You mean they don't have Thanksgiving in Germany?!

What a travesty. Germany doesn't celebrate the über-American tradition. Weird. So the way I see it I have a couple of options. 

Option #1: Run for President of Germany and once I gain power I make Thanksgiving an official holiday here. Problem with this is it will take wayyyyyy to long. I could be home for next Thanksgiving before I would even have German citizenship. Input (many years and many Euros spent to get German citizenship and then elected to President) does not equal output (Thanksgiving celebrated in Germany). Therefore, option #1 is a no-go.

Option #2: Fly home for Thanksgiving. This is almost possible, and certainly more realistic than option #1 for sure. BUT, have you looked at airline tickets recently? They are scary expensive. Like waking-up-with-night-sweats-the week-before-your-credit-card-bill-is-due scary. Input ($1500 roundtrip, yes I considered this for 0.5 seconds) almost equals output (a couple days at home with, most likely, increased homesickness upon my return to Germany).

Option #3: Bring Thanksgiving (unofficially) to Germany. Definitely the most realistic of all my options. My supermarket research, combined with the somewhat picky eating habits of J & L left me a little discouraged. I have looked and looked and have been unable to find a turkey. Whole, frozen, cooked, ground, pieces, nothing. So I was thinking I could just get a rotisserie chicken, that's pretty similar, right? I love green beans and I find green bean casserole to be a Thanksgiving staple, but I'm not going to even waste my time making it because I know for a fact that J & L will take one look at it and then laugh in my face. I can hear it now; "You expect us to eat that?! Yeah, right."(But in German, duh.) They do, however eat spinach. Surprising, I know. So I'll sacrifice one traditional side dish for a crowd pleaser. But I will make mashed potatoes and gravy. You can't stop me. And I am going to make a pie. (Wish me luck on this; my first baking attempt in Germany didn't go so well...). Will the boys eat it? Probably not. I don't care though. I want Thanksgiving, darn it! And that means pecan pie. Input (a few hours spent cooking) definitely equals output (a quasi-Thanksgiving with my quasi-family). We have a winner!

I know I might be making a bigger deal out of missing Thanksgiving than is probably necessary. As my brother kindly reminded me, this year will be my second Thanksgiving that I have missed in my whole life while it is the first time he has been able to go in the past 4 or 5 years. My brother wasn't the only one with wise words; my mom pointed out that though I am missing the holidays this year, I am getting to spend a year living in Europe, something that few people will ever get the chance to do! (Except for Europeans; they live here). So yes I am a little bummed that I don't get to spend the day with my big, crazy family, but I'm not going to spend the next month being sad because I'm missing them; I'll see them soon enough. I am thankful for my wonderful, supportive family and friends and for the wonderful opportunity I have been given. This is the time I get to spend growing, exploring, and learning not only about Europe, but myself as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. If you are reading this, please eat some turkey for me!

My weekend in America*

I have been getting a little homesick lately; I think it's a combination of the realization that I really won't be home for the holidays and just missing my close friends and family. But this weekend was a nice little reminder of home and it was exactly what I needed. It was my little American weekend in Germany :)

Saturday morning I was greeted with an amazing box of American-ness from my very good friend Molly. I knew what some of the contents were, but I was surprised by a lot of it. I felt like a kid at Christmas opening the box! I had requested crunchy JIF peanut butter (the absolute best peanut butter. EVER.), chips, Oreo's, and real taco seasoning! But Molly is the best; she sent me all kinds of yummy American candy that I can't get here, KRAFT macaroni & cheese (I don't know about you, but when I say that in my head I sing it to the tune of the old commercials: "Kraft macaroni & cheese, the blue box blues!" hahahaha.), double chocolate brownie mix (yummm), magazines (in ENGLISH!!! I almost forgot those existed..) Nerf guns for J & L, and a Texas cookie cutter and a Texas cup! One of my favorite things she sent me (yes it is almost impossible to pick one favorite) were mixed CD's she made me! One is a mix of Texas Country and the other is probably the best CD of chopped and screwed Houston rap. I haven't stopped listening to it since I got it. So if you're reading this Molly, Thank you (for the 298374091273490172390471920374th time)!!! Best. Mail. Ever.

america!

So for lunch I shared my peanut butter with the boys (I was so surprised that they liked it!!!). We had peanut butter and nutella sandwiches and Doritos. It was such a great day and it was only the afternoon!!

That evening I took a train into Frankfurt where one of my mom's best friends, D, and her husband R picked me up and we went to stay with R's son C who is stationed in Bavaria with his wife and daughter, C & M. (I know that's a lot of letters and is possibly confusing, but I try to be courteous :) ). So anyway, I was so excited to see D!! She reminds me of my mom, so seeing her was almost as good as being able to see my mom. From Frankfurt it was only 1.5 hours until we got to the base where CC&M live (thank you autobahn!). I got to watch American TV..wait, what?!?! M is probably one of the cutest 2 year olds I've ever met. She is precious. And she has so.much.energy. Haha. But I loved playing with her; I think she has the best laugh ever. No lie. I am so thankful C&C invited me to come see them, it was like spending time with my family.

In the morning I had some coffee with Coffeemate creamer. This might not seem like a big deal, but until I actually drank the coffee, I forgot how much I missed it! I've been drinking coffee with just sugar, which I do enjoy, but the coffee creamer tasted like home. And I got to read the Sunday comics while I drank my 4 cups of coffee (don't judge. It was the best coffee I have had in 3 months)! I must admit, they weren't nearly as funny as they were when I was 12.

After our breakfast, we went to another military base in Schweinfurt for some lunch and shopping. Their base is really small, so there wasn't much to see there. It was so weird to be in Germany but to be surrounded by Americans. The PX was like a Walmart; they had everything from American that I know and miss. Maybe I could move there? Anyways, I found this lotion there that I absolutely love and miss so much, so when I saw it, I had to get it!! One of the highlights of my day was lunch. As a Texan, I love Mexican food. And I miss it dearly. Very dearly. I would do almost anything to get some Gringo's or Lupe Tortilla or Luna's or La Casita or Papasitios or Mamacitas...get the idea? I wish I could say I got to eat one of those, but I didn't. I did eat Taco Bell (not real tex-mex, but I do love me some TB). And it was 100000000x better than it has ever been. It. Was. Amazing. (Not an exaggeration).

After lunch we spent the day at an animal park in Schweinfurt. It was a bigger, nicer version of the one we have in Groß-Gerau. The only problem is it was FREEZING. I say that based on scientific fact, not just the fact that my toes were like ice. Some of the bigger animals came so close to the fences, that we got to feed them, which was super cool! Then we went to Würzburg to walk around and wait for my train to take me back home. We had a bit of a hard time finding the city center and a parking garage; we actually ended up driving on the road that is used by the street trains...something I don't think we were supposed to do, since we were the only car on the road... Oops. Our dinner was the most German part of our weekend; we ate at a pretty traditional German restaurant that served things like schnitzel and wurst. It was so yummy. I let M try a bite of my wurst (I told her it was a hotdog) but she didn't like it. In fact, she was so kind as to spit it back on my plate. It was pretty hilarious! After dinner D dropped me off at the train station and I waited for my train to bring me back to home.

It was so great to spend the weekend with not only some fellow Texans, but some familiar faces. In a couple of weeks I am going to meet D in London for a few days and I will probably see CC&M in the near future. They told me if I ever need to get away that I'm always welcome to see them! All in all my American weekend was a great success!! Thanks again D&R and CC&M!!!!

*Technically, I was on American soil but I never left Germany. Awesome? Yes.

The Best Day

I know, I know. I haven't posted anything for over a week. I'm sorry. I would love to say it's because I've been out doing fabulously awesome things, but that wouldn't be entirely true. I've just been working a bunch and when I'm not working I just haven't been motivated to sit and write for hours and hours. I say hours and hours because I have about 5 post ideas in my head (and pictures to go along with them). I would just rather spend time with J & L our Skype with my family, whom I miss dearly. (Especially my mom. She is the best. And she loves me more than her other children. ;) And she is counting down the days until I am back home. Was that good, Paula?)

So it's only 2 p.m. here, but it has been a great day. From the time I woke up I've been in a great mood. Which is weird because it's Monday...who loves Mondays?! Apparently I do, for today at least. In school we took two official practice A1 tests. The A1 is the first German language test you take as you work towards citizenship. I haven't taken an official one yet, but everyone else in my class has already taken the test. I am not going to lie, I'm a little nervous about taking this test later this month. Everyone I talk to about it tells me something different. It's hard, it's easy, it's all in German, it's formal, it's casual and conversational and in English. What the heck?!?!

I was even a little nervous about the practice test because it was all German, formal, and all around intimidating. Now, I hate to brag, but I did awesome. Like high B, almost an A awesome. So, that makes me feel so much more at ease for the test in a few weeks. Awesome day becomes even more awesome.  :)

Today just keeps getting better too! I'm buying my ticket to go to London in December. I'm SOOOOO excited for that :D Mondays are also ice cream day. When I pick up J & L from school we always get ice cream on Mondays. Everyone deserves to have something to make their Mondays awesome, even 6 and 8 year olds!

Now the only thing that could make this day truly legendary would be mexican food. I might miss mexican food more than I miss my family (I also might be exaggerating). So tonight I'm cooking mexican...or at least a watered down version of it. The kids wouldn't eat legit mexican, which is unfortunate. They have no idea what they are missing.

So..yeah. Moral of the story is today is a great day :D

And I promise I will post more this week :)