Sorry I haven't posted in A LONG TIME!

Hey Ya'll! I have been inspired by Julie & Julia to get cracking on this blog. I have just been so busy. I started school (like 5 months ago) and have been consumed in that. Plus with Alain leaving (he's gone since December) and just everything else....Anyways-I'm going to update some pictures and then get up to date.

Dachau Concentration Camp

When we talked about going to Germany, little did I know we would be visiting a concentration camp! What an experience.
It high school I was very fascinated with the Holocaust as a whole. I remember my teacher described all the killings in the camps of the Jews and such as the idea of taking out a can of spray and killing a swarm of ants. I thought it was a great way to describe the process because you don't see the ants as being worth keeping around. They are infesting your space and they are dirty and there are many of them and picking up a can of spray to kill them off doesn't mean much. It was an interesting analogy.
I have to tell you-there was little that surprised me about the camp. It was exactly as I imagined it would be. The only thing that caught me off guard was how peaceful and serene it was. It has been made into a memorial and it is actually quite a nice place aside from the rotting buildings and the facts that death plagues it.
The crematorium was an experience. Walking in there you stand in a room and it is merely a room. Until you look at the wall and realize you are standing in a room where they would pile all the dead bodies. Or the room where they have the ovens and they would hang the prisoners right there in front of them. Or the room where they told the prisoners they were going to take a shower, then gassed them in bulk.

Pretty sickening.

Garmisch Germany-Alain's Block Leave

We actually rented a little cabin and stayed there for $55 a night. It was located in the campgrounds on a military post. Pretty cool and we were right near the mountain. The first night we had some German cuisine. Big 'ol slab of pork and some potato dumplings. We also tried some German beer. The one I had was dark and surprisingly sweet. =)

The town was so friggin cute I want to live there! Little gingerbread like buildings with painted walls. Germany is so clean! It was absolutely beautiful there. I would like to go back and stay at the lodge someday.

Alain's Block Leave-Venice

Well it's about that time again. Can you believe Alain has already been home for a year? We recently had his block leave in July. He's not leaving yet, but it's getting there.
His Dad came to visit for two weeks and we went to Venice, Germany, Florence (for like an hour), Rome & Lake Garda.

I have to get some good pictures of Lake Garda. I keep forgetting my camera.
It was a very eventful two weeks, I tell ya! OMG.
I have never fallen asleep at the wheel before but driving home from Rome I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open. I don't get out much these days and we covered a lot of ground.
One of my favorite parts was driving to Rome and seeing all of the sunflowers everywhere! So pretty. Just fields and fields of them. I realized and remembered that sunflowers are my favorite.
I didn't get a picture, though.
But driving to Rome, Italy looked like we imagined it would. Very Tuscan.

Florence April 2009

Florence April 2009

My Creative Space-Nolan & his Easter Duck