An update

Well, I've been trying to keep everything in the order that we've done them. This is getting me further and further behind, hehe. So...I decided to just go with yesterday. Tammie keeps mentioning that I haven't updated...I just want to note that she hasn't updated at all since we got here :-P Thank goodness for Gardner!

First, we went shopping yesterday at a store called Ratio. It's kinda like a WalMart. Food and sales on all kinds of random things. I spent about 60 euro, and it turned out that they didn't take my Mastercard. There went all the cash I had left (before the day even really started!) I DID get 2 pair of nice boots and a pair of shoes that I could wear. That's amazing! 40 euro for a pair of shoes and 2 pair of boots? Yeah...I was a happy girl.

Yesterday, we just went during the day to a couple of nearby cities. We first went to Venlo in the Netherlands. A lot of people have mentioned to Tammie about crossing the border to shop because everything is cheaper because of taxes. Venlo is the "across the border" city that people go to. So...off we went. I'm still amazed at how beautiful all these little towns are. You get to the city center, and everyone is just buzzing down these little narrow roads, and everything is all decorated up for Christmas. I find myself taking pictures of the same type of thing over and over again. There are so many beautiful buildings! We went into a LOT of shops! The first one that I kinda made Tammie & my mom stop at had fuzzy socks for 1 euro a pair. Seriously...my FAVORITE socks ever! So I bought a bunch, and convince my mom and Tammie that they wanted a few also :-)

We moved along, and just stopped in at all kinds of different shops. I loved it!

We then went to Kevelaer in Germany. There were some beautiful churches there! Tammie and I went inside 2 of them, and it's just amazing. We also found a Euro Shop (Dollar Store, hehe) and we were able to pick up a bunch of random stuff. Grabbed Belgian chocolates for people at work, more fuzzy socks (yes, I know I have a problem), and just all kinds of stuff. It was fun :-)

We then headed back home, and settled in for the night. Dinner, I spent some time reading, then Tammie, Gardner, & I watched some Joan ("Joan of Arcadia"...I still love that show).

I'll put of pictures later :-) That's another thing that was holding back my posts, but I figured it's better to get it written so this part is here at least!

11/29 A day at home

Today was mostly a day at home. A *very* busy day for Tammie. We went in the morning to take their mini van to get winter tires. Tammie, Emma, & I then walked home. On the way home, we stopped at the bakery. Tammie decided that we needed to start sampling what they have available at the bakery. We got brochen, a raisin snail, a pudding pretzel, and Emma got a Shokobrochen. The pudding pretzel was my favorite, I'd have to say. Emma had her Shokobrochen almost gone before the rest of us had a chance to sit down.I ended up falling asleep again off and on all afternoon and evening. Tammie went to parent teacher conferences for all 3 kids, and picked up the car before one of them. Not much else to say for the day, I just kinda hung out.

11/27 - 11/28 - The flight, and day 1 in Germany!

Well, we made it :-) After working Monday night, I went to my parents' house and slept for about an hour before we had to get up and head to the airport. There was *no* line at all for ticketing or security. It was nice. The flight to Atlanta wasn't bad at all. I used my mom for a pillow, and slept the entire way. In Atlanta we rode one of those carts to our next gate (thankfully, not sure my mom woulda made that trek otherwise!). We grabbed lunch at Panda Express, and the layover was over before I knew it. I do have to mention...the Atlanta airport had these odd vegetables all over. I didn't notice them anywhere else...but the gate across from where we were had this random giant carrot with a lima bean rotating on top of it. Just...odd. There was also an ear of corn shaped like an airplane. Yeah...we couldn't figure them out *laugh* but it gave us something to laugh at while we were waiting.
We were very lucky for the flight from Atlanta to Dusseldorf. It was empty enough that we were each able to have our own set of seats. Spreading out over 2 seats makes a HUGE difference when you're flying for 9 hours. They gave us these little kits with blindfolds, headphones, earplugs, a toothbrush & toothpaste, lotion, and a few other things. They also fed us tons of food (well...tons for me...lol). I slept lots, and tried to watch the movies ("Mr. Bean's Holiday" isn't my kind of movie...then "License to Wed" was on and I was so tired I couldn't stay awake). So overall, not bad. The sunset even looked WAY cool when I woke up in the middle of the flight. I tried to take a picture of it, but the picture couldn't capture how cool it was.We made it to the Dusseldorf airport about an hour early, and hung out waiting for Tammie to pick us up.

Tammie showed up with Emma, and we headed back to their house. We did have our first experience on the autoban. Ok, I have anxiety bad enough when other people drive...but going 90 on the curves? I had to not watch. My mom kept telling Tammie to slow down. It was pretty funny. We got back to their house just in time to say hi to Spencer and Shantal just before they had to leave for school. We sat up and talked for a bit, then my mom went downstairs to sleep. I tried to stay awake, then slept on the couch for 4 hours apparently. It didn't feel like that to me, but then again...it never does! I still had a pretty bad headache when I woke up, and I fought sleep the rest of the night. Tammie and I ran to the grocery store to get more bread, and she wanted to show me the grocery store experience. Wow! If you don't watch it, you'll get left behind. They check out the items, and you have to bag them as fast as they check them out. You also have to deposit a euro to use the shopping cart. Then, when you lock the cart back in, you get your euro back. We had dinner, then I went upstairs with Gardner to try to figure out the wireless internet (they didn't know their security key...then when we figured it out...it still wouldn't work because Vista hates wpa-psk security, apparently.)

I then just completely crashed. I was SO tired. I tossed and turned a bit, but was up for the day by about 7 in the morning. That is SO not like me. Here are some of the pictures from the flight/airport & my first day :-)