Laura Beth in Germany

How to write about my parents' October visit? Where to begin? What to include about 2 weeks of jam-packed wonderful visiting and exploring time? I think I'll let the following photos (and our facial expressions) speak for themselves. Here are only a few of the many highlights: The day of their arrival was celebrated with a cold beer, Maultaschen for lunch, and then a quick nap. Then we found our way up to this castle overlooking the Bottwar valley before heading to meet my host family from high school. Our next adventure was a trip to Eschbach, the town from which my father's ancestors came. The town's mascot is the donkey, and my goofy father and husband couldn't resist posing for this picure. I love it. Next, Fabian and I celebrated our wedding (again!) with all our German friends and family. In between dinner and dessert I snapped a photo with my "three moms." A more relaxing day on our itinerary included brunch with Margit and a wal

This year we have had a collection of holidays all squished into one week. It began last Saturday at my colleague's Thanksgiving party in the Swabian forest. Then I went to a Christmas market on my business trip. Then on Friday we headed to Göttingen for our annual Thanksgiving, and after we ate, we went straight to another Christmas market! Here are the highlights in more detail: On Monday night I took a train directly after work up to Bad Soden. There my coworker and I spent 3 days in a sleepy hotel in a quiet area just north of Frankfurt, learning the complicated ways of our company's management system / database (which was developed in the early 1990s and definitely looks like it). Luckily, the program was written in English, so I had no issue understanding what things were. How to use it was the bigger problem. On the eve of our departure, my colleague and I hopped aboard a train and went to downtown Frankfurt to hang out at opening night of the 2014 Christmas Market.

For those who haven't yet heard the news - I just began a new job at Berlitz. Same company, different tasks. My title has changed from "freelance teacher" to "Sales Trainee", which is basically like an intensive internship that molds young career beginners into future leaders.  As of January, the plan is to move me to the new school in Heilbronn. Fabi is also studying and working in Heilbronn these days, so we're considering moving to a town a little closer that way. That would mean saying goodbye to our little hometown here. It's a bittersweet idea. The plus side would be independence, a shorter commute, and the chance to break out and start living life on our own! The downside is that we'd leave a beautiful place, be father away from family (though not that far) and probably have to pay more rent. Today we went for a walk and talked about some of these things, and enjoyed the foliage and warm weather!  Here are a few photos.

The beginning of November has been out of the ordinary; we've had beautiful weather and sunshine! Of course we are suspicious that each sunny day will be our last, and we're trying to enjoy each moment. Soon the cold, dark days (literally only 7.6 hours of daylight) will take over. Yesterday we met a colleague of mine and went to the "Blooming Baroque" palace in Ludwigsburg for the annual Pumpkin Festival . Artists compete to create the most unique pumpkin sculptures there. you can view Germany's and Europe's largest pumpkins, sample pumpkin champagne, buy seeds and peruse the entire gardens + the kids fairytale section for one price. (Since Fabi is a student again, he was charged the Kinder price.) The palace, plus pumpkins. Not the largest, but pretty darn big. Jousting pumpkin knights on their pumpkin horses, fighting for the favor of a beautiful pumpkin maiden. We bought a few beers and walked around chatting, observing the families. We w

We are officially in our twenties - the first marriages and babies are happening! This weekend our friend Miri got married. (For those of you who know Dan Neubert - that was his host sister during our exchange year.) Fabi and the Kleinbottwar folks have known her since kindergarten. We drove to and from the festivities together in our "Kleinbottwar Party Bus." The wedding took place in the Martin's Church in Großbottwar. The couple chose a mix of English and German songs, and the sermon was about two plants in the same pot, growing together and drawing nutrients from the same fertile soil. The "plants" were warned not to trim each other too much with harsh words, but instead to grow towards each other and upwards toward heaven. Afterwards we drove to Güglingen (try pronouncing that , Americans) for the reception. The "fest hall" was an old-fashioned building big enough for the 140 guests, complete with medieval shutters and flowers in every w

Representin' Sullivan, MO in the Alps This past weekend Fabian and I traveled to Austria with his mother for our third annual Alpine hike. We take a different trail (or trails) each year. This year we began at the Lünersee - a lake in Vorarlberg, Austria - at an altitude of 6,463 feet above sea level. We took a gondola from the parking lot up to the lake itself. The lake was dammed in the 1950s, raising the water level significantly. It has been producing hydroelectric power for the valley below ever since. On Saturday morning, we first walked along the edge of the lake for about 45 minutes, then we took a right and headed over the tree level and into the rocky, windy valley up towards the Swiss border. It began to rain, then snow-rain, then flat out snow on us while we fought our way to the Verajoch - our first ridge to hike over. Suddenly on the other side, the fog cleared and the sun shone! We took a quick break and nibbled some bread and sausages before walking o

After months of job hunting and applying for schools, Fabi finally got an acceptance letter to Heilbronn University for the fall semester! In celebration of his achievement, we took an afternoon trip to the town where he'll spend the next 1.5 years  becoming a "master of international business." We started at the Sontheim campus on the outskirts of town. This is where the administrative offices are housed, as well as student enrollment and the international office (of which I took note... just in case there are job openings there). We went to their equivalent of the Admissions Office, which was just 1 room with two women. Fabi turned in his remaining documents and officially became a student. Then we headed downtown to the campus Am Europaplatz and found the new building where Fabi will actually have his classes starting September 30th. The building is brand new, with touch screen information kiosks and a hip student lounge. It is surrounded by other higher education

Go ahead, say it out loud: "Thessaloniki." That's the town we flew into. Even better, the region of Greece we explored on our honeymoon: " Chalkidiki ". Our trip began by driving through scorched, craggy countryside, cyphering the Cyrillic alphabet and gazing upon the beaches and bright blue water along the coastline. There were olive trees and sunflowers in the fields between the mountains and decadent pink and white bushes of flowers in the median of the main highway that snaked its way down the "first finger" peninsula to Skala Fourka, the small sea town where we stayed. The apartment we rented was a small, studio-style room and our dining table was outside on a covered balcony. It was one of four such studios on the bottom floor of the large house. The upper levels are used as a weekend getaway for our host and his family and friends. It was located just off the main road, and just a 5-minute walk to the beach. We ate seafood multiple times,

In case any of my friends or family have been sleeping under a rock - Fabian and I got married on May 3, 2014! We had a wonderful celebration in Neier, Missouri with tons of friends and family - 20 guests came over from Germany and we had about 100 more Americans. It was a bilingual ceremony followed by a really fun dinner and dance party. Thanks again to all who joined us! Here are a few photos: I went to the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt to change my name on my passport yesterday, so we're almost all official on the American side of things. Unfortunately, there are a few steps we've got to take in order to get our marriage registered in Germany. First of all, I need something called an "apostille," an internationally-organized document from the Missouri Secretary of State, certifying that the Franklin Country Recorder of Deeds is, in fact, legitimately qualified to issue and sign marriage licenses. Apparently we should have gotten this from Jeff City b

I met Amy randomly on the S-Bahn one Saturday after work. Since then we've been hanging out and exploring the region together. Last Monday we walked from her home in Kleiningersheim (she lives and works in a castle, by the way) to Besigheim through the forest, and yesterday I took her on tour of the Bottwar Valley, with its "broom pubs" and fortresses. (Photo credits go to her for this post.) We started our afternoon in Backnang, which isn't the Bottwar valley, but isn't too far away. It's a small town with a lot of shopping and a gorgeous "old city" on a hill above the river. We strolled the cobblestone streets in our summer dresses until we found a good cafe along the river where we ordered "Eiskaffees." Sounds liked an "iced coffee," right? Wrong! It's like a root beer float with caramel ice cream and coffee instead of root beer, tons of whipped cream and a wafer waffle on top. Wonderful! We sat in the sun and chatted