Daheim is where das Herz is... : home

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

It's that time of year again, officially the season for hot apple cider, football games, colored leaves and progressively shorter days. The month of September, though pleasant enough, was mostly lackluster in terms of goings-ons. Now that we're into the third week of October though, things have picked up a little bit and the past couple weekends have been busy.

The last weekend in September was Homecoming at Newark Valley High School, my alma mater. My younger (though note that I don't use the term "little") brother is one of the captains of the varsity football team and was nominated for Homecoming court; we're so proud of him! :)

The morning started off with the Homecoming parade, which wound its way through Newark Valley with marching band, Homecoming court and sports teams in tow.

Opening the parade, the Newark Valley High School marching band.

That afternoon, after everyone settled down from the 10 roaring minutes of parade, we gathered at the school to watch some good, old-fashioned American football! I personally am not a fan of the sport, but I try to be at least a little supportive of my baby brother and where I come from... I also LOVED the person in the cardinal mascot. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a while.

The team coming onto the field, with my brother leading the way... and that hilarious cardinal dancing alongside.

In the end, my brother didn't win the king crown, but NV won the game and everyone went home happy.

The following weekend was the annual Apple Festival, a Newark Valley tradition. Across from the high school on the edge of town is an old restored farmhouse from the late 1700's called the Bement-Billings Farmstead. As a kid we took numerous school field trips there to learn about ye olde candle making, ye olde blacksmithing and how cold and unwelcoming ye olde houses were. They were always my favorite field trips! Well the Apple Festival is pretty much the same thing, execpt it draws a much larger crowd and they have great food and music and dancing and such. I haven't been home in a while, so this was the first year I went in about 4 or 5 years. I'm glad I got to; it was fun!

His sign said he was a "wonder horse", though we couldn't decide what that meant.

Pressing apples for cider on a vintage press... did I mention the Apple Festival has a lot of apple stuff?

English folk dance... I think.

I even got to shoot my first gun- And I almost hit the Gatorade bottle target with the foam ear plug too!

Spinning yarn.

Nerd alert.

A great bluegrass band that played: The Coal Town Rounders... check out their Facebook site HERE !

Inside the historic house

So other than the few outings mentioned, my days lately have been spent working, getting ready to return to Germany and enjoying the time I have left at home.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about going back to Germany? Well, I'll be leaving December 11 and arriving in Hamburg December 12! I think I am now officially allowed to say that my boyfriend, Matthias, and I will be moving to Berlin and starting a new adventure! He got a great new job that starts on January 1 and, though I'm still hunting, I hope to be doing an internship for a few months in the German capital city. I'm in the middle of applying for a master's program in Brandenburg for the Fall 2013 semester and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out. Everything is so uncertain, but exciting and thrilling at the same time. I have never before made such a huge move in my life with no real concrete plan and had to make it a total leap of faith. I'm sure I'll find an internship eventually and grad school is still almost a year away, but it's comforting to know that even if it gets hard and frustrating, I won't be alone. :)

On that note, I'll leave everyone with some recent pictures of autumn in beautiful Upstate New York.

Morning glories as the sun rises over our backyard.

Sunset over the field across the road.

The moon still visible at the break of dawn.

Fog in the valley at sunrise.

Oh yeah... and here's a couple pictures of our dog in her Halloween costume, just because it's so freaking cute! Best $2 I've ever spent!

Sheba the cowgirl. Yeee-haw!

Until Next Time,

Chelsea

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

As I said in my last post, I have now been home for officially over two months. I can't believe it was only 8(ish) short weeks ago that I was walking through the soaked streets of Hamburg or hanging out with my Fulbright girls. Sighhhh... Nostalgia. Let's relive my last few hours of European bliss by looking at my pictures from my stop over in Iceland. Oh, did I not mention that I had a SEVEN hour layover in Reykjavik? I did, and it was awesome.

Flying over Iceland

The Moon? Nope, Iceland.

The Blue Lagoon, where I enjoyed a relaxing layover.

A geothermal heated "natural" swimming pool, the Blue Lagoon.

Underground Moon parking lot

Icelandic money

More moneyz... lovin' the Icelandic hats/beards.

But anyway, getting back to the point: though I've mostly been working my butt off trying to save money the past few weeks, I have had a couple chances for fun. The weather has been great here (especially in comparison to northern Germany) and family visits have made for some enjoyable weekends. At the beginning of August my sister and I drove a couple hours north to go to a Mumford and Sons concert. We had lawn seats, and even though I could barely see the stage (at all) it was still amazing!

Another big highlight was the trip of my boyfriend, Matthias. He arrived in mid-August to Upstate New York and we spent some time with my family. Afterward we visited NYC and Washington DC together. It was really fun and super great to see him, but the week simply went by too fast! :(

Contemplating America

Awwwww

Brooklyn

The day we were in Brooklyn it was really hot, so we decided to beat the heat by taking a ferry ride down to Wall St. and back.

Manhattan

After spending the day in NYC laying in parks and hanging out with some of my friends from high school we retired semi-early to prepare for the next day. Saturday (which was the next day) we took a Chinatown bus down to Washington DC. Matthias had never been and I hadn't visited in over four years, so it was an adventure for both of us.

The Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial

American Museum of Natural History

The Burger Joint... to die for burgers and shakes!

Just under a week after he had gotten off the plane, Matthias was off again for Chicago and the west coast. Unfortunately I had to work, so I couldn't come with him. I trudged back Upstate after a ridiculous 3 hour delay and 45 minutes plane ride. In the month since then I have been trying to keep myself occupied. Though during the week work usually gets in the way of most things, the weekends have afforded some nice distractions.

Last weekend my mom and went hiking in Watkins Glen. We had had a grand scheme to hike in the Finger Lakes every weekend over the summer, but this was actually only our second time. Oops... It was still really fun though!

Happy Hiker!

This past Saturday we went to one of my niece's field hockey games. I think everyone in our family was surprised to learn that they even have field hockey for 8 year olds, but boy did they ever. It was a huge 4 hour long tournament! Even though her team didn't win any of the games we watched, they sure did play well!

Purple shirt and hot pink short/socks/shoes/stick? That's our girl!

Allie and friend... how cute are they??

Sunday was the day of the long awaited (by me) German festival at the Lucas Winery on Cayuga Lake. Two of my favorite things together: Germans and wine! Oh joy! Though seemingly small, with only a few booths, food, wine and a band... it sure was gemütlich.

dog! in an Oktoberfest hat! cute!

Bavarian dancers

Bavarian dancers (doing Schuhplattler!)

"German food"

As for now, I have about three months until I'll be back in Germany and I have a lot of preparing to do. From university applications to scholarship applications, apartment hunting and trying to enjoy things here, I think the time will fly rather quickly.

To put off that future just a tad, let's reminisce on the past... I had a disposable underwater camera developed last weekend and the resulting pictures (from Macedonia, Portugal and Iceland) are a wonderful bit of nostalgia!