Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Mini-vacation in Germany

Last Wednesday Lukas and I traveled to Western Germany to visit his parents and friends. We both had a holiday on Thursday (gotta love Austria with all these Catholic holidays!) and then he took Friday off as well so we could spend a fun and relaxing 4 days in Germany. We got in around midnight on Wednesday night and stayed up for a bit talking to his parents after that.

On Thursday we saw his grandmother who is 93 for a bit and then in the afternoon we took a trip across the French border as it is only 30 minutes away. They make a special kind of pottery in Alsace (bordering area between France and Germany, used to belong to Germany but is now French territory) and it can only be made there due to the special kind of soil-clay they have. It was fun looking in the little shops and hearing Lukas speak French... super sexy I must add, hehehe. Afterwards we went to a gigantic super market (seriously atleast twice the size of any Super-Walmart, etc. in the states!) and got some wonderful French bread, cheese, etc. I have not had "Chevre" (French goat cheese) in YEARS and wow it was soooooooooo good :-) Best dinner in a long time, that is for sure, yum!

On Friday Lukas' grandmother came over in the afternoon and we hung out in the yard with her enjoying the sun and talking to her and his mother. It was really nice to see her so happy and talkative, as she seemed a bit down around Christmas time when we saw her. Luke's parents said she usually just has a winter-depression and is always much better in the summer... which was nice as she was much more talkative this visit. It is super funny tho because she has a tendency to repeat things over and over because she forgets that she has already said them.... probably gets pretty old for those who see her daily but it was fairly amusing for Lukas and I. I am always glad when we can spend some time with his grandmother as she is 93 and who knows how much longer we will have that opportunity, espec. as we are moving back to the USA soon. We decided to spend the day with his family instead of going to see friends that evening and it ended up being a good idea as his grandmother was over for a while and then his dad came back in the evening after work and we all played cards together until 1am. It was a nice relaxing day and nice for me to spend more time with my in-laws and get to know them a bit better.

On Saturday morning we headed to the LDS temple in Frankfurt, Germany and did a session there with his parents which was nice. Well ok... oddly enough they got pulled out of our session and put in the one that started right after it because there was some "organizational problem" at the time.... which is strange in the temple but whatever, germans will be germans, haha. Regardless, it was wonderful being in the temple again espec. as we had not had the opportunity to go since we were visiting at Christmas-time.

Afterwards we went to our friends in Darmstadt and then 2 other couples came over and the 8 of us had a nice bbq and hung out and talked all afternoon-evening. Jana and Daniel are pregnant, she is due in about a week, and it was so cute seeing tiny little Jana with her big pregnant belly. Sarah and Ralph have a 1.5 year old boy and Ingo and Amalia have a 6 month old boy so it was basically "mommy-talk" between the girls but that is ok.... I didnt feel left out, more grateful that I am NOT pregnant and do NOT have any kids yet, hehehe. Jana loved playing with the kids tho, she is going to be a great mother... I stayed away from them mostly because as you all know... KIDS SCARE ME! lol
REALLY cool experience tho.... Jana said that the baby was moving around and let me feel her belly and I could feel their little girl moving around... so amazing that there is a little person in there just waiting to be born into a loving family :)

Lukas and I stayed a while after everyone else had left so that we could spend more time with Daniel and Jana. Unfortunately no time is ever enough time when you only see your friends twice a year... but regardless it was nice to hang out with them for a bit. Fortunately in 5 weeks we will be back at his parents' house for 5 days before we fly back to the USA and will hopefully be able to get a little "going-away party" organized and will get to spend some more time with everyone before we go to the states. I have to say that I am sad we cannot take Daniel and Jana with us... Lukas is best friends with both of them and I have to say they are by far my favorite from his group... I already feel like I have known Jana forever and love being able to talk so openly with her and always have a great time when the 4 of us get together. It is sad to have such good friends in so many places as it makes seeing them all much more difficult but I guess that is what happens when you are a traveling-nomad like me :-p

On Sunday we went to church and Lukas' sister and brother in law where there which was nice to see them as our plans to see them on Thursday did not work out. Afterwards we headed to the train station to head back home. It was truly a wonderful and relaxing vacation for us and we are very grateful to his parents for funding our travel so we could come visit.

Funny story from the train however... at the next stop a large drunken marching band group (so not joking!) got on the train with all of their instruments and of course, being as drunk and load and crazy as they were, started playing and singing on the train. It was soooo funny to hear a marching band on a train... and of course we got some pictures :-D In Heidelberg where we had to switch trains, they switched as well and were playing at the station which was pretty funny too. O the crazy things that go on in European trains :)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Midterms are killing me... ahhhh!

So I have realized that I am not the most studious student there ever was... I really suck at studying and staying on task. I have a midterm on Monday and its like pulling teeth to force myself to sit down and outline the 70 pages that will be covered on the test as well as the 5 stories we covered outside of the main text. BAH! I am quickly running out of time but have only gotten through about 10 pages in the last few days... bah I suck lol. Its harder to study too when Lukas isn't around. I think that when I am lonely and bored its even more difficult for me to concentrate... I obviously need to get over that and get to business but "Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites" (10 book series on tape) and random shows online are way too good at distracting me lol. I am a graduate student, you would think I would have gotten over this procrastination and whining stage by now but nope, its as strong as ever :-p

Ok ok... a few more minutes of my break and then I am getting back to taking notes.. I swear!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

The land of the SHEEPIES!!!!

Mountains

Sheepies













And my sexy husband...

What more could I ask for on this beautiful Saturday in Austria? :)

Friday, May 9, 2008

Creepy men and wisdom teeth... hmmmmm

Ok, super creepy experience to share...
Wednesday I was on the way to the dentist to get one of my wisdom teeth out and as I was looking for the right street, a man walked by me and full on grabbed my breast as he went by. Seriously just reached around as he got next to me and grabbed me and then just kept walking. I yelled at him in German " what is wrong with you!" but he just kept walking. It was so creepy and scarey! What is wrong with people these days, seriously!
Then the rest of the day I was pretty freaked out anytime another guy got near me, which is pretty difficult considering I live in Europe where people don't know what "personal space" is and everyone walks everywhere which ends up putting me in A LOT of situations where men are just " too close for comfort". I guess I should be grateful nothing else happened but I'm still pretty paranoid walking around on my own. Hopefully that feeling will dull with time...

My dentist appointment afterwards wasn't so great either. They had to cut away the gums on one side of the tooth that was still overlapping and the numbing shots didn't work 100% so that was pretty painful. Then the darn tooth didn't want to come out and so one girl had to hold my head, the other one my chin, and the dentist was rocking the tooth back and forth trying to get it out. Pretty uncomfortable, that is for sure... I was trying my best not to scream or freak out but fortunately it finally came out. I have a really nice dentist and his assistants are great too, that is atleast one positive thing.
Another awesome thing is my dental insurance here in Austria... it covers EVERYTHING which is amazing because ours in Delaware really sucked and that is why I waited to get my wisdom teeth out here. I wish I would of know that before and I could have saved my mom a few thousand dollars last summer for my dental work! O well, anyway I'm glad to have my wisdom teeth out and my gums are healing well even tho its awkward eating and cleaning out the holes afterwards, ick! lol

Thursday, May 8, 2008

My husband is AWESOME!!

So I have the best husband ever, just so you know ... and I will tell you one reason why:

On Monday I had my first midterm. There was this shark at Ikea that I really wanted and I told Lukas that if I got a 3 (about a B) on my exam then I get the shark. Well... it didnt go so well and I was REALLY disappointed afterwards and wrote Lukas about how sad I was and how I deserved the shark anyway as a consolation prize for sucking so badly on my test. I was pretty bummed out because I had studied A LOT for that darn test.

During dinner Lukas and I were talking about the shark and he said maybe we could get it this weekend, which was good enough for me. Then we were talking and I went to ly on our bed with him (nothing dirty, we just dont have a couch to sit on! lol) and something was crinkling under my side of the blanket so I flipped it over and there was Sharky with a bag of gummy bears in his big floppy mouth. I was shocked and so excited but mostly just grateful for the sweetness and thoughtfulness of my loving husband. After he got my second email about how bad my test went and how sad I was, he went to Ikea after work to get it for me to cheer me up. Definitely unexpected and so nice of him :)

So you see, I have a fabulous husband that takes great care of me....
Unfortunately.... he got eaten by a couple of sharks!

Fortunately he lived through it, hehe.
AND... today in class we got our grades for the test back and I did end up getting a 3! She graded differently than I expected and I also got some "lucky free points" along with half of the class because we accidentally wrote an answer that COULD be right in another context so she counted it. Lucky us! lol