Guten Tag!

Sorry it has been a while, we are pretty busy over here with visitors. Stephen's sister Kristy, Chris Fleming, Rob's mom Eileen, Rob's nephew Anthony, and soon to be Aaron are here for about 2 weeks. We have been trying to keep them busy, hence my lack of blogging. I will catch you up on our adventures later.

In any case I wanted to show you some pictures from language school. I started at the beginning of May and go everyday from 9-1 in Freiburg. It is nice to ride the train and just stroll to school. I am enjoying learning the language and my classmates are nice. They come from all over the world so thankfully English is our common language with some German mixed in for good measure. There are 6 units that are each 5 weeks long so I am currently in unit 2. Hopefully I will finish sometime next year and then I will have graduated to spit and spatter on all my fellow Germans!

Here are some pictures from my first day, Stephen went with me to make sure I could find it okay...I didn't ask a random person to photograph me along the way!

Riding the train to Freiburg.

Building and park along my route

My School....or in German "meine Schule"

 Here is a class picture we just took with our mascot Negra! 

My Class from L to R: Kyriakos (Greece), Jonathan (South Carolina), Begonia (Spain), Me, Yong Jun (China),
Mira (Bulgaria), Henry (Ecuador) and his little black dog "Negra," Miriam (Italy), and Ichy (Tibet).

Enjoy! I will be back soon with some softball pictures...WE FINALLY WON A COUPLE GAMES!

Astounding feats of Athleticism!

I am not sure you know this, but Stephen is known around these parts as a "hero"....or at least he is in his own head. In honor of his amazing athletic talent Roland Widmann (one of our close friends) made Stephen his very own video. It may change your life, so prepare yourself.

Roland shot this video at the yearly Atomics Walk where we hike up to a BBQ area and then play games and eat all day. We enjoyed the fellowship opportunities and time to spend with Atomics Club members. It was a lot of fun this year and as you can see Stephen was the Featherball Champion!

Sweet Luna, the jumping cow

I'm always amazed at the determination of the German people.  This poor young girl, from a part of Germany quite bit north of us, had been asking her parents for a horse for a long time but to no avail, so she just went out and saddled up one of the family cows.  I love Luna the cow and I think every little girl should have one just like her.

One Giant Step for "Spanjer-kind"

Sorry everyone I forgot to post this....our first time in the new apartment. (I would like to add that Stephen made up the title and was cracking himself up....do not think I am going crazy!)

Royal Overnight!

It all started with a little visit from one of Stephen's oldest friends Eric Person. We had the great pleasure of having Eric be our first visitor in Germany about a month ago. He was Stephen's baseball coach at Nyack College (in New York) and each summer would bring players to Europe to work with Athletes in Action. Eventually that turned into what became WBOI and expanded the Atomics Baseball Club! (It is a bit longer than that, but I will spare you the details). Needless to say Eric is very dear to many of our German friends and has a special place in the hearts of Stephen and Rob. Eric is also the God-Father (they are a big deal here in Germany) of Tamara Steck who is the daughter of one of the Atomic Club Founders (Hardy Steck). 

Eric and Stephen Sunday morning before church.

Alright now that that is out of the way I can get back to us being royal! So, Eric was here in Germany for a couple days to see the "Confirmation" (also a very big deal here in Germany where kids complete a church course around the age of 14 and are then "confirmed" in their local church) of Tamara his God-Daughter. After the church service most families will have large parties to celebrate their child's accomplishment and lucky for us we were invited! 

Ralf, Stephen, and me at the Confirmation Celebration.

It was a wonderful afternoon of nonstop eating. Literally, we never stopped eating! We started the festivities outside with orange juice or mimosas accompanied with strudel and then moved inside for the serious eating. Lunch began with a soup course, then a large salad with Salmon, then scallop potatoes with beef and vegetables, then desert consisting of icecream with homemade chocolate and raspberry sauce, and if that was not enough about an hour later we had cake and coffee time. There were 8 cakes to choose from and you could eat as many pieces of as many cakes as you wanted. I am tired just thinking about all the chewing I did.

During the party I got to know Tamara and her friends. They are all really sweet and remind me of when I was in junior high and everything was soooo dramatic! (I will never forget you Avril!) 

We had a nice time talking/me waving my hands in the air to explain things in English and I think I made four new fans. They were all just standing around me smiling and kept saying things like "your eyes are awesome," "you are so pretty,"......"bahahaa, Thanks?!?" (I did not tell them my hair was completely frizzy and in a ponytail because I still did not own a blowdryer.)

Talia, Sophia, Tamara, and Julia.

So, now to being royal. As Stephen and I were leaving the party we were saying our goodbyes when 4 lovely teenage girls ran up to us and said "can we get a picture with you, we think you look like Prince William and Kate!" I must admit I had been thinking that....we look completely royal and finally someone noticed! hahaha, yeah right, we both started laughing and gave our most dignified smile as not to disappoint. 

So there you have it, WE ARE ROYAL! Here are some look alike pictures! 

Personally I think Stephen is way cuter than Prince William, but I may be biased! 

If only I could make my hair look like that.....oh so royal!

this is more my style, a little less perfect and yet she is still effortlessly royal!

I would say our crowns have an uncanny similarity here...Don't you think?!