My Truly Awesome List - Meine Liste

I’ve been pretty behind on updating my blog, but I would like to present you with a list of 10 truly awesome things that have happened in the last 10 truly awesome days. (not chronological or in order of importance)

1) One of the strangest concepts and biggest differences between German and American traditions that I’ve found so far is what occurs in the holiday season. On December 5th, all of the German children set out their winter boots and await a visit in the night from St. Nikolaus. I, being deathly ill the day before, completely forgot about ole St. Nikolaus and after going super early to bed, I woke up to find my new boots outside of my door filled with chocolate, tangerines, and an awesome bread man baked in the shape of St. Nikolaus. I was so excited, along with all of the children in Germany. Christmas traditions are really different here, I should really post soon explaining. Stay tuned!

My treats from St. Nikolaus

2) Tom, the youngest cousin of Mathis, turned one year old on the 13th! There was fun to be had by all, enough cake to feed a small army, and even though there was a small break from the party to run to the hospital(see below), it was still really great to see Tom on his birthday having no idea what was going on or why his older brother was so jealous of him. 

3) Surprise! The 13th was also Sandra’s birthday! That Monday was party day. From presents and champagne in the morning to a big dinner with the whole family and finishing with brownie cheesecake and watching Love Actually to seal the deal, I hope Sandra had a good birthday even if she had to share it with a one year old. Mathis even joined in the fun a couple days before and made a bookmark for his mom with black paint and his cute little footprints. I was terrified the day I forced Mathis to do this because the black watercolor left bruise colors splotches where ever it touched, which was his entire body because he is a baby and he wiggles. It’s probably better if his Au Pair doesn’t give him bruises all over for his parents to find.

Sandra's birthday cheesecake.

4) Mathis and I enjoy daily walks either to the old part of the city or away from the city towards...well towards nothing really. In route in the middle of no where, there is a giant pasture of around 15 really furry cows. We have never been able to sneak by on this street without these cows staring directly into my eyes with contempt and me following by awkwardly waving or asking them how their day is going. One day last week, when it was way too cold to be walking, Mathis, Kara, and I passed these cows like normal, I yelled, “Are you guys not freezing!?”, and the biggest and closest cow let out the biggest “moo” I have ever heard in my life. Kara barked, Mathis cried, and I laughed so hard that I forgot how cold it was. It’s the little things. 

5) On a less hilarious note, Christof now has two holes in his leg exactly like Sandra in October. This probably does not belong on my truly awesome list of truly awesome things, but nonetheless, the same abscesses showed up on the back of his leg containing the same aggressive bacteria. Friday, after a short visit to the doctor, Christof headed for emergency surgery to the hospital and stayed their overnight. He came home on Saturday and is recovering nicely while we wait for lab results telling us exactly the cause of these abscesses. In the mean time, my legs are on high alert. This whole situation was extra chaotic because of Number 9 below, and the reason for the hospital visit in Number 2 and the set up for the hilariousness in Number 10.  

6) I drove stick for the second time in my life! Sandra insisted that is was all right for me to learn in the snow and ice with Kara in the backseat therefore putting her life in danger also, but it went fine. I only stalled out twice! I’m basically a truck driver now. Well, one who only knows how to drive in first and second gear. 

The secluded road where I was allowed to practice

7) A couple Saturday’s back, I was lucky enough to get invited to the house warming party for Verena, one of the girls I went to the movies which a while back. I went with Sandra and Christof and got to meet some more of there friends and more of Verena’s friends. It was super nice and Christmasy, and I really appreciate all of her efforts to make me feel included here! 

8) One of the mornings when I was deathly ill, Grandma Martha came to take Mathis for a little bit so I could rest without baby and try to feel better. Martha wrapped Mathis up in his many winter layers, packed him in his stroller, said “Goodbye!” and got a few steps out of the door before the front left stroller wheel fell off. Hilarious. The Germans took great care of me, including providing me with hilariousness to make me feel better. 

9) Mathis’ Baptism was this Sunday, 12/12 at 12pm. Christof’s hospital visit made plus the sheer number of guests (close to 30!) and that Mathis is, in fact, a baby, made this event just a little bit stressful. The house was cleaned and decorated, Mathis was dressed, Sandra and Christof were dressed (always a plus - see Number 10), and we  made it on the church in time for the service of which I didn’t not understand one thing. For reasons I couldn’t make out, we marched all over the church for the sake of getting the devil out of poor Mathis and the other baby boys being baptized. A big catered party followed at our house and Mathis fell asleep within minutes of being home. Once again, all of the Niemeier’s family and friends were super friendly, the food was good, and, like normal, I could understand the kids best of all. 

Being Baptized means you're not allowed
to cry anymore, right?

10) Saturday morning, I woke up leisurely on my day off and walked downstairs to find Grandma Martha alone in the house, holding Mathis, and not wearing any pants. First of all, the hilariousness of this situation is enough for one morning, but the back story makes it so much better. That morning, Sandra went to join Christof for a little bit in the hospital and Martha came over to take the little guy and the dog on a walk. Overnight, all of the snow had melted, leaving the ground soaking wet. Apparently, this is how it went down. Kara throws up near a ditch, leading to Kara stopping in attempt to to eat her vomit, leading to Martha and the stroller being tugged by Kara’s sudden halt, leading to the stroller being sent flying into the ditch and about 3 feet of water, leading to Martha’s motherly instincts taking over and her dive into the water which was probably almost frozen, leading to her pants drying in the corner while she holds traumatized Mathis when I come downstairs in the morning. 

I love my life. 

Countdown until my family gets here and I love my life even more: 4 days!!!!!

der Truthahn - a Turkey

April and I with THANKSGIVIN'!

Mathis grew up quickly. He also enjoys Thanksgiving.

April and I rocked Thanksgiving this year. Not only did we successfully explore Rheda-Wiedenbrück in the snow with a large dog and a baby, AND find all the right ingredients for American style food including the little fried onions for green bean casserole, but we ALSO cooked a turkey! A bigger-than-Mathis turkey! And the first for us both! The Germans were not informed enough about how you don't eat the entire day before Thanksgiving (I blame myself) and were completely shocked by the amount of food on the table. I think today, one week from when we celebrated last Saturday, all of the leftovers are finally gone. My favorite part of the meal was watching Bernd and Marko attack the turkey with scissors. Yes. It was awesome.

Operation Turkey Carving

Before April left on Sunday, we were able to squeeze in a trip to Paderborn with Sandra and Julia to see the new Harry Potter in English. I had already seen it once in German and am still proud of how much I understood. It is finally past the point that I can understand not only from the context and the body language, but actually the language. How cool! Anyways, a few notes about going to see movies in Germany.

1. Their popcorn is sweet and concessions cost way less than in the States.
2. You have assigned seats, with rows and seat numbers and such.
3. There are so many television type commercials before the standard movie commercials.
4. One of these commercials could be for ice cream, which leads to all of the lights being turned on and movie theater employees walking up the aisles selling that particular brand of ice cream. like a baseball game.
5. Sometimes, in the middle of movies all of the lights come on and you take an intermission. The German’s really like turning all of the lights on suddenly in theaters. 
6. Sometimes, you get to go eat at Mexican restaurants before the movie! (not really a standard, but it made me super happy so I thought I’d add it.)

In other news, countdown until my family gets here: 15 days! 

Just Another Thursday - ein ganz normal Donnerstag

Christof’s had a birthday on November 19th, and while I am not at liberty to tell you which one, I would like to point out that he once made references to a cult from the 80’s that Sandra and I had never heard of. On his actual birthday, Sandra and I drove to the town of Lippstadt where Christof teaches to surprise him with cake and the greatest gift of all, his son. One of the best things about living abroad for the first time is that even visiting the next town over is so exciting, so we walked around the downtown awhile before heading to Christof’s school. 

All of the teacher’s were supposed to be back from their lunch break at 3, but we couldn’t find the Niemeier family car in the parking lot, which lead to us standing in the parking lot with a stroller for about a half hour. At one point, Sandra went to check if his car was around back, and I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about Christof pulling in at that moment and wondering why his nanny was standing with his son in the middle of his school’s parking lot a half hour from where we were supposed to be. It ended up that he was already in his classroom and after we carried Mathis in his stroller up 3 flights of stairs, Sandra knocked on his door, we left the stroller in the doorway, and we hid down the hall. We thought we were so sneaky until Christof immediately informed us that he’d seen us walking around the downtown on his lunch break, and was checking out the window every couple of minutes wondering when we were coming to visit. So much for surprises, but for sure there is never a dull moment with my life.

We celebrated the next day with four different cakes (how cool is that!), a visit from Christof’s mom, and a big dinner with the whole family. On Sunday I took advantage again of the chance to see another small German town and ride on the Autobahn when I went with Sandra to drop Christof’s mom back to the town where he'd grown up. It was so cute and had a beautiful castle, but it is really starting to get cold outside and these days there is only so much being outside that can be handled. 

Thanksgiving Thursday in Germany, and I’m guessing in every place in this great world but the States, is just another day. But here it’s not just another boring day because on that particular Thursday in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, it snows! A lot! I have been trying to avoid Christmas music until after I celebrated Thanksgiving, but I could not help blasting “Let It Snow” and dancing around Mathis. Now he’s certain that I’m crazy. I built a snowman, which is way harder than I remembered, and we still currently have an extra snowman head lying the in yard because I accidentally rolled it over Kara’s poop. Class was fun because we read an article about Thanksgiving since the whole group knew I loved it so much, and I loved explaining the holiday to the skeptics. They already think I’m the strange, eccentric American because I sang a song about nominative pronouns that I’d learned in high school, so I’m used to the weird looks by now.

I successfully drove home in the snow and Sandra had made a super delicious meal to celebrate, against Christof’s suggestion to eat frozen pizza. I am super appreciative of how much they go out of their way to make me feel at home here, and I’m positive it’s their wonderful family that makes it easy and fun for me to live so far away.  At 10:30pm my time, however, I didn’t feel so far away, because I got to SKYPE with all of the Thanksgiving guests at my grandma’s house in Charlotte, NC. It started with my brother telling me to call back because they’d just started eating, and went through my both my wonderful grandparents, cousin, uncle, family friends that feel like relatives, and back around to my parents. I can not even explain how much happiness talking to the line of guests brought me, and I could not stop laughing and smiling even after I’d finished talking to them. 

Sometimes it takes stepping away from everything you’re accustomed to to realize exactly how much you have. Lucky for me, I have more gifts than I could possibly ask for. Most of the time I am too busy focusing on all that is new and different day to day that I forget to realize truly where I am, to appreciate where I've come from, and to be thankful for how great both places are. And so, to my caring family and closest friends that make me feel loved at all distances, to the Niemeiers that accept me even while slaughtering their language, and to American holidays that find relevance even across continents, thank you. This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for you!

Ein Römisch Urlaub - A Roman Holiday

Rome is, by far, the most chaotic city I've visited during my time in Europe. At the same time, there was something so great about the Vespas whipping by the Colosseum and the intrusive street venders lurking by the Pantheon. Rome is also a city I know I will need to revisit. With all that happened there and so many thing's currently occurring, it was overwhelming.  Good thing I threw a coin over my shoulder into the Trevvi Fountain, which insures I will be back to visit.

The huge Trevvi Fountain aka tourist city.

While the chaos and dirt of Italy sometimes makes me crazy, I can't help but love the food. I took a train to Düsseldorf, a plan to Rome, and a train to the city center in order to get there, so when I found Margo in the main train station we naturally headed straight for the pasta. Margo is my friend from College of Charleston who also graduated in Arts Management, and the best part of traveling with her was our similar views on food! We ate as much as we could stand and it was fantastic. 

Italian's use stale bread to stabilize tables.

They gave me a heart pizza!

My pictures are out of order, so we can jump to Sunday! After a full weekend, Margo and I had seen so many beautiful things, but didn't quite have time to visit Vatican City. Bright and early at 6AM on Monday, I woke up and set out alone to take in the grandeur of the Vatican. It was beautiful in the morning sun, and have no lines to get into the Basilica made it even better.  I got to see Michelangelo's famous Pieta sculpture, and the lucky St. Peter statue.  The line to get into the famed Vatican Museum was not as fantastic, though, and I waited over an hour to get in. Once inside, I sprinted past all of the paintings, tapestries, and other artifacts older than America and made it to the Sistine Chapel. I had a few minutes to admire before I sprinted out of the Museum, took the subway, caught my train, made my flight, missed my train from the airport but caught the next one, and made it back Monday night. While sitting on the couch of my German home, it was almost unreal to think I'd been standing under Michelangelo's famed ceiling that morning. 

Walls of the Vatican with the St. Peter's Dome

Beautiful stairs in the Vatican Museum which I sprinted down
in order to make my train!

St. Peter's Basilica - Where the Pope does his thing. 

Now back to the rest of my trip. Saturday and Sunday were filled with the "musts" when it comes to Rome. We stood in line for the Colosseum and took an audio tour, followed by a stroll in the Roman Forum and on Palestine Hill where Romulus and Remus did their work in 100BC. The ruins in these places were from around 150AC, which is way too old for me to wrap my brain around. Margo and I did a free walking tour in the late afternoon of some of the main city center sites, and continued the tour Sunday morning with a walk to the Pantheon. I never got to see inside, though, so I guess the oldest Dome in the world will have to be visited next time. 

Margo and me in the Colosseum.

Ruins, Ruins, Everywhere

Rome loves it's Piazzas. 

We were lucky enough to get entrance tickets into the Borghese Gallery on Sunday afternoon. We read that sometimes you have to wait months for openings in the gallery's schedule, and after I visited I now see why. It was absolutely beautiful and I got up close views of some of the art I'd studied about in class. My two favorite pieces were sculptures both by Bernini. I felt nervous standing in front of his "David", which his muscles flexed and forward flow, because it seemed like he would let go of his slingshot any second.  The park surrounding the gallery was beautiful to walk through, and after going to eat gelato with our Australian hostel-mate later that night, I went to bed early, dreaming of pizza, chocolate, marble, and the time of gladiators and Caesar. 

My favorite place in Rome, Villa Borghese

Wo ist der* Mais? - Where's all the corn gone?!

*thank you Christof for helping where my German lacks.


I've been back from my big trip for a couple of weeks, but it took me until just the other day to realize that all of the corn is gone! Mathis and I are big on going on walks, and normally we stroll gracefully by the tall fields (or completely chaotically with the wind and rain and Mathis screaming), but no longer. The fields are clear and the wind is extra brutal, especially for a girl who grew up in the foothills of the warm South. 


Besides living in the Arctic, everything is great here! I've been working daily on perfecting my graduate school applications, which don't have to be finished until February. You know me, the super non-procrastinator....  
Between that, German class, and taking care of Mathis, there is no time to be bored. Oh, and I'm reading my first full-length German book! I'm trying to read most of it out loud to myself, like an insane person, but it's helping me with pronunciation and with not being terrified to read out loud in my German class. The book seems good but I'll let you know how it is when I'm finished. In 2015. 


On Friday, I went to my first German movie, which was a total success. The movie ("RED") was hilarious and easy to understand, and I got to meet some of Sandra's friends from tennis. They were great and so much fun, and have kept in touch with me since the weekend so we can go out again. On Saturday I cooked chili and made key lime pie, and on Sunday I went to my first restaurant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück with Christof and Sandra. Small, tiny miscommunication in the beginning about whether THEY were going out to eat or WE were going out to eat, and I was not ready when the Grandmother came to stay with Mathis. When you read this Christof and Sandra, I'm sorry again if I made us late! They spoiled me with a far too fancy restaurant, but it was beautiful and delicious, and added bonus: the waitress spoke English!  It was a big weekend for me. 


Right now the house smells like the boiled broccoli that Sandra is making for Mathis' baby food. It is making me so happy with memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas' at my grandparents. 

This weekend I'm visiting Rome! Can't wait to see the Sistine Chapel and gladiators killing each other. I miss everyone back home, but a really appreciate everyone reading my blog and keeping in touch. It means so much to me! 

Mathis in the bear costume my parents sent!

A Pumpkin Baby - Ein Kürbis Baby

Halloween in its commercial sense hasn't yet infected Germany, so naturally I made it my personal goal to bring Halloween to them.  I couldn't find any Halloween costumes here, and even though my mom sent me one it wasn't quite here yet, so Sandra and I bought some supplies in Gütersloh to make Mathis a pumpkin outfit. The process involved dying baby clothes Clemson orange, as well as attaching a felt leaf to a green hat. Pumpkin, done!

After a great week back here since all of my travels, we headed Sunday morning to Münster (which has won several international awards for being 'The Most Livable City') to meet friends of the family. They were super friendly and had a cute baby boy that was only a month younger than Mathis, so it was fun to watch them "play". The friends had no idea it was Halloween. 

A week out I learned the word for "pumpkin" in German and went to great lengths to find one the entire 7 days. I couldn't find one, and Saturday I gave up a bought a little pumpkin so at least we'd have something. It wasn't until today, though, that Christof came home with two of the largest pumpkins I have ever seen. Real pumpkins, done!

We had to get ready for the party! Sandra was great at carving pumpkins and I set out the Halloween feast that I had made the day before. It included rice krispie treat ghosts, cupcakes of monsters, caramel apples, and those mud pudding things that don't really taste great but are cool because they have gummy worms. Julia, the sister-in-law, bought chocolate monsters and eyeballs for the party, and they looked great on the table.

I dressed Mathis up and even though he didn't like his hat, he was a good sport. Kara looked hilarious in my old dinosaur costume and totally stole the show away from Mathis. The whole family came over and we ate the desserts that are way too sweet for the Germans. Their desserts are never sweet enough for me, and I think my homemade icing put them in a sugar coma today. Ben declared he didn't like any of it and went to bang on the piano for awhile, but I think the rest of the people liked the rice krispies the best!

The night was a success and I hope that I gave them a good view of the Pagan holiday. The Grandmother made all of my effort worthwhile, when at the end of the night she rode away on her bike with one of the lit Jack-o-Lanterns tied to the back and wished us (in English) a "Happy Halloween"!

Mathis watching me carve the tiny pumpkin.

Mathis LOVES Halloween.

Mathis with his pumpkin hat.

Sandra carving her pumpkin. 

The Tiny Pumpkin!

So happy that it's Halloween.

The Halloween Feast

The Grandparents brought their own Halloween hat!

Christof with the sleepy pumpkin.

Kara was a dragon.

Ben is really good at making up songs
 and singing them super loud.

Happy Halloween!

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

Just when I thought a language couldn't be harder than Hungarian, I am introduced to Czech. And to top if off, my introduction to Czech was not casual and friendly. It instead involved the train attendant slamming open our train cabin door, screaming something in Czech, and then walking away. April and I walked into the hallway of the train which happened to be stopped in the middle of rural Czech Republic, and noticed that no one else was still on the train. The attendant hollered, "BUS!" at us and, with all of our stuff, we were seated in the back of a bus and driven around the Czech Republic. The bus would stop every now and then, and April and I would get out, check to see if it was our stop, they would scream at us in Czech, and then we would get back on the bus. Eventually somehow everyone knew to get off the bus and back on a train, and we followed and made it to Prague.


Our hostel there was probably the nicest place I stayed on my whole trip. Two boys from Clemson University had decided in college to open a hostel, and they made it happen in Prague. They had great American food in the restaurant downstairs, showed movies or had live music every night, and had a great continental breakfast. At dinner April and I tried the Pilsner beer that is famous in Prague, and we didn't like it. We explored the city a little after dinner and I found it to be absolutely beautiful. The Charles Bridge at night was awake and busy, and the castle was lit and beautiful. Back at the hostel we met our roommates, Damion, a guy from Australia, and Skeeter, a girl from the Philippines, and we went everywhere with them over the next couple of days. 


The free walking tour in Prague was awesome, and our tour guide had lived in Boston, Charleston, and Virginia, just like me! We learned about Prague's past under the Hapsburg dynasty, its darker days under Nazi and Communist rule, and my favorite part was the Jewish history. The oldest jewish synagogues and oldest Jewish quarters in Europe are in Prague, which coincides with the fact that Hitler wanted Prague to remain forever as a city with the evidence of the extinct Jewish race. I loved the Jewish cemetery, that contained stacks of graves over 20 feet tall. Since Judaism requires their followers to be buried, they had no where to bury but up, since they were only allotted so much space for over 400 years.


Everywhere you look in Prague, there are beautiful Baroque style buildings and churches, and I loved the red clay-tiled roofs all over the city. We had more good food, of course, chimney cakes, goulash, and braised beef. I didn't get a chance to try real Absinth, but I think I'll live. Damion, April, and I even ate delicious Mexican food! Mexican food is in the top things that I miss from home!


Our last day in Prague was c-c-cold. We went to the John Lennon wall and it was refreshing to see all of the art about peace and love. We hiked with our Philippine roommate Skeeter to one of the highest hills in Prague to a monastery and had great views of all of Prague. Our castle tour was later that day, but I hardly remember anything from that, since I was freezing to death. I do remember the Cathedral, however, because of all the beautiful churches I saw on my trip, the Cathedral at Prague castle was my favorite. It was understated while being magnificent and I loved it. Our last dinner was at an authentic Czech restaurant, and after, Damion and I went to get real Prague ice cream and saw French actors filming a movie. April and I left on Friday with the train, where got yelled at because I put my feet on the seat, and we said goodbye in Berlin. In my next train I sat with a really nice family and their two sweet boys taught me how to play "MauMau", a German card game.  Sandra and Kara, the dog, were waiting for me at the train station, and Christof had a great home-cooked dinner waiting for us. I'm glad to be back.


I am so grateful that I got to go on this trip. I can't believe the number of beautiful things I've seen, how many wonderful people I've met, and experiences I've had that really help my appreciate how sweet things can be. 


Pictures to come soon!