#YOLO

Foreword: YOLO = You Only Live Once. Please note that the use of "YOLO" in this blog post is meant in a manner of making fun of everyone who uses the word.  #YOLO

Warning: This is going to be a long post. You may want to get some snacks and water, because you'll need to stay hydrated.

Kevin, Me & Lindsay at Ammersee

So last Tuesday (14 Aug), Lindsay and I were coming home from the Augustiner, both tired and excited for the holiday the next day. That's right. Wednesday = holiday. So we were grabbing our keys out of our bags on the U-Bahn, only for Lindsay to realize...she had no keys. She had left them in her room and was locked out (this is the 3rd time this has happened). Every problem has a solution, so I gave lindsay a pair of my shorts and she discovered my couch has a fold out bed that's bigger than my current bed. #storyofmylife. Anyways, Lindsay was upset, and to make it better, we watched a couple episodes of Suits and skyped with Elo for a bit.

Wednesday morning, Lindsay was able to call the apartment office for them to come by and bring her keys. We got ready for the day...and went back to Puchheim (where we work) for our day off. haha. So we met up with Siv and when to her flat, which was SO CUTE! It was so awesome, and she decorated it herself. We made some risotto. It was kinda awesome. I cut up the mushrooms. Best cut mushrooms ever! We had a nice lunch and then Kevin came over to pick us up in his...wait for it....MUSTANG! So we were driving through Germany in a nice red Mustang. It was epic. We drove to the lake, Ammersee. The water was a little chilly, but the weather was a perfect temperature to balance it out. We swam, paddle boated, and ate a fish (with the head and eyes staring at you!). Then we went to Dachau to eat dinner and then toured the beautiful town of Fürstenfeldbruck. What a wonderful town! (shout out to Kevin!) It felt funny riding shotgun in a Ford Mustang going 100+mph listening to rap. Haha.

Last week I was also on a Radio Disney roll. I've been switching through different online music streaming websites, and I was so annoyed that all the music kept on cursing at me, so I decided I wanted something nice. So I turned to good ole fashion Disney to save the day. But after a few days, the music got super repetitive. But now I've found a new station with good music, so I'm happy.

I was at home on Thursday when the maids came to clean my room. I let them in, and one of the guys kept on trying to talk to me, so I talked back. He spoke in German, and I answered in English. It was a little difficult at time, but the funniest part was when I was able to explain to him that I don't smoke shisha because it's tobacco and tobacco is bad. We had a lot of fun in the 15 minutes he was in my room. We talked politics, life, and what we were doing in Germany. He was Iranian and AWESOME! My room also was cleaned more thoroughly than it ever had been before. That night, I fed the Sister Missionaries. It was so much fun! Jamie & Lindsay came over for dinner. I went to the Italian restaurant next door to get some pizzas and made some spaghetti, and Jaime brought some salad. The sisters brought dessert. It said it needed to go into the oven, but I dont have an oven in my room.  So I thought it was an already cooked apfelstrudel that just needed to be heated to be crisp, so i said we just put it in the microwave....turns out it wasn't pre-cooked. It was raw. So we did plan B....we cut it in half and got two skillet pans and cooked it over the stove. it was pretty creative. (I've been playing with my food a lot recently and my theory is that it's the sign of a creative mind. #fact)

Friday after work, Lindsay, Siv, and I went to Kempten for a festival. The best part...DIRNDLS!!!! (Definition of a dirndl: traditional Bavarian dress worn at festivals and other days you want to look smokin' hott) I was told on a tour that dirndls were the best because they emphasis all the good parts and hide all the bad parts. #testify. Since Lindsay and I do not have dirndls, Petra let us borrow hers. It fit really well on me...Lindsay's was a little big on top. Lolz. Granted, I'm not big on cleavage, so it was quite a feat that I was modest in the dirndl. It was cool because I did not see any dirndls that were exactly the same. Everyone looked unique. We have also decided lederhosen are super hott! And at this festival were beautiful dirndls, hott guys in lederhosen, good food, and great company galore. It was a really good night, even after meeting Diva-Lindsay on the journey home and having to pack after getting home and not going to bed till super late.

Petra's 2 friends...Petra, Lindsay, Me & Siv

I woke up after 5.5 hours of sleep, and to be honest, I was worried I wouldn't wake up to my alarm. So I got up and flew to Gatwick and got into London a little later than I anticipated. My original plan was to do the HP Studio Tour, but of course, this was the one Saturday it was closed. So I went and got a ticket for Les Miserables. My favourite play in the entire world. Now I must put a disclaimer, this will be the 4th time I've seen this play, and I remember loving it, but when I saw it this time, I fell in love all over again. Within the first few minutes, I was in tears over the beauty of the music and the power of the actors' voices. The emotions the play invoked were so powerful and wonderful. I was able to compose myself for a few moments, but when the Bishop came on the stage and showed such Christ-like love to the broken Jean Valjean saying:

"Come in sir for you are weary
And the night is cold out there
Though our lives are humble,
What we have we have to share"...I lost it again.

Then Valjean is brought back after stealing from the bishop, but the bishop pardons him and says:

"But remember this, my brother
See in this some higher plan,
You must use this precious silver
To become an honest man
By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God"

Oh, the play just testified to my heart the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can all change, repent, and be forgiven. For the rest of the play Valjean is working towards redemption and peace for his past crimes. There was Javert the entire time fighting against Valjean and his change, but Valjean endured and faced each trial with love and faith. I never realized how much the play focused on faith, and it touched my soul. I'm pretty sure that all my crying scared the guy sitting next to me because after intermission, he moved a seat over to be away from me. haha. Another wonderful thing about the play was... when I was 11, I saw my first play ever, The Phantom of the Opera, and it was in London. From that moment on, my mom made sure we had a tradition of whenever we saw a play in London, we would get ice cream during intermission. I am proud to say, I honored my family and our traditions by eating a yummy ice cream during intermission. :) After the play I went to Kate and Rachel's, where Kate and I hung out for the night partying (aka chatting it up!).

Sunday, I ruined an adorable moment between Rachel and (at the time, her fiancee) Ben, when he or she, I can't remember, said "the next time I see you we'll be getting married". I couldn't contain my "awwwww" and then felt bad I ruined their moment and went to the kitchen after apologizing. We had lunch with Kate's family. Rachel has 2 adorable little cousins who I got to hang out with during the wedding. Rachel and I went to run some late minute errands for the wedding and bake the rest of the night.

 On Monday...aka the WEDDING DAY!...I woke up and saw Rachel eating breakfast in the chair watching The Prince of Persia. Now I haven't hung out with many brides on their wedding day or the days leading up to the wedding day, but I'm pretty sure Rachel is the calmest bride ever. It was great. The wedding was in the Hedingham Castle. I arrived with Rachel's aunts, and we got there just a little later than expected, so we had about 10 minutes to walk from the car park up the little hill to get to the castle...plus we still needed to change. I ran into the forest area and had to change into my tight dress behind a tree. I ended up forgetting to change into my ankle boots I brought for the wedding :( and didn't remember to put my lip gloss into my purse. #timesarehard. The wedding was gorgeous. Words cannot describe how happy I was to see them get married, as soon as Rachel came out and the ceremony started, I... surprise, surprise...cried. Totally worth it. The reception was great. I was chatting with the DJ during the reception and he thought it was great that I was from Texas and decided he needed to play a line-dancing song for me. He played Cotton-Eyed Joe. (please click on that link so you know what I'm talking about and can see the dance). Now most people probably aren't as mentally scared as I am from that song, but it brought back memories of bad youth dances of the past. LOLZ!!!! He thought it was great, and afterwards, I had to explain to him that Cotton-Eyed Joe isn't any regular line but has it's very own special dance. His wife said she tried to explain that to him. haha. The entire night Rachel looked like a princess. I was talking to her husband, Ben, and every five minutes, he kept on saying "doesn't she look beautiful" and i would respond in equal awe, "YES :) she's AMAZING!!!!" I also hung out with Rachel's aunts a lot that night. They're legit. It was hot earlier that day, but by night, it was soooo cold. But nevertheless, Rachel was soooo pretty!!!!!!! It was a magical day.



























I stayed the night with Kate and her family in some rooms above a pub. It was awesome, because for breakfast, we had a good ole fashion English breakfast...which means....BAKED BEANS! my fav!!!!! Then I had to buy the Digestives so I can pay my entry fee to get back home to Texas. And Kate dropped me off at the airport early so I could spend the day doing work. I got home an hour and a half late though because my plane was late and then I missed my stop on the S-Bahn because I was reading a book and forgot to look up :/


Wednesday I was back at work in Puchheim. After work, Lindsay and I did some retail therapy, because we found out they are changing our program so we are not going to Brazil and China anymore, and I got some shoes. Shoes. We then met up with Kevin and his girlfriend, Anya at Hirschgarten. It was lovely and the weather had cooled down. They were telling us more about Germany and inviting us back for Oktoberfest. Kevin kept on asking me why I didn't drink, so I explained how it was part of my religious beliefs. His response "Does your religion have a holiday?". He thinks I really need to try the Oktoberfest beer. lol. Then we started teaching Kevin some slang words. This is where YOLO came in. We kept on saying it throughout the night.

At work on Thursday, it was really funny, becuase Lindsay and I were talking about things that had changed since we got to Germany. One thing that was mention was how out German lunches in the cantina no longer make us feel sick. Kevin's resonse? "Mine still do". #YOLO After work, we went to Siv's with Petra for a girl's night! Woot! I told Siv about King Ranch Chicken and how it's my favourite, so she's decided we have to make it, even thought Lindsay and I tried to explain how you can't really get the proper ingredients in Germany, but Siv wants to try it anyways. I've only seen one failed attempt at King Ranch Chicken before, and this time was not the second :) It was made with some improvised ingredients and we made our own rotel tomatoes from scratch. It was pretty awesome. I'm seriously going to miss Petra and Siv. Sad.

p.s. it's thursday night and i'm just now unpacking from my trip to england only because i have to repack for my trip to Cologne, Germany tomorrow. #exhausted #YOLO

The quote of the week:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Tik Tok

Tik Tok. You hear that? That's the sound of my time in Germany coming to a close. This week Lindsay and I got the go-ahead to buy out tickets to move to our new location in Missouri. My heart hurt a little. I'm loving Germany, and the way of life here. People really enjoy life and understand that work should not be the center of your life. The 6 weeks of vacation time they get doesn't hurt either. lol.

Last week was not as exciting as the previous week, when I was in 4 different countries in in a week time period (Austria, Germany, England, and the Netherlands). I was in the office while Lindsay was working in Italy. Then I was able to go to Frankfurt on Wednesday. I felt pretty cool because I took the train and was in a compartment with two other businessmen who were on their laptops working. The cool part was how hardcore I felt when I pulled out my laptop to work too. It was super legit, and I felt business-y.

Frankfurt was a good meeting and the Friday part was cancelled so I was able to go home earlier and work from home for a few hours. In the compartment on the way back was a man with his 6ish-year-old son. The man figured out early on that I spoke no German, while I figured out he didn't speak much English, but the kid didn't get it. So the kid kept on speaking to me in German and I would smile and nod encouragingly. Haha. He was adorable and so full of energy! He was showing me his coupon for a free Popsicle and kept askign his dad to go get it, but his dad made him wait till they got to a certain spot. They left and a few moments later the kid came back and said something, which was probably explaining that they didn't have any Eis.  It wasn't till later on when the kid decided to ask me a random question and just look at me expecting an answer that his dad had to attempt to interpret for me. Then the kid looked so sad that I didn't speak his language. But we were still friends because when they got off the train the kid made sure to smile and wave at me from the platform, so I returned the gesture happily because he was adorable! I also ate the best little raspberry tartlet ever for breakfast. Life is good. Lindsay and I were able to go out to the Italian restarant near our apartment building and it was good. I didn't eat all my meal and they guy thought I hated the food. It was a mission flashback moment. lol.

Saturday, Lindsay's "friend", Alex arrived from the States to visit. We all went to the Herrenchiemsee Palace on Lake Chiemsee. It was beautiful and we got to ride a little train to the ferry from the train station, it felt like Disneyland. Then we had to take a ferry to the island that the Palace is on. It was built to honor Versailles in Paris, because King Ludwig II really admired The Sun King, Louis XIV (my fav french monarch too!) It was a nice day till the rain started for a few hours. Then we had to walk back to the train station. But we did manage to buy a Bayern Pass on our own. (personal victory).
Later that night, we went to dinner at my and Lindsay's favorite restaurant that night where I was about to take a drink of water until Alex screamed and jumped out of my chair causing me to spill my water all over myself....he saw a spider. lolz.

Michael Jackson Memorial

Sunday was a beautiful sabbath day. After church, Alex, Lindsay, Jaime, and I met up and we did a nice little walk around the city centre. After that Jaime and I went about an hour early to the YSA dinner to watch Nathan make Indian food: Mango Chicken Curry. When went on the metro and by the time we got out on the other side, it was pouring rain. So what did we do? We played in the rain. We twirled, sang "singing in the rain", and frolicked down the street. It was soo much fun. Even when we finally got to the church soaked.  #worthit and the mango chicken totally changed my life, that's how good it was.

mini replica of city centre

Playing in the rain :)

Olympia Park at sunset

 3 weeks till I go back to the states. I dont want to go back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Due to the time limit, we've been trying to stay busy and do lots of stuff. Monday we were going to Rollerblade around Munich, but it was cancelled due to the rainstorm. Instead, I went to FHE. :) Tuesday, we went to the Olympia Park for Sommerfest. We rode the swing ride! woot! Then Lindsay, Alex, and I walked up the hill to watch the sunset over the carnival. Oh and I'm in love with applesauce crepes. Wednesday, there was an institute BBQ that was an actual BBQ. I was so impressed. I had some yummy hot dogs. epic.  The most intense part of the evening was when water balloons started falling from the sky. (aka the 3rd story of the building)

Thursday was time for the ALPACA beach bar. We BBQ-ed while hanging out with real alpacas and playing beach volleyball. No seriously. There were alpacas frolicking. We played beach volleyball for a bit. I was terrible. It was 4 against 5 (i was on the team with 5) and i think i cancelled out all advantages having more people could provide. But it was a lot of fun. We had a great BBQ where we learned that the Germans think American's eat A LOT, so they bought more food than we could eat. I had a grilled corn-on-the-cob. I normally have only had them steamed, but it was sooo good with the herb butter they had. Oh man. Loved it. I think the best part was when Petra decided to use a straw to "conduct" Lindsay and I on how to say new German words. It was super fun to go out with the younger co-workers I have. They're all so much fun!

Now for a shout-out to my friend, Mego, who wrote about our epic adventure when we were 14 & 15 of stalking Harry Potter on her blog.  #truestory

I threw a wish in the well, Don't ask me I'll never tell...

Personal Achievement for the week: I managed to fix my Excel so that I can open files in different windows and not have to compare side-to-side. WIN! I feel victorious.

Silly-Me Moment of the week: I was daydreaming on the S-baun this morning and missed my stop. So I had to wait 10 minutes for the train backwards to take me to town. Then I decided to walk to the office instead of wait 15 minutes for the bus. Once again, I should have just waited for the bus. I should have only been 10 minutes late to work, but I got lost and my smartphone maps wasn't working for a bit. Then it wouldn't find my office so I had to find it on google, which had the wrong address. So I showed up to work about 35 minutes late. Bah humbug.

I was at a meeting earlier last week in Surrey, and I told one of the guys that I wanted to learn how to golf, so they were trying to convince my boss that I needed to come back to England for more "training" next week so we could all play golf together. It was funny. Another funny moment, when they told us we were going to have BBQ and eat hamburgers on Tuesday night. LOL. They had little hamburger patties to eat, and that's it. No buns or toppings. It made me laugh. ButI flew back into Munich last Wednesday night. I was exhausted, but I did a load of laundry when I got in. Lindsay moved into the apartment building while I was away so we went to work together Thursday morning.  

Thursday was the Germany v. Italy game and Lindsay and I went with Petra (one of the HR girls at work) to see the game at the Olympic stadium. It was so cool. We kept seeing people with German Flags of their faces and were super jealous. Then miraculously, we got out of the metro and there was a stand with German stuff to buy. I saw the german flag face paint stick and we got it!!!! Seriously too cool for words! So we painted our faces and made Petra do it too. Then we got some brats as we waited for the game to start. Everyone was so excited. I loved it. Though it was super sad when Italy scored the first two goals in the first half. You could feel how tangible the sadness was. People literally cried. So we went back to our apartment that night sad and super tired because we got back so late.


So Friday, we were pretty tired. We were planning on doing a bike tour with Jarrett after work, but it didn't work out. We were too tired, which worked out fine because we got home late too. I had an international conference call that lasted over an hour. It was the longest conference call I've ever had. Crazy. But Friday night was nice and relaxing. Lindsay and I went to the restaurant next door to our apartment, we've decided we're going to become regulars where they know our names and  The food was good. The dessert, not so much. My German friend, David appeared towards dessert and was able to explain what a Flaming Cake was to us. (we're very curious people) For dessert, I got a strawberry shake for dessert...it was room temperature and watery...very interesting. Anyways, had a nice night in.

Saturday, Lindsay, Jarrett and I went to Lake Tegernsee. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! So Lindsay and I took the train in and Jarrett was supposed to meet us there. He showed up 2 hours later. Boys. Lindsay and I vetoed the 3-hour hike Jarrett wanted to do. IT WAS SOOO HOT! Anyways, we took a rented a little boat with an engine and Jarrett chauffeured Lindsay and I around the Lake. It was awesome because Lindsay put on music from her iPod and it was like theme music for our lives. It was unreal how perfect it was.  We then went swimming in the Lake because we were dying from the heat. (Off subject...I forgot my swimsuit at home in Texas because I was planning on getting a new one, but ran out of time to buy a new one so only have my lap-swimming suit. bad tan lines. #germanyproblems) So we were told there was a sandy beach to go to. False Doctrine. It was a rock beach. Lindsay and I forgot towels too. So we went in and swam. It was legit. On the way out, I slipped on a rock and fell. Now my ankle hurts when I walk. Dag yo. We then decided we wanted to go paragliding! So we went to the town over to do so, and by the time we got there, the tram that would take us to the top of the mountain was closed :/ On the drive back we found a private part of the lake. So we paid to go in, but they had lounge chairs! So we laid out some and it was glorious! Oh Mr. Sun, it is good to be friends again. (with sun block protection, of course) We then went to eat at a beer-garden which is famous in the town. We made friends with the Germans on our left and the fellow Texans on my right! Wutup! So legit. It was a perfect day. (minus my injury) but I'm so grateful for everyday of living the dream. I love it. 


p.s. the title for the blog is because the theme song for the day on saturday was Call Me Maybe. It kept on playing in the radio. It was the song we were listening to on Lindsay's iPod on the lake in the boat. Plus, it's been stuck in my head.