Car Fixing and Examining Flood Damage

On September 10, Josh and I left early in the morning to head to his parent's house in Granville Summit. Most would view this as nothing out of the ordinary, except two days before, remnants of a tropical storm dumped 9 inches of rain on the Susquehanna River Valley, which in turn submerged numerous roads and towns. As we headed north, we noted many flood ravaged areas and could actually see how high the water had been considering there was a layer of mud on the tree leaves. We stopped at the Asylum overlook in Marie Antoinette so that we could get a nice view of the swollen and muddy Susquehanna.
Once we reached Wyalusing, we needed to start taking detours because water still covered numerous roads, making them impassable. After some meandering around, we made our way back onto Route 6 West, only to be diverted again outside Wysox. After the detours and taking the other end of the road, we finally made it to Josh's parents.
We ate lunch before Josh set to work fixing the shift cable in his car. I spent my time pacing and discussing different topics with his family. Once the car got fixed, we decided to go for a walk to look at some of the flood damaged roads. There was one road that was completely chewed up by all of the water at one end. As we continued walking along the road, it soon became apparent that the road was no longer a road, but a stream. The pipe going under the road had become partially blocked, which diverted the stream from it's actual route and converted the road into a stream. As you can see, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Josh and I then backtracked and made our way to the other end of the road he lives on to see why it was closed. Pretty much, the pipe was washed away, caving the road in so that there is now a 20 foot drop-off. Needless to say, it's amazing how powerful water can truly be in immense amounts.
The rest of our evening was quite pleasant. We all had pizza for dinner and the general consensus was that chicken wing pizza with bleu cheese tastes like paint. Following dinner and conversing, we decided it was best to begin the trek south again. In order to avoid the detours we encountered on the trip north, we opted for driving through Williamsport on the way back to East Stroudsburg.

New Orleans: Bike Tour, Jazz, Riverboat Cruise, and the Red Hat Society

On August 16, Chrissy and I were kindly driven to JFK airport by our friend, Oliver, at 2am. We arrived at JFK around 4:30am in order to catch our 6:45am flight to NOLA. We got through security easily and then had time to nap on and off before boarding our JetBlue flight, which happened to get delayed an hour.
We landed in NOLA at 9:30am and quickly found a cab to take us to the French Quarter. Upon arriving, we strolled through the French Market. We passed the Joan of Arc statue and continued our walk along the Mississippi River. Soon we found ourselves in front of a statue of Bienville, the founder of New Orleans, before wandering past the House of Blues. We chose to loop back towards Jackson Square, where we heard some decent street performers playing jazz. We scooted through Pirates Alley and then decided to rest and have beignets at Cafe du Monde. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the beignets were phenomenal! Some more street performers could be heard playing across the street as we ate, which just made the experience even better.
After sitting for about an hour, we continued to wander the French Quarter, poking around shops and taking in our surroundings until we decided to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Ambassador Hotel for our three nights. Apparently it used to be an old coffee warehouse, which makes for some very unique room setups. We had a glass door and window that opened into the hallway, along with 12-foot ceilings in our room. The hotel also happened to be right across from a fountain that was a part of the Italian Embassy on Tchoupitoulas Street. Chrissy and I chose to frolic in the fountain in an attempt to cool off in the hot weather. Soon, we found ourselves back along the Mississippi enjoying the Riverwalk and the breeze until we thought it was best to take a nap since sleep the night before did not exist.

Following our four hour nap, Chrissy and I went out to Huck Finn's Cafe for dinner. I chose a chicken sandwich while Chrissy settled for a pulled pork po-boy. It was a very relaxing evening and our waitress was quite pleasant. After dinner, the river was calling us so we sat along the banks of the Mississippi to absorb the peace that can only be found in the middle of the night with the breeze of the river against your face.
The next morning we awoke early in order to get some breakfast in the hotel before meeting with our tour guide, Bob, from Big Easy Bike Tours. We soon embarked on our epic 5 hour bike tour around the city. We began along the Mississippi River and checked out the Holocaust Memorial. Bob then explained how the highest elevation in the city could be found along the river's banks and that flood waters from Katrina actually came from Lake Pontchartrain, before entering the French Quarter. Bob explained all of the architecture to us and how the original houses only had side entrances when they were built and how they all had to be made of brick due to fires that had broke out in the city, though most of the brick had been covered in plaster and artisans had etched the plaster to look like large blocks. He also explained and pointed out the design of the original cobblestone streets in the city. Bob led us down Esplanade Avenue, continuing his thorough explanations of the architecture and the color schemes that could be found in particular neighborhoods. Eventually we found ourselves in a cemetery, which was full of mausoleums, the burial preference in New Orleans due to the sandy soil and water being found six feet down. Bob thoroughly described how the family plots were used and couldn't be reopened for a year and a day after somebody was placed inside the tomb. During times of yellow fever, rental tombs were utilized before the bodies were placed into the family tomb. Bob also explained that if one could not afford a family tomb that a society tomb was an option. There were Italian, Fisherman, and Nun tombs to name a few of the different societies. We continued on towards the New Orleans Museum of Art and into the park to look at the oak trees. We soon stopped so that we could have our picture taken next to a 600 year old tree before continuing on towards the Garden District after passing Tulane Medical Hospitals. Once in the Garden District, Bob pointed out some of the traditional mansions and architecture of the area, along with some homes that appeared out of place due to the paint choices on the exterior. We also went by some celebrity homes, which included Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, John Goodman, the home where Peyton and Eli Manning grew up (which had a car outside so Bob figured one of them was actually home), and Sandra Bullock. Bob then brought us to Tracey's for lunch. He told us how the po-boy got its name and shared how he got into the bike tour business. After lunch, we slowly pedaled back to our hotel for the completion of our tour.
Following our bike tour, we relaxed and discussed possible evening activities. We decided to wander the shops at the Riverwalk Marketplace before catching the ferry (on our third attempt) across the river to Old Algiers, which was on the west bank of the Mississppi River. There was a statue of Louis Armstrong erected near the ferry dock and a levee that we wandered along in the light summer drizzle before we crossed back across the Mississippi. We opted for fries at Huck Finn's Cafe before heading back to the hotel.
Thursday morning we hopped a streetcar on St. Charles Street in order to get to Tulane University so that Chrissy could explore the school she had always hoped to attend, but could also serve as a future place of employment. In our usual style, we made a beeline for the University Bookstore. After the bookstore, we found the Political Science building and were actually able to give a woman directions to the bookstore since we had just been there. We took the streetcar back towards Lafayette Square after circling Lee Circle, which has a statue of General Lee facing north because southerners believe he would never turn his back on the enemy.
After a brief stop at our hotel room, we wandered down to the Mississppi River to board the Steamboat Natchez for our 2 hour riverboat cruise up the river. We learned about the levees, the 9th ward, and the different boats that could be found on the river. We passed the Old US Mint and the Domino Sugar factory, along with a Navy Yard. Our boat turned around near St. Bernard Port, which was about 8 miles downriver, before heading back towards the Crescent City. Chrissy and I wandered aft so that we could take pictures of the paddlewheel that powered the steamboat. We also went through the gift shop and into the dining room to try and hear some jazz, but they only had a piano player.
Once we docked, we got beignets at Cafe du Monde and I bought a shirt at the Harley Davidson store before we decided to walk up Decatur Street to Frenchman Street in order to relax in Washington Square. We sprawled out in the grass so that we could relax after our long day. There happened to be a group of people doing yoga/practicing for their own mini version of Cirque du Soleil. I also enjoyed watching two dogs play fetch whilst being the supportive/corrupting friend that I am by having Chrissy start pondering her next tattoo seriously since we wandered past a tattoo shop on our way to Washington Square. On our way back to the hotel, we did make inquiries at the tattoo shop before making our way back through the French Quarter to the Ambassador Hotel. For dinner, we chose to eat at the Extreme Sports Bar and Grille that was next to our hotel. I settled for a burger and fries for fuel before we headed back out in search of some decent jazz on Frenchman Street.
After a bit of wandering, we chose to enter The Spotted Cat, which was definitely a great decision. Not only was the music amazing, but there were a handful of individuals who were dressed in 1920s garb and swing dancing like there was no tomorrow. I was so glad that we could finally witness some excellent jazz in the city where that style of music was born. Once we left The Spotted Cat, we walked down Bourbon Street before cutting across the French Quarter to sit by the river. Unfortunately some security officers kicked us off of the steps of the riverwalk, so we chose to just go back to the hotel to get some sleep.
On our last morning, we packed up our belongings and ate some cereal in the room for breakfast. We checked out and went to the Riverwalk Marketplace to do some last minute shopping. On our walk there, we saw a bunch of women decked out in purple shirts and red hats. This didn't come as a surprise to us considering every day we happened to run into a large group of these women almost everywhere we went. Apparently the Red Hat Society was having a convention in the Big Easy, which I found entertaining. Following our shopping, we opted for some free wine tasting at the NOLA Tropical Winery. The wine was made from blueberries, strawberries, mangos, oranges, and coffee. The woman who worked at the winery was very entertaining and kept giving us a wide variety of wines to taste. In order to avoid an early morning buzz at 10:30am, we hotfooted it to Pinkberry in order to fill up on frozen yogurt. We then decided to walk down Canal Street in order to loop up to Bourbon Street so that we could continue shopping. After about an hour, we made our way towards Cafe du Monde for some frozen cafe au lait and beignets. Along the way we stopped to watch and take pictures of some street performers. Unfortunately, we happened to come across a very aggressive street performer who started following me and demanding a tip because I had taken pictures. After escaping that situation, we were able to relax at Cafe du Monde, browse some more shops, and lay out in Jackson Square before fetching a cab on Toulouse Street. Our cabbie was quite entertaining as we listened to him give a friend relationship advice on the phone. We checked in and made it through security so that we could lounge at our gate for 2 hours. We then boarded our plane on time, but due to horrendous weather in New York City, we were grounded on the tarmac for two hours. Luckily they handed out snacks and beverages and we soon got cleared for takeoff. We landed at JFK at 12:15am and met up with Oliver who was kind enough to drive us home to East Stroudsburg. Now it's back to reality and the frantic job search continues.

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.

Which Way to Oberhochstadt?

During dinner Tuesday night, I thought I would ask a harmless question about how much the bus fare is to Oberhochstadt. Due to communication issues and my Oma being who she is, this turned into a phone call to my Aunt Edith informing her that Nick and I were coming for a visit. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, especially because I was exhausted from wandering around Frankfurt for hours. Instead of trying to explain, it was much easier to just get on a bus and go visit my aunt.
Another pitfall in this situation was that Oma didn't really explain where to get off the bus very well, and the bus driver was none too helpful to put it nicely. Needless to say when we did get off the bus at Sodener Straße and started walking, we came across a sign that said Kronberg 2km and underneath that was the word "Oberhochstadt" crossed out in red like a "no smoking" sign. Being as my aunt lives in Oberhochstadt, this was definitely not a good sign. After wandering around a bit, though, we finally came across Feldberg Straße and saw Aunt Edith perched on her balcony. She didn't mind that we were late, but ever since Tuesday night, Oma has made sure to tell anyone and everyone that we got lost and didn't listen to her. I'm pretty sure as they are reading this, my parents are chuckling because they have already been informed of this bit of information. Ahhhhh the joys of family. If I happen to comeback to the states resembling an alligator, it's due to the thick skin I have acquired.
Wednesday was a relatively uneventful day. I decided to remain at Oma's to read and watch le Tour de France on television with Oma. Aunt Herta and Ralf stopped by after work again and about an hour later, Uncle Winfried and Monika stopped in. After sitting around the kitchen table for an hour, Uncle Winfried (who I refer to in my head by another name because I swear he resembles a recently deceased dictator) offered to take Nick and me to Bad Homburg. I find their apartment complex to be almost James Bond-like because you need a key to open the gate to the underground garage. He showed us my cousin Bernd's motorcycle before we went inside. Bernd was on his way out the door, but he stopped long enough to show Nick the owner's manual to his motorcycle and give him one of his Rolls Royce work shirts. Uncle Winfried then drove him to Maiburg to visit his girlfriend and made it back in record time, which probably had a lot to do with him driving on the autobahn at 200 kph (that's about 120 mph for those scrambling to do the math or those who are too lazy to do so and just vaguely nodding in feigned understanding). Monika explained to us that Uncle Winfried's heart isn't doing so great. He has had 5 stents put in and the doctor will not let him work. He is also on betablockers and a bloodthinner, which caused him a 1 week trip to the hospital last year due to a 4hr long bloody nose from a burst vessel in his sinuses. Being brave, I told Uncle Winfried that his smoking was nicht so gut. He laughed and now gets my attention everytime he goes out for a smoke. Can we say stubborn German? Good to know it's genetic, as is the love of guns because Uncle Winfried also showed us his collection. Monika also invited us to come with them to Koblenz next week for the bundesgardenschau, so that should be fun.
Yesterday the sun was out for maybe a half hour before it started pouring. I read for awhile until the weather cleared up and then Nick and I took a train to Bad Homburg. We wandered through the park, which was stocked with endless modern art. There was one piece that I liked that had two large wine glass tipped over with red and white flowers on the ground representing the spilled wine. We walked through Karstadt and down Louise Straße. Ate lunch at the bakery before searching for the castle and witch tower (Nick said that could be my new home. I can sense the love, especially since Tuesday night he said my new home could be with the dementia patients at my aunt's work haha). We strolled through the garden's of the castle, which is where I started to note some unique and slightly out of place occurences.
First off, there was a four-poster bed in the lake by the castle. My take is that this is either some form of modern art, or the newest, most literal version of the water bed. Next, I saw a nun walking her bicycle across the street and I chuckled to myself wondering if she makes a habit out of it (now that I have elicited either a collective eyeroll or confusion, let's move on). The last intriguing sight in Bad Homburg was the Fiat (type of car) we came across. Apparently this model was the "Panda" model, and I have course desperately hoped it was run on some new bamboo biofuel.
We soon made our way back to Oma's for hamburger, mashed potatoes, and red saurkraut (yes, I fail as a German and tend to be quite bitter towards saurkraut). Aunt Edith also came over for a smoke. We happened to be in the middle of watching a documentary on the Hindenburg catastrophe, so I finished watching that before wandering into the kitchen. Somehow we got talking about where the coffee came from and Aunt Edith was hoping it wasn't from Poland.
My final note, for all of you who have been wondering, I still have the ability to corrupt people while in Germany. When in Germany, one is supposed to wait until the sign turns green to cross the street. How do I know this? Because there is a sign at every street corner that says, "Only walk when it is green or else you will set a bad example for the children." Me being me, (and also because there was no old ladies to scold me or club me with an umbrella) I have crossed the street when the sign is still red. It's the American way and I must set a bad example for the apparently easily corruptible German children.

Meine Deutsch ist Nicht so Gut

For those who don't know, on July 15th, my brother and I flew from JFK airport to Frankfurt for 2 weeks in Germany. We had a very helpful chauffeur for the drive down, and not counting the tractor trailer who tried to merge into my car, it was a very uneventful trip. Nick and I chatted and ate during our 6 hours of down time at the airport before boarding Singapore Airlines flight 25. I passed my time on the plane by watching 2 episodes of Glee (the one with Gwyneth Paltrow as the substitute teacher and the wedding episodes for those who are interested) and 2 episodes of NCIS (the 2nd part of last year's season finale and the one with the witness who goes astray on a hunting trip). Despite the most nerve-racking turbulence I've ever experienced on a flight, all went smoothly.

We landed in Frankfurt on July 16th at 10:55am in Germany, and Aunt Herta and Ralf picked us up. We hopped on Autobahn 5 and took the exit for 661 in order to get to 24 Oberhochstadtr Strasse, which is where my Oma lives. Oma's trusty boxer (the furry, tailwagging, drooly type, not the punch you in your face repeatedly for sport type) greeted us at the gate. In the amount of time it took me to put in my contacts, I had a cup of coffee accompanying my Coca Cola on the table. Since I was bound and determined to follow culture and custom, I poured in a bunch of milk and 4 scoops of sugar to make it tolerable. Aunt Herta had us call home since apparently my dad had called her at 3am EST, so she figured it was best to inform him of our arrival since she doubted he slept at all that night. I then proceeded to have a roll with Nutella before spending time looking through newspaper clippings with Oma. I then watched the Sweden vs France soccer game, where Ralf informed me that the German slang for goal is das hammer, which I totally feel I should start incorporating into my vocabulary. We then had a dinner of pasta and meat sauce out on the patio before Nick and I decided to get sleep.

On the morning of July 17th, I was up by 7:30am for breakfast. I wandered downstairs to find my Uncle Manfred already there. We chatted over rolls and coffee before playing a round of Menschen ärgere Dich Nicht, or Trouble for all you American folk. Except for Nick, every Muth is ruthless at this game. I happily won and Oma happily called me a witch for rolling so many 6's. Nick and I then went for a walk to the Marktplatz, duck pond, and Feldberg Schule before eating a lunch of waffles, homemade whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. Served with that was also a slice of chocolate chip, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. While Nick napped, I read a bit before watching a stage of the Tour de France with Oma. I find that my life very much resembles the famous mirror scene from Duck Soup because I tend to put on whatever expression Oma or my aunt's have and nod accordingly in a positive or negative fashion. I then woke Nick so we could eat our dinner of bratwurst and potato salad before we went to Frankfurt to watch the Women's World Cup Final at the Fanmeile. Unfortunately, the United States lost in penalty kicks, but it was quite an experience being in the same city as the game. We took the S5 home and got to bed around 1am.
Yesterday I had a buttered sesame seed roll and cup of coffee for breakfast. I stayed and watched Anja while Nick and Oma went on their separate errands. I passed my time by watching women's synchronized platform diving. Once Oma came home, I ventured to town to find Nick at the internet cafe since the Commerzbank coulnd't exchange my currency because I didn't have an account there, nor did I have the funds or desire to do so. We then had a late lunch of cake and coffee before I went to Frankfurt to exchange my currency. I then wandered to the Zeil and Karstadt before hopping a train home for dinner. We ate fried potato pancakes and zucchini soup (and for all those skeptics out there, yes I ate all of it since the seasoning reminded me of Uncle Ben's wild rice). I need to learn the German word for stomach, though, so I can convey to Oma that I enjoy her food but my stomach isn't big enough for two of her portions. I guess I know who I inherited my "I don't believe you" mentality from. Aunt Herta and Ralf also stopped by briefly on their way home from work. After watching a nature program with Oma, Aunt Edith also stopped by around 9pm. She played with Anja, had a smoke, and made suggestions for where Nick and I should go in Frankfurt. She said my German was decent and that it takes time and practice. I was very surprised by this complement, espcecially since I had just accidentally conveyed that Nick had gotten E. coli (yea I know that takes talent, but Nick straightened things out for me thankfully).
This morning I had my usual buttered sesame seed roll with coffee (those keeping score, that would be Kayla 5; coffee 0), but added some toast with Nutella since I told Oma I would after she asked why I didn't put any on my roll. I then played some soccer with Anja outside before watching some male synchronized springboard competition with Oma. Nick and I then went to Frankfurt for the day to do some shopping. Unfortunately, it is really hard to find a World Cup shirt, which surprises me. We had a Coke in Altstadt and walked along the Main and Sachsenhausen Strasse before catching the train home. I'm gonna wrap this up, though, since Oma is making me pizza with tomatoes and cheese tonight. I'll share more in a couple days!!

DC Adventure Part 2

Our adventure on Day 2 in DC didn't begin until about 4:30pm. We had spent most of the day sleeping/recuperating from the previous night's shenanigan's, but then our new friend Bern texted Chrissy saying that he was going rock climbing and was wondering if we were interested in accompanying him. We eagerly agreed and determined all of the logistics and before long, we were on our way to Sportrock Climbing Gym in Alexandria, VA. Once we arrived, Bern greeted us and helped us rent our gear and then got climbing. We began on the ropes on the shorter wall and Chrissy and I easily maneuvered our way to the top. Next was the gigantic wall that Chrissy successfully climbed, while I stopped a little past halfway and decided I was tired and didn't much enjoy being up that high. After monkeying around on another short wall briefly, we moved on to bouldering. Bouldering is a bit more technical and requires a lot of determination to overcome the frustrations of some of the routes. Bern was giving some great advice on how to traverse some of the technical spots. It was also fun just watching him leap around like a spider-monkey.
Once we grew too exhausted to climb anywhere, we parted ways and went back to the apartment to order food. We decided to order sandwiches from the Lost Dog Cafe and eat in so we could get ready to go out dancing. We each had some Boga, which is Tunisia's version of Sprite, and some Jim Beam before going out to Rumors near Dupont in DC. We met some interesting people there who had just gotten back from Afghanistan. We all had a few drinks and danced up a storm most of the evening before catching a cab and crashing for the night. All in all, another great adventure to be had and I'm super excited to have many more in the future. Too bad it's back to reality tomorrow.
Sidenote, the Women's World Cup started today in Germany. France beat Nigeria 1-0 and Germany ousted Canada 2-1. The goal scored by Canada was the first World Cup goal Germany conceded since the 2003 World Cup.

Another Adventure in our Nation's Capital

Since our previous trip to Washnigton D.C. was centered around tourist sites, Chrissy and I thought it would be fun to get a taste of D.C. nightlife this time around. We left yesterday morning from East Stroudsburg around 8:45am after a stop at Hot Bagels and Starbucks so that we had food and caffeine for the ride down. The drive went smoothly minus one idiot driver almost running us off the road on I-80 since her failed to check his mirrors before merging. Other than that, completely smooth drive.

We got to Chrissy's sister's apartment around 1:30pm in Arlington, VA. Since we had no real plans for the afternoon, I pretended to study for my comprehensive exam while laying out in the sun. We then went and visited a friend of Chrissy's that she grew up with. It was interesting having his girlfriend answer the door especially because she happened to be on the phone and thought we were the people who were handing out Bibles in the area. After sitting around for a little while and discovering that we all love nachos and Nutella (not together...that would be disgusting) and that all there was to eat in the apartment was meat and Nutella, we decided to venture to Rock Bottom for dinner. The food was delicious! I had a Hickory Bacon Chicken Sandwich with fries and a red ale. I really hit it off with the people we were visiting. I finally found a girl as excited about soccer as I am and someone who loves traveling to Germany. She also apparently visited the same salt mine I did in Salzburg....small world.

Following dinner, we all went back to the apartment to get ready to go out. We took a cab to U Street and went to Tabaq to start off our night. It was a really relaxed atmosphere on the rooftop balcony and went met some pretty cool people that were willing to help get a group picture of us on the condition that some of them got to jump in the picture as well. Following Tabaq, we walked with our new found friends to a hookah establishment before wandering off to another bar that I can't remember the name of. We met some fun people there as well, including some folks from Staten Island who enjoy rock climbing. We finished off the night at Jumbo Slice, but I chose to sit in the alley outside in order to avoid having to look at the colorful revolving lights. Overall, it was a fun night and a great experience. Depending on everybody's mood, we might enjoy some more exploits tonight with any luck.