Archives for June 2006

Germany vs. Argentina 5:3

This is just amazing… I can’t believe our guys made it to the semi-finals!
WAY TO GO!!!

Look at this tiny, little monkey… doesn’t he look familiar from a children’s book we all know? I can’t believe I got so close to him… with no fences or bars between us.

On Friday, Ira and I went to “Apenheul“, a monkey park in the Netherlands. Ira had told me so much about it, but we hadn’t manage to go there before. It’s a place like a zoo, only that all they have is monkeys and many of them live in the trees without fences around them. If you want to walk through the park, you get a “monkey-proof” bag at the entrance, because monkeys are intelligent creatures and know how to open zippers and buttons and they aren’t too shy to check out your bags and pockets.
I was already really amazed to see the monkeys so close-up and we also went to see the gorilla-feeding [which – of course- took place in a fenced area], but the highlight of the day was that some of these squirrel monkeys got really trusting and climbed up on my arm and on my head [photos to come], even tried to look into the pockets of my jeans. Awwww! They were so adorable with their tiny little leathery hands and feet. I would have liked to take one home right then :)

I also have to mention this little fellow here, who had no fear whatsoever to walk around between our feet trying to find some crumbs that we dropped from our ice-cream cones :)

Saturday morning, I took my sister and Dirk to the train station. They left to Mexico for their honeymoon :) I am so happy for them! They took a flight from Frankfurt and went there by train.
In the afternoon, I went to the church wedding of a “friend” [in lack of a better word] from school. I wasn’t really invited to the wedding, but we emailed a few months ago and told each other that we were both getting married this summer and I thought it would be nice to show up and congratulate her and her husband. I think she was surprised, but happy to see me. It was a nice ceremony and she looked beautiful in her dress. I also met her cousin who used to play tennis with and who I hadn’t seen in years (!) and it was really great talking to her :) It’s funny sometimes how you can re-connect with people you haven’t seen for a long time.
Besides all that, I was wondering the whole time how the hell my “friend” could get married that day when Germany made it to the second round of the World Cup [haha…just kidding ].
I made it home just in time to throw myself on the couch and watch the soccer game with my parents :)
OMG, what a game. I couldn’t believe they guys scored two goals in the first 12 minutes… amazing! I am positively surprised how this team came around… who would have thought that they’d make it that far?
Like I said, I am really getting into soccer [for the time being] and I am so nervous during the games that I can hardly sit still.

After the game we had friends of my parents over for dinner and my Dad served us a delicious 3-course meal. My Dad doesn’t cook very often, but if he does, it’s always exquisite :) We stayed up till 3 a.m.

Today I was tired, lazy and confused by the weird weather which culminated in a huge thunderstorm in the early evening. It was really coming down hard. Jon would have loved it. [He loves thunderstorms!]
I read a lot today [a book by a German author which is called “Der Schwarm“], took a nap and also watched some soccer. Sundays just go by like that… way too fast.

first of all… some more photos of our wedding :) as I promised :)

Sunday – Jon and I got up at 9:30 a.m. after 2,5 hours of sleep… yes, we were tired, but happy :) Everyone else was having breakfast already, so we sat with Anke and Hauke and also talked to some of our guests. Lukas was so cute and walked up to me and said: “Sandra, where’s your dress?” :) Awww… that was so adorable [and you bet, I would have LOVED to wear my dress again that morning]. After breakfast, we had to start cleaning up the place… getting our stuff from the rooms, collecting our gifts and wrapping up the left overs to take home…
we sat outside for a while with some of our guests, took some more pictures and finally, when everybody had left, went home as well.
It was amazing, because a friend of the family had already put a photo CD in our mailbox, so that we could see the first photos of our wedding day :) We hung out at our house and had leftovers for dinner ;)

Monday– Two days after our wedding and we were still tired. In the morning, we went over to the hotel where Jon’s parents were staying at to say “goodbye” because they were leaving to Strassbourg that day. Eric was going to fly home on Wednesday and Diana, Chris and Jina were going to take a trip to France.
Chris, Aaron and Maria decided to go to Aachen for the day, so we dropped them off at the train station and had a relaxing day to ourselves :) When they returned in the evening, Chris, Maria, Jon and I went out for dinner to a Greek restaurant. Aaron didn’t feel good and went to bed. It was a pity, because it was their last day.

Tuesday – We took Aaron and Maria to the airport in the morning and then spent some time with Chris in Düsseldorf. First, we took Jon’s wedding ring back to the jewelry store to get it resized [as it was 4 sizes too big – I don’t know what happened when Jon told me his ring size… if the people in the US didn’t measure the right size or if the convertion into German sizes went wrong].
Later we walked around the Altstadt, enjoyed the view of the Rhine and then went to the brewery Füchschen for some lunch. Jon and Chris had typical German food [Schweinebraten in Biersosse – pork roast in beer sauce] and enjoyed a few Alt beer. At the breweries here it’s typcial that you don’t ask for another beer, but that the waiter replaces your empty glass with a fresh beer as long as you don’t stop him :) Chris and Jon definitely enjoyed that *g* I had a tutoring lesson in the afternoon and afterwards I drove to Cologne to meet with my friend Nic and we went to a concert, while Jon and Chris enjoyed watching soccer at home :)

Wednesday – This morning we had to take Chris to the airport… slowly everybody was leaving one after the other. It was kind of sad after having so many people at our house to see them go again :(
We saw my friend Frank and his girlfriend Nadine for breakfast afterwards. It was nice to have some time to talk, since we didn’t really have the chance to talk to each other on Saturday ;)

Thursday – Jon and I went downtown this morning to get passport photos and apply for my new passport and ID [Personalausweis]. I must admit, I wasn’t aware that my new last name would attract so much attention *lol* almost everybody has something to say about the name “Bond”. Jon was right – he always said that people commented about his last name, but I never understood what he really meant by that ;)
When I introduce myself as “Sandra Bond” now, people ask “Bond… as in James Bond?” … or “Wow… what a cool name” :) It’s hilarious. I am curious to see when I will get tired of it ;)
Friday – We drove to the Bridal Store with my sister in the afternoon, because she had an appointment for the dress fitting :) It was great to experience the whole thing from the perspective of the maid of honor and NOT the bride yourself. Nina looked so great in her dress :)
In the evening, Jon and I drove to Mainz to visit our friends Christopher and Karima over the weekend. We arrived at 8:30 p.m. and ordered some Chinese food for dinner :) We stayed over at Christopher’s parents house [because they had more space to accomadate us] and went to bed around midnight.

Saturday – Karima and Cathi [6 months old] came over for breakfast and then Karima’s Mom dropped off Lukas [our flower kid ;)] at 11 a.m. He’s so cute :) We walked over to their house later and spent some time together until I was picked up. Two of my penfriends live in Mainz and I had decided to take the opportunity and spent the Saturday evening with them. It also gave Christopher and Jon some time for a “men’s night out” :) As far as I know, they spent the night checking out the pubs in Mainz!
Sunday – Sunday morning Christopher, Karima, the kids and Jon and I went out for Brunch at the Volkspark in Mainz. The weather was really nice -a little cool, but sunny ;) It was a fabulous brunch buffet and Jon and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we all went for a walk.
In the afternoon, Jon and I met with Jakob, one of Jon’s Dad’s friends, for some coffee. He was actually spending the afternoon with some neighbors, so we joined them for some coffee and cake :)
In the evening, we went back to Christopher and Karima’s house and we had a nice barbeque in the backyard. Karima’s brother Karim came over as well.

Monday – We went over to Chris’ and Karima’s house in the morning and Lukas opened the door. He was obviously surprised to see us AGAIN, because he said: “Oh, you’re here again!’ *lol* He was so adorable!
We had breakfast on the patio together and then Jon and I decided to take off. We wanted to meet with my two penfriends for coffee downtown and then drive back home.
We met Michee and Sandra downtown and went to a nice little café close to the “Fastnachtsbrunnen” which is famous in Mainz.
We drove back to Grevenbroich in the afternoon and then went out to dinner at the Spanish restaurant in Mönchengladbach. Nina and I had received gift certificates for our birthday, so we decided to put them to use ;)

Tuesday – We spent most of the day relaxing at home. I had two tutoring lessons in the afternoon and Jon stayed home reading his book ;) In the evening, we went over to Nina’s place and spent some time with Dirk and Nina.

Wednesday – We drove to Düsseldorf in the morning, because we had to pick up Jon’s ring that we had to get resized. Now it fitted perfectly and Jon was happy :)
We stopped at a big bookstore and Jon got some books as he really got into reading crime fiction again since he came here. I went shopping later and in the evening we had a big barbeque ;) Fortunately the weather was nice, because Jon really wanted to have a BBQ while he was here.

Thursday – In the morning, I had to run some errands downtown and then my cousin picked up my sister and me and we went to Düsseldorf. Nina had an appointment with Nicole’s friend to get her nails done and Nicki and I just went along [and eventually got our nails done, too :)]. Later in the afternoon we went to Ira’s birthday party. We just stopped by for some cake and then we had to leave again, because Ira went out to dinner with her parents and Nina, Dirk, Jon and I went to my old school to watch a musical performed by the VIP class [Vocal Instrumental Practical class]. Nina’s best friend’s daugther performed in it and it was really amazing. She sang three solo songs and we were really blown away.

Friday – In the morning, I drove to the bridal store to pick up Nina’s dress. It was exciting to know that my sister would wear it the next day and be a beautiful bride :) I took the dress to the hotel and put it in their suite which was already prepared for the next day!
I had to prepare some more stuff for my sister in the afternoon and at 5:30 p.m. Nina and Dirk picked us up and we went to a private “soccer party” for the opening of the WM :) There was a big tent in the garden with a big screen, a keg of beer and a BBQ… Jon loved it… and Dirk, too… as you can see :)

Nina and I left after the first game. I still had to prepare a little video presentation for Nina’s and Dirk’s wedding and Nina met with a friend to prepare the table decoration. She picked the guys up at 11 p.m. and I think they were both a little drunk *lol* Jon went to bed right away!

…to be continued!