But... I didn't think Illinois had earthquakes! It was a shaker, not a roller. I'm not really sure the magnitude but I know it was around 4. I see the high 3's in some areas and 4.3 as the highest reported. Unfortunately, Ray is out of town on a business trip and didn't get to feel the rarity. He only experienced his first earthquake in early 2009 while we were still living in California and it's super crazy to feel one here.
As far as weather... we are in the 20's, but according to the news, it feels like single digits. Brr! We were hit with a foot of snow yesterday and were on storm watch. It was not much different than Germany has been, so I was relieved that I could drive in it when I had to drop Ray off at the airport.
On another note, we're house hunting in 3 days! THREE days! I can't stand it I'm so excited. Here's a peek at our top three. Of course, we could get none of these... but they are a few current favorites (we have about 9 favorites we're considering) from our drive-by and specs. There are some gorgeous houses, but these 3 are in our desired area. It's a hard process, but we're not budging on the location! We have our fingers crossed, but I know house hunting is not an easy process. We're thrilled for Saturday!
As for what I've been writing about...
Montag 01.02.2010 (day 140)
EIGHTY typed pages of journaling. It is possible that we reach 100 pages in this 6-month period! I woke up a little late this morning and just couldn’t get with it. I cooked up some oatmeal and sat down to the computer…and may or may not have played a few games of solitaire… and then, Ray walked in the door way early! He got home at about 11:30 and I admit that I was still sitting on the couch in my pajamas. The morning was pretty yucky for him. I guess he received an email from United asking us to update our information for our upcoming flight. Well, we have a problem. My ticket is booked under Brandy Wilson, and my passport says Brandy Foster. Usually, we just book me under my maiden name and there aren’t any problems. Within the U.S., it makes no difference. If I book under my maiden name, I always use my passport to check in, and if we book under my married name, I use my driver’s license. But, this is an international flight and they don’t accept state driver’s licenses as acceptable proof. But, I’m a U.S. citizen… and going to the U.S., so wouldn’t it make sense to let me back into my home country (but not necessarily back into Germany?). Well, no. That’s not likely to happen because of these crazy (yet appropriate) security measures since recent attacks, etc. We have lots of proof. We have my new and old United Mileage Plus cards with the identical number (of which I had to send them an original marriage license proving my name change in order to get the new card), my driver’s license, credit cards, medical bills, on and on… but, still, they will not allow me through without a marriage certificate or purchasing a new ticket. I have a marriage certificate—in Chicago. It costs a fortune to FedEx in short notice. We spent lots of time on the phone with them and they said that they cannot change the name on the ticket and I wouldn’t be let through without it. So, we called Chicago and asked if they could retrieve our documents for us (in Mike’s closet). It turns out that Mike is in Chicago this week and would be going home in a couple hours and could go through our files and retrieve it for us. Phew! Rather than FedEx, they scanned the document and we’ll be giving the scanned copy to the travel agent tomorrow to hopefully get the change made. Hopefully. We aren’t out of the water just yet. The rest of the day was kind of a blur because we stressed about this so much. We wouldn’t have booked the tickets under my married name (knowing), but they were booked through a travel agent who didn’t know our situation. Lesson learned… I am getting a new passport with my married name immediately when we return in March. We had leftover chili for dinner and watched a couple episodes of Glee!
EIGHTY typed pages of journaling. It is possible that we reach 100 pages in this 6-month period! I woke up a little late this morning and just couldn’t get with it. I cooked up some oatmeal and sat down to the computer…and may or may not have played a few games of solitaire… and then, Ray walked in the door way early! He got home at about 11:30 and I admit that I was still sitting on the couch in my pajamas. The morning was pretty yucky for him. I guess he received an email from United asking us to update our information for our upcoming flight. Well, we have a problem. My ticket is booked under Brandy Wilson, and my passport says Brandy Foster. Usually, we just book me under my maiden name and there aren’t any problems. Within the U.S., it makes no difference. If I book under my maiden name, I always use my passport to check in, and if we book under my married name, I use my driver’s license. But, this is an international flight and they don’t accept state driver’s licenses as acceptable proof. But, I’m a U.S. citizen… and going to the U.S., so wouldn’t it make sense to let me back into my home country (but not necessarily back into Germany?). Well, no. That’s not likely to happen because of these crazy (yet appropriate) security measures since recent attacks, etc. We have lots of proof. We have my new and old United Mileage Plus cards with the identical number (of which I had to send them an original marriage license proving my name change in order to get the new card), my driver’s license, credit cards, medical bills, on and on… but, still, they will not allow me through without a marriage certificate or purchasing a new ticket. I have a marriage certificate—in Chicago. It costs a fortune to FedEx in short notice. We spent lots of time on the phone with them and they said that they cannot change the name on the ticket and I wouldn’t be let through without it. So, we called Chicago and asked if they could retrieve our documents for us (in Mike’s closet). It turns out that Mike is in Chicago this week and would be going home in a couple hours and could go through our files and retrieve it for us. Phew! Rather than FedEx, they scanned the document and we’ll be giving the scanned copy to the travel agent tomorrow to hopefully get the change made. Hopefully. We aren’t out of the water just yet. The rest of the day was kind of a blur because we stressed about this so much. We wouldn’t have booked the tickets under my married name (knowing), but they were booked through a travel agent who didn’t know our situation. Lesson learned… I am getting a new passport with my married name immediately when we return in March. We had leftover chili for dinner and watched a couple episodes of Glee!
Dienstag 02.02.2010 (day 141)
This morning around 10:30, we had a knock at the door. Hm. I don’t have friends, who might it be? I answered the door to a man in all black with a backpack on, holding what looked to me like a coil of wire. He immediately began speaking unrecognizable German and I responded with some broken English—he caught me off guard! He immediately code switched when he realized I was clueless to tell me that he came to “fix” the heater. Which heater? He came in and we finally figured out that he wanted to check out the water heater in the bathroom. He was there for a few minutes and used terms like “Oh yes, of course it is” and “See you next time” during the visit. I am humbled every single time. I understand in restaurants, have no problem in grocery stores, etc. when I am soliciting the services, but when they are soliciting me, I just panic! I can barely muster a simple sentence at that point. I’m just glad I wasn’t sweaty and working out (well, it would’ve been good if I weren’t being so lazy…) or taking a shower at that time. I got ready shortly after he left because I knew Ray would be home early to pick me up for lunch. I was ready a little early, had already shut down the computer and was bored… so naturally, given our upcoming trip, I got the suitcases out! We are hoping to check full bags this time and take as much as we can so our March move isn’t so crazy. I was roughly just throwing things into suitcases (small carry on: important, fragile items; largest suitcase: all clothes; medium suitcase: all miscellaneous items we’ll check). It’s quite the ordeal but I think it will make our official travel trip so much easier since this is a direct flight… but our flight in March is a connector. It’s just a load easier to check bags on a direct rather than worry about it not connecting and baggage getting lost. The more we can carry with us on this trip, the better. We arrived at work and hopped in the car with Lothar to have lunch at a “very authentic German restaurant.” It was pretty awesome. You can imagine that for veggies like me, there isn’t much to eat. But, they were very accommodating and fed me a large salad with pickled German vegetables, toasts, and salted & boiled potatoes. The restaurant also has no menu. They make a specific meal for the day and that is what you have for lunch. Today’s meal was beef gulash, chicken and egg soup, and green bean salad. It’s always a 3-course meal, too. That was probably our favorite German restaurant so far (aside from the brewery in Frankfurt that makes the amazing beer French onion soup). Back at work, Ray worked more with a few people on his presentation and I watched last night’s episode of the Bachelor. It was pretty uneventful, really. Next week looks a little more exciting. I also noticed that my converter that allows me to convert videos from .flv to .wmv for viewing is about to expire in “a few days”, whatever that means. I just hope it expires after Thursday so I can convert the American Idol episodes! I have downloaded so many of those converters, it’s crazy! After work, we headed to Netto for some groceries. I created a list of the dishes I plan to prepare until we leave so that I am not being wasteful purchasing foods that could spoil over the course of 2 weeks. While we were in the store, this Turkish family also walked in with their 3 children. These children were incredibly loud! I’m all about happy and excited children, but these we just unruly kids. The Germans in our circle tell us that it’s hard for them to adjust to living with an increasingly high Turkish immigration situation. The Turkish, according to the Germans, are not interested in conforming or blending into the German culture, but would rather keep their own culture. They are also much louder and less reserved than the quiet Germans, which doesn’t bode so well for them. I don’t have a problem with the Turks, because frankly, we’re also expats at the moment just trying to live in another country other than our native one. We try pretty hard to blend, but that isn’t always the case. We sometimes feel like since we don’t speak the language well, that we are an inconvenience, living in their country and being “ignorant” to the language. I see it all the time when friends of mine say, “speak English because you’re in America.” I have a problem with this—perhaps because I have been humbled by living in a country where I communicate with such a limited vocabulary. I also don’t mind the Turks because I feel like they brought their food with them to Germany. But, that’s selfish, of course. I just like variety—though I can’t say I’ve really had much Turkish food since we’ve been here. Anyhow, after Netto, we drove through the nice rain/snow to Kaufpark to finish up purchasing some items I couldn’t find at Netto. Did I mention it’s been snowing cats and dogs? It really hasn’t stopped snowing longer than a couple hours at a time since mid last week. It’s insane! We got home and Ray continued to work a bit (it’s hard when all of the U.S. is working when they shut the lights off at work here… he has to finish up at home in that case) while I prepared dinner—baked penne with veggies. It’s actually my spaghetti casserole recipe with penne instead of long noodles. After dinner, we sat down to complete some of our German homework. She assigned an incredible amount that we simply couldn’t finish. It was just too much and much of it was information we hadn’t learned. I suppose we can teach it to ourselves… but then I guess we don’t need a tutor. One packet of homework was helpful, but the rest was tedious and we didn’t feel like we would be learning—so we used our discretion and simply did what we could do that thought would be of most benefit. Two adults with Master’s degrees can be allowed such decisions. I also feel like there has been less teaching lately, and more homework. I realize we’ve had fewer lessons, but it seems like we are assigned homework just to spend the entire class going over homework—requiring no planning on her end. Being a teacher, it’s not my cup of tea. Anyhow, a few great moments of today: two more houses were put on the market in our desired area—though only one would be of somewhat interest. The other was too far north and fed into a school outside of our desired school district (that’s a deal breaker), and I received an email from a former parent (who I adore) that was really complimentary and encouraging in regards to getting back into teaching. Sometimes sending encouraging emails can really make someone’s day. We’re getting closer and closer to hopping on a plane to our new home!
This morning around 10:30, we had a knock at the door. Hm. I don’t have friends, who might it be? I answered the door to a man in all black with a backpack on, holding what looked to me like a coil of wire. He immediately began speaking unrecognizable German and I responded with some broken English—he caught me off guard! He immediately code switched when he realized I was clueless to tell me that he came to “fix” the heater. Which heater? He came in and we finally figured out that he wanted to check out the water heater in the bathroom. He was there for a few minutes and used terms like “Oh yes, of course it is” and “See you next time” during the visit. I am humbled every single time. I understand in restaurants, have no problem in grocery stores, etc. when I am soliciting the services, but when they are soliciting me, I just panic! I can barely muster a simple sentence at that point. I’m just glad I wasn’t sweaty and working out (well, it would’ve been good if I weren’t being so lazy…) or taking a shower at that time. I got ready shortly after he left because I knew Ray would be home early to pick me up for lunch. I was ready a little early, had already shut down the computer and was bored… so naturally, given our upcoming trip, I got the suitcases out! We are hoping to check full bags this time and take as much as we can so our March move isn’t so crazy. I was roughly just throwing things into suitcases (small carry on: important, fragile items; largest suitcase: all clothes; medium suitcase: all miscellaneous items we’ll check). It’s quite the ordeal but I think it will make our official travel trip so much easier since this is a direct flight… but our flight in March is a connector. It’s just a load easier to check bags on a direct rather than worry about it not connecting and baggage getting lost. The more we can carry with us on this trip, the better. We arrived at work and hopped in the car with Lothar to have lunch at a “very authentic German restaurant.” It was pretty awesome. You can imagine that for veggies like me, there isn’t much to eat. But, they were very accommodating and fed me a large salad with pickled German vegetables, toasts, and salted & boiled potatoes. The restaurant also has no menu. They make a specific meal for the day and that is what you have for lunch. Today’s meal was beef gulash, chicken and egg soup, and green bean salad. It’s always a 3-course meal, too. That was probably our favorite German restaurant so far (aside from the brewery in Frankfurt that makes the amazing beer French onion soup). Back at work, Ray worked more with a few people on his presentation and I watched last night’s episode of the Bachelor. It was pretty uneventful, really. Next week looks a little more exciting. I also noticed that my converter that allows me to convert videos from .flv to .wmv for viewing is about to expire in “a few days”, whatever that means. I just hope it expires after Thursday so I can convert the American Idol episodes! I have downloaded so many of those converters, it’s crazy! After work, we headed to Netto for some groceries. I created a list of the dishes I plan to prepare until we leave so that I am not being wasteful purchasing foods that could spoil over the course of 2 weeks. While we were in the store, this Turkish family also walked in with their 3 children. These children were incredibly loud! I’m all about happy and excited children, but these we just unruly kids. The Germans in our circle tell us that it’s hard for them to adjust to living with an increasingly high Turkish immigration situation. The Turkish, according to the Germans, are not interested in conforming or blending into the German culture, but would rather keep their own culture. They are also much louder and less reserved than the quiet Germans, which doesn’t bode so well for them. I don’t have a problem with the Turks, because frankly, we’re also expats at the moment just trying to live in another country other than our native one. We try pretty hard to blend, but that isn’t always the case. We sometimes feel like since we don’t speak the language well, that we are an inconvenience, living in their country and being “ignorant” to the language. I see it all the time when friends of mine say, “speak English because you’re in America.” I have a problem with this—perhaps because I have been humbled by living in a country where I communicate with such a limited vocabulary. I also don’t mind the Turks because I feel like they brought their food with them to Germany. But, that’s selfish, of course. I just like variety—though I can’t say I’ve really had much Turkish food since we’ve been here. Anyhow, after Netto, we drove through the nice rain/snow to Kaufpark to finish up purchasing some items I couldn’t find at Netto. Did I mention it’s been snowing cats and dogs? It really hasn’t stopped snowing longer than a couple hours at a time since mid last week. It’s insane! We got home and Ray continued to work a bit (it’s hard when all of the U.S. is working when they shut the lights off at work here… he has to finish up at home in that case) while I prepared dinner—baked penne with veggies. It’s actually my spaghetti casserole recipe with penne instead of long noodles. After dinner, we sat down to complete some of our German homework. She assigned an incredible amount that we simply couldn’t finish. It was just too much and much of it was information we hadn’t learned. I suppose we can teach it to ourselves… but then I guess we don’t need a tutor. One packet of homework was helpful, but the rest was tedious and we didn’t feel like we would be learning—so we used our discretion and simply did what we could do that thought would be of most benefit. Two adults with Master’s degrees can be allowed such decisions. I also feel like there has been less teaching lately, and more homework. I realize we’ve had fewer lessons, but it seems like we are assigned homework just to spend the entire class going over homework—requiring no planning on her end. Being a teacher, it’s not my cup of tea. Anyhow, a few great moments of today: two more houses were put on the market in our desired area—though only one would be of somewhat interest. The other was too far north and fed into a school outside of our desired school district (that’s a deal breaker), and I received an email from a former parent (who I adore) that was really complimentary and encouraging in regards to getting back into teaching. Sometimes sending encouraging emails can really make someone’s day. We’re getting closer and closer to hopping on a plane to our new home!
Mittwoch 03.02.2010 (day 142)
Happy Birthday to my brother, Justin! The morning was pretty uneventful. I spent a good portion of the morning chipping ice with a butter knife from our walkway outside. Super fun stuff. Concurrently, I was lucky to have the tree above my head downpour with ice chunks periodically. Once that was over, I got ready for work and before I knew it, Ray was home for lunch. We had leftovers and headed back to work where I downloaded the American Idol episode from yesterday before our German lesson (late as usual) started around 1:15. The lesson itself was fine. I don’t feel like I’m learning anymore, but besides that, it was fine. We have all kind of checked out. I think we’ll still continue to learn, but in the classroom with our tutor, unlikely. After our lesson, we got back to work and I did more house research. Time is getting closer!!! We left for the evening around 5 and headed home. I prepared dinner and we called the House Hunters people at 7:00. They asked a series of questions about logistics and mentioned that they would have to come to Germany for the pre-taping of where we’re moving from! They sound interested, but it’s also a low-budget show and they’re concerned with the costs on their end. Flying a few people over and getting transportation 2 hours from the airport can cost some cash. We also were sent the application and guidelines for a video we’re required to make about ourselves, where we live, who we are, etc. We plan to make that video tomorrow after work so we can upload it on a better Internet connection on Friday. We can’t upload it from home because it requires more bandwidth than we’re able to provide with our limited “searching” Vodafone sticks. If we don’t upload from work, we’ll have to wait into next week to find an Internet connection when we get to Chicago—which is already limited at this point. We’re excited! Even if they don’t choose us, we are appreciating the distraction from thinking about houses nonstop. It’s a crazy idea, but it will absolutely create some lasting memories. It might be nice to have a tape of where we lived in Germany (taped by professionals), too. After the call, we watched the American Idol episode and another Glee episode. We’re down to 5 Glee episodes and we’ll have seen the entire season! The rest of the night went by quickly before we knew it… it was after midnight (like right now = bedtime).
Happy Birthday to my brother, Justin! The morning was pretty uneventful. I spent a good portion of the morning chipping ice with a butter knife from our walkway outside. Super fun stuff. Concurrently, I was lucky to have the tree above my head downpour with ice chunks periodically. Once that was over, I got ready for work and before I knew it, Ray was home for lunch. We had leftovers and headed back to work where I downloaded the American Idol episode from yesterday before our German lesson (late as usual) started around 1:15. The lesson itself was fine. I don’t feel like I’m learning anymore, but besides that, it was fine. We have all kind of checked out. I think we’ll still continue to learn, but in the classroom with our tutor, unlikely. After our lesson, we got back to work and I did more house research. Time is getting closer!!! We left for the evening around 5 and headed home. I prepared dinner and we called the House Hunters people at 7:00. They asked a series of questions about logistics and mentioned that they would have to come to Germany for the pre-taping of where we’re moving from! They sound interested, but it’s also a low-budget show and they’re concerned with the costs on their end. Flying a few people over and getting transportation 2 hours from the airport can cost some cash. We also were sent the application and guidelines for a video we’re required to make about ourselves, where we live, who we are, etc. We plan to make that video tomorrow after work so we can upload it on a better Internet connection on Friday. We can’t upload it from home because it requires more bandwidth than we’re able to provide with our limited “searching” Vodafone sticks. If we don’t upload from work, we’ll have to wait into next week to find an Internet connection when we get to Chicago—which is already limited at this point. We’re excited! Even if they don’t choose us, we are appreciating the distraction from thinking about houses nonstop. It’s a crazy idea, but it will absolutely create some lasting memories. It might be nice to have a tape of where we lived in Germany (taped by professionals), too. After the call, we watched the American Idol episode and another Glee episode. We’re down to 5 Glee episodes and we’ll have seen the entire season! The rest of the night went by quickly before we knew it… it was after midnight (like right now = bedtime).
Donnerstag 04.02.2010 (day 143)
So, my 10-year reunion is coming up. I’m not going. I have my reasons for not attending (cost, distance, inconvenience, I just moved from there…) but I still receive updates on the Internet about the event. I am excited to see photos, but I don’t think I’m too sad about staying in Chicago. It’s held in May (it won’t officially be 10 years at that point) and we’ll have just been in Chicago for 2 months, purchased a house, and I’ll be (hopefully) looking into interviews or jobs of some kind. It’s bad timing and I simply don’t want to waste the money or time flying there when I lived across the street from my high school all up until 6 months ago. I may go to my 20-year… but that’s far enough from now that I don’t need to worry. Ray won’t be attending his either, though he said that he would attend if he were in town that weekend. Today was a bit crazy. I spent the entire morning tidying the house up for our video this evening. Ray came home for lunch and we headed back to work. I had a headache for the greater part of the afternoon and Ray was frustrated over a number of things. As he put it, more things were being added to the list, but nothing was being accomplished in a quick manner. After work, we headed home and immediately got to work creating our House Hunters audition video. There were a series of questions we were asked to answer on camera and we also walked through the house describing things that we have now that we would prefer to be different in our future house, should we be chosen for the show. While I think we’re great candidates, a number of things could prevent the taping: cost of flying the crew to Germany, time schedule being too tight for them to come, and the location of our future home being too “often” chosen for that show. We’ll see. The video is fun and reflects our personality while still giving information about ourselves. Ray spent time editing the video down to 6 minutes 15 seconds while I made dinner. We did some laundry and finalized the video before watching the American Idol episode from last night (next week is Hollywood week on Idol!) and an episode of Glee. We’re down to 4 seasons of Glee before we complete the season! We had fun tonight and it was a great distracter from house hunting. A few more houses came on the market, only one of which I would even consider walking inside… though the kitchen seems like it has a lot to be desired…so doubtful. It is, however, in our absolutely perfect area and has great curb appeal. Tomorrow is Friday!
So, my 10-year reunion is coming up. I’m not going. I have my reasons for not attending (cost, distance, inconvenience, I just moved from there…) but I still receive updates on the Internet about the event. I am excited to see photos, but I don’t think I’m too sad about staying in Chicago. It’s held in May (it won’t officially be 10 years at that point) and we’ll have just been in Chicago for 2 months, purchased a house, and I’ll be (hopefully) looking into interviews or jobs of some kind. It’s bad timing and I simply don’t want to waste the money or time flying there when I lived across the street from my high school all up until 6 months ago. I may go to my 20-year… but that’s far enough from now that I don’t need to worry. Ray won’t be attending his either, though he said that he would attend if he were in town that weekend. Today was a bit crazy. I spent the entire morning tidying the house up for our video this evening. Ray came home for lunch and we headed back to work. I had a headache for the greater part of the afternoon and Ray was frustrated over a number of things. As he put it, more things were being added to the list, but nothing was being accomplished in a quick manner. After work, we headed home and immediately got to work creating our House Hunters audition video. There were a series of questions we were asked to answer on camera and we also walked through the house describing things that we have now that we would prefer to be different in our future house, should we be chosen for the show. While I think we’re great candidates, a number of things could prevent the taping: cost of flying the crew to Germany, time schedule being too tight for them to come, and the location of our future home being too “often” chosen for that show. We’ll see. The video is fun and reflects our personality while still giving information about ourselves. Ray spent time editing the video down to 6 minutes 15 seconds while I made dinner. We did some laundry and finalized the video before watching the American Idol episode from last night (next week is Hollywood week on Idol!) and an episode of Glee. We’re down to 4 seasons of Glee before we complete the season! We had fun tonight and it was a great distracter from house hunting. A few more houses came on the market, only one of which I would even consider walking inside… though the kitchen seems like it has a lot to be desired…so doubtful. It is, however, in our absolutely perfect area and has great curb appeal. Tomorrow is Friday!
Freitag 05.02.2010 (day 144)
I thought I made it through the winter without being sick. Unfortunately, no. I have had a headache since Thursday and now I’m starting to feel the usual sick symptoms. My sinuses are giving me trouble. Luckily, we’re heading back to the U.S. in two days and if I need a doctor or more medicine (though we have plenty here in Germany), I can get what I need. I spent the majority of the morning on the couch. I took some 24-hour Sudafed and although I’m feeling a little drowsy, my other symptoms have subsided. Ray went to work this morning and uploaded the video and paperwork to send to House Hunters. We’ll see. I still think it’s a long shot, but it sure was fun trying either way! Ray came to pick me up at lunch and I had already eaten and his meal was waiting for him. But, they are planning to hire someone new and wanted to go out to lunch. So, we left and joined them for the meal. The meals were enormous! We’d been to this restaurant a few times before but this was the first time I’d see portions this grandiose. Back at work, things went along as they usually do. We ended up leaving just before 5 because the entire crew was already gone. They really take Fridays seriously around here. Haha! When home, we basically relaxed. I have a head cold and I’m just not feeling 100%. We had dinner, watched a couple episodes of Glee (only two left and the season’s over) and were all googly-eyed over houses on the Internet. I just can’t wait! But, now that the time is closer, I am considerably more critical. For example, the majority of houses are on ¼-½ acre, but there are a few under that amount. I want a yard. We want a family, so we need a yard. I’m pretty sure I’ll just want to mesh a bunch of houses together to make my perfect house. I also think that we’ll “know” when we walk into houses whether we’re comfortable in the neighborhood, on the street and inside the living space. We’re also getting excited that there are more houses coming on the market in our target area. We’ve beaten around this target area and are willing to live just outside of it, but we have a desire to be in that general location. Two in the last two days have appeared within the area. We’re thrilled to check them all out!
I thought I made it through the winter without being sick. Unfortunately, no. I have had a headache since Thursday and now I’m starting to feel the usual sick symptoms. My sinuses are giving me trouble. Luckily, we’re heading back to the U.S. in two days and if I need a doctor or more medicine (though we have plenty here in Germany), I can get what I need. I spent the majority of the morning on the couch. I took some 24-hour Sudafed and although I’m feeling a little drowsy, my other symptoms have subsided. Ray went to work this morning and uploaded the video and paperwork to send to House Hunters. We’ll see. I still think it’s a long shot, but it sure was fun trying either way! Ray came to pick me up at lunch and I had already eaten and his meal was waiting for him. But, they are planning to hire someone new and wanted to go out to lunch. So, we left and joined them for the meal. The meals were enormous! We’d been to this restaurant a few times before but this was the first time I’d see portions this grandiose. Back at work, things went along as they usually do. We ended up leaving just before 5 because the entire crew was already gone. They really take Fridays seriously around here. Haha! When home, we basically relaxed. I have a head cold and I’m just not feeling 100%. We had dinner, watched a couple episodes of Glee (only two left and the season’s over) and were all googly-eyed over houses on the Internet. I just can’t wait! But, now that the time is closer, I am considerably more critical. For example, the majority of houses are on ¼-½ acre, but there are a few under that amount. I want a yard. We want a family, so we need a yard. I’m pretty sure I’ll just want to mesh a bunch of houses together to make my perfect house. I also think that we’ll “know” when we walk into houses whether we’re comfortable in the neighborhood, on the street and inside the living space. We’re also getting excited that there are more houses coming on the market in our target area. We’ve beaten around this target area and are willing to live just outside of it, but we have a desire to be in that general location. Two in the last two days have appeared within the area. We’re thrilled to check them all out!
Samstag 06.02.2010 (day 145)
It was just a day of organizing, relaxing, laundry, and packing for us two. We slept in (per usual on weekends) and carried on packing suitcases and praying that the weight won’t cause an overage. If it is, we can either pitch items, displace them, or pay the overage. We’ll see. We have no scale here, so it’s based on the old, “yeah that feel lighter than 50 pounds” method. We had pancakes, eggs (well, Ray had those), and OJ for breakfast. I only mention this because it’s a very American breakfast. We have pancake mix from the U.S., eggs from the store here that we originally purchased to make brownies last week (and Ray ate every bite), and the OJ. Oh, the OJ. In all of this area and all of the stores we’ve been to in Germany, there is really only ONE kind of orange juice worth drinking. And frankly, it’s really good—just as good as American brands like Tropicana or Simply Orange. It is made for this one particular store, Netto, and you can find it nowhere else. It’s only sold in 1-liter containers, so we finish a bottle in 1 or 2 days. Needless to say, we don’t have it much…otherwise OJ would be an expensive commodity. I wish I had more to report about the day. We are trying to finish up food in our fridge and get everything in order here before we leave for two weeks! We also started making a spreadsheet of the “likes” and “concerns” of each house on our top list. Everyday the market changes so much and we have exactly 1 week until we are walking into these houses to get a real feel of what they’re like. We had English-muffin pizzas for dinner and watched the rest of the season on Glee. I still have a massive headache—of which I need to go take care of. Right. Now.
It was just a day of organizing, relaxing, laundry, and packing for us two. We slept in (per usual on weekends) and carried on packing suitcases and praying that the weight won’t cause an overage. If it is, we can either pitch items, displace them, or pay the overage. We’ll see. We have no scale here, so it’s based on the old, “yeah that feel lighter than 50 pounds” method. We had pancakes, eggs (well, Ray had those), and OJ for breakfast. I only mention this because it’s a very American breakfast. We have pancake mix from the U.S., eggs from the store here that we originally purchased to make brownies last week (and Ray ate every bite), and the OJ. Oh, the OJ. In all of this area and all of the stores we’ve been to in Germany, there is really only ONE kind of orange juice worth drinking. And frankly, it’s really good—just as good as American brands like Tropicana or Simply Orange. It is made for this one particular store, Netto, and you can find it nowhere else. It’s only sold in 1-liter containers, so we finish a bottle in 1 or 2 days. Needless to say, we don’t have it much…otherwise OJ would be an expensive commodity. I wish I had more to report about the day. We are trying to finish up food in our fridge and get everything in order here before we leave for two weeks! We also started making a spreadsheet of the “likes” and “concerns” of each house on our top list. Everyday the market changes so much and we have exactly 1 week until we are walking into these houses to get a real feel of what they’re like. We had English-muffin pizzas for dinner and watched the rest of the season on Glee. I still have a massive headache—of which I need to go take care of. Right. Now.
Sonntag 07.02.2010 (day 146)
It’s flying day! We spent the great part of our day on a Boeing 777. The bad news is we were in Economy. The good news is that it was a 2-5-2 plane and we were able to sit together without a stranger. Lothar sat in the center aisle on the end. We dropped our car off at work and hopped into Lothar’s car for our ride to Frankfurt. There was a lot of fog so Lothar drove quite slower (compared to other times). We dropped the car off at the Frankfurt building and took a taxi to the airport. We stood in a very slow line, checked in, and then went through security. Lothar went first and was searched. Ray went next and was also searched. They halted our line at that point. I wasn’t allowed through and slowly I watched a crowd of people surrounding Ray as if he were a criminal or terrorist. After running the suitcase through a bomb detector, stopping the line for about 5 minutes, walking me over to the special laptop scanner (where they rubbed the laptop with a piece of paper and ran it through a scanner to make sure there was no bomb), and finally searching our carry on, they realized what we had was this: I packed my wireless computer mouse and a few cords stuffed into a coffee mug. The only reason I hadn’t checked those items was because they are fragile and I didn’t want them broken. Apparently stuffing a mouse inside a coffee mug looks like a bomb. I am not complaining. I think it’s important and welcomed that they take precautions for our safety and I’m happy that they were persistent and checked on a suspicion. Of course, that means that my perfectly packed carry-on had to be re-packed. That took me awhile but I finally got it all figured out. We headed off, grabbed a few snacks to hold us over and boarded the plane. We waited for awhile because our flight was not complete. We had some late boarding passengers and then we finally took off. Overall, it was a decent ride aside from this one family with small children wailing just about the entire time. I understand they are children. But their parents didn’t seem to know how to handle them. I won’t say any more judgmental things… who knows. Someday that may be us with an unruly child. We watched a few movies: one about a roller derby and another about the biography of Le Bron James. We arrived at O’Hare in the 2 o’clock hour and called for the limo to pick us up. We ended up getting an 8-passenger long limo rather than our normal black car limo. We actually needed the space for all of our luggage. They dropped us off at Mike’s condo and we took Lothar to the Doubletree where he is staying. After, I had a suspicion that we didn’t have our camera bag. I remembered entering the limo with it in my hands, but I don’t remember exiting the limo with it. We stopped to check if it was at the condo and it wasn’t. Bummer. We called the limo and they told me the limo driver was at Midway but would be driving to Downer’s Grove a bit later. We punched the address to one of the houses on our list into the GPS and went to see it. We drove all around our desired area (I LOVE IT!) and saw a bunch of wonderful houses. From the curb appeal, we liked 8 of the 9 houses on the list. The one with the best interior just has lame curb appeal. I just don’t I can hate the way my house looks on the outside. Just because the inside is great, we’re also thinking curb appeal in case we want to re-sell in the future for a larger home, etc. Plus, I just don’t want to drive up to an ugly, cheap looking exterior. So, we think that the Johnson house is off the list. Our favorite from the outside is still the most expensive, but we love the land. Our second favorite is new on the market and the neighborhood is just amazing. So needless to say, we’re anxious. And excited. And we can’t believe that we’re here and a few days away from REALLY looking, for real. No more playing house. As we were driving by the last house, the limo driver called and said he was two minutes away from the condo! We were about 10 minutes away so he promised to wait for us. He handed over our bag and I gave him another tip. Ten bucks is well worth our camera and two cell phones plus all of the heartache. Ray and I are really good (really it’s bad, but we do the bad things well) about leaving items. Ray leaves things on subways, buses, planes… and I leave them in stores, limos… After picking up the camera, we headed to pick Lothar up and took him to a casual Fuddrucker’s dinner. He had never been there and usually only goes to fancy dinners while in Chicago. We knew that we were all tired, Ray and I really wanted some American food, and Lothar needed to experience a real family restaurant like that place. It was delicious indeed! Cheddar cheese is something I have missed dearly. After dropping Lothar off at his hotel, we went back to the condo and watched some Super Bowl. We arrived just after halftime. As for the weather here, it was in the 20’s today (speaking in Fahrenheit). Although it’s no colder than it’s been in Europe this winter, I can just tell that it can get frigid here. The slight wind chill can make your bones numb. It may say it’s one thing, but feels a lot colder. We’re happy. The houses are amazing, the neighborhoods are fabulous, we are eating great food… and OH. One last thing about the day. There were signs posted everywhere as we went through customs…something like this: Cameras and phones is prohibited in this area. Really? They is prohibited? ARE. It’s ARE. When it’s plural, it’s ARE. I’m wondering why they printed SO MANY of them when the grammar was all wrong. Ah!
It’s flying day! We spent the great part of our day on a Boeing 777. The bad news is we were in Economy. The good news is that it was a 2-5-2 plane and we were able to sit together without a stranger. Lothar sat in the center aisle on the end. We dropped our car off at work and hopped into Lothar’s car for our ride to Frankfurt. There was a lot of fog so Lothar drove quite slower (compared to other times). We dropped the car off at the Frankfurt building and took a taxi to the airport. We stood in a very slow line, checked in, and then went through security. Lothar went first and was searched. Ray went next and was also searched. They halted our line at that point. I wasn’t allowed through and slowly I watched a crowd of people surrounding Ray as if he were a criminal or terrorist. After running the suitcase through a bomb detector, stopping the line for about 5 minutes, walking me over to the special laptop scanner (where they rubbed the laptop with a piece of paper and ran it through a scanner to make sure there was no bomb), and finally searching our carry on, they realized what we had was this: I packed my wireless computer mouse and a few cords stuffed into a coffee mug. The only reason I hadn’t checked those items was because they are fragile and I didn’t want them broken. Apparently stuffing a mouse inside a coffee mug looks like a bomb. I am not complaining. I think it’s important and welcomed that they take precautions for our safety and I’m happy that they were persistent and checked on a suspicion. Of course, that means that my perfectly packed carry-on had to be re-packed. That took me awhile but I finally got it all figured out. We headed off, grabbed a few snacks to hold us over and boarded the plane. We waited for awhile because our flight was not complete. We had some late boarding passengers and then we finally took off. Overall, it was a decent ride aside from this one family with small children wailing just about the entire time. I understand they are children. But their parents didn’t seem to know how to handle them. I won’t say any more judgmental things… who knows. Someday that may be us with an unruly child. We watched a few movies: one about a roller derby and another about the biography of Le Bron James. We arrived at O’Hare in the 2 o’clock hour and called for the limo to pick us up. We ended up getting an 8-passenger long limo rather than our normal black car limo. We actually needed the space for all of our luggage. They dropped us off at Mike’s condo and we took Lothar to the Doubletree where he is staying. After, I had a suspicion that we didn’t have our camera bag. I remembered entering the limo with it in my hands, but I don’t remember exiting the limo with it. We stopped to check if it was at the condo and it wasn’t. Bummer. We called the limo and they told me the limo driver was at Midway but would be driving to Downer’s Grove a bit later. We punched the address to one of the houses on our list into the GPS and went to see it. We drove all around our desired area (I LOVE IT!) and saw a bunch of wonderful houses. From the curb appeal, we liked 8 of the 9 houses on the list. The one with the best interior just has lame curb appeal. I just don’t I can hate the way my house looks on the outside. Just because the inside is great, we’re also thinking curb appeal in case we want to re-sell in the future for a larger home, etc. Plus, I just don’t want to drive up to an ugly, cheap looking exterior. So, we think that the Johnson house is off the list. Our favorite from the outside is still the most expensive, but we love the land. Our second favorite is new on the market and the neighborhood is just amazing. So needless to say, we’re anxious. And excited. And we can’t believe that we’re here and a few days away from REALLY looking, for real. No more playing house. As we were driving by the last house, the limo driver called and said he was two minutes away from the condo! We were about 10 minutes away so he promised to wait for us. He handed over our bag and I gave him another tip. Ten bucks is well worth our camera and two cell phones plus all of the heartache. Ray and I are really good (really it’s bad, but we do the bad things well) about leaving items. Ray leaves things on subways, buses, planes… and I leave them in stores, limos… After picking up the camera, we headed to pick Lothar up and took him to a casual Fuddrucker’s dinner. He had never been there and usually only goes to fancy dinners while in Chicago. We knew that we were all tired, Ray and I really wanted some American food, and Lothar needed to experience a real family restaurant like that place. It was delicious indeed! Cheddar cheese is something I have missed dearly. After dropping Lothar off at his hotel, we went back to the condo and watched some Super Bowl. We arrived just after halftime. As for the weather here, it was in the 20’s today (speaking in Fahrenheit). Although it’s no colder than it’s been in Europe this winter, I can just tell that it can get frigid here. The slight wind chill can make your bones numb. It may say it’s one thing, but feels a lot colder. We’re happy. The houses are amazing, the neighborhoods are fabulous, we are eating great food… and OH. One last thing about the day. There were signs posted everywhere as we went through customs…something like this: Cameras and phones is prohibited in this area. Really? They is prohibited? ARE. It’s ARE. When it’s plural, it’s ARE. I’m wondering why they printed SO MANY of them when the grammar was all wrong. Ah!
Montag 08.02.2010 (day 147)
We were wide awake at about 4:45 and forced ourselves to sleep until about 6:30. Oh, the fun we have trying to reacclimate to the U.S. time zones. Ray got ready for work and I got ready for life. He left and I tried to organize papers and unpack a few items that I needed and finally left the house just before 10. I headed straight to the tire shop to get our tire repaired. When we arrived in Chicago in late August, we got new tires. Two weeks later as we were packing to leave for Germany, we noticed a screw stuck in the dead center of one of the tires, just two weeks old. We didn’t have time to fix that issue so I was left to fix it now. It was a quick process and the tire shop was there to help me within 15 minutes. I went to a few stores after to pick up items before heading to the post office to send some items and pick up the mail we had at our P.O. box. We only had a bag of about 25 items waiting for us since the majority was being re-routed to the condo and on to work where they sent it to Germany. These were the items not allowed to re-route. I love Trader Joe’s. I went back again today and I fell in love all over again. Some of my items were gone, others looked altered, and there were also new items that I can’t wait to try! I went to Target to pick up some things like toothpaste (Ray was taking our tube with him for the next few days on a business trip and I would’ve been without…) and headed back home. At one point, I ran into Ray & Lothar as they came home to pick up a piece of luggage. At home, I organized like crazy. I opened all of our mail, threw away the garbage, made phonecalls regarding the mail, talked with my mom, and talked with Samantha on the phone. It was SO nice to talk with family on the real phone for as long as I wanted. We have something like 5,000 rollover minutes and about 350 expire monthly, so I have no worry using them up. Ray came home after 6 and we went over to get him a haircut before picking up some groceries at Dominick’s (it’s the Safeway/Vons here in Illinois—same exact store and deals). We headed back home, I watched the Bachelor (on East coast time = LIVE!), had dinner, did some laundry… Ray packed, and I continued to organize. We brought so much here and have so much paperwork to sort through since we’ve been gone for 5 months. As I write this, I’m watching the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (though he was replaced by Conan and is now again back) at 9:00 instead of 10:00. It’s super weird watching shows one hour early. Since we’re just one hour off of the east coast, they just air everything one hour earlier. If the tonight show comes on at 10 in Maryland, it comes on at 9 here. It’s good and bad all at the same time. I’m exhausted and I can’t wait to sleep! In Germany, it’s nearly 5:00 a.m. right now—almost 10 p.m. in Chicago. Exhausted! I have to get up and take the guys to the airport tomorrow and we’re expecting a foot of snow. I’m a little nervous about driving in the conditions, but the good news is that I have all the time in the world after I drop them off to slowly creep back home. I’ll be fine.
We were wide awake at about 4:45 and forced ourselves to sleep until about 6:30. Oh, the fun we have trying to reacclimate to the U.S. time zones. Ray got ready for work and I got ready for life. He left and I tried to organize papers and unpack a few items that I needed and finally left the house just before 10. I headed straight to the tire shop to get our tire repaired. When we arrived in Chicago in late August, we got new tires. Two weeks later as we were packing to leave for Germany, we noticed a screw stuck in the dead center of one of the tires, just two weeks old. We didn’t have time to fix that issue so I was left to fix it now. It was a quick process and the tire shop was there to help me within 15 minutes. I went to a few stores after to pick up items before heading to the post office to send some items and pick up the mail we had at our P.O. box. We only had a bag of about 25 items waiting for us since the majority was being re-routed to the condo and on to work where they sent it to Germany. These were the items not allowed to re-route. I love Trader Joe’s. I went back again today and I fell in love all over again. Some of my items were gone, others looked altered, and there were also new items that I can’t wait to try! I went to Target to pick up some things like toothpaste (Ray was taking our tube with him for the next few days on a business trip and I would’ve been without…) and headed back home. At one point, I ran into Ray & Lothar as they came home to pick up a piece of luggage. At home, I organized like crazy. I opened all of our mail, threw away the garbage, made phonecalls regarding the mail, talked with my mom, and talked with Samantha on the phone. It was SO nice to talk with family on the real phone for as long as I wanted. We have something like 5,000 rollover minutes and about 350 expire monthly, so I have no worry using them up. Ray came home after 6 and we went over to get him a haircut before picking up some groceries at Dominick’s (it’s the Safeway/Vons here in Illinois—same exact store and deals). We headed back home, I watched the Bachelor (on East coast time = LIVE!), had dinner, did some laundry… Ray packed, and I continued to organize. We brought so much here and have so much paperwork to sort through since we’ve been gone for 5 months. As I write this, I’m watching the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (though he was replaced by Conan and is now again back) at 9:00 instead of 10:00. It’s super weird watching shows one hour early. Since we’re just one hour off of the east coast, they just air everything one hour earlier. If the tonight show comes on at 10 in Maryland, it comes on at 9 here. It’s good and bad all at the same time. I’m exhausted and I can’t wait to sleep! In Germany, it’s nearly 5:00 a.m. right now—almost 10 p.m. in Chicago. Exhausted! I have to get up and take the guys to the airport tomorrow and we’re expecting a foot of snow. I’m a little nervous about driving in the conditions, but the good news is that I have all the time in the world after I drop them off to slowly creep back home. I’ll be fine.
Dienstag 09.02.2010 (day 148)
Here I am all alone. I’m not complaining and I’m not sad—though I always miss Ray when he’s away for any longer than a day. The good news is, when he comes back, we’re house hunting the very next day! He’s been getting really excited and cannot seem to keep himself from thinking about houses all day either, so this may be good to occupy him. Business trips tend to do that, I think. I’ll admit, too, that I drove around and saw one of our top 3 houses again today. I LOVE the area of the house and can’t wait to call this area officially home! This morning, we woke up in the 6 o’clock hour again to snow. The news tells us that we’ll be getting a foot within 24 hours. We were worried about flight cancelations because Southwest and other airlines already canceled over 200 flights. Luckily, they were flying American into a zone that is without snow, Atlanta. Ray drove and picked up Lothar, then off to O’Hare. We got there in less than 30 minutes with no traffic. The snow was really light so we weren’t too worried. I dropped them off and set the GPS back home. I had no problem navigating and the highway was really easy! It took me less than 30 minutes back and since I was pretty comfortable in the snow at this point, I headed to the post office andpaid way too much shipped some packages to California. After, I stopped by the bank to drop off some checks and headed back home around lunchtime. The rest of the day was relaxing as I’m still trying to adjust to this time change and weather. The weather is (honestly) very similar to what we’ve been dealing with for the past few months in Germany, so I’m somewhat comfortable with it. But, it doesn’t make me want to go out and do anything. Frankly, I have very little to actually “do” anyway. I have plenty of time to fulfill the small stuff. I did enough for a day’s work. On another note, I wrote Chipotle to thank them for being such a great place to eat (I have recently started praising companies so they know I love their products—because I don’t want them to stop products. It happens all the time!) and they sent me a coupon for a free burrito and guacamole! Thanks Chipotle! I also received an email from a friend asking if I would have any interest in teaching or team teaching a class online from April to June. I don’t know what it entails, if it’s something that will pan out or not… but either way, I’m interested. I love teaching. I talked with my mom on our billion overflow minutes, made soup for dinner, uploaded photos to the Internet, and watched American Idol. I love that show. It’s so fun to watch amazing talents just flourish. It’s half past eight and I’m exhausted. I’m almost comfortable with the time change. Almost.
Here I am all alone. I’m not complaining and I’m not sad—though I always miss Ray when he’s away for any longer than a day. The good news is, when he comes back, we’re house hunting the very next day! He’s been getting really excited and cannot seem to keep himself from thinking about houses all day either, so this may be good to occupy him. Business trips tend to do that, I think. I’ll admit, too, that I drove around and saw one of our top 3 houses again today. I LOVE the area of the house and can’t wait to call this area officially home! This morning, we woke up in the 6 o’clock hour again to snow. The news tells us that we’ll be getting a foot within 24 hours. We were worried about flight cancelations because Southwest and other airlines already canceled over 200 flights. Luckily, they were flying American into a zone that is without snow, Atlanta. Ray drove and picked up Lothar, then off to O’Hare. We got there in less than 30 minutes with no traffic. The snow was really light so we weren’t too worried. I dropped them off and set the GPS back home. I had no problem navigating and the highway was really easy! It took me less than 30 minutes back and since I was pretty comfortable in the snow at this point, I headed to the post office and
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5 comments:
Good luck on the house hunting! It is such a great new chapter for you! Fingers crossed that you find what you like and for the right price!
Best of luck with finding a new home!
Are you back in Illinois for good now??
No... we head back to Germany for just 3 weeks... but hopefully we'll have an offer down on our house before then! :)
Good luck with house hunting. All three of the houses are beautiful.
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