Date night

Making this major move overseas has it's ups and downs and sometimes the downs outnumber the ups, especially when you factor in things like Stefan doing a job that he just doesn't have his heart in, or Juliette going crazy trying to air dry things on damp 65 degree days, and having to bend in half to go into the basement and turn keys 8 times to unlock and lock doors just to get the bike out of the garage, then to return home to come into the living room to sit and stare at the stack of boxes we can't unpack because we haven't yet figured out how to swing the next storage furniture purchase, and oh my goodness is our upstairs neighbor playing Howie Day's "Collide" song AGAIN?!

Transition and adjustment can be really fun. yipee.

Which is why we needed a little re-coup time and had a really nice date night on Friday. Marburg is just such a pretty town (Stefan thinks it's the prettiest town in the state!) so we went out for dinner and a walkabout. And despite how incredibly healthy we have been eating and how we both have been really good about exercise and have already lost a lot of weight (hooray - working off those desk-job lbs!)--sometimes getting out of the house and eating dinner out can be great therapy.

First stop: fabulous Greek restaurant named after the Greek island we spent our honeymoon on: Corfu. Boy did the guy in the kitchen know what he was doing--everything was heavenly tasting - and I think I could eat that tzatziki every day and not get sick of it! After dinner we walked around the old city and window shopped and then stopped in at one of the Italian ice cafe's. We decided to try their hot chocolate and here's what we got: big bowls of thick, creamy, warm chocolate with two small scoops of ice cream and whipped cream on top. Even though these bowls are actually super shallow (you can't tell by the pictures) I couldn't finish mine and next time around we'll know to share one! It was the best ending to a stressful week.
This morning we came up with a plan to make this house feel more like a home, which should really help. We won't really be able to do anything until next month, but at least we have a time line with a goal in sight. And we'll keep plugging away at this adjustment process. We really miss our community of friends that we had back in Gloucester, but we know we're supposed to be here. We also know it takes a really long time to be part of a really supportive community here (which is just too bad b/c you need the support the most in the beginning of a big transition, but that is how it goes the world over), so we're trying.

We've been here three months (on Tuesday) but we could still use your prayers. Yes, we moved to a developed western country, so a lot of the things are the same, but so many things aren't, especially the people of course! So please keep us in your prayers as we work to find our niche here.