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Published: August 27th 2008
So! I’ve selected my travel destinations and have started booking hostels and whatnot. As I mentioned before, I will be going to Florence the last weekend of September. Then, next weekend (Sept 5-7) - drumroll please! - I did everything in my power to incorporate everyone’s suggestions which told me to go somewhere new, somewhere scenic, somewhere with an interesting city, etc. So, I selected Innsbruck. Innsbruck sounds like Breckenridge to me, honestly. It’s mostly a skiing town, but there is a very cute town-center with lots of churches and castles (which are two travel-musts for me), etc. There is also this Swarovski exhibition of some sort that I might check out… but all of the travel sites have reviews of this place that tell me not to waste my time with it. I think that most of my 2 days there will be well spent with the other sites that are in and around Innsbruck itself… so maybe the Swarovski-land thing can wait for a later date.
Anyway, this week I’ve started a regular schedule since Gerald has now gone back to work. My task in the morning is to take Daisy for a walk. This is a really
nice thing for me because it is a more inspiring excuse to get out and go around the hiking areas and the town. Daisy makes a great companion when she is not fighting my every move. She’s old and can, therefore, be very stubborn. So, the folks sitting out in front of the church across the street can often have a very entertaining show as I tug and pull and beg Daisy to move even an inch. Sometimes they comment on the humor of the situation which makes me laugh about it - it must be quite the spectacle. She does it just to be a pain, too. She doesn’t really want to go any other direction… she will be walking nicely by my side and then suddenly just STOP. And Daisy’s a big dog, so there’s not a thing I can do about it, and she knows that. Ah well - the pictures attached are some of the fun times that we’ve had. I have taken a lot of stick from people telling me that I don’t take enough pictures… I didn’t know what there was to take pictures of! So… Daisy it is haha. And some more recent
ones of Grace, too.
On Friday we had dinner with Karin’s American friend, Kat. Kat came over here as a student, married a German and ended up staying here. Everyone thinks that this is just the American thing to do, therefore, so they have high hopes for me. I, on the other hand, do not have these kinds of hopes… for more reasons than one. Speaking of hopes, though - while Kat is a very nice person, I don’t think that we will become fast friends and solve all of my isolation issues. I don’t know what my expectations were, but it seems that I will continue to maintain my sole friendship with Daisy (who has, as a result, become something of a lifesaver for me, socially…). Sure, she’s a dog - but at least I can talk AT her (like I do with my human friends haha) and I can go out and do things with her. What more does a person need, really?
Dinners around here are always a source of entertainment for us. Karin is a great cook, but sometimes she gets a little… TOO creative, as it were. When Kat was here, we had
Einfahrt
Somehow this is such a fitting word for the entry to McDonald's...crawdads. I’m not even kidding you - not lobster or anything like that… nope, full crawdads, heads and all. I was a little nervous that they might crawl off the plate. Yesterday was good, though - we had these zucchini pancake things which were really nice. Monday night was… well… okay, we had McDonald’s. Gerald was really excited because there was this “Stars of America” special going on there… so we HAD to try these burgers. We had the New York Classic burger which turned out to be a Big ‘n’ Tasty, really. Sorry Jordan, though - no beer at this McDonald’s
Oh, this is an entertaining story. Back in my old lifeguarding days, my boss used to say “once a lifeguard, always a lifeguard.” Now, being the English major that I am, I always took that kind of metaphorically… however this week proved otherwise. Karin’s sister Monika has two little boys (Simon, 4 and Immanuel, 2) who joined us at the swimming pool the other day. I think we all know where this story is going, but I will first say this: Immanuel and I were swimming together and it made me miss teacching swim lessons SO MUCH!
Granted, communicating “kick kick kick!” to a 2-year-old German-speaker was less than successful… but “fussen!” (feet!) seemed to have some bout of success. Later, while Monika and Daddy (whose name I don’t know) were googly-googly over Grace, Monika would shout over her shoulder “Immanuel, back from pool!” This was a situation that I was WAY too familiar with. So, I skootched my chair a little closer to, not Immanuel, but Simon. With Simon not able to understand English and me having only, “Achtung, jungs… Achtung” (careful, boys… careful…), I was left a little helpless otherwise. After two or three more “Immanuel, back from pool!” comments, there was one little ‘sploosh’ followed immediately by one big ‘sploosh’ that apparently finally drew everyone’s attention toward Simon who had, of course, fallen head first into the pool. The way that he was screaming and how everyone was looking at me, I was a little nervous that people thought I’d pushed him or something… but this fear was soon settled when Monika whispered to Simon who soon came up and said what Karin translated as, “thank you for rescuing me.” I told Karin I want a raise haha.
Moving on… I’ve stayed glued
All-AmericanMeal
McDonald's and Starbucks... it doesn't get much better than that... to the television and CNN for updates on the Democratic convention. Much to my annoyance, CNN reports on the DNC like the Today show reports a parade… except that they don’t even pan the camera to LOOK at the events going on behind them. Of course, I’m sure they showed Michelle, Ted and Hillary without interruption… but those don’t happen until something like 3am here… so, such is life. But, YouTube is glorious for catching things the next day.
Lea and Heinrich have stopped by a couple of times… I’ve noticed that Grace gets conveniently upset during these visits and Karin must rush to her immediate aid and stay with her for the duration of their stay. Interesting, no? Yes, most times it’s planned, but in truth - Grace has been colicky these past couple of days which can do a number on a person’s blood pressure. Karin and I already have a pact to not take our frustrations out on each other or on Grace or Daisy. When our tension level gets high when Grace is screaming, one person must leave the room, take a moment to become REALLY calm, then return to relieve the other person. Karin
read that baby’s respond to tension in a person, so this is our tactic to avoid that.
All right, that is about all I have for this week. As always, keep those emails, etc. coming! And I now have a Skype headset and everything, so if you happen to have Skype, let me know and we can arrange for some calls, too!!
PS - I know that many of you are learning how to navigate this site the same way that I am... so I will just tell you that if you click on any of the photos, it will pop-up a sort of slide-show window for you so that you can actually see the pictures. Enjoy 😊
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Steve
non-member comment
Caught Up
So, since I'm spending my two days off with ice on an inexplicably bruised and swollen ankle, I decided to catch up on your blog-ness. So, I'm totally jealous, mostly because I miss having a dog to talk at. haha. But it seems like you're having a wonderful time, and the family seems great too. I think I would absolutely love Lea... those tips were a riot. Also, I SO WANT some knodel. I actually have a recipe from my uncle (the one in Vienna), but he uses apricots in his. You should ask them about topfenpalatschinken, one of my other favs... But that could just be because I was totally obsessed with topfen when I was there. Enjoy the upcoming trips if I don't talk to you before!