The sad episodes of 2010.

While this year was filled with SO MANY HAPPY, BLISSFUL moments and exciting adventures, we also had to deal with 2 very unexpected and particularly painful losses.

On August 1st, my grandmother passed away. She was … years old and fell asleep in her bed. She was not in pain; she did not die in a foreign hospital bed, but in the house that had been her home for decades.

Not having her around on Christmas this year was brutal, especially for my father. But I miss her terribly and there are so many things I regret NOT having talked to her about. She died 6 days after I got married and never even met my husband.

I have never lost someone that close to me and it was the hardest thing I ever had to go through. I don‘t know how I‘ve made it through the funeral. All I remember is wanting to spare my dad all his pain. I would have done anything not to see him suffer so very much.

I remember how happy she was when she heard that I had decided to come back from the WILD WILD WEST (LOL). She always felt uneasy about the thought of her granddaughter living so far away. [I often wonder what she‘d say about my sister being in Africa now… She‘d be „not amused“]

I remember our very last phone call and how much fun we had, we joked around about the stock market (for whatever reason…), my dad and so much more. It is a stupid thing to say, but it was a GOOD last phone call.

Up until the very last moment of her life, she was witty, had my kind of humor and interested in everything, she knew about sports, politics, and the daily happenings in the world. I loved the discussions I had with her and I could always learn something for life.

I go and visit her grave from time to time and just talk to hear for a few hours. It feels good to have a place to visit, but I will always regret not having seen her more often in the last year.

Rest in peace, Mimama. I love you and I will ALWAYS miss you.

Then, later this month, while Andreas and I were on vacation in the Dominican Republic, we got a phone call telling us that my grandfather‘s older brother had suddenly passed away at the age of 91.

I am not sure how much I should share about him on this blog. So, all I will say is that he was a great, loving, kind, intelligent man, mentally and physically fit, even at his great age.
He too, will be deeply missed.

Losing Mimama and Uncle Hans showed me again that you should and are not allowed to ever take anything or anyone for granted. Everything can be over in the blink of an eye.

Our Semi-African Christmas

mom with her African dress and authentic Cameroonian mask

I have written before about the fact that my little sister has fallen in love with Africa. She is spending 6 months in Yaoundé, Cameroon and came home for 2 weeks because she wanted to spend Christmas at home. I have wanted to create a blog for her to
share all her exciting experiences and adventures and eventually I will come around to it. Anyways, she brought all kinds of interesting, fascinating, awesome presents.

As you can see, the whole family had fun dressing up as African women. The dresses were so comfortable that my mom really didn't want to take hers off anymore. I am pretty that she is going to start a new trend wearing only those specific dresses.

my cousin, Valerie, my dad and mom with their Cameroonian cloths

Mama(s) Africa

The dresses were so comfortable that my mom really didn't want to take hers off anymore.



Also, in honor of Valerie's adorable boyfriend, who couldn't join her and who was terribly missed, we decorated our tree in the colors of the Cameroon flag (its colors are red, green and yellow; so, it wasn't too hard to decorate the tree in those colors..).

Bon voyage, petit sœur!

My sweet little sister,

I wish you a safe flight and a happy reunion with Joseph!

Andreas & I will miss you and see you in 2 weeks!!!

ton ange gardien

Time flies...

I cannot believe it has been 2 weeks since I took this picture:



I picked my sister up at the airport in Zürich. She came home for Christmas after spending a few months in Cameroon. I remember being so excited that I hardly slept the night before.
And now it is almost time for her to leave again. :(
I know she has fallen in love with a fantastic, loving, very handsome and smart guy and she is looking forward to going back to Yaoundé, but I will miss her terribly.

The last 2 weeks have been anything but harmonic in our family (brother...), but she is my constant source of strength, hope and balance.
I admire her bravery and wish her all the happiness in the world.

She is and will always be my little "baby". :)

My favorite Christmas Present

I know I am repeating myself, but I just have to say it again:

My very favorite Christmas Present this year came all the way from the United States:
JOpinionated (http://jopinionated.blogspot.com/) was so kind to send me one of her awesome LOST pins!

I loved receiving this envelope because it just represents the awesomeness of the LOST community.

I mean, who would go through the trouble of mailing such a tiny pin all the way from the US to Europe?

It makes me so happy and grateful to be part of this community that will hopefully last forever.

Thanks again, Jo!

You can follow Jo on twitter @jopinionated.

that time I jammed my thumb in my car door

WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU’RE A BIT SQUEAMISH. THIS ENTRY CONTAINS SOME GRAPHIC, DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE AND PICTURES THAT ARE NOT TOO PLEASANT TO LOOK AT.

So, last night, after spending my afternoon at McCafé because it is the only place where I have access to the Internet here near my hometown (long story), I drove home looking forward to spending the evening doing nothing but watching mindless TV or reading my book, I slammed my car door on my thumb. I have no recollection of how I managed to close the door with my right hand and at the same time jam my right thumb, but I did. All I remember is looking at my hand slowly realizing that I could only see half

of my thumb. It really was like in a move, everything happened in slow motion. I was half expecting to see half of my thumb on the ground after opening the car door again.

Well, after the initial shock, I dropped my Macbook and purse, ran to the front door, which was of course shut (which is quite rare). I rang the bell like a madman, praying someone would open the door.

After a minute or so, my mom finally opened the door yelling at me for being so rude and for making such a fuss. Her behavior changed the second she saw my thumb. Believe me, it was not pleasant to look at and it HURT like hell.

She forced me to hold it under cold water while ran to get my dad. He took one look at it and told me to go to the emergency room because it looked broken (my dad’s a general practitioner). I first refused to go because I thought it was only bruised and all I wanted to do was l lay down and close my eyes for a minute.

But my mom would not hear a word of my “reasoning” and so we drove to the emergency room, were admitted by a super rude nurse (who

I had already known from one incident where my brother hit me so hard I had to go to the emergency room to see if I was ok) and had to wait quite some time before we finally saw a doctor. He, in turn, was very nice. I had to have X-rays taken, which took another hour or so and then a different doctor told me that my thumb was indeed broken and that I had to wear a splint for the next 10 days. Ugh. I have a tiny wound that they had to glue together. The second doctor wanted to suture it but I told him that it wasn’t necessary. He listened to me. lol

my tiny splint

Now I have to run around with this splint which is disabling me in all kinds of ways. I can’t even really brush my teeth. Thank God that I do not live alone. LOL But I feel like a toddler… I already cannot wait for those 10 days to be over.

The pain isn’t too bad. I am just mad at myself for being so stupid and breaking my own thumb.

For those who don’t mind seeing blood and gross, broken thumbs, here are some pictures I took while I was bored waiting sitting in the waiting room. I don’t think the photos are too bad, but John should probably NOT look at them.

New Website, New Name?!

When I started this blog, I wanted to write about my life between Germany and the US.
Well, things have changed - COMPLETELY.
I am now searching for a new title for my new website.
I know that there are some creative people out there. Maybe you can help because I am drawing a blank.

So, PLEASE, help me with some suggestions.
I'd really, really appreciate it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FRÖHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN

TO ALL MY CONSTANTS

OUT THERE!

There is one person who I am especially grateful for:
JOpinionated;
who is one of the most amazing, kindest ladies EVER!
She sent me one of her famous Lost pins

all the way from the States!
I couldn't have been more excited about
that Christmast present, Jo!
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

A Trip Back To The Future of The Internet by NPR: Science Friday Podcast

In 1993 Science Friday was broadcast live over the internet as the first national radio show ever. Last week, they released this recording as a podcast. It is an episode that is definitely worth listening to.

It reminds you of how fast times have changed and of how we take the Internet for granted. Dou you ever think about what an astonishing invention it really is? Can you remember the time before we had the Internet? I hardly can. The questions, comments, reactions and excitement of the host and callers are so funny and kind of cute. If only they had known how much the world was about to change...

Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510221

Happy Friday, everybody!

The Pure Awesomeness of My Mami!

A few weeks ago my parents came to visit me and my husband (it was the first time my dad hd been to our place) to bring me some necessities for the impending beginning of winter. [I still haven‘t really moved; 3/4 of my belongings is still in my old room in Germany]

It‘s just like my mom to not onlythink of of the few things I had asked her for, but to also bring tons of groceries (she always thinks that I am not getting enough food - no matter where I am; I have no idea how many times she sent enormous boxes with all kinds of delikatessen to the US to make sure I was eating), some newspaper articles, magazines, some letters I had received and this:


„Do not open before December 1st.“

Can you guess what was in this package?


I am a huge child when it comes to my Advent Calendar. Every year, I get giddy with excitement when I think about opening one of those tiny 24 doors every single day.
To me, the chocolate in those calendars is better than any other chocolate you can possible imagine. It must be sentimental, because, as we all know, it is not high-qualitiy chocolate. Or maybe it is the simplicity of it?! Whatever it is, I love it.
Needless to say, I was super excited when I saw that my mom had thought of me and my weakness for Advent Calendars. I really had not expected this and was quite touched.

Being the well-behaved daughter I am, I did not open this gift until this morning (December 1st). And, guess what, she gave me 2 (!!!!!) chocolate calendars.





So, I get to open 2 doors every day now!!!

My inner child is as happy as can be.

THANK YOU, MOMMY. I wish you could have seen the HUGE smile on my face when I saw those calendars.

HAPPY DECEMBER, MY FRIENDS!