Our 9 days back in our motherland was over in a blink of an
eye and left us recovering for an entire week while we readjusted. We came back with many American items -
luggage, food, new clothes, and a nice American cold.
We began our stay at my friend Scott’s new house just
outside of Dallas, TX. Although we are
pretty seasoned travelers, we ran into a bit of trouble on our first day. Long stories short: we thought our cellphones were unlocked
and we could simply put in US SIM cards we bought on Amazon (nope – locked
tight). And then a trip to the ATM led Julie to the realization that our ATM
card expired 3 months earlier. One cheap
Verizon phone and a trip back to Wells Fargo to withdraw cash from a bank
teller later and we were back on our feet.
Thank goodness this was our country where we could go a day without
phones/cash, and not a new country where we couldn't speak the language!
Now we were really ready to jump head first into American
culture, by going to a Texas Rangers baseball game. After a few Miller Lights (with Julie finally
realizing that they do taste watered-down… seeing as she didn't drink beer
before we moved to Germany) and a churro, we finally started to settle in to
the American way.
Sunday Scott drove us to meet up with my brother Seth and
his wife Marty as we would drive with them out to their place in Austin. We spent the rest of our time in Texas (except
a quick day trip to Houston to say hi to Julie’s folks) binging on all the
foods, television, and shopping we had the energy for. Our favorite meal hands down was our BBQ lunch
at Rudy’s, a place we had eaten at before but didn't really appreciate until
now. Perhaps the lack of BBQ in Phoenix (our
prior home) and now Munich made it all the more delicious.
My mom flew in from San Francisco to join us on all of our
ventures except the food binge, of course.
Unfortunately I was restricted to the suburbs because I caught my cold
pretty early on and didn't have the energy to really explore our old college
town. Luckily suburbia had all we wanted
– shopping malls, Kerbey Lane, HEB, and Target.
We flew out on Thursday to Chicago for my cousin’s wedding
weekend. By then Julie was now playing
host to my cold virus. Although it was a
new city, the routine on Thursday was pretty much the same - shopping, eating,
shopping. Though now we had the added
company of my Grandma. Then the wedding
festivities began and the rest of the trip was over in a flash. We had the rehearsal dinner on Friday, the wedding
on Saturday, and farewell brunch on Sunday (for the newlyweds… not for us). It was so great to see all of the Weiss
family, who we have dearly missed since we last saw them for Seth’s wedding in
2011. Plus Eric and Allyson booked the
best wedding band ever – the Becca Kaufman Orchestra. Seriously – they are awesome.
Before we knew it we were on our lonely way back home to
Munich, thankfully on a direct flight from Chicago. But we will be back in
our motherland in February for round 2 to see my brother-in-law get married.
Photos from the wedding weekend (yes, we were a bit obsessed with the photo booth):
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| Rehearsal Dinner |
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| Before heading to the wedding |
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| We are pros at walking Grandma down the aisle |
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| Pictures from our first two photo booth sessions |
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| From left to right: Brothers + wives + Grandma; Seth, Mom and me; The ladies who married into the Weiss Family, aka the Mrs. Weiss' |
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| By the end of the night I turned into a creeper |
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