Friends, Internet, USA

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Just a quick entry before I’m leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow. I’m actually sitting on the patio of Starbucks here because my connection at home is non-existent and I figured my family would go crazy again if they don’t hear any updates. So I emailed. I’m so bad with keeping in touch without internet and phone at home. It really sucks! I feel bad! Und hallo Jenny, sorry Dir muss ich auch unbedingt schreiben und zwar in Deutsch!

So this weekend was really nice again. Actually this whole week. Let me make a list to manage to do that…..

oh funny, there’s a guy speaking German on his cell at the table next to mine. will have to talk with him….

A while ago some other guy stopped at my table and asked for my number and he was half German, too. small world…

– Monday Chadi and I killed more than a bottle of wine and ate chocolate a la Bridget Jones cause he was sad. Too much wine. Enough said.

– Wednesday I had dinner with a new German in Charlotte who doesn’t know any people yet. I know how that feels (hallo Ireland) and so we had a good time eating pizza and chatting. Afterwards I spent at least 2 hours at Target… hmmmm.. fun shopping!

– Thursday I had a business dinner with someone from a trade magazine. Good times and I got a lot of marketing advice so that was awesome!

– Friday night I hosted a little cheese and wine soiree and I went to ALDI and Trader Joe’s. I LOOOVE that store! Totally cool food for such little money. I was so happy. The party was great. I think we were about 15-20 people and the men weren’t even there. Good to finally see most of them again in one place.

– Saturday I watched Fun with Dick and Jane and that movie was sooo funny. Loved it! Watch it! Also did laundry and read a lot and then at night my neighbor Ash took me along to some Led Zeppelin cover band concert. totally not my type of music but it was so so so funny to see these guys dressed up like a 80s band. Scary really with the woman pants and the curly long hair not to mention all the fans. Teeheeeeeee!

So yeah tomorrow I’m flying to Las Vegas for that trade show and I’ll be back Satuday night so be good!

Sorry for not checking many blogs out lately, it just doesn’t quite work with the shitty internet connection and the busy life here. Miss you guys!

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Culture, Friends, Professional Life, USA, Visitors, Weather

Snow!

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Yes that’s right, we got some snow this week! It only lasted 15 hours but it was fun while it lasted. I hope that was all of winter for me this year but I think the forecast said snow for tomorrow and temperatures on Sunday from -10 – 2C. Fun – NOT! I can’t quite believe that it’ll be that cold but we’ll see.

So anyway, Rich and I had a great weekend here in the Queen City. After a yummy dinner with Stefan at Fiamma’s (service took forever but the food was good) I picked Rich up at the airport and we spend the night chatting and catching up. Good times! To make his trip worth wile, we did a touristy thing on Saturday and checked out Historic Latta Plantation. It was actually really nice with a civil war winter camp enactment and we enjoyed the sunshine out at their lake (yes it was still nice and warm then). A huge pasta lunch warmed us up at home again and then we relaxed some before it was time to head out again. We took the light rail (so cool) to uptown and watched the Bobcats lose against the Detroit Pistons. The game was well worth the 15$ tickets we got but unfortunately the cats lost in the very last minute. :(. But we had fun and continued to Fuel Pizza for dinner and then met up with Giorgio and some other people at Feast and then went to HOM where we danced the night away. Max was in town and he was super nice and dropped us off at home after closing time.
Sunday we strolled through my neighborhood for a long time with quick stops to grocery shop and grad a coffee. It felt so European to haul around groceries and walk around on side walks. Haha. At home we watched The Man of Aran, which our tour guide on the Aran Islands had talked about in Ireland. Interesting movie… Sushi at Ru Sans was a nice grand finale for a great weekend and it was sad to drop of Richie at the airport on Monday.

This week has been good so far. Cooked and watched National Treasure with Giorgio and then went to P.F. Chang’s with Vanessa and there should be more fun coming my way this weekend.

Work is going well. I love the combination of all that creative marketing stuff with the technical machine stuff and I’m learning so much. And good news, my boss wants me to stick around after my internship (yay)so it’s back to working on visa crap. Yugh! So seeing that I might be here for a few more years (let’s hope) I did some credit history building today and opened a savings account as well as applied for a credit card. Not too sure that they’ll give it to me but the lady insisted that we try that first before getting a secured credit card. OK then. What with my student ID good until March that might actually work. We’ll see.

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Boys, Friends, Professional Life, USA

What I’ve been up to

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So I was bitching about some of the groceries here so let me just mention that Daisy Sour Cream is really good. I usually don’t like sour cream just like that and only eat it in baked potatoes but Daisy’s tastes like German Schmand and doesn’t have that bitter after taste or that texture that makes you think baking soda is in it. So, yay! Having said that, I cooked twice so far this year, which is still pretty bad (2x in 10 days) but much more than this past month so I’m happy. I missed it! Can you believe that?! I had to cook almost every bloody day at home but I’ve really started to miss it. So I made asparagus with ham and potatoes the other day and tonight I had garlic shrimp pasta with fresh tomatoes and sour cream. Yummy!

Work has been going well. I saved the company some money by changing a booth at a trade show and designed some flyers. I was very shocked when my boss who normally doesn’t really give praise wrote “good job” and my other boss said “good job you can go home early”. Normally they don’t say anything or just a short “cool” so I was very happy. Timing is good for their outcries of praise because we need to discuss my next visa. Yikes!

Had a good time outside of work as well with lots of dinners with friends, a birthday party and my new subscription to Netflix. I’ve missed that! Tomorrow night Richard is flying in and we should have a fun weekend around Charlotte.

Oh yeah something random. About a month ago (actually when we were baking cookies) my ex from high school and early college sent me a message and after replying to him he wrote back this looooong one. Well turned out he and his girlfriend have broken up and now he wants to be friends with me. Don’t really see the point after 5 years of not hearing a single thing but oh-kay, I’m a friendly person. Very strange though. I’m so neutral towards him now, he feels like a stranger so I’m not quite sure how he imagines this whole friendship thing. Naja, lets see.

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Boys, Friends, USA

Christmas Holidays

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I’m back at work after four fantastic days off. Mini-Christmas-Holiday/Vacation! Happy days! After a good day at work on Friday (sent off the new add to publishers and booked hotels for Vegas (I’m going, too!)) and a trip to Wal*Mart and ALDI, my best girlfriend’s other best friend Stefan called and we went uptown where we met with The Men. Started out at Connoly’s and things were kind of quiet so I decided to have some whiskey coke instead of beer and the fun began. Had a great time chatting and then dancing at Alley Cat. The night ended not so well for my stomach but I was good to go the next morning.
I finally got to talk to my family for a bit longer than just 10 minutes. My new macbook picks up the wireless connection much bettr than lappy’s wireless card so I was very happy! In the afternoon Chadi and I had coffee at Caribou and then strolled around Freedom Park. It’s good to walk when it doesn’t involve the mall. Feels more European. We then watched the Panthers lose again and had yummy dinner with Giorgio and Jack before we headed uptown again. A short stop at Luce to pick up Manuel and another girl. Some drinks at Blue with a band playing cool music and then we tried to go to Forum. Tried because Jack aparently isn’t 21 yet so that was a bit of drama. It worked fine at HOM though and we stayed there until 3. Very crazy night even though I didn’t drink anything (I’m so good when I drive).
Sunday was fantastic. It was raining cats and dogs in the morning so staying in bed long felt sooo cozy. Once out of it I went out to breakfast with Giorgio and that really felt like vacation with eggs and bacon and pancakes. Yum! Thereafter I drove to the hotel where Chadi works and by then the sun was shining so add a resort and sun and then a yummy green tea latte and the vacation feeling was even bigger.
Monday was Christmas Eve and after some last minute shopping I skyped with my family and we opened gifts. I got some nice things like a scarf, book, calendar, a mug and German marzipan! Yay!
Around 7ish Giorgio, Massimo and I started cooking. Massimo had made lasagne, Giorgio made potatoes and I made mulled wine, sausages and bread rolls. I was soooooooo super happy that I got to eat my German traditional food and I think the guys enjoyed it, too. Chadi came along a bit later, too, and so did Manuel and we watched Old School and were merry. At midnight the guys wanted to go to church so we went to this catholic church. A bit strange for me (as a lutheran) but it was alright. One beer at Tyber Creek and we went back to Massimo’s and Chadi did some card tricks. Then the guys opened their gifts from me (it was the 24th after all – ok so 2:30am the 25th but that’s ok).
The 25th after sleeping in a little bit and hanging out a little bit I picked up Chadi and we drove to Sauro and Giorgio’s place to start the turkey. Remember you can’t get milk at Rite Aid on Christmas Day (sold out) and everything else is closed). But we still managed to make some yummy drinks, watch fun movies (The Incredibles, Homealone, Austin Powers), enjoy cooking and good food and then crashed there. Much easier to get from work from there (10 minute drive). Unforutnately someone snored so I didn’t sleep much but at least that got me out of bed at 7 and I was at work at 7:40. Gives me 50 minutes to take off ealier on Friday. Yay! And so, the Christmas Holidays are over but they were super nice and I am so happy that I had the boys to spend them with and eat good German food with. 2.5 more days until the next 4 day weekend…
I hope you all had some wonderful Christmas days as well (or are still having them…)!
Smooch!

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