Traveling Pants.

Every since The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants came out when I was in the 5th grade I've had one dream: go to Greece. And tomorrow that dream comes true! We head off on the McGrath whirlwind tour of Europe tomorrow and I can tell you its going to be exciting. 

I'll be posting pictures and stories daily as internet connection allows.

xoxo,

Abby

Adventures Courtesy of Apple.

A few days ago the unthinkable happened - the charger for my Macbook went kaput. That meant that we now had only one charger for the three Mac's in our house which could possibly be considered as the end of the world. Being a smart consumer I got on the phone and spilled my dilemma to William from Apple. He pointed me in the direction of the nearest retail store and that was that.

Today my dad and I decided to finally make the trip downtown to replace said charger. Now, downtown Stuttgart is rather confusing when it comes to driving and finding a place to park is even for difficult. Today for some reason more than the usual number of roads were either closed or one way (Germany seems to be doing construction EVERYWHERE all at the same time so driving is ridiculous). After driving and walking through a bit of a maze we finally spotted our destination, Compustore. Thankfully the man behind the counter spoke fluent English and knew exactly how to fix my charger problem. Five minutes later problem solved.

Seeing as downtown is not a place we get to often there was no sense in just turning around and going home from there so we ventured down the shopping street a little farther. We stumbled upon probably the most exciting shop I've encountered in all of Stuttgart: a cupcake boutique!!! Didn't get a chance to try that out, but I will be returning ASAP for some cupcakes and froyo. I have to say, it was a bummer that I had to trek all the way downtown to replace a dead charger, but it led to a VERY exciting discovery!

xoxo,

Abby

Fast Forward.

As a rising college freshman anything and everything to do with college excites me. Dorm room decoration, classes, dining halls, all of it. And since pretty much all of my contact with other human beings for the past two weeks has been limited to my immediate family (that gets boring fast) and people who don't speak the same language as I do (completely frustrating), I've gotten the chance to think about college a lot, and being that the first day of classes is only a month away things has reached a whole new level of excitement. 

My days lately have been spent surfing Pinterest and missing my friends, but here's one of the really cool things about going to college: my friends will be there too! Fast forward to August and 75% of the people I've spent my entire summer missing will be with me in the same small town, just like old times (well, Blacksburg is a little bigger than VB but that's beside the point). It adds another layer of something to look forward too and another reason to be thankful that this is the time in my life that my parents decided to live in Germany. I get to travel Europe during breaks (we leave for Greece and Paris in 4 days!) and hang out with all my really awesome friends at Tech the rest of the year. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me! (:

xoxo,

Abby

Switchin' It Up.

You may have noticed that the blog looks a little bit different today. Well, I am happy to inform that you're not going crazy and it is the same site. For a while now the layout that I had was kind of driving me batty, so I took action, found this one, and cleaned up the look a bit.

Let me know what you think!

xoxo,

Abby

Thank God for the Golden Arches.

One of the things I find most frustrating about living over seas is the language barrier. I hate that I expect everyone to be able to communicate fluently in English but I also don't have the drive to fluently learn the native tongue (if I could be a multilingual person I totally would, but my brain only operates in English and broken Spanish). Often I wish that I could time travel back to the Tower of Babel, keep that event from happening, and then we'd all speak just one language again. But unfortunately time travel is not successful yet, so that's out and language barriers are in.

For some reason I'm finding the German language barrier made out of a few more layers of cinder blocks than others I've encountered. That may be due to the fact that for some really strange and unknown reason my version of German is actually Spanish, but that's just me and probably has to do with the fact that I've spent so much time in Latin countries. Therefore I have learned not to speak, because people understand Spanish far less than English. 

After a long day with the language barrier the other day my mom and I decided we wanted a taste of America and searched out the McDonald's just outside the mall (I hardly ever eat Mickey D's so this was kinda strange). As we gazed the menu, still confused, a kind little cashier called us over to her. When she started to speak to us in English (it doesn't take long to figure out we don't speak German) a huge sigh of relief swept over me - she was Filipino and spoke perfect English! I had never been so happy to venture into McDonald's and have a conversation with someone other than my family who spoke English. So thanks for that Mickey D's!

The tastiest McDonald's meal we've ever had!

More European adventures to come! It's finally warm and sunny here (:

xoxo,

Abby

A Prayer for Friends.

This time last summer I was on a plane headed straight for Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It was my second time getting to serve there. I know I've posted about my trip to Nicaragua before, but today it holds a special place in my heart, so I'm going to talk about it about it just a little bit more (:

Yesterday some of my very closest friends and mentors back home headed on that very same flight I took last year and made their way to Managua and Casa Bernabe orphanage. I have no idea what kind of work they will doing there this year, but I know it will be God's work. They have set out on a path to change the world by sharing the gospel with lost souls and have chosen to start with this small community in Nicaragua. I know that they will accomplish greatness and turn so many from death to life. I ask that you pray for their health and ability to find rest in the Lord as they pour themselves out daily for Him, and also that they can share His love for the people around them with clarity through their actions and the language barrier.

Although I am saddened by the fact that I couldn't make this years trip I know I stayed behind as a prayer warrior to support them from back "home" as they do great work.

Here are a few of my friends on the their trip and the scriptures our youth pastor asked to prayed over for this trip:

(Photos courtesy of Wayne Patterson's and Hannah Czerlinsky's Instagrams. Thanks guys!)

Evin, Lauren, and Steven boarding plane #1!

Lauren waiting in Miami for plane #2

xoxo and thanks!

Abby

1 Month.

Today and yesterday mark one month until a very exciting event: flying back to the states and moving into my dorm! And I have to admit that I am more excited and ready than ever to find out where I'm living and move in! I've checked the school's room assignment page everyday for the last week hoping that assignments will come out closer to the "around" part of on or around July 30th. My roommate, Rene, and I have been planning away for months how we're going to set everything up, the colors of everything, etc etc etc, all the normal girly dorm things and knowing that we are now soooo close to actually moving in is really exciting. ONE MORE MONTH! 

Yesterday not only was I decked out in orange and maroon, but I was so excited that I couldn't help creating a Hokie doodle!

xoxo,

Abby

Craving.

Well, it's happened. The wall of craving anything and everything American that my dear friend Alex (he took a few week European expedition just before I moved here) that occurs at about one week in has hit. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I've basically sat in my empty house and watched Mad Men all day for a week, but still, America please? Now of course I know that's not really a reasonable request, I still have 4 weeks here, so I will revert to doing what I can: eating cheeseburgers and pizza, making cookies, and messaging a ton of my friends back home on Facebook. I'm starting to realize that THIS is home, Germany is home, at least for the next 4 weeks so I guess I better get used to it! 

xoxo,

Abby

Shop Til Ya Drop.

Or at least until you feel your mom might murder you for all the money you spent. And that exactly was my first experience strolling down the main shopping street of Stuttgart. Things here in Europe tend to be a tad bit more expensive than in the states due to a sales tax of 19% that is added to just about everything. Therefore I have learned the key to shopping here in Germany and not feel like you're spending oodles of cash - don't convert prices from euros to US dollars, all that does is make you feel more horrible about yourself.

The great thing about German shopping though is that as you walk down the main shopping street in Stuttgart it feels a lot like you're shopping in New York or Chicago, which is a HUGE change of pace from the shopping in Virginia Beach. Thank goodness that it's all a decent length train ride away because I'm not sure my bank account could support my becoming a shopaholic.

The rest of my days here in Germany have been rather uneventful and rainy and I've come to the realization that the company of friends is not something to take for granted. More on being German comes tomorrow after my mom and I take a gander at our local market (pictures to accompany!).

Tschüs!

Abby

Tag Zwei.

For all of you like myself who are not fluent in duetsch, tag zwei is German for day two. Which is basically a copout on a title since creativeness failed me at this moment. In my defense the adventures of the Familie McGrath today were far less exciting than those of yesterday. No fests were involved today, no trains, no fish, no afternoon walks through town, but no worries there's always beer involved (we are in Germay after all). I am quickly learning that I need to be far more conscious about bringing a camera with me everywhere so that I can not only document this trip through words, but accompany those words with pictures. Sadly I have not taken much action on this realization as of yet.

Tag zwei took us on a wonderful tour of the in processing procedures and their accompanying building here on Panzer Kaserne. I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that the inside of these building were a lot more visually stimulating than the typical white and beige of many other military installations. If I remember correctly one of the building featured bright blue on the staircase (for you military people out there you fully understand my amazement in the appearance of color). A really cool thing about Panzer Kaserne is that it has been a German tank base since the 1930's - yes that means Nazi tanks - so many of the buildings, the outsides at least, are original to the 1930's. Adds a neat architectural element to the base.

Hours of in processing was followed by surfing the internet at the house because we get only 2 english television stations and hulu doesn't work in Germany, so Facebook and I were very good friends this afternoon.

Dinner was eaten with the same friends as yesterday (a last stitch effort to spend as much time together as possible before they ship out) at a restaurant that looked like a typical German place but served some really yummy Italian food. Didn't make much sense to me but hey, don't judge a book by it's cover. I also got my first taste of Germans playing drinking games. These particular Germans were rather aged and rather loud. Definitely interesting to watch.

Maybe tomorrow I'll remember to take pictures to share (:

xoxo,
Abby

Sit, Eat, Drink.

Day 1 in Germany was full of immediate immersion into life in a new country. Hopping of the plane at 8am local time (2am Va Beach time...) we toured around our new town and house, took a short but much needed nap, and headed out to meet up with old friends who for some unfortunate reason are on their way out of the country as we are on our way in. They, knowing Stuttgart obviously better than us at this moment in time, took us to experience our first fest.

My mother and I determined what you do in Germany - sit, eat, and drink. At this particular fest fish was the featured food (apparently each fest has a different featured food and drink, but there's ALWAYS beer of course). We staked a claim on a table and sent the 9 year twins out with euros in hand to buy us sampling of everything from flankuchen (pizza without sauce),  to beer battered fish, to spiced nuts. And even though the drinking age in Germany is practically nonexistent the adults were still in charge of purchasing the beer and other assorted drinks. I have to admit that I will be attending basically every fest I can find because what better way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon than eating and drinking with friends? None that I can come up with.

We also got a chance to explore the main platz in Stuttgart. Platz means "place" in German and each of the little squares around town are called something-platz. This particular one was huge, bordered on one side by a municipal building that could have been Buckingham Palace (except that we're in Germany not England) and a marvelous shopping district on the other. A weird thing about where we live is that EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays, so as we walked down this incredible shopping street all I could do was dreamily stare into the windows and hope I got the chance to return ASAP. 

All in all I'm excited to venture out and experience all Germany has to offer (:

xoxo,

Abby

P.S. Pictures to come soon! Haven't broke out the camera yet to document everything.

Goodbye America.

It's been three years since I finally made it make to my home country after a 5+ year hiatus of living overseas. Tomorrow afternoon, I say goodbye to America one more time and hello to Germany for the first time.

One of the things that I always find interesting about moving is how much you end up missing a place right before and then for months after you leave. No matter how ready you are to get out of a place, how much you hate it somewhere, there always seems to be something that you yearn to return to about that place. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to miss about Virginia Beach, but maybe because I know that I'll be back here before I know it. Lord knows that this is by far the strangest and most stressful move I've ever had, but as of tomorrow it's all over. As of tomorrow my European adventure commences with full force. Thank God for that!

Goodbye America.

xoxo,

Abby

Ag.

For pretty much all my life I've struggled to find things that I am truly passionate about. It always seemed that the things I got involved I only really liked for short periods of time and then got bored and uninterested in whatever it was.

Well that's kinda how I ended up feeling this morning at orientation for my major program. Human Development and Social Work, which I thought for the longest time was where I belonged, the path I was destined to walk down, suddenly seemed so much less interesting and not where I fit. I'd really been struggling with this for a while now. I knew that I wanted to help people (something I will hopefully never loose passion for), but I was finding is nearly impossible to envision myself as a social worker sitting in a cubicle in a welfare/counseling center trying to help people as best as could with in the confines of a system that kept me from really helping them. Just thinking about it doesn't bring me joy!

While my mom and I were in Blacksburg we swung by the local farmers market, a real treat for me. I am a total advocate for eating local, buying local, and supporting local businesses in general, but fresh local produce is one of my absolute favorite things in the world. As my mom watched me melt over all the colors, textures, and local yumminess that surrounded me she jokingly suggested that I should become an agriculture major. Something about my mom - she's really good at pointing me in directions that I don't even know I want to go in; from prom dresses to programs of study I'm pretty convinced now that she knows me better than I do. Go mom.

Need less to say this idea of being an "ag" major got planted in my brain (see what I did there?!) and I haven't quite been able to get it out. Knowing that this would give me an outlet to go into international communities and have the opportunity to change their lives by helping them create a sustainable food source while enriching my own life is pretty darn enticing. This little thought came at just the right time, it's amazing how God works sometimes isn't it?! I will definitely be praying over whether or not this is the way that God wants two of my passions to be merged and the path He wants me to walk down.

xoxo,

Abby