ciao!

 

  

Dude!  Today is our last day in Germany!  How in the heck did that happen?  Those three months went unbelievably fast!  We fly out tomorrow morning for the Great Two Week Family Packing Moving Abroad Visiting Drinking Coke Bonding Over Banana Cake Extravaganza of 2011.  It's gonna be intense. 

Today kicks off our pack-a-thon, though we're doing a marvelous job of avoiding it like the plague.  Luckily, we don't have all that much with us.  But we intend to eat some brotchen, go on a walk, maybe pick up some more cookies...ya know, the important stuff.  Once we touch down in Floridaland, we have a crazy list of things to do.  I have to get my passport renewed with my married name in the next two weeks.  I don't even want to discuss how much that is going to cost. Then there's boxes to go through, hairs to cut, family to pick up from the airport.

Wait, have I mentioned this?  This deserves mentioning.  Due to the fact that we got a job (WOO!!) that is taking us halfway around the world in two weeks (eat that, Jules Verne!  80 days, that's for pansies) everyone is coming to Florida to hang out and go through boxes with us.  Mum and the Tall Guy are flying down from the D and Sista and the Stud are flying out from Salt Lake.  It's going to be nuts, but I absolutely cannot wait to see everyone!  All of my family in one place?  Bring. It. On.

Okay, I should stop procrastinating and least go to the bakery if I'm not going to pack.  Can't pack on an empty stomach, right?

See you Stateside! 

 

brown sugar

Amid all of the lists of things to do (get Florida driver's license with new name, find moving companies, eat lots of chicken nuggets and tacos) I've been compiling a list of things we need to buy before we leave for Cyprus.  Mr. F is in desperate need of a new suit, outlet adapters, and deodorant are pretty high on the list.  But since we're still in Germany, I have also been contemplating what sort of food items I need to stock up on in the U.S. before becoming a bona fide expat.  Luckily there are quite a few things that are staples in our diet that you can find just about anywhere, like pasta and rice.  (We're low maintenance, okay?)  Peanut butter is definitely on the "to buy" list, but I've been surprised to learn that brown sugar, baking soda, and vanilla are also on the list.  After a conversation with the family we're living with, I think we're tagging on mac and cheese, ramen noodles, taco seasoning, chocolate chips, and as many packets of Knorr sauces I can stuff into our bags.

What about you?  Have you ever lived abroad?  What were things you missed?  Or, what are things you can't imagine doing without in your daily diet?

On a different note, I have a goal to take a picture a day of the sunset over the next week.  The fall sunsets here are just wonderful, but I'm also wanting to document in a simple way the changes that are coming in the next few weeks.  What are all of the different landscapes going to look like?

With that, I have more phone calls to make.  Happy Monday everyone!

love is

love is...

brushing your wife's hair until you both fall asleep.

giggling over nothing.

telling your wife she can buy the new Tyra Banks book.  (I haven't bought it, by the way...)

crying together.

telling your daughter it's going to be okay, even though you're going to miss her terribly.

telling your sister you're excited she's moving halfway around the world when all you want is a hug.

making jokes with your brother about McDonald's being more important in an international move than the Church.

realizing the above statement is made barely in jest.

calmly realizing  your wife's panic is normal and hiding your own.

plotting a giant family reunion when time, money, employment, and school would normally get in the way.

trying to plow through moving your mother into her new condo so you can focus on sending your son and daughter-in-law overseas.

mourning the loss of a woman who is just as much a mother to you as the woman who gave birth to you.

going to work to provide for your family, even when work really sucks.

phone calls from across the pond discussing fish measuring spoons from Anthropologie.

felt by the words, "I love you" heard through the receiver.



I am one lucky girl to have such an amazing family.   I love you.

happy things

Sitting on the hill with Mr. F, imagining our future, eating döner kebab and watching the sunset.

Sunsets over freshly tilled fields.

Laughing.

Emails from Church members in Cyprus saying, "We can't wait to meet you!"

Realizing how much debt Mr. F and I have been able to pay off since we've been married.

Realizing that we were able to make such a huge dent whilst unemployed.

 

Döner kebab.  It's cheap. It's yummy.  It's replaced chicken nuggets in my life.

 

  

Dribbles of Greek yoghurt on Mr. F's sleepy face as he tries to eat döner kebab.

 

Harvest moons.

The need for sweaters and scarves now that the seasons have morphed.

Talking for hours about how good things are.

Mr. F playing music as he left for work this morning.

Knowing that we'll be with family again in eight days.

Knowing there's a 32 ounce fountain coke from Macadocious waiting for me in Amrika.

Dinner plans with friends.

  

 

 

Feeling like we're gonna be more than fine in Cyprus.

fall daze

While it has been chilly in Germanland during the bulk of our stay, the change of seasons has finally come, leaving a distinct impression on the landscape.  Fields are plowed, flowers are changing or gone, leaves are beginning their annual metamorphosis.  Oh, but it's intoxicating!  I went for a walk this late afternoon to soak up some sun and do a bit of pondering..  I have a feeling that this hill and I are going to be doing a lot of bonding in the upcoming week.

 

 

 

 

what if?

Apparently, I am now a grown-up.  This epiphany just dawned as I have been sitting here for hours, overwhelmed beyond belief because of one itty bitty little thing.


Mr. F got a job offer!


This has been in the works for about a week but we got the official offer today.  It's a killer offer for us and especially for Mr. F.  If you could have asked him what he wanted to do with his political science degree, he would have said this, and this is exactly what we have been offered.

Why is this freaking me out?  Simple.

The job is in Cyprus.

Maybe you're smarter than me, but I had absolutely no idea where this was until two weeks ago.  Turns out it's right in the middle of "Huh???", "Oh!", and "Woah....".  More specifically, an island in the Mediterranean Sea about seventy miles south of Turkey.  (Hence the "Woah...")

Now, Mr. F and I have never had real jobs before.  Yeah, we've both worked, but this gig comes with benefits!  I had almost given up the dream of having health insurance again and the idea of paid time off has got to be revolutionary.  People get paid time off?? Really?? "Woah...."  This alone is a lot for me to handle.  I feel like I've come home from school with permission slips and health forms and need my parents to read over them.  "Is this a good deal?" I want to ask.  The thing is, none of us really knows!  Why?

Because the job is in freaking Cyprus! 

So now we're not only trying to figure out if This is a good offer or  not, but if Cyprus will let us come and live there.  Weird...

Just for the record, when we used to play the "What if?" game, Cyprus was never mentioned.  I think we covered parts of the Middle East, lots of Asia and Europe, but never Cyprus.  You better believe Cyprus is now dominating the "What if?" game.


What if we moved to Cyprus:

Is the Church there?  {yes!!!!!!}
What kind of outlets do they use? {zone G, or like in the UK}
Do they speak English? {yes}
Would we need a car? {TBD}
Do they have bundt pans? {....}
What kind of foods are available?
Are there art supply stores? {yes!}
What about libraries? {yes!}
How big of an apartment could we afford?
How much stuff do we take?
Are there English bookstores?{yes!}
Is the temple nearby?  {no..but travel is pretty easy from the island}
Could Engquist handle the heat?  {umm......maybe?}

So everyone pull out your globes and find the Mediterranean, because so long as we get visas, that's where you'll be able to find us sometime in the foreseeable future!  In the meantime, we've got boxes to go through, yard sales to host, housing to find, and all sorts of crazy outlet adapters to procure.

rainy day thoughts

It's one of those perfect autumn afternoons. Quiet and just chilly enough for a scarf and a cup of tea.  We slept in today, savoring the remnants of a few, uninterrupted days together. We listened to music, read news articles, and then Mr. F fell asleep.  It's what you do on a Sunday afternoon when you are one of those people blessed with the innate ability to take naps.

I am not one of those people.

So I thought I'd take advantage of the pristine conditions induced by drizzly, rainy, tea drinking weather and draw while my tall guy slept. But here's the problem:  the creative juices just aren't flowin'.  I tried a few images and nothing's sticking. My hands want the pencils to do my mind's bidding,but nothing is coming out the way it should. A few of the images I want to work on are going to require many practice drawings, which is what I think the problem is.  Right now, I just don't have any patience.

None.

I want to instantly see the happy watercolors on the page and know that I was capable of making something look so happy.  I want to see that now.

It's not gonna happen.

Eventually I'll get my brain to grasp this concept and I'll pull out a few good preliminary sketches, or  I'll just add paint to a page to get a fix.  Either way, this creative sinkhole will fill and I'll be on my artistically driven way.

Eventually.



On a much different note, Mr. F and I went to the Frankfurt temple yesterday.  This was an incredible experience for both of us.

About three weeks ago we were sitting in church and all we could hear was "GO TO THE TEMPLE!"  Unlike when we were living in Columbus, this is not the easiest task in the world.  While Frankfurt is definitely accessible to us, it takes a lot of forethought and money, the latter of which has been exceptionally tight as we job hunt.  We've asked friends if they were going and looked at train tickets and plans continuously fell through.

This weekend, we knew we had to go.  We decided on Thursday evening to leave the following night. Rent a car, drive to Frankfurt, check into  the on-site guest house, wake up in the morning for the first session and play in the city before driving home and returning the car.  Thursday night was the last time this plan looked so seamless.

Friday was waylaid by meetings for Mr.F and a car rental company that never seems to have the car we reserved on hand for when we reserved it.  Mr. F came home nearly two hours later than we had anticipated, extinguishing our chances of getting to Frankfurt that night.  So, we  decided on leaving Saturday morning and making it for the English endowment session at 9.

We like sleep, we left at eight.

We drove contently, thinking we had plenty of time to spare until we realized that the GPS had taken us to the wrong location.  Our time buffer was gone and we panicked thinking we would be unable to participate in an English session. Find the temple we did, but there was no parking to be had.  Mr. F dropped me off so I could rent us some clothes while he drove around the block a few times.

Flustered and at our wits' ends, we entered the temple.  The stress of getting us there was gone as everyone welcomed us with their smiles.  Kindly workers who spoke English guided us through the sacred halls and helped us get to where we needed to be.  We had made it to the temple.

A short while ago I was blog hopping as I was having a rough night. I stumbled across a post from a friend of mine who was spending some time in Ghana this summer.  His parents just moved there as well  to serve  as missionaries for the Church.  He wrote a letter to them, telling his top ten reasons why they would love Ghana.  His number two reason was the Accra, Ghana temple. He wrote:

"Hands down the most beautiful building in Ghana--probably all of West Africa. The Accra temple is a pristine house of the Lord in a country where dust seems to be everywhere. The grounds of the temple are beautifully maintained with hundreds of species of flowers and trees (including these amazing fanning palms and bright birds of paradise). inside the temple is an exceptional peace. The workers are friendly, yet reverent, and the rooms are familiar, but with a distinct african flair (kente-cloth geometric patterns, symbolic colors and shapes, traditional signs, etc.)."

He then adds, "If you ever  feel  homesick, go here...because it is home." 

Living in Western Europe, I can't say that the Frankfurt Temple is the most beautiful building in Germany, but I can say that many of these words ran through my mind as I wandered its halls.  The tiny grounds were immaculate with all of my favorite German flowers growing like it was still June, not mid-September.  The decorations inside were very simplistic, but very beautiful.  Clean lines, no fuss, but fine quality abounded.  And everywhere friendly, reverent, happy people.

I sat in one of the rooms and heard in English words I had not heard for several months but that are very dear to my heart.  Tears bubbled in my eyes and I knew exactly where I was.  I was home.  Despite an ocean, several countries, and many languages in between, I was home.

Mr. F expressed a similar experience to me when we were heading home.  Our moods and spirits were so much altered after our visit.  Where there had been tension, there was nothing but giggles and smiles.  Both of us are looking forward to attending the temple with more frequency upon our return to the States in less than two weeks.  Our trip to Frankfurt was a stark reminder that we need to go "home" more often.

family tree

 Mr. F and I are about to ride off into the cloudy German sunset for a night in Frankfurt.  We've had a lot on our minds so we figured it was time to visit this place.  I'm incredibly grateful that this opportunity is even available to us!  Before we depart, I wanted to share these wonderful images I just stumbled across from EvaJuliet.  I sense some serious family history and projects in my future!

Happy Weekend!

tack så mycket!

We go back to the States in less than two weeks.  Can you say crazy?!  When did that happen?  My goal, as piddly as it may be, has always been to get our wedding thank you notes written and addressed so we could just plop them in the mail when we returned to normally priced postage. I am pleased to report that I have been writing them fairly steadily, but the addressing leaves a lot to be desired.  As in...I haven't started it.

I just reached the end of my note list (Mr. F is nowhere near done with his.  I won this competition, but no, I'm not keeping track) leaving me with nothing but the addresses.  And then I realized how tedious this process is going to be.  In the nearly six months we have been married, a great many things have happened besides our own numberless moves everywhere.  For the sake of my own sanity, I needed to share the great many changes that have transpired from my end of the thank you list alone to make addressing more complicated.

At least three people on my list have passed away since our wedding in March.  At least.  There may be more.  Two of these three are my grandmothers.  One of these two made my wedding dress and provided the bulk of the decorations for our reception.  She died the day after her birthday.  She never got her thank you note.

My other grandmother's gift arrived in two parts.  Her health began deteriorating rapidly just days before our wedding preventing her attendance.  When I made it back to Florida after Nana's funeral, a giant box was waiting for me in the foyer.  It was a quilt from Grandpa J and L's home in Oregon.  She remembered my fondness of the coral pink quilt and wanted me to have it as I began to set up house.  As if it needed to be mentioned, I sat on the floor wrapped in the quilt surrounded by everything I still had to pack for Germany and cried violently.  Two grandmothers in three weeks.  Really?  Is that necessary?

The second part of her gift arrived while we have been abroad and I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.  An oval serving bowl in our china pattern.  Luckily, I can still write to Grandpa and thank him.  That's been done.

Personally, I don't want to know if anyone else has died.  I don't think I could handle that for a little while.  The other changes to the mailing list are far more joyous, luckily.  Many of my friends have moved since our nuptials took place. Several to Texas and others to places I'll find out as I send them emails.  A few have gotten married, some have had babies, and at least one is now expecting.  A couple have just moved across town.

I've really enjoyed writing these notes actually.  I have such fond memories of our wedding and the people to whom these letters are being written.  It's mind boggling to me that we have been married for nearly six months already, let alone that we have been in Europe for roughly three.  It seems like so little time has passed by, but so much has happened.

In honor of the occasion, here are a few images of our life the past few months.

  

 

joie de vivre

 

 I posted this picture on facebook when we got back from our trip and I received a surprising number of comments recommending it as our Christmas card picture.

 First off, am I old enough to be sending out my own Christmas card?  I'm pretty sure the two of us have a combined age of about eight, maybe ten on good days.  But we're married and job hunting, not really living on our own yet, though we're working on it.  I guess this means we do send out a Christmas card.  Weird...  Now I'm contemplating what photos I would use.  It's kind of fun to think about everything that has already happened this year!


 Anyway, wanted to share a few thoughts on Paris before I get back to useful things, like ironing and thank you notes (yes, they're still not done...I'm horrible).

This was my second trip to the city of lights and overall, I thoroughly enjoyed myself more than my first time.  I think several things contributed to this. 

1. I was with Mr. F.  It's the city of love for crying out loud!  Even without the kisses on Pont Neuf, I loved experiencing the city through Mr. F's eyes.  He soaked in everything and I got a fresh sense of how wonderful Paris really is.

2. After living in Germany, where I speak no German...at all...it was so much fun to be surrounded by a language I understand a bit more.  My French consists of two very shaky years of training in high school (oh goodnes...) and three months in Brussels.  Somehow between these two situations I know enough to order food and feel confident enough to say hello to people.  That's enough for me.

3.  Just last week I finished a book, The Greater Journey by David McCullough, giving the history of Paris in the nineteenth century through the perspectives of influential Americans living there.  That in combination with several other books I have read in recent years gave me a much better knowledge and appreciation of everything around me.  For example, I marveled all the more at the Louvre knowing that it has been open to the public for a couple of centuries now as a museum.  During the nineteenth century, the reigning French government of the time wanted to destroy the Louvre.  That's when the people revolted again.

a statue from Versailles.  isn't she pretty?

A quick rundown of what we saw:  Sacre Couer, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, Tour de Eiffel, Palace of Versailles, the Sorbonne, the Pantheon, and the Arc de Triomphe.  I don't know if my feet have ever hurt so badly or been as filthy as when we got back to Germany from this excursion.  We walked from sun up to sundown the whole fifty-six hours or so we were there.  Mr. F and I have begun to embrace the true European spirit in which we would walk as long as we could before sitting for as long as we could at a cafe.  French food is not to be underestimated.  We ate simply, mainly baguette sandwiches, but they were absolutely divine.  Did you know that sliced camembert cheese on a baguette with a little butter and lettuce could make a filling sandwich?  Well, let me tell ya, it's not only filling, but positively delicious!

Mr. F's favorite thing was the Louvre.  He looked like a kid in a candy store as we wandered the palace of art.  He was astonished by the history of the building and taken aback by the vastness and richness of the collection.  He handpicked a few pieces he definitely wanted to see, namely the Venus de Milo and the Code of Hammurabi. 

As cheesy as it sounds, I think my favorite part of the trip was being there with Mr. F.  The more time we spend together the greater I understand how lucky I am to have married my best friend.  We really have so much fun together!

parisian hangover

I feel like I've been run over by a truck, or, more likely, a pair of hostile, vengeful trucks. Mr. F and I went to Paris (AH!!!!) over the weekend, leaving Thursday afternoon and returning with the approaching sun on Sunday morning.

I'm still tired.

I have never, ever, EVER been one of those people who enjoys late nights.  In college, rather than pulling an all-niter  for a paper, I would go to bed at eleven and wake up at four in the morning.  No joke.  The number of papers written at o'dark thirty would astound the common masses. So, driving through the night and climbing into bed at seven just seems like cruel and unusual punishment for going on holiday.

There are so many things I want to say about our trip, but really don't know where to begin.  My distraction is due in large part to my soar throat, cough (dang you o'dark thirty!!!) and a bedroom the mess of which Oscar the Grouch would not even claim.

Rather than regale you with stories, which aren't exactly formulating coherently at the moment, I'm going to share some of my favorite photos.  Stories will come, I swear.

 

 

Happy Labor Day!