Welcome to our life!

Hi, I'm Allison! I'm a thirtysomething, freshly baked, stay-at-home mom. I'm originally from Connecticut, now living in Germany, hence the name of the blog. I live in southern Germany with my German husband and our baby boy. Life has turned out to be nothing I ever expected, and am so incredibly happy with it! We certainly do have a lot of laughs! I hope you will enjoy following our new experiences raising a little half American/ half German in a little German town.

Montag, 29. März 2010

A weekend of Swabian theater!

What a crazy weekend! Some parts fun, and some parts exhasperating, but all memorable (although I'd prefer to forget some parts.)
Our weekend of Swabian theater began on Saturday, a two man show, put on by Joern and his cousin. The back story is that two weekends ago, Joern spent quite a few hours cutting down the totally overgrown thorny bushes that lie between Joernn's parent's house and Joern's aunt's house. He did an amazing job, it looks like a new place, despite the bloody mess that came home to me that night.
During that following week, we got word that Joern's cousin (who lives on the top floor at aunt's house,)contacted Joern's dad saying that he wanted to talk to Joern. Since Joern and his cousin haven't spoken in two years, the whole thing seemed a bit fishy.
Back to last Saturday, Joern and I drove over to the building lot, to take a look at the new paving on the street, and to look at the water connection. While we were looking, Joern's cousin came over, and said to Joern that he needed to clean up some branches that fell into the yard while Joern was cleaning up. Joern asked his cousin to come with him, just so he could see that he indeed was cleaning up the bushes. As they walked over, Joern's cousin started in about how summer is coming up, and there can't be any branches with thorns in the yard, he doesn't want his kids walking barefoot out on thorns. As Joern started picking up the three sticks that were about 4 inches long, his cousin started yelling at him. Obviously, his only real desire was to start a fight. I headed back to the car, because I wasn't in the mood. A few minutes later, Joern headed towards the car, and all I heard was "luft, luft" (air, air.) Turns out, Joern fixed the problem by reminding his cousin that they are not talking to each other, and that they are air to each other. Oy!!
The much more enjoyable theater event was on Sunday night. We went to see an evening of Swabian commedy. The evening was split into two parts, first part being different comedian acts, and a strange band. The second part, and reason we were there, was Hannes und der Burgermeister (Hannes and the mayor,) a Swabian TV show that Joern adores. Dinner and drinks were served. Joern had a traditional roast braten with dumplings, and I had a yummy chicken salad. Two of the comedians were pretty funny. I especially liked the bit by the last comedian, who came out with a scarf from the Karhlsruhe soccer club, one of the deemed arch enemies of true Swabians. He got booed! Then asked why on earth people feel so strongly against this team, since there are no people from Karlsruhe on the team, likewise, no Swabians play on VfB Stuttgart (our pro. soccer team.) Pretty good point!
Hannes und der Burgermeister were really funny. They performed 3 skits. It was so enjoyable. The best part was that I understood at least 90% of everything! This is a huge accomplishment as Swabian is one of the most difficult to understand of all German dialects!

Mittwoch, 24. März 2010

Dear Mom

Hi Mom,
Since I can't really talk to you, maybe somehow, you can access the internet :)
I just wanted to tell you that I am wearing Horrible today. Do you remember when I bought Horrible at Abercrombie & Fitch. Gosh, it must have been at least 10 years ago now, and I fell head over heels in love with my bright green track jacket with the obnoxious blue stripes down the arm. They had another one, bright orange with a yellow stripe down the arm. You immediately named them "Horrible and Awful." I haven't worn Horrible in years, but I recently saw it in my closet and thought that I needed to start wearing Horrible again.
I appologize that wearing a track jacket that you named Horrible makes me think of you, but I can't help it. I think its because it reminds me of shopping with you, and your fabulous taste in clothes. I tried to learn, but obviously, as Horrible shows, it didn't all stick with me.
So, I love you and miss you Mom, and well, I still love Horrible :)

Mittwoch, 17. März 2010

Can it really be 10 years already?

It seems so hard to believe that 10 years ago today, I was in Dublin. My friends Marta, Jessica, Kelly, and Marianne and myself headed out to see the St. Patrick's Day Parade, along O'Connell Street. Jessica, Kelly, and Marianne left a very determined Marta and me to go to the pubs and skip the parade. Marta and I spent the next hour or so craning our necks in an attempt to see the parade. I remember being a bit disappointed with the parade itself, but then again, it was Dublin, it was St. Patrick's Day, and I was a very excited 20 year old experiencing another country for the first time. It was such a good memory. After the parade, Marta and I headed to Temple Bar for the rest of the day. It was such a fun and special St. Patrick's Day.
In the past 10 years, I've celebrated in a variety of ways. There were the years that we went to the Irish Pub to listen to my friend Carol's husband's band, and to hang out with Carol. Somehow, dancing to La Bamba on St. Patrick's Day in an Irish pub in the middle of Germany was always a surreal experience.
There were the years I celebrated with my own homemade dinner of corned beef and cabbage. There was also the year I made my in-laws try Guiness.
This morning, dressed in green, on my way to work, I thought back to St. Patrick's Day when I was young. I remembered how my mom would give me a card every year, addressed to Allison O'Kohler, and signed, "the Leprechaun." And, I missed my mom. I thought about mom's corned beef and cabbage dinner, and gingerbread with green whipped cream for desert. Again, I missed my mom.
I thought about how I've really let St. Patrick's Day get away from me, and it made me really sad. It was a day that my mom always made really special for me. I hope that I can figure out a way to make the day really special for my family too.

Sonntag, 14. März 2010

Mandy's Shower

I know that I am so very lucky to live overseas. Living in Germany, has afforded me the most incredible opportunities, I've seen amazing places and met some of the most interesting people and kids.
But, I have missed things from home. I have missed out on many celebrations of friends, including weddings and births. So, for me to be able to attend a bridal shower for my friend Mandy, yesterday, was so exciting and fun.
Mandy is one of my closest friends here in Germany. We met during my second year working at Patch High School, right when I was really needing friends. She and I have been through a lot together over these past 7 years and I was so very excited to when she asked me to be a part of her wedding party. I must say, I was also a bit relieved when her friend Jill asked to host her bridal shower. Not that I did not want to host the shower, but I knew it would be a monumental task.
Jill did a fabulous job yesterday! It was held in a wonderful little restaurant that was once a working mill. The coolest was that Jill and her boyfriend spoke with the owner and asked if he could open in the afternoon specifically for the party! Normally, German restaurants close after lunch and re-open around 5:30 for dinner. It was so kind of the owner to open for us, and it was so much fun to have a private party :) It was good too, because 9 American women at a bridal shower can cause quite a rucus.
We had so much fun chatting and playing games, which by the way, were more fun than the traditional bridal shower games. I even won a nail polish (in the roll the orange relay.)
I was really surprised that my gift was such a hit. After agonizing over the "perfect gift," I finally settled on beer glasses. Joern, Marcel, and their friend Georg always give Mandy a lot of grief over not having beer glasses. Germans are serious about beer, and the method of serving it. So, I got Mandy Hefeweizen glasses and Pils glasses. Joern must have spent 1/2 and hour looking for approrpiate Pils glasses. I didn't know how exact a glass had to be to properly qualify as useable to a German.
After gifts, we had a very yummy cake made by Mandy's friend Heidi.
It was such a fun time, and I am so very, very happy for Mandy!