A farewell to my favorite addiction in Venray

This is an inanimate object I have grown to love over the last few months! It is our drink dispenser in the call center. On a daily basis I get about 8+ little cappuccinos or chocolades or coffees and they all taste so good. While 8 sounds like a terribly high number one must keep in mind the size of the cup equals maybe your ring finger, so it can’t be more than 3-4 ounces at a time!

I’m going to be sad to say goodbye to this machine. Plus I'm probably going to have a very bad headache next week when I go back to work in Raleigh and have no lovely drinks to enjoy--- Nash I may need a bux break with you and Wesley!

B I N G O

Here is a picture of me doing what I do best, playing games, it was BINGO day for us on Friday! Fun times had by all!

The Blown Up Cathedral

One afternoon we went to visit a cathedral that was left in its damaged state from WWII. It was very unusual to see a blown up cathedral right in the middle of a very busy high street. All around the cathedral life was going on, one could shop for legos, have a Starbucks coffee, go to H & M while thinking about history and how it plays a huge part in this town.

High Tea @ the Hilton

In honor of Mercedes we stopped one afternoon for tea at the Hilton. Very beautiful, very swanky hotel! Here is a picture of the Berlin Bear dressed up like Mr. Hilton! Mercedes- figured you would enjoy seeing this!

Chocolate Made Beautiful

We visited Berlin’s most famous chocolate store one afternoon. The store had all sorts of displays which were of course made out of chocolate. The funniest part of the visit is about 1-2 stories above the store you could see a dentist office! Morale of the story is gorge out on chocolate and then head on upstairs to fix those teeth!

One of my TOP favorite activities in Berlin

So when you think about going out for breakfast you might think IHOP or if you have in the Wake County area you might think NOFO or Southern Season (oh man those sound tasty right now!!). However if you ever get to Berlin you MUST put the Mercedes Benz Dealership, isn't that humorous! It is by and far the BEST breakfast I’ve ever had in all of Europe. Our menu consisted of eggs, the crispiest bacon, the best roll (seriously all the Germans at work like to point out to me that German bread is the BEST in all of Europe and I must admit it is quite tasty!) and the most exciting juice I have ever drank in my whole life, rhubarb juice. Mom and I both agreed it was as if we were drinking rhubarb pie! The breakfast was made even more exciting because we were surrounded by the most glamorous cars. I saw a great NCSU car for Chris and the cutest little person Mercedes. I put that vehicle on my “to buy” list for if Team Ellingson ever expands! I felt like this breakfast would have been even more enjoyed by people like my husband and other gentlemen I know that fawn over the shiniest and best cars out there!

Sbux sighting at checkpoint charlie

Sbux sighting occured at checkpoint charlie, really hillarious to see the bux right where East Berlin was mere years ago, way to go Starbucks for infiltrating Communist land!
Yippee--- got to have my pumpkin spice latte again! This fall I barely got to enjoy my favorite beverages since I’ve been in Venray, but in all honesty I haven’t missed it, cappuccinos over here are TASTY. Luckily while in Berlin we got to have a drink here and of course I got a mug, it has the berlin bear on it and is NCSU red, I suspect Chris will try to use it often!

The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin is an emotionally moving city because you quickly realize that the city was divided until just recently. I thought often while we were there about all the people that were my age that grew up in East Berlin and how their life was probably so different from all of our lives and how they probably grew up missing out on all sorts of simple things we just take for granted. The other weird thing about Berlin is you clearly see where the wall was at all times, so you can wander down a street and go from west to east and vice versa. The city of Berlin left up the “path” of the wall with a brick embedded into the pavement. This really makes you think about how strange it must have been to just have a wall in the middle of the city. I really enjoyed our visit to Checkpoint Charlie, there was tons to read about the wall and tons to see and it was a bit surreal to think about how all of this was so different just 20 years ago. I felt like we were standing and participating in history in real time.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day Mom and I did lots of walking around. We loved walking around and seeing all the old buildings and felt extra lucky because we saw everything all decorated for the holidays, so lots of twinkling lights all around! It was an odd day because it was a holiday yet some places in Berlin were open. Places that were open were car dealerships (maybe so people could go and see the car they asked for that Santa didn’t deliver on?), tourist shops (mom LOVED looking in the tourist shops!! It would be like going to Emerald Isle and hanging out at berts or wings all day!!) and then Madame Tussand’s. I’ve been to the wax museum in London and figured we should saunter through this one mainly just for a chance to get out of the cold for an hour or so. We ended up loving this museum and both appreciated that the museum focused mainly on famous eastern European people and then famous people that had some sort of connection with Germany. My favorite picture is the one of mom and her new BFF, Samuel L Jackson! Notice how they both sport that beret with such style! When I saw Bono I made sure to let him know how happy I was with my husband for getting us tickets to the U2 concert on my birthday, Bono let me know Chris sounded like a pretty sweet husband!

Mom's favorite activity in Berlin

As many of you know Mom came to spend Christmas with me. On Christmas eve we arrived in Berlin. The very first day we went right to the Christmas Market around the corner from us. The entire weekend we stopped in lots of these Christmas Markets. Some had "hills" to sled down. One even had a ferris wheel.

BUT the best thing of the christmas markets was the gluug, the food & of course for Mom the shopping!

It started snowing this week. SO for now no more bike riding and lots of cautious car driving and potentially relying on Job to come and fetch me from the chalet. Then yesterday I woke up and it was REALLY snowing. I think we got over 4 inches. While it was beautiful to see it is wicked cold outside right now and not really conducive to car driving, cycling or walking. Luckily all I had to do yesterday was some laundry so the rest of the day was spent “going to the cinema” compliments of Shiloh and the stack of DVD’s she sent over. Fun times!

A Chalet Christmas

In honor of Mimi coming next week I decorated the house for Christmas. I went and got a tree from the Keerst sellers. There are farmers set up on the side of the road selling trees. For him it was a non English transaction and for me it was a hand signal phenomenon. Luckily asking to pet one’s dog is universal and I got to visit with the German shepherd that was on the lot and belonged to the farmer. At first my tree looked a little sparse but I got inventive and put my swarrt peet’s into the tree, some cards I received from friends and did a tad bit of ornament shopping. I admitted to Chris that I miss our beautiful fake tree—and all my gorgeous turquoise and pink ornaments. Luckily I even got more authentic German ornaments last weekend from Silvia when we went to her house for the Christmas markets in Germany!

Sinterklaas Celebrated at Work

* This occured over 5 December's weekend

Job advised all the CS agents to leave their shoes on their desks over Sinterklaas weekend. That Friday we dressed up as “Sint” compliments of Carmen. She had gotten these little children headbands at the HEMA. We even got Wout into the boat hat! While we were gone that weekend SinterJob came by and left treats and candies for everyone at their desks in their shoes. The Monday after Sinterklaas day we munched on all sorts of goodies, a very tasty day at work.

Flair for my bike

One of the ladies from work, Katty, brought me a bicycle bag to use while I am cycling. It is really helpful because on one side I can slide in my purse/lunch and the other side my puter and then I am off to work. The other day I got stuck in my first traffic jam in Venray and it was on the bike! We had to stop @ a RR crossing and probably 5 cars stopped and about 20+ cyclists. When the bar finally rose everyone took off and I couldn’t scoot across the road to turn left!! These cyclists are hard core over here….so I rode with the flow and eventually made a U turn, it was kind of funny! Next time I’ll have to go ahead and get on the far left hand side of a stopped group so I can turn easier!

cool vehicle sighting

Take a look at this tricked out mercedes---pretty funny! It even had the monkey hanging in the window!

Celebrating the holidays with kids!

This past weekend was an all about kids weekend for me, which was pretty fun because you know how I love the little people. On Saturday I got to attend the Sinterklaus party for the children of art.com employees. It was a great experience for me to see the kids and how much they love Sinterklaus and Piet. The children played and colored quietly until we all heard a knock on the door. “Piet/Sinterklaus” they all began whispering to each other and their parents. They calmly walked to the door just as it opened and the guests of honor strolled in. Sinterklaus and the Piets shook children’s hands and accepted small gifts from the kids. After the “meet and greet” all the kids assembled in the corner and Sinterklaus took the seat of honor (Job and I had a tiny laugh because the chair for Sinterklaus was our naughty chair—every time you sit in it it rocks to the left or right violently if you have any sharp movement. Luckily Sinterklaus sat very still. Sinterklaus then talked with the children and then passed out gifts. Then he announced that Piet had misplaced his book of all the good children in Holland and asked the kids if they would mind signing the book again to help him out. The kids queued up and signed their name or had their parents help them. I even got to sign the book since I am a good girl in Holland.
Sunday I got to go to a Sinterklaus party with my friend Lisseth and her family. The party was in a rec center in her village Hoorst. There was a huge skiff full of dirt, a big swing that was shaped like a boat, ropes for kids to climb to the ceiling and of course tons of Piets dancing around and playing instruments. The best part of the party was Sinterklaus arrived in a sidecar on a motorcycle! Jim and Chris would have loved it!

Happy Thanksgiving Venray Style

This year I worked on TDAY, gasp!! It actually wasn’t bad at all because the employees announced they would like to celebrate “this American holiday called Thanksgiving” with me. I must confess I was dreading having to help cook for Tday because I was a little tired post Malaga & we were still very busy at work staying late working on our project! But I did it anyways and I’m so glad I did because it turned out to be great fun! Doing the prep work at my chalet was NOT a great idea. I have this teeny tiny kitchen and no suitable tools; I spent the night after prepping dreaming of Wustoff, Kitchenaid, Cuisinart and Fiesta Ware! Prep involved me making sweet potato casserole from scratch and doing the pie crust. I must say, this was probably in the top 5 great pie crust making experiences for me, and I consider myself a pretty good pie gal! The night before TDAY I went to a coworker’s home, Wendy. She is British lady (has a grown daughter named Elizabeth!!) that has lived with a Dutch man named Carlos for many many years. They are an adorable couple. We spent the night drinking copious amounts of wine, doing the cooking and eating very yummy Chinese takeout! Thanksgiving Day we had a huge feast and the décor looked extra fabulous thanks to my work BFF Tia! Tia really helped us out by mailing tons of decorations and supplies any TDAY chef would consider essential. Experiencing TDAY Venray style made me realize I am so thankful for my old friends & my new friends and this great opportunity to experience life abroad! I hope that you enjoyed your holiday too!