Packing for a Home-Away.

As I've mentioned in a few previous posts, the Home-Away is an excellent alternative to hotels, and Europe does them well. Most are the size of a small apartment, because they actually ARE small apartments. The owners tend to do a great job of keeping them stocked with kitchen stuff like pots, pans, utensils and plates. You may or may not have to pay extra for towels, and there may be rules about cleaning up (as in, you may or may not have to take out your own trash.).

Anyway, I really like them. They're usually located much closer to where we're hoping to be, and I don't miss the hotel experience all too much. They feel more homey. Expect to see a lot of Ikea furnishings.

Your views can be this in Prague....

Or this in Varenna, Italy at Lake Como.....

Since they aren't hotels, what should you bring? Here's a short list:

• Toiletries (including a small bar of soap to wash your hands at the sink). If we're only doing a carry-on for a short trip, I just grab some little bottles that were leftover from hotels we've stayed at in the past. I opt for the bar of soap for hand-washing because then you don't need to put it in with your liquids. I also go for the makeup remover towelettes over a liquid for the same reason.
• Single-serve bags of tea or espresso (like these, mmm!) to have in the morning. Important if you have a caffiene addiction like me, and need that first thing when you wake up.
• Snacks, snacks and more snacks. Or breakfast-y foods. I'm a big advocate of snacks on trips in general, but when you've got a stocked kitchen, you can get a little more creative, and save some cash at the same time. Think packets of oatmeal, single-serve pastas, granola bars, etc. Revert back to college-age survival food items. When you're traveling you're more likely to overeat so it's probably a good idea to integrate some lighter meals.
• A map (physical or on your phone) of the closest grocery store. That way, you can go grab some stuff for the fridge (like cheaper bottles of water) or even find something quick to whip up for a nice meal. At Lake Como we searched in vain for a grocery store... I would have loved to find somewhere with fresh pasta and make something, but alas. Oh bring a folding shopping bag, too.

If you don't see it written online, it never hurts to ask about sheets, towels, hair dryer, WiFi, etc.

Here's the link to Homeaway.com.

Adventures in cooking (and food in general)

The hubby and I have been all over the place cooking-wise. When it was super hot, I refused to make anything that had to be made in the oven or in multiple pots on the stove, which made meal planning challenging. We've been doing a combination of our usual meals (tacos, stir-frys, pizza and salad) and adding in a few German meals like curry wurst and schnitzel. The grocery store has an entire aisle of seasoning packets, which makes it really convenient to just pickup a packet, pickup your meat, and any other ingredients needed. With the schnitzels, it's usually cream but we cut back on the portion sizes and I make a veggie.

When we go out for schnitzel, unfortunately the size is far too large... this Gorgonzola schnitzel is the size of your face which I can't finish (but hubby does and practically licks his plate clean):

Gosh those fries are good. Germans do potatoes so well.

Last week we had pepper cream chicken schnitzel with roasted carrots. The entire meal could be prepared in the oven so I was excited to try out two of the oven dishes we got as wedding presents. Carrots have been my go-to veggie as of late since they're cheap and can just be tossed in olive oil and seasonings and thrown in the oven. They also make an easy snack for hubby with some hummus or ranch dressing.

One item I keep going back to at the grocery store are mini turkey meatballs. Very flexible - we'll use them for our spaghetti and meatballs, eat them as-is with bbq sauce, or even add them to pizza.

I'm definitely looking forward to cooler weather so I can up the ante with some cold weather soups, chilis, stews, and baked goods. Pinterest is going to come in handy and my pins will be put to good use - I vow to not just pin things but also MAKE the recipes I pin! I'm particularly intrigued by these Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Speaking of cookies, two weeks ago hubby had a craving so we walked over to the grocery store for the ingredients. The cookies were oatmeal chocolate chip but we had trouble finding chocolate chips... hubby was fine getting a bar of baking chocolate and cutting it up. They came out pretty delicious, even better as we made them a few days later from frozen balls:

Up in the next month or so: Oreo cheesecake bars, black bean & brown rice burgers, veggie mac and cheese, and oatmeal applesauce muffins.

Ich bin ein Student: Finally starting Grad School!

Yay! Beginning in September, I will start attending Colorado State University's Global Campus to get my Master of Science in Organizational Leadership, with a specialization in Strategic Innovation and Change Management!

CSU is on a trimester system, which means I'll be taking one class every 8 weeks. The trimesters usually roll into each other so I can either just keep taking one class right after another, or take off a month in between. If I take one right after another, I've estimated that I can be done with the degree by the summer of 2015.

It seems like the right time to get this degree since I'm a full-time hausfrau, but if you read my post last week about all the things I do each day, you know that I still have some schedule adjusting to do. I'll also have to figure out what trips we can take and when. Luckily, I already know what classes I'll be taking and the order that I'll be completing them, and have access to the syllabus for each, so that will help me plan things out a little better.

The entire program, since it's through their "Global Campus," is online. I'll be using Blackboard (which will be kinda neat after working there for a bit) and completing readings, commenting on message boards, commenting on other student's comments, etc. The courses sound pretty interesting, so I hope they live up to their titles. My first class is Effective Organizations: Theory and Practice.

Even though I've been out of school for 6 and a half years, I always associate Fall with school so I'm excited I have school to think about again! I wish I had back-to-school shopping to do, though - that's really the best part. Maybe I should just go buy a spiral notebook anyway, I do love my notebooks. Or a "first day" outfit.... otherwise it will just be my typical daily uniform of t-shirt and leggings.

Woo hoo!

How's that German coming?

Oh, it's coming. It's a slow process. If you think about it, when you're little and learning to speak, you're learning a language over time and acquire more words and learn by example how to put them together.

So in German, that makes me at about....oh, let's say a 2 year-old. A smart one, for sure, but a 2 year-old.

I've been doing Rosetta Stone each weekday and try to jot down key/useful phrases as I go to study at a later time. Sometimes I'll point to things when we're walking and say what they are in German. Things like, "The car is green," [das Auto ist grün],  or, "My shoes are blue." [meine Schuhe sind blau].

A favorite: anything having to do with a cat being under, on, beside, or far from a table.

Yep, definitely a smart toddler.

These are things that Rosetta Stone teaches you first, probably because you'll obviously need to know how to say "the horse is far from the house" before you learn how to ask for a beer and order food.

If we get all of our travel on the books this Fall, I'll see if I can actually take an in-person class. Either way, that's happening this Fall or during a Winter month. Rosetta Stone is totally helpful, don't get me wrong, but when you're learning a language it's not enough. To really learn a language you need to speak it on a daily basis and be put into those pressure-cooker situations where you have to respond to questions (and understand them) on the fly.

When we were in France, I was amazed at how much high school/college French I remembered, but when it counted I totally blanked on how to ask for the vegetables. I was out of practice. Luckily, most people in Europe are smarter than you, so they do speak English, if not fluently then certainly well enough for their occupation. 

But back to German... I don't want to rely on someone else knowing English to get by, that's no fun. That's being an elitist and lazy American. Plus, it makes it more difficult when someone seriously doesn't know English, and living here, it does happen. You think dealing with Comcast is tough? Try calling Kable Deutschland and talking to a customer service rep.

I am picking up more and more every day but haven't gotten around to those super long words just yet. I recently came across a list of some of the longest words in the language and my favorite word is actually the number 7,254: Siebentausendzweihundertvierundfünfzig.

Nope, not there yet - still on "I'm hungry" and "You have blond hair." I'll be over here with my juice box and stuffed animals.

Trip to Trier.

According to Wikipedia, the city of Trier is probably the oldest city in Germany. The hubby and I saw that they were having a wine festival this past weekend, so we decided to drive over and see what it was all about.

Namely, we heard there were Roman Ruins to be explored.

Trier is still in the Rhineland-Palantinate state of Germany (which is where Mainz also sits), but it is on the Moselle river very close to Luxembourg. Driving around we even saw a few cars from Luxembourg.

It took about an hour and a half, then another half hour deciding where to park, but we got to the festival side right at noon on Sunday. Right when "die oldieband" was taking the stage:

I could definitely see my dad here, listening to the songs he's used to, just drinking a bottle of wine.

After finishing our glasses, we got a meaty sandwich and headed back to the car to drive to the other side of town where the main ruins are located. We had already seen the Porta Nigra driving, which was constructed as a city gate.

We re-parked and walked over to the Kasierthermen, or Imperial Baths. What was so neat about them is that they were never completed as a bathhouse. The city was becoming more and more important in the 4th century so they started construction, however everything stopped when Constantine I shifted political activities East, thus eliminating the need for a bathhouse in a city where people wouldn't congregate.

It wasn't until after 360 AD that construction started again, but this time, as a reception or parade hall. From there it was a residence, a church, expanded into a castle in some points - all sorts of things.

I was just happy that we could go exploring away from the scorching sunshine:

Someone really likes the sun in pictures.....

Here's me!

I don't know why he looked so victorious. Trying to pretend he's back in Roman times, I suppose.

He's so darn cute.

We did get a map of all this, but I couldn't tell you where we were at this point. We were just walking around, enjoying the underground coolness.

Here is the largest portion of the ruins, where that castle once stood. It sits along the old city wall.

After we had our fill, we decided to meander through the center of town and check out this Cathedral:

And also get some ice cream. Mmm.... I had coffee flavored and the hubby had the special of the day: Oreo.

We even walked over to the Porta Nigra. Here's me standing in one of the arches. It was hot.

About this time we decided to head back over to the wine fest. It was just getting going around lunchtime, so we were looking for a few more things to be open. We found the action and as I was distracted looking at a stand of cakes and cupcakes and other sweets, I stabbed my foot on a stick.

Hubby said I'm no longer allowed to wear flip flops out anymore....

To make me feel better, hubby got this for us to eat. It's one of my favorite fest foods, the Flammkuchen.

It was hands-down the best one I've ever had. Might have been that extra cheese.

We happily munched on this as some roadies did their sound check on the nearby stage (to Wonderwall, of course, only knowing about half the lyrics) and decided that we'd had our fill of Trier. Time to head back to Mainz.

The wines were delicious, but man, that car AC never felt so good.

So what do you DO all day, anyway?

I've had a few people ask me this and I scoff. I scoff because they can't actually fathom filling up an entire day without an out-of-the-house job. I understand; I used to think the same thing. I promise you I don't just sit around drinking wine and watching Netflix everyday.

I only do that when I have some free time, which I try to carve into my days, but sometimes doesn't happen.

Here is a "typical" day, Monday - Friday. I say "typical" because those times are only loosely adhered to, as it often depends on when hubby gets up and moving around, and how long he's stuck in the office. Or if I get done earlier or later with these tasks.

8:00-9:00: Get up, make breakfast, lunch for hubby, put dishes away
9:00-10:30: Blog entry/Internet news/research short-term or weekend trips and events
10:30-11:15: House cleaning item for the day (alternating between kitchen, living room, dining room, guest bed/bath, master bedroom, master bathroom, office, hall/stairs, trash/recycling)
11:15-12:15: Workout (essential for the heavy diet in this country)
12:15-1:00: Shower, start laundry (laundry takes forever)
1:00-2:00: Lunch break
2:00-3:00: Rosetta Stone/German workbook
3:00-6:00: Grocery shopping/misc. paperwork for hubby/budget planning/trip planning/meal planning/continue laundry
6:00-8:00: Prepare, eat, cleanup dinner/kitchen

I'm also hoping to add a few more things into the mix, like time to try out new recipes, read books, and I don't know, just learn new stuff. Or indulge in a guilty pleasure. Like a nap.

For those of you who think that it would be easy and you'd have all the time in the world to do everything you want if you didn't have a job or worked from home, think again. It takes a lot of self-discipline that not everyone can deal with - and some days are better than others. Nobody is here to bark orders at me, it's just me. It's also strange to think that you can do ANYTHING YOU WANT. Anything is so very vague, so all-encompassing that at times it's overwhelming to have the freedom. You have to somehow pull yourself out of the notion that this can be a cushy life if you want it to be, because this is not permanent.

I don't want to get behind in missing all the things I loved doing while working at a law firm. I want to keep advancing and learning and knowing what is happening around me so that when I get back, I can have a better chance at picking back up. That's why I have routines to do things and try not to let the comfy beds and couch call out to me mid-afternoon.

I don't mention any of this to say that it's easier or harder than having an outside job. Just a different kind of job. It has all the makings of what I used to have: big and small picture tasks, tons of planning and budgeting, needing to be flexible to changing conditions, creating process improvements, and delegating tasks (i.e. "honey, can you please be in charge of making X today?") to my team member.

I am absolutely thankful for this time in my life where I don't have to commute an hour each way to work and to make myself lunch each day. And I'm going to take advantage of that by not wasting my time. I'm in freaking Germany and I love that I get to do all this hausfrau stuff here.

My goal is to rock whatever I'm doing and right now, this is what I'm rocking.

The rest of the furniture!

Ah. So happy to have all of our rental furniture delivered. Still waiting on one essential piece of the wardrobe for me - the bar to hang clothes (who forgets to bring that, btw?!)- but besides that, everything is here.

Both wardrobes:

The gorgeous Belgian dining room set- we have six chairs total and there's a leaf in the middle of the table that extends the length:

We originally were going to have this "sofa table" behind our couch so the couch would stop sliding around (and act as a place to put two of the speakers), but it was much too wide for the space. Luckily, this solved our shoe storage problem, and fits perfectly at the bottom of the stairs:

If I can manage to get a few odds and ends cleaned up, I'll try to do a video tour of the entire apartment one of these days. Oh - we also got our guest bedroom mattress. VERY comfortable.

I'm also pleased to introduce a new member of the family - this is Harvey. He's an air conditioner and I love him:

While yes, Germany is relatively cool in the summer, there have been plenty of super hot days (and humid nights) when a few fans were not going to cut it. It's also hot and stuffy if we're cooking, especially with the oven.

For those struggling to do the math in your head, 27 degrees equals 80.6 Fahrenheit. Sounds warmish until you remember that this is doing a great job of pushing the air around, with the help of a few strategically placed fans, making upstairs quite comfortable. When we move it down to our bedroom at night, it gets even lower since it's in a much smaller room. The only challenge is getting it to sit properly in the door since we have zero windows. The hubby would argue it looks like a mess, but I'd say it's a sophisticated system of masking tape and cardboard that is working just fine thankyouverymuch.