November Break 2013 - London

I can barely believe the November break has already come and gone. For those of you that followed this blog since the beginning, you know the November break has always brought bad luck for us, well mostly bad health luck for Kev. You can refresh your memory here and here. Good news on the November curse, no health problems during the trip! The trip was, however, dampened with a decent amount of rain, but that is expected in London! I was lucky to see a familiar face and a great friend from University because she and her husband had recently moved there for jobs.

In three full days touring London, I feel as if we just scratched the surface of the city. It is an absolutely massive city with so much to do. We probably wouldn't have seen nearly as much either, if we didn't have Megan and John to tour us about here and there.

In our short vacation to London, we did the following:

• Double-Decker Bus Tour
• Saw the main sights: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Picadilly Circus, etc.
• Saw the World's Longest Running Show: Agathe Christie's the Mousetrap. The play is a murder mystery on it's 60th Anniversary and I won't dare break the oath I took at the end by telling you "whodunit." The theatre (to us) was the epitome of an old theatre experience, uneven floors, steep staircases, uncomfortable seats, and full of charm! We loved it. Photos in the theatre were prohibited, but you can see a virtual tour of it here.
• Saw John's office for his new job
• Ate lots of pub food and pot pies. Whoever says English food is bland doesn't know what they're talking about. The English breakfast is killer, the pub burgers are way better than anything I've had in Germany, and the pot pie options are endless. Kev's favorite was the basic chicken pot pie and I enjoyed the mixed fish pie. Everything is served with mashed potatoes and mushy peas, of course!
• Kev and I decided we definitely aren't museum people after we strolled through the massive Victoria and Albert Museum. Beautiful though.
• Tasted a bunch of different beers on a mini-pub crawl with Meg and John. I swear there is a pub on every corner and at least two in between. Very few dance clubs, overload of pubs, also known as my heaven.
• Saw Notting Hill and the famous Portobello Market.
• Went to Regent Street for the famous "switching-on" of the Christmas Lights. Decided to avoid the crowds on the street and headed for a pub instead. The Christmas build-up is about 2 months long as the stores reap a massive percentage of their annual profits during this time. Makes sense when you don't have Thanksgiving to celebrate, I suppose!
• Mistakenly thought we saw Barbara Streisand at one of the pubs downtown. We sent the usually-willing John for a picture with her before we found out we were wrong. 
• Saw the London Eye and Tower Bridge at night, which was gorgeous all lit up.

That's about our trip in a nut-shell! I'll let the photos do the rest of the explaining.

Big Ben

Big Ben/London Eye

Westminster Abbey

Remembrance Weekend of both World Wars

One of the Oldest Churches in London

Pot Pies from the Pieminister Restaurant 

The famous Harrod's Department Store

Tower Bridge view standing on the London Bridge

Rest houses for the cab drivers

before the Remembrance Weekend parade

Notting Hill

Notting Hill

Old Cameras at the Portobello Market

Old boxing gloves at the Portobello Market

Meg sifting through the Portobello Market

Notting Hill

London Eye

Kev and I in front of Big Ben

Meg and I in front of Tower Bridge

The Date Jar

I came across the idea for "date night in a jar" more than a year ago and have been meaning to create it for us since. In a relationship, it's easy to get into a routine and get stuck doing what's comfortable. When it comes to spending time together, Kev and I try to mix it up as much as possible. But, it's easy to choose dinner at home and catching up on our latest shows over brainstorming something new and different to do.

In come the date jar! You can find the person who came up with this great idea here, and her's is much prettier than mine anyway. I never said I was crafty. All it takes is a jar, some big colored popsicle sticks (or big popsicle sticks and spray paint), a black pen/sharpie, and some creativity for date ideas. I was unable to find large popsicle sticks here in Hamburg, so I used mini-sticks. I was just happy to find popsicle sticks that were already colored.

Anyway, all you have to do then is write your date ideas on the different sticks. I consulted with the internet for some date ideas (here and here), brainstormed with Hamburg in mind, and Kev threw in a few ideas as well. I used four colors to differentiate our categories and stuck the purple sticks in to fill the jar more and separate the colors.

Green sticks are for dates that are more expensive than what we normally do or for dates that take some planning.
-Expensive Dinner out
-Local Sport Event
-Progressive Dinner (apps at one restaurant, main course at another, and dessert at another)
-Couple's Massage
-Day Trip - for us it could be to Lübeck or Bremen, for example

Red sticks are for daytime dates out of the house. Kev has short days (for the most part) so we are able to do things together in the afternoon at times.
-Lunch & Matinee movie (yes, we have one English movie theater in town!!)
-Hamburg Tourist Attraction we haven't done yet
-Coffee Date in Altona (our dream neighborhood to live in)
-Check out a Hamburg Museum
-Ice Cream & Coffee in Blankenese
-Thrift/Consignment store shopping

Yellow sticks represent evening dates out of the house.
-Dinner and a Movie
-Dessert and a Movie
-Tapas Dinner
-Bowling
-Beers at a pool/arcade hall
-Dessert-only Date (have you noticed how much we love dessert?)
-Groupon Date (find a restaurant deal on Groupon)

Orange sticks are for "dates" at home.
-Homemade pizzas & board/card games
-Fondue & a documentary
-Dessert & a movie - Kev's Pick
-Ice cream sundaes & a movie - my pick
-Takeout & board/card games
-Burgers and a "Bourne" movie (recreating our first date)
-Restaurant at Home
     *This blog has recipes that are copy-cats of many favorite restaurants from home, searchable by restaurant name. They have a couple of cookbooks as well. The founder has been seen on Fox News, NBC, ABC, and many other networks.*

Add a little tag with a color "key" on it, and you're all set! These are the activities we'll be up to in the next few weeks. :) Happy Friday!

Beautiful Hamburg

Although Hamburg is a large city of 1.8 million people, there are so many parks and green spaces for people to walk their dogs, play with their kids, and spend time together in nature. I have trails close to my apartment that go around farms and through a beautiful forest. I went back to my favorite running trail the other day to practice manual mode some more and was very happy with some of the shots I walked away with.

Didn't get to see any horses this day!

"I'm a... house girlfriend?"

As much as this whole moving abroad thing has been thus far an amazing experience, it certainly has taken a toll on my ability to have my own career. I came with Kev to Germany in the fall immediately following my college graduation. When I "cross the pond," I am issued a visa in order to spend more than the 3 months tourists are allowed in Germany. The visa I am issued is a residence visa and allows me to live here for the duration of the hockey season. It does not allow me the ability to legally work. We are only in Germany 8-9 months out of the year and I'm not near fluent in German so finding a company to give me a job and help me with a work visa on top of it isn't an easy feat. Not to mention the contracts in the DEL are much shorter than back home so we don't usually know going into each hockey season if we will be back in the same city with the same team the next season. Not the best information for a cover letter.

However, not having my own career can feel like a constant struggle. Amongst people my age, asking what one another does for work is a common question. A lot of people define themselves by their careers. It is very understandable as most of my family and friends back home work (at least) 40 hour weeks. When you spend that much time doing something, needless to say, it's a big part of your life. I don't currently work so I hate the question, "What do you do?" When I got that question over this past summer, I usually answered with, "Oh, I live in Germany because my boyfriend plays hockey there." Sometimes I get the answer "Oh, that's cool." But usually, I get the follow up question, "So, what do YOU do over there?" Now, I hate this question even more.

I know that nine times out of ten the people asking this question aren't asking it to be condescending, but because they are genuinely interested in how I spend my days here in Germany. However, I tend to find myself feeling offended when I get asked this question. Mostly because I don't have a concrete answer for them and at times that makes me feel very insecure and uncomfortable. "Uh... I... I'm... a... house girlfriend?" We're not married, so technically speaking, I'm not a housewife. I don't have a job that I go to daily and am no longer studying in University. I don't have a simple answer without giving them a run-down of the things I fill my time with. 

Trust me, not working this year is as foreign to me as moving here was. I've always had a job. I got my first job at a local ice cream shop as soon as I turned 16 and could legally work. During University, I not only was a full-time student and athlete, I had a part-time job, volunteered often, and was on a Student-Athlete Advisory board. As soon as Kev signed a hockey contract in Germany, I got on the computer and searched for the one thing I knew I could do there for work. I found a family to nanny for. I got incredibly lucky and found an amazing German family to work for and did that during our first two seasons. As lucky as I was with this family, my heart just wasn't into nannying anymore so I let them know I wouldn't be doing it this season. I still babysit for them from time to time, just not as often as I did the past two seasons.

I may not have a job and struggle with that from time to time, but I know I'm very fortunate. Kevin makes enough money to support the both of us and I am able to use this time to find and work on my own passions. Would a second income help even more? Of course it would, but it's just not in the cards right now.

I still don't have a simple answer to the "What do you do?" question, but I do have plans for this season. I've become very interested in photography and started a free online course. I will soon start studying to become a certified personal trainer. I help manage the vacation home we have in Florida in any way I can. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and baking because I love to do it. I'll be signing up and training for a spring marathon. I babysit occasionally. And, I'm very lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with the man I love exploring this beautiful city we live in. I get to look into myself and find out what I want to do, because one day hockey will be over and we'll go back to North America and I'll be able to work, work, work. In the meantime, I'll learn about myself and enjoy not working 40 hours a week, because I'm sure one day, I'll want those carefree Europe days back.

Baby Druval IV

One of my goals for this hockey season was to learn how to use the DSLR camera we bought last year.  I wanted to be able to use our nice, big camera on modes other than just Automatic. It only took one Youtube video to make me realize photography is really neat and I am itching to learn more. I have since signed up for a free course with Photocritic Photography School. Haje Jan Kamps, a Dutch photographer, inventor, and writer runs the course alongside author and photography journalist Daniela Bowker. I will get a lesson and assignment every three weeks, with the first of those coming tomorrow. I am beyond excited to see what my first assignment is!

In the meantime, I wanted to practice, so I offered to take some pictures of a girlfriend's newborn baby boy. This was my first day shooting all my photos in the manual setting so I am proud of some of the shots I walked away with. Druval is an angel with the thickest of dark brown hair so he was a pretty easy subject! His big sister, Stella, jumped in for a few shots too. After only one makeshift "photoshoot," I noticed so many things that I would do different next time. I'll learn so much by simply doing. Knowing I edited them on iPhoto would most likely make professionals cringe, but, ya gotta start somewhere!