My first Travels.

Haven't posted in a while...

Bennet was sick with strep throat all week last week so I was sort of trapped in the house all week with him. I think it was good to spend time together and he wasn't really very sick so it was hard to get him to get some rest. We watched a few movies, and obviously did some crafts:

So were a little premature with the jack o lanterns but they were cute and Bennet wanted to make his scary after he saw them on Pinterest. 

Bennet made a monster truck which I didn't take a picture of but while he was doing that, I made myself these bookends because my books kept falling over everytime I closed my dresser drawers. They are filled with rocks :)

The week was long but he is better now, still on antibiotics but all better. 

Two weeks ago Tina and I made a tapas feast for a few people which was DELICIOUS! Obviously the fat girl in me had to take photos. 

This is escargot (I saw it and we had to get it), feta and pesto stuffed mushrooms and bread with baked goat cheese in tomato sauce. Oh, and the giant pitcher of delicious sangria :)

This is chorizo with aioli, avocado rolls, dates stuffed with goat cheese wrapped with bacon, and steak feta and red pepper crostinis. 

Everything was so good. Lots of fun to cook as well. Thank god it was Spanish week at LIDL. 

I went for my first run in the woods after I had gotten lost so I was nervous the whole time but I was mostly just dying because I picked a route that was alllll uphill (unbeknownst to me). That was rough, I was definitely sore. 

I have had my first night at the HalfenHof (the only bar in Ramersbach) after Tina's Tupper party last weekend. It was really just us sitting and talking about our hopes of certain travels. It was good to say my wishes out loud and have someone hear them. The HalfenHof seriously just looks like a bar out of Beauty and the Beast. The scene where Gaston is in the bar singing about how great he is....thats the Halfen Hof. 

I've also had my first night at Osman's (the main good bar in Neuenahr). It was okay, I guess there was a winefest not too far so there were not too many younger people there. This was the same night as out tapas feast so I was in a food coma and ready for bed anyway. 

Last weekend I traveled to Amsterdam to visit with Hannah. I stayed at a pretty sketch hostel called Dam Hotel on Damrak which is the main street from Centraal Station to Dam Square. It was a good location as I knew the area very well. It was just for 1 night, it had 6 beds. Kinda sketchy but I definitely got my first lesson in hostels. Crash course!

Although the stair were steeper than the ones in the Anne Frank Huis, the window had a nice view....

I went and met Han at her hostel and we got food and went on a touristy bar crawl. It was lots of fun and it was in Leidesplein, where her hostel also was. It was great to spend so much time in that part of the city seeing as I really didn't last time I was there. I stayed at her hostel Sunday night and met a group of Brazilians, obviously I felt I had to befriend them for Alice's sake. Sunday morning when I checked out I walked around for a while. Ended up in the Red Light District and it was disturbing at that hour in the morning. I hereby vow never to return at that hour.....ever. 

We rented bikes and explored on Sunday. We went to the Blumenmarkt and Abraxas. The biking was another whole ball game. Hannah had lots of trouble and we actually lost her at the end. There were really no rules to abide by and it was almost scary at times but really cool to feel like more of the city. 

I was also on the tram a good amount and really enjoyed it. I zoned out once and really felt like I was a part of the city, that I could easily live there. I just felt so comfortable that to me it almost felt like a more scenic and much smaller Chicago. It brought me right back to the part of me that I have been missing since I moved here. It has been hard to feel like myself when there is nothing but unfamiliarity all around me. Something about the anonymity that come along with cities really comforts me. You can be anyone and be from anywhere. I found myself looking around a lot wondering what everyone's stories were.  There is such a mish mash of people in Amsterdam that everyone really does have an interesting story. I must have forgotten or not even realized till now how much I really enjoy that city, despite the sketchy and uncomfortable aspects of it. 

Here are a couple photos:

Ah the beautiful canals. This was on the 45 minute walk I took after visiting a friend at his work before I met with Hannah Saturday. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful walk. I just wished that I hadn't forgotten my ipod....

Now I'm back, tomorrow I have Deutsch class and then Friday we will leave for the ranch! We will be there with Nina's 2 sisters, Steffy and Barbara and their families. They each have husbands and 2 kids. I hope it won't be too cold!

Life as usual I suppose...

So Sunday we went to the ApfelHof and picked apfels. It is basically a small apple orchard right outside Ahrweiler. The kids had a lot of fun, we definitely raked in a lot of apples and the weather was beautiful. They also grew pears there and had a huuuuuge strawberry field which of course, I had to take artsy pictures of.

strawberry fields foreverrrr

Anyway, all the good apples were all the way at the tops of the tress as they usually are so Florian had to lift up the kids to grab them which was really cute. 

so here is everyone and then Nina with all the apples we got!

I've decided that every month I will make myself a calendar with a great quote on it. It will give me something to do, something artsy as well as help me to remember the important things so I don't get too lost. Here is my september one. I also made an August one but it is not very good so I'm not sure i'll post it. 

nothing too fancy but I need a calendar and something else to fill my walls so I like it. 

I've also been on Pinterest more than I'd care to admit but I have gotten some great recipes, craft ideas, and fun stuff to do. 

Example:

Zucchini fritters that I made last week.  aaaaand

this is what my nails look like right now. 

crazy right? I kinda like them. 

Anyway, nothing really exciting. Tina and I had a mexican night on Montag and we made avocado salsa which was unreal and we also made really delish chicken enchiladas. 

Tomorrow night we are going to make tapas, hopefully with Mela too. This is obviously going to include sangria and hopefully going out and meeting some new people afterwards. 

Last night the dance group started. Yes, I'm in a dance group. I am the oldest one and some of the girls are pretty young, like 11 and 12 but most of them are at least in High School. Monica is doing it as well and she's my age so that'll be nice. It's called La Boom and it is definitely funny for me to be dancing, much less to German new age 80's music. Anja is the instructor though and it will be fun to spend some of that time with her too. 

Other than that nothing new to report. 

Tschüss!

New Adventures.

Again lots of firsts. I got the car on Thursday which was nice because I was able to go to the bank and to dm (like a cosmetics supermarket). I have been in desperate need of lotion, the water here has been drying out my skin, and I got to get some other things that I needed. This also meant that I drove by myself for the first time and it was surprisingly comfortable. The roads are very twisty so I know that in the winter I may have a heart attack driving them but for now it was good. It was kind of nice to just cruise through the woods with the windows down. I also got my books for my Deutsche kurs and while I was at the book store I couldn't resist this gem that is the newest edition to my room.

I put colored pins in the places Ive been and clear ones in the places I want to go. You cant see those in this picture though. I've always wanted to actually do this though so I'm happy this is a new decoration in my room. 

Thursday night was my second German class and it went okay. I got frustrated at one part when I seemed to be the only person that didn't understand this question we were asked so that is hard but it just made me remember the frustration I have with learning languages. 

Friday was an interesting day to put it simply. It was a beautiful day so I went for a run in the woods. I thought I was on the path I have taken before but I was NOT. I ended up very far away and came out into a clearing and saw nothing but trees and fields. It was one of those "oh shit" moments for sure. I just kept going in the direction I thought I should go to get back but ended up off all paths in the middle of the woods. There were deer jumping past me and again....oh shit. So I just kept going until finally I found the edge again and came out to find a hill so I ran up that hoping to be able to see something familiar. There was a town but as I looked it over, I realized it was definitely not Ramersbach. I found a path and just started walking hoping to find a road and someone that might be able to point me in the right direction. A lady was walking her dog and I asked if she knew which was Ramersbach was. Sure enough she did, but she spoke not a word of English. So she told me to walk with her and she would show me. I was actually pretty proud of myself and how much of what she said I could understand and at the very least, my attempts at responses. She asked where I was from, what I was doing in Ramersbach, what city I came from, how long have I been here, how long will I be staying, what family I am staying with, etc. I was able to understand most of what she was saying and responded as best I could. As it turns out I was probably a 10 minute drive outside Ramersbach by the time I had found her. She walked me to her house in Phinxt, about 2 towns over and drove me back to Ramerbach. I was amazed at how nice she was and how willing she was to help out a dumb lost American. 

It was an interesting experience to say the least....

Friday night I went with Tina and Benni to Bonn and we shopped around and went and got some chinese food at a Dim Sum place and walked around a bit. It was so nice to be in a city. I like Bonn and hope to hang out there more often. We walked to a cocktail bar called Shakers and it was happy hour so we got these ridiculous cocktails for pretty cheap. 

Their friends Simon and Fee came and met us and then their other friend Phillip came and we all had another drink and then headed off to this "kirmus" which is a carnival basically. There was food, beer, games, rides, the whole 9 yards. Basically like Northbrook Days on crack. 

We went on a bunch of rides and walked around and since the Haribo factory is in Bonn there was this big tent with basically every possible Haribo candy you could buy. You get a bag and just pick out what you want and it was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. 

This is Fee with all the candy. We all loaded up :)

Afterwards, we had to catch the last train to Remagen where we had parked the car to get back to Ramersbach. We almost missed the train. We took a tram from the kirmus to the train station and had to run from the tram to the station and just made it. Then Remagen is about 15-20 minutes away from Ramersbach. 

it was a fun day but I just am tired and sore now...

Here's just another look at Ramersbach! This is from the upstairs bathroom window, pretty. 

Tschüss!

Picture book...

It's been a bit but I do have lots of updates for you all.
Last weekend was good as we went to Winefest in Ahrweiler on Saturday night, drank too much wine and even though it was cold it didn't seem like it. There was a band that played German music. I was told on many occasions that night that "this is a Karneval song!" so based off of that it only gets me more curious to see what/how Karneval really goes. I think I did post about that though.

This is the main square in Ahrweiler where the stage was and mostly everyone was hanging out. The moon was also very big and bright that night :)

Saturday morning I went on a wonderful run, but I think I already said that as well. The afternoon was spent going to IKEA. As previously stated, people here looooove IKEA so this was a big event. It is also in Köblenz which is about 45 minute away. There is a kids place for them to play. We dropped them off there and they each got numbers and got to go play. We then wandered off and there was a table handing out samples of sekt (champagne) so Nina and I each tried the Blueberry kind, yes blueberry champagne. Nina and Florian are looking to revamp their living room so we were looking for entertainment type furniture. I have to admit it was fun to look at it. I wish I could just always decorate houses. Of course we got snacks afterwards, the kids hot dogs and I got some soft serve which was great cause we all know hoe much I love the stuff :)
Here are some pictures from the IKEA adventure:

Florian wanted to sell Liv

Sunday we went to town because the kids were in the Winefest parade for school. It goes right through Ahrweiler. The kids were in the parade for school and they were dressed up very cute.

They were passing out pretzels for everyone to eat during the parade because the parade is just the local wine makers passing out free wine for everyone to drink. You buy a glass on your way in the city and walk through the gate:

Then you line up on the streets like for a normal parade and whenever you want wine you just hold out your glass. It's nuts. I know many of you who would love it. There were drunk old ladies everywhere which I found hilarious.

Sunday night I went with Tina and her fiance Benni to Bonn to see a movie. We saw Total Recall and it was QUITE an experience. The movie was in German with no subtitles so that was hard. I was trying to understand what was happening but I think it's a hard movie to begin with. Benni and I split popcorn which is verrrrrry different here. They don't have regular popcorn and you cant put butter or salt on it. It's sweet popcorn and I really liked it but it was very different from home. Afterwards we went to an Italian place kind of like foodlife where you get your food and put it on a card and then pay based on the card. It was delish. It was also really nice to get out of the house with someone other than the family. 

Nina made späetzle the other night which is a traditional German dish. It's kind of a mix between pancakes and noodles. It's very hard to explain but that was good. I also tried something else today that Oma made that I can't remember the name of but was very good. I guess its a bavarian food that is kind of a cake sort of thing (you eat it at a meal though) and it has this vanilla tasting kind of pudding-ish sauce on it. Lecker! Also I have eaten 2.5 bavarian pretzels today so I'm just going to say that I'm carbo loading.....

This week was off to a really rough start. I was pretty homesick missing friends and family and just familiar faces. I got to skype with Mom and Holly on Monday, Katy on Tuesday and was bitching to her all my gripes about being in such a small town and my worries about how I'll adjust. I'm still nervous but just like anything in life, I need to let go and just let it happen. Take it day by day and just do things that I believe will bring me happiness. 

Tomorrow I have the car which is nice, I will be able to do the errands I have been needing to do as well as practice getting around and learn my way around Neuenahr. The kids have a swim lesson that I will also drive them to. 

Then Friday I am going to Köln with Tina so we can shop and I can see the city- it will be really nice to get back into a city. We will try and go to a tapas place for dinner which I'm excited for and she said she is going to plan to have us go out with people and do something fun like dancing or play drinking games haha. We'll see how it goes but I'm excited. 

okay this post is long enough.....

Tschüss!

Morgen!

I got great news on Thursday! I got to start my German class which is great news because then I don't have to teach myself all the things I would miss in level 1. There are 6 people in the class, including myself. 2 older men from Spain, 1 older man from Belguim, 1 pregnant lady from Croatia, a lady with a rather masculine body from Poland, and a younger guy from Kosovo....I don't even know where that is. We just learned basic things and I need to get the books by next Thursday from a bookstore in Ahrweiler or Neuenahr. The teacher speaks only in German so while that makes it harder, I think it's beneficial to expedite the learning process. 

This morning on my run I saw sheep. Actual sheep just chillin in a field. It was crazy. I went through the valley today instead of through the woods, it's on the other side of Ramersbach. It seemed harder for me to do but maybe it was because it was just longer than the run I've been doing through the woods. Liv and Nina went horseback riding this morning and now we are going to IKEA. People here loveeee IKEA. My books keep falling down on my dresser so maybe I can find bookends...