He randomly wrote on Zach Wilt's (a friend from highschool in Wiesbaden) facebook profile and suggested that we should go to a Nats game together, since we are all living in the DC area.
Zach wrote Anthon back and told him that he had 4 Nats tickets and he had already have plans for that day and couldn't go there. Zach got the tickets from his dad and he got it from his company...or something like that.
So, Zach gave us the tickets for free (Anthon paid for his and his girlfriend's lunch) and we went to the baseball game together with our friends Lance and Melissa Blake.
I was really excited because I had never gone to a baseball game before, since baseball is not very big in Germany.
We decided to go there by Metro and Judie was so kind to give us her parking ticket for a parking lot at L'Enfant Plaza. From there, we took the Metro to the stadium.
Zach gave us 5 tickets and we were wondering what the 5th ticket was for (the "seat" was not together with the other 4 and it was "only" 40 Dollars).
Before the game, there were many people who bought the tickets from you and sold them for more money to people that didn't have tickets yet.
So, Anthon decided just to sell that random ticket. The guy looked at it and answered immediately: "That's a parking ticket, man!"
Our beloved Homer Simpson would have said: "Doh!" And that was exactly what Anthon and I were thinking. It didn't say anything about parking lot on the ticket...
Because we still had some time, Anthon was trying to sell that parking ticket, worth 40 Dollars. He went to the street next to the parking lot, pointing from the ticket to the parking lot. It looked pretty funny and I distanced myself from this funny looking Anthon.
Just a few seconds later, a lady in a car opened her window and asked him what that was. Anthon told him, that that was a parking ticket, worth 40 Dollars, but she could have it for 20 Dollars. Deal!
"Shyness" doesn't exist in Anthon's vocab at all. But I'm thankful that he is like that!
Anthon was so kind and explained the many rules to me... glad, he had about 3 hours to explain everything to me.
And by the end of the first half, I already understood most of the rules. Of course, I'm not an expert yet and there are still so many things to learn about baseball.
It was a very, very close game...which made the game even more exciting. But the Nats finally won.
After the game, to avoid the crazyness in the Metro, we walked back to L'Enfant Plaza (I was soooo tired and I was in pain so it was not fun at all) and drove back home to Springfield.
A few days later, Judie asked me if I wanted to take a day off to go on a double decker tour bus through DC together with Angela and Brynn (2 interns at the Smithsonian, that Anthon is working with).
Unfortunately, Anthon couldn't come with me, but it was still neat to see the city and other parts I hadn't seen before.
The pictures are not the best, since the bus was driving all the time...
On August 8th, we went to church (Columbia) with Frank and Emily and their kids.
It was great to see Katharina for the first time and spending some time with their family.
We don't wanna be Uncle Anthon and Aunt Melissa, that their kids (and of course Jessie's, too) have never heard of.. and never really seen.
We taught little Frank "Engel, Engel flieeeeg!" (Angel, Angel flyyyyy!) which he loved.
This "little" creature was in our bedroom in the basement. I had never seen this insect and didn't know if it can sting or not. It could jump like a grasshopper and I tried to kill it. But it always jumped away and hid somewhere... so I waited until Anthon got home.
It didn't take long, and Anthon, my hero, saved me from this gross creature!
For some reason, little animals like this one, love us... we always have some big spiders, cockroaches and other unknown bugs in our apartment....
The weekend after we had met the Pettys, we met them again and went to a lake somewhere in Maryland, where Emily's family always used to go to in summer. We really enjoyed spending time with them. It was especially good for me to get to know them better, without the entire family around.
In the mean time, I had to take the TOEFL test (I haven't got my scores yet) and Anthon passed his LEED Associate Exam. Good job, Anthon!
I just found out that I have to take the ACT test (BYU wants to make my life more difficult) in 3 weeks!
I haven't gone to school for 3 years... so Anthon bought me 3 huge books (each has 700 pages) to study... that's serious business!
We'll see how I will be doing with that one.
Everytime I have to take a test or do something else for having moved here instead of staying in Germany (and studying there and having a way easier life), I tell him " You owe me a big chocolate! No.... a biiiiiiiiig chocolate!" :-D
Yes, I love chocolate! Anthon says I'm an addict. And I was disappointed when we bought a Lindt chocolate that tasted not as good as the LINDT chocolate you get in Europe. I tried to find out where that chocolate bar was produdced and it said NEW HAMSHIRE. No wonder, why it wasn't as good. My taste buds are apparently still working properly...
I hope that we will be able to fly to Europe in December. Before that, Anthon and I should go on a strict diet because we will gain so much weight over there. I've been craving for almost anything. Quarkspeise, German pasteries, Dampfnudeln, Quarkbaellchen, German chocolate and Haribo candy, good licorice (not the fake and way too sweet stuff here),.... I think we gotta book two seats per person on our way back to the USA after our visit. I will for sure gain some weight... I just have to look at food and my hips are growing...
Okay, so last weekend we babysat for Emily, whose cousin was getting married at the DC temple. It was great to at least spend an hour with Frank and Katharina again.
After that, we met with Zach Wilt and his girlfriend Rebecca.
We went to an Elvis concert where you could bring your blanket and picnic stuff. It was really neat. And yes, Elvis lives!
We really had a fun time! The singer was really good.
Anthon and Zach happened to meet a guy from the Christian youth group (at the highschool in Wiesbaden) who they both knew. How random was that!?!
We've probably grown up a little bit in the last few months... but we are still pretty silly... but at least we're having fun!
That's Anthon spinning Frank after church... I thought it was pretty funny at the end..
