Thursday, July 24, 2008

What actor would play you?

Have you ever thought about it? If your life were made into a movie (well, just the interesting parts), who would play you?

One of my co-workers has her 16 year old sister visiting her for a month here in Germany. The sister, let's call her "Susie", has been joining my co-worker a couple days a week at work. This way, Susie has something to do during the work week and it keeps her out of trouble.

Well today, she was working on the casting for her movie. No, she's not writing or making a movie, she was simply listing the important people in her life and deciding who would be a good fit to play them.

So... who would you choose to play you in your movie?

Even more importantly, who would you choose to play ME in my movie?

I promise, if you make a suggestion, I will spend sincere effort in deciding who I think should play you.

Personally, I think Kate Hudson would be an excellent choice for myself. No, i don't really look like her. But i do love her way of spinning intellegent and whitty characters...this is how I see myself, whitty and intellegent.

So what do you think? Who should play you? Who should play me? Who should be your spouse/lover? Who would play your parent(s)?

I'm curious! Especially if I know your spouse and parents :)

Please share!

Friday, July 11, 2008

4th of July Weekend

Stephen and I have been in Germany now for 10 weeks now and we've finally given ourselves a chance to travel! We decided that 4th of July weekend would be a great time to go – seeing that it was a 3 day weekend. So I started planning.

Being overseas affords us many opportunities, not only by virtue of location! As overseas employees we have access to some of the military benefits. One of those is the organization that I work for, MWR (Moral, Welfare and Recreation). Well, MWR just happened to be running a weekend tour to Florence Italy. I convinced Stephen that this was something we just had to do for our holiday weekend. After a little hinting and some budget searching, we decided that we could go and that we really wanted to. So I called up the organizers and said "sign me up!" The lady kindly informed me that due to lack of interest the trip was probably going to be canceled by that evening. I asked, "Well how many people do you need?" She informed me that they required at least 16 more people to go ahead w/ the trip, "how many people in your party?" she asked. "Oh, just 2." And that was the end of Florence…for now.

A week prior to my plan B planning stage, we attended a farewell party for one of Stephen's co-workers. It was a blast!! But it was also my first opportunity to my introduction to Bruges, Belgium. Another of Stephen's co-workers recommended it very highly. So I started looking into it. We decided that we were going to take the train west to Belgium and then spend a few days trekking around the medieval city, shopping, sightseeing, etc. Well, I found a hotel, booked it and then started making arrangements for the train tickets.

First I started online. Besides, it IS 2008, everything is possible online…except train tickets to Belgium. After fighting w/ the system for 2 days I decided, "Well maybe they need to see our passports and that's why we can't book online". BTW: The site is in German, and as much German as I speak it was still Greek to me!! So I decided one evening after work I'd drag Stephen down w/ our passports to get our ticket.

We got to the train station, and found a FANTASTIC parking spot. I knew that the whole process was going to be quick so we only plugged the meter for 6 minutes. We walked into the main train station and stepped up to the information desk (there was a line). After some debating and some looking around, Stephen and I finally saw the travel office where tickets were purchased. I walked up to the double glass doors, and the curtain came swinging closed. It was 5:55pm and apparently they were serving no more customers. (Germans are NOT known for customer service).

I turned to Stephen and said, "Well, I knew this was going to be a quick trip". We went to the car and still had about 1 minute on the parking meter.

The next morning, I went into work and talked to my boss about "how the heck to I get train tickets??" She said, well we've got to head out that direction later today, why don't I take you to the station and we'll try together. (She spent the majority of her youth in Germany and is now married to a German – she's sorta "German-American"). So later that day we did. The line was extremely long so I said forget it, I'll come back tonight w/ Stephen and we'll try again.

Later in the afternoon she suggested that my German office mate could help me out by calling to get the tickets ordered. He gladly helped me. But, after much debate (in German between the operator and office mate) the tickets were going to cost us almost $400. This was just too much.
So I canceled the hotel reservation and started looking for a new plan.

It was now the week of July 4th. I HAD to come up w/ something! We don't have international drivers licenses yet (that's why we decided to take a 6 hr. train ride rather than driving about 4 hrs.) so I knew it had to be "local".

We decided that we were going to visit the glorious Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria. So, I again, booked a hotel and started making plans.

In the end, we spent a day in and around the city of Fuessen and viewed the castle on Friday (check out the pictures). That evening, we decided that we had time to go to a spa (otherwise known as "bath"), so I introduced Stephen to the joys of public nudity. Contrary to what it sounds, it was quite relaxing and luxurious.

Satruday morning we headed out and took a drive in the country side. Now of course you're up on your world geography so I don't have to remind you that Bavaria (a state of Germany) is where the Alps are (at least a part of them). So we drove thru the beautiful mountain countryside and came across a cable car. So we spent our morning taking the gondola up a mountain side (about ¾ the way up a mountain) then spent a couple hours "bergsteigen" (Mountain Climbing).

I was incredible!! The weather was clear and sunny (yes, we got sunburned). The mountains really were alive w/ the sound of…cowbells. J No photo can ever capture the insurmountable beauty of mountains, but definitely check those pictures out too.

After we came back down the mountain, we headed off to Stuttgart, Germany where we held tickets to a show: The Blue Man Group.

We drove 2.5 hrs to Stuttgart, checked into our hotel, changed clothes and were off to the theater where we enjoyed the show. If you've never seen them and have the opportunity to, make sure you do!! This was my second time and it was still super funny…even in German!

The next morning (Sunday) we set out at about 9am to head back home.

All in all it was a really lovely and magical weekend!

I hope you had a lovely and magical 4th of July weekend too.