Monday, November 22, 2010

Annapolis, MD and some more pictures...

Not much has happened last week.
This week will be a little bit busier... I will get a visit from my visit teachers for the very first time since I turned 18. Who would have thought this would ever happen?!?
We still have to put decoration with Judie up for Thursday and for Christmas.
This Thursday (Thanksgiving) will be my first real Thanksgiving and I'm excited to have tons of food! Judie's parents, brother and some cousins are coming and we will be 10 people fighting over the turkey. Next Monday, Anthon is already gonna fly...and me 4 days later... but really.. nothing exciting has happened..sorry about that.. so I'm just posting some more pictures.

The pictures are not in the best quality... Anthon changed the setting to a lower quality..and we forgot to put it back... grrrr....

When I had a free minute, I walked trough and around the house and experimented a little bit more with the camera. When I get a camera in my hand, I'm like a little Japanese...



This cat is the shyest cat of Judie's 3 cats. I seldom see it. So it was hard to get a normal picture...without the white wood...sad... but this shot looks funny.













Last Thursday, we went babysitting for a 10 month old boy. His parents went to a gala and came back with a huge bouquet of flowers for us... really nice of them.
So I had to take the chance to put the things I had learned from the books into practice.











This Saturday, Frank suggested us to go to Annapolis, MD since we only had 2 weekends left before Anthon flies..and me, too.

Annapolis is famous for its Naval Academy, so we went to the campus and watched a short movie in the Visitors Center.
I didn't know too much about it, so it was pretty interesting.
I'm impressed with the women that go there and have to go through the same training as the guys- amazing! I couldn't that! But luckily this country has enough people that are willing to go through these 4 tough years of training to be able to protect this country.



I didn't notice that this here was a garbage can until Anthon told me that the people, who were walking by, asked each other why this girl was taking a picture of that garbage can. :-) Ooops..




We really wanted to go to this chapel, but a wedding was about to start...so we couldn't see the inside...unfortunately..





I love Photoshop! I don't know much about it...so I was exploring it a little bit this time.
I didn't like that the photographer was in this picture...so I erased him...kind of fun..




Annapolis lies directly at the sea, which gives the city a nice touch.





When we walked through the city, we noticed that there are many guys wearing their uniforms. Anthon was suspecting that there might be a game. Later his dad called and told us, that they were playing against Arkansas.
We heard that the students always march to the stadium when there is a game, so we were lucky to see them marching and being able to take pictures.








While we were in Annapolis, I remembered that an elder from my mission in the Michigan Lansing Mission is in the Naval Academy. But I figured that the chances that I'll meet him are pretty low.
I also remembered that he was playing the drums in a scottish/irish Naval Band. But when I heard some bagpipes playing a little bit further away, I had to go closer to see if he was there... and he was!
So lucky!













Before the football game started, they had a fly over...pretty cool.




At a shop in Annapolis...

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Miscellaneous...

A couple of weeks ago, we bought 2 Groupons ($10 for $20) for the Swiss Bakery in Springfield. We had been there once and we both loved it. You enter the bakery and it feels like being home. I love the smell of a bakery!



So we went there again, but this time with a groupon and got plenty of baked goods for 20 Dollars.



Yummy!



I thought these beer-cup cookies were pretty funny!





In the afternoon we met our friends again. When we were living in Arlington, we did something with them every week, but since we've been living in Springfield we think that DC is soooo far away (it's actually only about 20 min away)



They love sushi and we love sushi...so we decided to get some good sushi. We tried a sea weed salad. Sounds weird, but it was really, really good!
We looked up a recipe and tried to make it and went to an Asian grocery store...but they only had other kinds of sea weed... :-(



We got a new camera, so I've been taken even more pictures than I normally do to try out different settings. I love it!





Last Saturday, Anthon took the LEED AP test and while he was taking it, I took some pictures of the city...



The Abraham Lincoln Memorial



From the A.L. Memorial... I love being able to take good night pictures!



The Washington Monument



A.L. Memorial



While most tourists only take a picture of the front of the building, I walked around the building and saw this beautiful sun set!
This is a tip I read in a book about photography. Not to only take the standard tourist pictures.









The Second World War Memorial





Sorry, nothing is in order.





The Korean War Memorial







We've also been trying some portrait pictures. It's so much fun discovering all the settings and effects and applying the things I read in the photography book.
But of course, we are still beginners...







It was already really dark, but the camera still takes these nice and sharp pictures.





The Jefferson Memorial
I tried to photoshop the picture and removed the construction successfully...but I forgot to save it... dang it! But I'm amazed how much you can do with photoshop, if you need to.



We also went to the Arlington Cemetery.
I had the wrong lense with me. So I couldn't take a picture of the guard... but this picture still turned out to be artistic. It shows the reverence of the people watching the changing of the guard.







Exploring in the house...









The irony in this picture...



There are sooo many pictures we have taken but that's enough..
I'm really excited to go back to Germany in 2 weeks and take pictures of my family and friends and practice that a little bit more.
One of my goals is to become better at taking pictures of people.
I'm excited to see my and Anthon's family, to eat German food, German candy, to see my friends, to go to church (to finally go to Relief Society again!), to spend more time with Fynn, to get to know Rebecca's boyfriend, .... so many things to be excited about!

See some of you in Germany! ;-)