Boys, Culture, Professional Life, Travel, USA

Oh X-mas Pickle, You Warm My Cold German Heart

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It’s The Most – Wonderful Time – of The Yearrrrrr! I realize hordes of people exclaim that they cannot wait for the holidays to be over  but I surely am not one of them! We’re in the midst of the Holidays and I’m loving it!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite US holidays of the year: Great food, great company and remembering all the many reasons to be thankful for make for a wonderful day if you ask me. For a low stress version of the day I opted to forgo the wonderful and very elaborate feast at one of my best friend’s family’s house this year and instead do a low key dinner and relax at zee boyfriend’s home.

Arugula salad, a turkey breast, gravy, boxed cornbread stuffing, bacon brussel sprouts, frozen sweet potato souflee, cranberry chutney that I made the night before and store bought pecan pie with ice cream made for an easy but fantastic dinner! All recipes here. We all lit a candle and said what we are thankful for – which I thought was a sweet tradition to adopt from M’s family.

Freedom Tower Nov 2012Every year the day after Thanksgiving I have to travel to New York for a tradeshow. I really despise the schedule for that show but have started to look at it as “how lucky am I to travel to one of the coolest cities in the world when all the holiday decorations are up?!” It seems to work a little bit to get a positive attitude but still…. What always makes having that holiday weekend crushed to a one day weekend better is meeting up with old friends. This year the fabulous Maren showed me some of her favorite places around Washington Square and I chatted for hours with my college friends Katie and her published author hubby Dave about life, love and intercultural coupling. Wish we all lived closer! They also gave me the tip that the Met has a recommended admission fee so I snuck in there for an hour for $5 before flying home.

Macy'sRockefeller CenterEmpire State Bldg


Oh also, I ate grasshoppers. Did not enjoy their legs in my mouth but the flavor was decent. Only in New York…

Well I’m finally home and brought a nasty cold with me (fail).  Sickly, having a cold always makes me really excited about making chicken noodle soup (OMG it’s sooo good) so I giddily chopped potatoes and carrots with my love. Same wonderful guy came over and cooked a green minestrone for me last night. I feel so loved.

Christmas PickleAmidst all that my Christmas tree came out and it now even has its very own Christmas Pickle. This is supposedly a German tradition – except nobody in Germany hangs pickles in their trees. Oh America. Thank you for thinking labeling something German will make it a best seller. Alas, I do love my Christmas Pickle sooo!

Twenty more days until Christmas! I still have to make a handful of hand-made gifts and buy some but am about half way done with gift shopping. Got my hand on some German Christmas chocolates and cookies from Aldi (as well as GREAT tangerines! Most of the ones I find in the US have a yucky consistency and have seeds… *tangerine snob*). Hope y’all are embracing advent or which ever other holidays you are celebrating! If you are still looking for gifts, I’d much appreciate if you’d consider my hand-made jewelry. Thanks for reading y’all!

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Me, Myself & I, Professional Life, Travel

30 – Shouldn’t I be…

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Thirty. Yep, that’s how old I turned this summer. Sounds really old to some people – sounds really young to my grand-parents. Looking back to my teenage years and early twenties, thirty was definitely the grown up crowd. You were supposed to be established in life, have a career, be wise and know everything and overall just be a grown up, mature, and serious person (unless you fell into the rare category cool adult).

So here I am, officially 30 and hopefully a cool adult and not a super serious old fart. I’ve definitely done some cool worthy activities but at the same time my silly inner ear infection induced vertigo has definitely made me feel like the lamest old fart. Le sigh!

I gave a very mature speech as the maid of honor at one of my best friend’s weddings – yet it was much less formal and more fun than the other speakers (I think they were yet at least a decade older though). But a weekend later we had tons of fun being silly at a roller skating rink for my birthday and the after-party at a bar included a burning taxi (how is that for coolness, huh?!)

I suppose your thirties are the decade that you can balance fun with life’s serious sides. I’ve been able to go on vacations because I finally have worked enough years with my company to have a comfortable (wait, there are never enough) amount of vacation days and my rainy day fund is filled so savings can go towards fun trips.

It’s interesting to leave that phase in my twenties where I would still ask myself “What do I want to do with life after college?”. I doubt I will be changing too much in my career now and I like where I live. It’s kind of nice not having to worry about that for a while. I still have goals, personal and professional, but it’s nice not having to figure out a grand master plan right this minute. Though looking back at what I thought I’d be doing at 30 from five to ten years ago I feel like I should be much further along in the grand scheme… Anyone with me?

Owning a dog, and a car and living in a two bedroom apartment as opposed to sharing one or inhibiting a studio makes me feel grown up. And my furniture somehow matches (mostly anyway… shhhhh desk that I found free on the streets)! Yet I somehow feel that I should be able to paint my place’s walls and perhaps pay a mortgage rather than rent. Perhaps I should drive a car that doesn’t squeak when I round a corner (OK my driving might be part of that). And shouldn’t I have gotten promotions and raises (OK that might be because of my visa and the stupid recession but still)? And shouldn’t my facebook photo albums show me in exotic places like Tel Aviv, Costa Rica, Edinburgh, and on Mount Fuji? I feel like I am failing myself a little bit in all those categories.

So anyway, here’s to more personal development and no stagnation!

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Boys, Family, Friends, Travel, Uncategorized, USA

Lucky Me

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Shamrock

Hello hello!
I’ve been feeling quite lucky these days and thought I’d blog a bit. Well, my throat is hurting quite a bit again (on and off for the past 3 weeks really but now it’s back full force after a fun filled weekend). But other than that…

Lucky #1: So my friends here make fun of me here because every time a firetruck drives by I wave and get all excited and drool over the firefighters. The other day I get a facebook message from a firefighter (normally I ignore those “stalking” messages but come on, from a fireman!) so we chatted a bit and we went on a date. Firefighter date! Free sushi! Great times! Invitation to attend firefighter recruitment school graduation! Got to sit in firetruck! Fireman suggested Cheesecake Factory! Firefighter seems like a fine guy with brains and muscles, three dates so far. Yay!

Lucky #2: I went to Chapel Hill a good week ago to see UNC play some football. We bought some tickets from some people at Craig’s List and then went to eat pizza at California Pizza Kitchen. Yum! There were people at the next table and they asked the waitress if she wanted their extra game tickets. Well, she had to work then still but my friend asked if we could have them instead and yes, they gave us REALLY good tickets for free. We gave ours away to somebody else then and got to sit in row 9, really close to the field. Super cool!

Lucky #3: On the way back from Chapel Hill to Charlotte the speedlimit was 70. Well, no body ever goes the speedlimit but I guess I got a bit carried away and I was going around 83 or so. All of a sudden I see some lights come on behind me and hear sirens. Grrrrreeeaaat…. So the trooper pulls me over. “You’ve got to be careful who you’re passing. You were taking my doors off flying by me”. Ooops! Well he was really nice. I told him I was anxious to get home and catch the Panthers game because I like running when they play. What the heck but it was true… So he checks my license and he comes back and tells me to turn on the radio to this and that channel so that I could listen to the game! I wound up with a warning, not a ticket so that was REALLY lucky! What a nice cop! Well, no more speeding for me, I always said I’d stop after the first warning.

Lucky #4: Oh yeah so I was out sick for 2 weeks and then the week before that my friend Jens was visiting but nonetheless when I went back to the gym, I was super good and ran 5km in one piece!! Didn’t plan on doing that and wasn’t scheduled to do that either but I just kept jogging and at some point the dreadmill said 3.1 miles. Yay! Now I just need to put that to the streets. Ugh.

Lucky #5: My poor sister who was traveling in India got ill with appendicitis and was in hospital over there in the little nook between Nepal and Pakistan and China in the north. SCARY!! Luckily though she did not have to have surgery (she had to remind them to disinfect her skin before setting the IV and stuff like that so yikes!) and got to catch a flight back home the day she got out of hospital and is now safely back home in Germany. Yay! I mean it sucks and all but I think she was lucky in the end!!

There’ve been some other really lucky things happening but I don’t remember them all but yeah overall I have been very blessed. Oh like I was leading my fantasy football league the other day but uhm yeah not anymore after this weird football weekend. How’s everybody doing? Happy fall!!

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Family, Friends, Professional Life, Travel, USA

Back from The Summer Break

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Ah yes so I have decided to call my absence from the blogging world my own personal summer break like any good TV show does. Sounds so much better than saying oh I was too busy and too lazy to write and read blogs. 😉
Alas, summer is officially over in this country after Labor Day, the first Monday in September. Seeing that it has been warm here for a loooong time, I never got a real summer feeling. Hmmm. :-/

Family Visit
So shortly after I came back from visiting my sister and Uti in Connecticut, Anke flew out here and we had a great day downloading her music *rolls eyes* and going to Luca’s pool. We then ordered pizza and ate it with skyline view on his balcony. Nice!
The next day we picked up our parents from the airport. Yay!!! It was über great to see them again after all these months! We enjoyed some lovely cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and then watched some olympics and sent the parents to bed early and hung out with Ash for a bit.
The next day they got to enjoy their birthday gift, which was a couples massage. They really enjoyed that so I can recommend that as a gift! I went running and then did my neighbor a favor and let Bacon out. He was definitely one of the sights to see for my family. Next up was a trip to my company where the parents took their time talking to all the Italians. It was quite funny. 🙂 We then went for a walk in Latta Plantation park. Loads of cicadas (yuk) and fire ants (yuk). Quick stop at Aldi to buy some German beer and then finally we had some sushi at Ru Sans and Gerd was too cute eating it with a fork. Hehe.
It was pouring on Wednesday so we decided to go to the museum. The Discovery Place has an exhibit about Pompeii. Very very interesting. Afterwards we hung out in the general exhibit halls and had a blast playing with the optical illusions. 😀 We cooked yummy chicken that night and watched more olympics.
Thursday we relaxed and then went to Target and then walked uptown to Alive after 5. Thankfully some kids tossed an energy drink at Anke as soon as we got there so we didn’t have to feel bad for her not being 21 yet and enjoyed a cool beer. After having some fun there we took the light rail back home and started cooking. My neighbor stopped by to give me his old TV and he and his friends hauled it up the stairs. He sent them home then and stayed to have a beer with my family, which was only mildy weird. (I mean hello?!)
Friday we drove to Charleston. Oh funny story, we stopped to get gas on the way and after filling up I went inside to wash my hands. The plan was to go to McDonalds and get a coffee but when I got back, my step-dad was gone. Says Mama “oh he just walked to the waffle house”. Uhm, ok. Sketchy area and he walks to the crappy waffle house… uhm ok. So we get in the car and try to go there only to pass a garage with cars with bullet holes. Oh-kay. Well we finally make it to the Waffle House and we have a coffee and share some waffles. Totally very American movie like. It was kind of cute how my parents were so carefree and didn’t think anything about wandering around the sketchy area. Ah yeah the sweet German life.
Well once we got to Charleston we headed straight to the beach on Isle of Palms and it was oh so nice. It was overcast but warm and the water was nice and warm too and we had a great time splashing in the waves and walking around the beach. Grabbed some Wendy’s for dinner and then more olympics and bed.
Saturday we walked around the city and Mama dragged us through the souvenir shops (not that we bought anything… ;-)). Weird weather. The sky was white and it was super humid. Charleston definitely is better to see in spring.
We got back to Charlotte in the evening and hosted a little dinner for some close friends. Bratwurst, broccoli, potatoes and sauce holondaise. How German can it get?! 😉 Super nice time and then the family had to start packing again. Hmpf! 🙁 Dropped them off at the airport Sunday morning and I was really sad. It was kind of nice to have a sister in the same country and I can’t wait to see them all again for Christmas (the latest… you never know).

Trade Show in Atlanta
The day after my parents left I left for a week in Atlanta with my company. We had the industry’s 2nd largest tradeshow world wide. I love the customer interaction, all the fantastic dinner food, and getting to know your co-workers on a less professional basis. We ate at really good places and I think I gained 2kg just from that. I have to say, my favorite was a Brazilian Steakhouse where they had a gorgeous salad bar and then bring you all you can eat meat. Yummy!!! As always my co-workers and boss made fun of me big time for eating so much. What can I say, I love food!
Went out with the company to an Irish pub and then tried to party a bit more at our hotel but the security people quickly put an end to that. Hmpf! Getting up at 6:30 though was always super hard and I was glad to go back home a day earlier than originally planned. It took me almost a week to recover from that week!! But, I heart them trade shows.

Other Stuff
– I’ve been doing Podrunner intervals to train for a 5km run and I actually ran 2 miles without stopping the other day (that is really good for me! ;-)). This week my legs are hurting quite a bit though. I’m thinking split-shin and am kind of taking a break. Ugh! I miss jogging and don’t want to lose what I have just built up!
– Had a nice labor day weekend with a spontaneous surprise visit from my NJ high school friend and her boyfriend and we partied it up with some of the Italians. Her boyfriend actually plays the fiddle and we had a little private concert in the middle of the night at my place. I guess that’s gonna be a once in a life time thing. Met a cute guy at the club with them and we danced and kissed the entire night like teenagers. It was kinda nice but no dates or anything like that.
– The friggin’ economy is annoying me like crazy and I will only work 4 days a week starting next week. Grrrrrrrrr! It sucks when your life depends on one job, meaning if they’d lay me off I’d have to go back to Germany. Starting next month I will be on my other visa (and my internship is over) so at least I could theoretically transfer the visa to another job if they are willing to file the paperwork but there’s almost nothing out there right now. Very frustrating. Can the recession be over, please?! Bring on the elections!
– This week one of my best friends from Germany is visiting. He had a business thing going on in Asheville and got to stay a bit longer to visit. Yay! We wanted to hike around in the mountains on Sunday and then drop him off in Asheville but the car had a flat tire so instead we hiked around hours at Wal*Mart. Soooo annoying! And their service was horrible, too!!!
Got to Asheville at 8 and then we walked around the city for a bit and enjoyed their hippie festival. Well I had to drive back to Charlotte and got back at midnight so I have been kind of exhausted but ok. Wednesday Jensi got back here and we watched Wanted in the one theater that still had it running. Last night after grocery shopping we watched football and the boys played video games at Ash’s place. I think tonight he wants to eat steak so my stupid hot neighbor gave a me a big explanation of all the good steak options in town but I think it will be Outback seeing that my budget is getting tighter. Well, and tomorrow he is already flying back to Germany. 🙁 So nice to have an old friend here.

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