thats amore!

I just spent $2.99 on my itunes account and ordered Grey's Anatomy. I cried like a little baby. But, it was worth it.

As you can tell I arrived to and from Italy. The Italian language is so much like Spanish, its crazy, but kind of nice because I was able to understand here and there. I also think it is quite weird that the fall back language is English. We were on the train yesterday, heading home and there was a woman from SouthKorea, and a man from Holland, and they spoke to each other in English. Silly how that works....

So we left around 9:45 Thursday night. We reserved beds on the night train. It was nice because we got our own car/bunk with 3 beds. I got the top bunk, which was approximately 10 feet off the ground. We attempted to sleep, I had a little bit of difficulty because of swaying and noise and sweating. We arrived in Milan around 8 am. After a provided breakfast, we decided to explore Milan a little.  I read in a magazine that Milan is one of George Clooney's favorite cities, so I thought it would be worth checking it out, especially since we were going to be there anyways. 

We didn't really know where to go or what to do, so we just started walking after finding a city map outside the train station. Eventually, we ended up stopping in the Westin and grabbing a map. The streets in Italy are so confusing! So eventually, after turning around a few times and 40 minutes later, we made it to the Galleria Vitt em Il and the Duomo. This is the center o the city, I am guessing. We went inside the Galleria and the Duomo. In the Duomo, we had to be serched on the way in, eep in mind we had our backpacks with us, so ugh. Then we decided we would walk up the stairs to the top and check that out. It cost 5 euro, so we still did it. I was scared, but even the details in the architecture were precise from top to bottom. It was really spectacular. After descending, we headed to the Bar Duomo to sit and have some croissants and hot choclate, well hot chocolate and croissant for me at least. After that we headed to Castello Sforzesco, one of the most boring castles i have ever seen in my life. So boring, atleast ont he outside. We walked around it where there was a park, Parco Sempione. It was basically like a tiny Central Park in Milan. We ran across a bridge. it was a small bridge, over a creek. But what was special about this bridge was that it had about 87 locks on it. Apparently, you and your love come to the bridge, put the lock on it and throw the key in the creek. How romantic. 

After a photo shoot, we headed back to the train station to catch a train for Venice. We ended up making it right when we got there, although we had to pay a reservation fee on the train. 2 and a half hours later, we arrived in Venice. The hostel we stayed at was "A Venice Fish." Small, crappy, but the people were very nice and it was at a very convienent location. We dropped our things and set off on an adventure. Trent bought a map, but it was really no help at all. See, the streets in Venice are really the waterways. The main way of transportation used to be by boats, so all of the waterways became the way to travel. When walking around there are so many bridges and alleys that take you everywhere, it really becomes impossible to use any map at all, although there are signs pointing you to 3 specific points of interest throughout the city; alla ferrovia, realito, and san marco. Our first night there, we didn't really know what to expect so we just went wandering, ultimately ending up near the University, giving up and finding somewhere to eat. I order a liter of amazing house vino and gnocchi with pesto sauce. Perfecto. ( I of course shared my wine...) After that we ended up just walking back to the hostel, on the way stopping for gelato. I order Nutella gelato.... the most amazing ice cream I have ever had. I dont know what it is with me and Nutella. Back at the hostel, we sat around and chatted with everyone in our room (we stayed in an 8 person dorm). Just relaxed for the evening, and I passed out at 1030 or so. 

I ended up waking up at 630, took a shower, laid in bed and waited for the others to wake up. we walked around int he morning, exploring Realto, a market that sells masks, souvenirs, fruit, vegetable and fish. We walked around a bit, took some pictures and headed back to the hostel for breakfast, which was toast... One of the kids we met at the hostel was considering doing a gondola ride, but only if 6 of us would do. So we decided to. Hell, why not. It only ended up being about 17 euro a person. Not too bad. The guy had been doing it work 45 years, and would not sing for us.  But he did show us some of the oldest buildings in Venice, one was from the 11th century. Sometimes I thought he was exaggerating. It was pretty neat though, we were able to get a view of the city from its original point of view. it was beautiful. After our ride we headed to San Marco. There weren't too many pigeons around. Well, they weren't in those big herds everyone talks about. We walked around a little while, I bought art... as usual. When we walked through the San Marco plaza, there was a dog chasing the pigeons, it was really funny. He would just run in circles. We were all laughing, even Megan, and her fear of swooping birds... On the way back we lost our way and ended up walking through the smallest streets I have ever seen, it was nice to just explore and go off the beaten path and walk down a street where the only noise you heard was from you, but every building was perfectly, strategically placed. it was like a maze. I spent entirely way too much money on souveniers and memorabilia, but i just had to. I tried looking for earrings that were the color of the water, I came close and I ended up buying a pair, but not the perfect shade I was looking for. The water there was perfect, refreshing, and bautiful. It WAS this COLOR. how perfect is that?! 

We left yesterday morning and didnt home until 11 pm last night. It was a long journey, the night train was a lot better. But work is work and kids cant potty train and sing the wheels on the bus by themselves.... PLus hearing "Hi Miss Kadie" from 7 little 2 year olds in the morning makes me smile and fall in love. :)

Anyways, I was sad to leave. I LOVED it there. How can I love everywhere I go? I dont want to leave Europe. 7 more weeks! CAn you believe that!??!!!

küsse

stand by me

another week ends and another week begins... 

this past week was pretty rough. potty training is hard work... mom how did you do it?

this weekend was pretty chaotic. friday after work, i ended up going out with my friend crystal who works with me. it was a lot of fun. i learned a lot about the army contracts and how they work and how much it really sucks. plus, we got 15% off of our meal at the resturant because of our military ids. i dont know if 15% off of a blt wrap is worth being stop lossed though.

saturday i ended up having to work. i had the toddlers paint :) i love when little kids make art; its so genuine and true and brilliant and they dont try and impress or anything. its just beautiful. and its their point of view and its raw. loves it. 

after work on saturday, i ended up going to dinner with all of my co-workers from the CDC. the director is heading to a different center on base, so my toddler teacher (patricia) will be becoming the director in my center. All of us in the toddler room are worried that it may fall apart. Not because we are dependent on her, but because of the new lead for the room. It is just a lot of changes and a lot of stress accumulating, especially because of the potty training. 

After dinner, I decided to go on a late night tour de Wiesbaden with crystal to take some night pictures. Taking pictures is a good way for me to get my art urges out (besides drawing in the sketch book you got me granny <3)

Sunday, I actually ended up heading to Heidelberg with Mike and his family. His mom, dad and sister are visiting for a few days from San Fran, and they decided to take me with them. Which was actually a good idea on their behalf, because I knew where the tourist spots were and where to go, and how to read a menu, and how to pay, etc. Anyways it was cheap, and it was fun, and it wasnt rainy or snowy, just overcast. Their family is small and cute... I hope I wasnt intruding at all.  

I have also determined that Heidelberg has the 2nd greatest crepes in Europe, so far at least. I ate my traditional nutella, then i finished mikes banana, sugar and cinnamon and i died. it was pretty amazing....

speaking of pretty amazing, my bed looks pretty amazing so i am going to head to bed for now.

 I will post pictures laterrrrr. love you. Küsse. xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

My heart is still in Barcelona

La Sangrada Familia

Casa Mila (still wish I went on the roof)

Me, being cute, as usual.

I would like to call him my Peruvian boyfriend. He is very talented.

Parc Guell

Tapas y Sangria

Parc de Montjuic

Mercado de San Jose

So, I have finally decided to update this thing. Last night I would have, but I was too busy watching the entire first season of 'The City.' The night before that, just catching up with Grey's Anatomy. I really should be interacting with the interns more, but really, I'm sure I am not as entertaining at the tv or computer in the boys' apartment, so I've been having 'Katie Time.' It is quite nice actually. And I've started cooking a little more. It is not much, and I am awful at steaming veggies, but its a step. I'm good at heating up refried beans and making corn tortilla quesadillas, and I am pretty good at making rice and I make a mean pasta and Nutella toast (my favorite). But that is the extent... so far. 

Besides having time to myself, the rest of my days have been spent potty-training, diaper changing, singing songs, eating and cleaning. (We have 3 girls potty training at the same time. 1 of which pooped themselves, not once but TWICE, the second time playing with it. And 1 of the other girls pooped themselves too.) WHAT A GREAT DAY. filled with stinky bathrooms and poo filled panties. YAY.

Well, we reserved our train ride to Venice. We are leaving the night of the 26th. YAY. It will be fun I'm sure, except we still need to find a hostel (they are all expensive). 

So my trip to Barcelona was lovely. I LOVED IT. We got there in the afternoon and spent the day sightseeing and hitting all of the hot tourist spots. The weather was awesome, not too hot, but sunny and warm. It was nice to finally wear my sunglasses and step out of gloomy cold Germany. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and booked it to the La Sangrada Familia, the most interesting, grandest church I have ever seen. it was perfect but unfinished. A mix of beautiful and abstract. It was elegant, but harsh at the same time. It was one of the most contradicting piece of art I have ever seen. But its Gaudi. The city is littered with him and his art. It is amazing. So after seeing that, we decided to walk to La Casa Mila and La Casa Batlla. I ended up reading the map wrong so all we saw was La Casa Mila. The others weren't impressed and I could tell they were annoyed and wanted to get going, so we didn't go inside or to the roof. Which bummed me out because I really would have loved to see those huge warrior chimneys on the roof. So I told them that was it, and we walked away...  and headed towards Parc Guell. I will say, that I fell in love with this place. It was so neat. We took about 4 escalators to the top of a mountain, basically, and then walked around the other side and up another hill and around the corner and through some palm tree lined paths and well well well, it was a open platform that outlooked onto the city. it was beautiful. with mosaics and curves and raw rocks and performers and artists. It was great. From there we headed to the beach. They had no idea, we got lost, I had an idea to just follow the dock, but they didn't hear me, I guess. So we wandered and found it and ate genuine spanish food. We headed back to hostel and I slept for about 12 hours, no exaggeration. The next morning we decided to head south along the coast. I didn't want to go to Alicante, which was another 5 hours on the fast train, so we headed to Valencia. 

Valenica was pretty great too. Nothing like Barcelona. But it was fun. We just happened to go during the Fallas Festivities. There were lights and decorations at every street. It was pretty impressive. It took a little to get there, so we got there later than expected. We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn. Haha. It was nice though. Own bathrooms, comfortable beds and it was just alittle more than a hostel per person. We ended up going to the beach... again... Just a little warmer. This time both of the boys went in. Too cold for me. WAY too cold for me. We stopped and ate a restraunt on the beach We then retreated back to the hotel and headed out for a "bull fight." Basically it was a bunch of men jumping into the pit and playing tag with the bull. The boys hopped in for a few rounds. They loved it. Megan and I got a kick out of it as well. We once again headed back to the hotel and tucked ourselves in for the night. The next morning we headed back to Barcelona, but we had to catch an 11 oclock train, so meg and I got Churros and went wandering around the center of town while the boys waited for McDonalds to open (ick). We made it back to Barcelona and once again dropped our things off at the kabul hostel (in this hostel we stayed in a 20 person room. ICK. it smelled like boys. Mike obviously picked this hostel out) We stopped at the Gaudi road or something near the La Sangrada Familia and ate pizza then headed to the hospital. It wasnt all that impressive or exciting. We ended up going to the Pac de Montjuic. It was beautiful and outlooked the entire city from on top of a hill. It was really breath-taking. From there we headed to the docks or piers or whatever and watched the sunset, then headed to Las Ramblas. It is a main pedistrian street that just happened to have artists and vendors littering it. We headed to the hostel for a free dinner and then bought some wine and went to the beach to consume them. After that we kind of went our seperate ways. Me and Megan went wandering for some Irish pubs (with the help of our personal consierge at the front desk at the hostel named Seth, but I called him Scott because he reminded me of Scott Alexander... a lot) We got lost, ended up wandering some streets and eventually finding something. We had to leave early in the morning to head back so we weren't out too late... but the boys on the other hand.... were hurting the next morning. 

The trip was beautiful and exhausting, but well worth it. I think I am still recovering from it... 

i left my heart in barcelona

Hola. I am back from a long weekend in Espana. I am exhausted. A lot of traveling. I will update tomorrow. Mucho besos.

iAmsterdam

Here we are, I am finally caught up on uploading all of the pictures I have. YAY. 

That is, until I get back from Spain this weekend.

I leave on Wednesday night, so I will say it now, Adios y Viva Espana.

These pictures should tie you over until I get back, right?

Love you all. <3

me and amsterdam

"itty, bitty living space"

if you can name the movie that is from, i will give you a high five.

in the heineken brewery

me, the boys, and our free beer

van gogh museum.

Here are some silly pictures I took with maman, using my computer.

Dinklesbuhl, Germany and Neresheim Church?