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!

Bon Voyage ~ To Germany We GO!!!

Jessica Post

It's been a while since I posted, but soon I'll have more free time than I know what to do with, so I'm sure I'll update more frequently!

We've been really busy getting ready for the move. On Sept 1 , the movers came to take all of our stuff! It took 3 whole days and we had to have special crews come to pack up the pool table and the huge work out machine! Then on Sept 9, we had some people out to install new carpet, fix the house's roof, and install the garage roof. That was a crazy day! Now the house is about 98% ready! There's just a little bit of cleaning left to do and that should be finished up by tomorrow afternoon! Thank goodness. My life for the past 2 weeks has been like this: 7:30 AM - 9:00 PM painting and cleaning in that house. This past week was the worst, though, because my cats went to go live at my parent's house and we got the Internet turned off, so I've had no one but Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity to keep me company all day until Regan comes over after work.

Some of my sewing supplies!

The moving truck of DOOM!

Laly, after helping me paint, ate all of the pizza

Painting the bathroom. yay.

The MASSIVE pile of trash behind our garage. Moving is fun!

But the end is near! Tomorrow the house will be done! And Wednesday, we will be in Germany! We had our going away party on Friday night. It was originally going to be a surprise party, but Regan's mom had to spill the beans because we had planned our own going away party at the same time! Oops! The going away party was so sad, though. I did OK until I had to say goodbye to Sister Sato - that was really hard. I think the reality of this move is finally starting to sink in.

Yes, we realize that Bon Voyage is French...

WAAAH~! It's me and Sister Sato! BFF!

Well, that's all the update I have in me today!

Tonight is the Night!!!!!!!!!!

Jessica Post

Today was so great!

We had a pretty crazy night last night...we were going to go to the drive in, but ended up just driving around for over two hours, renting "Taken" and ordering in Chinese at close to midnight! It was fun! Then we decided to camp out on the living room floor. So we slept in this morning until late and then just laid around being complete bums ALL day! We never get to do that (being such terribly busy people and all) and even though I should have been doing homework today (since finals are next week tee hee), I do not regret it one bit! YAY FOR LAZY DAYS!!!

Tonight we decided to head over to a little carnival by Regan's Parent's house. We brought Joanna and Katherine with us, too!

Katherine and I got ice cream!

Regan and Joanna got grilled corn!

Joanna and I rode the zipper! I must be getting old, though - I felt kind of queasy afterwards! That's never happened to me before!

Regan and I on the Ferris wheel!!! And what a lovely view of my fillings haha

Joanna and Katherine on the Ferris wheel! Their picture is cooler than ours! Not fair!

Yesterday night we went to the Strawberry festival up in Troy - no rides, but they had super yummy Strawberry pie! And Regan got to eat a HUGE brat! He was happy about that haha. I also got to spend a little time talking to Sister Sato! And, the highlight of the night for ME:

Pretty sweet, huh? You're jealous, right?? I wear a lot of stripes, don't I? (just noticing this)

Other than that, It's been a pretty normal week! Next week is going to be stressful, but we'll make it!!

Tempest in a teacup

Jessica Post

Today is Regan and my 7 month anniversary! YAY!!!

Regan and I are watching "Fireproof" right now. It's by the same people who did "Facing the Giants" (one of our all time favorite movies) - I don't think it's quite as good as "Giants" but I'm enjoying it a lot! I really recommend seeing it (especially if you're married).

I have a post in the making for our trip to North Carolina last weekend, but it's not finished yet - hopefully in the next couple of days!

So here's what's going on lately with Regan and I!

ME:

- Only 2 weeks of school left! I've got a few finals and two papers left to do! I CAN MAKE IT!!!!

- I had a certification meeting for Girl's Camp at my parent's house Saturday morning! We made fires, talked about nutrition, and cooked eggs in plastic bags and biscuits in a box. It was a lot of fun! This coming Tuesday is our final activity before camp. I hope everything goes well!!!! *stress*

- Saturday afternoon, after the camp thing, I had a piano recital! It wasn't formal, so there wasn't much pressure. I did OK, I guess.

That's me at the piano...obviously! And my teacher, Junko Sato, is on the left! She's the coolest.

As you can see, I take lessons with a bunch of little kids. Don't judge me! I'm still learning!

- I haven't been working much lately. Partly because they haven't been scheduling me and partly because I don't want to. I hate working, as anyone close to me can attest. My last day at Abuelo's FOREVER is going to be on June 24th. It's kind of sad to think about...but mainly because I know I won't get a discount on the food anymore.

REGAN:

- He's got some kind of excel training all week at work. The life of an auditor, I guess!

- His surgery last week went really well! He gets the stitches out in a couple of days!

SEE! He's fine! (very fine, if you catch my drift tee hee)

ZIVA AND CHOCO:

- Getting fatter every day.

- Playing with each other

- Sleeping a lot

aw but they are cute!!!

US:

- We went to see two movies recently: Angels and Demons and Monsters vs. Aliens! Those two titles are kind of similar, huh? Well, Regan and I both agreed that Angels and Demons was better than Davinci Code. We also agreed that Monsters vs. Aliens was SUPAH FUNNEEE!!! To the max!

- The plans for Germany are coming...slowly haha! Hopefully we pick up the pace this month! We've only got a few more months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! (It's scary!! no??!!! It is!!!)