A Very Thankful Week!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone! This year, it was just Regan and I in our little pre-furnished apartment. It was really weird to be away from family. My family drives to Vermont for Thanksgiving every year and it was really hard for me to be away from them. It ended up being a pretty good Thanksgiving anyway, though! There was a lot of food to make, so Regan and I made the pumpkin pie the night before.

It was fun to make it together! We don't cook together very often because I usually monopolize the kitchen haha.

Thanksgiving morning, Regan went to play football with some guys from church and I stayed home to cook! I was kind of nervous about doing the turkey since I'd never really done anything like it before, but it turned out to be pretty easy! The hardest part was putting the seasoning under the skin. It was gross. We also had green bean casserole (my personal favorite), mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry salad, and some rolls that Regan picked up from the bakery down the street! Quite the feast!

Check out that spread! Not bad, right?

We even got all dressed up to eat, just like we do at home!

Regan carved the turkey with a bread knife, because that's all we had haha. He did a really good job, though!

Here I am enjoying the feast!

Regan being a caveman! Meat off the bone!

The day after Thanksgiving, we did not go shopping at 4 AM. Black Friday doesn't exist in Germany. Some of Regan's co-worker-types were going to Cologne to visit the Christmas markets, so we decided to go, too! Pretty much every major village and city in Germany has a Christmas market, and I'd heard that Cologne's (they have 4) are some of the best! Plus, Cologne is supposed to be a cool place to hang out.

We visited all 4 of the Christmas markets. The first one was in front of the chocolate museum, and it was tiny tiny. I did pick up a pair of fur ear muffs there, though. My ears were so cold I couldn't take it! Plus they were cute. Then we bought a 5 Euro ticket for a train that went to all 3 of the other markets. Much better than walking! The 2nd market seemed to be in the middle of a major shopping area.

I don't know what this building is, but it had a giant ice cream cone on it! How cool is that? haha

These bread men are popping up all over the place! I'm assuming they're a Christmas related thing. They're yummy, that's for sure. When we got off the train at the 2nd market, there was a bakery selling them for only 1 Euro!

Regan and I at the 2nd Christmas markets in Cologne!

When the train stopped for the 3rd Christmas market, I got out and was shocked to see the Dom just ahead on the road! I was completly blown away by the size of it and the way it just popped up out of nowhere! I couldn't stop staring at it!

We all decided to go tour the Dom! The inside was just as amazing as the outside. I definitely felt something in there - kind of like the reaction I have to a really beautiful song. It was amazing.

When the sun started to set, it hit the Dom and just lit it up! So beautiful!

The Christmas market was right next to the Dom! I actually got some Christmas gifts at this market!

The 4th Christmas market was also my favorite! It was dark by this point so the whole place was lit up with Christmas lights! We also got some hot chocolate there that was absolutely amazing! From what I've been told, pretty much every Christmas market has their own 'mug' or something that you can buy a drink in and either return for money or keep as a souvenir. We ended up with 2 mugs from our day in Cologne!

this is the Christmas market train we rode! It was so cold out, I was very very grateful for the ride!

The next day, Saturday the 28th, we went to the temple! This was our first time doing a German session and wearing the headphones. It was... different, that's for sure. Outside of the temple there was this cute little nativity set up!

Today we're moving into our new house (FINALLY!!) and I don't think we'll have internet for a few days. I'm just so excited to get my stuff back, I don't even care. Our next big adventure: CHRISTMAS!!! YAY!!!!!

Celebrating Our First Anniversary!

So back on November 1st, Regan and I celebrated our first year of married life!! It's hard to believe that it's already been an entire year (plus 2 weeks at this point, haha)! Time is flying.

For our anniversary, we decided to go to Bavaria to travel the Romantic Road! We only had 3 days to do it, so we just hit a couple of highlights. That's ok, though, because now we have an excuse to go back! Bavaria was amazing!! It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Now for some pictures!

The first night of the trip was spent at this amazing little hotel in the city of Rothenburg! The hotel was something like 600 years old and had a very rustic feel because of it.

A famous treat in Rothenburg is schneeballen! They're made by rolling strips of pastry into a ball and frying it. Then they're dipped in chocolate, covered in powdered sugar, etc. We got two hazelnut and one strawberry flavored! They were really good.

At night, Rothenburg had an English guided tour through the city by the Night Watchman! I had such an amazing time on this tour. It was so fun!! It was probably the best guided tour I've ever been on. I even talked Regan into buying his DVD haha!

The next day was spent in the village of Hohenschwangau, just down the hill from Neuschwanstein castle! We spent most of the day walking around the hills and taking 100,000 pictures of Neuschwanstein haha. That night we ate dinner at our hotel's restaurant and Regan ordered the local special. I can't remember what it was called...but it should have been called "MAN FOOD" haha!

There it is! Neuschwanstein Castle!! I think this building is what I wanted to see in Germany the most, and I got it out of the way only a little over a month after being here haha! It's a stunning building, is it not? Breathtaking! As you can see, it's getting some work done toward the right there...but still...it's amazing. We took a tour on our last day there. I have to admit that I expected a little more from the interior, considering how amazing the exterior is. But, and I did not know this, the castle was never finished! So the tour is only about 30 min long.

Here we are on our anniversary in front of a fairytale castle! How romantic *sigh* ps. the sun was so bright that morning so don't mind our mean looking squints!

So that's the trip in a nut shell! Our next major adventure will be our trip back to the states for Christmas! I cannot wait! Christmas is the best and my whole family will be home and I'm just about to explode with excitement!!!!

In other news:

- We were finally able to sign the rental contract for our house! It's official: we move in on December 1! I'm so sick of being in these pre-furnished places...I WANT MY STUFF!! Particularly, my sewing machine and craft stuff! I miss it so much!

- Regan and I got callings in the new ward today! Drum role please: We're going to be Nursery leaders! YAAAAAAAAAY!! haha! This is my third stint in the nursery already, but this is Regan's very first primary calling! Primary seems to be my lot in life, but at least I like kids, right? haha! I'm actually excited about it. I think we're going to have a lot of fun. Plus, now we get snacks! I told Regan that it's only hard to be in the primary on fast sunday because you have to watch the kids eat during snack time haha.

- Regan's sister, Amanda, got married yesterday and we were able to attend...via Skype haha! They had a lap top in the front row and we got to watch the whole thing! Technology is pretty amazing, huh? I'm able to talk to my family a couple of times a week with Skype, and Regan talks to his almost every day! I think if it weren't for Skype, we'd both be a lot more homesick than we are.

Well, I think that's all I've got for this update!

It's non-stop fun!

Jessica Post

SO! Once again, time has passed since my last entry. I really wanted to update this at least once a week, but I can't ever seem to find the time in my busy schedule! That's a joke, by the way.

Let's re-cap the past few weeks, shall we? On September 30, we found a house! It's about 25 min north of the base, but the house is great so we don't mind the drive. Here's a few photos:

This is the back of the house~ It has a well :D

This is the pretty side of the house with the balcony and the small patio!

This is the back yard! Cute little garden, huh? It's full of Strawberry plants!

On October 2 we got our very first family photo taken :D We only paid for one 10x13 print because they were expensive. I want to make it a tradition to get a family photo taken around this time every year =P The picture came out really great! If I had a scanner, I'd show you haha

On October 9 we visited the historic city of Trier!! It's an old Roman city full of cool Roman stuff :D

This is called the Porta Nigra! It's OOOOOOLD!

Regan and I in front of it :D

Regan and I took a river boat tour and it was really pretty! I love being a tourist :D

The next day, October 10, we went to the Frankfurt Temple for the first time :D

October 14 was Regan's B-day :D He's getting OLD haha!! We went out to a "nice" German restaurant at the Hotel Raisch! They played a lot of Beach Boy music, so Regan was happy. The waitress gave me a yellow rose, too! I think she thought it was MY birthday...but whatev =P

Here we are with our bottle of water (It's not wine!!)

Back at the hotel, the party never stops!!

On October 16, Regan and I went to the city of Bochum to see my favorite band in concert: MUCC :D He's a good sport because I know that Japanese Rock isn't really his favorite type of music. Usually, I like to get to concerts pretty early so that I can get front row, but since this was my first German concert experience, I thought it best to hang back and observe. We got there only 30 mins before the doors opened and this is what the line looked like:

So loooong! We still managed to be in roughly the 5th row (it's hard to tell sometimes). The show was great!!

Here we are after the show! Regan was very nice and let me wait for over an hour by the band's tour bus so that I could give Yukke, the bass player, a gift :D What a nice husband I have!

There he is!! Yukke signing my concert ticket! Good times!

Anyway, that's all of the major stuff that happened. This past week we moved from our hotel in Rodenbach to a new apartment in Landstuhl, but I don't have any pictures yet. This coming weekend is Regan and my 1 year anniversary :D We're going to travel the Romantic Road! It's going to be fabulous!!!

Castle after castle...

Jessica Post

We had another eventful week here in sunny Germany! This is what an average morning around here looks like:

And actually it stays foggy until mid morning, usually. Though the past couple of days haven't been too bad.

We decided that since our Honda wasn't going to get here for another few weeks, we really needed some form of transportation besides relying on nice people for rides - it would make house hunting a lot easier, at least. So we looked and found this lovely 1990 VW Jetta! It only had 70,000 miles on it (shocking, right?) and it's in really good shape. And, bonus bonus, Jettas are my favorite kind of cars. Though, to be honest, this is my first time seeing one so old haha. It's a very European car, which is good, and fits down the narrow streets without hardly any problem!

Isn't it beautiful? It's the same color as my old Toyota, too!

Regan and I still go for walks almost every night. The other day, we got a little turned around in our village - this is kind of hard to do, considering how small the village is. We found ourselves on a walking path with lots of interesting modern art sculptures near it. This one was by far the most...unique:

Quite lovely. Yes.

Oh dear...

Also this week, Regan finally took me to try a Doner Kebab! I'd heard so much praise for them that I really thought they were going to be awful! Maybe that doesn't make any sense...

There is a small Doner place just down the street from our hotel!

It was huge and I couldn't eat it all...but it was really good! And that's even despite my wind-blown bangs! Amazing!

This weekend, Regan and I decided to go see some of the local sights! We have a car now, so we wanted to use our freedom to move about on our own! We have a map that shows on it things like castles and castle ruins, observation towers, and things like that. We spotted an observation tower with a panoramic view on the map and decided that was our destination! It just so happened that a small village called Hohenecken was between us and our tower. And what luck! Hohenecken has some castle ruins to look at! So we stopped to investigate:

Here are the castle ruins in Hohenecken! It was pretty cool. You could walk all around them and there was even an information sign in English!

Here we are with a lovely scenic view of Hohenecken village behind us!

Then it was off to the tower! Or...so we thought. As it turns out, our map wasn't very detailed and after getting completely turned around in an annoying village called Dansenburg (which apparently also had a tower, though we failed to locate it), we decided to head for home. Unfortunately, we overshot our exit on the Autobahn a bit and ended up in the charming village of Landstuhl! I really like Landstuhl. I would be super happy if we end up being able to rent something there. Anyway, we knew Landstuhl had a castle (word of mouth, plus we could see it from the road) and decided to go to it to satisfy our disappointment at not finding our tower. I didn't mention this with the first castle, but it seems like every one we go to, you have to park at the bottom of the hill and hike up. I seem to always forget that until we start hiking.

Here we are in front of...something...at the castle! I really need to learn German.

This is the view of Landstuhl village from the top of the hill where the castle is. There is a really neat little cafe right next to the castle that has lots of outdoor seating with this fabulous view. I really want to go eat there sometime!

So after all of that, we finally made it back home. That was yesterday. Today we tried for our observation tower again! We left straight from church, and I tried my best to follow the map down to where it supposedly stands. No luck. We drove for about 30 minutes before I finally found our position on a map. We were in the tiny and remote village of Waldleiningen on the narrowest road I've ever seen in my life. The countryside was really beautiful! But...the road was really scary. Some people were driving way too fast, and there were lots of bicyclists (which I found very strange in such a remote, mountain area). We finally made it to the village of Elmstein, where we could make it back to a major road. And, as an added bonus, my map said that this town boasted some castle ruins! So we'd get to see something, if not our tower. Unfortunately, the ruins left much to be desired.

Yup. That's it. I'm guessing it used to be a part of a wall. Who knows. And the worst part is that after we hiked all the way up to it, we couldn't even get close to it because it was 1) on the side of a cliff and 2) completely surrounded by private residences! My question is, why, if it is impossible to get close to, does the town even play it up as a tourist attraction?? I have no idea. The funny thing? The first two castle ruins, both of better size and location, do not have their own wikipedia pages. This one, however, does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmstein_Castle

There was a lovely view, though! And the village its self was very cute.

And in case you're wondering...no. We never did find the tower. I'm determined, now, though. I WILL find it! Maybe next weekend...

Willkommen!!!

Jessica Post

So here we are...Germany! The past few days have been really busy, but we've got a lot done. We have some free time tonight, so I thought it would be a good time to update the blog! So, here's what we've been up lately:

Basically, on the 16th we left Dayton at around noon. We got to Baltimore around 2 PM and then had to wait until about 10 PM before we could board our gov't flight to Germany, which didn't take off until 11 PM. Then it was an easy 8 hour flight to Ramstein AFB. We arrived around 1 PM local time on the 17th and were met by our sponsor (a lady who is helping us settle in). She took us to our hotel to drop off our luggage and then to the commissary and BX to buy necessities! That night we took a walk and forced ourselves to stay awake until 8 PM, at which point I crashed. We got close to 12 hours of sleep and then it was back to the base to fill out paper work and get I.D. cards and the like. I also met 2 cats that day! That was actually yesterday - today we went to a bazaar on base and it was really cool! There were tons of really interesting things to buy, but we didn't buy much. We came shockingly close to buying a painting for 2000$!!! How crazy would that have been?? Anyway, here's some pictures:

Regan's parents, his sister, and my dad all came to see us off at the Dayton airport!

Business class is the bomb. I've never had so much leg room! One day, I wanna ride first class!

Some of the coolest clouds I've ever flown through! SO PUFFY~

One of the many lines we waited in at the Baltimore airport during our 9 hour lay-over!

Regan sleeping...me not so much! I couldn't sleep the entire 8 hour flight...but I got to see some great movies!

GERMANY~!!!

Regan and I go for walks every night and on our first one, I saw this fantastic ice cream cone! Yum!!!

Sheela the cat! The first cat I met in Germany! She lives at our hotel, so I can see her all the time!

Our hotel room is funky and ... funky~haha! But I like it! The couch (which I'm sitting on right now) is cool looking, but not very comfortable. It makes my back hurt.

Regan got a brat for lunch today at the bazaar!

I got some Filipino food! Love it!

This is one of the things Regan and I got this morning - we really wanted something German for our first "touristy" purchase. I think this fits the requirement!

Anyway, so far so good. No real major problems...unless you count how long it took us to find a website where we could watch the new Office episode! But that's all taken care of now.

Everyone should get skype so we can chat with you!! Get it now!