2011 Highlight Reel: Part II

Woah! You guys- it's already mid-January. I was so good about posting my 2011 review (Part One) a few days early, and then BOOM- 2012 is here and I got too busy to remember to post about the second half of last year. Goodness gracious. If 2012 keeps up at this pace, then it might as well already be next Halloween.

Anyway, to round out the past year, here is the latter half of my 2011 in highlight form. Then we can move along to catching up on 2012.


Ok, I left you at the part where I made it back to Wyoming to spend 3 weeks with my family before heading back to DC and taking off for my new German life. There is something about those wide open Western skies that simply make life look even better than it is. I got lots of time with my family to catch up about things, laugh, swim with my brother, see a couple friends, play with my dear ol' dog, and stress out to my mom about the upcoming move (she is the world's best listener, advice giver, and hugger). I spent my favorite holiday, the 4th of July, at Alcova Lake with Eli and then watched the big fireworks display in town that night. It was so refreshing to not be driving across I-80 in Nebraska like I was for July 4th, 2010!

My birthday isn't until the end of August, but my family gathered to celebrate me a month early. We played games on the mountain and ate cake and had general merriment. While out West, I also had the opportunity to accompany my aunt Heidi and my Omi to Rapid City, South Dakota. Travel within travel within travel? It was fun to have the time just with them-- very rare! In Casper, I woke up early one morning to go watch a hot air balloon launch alongside my mom and aunt Marilyn. Whenever life offers you an opportunity to see or do something unique, wake up early and go do it! It was a beautiful sight. I even had time to drive with my dog, Wrigley, down to Medicine Bow to meet Becca for a sparkling grape juice and dessert day! Listen, there aren't many places halfway between Laramie and Casper that serve as a nice meeting spot, so we got silly and created our own picnic out there in the boonies. It was wonderful time with a wonderful friend. Plus, the drive back afforded me the opportunity to snap a few photos of that wild land.

I headed back to DC towards the end of July to see all of my people one last time before I was up and away. Luckily for me, COWPIE- the annual Wyoming State Society extravaganza- was scheduled for my very last night in the States. That's a mechanical bull-riding, whiskey drinking, heck of a farewell! It didn't feel like enough time, but then adventure was calling. It's not ever easy to leave the people, but I know I met great people in DC, and I'll see them all again.


And then, and THEN, I got on an airplane and when I woke up, I was in a land far away from the Stars and Stripes. I could only read some of the signs (Germany has lots of signs in English), and I had jet lag like WOAH. I met 75 unique people- all wonderful- and we were shuttled off to places we'd probably never been.

I spent 2 months in Radolfzell on beautiful Lake Constance learning the language, learning about my new friends, learning the ins and outs of German life including things like having to be a rapid-fire grocery-bagger in order to prevent a stress-related heart attack everytime I went shopping, and how to have a diet that consisted primarily of pork products and cheese- with extra butter, of course. I lived with a host family who did not speak English (well, I think my host sister did, but she's good at pretending like she doesn't!) and so I couldn't really communicate with them for basically the entire first month. Consequently, my charades abilities improved ten-fold!

escargot!

While there, I was blessed to have the opportunity to explore outside of the town as well. I made trips to: the Reichenau for a wine fest where we got poured on (rain, not wine. though, probably wine, too) and where I met some stellar Germans, Zürich, the Seenachtsfest in Konstanz/Kreuzlingen for fireworks, Paris to ring in my 25th year of life, Lindau and Bregenz with Mickey for a great day, connected with Peter and Traudel- my family in Switzerland, attended the Altstadtfest in Radolfzell, journied through Liechtenstein with Joe, Mickey, and Tyco, toured the Fürstenberg Beer Brewery, Strassbourg, France, Oktoberfest (THE Oktoberfest), and Ulm to climb the world's tallest church steeple. My fellow Radolfzellers and I ran a charity 5-k and celebrated Thanksgiving together in September. I think we were all a bit sad to leave one another at the end of September, but the time had come to seperate and spread out over Germany to see how we could each stand on our own two feet. And I moved to...

Mainz! Mainz is Germany's wine capital. Um, hello! Here I come! Upon arrival, it didn't take me long to realize that I actually had no idea what was going on with anything. German University functions seemingly far differently from that of University in the States, and I was caught way off guard. Plus, I missed all of the orientation by not getting there until October, so I was like a chicken running around with my head cut off. So much English was being used around me in school, that I made the decision to join an organization called "Fremde werden Freunde"- strangers become friends (yep, I'm the stranger- it's quite apparent, too). I was hoping it would give me the opportunity to use my German more. I hit it off with my non-Fremde, Anja, and I'm so glad because she is a dear friend now!

The rest I really will give to you in highlight form, or else you really will be reading forever (if you haven't already given up!). I went to Köln for a Bon Iver concert with Mickey and spent the night homeless in the Frankfurt airport. I happened upon a Greek restaurant in the mountains when trying, unsuccessfully, to stay in the town of Wiesbaden on Allerheiligen. I explored the fall colors with Ginny in the little towns along the Rhein like Oberwesel and Bacharach, which we walked between, but turns out they're like 9 kilometers apart. 9 km is more than a couple minutes walk like I had told Ginny they were. Oops.

11/11 here is the start of Karneval, the fifth season of pure silliness, but in the US it's Veteran's Day, and I celebrated in my new life but was reflective upon my old life and, I am happy to declare, future life as an American.

EMMA came for Thanksgiving and her birthday! We put 1500km on a brand new rental car in 3 days and experienced the start of the Christmas season in Germany! That girls knows how to adventure, lemme tell ya. We pranced through the Alps, sampled Glühwein from everywhere, toured Neuschwanstein, chatted, caught up with life, and reconnected. It was a gift to me to have such a close friend here when I was struggling to feel success in my everyday life, and I am forever thankful that she had the time and motivation to be here for a whirlwind 5 days!

My next visitor came only a few short days after Emma left and was here for 2 weeks! Including the time we spent in Mainz, we managed to make it to Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France as well as some of Germany's bigger cities. We were hosted by Geoff and his host family in Munich, and drank beers in the famed Hofbräuhaus!

Before I knew it, Christmas was here, though really the whole month of December felt like Christmas. The Germans really know how to put some Christmas spirit into the air. They just open Christmas markets- Weihnachtsmärkte- eeevverrryywheerreee and then they drink Glühwein all month long, even in the pouring rain, and everyone is jolly and cheery and a little buzzed and it's really magical. I was thrilled to accept an invitation to Christmas with Bettina and her family in Luckenwalde. We listened to her dad's favorite traditional German Christmas CD repeatedly, had coffee and cookies, opened presents, set up the tree, made Christmas stars with her aunt and Oma, and went for a long Christmas day swim! It was really special to have a family to spend the holiday with, and I felt at home with Bettina's.

On second Christmas, a day we should really have in the States, I traveled to the Erzgebirge to visit Anja and her family. The area is mountainous and populated with small towns. It is famous for its hand-carved wooden goods, mostly Christmas pieces. If you ever come across something wooden, Christmasy, and made in Germany, it probably came from here. I was made to feel at home not only by her family but by her boyfriend's family. I met her childhood friends and went for a walk around the town before I left, with Anja and Michael as tourguides. The best tour guides. It is somewhere I maybe otherwise would never have gone, and I am SO glad I went.


Two days later, Katie came to visit me! We took off nearly immediately after she had landed for Belgium. After meeting a few of Belgium's least-savory people on a series of train rides to Antwerp, we were ready to ring in the new year! There are few ways better to end one year and start the next than in a country famous for beer and chocolate and with such a dear friend.

So now we see what 2012 brings. Or perhaps, if we don't like what the year brings, we make our own luck this year. Mine will certainly once more be full of moves and uncertainty, but what fun is life if we don't allow it to change us a bit? 2011 assuredly changed me, but it also showed me that my life is full of steadfast friends and great adventure.

Best wishes to all of you throughout this year! 

2011 Highlight Reel: Part 1

Holy guacamole! Another entire year has gone by. My yogurt has 2012 expiration dates on it. Isn't that sometime in the future when robots rule the world? Nope, I'm as surprised as you to realize that it's actually just something that comes into existence in a few days. Seeing those expiration dates makes me think I have all the time in the world in which to eat those little cups of apricot/peach, "pur", or vanilla delights, but really, I had better eat a lot of yogurt and STAT because they're about to be expired 2012 yogurts!

Last year, I created a Hightlight Reel from the year. Stories and pictures from 2010. You can read it here. Well, this year I thought I'd do the same. But really, this year's start is so vastly different from this year's end, that I might be about to create the longest blog post the world has ever seen. I'll try to keep it as short as possible so that I haven't lulled you to sleep by "April", but my world endured quite an alteration this year, so no promises. It's two parts, so be sure to catch Part II as well. And now, without further ado, here is the highlight reel from my 2011!

I rang in the new year in home sweet Wyoming with my family during my vacation from work between Christmas and New Years. While Christmas 2010 was 40 degrees and sunny, new year's 2011 was the polar opposite. We had so much snow, freezing temperatures, and of course crazy stupid winds- weather that is far from my favorite thing (see the word "frigid" over Casper on the newspaper). I had just gotten a Nikon d3100 camera though, so the season and the weather at least gave me something to putz around with. I celebrated midnight DC-time watching the festivities on the East Coast on the TV and being a little bit home sick. Then I celebrated midnight in Wyoming 2 hours later with champagne, confetti poppers, my mom, sister, and aunt, and it was so wonderful to also be at home there.

 I headed back to DC right after and back to the grind at work. I started swimming again in fall 2010, and I decided to step it up in January by swimming my first swim meet in 7 years. Not only did I have fun, but I had a couple decent swims considering where I was at conditioning-wise. I joined CUBU Master's swim team- a group of swimmers that are each so unique and are incredible individuals. I felt so lucky to meet these people this year and become friends with them. The group was one of the best things that happened to me in 2011, and I miss CUBU! I also lucked out in having a swimming buddy occasionally for the early morning swims I'd have on days when I knew I couldn't make it to practice. Good motivation.

My cousin Hilery got married in mid-February in Casper. I flew to Wyoming for the celebration. She looked lovely, and she and Bill are seemingly enjoying their first year of marriage. I loved the time with my family. And, bonus! Allison's birthday was the following week, so she flew back with me to DC for her birthday week! We had too many good adventures to list them all, but some of our hightlights were a Washington Wizard's basketball game, dinner at Zaytinya with Jenny, Jimmy, and Emma, a trip to the wax museum where we had hilarious photo shoots, a birthday walk around the Capitol, breakfast with Emma and her mom, and Dunkin Donuts for birthday breakfast! I flew Allison back to Wyoming the following weekend. Due to a delay in our flight out of Washington, we got one extra night there and I ended up in one day flying round trip from DC to Casper. I got to see the family for approximately 2 hours in Casper before I headed back to the airport. Whew!

I swam the Albatross Open short course meters meet, and then I was off to meet my family in Hawaii! Because of how vacation days work, March is a terrible time to ask for time off, so like 2010, my office was wonderful enough to approve a handful of days for me to go meet my family, who would be there a few days longer than I. On March 11th, I took off from Dulles airport en route to LA two hours late. Then, my flight was LA to Honolulu was also delayed, so we didn't leave until around 9pm. I'm pretty good at sleeping anywhere, and have often claimed that I would probably sleep through a natural disaster. Well, that's exactly what I did. Kind of.

The devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11th occurred while I was in the air on a 5 hour flight to Hawaii. I woke up 4 hours after take off to an announcement by the captain of the news of what had occurred and that Hawaii was also under tsunami warning, so we had turned around and were 2 hours from Los Angeles again. A 6 hour flight departing from and arriving in LA landed me with a hotel room for 3 hours. I was lucky enough to be able to contact my family and make sure that they were OK. They were already there, and had prepped for the tsunami to hit. I watched the news until I fell asleep, and woke up at 5am when it was scheduled to hit Hawaii. With some exception, Hawaii went mostly unscathed. I was lucky enough to get a seat (I have no idea how-- thank you travel gods) on a plane the next day and joined my family. My friends and work were so wonderful to worry about me and keep check to make sure I was also OK. I enjoyed 4 days in Paradise with my fantastic family, watching Pipeline break, surfing with my brother (not in Pipeline), visiting friends, leaving a lei for my dad, walking around old memories from living there, and drinking lots of POG! Many people in Japan were not so lucky, and the country is still reeling from the tragedy that played out there.

Oh and the moment I landed in Hawaii, I learned that I had been accepted into a fellowship program that would send me to Germany for a year starting August 1. This is the part where time went from its normally ferociously fast clip to breaking the sound barrier.

The cherry blossoms really showed their stuff this year in DC. The trees look like they're covered in snow when the buds first bloom bright white. After a week or so, the blossoms turn a beautiful pink, and then as quickly as they came, they're gone. I kind of feel like a cherry blossom when I think about my time in DC. I got there and bloomed, but after a while I really had it going for me- great friends, great memories, great swim team, great neighborhood, unique and ever-interesting work environment... but just like that, I was about to be gone.

Speaking of good friends, I had so many nights of fun getting together with my girls, sharing some wine and lots of laughter. I lived with George and Jenny (and Cecily and Jimmy!) and still miss that little house, but I miss the people more. It was such a nice place to call home, and with Emma too, that was my DC family. Our family dinners were my favorite. Particularly the last one we did in June (but that's getting ahead of myself).

Easter came to DC, and Bettina, a fellow swimmer and German national, joined me at Emma's house for Easter Brunch. The Hill was in full bloom. DC definitely is a haven for flowers. I think if we left it to its own device, it'd be a jungle swamp in no time at all.

At the end of April, I took more time off to travel to Mesa, Arizona for USMS Nationals. The 4-day swim meet was an utter success. 10 of us from the CUBU crew made the trip, and I swam great. It was so fun, and I'm sad that I'll be out of the states for Nationals and Summer Nationals in 2012. The best part of the trip was spending time with Rachel, her 7-month pregnant belly, and her husband Devin. We shared silliness when it came to watching the Royal Wedding at like 1am Phoenix time, and I got a chance to help paint the baby's crib, feel the belly getting the daylights kicked out of it, and catch up with a wonderful friend. It couldn't have been better.

Emma and I couldn't wait for summer, oh no. The second it warmed up to being even close to acceptable to be in a swim suit, we wasted no time in heading to Assateaugue Island for a day of sunshine, magazine reading, sand, walks, and wild horses. A few weeks later it was definitely summer weather, and Macy, Laura, Emma, and I headed to Rohoboth Beach, Delaware for a delightful Memorial Day weekend on the beach! 

My brother Chris graduated from high school in June, which I traveled back to Wyoming for. Are you seeing a theme here? 2011 was chalked full of travel. I am so proud of him, and I'm enjoying him now figure out how to live a successful college life. It was a quick weekend, but it was nice to see the family and the friends that flew out to help celebrate this accomplishment.

Before I knew it, I was days away from moving out of DC so I could spend a few weeks with my family before I moved to Germany for a year. I spent as much energy as possible soaking up all of the things that I knew I'd miss while I was away. Life (and Macy) surprised me by introducing me to a man with whom I really hit it off but just as I was about to move 6000 miles away. Oh life, you scoundrel.

I moved out of my cute little house at the beginning of June, and into Emma's house for my remaining few weeks. My goodbye party was on a Friday after my final day at work, and I was so thrilled to see so many friendly faces come to wish me well. I really have met some of the best people in DC, and it was so nice to have a night to just celebrate everyone I have grown to adore. I miss your faces.

This isn't from the party, but these girls were there and I miss them.

My car packed literally to the brim (I think I would've had a hard time finding a place to stow away a pencil in there), Emma and I hit the road West. Well, first we went South to have dinner with Noor (yay!!) in North Caroline and then spend a couple days with my grandma in South Carolina. Gram adored meeting Emma, and I think both of us adored the time with Gram. We journied from South Carolina, through the Great Smoky Mountains, and through Gatlinberg, TN ending up in Nashville for the night to see Brian and Will. Oh Nashville, I vow to spend more time with you someday. You were so many things I love all at once except that you're not near an ocean, and I forgive you for that. You can't have it all. That wouldn't be fair.

Emma flew back to DC, and I drove onward to Missouri to spend the night with Seth's family. I got a hometown tour complete with time on the capitol dome and local ice cream! Next stop was to Becca in Omaha where we had a late night dessert date (I miss those from our college days!) and chatted way into the night about life. It was a blazingly hot and humid day there, and the worst part of my drive was to come: the entire length of Nebraska.

Done with driving, I ended up booking it across all of Nebraska and into Laramie for an hour of checking out the town and thinking about college memories, and then made my way to Casper a day earlier than planned.  Home sweet family.

Catch Part II tomorrow for July through December 2011!

Glimpse of Christmas: Berlin

Glimpse of Christmas: Paris

Glimpse of Christmas: Bregenz, Austria

Glimpse of Christmas: Munich