Seminar in Oberjoch

Today I returned home after an "overnight" Seminar with a group of German students in the beautiful German/ Austrian Alps (the Austrian border was "across the mountain" behind our hotel). We stayed in the university "Alps House". It was very nice of my thesis supervisor, Professor Dr. Kinzig and his assistants to ask me to come along for this seminar.

It was just like being in student dorms again! (Single beds, room mate and toilets and showers down the corridor!)

During the seminar, each student did an oral presentation about their topic (criminal law topic). I was very nervous about presenting, because I was the only "Ausländer" (non German) there. But I prayed about my presentation and everyone was super encouraging, so it turned out fine! 

 Apparently the skiing is very good in this part of Germany in the winter.

I am going to miss sights like these in Germany...

And having to wait in the car for "traffic" to pass....(the sound of the cow bells was so cute!)

I really missed Zev (although I was only gone for one night!) It´s nice to be sitting next to him in our little office. Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Summer in Stuttgart

Summer in Stuttgart, well indeed in Europe is simply wonderful. The weather is gorgeous and there are so many things to do. Summer is when all the festivals seem to occur, so there are no shortage of festivals to visit, foods to taste (which reminds me, I need to get working hard to lose these extra pounds I have packed on thanks to good German living!), beer to drink (see previous comment) and people to catch up with. This weekend we went to the annual Strawberry Festival in downtown old Esslingen. This was our third year in a row, and the weather has been lovely every time! Here is Strawberry Shortcake at the entrance to the festival.

We enjoyed some yummy strawberry icies.

We then went to the local independent community movie theatre to watch a documentary called "Rough Aunties" from South Africa. The documentary was about these women who work for the "Bobbi Bear" Foundation, which protects children who have been victims of abuse. Most of the films shown at this theater are in German, but this film was in English with German sub-titles. It is a tiny movie theater and there were about 12 people in total watching the movie! They had a little presentation at the beginning to tell us that there was some free African food being served after the movie along with traditional African music. We had dinner before-hand in the theater cafe.

It was a fun date night!

Today we caught up with my German teacher, Ulla, her husband Manfred and some of their friends at a Cafe in downtown Stuttgart for Ulla´s birthday. It is tradition in Germany for the birthday boy/ girl ("Geburtstagskind") to treat their guests for dinner or coffee and cake (not the other way around, like in Australia or the States!)

Zev and I have started training together for a few running races that we will run in together; the Esslingen "EZ" Lauf and the "Run to Remember" Half Marathon on base, so that should kick start my fitness again!

Have a lovely week! God bless,

Zev and Fi xo

1 hour 45

I am so proud of my darling Zev. This morning he ran the Stuttgart Half Marathon. It was the perfect day for it too; 73 degrees Fahrenheit and beautiful blue German skies. Zev has trained very hard for this run and ran an excellent time; his PR to date (1:45). He looked great afterwards too and had so much energy left! I played photographer today and am glad that I did because I am battling a terrible cold that has left my nose all red like Rudolph (the red nosed reindeer ;-). Here are some highlights from the morning! Enjoy...

1. My gorgeous boy before the run. He ran in the "yellow" team (based on his time) and looked perfectly color coordinated (in my opinion) in his yellow shirt and yellow sunglasses. I am sure he didn´t plan it that way ;-)

2. His name and number. In case he forgot his name. 

3. Portaloos anybody (notice what is going on in the background)? Remember, this IS Europe! Ha

4. Seems that Stuttgarters never pass up an opportunity to make a political statement (the population is VERY politically active here. Very "green" and liberal.) The signs on these men´s shirts are protesting the "Stuttgart 21" project, which is a project to modernize and expand the central train station and make Stuttgart more of a hub. It involved cutting down trees though and that never goes over well...A proposed solution is the "Stuttgart 21" project.

5. Pink socks. This was a male runner too. I like the color actually.

6. The Polizei were helping clear traffic. I like the female officer´s white beret.

7. And they´re off! First off were the hand cyclists followed by the roller bladers.

8. Here comes my boy!

9. He was so focused and I was trying to snap pictures as quickly as I could, that he almost missed seeing me until I shouted his name!

10. The local firefighters even came out for a look.

11. Victory is SWEET!

12. Showing me his prize.

13. Checking to make sure it´s real.

14. Home bound with his new "Mein Lauf" commemorative shirt.

15. Getting all high tech. Zev´s run mapped out on his special Garmin GPS watch.

Well done, Zev. I am so proud of you!

We have a special shout out to Uncle Johnny, who is celebrating his 50th birthday today! Happy Birthday, Uncle John. Here´s to many more to come...

German friends

One of the best things about moving bases/ places/ countries every 3 or so years, is getting to know the awesome "locals." Zev and I still keep in touch with and visit the people that we became close friends with at each base including Glenbrook, Australia, Montgomery, Alabama, Shreveport, Louisiana (hi Leslie!) and now Germany.

German people are nice, however even Germans will admit that they can be a little distant/ stand-offish until they get to know you.

A lot of Americans complain that they have never been invited to a German´s house. Germans seem to like to catch up in a public place such as at a festival or in a restaurant. Nonetheless, we were happy this past weekend to get invited to a birthday party for one of my friends from my law classes at uni, Philipp, at the home that he and Laura (also a fellow law student) share.

We met their family, had some delicious homemade potato salad and then some apple cake and enjoyed just hanging out with our "German friends". The crazy thing is, I didn´t get a picture of the birthday boy, Philipp! Here am I with the lovely Laura.

I look forward to the friends we will make at our next posting! 

The Darling Buds of May

May has been a fun month, a busy month for Zev and I, but a fun and beautiful month nonetheless. The flowers are blossomming (which is wreaking havoc with poor Zev´s sinus´) and the birds are chirping and everything seems bright and plentiful and beautiful. I seem to recall poetry the best in the season of Spring. A lot of poets wrote Odes to the season of Spring as well as the other seasons. One of my favorite poets is Keats and one of my favorite poems is his Ode to Autumn (which although is not Ode to Spring), has some beautiful alliteration and imagery. So the point is, that Spring has been a beautiful time to catch up with friends and enjoy the outdoors. Here is a collection of pictures to show you what we have been up to. Enjoy the Spring!

1. Esslinger Weinwandertag

2. Dinner with Adele, Romain and their beautiful baby girl, Manon



3. Visit from Australian Leah!

In case you were wondering where the line of this post is from, it is actually from one of my favorite TV shows growing up called The Darling Buds of May. It was a British show set in the countryside in the 1950s and features a lovely, young Catherine Zeta Jones. The line is also from a famous Shakespeare Sonnet, Sonnet 18. And now. Some Shakespeare.

Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Running in lederhosen

Last night we joined our dear friends, Hans and Gena, at the local "Frühlingsfest" or "Spring Festival" in Bad Canstatt (next town over from Stuttgart).

This year, we all had the traditional dress (called "Trachtenmode" here) to wear, and I must admit that Zev looked pretty dapper in his lederhosen! (Look at those legs!!) He looked so cute.

Poor Zev got to try out running in those thick, tightly sewn leather pants, when I realized at the bus stop that I had forgotten my uni semester pass at home, and he gallantly ran back home to get it for me. I love this man. 

We were definitely not the odd ones out though. About half of the girls I saw wore dirndls and about a fifth of the men wore lederhosen.

It was such a fun evening. We met at 4pm and sat inside a traditional beer tent just enjoying the sunshine and company. We even took in a "haunted" roller coaster ride, which was really a cheesy but funny slow train ride with some "scary" masks and people popping out. I must admit that I "may" have screamed in surprise a few times. I don´t do so good on scary rides, or scary movies for that matter.

We then headed to another traditional Austrian "village" (like a beer garden), where we sat and talked and listened to the traditional Bavarian music and watched people go by.

We left at about 9pm; before the festival got too crazy. It was nice to be in bed at a reasonable hour!