Adventures Elsewhere - Annaberg-Bucholz

After Leipzig, we drove to Annaberg-Bucholz which was probably the smallest town we visited.  It's tucked away in the Ore Mountains and is very beautiful.  While we were there, we were able to see a family that Newel taught as a missionary.  They made us lunch and then took us around their town and surrounding areas.  Here are some things we did with them:

Went behind their house and looked out over Annaberg.  See how pretty?

Climbed the tower of The Church of St. Annen.  It's one of the largest late Gothic churches of Saxony and was built from 1499 to 1525.  A family still lives in the tower and cares for the church and rings the bell.  (This is Newel and the Sengers at the top of the tower.)

Walked through the marketplace and then hiked the Poehlberg - the highest mountain in Annaberg.

What I want to remember:

1)  How much Newel and the Sengers enjoyed being together again.

2)  The hills and fields of Annaberg-Bucholz and other surrounding towns.

3)  Comparing the people in Annaberg to the people in the Southern United States - so friendly, simple, and their accents occasionally being difficult to understand in their respective languages. :)

Pizza

So for those of you who don't know, my favorite food is pizza.  I LOVE pizza.  Anything from authentic Italian to good ole Little Caesar's; from homemade goodness to store-bought frozen.  We've found some pretty good pizza places down here in Birmingham.  We also have all the usual places like Papa John's, Dominos, etc.  But there's been a special place, near and dear to my hungry heart, that they haven't had in Birmingham until just 2 months ago, and that special place is...drum roll please... PAPA MURPHY's!

For those of you who haven't heard of Papa Murphy's, it's a take and bake pizza place that makes your pizza with all the freshest ingredients and then you get to take the pizza home, bake it in your own oven, and eat it.  YUM.  I have so many good memories associated with Papa Murphy's--hanging out with friends as a student at BYU, brother-in-law's wedding rehearsal dinner, my golden birthday, Newel's nephew's 1st birthday, dinner & games with Newel's sister & brother-in-law... you get the picture.  If there's a good party going on, Papa Murphy's is probably there too.

Last week I was thinking about how much I missed it, and then as Newel and I were driving around on the 4th of July I thought I saw a sign that said Papa Murphy's.  I told Newel, "I must really miss Papa Murphy's because I think I'm seeing the signs for it".  And then I realized I really was seeing the signs for it!  YAY!  Today, I got a large barbecue chicken pizza for only $8 because it's their special pizza of the week.  It was delicious and worth every single yummy, savory, and probably fatty bite!

Birmingham friends, if you haven't had Papa Murphy's, try it!  There's a new location by the Publix on Caldwell Mill Road.  Utah friends, go eat some Papa Murphy's for me and count your pizza blessings. :)

Adventures Elsewhere - Leipzig

In Leipzig, we first drove by the train station that took Newel to Dessau.  One thing I learned from him was that the missionaries almost always took the train when they were transferred to different areas.

After driving around a little bit, we found this AWESOME parking spot right by everything we wanted to see.  This was a big deal because it seemed like there were no places to park but then we found this perfect spot.  We were living the charmed life.

Some other things we saw in Leipzig:

Nikolaikirche - This church became famous in 1989 when it became a center of peaceful revolt against communist rule. 

open to all

Thomaskirche

This church is famous as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a Kapellmeister.  He's also buried there but we couldn't find a grave site. We looked everywhere in and outside the church.  Oh well.

Market Square

Völkerschlachtdenkmal - Monument to the Battle of the Nations

What I want to remember:

1) Discussing the fact that most Germans do not have a belief or faith in God, but their ancestors had so much - you can tell they did because there are beautiful, old churches EVERYWHERE

2) Laughing at our GPS's pronunciation of German street names

3) Laughing at my attempts to pronounce German street names, sites, and various German phrases ('kirche' was especially hard and I tried to say it a lot in Leipzig)

What Newel wants to forget:

1) The super flat pillows and how it was really hot in our hotel room that night - he's still complaining about it. :)

Adventures Elsewhere - Dessau

After Berlin, we drove to Dessau, the first area Newel served in when he was a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It's a smaller town in Germany.  The best part about Dessau for me, and maybe for both of us, was seeing Newel see his first apartment again.  He just couldn't believe he was actually seeing it again and that nothing about it had changed (except missionaries weren't living there anymore).

 

Friedrich-Schneider-Straße 68

After seeing the apartment, we walked down the street (the same street Newel walked down everyday when he was in Dessau) and went to the grocery store to get some flavored milk (also something he did a lot when he served there).  It was fun having Newel take me on a tour of the grocery store.  Their groceries are similar but different compared to what we have here in the U.S.  They obviously had their own brands of milk, cereal, candy, etc. (except I did see that Pringles, Oreos, and M&M's had infiltrated the stores shelves - just say NO, Germany!), but they also had less of everything since Germans (and I think most Europeans) go to the grocery store almost everyday to get the food they need for that day.

We then walked a few blocks and saw the McDonalds Newel regularly ate at (again, just say NO, Germany!), the main square he taught his first discussion/lesson, and gave his first Book of Mormon.  Here we are in the main square.

After that we went to the Bauhaus School which was something I wanted to see after studying the Bauhaus movement when I took art history in high school 10 YEARS AGO.  Wow, don't get me started. :)

We also saw the train station that brought Newel to Dessau and where he & his companion took the train to church on Sundays since the building was that far away.

What I want to remember:

1) Talking with Newel about his experiences in Dessau - him seeing everything triggered so many memories that he hadn't shared with me before

2) Seeing Newel's happiness and awe to see Dessau exactly 15 years later

3) Everyone riding bikes (really EVERYONE - old people, young people, either going to/coming from work, leisurely riding, etc.)

Adventures Elsewhere - Berlin

Last month, Newel and I went on a really, really, REALLY great trip to Europe.  When we were there, we took A LOT of photos (1302 to be exact) and I kept a journal (really just notes I wrote on the backs of hotel reservations and maps/directions to places we were going in case the GPS wasn't working).  My next few posts will be about the vacation which will really just be pictures and notes I took.  Hope y'all enjoy. :)

We first landed in Frankfurt, had a short layover, then flew to Berlin.  Here we are in the Frankfurt Airport about 9:30 AM their time, 2:30AM our time. Can you tell how tired we were? :)

At the airport, I kept thinking, this is the first step I've take in Europe, this is the first toilet I've used in Europe, etc.  I just wanted to take everything in, and I couldn't believe we were finally there.  I had my first European breakfast sandwich and it was incredible.  Maybe I was just really hungry but everything about it was perfect.  The freshly baked bread, the cheese, the meat, tomato and cucumber; so YUM.  Okay, enough about the food.  I think I'll write a separate post about the food.  Then I won't get distracted from what we actually did which was way more interesting.

Once we got to Berlin, we rented a car and drove to our hotel which was close to everything we wanted to see.  Newel did a really great job with researching the location of all the hotels we booked so we didn't have to do much driving/parking around the city.  Anyway, the first thing we did was walk over to the Reichstag - a historical building that housed the Imperial Diet of the German Empire from 1894-1933.

Then we went to the Brandenburg Gate which is a former city gate turned Neoclassical triumphal arch and probably Berlin's most famous landmark.

Then we walked through the Tiergarten which I would compare to Central Park in Manhattan.  It was a really big and beautiful park filled with green trees, people walking, running, riding bikes, and/or hanging out with friends/family.  No people are in this picture but look how pretty it is!

Then we climbed to the top of the Siegessäule which is the Berlin Victory Column commemorating the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War.  At the top, you get a really amazing view of all of Berlin.

From the top looking down the street.

After doing all of this, and having not rested from the flight, we were so beat and headed back to our hotel to sleep.  The next morning we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial which ended up being one of our favorite parts of Berlin.  It was really cool to see parts of the old wall and to think about what it meant for/how it affected the German people.  The Berlin Wall ran just along a street right through the city, separating friends and family, dividing the country from 1961 to 1989.

Bernauer Straße 

What I want to remember: 

1) How excited I was to be there

2) My first European breakfast (more on that in the food post)

3) Appreciating what people went through being divided by the Wall

Rain

I know in my last post, I was kind of griping about the weird winter weather Alabama experienced, but I have been meaning to write about something I've loved about the weather here too.  The rain.

I love it.  It rains a lot here.  It's raining right now actually.  Sometimes in the middle of the night, I wake up and I hear it raining and I feel so peaceful.  There's not a care I have that I can think of.  I just lay there and feel completely safe and loved and happy.  I don't know how that happens by just hearing it rain outside.  Maybe that's how life sounded when I was in my mom's womb before being born and I probably felt safe there so that's why I feel safe when I hear the rain now.  I don't know.  I'm thinking crazy. :)

Anyway, the rain is wonderful.  It's peaceful and makes me think of God.  I really do love it.  Life in the South is good.

P.S.  General Conference was this weekend and it was amazing and uplifting, and I feel a bit more ready to take this life on again.  If you didn't get to see it or want to see it again, watch it here.

Bad Snow, Good Snow, Cold Day, Warm Day

Alabama has been so confused lately.  Most of you are probably aware of the crazy weather the South has experienced in the last couple months.  Now it's not so crazy and people are wondering why I'm just now writing about it, but I thought I would share anyway.

The main thing was the Snowpocalypse or Snowmaggedon or whatever other name you wanna call it that we had at the end of January.  It was PURE CRAZINESS.  I don't even want to go over the details because I'll have to semi re-live it, but I have to document this to some extent so here it goes.

On Monday, January 27th, the forecast said Birmingham would receive a light "dusting" of snow.  Usually, when there's a chance of snow, they close the schools and businesses (or at least have late-starts where they don't start/open until 11ish) and all the bread, eggs, and milk disappear off store shelves.  But this time, the weather forecasters were certain that the snow would be minimal, that it wouldn't stick, and that we could and should carry on with our days as usual.

On the morning of Tuesday, January 28th, I checked the weather forecast again before going to work to see if it had changed, but the "dusting" prediction remained.  So I drove to work and started seeing the preschoolers.  Then it started to snow, and the preschoolers were excited and it was a cute, magical moment because we don't get snow here and kids (& adults) love it when it happens!  Then it kept snowing and we noticed it was sticking. Soon after that we hear Jefferson County Schools were closing and informing parents to come pick up their children so Glenwood Preschool Program did the same.  I got a little excited because this meant I'd probably get to leave work early , make a yummy, warm meal and then snuggle up & watch a movie with Newel.

Once preschool parents were picking up students, I went up to Allan Cott School to work with the residential students since I knew they wouldn't be going anywhere.  When I got up to the school, the director said I didn't need to worry about seeing them for speech therapy because they were trying to get residential staff to come to work early and get the students to their houses.  I was thinking, "YAY!  Now, I only need to write progress notes for the preschoolers and then I can probably go home."

All the while, it's still snowing and sticking, and a long line of cars started to build up to get out of Glenwood.  I figured I'd wait until there was not a line and the traffic out on the main roads died down.

But it never died down, and people that left Glenwood as soon as it started snowing came back because the roads were impassable.  My heart sunk into my stomach when I found this out because I realized I'd be sleeping at work.  I thought, "SLEEPING at work?!  NOOOOOOOOOOO. I can't sleep at work.  No."

Yes.  I got stuck at work and slept there, but I was lucky to get stuck at Glenwood.  Since they have residential programs for children, adolescents and adults, they had extra food, blankets, toothpaste and toothbrushes.  I was also able to find a couch to sleep on.  And once I found out Newel got home safely (after spending 7+ hours in traffic), I was able to sleep.  I had a dream that night that the snow was melting and my supervisor, two of my coworkers, and I were walking out of Glenwood and heading home.  Oh, what a wonderful dream!

The next day, Wednesday, January 29th, the snow had stopped but the roads were iced over and the roads still impassable and it wasn't looking like anything was going to melt because temperatures were below freezing.  It looked like we'd have to stay another night.  But what about my dream?!

I tried to do work, but couldn't focus.  I just wanted to go home and be with Newel.  After lunch, some people decided to leave work and brave the icy roads.  They didn't come back and rumors were that they were getting home.  So my supervisor and 1 of my coworkers and I left in my supervisor's SUV and made it to the freeway.  My supervisor dropped me off the main road that was close to our apartment and I walked the rest of the way.  After leaving for work 30+ hours before, I finally made it home!  It felt so good to be with Newel and just give him a big hug.

The next day, it was impossible to get to work so I stayed home and took some pictures.  Here they are:

Our mailbox.

When we were still so happy to be together again.

The apartments behind ours.

Now looking at these pictures, it doesn't look so crazy.  But it was.  And everyone that experienced it has their own story.  I think we all learned a little something from it.  Being better prepared, having gratitude for all we do have, Alabama doesn't know how to forecast the weather, etc. :)