Busy Is An Understatement Part 1

Wow, the past month has been an absolute whirlwind! I have wanted to sit down and write several posts over the last few weeks and it just seemed there was never enough time or something else more important would come up. Lots has gone on as you can imagine and I do not really know where to begin so I think I will just give a run down in chronological order from the last post.

Aaron, Calvin and I are officially temporary residents of Germany and have gotten our temporary Visa's! Actually, Aaron has his permanent one already as he had a scheduled appointment about 3 weeks prior to Cal and I. It felt so good to check that off the list and this will allow me to now get any job I want here. I can work as an Independent Contractor, start my own business, work full or part time for any company here. It is interesting in that I actually have more working rights than Aaron now, who can only work for his current company.

Speaking of work that would probably be the next thing that has transpired since the end of June. I started working for my previous company back in Atlanta part time again. To be honest it was a bit of crappy timing given all that we have going on currently but once we are fully settled it is going to be such an amazing set up. It feels great to have something back from my past life that is just for me and makes me feel like my normal self again. I have loved the extra time with Calvin, especially getting so much of it before this new baby arrives and turns our world upside down. But...I would be lying if I said I didn't miss work at all, having professional conversations and just feeling like I am contributing to the household in a financial manner. We are hoping that I will be able to work enough to fund a few vacations and trips at the very least and so far we are on track to do just that!

We had our first evening out and about a few weeks back which felt so nice. We went to a restaurant called Salt and Silver which was recommended by a friend I met here through someone back home. She works as a chef at the restaurant in St. Pauli. St. Pauli is known for having lots of restaurants and bars and being the party area. It is where the Reeperbahn is located. This is technically the Red Light District and there are plenty of shops and bars to prove it. There is a street within this area that females are actually not allowed to walk down at all. There is security and unless you work on that street (use your imagination) as a female you are not allowed to walk down it. Crazy! Back to the restaurant we went to Salt and Silver. This was not located in the Reeperbahn but close to the Elbe River. The food was tapas style and absolutely delicious and we had so much fun just being out at a restaurant together in the evening, people watching and dreaming about the future days when friends and family can visit us and showing them some of these amazing spots. I will post some pictures of this excursion below but St. Pauli will definitely be a great place to take visitors.

The Fourth of July seemed to come and go and not being in the US was strange as there was no celebrations, no fireworks, no hamburgers and hotdogs. I typically love the 4th and am obsessed with the holiday but being away made it a bit easier to miss all the family and friends BBQ's. We did take the opportunity to get outside and enjoy nature and we actually went to an incredible park in the city called Planten Un Blomen. It was massive and truly one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen. There is greenery, flowers, ponds, ducks, trails, benches and playgrounds. I will be honest it was so fun walking around but Cal had a huge meltdown at the playground when he wanted to play with another kids truck. No matter what we did to steer him to another toy, a slide or one of his own trucks that we brought he was intent on getting to this one toy that didn't belong to him. It was our first real experience dealing with a tantrum in public and while I was secretly dying inside, we handled it pretty well overall. German parents and children seem so reserved and everyone was definitely staring when the crying and screaming started and continued as we carried Cal away to an open field to lay down and cry and scream. They definitely followed as he ran back to the playground and said truck and had to be carried off kicking and screaming once again. But we kept our cool, let him cry it out and left the playground for the day to explore other areas of the park. We stumbled upon a beautiful garden full of flowers. Not far past there were these really cool games that included water guns where you could spray these water balloons suspended in the air and another one with two water guns on each side and 2 goals. There was a ball floating in the middle and you tried to spray it into the opponents goal. Calvin got a kick out of trying to spray the guns with his dad while I was very into actually trying to win the game and save us from being scored on. It was a beautiful day overall and we killed a few hours just enjoying each others company (except for the meltdown) and being outside. This was probably the last calm weekend before the real craziness began of starting daycare and moving! I will post more of that in Part 2. For now enjoy pictures of St. Pauli, Planten Un Blomen and a few extras of Calvin below.

Tschuss!

-Katy