Birthday

Thanks to all the people who thought of me and many thanks for the great birthday cards from Germany! My employer has given me a wonderful birthday table with cake, flowers and gifts. I got a great candle for our fireplace and a really great picture frame ;)

My birthday table ;)

The birthday card from my parents was my absolute favorite (map in the foreground with the world and the two sheep): D My lovely boyfriend took me out for dinner to the Woodmont Grill in Downtown Bethesda. You should absolutely try it, when you are around! The steak was delicious and the atmosphere just great :)

The first weeks in the U.S.

For almost 4 weeks, I'm back in the States. Autumn has now arrived and the first houses begin to decorate for Halloween. I'm already really in autumn mood and soon it's also my birthday :) So how were the first few weeks here in the States? Stressful :D but positively exhausting.

Working with the baby is fun to me and it is wonderful to see that she learns something new every day. My normal working day looks like this:

I start at 8.30am and then the little one I have breakfast. Then I change her diapers and we get ready to leave the house for her classes. Tuesdays we go to baby yoga, she has a Music Class Wednesdays and Thursdays/Fridays she goes to a Waldorf School playgroup. I take care of a pretty busy young lady :D After these activities, we usually go shortly to the playground. Then back home I cook lunch. In general the little lady eats a lot of vegetables, meat and fish - so very healthy :D Then she is taking her nap, which is usually around 2.5 hours. After the nap we play a little bit and then go again to a playground or we have playdates. By 6pm I prepare dinner for her and then I am off. A standard 10-hour day for little me. The first weeks I will work a lot of overtime because my employer's have so much stress at work. More money for me, but yeah, I just fall exhausted into bed. Despite all the work it's just mega fun working with the little one :)

After such an exhausting week, every person just ones a relaxing weekend. Yes, I hope that I sometimes have one :D So far, I had a lot to do on the weekends because I'm stuck in Bethesda during the week without a car. So all the to-do's need to be moved to the weekend! Friday night my boyfriends picks me up and on Sunday evenings he brings me back to Bethesda. The first weekend JT and I just drove around for us to look at apartments. Fortunately, we have finally found one two weeks ago :D The basement apartment of the house where he lives now *haha* Last weekend we finally moved downstairs into the apartment. But now I am living only on weekends in our apartment, because I'm still on car search :/ Most of my time on the weekends I spend now at car dealers or banks. Currently, even with no great success, but maybe this weekend will change it.

Regarding university, I couldn't start yet, because the rating company needs still to evaluate my bachelor's degree from Germany. Well, that means to wait now and then I suppose I can start in the spring semester.

How the rest of my week looks like, you guys can imagine. But what will this weekend be like? On Saturday I have to go to the driving license office in order to get my American driver's license. Then I have to open an account for the Federal Credit Union because my visa allows me to open one there. Then we have to clean JT's old room and I have to pick up the rest of my moving boxes. We are getting a futon sofa from is sister and then we wanted to go to IKEA to buy a nice dresser. Currently, most of my clothes are flying around on the ground. And then I wanted to buy a Halloween costume this weekend :D any suggestions? Last year I was Little Red Riding Hood :D

Autumn weather 10/17/2012

Anniversary

One year ago I got on an airplane and I knew my life would change ... I met incredible people, had ups and downs and learned more about life in this time ... Espescially that life sometimes can be an a ******!

But still it was the best decision I made ​​to take this 'time-off' after my studies. Who thought one year ago I could not do that and that this 'time-off' would not be good for my life?

But hey look now: I am living my dream in America! I am working in Maryland and I want to start my master studies this spring semester! I am getting my own car, I want to move together with my boyfriend and I found some awesome friends! Yep this 'time-off' was not good ... It was awesome!!

I can just thank my parents, my sister and her boyfriend, my two best friends and Nora & Toddi for the support and help I got and that you made ​​this possible ♥ ♥ ♥