Laura Beth in Germany

Here's a shot of our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. It was a very last-minute decision. My friend Jessi called me and said they had extra trees down on their piece of land near the creek, and if Fabi and I would like one. So I surprised him on Dec. 23rd by setting this little guy up in the living room! Unfortunately, Fabi had been working in the garage on a nativity scene for his mother, so he noticed when the tree stand went missing. But he at least acted surprised for me. Haha! Beneath are all the gifts that we got from the U.S. and from German family, as well as the gifts that we gave to others. The big gray one with circles was Hansi's power washer.

On December 24th, Hansi, Clemens, Fabian and I hopped in the car and drove to Unterbrunn, Bavaria. It's a town with just 1,000 inhabitants, situated on the southwestern outskirts of Munich. The trip took just over 2 hours; we arrived at Fabi's cousin Julia's brand new house just as the sun had set. Her street is so new that it's not included in most GPS systems yet. There's a rocky moat around the two-story construction where the landscaping will eventually be, and the view out back is of green pastures and skinny, densely-growing spruce trees. Julia and David welcomed us most graciously, but little Laura, their 20-month-old daughter, needed a few hours to warm up to us. I think the fact that we share a name made it even harder for her to understand who I was. Uncle Rudi and Aunt Regine were already there, Regine busy in the kitchen. Julia poured champagne and we all toasted to Christmas, to a safe arrival, and to our hosts' new abode. Little Laura scarfed dow

Christmas!  Our Advent wreath We only have one and a half weeks until all of Germany basically shuts down and goes on holiday. All major, decent companies in the area give their employees a winter break starting December 21st and stretching until January 6th. Germans love their Advent season, which is funny, considering their vehemently secular culture. An example: last week I drove past a life-size nativity scene with a glowing baby Jesus while listening to a radio interview about why women shouldn't rely on their husbands, but rather plan ahead for supporting yourself and your children if and when you divorce. Lovely, right? But at least the decorations match the Christmas season! If not the choice of radio interview topics.   Our "Christmas tree", full of peacocks Our gifts and cards to the States are already in the mail. Now we have to focus on our gifts for the German side of the family. I think many of them will get Kärcher-related presents, seein

  Here's an initial shot of our Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday! Turkey #2 for me - I think the oven bags are a little different here... oh well. He tasted great, even though he looks a little wrinkly. Thanks to Jessi Hegendorf for the photo. It was a wonderful weekend with friends. I think some people wished we had got more exercise, but for me, sitting around the house watching "football" (soccer), drinking beer and having a tryptophan hangover certainly fit the Thanksgiving bill. Women in the kitchen, men on the couch. Everybody just enjoying life. We also walked around the Christmas market in Gottingen for a while, and ran into a band playing Johnny Cash songs. So I guess we had a German-meets-American style weekend in more ways than one.

I'm not singing this year, but was proud to help with the flyer design. Anyone in Germany is welcome - if you're in need of some Christmas-feeling. I'll save you a seat!

It's noon. I just made coffee with our inherited coffee machine, which is missing the actual pot. You have to stand there and trigger the mechanism with a ladle while the coffee drips into a glass bowl, but at least I've got coffee. Outside we have our first dustings of snow, above us, fickle grey clouds and strips of blue sky. Picture the New England Christmas paintings you find wrapped around popcorn tins during the holidays. I'm sitting in one.  My Thanksgiving decorations on the living room table. Last night I had a proud moment. My Monday night students had a substitute teacher last week so that I could attend Fabi's graduation ceremony. When I returned yesterday, only 2 of 8 students were present. They tried to explain their experience with the sub, and I assisted by teaching them the expression "I couldn't get a word in." So apparently they got stuck with an overbearing English teacher. After class, my star pupil/teacher's pet (whatever y

On Monday evening Fabian celebrated his graduation from the Dual University of Baden-Wurttemberg (the DHBW). Margit and I left Kleinbottwar at 4:30pm, dressed to the nines, and arrived at the convention center near the airport an hour later for the champagne reception. We met Fabi (in his spiffy new bowtie) and his father there. I helped Fabi put on his cap and gown correctly. The business school of the DHBW celebrates graduation in the Anglo-American style, with pomp and circumstance and funny costumes. Not even the public universities in Germany do this, so it was a really special evening. After champagne and jazz music in the foyer, the 2,000+ guests made their way into the hall and took their seats. The celebration opened with dancing girls, acrobats, a muscle man balancing on stilts, and a 15-foot glowing puppet in the form of a man, who "ran" through the audience in pitch darkness, controlled by 5 real people. It "reached" the stage and threw its arms u

This past weekend marked my third visit to the city of Munich. I had gone before with the Brosi family during my exchange year, when I walked around the city and the English Garden, watched the famous Glockenspiel alongside many other international tourists, and got my first buzz at the legal age of 16. In the summer of 2011, I returned to Munich with Fabian to visit his cousin. That time, we took a guided city tour, visited the expansive national museum and ate Indian food to celebrate our 1-year dating anniversary. Our visit this time was more focused on the "festivities" Munich has to offer: food, shopping and the nightlife. We stayed in an affordable, centrally-located hostel with 8 of Fabian's friends from his track and field team. We ate giant pizzas in the Italian/Thai restaurant under our hostel on the first evening, then walked back upstairs and got dressed to go out dancing. Our first club was called "Pacha", which was connected to the club next do

I finished my pillow today! I successfully matched the leftover green upholstery sample at the furniture store in Union, Missouri to to green color of my couch over 4,000 miles away. It's not as pretty as I expected though, so when I move out I'll leave it here as part of the furnishings. With this post, I've also become one those young women with a blog who puts crafty things on it that nobody really cares about. Except maybe mom. (Love you, Mom! Thanks for the sewing skills!)

After a whirlwind three months full of wedding planning, a vacation in Missouri, the IFC reunion weekend, job-hunting, more international visitors, changing duties at work and changes in our families, Fabian and I are smack in the middle of Golden October again here in Kleinbottwar.  This past week we were pleased to host Jessica Kasström, one of my Webster friends who spent two Christmases with my family in Sullivan/STL. She was here for just about 6 days, and we did everything from touring the Ludwigsburg palace, to hiking up around the vineyards, to watching a soccer match "with the boys", to making chili a la Tami Eschbacher, to touring a dinosaur & fossil museum, to sitting on my couch drinking wine and eating luxurious European chocolates with 27 Dresses playing in the background. Nothing less than fabulous, right? Here are a few photos from our adventures!   In other news, Fabian has officially completed his Bachelor's thesis and degree. His gra

The following are a few shots of our second trip to the Alps last weekend with Fabian's mother and her friends Anja and Markus. The route this year was incredible! And yet again, I wonder where I got the strength to actually get my butt over those mountains. I think this will become an annual trip with Margit, for at least as long as we live in Germany.   Me and my love!   Alpine snow underneath my toes! This is the not-as-little-as-it-seems "hut" we slept in. And the shot that will probably scare my mother:   If you look down to the right, you can see just how steep it was! But if you look at my right hand, you can also see that there was a thick metal rope for us to hold onto at the thin spots. You can just barely start to see the valley and towns below in the background.   I really enjoy these hikes - they remind me of the Grand Canyon trip with Molly all those years ago! But man, can I still feel my calves and thighs.   Countdown to

Since watching way too much Aladdin as a kid, I've wanted a colorful house full of Eastern patterns and giant pillows. I'm slowly moving in that direction. Last week I put up the new tapestry. Sure, it doesn't match perfectly. And yes, maybe it makes me look like a pot-smoker, having tapestries all over my house. But whatever. It's my place! and I'm probably going to make a pillow to tie all the colors together.   As a matter of fact, I've done a lot of rearranging this week. When big life changes are around the corner (e.g. my first visit home since moving to Germany), I tend to get a little restless. Sometimes I get a haircut. This time the nervous energy burst out of me in the form of creativity. In the past three days, I've redecorated the living room, rearranged the bedroom and turned a pair of $7 jeans from Goodwill into stylish, modest shorts. (Unlike the hotpants I've seen in Stuttgart lately. So many teenage butt cheeks. So many.) At t

In the middle of June, the two Stuttgart Berlitz schools officially combined. I was automatically transferred to the new school as a freelance teacher. It's nice to change things up, but there are a few things to get used to, of course. We moved out of the luxurious location near the main station, but kept the old "Stuttgart 2" office. It has a few classrooms, but it mostly houses the administration - our director, secretary, the supervisor of pedagogy, our materials library, etc. That space is located on the Rotebühlplatz, across from a C&A department store and the Stuttgart Stadtmitte subway stop. The new space, with about 10 classrooms, is located at Marienstraße 28. Thanks to Google and its ever-increasing creeping skills, I was able to locate a photo of the building for you: You can see the windows of our new school on the third floor, just above Sophie's Brewery. We keep joking that we'll never get any work done because we'll spend all our tim

The long-awaited debut of my vacuum modeling career: http://sprintus.eu/d_film_n30. html For all of those who weren't sure you needed a professional-grade, super-silent, high-performance cleaning machine with multiple functions for wet and dry applications... consider yourself converted.

[Webster] Paige is here visiting! She arrived after a long bus ride from Paris on Thursday. I came home to her snuggled in our guest bed, and since then we've been catching up on life and exploring different things.   We spent Friday night in Karlsruhe at the "Parking Lot Festival" - a giant student-organized event which Annika helped put together this year. We got to see her for about 1/2 an hour before she had to scurry off and complete more official duties. Paige and I danced furiously to the live Ska music, drank wine spritzers with the boys, and at the end of the evening, watched the remaining festivities from the balcony atop one of the dorm buildings. Then we biked back to our friend Felix's house to spend the night. The cops stopped us in their big van to see if we were driving drunk (in Germany you can have a vehicle driver's license taken away for driving a bicycle drunk). I spoke with them quite calmly and convinced them that Fabi was in full cont

Being purely responsible adults is never satisfactory in the long run. This past weekend, Fabi and I felt the urge to get OUT of our little "hometown" and see something new. We both had a 4-day weekend, so we planned to go to Dresden and Weimar. But due to a funeral on Friday, our plans fell through. Then our friend Jessi saved the day by offering us a free stay in her Berlin apartment while she traveled to Amsterdam for the weekend. So we hopped in our car and drove to Berlin!   It rained nonstop the entire six hour drive. And not just a shower - we're talking downpour! Anyone who has seen the weather forecast - or at this point, major European headlines - knows that Germany had extreme flooding this week. In Dresden, college kids have reported their cars being washed away, and some cities have lost power. Luckily, our route took us through and above the rain, but the drive was quite stressful for Fabi. Kudos to him for holding out!   We arrived on Friday and

Long time, no post! The past few weeks have been busy and not-busy at the same time. The month of May has four bank holidays in Germany, two of which fall on Thursdays, and so most Germans usually take Friday - the Brückentag ("bridge day") - off too. Good for relxaing, bad for the freelancer's wallet. Whatever.   Some exciting updates:   1. I got a new bike! My very own, used-but-perfect blue bike! Last year I used the old red one from Fabi's aunt, but this year one of Margit's friends upgraded and just gave me her old one. It's much lighter and all the gears work. Yesterday Fabi and I took it for a spin to Gronau. He dropped off a copy of his Bachelor's thesis on his boss' desk, then we peddaled to Oberstenfeld and got ourselves some Bailey's ice cream before heading back. Between Großbottwar and Kleinbottwar we coincidentally saw Margit on her new, borrowed racing bike, so we rode the final stretch home together.   2. On Monday, I

Yesterday was a lovely bank holiday! The 1st of May is called International Worker's Day and is basically the equivalent of Labor Day, celebrated in almost every Country except the U.S. Everyone celebrates it differently in Germany, according to region. And once more, I am happy to find myself in the Southern part of Germany, where there's a big tradition to live up to: hiking through the woods with a wagon of beer and a 'ghetto blaster' (A.K.A. an obnoxiously large boombox).   photos taken by Jessi Hegendorf   We started around noon and hiked up the vineyards into the woods past the forester's house, then made a big loop around a few lakes, bought some sausages from the Red Cross tents in the middle of the forest (where hoards of Germans were gathered, naturally), and passed the residence of the Graf von Adelmann (the former earl of Kleinbottwar), before heading back down to our garden to BBQ for dinner. The fields were blooming yellow with dandelions an

After six months of arguing with the Landratsamt, three weeks of studying, and answering 1,352 possible questions in preparation, I FINALLY PASSED the German written driver's test on Wednesday!  The test was in a run-down basement with metal frame stacking chairs lined against the walls, where everyone could wait nervously and look over their study guides one last time.  Aside from the harder questions, it was remarkably similar to taking the driver's test in the U.S. You show your ID, turn your phone off, sit down at a table separated from your neighbors', etc. What was different, was that I took the test on a touchscreen tablet. Seconds after I finished my test, my results were automatically printed out to the instructor at the front of the room. He signed and stamped it, said "congratulations," and I was on my way. I treated myself to a cappuccino at the nearest McDonald's (classy, I know) afterward my test and texted out my excitement to Fabian. Then

This past weekend, I witnessed my newfound friend Jessica marry her Canadian fiance, Anthony. That sounds a lot simpler than it was. The beginning of my involvement - and of my friendship with Jessi at all - took place two weeks ago, when I met up with her for coffee and to discuss the possibility of translating some documents for her at the registry office. She thought to ask me since she's known Fabian her whole life. Her fiance couldn't understand German, and they needed an interpreter. We sat in her garden in the first rays of sun this year and talked about what it's like to set up home in a new country, about why she simply loves Canada and would never move back to Germany, and about our similar beaurocratic battles as immigrants. So I helped out at the registry office. It took about 45 minutes, and then she and Anthony took me out for ice cream as a thank you. Then we were invited to the Polterabend. Next she asked if I coud help the minister translate her sermon

Many of you probably remember a few years ago when I hosted a St. Anthony's kindergarten reunion party... I love seeing how time changes people over the years! So when Fabian found this old photo a few weeks ago, I immediately wanted to recreate it. And they agreed! Of course, 20 years later, it's hard to make the exact same face as you did when you were three, but we were generally successful. Here's the finished product:   Since we already had the backdrop and lights set up, we went ahead and made it a full-blown photoshoot! Below, from left to right: Katja, Fabian Joos, Jessi, Fabian, and me.   Last weekend, this same group of friends went "kegeln", which is like bowling, except with smaller, lighter balls that only have two finger holes. There are only 9 pins, which dangle on strings to reset themselves. You get a chalkboard for keeping score, and a waiter that brings you whatever drinks or food you desire. The slightly-shorter lanes run in the sa

It's a cloudy, wet Monday. I just spent about an hour proofreading the latest version of Fabi's Bachelor thesis, correcting his very minimal grammar mistakes. He's drafting a new market selection tool which will help his company decide which new countries to enter with their medical x-ray products. After that, I (being the badass English teacher I am) gave a copy of "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" as homework to my 13-year-old student. His assignment: watch the zombie movie in English over the weekend, then be able to describe the plot to me on Monday. Who says reported speech can't be about zombies and rednecks? I also had a lesson with codename Aladdin this morning, my favorite corporate student. Always brings me coffee, always offers me a buttered prezel for breakfast, which I politely decline. He is nearing the end of his private lessons now. His final test is next Monday, so today we did some review & played "the Superlatives game" - a boar

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's official. LB and Fabi's trip home has been booked for late August to early September! It will be my first trip home post-moving to Germany, and our first flight over the ocean together. (It's gonna be nice not having to sit next to a stranger for 8+ hours over the ocean.) By that time, it will be over a year since I've stepped foot in the States. Luckily half of that year is already behind me! But it makes me think about all the hurdles I've been through thus far. In September last year, I never would have imagined that I'd have a semi-normal life by now, with a more or less steady job. The fact that I found employment so quickly is a blessing in itself. It seems the universe conspired on my side and enabled things to unfold in my favor. Thanks, universe! Now I've just got to get through a little more than five months before the big trip. The upcoming hurdles include a battle with the Landratsamt over the validity of my driver&#

The girl I tutor in English came for her lesson the other day and said, "we're learning about America in class now. My homework is to read a story about a real American high school!" Sounds amusing, yeah? We open her book and... the entire chapter is about Hermann, Missouri.     At some point, some text book author either visited the town or discovered it in his research, and now there's photos of Main Street, farmers, tourists, Octoberfest, and the festival hall. I couldn't believe my eyes! I said to Fabienne (the name of the girl I tutor), "I've been there , and there , and I danced the polka in there . I used to play [and lose] volleyball games at the Catholic gradeschool in Hermann when I was your age."   "Lots of people live on farms outside town." Vital information.     Obviously this made the homework more interesting for both of us, and I felt like a real expert on all things Midwestern/Missourian. Fabienne sai