Updates

I know I haven’t written in a few weeks, so I figured it was time for an update.  I haven’t done a ton of major travel since Austria, but I have gone to quite a few Christmas markets, and I even got to visit my old home, Heidelberg.  It was interesting seeing how much Heidelberg has changed in just four years, while much of it remained the same, thankfully.  I loved reliving my memories and will definitely be back again for more visits.

I also got to see Jake briefly while he was here in Germany with some friends.  Jake, Tyler, and Lisa were the first guests to grace Hotel de Meg and I received positive feedback on the guest beds; Amazon is a godsend for delivering those early.  I showed Jake and squad around my town, Wittlich, where we enjoyed some traditional German Doner kebap, and some local wine from a wine shop in town.  The wine was delicious, and so cheap! 6 Euro a bottle for very nice wine.  America could never.  The owner was also very friendly and had a great sense of humor as we chatted auf Deutsch.  I was pleasantly surprised my translation skills were still up to par for the group, even though Jake kept asking me random vocab that I missed because I would never use those words in daily life.  Not sure how often people speak about Guinea pigs, but that was one of the tests I failed haha.

I’m going to have a quiet Christmas with some solo travel up north a bit.  I will be visiting Dresden to go to the large Christmas market there, and then I’ll spend some time in Berlin.  Berlin is a great city for holiday travel because of the various cultures there; it is pretty much guaranteed to have restaurants open with cuisines from countries who don’t typically celebrate Christmas.

After my quick Christmas trip, I will be meeting my good friend Vee in Budapest, Hungary for New Years.  We haven’t fully planned out our funtivities yet, but from my quick google search, it seems like there is a lot to do, and New Years is apparently amazing in Budapest, so that will be a super fun experience.  It also helps cross off another country for me; I want to get one of those Europe scratch off maps to track everywhere I have gone.

Not sure where else the wind will take me, but I am trying to convince my mom to do a Scandinavian trip for our next girls trip.  We do these every few years, first going to Tennessee together, then Ireland last time I was in Europe, and hopefully northern Europe next!  I will be traveling back to the States in April for some professional training.  I’ll be going back to my old base, McGuire, in New Jersey, so I’m super excited to see my friends while I am there, and celebrate my birthday back home! I can’t believe I’m going to be 26, that is so crazy.

As for day to day, work has been pretty slow.  I’m still trying to figure out my role and place in my new office and with the holiday season, there just isn’t a ton going on, and no one is super keen to start anything new until the New Year.  Hopefully things pick up, but I’ve appreciated the light load compared to my time in NJ.  I started working out with a personal trainer again, Reyna, who has been kicking my booty.  I am practically always sore, but it’s been fun to get back into weight lifting and training.  I definitely feel better when I’m consistent with it.

I really need to start recycling a bunch of boxes from my move, and once those are all cleared out, I will post pictures of my new apartment.  I know everyone is waiting for those.  All in all, things are coming together pretty nicely and I’m glad to be settled again.

As always, I miss you all endlessly and the offer to visit is always on the table.  Until next time!