BUGS!!!!

Part 1 written on the 25th of June but I forgot to post!

I don't care what anyone says, there are more bugs here than anywhere I've lived. Daily, I'm peeling dead or alive ones off my face as I walk down the street for only 10 mins. There seems to be billions of the tiny flying bugs that get into everything. In Vancouver, you can find similar swarms of these bugs when you wander through a patch in the west end or kits or more suburban streets, but here, they don't discriminate on area, don't swarm in bunches that you can quickly run through and be gone. They are everywhere, fly up your nose, into your eyes and stick to your lips if you choose to wear lip balm (shudder).

To my stupidity (well, i am used to having screens on my windows), we had the lights turned on at night (gasp!) and had windows open for air…. 1 hour later, we had to shut all the windows and vacuum the walls and roof for the millions of bugs that had entered our house and coated our house in a thin grey sheen of bug.

Part 2

Its time for a BUG update on the above… the PLAGUE of wasps and mosquitos has fallen on Germany. I thought the widgets were bad, but I'll happily take them back as an annoyance rather than things that bite and sting you! Whilst my family was visiting for the wedding both my mother and sister got stung by wasps… and then the mosquitos started to feast on me. For my wedding I had giant welts up my legs, arms and neck and with a heat wave that had set in, they were INSANELY itchy (I even got the photographer to take some shots as evidence -see below). But the heat wave and mosquito wave didn't stop and they have feasted so badly on my legs and feet I can't even walk (I have golf balls all over them!), I've been locked to a bowl of ice water on my feet for days now... (see last pic).... oh woe.... 

German language watch dog

Here's something as an english speaker that I've never really thought about as most of our language is stolen from a mixture of everyone elses… seems the Germans need to watch out for their language preservation so that English won't creep in too much! The Germans have a watch dog who actually award people with titles of 'worst language offender'! See the attached link...

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110827-37213.html

Married!!!

Yay! We are now officially married! We had our a civil service in Heidelberg on the 19th (mandatory in Germany) and then a church wedding in Switzerland on the 20th August. The Switzerland part was the 'white wedding' side of things where we had a total of 9 guests, 1 priest, 1 organist, 1 bell ringer (who rang the bells for like 25 mins till I stopped getting ready and finally came down to the church!) in a town of 42 people, a handful of houses, a couple of random donkeys and 1 church. 

It was a lovely day and the hubby and I are super happily married. Now onto the next new and exciting stages of life to plan.... details to come soon..... (and no, for those of you wondering, not preggers!)

Below are a couple of the photos from the wedding.

Enjoy!

My 2011 wedding from 1986

Slightly need to vent. This wedding planning hasn't been easy. 

Organising a wedding in Switzerland, from Germany, in German language isn't, in a word, easy. Normally, the slightest details would be easy, especially for me who loves to organise events and fuss over details… but not when I have to get my fiance to organise every detail I want. If I can't communicate with them in German, he has to do it. Weddings also are of a different type, they still like to have roses on their wedding invites (like a grandma's birthday card) and the hair-do's you can find here are all the rage and people are amazed that I'm not wearing elbow length gloves. 

This wedding in the biggest understatement has been exceptionally trying & frustrating. Not saying everyone else doesn't have these issues at their wedding - but come on, we only have 9 guests attending - it shouldn't have been this hard! 

And lets not forget, when in Germany, you must do as the Germans do - their way or really… they'll find a way to still do it their way. Do you know how many arguments we have had with suit store shop assistants when we say "we would like to purchase a grey suit for the wedding for my fiance" they proceed to demandingly tell us "This MUST not happen, he must be in a black suit for a wedding". They even go and pull out all the non-grey suits they can find to prove a point… not understanding the point they are trying to proove I ask "why it 'must' be that way?", they just tell me "because it MUST not happen"…. - all in german of course so sounding way more harsh. Yay, another one for german 'quality' customer service. (Don't get me started on asking for a blue shirt instead of white.....).

Truthfully, there has so been many compromises because it was the 'best of the bad bunch' when trying to source things here that aren't looking like they are stuck in 1986. Hopefully things will come together on the day less disjointed.

Below is a picture of the variety of wedding shoes you can purchase here. This is not just what it was like in one shop, it is what it is like in every shop. Thank you again, 1986 fashion for remaining in Germany.

To quote an old work colleague friend who took this picture: "it's like...would you like the fugly pointy witch one, or the fugly long leprechaun one, or the frumpy nurse one..?!?! it's like, ugly, ugly, really ugly, super ugly, or extremely ugly. Decisions, decision, decisions..."