Nell and Marco in Charlotte, North Carolina

Back up and running!

2007-07-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well it's been ages since I last wrote on the blog cos we've been up to heaps and now that we're both working full time and training for a marathon/half marathon (well, bragging that we are anyway!!), and since the weather is so awesome that we've just been by the pool, having barbecues and just generally partying, and since we've now got more visitors, and since....... you know how it goes.....
We're still having a ball over here, I've now started working in the Risk Mgmt Division of one of the main Hospitals here and I'm really enjoying it - so much so that I decided to stay on full time when they asked me to. It looks like we'll be moving back to Deutschland at the end of the year though, Marco has been offered a really good job in Muelheim, and we'll be (hopefully!) looking to live in the lurvely metropolitan Duesseldorf on the Rhein...pending rental prices of course. Still aiming (like hell!) to make it back to the lovely land of Oz for Xmas next year, can't wait! For the time-being we've still got loads going on: have two friends from Germany staying with us at the mo - heading off to a holiday house on the coast with 6 people on the weekend, then we have mates from New York staying for a weekend, then my sweet little mum comes in August and we head off to New York for a bit. Next on the list are friends from Germany (don't i have any aussie friends anymore!!!???) in Sept and Oct, we'll see what we get up to when they come, have heaps of ideas. We discovered a hilarious cowboy club here "Coyote Joes" - check out the video clip of Me and Marco riding the mechanical bull (until Marco finally falls off in pain due to his genitalia getting extremely squashed, he he) and a wicked 80's club "The Breakfast Club" - we've just about doubled the photo albums online now so check'em out! Lotsa luv Nell :-) PS - also went white water rafting on the weekend at the US Olympic Training site - F*#$king AWESOME!!!!!!

Washington D.C - the american themepark of history

2007-05-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

So after shedding our trademark bahamian surnburnt skin and spending the week seeing the sights of Charlotte we discovered we had a long weekend ahead of us due to Memorial Day, which was celebrated on Monday. Not really knowing much about this public holiday and wanting to use the extra day of freedom we opted for the 6 hour-drive to the nation's capital...and as we discovered, we had made the right choice. Being in the US Capital, on what happens to be the most patriotic day of the year, we certainly got a rich and varied taste of american culture. As a person not really expecting much of the city, all of my expectations were definitely exceeded. The city is gorgeous, really pretty and green and full of amazing historical buildings: we saw Abe Lincoln, Kennedy's grave, the FBI buildings, the monument, we got to watch the live memorial day concert on the lawns of Capitol Hill - with Natalie Cole singing live...and, the absolute must, "visited" (sounds a bit too polite really..) Bush at the White House. We also caught the Vietnam Vet's "Rolling Thunder" Protest Rally - not sure how many but definitely a couple of thousand Harley Davidson riding, american flag bandana toting, american flag waving, american flag everying everything(!!!) american war veterans riding their course through the city. Although nearly passing out from exhaust fumes my hightlight at the rally was of course the small group of aussie vets who'd turned up for the show. All in all D.C. was defininely an experience and we'll be back here. For the time being, having just dropped off the inlaws at the airport after their 3 week stay, I'm looking forward to relaxing and being a total hermit on my birthday tomorrow!

Cruise to the Bahamas....

2007-05-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been ages since i've updated this site! We've been up to so much lately i've barely had time to turn the PC on! Marco and I just got back from a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas with Marco's parents and needless to say it was an awesome experience! We drove from Charlotte down to Orlando to get on the ship but first spent a day in Sea World - where we even managed to drink free beer the whole day!! We had a bit of bad luck with the weatheron the cruise at first but there was plenty of stuff to do inside: casino, day spa, theatre, bars and restaurants, shops, FOOOOOOOOD!!!! Everything was fantastic, cruises are definitely recommendable! Anyway, the highlight was by far day number three - where the ship anchored in shallow water and we were ferried to "Coco Cay" - a private mini island owned by the cruise comp. Amazing!!! Live caribbean music going the whole day, white sands, palm trees and coconuts, snorkelling with hundreds of fish and finding a crashed plane and sunken boat (no, they were planted there!)...i even managed to get my first full-body tan...at 25...how sad! Marco got so burnt though he had blisted on his back!
By the way last month i organised a surprise visit from Marco's best mate Thomas and we spent a couple of days in the great smokies in a beautiful log cabin and spotted some black bears! We also have met some people here over from Siemens Germany so it's cool to have some company. Though i almost can't believe it - finally back in an english speaking country and i'm still having to speak german all the time!!!!

A visit to the Great Smokey Mountains

2007-04-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

Wow - can't believe it's been so long since i've written on the blog! Since the last post we've been enjoying the sun that's now emerging here and making a couple of visits to the Great Smokey Mountains - which we just love! Oh, and I've earned my first bundle of greenbacks! Yep! It actually happened faster than we expected in a steady chain of events: applied and got my work permit, then applied and got my social security number, then applied at a recruitment agency and got work! It was only a short stint - a week to be exact, but that's exactly what i'm looking for because there seems to be loads of that kind of work here and it's really flexible, which will be very advantageous when the steady trickle of visitors starts. So the money was really good and the work itself was quite interesting too - i was actually working for the opponent of Marcos company which was pretty funny, didn't get to smuggle out any company secrets though ;-)
On the weekend we made another 2 1/2 hour drive up to the Great Smokey Mountains and this time climbed our way up Grandfather Mountain, the highest peak, which looks down on everything surrounding it. It was amazing, loads of fun and really challenging - nothing for people who have issues with heights - right at the peak i found myself dangling from a ladder on the side of the mountain with nothing to prevent me from falling almost 2000 metres below....the view was awesome!! We'll definitely be taking our visitors back there! For the easter break we're considering driving down to Orlando or maybe up to Washington and when Marcos parents come we'll be driving down though Savannah, Georgia to Port Canaveral, Florida and hopping on a cruise to ....the Bahamas! Sooo looking forward to that! In the mean time though we're busy on the treadmill getting ready for the half and mini-marathons in April!

4 Days in Houston, Texas, midway to a heart attack..

2007-03-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

Well it was interesting, and definitely confirmed all of my Cliches: Cowboy hats, fast food, big cars and even bigger people...especially the kids! It was also great fun catching up with Andre and Angela, who are also over here on a short term delegation from Siemens. We hit the first day off with a mammoth american breakfast in an old fashioned diner and then mosied on uptown to check out the city and the various giant shopping centres, for example The Galleria, which had a big ice rink in the middle. During the next coulpe of days we visited George Ranch, an old-fashioned but well maintained texas ranch, complete with people in old-style attire speaking funny, along with various awesome shopping spots, Galveston, an old but very cute harbourside city and the Kuara Boardwalk, a fairground and seafood lovers delight by the sea. But i have to say the two biggest highlights were by far the Texas Rodeo (biggest in the world) and the Red River Dance Hall Saloon. They were both a REAL taste of Texas culture! The Rodeo consisted of a livestock show, food area, fairground and huuuuuge stadium, where the competitions were held as well as the concert from Clay Walker - big country star, afterwards. We got to see everything from an extravagant recital of the star spangled banner (complete with fireworks, chick standing on a horse doing lap of arena with flag in hand, gospel choir, you know, the usual!) to bull riding (awesome to watch), to a marine being sent to Iraq the next day proposing to his girlfriend live before the crowd. And the food available was just as captivating: fried and meaty is how they like it! Huge turkey legs to eat in the hand (leaves you feeling like a caveman), corndogs and sausage on a stick, and then for dessert there's deepfried everything: oreos, twinkies, cookiedough, oh yeah, and cola and dr. pepper, don't ask me how they deepfried that but we had to taste it....it was gross. The Red River Dance Hall Saloon is apparently the only real place to go out at night in Houston, and was an eye-opener! Looked like the set of a spaghetti western movie filled with people in cowboy hats waltzing (yes waltzing!) to country music. When they weren't doing that they were, of course, linedancing, and yes, we did participate! The drinks (including Margaritas, yum!) were all 75 cents and the security consisted of the local Sheriff and his deputy, who sat at the bar all night and got hit on by just about every chick under 24 in the bar!

Valentine's Day, Cheap Gas and even cheaper clothing!

2007-02-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! We celebrated pretty low key, I decorated the house with heart formations of tea candles and made a fancy dinner while Marco bought me some yummy choccies (flowers are so expensive here, i think we were a bit spoiled living so close to Holland, largest flower exporter in the world!)
On the weekend we celebrated Chinese New Year with Marco's Thai/Chinese Co-worker at the most amazing asian buffet restaurant I've ever experienced in my life! They had everything from chicken feet and beef tongue to langostines, dim sum and sushi! And it all tasted soooo good (...ok i did skip the chicken feet) this place will definitely be on the TO Do list for visitors! And it's cheap! Another place going on that list will be Concord Mills, an absolutely huge Outlet Shopping Centre that looks more like a theme park, that we finally found after first driving 1 hour south when we were supposed to go 1 hour north. So 2 1/2 hours later ( i'd like to note here that Marco was the navigator :-P) we both bought gear from places like Gap, Guess, Banana Republic and Levis and definitely didn't even reach $100!! 4 hours later...knackered...
I gotta say i enjoy driving over here a lot more than in Germany, i think the roads and wider, traffic is sparser and people aren't going so fast i guess. The Drivers themselves seem kinda weird though, so many abandoned cars on the sids of highways and loads of vehicles that look like they should rather be abandoned...or even better, defected! Petrol is unbelievably cheap by international comparison: approx. AUD$0.60 per Liter!!
Check out the album for new photos. Cya!

Greetings from the land of spray cheese......

2007-02-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Well after a week in the new apartment we are now getting settled in. We've raided Wal-Mart (like Big W) for appliances and homewares and so on (remember all we could bring with us was clothes pretty much!) and i've even cooked us a few meals to christen the kitchen! The apartment itself and the gated community we are living in are to say the least...the absolute bomb! Free Pilates (tried it last week-awesome!) free Yoga, 2 pools, awesome gym and even some kind of a cinema room!!?? The apartment itself is also really big and cosy and new, and is pretty much perfect.....with the exception of one whopping big imperfection, as we discovered on our first night here.....as we were peacefully drifting off to sleep we realised, to our horror, that not one, not two, but three generators of electricity/heating are parked right outside our bedroom window, and they are (ALL!) sooooo loud, we barely slept at all that night! Now we just use earplugs. So ironic! Eh, what can ya do....

Yesterday we decided to take a trip into the country side and visit a place called Chimney Rock Mountain....and rather underestimated the distance we'd need to drive there. So after 3 hours in the car, watching all the white picket fences and porch rocking chairs (facing the highway??) whizz by, and a couple of wrong turns we arrived there mid-afternoon, and set off for a hike. The place was beautiful, felt like we were already in the middle of the Great Smokey Mountains - which, after getting a taste, will definitely be our next trip!

You really notice life's little differences over here, just about everything has a drive-in....the banks, starbucks, even the local pharmacy! Everyone owns a huge car and there is no recycling, but what's worse is they still use styrofoam-everything - shame on them! I'm barely coping after living in extremely eco-friendly Germany for all that time! You find strips of tire and abandoned cars all over the roads here which is really confusing us...what's the deal?? People are really nice though, especially Marco's colleagues, one of whom has lent us a huge TV for the year! So all up it's been a good start in our new home here!