Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Back in the USA!

So more people read this blog than I thought, I've been fussed at twice this week for not writing. Even called LAZY once! Well to prove to you that I have been doing things....

I was greeted at the airport by two of my friends, Mary & Lauren V. and my parents.
(Gotta be honest, more German was the last thing I wanted to see, but thanks!)


We all went out to dinner in Charlotte at The Cheesecake Factory!

It was overwhelming to be in a restaurant so huge, with ice in my drinks, and waitresses that are attentive and call me "hun". (I'm used to french restaurants, where you have to search and beg for someone just so you can pay your check.)

I think the next thing I did was go on a retreat with my church. Every year we have to put on some sort of "talent" show. Here is an example of my friend Katie and what her group did. (I'm always lucky enough that no one ever videos my group. I believe I rolled on the ground as a human speed bump this year.)
Then I got my Honda!
Had to personalize her. Go Gamecocks!


My roommate and all our friends started making these cute little fuzzy owls out of felt, just for fun. We had quite a sweatshop going for awhile. I made the one with the glasses, and the one that is pink and purple mixed.


Oh, here they are, I think of them as best buddies.
Then I got to go camping with a few of my bestest friends. Unfortunately, camping turned into "Car Camping" after a long night of trying to find our campsite in the rain. We never found it, we ended up pulling our cars together with a tarp attached to the roofs so we could hang out together. Until it started raining so hard, we were getting wet no matter what. Then we spent a long night sleeping in our cars and not being able to hike the next day.

The night before camping we went to the famous "Beacon" restaurant in Spartanburg.

The following is not my food... but is a perfect example of "a plenty", which means you get plenty of fries and onion rings, to the point that you can't actually see your hamburger.

(Note to Europe friends, I know you think we eat hamburgers all the time. I ordered chicken, and this grease feast is not a typical American meal. My American friends are going to yell at me for acting like I'm not proud.)
We followed up that healthy dinner with an even healthier breakfast from IHOP.



I believe Halloween came next. I went to two parties, the first one I went as an ensemble, with two of my friends as CareBears! I think we were Bedtime Bear, TenderHeart and Lots of Love Bear. We made our friend April, an honorary CareBear, Western Bear.


2nd round, I got to pull out the German dirndl dress. I once got yelled at in Germany, because when I bought the dress, I said "now I have a good halloween costume forever!" I was told "No, now you have a traditional German dress, not a costume." ummm, well....anyway.

Oh and this is my friend Paul, sad, he has now moved to Ohio to get marrrrried!
(Don't ask me what he is, I never know.)


Oh oh yay! It actually snowed in South Carolina this year! Twice! That never happens!
Ok and now for my favorite part! My babies!!! I babysit for this little guy before I left for Germany. Now I just babysit occasionally. I started when he was 3 months, now he's over a year old. I was shocked to see how much he'd changed.
And this is how I spend my mornings, with this little girl....
(We are picking out clothes to wear.)
This is the face I see 99% of the time.

I did some pictures for her family when she turned 6 months!
I did these with a backdrop in their own living room. 
(More of those pictures later...)
And I spend my afternoons with these two!

I actually let them do this when it rains. I even bought rainboots so I could join them!
We got to go strawberry picking the other day!
Lots of fun and lots of red stained fingers.

During evenings and weekends I still work as a photographer, more on that coming soon.
I'm planning a new blog, logo, website updates, facebook fanpage, new frames, albums and more!
I even have a launch party in the works to show everything off.

Also a little out of order but I'd like to show you my Christmas present from my brother. It's a holiday message from all my friends in France (and one in Spain), also just a tour of the holiday lights in Limoges. I was so surprised and it was so good to hear from all my friends again! You have to watch at least to the point where they trick Ghennadi into wishing me a Happy Chanukah.
 Great Christmas present Eric!!!


Friday, February 19, 2010

European Review

Ok so here we go! 
This will be a quick tour of where I went and what I saw on my tour of Europe. 
I am going to try and use pictures that I have not previously shown on the
 blog, but there will be a few repeats.

 I'm also adding links back to the blogs written about each event in case you want more details.

First up, leaving America with 4 seasons worth of luggage!

It went like this: 
Germany
Greece
Austria
France
Spain
Andorra
& more France!

Here's a little visual thanks to Google maps...

Met Beatrice on the plane to Germany, made fast friends...

Made some more friends....

View out the front door in Germany...

Worked as a nanny/au pair for these three...



Saw some castles and some Alps...

Learned that Germany is very green...

Did a little photo shooting...
(Click link and scroll down blog post for more baby pics.)

Had a pretzel or two... (or twenty)

Learned that Europe has more kinds of olives than America...

Learned the German equivalent for "Call for a Good time" written on a cookie...
(People started texting him immediately when he put on his cookie necklace.)

Saw some unusual "German/American Football"... 
(I think its for the best that these pictures are blurry.)

Bought my dirndl and did some "Sound of Music" twirling...

Shimmied on over to Greece...

Took this picture on the ferry the exact moment I realized I was bad-ass for island hopping by myself in Greece...

Hiked more than I've ever hiked on a vacation before, 
but the pictures were so worth it...

Had to swing by Austria and do some "Sound of Music" stuff 
before I completely left for France...

Did some salt-mine-wall-licking...?

Met up with the brother in Bordeaux, France for some wine schooling...

Saw some weird creatures at the beach...

Arrived in Limoges, France, and this is how I felt...

Immediately saw the Tour de France... 
(This guy front and center is actually from my hometown in SC!!)

Celebrated Bastille Day!

Met some incredible friends...

I will be seeing Christelle in March in the U.S.A.!

Did a little more photo shooting...

Did some random camping...

I totally miss all the random French food...

Did a little road-tripping to Carcassonne with the brother...

Did a little more random camping...
(We were the 1st Americans to ever stay at this camp ground!!! Is that not cool?!!?)

Saw some pretty sad, (dehydrated maybe?) sunflowers...

Finally made it to Barcelona, Spain...

Saw a flaming sand sculpture on the most crowded beach I've ever seen...

Saw incredible things made out of chocolate...

Visited the smallest country I've ever seen, Andorra...

Saw all of the mountain top country of Andorra in a couple hours...

Took some pictures somewhere between Spain & France...
(I think this was one of my favorite parts, we just pulled over whenever we wanted to take pictures, there were so many cool things to see just on the side of the road.)

Had a blast co-hosting the International Murder Mystery...

Made my way back to the States via Paris...

Lived happily ever after...