01.02.12

February already!? where has the time gone? i have been here for almost 6 months now, which means i only have about 6 months left... I have been missing home a lot. Mostly because i have been looking up plane tickets for my trip back in may. But for the past month, i have been having very sad dreams about going home and been completely "home-sick" for A and G and Flensburg. I guess my new home is really making an impact :) I suppose i will just have to make trips back here to visit.

So we had out first snow of the year about 5 days ago, and most of it is still here. It is absolutely gorgeous here! a lot less of the dirty snow/slush stuff we get back in kansas, and more of the crisp white icing like in pictures. (my pictures will come soon)

While in Hamburg, J (my friend and fellow au pair) and i had an idea for a travel pic blog, so we will hopefully be able to start it soon. Be on the look out for "See, I Can Walk--the stumblings of german aupairs" or something along those lines.

Speaking of J..she was going to come up and spend some time this weekend with me (she switched families so she now lives about 30 minutes south of Flensburg) but i might be going to DK. This is both kinda exciting, but has the potential to be very sad and awkward. CM's (my danish mom) sister had a baby boy in oct i think. Sebastian is so cute! this weekend he is getting baptized. i kinda want to go and see the ceremony even if it's in danish and i wont understand anything. but we might miss it....CB's (my danish dad) mom found out she had her 3rd round of cancer on Dec 23rd. Some christmas present! She has now been in and out of the hospital for the past month. About 4 days ago, she went in again. This time she probably wont leave... CM said she has anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks left. I dont know how i can help or what i should do, when the time comes. I have had great-grandparents die, but never anyone as close as a grandparent or parent (THANK GOD!), so i really dont know how to be there for C & C. We will just cross that bridge when it comes....

pics and more to come soon! <3

Movies 2012

I am going to try and keep track of all the movies i watch this year. i will NOT me adding up the time to see have much of my life i have wasted :P


So far this year (that i can remember):

• Across the Universe
• Wizard of Oz
• Sound of Music
• The Help
• Crazy, Stupid, Love
• The Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Twilight: Breaking Dawn (kills me to admit this one...)
• The Reader and Der Vorleser
• Just Go With It
• Aristocats
• Once Upon a Forest
• Friends with Benifits
• In Time (i have a new love of Justin Timberlake! since when did he get so attractive?)

That's all i can think of right now. Many more to come!

p.s. I made 3 new years resolutions:

1. Drink 8 glasses of water and/or tea everyday.
2. Run and exercise.
3. Blog every day, or if that is impossible, every week.

My reality:

1. trying, but still too much oj and coffee. but i am drinking more tea!
2. just joined a yoga class and have plans to run when its not so icy and cold outside (goal is march)
3. FAIL! this is my first post since October...hopefully i can at least blog a little more consistently.

I'll keep ya'll informed as to how they go :)

26. Oktober pt. 2

SO my computer become possessed today! It was going all by its self and whenever i tried to do something, i moved. Come to think of it, it acted a lot like Uncle Pat....oh wait...PAT!!! :) He used his mad computer skills to try and download some fake ip and vpn numbers so i can access USA only content on the web. After about 1.5 hours we (he) finally gave up for now. but i got some free movies out of it, so i'll be busy for a little while!

I have spent most of my day in my room because of my headache. I feel anti-social, but its also been nice to have some on my couch. Mormor made some very good chicken/mushroom/idk what else pasta for dinner. She makes more traditional dishes i think, but they are always good. After dinner, G needed to wipe his mouth or sneezed or something and needed a tissue. He went and got the American flag i bought for A and used it. I was laughing and Mor was laughing and trying to tell him that is not how we treat Shelby's flag. Since we were laughing, he was doing it now and laughing himself. I know it was not right, but it was so funny and cute (plus he can't understand that it was a flag. to him it is just a colorful cloth...so good idea in theory, G). :D

Gute nacht, alle!

26. Oktober

I have had a headache since yesterday so i am just taking it easy today. Mor's mom and aunt are in town for a few days so i don't have to cook or watch the boys as much as normal. So if any week would be good to be sick, it would be this one lol. I did do a little shopping today and bought some black snow boots and cute brown leather boots (had to have both colors :P ). I also bought 2 german books:

and

These seemed appropriate for my first books. I am almost done with Katherine so i can start on HP soon. Even though i just read HP in February, i don't think its ever too soon to re-re-read it :)  

Katherine has become on of my all time favorite books. i have tried to read it about 5 times, but never go past page 15 (out of about 750). Once i finally got past the beginning, it sucked me in. Anya Seton is so amazing that i can really imagine being there. It also helps when i go to a few castles and can visualize grand parties and stable yards and royalty. It is about the great love story between Katherine Swynford and John o' Gaunt in the 1300s. It turned out much more exciting than i imagined--of course it had the love story part but it also had plague, murder, religeous problems, etc (like any good historical novel should have). I supposed i will now have to extend my passion of England's royalty back a few hundred years... I think i have found my new favorite author (too bad her books aren't out for the kindle..) **btw Katharina was my german name in high school, so i have always had a strong liking towards that name**

Anyways..i really want to sleep for a bit, but i should go clean the boys' rooms first. darn work :)

Kolding and AMERICANS!

Just some background info before i start: I am in Flensburg, Germany. For a year. I have been here a little over 2 months already. The parents are "Fa" und "Mor". The boys that i help with are A (just turned 4) and G (almost 2). With the kids a speak German, with the parents mostly english. The 4 of them speak danish. Therefore, i am picking up on a lot of Danish also :)

Yes, that does say 1589.

This weekend, Fa's parents came down from Silkeborg, DK to visit. The are very nice (and speak German and English which is helpful) but i sometimes feel like i'm hovering when people come to visit. So i took Sunday off and drove up to Kolding, DK. A few people from Kansas were training at the Brande plant, so we met near the middle for coffee/lunch/etc. When i went to meet them, i had no idea how i was going to find them considering Kolding is kind of large, i have never been there, and i didn't have a GPS. So i was getting ready to drive around aimlessly when i saw the cafe they were at! I am not sure how i happened to be on the right road at the right time, but it helped out tremendously. It was so unreal to actually see them. I realize i am on the other side of the world, but it was shocking to realize that they came all the way to Denmark and i was able to drive just a few hours to meet up with them. We talked in the little cafe for a while and then walked around some of Kolding's Zentrum. Because it was Sunday, none of the stores were open, but we window shopped a bit and looked at all the really old buildings.

Me and Jana's little Sock Monkey

Apparently. Kolding also has a very old castle, so naturally we spend a few hours touring it :) It was amazing. Unfortunately everything but some of the outer walls burnt down some time ago, so there wasn't many furnishing from the time period (1500s-1800s). It was still awesome to see the architecture and old brick walls, fireplaces, and floors. At the top of the tower (because naturally it had a tower) you could look out of all of Kolding and to the ostsee. We then ate a good lunch/dinner down in the former dungeons. It was so beautiful and make me want to just go castle hunting while im here (not that i wasn't going to anyways lol) Also, Jana and i discovered that we lived there in our past lives. I was a princess or duchess or something and she was my governess. So we began redecorating the very bleak rooms. :) After we parted ways, i didn't want to go back to flensburg just yet, so i drove a little further to vejle. There i did a little more window shopping and ate subway. YUM! i found a really nice bench by the river and ate, listened, relaxed, and read my book. It was the perfect end to a great day.



(I will update on past adventures when i have more time)