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!

I know you have been waiting for my update for ages…  I am sorry but the last two weeks have been sooo crazy. I really didn’t get to the computer at all.

Jon arrived on Tuesday, May 16th. I gave my friend Ira (who’s a flight attendant) a ride to the airport in the morning, because she had to get there right around the time when Jon arrived. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic and Jon’s plane arrived early, so that he had to wait for me… I felt so sorry and he had been scared that I had forgotten to pick him up […never!] It was just wonderful to finally see and hug him again :)
We had a pretty relaxed day, drove around the city a little bit and then he took a nap in the afternoon.

Wednesday – we had an appointment with our local pastor at 10 a.m. for the Eheprotokoll, a document that you have to obtain if you want to have a church wedding. We spent about an hour with him and talked about the values of marriage and all that stuff. I don’t know if people in the protestant church have to do that but it’s mandatory if you want to get married in the catholic church. The pastor asked us to define the word “sacrament” and fortunately Jon (who went to a catholic private high school) was able to give a definition *lol*
After that we went to the Standesamt to get a German marriage certificate and start a Stammbuch [family register]. Unfortunately -as always – there is always something and so they were asking for a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung for Jon [which is a piece of paper stating that he hadn’t been married before]. We were told that we have to obtain that at the American embassy in Düsseldorf. It didn’t make sense at all, because how can you obtain a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung if you already got married and received a marriage certificate?!
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in town and then in the afternoon I went to the bridal store with my Mom for my dress fitting :) Unfortunately it didn’t fit at all – it was too wide around the cleavage – even though they had tailored it already. I was told that I had lost weight and that I had lost 2,5 cm around the chest since the week before [honestly, I don’t believe it].

Thursday – My cousin Nicki and her boyfriend Oliver picked us up at 8:30 a.m. to go to Düsseldorf. I had an appointment at her friend’s beauty salon to get my nails done. I never had that done before but I thought it would be a nice thing to do before the wedding ;)
Afterwards we walked to the Düsseldorf Altstadt [old town] and met up with Jon and Oliver who had had their first Alt beer already :) we went shopping for a little bit and then drove home at around 2:30 p.m.
I had two tutoring lessons from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and afterwards went over to my aunt’s, because we were going to try some make up for the wedding.

Friday – I had to make some phone calls in the morning, because there were still things I had to finalize with some people. In the afternoon, Nina and I went to the florist in Bedburg to order the bridal bouquet and the flowers for the table decoration. Later Nina dropped me off at my cosmetician’s, because I had a tutoring lesson with her son. In the evening we went out and had Italian food with my sister. Dirk wanted to come along, but since he had a soccer game the next day, he was staying at a hotel close to the stadium [that’s professional soccer for you].

Saturday – Jon and I got up early, because we had to drive to Belgium to meet with our catholic pastor, Harrie de Zwart, who was going to do the wedding ceremony. He used to be the pastor of a neighboring church in my town, but was moved to a monastery in Belgium two year ago.
We left at  10 a.m. and drove to Malmedy, a cute little town in the french speaking part of Belgium. We met our pastor at his apartment, had some coffee [and it was nice to see that he had so many memories from his church time in Grevenbroich on his walls :)] and talked about the ceremony. Since he’s an older man I didn’t know how conservative he would be about the catholic wedding ceremony, but he was actually really cool about everything… he said that Jon and I would enter the church as a couple [and not do the traditional way where the groom waits at the altar and the bride comeand he agreed on the gospel singers that I had booked. He was awesome!
Afterwards we went out for lunch at a really nice Belgian restaurant. We had a three course meal and we really didn’t expect it, but he invited us. He was so nice :) We spent about 4,5 hours with him [so he really invested some time in getting to know us :)] and then we drove back home.

Sunday - We went to a first communion in Kleve today. Jon’s Dad is the godfather of his friend Dirk’s son Philipp. We arrived at 11 a.m. at the church and it was a really nice service with lots of music and a ceremony really suitable for children :) After the service, we went to their house and had lunch. They had a very long table in the living room for all guests and it reminded me a lot of my own first communion – which was about 21 ago *lol* We had coffee and cake in the afternoon and Jon and I enjoyed talking to the other guests. We got home around 8 p.m.

Monday – I had an appointment with my cosmetician this morning. I really love to go there :) She started off with a really nice neck massage and then she did a skin treatment on my face and cleavage. It’s really relaxing to be there. When we were finished, she tried out a make up for my wedding. I liked it a lot :)

Tuesday – We left for Frankfurt early in the morning to meet with our protestant pastor, Keith Chamberlain, a friend of  the Bond family. He wanted to meet with us, because he wanted to get to know us a little more since he was going to write and present the meditation for our wedding ceremony. We had some tea and a really nice talk with him. We drove back at around 12 p.m. and had some lunch at an Imbiss place. Then we went to see my great-aunt for a little bit and later in the afternoon Jon and I went to the airport in Düsseldorf to pick up Jon’s Mom and his brother Chris and his girlfriend Jina. We only found Jon’s Mom Diana who didn’t know if Chris and Jina were going to meet her at the airport or not. Communication hadn’t been really clear between them I guess. We waited for about another hour, had Chris paged at the information desk, but he and Jina didn’t show up. So we went home and had dinner with my parents and afterwards we had another make up trial session with my aunt ;)

Wednesday – We drove to Düsseldorf in the morning and went to the embassy to obtain the Ledigkeitsbescheinigung for Jon. The consulate in Düsseldorf is like a small version of the huge consulate in Frankfurt. We had to leave my purse in a locker, we were checked from head to toe and the consulate even has its own elevator in this building. The officer at the entrance has to use a key to make the elevator go up to the third floor and when you step out you have to go through another metal detector.
When we finally talked to an officer about our request, he was laughing at us. He said that he had never heard before that someone who is already married needs a Ledigkeitsbescheinigung for the Standesamt. It’s indeed really absurd if you ask me – but who asks me? Nobody. We had to pay a 25 euro processing fee and then Jon had to make a sworn declaration that he had never been married before marrying me *lol*
After that we went to the jewelry store to pickup our wedding rings. They just looked beautiful. I am really glad I decided on two rings – the actual wedding ring and a second ring with a gem.
Unfortunately, something went wrong with the conversion of Jon’s ring size. It’s either that they didn’t measure the right ring size in the US or the conversion wasn’t right – Jon was about four sizes too big :( We were going to get it resized after the wedding. Oh, and before we left the guy at the jewelry store told us that we were lucky that we hadn’t come to pick up the rings the day before, because they had been robbed by three guys with ski masks and guns. OMG! How scary. I am so glad we didn’t go there on Tuesday!
We went back to Grevenbroich, I dropped Jon off at the hotel his Mom was staying at and went to the Standesamt to get taken care of our paperwork. We were finally able to get the family register and an international marriage certificate which we both needed to be married in church. Also, my name officially changed  to “Sandra Bond” today :)
I went back to the hotel, we had some coffee with Jon’s Mom and then we went over to my house where we received a phone call from Chris and Jina who were waiting to be picked up at the Nikolauskloster [the monastery we were going to get married at]. Don’t really ask me why they weren’t at the airport the day before and how they got to the Nikolauskloster – I have no clue whatsoever!
We dropped them all off at my house and then my Mom and I went to the bridal store again to pick up my dress. I had hoped that it would fit perfectly this time, but… it didn’t. It was too wide again. They changed it again while I was there and then finally I was able to take it home :) Ah, I couldn’t wait to wear it!!!
In the evening Jochen [one of my parents’ friends] and Jon picked up Dhevan and Chris Rigg at the airport and then we all had dinner together at our house :)

Thursday – Jon and my Dad went to the airport again that morning to pick up Aaron and Maria. I stayed at home to work on our church booklet, the little frames for our table decoration and the seating chart. Eric and Diana took everyone on a little trip to the city, so that my Mom and I would have time to work on some stuff at home. In the afternoon around 5 p.m. we all met at my parents’ house again and had dinner together. It was fun to have this multicultural get together :) There were my parents, Jon, Chris [Jon’s brother], Jina [his Korean girlfriend], Aaron [Jon’s best man], Maria [his girlfriend], Chris Rigg [Jon’s and Chris’ friend], Dhevan [our friend from Davis, now LA] and we really had a great time. Jina is such a sweet person. I am so glad she could come to Germany…

Friday – Friday morning my Dad and Jon wanted to go to Köln, because they both still needed ties for the wedding. Chris, Jina, Aaron, Maria, Dhevan Chris Rigg went along to walk around the city. I went the bank with Eric and Diana in the morning to cash some traveler cheques and then they dropped me off at home. I went to the copy shop with my Mom to finish the church booklets and then afterwards we went home and worked on the table decoration and the seating chart again. It pretty much took the whole day.
My Dad and the Americans went out for dinner that night and I went over to my sister’s at around 9:30 p.m. We had planned that I would stay over at her house that night :) She made me a nice bubble bath, we had some Chinese food together and then she helped me with some last minute preparations. We also talked a little bit and then finally realized it was 1:30 a.m. already – time to go to bed and get some beauty sleep for the BIG DAY!

I am going to end here for today… I know this entry is way too long already, so I don’t blame you if you don’t want to read all of it… my next entry will probably be more exciting for all of you, but I felt the need to let you now what was going on in the last two weeks ;)

… to be continued!