June 10th - 12th

This week I went to the hairdresser, but I am telling you...this lady was soo incompetent!! She cut my hair too short and she also burned me a couple times during the hair drying!!
On Thursday I wanted to go to this open air movie, but since it was supposed to rain Marika and I ended up going for a cider to the ugly mug!! On Friday I went to Vici' Houseparty which was really fun!!!
On Saturday I went with Bianca and her mum to the National Harbor. It was really nice there, but I had to pay 18 bucks for the water taxi! :(
First we went to see this statue (hands, legs and other body parts that come out from the sand)
And later we went to Ketchup for a "Threesome"! Ähm.. I think I better explain that.. It was a dish with 3 kinds of fries (sweet-potato fries with cinnamon, spicy fries and regular fries) and 5 kinds of ketchup... It was pretty good, but expensive!!!
Anyways, after a little shopping in Alexandria I went back home to take a shower (because right now it's soo humid and hot in DC (last week we hat almost 40°C and it's not even summer!!) and then I headed out to Vici' house where I watched a movie, afterwards I went to Christopher' house for some beer and then we went to H- Street.. Unfortunately there was a "gay night party" at the club where we wanted to go to dance so we decided to go to sticky rice, which turned out to be a great club too!! :D Even though it was really crowded and they played "old songs" all night long!
Yeah and on Sunday and Monday I went with Marika and Vici to the Crime and Punishment Museum. I had to go there twice since nobody told us that they close the museum earier on Sunday, but we had to pay 20 bucks and we only saw half of the museum, so we went back on Monday.
It was a really interesting Museum, but a lot to read!! It's about unsolved crimes, mafia, killers, punishment,... U learn about how and how many people these murderer killed... and a lot more... I really liked the parts where u could investigate crimes...

This week is also kind of stressful, because my hostdad went with a school class for 10 days to Ireland, so I have to help Allison a little bit out...
Today I went with Maeve to the Aboretum, which was really fun... she could run around and play with the water.. I think I'll go there more often when school is over...

Chicago

Hey there!! :D
Well.. what can I tell u about Chicago!?!? It was just awesome!!! Chicago is such a beautiful and great city!! I really loved it there!! Especially because I met my friend Natascha after a long time again!! After a half an hour delay I finally arrived in Chicago where Natascha already waited for me!! :D First we ran for some groceries ;-) and then we finally went to her house where I met her hosts... Unfortunately she had to work on friday, but it wasn't that bad after all... After I slept in I went upstairs where I learnt to know the twins (who are supposed to cry when they see a stranger) who smiled at me! :) Then we went to the beach and played a little bit in the sand with them and then we went back home.. After work we dressed up and went to the millenium park and to the bean..
But since we didn't see that much we went to meet some austrian friends of Nati.. And we went on a pub crawl which was really fun!!
On Saturday we went up the Sear' Tower (where we took great pictures in this glass boxes) and we also went to the Millenium Park and to the Navy Park. At the Navy Park was a fun park with a great ferry wheel, but we prefered watching this live performing guy..
Yeah.. What else did we do?? Hmm... I also saw this famous Chicago sign...
And I also saw the Whigley (Sorry, but I don't know how to spell it and I am too lazy to look it up :P ) Stadium...
Yeah and on Sunday I already had to go back to DC!! :( But it was a really great weekend though..

Maine ( May 27th- 30th)

On Friday I went with Vanesa and Bianca to Boston, (Unfortunately our flight had a delay of more than an hour)where we rented a car and drove up to Bar Harbor. But because of the flight delay we arrived there at 5 a.m!!! It was horrible!!! Then after a couple hours of sleep we headed to the Acadia Park, which was just awesome!! It is the second most visited park in the USA by the way... Anyway.. we drove the Park Loop Road and stopped when we saw nice places to take some pictures. Unfortunately it was kinda foggy, but it was still amazing.. I think that the fog gave the park a special note!! :D I really loved the Beach with it's red rocky cliffs and the hike up to the south bubble. The "bubble" is a rock lying on the edge of a cliff! It looked great, but I think it was kinda dangerous, because if I would have slipped I would have fallen all the way down the cliff!! And of course we took some funny pictures with this rock!! I for example pretended to push the rock down the cliff and behind we was a guy shouting "Don't push too hard" and later he yelled "Do u need help to push it down?" It was soo funny!!
Yeah.. we also drove up Cadillac Mountain where u are supposed to have a great view, but we didn't see anything since it was soo foggy. And it was also very windy, I already started to imagine how it's like to go skydiving, because I really felt blown away! :P
After Acadia Park we drove down to Bass Harbor to see the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. It was a nice one, but not my favorite...
After that we drove down the maine coast to see some more Lighthouses, but we hardly saw some, because most of them were situated on an island (and they were too small to see)
Then we went to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse where we had to walk around 15 minutes on a path out to the sea. And of course it was foggy again, but this time it was really cool, because the path looked kind of mysterious and never ending.
And finally we went to our last Lighthouse which was also the most beautiful one!! :D Besides it was the only day on which it was sunny! :-) And after we left a little too late we got stuck in traffic (because of Memorial Day Weekend) and all of us were really concerned that we miss our flight back to DC.. We already checked other flights which were too expensive, then we tried to find a cheap bus, but in the end the traffic cleared up and we made it in time to the airport, in fact we actually had to wait around 15 minutes! :P
Then back in DC we got stuck in the Metro, because I was chatting with Bianca and so we didn't pay attention to the metro announcement which told us to leave the metro.. so the metro left with only me and bianca in it.. in the end one of this metro guys found us after 5 minutes and they dropped us off at the metro station where we were supposed to get out..
That was a realy exciting weekend!!
Today was an awful day.. we had aroun 36 °C and it was also very humid.. so I had to stay the whole day inside with the kids..
But luckily this week is a short work week, because tomorrow I am going to visit my friend Natascha in Chicago and I really look forward to it!! :D

Visit from Austria (May 19th-23rd)

On Thursday, May 19th (Joe's B-Day (I gave him a frame with a picture of the kids and a bottle of my uncle's wine)) after more than an hour delay, my friends and siblings finally arrived!! :D Of course I picked them up, but I had to drive two times since we have a small new car (mini)...
Then on Friday in the morning I had to keep the kids quiet that they don't wake them up, especially Ronan, he always wanted to go in the basement to meet my brother, to play soccer with him and show him all his Star Wars stuff... so cute..
Then after I dropped of Ronan at school Maeve and I baked some pancakes for them. After breakfast we walked to the Capitol and back home, since Maeve needed her nap...
Later we went together to pick up Ronan from school and to play some baseball at the park :D Unfortunately I forgot the soccer ball, because Ronan really wanted to play soccer, but he also had fun at playing baseball!!
After work we went to Vapiano for Dinner and to Fado's to meet my friends (Vanessa, Bianca, Carol and Christopher). After some beers and a confused and crying waitress (we needed 1 hour to pay)we changed to Rocket bar where we had another beer.
The next morning we got up early and went to a fun park called Six Flags. We took the most exciting roller coaster rides and then we went to the water park... it was really funny there, I think I have to go there again! ;-)
After we came home and changed we went to some clubs like Lotus, unfortunately it wasn't that great...
And on Sunday we walked again to the Capitol and after we met Vanesa we marched together to the Mall, the Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and of course to the White House!! :D And after this exhausting day I also had to cook a typical meal for my hostfamily and my austrian friends.. at least I had my sister who helped me preparing... we had Wiener Schnitzel with Salad and Asparagus. It was really yummy and I think my hosts really enjoyed this evening! :D
After my hostmum put the kids down we stayed a little longer with Joe and had some beer and talked a little more..
And on Monday in the morning I went with Maeve and the others to the Air and Space Museum, again!!
And then after Maeve' nap I already had to say good-bye! :(

And this week I also watched the movie "Bridesmaids" which was hilarious!! u guys really need to watch this movie. It was the funniest movie I saw in a very long time.

Yeah and this weekend (Memorial Day weekend) I'll go to Maine and the Acadia Park!! I really look forward to it, because I heart that it's supposed to me nice up there... and next week I am going to Chicago to meet my friend Natascha!! :D

playing baseball :)

Austrian Dinner :D

Denise' Goodbye Party and Roller Derby! (13-15 May)

We organised a Surprise Goodbye Party for Denise, since she decided to go home, because she had some issues and a big fight with her hosts...
It was a nice (house)party, but also a little sad. :(

Then on Saturday I went with my host to a roller derby which was great. For those of you who don't know what a roller derby is... There are girls skating in a circle and push each other down or use their elbows or other parts of their body to hurt the other person.. but it was kind of boring.. because the first girls were too nice to each other! The second team though war great.. almost every round fell at least 2 girls... I really liked this afternoon!! :D
After that I went to Christopher's house and had some beer...And later we headed to H Street to Toyland were we played the jumbling tower game.. I <3 this game!! But except of that it was kind of boring there, so we went to another pub, which was also kind of boring... and since I had to go home anyway, because Denise slept at my place, but she went to another bar and that she doesn't have to wait alone in front of my house, I went home...

And on friday I had my first 90 minutes yoga lesson, which was EXHAUSTING... U are in a very humid room with around 105° Fahrenheit and then u have to do exercises too!! But after that u feel really great!! :D But u are all over wet!!