The Rain in Spain

For Thanksgiving we decided to take a girls trip to southern Spain. We were initially going to start in Portugal, but the air traffic controllers were on strike so that didn't pan out. So we flew into Malaga and drove to Granada, Cordoba, Seville, Gibraltar (owned by Britain) and back to Malaga over the course of 4 days. We saw A LOT of things, and I have a hard time keeping straight which was where, but I'll just hit a few of the highlights.

In Malaga was the Alhambra. An incredibly detailed Moorish palace. This room is where Christopher Columbus proposed his voyage to the Americas to Ferdinand and Isabel.

Inside one of the many many cathedrals we saw. It was huge and awesome.

Inside a mosque, that has since had a catholic church built right in the center of it

Christopher Columbus' tomb. And the three awesome girls I went with.

In Gibraltar there were monkeys! Paige getting jumped by a monkey was probably the best part of the trip (for us, not so much for her)

This is the sweet ride that got us around, and through many many streets that should really only be driven through on a scooter.

We also got to see flaminco dancers, which I did not get a picture of. It was a rainy trip too, and I had a hole in my shoe and spent most of the trip with a soggy foot.

Other than that though...it was an awesome trip! We saw a lot of awesome things, and there are about 193 more pics on facebook

Tis the Season

I put up my Christmas Tree tonight!

(Look how awesomely textured my wall looks with the lights. Normally it's just white and boring)

Now, many of you know that I am normally absolutely against acknowledging Christmas until after Thanksgiving. But this year I feel justified for 2 reasons:
1 - I will be gone all of Thanksgiving weekend and won't get the chance to put it up then.
2 - I had Thanksgiving yesterday.

Two actually. We had a friend Thanksgiving dinner last night, which was awesome. I didn't get any pics of that one though.
Then later that night my family was having Thanksgiving dinner (we move holidays to our convenience depending on when people can be home) so they skyped me in for dinner. They even set me (the laptop) on the table so it was almost like being there. Except I didn't get to actually eat the food, but it was 2am for me, so that was ok.


After putting up my tree I spent the evening watching my favorite Christmas classics. I don't care how old you are, Christmas specials never get old. I will watch Charlie Brown Christmas every year for as long as I live.


On a side note - I realized that even though I'm not 25 quite yet, this is my 25th Christmas. Happy 25 Christmas trees to me!

See it

'Nuff said.

Just life

Fall in Germany is pretty awesome. If you've ever been to Europe you know how green it is - well the fall colors are just as vivid. I was going to get out and take pics last weekend, but we had a huge wind storm on Thur and it pretty much blew all the leaves off the trees.

Last week I was in a Logistics course, and we took a field trip to one of our storage sites in Luxembourg. Not super exciting, but on the way back we stopped at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. Way awesome. I really wish I had had my camera. Sadly I did not. I got these pictures from someone else who took them with their phone. Thanks boss.

While I was gone on my cruise, it was decided by my bosses that I would be moving jobs. I'm pretty excited about this. I've been in the same unit since I got here. I'm basically just going to be running a couple of programs, and doing whatever projects the Col needs done. He is awesome, and told me that I'm pretty much my own boss now. This is kind of a new, made-up position, so I don't actually have a job title yet. They told me just to make one up. This is my new office. The 5th one I've had since I've been here. I'll be sharing it with someone eventually (there's another desk on the other side of the room) but they haven't figured out who yet.

So that's just daily life in a nutshell as it stands right now.

Beaches, Boats, and Harry Potter

I got to spend the last 10 days of Oct on a family vacation. It was awesome. We spent 2 days at Universal Studios, FL. The best part of this was Harry Potter World. When you first enter it it's like walking into Hogsmeade...and it really is, they have the shops and everything you can go in. It's super sweet. We even got butterbeer at the Hogshead. (If you're not a HP geek and don't understand these terms, don't worry 'bout it). Then there is the castle, which isn't full size but is still huge. It has a ride in it, but to get to the ride you walk through a lot of the castle and it's awesome. It feels completely legit. We completely geeked out and bought wands and robes and everything. We're cool like that.

The last night at Universal I was forced to attend Halloween Horror Nights. It was Jared's B-Day, and that's what he wanted to do, so I went along. It was awful. Ok, it really wasn't THAT bad - and if you enjoy scary things, you'd probably love it, but I don't plan on going back anytime soon.

After our days at Universal we set sail on the Carnival Dream. It was a 7 day cruise down through the Bahamas and the Caribbean.



Yes, that is a giant waterslide. It was pretty fun, but we only went on it a couple times because it was always crowded with little kids. We did spend a lot of time lounging on those deck chairs though.


One of the nights was a Halloween party/costume contest. Good thing we'd bought costumes at Universal!

Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas. It would be an awesome place to stay and vacation. We mostly just wandered around the Atlantis resort.


Our second stop was in the Caribbean at St. Thomas. We went snorkeling with sea turtles here. I didn't get any pictures of it though, since my camera is fairly nice, and I didn't want to risk dropping it in the sea. It was my first snorkeling adventure. And I liked it except for all sea water. Gross.

Our third and final stop was St. Martin. We just spent the day on the beach/in the ocean. The weather and water were perfect.


This was successful only after many many failed attempts. But they got it eventually!

Every night on the cruise we had a fancy 3 course meal. Delicious.



In between all of those adventures there was a lot of eating, and a lot of lounging, and some bingo tournaments (we collectively won multiple times, I got $115) , karaoke, and comedians. All in all it was a super good time.

2 Weeks. 2 Trips: Week 2 - Croatia

To continue the 2 trips post - Last week we went to Zadar, Croatia. Croatia is one of the little-known vacation gems of the world. It is an AWESOME vacation spot that I would definitely go back to. It was warm, on the sea, and had an amazing national park just a couple hours away.
It was an awesome way to bid farewell to summer - especially now that it's down in the 50s back in Germany.

This is at Plitvice (plit-vissa) National park. It's miles and miles of waterfalls, forest, and these ridiculously clear blue lakes. You can see to the bottom of every lake. And there are these cool boardwalk paths everywhere.





The touristy spot in Zadar is the Old Town. Lots of super old buildings and ruins and stuff, but also a pretty good shopping district. And the streets are strangely smooth and shiny.


This is the sea organ. It's these steps build into the sea, and when the waves come in and out they make music that sounds kind of like an organ...or a whale. But it's cool either way.

And then there's this giant glowy disk thing, which I never really quite figured out its purpose...


And while the sunsets weren't the most amazing that I've seen - you can never go wrong with a sunset on the sea.

2 Weeks. 2 Trips: Week 1 - Ireland

Two weekends ago we took a weekend trip to Ireland. We heard that the best way to go was just to show up and find a bed and breakfast to stay in, so that's what we did. And it's true. There are TONS of them. So we just drove until we saw one with a light on and pulled over.

It turned out to be an awesome little place. The owner was a super nice little Irish lady who made us delicious breakfast both mornings.

Then our plan was just to drive around the country side and see the famous "Ring of Kerry" and the not quite so famous Dingle Loop. Well we drove the Dingle Loop first, and it was Awesome. A little cold and windy, but other than that I loved it. By the time we hit the Kerry loop though it was super rainy, and we'd already been driving for hours, and it turned out to be a really long loop. I don't think I even got any pictures of the second half. It was not as enjoyable.





Aside from the roads being ridiculously narrow, resulting in many near-death experiences, and the wind and rain - I loved Ireland. I even bought a scarf woven from the wool of Irish sheeps, and it's my new favorite thing!
We also went into town one night and ridiculously good restaurant, and then to a pub with live (and rather drunk) entertainment. It was way fun.
Overall, I highly recommend a weekend in Ireland.