Easter Weekend in Michigan

I left East Stroudsburg around 7am on Good Friday to head west on I-80 with the destination of Ann Arbor, MI. I was on I-80 for about 6 hours until I reached Toledo, OH, where I finally departed from that excessively dull interstate for I-475, followed by I-75 and Route 23 North. I took exit 41 for Plymouth Road and made my way to the Sweetwater Coffee House to meet Heather. I of course greeted her with my neon orange shoes so she couldn't miss me sauntering over to her car.
We chatted for about an hour and I chose to sip on a chocolate cappuccino, which is ironic given that I don't like hot beverages. I figured that now that I'm 24, I should be more open to new beverages. We both laughed over the fact that Heather doesn't even like coffee, but she got me to drink a coffee product without even trying.

Following our chat, we drove to her apartment so I could drop my things off. We then ventured to the Faber Piano Institute, where she works, and then went on to Potbelly's for dinner. I chose the chicken cheddar sandwich, while Heather had the Wreck. Her boyfriend, Luke, met up with us for dinner, and then we went to the Good Friday service at the Fellowship Bible Church. Heather introduced me to the pastor, assistant pastor, and a handful of friends before we all went out to Biggby Coffee. I chose to have a mocha latte, another surprise for the evening. Once Biggby closed, Heather, Luke, and I went to downtown Ann Arbor so that I could get the night tour of the University of Michigan. We wandered past the M Den, Michigan Theater, and I chose to be spiteful and step on the Diag. We then went to NYPD for pizza before heading home to sleep since it was almost 1am.

The next morning, we went to The Broken Egg for brunch. I went with the cinnamon french toast and a glass of milk. After brunch, we drove around Ann Arbor in search of parking. We were confused about why there was such an influx of people to downtown until we realized that April 7th was the first day of Hash Bash, the weeklong marijuana festival held every year. We made our way to the M Den for a quick bit of shopping, where I learned that the colors for U of M are blue and MAIZE, not blue and yellow. I opted to buy a shirt that says, Geh' Blau!, which means "Go Blue" in German.

In order to avoid the chaos of downtown and the sweet smell of Mary Jane, we chose to drive up to Frankenmuth, MI. This little town is known as the Little Bavaria of Michigan, so I felt right at home with the timber buildings and polka music. Our first stop was Bronner's Christmas Store, which is the largest Christmas store in the world. Heather and I found some ornaments to buy, but Luke kept liking the ornaments that cost $18, so he skipped purchasing any. We then went to the Leather Shop and went into the gift shop of the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn. I had a fun chat with one of the women working in the leather shop. We somehow determined that she was on work release from the insane asylum and that I should only shoplift if she could catch me because she would get $20 out of the deal. We then wandered up the street to the Cheese Haus and Fudge Kitchen. Our last stop was the Lager Mill so that Luke and I could pick up some beer. He suggested that I get Two Hearted Ale, which is what I chose.
Soon Luke drove us all to Sidetrack Bar and Grill in Ypsilanti, MI. To live up to its name, a train barreled past the window that our table was next too. It really caught me off guard, actually. I opted for a bacon cheeseburger and a local beer, which was delicious. As an appetizer, Luke and Heather ordered beer-battered pickles. We really enjoyed ourselves, but didn't stay out late so that Heather could try and sleep since her back was acting up a bit.
The next morning, I drove to Portage, MI, to spend Easter with my great aunt and uncle. I hadn't seen them in about two years and figured it would be silly to not drive the extra hour and a half to visit them while in Michigan. I arrived around 9am and my Aunt Jan greeted me with a big hug at the door. She asked how the drive was and showed me some pictures of my great grandparents. When Uncle Archie got home, they both asked about my degree and Uncle Archie wrote the name of it down so that he could research it more later. After chatting for about an hour, Uncle Archie drove us to the First United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo. Since we were early, he gave me the grand tour of the new wing of the church, complete with elevator and mini movie theater. After the tour, we chatted with some of the other church members before heading to the sanctuary for the service. The pastor spoke on Acts 10:34-43, which was the speech Peter gave at Cornelius' house.

Following the service, we drove around Kalamazoo and Western Michigan campus to check out the engineering buildings and solar panels set up by the auditorium. They then treated me to a prime rib lunch at the Great Lakes Shipping Company. After lunch, we went back to their house in Portage. Aunt Jan told me a bit about my grandmother over a dessert of lemonade pie and milk. They both also gave me some travel tips and Aunt Jan had me look at some more pictures from my great grandfather's 80th birthday party. They shared about their kids and grandkids, and we had a good laugh over the fact that Aunt Jan didn't really want to have her picture taken, though she eventually agreed.

Once I had been around for about nine hours, I made my way back to Ann Arbor for a late dinner with Heather and Luke. We went to Pizza House since Paesano was closed for the evening. We got the cheese breadsticks for an appetizer and a half cheese/half pepperoni pizza as our main course. We discussed music over our meal and then went back to Luke's so he could show me his Wolverine claws that he made for Halloween last year. Heather and I then went back to her place to watch an episode of Band of Brothers before sleeping.
I left Heather's around 7am on Monday morning to take the scenic route back to East Stroudsburg. To avoid the toll on I-80, I took a side trip along Route 2, which is part of the Lake Erie Circle Trail.
After transferring onto a few different roads, I found myself on the outskirts of Cleveland. I headed the back way to Youngstown, OH, before hopping onto I-80 east for my 300 mile haul back to the Burg. All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend.

Trek to the Mountain for Some Stress Relief

 On Wednesday, Chrissy and I decided to escape the Burg for some stress relief. We both needed it desperately, but for different reasons. For me, it was due to the frustration of job searching to no avail, whilst Chrissy has her last semester of classes and her prospectus looming. Needless to say, we needed some distractions. We started out by playing cards with my mother. This is always a good time because we throughly enjoy beating her and laughing about it. Since I needed something else to also keep my mind off the fact that my 15 year old cat, Midnight (aka Furface, Droolface, Demon Kitty), had just passed away in her sleep Monday, I decided to assemble a bunch of army men outside so that I could shoot them with a .22 rifle. Some might find this odd, but I find it to be quite soothing, and yes I promise I'm not some crazed psychopath. Anyways, my stress was quickly alleviated after aiming at the plastic army and Chrissy joined in on the fun. Soon, though, she had to work on her prospectus and I washed my car since it was filthy. Following a delicious steak dinner, my dad let us target practice with a .22 handgun and a .32 Ruger revolver. All in all, it was a very successful stress-relieving day =)

Bad Nauheim: A Town Known for Elvis, Saltwater, and Alligator Farms

On Thursday, our last full day in Germany, I had my usual breakfast of a buttered sesame seed roll and a cup of coffee. During breakfast, Uncle Winfred called and told Oma that he was going to take Nick and me to Bad Nauheim at 1:30pm. Since I assumed this would take up the majority of the day, I decided to run some errands in Oberursel-Mitte and pack before he arrived.

The trek to Bad Nauheim via the autobahn was only about a half an hour. As we got closer to town, my uncle started pointing at these brown signs that had a picture of an alligator and the word "farm" on them. Apparently on the outskirts of Bad Nauheim there is an alligator farm; go figure. My uncle parked on the street and as soon as we got out of the car, he pointed to the Cardiology Center that we were next to and said he had stayed there for three weeks at somepoint in the last year. This didn't really surprise me considering he has 5 stents already and he is pretty much a walking heart attack who smokes like a chimney. We then wandered over to what appeared to be a giant wall of roots with a water wheel, which is apparently one of many places where saltwater is mined and pumped to the surface in Bad Nauheim. We continued to wander through the park and into the main part of the town to the information center where there were banners advertising the upcoming Elvis festival. Apparently Elvis Presley was stationed in Bad Nauheim for 2 years while he served in the US army, and the town has lived off his legacy ever since.
Up the street from where we were was the Hotel Grunewald, which is on the corner of Elvis Presley-Platz. There is a monument erected in his memory across the street, which happened to have some flowers and candles placed on the ground in front of it, since people who can't make it to Graceland in Nashville tend to use this as a memorial to the King of Rock 'N Roll. After gazing at everything Elvis, we decided to have lunch at Wiener Kaffeehouse. I opted for a slice of chocolate cream cake with a cappucino, which was a marvelously delicious decision.
On our way home from Bad Nauheim, Uncle Winfred drove us up over the Feldberg and into Bad Homburg so that we could see some sights in the park there, including a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm, a Thai temple made of gold, and a fountain. Soon we were back at Oma's for our dinner of schnitzel and potatoes. Oma spent some time meowing at me and laughing because my cat back home is named Schnitzel and she has always been confused that I might actually eat my cat. The joys of a language barrier yet again. I guess the big surprise for everyone, though, was the fact that Uncle Winfred was actually drinking water out on the back patio. From my interpretation, I guess he typically will not eat or drink at Oma's because of the dog. The rest of the evening was spent chatting with Oma, Aunt Edith, Uncle Winfred, and Monika before heading off to bed for some sleep since we had to get up at 5am for breakfast before Herta and Ralf drove us to the airport.

As you can assume, we landed safely at JFK. Chrissy was kind enough to pick us up from the airport to drive us back to East Stroudsburg. I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with her about life from the past two weeks since we both have had a lot going on. I made sure to stay awake until 11:30pm in an attempt to get me back on a normal sleep schedule. This has only partly worked because I have been wide awake since 5:15am. Oh well, I have plenty of time to catch up on sleep and recuperate before I dive into the real world and try to find myself a job.

Pepper Grinders Are My New Weapon of Choice

Since I know tomorrow will probably be hectic with relatives coming in and out to say goodbye before we leave, I thought it best to update my blog tonight instead of tomorrow to limit my time out of the house. In doing so, I had to venture out into what I thought was a passing rain storm. This storm seemed to progress with my each and every step towards the internet cafe with whipping winds, donner und blitz (no not felt-tipped antlered reindeer for Christmas in July, but thunder and lightning), and eventually hail. So I am now sitting with wet pants and shoes (despite my umbrella) as I am typing this, so please appreciate the effort put in to bring this information to you.
Last night we went out to dinner with Aunt Edith, Aunt Herta, and Ralf to Pizzeria Giolio. Considering I know how the Germans make pizza, I opted for spaghetti and tomato sauce for the evening. We had appetizers of bruschetta, while Ralf had what appeared to be tuna salad. He asked the waiter for ground pepper, which in America, wouldn't be an intimidating task. Alas, in Germany, they must disperse pepper with Theodore Roosevelt in mind. The Germans live by the rule of "talk softly and carry a big pepper grinder" being as I'm pretty convinced this monstrosity was nearly three feet long. The remainder of dinner was very pleasant with casual conversation about sports, news, the weather, and how nothing in the world beats Apple products, at least according to Ralf.
As we exited the establishment, Ralf was hoping to get a picture of us all standing on the sidewalk. This went well until about 2 seconds before he took the picture, which was when Aunt Edith thought it would be funny to open her umbrella to block all of us from his camera. Eventually Ralf did get his picture, though it did take some coaxing. We then wandered to the Eis Cafe on the corner for some icecream and cappucino. I opted for the "Pinocchio" eis, which was a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate with two M and M's for eyes, and a cone for a hat and the tip of a cone for the nose so that it actually resembled Pinocchio. I ordered this for two distinct reasons: I enjoy being a kid and it was the smallest amount of icecream available. Following our icecream, we wandered back to Oma's for some rest.
Today I was awoken by Oma's version of an alarm clock; her knocking on the pipes in the kitchen with a pair of scissors so that the vibrations travel up to the radiator in my room. I soon wandered down for a breakfast of a buttered sesame seed roll and cup of coffee (13) and promptly entered into the most awkward breakfast conversation ever (yet strikingly normal for Oma). First she mentioned my late uncle and a trip she had taken with him, my dad, and one of my aunts when they were kids. Then she brought up how my Opa had a stroke in 2001 that impaired the left hand side of his body. This was followed by her stating that Opa told her that she wasn't Amalie, but his oma because she had gray hair and Amalie had black hair. To make things more interesting, she brought up how my aunt Edith's ex-husband used to be the one to take care of Opa when he was still alive. And to top things off, she asked me how my other grandmother is doing and that my dad really liked Pete (my late grandfather). After swallowing all of this and my breakfast, I went to retrieve Nick from upstairs so he could eat and we could leave with Uncle Winfred and Monika for our trek to Rüdesheim and Koblenz for the Bundesgardenschau (BUGA 11).

We left Oma's around 9am after Nick prayed for us in the garden. Our first stop was Rüdesheim, which is a quaint little town on the Rhine River. We wandered along cobblestoned streets, passed old hotels, and into shops. Monika bought some chocolate that she shared with us all. This chocolate was filled with Asbach, which is made in this region. Oh, I forgot to mention, but Asbach is cognac. Nothing like two cognac filled pieces of chocolate before 11am to give you a little extra jolt in the morning. After we finished wandering, Uncle Winfred donated our parking pass to a family from England so that they didn't have to pay.
He then drove us on a scenic road aong the Rhine that took us the 54km to Koblenz. The best way to describe this drive is as follows: Castles. Vineyards. Castles surrounded by vineyards. Vineyards surrounded by castles. Okay, so that last one might not be so accurate, but you catch my drift. Some of the names of these castles included Schloss Stolzenfels, Pfalzgrafenstein near Kaub, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Braubach mit Marksburg, and my personal favorite, Maüsturm. In Koblenz, we saw many flowers and another castle. Koblenz is where the Rhine River meets the Mosel River, which can be seen best from the gondola that goes up onto the hillside across the rivers. You can really see where the rivers meet because the Mosel has darker water than the Rhine. We also found time to wander through the Basilica of St. Kastor before catching a bus to the castle gardens. It was truly an experience to see all of the various flowers and architecture in and around Koblenz.

Following numerous hours walking around, Uncle Winfred drove us back to Oberursel via the autobahn. It was a pretty relaxing drive home, but he made sure he got the adrenaline pumping by going 180kpm (about 111mph). We got home safely, which this blog post is a testament to. Oma made eggs over easy, potatoes, and salad for dinner, which I washed down with some Coca Cola.
Tomorrow brings packing, cleaning, more coffee I'm sure, and the procession of 'goodbyes'. That for me is always somewhat awkward being as I never really know when and if I will see some of my relatives again. But no time to think about that. Time to head back to Oma's since the lovely little storm has now passed.

Friends, Fellowship, and le Tour de France

Nick and I awoke early on Saturday so that Uncle Winfred could drive us to the airport at 5am. This was so that we could catch our Air France flight to Paris. Other than the flight being delayed for 30 minutes, all went smoothly and we found ourselves in Charles de Gaulle airport by 10am. We wandered through the crowds to a tourist information booth in order to purchase our Paris Visite pass, which would allow for unlimited train travel for the next two days. We then wandered down to the tracks to hop on the B line to Saint Michel-Notre Dame. This was our first taste of French train travel, and it was pretty interesting.
Once we emerged from the train station, we found ourselves in the hustle and bustle of Central Paris. We made our way to a bridge across the Seine River, which gave us a spectacular view of Notre Dame Cathedral and Palais de Justice. We slowly walked in the direction of Notre Dame, taking numerous pictures along the way. To my chagrin, and Nick's amusement, I have very much turned into my father since I take numerous pictures of the same structure, just at different angles. We walked the perimeter of Notre Dame and I stopped briefly in a souvenir shop to purchase a Tour de France shirt for my Uncle Bob and myself. Soon we found ourselves on the steps of Shakespeare and Company, which is a local English bookshop that Nate had recommended to us. I thoroughly enjoyed this quaint little shop, and ended up buying a book by Bill Bryson on Shakespeare, which I'm sure will be hilarious.
After our stop in the bookshop, Nick and I ventured into the Latin Quarter. Everywhere we turned, we were intrigued by new sights and sounds. It began to rain, but instead of getting discouraged, we ducked into Le Petite de Cluny, which is a nice little French cafe. The food culture of France worked in our favor because by the time we finished sitting and eating our meal of a panini (Nick) and ham and cheese sandwich, the rain had cleared and we could venture on without getting completely soaked.
The next stop on our list of things to see in Paris was the Louvre. We took a train from the Latin Quarter to Chatelet, where we transferred to the 1 in order to get off at Louvre-Rivoli. If you haven't ever had the chance, I would highly recommend trekking to the Louvre because it is a spectacular piece of architecture. Nick and I could not get over how massive it was, and thoroughly enjoyed gazing at the structure. We didn't have time to go inside, and that would have been difficult anyway due to the fact that we had our backpacks with us. We then wandered off in the direction of the Arc de Triomph before veering off along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower. Nick and I were constantly pointing and saying, "That looks so cool! What is it?" We would then get out our map and realize that it was number 15 on the map, but we were too lazy to actually look it up. (Number 15 happens to be the Grand Palais for those interested). Other sights that we walked past but refused to look up at the time included Sainte Chappelle, Conciergie, Musee de l'Armee, Musee de Cluny, Musee de Orsay, and Petit Palais. We finally made our way to the base of the Eiffel Tower and spent a lot of time just gazing up at it in wonder.
Once we got tired and realized it was getting late, we decided to head back to the train station to make our way to Massy-Verrieres, which was where Nate was planning on picking us up. This, of course, was not an easy task given that part of the C line was under construction. This meant that we could take the C line from the Eiffel Tower to Invalides, where we had to hop the 8 train to Concorde and then the 4 train to Chatelet before we could get on the B line towards Massy-Verrieres. Nate and Kaden were very happy to see us once we arrived and we had a pleasant car ride back to the apartment, where I thoroughly enjoyed the comfort and simplicity of watching Cars with Kaden and rolling a marble back and forth on the floor.

It was nice to have a vacation within our vacation with Nate, Erica, Kaden, and Luca. Nothing quite like spending time with English-speaking, Christians in my book. We had a lovely dinner of paninis, which Nick is very astute at creating and making, to the point that we believe he should bail on his nursing profession and open up his own little panini cafe. We enjoyed pleasant conversation and shared understanding of the difficulties in the language barrier and how sometimes you end up agreeing to things you don't mean to agree to.
Sunday morning we had a breakfast of croissants before wandering to Eglise Reformie Evangelique for church. The sermon of course was all in French and I could only understand the word "Jesus", but I still felt very much at home with my fellow believers. Apparently the message was based upon Peter's denial of Christ, which is found at the end of Matthew 26. I passed my time by copying down the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed in French from the back of the hymnal for a friend back home. After the sermon, I was approached by I woman. I told her that I did not speak French, and she promptly spoke to me in English and asked me if I was associated with the language school. I said that I had relatives in Germany that I was visiting and that I knew Nate and Erica. Apparently this woman has a 27 year old daughter living in Germany that she and her husband were going to be visiting for 8 days soon before travelling to Ireland. I was then approached by another woman dressed completely in magenta. She was very friendly and apparently her name is Evelyn. We had a very lengthy conversation about how she grew up in the Champagne region of France and how they have plenty of vineyards and strict quality codes to follow in order to make champagne. She isn't a fan of the cheap champagne that is produced in California, which I can understand. She shared about her younger years, which apparently included a 3 month kabutz in Israel. She was very happy that I taught her that in English, a portable is a cell phone. She actually took out a little notepad to write this down, which I thought was cool. I also informed her that the German's call it a handy before parting ways.

I went outside to find Nick and Kaden playing on the playground. We soon wandered home for a very quick lunch of sandwiches before Nick, Nate, Kaden, and I went into Paris to watch the last stage of le Tour de France. We staked out a spot on Rue de Rivoli, just up from the corner of Rue de Moldovi, which is across the street from the Louvre. First, there was a parade of random cars advertising everything from water to lighters. Then all of the team cars and buses drove by. Then came the long wait for the cyclists. I knew that they were coming due to the helicopter flying above us, obviously filming the race. I got some pretty cool pictures and video of the racers flying by on 4 of the 7 loops that they do. We decided to bail early so that we could go to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.
We took a train to a station that apparently has a lot of stairs, so we waited with everybody else to get on the elevator. I was surprised to see how massive this elevator was; probably the combined size of my kitchen and living room at my apartment in the Burg. We went up one floor and foolishly got off, bringing some unlucky people with us. We then had to walk up four flights of a spiral staricase before we reached the exit of the station. We were greeted by more stairs up to Sacre Coeur, but the view over Paris that we got was definitely worth it. Nick and I did the quick walking tour of Sacre Coeur and then enjoyed the street performers. There was a guy on a pedestal performing amazing tricks with a soccer ball, along with a man on the steps playing acoustic versions of "Let it Be" and "Wonderwall". We then went back down to the base of the stairs so that Kaden could end his day on a high note: the carousel.
Around 8pm we wandered back into the apartment for another delicious meal Erica prepared. This time it was sausage on a bed of white rice with tomato sauce, green beans, and French fries (my first time ever eating them in France). It was a very relaxing evening filled with fun conversation, a tasty chocolate chip cookie cake extravaganza, music, and prayer. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to gather in fellowship and pray for one another before crawling into bed.
Monday, Nick and I found ourselves on a plane back to Frankfurt. We landed around 11am, and ended up taking a scenic bus ride through Frankfurt to Süd Bahnhof because we got on the 61 bus instead of the shuttle to Terminal 1. We then hopped on the S5 back to Oberursel, where we wandered the streets of Altstadt, had lunch at the bakery, and sat and relaxed on the steps of St. Ursula's church. When we arrived back at Oma's, we were greeted with cake and coffee. Uncle Winfred and Monika were there and giving us details on the trip we will make to Koblenz tomorrow. I was also greeted with the surprise that I had actually won €27.50 when I played the lotto for Oma the previous week. I also learned that Winfred has an astute sense of hearing because he told us to be quiet and listen to the car driving by; apparently it was a Ferrari. Who knew my family was filled with such fun secret talents? The rest of the afternoon was spent lazily watching television, eating a dinner of rice and chicken in white sauce, and chatting with Aunt Edith. A very long, but relatively refreshing day.
Finally, for those interested in the score, it's Kayla 12; coffee 0.