while and watched “The Wizard of Oz” overlayed with some Pink Floyd Music (apparently, someone found out that one of Pink Floyd’s albums had some funny musical coincidences with the plot of the movie).
At around 10 p.m., we decided to go out to a bar called “Maloney’s” which was about a 5 minute walk from Dhevan’s apartment and have some drinks. It was a pretty nice place with a wooden bar and lots of TV screens (it was one of these “sport bar”-type places). The funny thing was that they played a real weird mix of music… like songs from every genre and time… first “Bloody Sunday” by U2, followed by “Miami” by Will Smith, then some country song followed by the Dire Straits. Seriously, who picked out the DJ for that night??? It was funny though.

 
We went back to Dhevan’s apartment later, had some beer and mike’s hard lemonade and watched “Alice in Wonderland”… oh, that movie is so lovely :) I hadn’t seen it in a long time and really enjoyed it. In the meantime, the guys were falling asleep on the floor and I finished the movie and then had the privilege to sleep on Dhevan’s bed [he has this tiny little studio apartment and the only couch he has is really small].

Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast at “Headlines!” – a very typical American breakfast place- which apparently was really popular with students, because it was packed. We were lucky and got three seats at the counter.
Afterwards, Jon went to a Barber Shop to get a nice haircut [as some of you have noticed from the last photos, he had grown out his hair lately, but he really needed a haircut now]. It looks so nice :)

Since Jon and Aaron are planning to move down to Westwood/West LA in about a month, we decided to start looking for some apartment complexes in the area. I had looked up some places on the Internet at Dhevan’s place and then we went there to check them out. Even though the websites said that manager offices would be open till 5 p.m. on Saturdays, we had no luck and most of the manager offices were closed. At least we could have a look at the apartments from the outside.
It is insane what they charge for a 1-Bedroom apartment in L.A. :( We have a very nice 2-Bedroom apartment in Sacramento right now and we pay $800 per month for it. In LA you have to expect almost twice as much for a 1-Bedroom aparment (and some of them not even very nice). I really hope we’ll be able to find something nice that will be affordable.
Since we couldn’t really do much more on Saturday regarding the apartment hunt, we decided to drive back to Ventura around 4 p.m. and went to see Jon’s friend Ian.
We went out for some Mexican food for dinner and then rented a movie and hung out at his place.

Sunday we went to the beach for a while, because the weather was just gorgeous. Nice and sunny (a little windy maybe) and I know that I am going to make you jealous with this ;)

We also visited “the old folks”, as Jon’s Mom likes to put it ;) Jon’s Grandad and his great-aunt and -uncle live in the same assisted living place in Ventura. His Great-aunt and -uncle just moved there recently from Long Beach, since it was getting harder and harder for Jon’s parents to take care of them down there (Long Beach is -depending on the traffic – a 2-3 hour-drive from Ventura). It’s so much better now to have them close by and hey were so happy to see us :) It’s amazing how you can makes someone’s day by just paying them a short visit!

Jon and I went to the beach again in the late afternoon to enjoy the sunset. It was beautiful!

We had a nice dinner with Jon’s parents last night and hung out and talked. We started talking about some arrangements for the wedding in Germany in May… Jon’s parents are both looking forward to going to Europe and having this wedding so much :) It’s going to be great!

I am not quite sure what Jon and I will be doing today. We had planned to drive down to LA again and look for aparmtents, but then we realized that it is “Martin Luther King’s Day” today and the management offices won’t be open :( Oh well, I guess that means we “have to spend” a lazy day in Southern California and maybe even go to the beach again *lol* I know, life is hard! ;)

Hi guys, sorry for updating you so late… time is just flying right now and I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can :)

We spent the weekend at home and watched a whole lot of movies and several episodes of X-files. Jon has declared watching all episodes of season I his goal by the time I leave [there are about another 18 episodes left], so we really have to keep watching.

Aaron and Maria came over for a while on Sunday and we went to “Panera” for lunch. They have awesome sandwiches, but I still love their french baguette just with butter the best ;) Sandwiches are “too complicated” for me with all their different ingredients – I like it plain best *lol* In the evening, we watched some Basketball and then played “Grass“, a fun card game.

Monday afternoon, I went to the Outlets with Maria :) You just gotta love the Outlets *lol* we mainly went, because Maria needed to buy some things, but I ended up buying some shirts for Jon and a shirt and earrings for me. “Claire’s” had this great sale on earrings – even clips! I was amazed by the variety – so I bought four pairs! Now I see no point in getting my ears pierced anymore at all ;)

Yesterday, Jon and I spent a day in the Bay Area. We left in the morning and drove to San Francisco :) When we left Sacramento, it was sunny outside, but on our way it got pretty foggy and I was afraid that the weather in San Francisco would -as always- be kind of  dull, but we were lucky! When we reached Golden Gate Park, the sun was out. We decided to check out the “Conservatory of Flowers” which was a good choice as it was highly interesting and they had an orchid exhibition that was truly amazing. Orchids are so pretty!

After that we walked around some more and then decided to drive to the ocean. So we drove through the whole Golden Gate Park and then hit the shore. Many people were out and it was really nice, but windy. We continued our trip by driving northwards towards the Golden Gate Bridge and got a wonderful view of it. We stopped several times along the way to enjoy the view.

All that walking and sight-seeing made us hungry, so we drove back to Rockridge/Oakland. Jon’s Mom had lived in Oakland for about two years and there were quite a few places that we were familiar with and that we wanted to see again, including a book shop where I had gotten good deals on calendars after New Year’s in the recent years. So we went there and bought a new calendar for our apartment :)
Then we had dinner at “Filippo’s”, an Italian restaurant [run by Hispanics *lol*]… in any case, the food was amazing! We started off with an appetizer platter [bruschetta, tomatoes, mozarella and asparagus] and then had some pasta. Very yummy!
At last, we drove up into the Oakland Hills and enjoyed the evening view over the Bay :) It was a fun day [and I am kind of sad that I probably won't go to SF again any time soon :( ]

Click here to see more…

Today we got up early, did the laundry, I talked to my sister on the phone and at 1:30 p.m. I left for Davis, because I was meeting with Elcin – the turkish girl that I had met at my friend Sheila’s desert party :) Remember? We met at “Chocolat”, a really nice little café in Davis which sells delicious cakes and chocolate treasures.
It was really great to see Elcin again. I had kind of fallen in love with her at first sight, because she’s this cute short girl with a neverending smile on her face :) She’s a PhD student at UC Davis and she’s getting her PhD in Athmosperhic Sciences [ another scientist! :)]
We had a wonderful time chatting and catching up on the last few months. I just wish we could have spent more time together… I just got to know her last summer, so time for us was really short. I hope I can see again next week before I leave.

Later I drove to the Outlets in Vacaville to get a belated Christmas present for Jon’s parents and then I was looking around some more (I just love wondering through all the stores… and I was good and didn’t buy anything more ;)).
Tomorrow it’s off to Ventura for the weekend. I am looking forward to spend some more time with Jon’s parents, since we only saw them briefly on New Year’s.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Our “honeymoon” has pretty much been being lazy and watching movies the last few days *LOL* On Wednesday, Jon took me to the movies and we saw “The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe“. What a fantastic movie! I love these kind of dark fairy tales a lot. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you go and see it soon! I made my potato dish for dinner and then in the evening, we started watching the first two episodes of “X-Files First Season”. Jon is desperately trying to get me into it ;) and I enjoyed watching it – I am just not that big of a fan of movies/series about aliens and that kind of stuff ;)

Thursday, we watched “Mr. Holland’s Opus“, a very good movie about a composer who becomes a music school teacher and totally blossoms in his role as an educator. When the school’s music program is cut because of budget problems, he fights for the right of students to learn music. I found that pretty interesting since Jon told me that he only had music lessons in Middle School and neither in Elementary nor Highschool. I told him that in Germany, we have music lessons pretty much from 1st to at least 10th grade and I find that important, too. I always loved the music lessons in school.

Yesterday, we had planned to go to the Bay Area for the day, but we slept in late and then decided to go sometime next week. I watched “The Notebook“ while having breakfast :) [I just LOVE that movie and I love HBO which is playing a couple of good movies right now. I really want to enjoy American TV and American movies while I am here... I know I won't get that for a while.]

We went out to dinner at Bakers Square and I had some yummy Apple pie as desert :) and then we returned home to watch the Kings play the L.A. Clippers… and they won! We were so excited!! Before we went to bed, we watched “Bad Santa” and let me tell you, what a f***ed up movie! I mean, I somehow enjoyed watching it, but I don’t know how many times Jon was saying “Geeez” and how many times I was just speechless shaking my head about what was going on. I can’t explain it any further, but you have to see for yourself.

I am not sure yet what we’re up to today, but it looks like it’s going to be sunny, so we might go out and do something (as soon as Jon wakes up *lol*). Have a great weekend!

Saturday, December 31st, the last day of 2005 and I was getting married :) Let me tell you, this day was the most surreal day ever… but we had a blast.

Friday night, Dhevan’s Dad Raja had his brother and family visiting. They all stayed over at their house and the next morning we had a very typical Indian breakfast. Samosa (deep fried vegetable pastry) and Dosa (something like tortillas) with Coconut Chutney (like a Coconut-mint dip). It tasted really good (although I don’t think I am going to change my breakfast habits to Indian food ;)).

Then Jon and I took showers and got ready to go to Las Vegas. Dhevan was going to come with us as our witness. We left around 2:45 p.m. and it took us about an hour to get to the courthouse. It was raining and very windy in Las Vegas! First Jon and I had to go the Marriage License Bureau and apply for a marriage license. There were quite a few guys standing outside of the courthouse to advertise for different wedding chapels. It was overwhelming. Inside the courthouse we had to get in line, because there were quite a few couples who signed up for the marriage license. I didn’t expect so many people to be there (already I had read that New Year’s Eve is a popular day to get married in Vegas). Fortunately we didn’t have to wait for too long and after 15 minutes, we had our marriage license. We decided to take one of the guys in front of the courthouse up on his wedding offer and a limousine took us to one of (the many) wedding chapels. On the ride, The Doors were playing on the radio… what a funny coincidence!
Inside the wedding chapel it was really busy. I thought for a slight moment that it hadn’t been a good idea to chose one of the chapels, but that we should have done the civil ceremony at the courthouse, but then I was convinced fairly quickly that I wouldn’t forget that day again :)
There were five different “chapel rooms” to choose from and while we were looking at all of them, an Elvis imitator was singing in one of the chapels. It was so cheesy *LOL*
We decided to go with a a very simple ceremony package (they had different packages to chose from including the one with having Elvis play at your ceremony ;)) and picked a white room with lots of red and white flowers.
While we were waiting, a minister casually introduced himself and said that he would do the ceremony while bustling to the next wedding.
So we waited in the room and then he finally came in, closed the sliding door behind him, started some music and within 5 minutes we had said our vows and were married :) It was over in a blink of an eye… and it felt really surreal… but I must say that saying the vows while looking into each others eyes was definitely very emotional.

A photographer came in to take some photos and while we were waiting for the photo-CD, someone took care of the paper work for us. I was a little bit surprised that we didn’t have to sign anything during the ceremony (that is what I know about civil ceremonies in Germany) and Dhevan, as our witness, also didn’t have to sign anything.

After we received our marriage cerftificate, the limousine took us back to the courthouse where Dhevan left us to go back to Pahrump and we took the car to go to the Venetian, where we had reserved a table at Zeffirino’s Ristorante for dinner.
The restaurant was amazing. We got a table on the ”patio” (which of course was still inside the Venetian, but if you have ever been in there, the whole ceiling is created so that it feels like you’re outdoors) and it was totally romantic. We had a four course New Year’s dinner and the food was absolutely fabulous. I had sea bream carpaccio, followed by a salad, N.Y. steak and chocolate cream desert. So yummy :)

After dinner, we walked around inside the Venetian a little more and then decided to drive back to Pahrump. We had reserved a hotel room for that night and we wanted to spend the time by ourselves and celebrate into the new year as newlyweds :)
We watched the amazing Las Vegas fire works on TV and then enjoyed our hotel room and the Jacuzzi.

The next morning, I took another nice bubble bath in the Jacuzzi and then we got ready. We stopped by at Dhevan’s place again to thank his family for their hospitality and then were on our way to Ventura. It took us about 6,5 hours, since there was a lot of traffic and it had started to rain shortly after we crossed the Nevada-California state border. As you might have heard on the news, California is being hit very badly by heavy rains. There is a lot of flooding going on and landslides and debris flows are very likely in certain areas. Fortunately, we made it safely to Ventura.
Jon’s parents were so happy to see us. His Mom hugged me welcomed me to the family :) she is totally excited about the wedding and can’t wait for the ceremony in Germany.
We had a great pasta dinner and then a belated Christmas with exchanging gifts. Jon’s Mom got me a really cute cardigan with a zipper, a necklace with matching earrings and a book [The Sixties chronicles].

Monday morning, Jon and I decided to drive back to Sacramento. In spite of the bad weather, the drive went pretty smoothly. Once we were over the Grapevine, it stopped raining and we actually saw a really beautiful rainbow :)

I did some shopping when we got home and then we got cozy on the couch and watched “Troy” which was a great movie, but it pretty much solidified my conviction that I don’t need Brad Pitt in my movie-world ;) [oh yeah, I hear you all scream with outrage already LOL].

Yesterday was pretty relaxed… we hung around the house and in the afternoon I went for a big shopping trip since our fridge was virtually empty. It was fun to do my shopping routine again :) Aaron and Maria came over for dinner, they had cooked a stir fry with rice and I had made a salad and then we watched NBA Basketball. The Kings lost again… they are not really doing well this season. If you ask me, this is all due to the huge change of players, but it was fun watching anyway.

[this will be a long one...]

Finally… I am back. Happy New Year to all of you and all the best wishes for 2006! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and a fun New Year’s Eve!

I know I owe you over a week of “what’s going on in Sannie’s life” and you’ll get it in pieces. I’ll start with Christmas in Germany today and we’ll see how far I’ll get.

Christmas Eve was amazing. In the morning, I met with Silke, a friend I have known since Kindergarten. I hadn’t seen her in two years, because she’s been living in
Berlin and I haven’t exactly been around much lately… so it was just fantastic that we managed to get together for a couple of hours. We went Downtown to “Coffee Corner” and had some coffee and caught up on the latest news ;)
Time just flew by and after three hours, I took her home and then stopped by at Ira’s place since I wanted to see her again before I left. She and her parents were in the kitchen preparing the Christmas dinner and we sat down for a while to talk. At 3 p.m. I went home and helped my Mom prepare stuff for the evening as well.
I prepared little menu cards with name tags on them and decorated the table.

At 7 p.m. our guests came over. Since Nina and Dirk left for their skiing trip the day before, we were “only” 8 people total – my Mom and Dad, my great-aunt, my Granddad, my aunt and my cousin Bastian and another cousin of my Mom’s. I love having so many people over :)

We had a fabulous three course dinner with a fish appetizer, REHRÜCKEN with celery-mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts and red cabbage and after that we had BRATAPFEL for dessert. So yummy!
We always make a little ceremony out of giving each other gifts… everyone gets a gift at a time and we all participate in the act of unwrapping :) it’s always so much fun!

We had a really great evening and I was really happy that I had the chance to celebrate Christmas with my family this year.

our dinner table                                                                                   my parents and I

On Christmas Day, my Dad and I traditionally visit my godmother and that’s what we did this year again. After lunch time, I also stopped by at my Granddad’s place to see my uncle [my Dad’s brother] and my aunt for Christmas.

The rest of the day I spent with my parents and packing my suitcases.

I got up at 4:30 a.m. with my parents the next morning, because they left for their skiing trip that day. I said good-bye to them and then took a shower and finished up packing my bags. Marita and Jochen were so nice to take me to the train station at 7:30 a.m. – they had also offered to take me to the airport in Cologne, but since there is a non-stop train from
Grevenbroich to the airport, it wouldn’t have been worth driving out there.

I checked in at 10:00 a.m. and then walked to the gate.

My first flight was from Cologne to
Amsterdam. Then I had 4 hours connecting time in
Amsterdam which I passed with walking around and reading. Time went by pretty fast.

I was pretty lucky and very happy when I found out that I had the aisle seat in the first row of the economy class cabin – which meant I had lots of leg space :) I sat next to a French guy who was really nice to talk to. I tried to sleep for a while and I think I napped for a little bit, but couldn’t really find a comfortable position. I brought my Mom’s special pillow along, which I thought would make it easier to rest my head on, but it wasn’t. Oh well. It was ok though.

Finally we arrived in
Minneapolis. Of course, I picked the line at Immigration which was the slowest. Everything went smoothly so far. The guy at Immigration was pretty nice, but then it happened…. they pulled me out. The officer sent me over to the Immigration Service Desk. Someone sent me to get my luggage and I thought they would just do a routinely luggage check or something. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I didn’t really worry… until one of the guys asked me to go into one of their interview rooms with him.

First he was really nice, asked me what the purpose of my visit was and complimented me on my English. Then he started being not so nice anymore, asked me about the address that I put on my I-94 (our address in
Sacramento) and who Jon was. I answered honestly, also explained that we had been living together while I was on my J-1 and that I had been working with the USGS and was supposed to get a work visa, but that they had problems figuring it out. Finally I realized that they were thinking that I came to marry Jon and stay here illegally. I couldn’t believe it.
They asked me for Jon’s phone number, for his parents’ phone number and wanted to know if they would tell them anything different from what I told them if they called them. They also wanted to know my email address AND password – which I wasn’t willing to give out at first, but they told me that they were allowed to ask me for my password. I was really intimidated.

[Now you know why you received this strange email from a different email address.]

So I told them that Jon and I had indeed talked about marriage and that I was here to talk with him and his parents about the options. I also truthfully admitted that there was a chance that we get married while I am here and that this is totally legitimate, but that I know that I have to go back to Germany and apply for a spouse visa and that I do have a job lined up in
Germany starting in February.

The officer kept saying that I should better tell the truth and why I was so nervous… well, wouldn’t you be if you were interrogated like this? I told him that I know the law and that it wouldn’t do me any good to stay here illegally.

Then they left me in that room and called Jon and also talked to his Dad. Unfortunately, Jon totally freaked out when they called him and said that we were only friends and that we both had other partners. Can you imagine that!?
He was probably scared to say something that could make them send me back to
Germany and not letting me in. Fortunately, Jon’s Dad had a good talk with the officer, also explained that we’ve been a couple for 4 years, that he had met my whole family and that we had indeed talked about getting married and that he hoped we would. Obviously, that convinced the officer in so far that I was not planning a marriage for the sole purpose of immigrating to the US.

In the end, they obviously got convinced that I was not planning anything illegal, so they let me go.

They let me call Jon to let him know that I was on my way and damn, was I glad when I finally was on that flight to SFO.

I got in at midnight and there was Jon waiting for me. It was so good to see him.

We waited for my luggage [that they had searched through, too, by the way, and they had taken out my Teewurst :( but fortunately not the beer  and Funny Frisch Chips that I brought for Jon.]

We were finally home at around 2 a.m. and went straight to bed. What a day.

I slept in really late on Tuesday, the 27th, since I was so tired. It was great sleeping in our bed again with Jon next to me :)
We didn’t really do much, but make some sandwiches, watch some TV and hang out. I was really jet lagged.

Thursday we left for Pahrump. It took us 8,5 hours to get there. We took I-5 down south and then had to cross the southern end of the Sierrra Nevada. We got there at around 11 p.m. – Dhevan had some pizza ready for us when we arrived and we talked some more with him and his Mom, Patty.

We went to bed at 2:00 a.m. and I slept like a rock. I was really tired from the drive.

The next morning, Jon and Dhevan got up early and rode the dirt bike outside. I slept in and we had “breakfast pizza” at around 11 a.m. Then we put the dirt bike on the truck and went out to the dry lake bed where Jon and Dhevan wanted to ride the dirt bike some more. The weather was awesome (pretty warm for this time of the year) and the view was gorgeous. I took some really cool pictures.

Jon and Dhevan unloading the dirt bike

the dry lake bed                                                                                       Jon on the dirt bike

Sannie in the desert

It’s amazing how deceptive the view is – everything looks so “close” in the desert and turns out to be hundred of meters away. I could have stayed out there forever…

We left after about 2,5 hours, because the dirt bike broke down and went back to Dhevan’s house. Dhevan’s family owns a pizza place, a mini-mart and a bar which is open 7 days a week, so we played some darts at the bar. We had some more pizza at around 5 p.m. and then Jon and Dhevan went into town to gamble ;) and I watched “Shrek 2” on DVD.

… to be continued ASAP!

I can’t believe Christmas is almost there. I read this cool article in a newspaper the other day which was called “Things I hate about Christmas” and one thing was that Christmas always comes so all of a sudden… ;) You were just sitting outside having a barbeque and …bang… it’s Christmas*lol* sometimes it really feels like that. I am always amazed how fast the year goes by and that it is Christmas again… I vividly remember last year, when we spent Christmas with Jon’s parents and then spent a whole weekend in Malibu at Aaron’s Grandma’s place :) That was awesome!

No, I really can’t complain, because even though I wasn’t in the biggest Christmas mood this year, I enjoyed the season. I went to a Weihnachtsmarkt, baked cookies, had some Christmas get-togethers and also took out Christmas decorations and all that stuff. It is fun! I really like the Christmas season -cheesy or not. I really love getting little gifts for my friends, too (although I agree that this shouldn’t be the most important thing), just showing them how much I care about them :)

The last few days have been kind of busy. There are so many things I’ve been trying to take care of before I leave on Monday. I also helped my Mom prepare the Christmas weekend with shopping, decorations, and organization. My sister is leaving for her skiing trip tomorrow, so we visited my granddad and great-aunt again today and I had to pick up my Mom’s Christmas gift at Nina’s place.

I booked a return flight from San Francisco to Düsseldorf for the 23rd of January (hopefully I won’t have any problems when going through customs) – which means I’ll be gone for exactly 4 weeks.

You all have a wonderful Christmas! Don’t eat too much ;)
I’ll try to update once more before I get on the plane. I don’t know when I will be able to write an update when I get there, because we will be gone for a couple of days (over New Year’s), so if you don’t hear from me, a happy New Year to all of you and all the best wishes.

Ok… here’s the long overdue update of last week… I am sorry I won’t have anything to say regarding my last post, but I will fill you in on more details soon.

So… I am not really in the biggest Christmas mood this year, but I have to say that I do love Christmas get-togethers and we had two of them last week with yummy food :) On Tuesday, my sister had invited my granddad, my great-aunt, my parents and me for waffles with hot cherries and whipped cream *yummy* Nina won’t be there on Christmas Eve because she’s going on a skiing trip with Dirk and his parents, so she wanted to get together beforehand.
I also used the opportunity to inform my great-aunt and granddad about our wedding plans. It was good to have my parents and sister around, because I wasn’t really sure how they would take this surprise, especially as everything is moving along fairly quickly now, but they took it pretty well :) I think my great-aunt was a little “shocked”, but I hope in a good way!

In the morning, my sister had been to the doctor, because she had this terrible cold last week and was still coughing so hard that her whole upper body was aching. So she went to see her doctor again and -guess what?- she had broken a rib from coughing. Can you believe that? I have never heard anything like that, but her doctor said that this is not so uncommon.

Wednesday morning, my sister and I went Christmas shopping (we both still needed some small gifts) and in the evening, Nina, Dirk and I were invited for “cheese fondue” at Ira’s place. It has become kind of a tradition to get together once before Christmas over the last few years and I was really looking forward to being able to be there this year again. First we had a delicious salad and when the cheese was melted, we started with the fondue. It was so good!! We finished a whole big pot of cheese and when we all felt like we couldn’t eat anymore, Ira came out with her special dessert… “Creme brulée”. OMG… that dessert was divine :)

Later Ira got out a “whine flavor set” with little flavor samples that whines can taste like… it was amazing how many flavors/scents you know, but can’t necessarily identify. The only samples I could identify were “cinnemon” and “lemon”, a lot of the other flavors smelled familiar, but I couldn’t really say what it was… and at some point my nose couldn’t handle all these extrem smells anymore. It was really interesting though ;)

Well, and Thursday I just ran some errands and got some Christmas mail on its way… I hope it’ll all get there on time. I must admit, I’ve been a little slack with my organization this year. My apologies.

Friday my sister and I went shopping with my great-aunt and had more coffee and cake in the afternoon. Let me tell you, these “holiday pounds” are definitely finding there way ;) it was fun though.
I also stayed over at my sister’s place that night, because Dirk was gone for the weekend and Nina always likes me to come over then for a “sister’s night” :) Oh, of course, Emma, the cat,  is always part of it… she likes to be in the middle of everything! We already looked at wedding gowns… way too early, if you ask me, but my sister seems to be even more excited than I am *LOL*.

We got up real late Saturday morning, went to my Mom’s for lunch and then later drove over to my Mom’s friend Marita to help her set up her wireless Internet. It almost took us the whole afternoon and evening (I have realized that the instructions usually only come with the “easy setup instructions”, but never with some troubleshooting for complex phone and Internet connection systems.)
It was a fun day though, because my Dad came over in the evening and we went out to an Italian Restaurant in between to gain new strength ;)

I am still not done with my Christmas mail (although I’ve been working on it today) and I have tonz of things to do this week, since I realized that I will be leaving for California in a week! OMG. I don’t know if I have to time to do all the things I need to do.

Hugs to you all… and a nice last pre-Christmas week :)

The weekend was perfect to get into that special Christmas mood. We had more snow on Saturday morning and it was freakin’ cold, so I bundled up and took the train to Köln. Surprisingly, Köln didn’t have any snow at all… but the Christmas market had started next to the cathedral and it was beautiful. First I went window shopping for a little bit, looked for some boots [found some real cute ones in chocolate brown, but they had this white lining along the sole which looked just weird and decided not to get them] and then had some Rievkooche [Reibekuchen] on the Christmas market. At 3 p.m. I met with Regine at the train station. We went to Starbucks and had some coffee. We were lucky and got a table with two of these nice big arm chairs and we hung out there for about two hours. It was really good to see her again.
The train was cramped with people on my way back which is not surprising for the first weekend of the Advent season.

On Sunday, I took a walk to the downtown area with my Mom since we had verkaufsoffenen Sonntag and all the stores were open. It was snowing real hard and it was fun to walk around. We made some hot cocoa when we got home and ate some self-baked christmas cookies that my Dad and my cousin had baked that morning :)

Yesterday Sanni came to visit :)  I picked her up at the train station at 10:20 a.m. and we walked home and had breakfast first. Then I showed her my room and we spent most of the day inside chatting, laughing, cutting out scrapbooking templates and working on a movie clip [made with the windows movie maker]. We had lots and lots of tea and it was a really fun day. [Thanks again for coming to visit, Sanni!]

On a side note: I HATE the Telekom :( I wonder how many incompetent people can be working in one single spot. I told you that my Dad decided to get a router for our Internet access and it took us three days and consulting three (!) different people from Telekom to figure out which would be the right option to do this. We told them that we had two computers and that we were using a switch port right now to go online and that we wanted to go online with both computers at the same time. The first two people were not able to tell us that we could get their new deal [changing the T DSL service and getting a router for free] but then needed to get a wireless card for one of the computers since the router only came with one cable plug. It took us three days to figure that out and we only did, because I basically knew what we were looking for. Just imagine people who don’t know anything about routers, wireless and such at all… they would be totally lost with service personnel like that :( Oh well, why am I not surprised about this?

yes, believe it or not, we had the first snow last night. It’s unbelievable. We hadn’t had snow in November for many years (as far as I can remember… and when I was in Germany ;)), so it pretty much came as a surprise this morning when I looked out the window. It was really windy last night and I woke up several times because it was raining so hard, but obviously there were also some soundless snow flakes trickling down. It definitely feels like winter now and it’s right on time, I guess, one week before December.

The good news… I’ll be online wireless again soon :) My Dad decided today to change our DSL rate and get a router, which means I’ll be able to surf from my room again. Awesome! Not that it bothered me to check my mails in my parents’ office, but it’s definitely nice to be able to sit in my room and keep the Internet running all day. Right now, only one person at a time can be online due to a stupid switch-port that is managing our connection. Yeah, I know, you can make me happy with little things these days.

I am going to Köln tomorrow to meet with one of the German girls I met in Davis. She returned home in August and told me that she’s really “homesick” and if I would like to meet with her since I am the only one who understands her feelings ;) I am looking forward to seeing Regine again. We will suitably meet at Starbucks :) and of course, I would also love to get the chance and stroll over the Christmas market for the first time. I really like the one in Köln. I hope you’ll all have a nice weekend. Keep warm.

today is “turkey day” and I just wish I could be in Ventura with Jon and his family. I remember last year when we had this really delicious turkey roast and watched a movie later. It was so much fun. It has become a special holiday for me and I am kind of sad I am not really celebrating it this year…. [it's fun to live a cross-cultural relationship and have double the holidays per year,both the german and american ones. Too bad you won't get both holidays off from work ;)] I miss Jon even more these days.

I went to see my great-aunt today. She’s always so happy when I come to visit. We had some cappuccino and “Spekulatius“, one of my favorite christmas-time cookies.
Hopefully, I won’t get sick… many people [including my sister] came down with a cold and I hope I will be untroubled by the flu this year. It started raining here today and it’s pretty cold – that’s when usually everybody gets some kind of infection. So keep warm and drink lots of tea or hot milk with honey!

this is going to be my backup diary… i am usually writing here, but I’ll also post the same entries here for security purposes :)

If you have any questions, comments… please comment.