greetings from Abu Dhabi!

First week:
So, I have an aunt and uncle who live in Abu Dhabi, and they invited us to come stay with them during the easter break, which was amazingly nice… I’ve been looking forward to this trip basically since Christmas… we arrived in Abu Dhabi Sunday night, March 22nd. Monique and Moutaz, the aunt and uncle, picked us up from the airport. I hadn’t seen them since 2006, when we were all together on the west coast, so it was really nice to see them again. Aidan and I were pretty stifled by the heat at first, being that it was abt 40 F on the ground in Germany, and abt 85 F on the ground in Abu Dhabi. We were pretty tired, but stayed up for a bit and talked, and caught up. (and hugged the kiddos, who were already comatose)
The next day, we did a little shopping… Aidan had to buy some flip-flops, and so we went to the mall that’s just around the corner. There are approximately 15 huge shopping malls in the city, so we had plenty of selection… We spent a little time in the sun, (we are still pasty, and didn’t want to send our skins into shock!!)
On Tuesday, after sleeping in a little further than planned, Monique took us on a grand tour through the main part of the city, which is HUGE! It looks relatively tiny on the map, but it’s gigantic. And expanding incredibly quickly… We drove around, took lots of pictures, and decided that, since we hadn’t seen the sun in more than 6 months, we wanted to play on the beach a little bit. We went down to the corniche (the strip of shops and boardwalks along the beach) and got to sit in the sun for a couple hours, a pure luxury for us. We then met up with Monique and the boys, and went for a late lunch at the marina mall, which is gigantic, and has a great view of the city.
Weds, Aidan and I went on the “big bus tour” around AD, which was actually a lot of fun! We got to bee shameless tourists, and take pictures of everything under the sun without feeling embarrassed abt it! We got to see the Iranian souk (market) and the carpet souk, before heading out to the Sheik Khalifa mosque, which is the largest mosque in the world outside of Saudi Arabia. We arrived after evening prayers, so it was basically deserted… the pictures I took turned out amazingly, and will be posted soon!
Thursday, we all hit the road to Dubai. It was about an hour drive, doing abt 160(kmh) :D It seems like everything in Dubai is super-sized, so I felt right at home! Our first stop was the Mall of the Emirates, home of Ski Dubai! We were SUPPOSED to catch another big bus, to go on a tour, but they decided to be uncooperative, so we skipped it, and browsed instead! We wandered around, took some fun pics of the ski resort in the desert, and then made our way downtown. Aidan and I wandered around the area surrounding the Burj Khalifa while Monique checked in, and then we all met up, and went to a water park, Wild Wadi. It is located just inland of the Burj al Arab, so I spent most of my time on the slides oogling the bulding... Later on that night, Aidan and I went out to meet up with one of her old work buddies, who is now living in Dubai. The place we ended up going to was a Japanese grill that is right on the beach, and had an amazing view of the gulf as we snacked and drank, and met new people. We ended up getting back to the hotel at 2 am, and passed out!
Friday, I took the boys to the hotel pool, to wear them out, and to get some more sun in… We had a good time, despite the fact that the only other people at the pool were old. And fat. And wearing speedos. I, of course, got sunburned, because I sat in the sun for more than 15 mintues, but it really hasn’t been all that bad. That evening, Monique and Moutaz took us on a desert safari! We all packed into an SUV, and drove an hour into the desert… Our guide took us dune-bashing, which was so much fun, but didn’t provide many great photo-taking opportunities… We did stop a few times, so that we could take some pics, and I got some amazing photos of the sunset over the desert. For dinner, we went to a camp in the middle of the desert, had some local food, got some henna tattoos, watched belly-dancing, and smoked a little hookah!

hope you are all keeping warm!! if you want postcards, email or facebook me your address!!
-seany

march sunlight brings... snow?

Finally, a little food update in the update! AKA: WHERE DID FEBRUARY GO!?!?
So, one of my good foodie friends runs a brownie baking company here in Göttingen, and she asked me a couple weeks ago to play around with various ideas for recipes, ingredients, and extra stuff for brownies. Which, as you can guess, I’ve been more than happy to do. She supplied me with around 3 kilos of different kinds of chocolate, and told me to have at it. And boy have I! I’ve been baking pretty much constantly for the past 2 weeks, much to my roommate’s dismay. (or, rather, to his girlfriend’s dismay, he’s turning into a fatty :D ) I’ve played with different cocoa percentages, different types of chocolate, cocoa, etc. I’ve also played with the recipes, and with ways to spice up brownies. The ones I made today, I’m particularly proud of. Made two different batches, both with 88% cocoa powder, and decided to go with cupcake tins. One batch was gonna be S’more-y, so I made a nice little graham cracker crust (with Leibniz cookies, can’t find graham crackers in the germ!) Then I put brownie batter on top of the crust, and put a marshmallow on top of that, and baked it till it was delicious and golden brown. The other batch was a cheesecake brownie, so I filled the cupcake tins with a bit of the batter that was a bit firmer, made a little dent in the middle, and filled those dents with some cheesecake recipe I made up, and had flavored with Clementine juice.
Both turned out really really well, flavor-wise, although the brownies themselves were a bit bitter, and a bit strange, consistency-wise (too much cocoa powder, not enough moisture). So yeah, all in all, great times baking this past week.
Lets, see, what’s going on with me? Oooh, so much! February BLEW by like nobody’s business, and now we’re already into march! AAAGH! Next weekend I’m going to Rome! One of my college friends and her sister are gonna be in Rome for the next couple weeks, and told me I HAD to come down, so of course, I’ll go out of my way to oblige them :D so, I’ll be heading down there on Thursday, and coming back Sunday, hopefully with TONS of pictures and a screaming liver and pancreas. Oooh the foodage and boozage are gonna be amazing. Cannot wait.
Then, the week after that, the 19th, my Easter break starts! I have almost 3 weeks off for easter, so Aidan and I are going to be going to the UAE to visit an aunt and her family. I’ve never been, so I’m incredibly excited!! The spice souks, the old mosques, the burj khalifa! YAY! I’m literally gonna be running around from place to place squealing like a piggy and taking pictures. In addition to the excitement is the fear. See, those of you who know me know that I’m paler than the average albino, and being that the sun hasn’t shone in northern Germany since approx September, I’m a little paler than usual. And going to a desert. With 500 days of sunlight a year. =bad sunburn for Sean. So, I had my first experience in a tanning salon. I’ll tell you how that went as soon as I can sit down again without wincing.
Happy march!
-seany

Feb in a flash

This month has been cold and snowy, as it has been for the majority of you as well… I’ve actually been pretty busy anyways, because school was never cancelled, and Germans know how to drive in the snow, so it’s still possible to get places! Yay! The first weekend in feb, my foodie friends, aidan, and I went to Wuppertal to the Monet exhibit at the Von Der Heydt Museum. It was amazing.. over 100 Monet originals, as well as some of his influences, and some of his sketches. I’ve always loved Monet, and it was freaking amazing to be able to see so many of them up close and personal. The exhibit featured many of the different styles Monet went through, and also featured the different progression paintings, such as the cathedral, the mountains, and the river in different lights and weathers. I also got to see some paintings that I’d never seen before, such as the ones he painted in Norway. This past weekend, I went down to Marburg to hang out with Aidan, and to go to an “end of the semester” party that one of her friends there threw. Aidan and I went over the night before and cooked and baked, and helped prepare, which was a lot of fun. I made a NYC cheesecake, which ended up coming out a little bit weird, but I covered it with some homemade dulce de leche, and it was delicious! We also made a variety of dips, so carrot cake, and some hot buttered rum!
We got a ride back to Gö with my friend Benni, who had also come down for the party. The sun came out for the drive home, and it was beautiful seeing the countryside covered in snow, and not to have everything be gray and dull, as it has been since approximately September.. We also set a new land-speed record (well, for me, personally, at least) suffice it to say Benni is German, and he LOVES his autobahns…
That’s pretty much the only interesting stuff that has been going on with me, it’s been fairly hum-drum so far this month, but that’s fine…
Hope you are all dug out of the snow, and feeling good!
-seany:o)

The reason I do what I do.

So, I’m an English teacher, for all intents and purposes. I teach English to German students, and try to focus on pronunciation and expanding vocabulary. Here is why this is really important:




now, did everyone understand that? that is the new Energy Minister for the EU. AFTER talking about how important speaking English is when working internationally.
fail.
epic fail.
hope you enjoyed that!

let the 5-day weekend begin!!

Reason # 23498573290856-0234kojhasf989 03q490874pquwe why I love my mama:

Bigtallseany:
HAHA i know
it was a long walk home tho
mama:
and too cold to whip it out!
Bigtallseany:
exactly!

(after a long night out drinking, and I had to pee really bad.)

let old acquaintance be forgot...

So today was my last day of class with one of my favorite 8th grade classes. They’re not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re a lot of fun, and they have lots of energy. (which they sometimes put to use towards constructive things) The teacher that I work with for this particular class is also really fun, and tries to work with the kids, so that they get something out of the lessons. In any case, since they knew it was going to be my last lesson with them, the teacher taught them (while I wasn’t there) “Auld Lang Syne” in English, which they proceeded to sing to me at the end of class. They also brought in some “German things” for me, in case I hadn’t fully experienced the culture yet. Since they know me pretty well by now, it consisted of food. Mostly chocolate. Did I mention this was one of my favorite classes? Yeah, wonder why? They know me so well! :D

happy weekend!
-seanyB

for my mama, who claims not to love our kitty

stinkeye!

So I woke up this morning, slightly hungover, (if I’m gonna be honest) and got on my way to school. I ended up walking due to the frozen brake and gear lines on my bike, and got to school just barely in time for class. Walked into my classroom, said good morning to the students, and approached the teacher to say hello. She jumped back from me when she looked up, and goes “oh my god, what happened?!?” not the best confidence-booster first thing in the morning… turns out, my left eye had had some sort of capillary break, and so the whites were completely red. Not bloodshot. Red. Scary- zombie- gonna eat your brains- red. I went to look in the mirror and almost freaked myself out… So, as I was teaching the class, I wondered why they were all so quiet and well behaved, albeit staring at me like I was gonna start projectiling green all over the classroom. I must say, it was one of my most successful lessons. So, lesson for future: if you aren’t scary enough to get kids to listen to you, avoid visine for approximately 24 and a half years, and you’ll be good! it's the automatic stink-eye!
happy thursday!
-seany

jetlag

also, I'm freaking tired. I always get terrible jetlag when flying east, and this trip is no exception... Since weds, I've probably ended up catching maybe 8 hours of shut-eye, in short segments, at irregular times. It's really really annoying! However exhausted I get, I usually end up waking up within a couple hours of crashing, and am unable to go back to sleep. Maybe Aidan and I will experiment with the soporific qualities of wine tonight (or this afternoon...) :D anyways, hope everyone is staying inside and keeping warm! Or at least enjoying playing in the snow!
happy weekend!
-seanyB

backlog no. 1

Weihnachtsmarkt misadventure:
Sooo, if you don’t know by now, the Christmas markets, Weihnachtsmärkte, are one of my favorite things about Germany. I try every year to go to as many of them as I can, collect glasses, eat and drink a ton, and generally enjoy myself, while soaking up some German culture. I have some favorites, (Goslar chief among them) and I also explore new ones. This year, I was taking some of my foodie friends to the Goslar Weihnachtsmarkt, and we had it all planned out. (that statement right there should sound warning bells in your head if you know me at all…) We ended up meeting at the train station in Göttingen, and had to run to catch the train. Turns out, when you’re running to catch a train, sometimes you don’t pay attention to what the train actually says on it. This was one of those sometimes. We pack onto the train, all of us collapsing in between train cars, the doors close, and the train starts moving. In the wrong direction. Lovely. I just started laughing, what else can you do? We found out that we were on the train to Chemnitz, which is approximately near the German-Indian border. The next stop for the train was Heiligenstadt, which means “holy city.” We got off at Heiligenstadt, hoping to find SOMETHING holy, or at least mildly entertaining, and found it dead. The only thing that was open was a grocery store. So what do a group of foodies do? We raid the grocery store for the hour we have to wait for the next train that will take us back to Göttingen. The 5 of us spent approximately 45 minutes perusing the candy and booze aisles. We left, successful, with lots of ritter sport (to bring home for Christmas) and a really nice bottle of champagne for really cheap (for the train ride home!) As we wandered back to the train station, I decided we needed to pregame our ride of shame back to Gö, and so we passed around a bottle of champagne in the freezing cold, sleeting terminal. We ended up going back to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Gö, getting ourselves some dinner, and then going to Goslar a couple days later. It turns out, nothing is a misadventure, as long as you have people you can laugh with (and at,) and share some wonderful champagne with. From the bottle. :D I love how appropriate my blog title really is.

post-christmas update!

Hey guys, sorry for not updating in literally forever…
I just got back from Christmas break at home in MD, got to visit the family, and a bunch of friends. I took a couple days off from school, and left early, so I got to fly home the 17th of Dec, in order to have a full three weeks at home. Thankfully I got there as early as I did, because as we were driving home on the 18th, a blizzard started that lasted all weekend, blanketing MD with abt 20 inches of snow. It was amazing, and completely unexpected. And by unexpected, I mean that I hadn’t read the weather forecast online, and has therefore only brought clothes appropriate for a SOMD winter: casual shoes, a nice jacket, gloves, a hat, that’s abt it… Not optimal for climbing through, shoveling off, or otherwise adventuring in snow. Oh well! It was gorgeous! I took a ton of pictures down at the beach, including a pretty amazing snow-angel that I made :D I spent a lot of the first couple days hanging out with the fam, getting some kitchen therapy, and making more cookies, candy, and cake than my family could possibly go through, or give away. (strangely enough, not much of any of it is left though… hmmm..) We ended up doing two different turkeys for Christmas, papa made one with marsala, and I made one with lemons and oranges and herbed butter. Both turned out really well, and we stuffed ourselves. I also made a chocolate buttercream meringue cake that turned out AMAZING even though it didn’t look as good as it could’ve… I need to work on my cake-decorating skills. Pics of that will also be posted soon. We had surprise guests right after Christmas. Our parents refused to tell us who was coming (I referred to them as “stranger-danger” until they actually showed up) It turned out to be our fairy god-parents, Dave and Ivanka, with their adopted German daughter in tow! It was a really nice surprise, and Ivanka convinced the kids to come up to the cape for new years. After Christmas, the sisters and I went up to NYC to meet a bunch of our friends, and then up to cape cod, as promised. We dragged along one of my old high school friends, and had a really good time relaxing and sleeping and eating a ton. We drove home on the 2nd of Jan, which was a looong trip, and then celebrated Amish Christmas that evening with the fam. I got some really fun cooking tools, some of which I unfortunately could not to bring to Germany, as they would get ruined by Julian’s “cooking” :D
I spent the last week in MD meeting as many people as I could, before I had to head back here to Germany, but still ended up not seeing a bunch of people I wanted to. Sorry you guys! I’ll be home in july though, and we’ll have plenty of time then to catch up, and for me to cook for you…
All in all, I had a great time, seeing old friends, meeting new people (I have some GREAT stories abt aidan’s friends :D ) and hanging out with the family again.
I’ll try to update this more and more as my Germany tour winds to a close (frowny face) so if you haven’t lost faith yet, hold on to it for just a little while longer, and hopefully I won’t disappoint. Many more misadventures planned for the spring and summer!!