Small Town Big City...

I've been following a blog. This blog. And every Friday, Wendy, puts up a question. This week's question was "Who is your neighbor?"

Easy Question?  It used to be. But, it got me thinking...partially due to jet-lag and I Can't.Sleep!

"Downtown Jamesport"

I grew up in a small town. Very small. 

500 people small. 

I knew my neighbors. 

Hey, in fact I knew probably 99% of the entire town, including their dogs, cats, and horses.

I knew to stay out of Mrs. Sour Face's yard, she didn't like kids.

I knew to stop by Mr. and Mrs. Bubbles because they would have some cookies, they liked kids.

I knew that my BFF lived on the other side of town, only a 10 minute bike ride away.

I knew that I couldn't get away with anything, because not only did I know everyone...they knew me and who my parents were. 

But, this small town girl is now living in a city of 3 million. 

"Downtown Taipei"

Mind-boggling? Yes!

Fascinating? Quite!

Loving it? Hmmm, most of the time.  

I love that everything is just right outside my apartment building.

Need milk or eggs? No problem, 5 min. walk to the grocery.

Can't sleep and need a snack? No problem, 24 hour McD's and a 7-11 just 5 min. walk away.

Coffee? Starbucks, just a 5 min. walk away...it's full? No worries, there are other coffee shops or I can walk another 3 min. down the road to yet, another Starbucks. 

Pathetic? Just a bit?

Spoiled? Definitely

"Green OB"

I forget how spoiled I am until we visit my little hometown or in this case, my FIL's hometown.  My in-laws moved to this beautiful little village about 11 years ago when they retired.  

Oberreidenbach. Say WHAT?

Big name for a village of 700, eh?

But, being back in a small town brought memories back from my childhood.  

Everybody knowing everybody. 

Green. Green. Green. Lots of Green.

Fresh. Clean. Air.

Did I mention Green? 

But, back to Wendy's question..."Who lives in my neighborhood?"...Neighborhood = Community.

Do I know everyone in the city? Ha! That is funny!

Do I know all my neighbors? No, but I know most of them.

Am I lacking in community?  Nope! Community in the expat world usually circles around schools, employment, expat community centers, or places of worship.  

For me, community lies within the school my kids go to and the church we attend. Some of those people just happen to be my neighbors.
Which for a cup of sugar is only down a flight of stairs or two...or when I'm lazy down the elevator. ;)

If you like to follow blogs, Wendy's blog is a great place for inspiration and encouragement....check her blog out here.

I think it is Wednesday, but not for sure....

Yes, jet-lag is in full swing at the Maurer house.

Ah, jet-lag. Those mixed feelings that make your body and mind just about go crazy. You know.
Upset stomach, yet starving.
Sleepy, yet can't fall asleep.
Writing blog, yet the brain is fog (so that means my fingers are hitting every other key incorrectly, and making horrid rhymes, seriously. need. sleep.)

So, while I'm waiting for my two Darling Dears to get to sleep...I'm catching up on blogs that I've not been able to read the last few weeks.
And since it is Wednesday and I haven't reported one single WIP in probably 2 months thought I'd try my hand at getting one in....sigh....

But, I need to start this back up or I don't think I will finish this next project. I need accountability to keep moving forward.  I sent off a magazine story and am (now that I've remembered) anxiously waiting for the reply, which could be any day now.
The other WIP is in the editing stage, then will be sent off to a magazine.

But the newest WIP is...drum roll, please.....I've been inspired to write a novel. My first.  It has been rolling around in my head for quite a few months. I've bounced the idea around much like a soccer ball on the pitch and decided to really give it a go. I'm still in the beginning stages...like making an outline or more like a really rough sketch of where I want it to go.

For those of you who write, do you use an outline of some sort or do you just start writing and see how it goes?

Now back to unpacking (which I haven't started yet) OR daydreaming about Bath (I'll be blogging about that trip in a few days with pics)....decisions, decisions....but those both will have to wait as I am going to have to sleep in the DD's room to get them to stop playing and to fall asleep.....being away from their toys for 6 weeks makes their room an amusement park.

Lovin' LegoLand!

This spring I got a newsflash....that there's such a place as LegoLand. I seriously had no idea about such a place. Did you?  And as I'm finding out, they are everywhere...kind of like Disneyland.  But, as my gracious husband explained...it is a place we should add to the itinerary for our Germany Trip. So, with some gift money, that is just what we did after our visit with his siblings (who live very close to the place). 

Pictures below can tell you the highs and lows of the day.

   

LegoLand, here we come. Matthea was so scared of the music and the people walking on stilts that we couldn't get a picture of her until after we were inside and everything made sense to her. I was worried that we were wasting money, but she had fun once we entered. Thank goodness!

                                  

The Lego Train was a favorite for the kids. 

But this train ride was NOT. Sick stomachs.  Dizzy Heads.  Get Us Off of here!  

It was our first ride and I thought Uwe was going to kill me for taking the kids on it. 

After five minutes of rest, ready for the next. Why is that?

First roller-coaster ride for Marcus and Megan. It was a hit!

Dragon Ride Roller-Coaster...got Marcus to ride with me. We finished and he was glad. But later said he'd like to do it again next time we come.  Again, why do we love these stomach turning rides?

"Prisoners of the King" Hmm, says it all, eh?

All of us, well almost all Meg would NOT get on, rode the water ride. My favorite! But...

not Matthea's. Uwe said she screamed through the whole thing. Poor thing...thought she'd like the water and being on a boat. Marcus on the other hand rode this about four times! There was no lines as school was still in session in Germany!

This canoe ride was more up to her speed. Meg was ok with it...actually she wasn't really happy with much that day. I think Meg didn't know what to think of all the things and it was overwhelming...or maybe she was just having one of her "Meg Days".

The Safari Guy made of legos, of course!

The other favorite of Matthea's was driving her car through the safari park. They had lego animals all around the drive. At one point I jumped and screamed because of some snake sound that sounded like it was landing in our car. Freaked me out. Don't like snakes.

They had a lego room where you could build with legos/duplos. This is a mural on the wall that you could add to with duplos. This was a favorite of all the kids. They didn't want to go and eat lunch even though it was way past time!

LegoWorld was quite amazing. They built miniature buildings and cities...all with legos. The cars moved, the boats traveled on the water...well done. 

This is Marcus standing in front of part of Lego Berlin.

This is the football stadium in Munich. It took 1 million legos to make it. 

It is currently the largest structure built with legos in the world.

Cool thing about this was that flashes went off like people taking photos.

But, the best of the day was at the Pirate's Cove. You could become a pirate and shoot water at each other. It was so much fun! This is Uwe and Marcus under Skull Rock.

Of course, I had to have a go.

Taking a hit! (actually quite a few. There were waterguns on the ground that people could grab and shoot you with...so not just at war with other boats, but people along the "coast")

Taking cover. We were soaked! But after half an hour of walking around we were all dry once again! This place was a boy's dream place for sure!

After spending the entire day at LegoLand, we drove five hours back to Oma and Opa's. Crazy? Probably. 

Our trip to England was two days away and we needed to desperately do some laundry and regroup for packing. The nice thing about that trip is that the sun seriously does not go down until 10pm, so we were driving in daylight most of the way there. 

World Cup Fever

Marrying a German I have learned a whole lot about soccer...or what the rest of the world calls "football". I came into the relationship loving sports, but knowing nada about soccer. My first World Cup was just after a few dates in '98.

I have come a long way since then. But, being in Germany this summer during the World Cup has been a cultural experience for me. I grew up in the US, so I remember Olympic players advertised on cereal boxes. But, seriously, I've never seen anything like this.

It reminded me of when the nearby city's high school football team made it to the State Finals. The whole city flared up RED Pride. Business windows shouted out slogans on billboards, red was the fashion, and cars sported phrases on the windows. It was a sense of unity among the community.

Now imagine this hype on a larger scale where the entire country is united in supporting their team. Fashion IS the national shirt. Flags are draped out the front window of most houses. Cars wave the flag from their windows, on their shield guards, and they even have flags that fit over the side mirrors called window bikinis (no joke!). And then, of course, the products advertise not just the World Cup, but the German team or colors.

Need examples?

OK, here they are....

Yes, that would be Black, Red, and Gold M&M's

And, Pringles....as "Pringooooals"

Had to show one house with a flag. I haven't gotten a picture of the cars all decked out, but will try to do that when we get back in a week. I'll post them on here when I get those!

And here is my family getting into the spirit of World Cup Fever. This is the game Germany beat England. We got to watch and celebrate with the whole Maurer Family! What a day!

Got to have face-paint, don't we?

Kids all watching the game. Yes, we had our own vuvuzela in German colors, of course!

Flags were everywhere at this house!

And it's a win! Kids were loving it all!

We are now in England and I haven't seen much of the spirit here. Probably since they are now out, but here is one picture that shows they at least had some. The big thing around Bath, is decorated Lions. They have them everywhere, then at the end of the season they will auction them off for charity. Anyway, here is one lion dressed up in an English National Uniform.

As we sat and watched the final few minutes of last night's game (Germany vs. Spain) it was very clear that we were not going to advance to the Championships. But, some good stories may come out of it.

1. The German team is VERY young with an avg. age of being around 24-25...many playing were in their early 20s. They were not expected to get this far.

2. Klose could tie with Ronaldo as the player with the most goals scored during World Cup games. Wouldn't that be something to see?

3. The Championship game is Holland vs. Spain...neither country has won the Title. This will be a first for one of them. Someone wrote on their FB status, "epic". In the sports world, that is definitely what it is...an epic.

So, have you been following the World Cup? Who will you be cheering for to win the Title?

Me? Holland...for no other reason other then Spain beat Germany. Pathetic, I know...but at least I'm honest.

And speaking of pathetic....I have to admit that I do not know a single player on the US team. A shame, I know....

Short post with contest

Greetings from Bath. Not the bathtub, nor The Green Bathtub (couldn't resist Amy), but Bath, UK.

A quick view of the building our flat is located in.

My husband, Uwe, is currently taking his final class here at the university. And we are taking a vaca. I'll be posting about all our summer adventures at a later time; probably in a few days because Germany plays Argentina (World Cup Game) in less than an hour and I just don't think I can get the girls to sleep, clean up the kitchen, download the pics and write another blog post all in that time.

But, I wanted to stop and post this really fun contest by KarenG. She's giving away a fun book for her Let-tuce Read Contest. So jump over there and enter.

Hope you all have a great 4th and a safe weekend. I'll post what we did on Monday...it is always interesting celebrating July 4th in another country other than the USA.

Lessons from Esther

The "Esther" Girls

This past school year my Bible Study group finished "Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman" by Beth Moore.

"The whole school year? Isn't that study like 9-10 weeks?" I hear the questions coming from those die-hard Beth Moore fans.

Yes, to both of those questions.

But, I love it that we took a 9 week Bible study and turned it into a 9 month one. We broke up the weeks into months, so that we had time to finish it and watched the videos together. If you've never had the chance to do one of Beth's studies this one is really good. Any of them are great, but I really enjoyed this one.

Anyway, here are a few of the lessons that I gleamed from the life of Esther...I'll only give a few from the end of the study, otherwise, I will just be writing her study (and like I have time to do that, right? NOT!).

1. "God has my lot secure."

Esther 3:7 lets us know that a lot was cast to determine the date when all the Jews were to be annihilated; but in Esther 9:22 we see that the tables were turned..."sorrow was turned to joy and their mourning into a day of celebration."

Psalm 16:5 says, "LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure."

Just as God had the Jews' lot secure, he has mine as well. So, whatever comes my way, He will give me what is needed....He is not surprised or shocked....He has it held together. As a mother of a special needs child, this truth keeps me sane...because God not only has my lot secure, he has Matthea's lot secure as well.

2. "Beauty in God's realm is not a treatment. It is a destiny." Beth Moore

Esther 2:12 we see that they girls had to undergo a 12 month beauty cycle before they were allowed to see the king. Beauty is all about looks...not much has changed since the days of the Persians, eh? Just look at any magazine in the world. I was reminded of this fact as I sat at a beauty salon a few months ago to get my hair washed. I was given a Chinese magazine and, of course, couldn't read it. BUT, it didn't matter. I saw the beautiful, the glamorous, the knock-out bod on each magazine.

God is more worried about our character than our body. Although, he does want us to take care of our bodies properly.

Ecc. 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." That includes you and me.

But, this got me to thinking about my other daughter who will be a fashion police in about another six months time, I'm sure. A 6 year old fashion police is a very scary thing to have in your home...trust me. Especially when fashion is NOT your strong point.

But, seriously, it made me think about what she watches and sees on TV...do the characters care too much about their looks? Do their body types look like the norm or like the super-star bods that we all desire to have? What about what she sees from me?

She IS only five...but I want her to grow up with a healthy outlook of her own body and more importantly to care about her own character....that she would desire to be like Christ.

OK, so here's a question for you....

If you've done a Beth Moore study, which was your favorite?

AND/OR

What have you learned lately from studying the Bible?

Memories in the Market

Last night a small group of us went to the Shilin Night Market to say "Good-bye" to Marcy, a dear friend that is leaving Taiwan after three years. It WAS raining, but we managed to have some fun anyway!

Standing outside the market with Erin and Marcy

Going on a weekday night is best. The crowds are not as bad, nor as overwhelming. But, don't think for a minute that the place was not hopping....because even in the rain, there were still people wandering around with drinks and snacks and doing LOTS of shopping.

We began the night off right. With. Dessert! Love not having the kids with us! ;) Uwe bargained with the lady to get a better deal. She threw in a small bag of sesame taffy candy and we each could have one soft peanut taffy like candy...but that was it. She wasn't budging. But, it made for a good entertainment watching them go back and forth for a few minutes. (But never worry, it was all laughs in the end on both sides...gotta love Asia!)

This "log" beauty is Amazing! Inside the dough-like crust is crushed peanuts,

black sesame, and SUGAR! This stand was a total sugar bomb!

So, to take the sugar rush off we followed with an onion fried bread. Of course, I didn't get a picture of this...but it is basically dough with green onion kneaded into it and then rolled out flat, then fried on a hot plate. Nice and hot!

Something we did NOT eat was the famous Shilin Oyster Omelet. These slimy things are cooked all around the market. If you like oysters, you probably would like it, but if you don't...well, then probably not.

These three Oyster Omelets had lettuce scattered on top. After this,

they would add a red sauce, which I'm not sure what it was since we did NOT eat any!

Back to what we did do.....after we finished the onion flat bread, we got the best drink there. Mango slushy....let me be clear...fresh mango slushy! Ahh, they are good no matter the weather! This did not make the Top 5 List, but would have made the Top 10 for sure!

Shilin Market is not just a food market...it does have shops and games. We meandered around the arcade part....Uwe played a game to test his skills from his military days. And won us each a balloon horn; that when you blow up the balloon and let go the horn goes off.

He only posed with this game....this market is best described

as a county fair without the livestock and large rides!

We shopped a little and bought some odd and end things at a cheap store with lots of random things...from toys to ties to masks to tools to clothes to whatever you need. From there we finally ate some supper at Alibaba's! Great little Indian stand...

The guy would flip the bread like a pizza crust then cook it on the round topped oven.

I got the Garlic Chicken and Uwe got the Curry Chicken.

That ended our night on the town with Marcy. Last day of school is tomorrow with more good-byes at the last school chapel to staff leaving. Better remember to bring my tissues as it won't be the laughs like we had this night...

Thanks for some great memories, Marcy!