A Not So White Christmas!

Christmas Market

snow

SANTA

say cheeeese

Christmas!!  Yahhooo!!!

Nevertheless I guess I should bad track a bit first! After St. Nicholas came to the house the week was pretty normal.  On the weekend we set up the Christmas Market with the fire department and on the Saturday we ran a booth in the market as well. That was interesting for me because it gave me a little preview what it will be like when I come home...not that when I come home I think I am going to work in a booth selling bratwurst and french-fries but that when someone tries to speak English with me my brain will automatically turn to mush and I will not be able to speak English or German for that matter. No words will be able to be formed...  only a weird giggle of embarrassment will come out... and I am speaking out of experience and it happened more than once on this evening... why people kept trying to speak English I have no idea. However that is how it went, and to top off the wonderful start to December we got our first real good dump of snow!(it didn’t last long but was snow just the same) so when we were taking down our booth the next morning we had a snow ball fight!! Well it was really only Carola, Genor and I, but still so much fun!!!

Then life was back to normal!!!(which for me even though it is almost a year... normal is awesome!) oh but all the snow was gone!

On the 14^th we then met with Papa’s side of the family for a pre-Christmas get together at this wickedly awesome Greek restaurant and got to dress up a little nice so that was also good:  )

The kids started their school holidays just before Christmas and the 2 days before Christmas were pure relaxation!!! (That isn’t even sarcasm for some strange reason the kids were super calm). Then on the 24th we had breakfast together and then at 3 went to the church to watch Ronja in a play which was super cute but very hard for me to sing along to all the German Christmas songs! When we came back to the house SANTA HAD BEEN HERE!! But the sneaky guy left a note saying he would be back!!(Cause in Germany you don’t have to go to sleep before Santa comes he comes during the day.. which is logical if you think about it... cause he has to go to every house all over the world so he must get an early start!!) So Santa (or the German name der Weihnachtsmann) came back to the house. And man was he HUGE. He told the kids what they did well during the year and what they did not so good then gave them each a present! it was super cute to see the 2 boys talk to der Weihnachtsmann and Ronja played along pretty good considering this year she came home from school saying he isn’t real!

On the 25^th we then went to Oma’s all day for Christmas Dinner but at lunchtime and coffee and cakes at 4. Then back to the house with very full bellys to relax and even more relaxing on the 26th.. now life is normal again and time is going by way to quickly considering tuesday is new years and then I only have 23 short days left!!

IM NOT READY TO GO HOME!!!

Xo

-B

Oh and Ruben split red wine on my keyboard and all my keys are messed up. So this took a really long time to type out! Enjoy!  (below is an example)

oh alnd ruben spalit red wine     on my keyb        oalrd alnd alalal my keys alre messed upq.           o this t  o             o al realaly al              ong time t           o type   out!( enj              oy(!

Saint Nicholas

On the night of December 5th you must leave your boots all shiny and clean by the door, then while you are asleep Saint Nicholas comes and fills your boots with goodies... and if you are bad you get a Rute (a bunch of sticks bundled together. that you are suppose to then get hit on the bum with).  Well he came last night and the kids got a bunch of candy and chocolate and a couple toys (Robin also had a Rute)... and it turns out i got something too!! I got new boots! and then those boots were filled with chocolate and a new bra and a scarf... oh and also a Rute... so i guess i wasn't the best behaved all year either!

cant wait to see what other German traditions will unfold as the month progresses!
xo -B

November and being a Weichei

Currently life has been speeding by… as I am into my second to last month I can honestly say it feels like September was yesterday. Within my waves of over emotional emotions about leave/coming home I am still having a wonderful time… Nothing to new and exciting happened: Ruben turned 3 (and we are still struggling with potty training… yahoo!) but on the absolutely adorable side…. We caught him singing happy birthday to himself….IN ENGLISH! Umm what else…  My German classes came to an end. And of course I went and watched the new twilight movie (in german) and I must say Kristen Stewart’s german voice over is WAY better! I also had a full night alone with the kids it went really well (I was kind of surprised) however during the night Ruben kept waking up and saying “Mama, Papa” it got funny after a while cause it happened about 5 or 6 times… and then the last time… just as I fell back asleep. WHAM! Rubens hand smacks me full in the face! Haha talk about a rude awaking… from then on I realized I wouldn’t get any more sleep… and sure enough in came Ronja and Robin to cuddle and watch some Sunday morning cartoons!

Then I ventured to Kathi on the 30^th. For what might possibly be our last time seeing each other before I come back home, but like always we picked up exactly where we left off on Friday night and chatted about nothing till we realized it was 2 in the morning and we were going on a little adventure in the morning so we should probably get to sleep. Saturday we met up with a bunch of people from this board that Kathi is on with the university (Kathi and some others planned this day of “fun”) we took a train to a neighbouring town in the Netherlands and started the day out with a breakfast buffet and sparkling wine in a cave restaurant. (during this time I met a guy that worked in Oyama  and travelled Canada for 6 months when he was 19, all the talk about the Okanagan sure did make me home sick!) As we were finishing up breakfast this crazy, creepy little old man came in and told us all to go pee and get our coats on… then we must meet him outside where he made us all stand in a circle ( with him in the middle) and told us this super weird story about his mom and aunt not letting him go outside because all women outside were sluts and now that his mom and aunt are dead he goes to therapy and is trying to find the right women (all this time he is going around to the girls in the group and touching our jackets or scarfs or checking us up and down… supper funny but super creepy) from there he takes us over to his cave across the way and tells us that back in the day the town locked some lord in the caves to die cause he did something bad… (the story doesn’t really stick when you are with a crazy old man and standing in a huge dark room only lit by a candle) then he tells us he wants to make it into a disco and leaves us in the COMPLETE darkness to turn on these disco lights…. As all of this is happening another man comes in and starts yelling and telling leo (our creepy old man) that he isn’t allowed to be in here and leo runs away. Now this man tells us more a creepy story and makes us all line up (in the dark) and hold onto a rope. This rope will lead us through the caves… most of the time you cannot see your own hand in front of your face.. which is scary enough… and for me… well if any of you know me… you know how much of a chicken shit I am, so needless to say this was not my cup of tea. As we continue around this cave people start to touch your legs or make creepy noise or whisper into your ear… you can feel them all around you but can’t see a thing! SO SCARY! At one point I actually thought I was going to cry I was so afraid.  Once that was over… we headed to a Christmas market in… surprise surprise… another cave!! But this time we just sat around and drank gluhwein (mulled wine) and looked at all the Christmas stuff… really puts you in the Christmas spirit… which I was not in at all…. I am finding it quite hard when there is no snow!! After that we trained back to Maastrich where Kathi goes to school and checked out the Christmas market there and then IT STARTED SNOWING! I got wayyyy to excited. Sunday we just hung out and said our goodbye… which I hope wasn’t the last for the year but very well could be. ):

Now for another train story… cause what is Brenna’s travels without something happening on a train… thankfully this time I did not get on the wrong one.. or it break down… this is just a small embarrassing story! To go along the theme of me being a complete Weichei (german word for wimp.. which I get called a lot) so I was finishing off my book. (The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling) and because the train from Koln to Hamburg is always soooo full I was sitting in the hallway kind of thing… and there was a younger guy beside me, across from me and another younger guy beside him. And low and behold I started to cry… not wanting to put the book down I just kept reading till I finished the book and boom… still crying… looked up and all 3 were staring at me, so I just closed my book and laughed cause I didn’t know what else to do.

Well that is that.... for now…we have some Christmas fests coming up and some things with the fire department so I am sure I will be able to fill you in a little later…

1 month and 20 days!
xo -B

Poland! with a side of Dress-Up.

Dress-Up. not having 3 different Halloween costumes and a 1000 ideas of what one can possibly do for Halloween this year was honestly strange, and don't even get me started on not carving a pumpkin... but that is beside the point.. the point is i was probably the laziest/easiest costume i have ever been in my life.. i might as well worn a sheet and gone as a ghost, but Natasha and I wanted to do something for Halloween, so you make what you can with 4 hours to prepare!! I found this CouchSurfing Halloween party in Hamburg where everyone was meeting going to a couple pubs then heading to a night club for the Halloween party. So we decieded that was better than going somewhere alone and risking NO ONE being dressed up.. which later i witnessed was probably a good thing because Halloween is not such a popular thing here in Germany. All in all it was a great time but we didn't get home till 7 in the morning so needless to say i was dead!

side note: couch surfing for those of you that dont know is a really cool way to travels and stay with locals in pretty much every city in the world. so the group we were with was people from Germany, Brazil, Spain, Israel and of course a Canadian and a Russian :)


POLAND!

When I first was coming to Germany i said there was 2 places i needed to visit... Prague.. which i was able to check off the list when Kayla came for our gallivanting and the second was Poland.. which after the gallivanting i did not think it would have be possible.. so when Natasha asked me if i would like to go with her i jumped at the opportunity!

We started out our journey Thursday afternoon with a 9 hour train ride to Warsaw. We got in at about a 11 and met up with Maciej (sounds like magic) our host for the night! he was a super nice guy that just moved to Warsaw from Krakow so he was able to give us some pointers for both Warsaw and our next stop Krakow... unfortunately he had to work on Friday but his information did no fail and Natasha and i were able to explore Warsaw alone. Friday afternoon we hopped on another train to Krakow where we met up with Adam our next host (holy good looking!)..we started the evening off by trying Polish beer and cooking him dinner... well i just peeled the potato's Natasha pretty much cooked everything haha. After dinner we went with him to the Jewish quarter and met up with some of his friends and had some drinks from there we walked around to a couple other bars and pubs and got a full evening tour of Krakow at the same time! At about 5:30 in the morning we headed back to his flat, ate a wicked good Kebab and slept for about 2 hours before Natasha and I got up and went to Auschwitz (which i was expecting to just like my first experience with a concentration camp when i went to Dachau but thankfully i held it together a lot better) still a very humbling experience. After we bussed back into the city we went to the castle and got to take nice sunset shots. From there we met up with Adam around 5 for some typical Polish food (pretty damn good) and then more beer, a Russian card game and out we went to some more pubs and bars. Because Natasha and i had to catch the train at 7 in the morning... we decided to skip the sleeping all together... work out pretty well considering we had a long 12 hour train ride... which still went by surprisingly slow even though i slept lots, but you can only sleep so much on a train before you butt goes completely numb. Damn you Harry Potter bus and not being real!

till next time.
xox - B

Oktoberfest

German trains + Brenna = Problems. Heading to Munich i planned on getting there around 8pm on Friday...well that didnt work! the trains were all full... so i got on one at 5pm that would get me there around 10:30pm.  I trained down to meet Andreas (cause he was traveling for a month all over Europe by himself). However taking the later train worked out to my advantage cause I got to sit with a very good looking man. and we got to talking and then started chatting with some girls that got on the train as well and ended up doing tequila shots with them on the train!! When we got off the train in Munich he asked me where i was staying and i told i wasn't completely sure while my friend had set it up...but i was at a campground. He pointed me in the right direction and away i went. even with directions i managed to get lost...when i finally got to Andreas we had a Stein of beer and met some awesome people. two of which ended up sharing our tent cause they left their tour group and were out of a place. However Andreas and i both had sleeping bags.. these 2 did not and it was not a warm night let me tell you! I tried to share mine but it didnt really work out all that well. and the guy i was sharing it with got really annoying and kept trying to hook up haha but that aside they were super nice guys are really funny!

The next morning we met Natasha (Au Pair) and her friend Stefan who we were staying with. From his apartment we went down to OKTOBERFEST and stood inline for 3 hours that turned out wasnt needed cause the back side of the tent was just open! so frustrating!!!  hahaha but we got to drinking and made some more friends and had a great time!!! Till it started pissing rain (around 6) from there we went back to his apartment and watched a movie (well i napped) and then went to this HUGE nightclub called Q club, I have never seen a club so big! it was insane but so much fun and we danced until about till about 3:30 before we decided to take the bus back home!

It was a weekend full with no sleep thats forsure!!

Sunday we just walked around Munich and the festival till i had to catch my train back...which BROKE DOWN so i was 2 hours late getting home and another night with no sleep!!! hahaha but it was a lot of fun!!

Now some weird random parts of the weekend!

- training to Munich there was a guy about my age or a few years older and a women about  55 just making out like mad across from me. it was honestly soooo weird and gross!
- i got to see mountains... well sort of.. kinda more like hills but i got way to excited and realized how mountain deprived i am!!
- trains and i DO NOT get along! as we see from all my adventures!
- i attain random crushes WAY to easily
- i hate knowing almost every word to a song in a night club but then cant think of one when you get home to download it!

Now for Oktoberfest Natendorf!

Saskia, Britta, Carola and I went to the Natendorf Oktoberfest at the sports field and drank lots and danced the night away... and i really mean that cause we didnt come home till 5 in the morning! oi so tired, had just recovered from the weekend only to be sleep deprived once more!  It was lots of fun up until and unknown 17 year old boy tried to kiss me!! haha just walked right up said nothing and tried! hahah i was so shocked and laughed really hard.. now that i think about it.. i kinda feel bad for laughing...oh well!

xo
-B

Shooting!

On the 9th of September I met up with Andreas in Hamburg and we walked all over the harbor and had a wicked dinner..it was really nice to see a familiar face again even though it was only for one day... however we did solidify some plans to go to Oktoberfest! yahhooo!

After that I decided it was actually time to change my flight a pick out a date i would be coming home... however in doing so I found out that unless I want to pay for a whole new flight back to Canada I HAVE to return on the 23rd of January! That is a whole month sooner than I had planned...thankfully everything worked out with the new Au Pair and she is now coming earlier too, but it was still a bit of a downer! In my realization of it being so real now.. i even cried! already!! I have 4 more beautiful months left with my family and I am already crying! Oh No! I thought it was going to be hard to say goodbye... but this... it really isnt looking good for me! hopefully I am not sitting beside a cute man on the flight back.. cause really who looks good when they cry! I know i dont!

Now for the fun part, we had our fire department group (for the matches) end party. (man it sounds better in German) and for that we went to an Army base in Munster (not to be confused with Münster). There we got to do a whole bunch of simulator shooting (with the real guns and real kickbacks but only with no bullets) I got to shoot a G36, a Grande Launcher, A Machine Gun, A 9mm Pistol, A gun to shoot tanks...the name is in German and i forget it. And then I got to do a simulator shooting from a tank and all these other cool scenarios! After shooting we took a break and had a BBQ then did some more shooting, drinking and even some dancing! All in all it was SUPER cool and am so happy i got to be apart of the Fire Department and experience all these interesting and new things!!

Next adventure... next weekend...OKTOBERFEST! 

xo
-B

Goodbye Summer

I am really dropping the ball on this keeping you guys updated thing. However i have been here just over 7 months now and my day to day life is still awesome, but....writing about it as often as i did before... well you all would probably want to poke your eyes out by now!

Since Kayla left so did my summer weather... i am going to say i had about 8 to 10 days here and there throughout the summer with Okanagan summer weather. Needless to say that is one thing i am looking forward to in 2013, an Okanagan summer.

The Kids and i spend the last 2 1/2 weeks together before the 2 boys headed off to Kindergarten and Ronja headed to the 2nd Class. nothing new and exciting there other than just playing around the house, making play-doh, painting and dancing.

Saturday the 25th was our last Fire Fighter match and with 2 quick practices under our belt we were off. It was a really fun time and makes me so glad i participated in this event all summer... cause even though the relay was the same ever match was different and we ended them all off with a BBQ and drinks. so really who could complain right?!

Then there was wine fest on the 1st of September which was a lot of fun, there was 8 different kinds of wine and then some food as well. this was also put on by the Feuerwehr (fire department) so i got to work in the wine booth. At first i was a little worried because the involved me speaking with strangers...in German (which for is me is a lot harder) speaking with people i know or children doesn't bother me but strangers is a whole different story... anyway once i had a couple glasses of wine in me it went fine and as the night progressed it was  a lot of fun! However the next morning not so fun... but it was good to know i wasn't the only one... my host dad was in the same boat! why suffer alone right?!

so other than that... throw in some horse back riding and some movies.. IN GERMAN... my summer has come to a close. 

xo -B

Holiday :)

Hey, I know it has been a while, however, I have been up to quite a bit… so this might be a bit of a longish one.. so feel free to skim read or skip it entirely.

my last entry I started the countdown game till my summer holidays and for Kayla to arrive… I can honestly say the excitement almost killed me.  so here is a fill in of the Holiday

Kayla arrives and low and behold Brenna takes a train in the wrong direction…. Surprise surprise! So I had to taxi and was late to pick Kayla up from the airport. (on the plus side I was able to carry out and hold a normal conversation with an adult…IN GERMAN) but that was soon short lived because the English all came rushing back and the German out the window. Once we got back to Natendorf we just chit chatted like normal and then I let Kayla sleep. Sleep is good. After a few days hanging around here, we headed off to Berlin (on the correct train)

Berlin was my Disneyland. It re-sparked everything I thought I had lost with my passion for WW2 History. The city is absolutely amazing and so full of life. We stayed there for 3 nights and crammed a lot into the time we had. Including a fabulous 3 hour walking tour with a (very good looking) history buff as our guide. From Berlin we flew out to Ireland.

Started in Dublin where we did the stereotypical Hop-on Hop-off bus tour… but it gets shit done and is the best way to see such a big busy city. We hit up the zoo and all the Jameson Distillary where I graduated with my tasting diploma.. and we also met our first Canadians of the trip (which was only 4 by the way and all from Ontario.) From Dublin we trained to Galway.

However upon arriving in Galway we were quickly informed that it was there busiest week of the year… the Galway Races were on. The town was full of suits, fake tan, funny hats, and booze. Which would have been a great experience, if we planned better and actually could have afforded to go watch some of the races.  So we cut Galway from a 4 night stay to a 2… which was probably a good idea considering by the end of our second day we pretty much knew the town center like the back of our hands.. oh and we got tattoos!!!

From Galway we moved onto Lisdoovarna for 2 nights (which also took me a good 36hours to learn to how to say it) there we stayed in a unbelievably cute hotel turned hostel.. and made some friends which was also a plus. We got to go to a pub down the road and listen to live traditional Irish music… meaning drunken old men in the pub start to sing. We also did a 20 km bike ride to the Cliffs of Moher and back, and got caught in a HUGE rain storm.

Doolin was next on the list, it is a small town with next to nothing other than a whole lot of B&B’s or a pub. We stayed there because we spent the day on the Aran Island’s just off the coast. They are 3 small Islands with old old old freestanding stone walls ALL over the island. SO BREATHTAKING. From Doolin we bussed and trained back to Dublin for the night then flew out to Prague the next morning.

Prague was meant to be a 4 night stay.. but the exhaustion and money caught up quicker than expected so we cut it down to 2 nights. However the architecture and city is probably the most amazing one I have ever been in! We didn’t really have specific things we wanted to see in Prague it was more of just being there in general. But man oh man was it glorious; I could have sat on the castle park hill overlooking the city for HOURS. But sadly the trip had to come to a close, and made me realize even more how much I love my family here in Germany.. because coming home was actually like coming home, I missed being here. And now the kids are all on summer vacation and life is back to normal… well as normal as it can be living in Germany working as an Au Pair.

Xo -B

Tattoo

Cliffs of Moher

Prague

Soccer, Cities, Animals

so since the tractor pull and the first firefighter match what have i done that is out of the norm... lets see..

well we had our second match which we did much better. we got 6th place out of 14. then when the match was finished Natendorf (my home) was hosting a beach soccer turny, which teams from all over came and to play and they had to beach soccer pits and food. it actually felt a lot like action fest. after watching a lot of soccer (and cute men) we went back to Saskia's and all the women of the firefighter match thinger came. and we pre drank for the beach party...like the action fest barn dance :). i made them all try a Jagger Bomb.. but they weren't a huge hit.. i guess Germans like the Jagger straight. The Beachparty was cool and i actually ended up talking with a girl from Hamburg and a guy from Berlin (that i am in love with) till about 4 in the morning, then we realized what time it was and that they had to play soccer in the morning so i walked home. (and there the love story ends. hahah) the next day it pissed down rain so i called it a movie day.

the next weekend i sent out to chaperone Saskia's 13-15 year old soccer team. we first biked to Barum where i watched them play there last game of the season... by half time is was 8 nothing for them and the coach of the other team called the game. the girls they were playing against were 16-18. they are the youngest team in their league and also are undefeated. THEY ARE JUST SO GOOD!! after the game, we set up the giant tent and played music, they played some more soccer and we had a bbq. another mom came for the night and around 1:30 they all started to wind down. until one saw lightning and they ALL moved into the sport house. all but the other mom, saskia, myself and francie (the goalie) stayed outside and watched the awesome lightning show. in the morning (about 7) everyone was up and going. taking down the tent and cleaning everything up. from there we biked to breakfast then saskia and i back to natendorf where i then slept for probably 6 hours.

then nothing important.

then i went out with Carola, Susana and Britta (Susana is from the fire department and Britta is Saskia's mom) we went out for dinner in Bad Bevensen and then took the train to Uelzen where i watched my first film in the theater in german, MIB3 to my suprise i understood why more than i thought i would but i still went home and downloaded an english version just to be sure. it was stadtfest in Uelzen (city party)so we walked around where there was 3 different stages with music playing and all different vendors it was super cool. when that ended at about 12 we went to a pub till about 3 then caught a taxi home. it was a lot of fun.. even though my feet didnt think the same, i had 2 HUGE blisters on my heels by the end of the night.

the next day we went to Niendorf tierpark which is a zoo in Niendorf. that was also super cool and i loved it just as much as the kids. we got to feed lots of deer and pigs and look at all the other cool animals.

other than that we have had no summer yet. rains almost everyday, but i really dont mind cause if it was as hot as back home i dont know what i would actually do with myself considering i have no beach or lake or anything of the sort close to me.

and well i still cant get over how lucky i am to have and live with the family i do here. we just get along so GREAT and i love every minute of my time here. even when the kids are grouchy or not listening (which happens quite often in the mornings...sorry mom i now know what i must have been like to try and walk up for school everyday) the only down side is thinking about what it is going to be like when i have to leave.
well that is all,
xo -B

Thoughts and Things

So far i have yet to see a wild pig,but i am not giving up, it will happen! however i have seen wild foxes and even pet a wild hedgehog. even though life is almost normal... other than still not being able to speak proper sentences. the smallest things are still absolutely astonishing. and i am hopping that feeling will stay the whole year.

i went to an actually tractor pull. and it was so country. it was awesome! all these different old, new, big and small tractors have to pull this huge machine up this tiny slow but the farther they go the more weight gets moved to the front of this machine, some tractors actually ended up on the back 2 wheels or just end up spinning out...and of course the boys loved it.

i miss my memory foam, 5 cent candies, and maple syrup.

i never realize how convenient chocolate chips where until now when i don't have them

we participated in our first fire fighter relay... AND WE DIDN'T GET LAST. YAHOOO! we have the second round to go to next saturday which i think now that we have done it once we will improve.. well here is hoping for that anyways... the match was really cool and i defiantly love being in the fire department, there is always something nice to look at ;) after the match was over we took our trophy (which was a bottle of waldmeister which is a green schnaps) and went back to our fire hall and had a BBQ and drank. so all and all it was a great time.

well that is all for now
xo -B

A Couple Weeks Out Of The Regular.

Started the weekend off by sitting on the floor of a very overly packed German train that was almost unbearably hot. This lovely train ride went smoothly with no unexpected trips in the wrong direction. When I got to Aachen I hopped on a bus for an hour to Maastricht Netherlands to see Kathi. It is funny sometimes I actually forget that I am in another country, weird i know. but when I was sitting on the bus it was one of the times I was reminded, even though I do miss mountains because everywhere I seem to be traveling is very flat it is absolutely gorgeous and i cant help but think how thankful i am. When I got into Maastricht Kathi met me and we dropped my bags off at one of her friend’s places and headed straight for this music fest all sticky and tired from my 6hour train ride... (which silly Brenna didn’t bring her camera with her to the dj's) but it was unreal everyone dancing and having a great time. After that ended at 11 we went to a little pub and then to this random party with all these Dutch people. Needless to say it was a very good night and all Kathi’s friends are super nice.

The next day we got up and went for breakfast, laid in the park, went shopping and then met up with her friends for dinner and this show about Europe’s next star or something along those lines.

Sunday we headed out to the north sea, where we spent all day (really all day we left Kathi’s house at 8:30 and didn’t get back to her house till 10:30/11) as a result I don’t think there was one of us 5 without a sunburn at the end of it all. However it was unbelievably relaxing and again breathtaking and I don’t think I have ever been chilling at the beach and gone in the ocean in May before so that was also pretty cool. While at the north sea there was a few unfortunate events that took place.. other than the sunburn, our waitress broke a glass when she was taking our order and the shard of glass fell right onto my leg and cut me which bled a odd amount . and the worst part of the wonderful day would be going to take a picture of the amazing orange sky while driving on the autobahn and have my FAVOURTIE spy sunglasses fly off my head…i guess that just mean i can buy new ones when i come home. 

I also went to Belgium..even though it was just stopping at a gas station I was still there! So that’s 3 countries in a weekend. (did I say how much I love Europe).

On monday Kathi  had lots to do considering she had exams that week so I hopped back on the bus and trained my way to Hamburg where I couldn’t find the hostel I was looking for(surprise, surprise)  but i did manage to find a cheap CLEAN hotel to stay at anyway. 

I walked around the city for 3 hours then wandered down this street that was closed off to get something to eat.. around this time is was about 11pm. since drinking in public is legal in Germany i was noticing a lot of very well dressed guys walking around... then i started to pay more attention and as i walked further down this street i realized i was walking in the middle of a street party.. but a street party for dudes.. so i decided it was better if i just went to a pub to eat... i ended up finding this nice little German pub and had some wurst, pretzel and a beer (very traditional i know!).

The next day I explored all by myself! i got on one of the touristy buses and struggled to understand the German explaining the city of Hamburg (i also did a boat tour through the harbor watching all the containers being sorted). But I managed to get by. I only got a couple snickers and I was trying to communicate in German. But all and all the first time exploring Hamburg was quite a good experience. Now I am back at home and actually have that home feeling when you get back after a trip. that relaxing feeling like YEAH I'M HOME!

almost done i promise.

After a couple normal days at home we headed to Oma's for her 60th birthday. we had a big party and a pig roast.. which was one of the pigs we raised here at the house.. it was awesome. nothing crazy happened. but i just want to say when i turn 60 i want to have a party like that!! everyone doing shots, dancing and singing. The Germans sure know how to have a good time. 

and... i  have been gone 4 months... miss me yet?

xo -B