Taking flight

Another 4-day weekend is staring me right in the face with nothing but a few hours lingering between me and all the fun it promises to bring. To make it even better, my mom is still here! She'll get to see my stomping grounds when she meets me in Frankfurt for lunch, and later we'll go out on the town and see what the night has in store for us. I am like my mom in that when I look at a map, my head absolutely swims with possibilities for adventure. We both sat down a couple nights ago to pour over our Germany map and plot our weekend. With about 1,000 ideas on the table and perfect weather in the forecast, it's gearing up to really be excellent.

And, have I mentioned? Mainz hosts a Red Bull Flugtag on Monday! You know, when groups of people build hilarious go-cart type things and then launch themselves as far as they can over a body of water? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check it out here. It's bound to be entirely entertaining and good for an afternoon of laughs. A genius marketing idea, too. I like that these people are taking on a ridiculous challenge and flying as far as they possibly can while not sacrificing for a moment their enjoyment of the event.

Along those lines, I am in full-fledged job hunting mode since my return to the USA is less than 2 months away! I am in the unique position of being able to now head in any professional direction I choose, but whatever I choose is probably the path I will then stay on. I studied business and finance but then worked in politics and have now acquired international experience. The job I was holding out for looks to be a no-go timing wise, so now the question is... where do I want to live? I had sort of figured I'd head back to DC and put my new foreign experience into play, but maybe that's not what my next adventure is supposed to be. Job hunting is always a bit stressful but also rather exciting too, don't you think?

Maybe I'll go here, or here, or try to become this or this.   :)   Oh! the possibilities!

Through the lens: Dresden

When in Dresden, see what the Dresdeners rebuilt.

I was really impressed with Dresden. It was renown for being absolutely beautiful before it was bombed to smithereens in WWII. Then, it fell in East German territory which meant that it was part of the GDR and therefore under communist rule until 1990. Through funding from the German government as well as all over the world, Dresden has spent the last twenty years making a large effort to rebuild what once made it so stunning. But they have also embraced their history, and that is evident, too. Very worth a stop. And if you go, don't forget to swing through the Neustadt as well as the better known Altstadt. It doesn't look like much, but it's full of gems.

My MOM is in Germany!

Life filled to the brim with even-better-than-usual things to do is a pretty accurate description of what's going on over here lately. I've shown you guys my Prague pictures here and here, given you all a glimpse of my weekend in the French Riviera here, haven't even told you yet that Emma was back for a quick visit, and now my mom is here! In the middle of all of the excitement I still am managing to find time to get to work everyday with enough energy to be productive. Let the job offers roll in! I'm an asset!

My mom and I spent this past weekend as a 4-day vacation and headed to Dresden, Germany-- a city I had wanted to visit before I left Germany for good. Have you read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut? If you haven't, I recommend it. I read it about a month ago after years of it sitting on my I-should-probably-read-this-someday list, and it increased my curiosity for Dresden just that much more. I could really see the history of the place just in the architecture. The pretty buildings in its Altstadt incorporate various elements of the completely charred ruins of its old glory days. We stayed on a main drag that was unquestionably built by the GDR (DDR). It was all very rectangular and utilitarian. But it was interesting to see how the city has approached its reconstruction, and it was nice to see that its decades of history as part of the DDR is not just wiped away or destroyed but rather acknowledged and incorporated into what it is today.

I have to say though, hands down the best part of my long weekend was just the simple fact that I got to spend time with my mom. No cell phones ringing, basically no email checking (we did Skype that sweet brother of mine), no hectic schedules or meetings... just us. We had time to walk and talk and sip coffee and just enjoy time together, and it was honestly the biggest treat. It's not all too often that I just get my mommy to myself.

And as if that wasn't great enough, she even woke up super early this morning made me breakfast before I left for work. love love love

Prague, Pictures from Day 2

At the end of April, I went to Prague with Anja, Micha, and Nadja. I posted pictures from our first day here, but then I flew off to France, Emma came here to Mainz, my mom just flew in.... aaaaand all of a sudden it's been weeks since I was in Prague, and I haven't shared more pictures. Oops. Enjoy!

Baumholder Ball

I was invited to attend a Battalion Ball on USAG Baumholder this Saturday. I actually had a little bit of reverse culture shock being on base. I was picked up at the Idar-Oberstein train station by my soldier friends, and then I was whisked away to... Taco Bell! Mmmmm! It's just as yucky and glorious as it is in the States, I'm happy to report. And I had tucked $20 into my wallet before I left Mainz because I really wasn't sure what kind of currency was happening there. And then I got to use it! I paid with American money. It felt weird, actually. But oh my Lanta, it was so nice. It's the little things that are such a treat sometimes, you know?

The ball was lovely. My date actually decided that he didn't feel like being my date, which is fine. I mean, it was weird of him, but it was just fine. All of the soldiers looked really nice in their Blues, and I had a great time dancing, drinking, chatting, and then having some after-party fun "out on the town" in Baumholder. A big thanks to the men and women for whom this Ball was given, and a thank you to Scott and Tyler for hosting me. It was a lovely evening.



picture taken by Heather K.



Nice is nice

The Côte d'Azul this weekend was absolutely lovely. Check it out!

Nice sure was nice. I will definitely be making a return trip.

Coffee-Suit Man and my lack of fashion sense

This morning my commute was different from usual because I brought along my little red suitcase. It is coming to the Côte d'Azul with me later today. However, this morning's commute was also different because the train was bursting at the seams with other people who also had their suitcases with them. Is everybody in Rheinland-Pfalz traveling today? Is this an organized event? Should I have gotten a flyer in my wee little mailbox? I certainly get enough spam flyers for other stuff in there. Although actually I did recently get spammed flyer-ed by Nescafé, and it came with a free sample of instant coffee. Sha-wing!

Anyway, as I was standing in the middle of a bunch of other standing up commuters all straddling our suitcases, wishing that the windows on the doors weren't at boob level so that we might be lucky enough to see something other than train track rocks and grass as we whizzed down the track, I noticed the gentleman next to me (and by next to me I mean rightthere) was wearing a really great, chocolate brown tie. I am a serial tie-noticer. I can't help it, and I deeply appreciate a great tie on a man. You boys look so good in them, afterall. So, his tie with diagonal raised lines of the same color was paired with a close-to-the-same-color brown, pinstriped jacket and a no-pattern, plain brown pair of dress pants which were also not quite the same color as the aforementioned menswear pieces.

I stood there contemplating such deep things such as whether or not I liked his ensemble. On the one hand, I dig brown. It's a complementing color for just about anyone. On the other hand, none of the pieces exactly matched color-wise and certainly not pattern-wise, though all the patterns were subtle enough to maybe not be noticed at first. But then again, people are allowed to wear flannel and be fashionable, so I guess that means anything goes.

But does anything go? He was also wearing black shoes. I say cool. Black and brown paired together look like coffee to me, and coffee is pleasing. And just as I had decided that he could wear his coffee ensemble with my stamp of approval, the train rocked just enough to knock everyone a little off balance and sent a lady straight into the coffee-suit man's arm. And cradled by the hand on that arm was, in fact, a cup of coffee, which went splish-splashing straight into the coffee-suit man's coffee suit lapel. Were the fashion gods trying to tell me that my approval of his unmatching pattern, color, and shoe choice is wrong?

Probably. After all, I adored wearing my huge tee shirts from swim meets more than any other clothes I owned throughout my entire childhood.

^^yup, that post just happened. thats what you get when im headed to france soon but my brain is already there. 

Prague, Pictures from Day 1

May 1st is a Public Holiday for many of the countries in Europe. Know what that means?! No work! Know how I celebrated? By getting some sort of stomach flu. But also by going to Prague. Hey, my time is running out here, and there is no "other chance". Now or never!

So, despite not really getting to try much of the local cuisine, swinging between feeling 30% and 80% healthy at any given moment over the entire long weekend, and probably coming out of it with a bit of dehydration, I am so glad I went!

Anja, Micha, and Nadja were my travel companions. We stayed in a cute vacation apartment rental that Anja found and had a total of 48 to enjoy the city. Days were filled with looking at gorgeous buildings, walking, having ice cream, looking at maps, pretending to read Czech, lots of picture taking, and for me... trying to decide what language my brain was functioning in. Traveling in the Czech Republic with Germans whilst my brain is filled with the excitement and wants to express everything (something I can really only do in English, when it comes down to it).

aaaaaaaaand I just wrote a really good blog post. Spent time writing to you about my trip, about using English when traveling, etc etc etc, and unfortunately my HP computer has the touchiest, stupidest touchpad of all time and as I was wrapping up, the blog post deleted everything until what I have written above there. You have got to be kidding me. Ok, instead, pictures from Day One with the promise of more to follow later. More words on travels later... I have to pack to go to Nice tomorrow :)