A day of reflection

Well, the entire day was not spent reflecting, but much of it was. You see, today was my interview in Basel, Switzerland for a position teaching English to preschool aged children. The picture to the right is me before I left the house for the interview. Speaking of leaving the house, I left at around 10:30am to catch the bus outside my apartment and walked through my apartment door at 5:30pm. Now, keep in mind that my interview was only 45 minutes long. The rest of the time was waiting for trains, walking around Basel waiting for my appointment time, waiting for more trains and then making it home. If I should be offered and accept this position, please let me find a more suitable train schedule :)

Now, on to the reflecting part. It occurred to me that if this job works out I would not be able to come home for a visit for quite some time. I need a job, but I also need a trip back home. Also, I have a phone interview later this week with a job in the States; however, am I really ready to leave Germany yet? I don't know. We finally got our furniture, after spending so much money on it, it feels like such a waste to just leave. Plus, I love living here. These (and many others) were my thoughts today while on trains and waiting for trains.

Tomorrow I return to my school. Can you believe my month off is over already; I know I can't! I am looking forward to returning to my routine and having more to do.

Alica's gone :(

Today we had to take Alica back to Frankfurt to catch her flight back to Chicago. The drive is about 3 hours each way, but thankfully we didn't have too much traffic or construction to deal with. She arrived at the airport with plenty of time, especially since her flight was delayed a bit. After dropping her off we began the three hour drive back to Freiburg. We again had mostly smooth sailing, but we were also glad when we arrived back home. The rest of the day was preparing for the week ahead, as well as me taking a bit of a nap.

This week has some major things happening, so check back throughout the week to see what is happening with us over here.

And to hold you over a bit, click on the link here to see the week with Alica caught on pictures.

Another low-key day

Even though we behaved ourselves at the beer garden, we did not do too much today. The weather was sunny, but not nearly warm enough to hang out at the pool. So instead Alica exposed me to a new TV program, "Eastbound and Down." It is clearly only for adults and has great writing and very funny moments in each episode. Now, from my perspective it only makes since that Alica should open my eyes to another TV program, since during her visit I exposed her to the classic program Maude. It's all about balance people!!!

Later in the evening we played a few games of Yahtzee and then watched a couple episodes of Golden Girls, I swear it was her choice!!!

A change in plans

Here is what I had planned for today: going jogging, eating breakfast, going to the nearby pool, heading off to the medieval torture museum and ending the day at a beer garden. Now, here is what really happened: went jogging/walking, had crap weather and so the pool was out of the question, the museum was closed for good so no going there, but the night did end with us going to a beer garden. The beer tastes so much better here than in the US.

The picture to the right is Alica working the bus stop on our way down to the beer garden. She should be in catalogues :)

Strasbourg

Today Alica and I had our own little adventure. We hopped on a train (and then another train, and then another train) and eventually, actually after only 2.5 hours, in Strasbourg, France. We walked around the City Centre, saw the big cathedral, drank a $5 coke, ate a baguette sandwich and walked around some more. We had a fun time; I mean, how many people can say they decided to spend an afternoon in France?!?

For dinner the three of us had dinner at a little restaurant close to our apartment. The food was really quite good. It was the first time I have eaten in the area and am glad that the first experience was a good one!

Only two more full days until we take Alica back to the airport. That also means my month long school break is almost over. Where does the time go?

A topsy-turvy day

The day started out promising, with Alica and I getting up and going in jogging. However, by early afternoon the day took a turn for the worse. Carsten and I received some bad news that we need to take care of quickly, which put a bit of a damper on the day. However, by the end of the day, we ordered a pizza and watched the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I think it is safe to say that of the three of us I liked the movie the best, but really that isn't saying much about the film. Oh, and as for the pizza, they sent us the wrong one, but delivered the right one for free, so now we have pizza to spare.

Tomorrow Alica and I are having an adventure of our own, so keep a look out for what is in store for Thursday!!!

A low key day

Today was a much more relaxing day. Alica slept in for a bit and I did some reading. Later in the afternoon she and I went into the City Centre to do some shopping. I have no pictures of the outing, nor did we buy anything :( The weather was rainy and neither of us found anything that we couldn't live without. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and we can do something extra fun!!!

Basel

Today the three of us took the train and headed to Basel, Switzerland. To sum up the day it was sunny, hot and a lot of walking. We went into some shops, sat by the river Rhine and basically walked around the city centre trying not to melt. The picture here to the right is of Carsten and Alica this morning at the train stop right by our house.

While in Basel we saw something kind of interesting and fun. It was people with all their clothes in an orange inflatable bag floating down the river. I think it looked like a lot of fun and now need to find me one of those bags. Oh, and the people weren't naked, but were wearing swimsuits. After re-reading the post I thought some of you might think it was a naked adventure that I was looking into :)

Fun in Freiburg

Today was a bit of a low-key day. It started with Alica and I going for a walk after breakfast that lasted 1.5 hours. I showed her my running path as well as the neighborhood I live in. Afterward the three of us took the bikes and rode to the city centre. Basically nothing is open on Sunday's, but I thought it might be nice for her to see the downtown when it isn't covered with a ton of people (we will see enough of that later in the week). We had a nice and leisure walk though the city and ate dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Now we are at home and enjoying a calm night at home, as we are leaving for Basel, Switzerland tomorrow. As for the pictures from today, I plan to put up one picture from the day with each blog entry and will add a link at the end of the visit to see all the pictures from our week together.

I'm back home, but not alone :)

We made it back home and the cats survived the days without us. They are clearly happy to have us back in their company.

So, the week was pretty good; we had some fun, did some relaxing and ate way too much food...as usual.

The picture to the right is my new hair style. I went in with a picture and said I want this cut and this color. I didn't really get either, but I do like how it looks. When I told him I wanted blonde his question was "Blonde or Prison-Yard Blonde?" I decided I didn't really want any look associated with a prison yard (been there, done that) and decided to just go with blonde. I have had this color before, but it has been many years ago. It is a fun color though. Hopefully any job interview I might have will be okay with the color.

The highlight of the week was on Thursday when Carsten, his sister, her boyfriend (Peter) and me went to a climbing park called Kletterpark. It was a bit scary at times. Enough so that Peter decided not to do it after the first attempt. It was a lot of fun, but man was I scared and sweaty. I clearly have some fears that had not been obvious before. Anyway, to see pictures of us, just click here.

After the climbing park, we went to see a nearby dam on the Edersee. To see those pictures, click here.

Now we are back home and on the way we swung by the airport in Frankfurt and picked up Alica. I will try to take many pictures and share our time with all of you as much as possible. Oh, and she said the pictures of our place don't do it justice, it really is something to see in person. So, get on a plane and make a visit :)

Now, just try to keep up :)

Last night after getting home one thing I was looking forward to was watching my favorite German crime series, only to find out it played on Saturday this week instead of its normal Sunday night time. That is not untypical of the German TV, things seem to play whenever. Instead I watched one of my favorite programs from the 90's, The Profiler. I loved that show then and still love it now. After 4 episodes I decided to phone Alica, you know, just to make sure we are all set for her visit. When all was said and done I went to bed around 4:30am.

After waking up around 9:15am, Carsten and I had a brief conversation about our options for this week, which we spoke about last night, and decided that we would try going to his mom's again. However, this time without the cats. Carsten phoned a co-worker who is able and willing to stop by periodically to watch the cats. Anyone who knows me knows I have little to no trust in people and have concerns about a relative stranger in my home, but Carsten seems okay with this so maybe I should let me fears try to rest.

With that, I bid you farewell until next weekend when I will return home. Have a great week!!

This BLOWS!!!

Well, we are back home already. So disappointing. Everything seemed to be off to a fine start, but a little over one hour into the trip Zoe started to over-heat. Now, this isn't surprising since it was around 90 degrees today and our car doesn't have A/C. We left later in the day hoping this would help, but it didn't. We even had a couple water dishes back there for them, but this also did no good. We stopped for about 20 minutes to let her out of the car and walk around a bit, which helped some. But shortly after getting back into the hot car she was back at it. So, do ensure her safety we decided to head back home. Now not only will we not get to see Carsten's mom (as well as me having one week off from cooking and cleaning) but we will also miss our hair appointments. Since I haven't had one since Easter I am desperately over due for one. Such a bummer!!!

So disappointing

As much as I was looking forward to dancing last night, it turned out to be a bit of a bust. In the end, I stayed at the club for about 2h 45m but only danced to one song. TO hear that one song, click here.

Now, I know you are thinking to yourself "how can this be, you love dancing?" Well, though that is true, I don't love dancing when I am so hot and sweaty that I feel gross. I mean, what is it with no A/C here? The other thing I have come to notice is that going out dancing without any friends just isn't as much fun. Since I have no friends here it just makes going out almost a reminder of how lonely I feel. So, I came home and watched some Family Guy on TV. Nothing like stupid humor to make the blues go away. I went to bed sometime after 3am and at some point after that Carsten came home from the club. Since he had friends there it just made sense for him to stay and enjoy the night. The next dance is on September 12th, maybe I will have more fun at that one.

Anyway, now we are packing and getting everything ready for the trip to Carsten's mom's place. It appears as though today will be another 90 degree day. Thank goodness we have A/C in the car. Oh wait, that's right we don't have it there either. Looks like a long, hot ride to the middle of nowhere :)

I'm back next Saturday and with Alica; so until then have a great week!!!

Something unheard of happened!

Well, last night I went to bed shortly after 10pm. That is super early for me! And the best part is I fell asleep rather quickly. I woke up at 2:30am and struggled at falling back asleep, but eventually I did and remained asleep until 10:15am. I think that is more sleep than I have had all week.

So, my day so far has been to go running, I did some laundry and then we ate brunch. After brunch we went for a bike ride; as we were trying to find a particular flea market, though we never did find it. Since arriving back home I have spent some time doing German learning and doing dishes. Now we are preparing to eat dinner and then later tonight we are going dancing. I am so excited to shake my money maker. Although the time difference is off and I am thousands of miles away, tonight I am celebrating Alica's birthday by dancing up a storm!! I say this because I know she is celebrating tonight as well :)

This week's poll is closed!

This week's poll was about outings for Alica during her visit. The winner with 62% of the votes was Go To A German Beer Garten. In second place with 25% of the votes was shopping in the city centre and in third place with 12% was to go hiking. And with no votes was going to an Amusement Park.

Thank you for your votes and I will keep you posted on what we are doing during her visit. Only one week until she arrives!!!

A step in the right direction!

Finally, I have heard from one of the jobs. I just received an email from the job I applied for in Switzerland. Although the email just stated that they are still in the process of reviewing applications and will make a decision next week as to who they want to interview, it is nice just to hear something. Maybe all the other jobs I applied for (including the new one I applied for late last night) will also reach out and let me know where things are at!?!

Taking a break

It has been a productive day, even with the lack of sleep. So far I have done the laundry, polished (again), cleaned the windows on the inside and outside, vacuumed and mopped the floors. Now I am taking a break before I go jogging. Although I am never satisfied with how clean things are, I think I am okay with things for now. Of course the cats will have litter and hair all over before we leave on Sunday, but I will just try to take care of that when the time comes.

Dawn of the dead

With the lack of sleep I am getting this week I am feeling as though I am a zombie from one of George Romero's movies. However, instead of eating brains I just bite the heads of people, and by people I mean Carsten :)

However, no pity party today; I have too much to do to prepare for the week at my mother-in-law's place and then for Alica's visit.

It's almost 4am so I guess I should go to bed

So tonight (or last night depending on how you look at it) I applied for one more job here in Freiburg. It is a job I think I would like and although it appears to only be temporary, it is better than no work (or income) at all.

The highlight of my night tonight though was my 4-hour phone call with my BFF Laura. Yes, you read that correctly. It's still not our longest phone call on record, but I believe it is getting close.

But now I should probably think about getting some sleep since Carsten's alarm will go off in just two short hours.

Sweet dreams everyone :)

OMG, it finally happened!

After three days I finally got a good night sleep. Although I didn't fall asleep until 2:30am, when I was asleep it was a sound sleep. I did hear Carsten's alarm go off this morning and when he got out of bed I asked if he wanted me to make him some coffee. Thankfully he said no and I was out again. I believe he came in to tell me goodbye, but I can't be certain of that. He mentioned that I hit him in the nose at some point, but I have no memory of that either. I mean I was out cold!! It's like a blackout but without the alcohol; so I've been told.

As for my day today, once I finally got out of bed, which was quite late; maybe the latest I have slept in since moving to Germany??? Anyway, I ate some brunch and then started in on my daily cleaning. I got a new cleaning toy yesterday...a Swiffer. Not the kind for the floor, but for dusting. Who knew dusting could be so much fun?!? I also went jogging today. In the last two weeks I have gone jogging every day but two. And of course I did some studying.

Oh, the other thing I did today was apply for more work. As of today I have 5 open applications for jobs here and two open applications for jobs in Chicago. Wish me luck I find work soon!

Now, I am sure some of you are thinking that my last two weeks of vacation do not sound all that fun. Well, I can tell you that I don't do anything without thinking about it thoroughly and my 4-week vacation is no different. My plan has been to clean, study, etc for the first two weeks. The third week we are at Carsten's mom's place and I plan to study some there, but since I will be talking in German 99% of the time I don't know how much energy I will have for studying. Plus it is just fun to hang out and enjoy the time with his mom. And then the last week my friend Alica is here and I plan to do zero studying then and to just have fun. End with a blast...that's my plan.