Frohes Neues Jahr!

or, Happy Silvester from Berlin!

My journey began with a 9-hour flight from DEN-Frankfurt, during which I sat next to a new dad and his 1-year old. They brought him one of those airplane cribs that attaches to the wall in front of you - great for him! But it was long enough to take up 2-seats worth of leg room. Boo. And everyone thought it was my baby, too. Umm, nope. Needless to say I did not get much/any sleep on the plane. The kid was cute, but I'm glad I wasn't on the next leg of their journey with them! (Another 10 hours to India with a 1-year old? No thanks.)

I made it here with my luggage and headed straight from the airport to Freie Universitat for a meeting with our partners. It took one bus, two trains, and one stranger's help but I made it unscathed (albeit, 5 minutes late). And they had coffee and biscuits waiting, bless their hearts! It was great to meet the people that I e-mail with daily, and they were beyond friendly. It makes me feel really good about the support they provide our students.

That evening during dinner Georgine gave me my first crash course in German - I have a lot of work to do.

Up early this morning to meet our students! 5 of the 6 are here and the final student is coming in a couple of days late. We let them drop off their luggage then took them directly to the Reichstag (German parliament building) for some culture AND to help combat jet lag. The building has this incredible glass dome that you can walk all the way up. By the end they were all nearly asleep on their feet so we headed back to the hotel for naptime.

The Bradenberg Gate

View from the bottom of the dome

View from the top looking down

Looking out - to the left you can see the Bradenberg gate, and to the right you can see the HUGE stage and all of the tents set up for the New Year's celebration (one of the largest in the world)

And New Year's Eve in Berlin? WOW. Think fireworks ALL over the place. In crowds. At your feet. In the subway stations. Thrown at the trains. Thrown out of the trains. One so large outside our hostel that Georgine and I thought a bomb went off and lost part of our hearing for a few hours. And those weren't even the at the "actual" celebration at Bradenberg Gate!

At dinner - a German tradition of melting lead and dropping in into cold water. The shape that it forms tells a fortune about your year to come. (We all loved it - thanks for the supplies, Georgine!)

Madness at the S-bahn. I wanted leashes on all of our students.

Happy 2012!

Complete WITH sparklers!

History was made

Let it go down in the history books... Edum was FIRST to arrive at our Girls Banking Party! (Which is actually Xmas brunch.) I guess this gives her free reign to be as late as she wants next year :)

I love us. 

My time in Nebraska was fantastic, as always (and too short, as always). I am truly blessed with wonderful friends and family... I couldn't imagine not looking forward to seeing them. They spoil me in too many ways!

Now I'm back in Denver, doing my laundry, and re-packing my (new, shiny) carry-on suitcase to head to Berlin tomorrow! On my to-do list before I go is 1) set up Skype with my new web-cam! 2) make a last-minute run to Target 3) triple-check that I have ALL of my documents, 4) practice "please & thank you" in German, and 5) freak out (hopefully briefly) about being responsible for 6 other people in a foreign country.

Looks like I'd better pack my umbrella...

Much love from the Rockies! Stay tuned for photos from Deutschland :)

look out.

I got a new camera for Christmas. Consider yourself warned.

Homaha

I must be home! 10 minutes after my arrival we were already opening Christmas stockings and Eli had spit up on me twice. ("He doesn't usually do that, I swear!" they tell me...) Throw in some movie time, some EZ-Go rides, some cookies, some reindeer antlers, some tea parties, and some Katie, and yup, I must be home :)

Mary Poppins puts Abigail to sleep, apparently. 

That is a HUGE box of chocolates! (Thanks, Aunt Evelyn!)

A few cookies...

Happy Christmas Eve!

Coolest holiday decoration goes to... the GIANT reindeer! (Notice it's size in proportion to the garage. Yup, that's a two-story reindeer.)

And runner-up goes to.... martini glass house! I bet they host fabulous parties. 

Much love from NE! The Good Life :)

Nuggets

What's better than a Denver Nuggets game on a random Tuesday? A FREE Nuggets game on a random Tuesday! (Thanks, Ilana!)

I'm pretty sure this was my first professional basketball game ever. And definitely my first basketball game since Northwest... D-2, NBA... pretty similar, right? Anyway, great fun with the girls, as always! We enjoyed making fun of the dance team (I mean, really? Just because you have long hair, fake boobs, and a spray tan does NOT mean you are talented! But I digress...), people watching, beer-drinking, and oh yes, watching the game! All on the first day of Hanukkah :) AND there was a female ref. Unrelated, yes, but ah well.

Flying Denver Post!

"Hey, let's ask the girls behind us to take a picture so we can see the court in the background and everyone can see how sweet our seats are!"     Fail.  Please enjoy this close-up of our faces, instead.

Oh yeah, they won :)

What's the best way to start a Monday? Breakfast with Miss Mol, of course! She even got up before 7 a.m. on her vacation to meet me. Such a trooper :)

"As long as we keep you vertical"

That was our ski instructor's motto... as long as we keep you vertical we're doing well! Well I didn't stay vertical ALL of the time, but it was definitely most of the time, so that's a success, I suppose. I couldn't have asked for a nicer day on the mountain, a better ski partner, or a better instructor. Laura and I had a private lesson just ourselves...  nice!

Here goes nothin'...

Ready!

First-timer & Beginner... yup.

I was a bit nervous about the lift (given my feelings about Ferris Wheels. You could just fall off those things!) Anyway, I was even more nervous because Laura and I somehow ended up on different chairs, but it wasn't as scary as I had anticipated! (And I didn't get knocked over by the chair when getting off, ahem, Nathan)

Seriously an awesome day

We had a 2-hour lesson and then re-charged with some greasy pizza before trying one full run down the mountain. My run down the hill went something like this. Snowplow....snowplow...ahhh! Too fast!! Fall down.  Get up. Turn... turn.... stop. Look up. Wait for boarders. Turn.... turn... turn... ahh!! Too fast!! Fall down. Sit for a bit. Get up. Turn...turn... skis cross... fall down. You get the idea. :)  I only made one run before my legs, my feet, and my patience gave out. But not bad for a first-timer, right? (right??)

Now I am beyond sore, but looking forward to trying again! Laura was so patient and encouraging :) Next time the goal is to... fall less. Hopefully.

Much love from the Rockies!

Tomorrow

If you see me on America's Funniest Home Videos after this don't even bother to ask - I'm not sharing my $10,000 :)

There is a season

Sometimes people say the things that I am thinking so much better than I could...

"There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Don’t lose yourself at happy hour, but don’t lose yourself on the corporate ladder either. Stop every once in a while and go out to coffee or climb in bed with your journal."


http://iamblessed.tumblr.com/post/14150880855

Karaoke & Carollins

This weekend I got to catch up with some lovely grad school friends whom I hadn't seen in a while. All courtesy of Kelly's birthday!

and there she is! 

Today DU hosted a free carollin concert. We didn't necessarily know what a carollin concert was, but it was free and there were snacks and refreshments involved. So we went, obviously, because the grad school ways die hard :)  Apparently a carollin consists of someone "playing" Christmas music on the bells in the bell tower. Sounded pretty neat, actually! And it was also funny to see people with their fold-up chairs all sitting facing the tower. Almost as if staring at it hard enough would enable them to see the music being played. Not so. But it was an awesome 50 degree day, why not spend it outside with friends??

Much love from the Rockies!