Oh my: I know I am due to write another blogpost but in all honestly nothing big and exciting has happened. haha A lot of little things have happened though so I guess we can start there...
All the magical things I have learned about Germany!
1) I have made myself promise to start REALLY trying to learn the language and although it is a slow process (...and I mean SLOW) I am definitely trying. One of my new rules for myself is I have to learn one new word a week and ACTIVELY use it and everything else that I have learned thus far. My word for the week:
Schönen Tag
When I asked a very nice german lady how do I say " Have a nice day in German" she stated it would just be "nice day"-in terms of "good day" and that is what she told me. If I am wrong, german friends, please correct me but thats what I have been using.
This week I was a bit ambitious and learned a couple extra ones. I also learned...
Entschuldigung
This means, "excuse me" "pardon me"
eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf
Yeah Yeah I know I am a bit behind in learning how to count in german HAHA but this is simply "1,2,3,4,5" and I have only learned up to five...lol But I am getting there. :)
So adding this list to the list of five or six words I knew before, my vocabulary is....slowly developing! lol my survival German is a bit more developed and I have a little more confidence in functioning when asking for something. I still cannot say any full sentences but, although I get Germans that kind of giggle when I ask for something in a very chopped sentence, at least they see that I am trying and they really appreciate that. I have even been able to help a couple Germans with english words! hehe that is fun too! Little words get lost in transition or they forget a word here and there and when they ask me how to say it, it is nice. :) I at least feel I have something to contribute!
2) I have been much more comfortable with traveling downtown by myself and using the bus to get there. This sounds really inconvenient, but as I said in a previous post, almost everyone walks, rides bikes or rides the bus to get around town. My OBGYN is located downtown so I have to get myself down there every other week for my appointments and I feel quite accomplished to be able to navigate myself there!!.....Ok Ok....you caught me. I have a very specific route I have to take, I get dropped off in the same spot, I walk through the very same store and walk directly on the same path through the market to get to my doctor. If you dropped me off in a different place than normal or messed up my route in any way there is a good chance I wouldn't know where I was going but hey, again, its a working progress! :) Doing this also requires me to walk EVERYWHERE! So anytime I do go downtown, I am walking about 5-6 miles a day and when I stay around post it is about 3-4. All this walking better help me with labor! haha
3) Julian and I used the train for the first time!! My that was fun! hehe there was nothing too exciting involved but hey I had never been on a REAL train before! (according to my husband, the little kid train that goes around Freestone park doesn't count...haha!) We traveled to Ansbach and Katterbach where a couple really good friends that we knew from the states live! It has been so nice having the Brennan's here as we adjust to life in Germany. They have helped us get settled so much and honestly its been the biggest blessing. Even cooler, Diane is due one week after I am! So we are able to go through the last part of our pregnancy together and that has been really neat.
4) Although it wasn't the hospital that I will be delivering at, I was able to visit a German hospital-labor and delivery suite and see how things operate generally. I understand there will be slight differences as there are with all hospitals but from what I learned about the general concept of how labor and birth are perceived and how things are done, I am SO excited to have the chance to have Illianna here! Just about everything I believe with labor, delievery and post partum is supported by the German beliefs so knowing I do not have to fight to have things the way I want them is such a blessing. They complete support me and agree in my decision to have an all natural birth and I am very excited about that! It shall be a very very nice experience! The hospital that I am choosing to deliver in will also have a NICU in the same hospital so if Illianna needed anything when she was born, she would still be in the same hospital with me, instead of being transferred anywhere. So that brought a great piece of mind!
I think that is all that has happened ...haha as I said, nothing too crazy exciting. Julian and I DO have a trip planned next weekend with his unit to do the "Tour under Bamberg." Honestly, I don't know what it entails...haha besides again, a lot of walking. We are looking at a couple different other trips also. We are looking to head to Prague(the capital city of the Czech Republic), we are planning a trip to Poland around the first week of December and we are looking at dates for places such as Rome and Paris. So there are definitely exciting things to come!
Other excitingness....we only have one more full month and then like 20 something days to get through until our precious bundle of joy joins us!! I absolutely cannot wait!! :) 7 more weeks! Julian and I painted her room this weekend and had a lot of fun doing that! We have been deciding the details that we want in her nursery and I absolutely CANNOT wait for our stuff to arrive so I can set up her nursery! We are still waiting on all of our House Hold Goods and those aren't expected to arrive until the middle of September sometime....But hopefully they get here before she does! lol
Well that is all the updating I have for now. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I will have something more substantial to write. haha but I hope you enjoyed this little update on what is going on in Bamberg, Germany!
Schonen Tag!
I think we need a Skype date I want to hear you say these words!!! Thank you for calling me I was do excited I even blogged about it! 1love2always.blogspot.com
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