Milan, Italy - but we want to be in Cinque Terre...

Our day in Paris was finally coming to an end. We got to our gate just in time to catch our flight to Pisa only to see that it was delayed. And eventually cancelled. The airline eventually decided to put everyone on a flight to Bologna later in the evening and then send us on a bus to Pisa which would have us arriving just before midnight. We had no where to stay in Pisa. There would be no more trains leaving for Cinque Terre. This was not looking good. We some how managed to get ourselves on a flight to Milan and planned to take a train from there to Cinque Terre. Of course the flight was departing in 30 minutes and in a separate terminal that we had to take a bus to.

Off on another adventure we went! Sprinting through Charles D'Galle once again, we got to our gate just as the plane was boarding. I think Michael passed out as soon as we sat down. Ahh.... finally on our way to Italy. Once we got to Milan we realized that we would never make our train so we had to find a place to stay.

Thank goodness for Starwood! A nice Starwood lady helped us find a place to stay near the train station. As long as the place was clean and safe, we would be happy. Our hotel turned out to be a beautiful, old hotel with very friendly employees. They suggested a great restaurant where we enjoyed our first delicious Italian meal.

A brief layover in Paris on our way to Italy

Michael had a Fall Break from classes at Duke at the end of October so we decided to spend it in Italy for the week. The plan was to meet in Florence on Friday and spend the next 5 days seeing as much of Italy as we could. Michael had a layover in Paris on his way there and I was flying from Munich to Florence. Plans sort of changed...



I got staffed on a project in Paris for a couple days before our trip and thought it would be a great idea if I surprised Michael by getting on his flight. What a great idea, right? I still can not believe that I didn't slip up and tell him about being in Paris that week.



Friday morning came and I waited quite impatiently for his flight from the U.S. to get in. Finally I saw the jet lagged Michael wander into the terminal. He had to look twice when he saw me and then realized it was actually me. I think he was more confused than surprised at first.



Since his flight got in early, I thought we should try and catch an earlier flight to Pisa to get us closer to Cinque Terre, our final destination that day. After a rather long and stressful event of switching tickets, Michael made it back to our terminal with his new ticket only to find out that there were no seats left for me on the flight. Great. This also has made us too late to catch our original flight to Florence and the next flight to Pisa or Florence doesn't leave until 4PM. Wonderful. Instead of sitting in the airport for half of a day, we decided to head back into Paris and see some of the city.



First stop, Notre Dame. I forgot how incredibly impressive this church is.

Door on the front of Notre Dame. I was standing outside of this on Thursday night when Michael called saying that he was boarding his plane. He thought I was packing and getting ready in Munich. :)

Michael came back to rescue me from all of the crazy birds in front of Notre Dame. It may not have been Italy, but at least we were both on the same continent that day.

Eiffel Tower in the distance. We had lunch on a bridge that had a great view of the city. Thankfully Michael can also speak French so I let him take care of ordering lunch at the deli. They had all sorts of fancy coffee's on the menu so of course I picked out a super girly one for him to order for me. Apparently the guy behind the counter didn't quite understand him because he came back with chocolate milk. A little child's container of chocolate milk that had a foil top to peel off, almost the same thing as a coffee.

What a great day in Paris! We took the train back to the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight to Pisa. The only problem was we didn't plan in enough time for the train to break down. Michael has no idea what is going on because he is so tired so he just tries to sleep through it. I watched the train operators walk around the train several times looking underneath it. After what felt like hours, we finally started moving again. We made it back to the airport in time to start the rest of our adventure!

Deloitte

Work
The other reason for moving to Germany

As you have noticed, I have not been very good about updating my blog very often. My excuse this time is WORK! My project this summer was, "Learn how to live in Germany." I seem to have gotten this project under control so it was about time I found some client work to do.

In September, I joined a project in Brussels, Belgium that is being led by a U.S. Deloitte team in St. Paul, MN. How funny that I move across the world to work with people that are an hour away from where I grew up! I have been splitting my time between Brussels and Munich for the last couple months.

For my friends and family that used to describe what I did for work to other people as "Something confusing with computers", this no longer will work! We are helping the client to implement a Human Resources Shared Service Center. This allows the company to centralize and become more efficient in the administrative tasks of HR, while letting HR in each European country focus on building strategic relationships with their businesses. Basically, this means that we help the company reorganize how their Human Resources department functions and serves the business.

This has been a great project so far to experience a global project from a new point of view. It is quite different being on the other receiving end sometimes of the global team in the U.S. telling us what to do and then we, "Europe", have to figure out how we will actually put these processes in to practice following the laws and business culture here. Luckily, the client is great and my Deloitte teammates are really wonderful people to work with.

The client is actually located near the Brussels airport and quite far away from the city center so I have only been there once. I stole these pictures from Michael when he was there last summer. :)

There are a couple narrow streets that are lined with restaurant after restaurant all serving amazing seafood. We passed them up for a local favorite of one of our teammates. I ate rabbit for the first time that night and loved it. We all managed to save room to try a few Belgian beers and a famous waffle covered in chocolate, strawberries, and whip cream.

At night there is a light and music show in the main square. We were lucky enough to catch it after dinner.

Hopefully I will be able to see more of the city on my next trips to Brussels. Celine, is the Belgian Deloitte colleague that I replaced on the project. Since she is now working internally in the Diegem office, I am sure that we will have more fun adventures.

French and Flemish
Celine has taught us a lot about the political unrest in Belgium over the relationship between the Flemish and French speaking people. According to Celine´s experiences lately the tension between the two groups has been increasing over the last few years and it is surfacing frequently at the government levels. There are actually some people that believe that the Flemish and French speaking parts of the country should divide and become separate countries. Belgium has three official languages, German, Dutch, and French. Only a small portion of the country in the east is German speaking. The northern part of the country is Flemish and the southern portion is French. Brussels happens to be a city in the Flemish part of the country, but it is a French speaking city. Many people speak French, Dutch, and English, but would only identify themselves as Flemish or French. The schools are divided by the language as well. However, many French parents are sending their children to Flemish schools so that they learn Dutch. The Flemish parents are doing the same with the French schools. My client is Irish, married to a French speaking man, and has her daughter in a Dutch speaking school. Just a little bit different of a language environment then we are used to in the U.S....

Baby Lillian

Lillian Elizabeth von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff

Born October 16th, 2008

On a beautiful Fall day in Minnesota, Miss Lillian was born. Above are some pictures from my parents´place on Lilly´s birthday.

Lilly decided to meet everyone on Oct. 16th. Both mom and baby are doing well.

Grandma Majerus with Lillian. This is her 4th new great-grandchild this year!

A very proud Tante Christa with Lillian! My family has this running joke of people´s faces showing up on sticks when they are not able to attend big events. It all started when my dad was not able to come to Chicago my mom, aunt, and cousin for my triathlon. He insisted that my mother show up to the race with his face on a big stick so he could be there in spirit. Hilarious!

Grandma and Grandpa looking very happy with Lillian.

ahhh...

The proud parents.

Tante Christa pushing Lilly in her swing on her first day at home.

Omi and Tante Renate adoring Lilly while she naps.




ahh... I can not wait to hold her!

Clearly she was enjoying me pushing her more than this big purple monster.

Grandma vKB says she has been teaching Lilly all sorts of things like waving to her Tante Christa.

and learning how to do Pilates with Grandma.

Lilly the cat. I am surprised the dogs left her alone.

because they look quite interested in this picture and she is not even dressed like a cat.

Die Wiesn

Die Wiesn!

The first day of Oktoberfest/Wiesn is kicked off by a parade through the city of the 6 family breweries that are at the Wiesn.

Each brewery had multiple wagons pulled by beautiful teams of horses. All of the families were dressed up in their lederhosen and dirndls and were drinking beer.

There were lots of bands between each brewery as well. The parade led to the site of the Wiesn where thousands of people were anxiously waiting to get in side the 14 tents.

My first time at die Wiesn! I met Celine at her apartment for some delicious Bavarian food and then we walked over. We went on a Sunday night so we were able to walk right into the Hacker Pschorr tent. What an experience! I thought it was going to be just a bunch of large white tents. There were amusement park rides, games to play, food stands everywhere, and then the 14 tents. The largest tent holds 7,000 people! The Hacker Pschorr tent was my favorite. The ceiling and walls are painted with murals all over. The music was a mix of German and American songs that we all happily sang while standing on our benches.

Weekend #2

Tim came to visit! Tim is my friend from work that does all sorts of crazy travelling! He has been everywhere and somehow manages to do each of his trips in usually less than 5 days. His brother and two other girls stayed with me that weekend.

We rented bikes and road through the city. After only about 30 minutes I navigated us to the beer garden in the English Garden and we took a well deserved break.

Our second break was the Hofbrähaus for another beer and big pretzel. I hadn't been there since I was 16. We lucked out and found a table for all of us. The next weekend Michael and I couldn't even get into the building because it was so crowded.

Weekend #3

It is officially Fall in Munich! The trees around Oktoberfest are all changing colors.

Quick picture before we begin our Oktoberfest adventure.

Where are all of the people? Last weekend we couldn't even move because there were people everywhere. It took us forever to even reach the tents.
Michael got a great shot of the swings with the church in the background on our way to the tents.

We clearly were having a great day in the Paulaner tent. We got here early enough for breakfast and before the band even started playing. Throughout the day Maggie, Sabina, and other friends from Deloitte stopped by.

Sabina met up with us later in the afternoon. What a great person! Hopefully I will get to see her more often in Munich this Fall. Apparently a combination of her and a few beers can get me to speak better German than I ever have before in my life. Looks like Maggie´s and Michael´s German lessons earlier that day paid off.

Maggie found us! I think this is after her and Michael gave me my first German lesson for the day. The verb is ALWAYS second! Always 2nd!!!

These little old ladies had no problem finishing their beer. I doubt that they ended up standing on their benches afterwards though.

Michael appears to be enjoying the large pretzel and beer at his first Oktoberfest.

How did the Hacker Schporr glass get in the Paulaner tent? Looks a little like the one that is on my shelf at home! ;)

When we got here in the morning the streets were empty. This is what happened while we were in the tent for 7 hours!

I can hardly hold my one beer and the waiters and waitresses seem to be able to carry a few more.

We decided to skip the rides that night. Too many pretzels and beer for rides.

What a great day at die Wiesn! I had so much fun this year with Michael and my friends. The dirndl is now packed packed away and ready for next year!

Posting Comments on my Blog

Hi everyone,

A few of you have tried to leave comments on my blog and were required to log in with a google account. No need to have an account any more. You can now click on the comments link and leave a message with out signing in.

I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for all of the emails keeping me up to date on everything going on in the U.S.

Christa

Der Allgäu

A trip to the Allgäu

I went with Maggie down to the Allgäu for a weekend to visit her family and friends and go hiking.

Hiking near Lake Constance

The hike is just getting started! Thankfully the rain held off for most of our hike.

Maggie and I on top of the mountain overlooking Lake Constance.

Everyone in Germany and Austria has beautiful flowers in window boxes and covering their front yards.

You had to watch out for the cow pies! This was one of the first fields we cut through after we got out of the woods.


You know that you are at the highest point of a mountain when you find the cross.



Cutting through a field on our way back down the mountain.

Even with all of the clouds, there were spectacular views of the towns around Lake Constance.

The clouds have covered most of the mountain right next to us.

Another great view of the lake and surrounding towns.

All of the trails that we walked on were on farmers´ land in Austria. We were literally walking through cow pastures and climbing under or over fences to get to the next trail. It felt like going for a walk at home in Minnesota. I am not exactly sure on the specifics of the agreement between the farmers and the government, but they are required to allow people to walk these paths through their land. This would never happen in the U.S. unless it was public land!

Taking a break to enjoy the view.

Maggie thought they were adorable.

Lindau

After the hike, we met up with one of Maggie´s friends and walked around Lindau. It is one of many very touristy towns that are along the lake. It was very pretty and had a lot of painted old buildings. Of course after the tour of the town we had to refuel on cake and coffee. We found a restaurant on top of a building and had a great view over the town and lake while we ate.

Beautiful flowers that will make you very sick if you eat them.

The Food!
Maggie´s mom made the most delicious Vietnamese food I have ever had. I even got to help prepare some of it.

Spring Rolls are cooking. Every was so delicious.

The feast! I had never had so many different herbs in my food. Every time I made something I used different leaves. Maggie´s dad kept picking out the ones that I needed to try or if he noticed I didn't get enough the last time.

This was a favorite, a spring roll wrapped with herbs in a piece of lettuce and dipped in fish sauce. When Maggie and her brothers and sister were younger, their mom used to go in to the kitchen of the Vietnamese restaurant that they were at to make them their own fish sauce. It is that good!

I made these! They don't look as pretty now that they are cooked, but they were delicious. Maggie´s dad grows all of their own herbs in their back yard. I took small pieces of raw meat and wrapped them in these purple leaves. Maggie´s mom doesn't speak much English so we both had to rely on our German to cook together.

Maggie and I are waiting at the train station to go back to Munich.

What a great weekend with the Ngo family!