So before we left for Phil’s parents for xmas, we had to get rid of all of the paper we had in our apt from unwrapping all of our furniture and stuff.  I sat on top of the pile and had Phil take a picture:

Paper Mountain

While we were at Phil’s parent’s place, I was forced to eat a bunch of strange stuff.  Basically Christmas consisted of the family getting together and stuffing themselves with as much food as possible.  (And some of it was really strange)  Just because the food was strange didn’t mean it sucked.  Some of it was actually pretty tasty.  Some of it, was just plain weird.  Like this sandwich in jello type thing:

Sandwich Jello

I couldn’t eat it just based on texture alone. (Bleh)  It was ham, carrots, egg, and bell pepper all suspended in gelatin.  Yech.  I had to eat something similar at Phil’s company Christmas party, but it was more like a pudding.  Kinda.  Lol.  But the same thing pretty much.  I’ll post a pic on fb.  While we were in town for xmas, we went to an Eisbrecher concert and to the Weihnachts circus.  The concert was ok, but the circus was super fun.  We’ll probably go back next year and take the family with us.

We also went to the zoo while there, but I wont post a crapton of zoo pictures, because I think people are getting tired of it.  (ok, maybe I’ll just post a couple of good ones )  But while we were in the jungle house FF took a ride on uncle Phil’s head, which I thought was really cute:

*update:  So I apparently did post a lot of zoo pictures anyway.  So sue me

Taking a ride on the tall man

Before we went to Stuttgart, and before my first German class was over.  I made cookies for some of the people in my class.  They were yummy, and fun to make

Cookies

Every year for Christmas each city puts up what they call the Weihnachtsmarkt.  (Christmas Market)  They actually set it up at the beginning of Advent and keep it up until Christmas.  Dates vary by city.  It was the most interesting thing to ever happen to Hannover.  (lol )  They had booths up all around the city to sell random stuff.  You could buy your Christmas presents for your whole family, get some good food and Glühwein (Hot wine especially for xmas), ride some carnival rides, and watch some bands doing really bad versions of Lady Gaga songs.  Ha ha.  It was fun, and probably my favorite thing about Hannover.  This was a big booth where you could buy food and Glühwein right in the center:

Weihnachtsmarkt 2009

I have apparently grown accustom to this weather.  75 degrees is a hot day for me   I blame it on the freaking cold LONG winter we had.  Hell, we’re just barely getting over it, and it’s almost Summer!!

Snow on the balcony

Knee deep in snow!   Well, not really, but it was up to a foot and a half at one time.  Lol, I hate snow.  Even more now that I’ve properly experienced it   Although now it seems I’m going to be dying once we’re in Houston. (in the dead of Summer no less)

I’m so excited about going to Houston!!!  Only two more weeks, and then one amazing vacation!   I can’t wait to see everyone  and greet them the European way he he.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Sorry this post was so random, but I kinda just did it spur of the moment.  I’m trying to upload all my non-uploaded pictures to fb, and when that is finished, I can finally finish cleaning my house.

Two more weeks!!

*kisses*

xoxo

January:  Start a new semester at school.  Find out that my Photography teacher is utterly useless, and must find help elswhere in order to prepare for block review.

February:  Valentine’s Day.  Need I say more?

March:  Starting to worry about block review.  On top of that, I find out that my video camera is not compatable with ANYTHING in the video lab.  Great.  The color machine breaks down (two weeks before block review, no less).  Fantastic.

April:  OH MY GOD BLOCK REVIEW!!  Staying up many, many long hours.  Sleep schedule changed to 9am-2pm, spent the rest of the time at school.  Don’t get to see my boyfriend all that often.  On top of this, my color teacher has a heart attack, and we’re all worried that he’s not going to make it.  (Turns out he’s ok, for now)  Crying a lot.  On the plus side, I made it in!!  I was VERY excited and felt like all my hard work was definitely worth it.

May: I get into a car accident.  Hit and run.  Asshole in a white van totals my car. (Asshole )  On the plus side, I got a new car, which I really loved and needed.  But for about a week I was without a car   The accident startled me pretty good, and it was the day before my final video project was due.  I was actually ON MY WAY to school when it happened.

June:  My grandfather is in the hospital again.  Having surgery on his heart again.  We all hope that this is really going to fix him up, but in the end it didn’t help.  He died two days before my birthday.

July:  Vacation.  Went to San Francisco and hung out with Amy & Gary for a week.  It was nice.  Went to France and England shortly after.  Went to Phil’s sister’s wedding.  When I get back to work, everyone asked me how Germany was

August:  I’m home for two weeks after vacation when Philipp tells me he’s been transferred to Germany.  I am devastated.  All my hard work for block was for nothing.  I have a brand new car that I now need to get rid of (and no one wants to buy).  On top of this, I have to get married.  Now.  And anyone who saw my block project knows what a drama that was.  I start to feel like I am really going crazy, and I’m having terrifying dreams while I’m awake.

September:  Moved to Hannover.  It’s 1/10th the size of Houston.  I hate it.  But I know that I have at least 3 years here, so I try to see the positive side of things.

October:  Went to Cairo.  Which normally would be really cool, except Phil had to be in class all day every day, so it was pretty much just sitting in the hotel room every day for two weeks.  I hate it there, too.  But, I got to see the pyramids, so I can check that off my “things to do before I die” list.

November:  German class.  I have absolutely nothing in common with most of these people.  I hate one of them with a passion.  On the plus side, there were three very nice girls in the class.  One of them I hang out with on a regular basis.  She wanted to go to the US, not Germany, so we keep each other sane.

December:  I find out that my smoking buddy in block has prematurely passed away.  He was only 29.  With all the deaths this year, I feel like life is slipping away from me.  Death terrifies me.  And I feel it creeping up on me.  Both deaths this year resulted from heart failure.  My grandfather was old, and he had heart problems before.  Patrick was just a shock.  What scares me is that I have heart problems myself.  The other thing is that there’s really not a lot they can do to help your heart.  Christmas with the Matt family.  (ugh, boring)  But on the plus side  we’ve went around the city doing more things and having more fun since I’ve moved to this country.

Sorry for the horribly depressing post, but I just felt like I need to catalog all of the crap that has happened last year, so I know what to look forward to next year.

I hope that everyone has a safe and fun New Year’s Eve!  Here’s to the next year!  May it be miles better than the last!

<3

Candy

xoxoxo

Holy crap there is a lot of shit going on!  And a lot has happened since my last post!  Currently, I am sick as a dog (bleh) and we are trying to transition into the new apartment.  Where to start, where to start….?

Wow, I just looked at the beginning of the pictures and realized that it has been a reeeeeally long time since I blogged.

Sorry guys   So I guess this will be a really long one.

Last time you heard from me we went to Phil’s parents. Since we’ve been back, we went to the Fire Bar across the street where we ran into the “safer sex team”.

The Safer Sex Team

Lol, apparently instead of going to bars selling lighters, there is a team of people peddling safer sex.  Ha ha ha.  They introduced us to a game of “tails and pussies” [tail=cock] (which I totally need to make a deck of and introduce to everyone else ), and then wanted to give us some free condoms.  But since they didn’t have latex-free, we got extra suckers instead

Cocks and Pussies

This is also, by the way, where I thought I left my camera and was so upset that we couldn’t find it.  Phil called the place and then walked over there.  I was hysterical.  I’m so glad he found it He is awesome! (I apparently left it at the new apartment. )

That same night we had a proper thunderstorm with lightning and everything   Which, Phil told me, doesn’t happen very often around here.  I tried to take a bunch of pictures of the clock tower in the storm, and I got one when the lightning flashed, but it was way too bright, and just looks like an over-exposed picture during the day.  Here’s a good one:

Clock tower in the storm

While we were in Nürtingen, I heard a lot of a song by Robbie Williams.  At first I thought is was one of those christian bands, because he says, “is this why Jesus died for me?” or something to that effect a lot in the song.  But Phil was like, “No, it’s Robbie Williams,” and I got to thinking.  He’s apparently really popular in Europe, but I have only heard one of his songs on MTV 2 when we were living in Arkansas, and hadn’t heard anything since then about him at all.  So I was wondering… do any of you guys know who he is?

Apparently The Corrs are really popular over here, too.  Although I don’t think anyone in the US knows who they are.  I had one of their cds a long time ago but it was stolen (bitch), and I have yet to replace it.    Also, a while ago I recorded the clocks at noon.  Just so everyone knows what kind of craziness I wake up to every day (except that now I have started school so I wake up much earlier, but that’s skipping ahead, and we don’t want to do that now do we? )

**Update**  It took me three days to figure out how to get the audio on this damn blog   Leave me alone, I don’t claim to know computers ok?  Soooooo…..the final result was that I had to make a video to get it on here.  It’s crap, but I like it because I made it and it’s MY crap, lol.  (Plus it felt really good to create something once again.  GOD I need to find the art community here.  I need to do artsy things!!!)  Enjoy:

Okay….so now that all the random stuff is over with, lets try to put some order to this thing.  On the 8th we got all of our stuff off the boat. (furniture and shtuff)  And the poor mover guys had to drag it up 5 flights of stairs to our new flat.

The mover guys going up many many stairs

I have lots of pictures of our new place empty and full of boxes.  I’ll post them all on fb.  I was so excited to get all of our stuff.  I felt bad for the guys and asked Phil to go get them somthing to drink, though.  But I’m soooo glad that I didn’t have to do it, lol.  I love our new place.  I can’t wait for everyone to come and visit.  I think we have enough room to house three families, lol.  (As long as they’re small families and don’t have any children )

Annnd then…on the 10th we went to Cairo for Phil’s sales class.  (If you remember from a few blogs ago, Phil and I were supposed to go back to Houston for a class he had to take, but that was changed to Cairo after about a week of being here.)

Phil (& me) at the hotel in Cairo

Forget anything I ever said about any place being dirty.  Cairo is the filthiest place I have ever been to and probably ever will go.  And it’s not just becuase it’s in the desert, it just really is very trashy.

Just look at the pollution

And you think Houston has bad traffic?  Well you wouldn’t believe the traffic in Cairo.  OMG.  The lines are just there for decoration I think.  And people use the horn just to say hello.  And hey, I’m here.  And Hey! Get outta my way!.  Lol, I’ve never seen people use the car horn so frequently.  And seatbelts are definitely optional.  (Even though half of the time I was WISHING with everything I had that there was a seatbelt in our taxi.)  One of the taxi drivers tried to kill us   On our way back from the pyramids he cut off some guy, and they proceeded to have a shouting and dodging match on the highway.  I was terrified for my life.

But the pyramids are amazing!  I recommend going to see them even if it’s just once in your life.  Pictures do nothing for these things.   They are simply enormous!  I also recommend the night time pyramid light show.  Very nice and very informative:

The pyramid light show

But, if you go, either go A.  With a friend of yours that knows Arabic, or B.  On a tour with a lot of tourists.  I know that hanging out with a bunch of tourists doesn’t sound all that great, but you’ll see the same stuff (if not better stuff) and you won’t get completely ripped off by the locals.  But if you want to go see all the cool stuff off the beaten path, I recommend taking a friend of yours (or someone you can trust.  Not just some random guy off the street) that can speak Arabic.  Then you can go to some of the local places without getting too much of a hassle.  NEVER EVER just take a taxi from the hotel and say, “I want to see the pyramids.”  We got ripped off hardcore.  You have to pay for every little thing that you do.  And even for shit that you didn’t want in the first place.  On the plus side, the Egyptian Pound is worth .12 Euros or .18 Dollars, but the bad thing is by the time we were done with our tour we had no money left.  Yeah.

We went to a Suk (Bazaar) that was so big we got lost.  Seriously.  It’s a good thing we had our tour guide from Saudi (he was actually a guy in Phil’s class.  He was really nice, and it was a good thing we had him around, lol)  But there was tons of stuff to buy.  It was crazy.

lots of stuff

And we went on this dinner cruise one night where a guy did some traditional Egyptian dance.  Although at one point they turned off the lights and he was glowing with led bulbs.  I don’t know how traditional that is

Traditional Egyptian Dance

I would, however, like to go back some day to see everything that I missed.  We were there for two weeks and I rarely left the hotel.  To be honest, I was scared I was going to offend someone if I went outside.  Or break some law that I didn’t know existed and get hauled off to jail. (Which would suck)

Many weeks have gone by since we were in Cairo.  Currently we are in our new apartment.  I love it.  I wish I could take it with me everywhere I go.  I also wish it wasn’t on the FUCKING FIFTH FLOOR!  Ugh.  And the building is so old that they’re not allowed to build an elevator inside due to structural problems.   (Here’s hoping that all of the extra stair climbing that I’m doing will get me into better shape.)  I haven’t taken any pictures of the place furnished, I’ll have to clean up first and then post some.  (Which, those of you who know me, may take a while.)

You would not believe how much paper we had in our house after we unpacked everything.  We had a stack of it taller than me in the corner of our kitchen.  The moving guys finally came to pick it up Tuesday (Dec. 1st).  Which is really nice, because now we have a kitchen.  Yay!

So. Much. PAPER!!

I’ve been going to school to learn German for about six weeks now.  I’m definitely getting better, but there’s still a lot I don’t know.  Two weeks to go and then I take my final exam.  I hope I do ok.  I’m still having trouble with things, but hopefully after a couple more classes I should be doing fairly well.

Christmas here is interesting.  Last week they opened the Weinachts Markt (Christmas Market), which will be open until xmas.  There are a bunch of booths set up in town with food and stuff to buy for christmas presents.  They even had a bunch of booths with faire stuff, which really made me happy.  I hope those booths are still there this weekend, because I want to buy some stuff, just in case I ever get to go to faire again. (Which I’m hoping)  It’s really awesome, and I got to try Glühwein for the first time (with rum)!  Glühwein is kind of like hot spiced red wine.  It’s good for those really cold days. (Philipp hates the stuff)

I miss you guys, and I wish you could be here for all this craziness.  I promise that if my internet connection holds up, I wont make you wait two months for another blog.

*kisses*

Candy

Ok so this will probably be a long blog because we did A LOT of stuff last week.  I didn’t take any pictures in the beginning, but I have plenty of pictures of the weekend to make up for it!

Tuesday we went to see VNV Nation, which was really cool.  They played the same set that they did in San Francisco, but I guess that’s what you get for seeing the same band twice on the same tour.   One of their opening bands was really cool.  We even bought their cd and listened to it on the way to Stuttgart.  They were a local band called Solar Fake, and they did a cover of Creep (which was not so bad actually).  The video’s kinda dumb, but the song is good: (if you get a chance watch the Creep video too)

The second band was called Red Sand (albeit in German, I’m sure Phil will inform me what the name was.)  They were not as impressive as the first band.  The really funny thing about the whole concert was that all the songs were in English, but when they spoke between songs it was all German.  I was really glad that when Ronin came on stage, he spoke english.  Although someone in the crowd asked him to speak German.  Which led to a really funny “English lesson”, and a comment that the subtitle machine was broken.  Brilliant.

Wednesday, we met up with a group called Hannover 4 English Speakers (H4ES for short).  Met a lot of Americans that live here, as well as some English speaking foreigners.  They meet every third Wednesday at this “American” bar.  What’s really funny is that we ate there tonight, and it was actually the closest thing to American food I’ve had since I got here.  But more on that later.  The people were mostly pretty cool, and I have a feeling that the group will be really good for networking and learning about useful sites in the city as well.

Thursday we went shopping.  Yay!  Because I really needed some cold weather clothes.  I still need more, but that I’ll do on another day.  At least I got a nice warm jacket that looks cute too   While we were there, we went to an “American Sports Bar” to eat.  All I can say is that it was not as American as they were trying to be.  Although the waitress did speak very good English   I ordered a burger (without relish.  Because apparently American burgers have relish on them ), which tasted like a big mac.  It was so soft and messy that I had to eat it Hannover style, with a knife and fork (there was actually a guy sitting next to us that ate his entire plate of BLT & fries with a knife and fork.  So don’t be surprised if you see that when you come.  It is a very common thing):

Eating a burger with knife and fork

But on the plus side, they had real ketchup.  Which was a first since we’ve been here.  And I can’t stress ENOUGH to those of you who plan on traveling to foreign countries.  ALWAYS order french fries.  If you don’t like the rest of your food, you always have those yummy fries.  I have YET to find a place that screws up french fries.  (Even if they are called something different.  In London, they would be chips for example)

Thursday we went to a pub quiz.  I’ve never been to one of those.  Still.  Lol, we got there on time, but sat in the wrong place so we completely missed out on it.  But they’re every Thursday, and we know where the place is (it’s just around the corner from this apartment, so it shouldn’t be hard to find once we move.), so we can always go on another day.  Which I plan to do because it sounds like fun, even if I don’t know any of the answers.

Friday we were off to the hometown.  We woke up super early, hopped in the car, and headed out for a five hour drive.  The first thing we had to do was gas up the car, so this was my first time seeing a gas station in Germany.  All of the pumps had this little fan thingy in a clear bubble so you could see that the gas was pumping.  It looked pretty cool.

Gas pumps

Then we were off on our way.  Phil said that I was now the envy of every man in America because we were traveling on the Autobahn.   There were a lot of pictures taken on the way, but I think I will post them on fb, so that you can see them better.  Oh, Phil’s driving a VW Passat. (That’s for my dad.  He was asking)  It’s a company car, but since he’ll be using it for everything while we’re here, he has to pay taxes on it.  Not too bad of a deal I guess, since he doesn’t have to pay for anything else.

Oh and I know I told you about the safe driver thing.  Well that includes having something in the car to make sure that you don’t go to fast or brake to quickly.  The car couldn’t go faster than 140, and if it did, it would make a loud beep.  And not just once.  It would keep going until you slowed down.  Which was realllllly annoying.

Phil going about 130

Oh and I have to tell An about the bathrooms in some of the truckstops.  They were really nice and I know he would appreciate them.  I didn’t have my camera when we stopped, so there are no pictures, I’m sorry.  But when you went to the bathroom, you had to pay to get in.  (You could use your ticket later to purchase something in the store)  Then when you get in there, you barely have to touch anything (The soap dispenser, and the stall door, that’s all), because everything was automatic.  And they had self cleaning toilets.  Which was really funny to watch.  This little arm comes out and dispenses the cleaner as the seat rotates all the way around.  Too cool.  So you know that place was clean.

And apparently something was going on.  Because the German Army was out in full force.  We saw them everywhere along the way.

Army truck

Also, everytime we stopped at a truckstop I ate Jägerschnitzel.  Because that’s what they had at every stop.  So I’m all Jägerschnitzeled out for a little while at least.  On the plus side, I did find a lot of yummy candy and snacks that I can send home and show everyone how yummy the candy is here.

After five hours of driving we arrived at Phil’s parents.  The problem with staying at Phil’s parents is that they don’t speak English, and I feel like I have to be on my best behavior.  And no matter what, I always feel like I am being rude   I know Gerald understands how I feel.

But, I got to see Phil’s old room, and some pictures of him when he was a teenager (not enough).  I also was force-fed food the entire weekend.  And not just like force-fed every now and then something new.  But fed at every second of every day by someone.  I’ve never in my life been so full of food that I physically felt as though I was going to throw up.  Now I have.  And when I complained of this, Phil’s cousin said, “Welcome to the family.”

So I met some of the family.  I’m sure I will meet a lot more over xmas.  I met his cousin Peter and Peter’s girlfriend Sylvie (I think I spelled that right) which is Phil’s ex.  (He reserves the right to make fun.  But you knew that already )  We had a movie night at their apt.  So I got to see Hellboy and Sleepy Hollow in German.  Interesting.

During the day on Saturday we went to see a castle because Oct 3rd is a national holiday and nothing’s open on holidays.  The problem was, everyone else had that idea too.  It was really nice weather, so everyone was out.  The castle was a bit disappointing to be honest.  It was basically just turned into a cafe.  BUT–there was a falconer show there, and it was the best one I’ve seen thus far.  (And the lady in it reminded me of Plynke for some reason.  Don’t be offended!  It’s a compliment!  She was really nice.)  It was really nice because there was nothing but open air for miles, so you could really see the birds fly.  And the best part is…. I got to hold a Harris Hawk!  I was very excited by this.

Harris Hawk!! <3

So that was our crazy weekend.  I could tell you more, but I’m sooooo tired.  I want to sleeeeeep.  Lol.  It’s 5am and I’m sure Phil will be up soon to go to work.

We get our keys to the new apartment tomorrow (Yay!).  Our stuff arrives on Thursday (Double Yay!).  Oh, and we’re going to see a circus show tomorrow night that looks promising.  I should check to see if they will let me take my camera inside.  Also, we walked by a place called Al Bundy’s schue outlet.  I shit you not! So we’re going to swing by there tomorrow to see if I can find some boots.  And take a picture of the sign   Friday we have doctors appointments for our insurance.  And Saturday we’re leaving for Cairo.  Fun!  So… I guess next week will be a busy week too.

Until next time!

Tchüss!

Candy

1. I’ve been in a funk. (missing home/going crazy)
2. I feel like I don’t have enough interesting things to blog about.

But since it’s been like a week, I guess I’ll go ahead and do it anyway

So recently Phil and I have been apartment shopping.  I don’t think there is such a thing as an apartment on the first or even second floor.  We saw about five different places but settled on the worst one   Okay, it’s actually the best when it comes to actual living space, but I completely hate Phil for showing me this place.

For one thing it’s in the ghetto. Oh, I’m sorry, “Multi-Kulti” area.  Whatever.  It’s in the ghetto.   Which is not all that bad actually, it’s just a little further from town, which means that I’m going to have to find some mode of transportation, because there’s no way I’m walking that far.

Also, and this is the worst part, it’s on the FIFTH FLOOR!  That’s right, fifth floor, and the building is so freaking old that they’re not allowed to build an elevator inside.  Which means that I won’t have to do cardio for the rest of my life   And that is why I hate Phil for showing me this place.  Lol, it also means that you might have to go to the gym for a month just to prepare yourself for walking up all those stairs when you come to visit us.  (Notice I said “when”)

Ha ha, but on the plus side, it’s a really awesome place that will fit all of our accumulated crap.  And, I’m guessing that since it’s in the ghetto, it’s not as pricey as some of the other places we’ve seen that were not as nice.  Oh, and it has a kitchen!  Thank god.

That reminds me.  Fun fact: Apparently it is rare to have a kitchen in an apartment in Germany.  They want you to buy your own.  Phil said this is a very “German” thing.  I guess they like their kitchens and want to keep them wherever they go, lol.

Speaking of ghetto, we saw this on the way back from looking at apartments:

The ghetto does not escape Germany

Also we saw a guy the other day with his pants halfway to his ankles.  I didn’t have my camera though.   I wanted to tell him he looked twice as ridiculous as he would were he in the US.

This is the street our apt is on.  Doesn’t it look lovely?:

Our street

The first apartment we looked at was shown to us by this Polish guy from a Realtor company.  He was really nice, and Phil told me that he really appreciated the fact that Phil wasn’t rude to him.  Apparently there are a lot of Germans who are rude to Polish people because they have a racial stereotype stapled to their heads labeling them as thieves.  I just thought it was funny that he actually told Phil he was surprised that Phil was so nice to him.  He was a really cool guy, didn’t speak a word of English.  But we went to his office to talk to his colleague about some other possible apts, and that lady was fucking crazy.  She was rude even to my not-so-anal-German thinking.  She kept walking around the office answering the phone and breaking glasses. (lol)  And then she had the gall to talk to me like I was a kid.  I wanted to punch her.  I feel bad for that guy because he has to work with her.  We didn’t take one of their places anyway.

While we were waiting to look at one place we stopped to have lunch in a random Turkish place.  It was super yummy.  For reference, they are called Döners here. (Not sure if I spelled that right, or even got it right, but Phil will correct me, I’m sure)

Yummy Turkish food

The red stuff is some kind of bellpepper paste (yum), the white stuff is Tzatziki (also yum), then there’s rice and chicken (I think, but who cares, it was yum).  The word for yummy in German is Lecker.  So, Lecker Turkish food. (Oh, and there was some kraut too, but I didn’t eat that nasty crap lol)

For those of you that like Diet coke.  When you come to visit you will have to order Cola light.  They don’t have diet coke.

Cola light

Also, instead of lemon, they might put an orange or lime slice in your drink, just so they know that it’s not coke

I took a picture of the red light street closer to night time so you can see all the pretty lights.  I’ll post that pic on fb.  I told Phil I need to walk down the street with a video camera complete with commentary.  He told me about some place where the red light district is off limits to girls.  What a load of crap!  What if I wanted to buy a hooker?!  That’s discrimination, I tell you!

Side note:  I am attempting to bake a pizza for lunch for the first time.  I hope it works.  I don’t know what all the controls on the oven mean.

We went to eat at the French guy’s place.  There was also two German ladies there.  (All colleagues of Phil’s)  The food was INCREDIBLE!  (So, Sarah, if you ever get a chance to have Coucou cook for you, do it.)  We had crepes.  It was super yummy. (oh, and he didn’t smell bad on a total side note)

The appetizer

The main course

Dessert

Hungry yet?  Ha ha.  Oh, btw, the pizza making was a fail.  I had to get technical support via fb chat.

Oh! And I got a pretty sunflower! (I’m sure An will appreciate this)

Sunflower

And the rest of the evening was spent with a rousing game of “Stamp the brochure”

Stamping

Not exactly sure why this was the game of choice, but it was.  (Side note to Caroline, [because I know she will appreciate this] Hannover is big on Horses apparently.)

On to the music and entertainment portion of the blog.

DAMN YOU AN!!! (there it is )  Ok so here’s the story.  An posted this video on fb, and the first time I watched it on mute.  So I thought, oh, well this is actually a really cool video, maybe I’ll watch it with sound.  So I did, and I thought, “What a waste of a good video.”  Well, unfortunately for me, this song is really popular here, and I hear it everywhere.  And every time I hear it I like it a little more.  I’ve gotten to the point where I think I like it.  And I hate An for it (stupid making me like pop lady gaga bullshit )  Oh yeah and one TV station uses her disco stick song for their adverts.

We’ve also seen a couple of videos for this guy named Pitbull in the Currywurst place.  Thank god the volume is off on the TVs because he looks super irritating.  Google him.  I’m not posting whatever filth he’s doing.

Also, every night at the same time on the same channel, the same Bernd das Brot episode plays on a loop.  I’m not sure why this is happening, but I still think it’s funny and I watch it almost every night.  My favorite part is when he does the Monty Python dead parrot sketch. (I have it memorized, lol)  I’m also really excited about Bernd das Brot and his new hit Ahhhh! (he he he)

In other news, VNV nation will be here on Tuesday. (Whoo hoo!!)  And the Pet Shop Boys are playing in Hamburg (I think) in December.  Yay for concerts!  There was a monster truck thing yesterday apparently, but we didn’t go.  Which contributed to my madness yesterday.  But, good news.  Steffi has 3 weeks vacation, and sometime this week hopefully we’ll go roam the city together.   Tonight I have an appointment with the language school so I can take a placement test. (for what reason, I don’t know.  I already took one online and they told me I was dumb then.  Why must they patronize me?!)  Also Oktoberfest is coming soon, so there should be plenty of fun stuff to blog about in the future.

Tschüss!

Candy

Phil has been looking at apartments online.  And hopefully this weekend we’ll be able to look at some in person.  Our stuff is scheduled to arrive the 5th.  (Which is a little less than two weeks from now.  Whoo!)  But we have to wait until it goes through customs to get it.  Hopefully that doesn’t take too long.

Oh, Phil told me that I need to change the name of my blog to “Candy’s culinary adventures in Germany” since all my blogs are about food.  Lol, well hopfully that’ll change once I have something else to do besides sit on the computer all day and wait for Phil to get home so that I can go out of the house.

Oh!  I forgot to tell you, but I found out the other day from Steffi that Twilight does NOT exist in Hannover.  WHOO HOO!!!!! Hahahahhahaha.  YES!  I am VERY excited by this.  Lol, but Phil says there is money to be made, and so it shouldn’t take long before it gets here.

Ok, well I guess it’s on to the pictures now.  Hopefully there’s not too much food this time.  Ha ha.

So I wanted something spicy the other day.  So we went to the “Spanish” place next to the chinese place. (or was it thai?)  I got some pepper poppers.  (I was surprised they had them)  They were pretty good, and just spicy enough.  Phil got a baked potato inside foil kinda shaped like a swan.  They tried their best, I’m sure.

Swan fail

This was in the menu.  Sooooo bad. :

In a menu

And since we were right next door, we stopped in the chinese place to get some fried banana with honey.  Mmmmmmm.  Yummy.

Yummy fried banana

Ok, so this place is right next to our apartment.  I decided to take a picture for you.  Ghetto nails.  Definitely something you want associated with americans.

"American" style nails

I thought about getting some just for the hell of it, lol.  Maybe they have glow in the dark nails, oooo!  Ha ha.

Ok, so yesterday we went to a “Mexican” restaurant.  They had something in the menu that they called “typical mexican” that neither I nor Phil had ever seen before.  Also, they had baked potatos.  Typical mexican my ass.  So of course we had to order chips and salsa.  We got the diablo salsa which was supposed to be Oh My God Hot.

Chips and "salsa"

Ok, first of all, that’s not salsa.  I’m pretty sure there was mayonaisse in there, and that’s just disgusting.  Secondly, it wasn’t all that hot.  It was pretty funny when Phil asked the waiter if that was supposed to be the diablo sauce.  The guy was like, “Is it not hot?” and Phil was like “No.”  I guess Phil’s lived in Houston for too long.  Ha ha.  Or maybe he’s just hung around me for too long.  We got fajitas too, and usually one set of fajitas will fill up both me and Phil.  In this case, we should have ordered two.  They did have jalepenos which was a plus.  I’m definitely going to have to get a blender and make my own salsa.  He he.  Then I can expose all of our guests to real salsa.  Mmmm.

On the way home we saw this really cool church that was pretty much demolished during the war.  It was super pretty.  I loved the “windows”  And it had the nicest bell-rings out of all the churches. (Wonder if there’s a technical term for that.  Probably is.) ……..The practice and hobby of bell-ringing is known as campanology.  -thank you wikipedia.  Or “die Glocken läuten”  according to Phil. (I have no idea what that means )

Pretty bell church

I’ll post more pictures on fb.

And I finally took a picture of the red light street:

Sexworld! ha ha

It’s a crappy picture, but it’ll do for now.

Also we went grocery shopping again (and forgot the bottles and bags AGAIN), and got some super Dickmann’s.  They’re super yummy.  But sweet to a fault.  They kinda make me sick.  I can only eat one at a time.  Phil LOVES them.  I must admit they are devilishly good.

Super Dickmann's

Every time we go to the grocery store I get something new just to try it.  So far I haven’t really found anything super fantastic.  And I need good pickles!! Dammit!!!   I miss good pickles.  Oh well.  Maybe I should rename my blog, lol.

I am soooo tired.  I got zero sleep last night because the bed is stupid uncomfortable and I kept having vivid dreams.  When Phil woke me up this morning, my back cracked all the way up, and it felt good.

Well, I have just been informed that we have an appointment tonight to see a couple apartments.  As well as two more tomorrow.  Good.  Something to do.  Also, apparently we are having dinner with a French guy on Saturday.  He is going to make crepes.  First…I hate the French.  Lol, I hope he doesn’t smell bad.  Second, I’m kinda iffy on the crepe thing.  Oh well.  We’ll see how it goes.

Sorry this one was more bitchy and less funny.  I’m just so tired and uninspired.

Laters

Candy

xoxo

Anywho…she rewarded Phil for helping her by telling him where a really good place to eat was.  Thing is, we had just come from a street that had a lot of bars where all the soccer fans were.  Apparently there was a really big home game yesterday, and all the retards were out celebrating, or whatever.  Well, she took us right back there, even though we were trying to avoid it.  We sat inside to muffle the sounds of rowdy-ness a bit.  (Am I getting old?)  Yeah, there was absolutely no one inside, which was nice.  So the whole time we’ve been in Germany, I’ve ordered, “safe foods” (stuff that I think is safe to eat), and it’s been a hit and miss, really.  So this time I ordered something crazy.  Lol, it wasn’t crazy, but it wasn’t safe either, and I figured it sounded good enough, and hopefully it will actually be good.  I ordered what was called Jägerschnitzel.

Jägerschnitzel

And Phil got the famous Weinerschnitzel (which, I’ll be honest, looked a lot different than I had expected.):

Wienerschnitzel

OH MY GOD!!!!  That was the best food I’ve had since we got here.  Hell, it’s some of the best food I’ve EVER had.  The place is right around the corner from the apt, and we will DEFINITELY be revisiting them again and again.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm.  Yum.

Now that THAT’s out of the way (sorry, I just had to tell everyone, it was soooooo good), on to the rest.

We went properly grocery shopping.  To get a basket you have to put a euro coin in a slot on the handle.  Apparently the idea is that you’ll put it back so that you get your coin back.  They should do this in America too.  Then we wouldn’t have dents in our cars from random carts being left in the lot or see “bag ladys” with walmart carts full of trash.

The lock on the cart

Phil introduced me to a traditional dish from his part of Germany.  It’s called maultaschen, and it was made for the Catholics apparently.  It’s kind of like ravioli (shaped, at least)  with the meat on the inside so “God doesn’t see” that you’re eating meat.  (Phil’s words)  But unlike ravioli, it’s made in a soup, and there’s a bunch of herbs on the inside as well.  It’s pretty good.  It’s Phil’s lazy cooking.  (Also his words)

Maultaschen

Sorry for all the food references, but I really like food.  Plus there’s so much new and strange food here, that I just can’t help sharing.

Now for a couple of rants about everyday life.

Trash is complicated.  We have four different trash cans.  The blue bag is for paper.  The yellow bag is for the “green dot” (which is not green at all, by the way.  It’s a blue arrow and a white arrow swirled together like a yin-yang.  So it’s barely even a dot, really.).  The one without a bag (it has one now) is for food.  And the last one is for everything else.  See?  Complicated.

The complicated trash system

We have to take all bottles back to the grocery store when we are done with them.  Which is really cool, because they reuse them and stuff, but sucks because we’re stuck with piling up bottles until we remember to take them back.  Also, they make the caps so that the bottom part doesn’t come completely off the top, so that you have to take the whole thing off and be bothered by the bottom hitting or pinching your finger. (See picture below for a better explanation.)

Bottles

Stupid bottle cap

I washed my clothes today for the first time.  Can I just say that I hate having to hang my clothes to dry.  I dropped EVERY sock on the floor while trying to hang it.  (So I pretty much STILL have no clean socks. )  Also, how the hell am I supposed to hang my underwear?!?!?!  If you know me well enough, you know why.

So, now that I’m done ranting for the moment, on to todays activities.

Today was my first Sunday in Germany.  Sunday = nothing open.  Well, almost nothing.  I was skimming through Phil’s welcome booklet and found a museum called Haus der Fotografie that is supposedly open on Sundays.  I say supposedly only because when we arrived, the place was no where to be found.  So, I’m guessing they either moved or closed.  Or Phil didn’t use the Garmin right   lol.

On our way home we actually found a tattoo convention.  So that was a good thing.  While roaming inside, we found out a few things.

1. Apparently no one likes color tattoos in Germany.  At least, the few booths I saw that even had color tattoos on display had crappy ones on display.  Almost everything was just plain black ink.  Boring.
2. Apparently there are no good tattoo artists in Germany.  Or at least Hannover.  Or maybe they just don’t do conventions.  Or maybe the fine people of Hannover just don’t care if they get shit tattoos.  Or maybe they just don’t know any better because there aren’t any good tattoo artists in the area.  Or, maybe they do really well on paper, but get really shaky hands when it comes to skin.  Whatever the reason, I have decided that I do NOT want to get a tattoo here, and will probably wait until I am home again to get another one.
3. Apparently tattoo conventions are where you find all the Americans.

I did manage to get a couple of pair of new really nice plugs.  I will post pictures only if asked.  So, the trip wasn’t entirely wasted.

Here, I would like to mention that I hate living on the 4th (called 3rd here) floor.  I have been in and out of the apartment about three times today, which meant six trips up and down three flights of stairs.  UGH!  I don’t think my butt has ever been this sore.

So, after all that me and Phil went to the closed mall and got some gelato from the one open cafe inside the mall.  Ha ha.  It was super yummy.  I had Hazelnut and Bubblegum.  In my defense, I didn’t know what the blue and pink stuff was, and Phil told me I was boring if I didn’t try it.  Next time I will probably try a different combination.  Not sure what Phil had.  I know the top flavor was vanilla with chocolate chips, but I didn’t get a chance to try the green one.

Can you tell which one's mine?

Also, the kids play area was a pirate ship.  How freaking awesome is that?!

Pirate ship playground!!

Another random fact about the mall.  There are three levels. OG, EG, and UG.  OG=Upper level, EG=earth level, and UG=lower level.  Direct all questions to the actual words or meaning of the words in the abbreviations to the German I am married to.  I expect everyone that visits to know this when they get here

Then later we had chinese and Phil showed me what Germany’s version of a douche was.  While we were sitting there, I heard this song come from the next restaurant.  Careful, it’s baaaaaaad.  (I’m pretty sure it was this version.)

And that’s pretty much all for today.  I can’t wait to get on a regular schedule and start learning things.  Oh, I got a cell phone.  So if you want the number message me on fb.  I think that you can call me just like any other number and it won’t charge either of us ungodly fees.  But I guess I will see what the bill looks like at the end of the month (or whenever it comes) to confirm that.  Also Phil does not properly explain things to me (still), so when we got the phone he was like, “You think 100 minutes will be enough?”  And I’m thinking, no way in hell!  But apparently, I’m only charged minutes if I call someone.  If someone calls me, I don’t get charged anything.  Yet another thing that America should adopt.

Next thing on the agenda is to get into touch with the art community here.  Which I’ve heard is not hard, because apparently there are quite a few artists lurking about.  But for now, I think I will go to bed.  It’s 2:30am and I need to get SOME kind of sleep.  Lol.

*kisses*

Candy

P.S.  For future reference, I will be posting additional pictures on facebook, to save space on my blog.

We will not be coming home in November.   Instead Phil will be taking a class in Cairo.  Which is really cool actually, because that means I’ll get to see the pyramids.  Yay!  So, it’s good and bad news really.  I did cry when I found out though.  I really was looking forward to going home.

And now for something completely different.

We went to the goverment office today to get me registered for living here.  I’m almost official.  I just have to go to one more appointment and bring a passport picture so I can get my id or something like that.

Proof that I'm almost official

Which brings me to this song.  I heard it in the government building as well as the coffee place we stopped in on the way. (which is called Balzac coffee.  “Ball sack coffee”  AHAHAHAHHAHA.  I kill myself )  I don’t know where I’ve heard it before, but it sounded familiar and it’s catchy.  I kinda like it.  (maybe I AM going crazy )

After doing that, I went home and slept for a few more hours.  (I had to get up at 7am to go to the government building, and I was tired.  So )  Then Phil calls me at about noon to tell me that I have to clean because the insurance guy is coming over to discuss insurance. (duh)  Blah blah blah and all this good stuff happens and then we get the paper explaining the insurance or whatever and I have to take a picture of the word.  Because these freaking crazy ass germans have to make book-long words that I can’t pronounce.  Proof:

Super long ass word.

I know Krank means sick and kosten is “cost”  but don’t ask me what the rest is or how to pronounce it.

Speaking of cleaning, Phil had to figure out the dishwasher today, which apparently you just turn on and off. (Hopefully that’s all)

Phil figuring out the dishwasher

Don’t let him fool you.  Even though he figured out the washer and dishwasher (kinda), I figured out the TV and phone.  Still haven’t figured out how to switch the TV to english, tho.  I wonder if I can even do that? :/

Also for the visit, he had to rush out and get some drinks for the guest.  (Not because his wife is dying of thirst lol, jk.)  So he got these:

drinks

Two of which I can drink.  The coke and the water (Not carbonated, thank god for that).  Two of which I can not.  The Apfel-schorle is basically apple juice watered down with carbonated water.  And the Mezzo Mix thing is basically half-coke/half-orange (think fanta, or sunkist).  Both are yuk.  Which means more for him

While we’re on the subject of weird food, I had my first Currywurst yesterday.  It’s defnitely a german thing.  It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever eaten, but it didn’t suck.  I’m sure that I will get used to it over time as Phil loves the stuff.  And eventually I will be telling everyone how great it is.  It’s good, don’t get me wrong.  But, like a lot of things here, I have to get used to it.

Currywurst

Then, after we met with the insurance guy, we met up with Steffi.  Who is an old friend of Prisca’s and Phil’s.  (They rode horses together when they were younger   Which I think is super cool, but Phil doesn’t seem convinced.)  Sie ist nett (She’s super nice), and she showed us around the city a bit.  I think we can become friends very easily because we both have the same reservations when it comes to speaking each other’s language (although her english is much better than my german), so I can test out my german on her and not be too embarassed.   So we went to eat at a bar called the Bar Celona (yeah they thought real long and hard about that one), and I got a “Fajita Wrap”:

"Fajita Wrap"

It had fajita chicken in it in only the loosest sense of the word.  I didn’t like it.  It looks good but does not taste all that great.  Also I’ve found that the sour cream here (in the little black bowl) tastes more like cottage cheese than sour cream.  Eh.  I think it actually made the wrap taste better, lol.

Oh!  But while we were there, we saw this couple walking down the street:

Lederhosen

Phil told me that if I posted this picture he would never get anyone to believe that everyone in Germany does not dress that way.  Ha ha, but I couldn’t help myself.  I just had to!

Oh, and when we got to a certain area, music started coming out from the sewers.

Can you hear the music?

Don’t exactly know why, but it was pretty funny.

So.  Phil has a car now. Yay!  But he has to put this key thing in every time he drives so that the company knows that he is driving safely.

Safe driver key

Which is a little annoying, but, whatever now we have a car!  So that means that I can go shopping for real.  And stock this place up with food.  Yay!  I’ll have real snacks, ha ha.  So that’s what we’re doing tomorrow.  Grocery shopping, and other stuff.  It will be nice to be out of the house for a full day.  Tonight was nice, too.  I’m glad to get out of the house, and the more I hang around Phil and Steffi, the more comfortable I should get speaking German.  I’m actually getting a little excited about this place.  Lets hope it lasts.

Well, I don’t know when I’ll get to see you all but I will definitely let you know before hand.  I really like writing this blog.  It’s a good release, kind of like a journal.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.  Otherwise, I’ll have to start changing it up.  Miss you guys, and hope to see you all sooner rather than later.

*Kisses*

Tschüss

Candy

So I haven’t started freaking out yet.  I’ve come close but I keep telling myself that soon, I will learn the language, and after that I will start school.

I’ve been spending my days on the computer all day.  I have now become addicted to Age of Castles (Thanks Thud:P) (I have a bounty on my head!  Yay, lol!).  Along with Pet Society, and all kinds of other games.  It keeps me going until Phil gets home.

Ok, I just have to interrupt with this.  I just saw this on TV and I know it’s completely stupid, but I like it:

Also, I have started working on my family tree.  That’s helped to keep my sanity a bit.  Well, actually, not really because I’ve only gotten as far as my grandparents, and I can’t find anything on them to further the tree.  I’ll have to send them letters to ask about their parents and so on.

I should hopefully start language school in October.  It depends if I can take off a week to go to Houston, or if we are even going to Houston.  (I realllllly want to go.  But it depends on Phil’s job)

We might get a car soon-ish.  Which will come in handy.  Becuase that means we can buy an ass-load of groceries and bring them home.  Which means I can stay inside all day and not have to worry about starving to death.  Phil hates this idea, I’m sure, since he wants me to get out of the house.  (I will once I learn how to talk to people )

I’ve seen a plethora of American cartoons in German.  Such as:

• Oggy and the Cockroaches (anyone remember this cartoon?)
• The smurfs
• Kim Possible
• Spongebob Squarepants
• Little Einsteins
• Wow Wow Wubzy

Plus regular TV shows like:

• Hannah Montana
• Wizards of Waverly place
• Two and a Half Men
• King of Queens

The only one of the tv shows that actually appeals to me is two and a half men, and it’s frustrating to watch when Phil comes home because he’s laughing all the time while I’m struggling to figure out what’s going on.  Then I’m left to ask him “What happened?” and he’s already forgotten.  Ugh.

Speaking of Phil, I just found out he gets to come home early today!  Yay!

We found the red light district while walking around yesterday.  I didn’t have my camera with me   But maybe today we’ll  walk by again.   Also we stopped to get some coffee and I got bubble tea.  The tapioca was so hard it was almost crunchy.  YUK!  I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to be.  If you’re ever here, don’t get tapioca tea from this place:

Yucky bad tapioca.

Phil washed some clothes yesterday.  He’s going to have to teach me how to use the washing machine.  I dread that.

Philipp trying to figure out the washer.

The confusing controls

Our super fancy dryer machine

Ok, so Phil got home early today.  I have to go take a shower so I can take my passport picture for my id.  If anyone wants our phone number or address, send me a message on fb.

*Kisses*

Bis dann

Candy

xoxo

I miss you guys!  (you know who you are )

Before we even got on the plane, I had my backpack searched.  Apparently I had a pair of scissors in my backpack.  And not just small baby scissors, but the big ones that I used to cut film.  (that’s what I get for packing my backpack without checking to see what is in there first.)  So, I thought the security lady was going to take them away.  But she actually told me that they were just under the length that they had to be in order for her to do that.  Lol, I was surprised they let me keep them.  I also had to stand like a ballerina so they could scan me, instead of walking through a metal detector.  Which I thought was weird.

The first flight was just like any other eight and a half hour flight to London.  It’s just too bad that we couldn’t stay there.  I wouldn’t mind so much.  Phil sat in the middle, and he told me that the lady sitting next to him was getting on his nerves because she kept fidgeting and waking him up.  Poor baby.

We met up with Prisca and FF to have lunch.  FF is about to start walking, which means that he’s going to be even more tangled in mummy’s hair.   (he he)

Happiness in a bag.

Then we were on a small plane to Hannover, which  I didn’t see much of because I slept the entire flight.  It was about the same size plane you would ride from Houston to Memphis.  The guy sitting next to us gave me the creeps.  Not sure why, he just did.

Then off to the apartment.  I saw some funny stuff on the way, like an advertisement for a Whopper with the word GROSS boldly written across the top.  I agree, Germany.  Whoppers are gross.   The apartment is really small.  And it’s pre-furnished, so there’s no way that we could fit all of our stuff in here.  The shower and toilet are pretty much the same thing, which is annoying.  I’m surprised Phil fits in there, since there’s a step to get in that is a little over a foot tall, and the ceiling is not that tall to begin with. Please bear in mind as you look at the pictures, that I used a very wide angle lens (18), otherwise I wouldn’t get everything in the picture.  It really is small, even though it doesn’t look that way.

The kitchen with "art" on the wall

Living room

The view from the balcony

The balcony

Bathroom complete with washer (but no dryer)

Toilet/Shower

Our bedroom

The front door from the Bathroom

After looking around the apartment, and taking near an hour to figure out how to use the TV, we were hungry, so decided to walk around to see what there was to eat.  We finally found a place that had pizza and pasta.  We ordered a hawaiian pizza, since that was the easiest thing to do because I don’t speak the language, and I had enough funny looks already that day.  It turned out to be probably the best hawaiian pizza I had ever had.  It was super yummy.  And it had mushrooms on it

Super Yummy Hawaiian Pizza

Ohne Zitrone bitte

“Ohne Zitrone bitte” is going to be one of my favorite phrases.  I told Phil that one of the first things I would have to learn was how to say I don’t want lemon in my coke.  I hate lemon.  For those at home, this is not just a German thing, it’s a European thing.

The church near our apt has a pentagram on it! Cool!

The fountain.

This fountain is also near the apt.  Phil said that it might be algae, but I think it looks like bubbles.

More pictures from the church:

:D

St. George. Phil's namesake.

We have a doorbell!  Which I’ve never had:

Our doorbell

Our ceiling reminds me of egg cartons:

the ceiling

I thought that this was food, because it has pictures of food, and it was with all the food.  Phil informed me that it was in fact, shower gel.  I’m glad I didn’t try to eat it. :

Shower gel

Here’s a good tip:  always make sure the water is not carbonated.  Unless you like it, you might be rudely surprised.  This water is so carbonated it numbed my tounge.  Yuck. :

highly carbonated water

And that’s all of my pictures.  The stupid people at the airport took all of my lighters, which reallly pisses me off.  Now I have to light all of my cigarettes with matches.  I’m averaging three matches per cigarette.  What a waste.  I’ve been watching American TV in German all day, and haven’t learned a bit.  Actually it’s a bit annoying that they didn’t just leave it in english.  Whatever.

Ok, I’m hungry.  So I guess I’ll rummage through our very limited amount of food for something.  Maybe I’ll try to learn some German as well.  I may as well, since there’s absolutely no English here at the moment.  I can’t wait until November, to see everyone and have fun at faire!

Bis dann!

Candy <3