This Christmas was a busy one for me: I had to work from Mo (21.12.) to Wed (23.12) and went to Dresden right after work. On Christmas (24.12) I went to my Granny to celebrate with her and my Dad. In the afternoon Me and Jens went over to his parents. His Mom made strawberry cake - how weird for Christmas, normally we eat Stollen - but the cake was soooo yummy! We also stayed there for dinner, where Jens' sister joined us. We watched Christmas TV in the living room and exchanged presents. I got a new umbrella! Yeah! I needed a new one, because all my umbrellas broke in Frankfurt, also known as second windy city, after Chicago. On the 25th of December we were invited over to my Mom's. And you can imagine all the yummy food, my Mom is the best cook ever! Actually I was fed the whole Christmas Days..and hopefully didn't gain any weight. Andreas' children Susi plus boyfriend and Silvio with girlfriend and son also came over on that day and we had a really nice afternoon and evening. Can you imagine: Santa Claus came and we had to tell him a poem or sing a song for him. Gosh I haven't seen Santa Claus since years..last time was when I was really young! I slept at my Mom's and the next day, 26th we drove to Thalheim to be with my other relatives: My other granny, uncle, aunt, cousin etc. More food there and more presents- gosh- I really wondered how to get all my presents to Frankfurt, fortunately I left some at my Mom's already. I got really nice blue towels and new fluffy bed-sheets, like I wanted. Unfortunately I had to take the train back to Frankfurt on the 27th. I have to work another 3 days: 28, 29, 30th! New Years Eve I will be back in Dresden to be with my boyfriend. Pictures!
The Christmas Market in Frankfurt opened and I organized a Get Together for my collegues. The Christmas Get Together the year before totally rocked but this year we drunk less alcohol! We went to the Market after work and when we got there it was totally crowded although it was a Thursday! It was hard to get thru the crowd and to find a place to drink the mulled wine. The mulled wine sucked so we tried something new: Feuerzangenbowle: more sweet, very yummy and it warmed us up on this cold cold day. Unfortunately the market closed at 9 p.m. and since we did not want to go home yet, we stopped at Burger King for a snack. Who was there: Me, Maria, Anna, Boban, Alexandra plus boyfriend, Vinzenz, Swetlana and Katja with boyfriend. Pictures!
Jens turned 30 on October 25th already, but since we were in Portugal he had his huge Birthday party in December. Together with his friend Anja, who turned 30 as well, they they threw a huge party at the club Aquarium. The club was located in the inner city of Dresden and was really neat. They rented the whole club for their birthdays, so there was lotz of space for all guests. I don't know how many people were invited but about 80 people showed up! The party also had a motto: "Bad taste", so everybody had to wear weird clothes to look bad! It was very funny and some were really creative with their costumes. The highlight of the night was a strip by a really sexy man. The guy stripped for Anja, who turned 30 that night and she definitely loved his show. She was sitting in the middle of the room and all guests were standing around her in a circle, watching the strip-show. The atmosphere rocked! The girls and some men were screaming. All in all it was a really cool party with lotz of food, good music and nice people. Pictures!
My Mom threw another BBQ-Party in Glashütte and Me, Franzi, Ralf and my Auntie plus some others were invited. We had the BBQ outside in the backyard with a nice bondfire and yummy steaks. Altough it was almost winter, it was really nice to be outside, with a mulled wine in one hand and a bratwurst in the other. It was my turn to drive back to Dresden, that's why I couldn't drink any alcohol, but the mulled wine for kids was yummy too! Pictures!
An Aupair Reunion was planned long before November, Me and Elli wanted to visited Aga and Alex in March already, but we didn't made it. So we reschuled it to Aga's 27th Birthday in November. That would be a perfect time, because then their son Sebastian would be already born. We shared our plan with Stefanie, who was although pregnant and was now living in France with her husband. We didn't really get an answer if she would come to the reunion in Belgium so it was a huge surprise when me and Elli arrived. We both took the train to Gent St. Pieters and arrived around 11. Aga, who is always late, was also late that day. So me and Elli waited for her at the train station. Twenty minutes later she picked us up with her newborn Sebastian. Gosh we were all so nervous!! Some years ago, we were all Aupairs in America, took care of kids and now we need Aupairs for our kids. Sebastian was sleeping so we couldn't hug and kiss him :( At the train station Aga told us that Stefanie and her daughter Antonia are here since Wednesday! Oh wow, Stefanie made it to Belgium! That would be a great reunion with the four of us. Aga and Alex moved into a new house before Sebastian was born, so they had enough space for all of us. The house was really nice, nice neighborhood, nice interior design, I liked it. When we arrived Alex was at work and Stefanie was asleep on the couch with her daughter. We didn't want to wake her up, so we welcomed the dogs in the backyard first. Aga told us at her wedding already that they bought a new dog: Maggie. Maggie is a brown labrador and huge, if you see little Happy next to him. They are both living in the backyard, where they got their own doggie-house. Sometimes they are allowed into the house, where they both sleep on their doggie-couches. I was a little worried about little Happy being outside in the cold cold winter, but Aga said he is fine. Happy is an american dog, which she got from her American hostparents when Aga left. I love Happy, he makes me happy :) Afterwards we welcomed Stefanie and little Antonia, gosh I haven't seen Stefanie in ages! Last time was I think at my birthday party years ago. It was good to see her and Antonia is such a cutie! Aga and Stefanie got along well with both kids in the house. The whole weekend was a baby weekend: the babys took their bath in the morning, then was feeding time, afterwards the took a nap, then feeding again, then nap, then feeding, then nap..until it was dark outside. In between we shared Aupair stories, watched TV and made food. On one afternoon we all went for a long walk and Alex was kinda worried why we didn't come back. Aga turned 27 on Saturday, the 7th and she got (of course) a chocolate cake and flowers from her husband Alex. Me and Elli also brought some presents: a wellness package. For dinner we went to a greek restaurant, which was a mistake. Although the girls fed the babys before we left and they should have been asleep in the restaurant, they were awake and crying the whole time. So we all ate and ate and then went back home. That was exhausting! All in all it was a really nice weekend with the girls and me and Elli had an adventous trip back home. Pictures!
Jens turned 30, so we spent a week in Portugal to celebrate his birthday there. We booked the design-hotel we wanted to book in summer- but then decided to go to Greece. In October the hotel was much cheaper, we got 7 days for only 305 Euro including flight from and to Dusseldorf, train ticket from and to the airport, breakfast and dinner! The hotel was located at the Algarve, near to Portimao. It was brand new and really looked awesome from inside and outside. It had a pool and a large garden, the interiour was brand really stylish and the food was yummy! The flight to Portugal wasnt that nice though, we flew with TUIfly and it was really uncomfortable, the snack was awful but fortunately we only flew 3 hours. We landed in Faro, Portugal around 6 pm and got our rental car at the airport. The rental car was supposed to be a Ford but it had a huge damage so we returned it before we actually got in. We got a new car and hadnt luck with this car either: one front light didnt work, so we returned it again and got our final car: an Opel! With the Opel we went to our hotel to check in, but we arrived so late, that we didnt get the room we wanted: we wanted a room with view to the Ocean and not on the ground floor. Since we were late, the only room they had left for us was a room on the ground floor and with view to the carparking! Great! What else could go wrong? Fortunately it wasnt tooo late to have dinner. But the portugese waiter were not very talented and we waited tooo long for a table. The food was yummy but we soon noticed that the buffet was the same every evening, only with changing meat. The atmosphere in the restaurant wasn't cosy at all, no music, no candles, it was more like a cantine. Our hotel room was: huge bed, clean bathroom, kitchen, tv everything we needed! The first day was already over, without seeing anything from Portugal. On the second day we drove around and went swimming in the Ocean! Third day, October 25 was Jens' 30th Birthday. After breakfast he got his presents and while he unpacked the presents I made him a birthday cake. Unfortunately we both forgot about the cake in the oven, that it half burned. We noticed the (Rauch) and that the fire detecter turned on already! Ahhh, we thought, the firemen will soon be here! We got a phone call from the reception and I tried to convince them, that nothing was wrong, since I only wanted to bake a cake for my boyfriend's birthday. Didnt know that the oven wasn't used at all and would burn the cake! We opened up all windows and laughed! For Jens Birthday we went to the ocean again and enjoyed the sun- we really had perfect weather for almost November, around 25 C. Our forth day was the best of the whole vacation, because we got robbed out!!! While we sunbathed at the beach they broke into our rental car and stole everything that was in our trunk, except for my cheap Deichmann shoes. The rest was gone: Our jeans, our winter jackets, our outdoor jackets, my purse with my watch inside and they even took the hotelkey. What was left was our rental car! When we came back from the beach we really didnt believe our bad luck! We called TUI and told them what happened to us and they called our hotel, hopefully nothing was gone in our room! We went straight back to the hotel, which was far away from the beach and when we got there we were glad that nothing was stolen out of our room. We got our hotelroom changed into a room in the upper level and with ocean-view! The one we wanted from the beginning! Right after dinner we went to the police! But the police couldnt do anything for us. They only wrote everything down and told us to have the car changed. So we got the rental car changed again and our forth car was really huge family van. Perfect for Jens to get some driving van-experiences. The other days of the vacation were really awful, we were ancious to get broken in again and didnt want to go any beach again. We did some sight-seeing in the outback of Portugal and drove around, visited Portimao, Faro and some other towns. On October 30 we flew back to Germany and took the train from Stuttgart to Dresden. The whole ride was awful, we had to stand two hours in the train, because it was so crowded. All in all we spent more money on the 7 day trip to Porugal than we did on the 14 days trip to Greece. Pictures!
Another friend visited me in Frankfurt: Elli! And not only for a weekend, no my Elli stayed two weeks, because she had to work for Skoda at the International Autoshow in Frankfurt. It was really nice to have her over for such a long time. Although we both had to work during the day, we enjoyed the evenings together: one time we went for dinner at an italian restaurant and the !!other time we went to a bar! We even made it to visit the main sights in Frankfurt and go shopping for our upcoming Aupair reunion! We plan to visit Aga and her newborn in Belgium in November! Since Aga married in October 2008 we havent seen her again. She moved into a house with her husband Alex and got pregnant! We needed to see her! So me and Elli planned everything in detail, booked our tickets for only 49 Euro one way, got presents for Aga and the babyboy Sebastian! Pictures!
After our fantastic two weeks in Greece, we went hiking in the Alps. I got myself a hiking set and booked my ticket to the Bodensee. On a Thursday after work I rode with the ICE to the Bodensee, while Jens headed from Dresden to the Bodensee by car. We both got there at the same time and checked into our hostel. The hostel was located right near to the Bodensee with a perfect view on the Alps. Thursday night we went out for dinner and got to bed early. We actually planned to go hiking in the Alps on Friday but the weather was rainy, so we decided to visit Ludwigshafen. The town was really nice but I missed some sights! So we only checked out the inner city, went shopping a little bit and had a coffee. Then our big day: Saturday. We got up early, had a quick breakfast and went straight to the Alps. We wanted to climb the Kleinlitzner in 2783 m. We parked our car at the Silveretta Road by the artifical lake and started hiking fullpacked. I actually hate hiking, especially with a heavy backpack, but i changed my mind at the end of the day :) We hiked to the Saarbrücker Hütte in 2540 m, refreshed us and had a little snack. So far so good, the 243 m left we wanted to climb right up. We got into our hiking set, consisting of helmet, belt, gloves and safety catch and some other people looked at us questioning us if we really need all the stuff. Sure we did, the first meters were awful. I went first, Jens after me. Most of the time we were hanging somewhere in the rocks, nowhere to stand on, just hanging trying to go further. After a while I really got exhausted, my arms were hurting so much and I started crying at some point, because I didnt know where to reach next. But Jens convinced me and with some luck I made it. It took us about an hour to reach the top of the Kleinlitzner, but when we got there it was success! The last meters were awesome, especially when we signed the little mountain book with date and name and enjoyed the awesome scenery for some minutes. Since it was almost 4 pm we needed to climb back before sunset. Bad thing, we had to go back the exact same way we came from. But we made it and reached the car in time! I cannot describe how it felt, being at top of a mountain, close to the sky! We made it and it definitely felt great! In 2010 we wanna climb on top of a 3500 m mountain! Just the two of us! Pictures!
From July 31 to August 14 we spent two weeks in Greece! It was my first time on Crete, for Jens it was already his second visit to the island. We flew from Frankfurt on July 31 and landed in Heraklion at noon! We wanted to see as much of Crete, so we decided to split the vacation: First week we were in the western part and second week in the eastern part of Crete. With our rental Cabriolet we drove a total of 2000 km! It was such a great time, we been to so many places and got to know a diffrent culture! I really like the Greek: they are very slow-paced true to the motto: I got plenty of time! For examples: At a restaurant we waited for the menu about 20 minutes! So you can imagine how long we waited for the meal to be served! But the food was really yummy: Greek salad is the best and of course we had wine and tzatziki ever day! We went to the beach very often and sunbathed til we were nice tanned! The first week in Rodakino was very different from the second week in Sisi! Rodakino is a very small village in the middle of nowhere of Crete, agrarian-oriented with typical greek animals: goats and donkeys! Whereas Sisi is touristic in character, lotz of bars and restaurants, clubs and tourist-shops! I felt like being in Great Britain, so many British!! Ahhhh! But the hotel in Sisi was much better than the one in Rodakino: we booked a design-hotel in Sisi and it totally rocked! But see yourself: Pictures from the first week and Pictures from the second week!
We thought of you with love today,
But that is nothing new.
We thought about you yesterday.
And days before that too.
We think of you in silence.
We often speak your name.
Now all we have is memories.
And your picture in a frame.
Your memory is our keepsake.
With which we�ll never part.
God has you in his keeping.
We have you in our heart.
A poem for my granddad, who passed away today. We all cannot understand WHY? We are full of pain and we miss you!
Everybody turned a year older and so did Franzi! She threw a huge birthday party at the Kindergarten "Pauline" in Dresden. She rented the location for the evening of the 11th. Thanks to the BBQ Master Ralf we got served yummy steaks and Bratwursts! Lotz to eat: Salads, Cakes, Vegies, Muffins, Chips and Bowle - of course! After some Bowle we started dancing to great old music! I just love oldies, they are so good to sing to! Stayed til after 2 a.m and took the train home. Pictures!
My girls from Dresden Anja and Josi visited me in Frankfurt over the weekend. They arrived Friday evening with the Mitfahrgelegenheit. Both girls were really annoyed of climbing up 6 floors to my new flat. For me it is my daily exercise *smiles*. We had dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant around the corner and went to bed early, because Saturday was our shopping and party day! So we got up on Saturday morning, had breakfast and to save money for the subway: walked to the inner city. (Note: I'm only living about 15 minutes away). Shopped until 4 p.m. and also stopped for icecream at Häagen Dazs. All in all: the girls were very successful, they bought lotz of things and shoooes! After shopping we had pizza and got ready for the boat-party. Boat-Party only takes place one day before International Women's Day and it totally rocked! The boat was full of party people and it took us along the Main. We had lotz of fun, drunk alot, danced alot and at 4 a.m. we walked home barefoot! Pictures!
Being 26 and in Frankfurt doesn't mean being lonely..My Birthday this year was on a Wednesday and I had to work. First time that I did not see my Mom on my Birthday, even when I was in America she visited me for my Birthday. Nevertheless I had a nice Birthday: A day before my birthday, me, my flatsharing-mate and two other girls celebrated into my 26th at a Mexican Restaurant, called Sausalitos. At work I got really nice flowers from my team and we all went for dinner after work. I baked two cakes for work and another cake some days later when I went home. I took Friday off to meet my Mom at the hairstylist's and later the evening to meet my friends at XXL Bowling. I booked two bowling alleys from 8 to 10 p.m. and we had lotz of fun! Saturday I spent at my Grandmom's where I also saw my Dad and on Sunday met my Mom again for coffee & cake. All in all it wasn't a lonely Birthday, but it feels weird to be 26! Almost 30! AHH! Pictures!
Aupair News: My Aupair girls Aga and Stefanie are both pregnant, expecting their babys in July and August! OMG!! Congrats!
Yesterday I had a day off work and went to Dresden to receive my Bachelor Diploma. The ceremony took place at the AUDIMAX auditorium, the same one where I received my Highschool-Diploma in 2001. It was weird to know, that this will be the last time at university but it was also a good feeling to be finally done! I started my major Medienforschung/ Medienpraxis with 50 students in 2005 and now after three years only 9 students attended the ceremony. Im not sure where the others were, maybe not all completed their studies or some are abroad, doing internships. The professors Mr. Donsbach and Mr. Hagen handed out the diploma and a rose! I got a video of the whole ceremony and of course pictures!
2009 is here! Gosh I cannot believe it, already 2009, I will turn 26 years next month ~ I'm getting old. Looking back to the last year, I'm proud of myself: I graduated from university, I got a great job, which I love doing, only bad thing: I'm far away from my family and friends. But I'm trying to come over as often as I can- like in December..
In December I stayed in Dresden for 1,5 weeks and it was great to have some time off, meet friends and family and celebrate into the new year. I went ice-skating with Nadine, Franzi, Frank and Ralf (Pictures!), I went to the Christmas Market (Pictures!), met up with friends for breakfast or coffee and Franzi threw a BBQ party (Pictures!).
Christmas I spent at my Grandmom's, since my Mom had to work, on the 25th I went to Glashütte to see my Mom and on the 26th back to Dresden to meet my Dad. Got lotz of candy and presents and cuddled with my cat Tibor..he is soooo cute, I really miss him :(
New Years Eve was pretty cool: We went to a birthday party at a castle near to Dresden. Lotz of people, good music and yummy food! The location was awesome..Pictures!