Surprise!!

Okay well, I haven’t written in a while so I have a good bit to update people on. First things first, my Black Forest trip with Jessie.

At the beginning of November, Jess and I did a road trip down through the Black Forest with stops in Triberg, Freiburg, and Baden Baden. We did lots of hiking, ate some yummy local delicacies (man that Schwarzwaldkuchen has a ton of rum in it), and enjoyed a relaxing day at the thermal spa. It was a super fun trip and a great way to relax, especially after the election results. Unplugging was very helpful for a bit.

After that trip, I did a bunch of Christmas markets with friends and hosted Thanksgiving at my apartment for my friend squad. This was my first time hosting a formal Thanksgiving and it was really fun. I baked and cooked for hours and had some help from friends too. All the food turned out delicious and it was a great time.

The best update, however, was getting to see the whole fam for Christmas! Everyone came to visit for a week and a half and explored western Germany with me. It was pure chaos in my never-felt-smaller apartment, but I really missed the laughter and fun of the Garrant clan. We hit up all the best Christmas markets in the area, and Mom ended up taking home 13 Christmas mugs from the various stops. The best was Operation Gnome Mug, where Mom and I drank like 3 hot chocolates each back to back in order to try to procure as many different Gnome mugs as possible from the Cologne Christmas markets.

We also got to see some family, having lunch with my mom’s Aunt Linda and Uncle Franz, and our cousin Dennis and Franz’s wife Mariana. I got quite a bit of German practice in because Mariana refused to speak English to me, but I was rewarded with the ultimate compliment when she told me I could use the “Du” form (informal “you”) with her when speaking. This is high praise coming from a German.

I’m fairly certain Ben and Sam will be happy to never eat German food again in the near future, but it was really fun to show them Germany for the first time (and no, Ben doesn’t count even though he was born there. No memories = no credit). Jake and Mom are becoming pros at this point with all his Germany visits and Dad was even Sprechen-ing around town after just a few hours. It was really quiet once they all left and I already miss them dearly.

Now for the main update, and the reference in the title of this blog post. No I’m not pregnant or dating anyone. I’m … drum roll please … deploying! Surprise!! Honestly this was a surprise for me for sure, let alone for everyone else I’m sure. I had volunteered to deploy *awhile* ago and totally forgot about it until my boss came to me and said I was in the running for an anti-corruption task force and asked if I still wanted to go. I said yes, not really expecting to be selected from the pool of volunteers, but to my surprise, I was. In just a few months, will be spending a year in Qatar. I know a year is kind of crazy but that’s just the deployment I was selected for. I was super excited when I was first told, and I still am, but that has admittedly switched to a lot of stress and nerves at this point. I knew a deployment would be good for my career and a challenge for me personally, and I still believe those things. I also know I will be able to handle everything coming my way, but I have a lot to do to prepare before I get to that point. One step at a time, though. I don’t have a ton of information yet so bear with me if you have questions, but I’ll do my best to keep everyone up to date.

This has unfortunately changed my travel plans a bit as I have some mandatory trainings coming up, but I will get to visit family with some frequent flights back to the states, and see my old New Jersey friends too. I should also still get to do my birthday trip that I have planned, but everything has a bit of an asterisk for the time being.

Well, I believe that is all for life changing news for the bit. Love you all and more updates in the future!