Miss Kris in Germany

My Last Weekend in Dresden

2011-07-17T17:18:00.000+02:00

I still can't believe that it was almost a year ago that we packed everything up to come over the ocean to Dresden. And I really can't believe that in two days I'll be back in the US for good.

I had to make sure to make the most of my last weekend in Dresden...

Friday night we had a going away dinner for some of our other friends who left yesterday (they're going to Malta, NY too). Then we participated in a free-style powerpoint party. Yeah... my husband and his work friends are super nerds. It was really silly though.

Yesterday we took one more trip to the trödelmarkt to see all the silly things people sell. It was a beautiful summery Dresden day and it was nice to take a long walk. Then my mom and I did some last minute baby shopping so the new baby can have all sorts of awesome German clothes and toys!

Last night we walked to the Neustadt for dinner at Ausonia, our favorite pizza place. We were lucky to walk through the wine festival on the way there.

On the way home, we saw an awesome saxophone quartet.

The moon was almost full and we snapped some beautiful pictures of Dresden at night as we walked over the bridge on the way back to our apartment.

There were even fireworks!

Today we walked back over to Neustadt for brunch. We happened upon another big event- A Dresden bike tour. We didn't participate, but it was fun to see all the people lined up with their bikes!

After brunch, we drove out to Pesterwitz to go cherry picking. Germany is known for their sour cherries- specifically schattenmorelen, which are often used in baking. They are fantastic, but definitely sour!! Cherry picking was a ton of fun... with the exception of the old, scary, mean German lady that we had to talk to to get a box and find out where exactly to pick...

Here's the "three" of us :)

mmm... sour cherries...

This afternoon, we finally made it to the Albertinum, the newly renovated art museum in Dresden. I figured that being an art teacher, I should probably go to the biggest art museum in Dresden before I left!

Tomorrow will be a day of packing and getting Bob ready for the movers, and then Tuesday I'll say goodbye to Dresden...

So... this is it for Miss Kris living in Germany.

This blog will still be here (which I'm so glad about, because it's awesome to have something to look back on and remember my year here), but I won't be posting here anymore. Thanks to all of you who've read this throughout the year... I loved the feeling of still being connected to people back home...

From now on, I'll be posting about (almost) being a mom and our new life in Malta, NY at www.dribblesnibblesscribbles.blogspot.com. It might not be quite as kid-friendly, as I expect some upcoming mom-rants, but I'd love to have you follow our new adventures...
I probably won't be posting for a few weeks, but check back soon!!

The English Alphabet Book is Done!!

2011-07-15T15:15:00.000+02:00

Okay, so it only took me a month or so longer than I promised, but I've finally finished the English-only version of From Alligator to Zebra: An Alphabet of Animals!

It was tricky because I didn't know what to put on the back. My story doesn't really have a plot, so I couldn't write a summary. I don't have any other children's books published, so I couldn't put a biography. I finally decided on a preview of my next books. My goal once moving back to the US is to get a publisher to like my idea enough to publish the first English/German book and then agree to publish versions in Spanish, French and Italian-- wish me luck, I guess it's a hard field to break in to!

A Great Weekend

2011-07-11T10:49:00.000+02:00

This past weekend, our friend from college, Ray, came to visit us from Belgium where he's working on his PhD.

We did tons of fun stuff. We went to a birthday party for another friend and got to play with his new kittens (aww....).

Saturday we slept in then took a (really long) walk along the river, stopping at a few beer gardens along they way. We were lucky enough to see the trödelmarkt again and even to catch a small street festival! We hung out with our friends at our favorite beer garden, the Augustus Garten and then went to dinner at an all you can eat sushi buffet.

Saturday night there was an awesome fireworks display, which totally made up for missing the fireworks on the 4th of July.

Sunday we saw these crazy people pretending to waterski in the fountain outside the McCafe by our house.

We also got brunch, hung out with a few friends to say goodbye since we won't see them again before we leave, and just relaxed outside before Ray had to fly back home.

Three More Months

2011-07-07T12:18:00.000+02:00

In three months we'll be three people instead of two! Hard to imagine with all the other stuff going on right now, but it's pretty exciting.

Her face is on the right. I don't know why there's a mini brontosaurus in there with her... these ultrasounds are so confusing to look at...

Two Weeks?!?!?

2011-07-05T13:39:00.000+02:00

Ack! Two weeks from now at this time I will (hopefully) be on a plane (with two sleeping --yeah, right-- cats) to Munich on my way home from Germany!! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. I might have said this before, but I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!

It's ridiculous.

I'm almost finished Part II of my latest project, Jungle Nursery.

Here's what it's going to look like on the wall (I hope).

I know, its hard to see when it's so tiny... but it's going to be fantastic. We might even have to make one for our bedroom...

A New Website

2011-07-04T12:16:00.000+02:00

Part of getting ready to move back to the US is going to be trying to find some part-time work. Hopefully, I can get From A to Z: An Alphabet of Animals professionally published... but I'm also sending out my artwork to try to get some freelance work.

I've always wanted my very own website with my name and no ".blogspot" or ".googlepages" or anything at the end, so I finally got one! Check it out!

I'm also working on putting my jungle animals from the nursery into Adobe Illustrator so I can resize them easily onto canvas. Here are a few:

The next step is adding jungle foliage around them. Each one is going to go on its own canvas, but all the canvases will be hung together to look like a wall mural.

Polish Pottery

2011-07-01T09:28:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday I took a trip with a seasoned "Polish Pottery Buyer" to Boleslawiec, Poland. The little town is famous for their handmade, hand-painted pottery, which is a little sturdier than most European pottery and is decorated with beautiful geometric designs.

I've been wanting to go to Poland for the pottery since I got here because I've heard so many stories about how awesome it is and how cheap the pottery is to buy.

Well, it wasn't that cheap, but I still made out pretty well on my one-day shopping spree. I mean, when is the next time I'll ever be in Boleslawiec, Poland, right??

all the awesome stuff I bought!!

In other news, since I only have 19 days left in Dresden (yikes!), I'm going to try to start publishing posts on my new blog since "Miss Kris in Germany" won't really fit once I get back home. To read about how I feel about the construction that is now taking place in my building, click here.

A Valued Inventory

2011-06-28T16:50:00.000+02:00

I spent my lovely Tuesday of sunny 80 degree weather in my apartment.

"Why?" you ask...

Well, for starters, 80 is too hot. Seriously. If I go outside and come in 5 minutes later sweating, it's too hot. And as much as I love doing laundry, I'm not doing 6 loads a day because every time I go and come in I have to change my clothes.

I happily enjoyed the weather by looking out the windows, which probably would have served to cool my apartment down a wee bit more had they been open all the way. BUT since Germans have not invented screens that work yet (read "think a piece of netting that you tape onto your window is a screen"), I have to keep the windows tilted (read "only open 4 inches at the top and slanting inward") so that my kitties don't escape into the scary streets of Dresden.

Also, I have lists of things to get done, all of which are still NOT done, as I have become an expert procrastinator.

One of those things is our Valued Inventory- a fun little spread sheet that details the value of all the goods to be shipped back to the US.

Doesn't sound too bad, right?

WRONG. In every way.

This lovely spread sheet is about 43 (okay, maybe 2) pages long. Divided into section by room. Lists all objects you might own that would be present in each room along with space for the number of items, cost of items, color and approximate dimension (okay, those last two are exaggerations...). Keep in mind when completing the spreadsheet that any items of dissimalar value should be listed separately. SERIOUSLY?

Can't I just say "kitchen- $3000" and call it done?

So I have dilligently walked through each room in my house making tick marks and unreadable notes about items on scrap paper so that I can come back to the spread sheet, look at the paper, wonder "what the heck does this mean?" and go back and do it all another couple times before finally writing down numbers of and values of all the things I have.

This is one of those times when I wish I had less things.

5 hours, 1 headache, a quick nap, and 2 freak outs later, I think its done.

YAY!

ps.

Dear Shipping people,

I have completed my valued inventory to the best of my ability. I did not, however, find it necessary to count the number of pairs of underwear or socks I own and group them by similar value. I'm pretty sure they all came from Target anyway. And I just guessed how much they cost. Also, after looking up all the electronic equipment we own on bestbuy.com and officedepot.com, I decided that we don't have that great of stuff. So I might have rounded up a bit to get the next best model in case the ship carrying our stuff sinks. That doesn't happen very often anyway, right? And for the record, we don't even have a dishwasher, and if we did, we wouldn't be shipping it home; if we owned a "portable radio" I wouldn't even write it down because it would probably be more valuable as a doorstop; I am not a writer and certainly don't own a typewriter; and what about sofas? I'm pretty sure everyone has a sofa...

Thank you for wasting 5 hours of my life. Just for that, I hope the ship sinks because after completing your stupid form, I think I'd much rather have the chunk of money than all my things. In fact, why don't you save yourselves a couple days of work and just leave our stuff here and write us a check?

Sincerely,

Kris.

Mallorca, Spain

2011-06-27T15:25:00.000+02:00

This weekend, we took our last vacation outside of Germany. It was awesome, but a little sad at the same time...

Mallorca is an island off the coast of Spain and for us, it was pretty much a beach vacation- the three S's : Sun, Sand, and Sleeping. Of course there were other fun things that didn't start with S too. Like frozen drinks, the pool, and a sweet mini-golf course. But more on that later.

We decided to call our trip to Mallorca our honeymoon since we never really took one. In a way, I guess our whole year in Germany has kind of been like an extended honeymoon... but in my book, honeymoons don't include washing dishes, doing laundry, or making dinner. So this was it.

I won't write a detailed play-by-play of our trip, but I'll highlight some of the most awesome things (there's only so much "and then we went to the pool" you can take).

We arrived early Thursday morning to an overcast sky :(.

We were too early to check in, so we had to carry around a lot of our stuff (the baggage room didn't seem to safe...). But as soon as the sun came out and we were lying on the beach, we were happy as clams.

When we did get our room, it was fabulous- on the top floor of the hotel with a balcony overlooking the sea!

For the most part, we spent our time lounging under palm umbrellas on the beach

swimming in the sea, lounging by the pool,

swimming in the pool, drinking fantastic frozen drinks while people watching, eating, and relaxing.

Saturday, we went into the city of Palma de Mallorca to do some touristy sight-seeing. The best part was Poble Espanyol. It was a small walled village with reconstructions of architecture from all over Spain. It was like taking a two week vacation through Spain in just two hours with NO TRAVELING!

Arriving back in the center of the city, we were lucky enough to catch the changing of the Guards in front of this awesome cathedral!

That evening, we went to the awesomest mini-golf place with fantastic food. It was the House of Katmandu and was probably the coolest building for a mini-golf/restaurant to be housed in EVER.

Sunday was the day to get in all the things we'd missed so far.

We took out a paddle boat and paddled around the mini-island in the inlet

And even went to the fish spa to get the dead skin eaten off our feet!!

it tickled. A LOT.

We were both sad that we had to leave, but it was an awesome last trip in Europe (at least for a while!).

Time for One More Project??

2011-06-20T10:16:00.000+02:00

With less than one month left in Germany, my days and weekends seem pretty full. I have to get all our stuff ready to be packed since it will leave a few days after I fly back, I have to make sure to visit all my favorite places one last time, Thursday we leave for Mallorca, Spain for the weekend, we have one more weekend to take a day trip or hang out at the beer gardens, then a weekend with a college friend who's visiting, and then my mom arrives to help us get our stuff together and take the cats back. I'm tired just thinking about it...

But I was inspired this weekend by these wall decals I found online...

www.weegallery.com

I am so excited to decorate a nursery for our new little monkey, even if it won't be for a while...

In preparation, I started some sketches of jungle animals. I read that babies like big, bold patterns because they can't recognize whole images for a while... so here are a few of them...

Maybe I won't have time to turn them into paintings before I leave, but at least they'll be ready!

10 Things...

2011-06-16T09:31:00.000+02:00

As you know, I'm in my last month of my European vacation and will soon be returning to real life in the US. I'm very conflicted over how to feel about this move. Half of me is so excited to be back in a place where people have normal colored hair, speak my language, and don't give me funny looks when I laugh out-loud at a restaurant. But the other half is sad to leave my awesome apartment in the middle of downtown Dresden where the mall, fantastic pastries, bratwurst and two Starbucks are only steps away.
**I would also like to add that had I been able to drink for the past five months, German beer, which is far superior to American beer, would also be included in that last sentence.

In honor of the move, and to help keep my sanity, I've decided to post the top 10 things I will miss about Dresden, the top 10 things I can't wait to leave behind in Dresden, and the top 10 things I'll be glad to have back in the US. (And once I'm back, I'm sure I'll have another list of the things I really didn't miss...)

So, here goes...

The Top 10 Things I Will Miss About Dresden

1. Bier Gartens
2. Public Transportation because sometimes it's nice to not drive
3. Our giant and conveniently located apartment (which is probably bigger than the house we will buy)
4. Walking everywhere
5. Bratwurst on demand. No matter where you go or when you're there.
6. People watching. They are rude and weird and dress ridculously, but that makes for some entertainment.
7. Not taking responsibility for my actions because sometimes it's easier to play dumb with a "I don't speak German"
8. Bakeries. Everywhere. Seriously. Fresh bread and pastries every 5 steps.
9. Beer that is cheaper than water.
10. Markets and Festivals every other week.

The Top 10 Things I am Glad to Leave Behind

1. Smells. The once a week showerer, the "I don't use deodorant", the sewage smell on the street...
2. Unfriendly, rude Germans. Not all of them, but the majority.
3. Paying to use a public restroom. ESPECIALLY if it's dirty or doesn't have toilet paper. I must have spent 200 Euro just going to the bathroom here...
4. Paying half of what my meal costs at a restaurant for a soda. Then getting a soda sized for a barbie doll. .2l? That's like a dixie cup. Yeah, what a thirst quencher.
5. Having a dorm-room-sized fridge and having to go to the grocery store every day.
6. Needing a grocery cart but not having a Euro... which leads to me traipsing around the grocery store with two hand baskets looking like an overloaded mule.
7. Being constantly run into on the street. I don't know what it is, but Germans are drawn to me like a magnet and then look like they're about to bite my head off after they run into me!
8. Budgers. Line-cutters. These people act like they're in kindergarten... sorry Frau, but there aren't "backsies" in real life.
9. Construction outside my window ALL THE TIME.
10. Lack of air conditioning. Seriously? Summer while pregnant with no A/C equals a crazed lunatic (me).

Top 10 Things I am Looking Forward to Having Back in My Life

1. All the important people in my life who will be a car trip, not a 15 hour plane ride, away.
2. Wal-Mart. (I know, some of you boycott it, and I understand. But I need the one-stop-shop that's open 24 hours).
3. Free water and free refills on soft drinks. I might float away...
4. Free bathrooms.
5. The Food Network and American TV (not that I don't love CNN, the BBC and reality shows in German.
6. Good Mexican food. Actually, good food in general... especially red meat.
7. My car. My Honda Fit is awesome. And it is orange. And it fits a lot of stuff. And I miss driving.
8. English speaking people. At stores, on the phone, on the street... Being able to communicate with others makes life a lot easier.
9. Going out to eat without it taking 3+ hours.
10. Drive-throughs and take out. Sometimes you just need some good food fast and you don't want to cook or wait 2 hours at a restaurant.

Luzern: Day 3

2011-06-15T08:39:00.000+02:00

We woke up Saturday to more rain :( Which was especially sad because it was the day we were going up the mountain to see the spectacular view... so much for that...

Since our tour didn't leave until 12, we decided to check out a contemporary art museum in the morning. It was the Rosengart Collection. I loved it because it had a lot of my favorite artists like Klee, Picasso and Kandinsky.

Then we found our tour to Mount Pilatus.

It started out with a bus ride to a gondola that took us up the mountain. The gondola ride took a long time and we really couldn't see much because of all the clouds and rain. We had a couple hours at the top to enjoy the scenery...

which really wasn't that enjoyable.

We did go on a cool walk through a path that was in a cave to learn the legend of the dragon(s) that live on Mt. Pilatus.

On the way down we took the steepest cog railway in the world! It was still pretty cloudy and drizzly...

But we did get to see some awesome cows wearing cow bells!

Once we'd safely made our decent, it was time to board a boat back to Luzern. Even though it was cloudy, the views were still amazing.

Later that evening, on a walk after dinner, we saw the cutest thing ever!

baby swan pile!!

They were definitely the cutest part of the Luzern trip!

Luzern: Day 2

2011-06-14T15:39:00.000+02:00

We woke up on Friday to sun and blue sky, which was a pleasant change from the rain of Thursday. We had a lot to see and do in Luzern during the day, as Saturday- our last day in Switzerland- would be spent on a tour of Mount Pilatus with Bob's mom who would arrive Friday night.

Mt. Pilatus

While it was still cool and the sun was shining (we were a little afraid the rain would come back...) we decided to spend some time outside walking the old city wall and climbing some old towers.

A view of the wall from one of the towers

Down from the wall, looking up at a tower

After the towers, we had some must-see sights to visit like the Dying Lion Monument.

Bob looking sad about the lion

We also saw a lot of souvenir stores. The best one was this Swiss Cheese Store.

Here is another example of how expensive things were in Switzerland:

After sightseeing and taking a lunch break with some swans,

we rented a paddle boat to go out on Lake Luzern. It was beautiful. Bob even went swimming!! I guess it was really cold... Needless to say, I stayed on the boat...

We had a couple more things to see before calling it a day.

Luzern's Glacier Garten was cool. We saw lots of fossilized rocks and "rock mills," which are deep holes carved by water rushing around large round rocks.

We also saw the largest rolling ball clock in the world at a fancy watch store called Bucherer.

After a long day of sightseeing, we had burgers for dinner at a pub by the river with Bob's mom. Here's a photo of the restaurant from across the river.

(it's the one with the green umbrellas)

Luzern: Day 1

2011-06-13T12:57:00.000+02:00

On Thursday morning we left for Luzern, Switzerland. It's not that far, so to save some money, we decided to drive. It took us about 8 hours to get there, and it wasn't a very nice drive because it rained most of the time. As we drove into Luzern, it was still overcast and rainy :(

Fortunately, after checking into our "five star hotel" (note: this particular "five star" hotel might only be a 1/2 star hotel. While it was clean (a top priority), it lacked simple amenities, like a phone, alarm clock, shampoo, or adequate shower door...), the weather cleared up a bit so we could walk around outside, see the city, and eat some dinner.

A view from the old side of the "river" to the new.

Luzern sits on a lake, with the old town and new town divided by the end of the lake (which I guess turns into a river?). The buildings are all beautiful and a mix of architecture from many time periods.

Many of the buildings in Luzern are lavishly decorated with murals, paintings and ornate carvings.

As we were walking along the river, we happened upon this interesting site...

A guy who has just taken an alpine horn off his moped and put it together...

This was apparently in preparation for an alpine horn concert, which we were lucky enough to watch.

We were also lucky enough to see this silly guy posing for his girlfriend in front of the alpine horn players...

The alpine horn players were awesome, and I think I should probably start one up when we get to NY. Here's a video:

After the horn concert, we found ourselves a cute pizza place on the river and sat outside to eat. It was cold, and expensive. I guess everything in Switzerland is expensive, but two pizzas and three drinks cost us almost $90!! Yikes!! Good thing we found the cheap "five star hotel"

The view from the table at our restaurant.

It's A...

2011-06-10T12:56:00.000+02:00

There are lots of words and/or phrases that could complete this sentence... And for those of you who haven't been living with me in Dresden for the past few months, the word I choose is probably going to be a surprise...

GIRL!

Yes, we're having a baby, and it's going to be a girl :) Sometime in the beginning of October, our small family of four (of course I count my cats!) is going to be a somewhat larger family of five!

Kind of hard to see her, but there's totally a nose and a mouth!

We couldn't be more excited, though I am a bit anxious about moving from Dresden to temporary housing in NY, to a semi-permanent apartment in NY, to a house in NY, while having a small baby introduced into our lives somewhere in between those three, but it's all going to work out...

Since I'll be leaving Dresden and probably won't be traveling much or have time to make artwork for a while, I've also decided to start a new blog. I don't guarantee the new blog to be quite as kid-friendly all the time, as sometimes preparing for (and I'm assuming being) a mom is a little stressful and requires some serious venting... though I do hope to include some awesome art projects for kids...

I'll keep up this blog until we get home and then I'll be posting mostly to dribblesnibblesscribbles.blogspot.com.

Kitties!

2011-06-08T12:56:00.000+02:00

I promised pictures, so here are some cute ones of my cats lying around the house.

It's been hot and I've been lazy so we've just been lounging around the house...

The Actual Männertag and Tropical Islands

2011-06-06T13:06:00.000+02:00

To reflect back on Männertag, which I made out to be the most un-appealing, piggish day men participate in all year... I have to say that for the most part, it seemed like a fun day for guys to hang around with other guys without having to think about eating that second bratwurst or using a bush as a lavatorial facility or belching loudly without saying excuse me. I only saw a few groups of men that were out of control, and from the photos and stories I heard from my husband, there was a lot of games and drinking and I am really just as glad I was able to take a nice walk, use actual restrooms with toilets and toilet paper, and have normal (mostly) mature conversations during my Männertag.

So it wasn't as terrible as I made it out to be. Though it is sad that there isn't a holiday in Germany where dads get cute cards. It is not that sad that people don't have to buy ties for their dads (except maybe for the tie stores...)

This past weekend we also took our second trip to Tropical Islands. It was fantastic.

Unfortunately... I have no pictures to post because...

You know that feeling you have whenever you leave the house for a while... like maybe you forgot something important like money? or to turn off the stove? or that you didn't pack any underwear? or maybe that there's something in the fridge that is already growing funny green fur that stinks and by the time you get back your whole fridge will be taken over???

Well... I left the house with that feeling on Friday... I got down the stairs, out the door and realized I didn't have my sunglasses. So I ran back up to get them and got into the car thinking "ah... at least I remembered what it was I felt like I was forgetting."

BUT about ten minutes later, I was back on the paranoid questioning- "are you sure I put out water for the cats?" "do you think I remembered to pull the door shut tight?" "I turned off the stove this morning, right?"

Turns out I was forgetting something else. The camera.

I guess its good that it was our second trip so we already had some pictures. Plus, we went with some friends who casually suggested that anyone caught taking pictures of them in a bathing suit might suffer an unfortunate accident... so not a big deal.

Next post maybe I'll have some pictures of something. Even if it's totally unrelated.

Happy Männertag!

2011-06-02T10:31:00.000+02:00

Father's Day in Germany is a wee bit different from Father's Day in the US. Starting with the obvious fact that it's not on the same day. Father's Day here is on Ascension Day (today), whereas in the US, you still have a couple weeks to find a cute card and wrap up a tie or a fun golf gadget.

"Father's Day, in the United States, is a holiday (third Sunday in June) to honor fathers... Although it was originally largely a religious holiday, Father's Day has been commercialized with the sending of greeting cards and the giving of gifts."(History.com).

Pretty much it's a day like Mother's Day- a time to honor a parent, to celebrate father-(or mother-)hood and to recognize fathers' (and mothers') roles in society.

In Germany, however, Father's Day- or Männertag- is something quite different. It's a day of male bonding, complaining about women, and drinking. The children of the fathers are rarely involved unless they are innocent bystanders.

Let's compare a Father's Day in the US to a Father's Day in Germany...

In the US, Father wakes up to special breakfast or breakfast in bed. In Germany, Father sleeps in and wife and children ignore him.

In the US, Father is given the day off from usual chores or participates in special activity- usually with family. In Germany, Father leaves family at noon to wander or ride bike through forest with male friends.

In the US, Father is given presents and cards that say how much he is appreciated. In Germany, Father drinks as much beer as his liver can handle and complains about his family to his male friends.

In the US, Father and family might have a special dinner or spend the evening together. In Germany, Father stumbles home drunk as mother ushers children into the other room.

Anyhow, today I am going to hang out with my dejected women-friends and we'll sit around watching the men who are acting like our husbands, though we've been banned from actually stopping by, calling, or spying on our own husbands from 12pm on. Hopefully I can snap some funny pictures to post later :).

For another take on Männertag, here is an entry in the German wikipedia site:

Father's Day is all in from the north and east Germany by the so-called master batch marked. The participants (traditionally exclusively male - young and old) make this mostly a hike or a common exit, where much alcohol is often consumed (Father's Day tour). This one has more points than traditional common goal or one of touring restaurant to restaurant. When walking, are often handcart handcarts or wheelbarrows carried, the better to be able to transport beverages. For the trips are usually bikes (some with trailers), horse-drawn carriage carriages) or older tractors with trailers used (. The vehicles or cars are here in part on that day and used only for specially modified, such as special bicycle tandems or bikes with more than a dozen seats. Often with the companion lilac and birch branches decorated.

Due to the increased alcohol consumption and often carried out mass events (including, among others social trips, such as barbecue tours, trip to the fishing lake) there are, if you look at the statistics, on Father's Day a lot more fights than usual the other days. According to the Federal Statistical Office , the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents in Christ to three times the average of other days on Ascension and reached a highlight of the year. (de.wikipedia.org)

Rabbit, Rabbit!

2011-06-01T11:38:00.000+02:00

Happy June! I can't believe that it's been almost a year since we arrived in here in Dresden and I had to say goodbye to Austin and Gullett and all my fantastic students and friends. Time flies when you're having fun.

Today is not a beautiful sunny day. It rained all last night, and is now a wonderful 60 degrees. I LOVE it.

The rest of my stay in Dresden is filled with fun things like trips and weekends outside and bbqs (and some not fun things like paperwork for moving back and vet appointments for the kitties...).

Today I'm planning our second trip to Tropical Islands. This time we're going on a group vacation and it should be awesome!

Rainy days are the best for baking, so I found this recipe for Chubby Hubby Brownies! mmm... brownies...

photo courtesy of gingerbreadbagels.com

It's too Hot... How Did I Ever Live in Texas?

2011-05-31T11:04:00.000+02:00

Summer has finally arrived in Dresden. Just to let you know, its too hot. There isn't air conditioning anywhere, and people don't take showers, and everyone and everything is smelly and hot.

I am hot... the kitties are hot... inside is hot... outside is hot... I need a kiddie pool in my living room.

The silly thing is, its not even THAT hot. How did I live in Texas? I miss air conditioning. Time for popsicle laziness...

A Saturday at...

2011-05-29T15:07:00.001+02:00

You guessed it, our favorite bier garten!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as nice as forecasted- it was a little cool and partly cloudy, BUT I have to say, I'd much rather it be cooler than hotter, so I wasn't complaining.

On our way to the bier garten, we saw a parade- the start of Deutcher Evangelical Kirchentag which starts on Wednesday. It's a big festival that's held in a different city each year- this year in Dresden.

Once we arrived at the bier garten, we realized they're going all out for this celebration. We might just have to check it out.

The beginnings of a stage and bleachers

Covering a giant cross

We spent the day relaxing in the semi-sunshine with our friends.

My 6 year old friend picked this bouquet of flowers, beautifully arranged in the imported coors light can

Bob practiced his building skills on some ponies

and the guys got thoroughly involved in a silly game called fox-tail that they take WAY too seriously

Transportation Museum

2011-05-26T10:33:00.001+02:00

Spring is the time for visitors in Dresden. The tourists are all out taking pictures, my mom came to visit, Bob's parents are here, and a bunch of other people we know are in town.

Yesterday I went with one of our friends and her kids to the Transportation Museum.

They had all sorts of types of transportation- some life size and some models- everything from cars to ships to planes, old and new.

It was really cool to see everything, and while I could tell what was old and what was new, most of the signs were in German, and even though my German is a lot better than it used to be, it was too much work to try to translate everything.

So... I leave you with... pictures.

The International Dixieland Festival

2011-05-23T07:44:00.000+02:00

Sunday was the last day of the International Jazz Festival in Dresden. Bob's parents are in town, so we took them down by the river to see the parade. (along with a bazillion other jazz fans!)

It was actually one of the better parades I've seen! The nice thing was that it was mostly made up of big trucks with jazz bands playing in the back. AND it was pretty much JUST BANDS! Not that I don't like to see groups of marching boyscouts and girlscouts (which I used to love when I was a girl scout) or guys in fancy military uniforms, but bands are definitely the best part of any parade.

A one man band

A Feldschloßchen Band (too bad all the bands faced the other way)

A dixieland umbrella dancer

The zoo truck (complete with band)

A marching band

This weird guy that walks around with a horn that sounds like a bird...
everywhere... not just in parades.

It was well worth the wait and sitting in the heat and having some guy keep kicking me in the butt...

Later on, we went to a dixie land concert by the river and sat on the grass on a blanket. It was actually the Air Force band stationed in Germany- they were pretty awesome, but not quite as good as the parade!

It was a great day of Dixieland :)

Back in Dresden

2011-05-19T13:32:00.000+02:00

We arrived back in Dresden and took it easy on Monday night- traveling is exhuasting!

Tuesday we took a day trip to Freiberg, about an hour away, to see the cute town and visit Schloß Freudenstein. The castle houses a museum of minerals. Like millions of rocks with crystals. It was pretty incredible to walk through, though I'm not sure how some of the visitors were taking the time to read every label.

A tower as we entered Freiberg

some rocks glow in black light!

so many rocks!

Yesterday we squeezed in some last minute shopping before I had to bring my mom to the airport.

AND... today I'm in a funk. I'm a little sad to not be in Dubrovnik by the sea, and a little sad not to have permanent company, and really upset as I realized today that in exactly TWO MONTHS I will be boarding a plane with my kitties to go back to the US for good :(

So that concludes my "frowny face" post for today. Maybe I'll feel better after I get rolling on planning our last few trips...

But to end on a happy note, in Freiberg we saw some baby ducks. AWWWWWWW!

Dubrovnik: Lokrum

2011-05-18T08:06:00.000+02:00

Saturday morning we got up early (at 5am!) to see the sunrise. Unfortunately, even though the guy working the front desk at the hotel said that we could see the sunrise from our balcony if we looked left at 5, he was wrong. We never would have been able to see the sun, and even though dawn was at 5, the sun didn't even rise until almost 6! But the sky was still pretty anyway.

After a quick early morning nap, we ate a good breakfast and walked down through the old city to the port. We hopped on a boat to the island of Lokrum, a green island with lots of trees and paths, no cars, a monastery and a fortress.

This boat ride was much quicker than the ride to Cavtat, and in 15 minutes we were roaming the island. The first thing we heard was a bunch of squaking- the island was filled with peacocks!

Feeding a peacock

After feeding the peacocks and taking lots of pictures, we stopped at the "Dead Sea," a cute little "lake" in the middle of the island with cool sea water.

Then it was on to the rocky coast for some climbing and awesome views of Dubrovnik.

We walked through the botanical garden and saw the monastery.

Before heading back to the "beach" for lunch, we climbed a giant hill up to the fortress for the best views of Dubrovnik and the Croatian coast.

Looking down the hill

We were exhausted after trekking around the island, and after lunch it was nice to relax on the boat ride back to the city.

Almost back to the city!

At the hotel, the weather was nice and toasty, so I decided to take a swim. It was FREEZING!! but refreshing... in a really cold kind of way...

We headed back to the city for our last roam around Dubrovnik and found dinner at the Taj Mahal, which unlike the name suggests, was actually a pretty authentic Croatian restaurant. We had "bureks," a traditional pastry filled with meat, spinach, potatoes or cheese (we got some of each). Our evening wouldn't have been complete without ice cream and some photos of the seaside at night.

Taj Mahal

The port and coast

It was a great last day in Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik: A Boat ride to Cavtat

2011-05-17T15:51:00.000+02:00

Friday after walking the wall we hopped on a boat for a trip to Cavtat, a coastal town about 15km from Dubrovnik.

The boat ride was a nice change on a hot day with the breeze from the sea. It took about an hour to get there, but it was worth it.

Cavtat from the boat

Cavtat is a tiny little town with lots of restaurants and souvenir shops. It's on a peninsula, and from the town, you can walk around the peninsula to see beautiful views of the Agean see from all directions.

The walking path

Cavtat also had a bunch of beautiful rocky beaches to walk on.

When we got back to Dubrovnik, we walked around a bit before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. We saw a lot of cats getting ready for an afternoon nap (or snack) as well.

Even though we were tired from a big morning, we decided that on the way back we'd climb up the fortress to see the city from another angle.

The fortress

The city from the top

It was worth the climb, but after a day of walking we certainly needed a break!

After a shower and a nap we were ready to head back down for some evening sight-seeing and an italian dinner at Pizzeria Toni, which was delicious.

Sunset on the way down to the old city

Awesome building lit up at twilight

Cute street at night

Spagetteria Toni

Dubrovnik: Walking the Wall

2011-05-16T16:32:00.000+02:00

Friday morning we got up to beautiful weather and a gorgeous view off our balcony.

We ate a buffet breakfast at the hotel

And tried to get to the wall early, before all the tourist groups.

On the way we saw a dude playing a guitar thing and a foot clappy thing and some parrots.

We walked all along the wall around the city, which is about 1.5 miles (with lots of stairs!).

The entrance square from the start of the wall walk

A view along one edge of the wall

The fortress from the wall

another cat

the Croatian coast, Lokrum and a cruise ship through a hole in the wall

a fancy church

The harbor

The city from the top corner of the wall

Dubrovnik: Day 1

2011-05-16T13:26:00.000+02:00

I really wanted to post more from Dubrovnik, but the computers in the lobby were SO SLOW, and it was hard to type with the silly Croatian keyboard, so I'll share our vacation now instead. WITH PICTURES! (as promised).

We arrived in Dubrovnik, which, like I said, was stunningly beautiful.

We checked into our über fancy hotel, which had its own awesome little beach.

looking up at our hotel from the beach

the beach (look how BLUE the water is!!)

We were advised to take the cable car the day we arrived, as the hotel concierge thought the weather might not be as nice the rest of our trip.

To get to the cable car, we had to climb these stairs:

and some more stairs, but we finally made it!

looking up at where the cable car goes from the base

From the top, we could see the Agean Sea, the small walled city of Dubrovnik (center) with its red-roofed buildings, and the island of Lokrum.

Once we returned to the bottom, we decided to explore the city a bit and find some dinner. To get into the city we had to climb down these stairs:

There are a lot of stairs in Dubrovnik...

As we were walking around exploring and keeping our eyes out for an awesome restaurant, we noticed this adorable cat just hanging out in the middle of a busy square.

As it turns out, there are TONS of cats living inside the city walls of Dubrovnik. They hang around the restaurants and in the alleys eating left-overs. They were all very friendly and looked well cared for. I really liked them, and may have taken quite a few cat pictures...

We found a restaurant to eat at right on the main street. We enjoyed people-watching while we ate, and then walked back to the hotel to enjoy the view and call it a night (it had been an early morning and a long day of travel!!)

The beautiful main street (the streets are MARBLE!)

A Post From Dubrovnik

2011-05-12T19:26:00.000+02:00

I didnt have much time for posting the past couple days as my mom is visiting and weve been doing a lot in Dresden!

Today we got up early and boarded a plane for Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is stunningly beautiful here, but as I write this post from the hotel lobby, I cant post any pictures (or find the apostrophe), so youll have to check back Monday for some photos.

Dubrovnik is really awesome because it is a walled city. Today we did lots of exploring a took the cable car to the top of one of the highest... hills?... around. The photos are great (sorry you have to wait to see them!).

More on Dubrovnik soon...

Hanging out by the River

2011-05-09T11:33:00.000+02:00

This weekend we spent a lot of time hanging out by the river. And by a lot of time, I mean pretty much from the time we rolled out of bed and shoved some food in our faces until it was time to find something to eat for dinner.

We hung out at the Augustus Garten (probably the awesomest bier garten in Dresden) and in the lawn in front of the Augustus Garten.

Between lying in the sun, eating snacks, and playing games, we squeezed in some valuable people watching. We saw lots of funny people buying ice cream, like a troop of over-sized boy-scouts and this dude with no shirt and his daughter.

We saw tons of people on bikes, but no bike looked as stu-... silly... as this one:

And we even saw a ship full of guys in pirate hats rowing down the river.

Not to mention the too many people who think its okay to strip down to your underwear to sun yourself. I didn't put pictures of that on here, it may have caused permanent blindness!

Now its time to go pick up my mom at the airport!

Farmer's Market at the Großer Garten

2011-05-06T17:51:00.000+02:00

I love farmer's markets. Especially when they're giant! There used to be this awesome farmer's market that we used to go to some weekends in Rochester, NY, when I was in college. I heard that there was a pretty decent farmer's market here in Dresden at the Großer Garten every Friday when the weather is nice, so today I thought I'd check it out.

It was pretty awesome. Not quite as big as the one in Rochester, but you could probably find anything you wanted at this farmer's market... from olives

to half chickens

to vegetables and flowers.

Not to mention a bunch of other odd things like clothes, wallpaper, baked goods, and china.

While I was near the Großer Garten, I figured I'd take a walk since the weather was so nice today.

It was really beautiful.

And I got to see this funny looking squirrel.

AND, the Großer Garten has a lot of cool plants... perfect for Jell-O prints...

Artwork for Sale

2011-05-04T13:29:00.001+02:00

I joined artwanted.com a long time ago. It's like my online portfolio, where you can see pictures of my latest artwork (if you don't read my blog). The reason I joined was because it has features similar to artsonia.com (my favorite art website for young artists!). You can display your artwork AND you can purchase prints and items featuring your artwork (or someone else's artwork).

But, for the past 6-8 months, I haven't been able to sell my artwork because I hadn't yet signed up for the "premium" membership.

Now I have!! I figured now that all my alphabet pages were done, I could put them on Artwanted.com and people could purchase prints/items featuring the first letter of their name. Or just get the whole alphabet... who knows? Actually, I also wanted to be able to have fancy prints ordered because I had to cut down the originals quite a bit to fit them in my not so large scanner.

SO- if you're interested in animal alphabet pages by themselves, you can view my portfolio here. Right now, the only images for sale are the animal alphabet pages, but I'm hoping to get more hi-res images uploaded later.

The Alphabet Book is DONE!!

2011-05-03T07:07:00.001+02:00

From Alligator to Zebra: An Alphabet of Animals is finally finished! The first edition is English and German and can be purchased from lulu.com here. For an English only copy (which will also be a bit cheaper) you'll have to wait a couple weeks. I'll keep you posted when it's available.

Tropical Islands

2011-05-02T08:29:00.001+02:00

This weekend we went to Tropical Islands. Not some tropical islands out in the middle of the ocean somewhere, but to a giant indoor Tropical Islands about an hour and a half from Dresden on the way to Berlin.

It was FANTASTIC!

We drove up to the giant building, which was originally built as an airship (or blimp, if you are not up on your flying terminology, like me) hangar. It's the size of 8 football fields and could fit the Eiffel Tower inside, lying down.

See how big it is? That's me up there, standing next to it.

Tropical Islands has a rainforest INSIDE! It also has two giant pools, waterslides, a beach, restaurants and tons of different places to spend the night.

The entrance to the rainforest

Lots of palm trees

Ponds an plants

We arrived at about 6pm, and even though it was dinner time, we decided to explore a bit and take a swim before finding something to eat.

We took a dip in the lagoon, a pool with a lazy river, fountains, waterfalls and even some mini waterslides.

Then we were ready for some real adventure and rode on the REAL waterslides. There was a red slide that you went down with a tube, a yellow slide that was curvy and fun, and a blue boomerang slide that looked a little too wild for me. Bob went down and ended up with a pool of water up his nose!

After all that swimming and water-sliding we decided to find some dinner. We ate a tropical bbq restaurant.

It was awesome because you got to choose your own vegetables and meat and they cooked it up in super tasty sauce for you. AND it was all you can eat. Except we got there only an hour before it closed, and they started cleaning everything up before we could eat too much. Which was probably good because then we weren't to full to go swimming after dinner in the South Sea.

The South Sea at night

After swimming, we got into dry clothes and took a walk through the rainforest. Then we sat up on a terrace above the South Sea and drank awesomely tasty slushy drinks.

Everything at the Tropical Islands is open 24 hours a day (except the restaurants), but we got tired at about 1:30am and decided to head back to our tent for some sleep.

Our "Rainforest Camp" (in the daylight)

The inside of our tent

Since the temperature inside the Tropical Islands is always 80, it was a little hot for sleeping... BUT we did't sleep very long anyway, because at about 5:15am when the sun rose, the peacocks and other birds started crowing to wake everyone up.

This is the bird that sat right outside our tent making crazy noises at 5:30am:

I was ready to get up and start swimming, but Bob was still tired so I was nice and let him sleep until 7:30 when I pulled him out of bed to drag him to the best breakfast buffet ever.

Once we'd eaten all we could possibly cram in, it was time for another day full of swimming and sliding and rainforests, and even mini-golf!

We swam and laid in the sun all morning, then took another walk through the rainforest, played some mini-golf and had a snack before it was time to head home.

We had a great time at Tropical Islands... in fact, it was almost better than actually going to a tropical island because it was so close- we didn't even have to get on a plane... there were no bugs, it was always the same temperature, and Bob didn't even have to take any vacation time off from work...

S is for Seahorse

2011-04-28T13:01:00.000+02:00

S is for Seahorse or Seepferdchen.

The plan is to have the book ready to order by next week. If you're interested in purchasing one, keep your eyes open for a post about how to buy the books on Monday or Tuesday!

So close...

2011-04-27T15:48:00.000+02:00

So I really need to get cracking on this alphabet book. My deadline (for myself) is Friday... because my mom is visiting in two weeks and I want to have time to upload the book to my most favorite online self-publishing site, lulu.com and order a few to have my mom bring over so I don't have to pay to ship them to Germany (which would probably be über expensive).

I've been a drawing and painting machine!

Here is N is for Newt:

I think they just keep getting better...

BUT, that might be because for the last 12 letters or so I made all the sketches and then put them in order of the ones I liked least to the ones I liked most so that I'd be encouraged as it got towards the end. Wait until you see the last few!

Q is for Qualle

2011-04-26T14:38:00.000+02:00

... which in German means jellyfish. Q is another letter that has a different animal for the German and English pages. I'll keep the English "Q" page a surprise...

Bunnies and Playgrounds and Cars... Oh My!

2011-04-23T21:28:00.001+02:00

We thought we'd wander around Dresden and take advantage of *some* of the stores being open. It also looked like good people watching weather. I love people watching...

Our walk started out with a snack - we needed energy for all our walking!

I got a bunny from the bakery:

kind of like a donut... but bunny shaped

We walked to the Neustadt and saw this awesome playground:

On Hauptstraße on the way home, we saw some people dressed as Easter Bunnies giving out candy to little kids. Not just candy though- TOYS too! If only I was 10...

Near our house, it seemed like it was quirky car day...

We spent a few hours lounging in the sun and then came home for meatloaf dinner (which we ate on our balcony:

Another awesome day outside...

A Friday Bike Ride

2011-04-22T22:48:00.001+02:00

In Germany, everyone gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off. We were pretty excited for a four day weekend, except that all the stores are also closed Friday, Sunday and Monday.

Yesterday I took the car to Elbe Park to the big, cheap grocery store and stocked us up on groceries for the weekend. Not only did I look like the bag lady on my way back to the apartment from the parking garage, but I had a really hard time fitting all that food into our half-sized German fridge. Good news is that we won't go hungry!

Today we decided to take a long bike ride to Rathen.

It's a beautiful ride down the Elberadweg. We rode it last summer to the Bastei- which also involved a really long hike at the end of the bike ride. This time we rode the path down the other side of the river.

The steam ships were out...

Here's our bikes taking a break

There were tons of other bikers out too- the path was beautiful and either ran by the river or through the trees

We saw some interesting things on our bike ride...

We saw a UFO

and a "crop square"

We've been spending a lot of time outside now that the weather is nice, but I hadn't been on my bike since last summer. It made for a pretty long bike ride... I was so glad to see this:

These cool mountain formations are the signature of the Sächsiche Schweiz. That's how we knew we were there!

This is the town of Kurort (across from Rathen)

Rathen from the other side of the river

The town of Rathen is really cute. We spent some time roaming around the narrow pedestrian streets. We decided to stop off at river-side restaurant called the Distillery. They're famous for "the spirit of Rathen" and other fruity liquors made on site. They didn't have much of a food menu, but we saw some people eating the daily special- flammkuchen, one of my favorite German "pizzas". They are super thin crust, spread with quark (like cream cheese) and topped with bacon, scallions, cheese, and sometimes potatoes. This flammkuchen was especially tasty and went fabulously with my cool glass of saurkirchsaft (cherry juice).

After our awesome lunch and a quick rest in the sun, we jumped on our bikes and rode home. Nope, just kidding... remember how I said this was my first time on my bike since last summer? Well, my legs held up pretty well, but bike seats are awfully uncomfortable. Instead of riding home we boarded the extremely crowded train. Unfortunately (or fortunately for our behinds) we had to stand the whole way home.

It was a fantastic day and it was so nice to be outside enjoying the summery weather!

E is for Emu

2011-04-21T17:42:00.000+02:00

I love emus. They're kind of like ostriches, but way cooler. Here is E is for Emu. I decided to give you one more in color because I think the colors on this one turned out so well.

Y is for Yak

2011-04-20T17:38:00.001+02:00

I really like the yak. And the mountains in the background. Good thing I saved all the good animals for last!

G is for Giraffe

2011-04-19T11:49:00.000+02:00

This one might compete for my all-time favorite animal alphabet book letter.
In color, he's yellowy-orange with blue-green spots.

Getting close to the end!!

U is for Urial

2011-04-18T16:03:00.000+02:00

Here's U. U is a really hard letter to find animals for. A(n?) urial is like a mountain goat. I guess they're pretty cute...

He's a lot cuter in color... sorry!

A Flea Market and a House Warming Party

2011-04-17T13:13:00.000+02:00

Every Saturday along the Elbe, they hold a giant trödelmarkt or flea market. They actually have them all over Dresden, but I think this one is the largest. They even get food stands to come out and sell food to the hundreds of vendors and shoppers!

It's pretty impressive, even from far away.

A lot of the "booths" looked like people just pulled stuff out of their keller or found stuff on the side of the road and were trying to sell it, but some of the stuff was really old and super interesting.

I REALLY wish they had one of these in Austin when I still had an art room because there was SO much cool stuff for still life drawing - like this really old and probably very dangerous fan:

or these telephones:

or this phone in a suitcase:

or even this hairdryer:

You could even buy clothing and furniture!

The coolest thing I saw were these old windows:

I really wanted to buy them to make paintings on. I probably stood and examined them for 10 minutes! I REALLY REALLY wanted them. But we were walking and they were heavy and I probably don't even have time for painting windows in my last 3 months here... but maybe next time I'll buy them and bring them home as a project for New York... who knows??

Anyhow, the whole experience was very interesting. Also, I got some warm streuselkuchen, which was fantastic!

Later, we went over to a house warming party where we played Bob's favorite game, corn hole. It's called corn hole because you throw bean bags full of corn at a board like this:

and try to get them in the hole.

Here's a nice action shot:

We had a great time enjoying the courtyard at the housewarming party!

It was a very busy, interestingly fun Saturday :)

W is for Whale

2011-04-14T14:45:00.000+02:00

Yep, that's all it took- I had to fix the lion.

Here is W is for Whale. The last 10 alphabet pages will be posted in black and white. Not because I don't want you guys to be able to see them in color, but because there are mean and evil people out there and I don't want them to take my alphabet book and try to pass it off as their own... Don't worry though, in a few weeks, it should be done, and then, if you like it, you can buy one!

Lions Again!

2011-04-13T13:21:00.000+02:00

I really didn't like L is for Lion. Maybe that's why I haven't wanted to make any more alphabet pictures...

I realized that he didn't have any foliage around him, so I added some, and that made it a little better, but I still didn't like it.

After staring at it every day for the past week, I finally figured out what it is I don't like. He looks like an alien! I think his eyes are just too big and black. So I borrowed the eyes from J is for Jaguar, and now I think he looks a lot better.

A New Project. Soon. Hopefully.

2011-04-12T13:52:00.000+02:00

I'm still working on the Animal Alphabet Book, but I think it was a bit much to take on, and I'm getting a little bit Alphabetted out... I'm going to finish it though, have no fear...

But while I'm procrastinating, I'm thinking of new projects. I really want to make some artwork featuring the architecture in Dresden because it is so beautiful and so European and so... awesome... that it would be a shame not to.

So I started taking a few pictures of some of my favorite buildings and sites... I think I'll do a series... in cut paper... we'll see...

Bier Gartens... Not Just for Beer

2011-04-11T09:45:00.000+02:00

Sunday started out as a fabulous day. It was warm, the sun was shining, and I got my most favorite morning beverage, a milchkaffee, from the McCafe, complete with a chocolate.

We took a stroll down the Elbe to a beer garden called the Fährgarten. Not because it is really far away, but because in German fähre is ferry and the beer garden is right next to the ferry. Pretty clever right? We'd never been before, but we were invited to the birthday celebration of our friends' little girl who was turning three. Funny place for a birthday party, you say? Maybe, except that this beer garden has an awesome pirate-ship playground. The kids had a blast, and I got to eat chocolate cake, so I was a happy camper too.

We stayed for a few hours before deciding to take the ferry across the river to our new favorite Sunday destination, Waldschloßchen. Every Sunday, they have live music and cheap drinks. So we sat around listening to the band...

sorry about the pole, Bob took this one...

and eating bratwurst and currywurst and pretzels.

Our friend chowing down on some currywurst.

It was a great day spent outside.

*Side note: even if it is only 60°, you should still wear sunscreen. I now am a lovely shade of pink.

Flowers!

2011-04-08T16:01:00.000+02:00

One of my favorite things about living in Dresden is that they really pride themselves on the way the city looks. There are always city workers cleaning up trash on the sidewalks. Once a week the street cleaner washes the streets. And in public areas they plant flowers once a month. Now that it's spring, not only are the trees blooming and the weather beautiful, but there are also flowers!

An Almost Finished Alphabet Book

2011-04-07T15:34:00.001+02:00

Just 10 animals to go! Not that there are that many letters in the alphabet, but since I had some to double up I feel like it's almost done. Right?

Here is L for lion.

A Very Bad Blogger...

2011-04-04T08:10:00.000+02:00

Wow... I have not posted anything for a while. I'm sorry I'm such a bad blogger. But, to be honest, after getting back from Saratoga, I just needed the rest of my New Hampshire vacation for lounging around and relaxing (and eating lemon cupcakes, which were delicious, by the way).

My April resolution is to take more pictures and post more stuff. I always seem not to have my camera or forget to take pictures of things (like the lemon cupcakes) until it's too late (like after they were all eaten).

The trip back to Dresden was pretty uneventful. It felt like it took 6 days and I was super tired when I got home. I slept my Friday away, and despite Bob's best efforts to get me up on Saturday, jet-lag won and the kitties and I slept until noon (they missed me- it was SOO cute).

By Saturday afternoon I was up for some time at the park (but did I bring my camera to take pictures of the tightrope walkers and the small children that kept migrating to our blankets to play with our Bocce balls? of course not).

And by Saturday night Sushi & Wine sounded great (again, camera? no...). The mall next to our house also expanded and is now twice the size, so after dinner we did some midnight shopping (really, the mall was open until midnight. Usually it's only open until 9, which is a huge deal in Dresden because nothing is open later than 8!).

Bob did manage to snap this picture of the "red carpet", complete with bell-hops and balloons.

Sunday we went for a walk to enjoy the 75˚ weather. FINALLY, I remembered that I had a blog and that I should take pictures. (I think jet-lag affects memory...)

The trees were flowering and there were people EVERYWHERE. I have never seen so many people lying out on public grassy areas for no reason other than to enjoy the weather. I think it may have even rivaled the 4th of July (in Concord, NH anyway).

And now, it is Monday. At 8:05am. I am very tired. I want to be sleeping. But I kind of feel like if I keep sleeping until noon, I'll never get un-jet-lagged, so here I am blogging. Maybe after this, I'll take a nap :).

Saratoga Springs

2011-03-27T15:45:00.000+02:00

While I'm home in NH, I decided it would be a good idea to drive over to New York to check out the Saratoga area, since we'll be moving back in July. There are three apartment complexes we have a choice of staying in, and since we've been starting to look at houses, I wanted to check out all the little towns near Saratoga to see what they were like.

The drive to Saratoga Springs from New Hampshire is about 3 and a half hours. My favorite part of the drive is stopping at the Vermont Country Deli. They have the best giant cookies ever!

We had a lot of little towns to drive through, but unfortunately, its hard to take good pictures while you're driving the speed limit and looking out the window of the car, so I don't have a lot of pictures of the towns we drove through. Many of them were really cute. Some were a little too rural (without even a stoplight...) and some were a little too built up. After driving through all of them, I have a much better idea of where I want to start house shopping!

On Friday I had appointments to visit some apartment complexes. It's all a little overwhelming, but I'm glad I visited and know my living options for when we get here. We'll probably live in a furnished apartment for 6-9 months while we try to find a house.

I'm really excited to move back home, especially because I'll be the closest to my family I've been since college (and even that was an 8 hour drive!). And the Saratoga area is beautiful and there's tons to do there. Only 3 1/2 months left in Germany- I'm sad we'll have to leave, but I'm looking forward to going back this weekend and enjoying the rest of my time there.

Downtown Seattle

2011-03-23T14:46:00.001+01:00

Sunday we'd had enough conference and decided to explore downtown Seattle.

We saw the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic Mountains.

We went to Pike Place Market and saw them throw fish at the Pike Place Fish Market.

We saw the Sculpture Garden.

We went to the Seattle Museum of Art.

And we walked around... a lot...

It was a great trip to Seattle! I learned and saw so much!!

Sessions, Sessions and More Sessions, and of course, FREE STUFF!

2011-03-20T22:48:00.003+01:00

The art conference was AWESOME! I went to a whole bunch of workshops on making art projects, saw some seminars about cool things like the Google Doodlers, and got a bunch of free samples from the exhibition hall.

Here are some of the coolest parts of the conference:

Making Art Projects:

I learned that you can use the recycled paper insulation (for your house) to make really cool paper mache sculptures.

Definitely making these at my next job!

Cool Things I Learned About:

Google Doodlers: One of the Google Doodlers gave a talk about how the doodlers make doodles and showed us a whole bunch of different doodles. He also talked about the Doodle 4 Google competition (which all kids reading this blog should do because it is super awesome, and if you win, you get your doodle on Google and all sorts of other good stuff.) Check out some awesome doodles here. See what I learned about here.

Wayland: Wayland is a marine artist that makes giant murals- in fact, he's made over 100! He gave a really inspirational talk and showed some images of the murals he's made. We even got to do a "draw along" with Wayland.

Wayland painting in the exhibition hall.

FREE SAMPLES:

All I have to say on this one is I'm glad I brought an extra suitcase.

Seattle is also a really cool city for Art Glass. We saw a lot of fancy glass art, espcially by my favorite glass artist, Dale Chihuly.

West Coast Here I Come!

2011-03-18T08:31:00.003+01:00

Thursday I left for the west coast, which is very exciting because I've never been further west than Texas. This year, the National Art Education Association's annual Art Educator conference was held in Seattle, WA. Since I'm not teaching, I figured at some point I should do something art-teacher-y, and this was the best thing I could think of. Since I have no art teacher friends in New Hampshire, I brought my mom along for the ride.

We left NH at 6am and arrived in Seattle around 2. After a harrowing ride in the "downtown airporter" (we walked the airport from end to end looking for it- thinking it would be with all the other "airporters" (which it wasn't), ended up finding the shuttle in the PARKING GARAGE, got in, though the driver couldn't find our reservation, drove into Seattle, stopped at a bazillion other hotels to pick people up, even though the van was full and couldn't fit anymore people, arrived at the hotel where the driver insisted we hadn't paid yet even though we had paid online, paid AGAIN, and finally were left off on the hotel curb...) we made it to the hotel!!

After getting our bearings and taking a rest (the plane ride to Seattle is surprisingly long), we went to the Crayola Opening Night Event.

Me inside a cool sculpture.

The event was held at the Experience Music Museum which happened to be right next to the SPACE NEEDLE. You can't visit Seattle without going to the Space Needle....

Even the outside of the museum was awesome.

The Space Needle. Very needley.

The Museum was really cool inside. There were a lot of make-and-take events sponsored by Crayola, like a fish printing station and a "make a latte out of model magic" station, and lots of desserts and COFFEE. The coolest thing in the museum was definitely this:

Super amazing guitar tower.

After we'd had enough dessert and music museum, we decided to go up the Space Needle since it was night (which is the best time to go up) and we were right there.

The view from the top was AWESOME!

Friday and Saturday of the conference are full of sessions about teaching art, and learning about art, and making art, and getting free art stuff...

I'm Here!!

2011-03-16T01:01:00.000+01:00

I made it safe and sound to NH. Of course, I couldn't arrive on time at 7:00pm as planned, my plane didn't get there until 11:30 which made for a pretty long day of traveling.

Upon arriving at the airport, I checked in, went through security and was sitting happily at my gate munching on apples and reading my kindle when an airline attendent came over and told us all that the plane to Munich was simply "broken" and was cancelled. So we all trudged down into the baggage claim, claimed our bags, went back upstairs, stood in the hour long line (and I was only 4 people from the front) and made new travel plans.

Unfortunately, my travel plans re-routed me through Dulles- my LEAST favorite airport EVER because of their crazy "mobile lounges" and long lines and disorganization. I've never successfully or easily boarded a plane or made a connection in Dulles. BUT, I did want to get home to Boston.

Crazily, from sitting on the plane, taxiing at Dulles at 8:45 - just 50 minutes before my next flight - I managed to get off the plane, walk down the mile long corridor to customs, get my passport checked, claim my bag, get my bag checked through customs, re-check my bag, run through the airport to the nearest flight listing board 10 gates away, check my flight, and scramble to my gate BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED BOARDING. Amazing. I may have to rethink my opinion of Dulles... or only travel through Dulles after 8:30pm.

So I successfully got on my third flight of the day and made it home to Boston. An hour and fifteen minute car ride later, I was home in my house petting my ridiculously fluffy cat, and an hour after that, I was happily sleeping (at what I felt like was 7:00am!!).

Needless to say, today was a day of taking it easy. Though I did bring my sketchbook in case of creative inspiriation. Sure enough, I was fascinated with my sister's angelfish who has survived an angelfish-on-angelfish attack.

Here are some quick sketches. Maybe fish drawings will be my new obsession after alphabet books!!

Spring in Dresden

2011-03-13T20:09:00.000+01:00

Today was SOOO warm. We spent the morning and early afternoon walking along the Elbe. It was beautiful. AND, the flowers were out and the trees are budding...

Everyone was out walking, jogging, riding bikes, rollerblading and enjoying the views of the city.

We walked as far as the new bridge they are building. We havent walked down by the river in so long that we were very impressed with the progress. Last time we saw this, it was just a few pylons on either side of the river!

Tomorrow I'm off to the US! Hurray for the English language, free refills on soft drinks and free bathrooms. It'll be nice to be home for a while!

N is for Nashorn. And also New Hampshire :)

2011-03-11T12:30:00.000+01:00

Here is my latest alphabet book page. N is for Nashorn. Nashorn is German for Rhino. I already have an R for Rhino page... and also an R for Ratte page (even though Rat is the same in both languages). But I think Rhinos are so awesome, that both the English part of the book and the German part of the book need one!!

I tried really hard to make it look like the first Rhino, but it was so long ago that I forgot what colors I used and even though I experimented for 15 minutes, I couldn't figure it out. So he's a little pinker than the first one.

N is also for New Hampshire, which is where I'm going on Monday! It will be nice to have a break from speaking German... though it is a little sad because the weather here is just starting to get nice. BUT, hopefully when I get back it will be nice all the time and I'll have lots of outside adventures to post about!

Back to the Alphabet

2011-03-08T13:03:00.000+01:00

After an alphabet break I decided to jump back into it yesterday. Unfortunately, I don't think I was really "feeling it". I made B for Bee and so far it's my least favorite letter :(

I think it's the eyes? or maybe the purple "b"? I don't know... anyway, the good news is I kind of knew B was going to be one of my least favorites, which is why I wanted to get it out of the way. I've finally finished all my sketches, so the rest of the alphabet pages will go in order of those I like least to those I like best. Just wait until the last few!

So, here it is...

In other news, the frog prince cake went over really well. Everyone loved it (might also be because they don't really make "American-style" cakes here, and they're way better than the stuff Germans call "cake").

I did get to paint a few faces, though a lot of the kids were shy, and it was a bit tricky since they didn't speak English and 4 year olds are REALLY hard to understand if you don't speak their language well.

I took a few pictures, but since I couldn't really ask the parents if I could put their kids' pictures online, you'll just have to trust that I painted some really cute princess faces!

A Frog Prince Cake

2011-03-05T09:36:00.000+01:00

I wanted to post this yesterday, but the frog prince cake took a lot longer than I expected. I think the actual frog structure was harder to assemble than the alligator....

BUT, after many hours...

Frog Prince Cake!!

Today the frog prince cake and I are off to a Princess Party. I also get to do some face painting today! Hopefully the kids aren't too shy and I can snap some pictures!

Another Cake...

2011-03-03T17:24:00.001+01:00

After my last attempt at cake-baking in Germany, I was (apparently) so successful, that I received a request to bake another shaped cake for a friend of ours for her daughter's birthday party. It's a princess party so the cake is going to be a frog prince.

This time, I cheated.

It IS for a child's birthday though, and I picture little kids liking funfetti. NOT strawberry lime. Plus, not having to make my own cake cut down on preparation time by about 3 hours. Awesome.

So after 2 hours of baking... Here is what I had.

You tell me how that's going to make a frog prince cake, because I surely had no idea...

The rest of Day 1 of cake making consisted of cutting all those nice rectangular cakes apart and making them into this:

hmmm... hope it looks better with green frosting!!!

On tomorrow's agenda... finish cake.

Some Strange Weekend Activities

2011-02-28T16:09:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend the sun came out and the temperature was above freezing. To celebrate the change in the weather, we decided to take a few long walks. Walking and biking around town are typical weekend activities for German families. The biergartens had a few tables out and were selling bratwurst and everyone seemed happy to see the sun.

Amidst the hundreds of people enjoying normal weekend activities like walking, biking and rollerblading, we also saw a few people who used the nice weather as a chance to do some more eccentric activities.

This dude decided it would be a nice day to practice tightrope walking. In a park. In front of all the passersby. He was actually pretty decent.

We passed by a part of the river that was still frozen. Though just barely. The ice looked pretty thin...

But some people thought that going ice fishing on it was a good idea. No one fell in... while we were watching...

Those strange Dresdners...

I is also for Iguana

2011-02-24T10:13:00.001+01:00

I love iguana. I haven't been getting a lot of animals done lately... Maybe because I've been a little sick... Maybe because I'm trying really hard to plan for my trip home in a couple weeks (more on that later). But here is Iguana...

A Very Different Commemoration of the Dresden Bombing

2011-02-21T13:30:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was the human chain. A peaceful demonstration by thousands of Dresdners.

This past weekend was nothing so peaceful. We had been warned in e-mails and by fellow Germans that Saturday there would be a Neo-Nazi march. This in itself was not to be violent, but in past years, extreme leftists (the opposing party) had attempted to stop the march and to use more violent forms of protest.

We went out on Saturday to view the action from afar. We weren't sure if we should venture out at all, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see an event that is a huge part of Dresden history.

As we walked from Altstadt to Neustadt (where the march was said to be held), we didn't see any violent uprisings, but we did see trams stopped along bridges to keep floods of people from storming,

more police cars than we've ever seen in Dresden

and police decked out in riot gear.

We passed the riot police blockade without incident, but as we looked back, we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to cross back to our side of town.

After scouting around and grabbing some coffee, we successfully made it back without seeing any Neo-Nazis marching, or any violent riots. Reading about it later on the web, I think I'm glad we made it out and back without any incident.

Later that evening, we did hear shouting outside our window and looked out upon a march of hundreds of leftist protestors.

If you are interested in reading more about this event, check out the following webpages:
allvoices.com
dw-world.de

I is for Ibis

2011-02-19T09:04:00.000+01:00

With 14 letters to go, I finished I for Ibis and I for Iguana yesterday. Here's the scoop on two English "I" letters. I started with iguana, and made a really awesome sketch of an iguana shaped like an i and was ready to move on to the next letter. YET as I was about to move on... I realized that iguana in German is leguan. Leguan does NOT start with an i. But I loved my iguana sketch so much that I really wanted to use it... (iguana post coming soon)...

Animals that start with i in German are few and far between, so I settled on ibis.

J is for Jaguar...

2011-02-17T08:08:00.002+01:00

Here it is. This is possibly my favorite animal alphabet book page yet!! Jaguar. Maybe I just like saying "jaguar". It could also be that jaguars have spots. Anyway, I especially like the pose of the jaguar... I think he turned out exceptionally well :)

And now, a question for all of you crazy people out there that read my blog about silly Dresden adventures and Animal Alphabet pages...

I am trying to design a title page for my book...

Here are the options (of course, I suppose "none of the following" would be an option too). Please post a comment in the comment section with your favorite!

D is for Dachs

2011-02-16T14:49:00.001+01:00

In German, badger is dachs. There aren't very many "d" animals in German... but dachs turned out cute.

The Human Chain : The 66th Anniversary of the Dresden Bombing

2011-02-14T07:48:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was a very important day for Dresdners... The anniversary of the Dresden bombing during WWII. Over 17,000 people showed up, forming a human chain that stretched from Altstadt to Neustadt and back- over 2 miles. Not counting the hundreds of onlookers.

Close to our apartment: people getting ready

On left, the bridge to Neustadt, filled with people- across the river, more people

A close up of across the river

Our side of the river. The bells rang for 5 minutes as people joined hands across the city

We didn't feel comfortable participating, and in fact it was even a little awkward to be looking on, but it was worth the strange feelings to see a city come together in such an awesome symbol of peace.

D is for Dog

2011-02-12T13:43:00.003+01:00

Only 18 letters left!!

D is another one of those letters that needs a different letter for a German animal. Next up... dachs (a badger).

X is for...

2011-02-11T16:02:00.001+01:00

X-Ray Fish?

I don't even know if that's a real animal. Not to mention that X-Ray isn't even x-ray in German. It's some guy's name.

I tried really hard to find a good X animal, but unless you use the latin name for whatever scientific classification something is (which doesn't sound very kid-friendly to me), it appears there are no animals that start with X. Maybe I could just throw a xylophone in there and pretend it's an animal. If you were a little kid, would you notice a xylophone wasn't an animal? Probably not. There. Never mind. Problem solved. X is for xylophone...

The Rest of our Austrian Vacation

2011-02-09T12:56:00.001+01:00

The rest of our vacation was a blast. We snowboarded Thursday and rented skis on Friday. Saturday was a day of driving, and unfortunately we ran into even MORE traffic on the way home... It was a fantastic week but its nice to be back...

A break in the sun

Me snowboarding!

Our final night in the Alps.

Rodelbahn

2011-02-04T17:25:00.001+01:00

Thursday night we decided to go sledding. Not just any sledding, sledding down a 5km sledding run. When would we ever have a chance to do that again?? Probably never... though it almost happened that we never got to go in the first place...

I really wanted to go sledding. I looked in the tourist info book to figure out how to do it. All I could find was the name of the place and the phone number. Not helpful. I went to the tourist information center. There, I found out where on a map the sledding place was (not helpful), and that I should call if I wanted more info. I tried to ask more specific questions.
How do we get there?
Call a taxi. Or drive. It says right here in the info book.
Can we rent sleds?
Yes.
What do we do with them when we're done?
Why don't you call?
Do you know how much it costs?
No.
So we can go sledding (pointing) here anytime?
You should call.

Grrr... very un-helpful. Strike one for info center woman.

According to the map, the sledding hut is about 3 miles from the closest bus stop. We'll definitely have to take a cab. The info lady circled the statement "taxis and traffic can travel to and from the hut from 13:00-14:00, 15:30-17:00 and 19:00-22:00. Fine. We'll find a taxi between those times. But what about the sled? She says they rent them at the hut, but how do we get them back up there???

Never mind the sled rental (I decide at 5:45pm, 15 minutes before all the stores close), we'll go to the sports store and rent one.

The guy at the store, who, for the record, does not work at the tourist info center, says "don't rent a sled here, you can just leave them at the bottom of the hill!"

Really? The woman at the info center couldn't have said that??? Strike two for her.

So 8pm comes along and we're bundled up to go sledding. We get into the taxi (because it's between 19:00&22:00) and start on our way to the sledding hut.

The road is just wide enough for one car and we're in a van. The driver is driving 50mph around hairpin curves on a road covered with snow. Next to the van on one side the mountain climbs at a ridiculous angle, and on the other side, drops away- no guard rail, fence, snowbank.... The driver starts talking on a cell phone while accelerating. I keep telling myself he does this every day, but we're all holding on for dear life.

Finally, after a 15 minute ride from you know where, we are deposited at the top of a hill next to a dark house. Hopefully someone's there, we think...

We find the sled rental door which says "sledding from 10:30pm on."

REALLY?? The woman from the info center couldn't have said THAT?? Strike THREE!!!

Turns out the sledding run is also the road that runs to and from the hut. So you can't sled during the hours traffic is allowed to drive on the road. Ridiculous!!

Fortunately, the hut also had a restaurant with awesome apple strudel!

At 10:30 we rent our sleds and procede to barrel down the sledding run, around the hairpin turns, next to the scary drop offs, and past the tiny lights the illuminate the path (every once and a while). It was terrifyingly awesome! Once I figured out how to steer a sled that is...

Unfortunately, I have no sledding pictures. Partly because it was very dark, but mostly because I had to hold onto my sled for dear life.

Despite our adventures getting TO the sledding, I think it was my favorite part of our Austrian vacation!

A Sweet Ice Cave

2011-02-01T21:00:00.003+01:00

Once, when we lived in Austin, we went to the Inner Space Cavern. It was awesome. I mean, we were adults, and all the other people on the tour were little kids with their parents and the tour guide had all sorts of silly stories about the rock formations (like the "ice cream cone"), which were obviously meant for kids, but it was still cool to see all the stalactites and stalagmites and underground rivers and things.

Bob and I have also been known for making snow forts. Usually, when there is enough snow and we visit my parents for Christmas, we pile up all the snow from the deck in the back yard and carve it out into an awesome snow fort.

So, when we saw the sign for the Ice Cave, it was like two really awesome things put together- caves and snow forts- and we knew we had to make time to see it.

We had to ride all the way up to the top of the Glacier to see it. After paying for our tickets, we waited around for the tour with about 30 other people at the "Ice Palace Container".

We all followed our tour guide to a sheet in the wall on the backside of a ski slope... (wasn't looking too promising at that point).

Once inside, it started out like a giant snow fort. We had plenty of time to examine the snow crystals on the wall as the forty people in front of us snaked into the depths of the cave. After 15 minutes or so, when we were starting to wonder if we'd ever get past the entrance, we realized what was causing the hold up.

We had to trek down a set of ice stairs. This might not have been a problem if it weren't for the following two issues. 1: it was warm at the glacier- above zero- so the snow and ice was melting and refreezing. Even with the rubber treads, those stairs were slippery. 2: We were wearing snowboard boots- not the best range of motion, but pretty decent boot-like rubber soles with nice thick treads. Other people were wearing SKI BOOTS. Slick, plastic-bottomed, non-bending ski boots. I'm surprised no one fell and hurt themselves!!

So far, the ice cave was way cooler than our snow forts. We never had stairs.

As we snaked through, the line kept moving even slower...

Because we had to climb down metal ladders. REALLY?? Metal ladders? With ice and SKI BOOTS!??! You could never have something like this in the US. It was like a law suit waiting to happen. But all the ski boot clad tourists clambered down, slipping once in a while, but always catching themselves.

It was actually very beautiful. Aside from the fact that we crammed 40 or 50 people into an ice cave meant for a tour of 10, it was just like an ice cave with stalactites and stalagmites and everything.

We learned (at least I think- the tour guide spoke German) that the ice on the Glacier shifts up to 40 meters a year and that the inside of the ice cave is always changing- much quicker than the inside of a rock cave. My favorite part of the tour was the room where they lit the ice formations in different colors.

It was really awesome to see an entire cave made of ice. I wish we had the time and money to take the real expedition where you get to crawl through things and have to be clipped into a harness, but the one hour tour was pretty cool (literally).

My standards for snow-fort making have definitely increased. Good thing we'll be moving to a place where they get a lot of snow in the winter...

Snowboarding!

2011-02-01T19:33:00.001+01:00

The weather in Austria is fantastic!! Warm and sunny, but still enough snow to snowboard on!

We spent Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday snowboarding. I was so excited to get out on the slopes that I got up super early on Sunday. Here is the very early dawn out our window.

We snowboarded at a mountain close to our apartment (we could walk there) on Sunday.

From the lift

Bob on the lift.

I haven't been snowboarding very long. After just the first day I was covered in bruises. Here is one of the times I wasn't falling.

The first mountain was nice, but the most beautiful views were from the Glacier- the highest mountain in the ski valley. It was so high up that to get to the top, there were THREE gondolas. Crazy.

We had a blast snowboarding. There isn't much else to say about how awesome I am at it, so here are some pictures to show how incredible it was.

Looking down into the valley where we stayed.

After a long day of snowboarding, it was always nice to stop at one of the mountain huts at the top or bottom of a lift, or this little place at the bottom of the Glacier, for a drink or a snack.

And it was even nicer to get home to a warm shower!

Arriving in Austria

2011-01-30T21:49:00.001+01:00

The trip to Austria was supposed to take 6 1/2 hours. The drive through Germany isn't very exciting and its the longest part of the trip. There are a lot of fields and windmills. Windmills used to be fascinating, and every time I saw some I'd point out the window and yell like a little kid, "look at the windmills!!". But now I've seen enough that windmills are windmills and they get old after a while. Same with cows and horses.

When we take long car drives we like to get Burger King for lunch. Its one of the increasing number of fast food chains in Germany, but we only get it on road trips. Its okay... but Bob loves it. So around lunch time we decided to find a Burger King. The GPS said there was one only 2km off the highway....

25 minutes later we were in a strange town full of one-way streets. Somehow we managed to drive off the streets all together and found ourselves in the middle of a pedestrian plaza surrounded by pedestrians (who wouldn't get out of the way for the car that wasn't supposed to be there) and streets marked with "do not enter" signs. The GPS was going crazy. "Turn left on... Turn right... contin... left... turn... make a u-turn??" To make matters worse we somehow managed to attract a cop car... AND we never found the Burger King.

We did see a really pretty church though.

And we finally found our way back to the highway... only to see a sign for a rest stop with a Burger King just a few minutes later...

The nice part about driving to Austria was that the boring part through Germany (and the exciting detour) took just as long as it said it would. It was only once we got to Munich (which is pretty close to the border) that we encountered the ridiculous amount of traffic as all the other cars from Germany (and Poland and Hungary and the Czech Republic and even the Netherlands) piled onto the same highway to get to the ski resorts.

Fortunately, Munich is close enough to the Alps that we started seeing snow-capped peaks.

Even though the last hour and a half of the drive took us three and a half hours, it was beautiful and we were excited so we didn't mind much.

I'm pretty sure there weren't even real traffic jams. There were just a bunch of signs that said traffic jam (stau in German) and every time the cars passed under one, everyone slowed to a crawl until they forgot the sign and sped up again...

Notice we are before the sign. No traffic. Notice the traffic backed up immediately AFTER the sign.

We also got to drive through some sweet tunnels.

This is us IN the tunnel...

And finally, we knew we were almost there when we passed under this ridiculous gondola.

Notice there are no posts. The crazy thing starts ground level and goes on just cables up half the mountain.
We did NOT ride in that one.

**NOTE: Due to the lack of internet in our apartment, these posts are dated according to when they happened... even though I'm posting them all right now, from Dresden. Sorry!

Austria Trip, Austria Trip, Austria Trip...

2011-01-27T07:57:00.001+01:00

For those of you out there who love to travel, I don't know what's wrong with you! Maybe I need lessons or something, but it never fails... a few days before any impending vacation, I flip out.

The days prior to any vacation look like this:

"What is our hotel going to be like? Do we need our own towels? Is there a coffee machine?"
"How does the bus work? How late does it run? What if I can't figure out how to get places?"
"What is there to do there? How much does it cost? How long does it take??"
"What is there to eat? What food should I bring? What clothes do I pack?"

And an hour later I'm sitting in front of the computer with 10 browser windows open, each with at least 5 tabs, trying to find every site on the internet with information about the place I'm going.

I sit and make a list of all the things we need to do, how much they cost, where they are, how to get there, why it's cool.

Then I take that list and try to make a schedule- not just a general schedule- down to the minute.

And still, as I'm traveling to my destination, I have my pen out and I'm scribbling things in the margins and crossing things out.

When I get there, I go to the tourist office, find all their information, make another list, make another schedule, cross-reference it with the first schedule, and finally... I'm ready for the vacation.

EXCEPT... I forgot thing 1 and thing 2, which I immediately must find a store to purchase in case they are needed. AND, its colder/warmer than I thought, so all those clothes I packed, well, they aren't going to do any good because I will wear the same thing every day so that by the time I return home I will stink. ALSO, I didn't realize that half the things on my list actually don't fit into the schedule because it takes longer to get to the places than I thought or their opening times have changed but they didn't put it on the website.

SO...

I might as well have not done any of the prep-work because we pretty much wing it once we're there... finding things to do as we walk past them or because some other tourist mentions them to us. I shouldn't have packed a suitcase because I only wear what I had on when I arrived and bought any other necessities, AND, I've already ruined my schedule with so many scribbles and foldings and unfoldings and somehow dropping it in a puddle that even if I wanted to use it, it's useless.

Why, then, do I continue to torture myself? Maybe it's the thought that eventually, all that work is going to pay off... Maybe it's because in the back of my mind, my subconscious doesn't like to travel and is trying to put me off of planning any more trips... Maybe I'm just crazy...

Saturday we leave for Austria.

At this moment, I have already made my first list and my first schedule, and revised them twice. I have a map with so many stars and circles and highlighted things that I don't even know what's what. There is a pile the size of Mt. Everest in my guest room of stuff we need to bring. I will go shopping today to buy everything else that is on my 3 page list of stuff we need to bring and don't have yet.

Tomorrow I will pack everything, think that I forgot some items that are checked off on my 10 page list (but maybe I checked them off by accident), unpack everything, repack everything, decide on a few more things to bring (which will require me to unpack and repack again so that everything fits into my allotted number of bags), and make a list of all the things I need to remember to do before we leave (like take out the trash and turn off the lights).

Saturday I will wake up and inevitably feel the need to unpack and repack one more time, just to make sure we have everything. We will leave and follow my "things to do before we leave check off list" but I will feel like I left the stove on and have to come back in to check. Then we will start driving, but I will forget something really important like my sunglasses and we will have to turn around and come back to get them. Then we'll leave again, but I'll feel like I didn't lock the door and I'll have to go back and check.

I will probably spend the whole vacation staring out of my apartment window at the Alps. Maybe I will venture onto the ski slopes. But after all that planning, I just need a relaxing vacation!!

T is for Tiger and also Tux, Austria

2011-01-25T16:20:00.001+01:00

Regrettfully, this may be my last Animal Alphabet page for a while. We are planning a ski trip for next week to the Austrian Alps!! There's a lot of preparation involved since we have to tune up the snowboards, pack all our gear and clothes, plan our meals for the week, buy lots of food and snacks and drinks, and research where it is, exactly, that we are going...

SO, here is "T is for Tiger".

In case you are interested in where we are going next week (which you very well may not be, in which case I totally grant you permission to stop reading here) this is where it is:

We have this really cute apartment here- a very helpful site as it is all in German, but at least there's a nice picture.

We're skiing (snowboarding actually, but "snowboard vacation" doesn't sound nearly as cool as "ski vacation" or even in German, "ski urlaub") at Tux. There are also lots of other cool things to do there like a 5km sledding run, ice skating, cave exploration and even a fireworks show.

It should be pretty awesome...

Alligator Cake: Success

2011-01-22T09:27:00.001+01:00

After only 4 hours...

Alligator cake!

What? No Cake Mix?

2011-01-21T09:16:00.001+01:00

I happen to love cake. Birthday cake specifically... not that I would refuse other types of cake, its just that birthday cakes are my favorite. They have to be the round ones, two layers, that you cut into wedges. Those are the best. And none of those store-made ones, they have to be homemade. But not really homemade, homemade from a box. Like Pillsbury, or Duncan Hines, or Betty Crocker. With that frosting that comes in the little round canisters. Those types of cake are the best.

Early this week, I was commissioned to make a birthday cake for one of our friends.

hopefully it will be a cute alligator cake.
This alligator is a little scary.

"No problem!" I thought. "I'll just take out my handy-dandy cake mix and some oil and a couple eggs, mix it up, throw it in the oven, and smack some frosting on there."
Oh- says Bob- and can you make it in the shape of an alligator?
"Okay, a little trickier, but I'm an artist, sure!"

I knew that one of the grocery stores here had American products so I went to check it out. For a mere 12 Euros, ($16.20) I could buy the only type of cake mix they had (carrot) and a canister of frosting (which would totally NOT cover an entire alligator- make that 3 canisters of frosting for a total of $31). I don't think so.

So yesterday I spent hours slaving over the hot... um... oven... and made two batches of strawberry cake from scratch. Not perfect, but I think I did alright for my first attempt at cake from scratch. Stupid German oven didn't cook very evenly, but the important thing is that they taste good- which they do (I had to test to make sure it wasn't poisonous.

So today... frost cake to look like an alligator with homemade lime-creamcheese frosting... pictures coming soon!

Cats and Mice

2011-01-20T07:09:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I finished yet another alphabet book page. M is for Mice. I'm not sure I like this one as much because two mice have to make the letter M. I tried what felt like a bazillion ways to make just one mouse look like an m, but I just couldn't do it (well, can't is a strong word- I could have done it but it would have looked stupid (pardon my use of the "s" word)).

You might wonder what else I do with my days here besides working on alphabet book pages. You may also wonder why it is that I post only one alphabet page every other day or so. What is it I do here??

I have realized that a good part of my day

(after...

-walking 77 miles to the gym and working out amidst smelly Germans, all over the age of 68 who want to be my friend but who I can only understand, at best, 50% of the time

-walking back those 77 miles - and its uphill both ways

-buying groceries - often at two or more stores since the store I buy my cheap vegetables at doesn't carry edible meat and/or toothpaste and would never have advil because it's a dangerous drug and you need to ask at the counter at the pharmacy for it so they can see you're over 18 and won't abuse it...

-cleaning the house, which takes approximately 4 times as long as it might in the US due to inferior cleaning products

-and making dinner - again, 4 times as long because I have to churn the butter, grow the herbs and make any sort of sauce, breadcrumb, or other typically pre-packaged food myself...

only to find that by the time I've completed my daily tasks, Bob has been home for half an hour, already messed up my cleaning, has finished the dinner it took hours to prepare and is waiting for me to finish washing the dishes so we can relax because he's been working all day**)

is spent being a chair.

Yeah, that thing that looks like a zipper is my sweatshirt, and yes the cat is on my lap, which for all intensive purposes is a chair. My cat also likes to sleep on unoccupied chairs. Just not as much.

Fortunately, while being a chair, I can do other useful things, like surf the web or edit photos or scan alphabet book pages, or write blog posts... which is what I'm doing now while being a chair. Fantastic.

**For the sake of emphasizing my point I may have slightly over exaggerated a few details. The gym is NOT 77 miles away, its only 1. And Bob is actually a very nice guy who picks up things I forget at the store on his way home from work, sometimes helps make dinner and almost half the time puts away the dishes after I wash them. He also knows that being a hausfrau is a full time, demanding, tiring and often times boring job and if he ever mentions that it isn't work, isn't as hard as the work he does, doesn't take as much time and effort as I say it does, or any other comments that even suggest being a hausfrau is not a full-time laborious job, I will get on the first plane out of here and go home to my mom. Hasn't happened yet...
Oh, and he's not that messy.

H is for...

2011-01-19T09:28:00.000+01:00

While sitting around last Friday after the internet stopped working, I found plenty of time for making Alphabet book pages. My most recent are for the letter H. Its one of those letters that need two animals because there aren't any animals that start with H in both languages. Okay, I lie. Hamster starts with H in both languages. But how would I make a hamster look like the letter h? Its like a round ball of fur. Maybe if hamster started with O...

Anyway, H is for hare...

And also hund. I won't translate that because if you can't tell by looking at the picture, I should give up all hopes of alphabet book making right now...

No Internet!?!? AND a flood??

2011-01-18T11:36:00.000+01:00

Our internet was on the fritz since the last posting, but we finally have it up and running again thanks to a fabulous German-speaking friend who was able to call the internet company for us.

If you've ever had to call the internet or cable company in English you know that it can be a crazy hassle.

"Can I put you on hold?"
"Let me transfer you to..."
"Have you tried...?"
"Ok, open the cover of the box, press the green button, switch all the cables, turn the black lever, snip all of the wires. Is it working now?"

...and 3 hours later they have to set up an appointment to come to your house between the hours of 7am and 10pm three weeks from today.

I didn't think I could handle that in German.

Thankfully, the internet providers here are apparently much easier to deal with (aside from the holding time of almost an hour in which they charge .19 Euros a minute).

In other news, due to the crazy amount of snow the Czech Republic got in December and the ridiculously warm temperatures lately, the river (the Elbe) is flooding.

This is near the bridge that crosses from Altstadt to Neustadt. Yes, that is a ticket booth for boat tours (which are obviously inaccessible right now) which is halfway filled with water.

This is a street. See the stoplights? And where it turns right to go into the tunnel?

We walked from our house to the Blue Bridge on Sunday to check out the river along the way. When we got there our favorite restaurant had all these sandbags out to keep their basement from flooding. On the bright side, we got to see a lot of swans :)

O is for Orangutan

2011-01-14T08:04:00.000+01:00

Orangutan is a strange word because it sounds like it should have a "g" at the end. Regardless, they are pretty cool animals. They're the best monkeys to watch at zoos because they're so playful... except for the older males- they just look really sad to me.

Here is the latest alphabet book page!

V is for Vulture

2011-01-13T07:06:00.000+01:00

V is for Vulture. Vultures are pretty vicious animals. Well, maybe not super vicious unless something is lying dead in the road, but they're always pretty ugly, and vicious or not, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to hang out next to one for very long.

That being said, it was quite a challenge to make a friendly looking vulture. Kind of like alligators. Alligators are scary. It was also difficult to make "A is for Alligator" look happy and friendly. Though not as hard as V is for Vulture.

So here he is.

He definitely doesn't look scary. Maybe a little scared though... or surprised?

C is for Chameleon

2011-01-12T08:06:00.000+01:00

As you may have seen in yesterday's post, I'm making pretty good progress on alphabet letters. C for Chameleon is now finished. If you count the letters that have doubles (due to the fact that the German language and the English language are not, in fact, the same...) I am now... 1/4 done!

Hmm... I was sort of hoping for halfway... it looks like a lot of letters hanging in my window... oh well... back to work...

Definitely my favorite so far...

My Cat Watzke: Budding Artist

2011-01-11T08:30:00.000+01:00

Sometimes when I stay home all day, I might as well not even be here for the amount of attention my cats pay me. Other days, anytime I even so much as appear to be sitting down (bending down to get laundry out of the drier definitely counts!) I have a cat jumping up to sit on me. And some days I feel like I have dogs instead of cats as I'm constantly followed around. Its nice to have company!

Yesterday, I was working on my alphabet book and Watzke decided he wanted to sit on my lap- which wasn't very convenient as I kept getting up and down or dropping water on him by accident. So he found a comfortable spot here:

He was very interested in everything I was doing. After eating some paint, and drinking some dirty water (blech!!) he decided on the paintbrush as a suitable toy for playing with for a while. Maybe tomorrow I can teach him how to paint :)

More Time for Artwork

2011-01-10T11:38:00.000+01:00

After I finally managed to get all the Christmas stuff put away and the house cleaned and back in order, I felt at a loss of things to do. The weather warmed up and all the snow melted, I didn't have any presents to buy or cookies to bake, nothing to wrap... not even Christmas music to listen to. Which made me decide to do things productive. New Year's Resolution #1: Make more artwork.

First I started out by uploading a lot of my artwork to another site like Imagekind (artsonia for grown-ups) called Artwanted. You can see my online portfolio here. There's not a ton of artwork on there yet, but I'll get there.

I also took out all my animal alphabet book making supplies and started drawing and painting. My last letter was R for Rhino way back in the beginning of November. I thought I might have forgotten what I was doing, but I think R wie Ratte turned out pretty well:

Why two Rs? Because Rhino in German is nashorn which does not start with R. But, I really like Rhinos and wanted one in my book, so R for Rhino, R wie Ratte.

Cats by Kris - A Calendar (Finally!)

2011-01-06T08:07:00.000+01:00

So, its just about a week late, but after all the craziness of Christmas and packing up all the Christmas stuff, I've finally uploaded my calendar to lulu.com.

Remember back in December I made an awesome calendar as a super surprise present for my mom for Christmas? Since it was so much work, I decided that other people should be able to get one too!

So here it is...