On Crossing "The Pond", Ice Cream & Tupperware

What a whirlwind the past two days have been! As I sat on the plane in North Carolina, waiting for the mechanics to fix multiple problems with the plane that was going to carry me across the Atlantic for the very first time, I began to contemplate my upcoming overseas adventure . I experienced a stream of emotions including hope, nervous, excited and amazed. Amazed that I would be spending two months in another country. Amazed at the fact that I will not be the same after this experience. Amazed at the possibilities for adventure.

Well, I’ve been in Germany for 36 hours - in Baumholder for the past 7 hours - and already I’ve had a great time. After dinner with some co-workers, we headed over to an ice cream shop. I had been warned that the shop does not allow you to stay and eat your ice cream at a table if you get it in a cone (it's even printed on the menu!). You can only eat at the tables if you order your ice cream in a dish. Of course, we all ordered cones AND sat at a table - see picture for proof - such rebels (ha-ha!).

Since it doesn’t get dark until 10pm and the town is incredibly safe and quiet, we decided to walk around the local pond after the ice cream. As we walked, the previous consultants began to give us their top ten list of reasons to like Baumholder. The first item on their list was that it gives you an authentic German expeirence. During this conversation, we passed a bar. A woman who had just left the bar was walking on the opposite side of the street. She heard us talking, stopped us and asked if we speak German. None of us do and we told her so, but she asked us to wait for a minute while she went to retrieve her friend who does speak English. He followed her out and translated for her, and she invited us to a Tupperware party tomorrow evening at that local bar. The man told us that if we came, we’d get a free drink. Not sure if that was an "authentic german experience" or if we'll make it to that party, but I got a funny story out of it.

My mom arrived in Jacksonville on Friday! After I picked her up, we headed out to St. Simons. I kept forgetting it was the 4th of July, and we found that many of the restaurants that we'd chosen as places we'd like to go were closed! At the one we finally found that was open, the cashier told us that they were closing in an hour, and when we complained that everyone was closed, she said, "We're on island time", and smiled. We chose not to head down to the beach, because it was so crowded and we couldn't find a parking spot.

Yesterday, we took a trolley tour of Savannah. Even though it rained for most of our open-trolley tour, it was fun. We were able to hear many of the Savannah facts and see sights that I have not encountered during my 8 weeks here. I'm posting a picture of the oldest Catholic church in Georgia. I was able to get a great shot of this lovely building!

Although we didn't make it to The Lady & Sons (Paula Dean's restaurtant), we did visit her little store that's attached to the restaurant. Paula happened to be milling about and was kind enough to stop and take a picture with me! (Just kidding - that's a cardboard cut out, in case it's not obvious).

Today, we're headed to Hilton Head Island, even though rain is forcast. And tomorrow we'll drive home! I'm so looking forward to tomorrow!!