My Last Weekend in Dresden

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!!

A Great Weekend

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

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... 

A Valued Inventory

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.

Time for One More Project??

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!

A Saturday at...

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

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

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

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!