Post Germany Trip

Well, I made it to Germany and back in one piece. Yay!  I absolutely loved it over there. Such a beautiful place to be!  I even got to go to Paris! I'll admit that I have mixed feelings about Paris after having been there though, but first let me give a synopsis of the trip.


Flew out of Denver 5 May and landed in Frankfurt 6 May. I didn't have trouble going through US security--there's a reason I'm stating this and you'll see what it is later--and made it to my gate early. We ended up boarding and leaving early, so that was pretty awesome! I had a pretty uneventful flight over and we landed in Frankfurt early.  Clearing German Customs and claiming my baggage and meeting up with my boyfriend went well and without any trouble. Yay! Since there was construction on the Autobahn on the way up, he (The Boyfriend) opted to take a different route home. We took a few wrong turns, so we had a very scenic drive back to his place over near Heidelberg.  It was fun and definitely worth it.  I got to see some gorgeous scenery that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. I got to meet his family, then I did the "I made it here alive" call to my parents and posted on FB for everyone else before called my cousin to figure out when to meet up with him. Not a bad first day there I'd say. 


Monday-Thursday we went and checked out Heidelberg, Mannheim, and different sites in the area. I got to see Heidelberg Castle, Luisenpark, Sinsheim, and a few other things, including a fair/carnival in Mannheim!  Friday-Sunday we went to see my cousin and his family over in Grafenwöhr (he's in the military and is stationed there). I haven't seen my cousin in quite a few years and hadn't met his wife or kids yet, so that was really awesome!  It was good to get to see family I hadn't seen in years. 


Monday-Wednesday was more local sightseeing and hanging around the house and trying to decide where to take a spontaneous mini-holiday to. We opted for Paris (he's been there a few times before, so he knew how to navigate the city some and what was awesome to see) so we bought plane tickets and made reservations at a motel and flew out Thursday afternoon.  The next morning we did our own super quick tour of Paris and went to the Eiffel Tower, walked around Notre Dame, checked out Montparnasse Tower, Centre Pompidou, Hôtel de Ville, Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, Père Lachaise Cemetery (we checked out Jim Morrison's grave--awesome!), Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, and back to over near La Grande Arche de la Défense where we were staying. I know we saw more stuff just walking around, but I can't recall what they were.  I became somewhat well acquainted with the Paris Metro and RER since that was our main form of transport besides our feet. My legs hated me for 2 or 3 days after that, but that's ok.  We got back Saturday evening, then I unpacked and repacked so I could leave Sunday.


Sunday was a bit rough. I did not like leaving, but alas, it had to be so. Made it to the airport, cuddled with the fella awhile, then cleared Customs (didn't take long), cleared Security (who eyed my bag with a bunch of Ritter Sport chocolate bars kinda funny, but let it through), then went to my gate to wait. Here's where crap started to kind of go downhill. Plane was supposed to leave at 1:30, but sometime around 1 they were asking all the Economy Class passengers to limit themselves to one personal item/bag on the plane and check the other because the plane was full. Sometime around 1:30 we were starting to board. We ended up taking off about 2ish. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we actually landed on time in Denver at 4 pm. Yay! Mobile phone battery died 10 minutes after landing, so I was incommunicado for the rest of the day. Cleared US Customs and Security (the lines were just really, really long), then waited almost 45 minutes for my luggage, handed in my Customs Declaration form (a matter of seconds), and headed for the front door to wait for the shuttle back home. That was about 5 or 5:15. Well, since my battery on my phone was dead, I missed the call that the shuttle was running late because the one van broke down, so they had to wait for the other to arrive and instead of picking me up at 6 as planned, it'd be closer to 7. Oi. There was another person waiting for the shuttle too, so when they didn't show up and were about 30 minutes late her daughter called and found out what happened. The shuttle didn't show up until 7:30. It's about a 3 hour ride home and we had to stop for fuel at Fort Morgan, CO. I didn't get to town until 10:50 and it was after 11 by the time I walked home. Dropped my luggage off, then went to reclaim Bear from a friend's place and talked to them a bit, so it wasn't until 12am when I got home for good. Notified other people that I was home, alive, and safe, then went to bed close to 1am. Talk about a long day! By that time I'd been up over 24 hours (I did nap for about an hour or so on the shuttle ride home). And guess what? I had to get up Monday morning so I could go to work!  At least I made it home ok and got about 5 hours of sleep. 


Oh, back to my mixed thoughts on Paris-- Parts of Paris were just beautiful! We were over in the business district, so the area wasn't that bad and a bit cleaner. The places we ate at over there had at least one person on staff that spoke enough English for us to order without major issues. We did eat lunch somewhere in the middle of Paris which had awesome food and although the staff didn't speak English we were able to point at the pre-made sandwiches and get some food.  On the other hand, Paris seemed to be a rather dirty place and a lot (not all, but a surprisingly large portion) of the people were quite rude. The Metro usually stunk. Where I had been in Germany was much cleaner and although a lot of the people were brusque, I wouldn't call them "rude." I'll admit though that I'm from a small city (about 900 people). Until this point in time, Denver, Colorado was the biggest city I'd been in. There are some really dirty parts to Denver, but something about Paris just really didn't appeal to me. I'd definitely visit again-- there were things that I didn't get to see this time that I'd love to go see. Personally, I couldn't live there though since there though. WAY too many people.  I've never been able to figure out the French language, so I think that's part of why I didn't care for the place either. How they say words and how they're spelled usually don't match, so you're left wondering what the heck they just said. Or at least I am. I tried to learn a bit of French one time, but other than counting to 10 and saying please, thank you, shit, big, small, exit, and cabbage, I really don't know much.  


As for German it was easier for me, but that's partially because I'd learned some of the basic sentence structure and pronunciation rules in 5th grade and I've always had a fascination with the language. I know a little bit, but nowhere near enough to have a conversation. After 2 weeks there, I do understand a bit more, but I definitely couldn't communicate by myself. With the help of a dictionary or phrasebook I can kind of make what I want or need known. Still have a lot to learn of the language and culture though. 


Some major differences I noticed between the US and Germany:

• They really like carbonated mineral water (I dub it "fizzy water). That stuff is vile and evil in my opinion.  Generally in the US we only use something like that for mixing drinks. It has not other purpose. lol
• They don't believe in lines...or at least lines as the US understands them. If you're waiting in line in the US, people generally don't cut in front of you. Not quite the same in Germany. There's a line looking thing and where ever there's an opening, someone (generally more than one someone) will make a move for it no matter if they're farther back in line or next in line. The opening is free game for all.
• The cashiers in stores get to sit down on chairs at the register. I haven't ever seen that in the US. All our cashiers have to stand. It's enough of a difference to make me notice it.

That's about all I can think of right now.  I had a blast going though! I can't wait to go back. :)

May You Have...

   A while back someone posted a link for making your own stenciled pillow. I love typography styled stuff. It's simple, clean, and just nice to look at. I really like reading, so maybe that has something to do with it as well. LOL. Anyway, I decided to try my hand at making one last night!

   It actually wasn't too bad, just time consuming to do. I really wish I'd gotten a better paint marker though. I'll use this one up, but I'm definitely going to have to either order a better one or pick one up next time I'm shopping in a bigger city. This one did the job, but it took for freaking ever and toward the end I was really having troubles getting it to do more than one letter before I had to put the cap back on and shake it again and I managed to get a few ink/paint splatters on the case. Ooops! 

   I found the quote I wanted to do, printed it off, then I got to stenciling it out on my pillowcase. I put a bit of poster board in the pillowcase so that the marker didn't bleed onto the other side. 

   After getting it all stenciled in with pencil, I then went over it with the marker. I managed to freehand it since I had the penciled in bits to guide me and I don't think I did too bad at all! 

   Now I just need to heat set the paint, stick a pillow in it and all will be well. :D I'm trying to decide if I'm ambitious enough to trim the excess on the one side down and add a zipper to it. I have no sewing skills whatsoever, so I probably ought to leave well enough alone. Maybe. LOL.  I have another pillow case to use, so now I just need to decide on a quote for it! I'm really contemplating using the one in the tutorial link, but that's a huge quote and I'm not sure I have that much ambition.  We'll see. It took me about 2.5-3 hours to stencil in with pencil, then go over with the paint marker. Now that I've got the hang of it, it should go a bit smoother next time!

Deutschland?

   To preface this post-- Man, it's been awhile! Ahem. Now onto the good stuff.

   In 9 days (May 5) I'll be getting on a plane and flying to Germany. I'm quite excited about this since I've only ever been out of the US once and it was to Canada. Saskatchewan is just beautiful, by the way, but it's still close enough culturally that it didn't really feel like it was a "foreign country." Germany, well, that'll be a different sort of endeavor. Grocery stores aren't open on Sundays (not that I foresee that being an issue for me. lol), you pull up to the light you're stopped at (as in "right under the blasted thing," not pull up to the line on the other side of the intersection like we do here), most people there speak another language... and a few other things like that. It'll be fun, interesting, and exciting! And before you ask, yes there will be many pictures taken. I think everyone I know has told me that I have to take them. Rest assured. There will be photographic evidence of a trip. LOL.

   So, that's it for now. Yeah, a bit of a floppy ending to such a post, but it's all I can think of for a conclusion. LOL. I probably won't be online much while I'm there, but check out my plurk account  to keep up with what's going on. You'll have to add me as a friend since my timeline is private, but plurk is actually a really fun community. :D

 

Rocking the Boat

    Do you ever have those moments when you're idly browsing a social network or scouring the web for something and come across a gem that you really needed, but didn't know you didn't know you needed it until then? I just had such a moment. All it took was seeing a link to a blog post on Facebook and boom! I had a figurative slap to the face with a large, blunt object.
    This one, simple quote was the main reason-- "In short, we cannot grow, we cannot achieve authentic discovery, and our eyes cannot be cleansed to the truly beautiful possibilities of life, if we simply live a neutral existence." Wow. How often do we settle for not “rocking the boat?” How often do we stand by and watch life pass us by, simply because we're comfortable (or at the very least not totally uncomfortable) where we're at? How often do we close our eyes or our ears so that we don't have to acknowledge something because it's too hard, too painful, too inconvenient? I'm not saying that being neutral is totally bad—it's not—but too often we use it for an excuse, a reason to not do more or be more than we could. Sometimes, we use it to hold back.
    Life is a choice and everything in life is hinged upon the decisions that we make. It's what helps us to grow and to learn. So if we're totally neutral all the time, do we grow and learn? My guess is no. We might grow some and learn a few things, but nowhere near as much as we could have. It makes us like a stagnate pond with very little influx of new stuff and no outlet for everything else.

May You Always...

    Not sure what it is about the past couple of weeks, but they haven't been that easy on me. Not bad, just frantic, busy, and occasionally overwhelming. Some of it is the holiday season and some of it is work. Don't get me wrong on the holiday bit, I'm not a Scrooge, I just miss my family this time of year.  Today on twitter I saw someone retweet a tumblr post: "May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart might desire." Something about it just touches my heart right now. And you know what? I have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea in a warm house, laughter to cheer me, and some people I love near me. What more can I desire?

Aeble-what?

   I've been known to find some different (and on occasion, bizarre) foods. It was when I was doing some searching for Aloo Palak that I found--by a rather circuitous route-- Aebleskivers. To be honest, I'm not a fan of pancakes at all. Not sure why, I think it's something about the flavor and texture, but something about these little round Danish pancake balls really sounded interesting. So for kicks and giggles I found a cheapish pan, scoured the web for recipes, and gave it a whirl. Happily, I rather enjoyed them and have made them rather often for a quick brunch or snack to have on hand. After some time, I was a bit tired and bored with just the plain ones. After yet more scouring of the the web I found a winner-- Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread Aebleskivers. I can't seem to find a reference to the first recipe I used (I'm beginning to think maybe I just made cornbread and added stuff to it), but tonight while satisfying my Cornbread Aebleskiver craving I found a keeper. This tasty little recipe comes from the blog "The Other Side of Fifty".

  First whisk some flour, cornmeal, salt, brown sugar, baking soda and powder, cayenne and black pepper together in a medium bowl. I really recommend adding a touch less than the 1/2 tsp of cayenne called for if you're not a fan of spicy stuff. This was almost too much for me and I love spicy stuff, so I'd probably do a scant 1/2 teaspoon the next time.

   Next, whisk some buttermilk (this will help tone down the cayenne quite a bit), melted butter, and eggs in a small bowl. Not the most appetizing look concoction. Now dump that lovely stuff on the dry ingredients and mix until combined. You don't want to overmix it, just get everything moist.

  Done with the combining? Now add your diced jalapeños to the mix (if your using them) and give it a good stir. At some point in time, you'll want to melt some more butter and heat up your aebleskiver pan. It usually doesn't take too long to do that, well at least with my little cast iron pan it doesn't anyway.


   Now you're going to want to brush the wells of your pan with some butter and add a Tablespoon or less mix to it. Add a chunk of cheese, add a little more mix (try not to overfill) and let the sides brown, flipping once each side is done. There are a couple ways to flip these things, but my personal favorite is using a knitting needle or bamboo skewer and flip them a quarter turn each time the side is brown and holds together. This takes some practice, so don't worry if they look funny. The first time, batch, and attempt with new recipes usually do look funny until you get the hang of it. The other way to flip them is to brown one half and flip it all the way over and cook the second half. Oh, and if you have an aluminum pan use a bamboo skewer so you don't scratch the non-stick coating. I have better luck with a knitting needle on my cast iron one, so it's just a matter of trying one and seeing which suits you better.

   Once you're done browning the little lovelies and making sure they're cooked all the way through, enjoy! I love eating these with a bowl of chili. It's just a different variation of cornbread, but I think that's what makes it fun. :)

Foggy Musings

   One wouldn't think that Nebraska would get pea-soup thick fog some mornings, but it does. Coming from South Central Montana, I'm not really used to seeing fog, let alone that much of it. Sure, every once in awhile there'll be those pretty little wisps that wreathe the mountain tops, but that's usually it. In the panhandle of Nebraska on the other hand, there are times that I'm lucky to see a car length in front of me because the fog is so thick. That's not an everyday or "every time it's foggy" sort of thing but it happens. This morning was one of those mornings. I could see about a car length, maybe two, in front of me and that got me to thinking about stuff. I knew the road would take me to where I needed to go, but I really couldn't see well enough to know what was more than 20 or 30 feet in front of me. I had to trust that the road was going to be the same it usually is and lead me to work. When you think about it, life is the same way. God gave us a direction to take. We can't see the big picture about where it leads, or all the bumps along the way, we just have to trust that He'll take us where He wants us to go and that He'll be there for us when we need Him. Now, we don't have to follow the road He set for us since that's a matter of free will, but that's like getting turned around on a country road in the fog. You know it leads somewhere, you just don't know where or if the road is washed out or a bunch of other things like that. You're trusting in your own strength to bring you through and that that road is leading you to where you want to go. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather take the route where I know I have help if I get a flat tire in life.

   Yep. Those are the kind of strange musings I have when driving 26 miles to work in the morning in the fog. Sometimes it puts stuff in a different perspective for me.