My new car

On Sunday, we made our way to Cologne via train. Why, would this car-loving couple head to Cologne in a train? Because we were headed there to look at a car for me!
We arrived in the early afternoon, and met the sellers of a 2004 BMW X5. At first sight, I was in love. It is dark grey- my fave car color. The only problem is that someone went a little chrome crazy, but the chrome is easily fixable.
The interior is lovely as well. It is nice and roomy, and is so much fun to drive!
After a short time, and Joern's inspection, we decided to take it- after all, we were in love.
Sadly, I don't have any pictures right now, but I will post as soon as I find my phone or my camera.
I've driven to work for two days now, and I'm so happy!! I can't believe I went so long without a license!

Official decision

Thankgsiving at our home is cancelled this year. I'm a little sad. Joern and I spent lots of time discussing, and well, our hearts aren't into it this year. We're busy planning the house, and we both have lots of stress with work. I love our annual Thanksgiving party, but our apartment has gotten too small for the size of the party.
The good news is that there's a good chance that we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving next year in our new house. Everyone's invited.
Start looking into plane tickets now, as this is a great excuse to head out to Stuttgart!!

I did it!!

After basically locking myself in my apartment all weekend, and chaining myself to a chair, I finally took my German driver's license test the other day.
We had originally planned that I would take the test last Wednesday, but thanks to all the goodness of German bureaucracy, I was never offically signed up to take the test. I ended up signing up to take the test this week.
The test itself is a bit different from that in CT. First, you are given two booklets full of all the possible test questions that could appear- 1300 questions in all. YIKES! I now know how to calculate breaking distance, reaction distance, trailering weight, and well, a whole bunch of useless facts, all of which I plan on promptly forgetting.
The test takes place at the local TUV, which is kind of like the old emissions testing places- but is the agency responsible for the safety of cars. I was pretty surprised that about 15 people were also taking the test, and congratulations to me, I was by far the oldest. Thanks to the TUV though, I was able to take the test in English. The test itself was exactly taken from the practice questions, except there were 30 questions. Thank you very much! The test is definitely easy if you are well prepared. I completed the test in about 10 minutes, and the test was immediately corrected- 100%!!! Hurrah!
The test results were supposed to be sent to the district office, where I originally had to apply for the license. Unfortunately, they wouldn't arrive until Friday. But, Joern being Joern, talked the woman working at the TUV to get us a copy of the test results to walk away with. So, we took the test results, and headed to the district office of Nürtingen. Another difference to the US- when you apply for a license, you must also turn in photos. They make the license for you when you apply, and they then hold the license until you turn in test results. So, it was a quick swap, and I walked away with my license! I am now allowed to drive here, completely legally! After 3 years feeling like a teenager, I am finally free again.
We're headed to Cologne on Sunday to check out a car to buy! Wahoo! It feels so good to be back in the real world!!!

In honor of Halloween

Happy Halloween!!
This is one of those holidays that can cause some homesickness. To Americans, Halloween means fall and little kids. Every October, I tell Joern about going to a pumpkin patch with my parents when I was little, finiding the perfect pumpkin and then buying some apple cider to bring home. Then, we'd find a good night when my dad and I would carve the pumpkin. On Halloween, my Jack-o-Lantern would be ready and my dad would take Nadia and I out trick-or-treating.
Here in Germany, Halloween is slowly catching on. Right now, it seems to be more of a commercial thing, you can find a small display in most grocery stores selling home decor, and Halloween parties are growing in popularity- but then again, Germans will use any reason to party.
Sadly though, I miss the whole Halloween feeling. Especially, the trick-or-treaters, who especially early in the night, are just so darn cute and proud of their costumes.
One thing that really perked me up this year though was my international candy exchange. This is my second year involved in the candy exchange, and is through my group of friends who are living all over the world. This year, I picked someone living in Germany. What are the odds? There are only about 10 of a group of close to 50 living in Germany. Oy! She lives in the next state over, so I sent her some Swabian sweets- I sent her chocolate Maultaschen :) and Wiebele, small Swabian cookies. I also got her a bunch of Stuttgart brochures, including a wine map and a brochure for the upcoming Christmas market. I hope that she liked her gift!
Yesterday when I got home, I found my package had been delivered as well! Mine came from an Australian living in England. So cool! Even cooler, was that her dog had even personally chewed the corner of the envelope :)
Here's what I got in my International Halloween candy package:

I am so excited about my candy!
So far, I've only tried the Chomp bar, a little chocolate/caramel bar. Joern split it with me, and we both really liked it! I hope to make this special Halloween candy last, just like when I was little, and tried to make my Halloween candy last as long as possible!
So, thank you very much to my friend in England who helped bring a little Halloween fun to Germany!!

Sometimes, it doesn't pay to live abroad

Last week, I decided to order another subscription to Country Living Magazine. I had let the subscription run out because the magazine got kind of boring. But, their website has really pepped up, so I decided to give a subscription another chance. Unfortunately, when I tried to order, my bank card was declined. I guessed it was because it was the website was trying to process my card with my German address. Joern was gracious enough to place the order for me.
The next day, I decided to order my bridesmaid's dress for my friend Mandy's wedding. Good thing I went to order it from J.Crew, because the color had been placed on sale. When I placed the order, my card was denied. Weird. So, I called my bank (at home) immediately. Turns out that they cancelled the card because of tampering. Thanks again dear bank for not allowing overseas addresses. I was told that there was a letter and new card sent to my US mailing address. A lot of good it did me here.
The good news at least though, was that after a 25 minute phone conversation with JCrew, I was able to order my dress with a German credit card. Phew! Now, I will be able to keep my position as bridesmaid, because I got my dress :)

No fun!!!

Last year, my tooth broke in half. I know, I should have gone to the dentist immediately, but it didn't hurt, and well, the dentist is not my favorite person. On Wednesday, I got a pretty bad toothache. It wasn't unbearable, but there was a definite pain in my mouth. So, we made an appointment with the dentist for Thursday.
When Thursday afternoon came, I realized that the pain had died down quite a bit, but I also knew that I still needed to go to the dentist.
We went to the dentist, and well, I thought he was going to tell me that the tooth needed to be filled, or tell me about some minimal procedure. HA!
He looked in my mouth, and then did an X-Ray. I was already tipped off when he came in the room with one of those uneasy smiles on his face. He tiptoed into the room, and said, ever so softly, "I have some bad news. The tooth must come out."
I guess I should consider myself lucky. I have never had any dental procedure worse than an intensive cleaning, with some plaque scraping. So, I shouldn't complain. But, having a needle inserted into your mouth is not a pleasant procedure. I even joked about having arthritis and being afraid of pain. For me, it was more the thought, and the odd feeling of a NEEDLE being inserted into my gums and cheek. Bleh!
Once the numbness set in, and my tears stopped, the dentist had me lay back and told me to close my eyes, saying, "believe me, you don't want to see any more of this."
He got to work, and it honestly seemed like he was scraping at my tooth. The sound was really no worse than scraping. Thirty seconds later, he said to me, "do you want to bring the tooth home?" I thought he was just talking to me to calm me down. The nurse, who had been holding my hand, walked away. That was it! He was done! Honestly, the extraction did not hurt at all.
I finally mustered up the courage to look at the HUGE tooth that had been removed. Wow!
The dentist gave me some ibuprofen for the pain, and sent me away with some gauze to keep in my mouth. Of course, he also sent me away with a note for work, saying that I should not go in on Friday, because I needed to recover.
That was it. We headed out to a tile store and stopped by one of Joern's friends, who is a tile installer. We wanted to know how much he would charge us in comparisson to what the builders are charging us. I have to say, I never would have thought, I'd be running errands immedately after getting a tooth pulled. But, I am a little embarassed by my akward smile, and well, my slightly slurred speech.
I took it easy on Thursday night and Friday. I took a preventative ibuprofen at 7 and then again at midnight. I thought that I'd rather take medicine before I was in pain and not wait. But, I woke up on Friday morning with no pain, so I decided not to take any medicine. Yesterday I had minimal pain, but my mouth still felt a bit raw. Today, everything's great. I'm hoping I'm over the hill now.
I have to say, I am so thankful for this experience. I think if I had a bad experience, I would have a lot more trouble returning to the dentist, and would have huge problems with any future dental procedures.

Dresden in pictures!

I finally found my camera, so I can post pictures from last weekend. Some more pictures are on my phone, so that will take a little more time to get them here. But for the meantime, here's one of the most beautiful cities I've visited:
We came up from the parking garage to find a Radeburger beer fest in the Altmarkt (old market.) It was so cute and German, what a great greeting!


And here's what we saw when we turned to the right to head out of the Altmarkt:

Beautiful!
We made our way towards the River Elbe, and on our way, found ourselves at the Frauenkirche (Women's Church). The church is beautiful! It was rebuilt after being completely destroyed in bombing during WWII. Amazingly, the rebuilding began in 1993, the ruins remaining for over 40 years. It really makes you think about what Dresden looked like when it was part of East Germany.
Okay, most of these pictures are on my phone, so please click on the link so you can actually see what the church looks like!

From here, we made our way to the Elbe, here's what we found:



I'm already hoping to make a trip back, to relax, enjoy the sights and visit a few museums!