Happy Blog-iversary!

Today marks one whole year of blogging about our experiences during this ex-pat assignment! We have visited over 35 cities in 12 countries, met fantastic new friends, and have been exposed to an entire continent full of new experiences! It is absolutely true that we are loving our time here and look foward to the next year, which of course might be our last here. Through our experiences I have found out some interesting things about myself...like how German I really am. For example, out of all the places I have visited I think that Germany is the best place in Europe for me to live. Its clean, safe, interesting, energy efficient (actually efficient in most every way), and the people are straight forward but genuinely nice and helpful. The langauge is extremely difficult, but anyone who knows little more than the basics can easily get by with day to day activities. It has just been great living here, but thank God for technology or I would really miss the US! What did ex-pats do before the internet? Our US phone, email, social networking, and television are through the net. If I had to watch German TV, not have access to email, and not be able to talk to friends and family whenever I want...I am sure I would not love it as much as I do!
Aside from Germany, I have also fell in love with many places and look forward to the places I plan to fall in love with this next year too. So far my top five favorite places have been Rome, Berlin, Nice & Cannes (or anywhere along the French Riviera), Stockholm, and Amsterdam. All for completely different reasons. Rome and Berlin for the shear history that encompasses those places, Amsterdam for the culture and livability, Stockholm for the beauty, people and architecture, and the French Riviera because I could die there! It might be my favorite spot yet.
This next year I look forward to visiting Madrid this month with one of my oldest friends, hitting the two biggies of Paris and London, and most of all visiting the one place I have always wanted to go...Greece. The biggest difference for this year might be the volume of visitors we are expecting. This year we had a couple in April and my Mom last month. We will have 7 visit by months end, more in November and many more after the first of the year! I couldn't be happier and look forward to everyone's visit! And as always you can count on my recap of each experience right here on Move Over Heidi!
Auf Wiedersehen!