Wyo

Ah, sweet relief. We traveled back to Wyoming this past week, and it was damn refreshing. We were picked up at the airport by a dear friend, who happened to have a gigantic 4x4 truck (something that is the stuff of myths here in Germany) but riding high in his noisy truck gave me a certain satisfaction. After driving a station wagon for a year it felt like an amusement park ride. I kept telling Zach to put his hands in the air, but he wouldn't.

This trip went by at the speed of light, probably (as Zach pointed out) because we saw 90% of the people we know back home. It was wonderful seeing old friends and lots and lots of family. Holding our new nephew for the first time was special,and is a reminder of all the changes we have missed while living so far away.

Another milestone was finally getting to meet our soon- to-be sister in law. This, of course, was wonderful and we couldn't be happier with her and the cheerfulness she will bring to the Konkel family.

Oops, Zach and I unfortunately decided to bring a cold from overseas that effected every single one of the Konkel household by the time we left. Sorry. Didn't mean to...promise.

We weren't met with reverse culture shock when we arrived, even though there were small noticeable differences here and there, it mostly just felt like we had never been away.


Other super duper important notes:

Ate a peanut butter cup

Watched wild animals roam the land

Went to a football game

Shot a gun

Went fishin'

Watched American movies

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Update

 

 

Off to the USA, see ya when we get back!

Funny, Interesting, Delicious, Special, Gross... Not necessarily in that order...

-Newton loves to bring "gifts" when we get home. It could be a shoe, umbrella, or whatever he can pick up off the ground. We had some new people over for dinner and we were talking in the kitchen when Newton arrives with a mouth full of my dirty underwear that he dug out of our laundry basket and drops them in the middle of the floor, I guess he wanted to give our guests something extra special.

-Our five year anniversary today, we've lived in 6 homes, 3 states, and 2 countries

-I spit a huge gob of gunk out the window on the way home from a run with Nox, only to find it right between his eyes when I got out of the car

-While discussing deep life issues with a friend of mine, the very important subject of Nutella came up. I proceeded to tell her that I can't buy it because if I have it in my house, I will eat the entire thing. The next time I saw her, she presented me with the tiniest jar of Nutella I've ever seen and said "Now you won't feel bad about eating the entire thing!"... well played good lady...

-Met a fat bulldog the other day named Gnocchi

-My husband has been on a baking kick, which resulted most recently in the most delicious cinnamon rolls

-I had a nice conversation with an ancient German Frau down by the river the other day. She explained to me, in German "Ich hatte kein Englisch" or, that she doesn't speak English because back in her day when Hitler was in charge, they never had English class in school....

 

 

Random

The kids are flocking back to school, they had a six week break for the summer. Their next big one will be sometime in October... we keep track of these things because it is usually a really really bad idea to do any traveling during their vacation time.

During the Olympics quite a few memes popped up about how fitting it was that America won the first shooting medal of the games. These memes, needless to say, were in very poor taste. Zach and I were both happy to see as the games concluded that Germany won it's most medals in yep... shooting...

Newton has contracted some lovely new ear infection. Sometimes I think he needs to be the dog equivalent of bubble boy.

The slugs here are huge, and they are squished all over the sidewalks and trails.... ewwwwww.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Random Thoughts

I seem to have hit a plateau with my German. Before we moved here I heard a thousand times "it only takes two years to become fluent in your new language when you are living in that country". So, I open the windows, relax and let that language float through the window and I will just absorb it right up. Yeah, that doesn't happen.

 I am completely functional on the basic German level, but my everyday interactions don't include in depth conversations in German. It doesn't help that all of our friends here speak better English than me. So, I need to work on that.

We are enjoying watching the Olympics, but it is much different watching through a German perspective, with German announcers, and seeing mostly German events or participants.... GO USA!!!!!!!!

It still cracks me up whenever we meet new people and everyone seems to have the darndest time saying the name Zachary. No one here seems to have ever heard that name, while at home I think it is pretty common.

It has been cold here, the low the other night was 10 degrees C, which is like 50 degrees F, brrrr, it's August right? I feel like next week I will be ready to cook a Turkey and cut down a Christmas tree.

One thing we definitely haven't gotten used to is how late people eat dinner here. We are the people who eat by 7 at the latest, but it isn't uncommon for people to start cooking at 8 or for restaurants' peak hours to happen between 9 and 10.