Life in the South

So it's been a while, I apologize. I've been busy busy busy! and loving my new life in GA. Well, making the most of it all at the very least. A few things that have been going on: i'm taking salsa lessons! yes, lacey, a sorority sister, introduced me to salsa dancing when i visited her in columbia, sc and i've been taking lessons ever since!

i've been very grateful for my adopted family and am blessed to have their company at least once a week. we even had a world cup bracket draw party last night! they also took me out on a boat for my 2nd time ever (not counting the touristy boats). we boated out to st. katherine's island, a private island really close to richmond hill. a friend of theirs and i went walking around the island and decided it was time to turn around when we were walking between numerous dead trees uprooted on the sand and then saw a wild boar's skull. but it was a great day on the island - there's something to be said for tendering the boat and wading to the beach and then grilling and tanning all day!

my birthday was in april so dena, a friend from germany, came to visit and celebrate with me. sad that i went from being separated by the pond to being separated by several states...i hate being home but still being so far from everyone (about a 9 hour drive). but i'm really glad dena is close by and that i have my adopted family and salsa! :)

tybee, savannah's beach, recently hosted their annual beach bum parade so joel, a friend, and i went to tybee for the parade and a beach volleyball tournament. here are a few pictures from the past few months.

Dena and I out in Savannah for my birthday :) dinner and drinks at Jazz'd, an awesome tapas lounge in Savannah

We met this guy, Paul, and his friend, Jaime, who are both in the MWR Management trainee program and knew Meg, a lady I worked with in Garmisch...small world!

awesome, awesome, awesome thai food @ Ruan Thai in Savannah

yummmm a birthday isnt complete without a birthday cupcake of course! from Mabel Francis Potter's Cupcake Emporium

Lacey and I in Augusta, GA salsa dancing for the first time in my life...Lacey was a pro!

Jen, Lacey, and I salsa dancing

on to the beach bum parade on tybee....as we were driving onto the island there were signs warning us: "Water Fight Ahead....Lock Your Windows and Doors"

This is serious business...so serious that Joel had bought water guns but they weren't powerful enough so we threw them away and bought the serious, big timer pumps! people were ruthless!! opening car doors if they weren't locked (hey, they were warned to lock their doors) and lots of people had truck beds with pools full of water....ICE water! brrrr I have more pictures but they're on a water camera still to be developed...

hello tybee island and the beach :)

awesome breakfast @ The Breakfast Club on Tybee Island - numerous omelet options and other tasty breakfast items

Beach volleybal! yay! this made my heart happy! the men were especially great! it was an interesting dynamic to watch the older men play against the younger guys and the differences in attitude and casualness of the game. the older men were definitely more relaxed and the younger guys wanted everything called and to be played by the books....of course, only when it was in their favor...

awesome, awesome, AWESOME shrimp tempura from Bento Cafe in Gainesville when I went to visit Dena. We had a really great Memorial Day weekend hanging out... tubing down the ichetucknee, jazz concert downtown (to include being cussed out by an old man for talking...never mind the fact that everyone in the park was talking!!), tanning/burning/relaxing on the beach at ponte vedra, and enjoying the nightlife in gainesville (hello cheap tab!!) GREAT weekend :-D

Sweet Savannah

April 2 - 5, 2010 Easter Weekend in Savannah with Mom :)

On the waterfront

All sorts of things, including this cute lil guy, for sale at the 1st Saturday market on River Street

One of a gazillion wedding parties we saw in Savannah! Hello Wedding Season :)

At the SCAD International Festival - talk about awesome ethnic foods for cheap prices :) and numerous vendors with hand crafted arts and live music and everything else to make for a great Saturday!

Just another house downtown

I love spring in Savannah!

Gullah man making a rose from a palm tree leaf....with his eyes closed!!

eyes closed and behind his back....

finished in 30 seconds flat!

finishing touches

loooove this house!

beautiful!

beautiful flowers everywhere!

Savannah

March 7, 2010 Well, I'm going to skip around a little bit - I was getting antsy to go through my Savannah pictures so here are a few pictures from my last few weekends in Savannah, Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island!

River Street, Savannah

Talmadge Memorial Bridge

The Thomas Gamble Building

One of 24 squares in Savannah!

Inside Vinnie Van Go Gos - Savannah's Best Pizza

Leopold's - Best Ice Cream ever!

Girl Scout Mecca!

Fort Pulaski

Fort Pulaski

Fort Pulaski's Lighthouse

Downtown Savannah

River Street, Savannah

One of many shops along River Street

Savannah Cotton Exchange

Downtown Savannah

Horse Carriage rides around town, waiting in City Market

Tybee Island, Savannah's Beach

Night in an Igloo

March 7, 2010 Wow! So I'm finally getting settled in here in Georgia and thinking about all the great trips I took before coming back to the States! There are so many trips that I took that I never even blogged about but I did always try to throw a few pictures on here from my bigger trips. Well, here are a few pictures from an awesome and very unique experience -- spending the night in an igloo!! Matt and I spent the night in an igloo one of my last weeks in Garmisch and yes, the igloo was in Garmisch at the top of the Zugspitze of course! More pictures to come from Turkey and Cappadocia, Christmas Market road trip, Switzerland and my new home, Savannah!

Night in the Zugspitze Iglu Dorf -- January 25, 2010

Me at the top of the Zugspitze

The valley....Garmisch is down there!! :)

Outside the igloo entrance

Inside the igloo - all the rooms were decorated with different themes!

Another room

Night time up on the Zugspitze

Dining tables! and the awesome Swiss Cheese Fondue!!! mmmm-azing

Snowy Homecoming

February 5-6, 2010 Yes, it took 2 days to get home from Munich....if it had been up to mom and I it would have been 3 or 4 days before we made it home! Here's how the trip went....Matt and I left Garmisch Wednesday afternoon and made our way to Erding. All day Thursday was spent relaxing at Therme Erding, the world's largest spa/sauna facility! Upon arriving at the airport Friday morning and waiting in line/distributing stuff between my many, many bags (all within the allowance since I had travel orders!!) I then made it to the front of the line only to be told (what I thought was a joke at first) that my flight to Dulles had been canceled and I should hurry upstairs to determine an alternate plan. Well, after talking to my mom (on lufthansa's dime) and confusing the heck out of the nice lady who was helping me, we finally found two flights - both with a final destination of Richmond, VA. (Leading up to this I had given her a sheet with a list of all possible airports in VA - Richmond was the only one with a flight that hadn't been canceled - if it weren't for Richmond I would have been stuck in Munich til Monday or Tuesday!!) Thank goodness the flight that had a stopover in Toronto arrived in Richmond earlier than the other flight, otherwise I might have chosen the NJ stopover flight and still be stuck in Newark, New Jersey because all flights out of NJ were canceled after I left Munich. So the flights were fine minus the fact that small planes (2 seats by 2 seats) are never fun to fly on and we landed in Richmond in a rainy/slushy/cold mess! Before I even picked up my luggage there were mom and dad (what a weird airport!) so we went to grab my baggage and I was then informed how bad the roads were and that we were spending the night in Richmond for the night and maybe the following night before making our way home.

So the next day (Saturday, February 6) we had a slow start leaving the hotel because we were watching the weather channel for an hour and then went to the lobby to do some research online and look at the interstate cameras (which showed bad road conditions!!). Despite seeing all the accidents and weather forecasts on the weather channel and seeing the live traffic cams that all suggested we wait at least another day before driving, dad decided we could make the drive home. A crazy drive it was....mom gave me her ipod touch to play games and distract me from the craziness/heart attack waiting to happen! The roads were barely scraped in a lot of places, most parts of the interstate only had one lane open and when there were two lanes the tracks were so close to each other that one little mistake and it would have been pretty nasty! After driving for almost 3 hours (on a drive that usually takes 1-1.5 hours in good weather) we were finally 6 miles from our exit when we came to a dead halt! After calling a friend who can see the interstate from her house we found out that there was an accident on the exit ramp we needed to take! Back in December when VA got the other big snow there was also an accident in the same place on the interstate and they were stuck there for 13 hours before the accident was cleared up! However, after the accident was cleared up the cars were still stuck because so much snow had accumulated between the parked vehicles. Lucky for us we only sat in the traffic for an hour before moving ever so slightly, just enough to get us to a police cross through, allowing us to hop on 81S to go back to the last exit and take the secondary roads home. Some of the secondary roads were in better shape than parts of the interstate (certain counties don't spend the money to plow the roads and the interstate through those counties were the worst!!). When we made it to our back roads they hadn't been plowed at all....and those last 3 miles home were probably the craziest/scariest part of our trip home! There was about 24-28 inches of snow and we could tell a truck or two had ventured down the road leaving us a path, kind of. With some slipping and sliding (less than I thought we'd have) we finally made it to our driveway, which obviously hadn't been plowed at all....Dad just gunned it down the driveway and plowed his own path! HOME! Finally. 4 hours later (remember this is only a 1.5 hour drive normally). Well, once inside we discovered that the power was out.....we were without power for about 3 hours - thank goodness for the generator to get things warm and working! *Surprisingly we didnt see any accidents happen on our way home! but when mom and I went out today (since dad plowed all the roads) we saw an accident happen - the guy just got sucked into the shoulder into the pile of snow)

64 West...dismal road conditions!

the accident on 81N we sat in for an hour before turning around on 81S and taking secondary roads home

Back roads to our house.....insane! 24-28 inches of snow!!

The next day mom and I walked around to photograph the beautiful snow - this one was taken from the safety of our front porch! The spruce tree was our family Christmas tree in 1990.

We were able to walk down the driveway after dad plowed all the snow!