Thanks giving with Friends AND Family

This thanksgiving with both family and friends in Germany, was the first time this year that my heart didn't have to straddle two cities on opposite sides of the globe at the same time. It just felt so warm and fuzzy you wouldn't believe it!

Here are some pics:



Turkey Preparations, we made a few different kinds...


The fruits of our labor. Notice the turkey candle in the back? Mom made that.


Just some of the wonderful friends who joined us to celebrate...


And the fabulous food they brought! What a spread. We asked people to bring their family favorites so we had traditional German food as well as some thanksgiving favorites.

Guest Lecture

My Dad wrote a blog post on his site about our travels. You can read it here http://oldmanandthepoop.blogspot.com/

Love you too Dad.

More shots of Europe with the 'rents! Can you guess where we are?

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Mom and Dad in Munich

Ich gehe mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge.

Today is my last day at Atelier Dreiseitl. There are many talented wonderful people here with whom I hope to work and play with again.

taking the easy way...

I just re-read an email I wrote to a friend in August. Hilarious!
I had written her about all the things that were annoying me about living in Germany and how I knew I would miss them after I left but that in the meantime they were driving me nuts! The email was written before my grand European city adventure, when leaving seemed far more like a dream then an imminent deadline.

Now that I am so close to leaving, I'm missing everything before I've even gone. All the little stresses are lifting. I am not worried about work deadlines. The language problems have lessened. I know I get to see my family soon enough. With these stresses ending I am truly free to fully enjoy the good stuff. And oh my God its sooo good here!

How can I leave?! And, in what crazy minute did my rational mind decide that moving halfway around the world and working for myself in recession stricken Portland would be easier than staying in Germany where I've got a year of adjusting under my belt?!

Oh that’s right... I didn't think it would be easier, I thought it would be more exciting (read challenging & fulfilling).

You know, someone once told me that you can't buy experience. I think that's true. But I think it’s also true that you don't have to wait for experience to come to you. And why would you? Its free for the taking.

Somebody pinch me.

Days since I moved to Germany: 361

Days since I've embraced my family: 299

Days till I see loads of friends and family on Saturday December 12th: 46

Days since I fell in love with Europe: 45

Days till I move back to Portland: 43

Days till I see my Mom and Dad in Europe: 13

Days left of un-selfemployment: 4

Number of hugs I will give before I leave Uberlingen: Too many to count.

Photo of the Week:

JB's Birthday Bonfire am Bodensee

Deutschlish

I keep reminding myself that I don’t have to dislike my life here just because its ending and that I don’t have to feel guilty about it ending just because I am enjoying it.

A dear friend of mine, we'll call her Tortuga, is a spectacular writer. This week she wrote a blog entry that took my breath away. While her life is in a completely different place and time then mine is, in describing her experiences, she managed to say exactly what I was thinking.

"We don’t do things one at a time around here. We’ve found that with one-at-a-time you can only fit one lifetime into one lifetime." - Tortuga

Incredibly I am just now truly letting go of some of the things that I left behind in Portland and learning to embrace my realities here in Überlingen. And yet while even now I still haven’t completely left the Portland I was in and fully embraced Überlingen as it is, I am already looking forward to the Portland to which I will arrive. Two different worlds but three different places. My heart has been trying to live in all of them at once. Its like I am mountain climbing and each place is a boulder. I have a hand on one and a foot on the other and my elbow on the third, just for a little extra balance.... I've decided that its a lot more exciting than standing still.

enroute

A quick stop in Uberlingen between Denmark and Italy.
My roommate was inspired by my chaotic repacking tactics and decided to take a picture.

With such a crazy travel itinerary its no wonder that I have found myself positively exhausted mentally and emotionally this week and down with the flu.

I called my Dr. Mom and she looked at my pixilated flushed cheeks and said my fever was about 101 and that the swine flu is only supposed to last for 3 days. She had it last spring the first time it went around so of course she should know. That's my mom for you, getting the flu before the rest of us just so she can tell us that every thing really will be alright when we get it. Mom also lost her button. Just some of life's moments which skype allows you to share.

I don't know if swines get this emotional when they are sick, but I've been a bit nutty the last few days. I know it has a lot to do with knowing that I have 5 weeks left of work, then 3 weeks traveling with Mom and Dad, and then 2 weeks to tie up loose ends, drink some gluwine and hop a plane home to the states. I am sure there is a partridge in a pear tree in there somewhere too.

I am not a very patient person as it turns out. In order to wait for something I want I start to tell myself that I don't want it at all. Apparently I prefer the disappointment over the anticipation. In high school I spent an entire week of volleyball tryouts praying they wouldn't pick me only to leave the gym on the last day higher then a kite with the delight of realizing I had made the team. And I've employed this many times since, sometimes there are just too many feelings to feel them all at once.

Right now I feel torn between loving my experience here and being really tired of dealing with the thousands of little things that come with daily life in a foreign country.

Traveling makes the little things worth it. Traveling is exciting but, once traveling is over, the little struggles are still there. My computer programs are still in German, my furniture is still someone else's, many of my friends are still completely out of touch. And yet, knowing how much I want to go home and see my family and friends and how much easier life will be in English in the states, I still find that I have to tell myself that I won't like it, that people won't be there anymore (and in fact, some might not), and that going home will be even harder than coming to Germany was.

And what's the purpose of all this negative self talk? It's so that I can find the patience to keep myself from throwing my uncompleted German tax forms (yes, in German) out the window and hoping the next plane home.

I have had my adventure, I loved it. But now I just want to sit on the couch with my dad on Saturday morning watching a western with a cinnamon roll in hand and some turkey noodle soup cooking on the stove for lunch. The list would be longer but I have the flu right now and well, this is all that sounds good. Oh and mom's there too, she's just not really watching the western.

I know its not that bad, I mean I only have to wait until November to see my parents. And then traveling in Italy will pass some time. I mean it's Italy! Would you believe mom is totally into the idea of couch surfing? Hilarious! I love it. If anybody knows someone in Italy with a couch you should let me know

...even better if it comes with a western.