Bikes, a Bosch, and a trip to Frankfurt!

We’d like to welcome you back for a second installment of our blog. We worry that we set the bar a little to high last week but I’m hopeful that we won’t disappoint! I just spoke with the editor (Emily) and we both agree that we’re going to do a little less typing and a lot more pictures from now on. Also, thanks for all the emails and responses that we have gotten from everyone. We really love hearing from you J

Before we go any further, we would like to thank our familial graphic designer- she’s not really “in house” since she lives on a different continent, but Alex made the graphic for our blog. It was not attractive before she helped us. Thank you again for your help, Al Pal!

Last week we made a trip to Frankfurt to attend the temple and decided to make a weekend of it. It started with Emily stopping by my work with our rental car – a 2-seater, convertible Smart car. It burst out laughing when I saw the car. We decided to get a car because train tickets were expensive (€ 190 per person!) and Em found a deal to rent a car from Friday afternoon to Monday morning for € 75! So Friday after work we packed up and made the 2.5 hour drive to Frankfurt. It was so much fun driving through the German countryside and through little towns, but I will admit, my definition of hell is being on the Autobahn and only in a Smart car. While in Frankfurt we stayed at the luxurious and highly rated temple housing. It was perfect and right in our price range! Saturday morning we attended a session and even ran into a returned sister from Emily’s mission. After that, we spent the rest of the day seeing all the sights of Frankfurt. Awesome city! Rather than run through the details I will simply direct you to the pictures.

Monday-Thursday we had Emily’s mission friend Inga come and stay with us. It was a lot of fun but things got very cozy in our 1 room studio apartment. The highlight of her stay in my opinion was the night that I came home from work, and Emily and Inga had visited the Haribo gummy bear factory and had brought home samples of all the different kinds of gummy treats! In case you didn’t know, Haribo is a huge gummy bear producer, headquartered just a 10 minute bus ride away! (Haribo = the European version of The Sweet Factory) The winner of our informal, yet extensive testing is that the gummy panda bears and German flag sour belts are the best. Just wanted to pass that along so that all you don’t waste any time with 2^nd rate gummy candies.

The next highlight from our week was the arrival of our Bosch mixer. I was not aware but a Bosch is a beautiful piece of German engineering and is the ultimate culinary status symbol. As Sarah said to Emily, “You’ve arrived!” See pictures for more details.

Work continues to go well and get better each day. The person that I report to and oversees all of my work is a bit difficult and has very particular ways that she likes things. At times I feel that her being critical of my work is more in the realm of personal preferences rather than choices between right and wrong, but I’m grateful because I feel that her exacting standards are turbo charging the skills that I am learning. I feel improvement every week and really enjoy what I am doing. The highlight of the week happened on Friday when I led my first meeting with a pretty high-up executive at DHL. Even my very demanding boss had to admit that I did a good job, but in the spirit of never missing an opportunity for improvement she did say that I was “a little too friendly” at the start of the meeting for German standards. Oh well!

Finally, the big event finally arrived! We had been looking forward to it for over a month. On the first Saturday of each month, Bonn holds a bike flea market. It is the best place to get a good deal on a high quality used bikes. Emily and I went down early Saturday morning, and it was so much fun being with so many people. We even ran into 2 Americans and had a fun conversation with them. We had success and were able to buy 2 really nice bikes. We have already enjoyed a bike ride along the Rhine River and another ride through the city center. I think they will be a very fun and very convenient addition to our lives here.

Thanks for checking in with us! Hope you enjoy all of the pictures that are to follow. Till next week!

Love,

Nate and Emily

This is what I saw as I walked out of my building- so fun!

Not sure who's smaller- the car or my wife?

Only the best

Having a convertible made it so much easier to take in the skyscrapers!

Visiting the German stock exchange- Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany

Grabbin life (and business) by the horns (apparently this is the classic pose because the horns are very polished and we watched three other people do this before my turn for the picture)

"Why is it called a Monet?" "Because you're gonna pay a lotta Monet to get one"

The Main Tower- this was our favorite thing that we did because it was last, so we were able to recognize where we had been and what the main buildings were. Aaaand the sun was setting amongst beautiful clouds, hence the excellent lighting of this photo :)

So excited for this belated birthday present

Our night of Haribo sampling

Such a sophisticated and elegant machine!

Markmann Bäckerei, which is a 1 minute walk from us! We just made the goal to try one new pastry a week.

Success! We love our bikes.

Ridin in style

The talented photographer, allowing himself to be seen ;)

On our way home from the ride along the Rhine- this is the street that we walk down to get everywhere.