Our 4th Germanniversary

Today marks the 4^th 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 4^th 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 30^th 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 4^th year, and we can’t wait for what awaits us this next year!!

Our 3rd Germanniversary

Today marks our 3^rd Germanniversary!  This means we are continuing our annual tradition of looking back and reflecting on the top and bottom moments of our 3^rd year in Germany.

Here are the top moments of our 3^rd year in no particular order:

• Noah finally checking off ‘Go to the World Cup’ from his bucket list 
• Celebrating 10 years together (our first date was back in Austin, TX in September 2003)
• Making our 2nd trip back to the US in February, this time to see Julie’s brother get married
• All of our European travels, with our trip to Norway topping the list
• Noah perfecting his flour tortilla recipe so we have fresh flour tortillas regardless if anyone has visited from Texas recently
• All of the guests we hosted / family and friends we met in Europe this year (as we reached our 3^rd year, the amount of visitors decreased as most people came the first 2 years – so those who came, we really appreciated it!!!
• Discovering the photo app Foap, and selling over 80 photos for $5 each between both of us – one photo (pictured) even won a mission/$150!! 
• Finally spotting the bird (an owl) that we always knew was in Nymphenburg Park. For 3 years we always saw people looking at this one tree in the park/pointing binoculars or telephoto lenses at the tree.  We would always stop and look up too, but we never saw what they were looking at.  And we never cared enough to ask someone.  On January 1^st Julie finally spotted an owl – that was it!!!
• Julie discovering the American Burger Bar that is close to her work – a food truck selling cheap burgers ran by a guy from Philly 
  

And now the low moments (also in no particular order):

• Noah coming home from the World Cup with Traveler’s Tummy - it took him over a month to be back to 100%, but he doesn’t regret a single meal.
• Julie being sick over Thanksgiving, meaning she couldn’t eat any of the pies made to take to work
• Shortly after this, Rita got sick – meaning 4 days in a row we came home to diarrhea all over the rug (I had photos of the poo, but Noah said I should keep it classy)
• To continue the poo theme – there was a 2 week span where we stepped in dog poo 3 times (once Noah, once with shoes for Julie, once BAREFOOT on the beach for Julie)
• Having a few uptight folks around the neighborhood be jerks about the dogs.  As we HATE stepping in poo, we pick every last one up from our dogs.  But this doesn’t stop a few grumps from yelling at us to ‘pick it up’ – when they are peeing!  I just ask if they have a cup and walk away.
• The time Julie screwed up two different neighbors’ dogs…  Julie was walking Sadie and Rita before work and saw a little white dog wandering around the street and no one around.  She thought she recognized the dog from a certain house and picked it up and put it in their front yard.  A few houses down she noticed a front gate wide open, but just went home to leave for work.  The next day she realized that the 2^nd house had the same white dog in the front yard…. It was just the same breed as the neighbor down the street.  So instead of helping out, she 1) freaked a neighbor out when they opened their door to find their dog’s doppelganger out front and 2) freaked a neighbor out when they couldn’t find their dog in the front yard.  At least they sorted it out.
• Noah couldn’t repeat his Roche Tennis Tournament victory from 2013 – he dropped from 2^nd place to 20^th (out of 25).  To be fair to Noah – his prior year’s success made them seed him in the top tier (where last year he was in the middle tier).  This meant that he was the worst of the best, but that the middle and bottom tier players had more wins in their sections, leading them to be ranked higher than Noah.  Or so he says…. 
• Julie had a guy at Oktoberfest try to flick up her skirt to see up it when she stood on a table to dance (we were at Oktoberfest with Intel).  Julie immediately spun around to the jerk, and tore him a new asshole by demanding an apology, lecturing him on women’s rights, and kicking him out of the table behind her.  The rest of the night he came over 5 additional times to apologize again, and Julie’s coworkers were now a bit scared of her.  Noah thinks he peed himself a little.  And the joke’s on him: Julie always has shorts on under her dress, so he didn’t even get a peep.
• Julie discovering the American Burger Bar – a YEAR after it opened!  So many missed burger opportunities. 

Here’s to less shit and more good times for our 4^th year in Germany!

Our 2nd Germanniversary

As we hit the 2^nd anniversary since moving to Germany, Noah and I spent some time reminiscing on our last 12 months.  It is odd for us to think that for a few weeks this last summer we truly thought we would be moving back to the States right about now.  Instead we find ourselves not even mid-way through our journey over here. 

With that, we look back on 2013 for our second-annual recap of the best and worst from Weiss aus Deutschland 2013.

Top 2013 moments in no particular order:

• Making a trip back to the USA for the first time since moving here in January 2012.
• Every single one of our visitors who came.  You all help bring a bit of home to us, and we can’t wait for people to start booking their 2014 trips out here!
• All of our vacations, but specifically our amazing Iceland trip.
• Our family visiting us for Christmas and New Year's (blog to be written soon, hopefully).
• More integration into the culture.  Both of us made it on German TV for a sausage segment, and Noah won 2^nd place in his work’s tennis tournament.
• Roche hiring Noah on a 3-year contract, allowing us the means to stay in Germany beyond today! 
• Taking the time to see more of Bavaria (skiingin Garmisch, Partnachklamm, Neuschwanstein, Königsee) and Germany (Dresden, Hamburg) – we wanted to explore our ‘host’ country in 2013 in case we weren’t able to stay longer.
• Discovering American DP at Rewe.
• Our ever-improving German – though Noah has made the biggest strides with the languages.  He hasn’t eaten raw bread at all this year!

Bottom 1^st year moments in no particular order (well, the first one does take the cake for us):

• Rita getting hit by car but taking it like a champ.
• A rather hot summer, with many days in the 90s, and no AC.  In fact, Noah and I and the girls all stayed in an air-conditioned hotel one weekend… in Munich.  It was just too hot for all of us.
• The stress of Noah’s contract running out and not knowing where would be next.  In fact, we truly thought he would take an offer in Houston, TX and would have to move back home before we were 100% ready.  Luckily Roche came through at the end and hired him (see #6 above).
• Noah and I both getting sick during Oktoberfest (though we still made it out for a lunch).
• Rita pooping in the house with the Roomba going.  Poor thing tried to get my attention to go outside, but for those of you who know her, she is often underfoot and always trying to be near us.  Luckily, I smelled it it time and ran to turn off the Roomba before it had a chance to vacuum up her poop and smear it around the living room.
• Noah buying himself a used workout ball from Halle 2 (like Salvation Army), only to find out it isn’t a ball when he pumped it up.  

We are both really excited to see what 2014 will have in store for us!