tessa-enright.com

die Hochzeit

On Friday, September 26th, 2008 Mike Schulze and Tessa Enright will be married.

The ceremony will take place at the Standesamt* in Dresden, Germany at 8:30am.

On Saturday, September 27th, 2008 Mike and Tessa will depart for their honeymoon, which will include visits to Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Montenegro. They will return on October 6th.

We regret that we cannot have our friends and family present for this special occasion, but we thank you for your understanding given the circumstances.

We also cannot accept any gifts that we can't take with us when we return to the U.S.We will, however, accept donations to the cost of our honeymoon if you feel so inclined.

For further information, such as my mailing address in Germany, please send me a message.

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New Apartment

Just wanted to share a few pictures of our new apartment. I am really wiped out after all of the moving and unpacking, but we are finally settled and out of there! Just a few more little things on the list.

Penny was rather frightened after the move. She hid in the closet and wouldn't come out. But eventually when she did I showed her the balcony, and she cautiously sniffed around. I think she liked it.

Here is our kitchen. We still need chairs and curtains in all of the rooms.

This is a view of our apartment, we are on the first floor and that is our balcony. Most of the people have lots of plants and German flags (because of the Euro Cup) on their balconies, but I don't have much of a green thumb so we will probably just use it for storage and maybe buy some chairs to sit out there and eat or read.

Here is a view of my desk where I am sitting at this very moment...how interesting.

Penny was exhausted after all of the moving. It was hard working carrying all of that furniture, but she is a champ.

Here is our teeny little bedroom. Somehow we managed to fit all of the furniture in there, plus a new desk. And no, I never make my bed.

Here is our exciting bathroom. We picked orange...don't know why, since I hate orange. Although, I guess you could also say that my banner is orange? I'm just confused I guess.

I had to have this sign when I saw it. The verb kämpfen means to fight or to battle, so basically it's like a "Beware of Dog" sign. Pretty sweet. She is ferocious, watch out!

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die Abenteuerin

Abenteuerin adventuress

The title of this blog post is sarcastic, since I am anything but.

As I was scanning my Wörterbuch (English-German dictionary) for appropriate titles for this blog entry, I was reminded of something that I think is very cool about the German language: just about any German word can be dissected into parts and you can discover its meaning. It's actually kind of fun.

My German oral exam is not on Tuesday like I thought, but next month (collective sigh of relief)! My German comprehension has increased a lot, but my speech and grammar is still abysmal. And whenever I am in a situation where a German speaks to me, any German knowledge that I had suddenly goes out the window and I am speaking cave-man German or just copping out by saying "Ich verstehe nicht!" (I don't understand).

But back to the title of the blog...

Mike and I are working on the necessary paperwork for us to join in holy matrimony sometime this summer. On Thursday Mike said to me, "So tomorrow you will go to the consulate in Leipzig and get this form."

"Huh? We are going to Leipzig tomorrow?" I replied.

"No, you are."

Of course this made me scared. I usually try not to expose myself to situations where I may have to actually speak German. I mean, I have "mastered" the trams in Dresden and I can pretty comfortably go to class and shopping by myself. But travelling to a whole different city on my own? No way!

"It will be easy. You will get a train to Leipzig and then you'll have to take a taxi to the consulate."

"Huh? Taxi? I have to talk to a taxi driver? No! I can't do it. Boo hoo!"

"It will be easy, I know you can do it."

"I know that I can. But I don't want to!"

So on Friday morning I got on a train to Leipzig. We had compromised by deciding that I would not take a taxi but walk, so Mike printed me out a map. For some reason the taxi idea really freaked me out.

The trip was relatively uneventful. The walk was not that long, the weather in Leipzig was nice, and I got to walk through the center and see some of the nice buildings, although I didn't know what I was looking at. I think this picture is of a church.

The consulate was weird. The whole street was blocked off and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go in, so I wandered around for a while. There were lots of cops, so finally I just approached one. Suddenly my cave-man German came into play and I must have said something like "me want marry, must go consulate". Finally I showed them my passport and they let me in. When I got in they checked me for weapons and then confiscated my cell phone and camera. A woman escorted me into a room and I sat down at a table. No one was speaking English with me, so I tried in my cave-man German to tell them what I needed: a Konsularische Ledigkeitsbescheinigung. What?! I couldn't even say it. Finally I just said "Ich will heiraten" (I want to get married). The woman said "congratulations!" and switched to English (thank you!).

They asked me for my address in the U.S. and in Germany, my father and mother's names, and then they printed me out a paper in German and English saying that I am single.

So, my little adventure went smoothly. I even got to have some McDonald's at the train station before I left.

Soon I will have to post a blog about how to marry a German in Germany. But first I have to finish figuring it out myself.

In other news, our kitchen was installed in our apartment! It looks really nice. Today Mike and I went over and cooked a meal there, even though we didn't have any chairs to sit on since we haven't bought any yet. I am really excited to move in. I just wish I could wiggle my nose like Jeannie and make all the heavy furniture in our apartment here suddenly appear in the new one. We probably can't afford movers, and besides, I don't know who would want to carry all of this already assembled furniture down from the top floor of our apartment. Atleast our new one is on the first floor.

And for fun, here is Penny. I know you all want to see another hundred photos of my cat, right? She is excited about the new apartment as well.

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Heute

Heute today

Things I did today...

These are all things I wouldn't have been able to do in Germany.

The flight was kind of long and miserable since I had to fly on a different plane than Mike. And we had a scare in Chicago because his flight arrived late and we were worried he wouldn't catch his third flight to Phoenix, but thankfully he did.

I got kind of cranky and upset in Chicago because Mike's plane was late and because I was sleep deprived and confused. In Chicago I had to pick up my baggage (which I thought was strange), change terminals, re-check my baggage, and then go back through security.

I really, really hate security. For some reason they make me feel like I'm guilty, having all of those people looking at me like that. Because of that, I don't wear any belt and I don't carry any liquids or a laptop, because I really just want to get through the stupid thing as fast as I can.

One employee seemed to sense my distaste for the process, and he smiled at me and apologized, saying "This is the last time we will bother you!". And I thought, "Yes, until I fly back in three weeks!"

When we got to Phoenix I just passed out at about 6pm. Because it was 3am in Germany and I had been awake for 43 hours.

I woke up at 4am, so a couple of hours later, Mike and I went to IHOP.

It was kind of surreal being in IHOP. The waitress was so friendly and extremely fast. We hadn't even sat down before she was asking us what we wanted to drink, and I excitedly ordered a water. Imagine that! Free water, with no bubbles in it!

After that, Mike and I went to Super Walmart, which was also strange seeing rows and rows of products I cannot usually buy. Mike let me drive, since I haven't driven in nine months. Apparently, it is like riding a bike.

We went shopping on Sunday, which would have been impossible in Germany. And we also got to see Iron Man, which was pretty entertaining for an action/super hero movie (those usually aren't my thing), and I got to eat buttery popcorn which made me sick to my stomach and got stuck in my wisdom tooth holes.

After that, we went to some cheap Mexican fast food joint and I got taquitos, and then we went swimming in the hotel pool. It is still crazy hot outside even though it is night.

Tomorrow I plan on shopping until I drop! And lucky me, there is a Saver's store right across the street from our hotel!

It's good to be back!

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Flugzeug

Flugzeug airplane

As you can see, I have had a lot of time on my hands lately. I decided to try to decoupage which is basically just a fancy name for cutting and pasting.

I bought the little wooden boxes and the frame, and some floral wrapping paper. I cut out the flowers and glued them onto the boxes and then painted them with glaze. The red one, I actually painted with nail polish because I had no paint, and it has sort of a vintage looking design on it that I also found at a store here. I don't know if they are that amazing, but I think they are cute, and plan on giving some of them away to my family. I also have dreams of one day selling crafted items on Etsy, which is a website where you can buy and sell crafted items.

I also took a walk around Dresden the other day. It was really warm and nice. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of day to take pictures of the Elbe Panorama because the sun was behind the buildings. But I still crossed the bridge and took pictures because I had walked all the way. You can see the Frauenkirche and the Royal Palace, among other buildings.

Tomorrow I will pack and hopefully keep myself occupied so I don't go crazy with boredom. We are going to go pick out our kitchen for our new apartment! Fun times. Next time I post, I will be in Arizona! But first I have a really long and lonely flight ahead of me. I hope there aren't too many delays and that all of my bags arrive!

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