Things I Like to Do

Since Christmas, most of my time outside of work has been spent with friends, who I'm very lucky to have here. Mostly we just get together for dinner, conversation, or a movie....and a drink or so. This winter has been a long one (especially without my beloved laptop), but it was much better than last year. The number of days it snowed was absurd since "it never snows here." And because it never snows, they also don't believe in snow removal. Their idea of cleaning the streets consists of letting the cars drive on the roads to pack the snow down, which later turns into ice. It was so much fun.

Over the 3-day holiday weekend in January, my friend Dave and I decided to take a day trip to Koblenz. We heard it was a nice city and it's at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhein rivers. I'm sure it's a very pretty city, when your teeth aren't chattering and you're constantly looking for a church to duck into to get warm.

I don't look cold at all.Neither does Dave.

Also in January, I drove to Mons, Belgium to visit David and Rita, with whom I used to work. They were kind enough to invite me over for a weekend to be Belgian, which basically includes beer and french fries. I was in heaven. They have a fryer in their kitchen counter!! I'm afraid that would be a little too dangerous, even for me. Unfortunately, I forgot to take out my camera the entire weekend so I don't have any pictures. Mostly, though, all three of us had a beer in our hand and a fistful of fries in the other for a good part of the weekend. (And those who know me well or who have been reading my blog with interest and are probably wondering why I'd even make that statement--it's pretty much a given.) They also took me to SHAPE, which includes a grocery store filled with international food and drink, catering to the many nationalities stationed there. I think I'd like to work there just for the international food selection (and beer) without taxes!

In February, my friend Chris came to visit again. We relaxed around here and we also took a trip to Berlin. It was so cold that it was hard to walk around much, but we did take in some of the sights, since he had never been. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and the East Side Gallery, which is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing. We also had dinner at a restaurant called the Alpenstueck, where I had the best meal since I've lived here. The Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, was also taking place and we got free tickets to a showing of film shorts by Mexican directors. There were no George Clooney or Leonarda Dicaprio sightings, but we felt famous.

Yes, that's ice on the river.I need longer arms for self-portraits in front of large monuments.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

This year, Christmas felt more like it should during the holidays. Mom came to visit and arrived with Wayne on the 23rd. Luckily, they were here for the last day of the Christmas market in Wiesbaden. They tasted potato pancakes, Gluehwein, and a bratwurst at the market, all within the first few hours they were in Germany. Not bad and that was just the first trip down. They wanted to see the market, which is called the "twinkling star market," at night. So around 4:00, when there was only a few more minutes of daylight (I'm not kidding), we went down to walk around again and have more food--this time potato soup.

On Christmas Day I had 12 of my closest, crazy friends over for dinner, drinks, and fun. Come to think of it, that's really what happens every time we get together, but this time it involved a tree and hot oil--Will and the other boys fried a turkey in my backyardish area and it was delicious. Everyone brought something to share and we had more food than we could stuff ourselves with. Surprisingly, Mom and Wayne weren't scared away and enjoyed meeting everyone. Mom realized that I am not an alcoholic--ALL of my friends drink this much ;)


We visited Ruedesheim the day after Christmas and then on Sunday we drove down to Trier and stayed the night. In Trier there are a ton of Roman ruins, which they enjoyed seeing, even if we couldn't get into some of them. It was colder than a witch's.....well, you know, so walking around outside was hard after while. Luckily there are heated churches and bakeries for kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) during the afternoon, which we delightedly sampled during the afternoon.

The next morning, although Wayne was feeling really sick, we drove the 20 minutes across the border to Luxembourg to see the American military cemetery and where Patton is buried. After that, we came straight home and Wayne went straight to bed, where he remained until they left on the 1st. Poor Wayne, on his first trip to Germany he stayed home sick for most of it.

Because of that, Mom and I just did little trips around here. The best was when we went to this old monestery, Kloster Eberbach, which isn't a monestary anymore. We had a great lunch there of Riesling soup, then took the walking tour of the monestery.

Mom was also starting to get sick and by the 31st, she had it. I went to a party and they were in bed by 8. I went to a couple's house down the street for a small party with fondue. Just before midnight we went downtown, where I went last year, to watch the crazy Germans light fireworks. This year, however, some of those crazies were my friends.

Although everyone could have done without the getting sick part, I'm glad I could have family here for Christmas.

Here are the pictures from Mom's visit and from Christmas.