Friday, July 8, 2016

Servus München, Howdy Texas!

When we started our blog, it was to document our adventures in Munich.  And I think we did a pretty good job capturing both the daily life as well as documenting all of our incredible vacations over the years.  Though lately we have been pretty MIA.

Why?  On February 11, 2016, our journey in Germany morphed from being about European travels with the two of us (and sometimes our dogs) and into a slower-paced life as a family of 3 (or 5 if we include the dogs).  After patiently, and then impatiently, waiting for our son to arrive, we finally welcomed Max into the world 9 days after his due date. 


Thus the grand adventure we started here has turned into a family friendly version, with us even going on a few family vacations – venturing into the Bavarian and the Austrian Alps a few times. 
Left: Bizau, Austria.  Right: Schloss Linderhof in Bavaria.  Both: Max not looking at the camera.
However now that we are parents, our focus on what we want out of life has shifted.  We realized quickly how important it is to us to be back in our own culture and near our family, especially as we now have 4 nephews that we want to be closer to.  And instead of planning our next giant vacation in some new European place – we are planning our move back to the US! 
MERICA
As of this coming September, we will no longer be ‘Weiss Aus Deutschland’.  Instead we will be just the Weiss family in Houston – blog-free. Our little Bavarian baby will learn to love Tex-Mex, how to say ‘y’all’ properly, and see what a real rodeo is.  But more importantly, he will grow up with family nearby – which is what we want most of all. 
Don't worry Grandma Margie - you will get a smile photo soon!  Your visit was just before he learned how to do it. :)
So while we can’t say we are ready to LEAVE Munich (I don’t think we ever really will be fully ready to leave this wonderful city), we are more than ready to GET BACK to Texas and our roots (and maybe Tex Mex).  Munich has been an amazing place to live: it has really helped us grow both as individuals and as a couple, and it has brought us the best thing of all: Max.  We will definitely leave a piece of our hearts here in Munich, and we hope to return one day with Max.  We want to bring him back not only to show him where he came into the world, but to help him realize that the world is a much, much bigger place than the USA. 
At the beer garden 
With that, we leave you with a collection of ‘American’ things we have come across in our years in Europe – a very accurate portrayal of what we are returning to, wouldn’t you say? ;) 
America is about BBQ and giant burgers - what else?
We all love sitting around eating Chocolate Cookies ice cream, right?
Space and motorcycles.  The epitome of USA.
Please don't ask us what American Cream is.  It sounded way too perverse for us to try. Cool American, however, is delicious.
A semi-truck and Uncle Same.  MERICA.
And most importantly, Hot Dogs.  America = Hotdogs.
Seriously. Hot Dogs.  You know - those British-branded Ye Olde American style hot dogs that were TERRIBLE. 

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Our 4th Germanniversary

Today marks the 4th anniversary of our arrival in Munich.  This last year definitely held the most changes in our lives in Munich so far as we left behind our travel-orientated lives to prepare for our first child!  And as today is our Germanniversary, we continue our annual tradition of looking back on the prior year and reflecting on our favorite and least favorite moments of our 4th year in Munich.

Highs:
Here are our favorite moments of this last year (in no particular order):
  • Learning I am pregnant, and then finding out we are having a son! 
  • All of the travels we fit in pre-pregnancy and early-pregnancy: Scotland, The Rhine region, Hallstatt, Portugal, Switzerland, Paris (Julie only) and Israel (Julie only).  Hey – Noah got to go to Brazil for the World Cup last year…
  • All the friends and family who visited us!
  • Going to Frühlingsfest and being able to fully enjoy it, beer and all
  • Driving out into the countryside late at night to watch the Geminid meteor shower.  After so many tries over the last decade+, we finally were successful with a meteor shower and saw more shooting stars than we ever expected.  (the photo is not of the meteor shower since we didn’t take a camera with us)
  • Our first trip back to the US in over a year and a half, and seeing family and friends (including meeting my nephew Tegan for the first time)
  • Finally seeing two of our favorite Bavarian spots covered in snow and ice – the Partnachklamm gorge and Schloss Neuschwanstein
  • Our 2+ weeks of Christmas vacation, where we focused on relaxing and spending time together.  We watched all 7 Star Wars movies, Noah cooked a lot of delicious food, and we played a lot of video and board games.  In about a month, it won’t be just the two of us anymore, and it will be a LONG time before we have the luxury of spending 2+ weeks doing nothing.
  • Discovering Trustedhousesitters.com and having two wonderful couples stay in our apartment and take amazing care of our dogs for two of our vacations.  How I wish I had known about this website when we first moved to Munich!



Lows:
And now the lesser favorite moments (also in no particular order):
  • A super hot summer + no air conditioning.  We had to simply shut the living room door and avoid that room as it reached the 90s with all the windows.  The rest of the apartment wasn’t much better – upper 80s.  And we aren’t exaggerating about it being hot – Germany reached its highest temperatures in history!
  • Having nausea for all three trimesters (though if that is the worst that happens for my pregnancy – I will gladly take it!)
  • Spending Noah’s birthday sick with a cold (on top of the morning sickness), then passing the cold on to him.  Happy 30th Noah!
  • Missing out on Oktoberfest this year – Thanks Max! J
  • Noah’s embarrassment over calling a Kinderarzt (pediatrician) and saying he was looking for a Frauenarzt (gynecologist) for his baby.  He gave the receptionist a good laugh.
  • Hard to fulfill pregnancy cravings!  You can’t go get a Wendy’s Frosty or good queso here.  And 2 days after I started craving non-raw sushi – our sushi place closed down for a month for their August holiday.  The plus side – I probably would have gained a LOT more weight if we were back in Texas the whole time. 

Thanks Munich for a wonderful 4th year, and we can’t wait for what awaits us this next year!!