Getting to Ireland

Apparently I'm alive, so obviously I made it.
Well, I suppose you can imagine how nervous I was about traveling by myself and having to take so many different transportation to finally make it to the airport. First off though, we should begin with the goodbyes...which lasted a total of 10 minutes, so I wont even bother. But I will say we parted on "okay" terms.
Both the trains went by fast and easy. Though when I got to Mannheim station I got a little confused about where the my bus was. It only took about half an hour to find, with as much help from as many people I can count on my hand.
So I waited for the bus for about 2 hours, which is better than being on time or late, and it gave me some "journaling" time. The bus ride was lovely, and fun because of the adrenaline you get from roller coaster rides is like that when your in a german bus. Hahaha.
Frankfurt Hahn airport is very small, and used to be an old US air base, so the insde lacked a few things you'd noramlly see in an airport, like chairs for instance. When Mary and I finally got connected and waited for our plane, which was a 12 hour wait, we either walked around, or sat on my luggage. We got kicked out of a few different shops and cafe's because we were "loittering". Its a bloody airport, what else are people going to do.
So after our long wait was over, we weighed luggage, and it only went about 4 kg over, which cost 24euro. Thank goodness for that.
When we got on the plane and in the air, we about fell asleep then and there. Ryanair,the airline we used, is like a giant flying bus. We ended up being half an hour early.
In my oppinion, everything had been going smoothly up until the immigration gate, ubt you know by now its never easy for me to enter into a country without some kind of trouble. For some reason, right off the bat he was suspecious of me. With me being American coming from Germany with a return ticket only for and from Frankfurt for May 11th 2008, and no return ticket from Ireland back to Germany, of course that lite the red lights for him. Plus with Mary flying in the country with my, basically as an escourt, and that she had a Garda card saying she can stay for the year, made him very suspious. He questioned me, but mostly Mary. Threatened to take her card away and send her home, but in all actuallity he wouldn't have been able to. That really depends on the guy who gave it to her in the first place. But to make a lng story short..er, he's letting me stay for only a month and that I have to make an appointment with the Garda to see if I can stay. Hopefully I can, and I think I will, the gent seems fairly nice, and very laid back.
They wont take Mary's card away, I'm positive about that, but poor Mary has been on her nerves ends and hasn't been able to relaxe.
I really appreciate everyone's prayers and concern for Mary and myself, its been such a tiring experiance. You wouldn;t believe though how peaceful I felt through the last week though. I had been having lots of trouble trusting God, but then in finally clicked in and even though we've had a few nasty troubles, I felt like everything is going to be alright. I could feel people praying for us on Tuesday. INfact mom wrote 2 emails to me that day that I just read yesterday, and the time she sent them were at 1pm when Mary and I finally connected, and at 11pm when we were going through the immigration officer's interrogation. Its amazing I thought.
Aside from all that, I've never felt so at home here. Everyone has been so friendly and the country is a lot like home. Its funny, but I think that Ireland has been named the friendliest country in the world. Its been grand.
For right now though, I have too go, but thanks again everyone who has been keeping up on me and praying.
love ya'll !

Kids Day in Old Town

So, I need to keep up on the days, they seem to be getting in front of me! The is from Saturday the 22...I think. Anyways, its was a little play day for kids in town. They all sorts of fun little games for the kiddos and lots of music from all over. You had(of course) the American music, Native Indian, Italian(Alise, I thought of you) and German(Carrie, I thought of your as well). This building here I'm not sure, but I think is the Mayor's house( and I dont think Mayor is the proper word either). It was a very large building as you can see...


It was just Rainer, Christiane, Debora and I who went, and not for long, but you sure get a lot in an hour and a half than you might think. We walked through the church that Melanie and Rainer were married in some 15 years ago, and went to the top where the bells were and even higher! It was a few stories high, Ends up I'm a "Wall-leaningscaredofhighestcleptomaniac" If that makes sense. You can stand outside of the tower and walk around it taking pictures and looking over. The walk is only about 3 feet wide, if not shorter. Got some cool pictures though.

Well, what did you expect? Pictures!

Okay, here's the Haug family; Melanie, Debora, Christiane and Rainer. We all went to Besigheim(sp?) to this festival, I can't remember how they spelled it in German, but it was a celebration of the new wine. If you've never had new wine, or know exactly what it is, don't be ashamed, I had no idea that it was non-alcoholic until Christiane was downing. I felt silly, but oh well. The festival was fun, lots of music, most of which was American. The musicians were very lively bunch of mixed people.

This picture has the Mayor's house in it, and if you can bare to stare at the screen longer, you might be able to see the dancers from Hungry.




This is just a random picture of a Cafe. It was quite nice.

There wasn't much time for me to take many pictures, plus people kept on bumping into me(blurry pictures don't get you comments) so I raised my camera up above my head and took a shot. Didn't turn out to bad for not seeing what I was getting.


This is an old tower attached to the cities wall, that still exsiste, but is in rather turn conditions.



The average garden.

Germany

Its already been a week here, and I haven't written a stitch! Sorry for that.

We'll start from the beginning...
The flight from P.A. to Frankfurt was two hours behind schedule, long and boring. I had no chance to call Melanie and tell her the flight would be late, so when I got into Frankfurt I was confused by the time difference and being two hours late didn't help either. It took awhile for me to figure out where the baggage claim was(everything being in German, sometimes with English on the bottom of the sign) and trying to find Melanie in the process. She said she had made a sign with my name on it and that she would be in the terminal I got off at, so she would have been easy to spot, but she was nowhere in sight! I seachered everwhere possible(within reason) until I was about ready to sit down and cry. First time overseas traveler who doesn't understand any German. I'm sure they would forgive me for breaking down....it had been a long two days.
Back to the story, while I picked up again and searched more I found a U.S. Military man who offered his cell phone for me to call Melanie. I wanted to hug him. And cry. I finally got ahold of Melanie and half an hour later we found each other. It took me a total of two or more hours to find her.

I've never experianced jet-lag before, and I was bobbing my head the whole car ride back to their house. From what I remember its very beautiful country side here, hills apon hills of vineyards, orchards, corn and tons of small or large gardens. Of course there were also the old buildings, villages, and towns too. Bietigheim isn't as small as I thought it would be. I'd roughly say its between the sizes of Chehalis/Centralia or Portland. The town looks old, but in some areas its very modern looking. The town Centre is nice, has many types of stores; grocery, market, clothes, traveling agencies, book store, etc. The book store is quaint, but I can't read or understand German yet so its kinda pointless for me...
When we finally reached their house, I got my things in my room and settled in. Its a large house with lots of stairs(probably good thing for me, Germany being quite the place for chocolate an such) and a basement. The house is very modern looking and has a lovely garden outside. In the morning, at noon and in the evening the Catholic church bells ring and its very beautiful to listen to.
Well, as of the moment I need to start picking up on the day again. Thanks for all your prayers, I'll start trying to write more often!

Book Stores and Soaking

So I've decided to take pictures of all the Book Stores I come across, this one is in Ocracoke. It's very quaint little book store, and the choices of books aren't that bad either.

Okay, sunsets on the Atlantic are so beautiful!(course, it really doesn't set in the Atlantic) I still have to see the sunrise, Sarah and I were going to see it on Saturday, but we slept in. Sarah and I spent the whole day together on Saturday and spent it in Ocracoke. We had to take the ferry there and back, which was fun and I'll have a story to tell after I get these pictures up. Sarah and I were being silly in some of the pictures;)







Okay, so Sarah and I were on the ride back on the ferry and we decided to stand on the front of the ferry, straight in the middle. By the way, there's a tropical storm going on this weekend till about Monday-Tuesday, so the water was really rockin'. Anyways, we're having fun, laughing and all the sudden the ferry lifts up high and drops down right as the waves came up, and SPALSH! Sarah and I were soaking wet. It went about 3 feet above us. And we were the only ones that got soaked.
Anywho, we ended up laughing so hard we about toppled over.

Photo Central

So here's the ship we saw, Elizabeth II. It was so beautiful, not as big as it looks though. And of course, its only the replica.



We also went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, I don't have many pictures because it was the last thing Sarah and I did for the day with Gabrielle and Joshua, who insisted we push them in their strollers through the whole thing, and we were very, very tired.



Okay, this is just me and Josh hanging out at the park.



This is Sarah and Gabrielle playing dress-up in Elizabethian clothes, at the Elizabethian Museum.















And here are some photo's from the Elizabethian Garden and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Also, Sarah and I, and Gabrielle pretending to sleep on a beach in the park.

So Far

Well, first I should probably start with introductions; the who, why, where and what. I'm staying with Sarah, who's staying with the Pettie family consisting of Ron, Kathy, Gabrille, and Joshua. Sarah's their nanny for the summer and will be coming back home in October some time.
Okay, now I think I can continue on with my story. Today, like yesterday, Sarah, the kids and I went to a town called Manteo and spent the whole day visiting, playing in the parks, going to museums, aquariums, and ice cream pallors( in this weather it calls for ice cream on a daily basis). Yesterday we went on the "Elizabeth II" ship. It was pretty awesome, and when I finally download pictures I'll post them.
Today was the 'fish farm'(aquarium) as I dubbed them and spent a lovely morning petting the Sting Rays and watching the scuba divers clean the glass walls. Gab absolutely loved the Sea Otters and would spend a good 15 minutes giggling over them each time we passed through.
Went through the Elizabethian museum, which had lots of hands on things for kids to do. There were a few places that let the kids dress up in clothes from back in the day, and of cours, Sarah and, I being previously home schooled, dressed up as well. Yet again, the pictures will come soon.
Other than busy days and smoldering humidity, its been nice here. The sunsets are amazing, pink, orange, red, yellow, you name it. Tomorrow Sarah and I are getting up early to see the sunrise. So with that(and looking at the time) its time for me to go to bed. Prayers for Melanie, Rainer, Christiane, and Debora...my little german familie.

N. Carolina

So the first flight, which was at 6:30am(and we had to get up at 3:30!) was nice...enough. Other than stupid me forgetting to pack my soaps, lotion, among other liquids that size that shouldn't be in carry-ons, it went by nicely.
Once we all got packed into the metal contraption called plane, the older gentlemen next to me thought it would be nice to chat. So after the second or third time I dozed during this exciting conversation, he gave up on me and snored his way til landing. There was a lot of turbulence on that flight, yuck. My starting point was Portland to Dallas, Texas. You could tell you were in Texas by the big hair and twang.
That flight was nice as far as sleeping goes. Flying over N. Carolina was cool, the scenery was beautiful. Sarah, Kathy and the kiddos were there to pick me up. They had things they needed to do before we left town, so by the time we got back to the house it was 1:30am. Makes for a very long trip if you ask me.
Now that this is all done(almost!) I've decided that I highly dislike being on airplanes.

...And when you kick up your heels, you don't know where the wind will take you.