Monday, May 14, 2012

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.


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

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.

Friday, May 4, 2012

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. 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

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 :)