Ainslie's New Best Friend

Our daughter has turned into quite the little socialite here in Germany. Everywhere we go people stop to smile, coo, and pinch her cheeks. Among the many acquaintances she’s made so far, one has definitely stood out as Ainslie’s new best friend. When Ainslie’s sad, her friend cheers her up, and although Ainslie will smile for most people who show a little effort, her friend doesn’t even have to try to get a grin out of our little girl. Who is this wonderful new friend? The light in our apartment. Ainslie always likes to look at the lights in the room, but this light is the first one to make her smile, a lot. Mom and Dad probably won’t be putting one up in our apartment in the states, but this baby is crazy about the light here.

Voelkerschlachtdenkmal

In 1913, a monument was built to honor those who died in a battle with Napoleon in 1813. We didn’t have a lot of time to go through the museum and didn’t get much of the history (Ainslie apparently didn’t find it interesting enough and insisted on going outside), but the monument itself is very impressive.
(Note, the monument doesn’t really tip like the picture would suggest. We couldn’t find a flat place to put the camera.)

On the inside of the monument is a large hall with imposing statutes that seem to carry the weight of war on their shoulders.
The hall had an almost reverent feeling, so when Ainslie started to wake up, we thought we should probably step outside. We were about to leave, but Josh thought it would be a good idea to check with one of the staff at the monument if there was anything else to see. We had heard something about a lot of stairs to some impressive views of the town, but we hadn’t seen anything like that inside. The man responded with a smile that there definitely were more stairs, and we later understood the smile to mean that there were a LOT more stairs and that the climb is well worth it.
The stairs seemed to go forever, and the climb gets tighter and tighter as you move up. However, we were rewarded with some spectacular views of our temporary home away from home when we got to the top.

Ainslie thought it was awesome too.


When we were on top we saw an impressive looking building down below that we hadn’t noticed on the way up. So, when we got to the bottom we did a little exploring and found an entrance.

We still haven’t found out for sure what the history behind the building is, but it’s surround by a very beautiful cemetery. We walked around for a while enjoying the quiet beauty, and Janae made friends with a little 14 month old girl who followed us around until she could give Janae a hug.
We’ve seen a lot of great things here in Leipzig, and we’re looking forward to getting out into some of the other cities to see what else there is to see. We have some other pictures from the town center that we’ll try to post soon.

How Ainslie Gets to See Germany . . .

Ainslie doesn’t get quite the same views that Mom and Dad do when we’re out adventuring. She usually spends most of her time sleeping, wrestling with blankets, complaining about her hat covering her eyes, or working on her new hobby – trying to fit her hand inside of her mouth.

Our Apartment

The Fingerles were kind enough to find an apartment for us that is about 10 minutes from almost anything that we need in Leipzig. We can walk to Church on Sundays. Josh walks to work in the mornings (past a bakery or two where he is learning to order doughnuts for breakfast – “zwei Berliner – Erdbeeren, bitte”). There is a giant park close by too. It’s great. We have a nice living room/bedroom/dining room area.

We also have a kitchen with a sink, two burners, a remarkably small dishwasher, and a little fridge. Without inspecting the kitchen, we purchased a frozen pizza on our first night here (Aldi was the only thing that was open when we got here, frozen pizza wouldn’t have been our first choice). When we got home we realized we have no oven. Josh was ready to eat “cold pizza,” but Janae managed to cook it in a pan on the stove top. Nicht schlecht.









And, a bathroom with just about everything we need.

It’s nice. We’re comfortable here, and grateful for the help in getting a place like this lined up. We probably couldn’t have found anything like this on our own.

The apartment is in a great area too. Most of the buildings are new or newly renovated. There are a few canals, and on one of them you can ride in a real Venetian gondola (maybe we don’t need to go to Venice after all; although the pizza might be better). The church in the last post is just around the corner from our building. And, did we mention it’s a very convenient location?
Here’s a few shots of the neighborhood . . .

Angels like Flying . . .

Well, we're here. Breezy was nice enough to ride down to St. George with us so we wouldn't have to leave our car in Vegas while we were gone. We got to Davee and Raven's and enjoyed some time with them watching a movie and fireworks a little later. Thursday, Davee drove us into Vegas and helped us get everything checked in at the airport. The airports can be a little stressful with international departures, so it was great to have him help with everything there.
After we said goodbye to Grandpa Davee we grabbed a little bite to eat, marveled at how similar the interior decorations of the airport are to a cheap casino, tried to figure out how we could get all of our liquids into a ziploc bag to pass through security (yep, still doing that), and waited for our departure time.

Josh's friend from Georgia (the country) told him that we shouldn't worry about the plane ride with Ainslie because "Angels like flying." And, sure enough, Ainslie did great on the plane ride. Judging from the look on her face, she wasn't too excited about our brief stop to refuel in Gander, Canada, but she didn't wake up. (The weather was so hot in Vegas - 118 is what the pilot told us - they couldn't fill the plane all of the way, so we had to stop in Canada to make it across the Atlantic). Really, the whole plane ride was easy as could be. Ainslie didn't care much for the bassinet, but she slept in our arms for a large part of the ride. The food wasn't too bad. The flight staff were all very helpful. It was great. We pulled into Frankfurt a little bit late, and our stroller and car seat didn't get transferred to the next plane, but they showed up in Leipzig on Saturday. We've been "rollin'" ever since. Dr. Fingerle's wife, Susan, met us at the airport and took us to our apartment where we will be living for the next four weeks (Dr. Fingerle is the Attorney that Josh is working with, and he is the one who found our accommodations for us). We think it's going to be a great place for us, and Ainslie approved of the bed right away.

Since our arrival we've been able to get our and explore the city a bit. There's a lot more to see than we had expected. Leipzig is a beautiful place.

On Sunday we went to church and the branch was great. We had lots of people come up and talk to us, which was fine as long as Janae was there to answer questions. Although he can understand a little bit, Josh only commands about half a dozen words in German. He realized that "I don't understand" would be a good phrase to learn after church. We've already taken 200+ pictures, visited a few of the local bakeries, eaten lots of chocolate, and just done our best to take advantage of our time here.

We'll try to get some pictures of Leipzig, etc. up soon.