I guess all things must eventually come to a close. Tomorrow morning I fly out of Munich and back through to Seattle. It seems like my time here has been both very long, and very short. Isn't it funny how time behaves that way? It was a good experience, and I am thankful that I could spend the last shreds of time with most of my family. I am going to miss them.
Time is sneaking up on me. The date of my MTC entry scuttles closer and closer and I'm beginning to feel the pressure. A recent revolution to my particular planet has somewhat thrown my center of gravity slightly a-kilter, but I am still going. Its just going to be a little harder. Provo is calling to me pretty loudly these days.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
A Romantic Getaway and a Fairy Tale Castle
Ok, so the getaway was not exactly meant for me. But I'm tagging along anyway.
Earlier this week it appeared as if all our weekend hopes were to be dashed when they notified my dad that he would most likely have to work the weekend through. That's what he gets for being a superior and dependable soldier. But by a happy turn of events he informed someone that his wife and kids were here visiting and they informed him right back about this retreat to Garmish. Garmish Germany is a beauty of a quaint town located somewhere right at the feet of the Alps, and the Army has a rather ritzy resort nestled comfortably in the town. The best part, family's could come and the Army was paying for it all. So here I sit in a cozy hotel room overlooking the foothills of the Alps and I have a nice cushy bed instead of a couch...mmm...
But since this is a couples retreat, they have everything geared toward the married couple. They have classes on communication and connection and male vs. female thinking. This means though that when we go to something like dinner at the hotel and they see that two couple slots have been charged the automatically assume Jacob and I are a couple. Its like being in Provo again! This phenomenon on one hand really amuses me, and on the other kind of irritates me too. But, oh well, what can you do? Must be because we look exactly alike or something.
Today we took a tour bus to Bavaria. Have I mentioned before that Germany is so green! I love it. Rolling hills became grew and grew until they formed wooded valleys full of little towns and red roofs.
We stopped first on our bus tour at a little wood workers shop, then roamed on to a church surrounded by green meadows. These meadows gave the church its name, The church in the Meadows. Don't you love German originality? We'd visited this little village before and it was interesting to see that ten years hadn't changed it overly much. Inside catholic Mass was in session. Now I've been to mass before, but its something completely different inside an intricately carved, painted and gilded building that's a couple hundred years old, and its in German. I'm so glad I'm happily settled in my own religion. The church was beautiful, if a little ostentatious.
Our final stop was the castle of Neuschwanstein. The swan castle built by Bavaria's most famous and loved king, King Ludwig. Now he is an interesting character here. The man became sickened by the politics of his time and retreated into his own world, one that he built for himself. He had a growing obsession with castles, designing and building them. He had several castles in the plans, but only four were begun. Only one was ever completed, and lived in with any permanency. Neuschwanstein is probably his most famous undertaking. The white fairy tale be-spire-d castle is the same iconic figure that inspired the likes of Disney to base their own Cinderella's castle and the castle that became their symbol on. Ludwig ended up sadly being declared insane by the state and he was arrested and taken to Munich to be detained. The next day he left on a walk with his psychiatrist around a nearby lake (who allows a mentally insane man detained by the state to wander off and take a spin around the lake?) and never came back. Both their body's were mysteriously found in the water near the shore, drowned.
Neuschwanstein sits up on the mountainside and there are three ways to get there, hiking, a tram, or horse pulled buggy. My parents trammed it up and Jacob and I proved our medal as the first ones in our group to reach the top hoofing it up the hill. Thats what dem long legs is used fer. We were supposed to meet my parents at a bridge spanning across a waterfall's ravine overlooking the castle...or should I say that the castle overlooks? In any case, through a misunderstanding (mostly Jacobs...) we wasted twenty minutes waiting for our tour group in the courtyard. Then I convinced him that our parents were still waiting for us at the bridge so we hiked all the way up there too, just to meet them at the bridge as they were leaving (our scheduled tour was starting in 10 minutes and the hike down was going to take time) so we hiked back down again and then back up to the castle.
The tour was amazing. The inside of the castle, what was finished, was art. Every wall was decorated with a scene from an opera, or the darkest of polished and carved wood. Its hard to enter a place like that and not imagine how it used to be, when it was bustling with people who lived and worked there. Its also nearly impossible not to wish to have experienced it. I really would have liked to just admire the beauty all day. It all told a story, each room, each carving, right down to the patterns in the columns on the walls. Such a beautiful castle.
After the tour we hiked once again to the bridge, Jacob and I wanted pictures. But we took it a step further and gallivanted up the mountain side along a sketchy washed out path gnarled roots and mud at a pretty much straight up angle. We left my parents at a lower altitude and roughed it up as far as we could. We got some great pictures. We also got sweaty and a little dirty.
On the way down the mountain we took an alternate (and quite a bit longer) route and happened upon a pretty little waterfall. Back to the bus, and back to Garmish we traveled.
We leave for Graf again tomorrow. I have to say, I'm going to be sorry to give up this bed for a couch...
More pictures are up here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=239824&id=678053486&ref=mf
Earlier this week it appeared as if all our weekend hopes were to be dashed when they notified my dad that he would most likely have to work the weekend through. That's what he gets for being a superior and dependable soldier. But by a happy turn of events he informed someone that his wife and kids were here visiting and they informed him right back about this retreat to Garmish. Garmish Germany is a beauty of a quaint town located somewhere right at the feet of the Alps, and the Army has a rather ritzy resort nestled comfortably in the town. The best part, family's could come and the Army was paying for it all. So here I sit in a cozy hotel room overlooking the foothills of the Alps and I have a nice cushy bed instead of a couch...mmm...
 |
| Edelweiss Resort lounge |
But since this is a couples retreat, they have everything geared toward the married couple. They have classes on communication and connection and male vs. female thinking. This means though that when we go to something like dinner at the hotel and they see that two couple slots have been charged the automatically assume Jacob and I are a couple. Its like being in Provo again! This phenomenon on one hand really amuses me, and on the other kind of irritates me too. But, oh well, what can you do? Must be because we look exactly alike or something.
Today we took a tour bus to Bavaria. Have I mentioned before that Germany is so green! I love it. Rolling hills became grew and grew until they formed wooded valleys full of little towns and red roofs.
 |
| View off of the balcony in our room. |
We stopped first on our bus tour at a little wood workers shop, then roamed on to a church surrounded by green meadows. These meadows gave the church its name, The church in the Meadows. Don't you love German originality? We'd visited this little village before and it was interesting to see that ten years hadn't changed it overly much. Inside catholic Mass was in session. Now I've been to mass before, but its something completely different inside an intricately carved, painted and gilded building that's a couple hundred years old, and its in German. I'm so glad I'm happily settled in my own religion. The church was beautiful, if a little ostentatious.
 |
| Front of chapel in the church. |
Our final stop was the castle of Neuschwanstein. The swan castle built by Bavaria's most famous and loved king, King Ludwig. Now he is an interesting character here. The man became sickened by the politics of his time and retreated into his own world, one that he built for himself. He had a growing obsession with castles, designing and building them. He had several castles in the plans, but only four were begun. Only one was ever completed, and lived in with any permanency. Neuschwanstein is probably his most famous undertaking. The white fairy tale be-spire-d castle is the same iconic figure that inspired the likes of Disney to base their own Cinderella's castle and the castle that became their symbol on. Ludwig ended up sadly being declared insane by the state and he was arrested and taken to Munich to be detained. The next day he left on a walk with his psychiatrist around a nearby lake (who allows a mentally insane man detained by the state to wander off and take a spin around the lake?) and never came back. Both their body's were mysteriously found in the water near the shore, drowned.
Neuschwanstein sits up on the mountainside and there are three ways to get there, hiking, a tram, or horse pulled buggy. My parents trammed it up and Jacob and I proved our medal as the first ones in our group to reach the top hoofing it up the hill. Thats what dem long legs is used fer. We were supposed to meet my parents at a bridge spanning across a waterfall's ravine overlooking the castle...or should I say that the castle overlooks? In any case, through a misunderstanding (mostly Jacobs...) we wasted twenty minutes waiting for our tour group in the courtyard. Then I convinced him that our parents were still waiting for us at the bridge so we hiked all the way up there too, just to meet them at the bridge as they were leaving (our scheduled tour was starting in 10 minutes and the hike down was going to take time) so we hiked back down again and then back up to the castle.
The tour was amazing. The inside of the castle, what was finished, was art. Every wall was decorated with a scene from an opera, or the darkest of polished and carved wood. Its hard to enter a place like that and not imagine how it used to be, when it was bustling with people who lived and worked there. Its also nearly impossible not to wish to have experienced it. I really would have liked to just admire the beauty all day. It all told a story, each room, each carving, right down to the patterns in the columns on the walls. Such a beautiful castle.
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| Thats a castle! |
On the way down the mountain we took an alternate (and quite a bit longer) route and happened upon a pretty little waterfall. Back to the bus, and back to Garmish we traveled.
 |
| The waterfall... |
We leave for Graf again tomorrow. I have to say, I'm going to be sorry to give up this bed for a couch...
More pictures are up here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=239824&id=678053486&ref=mf
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Guten Tag
Almost from the moment I stepped off the plane in Munich I felt like I was entering a lost part of my history. I remember more fully once again why Germany is one of my favorite places that we have lived. On the two and a half hour ride from the air port to Grafenwoehr (when I wasn't lamenting the loss of my blackberry or dozing) I marveled at the lush landscape decorated by beautiful red roofed towns. Oh to have so many trees again! It makes me happy. And I have a good appreciation for Germans, who for the most part are a fairly friendly and sensible people. Sleep deprived as I was (which was quite), I managed to not sleep the day away, instead I took a bike tour around the small yet cute post of Graf. with Jacob.
Today we attended the small Ameri-German ward. It was interesting to hear the sacrament given first in German, then in English. I lament the loss of the sparse German I once knew. Hopefully I can pick some up again, its an interesting language both to speak and read. After church we wandered into sinful indulgence and bought Jacob and I bikes so we could all ride together and get around post this upcoming week. We then took the coolest ride to a duck park off post in the village outside and had a picnic. Jacob and I relived our youth and gave the see-saw a good go. Then we continued our ride through a light drizzle around the village and into the forest. Now mind you, I haven't ridden a bike in probably 5 years, but I didn't crash into anything! Which I was perfectly happy with.
We ended the ride at an ice cream shop and I remembered that German ice cream is entirely superior to most American stuff. You see, Germans actually like their ice cream (and most foods) to taste real, not artificial, and as a strange side effect they use real fruit and whole ingredients to flavor it. Weird I know, right? Jacob also managed to break a peddle off his brand new bike, then flatten the tire. So we traded it in for a new one.
Now we are back cozy-ed up in my dad's 400 sq ft temp apartment chilling through the rest of the afternoon. Jacob and I are rockin' the Disney tunes.
It was an entirely enjoyable sunday. And I am so thankful for the time I have been given to spend together with my family before we are on 4 different continents.
I know this is kinda a lame update, but I promise to spice the next one up with pictures!
Today we attended the small Ameri-German ward. It was interesting to hear the sacrament given first in German, then in English. I lament the loss of the sparse German I once knew. Hopefully I can pick some up again, its an interesting language both to speak and read. After church we wandered into sinful indulgence and bought Jacob and I bikes so we could all ride together and get around post this upcoming week. We then took the coolest ride to a duck park off post in the village outside and had a picnic. Jacob and I relived our youth and gave the see-saw a good go. Then we continued our ride through a light drizzle around the village and into the forest. Now mind you, I haven't ridden a bike in probably 5 years, but I didn't crash into anything! Which I was perfectly happy with.
We ended the ride at an ice cream shop and I remembered that German ice cream is entirely superior to most American stuff. You see, Germans actually like their ice cream (and most foods) to taste real, not artificial, and as a strange side effect they use real fruit and whole ingredients to flavor it. Weird I know, right? Jacob also managed to break a peddle off his brand new bike, then flatten the tire. So we traded it in for a new one.
Now we are back cozy-ed up in my dad's 400 sq ft temp apartment chilling through the rest of the afternoon. Jacob and I are rockin' the Disney tunes.
It was an entirely enjoyable sunday. And I am so thankful for the time I have been given to spend together with my family before we are on 4 different continents.
I know this is kinda a lame update, but I promise to spice the next one up with pictures!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Straight Back From Paradise
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| The family (sans Jonathan) at a very pretty falls. |
My mother left for Hawaii on the 6th of July, Jacob and I left the 11th and Jonathan rendezvoused with us on the 13th. We had much by the way of great tropical fun. (The following will be an abridged synopses of our Hawaiian adventure, for more critical news skip to the last paragraph.)
We spent the first couple of days at an Army hotel on Schofeild Barracks. Since my father had classes all day (the real reason we went to Hawaii) we did our own thing during the day and did family activities after he got out of class. The second day we were in residence we took a spectacular hike up to a waterfall. The trail had a good incline, and it was fairly muddy, but the vegetation was gorgeous and the waterfall itself was spectacular (featured above in the lovely partial-family portrait). On the way down, maybe 20 minutes from the car as the ground started to level out once more, my mother slipped and fell on a particularly sinister patch of mud. The next 7 hours (from 7 pm to 2 am) were spent admiring the inner workings of the Tripler military hospital. Turns out my mother (as is her great personal luck) probably broke the only bone in the human body that happens to rot when fractured... That was a bit of a dampener. Her follow up appointment last Monday determined she needs an MRI to be sure if its broken or not, along with deciding if she tore up several of the tendons in her wrist, but that may not get done until Germany.
The next day brought us to the beach, we moved to PARC (which is an acronym for some long unmemorable name having to do with some important Hawaiian and the Army). We stayed in a cute mint green bungalow right off the ocean and bummed in the water until my dear dad arrived with Jonathan. Then we mucked around in the water some more. Wednesday brought about more mucking.
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| Jacob and I getting ready to fire Jonathan into the next wave, Bellows AFB |
Friday we enjoyed lunch with my father at the NEX (Naval Exchange) the navy monstrosity of a PX/Commissary complex. We explored and stocked up on foods. Then of course more beach play.
Saturday we rose early and rushed to the rumored home of Oahu's best pancakes, one Kimo and Boots. I will admit, the infamous macadamia nut syrup was pretty tasty. Then we roused my mother (who had passed on the breakfast party) and headed to the ginormous market in the Aloha Bowl. Much shopping ensued. A quick 200 quid later the females in my family were appreciating the experience markedly more than those of the Y chromosome. So we remedied this by attending a movie.
Sunday morning brought on the dolphin adventure at the Sea Life Park. A very cool experience, which I recommend, everyone should experience the wonders of a dolphin kiss. The boys then trundled off to play paintball. We passed the latter part of the evening with mini golf.
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| Hot and sweaty, but triumphant! |
Thursday morning began Jacob and I's last day, and it began at 3:30 am. The happy captain on the phone assured us that dawn was the very best time to see sharks you see. By 6:00 we were 3 miles off shore clambering down into a cage teetering around in shark infested waters. Such a cool experience! There were so many sharks. We purchased a DVD documenting this adventure and it is quite possible I will end up uploading it. My brave mother helpfully chummed the water from the boat side, she does not make a good sailor. Afterward we slept off the early morning. Then it was on to the temple and the distribution center and a quick spin around BYUH.
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| Jacob the umbrella wielding ham |
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| Jonathan the umbrella wielding ham |
Friday, June 25, 2010
Well that explains that...I hope...
So I saw a doctor today, because of a specific problem that had been alarming me for three months now. A different doc than my family doc (who professes there is nothing abnormal about me). Upon first sighting me she noted that it looks as if I have an enlarged thyroid, so neck feeling shortly followed. There was a pause as she thought she felt a nodule of some kind, but dismissed it as the cartilage on one side being larger than the other. That is until she learned about my mothers past meeting with thyroid cancer (which visited in the form of two different types, type one and type four, both only visible by ultrasound) at which point she decided that it probably needed to be checked out further. So my elite medical team (my doctor and my insurance company) are trying to put through the paperwork to arrange an ultrasound.
She followed by listing many symptoms, such as unexplained weight gain, always being cold, moodiness, lack of energy, inflamed acne etc, each of which I checked on my list. So best case I'm developing an overlarge underactive thyroid, which would result in the necessity of medication the rest of my life, or killing off my thyroid.
On one hand this is a relief, now I know why all of these bothersome things have been occurring over the past couple of months, including this meddlesome unexplained (possibly until now) weight gain. On the other, it is worrysome. And I will be highly irked if this has more long standing ramifications on my travel plans of the future (i.e. a mission).
In other news, our date with paradise has been moved up by two days. We now leave the tenth. I know, I don't know how I'll survive that let down. :)
She followed by listing many symptoms, such as unexplained weight gain, always being cold, moodiness, lack of energy, inflamed acne etc, each of which I checked on my list. So best case I'm developing an overlarge underactive thyroid, which would result in the necessity of medication the rest of my life, or killing off my thyroid.
On one hand this is a relief, now I know why all of these bothersome things have been occurring over the past couple of months, including this meddlesome unexplained (possibly until now) weight gain. On the other, it is worrysome. And I will be highly irked if this has more long standing ramifications on my travel plans of the future (i.e. a mission).
In other news, our date with paradise has been moved up by two days. We now leave the tenth. I know, I don't know how I'll survive that let down. :)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Afghanistan?
A new update. My father was supposed to have an interview type situation on Tuesday, where he would be a possible fill for a position opening in a German town not so far away from where he is now. However this location would have been much better than where he is now, larger, and a position that would allow him not to take another trip to the middle east. Well, obviously someone behind the scenes or above our heads wants him has devious plans in mind. The interview was canceled, on account of his presence being desired in the big sand. Lovely. So as of now it is planned for my dad to ship out the beginning of next year. So, as we are so very experienced in the wonderful fluidity provided by a life decided by the military, we had a back up plan quickly initiated. My mother then plans on staying with my dad up until deployment, then shipping over to Holland to stay with our dear friends the Knudsen family (those wonderful people animal sitting for us) who promise to watch, feed, and lovingly support her whilst Jacob and I are mission bound.
So lets see, that would put the Thiessen family on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 continents? One per member?
I think that earns an appreciative whistle folks.
However, since General McChrystal had the morals to verbally outline the governmental idiocy concerning the treatment and support of our troops in Afghanistan to the media (and was unfortunately removed from office), plans may change. Because he was over the mission in Afghanistan their stance/status/approach could alter and maybe, just maybe my dad wouldn't deploy. Its a slim chance. In any case, he decided very recently that either way, he is done. After this (whether he stays in Germany or deploys) he is going to take a short term post somewhere in the states (maybe our favorite island paradise) then retire.
Well all happy news aside (that being said with a heavy handed serving of sarcasm), my mom is going to try to rendezvous with her lover in Georgia next week when he is there for training. That leaves Jacob and I here to hold down the fort or throw wild parties for a week...whatever will we do with ourselves?
We may be meeting my mom on the return trip in Salt Lake to loiter thereabouts for a week or so.
20 Days until our Hawaii excursion!
69 Until the mission!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I love living inside a question mark...
The past few weeks of my life have been...interesting. With the sudden onset and finalization of my long term plans (i.e. Taiwan) my short term plans have ceased to be in focus, though the two really aren't correlated.
The entire family vacillated on the point of moving our household across the big pond to Germany. Now, we've known for a while now, since my fathers return from Iraq, that we were headed that way. It is a matter of when. Upon my homecoming from my self-purpose-discovering stint in Provo we were geared to immeadiately commence the moving process, pack up, and be gone within two and a half weeks.
The date changed, the plan changed, we don't have a place to live, my mother could be working, she could not be working, we could not be moving, we could move north, no we're moving south we could move and live in a cardboard box, date changed again... Oh the joys of a military family.
We are probably moving. Or my dad will get sent to Afghanistan for another year and I have no idea what my mother will be doing. It looks like she is going to be dissabled. This is a good thing. We have been angling that way for about two years, and it gives her all kinds of freedoms that the job in Germany restricted, but also ties her down to the states a bit longer. Which is good and bad. It wouldn't be nearly so pleasant to be in Europe all alone for a year if my father gets sent to the Middle East (...again...) and my younger brother and I are on Missions.
We don't know when we are moving. But the house is very nearly completely empty, save a living room of junk, a table, a couple of air mattresses and one bed. We sent our dear dogs and my cat to Holland, where they are making noisy residence with some good friends of ours until we have a place to live. We remodeled pretty much every trashy rundown aspect of the very first house my family has ever owned, just to move again. Lovely to know that all the sweat educing effort we put into landscaping, fencing, pasture-making, laying sod, installing granite counter tops, laying new carpet, replacing the kitchen floor, tiling, and building a new bathroom will be enjoyed so much...by someone else.
Aaah, cest la vie.
But we are certainly going to vacation in Hawaii in 4 weeks. Hmm...yum.
After that? Who knows? We'll see.
The entire family vacillated on the point of moving our household across the big pond to Germany. Now, we've known for a while now, since my fathers return from Iraq, that we were headed that way. It is a matter of when. Upon my homecoming from my self-purpose-discovering stint in Provo we were geared to immeadiately commence the moving process, pack up, and be gone within two and a half weeks.
The date changed, the plan changed, we don't have a place to live, my mother could be working, she could not be working, we could not be moving, we could move north, no we're moving south we could move and live in a cardboard box, date changed again... Oh the joys of a military family.
We are probably moving. Or my dad will get sent to Afghanistan for another year and I have no idea what my mother will be doing. It looks like she is going to be dissabled. This is a good thing. We have been angling that way for about two years, and it gives her all kinds of freedoms that the job in Germany restricted, but also ties her down to the states a bit longer. Which is good and bad. It wouldn't be nearly so pleasant to be in Europe all alone for a year if my father gets sent to the Middle East (...again...) and my younger brother and I are on Missions.
We don't know when we are moving. But the house is very nearly completely empty, save a living room of junk, a table, a couple of air mattresses and one bed. We sent our dear dogs and my cat to Holland, where they are making noisy residence with some good friends of ours until we have a place to live. We remodeled pretty much every trashy rundown aspect of the very first house my family has ever owned, just to move again. Lovely to know that all the sweat educing effort we put into landscaping, fencing, pasture-making, laying sod, installing granite counter tops, laying new carpet, replacing the kitchen floor, tiling, and building a new bathroom will be enjoyed so much...by someone else.
Aaah, cest la vie.
But we are certainly going to vacation in Hawaii in 4 weeks. Hmm...yum.
After that? Who knows? We'll see.
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