#GHD2K13

Groundhog's Day 2013.

Seriously.

It is the Monday after Groundhog's day weekend. I just told a friend how I've suffered a speech stroke. He asked said "so you had an intense Superbowl weekend?" My response? "Superbowl weekend? Puhleeze. Groundhog's Day weekend" It's like you don't know me at all.

Speech Stroke: When your brain believes you are saying coherent sentences, but what comes out of your mouth makes no sense. Normally a side effect of little to no sleep and too much partying

 Let's start this tale on Friday, 1 February 2013. I had a nice flight that arrived perfectly on time enough for me to walk out of the airport at the same time Lindsay arrived. Surprise time: Jarrett was there too! I wasn't expecting him to come to the airport and pick me up. Another surprise: it was so cold, and I just put on my coat, so my fingers were freezing as Lindsay and I were trying to open the trunk of the car while Jarrett would slowly drive forward so we couldn't  lolz. It was a happy reunion. We all gave hugs and had the heat blasting so I could warm up.

From the airport we had to drive through Pittsburgh to go up to Punxsutawney, our final destination. We went through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and I made a video. Although Lindsay denied my request to find someone with a truck so I could go through it like Emma Watson did, it was an amazing first look at Pittsburgh, which is a beautiful city.

Jarrett chauffeured us too Pittsburgh Mills where Lindsay suggested I get a Steak N Shake as we waited to meet up with her friends.  Lolz. Since Lindsay's the food expert, I let her order for me....well as best we could because we would say something, but Jarrett would tell the person at the window something totally different. It was interesting. Especially when he told the lady I wanted a diet coke when diet dr. pepper wasn't available. I'm pretty sure that's the definition of cruel and unusual punishment. Lindsay and Jarrett are so funny together because they fight like brother and sister, with Jarrett always antagonizing Lindsay until she yells at him, and he laughs. Lindsay and Jarrett eventually switch seats so Lindsay could drive. At one point Jarrett dipped his fries in Lindsay's shake, except he failed at it and ended up dipping his fingers in her shake too....Lindsay was not amused. We finally met up with Alex, Lindsay's boyfriend and three other of Lindsay's friends (Nina, Brittany, and Brittany's bf, Mike), who would all embark in our Groundhog's day adventure with us. They followed us up to Punxatauney in a different car, and the entire way, Lindsay was having to slow down and wait for her bff, Brittany to catch up because they were driving soooo slowly. It was lightly snowing on our drive, I realized that driving at night in the snow looks like you are traveling through space at warp speed. #interestingfact

We arrived in Punxsutawney, and our first stop was the High School, where they were having a banquet dinner and Lindsay's aunt was going to be named Woman of the Year. We all hid in the back with a lot of Lindsay's relatives to await the surprise for her Aunt Jen. Jen didn't know she was getting the award, and she didn't know that her family had come in to visit. While at this banquet, I saw people with groundhog hats on. SOOO COOL! There were the groundhog TY beanie babies on the tables as party favors. It was awesome. The surprise was wonderful, and Jen didn't expect anything.

After the surprise, we all went to the country club to surprise her again with another party in celebration of her achievement. At that party was the writer of the movie Groundhog's Day, but I didn't meet him because I found out too late. Blast! It was a lot of fun, as I got to hang out with everyone, eat cake, have Alex get me milk from the bar (in honor of Stine), see Lindsay's whole family take shots together, and close down the bar with my friends. This is the point in time where I became the driver for the night. #DDforlife

We then went to Lindsay's grandparent's house to leave one car behind and grab the VIP passes and stuff we would need for going out to Gobbler's Knob the next morning. Lindsay's mom was nice enough to bring me some snow boots so I wouldn't loose my toes from the cold. We all piled into Lindsay's car and drove to Mandy's party in a beautiful cabin out in the middle of nowhere. There was a party that had been happening for a while going on in there. People were dancing and having a good time. I think the highlights of the night was seeing Mandy's mom, who reminded me of the Mean Girls mom, you know, the "cool mom".  Another highlight, there were little groundhog finger puppets that were on cupcakes, so people were putting these cute little groundhog's on their fingers throughout the night. The other highlight was more of a disappointment, when Gangum Style came on and after months of hearing about how Alex loves this song, he did no dance to the song. :( It was a sad moment in my life. The night was flying by and around 2am it was time to go.

We all piled in the car again, and headed to the gas station, so everyone could pile up on 5-hour energy and Red Bull. We were pulling an all nighter. But first, we had to park at a stop sign, run out into the cold and get a picture with one of the groundhogs that they have all over the city! Later, we were about to leave the gas station, I realized that a cop car parked next to us. Now, let's get this out there, cops make me nervous. Especially when you have more people than seat belts in a car with you. We all got in the car and in my hurry to get out, I did not see the curb and totally ran over it megatime....and a cop saw it. For the next few minutes, I was panicking as I drove carefully and the cop car continued to follow behind for several streets and turns onto obscure roads. Luckily, I was not pulled over, and we made it to Lindsay's Aunt's house, where we would remain the rest of the night.

That night, was like arts & crafts at it's best. I put on my super sexy Groundhog's day sweater Lindsay gave me. Alex was passed out on the couch, as was Mike. Brittany began painting little groundhogs on top of the top hats using a groundhog cookie cutter and brown paint. It was epic.

I began on the Texas shaped sign that I was to hold up and use to get us pulled up on the stage. It was exciting, even when I realized how terrible I am at drawing a proportion large-scale Texas. I needed help, and eventually overcame this trial. The Texas really looked like Texas. I painted it to make it better. Than we decorated our top hats to make it more individual. Mine said "Bring on da Spring!", Lindsay and Brittany's said "#GHD2K13". We stayed up the whole night, and it went by surprisingly fast. Lindsay, Brittany and I decided we needed a 15 minute rest before we all left, so Nina and Jarrett stood guard and were in charge of waking us up. My eyes were closed but I heard Lindsay's wake up, which included lost of screaming at Jarrett and death threats. I was woken up my Jarrett laying down next to me and stealing my blanket to wrap himself up in a little roll. It was effective, and I was cold. Jarrett then attacked Alex by jumping on him. Mike and Brittany were spared as they were up before Jarrett could get to them.

At around 6:15am, we were all hustling to get everything together and get us all in the car. I discovered toe warmers that heat up when they come in contact with air and my toes were sooo toasty warm all morning. I also had hand warmers in my mittens. I drove Brittany's car down to Gobbler's Knob, because Jen got us parking passes and Lindsay didn't want us driving an overstuffed car around when there are tons of police checkpoints on the drive up to the Knob. #smartgirl Somehow on the journey from the house to the car, I lost my top hat. On the drive, we were able to see the beautiful fireworks display from the car. It was awesome. We were about to park, when we saw Jarrett running out of Lindsay's car by himself and into the crowd of people. #confusion We managed to park in the snow, with a little bit of help from Mike giving an extra push to Brittany's compact car with all the snow. Nina slipped and fell and destroyed Lindsay's top hat. We got into the crowd only to realize we didn't know how to get to the VIP area. To solve this problem, we took on the challenge of getting Lindsay onto Alex's shoulders so she could look around for the path to get us there. Miraculously no one was injured, and past the soldiers (literally) and into the VIP section.The girls got separated from the boys around this point, and we still hadn't found Jarrett. We followed Nina as she got us to the front (later she told us that she was telling people she was trying to get to her child up in the front. lol) At one point there was a very angry lady who was mad that Nina was so tall and that she couldn't see past her. Oops.

The event was super cool. In the beginning to pump us up, there were singers and dancers. At one point there was a chant, "USA! USA! USA!" although I cannot remember why. When the Inner Circle came out, people were chanting "Phil! Phil! Phil!" It was sooooo cool. They knocked on the little tree stump and pulled out Phil, said a speech, Phil did not see his shadow, and then they read the scroll which predicted an early spring! Everyone cheered, and the energy was enormous! They said that people were allowed to come up and try to take pictures with Phil. Luckily, we were in the front and we somehow found the guys, and somehow Jarrett found us, still wearing his enormous viking hat. We waited in line and got our picture with Phil. It was awesome. (Please note, Phil is inside that little tube that says "Groundhog" on it)

Trying to leave the event was just as eventful. When we were leaving the stage Lindsay saw a TV reporter and asked if she was still doing interviews. Lindsay told the lady that I was from Texas and flew up to see the Groundhog, and Alex yelled "We're all from Texas!" lol. She asked me about flying up and I told her about being warm. It turns out I was on tv and quoted in the article for saying "It was great. A perfect weekend to fly up". Alex was on tv for screaming into the camera "Enough talking! We want to see Phil!" but they cut it to him only screaming "We're here to see Phil! WOOOOOO!!!!!!" We then tried to get out of area, and while some people stood in line for the porter potties, Jarrett, for some reason, threw Lindsay into a trashcan. She was so mad, that he willingly climbed into the trashcan himself to make her feel better. While in the trashcan, some stranger walked by and tried to push him and the trash can over. lol. We then managed to get into the car, after adult pointed at Jarrett and told his kid something along the lines of "that is an example of someone you do not want to grow up to be like". bahahaha. On the way to brunch with Lindsay's family, we lost Brittany's car. We were turning around to find them so they could follow us again, when Jarrett jumped out of the car again. We waited for a bit until Lindsay started to drive away, and he had to jump back into the car.

The plan for Saturday was to go to brunch, go shopping to get souvenirs, take pictures with lots of groundhog statues around town, before leaving. The plan was a-go during breakfast, where we ate so much. I also realized guys can be super gross to look at when they eat. lol. Also, can I just note, that Lindsay's family is sooooo nice. They are the sweetest and it is awesome how close they all are. Her grandparents are little socialites and know everyone! They were so sweet and treated us to brunch. During brunch, it started to snow, and Lindsay's parents advised us to get driving back to Pittsburgh before the roads get bad. Poor Lindsay, she was soooo tired, but she's a trooper and we drove back to Pittsburgh and with all the hustle and bustle of getting everyone together and clean up her Aunt's house before we left, we forgot the souvenir shop as well as Jarrett's loafers. lol. The drive was not too bad, but we were trying our hardest to stay awake so Lindsay would have company.

We saw Amish people on the roads. It was sooo cool. Amish people are legit. We dropped off Alex and Nina. As we were driving away, Jarrett said I had to try The Milkshake Shop. Jarrett's way of convincing all of us to do something this weekend was saying "It's for Natash. (Because he's calls me Natash....without the "a", and surprisingly I dont hate it) She's only here for 48 hours. We have to make it awesome". I agreed that I was hungry. So Jarrett and I ran out of the car, and he bought me a pb&j shake. It was SOOOO GOOD! Life changingly good. We then decided to go to Uncle Sam's, which is Lindsay's FAV sandwich place which I remember her telling me about when we were in Germany. On the drive over, we almost died. Because someone honked at us, and Jarrett decided the best course of action was to roll down the window and yell at them. It was two big scary guys and one of them was halfway out the window cursing and yelling death threats at us. I was just praying that he wouldn't have a gun to kill us with. Lindsay quickly turned the corner to get out of that situation, and we made it to the sandwich place alive. We all looked like a hot mess because we were tired and hungry. We ate and then miraculously made it back to the apartments without any harm coming to us.

We got back to the apartment around 2-2:30ish I passed out on the couch like nobody's business. When I woke up around 6:30ish, it was time to shower, because I smelled so badly. It was gross. Then we drove to the other building to pick up Jarrett, who had just woken up. We drove into town and picked up Nina, and went to The Church Brew Works. Oh man. It's a brewery in an old church building. Maybe sacrilegious? Im not sure. All I know is that the food there was AMAZING! Seriously. Luckily, we're all friends and we taste eachothers' food always. All of it amazing. I had buffalo meatloaf. Wow. Speechless. We also had perogies as an appetizer. Super yummy. The best part was on the glasses it says "on the eighth day, God created beer" and we had to "remind" Lindsay that the quote was not really from the scriptures. #giggles

We then drove to go ice skating in the city. It was awesome. Poor Lindsay was having horror flashbacks to our rollerblading in Munich adventure. Luckily, this was a controlled environment with a flat surface. It was magical. Ice skating in the cold as it was snowing. Possibly a once in a lifetime experiences for someone who may or may not ever live outside of a year-round warm climate. After ice skating, Jarrett wanted to play pool. So we went to a bar, and there was a guy at the door. My first thought was, "that's so nice that they have a greeter at the door to welcome you!" Then I realized, he's not a greeter, he's checking IDs. lol. It was too crowded and we eventually decided to go to Charlie Murdoch's and watch the band. It was really cool. The band was good, and they played good songs. Eventually, we were all so tired, we had to leave. We got back to the apartments around midnight, super worn out and exhausted. The past 24 hours felt like a week, and when I spoke I was making no sense, which was pretty funny.

Sunday was just as fun and magical. I woke up and took a shower because you always want to feel clean on the day you're flying otherwise you feel 100X grosser than you would have originally felt at the end of your flight. We went to pick up Jarrett, but he was asleep. Oh Jarrett. We went to eat at the Grand Concourse for brunch. wow. So many options to eat. The best was the fresh donuts. Magic. It was so cool sitting there and the window overlooked the river with the snow falling. I had Christmas songs on repeat in my brain. They tried to tell me that it wasn't Christmas time and I looked at them like they were crazy and said "yes it is. it's snowing".

We went to walk and took the Incline up to Mount Washington, where we took pictures and Jarrett and I had a snowball duel. They made me make a snowball with my bare hands; I thought my hands were going to fall off from being so frozen. But we started back-to-back and took a few steps before throwing the snowballs at each other. Needless to say, I missed, because I have terrible aim. We took the incline back down.

Jarrett and I made snow angels. My first snow angel! Then Jarrett told me I had to eat some snow. So I did. It was pretty legit. We then dropped Nina off, took pictures with the giant Mr. Rodgers statue and saw Heinz Field  Then we headed to the Andy Warhol Museum. Andy Warhol is weird. The best part was the comfy lounge couch things in the middle of the room where Lindsay and I sat and tried not to fall asleep because it was so comfy and covered by a parachute. The other cool thing was the room full of "clouds" that you got to play with. #iloveclouds After we were done, Lindsay was tagged and realized that we had been on tv and were so excited and watched it in the car, laughing. We began the drive back to the airport but not without stopping at Starbucks, where I got my signature Peppermint Hot Chocolate, and we made Jarrett pay ;)

Parting is such sweet sorrow. I had so much fun. I miss Jarrett and Lindsay! However, I also realized, that I am getting too old for all nighters. My body doesn't handle it as well as it once was. Monday, I dealt with the aftermath, and I was a hot mess. #adultproblems

Learning German

So Monday night at FHE (Family Home Evening) Jaime and I were trying to guess what the guys were saying in German. We guessed one sentence correctly. Then they decided to have a new conversation while Jamie and I "translated". It was an epic arguement over Oreos...but when it ended it turns out they were discussing the colors in a rainbow. (Not as cool as our interpretation).

Lindsay and I were practising our German on Tuesday. I felt super proud of myself and decided to send Lukas a note of a phrase I learned: "Viel Glück". His response, "Danke! Aber wofür?" So I felt clever because I made a sentence in German in my head without having to look it up and responded, "Für huete". Really, I felt like a genius for making a sentence in German all on my own...until he wrote back, "You mean 'heute'? Because huete means 'hats' and today I'm not wearing any! :) Where are you learning German?" Dang. #EpicFail.  But it's okay because I learned how to say 10 other words/phrases that day. WIN!

I booked tickets to Prague with Lindsay for this weekend on Tuesday.  WOOT!

my work family

Thursday we had a work party. Not just any work party...but a Par-tay (aka Summer Fest)! We went to our site in Memmingen, and there was a bus that was going to take us at 1:30, but I had a conference call at 2:30, which I had to do. In the end, I went with a co-worker whose name is Thorsten...like Thor! I was excited! We got there and I was put in a conference room. However, the music from the Summer Fest was coming through the windows and could be heard. It was pretty funny. So I said there was a party going on next door and put my phone on mute during the phone conference.

potato sack racing #epicfailjarrett

During the phone conference, Steve was saying, "Betsy, I think Natasha should come up for a few days to talk about XXX" and Besty said, "Yeah. Natasha, do you think you'll be able to go to England for a few days?" My response? "I think I can make it happen" My first thoughts? "YAY! I can buy more cookies! I have like 5 left! Woohoo!" Really, it's the simple things in life we have to appreciate. And if I can find a post office, maybe I'll mail some cookies and chocolate home for the fam, but more than likely everything will be closed before I get out of work.

Lindsay and I got 2nd place in the women's division

Friday, I left/dropped my black cardigan on U-Bahn on the way to work :( sad. Then we forgot to get my orange juice for breakfast. I'm hoping this is not a bad omen for our Prague weekend.




But a good thing is...it's payday! And we're planning a trip to Croatia next weekend. Life is good. Really. Cue Theme Song!!! 

The Awkward Moments of My Life

Oh the many embarrassing/awkward moments of starting a new job in a foriegn country where you dont speak the language. I'm going to have so many of those moments in the coming year. yay me.

Maybe my fav moment of the week: Someone approached me as I was getting off the metro to go to work and started speaking to me in German. Instead of saying "I dont speak English", I got tongue-tied, didnt conjugate, and said "you dont speak german". The guy gave me a really weird look, and I quickly walked off because I felt so awkward.

I went grocery shopping, and, SURPRISE! everything is in German. I had milk and cheese on my grocery list. It was a lot more difficult than I thought. Cheeses look surprisingly alike. So I just had to look at it and determine if I liked how it looked. Same with the milk. I did notice that one milk said "Soya" and I stayed away from that. But grocery shopping was hard. I didn't get the cheese I wanted in the end. It's good cheese, but not what I was planning on when I bit into my cheese sandwich.

Marienplatz

It's like having a greenie experience without having a trainer who knows the language to help you out. For example at lunch time (or dinner, when I go to a bakery to get something because I'm too hungry to cook when I get home). I literally look at the food and point to get it. At lunch, I look for the most appetizing meal, and say the German word for "little" so they give me the smaller portion as I point. I honestly don't know what it is that I'm eating. Same at the bakery. I know it's something that looks good. But I have no idea what it's called.

Anther awesome moment is earlier this week with the doors. I know I posted it on facebook, but I just want to say it again. All the doors at work have the german words for "push" and "pull". But when you do not know what the words mean, you recognize it, but you don't know what to do. I would push and pull. There was one door that you push to get in but then there is some sort of knob on the other side you have to twist. So I was standing at the door pushing and pulling for a bit until I decided to try the weirdly shaped knob. Now that I have made flashcards to help me and Matt has given me a little trick to remember, I only slightly pause at doors to think and then I remember. So if you ignore the strange pauses before going through doors, I totally look like I know what's going on. Plus, I even managed to program my email into the german scanner without realizing it. Now that's talent.

Dont worry...that's an Orange Fanta in my hand

At work they gave us a card to get in the doors and then another to put money on so you can buy lunch next door. I tried to put both the cards in the card holder they gave us but it didnt fit. So the second day, I was determined to make it fit. I definitely made it fit, but then I couldnt get it out. :/ I tried using my teeth and different things. I broke a nail. Then an IT guy came in to ask if I needed help with my computer. I said no, but then asked him about the cards and if he could get it out. He took it away and a bit later returned with it out. He then made me promise 3 times that I wouldnt do that again. He saw me later that day and made me show him where my lunch card was.

I had a conference call about the project I'm working on last Thursday. I tried to log in and it wouldnt let me. I messaged my boss to tell her I was having difficulties, but that I was working on it. I had to download java onto my laptop and when it downloaded (after taking forever) it said that it couldnt read it. So I had to download it again. By the time I got it all worked out, I was connected long enough for them to say, "so any questions? ok. well we'll talk again next week. bye!" AHHHHH! Que horror!

Beer Garden in English Gardens

On Friday, things were better. I was feeling good about life. At the end of the day, I realized I was probably one of the last people there because everyone leaves early on Fridays....and the automatic doors stop being automatic. I was standing in front of the automatic door, locked in the building, trying to figure out how I was supposed to get out of the building. Luckily, some guys came up about 2 minutes into it and found the tiny button hidden on a far wall that you press to open the door.

So after a long week of work, Jarrett (who got into Germany earlier that week) and I decided to meet up. We decided to meet in the English Gardens. But my phone died after I told him where in the English Gardens I was. after waiting a bit in one place, I decided to start walking. luckily he spotted me and we were both starving and went to a Beer Garden in the English Gardens to eat. Jarrett got a giant pretzel.

Isar River

On Saturday, Jarrett and I met up. I rented a bike, and we biked around the area. It was a super hot day but Munich is GORGEOUS!!!! The guys renting me the bike said I had to have a "Ladies" bike. It was pink. Lol. We got some ice cream to cool down. We then went across town to play soccer with some of the Munich YSA (Young Single Adult) people. It was fun. It was way to hot for me to play. I was melting and I could hear Saryah in my head yelling about being in the sun and skin cancer, so I stayed in the shade.  Then I got a nice little private German tour with a friend the rest of the evening. 

Sunday:  But I had a great church day. I got into London in time for the YSA meeting time. On the tube I saw a guy in a white shirt, tie, and dark trousers, with a girl in a modest (shoulders covered and dress was down to her knees) dress and I thought, "they're totally going to church". So I used my super creepy stalking skills to follow them out of the station and saw them joined by two other modestly dressed girls. So I asked if they were going to the LDS church and they responded positively, so I asked to follow them. It was lovely. One of the speakers was an RSM (returned sister missionary...i made up that terminology) It was a beautiful talk on the Plan of Happiness (which I LOVE!!!) and we sung "How Firm a Foundation" which is one of my favs! It was a wonderful Sunday. I sat with my new friend Lloyd (who has my dream job of being paid to travel and show people the world) and his Australian lady friend.  Then in Sunday School, before the class started, I thought I heard Spanish but I wasnt sure, so I asked as class was starting. The guy said he was from Venezuela! He was super excited I spoke Spanish, but we decided to chat after class. The class was amazing. It was about remembering the wonderful things our Saviour has done for us. It was a great lesson. And afterwards, me, the teacher, and the Venezuelan just chatted it up in Spanish. It was GREAT! I love latinos! It was awesome. They were really funny guys. Then I had to leave in the middle of the third (and last) hour because I had a train to catch....but I missed my train anyways, even though I was totally on time.

my "ladies" bike and ice cream

When I got to my hotel room, I had told my family I wanted to Skype for Father's Day. It was crazy. The sound wasn't working on either of our laptops, so we were miming to each other and typing. Eventually, they could hear me, but I couldnt hear them, so they made me talk a lot and then type the questions. We switched to Gmail video chat after I had to download the function. Then we realize that we could use the video chat of Gmail and the voice my dad's phone's Skype app. It was a fiasco. After about an hour from initial contact, I think we managed to be 100% voice and video functioning with Gmail video chat. WIN!

It's been a good first week in Germany, and this week I'm in Redditch, England. I'll tell you about it next week. On a happy note, Marijn, Jelmer, Jarno, Lukas, and I have finally agreed on a date and location for hanging out. It's going to be a PARTAY! I can't wait.