We Made A SMART Decision

We bought a car! So after driving a classic Mini with Marlayna, it was clear that it wasn't the best option. Didn't fit well and we didn't like how it drove. It handled well but the engine/trans didn't feel good at all (although this was an older carbed version, fuel injected ones may be better).

Anyway, we decided to look for something else. We still wanted small with character and ended up getting a 2002 Smart Car, red with black accents. It actually has the more interior space for two occupants of any car I have ever been in! And it is really comfortable and the European version gets over 60MPG (although the US one does get less...go figure).

I would love to post pictures of OUR car....but I can't yet because we don't actually have it yet thanks to all the government complexities here. I put a downpayment yesterday to hold to car. Now I need to wait a few days for the dealer to get the car TUV approved (safety regulation board). Then I go back to the dealership in Hannover to pick up ownership papers BUT NO CAR and then drive to the registration office to get plates, title, etc. Then I need to get insurance set up AFTER I do all that. And then I can finally go pick up my car. Way easier in the States!!!

And yes, we have seen them parked like this (c:

I Hear This Music & Think Of You.

When I met him, I instantly wanted to be his friend. But I couldn't really fathom why I should be a part of such a wonderful family, why I would deserve so much love, or how I could fit into this group of inspiring women. When he adopted me as another beloved Ylvisaker kid it was the beginning of a friendship so encouraging, so precious, filled with so much love. It is more than I had ever imgined it would be. I wanted to share these next two songs and their lyrics with you because when I hear them, I think of Dr. Y. These songs tell how I felt when I met this incredible man and explains how he changed my life. I am so grateful for what he saw in me, for the love he showed me, for the life, the wisdom, and the time he shared with me that has transformed me forever. This is what he does for every person he touches. These songs share a little about what I think makes Dr. Y one of the most precious people to have lived.

True Colors

You with the sad eyes

Dont be discouraged

Oh I realize

Its hard to take courage

In a world full of people

You can lose sight of it all

And the darkness, inside you

Can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors

Shining through

I see your true colors

And thats why I love you

So dont be afraid to let them show

Your true colors

True colors are beautiful,

Like a rainbow

Show me a smile then,

Dont be unhappy, cant remember

When I last saw you laughing

If this world makes you crazy

And youve taken all you can bear

You call me up

Because you know Ill be there

And Ill see your true colors

Shining through

I see your true colors

And thats why I love you

So dont be afraid to let them show

Your true colors

True colors are beautiful,

Like a rainbow

Its amazing how much he loves everyone. He taught me how beautiful people are when you realize that loving them so much helps them to see that too and then they really blossom. When you live like this, your life too will be filled with so much love it will be immeasurable...like Dr. Y's...its overflowing.

Seasons of Love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes,

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Moments so dear

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights

In cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

In five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?

How about love?

How about love?

Measure in love

Seasons of love

Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Journeys to plan

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure the life

Of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned

Or in times that he cried

In bridges he burned

Or the way that she died

It's time now to sing out

Tho' the story never ends

Let's celebrate

Remember a year in the life of friends

Remember the love

(Oh you got to, got to)

Remember the love

(Remember the love)

Seasons of love

(Measure measure you life in love)

Seasons of love

Seasons of love

It May Be Mini....

...but its Uber-Cool! (c:

So as Marlayna had mentioned a week or so ago, we are looking to get a car so we can get out and explore more. While there are a ton of really cheap cars we could buy that would get the job done just fine, we felt that it would be more fun to spend a little more and get something with a little more character....a Mini Cooper! It may be almost the exact same as it was when it was designed around 1959 (and this is a 2000 model year) but they are really neat cars. They drive like an adult-sized go cart (handle really well).

So today I went to go and look at THIS Mini. Well actually a different one originally, but that one was in really poor shape, but the dealer had two more blue ones I looked at that were in really good shape (pics). Mini's are really unique - everything about them is a little off (steering wheel is angled funny, pedals are towards the center of the car, etc) but this is part of what adds the character.

Unfortunately, they were asking a lot for the two nicer ones, 5,699€ for this one (about $8,100 USD) so I had to pass, otherwise I think I would have gotten this one today if it was more reasonably priced. It also had the brushed/swirled aluminum interior which I really liked, while most have a wood grain.

In order to still get a Mini Cooper and have it be in the range of what we want to spend, it looks like we may have to get one that doesn't have an airbag and side-impact-bars (added in 1997). To be honest, a Mini Cooper isn't the safest car in the world even with these features so who knows, maybe we will sacrifice. I am planning on checking out this one tomorrow (below). It is red with white stripes - I liked the blue much better but oh well...

Dream Job at Mansory?

I (Daniel) put together an application packet with a cover letter (in German) explaining my passion for modified high performance vehicles and about how I want to make it my life's work, along with my engineering and personal experience with modifying cars, German resume, and English resume. I sent out 11 of these to various high-end aftermarket car companies, and....

I GOT A REPLY BACK! The company that I was most excited about got back to me within 2 days! I had sent the application pack to the owner of the company, and he had already talked it over with the company's business development director and they e-mailed me back 2 days later saying that they found my application very interesting! They wanted to speak to me further as long as I was willing to move nearer to their headquarters (Brand, Germany). I will let you all know how it goes from here! Wish me the best!

Here are some pics of cars they have built...

Bonjour!

I am so excited! We are going to Paris for our *1 year anniversary*! Four days in Paris...hmm, I wonder if Daniel will go with me to a cabaret? :) ha!

"My wife's built like you...just a little bit...lighter."

Yah, if I took this even one time a week I'd be lighter than me too! Ha!

I took my first spinning class today with a british english guy named Steve! He is an absolutely fabulous man. It was a CRAZY hard class. I am inspired by the endurance, and stamina of the people in the class, two women in mid fifties, and mid seventies. Nothing I have EVER done on my bike has even KIND OF compared to that. It was so difficult. I nearly passed out at 25 minutes. Then I skated through the next ten-fifteen minutes and all of a sudden (my body must have switched over to fat burning, hooray!) I found a blast of new energy. I was so thankful! When we stopped "climbing hills" at 55 minutes and sat down on our seats my legs wouldn't peddle (sp?). I really had to try hard to make them move again. I was truely amazed because I really didnt feel like that when we were ending the class! We were all soaking with sweat from 20 minutes on (one of those fabulously purifying kinds of workouts) and my hair was totally curling in all directions defying even the restraints of my ponytail holder and bobby pins.

Officially a farm...

So I was writting an email at the table in our cottage and looked up to see two large horses in the yard no more than 15 feet from where I was sitting. The funny thing was that I went back to writting and thought, "oh, ok, two horses." Then I realized, "hey! You dork, you just saw two horses! That's not just another something!" Also, the kids just got two large, very large, floppy-ear bunnies. We are now, three kids, four adults, two cats, three chickens, 2 geese, two bunnies and two horses. Isnt that officially a farm? :)

Holland vs USA

Difference:

Ok today I am changing the rules. Instead of just Germany vs USA, I might blog about (anywhere in) Europe vs USA. I wanted to share with you the difference between birth practices and expectations of the dutch vs Americans according my Holland tourguide book. I feel like if all of this is very plainly stated in a travel guide, you can pretty much count on the fact that its even more wonderful to have the experience and there are probably many more incredible options/practices for women that we arent told about.

It makes so much sense that in Europe you only see the OB when you have a complication. I guess if we practiced like this in the US they would find an excuse to say that almost every pregnancy has a complication and therefore requires an OB. They pretty much do that already. Freak you out that you would die if you didnt have a DR. Midwives are still often considered hippieish (or as one Dr. put to me, "they practice hocus pocus!") and not quite as educated, which is a far cry from the truth of what this profession has to offer.

Check out how one of the first recommendations for pregnant women is an exercise class! How wonderful that they encourage the mothers to keep strong and active. AND, check out the other info they regularly provide - breastfeeding, CPR, and infant massage! Amazingly ahead of our culture. I think its wonderful that birth at home is normal and most often done naturally. I think more women should be supported in experiencing a loving, nurturing, non-fearful, pregnancy and childbirth. How come the US has all the crazy doctors pushing for inductions/augmentations, scheduled c-sections, heavy pain meds, tests for everything, and every other little invasive intervention thats not generally necessary? Not to mention the fear they instill in women regarding the whole process. I wish that in our culture when you said childbirth people didnt immediately think, "painful", but rather, "women are strong." This seems to me the feeling in Holland.

Germany Vs USA - Postal Service

Difference:

In Germany you have to drop your mail off at the post office because the delivery service will not pick up your outgoing mail.

"I like to move it move it! I like to move it move it!"

"[We] like to, move it!" Remember the dancing lemur song from the film Madagascar? :)

So, Daniel and I joined two different gyms the other day and it turned out to be a very differnent expereince than one we would have had in the states. Since I think it might be interesting for you all to hear some of the differences between the two cultures we are going to make a few posts about Germany vs. USA.

Basically, the gym story starts with a cute little picture of Daniel at a local festival with one of those enormous hammers swinging away at a large lever to see how many times he could ring the bell at the top in 1 minute. The point was that for every time you rang the bell you recieved a free days memebership to one of the local "fitness studios" (as they are referred to here). Well, Daniel swung so hard that the weight flew up to ring the bell and blew the whole darn thing to pieces! The owners stood stunned and the crowd started shouting, "free three months! free one year!" etc, etc.

Eventually they fixed it and he was able to ding the bell 33 times to recieve 33 free days to "move it, move it!"

In the meantime I discovered how much it regularly costs to attend a FS here, which happens to be about three times as much as I paid at Fitness 19 back home. Luckily, Bea found me a local cupon for another Fs and I decided to try 4 weeks for this better rate.

First off, Daniels gym is a dude's gym. It seems smaller than the one I am attending (PF), the front desk is a huge display of gargantuain muscle building protein powders, and the owners freak me out a little because they are huge weight lifting guys and one of them looks like a creepy italian guy - the kind that stares. Dont get me wrong though, PF is not anything like our MEGA gyms back home like Bali's or Lifetime. It is actually quite modest, but inclusive of what people want. When I walked in I felt it was a little lighter, airy, cleaner, and what I call fluffier - actually I mean accomodating. They have two extra workout rooms for classes of all kinds (pilates! yoga! spinning!), a beautiful locker room, sauna, tanning booth, cardio machines, areas for stretching, a heavy weights area, and what i call "chick weights". I mean the weight MACHINES. :) Daniel's gym has only the scary dude weights. And scary dudes.

Difference #1:

Ok, so one of the things I noticed was that when I tried to sign up, the guy barely took any information from me. Ok, really he took my name, address and phone number but it seemed like he had such a casual attitude that it wouldnt matter if I didnt give him anything. What followed was even stranger to me. I opened my wallet to pay the membership fee and he looked confused! I thought, hmmm, why do you look like Im being strange? He said, "um, do you want to pay now (?)....or pay later? " As if later (WHEN IS THAT!!!??) was the norm! I am so accustomed to paying on the spot, ha, actually, in the US dont we all have "pay later" payment plans? Ok, so I think I just told you I dont usually do that. Anyway, I paid him up front. I thought, hmmm? So I am allowed to come for four weeks and pay at the end? (Only my assumption of what "later" meant).

Difference #2:

I have noticed that the gym I go to is so quiet, regardless of how many people are there. In the US people seem to associate a good work out crashing weights, huffing and puffing, and high energy spastic bouncing/racing around the gym from event to event. In Germany, if you crash a weight machine, it vibrates the whole place. Sound stiff? No, its actually quite peaceful. I have crashed plents of weights (only the chicky kind) but I am learning.

Difference #3:

I usually go to the gym and do 25-30 minutes cardio, broken up on three different machines, and then 30 minutes of weights. This is when I dont take a fitness class. At home I often feel like the modest cardiopath when I see many people go and do 30 min-1 hour cardio marathons. (I, too, was once an extreme cardiopath. IT. IS. EXHAUSTING. I could not do that long term. Not enough days with enough energy or time.) However, in Germany I have noticed that people dont do anything of the sort. I am, actually, the cardiopath! I am the one who seems to be doing the marathon workout. Instead, I have observed that they will do a mild-moderate intensity cardio workout for 10-15 minutes and then do a few sets of weights and an ab workout for another 10-20 minutes. I wonder if this is because they are out biking during the day, or walking or doing a little more phsyical activity than we regularly do at home? Perhaps, as I feel I've also observed, it actually has more to do with their practice of balance than extremism? Would it more maintainable and therefore more productive with a gentler lifestyle such as this? I think it would be for many people. I dont find anything here is really as extreme as it can get in the US. We do everything super big...which isnt always appreciable. (Also guilty of this.)

Difference #4:

Everyone here finishes their time exercising by showering, and quite often, using the sauna. The feeling I get is that they expect their studio to provide a very clean, well equipped place to clean up afterwards. No exceptions. The whole "work out" experience is a more gentle one and a regular, enjoyable event for them. It doesnt have that feeling of, "oh, I will squeeze in a marathon workout for 30 min in between X & Y events, change my clothes and go on my day." (Again, guilty.) I think people go a little slower, and they realize that things take time. So, they take their time. There are no buzzing people here racing in and out of the gym like busy bees who barely have time for their life, their health, or themselves. (oops.) It's actually quite nice to see that the expectation here is that life takes time, and its worth it. Hmmmm. Interesting.

P.S. I hope not to offend anyone back home with my views of American lifestyle. My statements are based less on anyone elses habits than they are upon my reflections of my own experiences and behaviors I've learned growing up in our big, wide, "can-do all" America.