Family, Friends, Professional Life, Travel, USA

Back from The Summer Break

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Ah yes so I have decided to call my absence from the blogging world my own personal summer break like any good TV show does. Sounds so much better than saying oh I was too busy and too lazy to write and read blogs. 😉
Alas, summer is officially over in this country after Labor Day, the first Monday in September. Seeing that it has been warm here for a loooong time, I never got a real summer feeling. Hmmm. :-/

Family Visit
So shortly after I came back from visiting my sister and Uti in Connecticut, Anke flew out here and we had a great day downloading her music *rolls eyes* and going to Luca’s pool. We then ordered pizza and ate it with skyline view on his balcony. Nice!
The next day we picked up our parents from the airport. Yay!!! It was über great to see them again after all these months! We enjoyed some lovely cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and then watched some olympics and sent the parents to bed early and hung out with Ash for a bit.
The next day they got to enjoy their birthday gift, which was a couples massage. They really enjoyed that so I can recommend that as a gift! I went running and then did my neighbor a favor and let Bacon out. He was definitely one of the sights to see for my family. Next up was a trip to my company where the parents took their time talking to all the Italians. It was quite funny. 🙂 We then went for a walk in Latta Plantation park. Loads of cicadas (yuk) and fire ants (yuk). Quick stop at Aldi to buy some German beer and then finally we had some sushi at Ru Sans and Gerd was too cute eating it with a fork. Hehe.
It was pouring on Wednesday so we decided to go to the museum. The Discovery Place has an exhibit about Pompeii. Very very interesting. Afterwards we hung out in the general exhibit halls and had a blast playing with the optical illusions. 😀 We cooked yummy chicken that night and watched more olympics.
Thursday we relaxed and then went to Target and then walked uptown to Alive after 5. Thankfully some kids tossed an energy drink at Anke as soon as we got there so we didn’t have to feel bad for her not being 21 yet and enjoyed a cool beer. After having some fun there we took the light rail back home and started cooking. My neighbor stopped by to give me his old TV and he and his friends hauled it up the stairs. He sent them home then and stayed to have a beer with my family, which was only mildy weird. (I mean hello?!)
Friday we drove to Charleston. Oh funny story, we stopped to get gas on the way and after filling up I went inside to wash my hands. The plan was to go to McDonalds and get a coffee but when I got back, my step-dad was gone. Says Mama “oh he just walked to the waffle house”. Uhm, ok. Sketchy area and he walks to the crappy waffle house… uhm ok. So we get in the car and try to go there only to pass a garage with cars with bullet holes. Oh-kay. Well we finally make it to the Waffle House and we have a coffee and share some waffles. Totally very American movie like. It was kind of cute how my parents were so carefree and didn’t think anything about wandering around the sketchy area. Ah yeah the sweet German life.
Well once we got to Charleston we headed straight to the beach on Isle of Palms and it was oh so nice. It was overcast but warm and the water was nice and warm too and we had a great time splashing in the waves and walking around the beach. Grabbed some Wendy’s for dinner and then more olympics and bed.
Saturday we walked around the city and Mama dragged us through the souvenir shops (not that we bought anything… ;-)). Weird weather. The sky was white and it was super humid. Charleston definitely is better to see in spring.
We got back to Charlotte in the evening and hosted a little dinner for some close friends. Bratwurst, broccoli, potatoes and sauce holondaise. How German can it get?! 😉 Super nice time and then the family had to start packing again. Hmpf! 🙁 Dropped them off at the airport Sunday morning and I was really sad. It was kind of nice to have a sister in the same country and I can’t wait to see them all again for Christmas (the latest… you never know).

Trade Show in Atlanta
The day after my parents left I left for a week in Atlanta with my company. We had the industry’s 2nd largest tradeshow world wide. I love the customer interaction, all the fantastic dinner food, and getting to know your co-workers on a less professional basis. We ate at really good places and I think I gained 2kg just from that. I have to say, my favorite was a Brazilian Steakhouse where they had a gorgeous salad bar and then bring you all you can eat meat. Yummy!!! As always my co-workers and boss made fun of me big time for eating so much. What can I say, I love food!
Went out with the company to an Irish pub and then tried to party a bit more at our hotel but the security people quickly put an end to that. Hmpf! Getting up at 6:30 though was always super hard and I was glad to go back home a day earlier than originally planned. It took me almost a week to recover from that week!! But, I heart them trade shows.

Other Stuff
– I’ve been doing Podrunner intervals to train for a 5km run and I actually ran 2 miles without stopping the other day (that is really good for me! ;-)). This week my legs are hurting quite a bit though. I’m thinking split-shin and am kind of taking a break. Ugh! I miss jogging and don’t want to lose what I have just built up!
– Had a nice labor day weekend with a spontaneous surprise visit from my NJ high school friend and her boyfriend and we partied it up with some of the Italians. Her boyfriend actually plays the fiddle and we had a little private concert in the middle of the night at my place. I guess that’s gonna be a once in a life time thing. Met a cute guy at the club with them and we danced and kissed the entire night like teenagers. It was kinda nice but no dates or anything like that.
– The friggin’ economy is annoying me like crazy and I will only work 4 days a week starting next week. Grrrrrrrrr! It sucks when your life depends on one job, meaning if they’d lay me off I’d have to go back to Germany. Starting next month I will be on my other visa (and my internship is over) so at least I could theoretically transfer the visa to another job if they are willing to file the paperwork but there’s almost nothing out there right now. Very frustrating. Can the recession be over, please?! Bring on the elections!
– This week one of my best friends from Germany is visiting. He had a business thing going on in Asheville and got to stay a bit longer to visit. Yay! We wanted to hike around in the mountains on Sunday and then drop him off in Asheville but the car had a flat tire so instead we hiked around hours at Wal*Mart. Soooo annoying! And their service was horrible, too!!!
Got to Asheville at 8 and then we walked around the city for a bit and enjoyed their hippie festival. Well I had to drive back to Charlotte and got back at midnight so I have been kind of exhausted but ok. Wednesday Jensi got back here and we watched Wanted in the one theater that still had it running. Last night after grocery shopping we watched football and the boys played video games at Ash’s place. I think tonight he wants to eat steak so my stupid hot neighbor gave a me a big explanation of all the good steak options in town but I think it will be Outback seeing that my budget is getting tighter. Well, and tomorrow he is already flying back to Germany. 🙁 So nice to have an old friend here.

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Boys, Family, Friends, Me, Myself & I, USA

Happy Birthday!

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Oh what a happy birthday I had! Thanks to y’alls for sending emails, cards, voicemails, packages and for calling! You’re the bestest ever! :-*

I was going to celebrate into my birthday a bit but I felt like I had a fever on Friday so I figured it’d be better to skip that. Saturday morning I had to get up quite early to attend a wedding with my neighbor Ash but I did manage to talk to my Dad and my Mom and Step-Dad who all called. Also got to open the first gifts. Yay! 🙂

Ash’s friend’s wedding was very nice. Really small in the backyard of the groom’s parents. Soooo nice! I totally need to get married in my Mom’s garden or find a guy with a nice yard ;-). Food was great, people were sweet as only southerners can be and the ceremony was short and sweet. People got casual right afterwards leaving Ash and I a bit overdressed (compared to shorts and flip flops for the groom e.g. ;-)). Around 2pm we cruised back home and since it was my birthday Ash circled around uptown a bit just because I love Charlotte so much. Hehe!

At night I went to the Cheesecake Factory with Tasha, Birgit, Vanessa and Ash. Poor Ash had to sit through tons of girl talk but I think he took it quite well if not even enjoyed himself…. Food was alright. I mean we normally go to places where they cook better than there, kind of a strange decision to go there for my birthday but I wanted to get a slice of cheesecake from there. The cocktails were good, though!! 😉 I got the sweetest gifts from the crew and they all sang happy birthday with the waitress (for some reason no other waiters were there to sing that late…). We got out of there around 11 and seeing that we’re all old now we just decided to call it a night and party some other time.

Sunday I didn’t really do much to be honest. Ate my birthday cheesecake, did laundry, read, chatted with my stupid, hot neighbor, tidied the house a bit and then got an invitation to dinner from David to make up for his forgetting my birthday. Perfect since I was too lazy to cook and didn’t feel like eating out either. So I drove to Ballentyne and D cooked mussles and then some fantastic grilled salmon on spinach salad with cranberries, pine nuts, goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette. YUMMY!!! He said he didn’t have desert except for some M&Ms but then he actually whipped out an ice-cream cake with candles and the whole spiel! Wow! Too bad we don’t have chemistry going on between us! What a man! Watched a bit of golf and then I drove back up to my place seeing that I was getting tired (again, I’m getting old…). (Next day he wrote me “sorry I tried making out with you” I was like “huh? you tried to make out with me?!” “Big time!” I am sooo oblivious… Won’t recognize anything until it hits me square in the head.. duh…. Need to be more attentive to detail…)

Yesterday Giorgio and Massimo took me out for my birthday lunch and I came home to even more cards and packages (thanks you guys!!!).

Friday is going to be my birthday party so if you’re in the area, stop by!! 🙂

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Family, Friends, USA

Sunny Charlotte

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You guys, I still cannot believe how lucky I got to go back here (at least for the time being). I love this city! Still makes me smile all the time when I think about how much I wanted to come back and now I really am here. Scary enough though if I don’t get this visa (hello lottery) I’ll go back home in 6 months! I can’t believe half of the year is almost gone! I should know within a month or two what the deal is.
So one of the things I love about Charlotte is how green it is. I had kind of forgotten all about that because it was winter when I got here and last summer had this big drought so nature was more yellow/brownish. But the grass and the trees are green now and I even saw some goslings the other day. Yay!
Last night I went out with my neighbor Ash and my friends Luca and Tasha and we ran into Joeran who is visiting from China. There is a free outdoor concert every Thursday at the Wachovia Plaza during spring and summer (Alive After 5). And nice enough we can take the lightrail there and back since it’s over at 9pm (5-9). The weather was gorgeous with 24C most of the day. Surprisingly I did get quite tipsy last night from just one beer and one glass of wine. Hmmm! we finished the night off with some pizza at Fuel and then I was home at 10 but kind of drunk and soooo tired the next day! Uarg!
Oh and wow, there have been 15000 visits to this site in the 15 months that I’ve had this blog! Wow! Congrats to the person from Frankfurt surfing with Firefox and IESY Hessen provider. Yay! Thanks for stopping by here so often guys and giving me so much advice on my life and sharing in my joy and sorrow! You mean so much to me! 🙂
In other news, I booked a flight to Savannah for Memorial Day weekend with my frequent flyer miles (not sure how I got so many but cool) and will hang out on Hilton Head Island with Richard then. Yay! I can’t wait to travel and hang out at the beach! I really am missing travelling sooo much!
My parents will also be travelling pretty soon, as they will visit me here with my sister for a week in August. Yay! I’m really kind of bummed that it’s only a week and they had to schedule it in the week before the biggest trade show of the year for me but hopefully I can take almost all days off and spend LOADS of time with them. 🙂

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Family, Travel, USA, Visitors

A Visit from Anke

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Freak Show - Day 138OK first of all, what you’ve all been waiting for… me licking my elbow. That just sounds wrong….

Anyway… Thursday night after a quick trip to the grocery store I picked up my middle sister Anke from the airport. Driving there was fun, I kept humming “In The Ghetto” and sure enough the gas station on West Blvd had 5 police cars there with lights on and a lot of uhm ghetto inhabitants there. Fun! So I took Anke home on the less ghetto road and we went uptown to look around. Not much was going on there but we grabbed a few slices of pizza at Fuel and then took some photos of uptown and later the skyline. Anke was quite impressed by the Queencity compared to her town in CT. Well, yeah sorry but Charlotte rocks ;-).

Friday after a skype session with the other 3/5 of our family we headed to Charleston. Love love love love love that city! After checking into our hotel and being escorted to our room by two huge black dudes (scaary) to fix our security latch we headed back across the bridge, parked the car in the middle of no where for free and strolled around the streets. We did some souvenir shopping and I got a milk foamer (yay) and then we had dinner at the Charleston Crab House. This place used to be FANTASTIC. I’d say now it’s good. Not amazing but still quite alright. Might look for some other place to eat next time I’m in town. Anke had forgotten her IDs in CT so we hung out at Starbucks for a bit before she made me buy some beer at the grocery store which we then enjoyed while watching ice dancing and Bridget Jones. Awesome!

Saturday we headed to Patriot’s Point, which was on our side of the island anyway and chilled out there for a while (as in gift shop and food). A little boat took us to Ft. Sumter, the little island and fortress where the American Civil War started. We weren’t really in awe but did enjoy the sandbank there and I dare say we got a tan! A speedy drive back up north to Charlotte (well as speedy as you can be on a two lane highway in the US….) and Charleston was gone. So sad! Driving was kind of funny. Imagine two little girls in a tiny car zooming by and then imagine this tiny car at a truck stop trying to find diesel gas (because that’s mostly used for trucks here and not every gas station has diesel and they have separate pumps). Must have been hilarious looking. I did record time, less than three hours of driving. Wow!

I treated Anke to RuSans for sushi and then we drove uptown to meet with Manuel, Massimo, Giorgio, Ash and Luca for some desert and then a chillout beer at the Irish pub. A nice, relaxing night. The night was over too soon though as my upstairs neighbor was walking marching around her apartment way too early. So we got up and went grocery shopping and Starbucksing and then started cooking. We made deviled eggs and then potatoes, ham and broccoli with sauce hollandaise and a little salad. Birgit, Ash and Luca came over to eat and just as we finished eating it was already time to take Anke back to the airport. Very sad :(. But she sounded pretty convinced that she’d be back soon to hang out in the queen city and with my nice friends. Oh-kay. That’d be nice! 🙂

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