"George"......is that you?

Sorry for the absence, August was a busy month for us here in Germany. I had a three week vacation from language school so I tried to squeeze in as many little events as possible. I did a couple projects at home that I will put in the blog soon, we had some baseball games as usual, a few lunch guests, and the best part: our first family vacation to Lake Como, Italy (also known as George Clooney's summer home).

Lake Como is about a four hour drive from us that winds through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and every tunnel ever built....not really but kind of! I think we spent more time in tunnels than in the open air. It was my first experience with the The St. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. It is the third longest road tunnel in the world stretching 16.4 kilometers or in American terms, 10.5 miles. It took a long 25 minutes to drive through, but we made it to the other side safely. Praise God!

Imagine 25 minutes of nothing but this....glad that is over!

After a stressful drive through every tunnel and some of the smallest Italien roads I have ever seen, we reached our destination: Domaso, Italy. It is a small town in the north west corner of Lake Como and is the capital for Wind Surfing. We stayed in a camping site along the lake and rented a small bungalow for three nights. It turned out to be pretty nice and just enough room for us. 

Looks just like George's House, right?!?

The best part was that it was close to the water and who can beat that view?

In the afternoon we were able to rent a small power boat to ride around the lake and take in the sights. This was by far Stephen's favorite part of the trip...can you tell by the look on his face? 

It was a lot of fun riding with the wind in your face and soaking in the sunshine. I thought for sure this would be our chance to see you know who....George! 

Every big boat we saw we presumed George was probably on it; and I think we saw about 15 houses he "probably lives in!!" To no avail we did not see him while on the boat but we did enjoy the ride.

But don't worry, all hope was not lost for finding George....we took a day trip to another popular city on the lake, Bellagio. We opted for a ferry ride rather than risking our lives on the tiny Italian roads and safely arrived after an hour and a half. The ferry was fun to sit and look at all the port cities....we even saw what was probably "Goerge's Grandma's house".....I mean there was an old lady on the balcony, it had to be her right?

We walked around the streets and ate some pizza for lunch...we didn't want to be too full when George invited us to his villa for hors d'oeuvres. 

And yet even though we saved room, George did not call us! So we settled for a ferry ride home and a relaxing afternoon on the beach.

And to finish the night we played cards and kept all the over 65 crowd up laughing in our tiny bungalow. It was better than hanging out with George any day!

When we got home I was messing around on the computer and saw this:

The recently single actor (George) hosted a group of friends – including pals Cindy Crawford, her husband Rande Gerber, as well as his The Ides of March costars Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood – at his Lake Como, Italy, villa over the weekend. 

Hahahah!! It should have been us! Hope you all had a nice summer break!

Cultural Differences 002: Holidays

You may not know this being an American and all....I was pretty surprised myself to find it out, but Americans take the least amount of vacation days a year. 

When I first came to Germany I was always confused because about twice a month in the summer there was a federal holiday.....which us Americans (Stephen, Rob, Alex, and I) never took. People were constantly off from work and they never knew the reason.....they would say, "it is some religious holiday I think." I started to wonder if they were making up these holidays. Not to mention that Germans are also required to receive a minimum of 6 weeks....let me say that again...a MINIMUM of 6 weeks vacation a year! I know...shocking!

In America I would say it is normal to get 2 weeks vacation a year and if you have been with the company for a while up to 4 weeks, but no one actually uses all their vacation....am I right? I can't imagine a couple taking off 3 weeks at a time to travel around leave their job behind. Here in Germany if you do not take at least 3 weeks at one time you are not getting a real break. It is common for families to take off the entire month of August and many factories even shut down for months at a time. 

Here is a list of the Federal Holidays and they really take all of these:

Versus the American Federal Hoildays:  (although your business is free to make you work)

Alright, I just wanted to give you another cultural differences and let you know that August is not a good time to travel in Europe...be ready to fight the Germans for a hotel room!

Parking Lot Party!

July 6th was an important day here in Neuenburg...Claudine turned 26! She usually is against any kind of celebration but we talked her into a party this year and had a nice dinner in the "parking lot"! She wanted her grandmother to be able to attend so the only place that was big enough without stairs was the gravel parking lot in all it's beauty!

I made guacamole dip upon Claudine's request and must say it has become quite the hit here in Germany! I use a recipe from the Eastwood Cookbook (thank you Amylynne Blake) and just sub in whatever we have left in the refrigerator. It is a simple recipe that calls for avocado, onion, lime juice, sour cream, salsa, garlic, tomatoes, salt and pepper, and worcestershire sauce. Does anyone have a different recipe for guacamole dip?

Opening presents!

Andrea and Steffi

Janos!

yours truly...not sure why Stephen looks half asleep!?

Well there you have it...the parking lot party! Happy Birthday Claudine and thanks for having us!

Meet Sheena.

I want to introduce one of my favorite people in Germany....Sheena Görtler! She is a high school senior about to graduate and head to a University....hopefully! She has applied to four schools and will find out soon where she will end up. Universities here are different than in America in that only a few may have what you want to study depending on the subject and they are pretty hard to get into. I will say though that they are considerably less expensive.....500 Euros per semester, so I don't feel as bad for them anymore! 

She speaks great english, spanish, french and of course German, wants to study journalism, and hopefully can stay in our area so she can be our catcher again next year!

For her graduation Anka (another friend and fellow teammate) and I helped Sheena get ready. Anka did her makeup and I did her hair. It turned out way better than I would have imaged considering most of my experience with hair has been on my cabbage patch dolls...we all know how much hair they have!

Side View.

Back view.

Oh and did I mention that she is a model.....I know right...how can you be so pretty, smart,

athletic and eat more desert than me?!

Modeling

Another day at the office.

Anka (makeup friend and teammate) who is also a photographer did a photo shoot with Sheen about a month ago and made this...not bad, huh!?!

Well just wanted to give you a look at one of our friends...I will be back with more!

Style Me Pretty!

Here is the Link: Spanjer Wedding

I just got an email from our incredibly talented Photographer Stephen Devries that our wedding was featured on a popular wedding blog Style Me Pretty. It was fun to look through the pictures again and remember all the details. If you want to see more pictures just click on the link to see the gallery. I can't believe it has already been 4 months! Thanks again for celebrating with us! 

"Her Morning Elegance"

Stephen loves stop motion cinematography and found this video on You Tube. It is one of the best
examples I have ever seen of this and is really interesting. The song is kind of quirky which adds to
the effect. Hope you enjoy!

Outdoor Church Service

About a month ago Stephen and I were writing thank you notes at a golf course restaurant in our area (yes, they have golf courses but it cost a fortune to play...hence we were writing not playing) and we stumbled upon a beautiful little chapel about 20 minutes from Neuenburg. It belongs to the German government like all the state run churches and I think it is Catholic, but anyone is allowed to walk around and visit it. 

Here I am inside...when I said little I meant it. They have three pews on each side and a large alter with burning candles upfront. They must have been afraid people would fall asleep because the pews could not have been anymore uncomfortable.

As we walked around we decided we should hold our morning service there in the grassy area out front overlooking the Rhein valley. Usually when we come up with these ideas they NEVER happen, but low and behold we actually did it!!

We setup chairs out front of the church and just had our normal morning worship service. The harp sounded beautiful surrounded by the blooming flowers and lush greenery. We all stood amazed at the power of God to create such a beautiful area and were thankful to be worshipping Him together in His creation. We were even blessed to have some people in the area stop and worship with us. 

Leonie was back from college so that was an added bonus to have her with us. She became a christian last year and we love to have her around. She is currently studying Portugese and South American Culture, not to mention she already speaks German, English, Spanish, and some French. "Make an American feel dumb why don't ya!"

The kids decided that it was a great idea to hit everything with sticks so we had a few flower casualties,
but at least they were not hitting living things.

After the service we had a delicious lunch where everyone brought their favorites. I made American classics chicken salad and deviled eggs which were well received. Frou Widmann was scared of the chicken salad but when she tried it she decided she wanted the recipe!

Stephen and I were greeted with a plethora of flowers from our little friends so we did our best to make the most of them. I am not sure how I feel about flower earmuffs?

Jonah (if you notice the Alabama hat....horrible, but his dad does at least have an Auburn hat), Joshua, and Leonie.

Ulla and Roland (parents of Jonah, Leonie) and the baby in this picture Maria

All the men in the church.

Picnic, sorry it is so dark.

More Flowers with Claudine and Leo. 

So it was great Sunday that hopefully will become a yearly event. Send us any ideas you might have for church events or fellowship opportunities, we love adding in new things.