Lunch along the Rhein

Yesterday, Dan and I packed up the bikes and headed to our favorite spot so far... the Rhein. It is such a beautiful river, with castles all along the way. Every time we go there, we feel like we are on vacation...which is great because it only takes us about an hour and a half to get there! We ended up biking 20 miles along a pretty popular stretch, and stopped off in St. Goar to eat lunch. I brought with me a bunch of painting supplies since I am very inspired by the buildings, so I wanted to paint some. I ended up painting at home though, since I forgot water for my watercolor. lol. This is a playful scene, and my interpretation of what some of the buildings along the Rhein look like. This is entitled " lunch along the Rhein". I look forward to traveling all over and being able to paint the cool scenery... what a fun place to be right now.

Moving Day--what a mess!

Last week our household goods finally arrived after 2 and a half months of being without it! What a great day it was to finally have everything that reminded us of home back in our possession. This is a picture of our kitchen during the drop off. What a MESS! As the boxes were brought in, I frantically opened them like a child on Christmas morning. Even though I knew what was coming out of the box, it was like I was seeing it for the first time again. It made me miss Boise so much though, since that was the last place I had seen all of this. Thankfully everything made it in one piece, and nothing was banged up or broken. We have heard horror stories of people having things stolen, or destroyed during the move. In fact, a guy who is buying our Golf said that a forklift went through his leather coach! I couldn't believe it.. I would have been livid! Now the fun part comes in... putting everything together again, and unpacking for the next few weeks. A few more trips to Ikea are in store to get some organizers since German houses do not have any closets! I can't wait to make this old house our home... finallY!

Life got busy

Hey everyone, I'm so sorry for the lack of blogg-age this month. As you can tell, May was not as busy as June since I was able to blog about 2 or 3 times a week. Since I got my new job as the Pool program director, and managing my swim lesson side business, I haven't had as much time on my hands to do the things I enjoy ( like this blog) and that is a total bummer. But please, keep checking up on me, because you motivate me to at least get on and write a little something when I can! I hope everyones summer is going great! The weather here is unpredictable, but when the sun shines.. the SUN SHiNES and it is amazing... 4th of July this weekend...who has party plans?!

We're not tourists, we're explorers!

Yesterday, we wandered down to a village called Baden-Baden which is the gateway to the Schwarzwald ( black forest) in the South western part of Germany. Originally, we were just wanting to go drive through the forest, but we ended up stumbling upon a beautiful trail to a waterfall that snaked throughout the forest for about 4 km. It was so amazingly beautiful! Then, we hiked back up and found a point that overlooked all of the valley and villages. On the way home, we neglected to find a restaurant, so we stopped off at a Mcd's... gross, right? Actually, no! Mcdonalds here is so much different than back home in the states! We got a chicken wrap, and they used mixed greens instead of iceberg lettuce, and the quality of the chicken was so much better too! lol, I can't believe I am comparing and contrasting Mcdonald's. But at least it was a pleasant experience. Well, the world cup is going on, and even though Germany lost yesterday.. people are still blowing their obnoxious horns and flying their flags from their cars. you know what I have to say to that? GO USA!!!

Back seat driver

We got a new car this week! Well, not brand new...but new to me! It's an '07 Caliber, which is a big jump from the '93 VW golf we got when we first arrived. When we got home, Hannah jumped right into the trunk like she was the queen of the Caliber. It may look like she doesn't fit.. but you would be surprised. She ended up taking a nap back there for a good majority of the afternoon... now we just need to work on getting her a driver's license!

Would you like a Luxem-burger?

This last weekend, we jumped the border over to Luxembourg with our new friends ( and tour guides) John and Heather. We found out that they speak 4 different languages there: French, German, English and Luxembourgish ( a mix of French and German). Crazy, right? We passed a restaurant that had a Luxem-burger, catchy name, however for the cost of 12 euro, we were not sold. We walked through the Castemates, which were underground tunnels built a super long time ago...and then were used to hide Jews during the Holocaust. Very interesting to see how they were constructed, yet so spooky at the same time. After that, we hopped back over the border to a city in Germany called Trier, and saw the Porta Nigra which was the main gate to the city, and is one of the only parts of the original 4 mile structure left today. Then, there was a Korean man selling handmade wire sculptures on the sidewalk, so I bought a few. He was an extremely odd individual that needed to consume his time with something other than wire bending. When the rain came in, we dipped out... then headed back over to H&J's place for pizza and World Cup action. As they say in Luxembourg...wait, actually no, i don't know what they would say.. so...see ya!

Clash of the Cultures

Last Saturday, I started my new job at the Ramstein Aquatic center on base, as the pool program manager. So far, it's been interesting to learn, there are so many different hats that I have to wear, which is fun because there's always something different to do. Today, I had the opportunity to "expose" my manager skills and take the heat from one of the patrons. There was a woman, who decided to breast feed her baby completely topless on the pool deck. In her defense, she was European, so this is completely natural for her to just whip out the goods, and feed her kid. Unfortunately, we are on a US installation base, and not a European beach. So I walk up to her and have to explain how this is making our male lifeguards feel uncomfortable ( yeah right) and that she had to either cover to a layer of modesty, or go to the locker room. She refused to do both, and started to become irate, and tell me every word in the book. All the while her boob is just flopping out of her suit.. this is very disturbing i know. So I removed myself from the situation, let her cool down.. and came back out later. She told me this time that i was harassing her, and that she would call the police. OMG. this is my third day on the job, and someone is already wanting to call the cops on me, perfect. Myself and another co-worker were eventually able to calm her down, after telling her that we would be calling the cops on her. Some people have nothing else better to do with their time than to start headaches for others.. and you know what i have to say about that... save the drama for your mama... and keep it in your shirt next time.

Exterior of our house!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get pics of the house up... this is all we really have for right now since the inside is in shambles, and we have none of our stuff yet. But it's great, we really fell into a perfect situation.. the previous tenants ( rich and jess rollins who are also in the airforce) were getting ready to move back to the states, so the house was available right when we got here. Our landlords are very nice and helpful, and live right behind us. We have a fully fenced in yard, which is great for Hannah... oh yeah, we re-named our dog Hannah, for those of you who may be confused from my previous post. Anyways, we also have a garage and a sweet balcony which I love to sun bathe on. I will post more pics as furniture comes in, and as the walls get some color on them!

The cooked crockpot

Well...who didn't see this one coming? The other day we got our first shipment of our stuff.. thinking it was going to be things we needed right away like dishes, pots and pans... no. we got our bikes, tv, and a bunch of military deployment stuff... and my crockpot. I figured, at least I got something i could cook with. Today, i was really excited to use it, and didn't think to plug it into the transformer, so I just plugged it into the little converter we had for the outlet. I got the roast in there, and went about my day at Ikea. 4 hours later I make it home to find the handles completely melted down the crock pot ( notice the black goo melted down the side.. and the back handle laying on the counter.) Hard lesson learned, but thankfully we only lost the crockpot, and not the whole house. And, the bbq pork turned out great, so at least the crockpot left on a positive note!

Topless grocery shopping

Yes everyone. I shopped at the grocery store on base yesterday without a shirt. Now, before you get all carried away and start thinking "oh Ashlie, you're such a floozie"... let me tell you what happened. This is kind of a situation where I have to play the whole thing out for you, so try to keep with me here... I have started my own swim lesson business at a local community pool in Ramstein, which is a village right outside of the base. I was fortunate enough to bump into another American swim instructor while checking out the pool a few weeks ago, so she was able to tell me about it, and how she runs her swim lessons. Well, she forgot to mention a few things, such as.. if you buy an all day pass, if you leave, it expires, and you have to buy a new one when you come back. So, I had lessons in the morning, and the evening yesterday...thinking i could just come back on my one ticket...no,no. I ended up having to pay for two, one hour tickets. After my 1st lesson I had just enough time to run out the door without changing, before I would get charged for another full hour. Here I am, in my towel, bathing suit...and dan's rain coat. I need to go grocery shopping. So i pull off in the lemon lot on base ( which is a place where you can sell your old car) to do my sneeky changing skills which i have learned from the swim locker room. I didn't think that people were looking at the cars.. but they were, so that may have been potentially bad. Anywho... i only had the skills to get my pants on discretely...so I didn't bother to put on a top. Instead, on went dans huge rain coat, and away I went about my shopping needs. So there you have it, the next time you see someone in the grocery store with a raincoat zipped all the way up to their neck on a perfectly non-rainy day... just assume that they don't have a shirt on underneath.

A lesson in German

This weekend, my friend Flo from high school came to visit us with her boyfriend, Magnus! She had been an exchange student my Junior year , and we swam together on the swim team. It was really fun to see her, since it had been quite a few years, yet to see that nothing has changed! It's crazy that we met in Crown Point, and now I'm here living in her country! Now, she is studying law in Homburg, which is about 3 and a half hours away, so it was awesome that they made the trip down! We had a great time seeing wine country and having a picnic at a castle ruin, then yesterday we took a drive along the rhine. It was such a treat to have fellow German's with us to help translate the signs and menus that we couldn't understand! After having horrible service at lunch, Flo was able to tell the waitress how I felt about her waitressing skills, or lack there of... that was funny. We were terrible hosts, our house is in shambles since none of our furniture or anything is here yet...so we ate on plastic plates, cooked pizza's, and they slept on an air mattress that ended up deflated in the middle of the night... but, you know, you make due with what you have! It was a great weekend, and we learned so much more about the culture than we ever thought we could! Now I just need to start planning my trip to go see her! First round of TMO is coming tomorrow... can't wait to get all of kitchen stuff! yay! have a great day!

Our new roommate!

Meet Sana ( pronounced Zana), our 2 and a half year old gentle giant, who we just brought into our family on Thursday! She is a great dane with such a big heart! When she stands up, she puts her paws on dan's chest and she is just as tall as him! It was love at first sight, and we are so happy to have her!

Finally in This Old House!

Today, we were kicked out of our hotel. No, literally...kicked out...meaning, we thought we had another night there, but someone forgot to tell us that we didn't, and someone had reserved our room for tonight. So, we came back from running errands, just wanting to grab our jackets and leave... instead, the cleaning ladies had packed our entire room up, and were going to put all of it at the front desk! I mean, we couldn't really be upset, because our room was a mess, so it was nice for them to do that. So, thankfully the temporary movers came today, and we were able to move in! However, when one of the cleaning ladies packed up our stuff... she put a jar of jelly in with our electronics. It fell out of the bag when we were unloading, and i placed it back in the bag, not knowing our electronics were in there...later in the night, i went into the bag, and the jelly jar's lid had come off, and jelly was everywhere. what a mess, but thankfully we didn't loose any electronics in the event. Well, we already have painted the entrance room tonight, which was really exciting. I will be sure to take pics tomorrow, and post them up! Early day tomorrow, Dan is back to work... g'night!

IKEA...not a good idea.

This picture was taken right before we stepped into the mad chaos of Ikea on a Saturday afternoon in Mannheim ( hence, why I am smiling.) The smile quickly faded as we were slammed between cramped showrooms and lost in translation. With the whole store being in German ( go figure...) It was very difficult for us to find anything we needed. Also, I think we went into our shopping extravaganza with the wrong perception. Shopping at Ikea in the US is much different than over here. We went into it thinking it would be the same experience..why? i have yet to figure that out. Anyways, the real fun came when we went to go order lunch from the cafe...and since we have only been here for less than 3 weeks, our ordering skills are on the low end of the scale. We just ordered what we saw the most of.. which was meatballs and fries... sounds good.. but i went to go get a drink after I was done and thought that coffee sounded good...instead I ended up at the hot cocoa machine..nothing like washing down meatballs with a nice steaming cup of cocoa. mm. So after lunch, we managed to clear our heads, and we were able to get a few things for our new place. However, here in Germany they have a 19% sales tax added onto every item..this makes the sales tax in Chicago look really good! But thankfully in the military, they recognize the we do not want to pay that, so we get what is called a VAT ( value added sales tax) form that eliminates that sales tax. So we ended up saving 10 euro after waiting in line for 30 minutes...added frustration- yes...added tax,no. To say the least, I think we are going to have to give it a little time before we give Ikea another go.

Our first package!

I would just like to give a shout out to my #1 best friend for life...(drum rolls please...) Ashley Gora!!! for sending us gummies from Albanese!! It was such a cold, and dreary day, and her package with 2 lbs of butterfly gummies ( my absolute fav) and a package of gummie soliders couldn't have come at a better time... it totally turned our day around! Thanks so much ash, you're the best!!!

Temporary art studio

With our first round of baggage not coming in for another two weeks...sometimes you just have to make-due with the stuff, and room you have. So here, we have my temporary art studio, location: the floor of our hotel room. It works for what I wanted to accomplish today, which was making greeting cards. Do you like the transformer in the background? Thankfully our landlord was able to hook us up with some of these bad boys...or else none of our electronics would work! Speaking of which, we should hopefully be moving into our new place by the end of this week, we are super excited! I already have which room is going to be my art room...it has a balcony off of it,which allows awesome natural light to come in! Well, that's all I have for now until next time...happy creating!

Drucken oder Ziehen

To push, or pull the door. This seems to be the battling question in my mind when approaching a door here in Germany. At our hotel they are CLEARLY marked with either a big green circle stating "drucken",( meaning push) or a big red circle stating "zeihen", meaning pull. Now, this is pretty much fool proof, right? However, every time I come up to the door, I have to stop and think about what I'm doing... from a bystanders point of view, it must seem pretty sad. There are 5 doors that we have to go through to get to the breakfast room in the morning. I have yet to successfully make it through all of them. Will the teasing ever stop from Dan? Probably not, because it is kind of funny...but i'm making it my goal to clear all of them tomorrow...that's what we do here in Germany...dream big.

Burg Eltz Castle

Today, we escaped to the Burg Eltz Castle, nestled deep in the forest of Wierschem, Germany...only about 2 hours from where were are currently staying. It is quite amazing what history you can find 2 hours away from your hotel. This castle was built in the 1100's, and is still standing! It is one of the only castles in Germany to be completely damage-free after the war. We took a tour of the inside, which we both felt was a rip-off for the 8 euros we had to pay to get in. However, it was really neat to see how they lived back then... we just wish we could have been set loose to explore every room! One the the 80 living rooms possessed original artwork from the 13th century of oil paintings done on panels of wood. There were 20 bathrooms, which were hang-offs so that the waste would just fall directly to the ground ( pretty clever plumbing.) Anyways, instead of taking the easy way out and parking right next to the castle, we decided to take the hike through the woods (highly recommended!) The first sight of the castle almost took our breath away! Germany, you amaze us more and more everyday!

House of Vines

I absolutely loved this house! We saw it the first night we were here while out on a walk around the village. When we drove out to wine country a few days ago, the houses had grape vines growing all over them, and the telephone poles...and the grapes were still growing, it was so cool!

Feels like home

Well, not quite yet...My Husband Dan and I left the US a week ago yesterday, to land here in our new home of Germany. I was inspired by my amazing mom to start this blog to keep track of our travels and memories along the way. I thought of the name, "This Old House" because we are quite literally going to be living in a house that is over 100 years old! Every day since I have been here, I have been inspired by the culture and beautiful scenery that Germany has to offer, so "live life inspired." that's what I have to say. =) i will also be posting pics of projects that i'm working on and will also put up for sale on my Etsy account. i hope I can just stay committed! well, thats all for now, until next time...Tchusse! ( bye!)