tiergarten

It’s 6:15pm (or, 18:15, rather. Trying to get used to the 24-hour clock!), and we just wrapped up dinner from the restaurant downstairs. It was bakery for breakfast, random bits & pieces for lunch, and restaurant food for dinner. Wen & I were discussing earlier how we’re acting (and spending money!) like we’re on vacation – eating out all of the time, etc,  when in reality, this is our life now. So at some point, we need to CLOSE THE WALLETS and put ourselves on a Nuremberg Budget.

That said, the reason for the non-homemade meals today is that we are literally out of everything in our teeny kitchen, AND, a random little tidbit of life in Germany: ALL STORES ARE CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. Literally. Grocery store? Closed. Pharmacy? Closed. Mall? Closed. So you better be prepared with diapers, nail polish remover (my current freakout – first day of work tomorrow and can’t find a place to get a manicure and my nails are a mess! ACK!), milk, tampons (GAH!) and anything else you may need, because there is no backup plan if you’re out. Hence the eating out. All day.

Regardless, we had a super fab weekend – the perfect way to end my 3-week hiatus from the working world. Tomorrow I start my new adventure at adidas global headquarters (“World of Sports,” to the natives). A little known fact about moi:  I HATE, LOATHE, DESPISE being the new girl. As someone who likes (loves) to be in control and know what’s happening, I struggle a bit with not knowing where to go, who to ask, where to sit, WHO TO EACH LUNCH WITH. So all of this creates a bit of anxiety within this old gal. HOWEVER – I’m choosing to not let the anxiety win, and am instead trying to focus on the excitement and fun and newness of tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow evening I’ll be posting a “THUMBS UP!” titled blog post – would sure welcome your prayers as such!

But there will be plenty o’ time to chat about my new work adventure. Instead I’d rather share some highlights from the Maxey weekend – it was a good one!

We started yesterday (Saturday) at the famous Nuremberg Tiergarten – or “zoo.” May I just say that this zoo ROCKS?! The only other zoo that I’ve spent any substantial time at is the Oregon Zoo – and for some reason, every time I’m there the animals are in hiding. Literally. I typically will get a glimpse of the elephant, but other than that I (we) usually leave there wondering how in the world we wandered for 2 hours only to see a few birds and monkeys? Well, that is certainly not the case at the Nuremberg Tiergarten! This zoo is ranked as the top in Europe (I might have made that up, as all of the Germany books I’m reading are starting to blend together, but I think I saw this somewhere. Anyway … ), and it did not disappoint. The animals were everywhere, and it was huge and green and lush and such a perfect way to start the weekend. The highlight was the tiger (so beautiful!) and the dolphin show (no pics, but it was a blast). The only challenge was all of the hills – Wen & I got a serious workout pushing those strollers up & around, but at least it gave us the green light for some gelato later on ….

gorgeous tiger, and so close!

daddy & bitty in front of the tiger

Back to the city center for dinner & gelato – Piper LOVES it there. There is so much to look at, so many old & intricate buildings. She is convinced that Rapunzel lives in one of the many towers … I haven’t yet had the heart to tell her the truth.

Well, Wen just looked at me and said, “That’s a long post there, Emmie!” – so in an effort to not alienate all of you with long, boring recounts of our life (TOO LATE!), I’ll wrap this up. Hope you’re all enjoying your Sunday – since everything is closed here, it will truly help us honor the “day of rest” that we have always wanted but never actually made a reality. Wishing you all a lovely day of rest.

Smooches from Nuremberg. xo.

day of rest ... love it.