Zurich

Kiwi and I travelled by ourselves (my first time navigating the confusing train system without der Junge! aah!) from our town via train and 2 transfers and 5 hours later we finally arrived in Zurich. Where we met up with these two strapping young Alpine men...

visit to the Friseurin

aka, my first haircut since I arrived in February...

so for me, getting a haircut can be a little scary... I have had some real disasters in my past with some pretty awful haircuts...

and that is when I could speak the language of the hairstylist!

Well, unfortunately I missed my opportunity while in the US.  So despite warnings that I would end up with a mullet (there are a shocking number of Europeans sporting mullet hairstyles, it does nothing to alleviate hairstylist fears!), I decided that I had to do it, and so I did, I got a haircut in Germany!

and it turned out pretty cute, if I do say...  I brought in a picture of Heidi Klum (pictures = 1,000 words right? and she has a beautiful hairstyle and she's German so I thought maybe I would get some bonus points? :) So the picture did help and it wasn't so bad... I could basically communicate with the picture and hand gestures in place of poor language ability. I guess now I don't need to wait so long!

haircut! hallelujah!

Atlanta trip ~ my brother's wedding!

We flew back to the US, to Atlanta, for my little brother's wedding! It was the most beautiful wedding.  I'm thrilled for my brother and so happy to have a new sister, especially one as great as she is! She was a beautiful bride and my little brother looked all grown up and so handsome!  They got married on the back lawn of a lovely house near the beautiful historic Marietta square. The reception dinner catered at the house had the most amazing Southern food. Below are pics taken by their wedding photographer. It was a lovely wedding and they are a beautiful couple!  Congratulations to A & K! (it's so hard to write this without saying their names!)

Heidelberg, Part Zwei

So yes, we have already been to Heidelberg, but that was in February and it was so nice... and for three Saturdays over the summer, the town "lights up" the Heidelberg castle and sets off fireworks. Well we missed the Fourth of July so it seemed a perfect reason to go...

Wir grillen!

So we brought our American grill to Germany and then we learned that German gas canisters do not attach to American grills... :(
But we are neither the first nor the only ones to bring a grill here from the US and we found a German company who makes parts that connect the German canister to the American grill!  Woohoo!
Except, due to unfortunate translation error, we ordered the wrong one and subsequently missed half the summer grilling season trying to get the right one!

Johannisbeeren

Only in Germany... hand-picked Johannisbeeren from a German friend's back yard!  There were so many berries that she invited me and several others to help ourselves.  It was such a nice way to spend a beautiful sunny day.  I have never had a garden but this experience makes me see the appeal of having your own garden.  It feels so "living off the land" healthy and you know that the food is good and organic.

Führerschein

The rule is that a US driver's license is valid in Germany for 6 months with no paper work. So tourists need to do nothing. Then, if you are are here longer than that, you can file an extension for another 6 months, giving you 1 full year that a US driver's license is valid.

Getting a driver's license here is a fantastic display of bureaucracy and showcase of German rule making. Not to mention it can cost well over 3000€ and take somewhere around 6+ months. That"s not to mention the mandatory driving classes, the safety instructional classes, or the first aid seminars offered only in German.

Since I would be here for over a year, I was saavy and motivated to avoid the standard process for getting a drivers license.

It"s easy! And you can to!