Deutschland Part One: First Week in Leipzig

My View of Leipzig

So, due to the supreme lack of time to compile pictures or even check my e-mail thoroughly, I have neglected to post anything in the blog about my trip to Germany. For those who don't know, my company held a huge training event in Leipzig, Germany for two weeks, after which I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin for the weekend, and then to Stade (outside of Hamburg) to attend a meeting with my co-workers that work there and tour their chemical plant. The trip as a whole oscillated from extremely exciting to mind-numbingly dull, but overall the awesome outweighed the boring and it was way fun. So, I have decided to do this post in parts, as there are a lot of pictures, and lots to tell.

Leipzig Week 1

So, truth be told, I didn't really know what the first week of training was all about until it started, and apparently that was just the way that Dow wanted it, they let us have information as we needed it all week. Basically, the first week of training had a three fold reason: To get us excited about our careers at Dow, to network with other new engineers as well as multiple levels of company leadership, and to give us training and guidance that is much needed and very helpful to new employees in a large and confusing multi-national corporation. So, there was a lot of gettting to know people, a lot of speeches, a lot of interviews, and a lot of activities. The following are some of the activities we participated in:

Organ Concert at The Neues Gewandhaus

The Neues Gewandhaus and Fountain

While I prefer a full orchestra, this was a sweet awesome performance. The Neues Gewandhaus is one of the few cultural land marks that was reconstructed in East Germany behind the iron curtain. The recital included some Bach, some arrangements of Bach, and some Schumann that was out of this word. We also had dinner there afterward.

Inside the Gewandhaus and in concert. Check out those pipes!

The jazz band that played during dinner at the Gewandhaus

Around Town

So, in the little free time that I did have, I walked around Leipzig with some friends, here are a few of the cool places we saw:

This was a way cool building, there is a lot of architecture like this in Leipzig, and a lot of construction, so more is to come.

This is just me at the park in downtown Leipzig. It is kind of like Washington park in Portland, the Zoo borders the park on one side, and the city borders it on the other three.

I believe this is the old Thomas church, but this picture can give you an idea of what the streets are like. All of the side walks were cool cobblestone designs.

A few of my group members and I out to dinner a swanky restaurant.

Bowling and Futball
We had a fun activity mid week to watch the German National team play their quarter-final game in the Euro-cup tournament at a bowling alley. It was a lot of fun, and I lost horribly to guys that were a bit tipsy. I really am a horrible bowler.

Germany won their game on Wednesday, and so did everyone I bowled against . . .

So, that is about it for week one, I met some cool people, saw the sights, and was pretty much exhausted 24-7. Next post, the really fun stuff, there will be danger, daring and reckless driving!

Safe and Sound

I was going to put a German phrase as the title of this post, but then I realized that I don't know a single German word! How sad is that. I know at least "hello" and "goodbye" in most major languages, but I have just recently realized my absolute ignorance when it comes to German. For the last few seconds I've been contemplating why this one language has been overlooked. My pondering has resulted in no answers, so when Luke gets back, I'm going to make sure I at least learn a few words -- just to even it out with the rest of the handful of foreign words in my pathetically small foreign vocabulary. Anyway, I digress...this post is about Luke making it Germany...
The trip started out a bit rough, but has since gotten better. When he went to check-in at the airport for his long flight to Frankfurt, the desk attendant couldn't pull up his information. Apparently a manager in Germany had locked the file for the flight right as he was trying to check in, so after a few minutes of struggling with the flight information, the desk clerk got him checked in, but was concerned that his luggage wouldn't be arriving at the same time. So, she upgraded him to First Class just in case there were problems. I tell you what, a 10 hour flight is a great time to be upgraded! Well, the desk attendant was correct in assuming that his luggage would be held up. When he finally got to Leipzig, his luggage was still in Frankfurt. They finally got his luggage to him by noon Monday morning, but thank goodness he chose to dress "business casual" for the flight instead of in shorts and a T-shirt. Luke said he might adopt the habit of putting some clean underwear in his carry-on for future flights... ;) I'll let him tell about the rest of the trip when he gets home in a few weeks, but so far he's really enjoying the conference and he's pretty much over the jet-lag by now, so the "nodding off" during the presentations is being kept to a minimum.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

We love having friends that score us great tickets to things...

Some friends of ours regularly get to see Houston Astros games because her parents have season tickets and so they invited us to come with them last night to see them play the Milwaukee Brewers. I'm not one to sit down and watch a baseball game on T.V. -- unless I'm in need of a nap -- but actually going to the game is a great fun. I think I'm good luck too -- every game I've been to, the home team has won. ;) They should keep me around a bit more, eh? So, needless to say, the Astros stomped the Brewers 6-1. Like I said, I'm good luck!

Summer's Here!

The last few weeks have been getting hotter and hotter by the day and we've finally conceded that it's not going to get cooler until October...We'd forgotten how suffocating heat mixed with humidity is, but our memories have been sufficiently jogged and our new resolution is to use our community pool as much as possible! I'll tell you what, that is about the only thing that makes it bearable -- and the fabulously warm beach!
I just wanted to wish everyone a great summer -- enjoy the great weather! We'll get ours in about 5 months.... :)

Stop to Breath!

I've been so busy the last three weeks that I haven't had a quiet minute to myself, much less had time to post. -- I'm not complaining, because I've been having a great time...just a jam-packed time.

First, Luke's parents came into town for a week and we were so happy that they took the time to come all the way down here! We had a great time showing them the sites around here and even made a spontaneous trip to San Antonio for two days. We loved having everyone and hope they had a great time too. Hopefully we left enough stuff out to warrant another trip! ;)

After the Werretts' visit, I left the same day for Utah/Idaho to spend some time with my family. Both Bethany and Neal are leaving for a mission in May, so I wanted to spend some time with them and say my goodbye's. I was able to go through the temple with Bethany the first week in the newly dedicated Rexburg temple and it was a great experience having nearly the entire family in attendance. Unfortunately it will be a while before we're all together again.
During the week I even had time to get one last day of skiing in at Targhee and, let me tell you, it felt so good! If I had to narrow it down to the one thing I miss about home, besides family of course, it would be skiing...It's hard to come by down here...except in my dreams. And I have dreamt a lot about it this year!!! (I'm pretty awesome in my dreams...)!!

Today, I started my personal training program and I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I was super nervous about it this weekend...almost doubting my decision...but the class is a good one and I can already tell that I'm going to learn more than I may be able to handle. Oh, and I'll probably be sore for the next 16 weeks straight -- but I think all the pain will be worth it. (Maybe it'll give me a little sympathy for my clients later.)

Thanks to Luke's family for a great week! And thank you to my family for all their hospitality! It was a great trip. I love you all and miss you already.

The Project

Emily and I decided shortly after we moved to Texas, that our kitchen was a little dark and a little too enclosed. Well, I thought, on T.V. they just knock a wall down and rearrange the floor plan, and they are always done in 30 minutes, and that's with commercials! Shouldn't be too hard right? Right. We knew that we couldn't do that, so we brainstormed some other ideas and came to a compromise. The following pictures show what we did, and yes I still have all my fingers, and no the scars are not that noticeable, and whatever you may have heard, Emily did not almost electrocute me . . .

BEFORE





Me Doing Electrical Work

"Okay flip the breaker and see if it does anything . . ."


Some Final Touches with the Gutting Job



Fun With Drywall



DONE!

Remember The Alamo!

Since moving to Texas, we've been thinking that we should take advantage of the cities within driving distance of Houston. First on our list: San Antonio. We purchased tickets to see Phantom of the Opera about six months ago, so we decided to make a whole weekend of it. My cousin Tad lives in S.A., and he was kind enough to let us stay at their house for a few days.

Friday morning we toured Sea World with Tad's wife, Jessica, and their two kids, Preston and Eliza. I had been to the Sea World in San Diego when I was about 11, but I'd forgotten how cool some of the attractions were. We got to see the famous "Shamu" in action as well as just about every other sea creature worth notice. In addition to the animals, they also have several roller-coasters and some really interesting shows. We spent the entire day quite entertained. If you ever get the chance to go, it's worth it!



You can buy a tray full of little fish and feed them to the dolphins. They were smart though, if you didn't have any fish, they totally ignored you!


This is a photo Luke took with his cellphone of the waterskiing/wakeboarding show. It was my favorite show of the day and it was absolutely amazing!


Saturday, we spend the morning and afternoon touring some of San Antonio's most famous attractions and landmarks including: the famous San Antonio Riverwalk, extremely old Missions and of course, The Alamo. I've heard the story of The Alamo a million times, but it was really cool to actually walk into the building and see where everything actually took place.
The San Antonio Riverwalk is also awesome. Many cities claim to have a "riverwalk" of sorts, but I doubt any can compare to the original. They have shops and music and restaurants all along the river on both sides and it is absolutely beautiful.

Here's a few pics of the Riverwallk:






This is the Alamo:


This is the Mission we visited. For as old as it is, it was in surprisingly good shape.




Pics of Eliza and Preston:




After our city tour with Tad and Jessica, we left on our own to get ready to see the show. Tad and Jessica recommended several excellent places to have a nice dinner on the Riverwalk, and we chose a modern restaurant called Acenar. The atmosphere was really cool and it was located only about 1/2 block from the Majestic Theater.

Dinner at Acenar:

Belated Posts

I was looking through our photos and I realized that I simply forgot to post about my birthday celebration and Valentine's Day, and Luke did such a fabulous job with both, he deserves a little bragging time. For my birthday, I opted to stay home and celebrate, so Luke made a four course dinner including my favorite entree, Salmon with Lemon Sauce, and for my birthday cake he made (from scratch) a double layer white cake with raspberry sauce and white chocolate! He slaved away in the kitchen all afternoon and it was amazing. I am very, very spoiled.







For Valentine's Day, we were thinking about going out to eat, but around here it would be next to impossible to get into any restaurant on Valentine's Day, even with reservations, so unless we wanted to eat at Jack In The Box, we decided it would easier to eat in.
Again, Luke slaved away in the kitchen and made an incredible steak dinner. It was fabulous! After dinner Luke surprised me with tickets to a play that I had been wanting to see called, "The Importance of Being Earnest." I had read the play for an English class in college and remembered really liking it, so I was hoping the live performance would be even more fun, and it was. It is silly English comedy, but was very entertaining.

Thank you Luke, for being such a great husband!

What? No Blizzard?

Barely escaping the blizzards and closed roads in Idaho, Dad and Bethany arrived last Friday night to a little warmer weather down here in Houston. We had a fabulous week together and I've included a few pics of the week.


We introduced everyone to the game Bocce, aka Lawn Bowling, and we had a good time playing in a local park:




Dad and Eva cuddling at the park:


Luke and I on the Tram at the Houston Space Center:


Posing with the giant chess set in Galveston:




The ice cream parlor in Galveston:




Galveston Harbor:


Playing disk golf:


Playing Bocce at the beach:


Even though the water was COLD, we still had the crazy idea to put on some swimming suits and jump in the ocean. We found that once your bottom half numbed up, you stopped involuntarily gasping for air and screaming when the waves splashed above the waist. We had a lot of fun in the water, but some hot, hot showers were in order as soon as we got home!

Dad and Luke catching some waves:


Bethany and I:


Bethany looks like a regular beach bum: