Green Thumbs Up!

So Matthias and I come from a family of very experienced and successful gardeners and we thought to try our luck and test if we were luckily enough to have inherited a 'green' thumb.

We started off with the basics: Tomatoes (both cherry and the normal big ones), peppers, and cucumbers. Here they are when we first got them...

Tomatoes:

Peppers and Cucumbers:



We also got some herbs: rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and mint.
Here's the 'garden'...


We gave a little water, sun and of course love and slowly they began to grow...







So far we have harvested 4 cucumbers and many, many leaves of potential peppers and tomatoes. Here are 2 of 'em...don't mind me in this pic...I'm pretty sure I just rolled out of bed and decided I wanted to eat some cucumbers...




Currently the mixture of too much rain, water or sun they are looking a little weak and yellow...hopefully we can save them...otherwise we are not so green handy as we thought!

Vaca to Andalucia, Spain

Matthias and I spent a relaxing 9 days in the south of Spain in the region of Andalucaia. We wined and dined at a Marriott Resort/time share in between Marbella and Estepona and lived like ballers. With our lovely friends and family rate of 55€/night (what a steal!) we walked around like we paid 200€/night like everyone else at the resort. The 9 days flew by fast but we were still able to get a lot in and still be able to do nothing! Luckily we brought our new Canon 450D with us to capture our adventure through out Spain!

The red 'X' is where we stayed

The Marriott Resort

...from our room

...from the beach

Built some sand castles

Drank (many) Sangrias and listened to music while basting in the sun at the pool

Went hiking and found a tipi

Stood on top of the world

I was reintroduced to my friend, the beach

Ate the BEST steaks and fish at this restaurant ( I swear we did not go there 2 nights in a row...)

Went to see a bull fight

Went to Morocco

Rode a Dromedary (one humped camel)

and of course got a good 3 or 4 'sun' days and now I don't feel like I match the color of our pale walls!

I do have to admit, I could get used to these 28 days of paid vaca in Germany...our next vacation will be in Sept. when Matthias and I join my Asian fam on a trip to China. That being said, I don't know the next time we will be visiting the U.S. So here is everyone's invitation to Düsseldorf!

Not only are 4 leaf clover's green....

but so is the German Polizei.

Not only is March 17th the day that Christian Muehlenberg (matthias's dad) was born, but also a commonly known holiday as "st. patrick's day." We were in Krefeld at the Muehlenberg's house celebrating and I went back to Duesseldorf with Katie (Flo's girlfriend) to pick up Matthias after work. The entire way to Duesseldorf (about 20 min) I was telling Katie how driving here is way more relaxed since there are no speed limits on the Autobahn and how I never see the Polizei pulling people over. About 10 min later, I notice a Polizei car behind me following me and didn't think much of it...then all of a sudden I see the red "Polizei, STOP" sign flashing. Naturally, my palms start sweating and I franticly ask Katie what I'm supposed to do, (even in the U.S I've never been pulled over). I pull over to the side and Katie instructs me not to speak German, I figured too, its always better to play the "dumb American." I hand her my driver's license and she asks if I've been drinking, I say "No" and she asks if she can give me an Breathalyzer test. I agreed, then attempted to do the Breathalyzer, and it took me two time to get it right (gotta play up to my dumb american role) and successfully passed. She handed all of my stuff and told me to have a nice night.

Germans have an absolute zero tolerance policy for alcohol and driving. Legally you are only allowed to have one beer and are still O.K to drive. Anything after there you are pretty much screwed! They don't need a reason to pull you over, and are allowed to give you a Breathalyzer and a pee test at any time with out any reason. It was very nervr-recking but now I can say I survived the German Polizei!

About Marriott...

So as you know, or may not know, I applied for a job through the Marriott website here in Duesseldorf. It was really all a coincidence, I was sitting on the couch one night while Erik and Matthias were playing playstation and we checking out job opportunities. I happened to find a front desk position at a Courtyard Marriott in the area. It was about 3am and I just decided to apply, just to "see" what would happen. In the past when I've applied online for a job at a hotel it normally takes at least a couple of months. Surprisingly, the next day I got an email inviting me for an interview. The next week, I interviewed (alles auf Deutsch) and had a really good feeling about the interview and job....they wrote me an email about a week later and said they were reconstructing and didn't have room for me but would like to keep my application on file for the future. Thinking that was just an easy way to let me down, I didn't think too much about it and continued waking up every morning and heading to Le Pain.

Then out of nowhere, I recieved another email inviting me back for yet another interview for a new event department position. I interviewed, again and the next day I was offered the job!!

I was hired as the in-house event coordinator and will the "go-to" person for when we have in events. I will be working directly with another girl and its just the 2 of us that make up the event department.

I quit the restaurant today, a little sad, but how could I pass up this opportunity? My last day is on Monday. Matthias also quit because he needs to write his bachelor thesis and will leave at the end of April. It was a great experience and I was able to vastly improve my German skills. It was fun while it lasted, but Mr. Marriott has called my name...

Out from the Blogger Cave

So I've decided that instead of me sending out a bunch of emails that you are forced to read, I've decided to start a blog to keep you all updated on Matthias and I's life here in Germany! I have been a turtle hiding in its shell for awhile and I think it's time to come out and get into contact with everyone again!

I know I've been promising pictures of our apartment for a while now, well today is your lucky day....drum roll please....

I wish I had pictures of the apartment before, but there was absolutely NOTHING in this apartment, I'm happy to say that we built this all on our own!! Ikea should sponsor us...we invested a lot of our mula into their stores...you're welcome Ikea!

This is our Kitchen (grey wall)/Living Room...

Living room part of the living room (red wall)...

Of course the T.V...

Our extremely 'huge' bathroom...

Our bedroom looking into the kitchen/living room...

Our balcony over looking the city!

Our hand-made closet, Dad you should be proud!

From Diego to the Bay!

So the luxurious days of Matthias coming to school with me, bringing and picking me up from work, coming home from a long day of school and looking down our long hallway to see him sitting on the couch....are over. We spent a nice and long time together which was extremely nice and very comfortable...until we realized it was time for him to start his new internship up north in the bay area. He originally moved from Germany to North Carolina for an internship...which ended up not working out, and we were able to find him a new internship through my step-mom's friend who runs the Flint Center in Cupertino. So his lovely adventure in San Diego came to an end Halloween weekend when we went up north to get him moved into my mom's house and meet the whole crazy family of mine. Needless to say, I will defenetly miss going on bike rides, hikes to Balboa Park, cooking together, sharing a bathroom, a nice and clean room and getting to see Matthias everyday!




Matthias took the brave journey up north with me to meet my huge crazy family. Just to give you some idea...my mom comes from a family of 7 kids and my dad from a family of 6 kids. My dad's side of the family is more spread out across the US where my moms side of the family all live relativley close. We flew into San Jose thursday night and had a nice dinner with my Dad in Campbell and Matthias was able to laugh at my dad's "great" jokes...most people don't laugh. Friday, Matthias and I went to the Flint Center and met up with his boss for the next couple of months and gave us a low-down of what the job entales, after that, we went to my aunts house,
who has 3 boys, ages 14, 12 and 10. The youngest of the 3 boys, Tommy was trying to impress Matthias the whole time while the other boys were busy doing thier "teenager" thing. For dinner my mom introduced Matthias to all of her friends.





Saturday, Matthias was still a trooper while I dragged him around to meet all of my family and friends. For dinner we went to meet the asain side of the family. Something to be said about my asain side: we are all very loud and hectic...most of the time we are talking louder just to speak over the person we are converstaing with. My Grandpa (Goon Goon) and Grandma (Poi Poi) made fried chicken and chow-mein for us...which was delicious as usual! He survived the hecticness and the drilling of the questions and has recieved the acceptance into the family. He was the first "outsider" of the grandchildren to come and have dinner with the family, so it was a pretty big deal....so good job Matthias! Finally wrapping up the weekend, Sunday we had brunch with my Grandma from my Dad's side and my uncle and cousin...and then went to watch my cousin's flag football game. The boys were excited to see that Matthias came to thier game! We spent a nice afternoon in San Fran for a Ski and Snowboard event my friend Jess was working at , thanks Jess for the free passes!! It was a lovely day and an even better weekend.



Now I'm back in SD and Matthias is in Mountain View, with my mom and my entire family...and I count down the days until I get to go back up north!!!

SDSU HTM Office and Blogging

I don't even want to know how much time I've killed surfing the web. I seriously don't cause just thinking about what I could have done with all that time would probably make me sick. I could have probably learned Chinese, could look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or...like I said, I don't want to know...Anyways, by killing time, I've come across the weirdest, funniest, most interesting, stupidest, most pointless, and most diverse stuff one could possible think of...For some reason though, blogs have been avoiding my comouter screen and I've never become familiar with "blogging"...

Last night, after realizing that I wouldn't see Ash all day again today, because she had school this morning and work right after, I decided to go to class with her, so I could at least see her for half of the day...
11am: German class...It's kind of funny to be in German beginner's class and I really wish i could take that class and get credit for it but yea I admit, that would be stupid. Anyways, ca one hour later, after straightening out, that girls in German Highschools do NOT have a mandatory class called "Handarbeit" (sewing, knitting, etc.) anymore, while guys just have an hour off, we went to the HTM office, where Ash had to do some advising. Sometimes, she only has one appointment, or even none but still has to sit in the office and wait for the 1 1/2 hours to go by. So after her first appointment, we started to kill time online again and by the wy, we are good at that, very good. We can just stay up all night watching old school musci videos on Youtube sometimes. :) No Youtube today though. Instead, we came across someone's blog! I forgot what it was but then Ash showed me Brittany's and Kyle's blog. (Brittany is Ash's friend, she met at work and Kyle is Brittany's husband. Check http://kpxfamily.blogspot.com/ )..."We should get one!!!"..."What?"..."A blog!"..."A blog?"..."Yeah"..."Hmm ok, let's do it!!!"..."Noice!"

So here we are, I'm sitting at home, well it's Ash's home, killing time untill I'll go pick her up, by starting this blog for whoever wants to read it...Fam, friends, etc...Ash is at work so I guess I had to start this but I told her that I would only do this if she would actually blog as well...But since we've had a really good time in the last couple f weeks, plus we are going up north tomorrow to meet her family, I am sure she'll have a lot to blog about soon!

So stay tuned!

Mattes & Ash