Nordstrasse Strassenfest

Let me start off by saying I live in the most awsome village ever!!! Last year when I first arrived I experienced my first Strassenfest. I guess the best thing to compare it to is a block party in the U.S. Everyone on my street gets together and drinks, grills, eats, cooks, sings, toasts and enjoys each others company. It was an amazing way to meet my neighbors, although I hardly spoke any German.
Fast forward a year and I have now taken one German class and done some online work so I can communicate at least 30% better than last year. This years Strassenfest was held at an old restored windmill that a couple now live in.

We sang Karaoke in the living room, it was all english words though so somehow I kept ending up with the microphone in my hand!

Saturday was quite rainy, but Sunday was beautiful. On Saturday night we start around 6 p.m. with grilling and beer drinking. Funny story: I invited my friend Amber to come down around 11 p.m. and she brought a bottle of wine with her, everyone kind of looked at it like they didn't know what it was! Beer is definitely the drink of choice in Germany. Small fires are kept burning to keep away the chill, even though it was extremely humid after a rainstorm. Saturday goes really late, I left just after midnight because I had to sober up enough to drive to Dusseldorf the next morning and go to Chapel. Sunday is usually a bit of the same, but with cakes (Kuchen). Germans know their cakes and I tried a bit of everything, just to be fair of course:)

All my friends are extremely jealous, mostly because I talk about for about 2 weeks prior like it's my birthday or something. I don't know of any other person whose street gets together like this and, consequently, not many of my friends get to practice their German on a daily basis or even really get to know their neighbors. Okay, without further adieu, here are my nachbar (neighbors) and friends!! If you are a neighbor and friend and want copies of pictures, just stop by!

So Many Men, So Little Time......or, The Avord, France Airshow

I first have to say that airshows are such a trip. Okay, sure there's the standing around in the hot sun sweating and dehydrating all day. Okay, and there's the "Sorry, I don't speak French" thing, but it's the rest of it that's fun! Here's the flow of events, as they generally play out:

Arrive at the host base at least one day prior to the event. In our case we originally planned for the airshow to be Saturday and Sunday, but were pleasantly surprised to find it was Sunday only and Saturday was a practice day. The first night the host base sponsors a Beer Tent where all the aircrew members can get together and....drink beer! Okay, of course it is also about international relations, blah, blah, blah. Mostly it's just hanging out having a good time with your friends and the party never really starts till NATO is in the house. This picture is with Ingo, from our squadron.

After the beer party we boarded the bus to drive into Bourges, the nearest big city. The "boys" of course were looking for a bar, I was lucky enough to find a couple folks who wanted to see the sights so we checked out the Cathedra...gorgeous!! There was a blue light tour around the town at night showing all the historic religious sights and there were slide shows playing with music. We followed the music down one dark alleyway which led into a convent courtyard and had a music and light show.

Saturday I was up bright and not so early to catch the bus into town again and see the sights in the daylight. I was joined by the two other women on the trip and we took the Cathedral Crypt tour. Unfortunately, it was all in French and we only understood none of it. They did give us a booklet, but it told about 4% of what the guide told the group.

After the Crypt tour we headed up 350-some odd stairs to the top of the Cathedral. The walk up the stairs showed graffiti from the 1800s!! It was amazing and quite the view, but we were exhausted.

Sunday was, of course, the airshow. The French demonstration team performed, although I have to maintain U.S. pride and say the Thunderbirds are MUCH better:) I had a great time "talking" to folks, but if I never say Bonjour again it will be too soon!

After a grueling day we headed to the invitation only, which we managed to snag about 20 invitations for, cocktail party. While I understand French champagne is good and it's best served with small snacks, drinking it after a long hot day is not as great as you might imagaine. On the left is Timo and Shrek, I don't know the other two guys names, but I traded patches with the one on the right so he wanted in the picture. Trading patches is the biggest pastime at the airshow and I somehow ended up with less than I went with. I'm not sure how that happens, but I've been told champagne cloudss the senses.
Overall, another successful NATO venture and fun to boot! I had a great time and if any of you make it over here, there is much more to see than just guys, I PROMISE!!

Labyrinth

In a magical place called the Dreiland, Three Lands, you can be in Begium, the Netherlands and Germany all at the same time. The Stahlbaum's, Erin and I have been having Sunday adventures for awhile now and since Tiffany's mom was in town we went all out. Rachel, Justin and Nikki tagged along too! It doubled as a going away trip for the Reiser's before they PCS'd.

The traditional Dreilands pose, or Dreiland's Twister if you will, with on body part in each country. You can see the lines on the ground signifying the divide.

There's also a tower you can climb, or ride the elevator up, and overlook the three countries. Erin is posing in the Netherlands...I think.

Rachel, Justin and Nikki at the entrance sign. It took us 10 minutes just to get into the park because we had to get pictures of everyone at the sign!

The Stahlbaum "girls" pose for their picture right before one or the other girls ran off to explore some "amazing" tree or item they found on the ground. You have to be quick to get them all together, but they never seem to take a bad picture!!

The Reiser's led the way for this trip and even took us to a Pannenkuchen Mill for lunch beforehand. Pannenkuchen are like crepes, only thicker and you can get ANYTHING on them from cheese and bacon, to fruit and whipped cream, to ice cream and chocolate sauce!

Mondo Verde

Just across the border in the Netherlands there are a series of parks and Mondo Verde is one of the newest. We recently had a trip there after chapel for all the sunday school teachers. What a blast! We spent almost 5 hours there and only saw about HALF the park. I will definitely be going back, although it won't be as much fun without the crew:)

There was this giant cirus tent looking thing set up that you were supposed to climb up. It wasn't blown up or anything, it was really just like they took a tent and tacked it to the ground. It was quite an accomplishment to make it to the top though and we almost all had a go. This is Dave and the Chaplain celebrating their victory!

Jayson, Bryan, TJ, Saverio and Dave. The park is set up into different themed gardens and we decided we needed some group photos in this one. This isn't the whole group, we split up after lunch and went our own separate ways. We ended up checking out the dinasour park first, of course!

Me, Chris, Beth, Renee, Angela and Emily. What a great bunch of women and we had such a wonderful time together. Sometimes it's fun to just play in the park and pretend you're a kid again!

FOB Konya, Turkey

I have never been to Turkey before, as I can say for most of the countries I've visited so far with NATO! We had gorgeous facilities and even a movie room where I got to see Kill Bill for the first time, with James and Letitia. We snacked on Pistachios, a well known product from Turkey apparently. We were only in Turkey three days, but we got one day off to enjoy the sights.

James stares lovingly at Letitia before they move tables to be together by the window...awwwww. This cafe was really nice and overlooked a park so we sat and enjoyed some chai tea, not the huge chai you get at Starbucks, but real chai served in a tiny glass.

Meike is the one who found the cafe. We actually were looking for another cafe,but this one turned out just fine. We all got a little ice cream aftward and just wandered around looking at shops. He also took us to a shop where they make things with pressed wool. Gorgeous! I will definitely go there again the next time I'm in Turkey!

Florennes, Belgium

I spent a total of 3 weeks in Florennes for a CSAR exercise and a training program. We stayed one week in Dinant,where the saxophone was invented. The second week we stayed in Dinant, but at a hotel set back in the woods with nature trails, but no access to the downtown bars and restaurants. The third week we stayed on base, by far the worst! It was night flying and we landed really late, then stayed up drinking beer and visting. We went to bed probably around 1 a.m. and the mowing started promptly at 7!! Let's just say we were not well rested that night to fly.
JD and Sean at the Ibis hotel having a quick drink before dinner. The Ibis is right downtown Dinant overlooking the canal and old monastary type building across the canal. It was gorgeous and I will definitely be staying there again.
Peter, Ioannis, Sean, JD and Axl at dinner at the Mercure. This hotel was beautiful and I had a room with a balcony overlooking the grounds. It was our shortest of the three trips unfortunately, but Letitia and I did get one nature walk in before we left.

Poor Abby

My niece Abby was playing at the park and went down a spiral slide. She got her foot caught and continued down the slide while her leg was turned behind her. Of course, her aunt thought she had hurt her ankle and the hospital ONLY took X-rays of her ankle and found nothing wrong. When she still wasn't able to walk three days later Mary took her to the hospital and it turns out she had a spiral fracture!! Mary and Jim felt horrible and poor Abby has to have a cast. She sure is cute though:)