First Snow, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Markets

Not like putting everything into one blog, but time flies when you are busy!

We had our first snow fall at the end of November. It only snowed two nights but the snow lasted on the ground for a week even though it was only about two inches thick. It just stayed cold enough. On that Monday, we brought the kids at the Kindergarten to Theresienwiese, the large open space where they have the Oktoberfest. We walked through the snow and made a snowman with the two inch layer, but it was fun. I looked around as the kids were running and throwing snowballs, and was just at awe. These kids growing up in a place like this is just hard for me to understand for I grew up in a whole different world. The huge cathedral in the distance that looms over the city is just breathtaking. The kids see this every day. They don't know any different. They probably would think the US with its tall skyscrapers and streets that go straight down a hill like a slide is a sight to see. It warmed up and the only thing we had seen since is rain, but this last Thursday, it started snowing again. This time quite a bit, but it is already melting and doesn't look like it will snow much more this round.

Since Thanksgiving is only a US and Canadian holiday, we did not have work off. We invited our work friends over for a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at our place on the Sunday afterwards. Chris and I went to the market the weekend before to reserve a turkey. When we went to pick up the turkey they did not have the one we ordered but had a larger one or two baby turkeys. We ended up getting the two baby turkeys for fear of fitting the larger one in the small ovens here and plus, it is soooo expensive. Turkeys are not very common. It cost us about $70! Oh well, the cost of having fun. We were glad we were doing it potluck style. We made cranberry sauce and stuffing from scratch, since those aren't seen in the stores. We had someone bring a potato dish, another a salad, and another drinks. The night was great. We all had a good time. This time wives/girlfriends were there, so it wasn't all science talk! It was fun to compare cultural differences. Justin is from Canada, so it was interesting to hear his celebrations of Thanksgiving. It is not much celebrated there and it is on Sunday with Monday off work he thinks (again not very big there). Karl is from Austria and commented the way we slice turkey is not what he is used to. They would break off chucks instead. It was a great night.

All through December there have been the Christmas Markets all throughout the city. I guess there are about 20 around the area. Each market has a different theme. One is a medieval theme where the people are even dressed up in medieval outfits and the gluewein is served in goblets instead of mugs. One is a nativity theme where every stall has figurings for your nativity set. All the items at these markets are handmade crafts. They are amazing. Tollwood is the hugest in the area. It is at the site of the Oktoberfest but not nearly as big. Tents are up and stalls are set up in and outside. Tollwood is themed as the international market. Crafts from all over the world. There is Indian, African, Native American, Japanese, etc. All these markets were great to shop in! Too many ideas! At the markets there is of course, food and drink! Gluewein is the German's drink of this season. It is everywhere at the markets and tons of people are standing around drinking this stuff. It is hot spiced wine. Mold wine. I guess they like it but we don't much care for it. I am now getting used to sausage. It is what you eat at the markets. Crepes are also a highlight.

Germany celebrates St. Niklaus on December 6th. We had St. Niklaus come to the Kindergarten in his bishop outfit holding his staff. We also saw him at the Christmas Market. He brought up each child one at a time and said three praises about the child (parents of course gave him these the day before). It was great to see the kids reactions to him knowing these things and they got a bag of goodies from him. It is also tradition here to leave out one shoe they have cleaned pretty and wake up to having a gift inside that morning of the 6th. Two shoes would be greedy. (sounds like the stockings we have on our mantel for Santa Claus). They have the Christmas Eve Night Man (Santa Claus). It is said to be the adopted American holiday here. But it is not St. Nick. They celebrate Christmas Eve Night. Christmas is more based on the religious Catholic holiday than Santa Claus. They also have a run through Tollwood of the Krampus, who are little scary men that chase kids that were naughty. We did not see this run but it sounded quite funny.

We bought a Christmas tree and carried it home on the train. It ended up being twice as expensive as we thought, for when we asked what the cost of the trees were the day before we bought it, we did not hear him say (or he just assumed we knew) the words "per meter." Oh well! We have a tree now! We decorated it and enjoying the Christmas season.

Amersee, Chiemsee, and Bad Tolz

New pictures are up on the web. I realized I had missed a lot of October in the last blog. We do something every weekend. Even if it is a museum or a walk along the river, we try to get out and see something new. Salzburg was the very end of September. A week later, we went to Amersee (Sea) for a day trip. There we visited the Andechs Monatery that is on top of the hill and, of course, makes thier own beer. The largest brewery, I hear. The church is as completely decked out like all the other churches we have seen with paintings and gold decorations. It also has a gorgeous view of the country and the alps in the distance. It was a very clear day! Of course, we took advantage of the biergarten. Millrose had a blast too!


That Monday, Chris went off for a week, without me, on his MPI retreat at Chiemsee. It was at a convent. The nuns commented on MPI noise at night, but who can blame them when the nuns go to sleep at 9. The pictures are beautiful. On their day off, some friends from his lab and Chris went to the Castle of King Ludwig. Yulia and Lazlo have been good friends. Yulia is from Russia and Lazlo is from Hungry. Lazlo is the lead of the group Chris is working with. It was quiet at home without him.




A week later we went to Disneyland. Does it look like Neuschwanstein? It is similar. We don't have a picture from this same angle unfortunately to compare.






Last weekend we took a day trip to Bad Tolz. Found out we had been there already. We were there last October when we came to Munich for Chris' interview and see if we would do this trip. We were on that same retreat they had this year but it was held at Tegernsee. On the day off we visited Bad Tolz. Not knowing the town name then, now we know. It is a very nice town. We went for a short hike up the hill there where you can see the alps and a view of the town. It was a nice day to walk around.

Sundays, everything is closed so we like to go on long walks or museums. Museums are only 1 euro on Sundays. Today we walked along the Isar River that is not very far from our place. It is getting colder here. I have gone to this part of the river with Melanie and observed the swans then. They are still there. I did not realise that swans are a common sight here. They are beautiful birds.

We have started a German class. It has been good for us and we have been learning a lot. It is two hours Monday thru Thursday evenings. It makes for long days but for 8 weeks I think it will be good. I have picked up a lot of German at the kindergarten but it is nice to study it and be more confident in it.

Salzburg and Los Angeles

It may say October 12th. That is when I started this post, but really it is now October 31st! Happy Halloween! Our internet has been down for two weeks, so I couldn't finish the post, and then we were in the US for a week. Time just flies!

Halloween is not celebrated much here, although we got one trick or treater group. All Saints Day is the day they celebrate. I have had Thursday and Friday off work and Saturday (all saints day) most things will be closed. I see one jack-o-lantern and am sad. I miss Halloween. Tonight is a perfect Halloween night: dark and cold. I don't see a moon but it must be somewhere.

This blog started after our trip to Salzburg. We decided to go for an overnight trip. We left early and got to Salzburg at around 11 am. We got a Salzburg Card that allowed us to go into every tourist attraction and public transportation for one flat rate price. It worked out perfect. It stopped us worrying about how much things cost and so we went in everything for the heck of it. My favorite is the Archbishop mansion at Hellbrunn. The architect created trick fountains. Water would squirt out at you from who knows where. I won't spoil anything, but it was hilarious and fun to see a group of thirty adults laugh like children.

Salzburg is one of those majestic cities that just make you wonder what happened to the US. Where did the art go? Yes there is still art in the US. I would get slapped by some friends of mine. But the focus is so different. The buildings are covered with detail and statues. The paintings are done with such grandiose size and style. And to think that these buildings and art work was done hundreds, even thousands of years ago. The history of the place is just unbelievable.

We went on a family trip to Los Angeles. It was nice to be with family and to catch up on the news of family and friends. It went by really fast. I never knew the ins and outs of Disneyland. 6,000 employees, really? Also they have the largest parking garage in the world. And you know who has the second largest? Disneyland in Japan. I believe it, because they had someone anywhere that you may need assistance. There are just so many areas of work. And what gets me, is that everyone is in the Disney world. They really do a great job of being in character, even if you are not a Disney character but a shopkeeper. The detail of every ride also threw me for a loop. I did not remember that amount of detail of the rides. Down to the hand on the clock was in the theme of the ride. I was blown away at the creativity and the attention to detail the creators and designers did. Next time you go to Disneyland just stand back and notice the workers and the detail everything is. Now I hope you have the same experience as we did. It was fantastic.

Oktoberfest and Tierpark (zoo)

Ever since sometime in August, they have been setting up for this huge thing called Oktoberfest (a.k.a. Die Wiesn by the locals). Have you heard of it? Of course you have, who hasn't? As we can tell here that it is the thing to do. A half a million huge liter glasses (a.k.a. a 'mass') of beer were sold that first day. And 14 full cows! We went on Saturday. There was so many people. I did not see many people drinking roaming around but the tents were packed with people with a long line outside. We went on one ride (each ride is about $8 per person!). We had a beer at one of the outside booths. It was fun. There were a lot of people in their traditional outfits (Dirndls and Lederhosen). I however, did not wear mine, since it was in the 40s. Many people were looking rather cold!


It is just down the street from my work, so I have been having my lunch break while watching them set up this huge festival and now have been enjoying walking through it on my break. There were still a lot of people on a Wednesday afternoon and a ton of people coming in. The trains have been packed full. We have had two little girls in the kindergarten come in in their Dirndls and one boy in his Lederhosen. It is so great!


The rides were fantastic! I didn't go on this one, but isn't it cool! You can see it in the distance in the first picture on the blog. There were so many rides, games, and food booths. Lots of booths selling nuts, sugar coated nuts, and chocolate nuts. I, who does not like nuts, liked the cinnamon and sugar coated cashews. I am sure Chris did not like this since it was his snack that he bought!



After the crowded Saturday at the Oktoberfest, we went to Tierpark (zoo in english). It was huge as well. The place was very much a nature walk among the animals. There were the typical animals, monkey, lions, camels, giraffes, zebras, etc. But there were some animals I have not seen before. Such as the anteater.










What do you think of our next pet? Isn't it cute!




Or how about this one?












The playground was so tempting to go on! It was so big. The rope swing looked fun!

And okay, we felt weird being the only people that did not have a stroller!

But no matter where we are, even the zoo, there is always a beer garten. What did surprise me was the amount of people that brought their pet dog to the zoo. I would have thought the zoo would not want that. Who knows how the dog would react to these animals. But there were a lot!

Fall is here.

The last two weeks have changed a lot of things around here! The leaves are just starting to turn color. It is getting colder, and I have started my job. It is quite a learning experience!

The first week was very hard. It made me question this whole idea of working in a bilingual kindergarten. There was so much going on. The kindergarten room was not quite set up completely, still not two weeks later. We had electricians come in while the kids were there, drilling holes and creating lots of noise. We had the furniture arrive that Wednesday. We even lined up the kids to watch them bring in the furniture! Great career day! The room was echoing because of the bareness of the place. Parents were with the kids that first week, which did not help any. We have a very young group of kids- 16 kids 2 to 3 1/2, not the range we were hoping for (2-6 is what we hoped). And they all look at me funny, who is this person speaking funny words! It was harder than I thought to get them to listen to me, and to understand me.

Chris didn't have the best week either, so we took off that Saturday and spent the day at a lake an hour away. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm. The lake was peaceful. We had a picnic lunch and read our books. It was just what we needed.

The next week went so much better. The parents were now gone. We had all the kids the whole day instead of half the group in the morning and half in the afternoon. By noon most of the kids left so the afternoon was much quieter. The only chaos was that the kitchen came on Tuesday, so we had to close for a half day. No way are we having the kids there during the installation of a whole kitchen in the same room as the kids! Thank goodness Melanie stood up to our boss and said no. Last week was enough for the kids to endure. I am getting more comfortable with the language and the kids. It is still hard to get their attention. It takes Melanie no time to get them to come to her, but, hey, they understand her. There are 2 kids that speak only English and 2 more kids that speak both English and German. Those 4 kids listen fine! The kids are comfortable with me, but it is a challenge to get them interested in the activity when they don't know what I am saying. Makes me aware how much we use language in our everyday activities. Body language and motion signals only work so much. I know they, as well as myself, will figure things out.

I am also learning the differences between a US Kindergarten and a German Kindergarten. One of my critiques from my boss was that I was not being affectionate enough with the kids. In the US, it is the sad truth that the child care industry is failing at providing that warm sense of affection when you can only touch a child on their shoulder for comfort if at all. What is the world coming to if the fear of "what could happen" gets in the way with the quality of care that every child should be able to experience. Caring is falling out of the industry because the teachers are too afraid and even told not do anything that may be seen by an outsider to be inappropriate or "sexual in manner." You are not even allowed to give a child a straight forward hug. You have to turn your body sideways for a child to hug you. It is ridiculous and has gone to the extreme in my opinion. It is hard to tell ones motives, yes, but why are we not putting our trust in teachers to know the difference? It is those people that have infiltrated the system and done the wrong that has ruined the possibility that the child care industry will truly be safe and comforting for the child.

This weekend we stayed around here. We went to town yesterday and walked around, did some shopping. Today we cleaned and went to two art museums in town. They are only 1 euro on Sundays. Since everything else is closed, museums are a nice place to go.

Summer is ending!

The first week we were living in our new apartment, I took a trip to the grocery store three days in a row carrying bags of groceries for about 6 blocks. But we have food, sort of. It seems like a never ending errand. The small containers go empty fast and one can carry oh so much stuff in one trip. With a bag of potatoes, a bag of onions (since buying one onion is not seen in this particular store), two boxes of milk (yes boxes), a bottle of wine to celebrate our new place (that cost the average amount of $3) and a bunch of other oddments, it gets heavy! The first trip was the mother loads of three heavy bags in hand and a back pack on the back. A couple days ago, we now find a grocery store across the street!! And this store has everything you can think of besides food. A fan, a garbage bucket, things I looked everywhere in Garching for. This is my new favorite store!

I cleaned and am still cleaning two weeks later, another never ending chore. We went to Ikea for a computer desk and some other things we needed. It was a long trip. With a train ride and a long walk, we got there. We chose the cheaper table not because it was cheaper but that it weighed so much less and we could carry it home! The long walk back was tough. We both were feeling it the next day.

The day after that strenuous trip to Ikea, we went to Nuremburg. It is another larger city about a 2 hour train ride north of Munich. It was nice to go somewhere. This place is beautiful. The buildings look older, mainly because they probably lasted through the war, whereas Munich is all rebuilt. There were a lot less people when we showed up, but somehow doubled in size when we were leaving. It was nice to walk around even though a lot of the stores were closed due to it was Sunday. At least the tourist stores were open and the couple museums we walked through. We went to an artist's home and a toy museum, which I liked, but Chris found it okay. Check out our photos on our photos' page.

I bought a bike! It is a little small for me but figured it would work for the short trip to work and back on those days that is not too cold. I rode it for 5 miles home. Thought it would be nice to ride it back home and see how it is to ride through the streets. Only to find that it is soooo sluggish that I want to return it. Everyone was passing me and I was pushing so hard. I was sweating so much by the time I got home. I passed my work on the way. It took 15 minutes but I walked part of it because I couldn't handle the bike any longer. So much for that, right! However, Chris, my hero, took a look at it and found that the brake was on the whole time. He is getting tools from work to fix it. So hopefully it will be much better and I don't regret buying it so much.

We had a house warming party Thursday night. 5 of Chris' work friends came. It was great. We had wine and Chris' Thai dinner. I even made homemade chocolate chip cookies. They turned out good, different but good. They were soft cookies, which you do not find in Germany. The cookies here are always hard and crunchy. They even asked how I made it so soft. Figured out that it is probably how much butter I used. We even used the fine china and the nice wine glasses she has. It is the only stuff we have to use, and it is there to be used, so why not? It was nice to have a group to socialize with.

I am starting work on Monday. I went in Friday to work with Melanie (the German teacher) to get set up some for our first day. The kindergarten place is unfortunately not ready. We are going to have to make due for a week or two. There is no furniture except some chairs and four book shelves. The bathrooms are about done at least. The walls are completely white but I think will stay that way. The furiture is coming on Wednesday next week and the kitchen is getting put in on the 8th or so. There are a few books and a few toys to play with. I am curious to see it on Monday! I am getting excited though. Melanie and I work well together. We have similar work ethics and understanding of kids. A nice change from my old job where I had to tell people to do their jobs!

I can't believe summer is ending!

Finally, a place to call home

So we have finally found an apartment! In the end, we decided to go for an already furnished apartment. The owner, Anna, is a very nice lady. She has a wonderful 1 bedroom apartment that we shall be living in for the next few years (on a sad note, Anna is leaving to move in with her mother who is getting to need full time care). But she has very good taste, very much the same style as Laura and I (well, except for maybe the ducks, apparently our landlord really likes ducks!). The kitchen is fully equipped and Anna has left a rather nice china set and silverware (I'm attempted to buy cheap'o ikea dinnerware, I think the china is pretty expensive). When she was showing the place she said, "and her is a nice china set which you can use when you have parties" which was a refreshing change from other landlords who were more like, "you're not going to have parties, are you?".

The apartment is located in the south of Munich in a suburb called Sendling. Its on the same U-bahn line that goes to the research lab (though the commute is a good hour door-to-door). Its quite close though to Laura's work, probably a 10 minute bike ride or 2 stops on the U-bahn. We moved all are boxes friday and saturday and are already for the most part unpacked.

And now that we actually have a decent place to live, everyone is officially invited to come and visit! The sofa in the living room is a pull-out sleeper. For booking arrangements, please contact lauraestes@hotmail.com ;).

Our first excursion out of Munich

Millrose, Chris, and Laura went on their first excursion out of Munich area to see Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Okay it was King Ludwig's castle Schloss Neuschwanstein and his parents castle Schloss Hohenschwangau. But it is too cool to say Sleeping Beauty's castle. Only wish I got to see her! King Ludwig grew up at his parents' mountain retreat and when he became king built his own castle. Did you know the castle is only about partly complete? King Ludwig only stayed in it for a half a year and then "mysteriously" died after being declared mentally ill and unfit to be king.
It was interesting to hear the history of this place. The area is amazing. So beautiful! Swans are the theme at the castle. I guess King Ludwig had a kind of fascination with them. But they are even swimming in the lake. Swans are common to see here. We saw a family of swans at Garching Lake.

Sorry I can't upload pics. Take a look at the photo link. The photos are all on the web.

settling in....slowly

A month has gone since we left the US. Can't believe it!

Again, here is the website for all our photos if you are interested.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cmsears04

We have had a hard two weeks, but also some fun times. Chris has been getting used to his work and the German way of business, and I am getting used to no work and apartment searching. We have done a lot of the "paperwork" these last weeks to live in Germany. Not much fun but have to do it, right?! We now have a bank account, which allowed us to apply for health insurance so that then we could apply for work visas. I have met with my bosses at the Kindergarten and the German teacher that I will be working with. We are getting used to the weather here. Really need to pack away the tank tops and take out the sweaters. Already had to go digging for the raincoats. It has been sunny one day and raining and cold the next. Lately, it has been raining in the morning, partly cloudy during the day and warm, and then thunderstorms in the evenings. So much for sunny California. We have gone to Nymphenberg Palace and the 850th Birthday party of Munich street fair.

Nymphenberg Palace was the summer home of the Bavarian king. It is now a museum and a great place to wonder around. The backyard of the palace is this huge park with streams and paths through woods. It is amazing. There were a lot of people walking around, picnicing, going for a jog. Definitely a nice place to stroll through.

















The 850th Birthday party is all year long. Throughout the year they have been having different events take place. This last weekend was a street fair that went around the ring road of Munich. There were bands playing, from American hip-hop music to tradition Bavarian music. There were lots of food, mostly sausages, and beer all around. You can notice the native Germans as they wore their traditional outfits. It was very cute to see little boys in lederhosen and the girls in Bavarian dresses. There were a lot of things for kids, small size soccer fields, field hockey, plate spinning, juggling, medieval ferris wheels, and much more.














As promised, here are more pictures of Garching. The picture with the Maypole is downtown. Very Bavarian to have poles in the center of town I think. Blue and white are the Bavarian colors.












The main way of transportation is biking to the U-bahn station and then taking the U train to work. Tons of bikes. Lots of people on the train. Pretty safe though. I have read once that two bike were reported as stolen and the police were like, "really? Bikes stolen?"
It just may be that they were just really nice bikes.







Things you would not see in the USA:
1) slugs: there are sooo many slugs in Garching! You really have to watch your step down the sidewalk.
2) people walking around with beer in their hands.
3) a bicyclist riding with no hands talking on their cellphone.
4) kids (even a 4 year old) throwing a sharp ax, that is sharp on both sides of the top, at a piece of wood during a street fair.
5) kids doing extreme gymnastics: jumping off really tall blocks onto other blocks a distance away at a street fair.
6) maybe not in California but elsewhere: a family of 6 girls ranging from 4 years to 10 years old, all in pink dresses, with their dad with a pink dress shirt, their mother in a blue shirt and skirt with pink shoes, walking through a park on Sunday afternoon.
7) nudists strolling around the middle of the park (okay, maybe in some parks in california)

Happy 4th of July!

Feel free to look at all our pictures. Click on this link http://picasaweb.google.com/cmsears04

We have now been in Europe for 2 weeks and have learned a lot. We are settling in though. Have been asked for directions twice now! And was able to direct them both times :)

Adventure's of MillRose is our blog we have created to share our experience living in Germany. MillRose is the name of our stuffed cat that so happened, by our brother Andrew, to be tied and dragged by our getaway car from our wedding at Mill Rose Inn. This battered, dirty, and yet still meowing cat has been on our adventures with us. Despite her torn off mouth and dangling nose, she has had a great time in Athens and Santorini on our honeymoon.

This is where it all started. We arrived at the airport with 11 boxes and 5 suitcases. Each of us pushing two carts through the doors of the airport was quite a task. We arrived at our apartment in Garching. This is a picture of their apartment complex that we are staying in until we find a place in Munich city.
It is 30x10 feet room. Really small, but it works. It has a balcony at least. It is close to Chris's work and very close to the grocery store.






Enough with the moving, lets explore! This is Garching. The town is in the distance if you look close to the picture on the left.









We don't have pictures of Garching city yet. Maybe later.








After finding out the buses do not run on Sundays, we had to leave at 6:15 am on Sunday for the airport. Instead of the bus and the train that would take us about 30 minutes, we had to take the train into Munich city which is the complete opposite direction, switch trains and literally go right back where we started but only a small distance to the northeast. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes instead. We thought of a taxi that would take only about 15 minutes but we couldn't figure it out since we had no phone yet and we tried the online reservation we found, but it did not work. So a really early start, but here we go!

Athens, very busy, very populated. It definitely gave us the historical trip and the tourist trip we wanted part of our honeymoon to be.
Our hotel room. Room was just okay but the rest of the hotel was nice.

We were so hot and tired.













Funny outfits on the guards post outside the presidential palace.
They couldn't move so another soldier had to fix the guard's skirt when the wind blew it!


It was sooo hot and windy at the Acropolis that her wiskers went sideways! (Actually, another scar of being dragged.) The Acropolis was amazing.
"What out, it is very slippery. So many people are falling!" said Millrose.



Some friends Millrose met.
There were stray cats and
dogs everywhere! Mostly
dogs in Athens and cats in
Satorini.

And Chris just loves cats!



Who do you think is going to win the staring contest?







So much exploring, it was nice to go for a swim in the sea. We enjoyed the busy beach at Athens for the last day.

And what better way to end the night, sipping wine on the roof of the hotel with a view like this ---->

Off to Santorini...very romantic and beautiful place. Definitely recommend!
Our ferry to go over. They have assigned seats!Our hotel was amazing. We had a patio off our room with a view!










This makes up for all they put me through!











We took an excursion on a "sailboat," a boat that actually had no sails and was motorized with about 150 people. It took us to the center of the volcano where we hiked up to the top to view the center pits and see the view from there. Then it took us to the island across the way from the mainland, had lunch and walked up a very steep long climb up stairs to the top of Thirasia, thinking there were some shops, but only residences we found. Thirasia, at one point was connected to the mainland, making Santorini an almost complete circle rim of the volcano. Then the sailboat took us to Oia, which is the tip of the mainland, to see the sunset. We again had to hike up the very steep long staircase to get to Oia. Three times of hiking up to the top was not easy! We were so hot and tired. A lot of people rode donkeys up the steps. Wish we did!
But got some really great pictures!





Here is the hike up to the top of the volcano.
















That squiggly line is the stairs! Here is the view from the top of Thirasia.











We are pretending we have the energy to stand. We are on the way up to Oia.





























Here are just a couple more pictures. These are from Fira, the town our hotel was in.


















We went to the other side of the volcano, to the beach side. It looked only maybe a 30 minute walk but actually took 1 hour 30 minutes. Bad judgement in distance!






Our last night, we ate at the hotel restaurant. Chris's plate had lobster where they nicely decorated the plate!







On our arrival back from Greece, we met all these people at the airport watching the soccer game on the big screen, cheering for Germany.
Millrose made it home with her new friend,