Photos of Mainz!!!

Here is a random selection of pictures taken throughout Mainz. Enjoy : )

This is our front door!

Alte Universitatsstrasse 19

This is the front of the building where we live. The Institute for European History.


The beautiful Theatre we hope to see something at this year. It is right next door to our building.

The big Dom (Catherdral) right out our front window.

A Denkmal (momnument) behind the Theatre.

One of many fountains in Mainz. Just in front of our building. We really have a prime location, the center of the Altstadt (Old city) which is just like a down town area of a city in the states. We have a mall and tons of little shops everywhere and lots of cafe's and bars and restaurants.

Statue of St. Bonifacious. In the main square next to the Dom. Rumor has it this is where he was killed.

The Marktplatz (main square). Big Denkmal in the center. Beautiful buildings and shops around the square.

Denkmal in the Marktplatz.

The side of the Dom with the little shops built onto the side.

Some Denkmals and the Dom in the background. Behind this is where you go down the stairs to the river bank.

Fountain and Denkmals near the River Rhein along our running path.

The view accross the Rhein. It is actually another city called Wiesbaden, the capital of the neighboring state of Hessen. That boat on shore actually never moves; it's a restaurant!

View of Mainz from standing on the Brucke (bridge). The white building on the right side is the Mainz Hilton.

View from the other side of the Brucke.

View looking up the Rhein.

Some important building at the end of the Brucke. Not really sure...

The end of the Brucke with the Mainz and German flags.

Beautiful Denkmal by the Rhein.

Path along the Rhein we like to run on.

The Brucke!

Entering the Rhein banks from the main street.

Back of the supossed important building.

St. Peter's Kirche (church). Not to be confused with Kirsche (cherry).

The Mainz Museum.

Denkmal in town.

This is a cigarette vending machine. They are all over outside on the streets. Anyone (any age) can access them...?

Denkmal of Schiller. One of the most famous playwrites from Germany!

A wein (wine) stand. Love these. You can just go up any time of day, get a glass of wine and some bread or sausage and stand around the tall tables near the booth. They are everywhere and are always crowded.

A fountain in the Altstadt (Old city).

A denkmal outside the park.

The Dom. Of course under construction...I guess it's understandable considering it is over 1000 YEARS OLD!!!!

DAS IST ALLES

That's all...

Our First One Hundred Days...as a married couple!!!

Yay!!! We made it to 100 : ) Although, 100 days doesn't sound like a lot to me right now. Let's just take a little review to see just what we have accomplished in our 1st 100 days...

Pulled off an unforgetable wedding ceremony after a short rain delay (nearly 2 hours).

Had an incredible 10 day honeymoon in Ft. Myers, FL. (Thank you Smith Fam in Bloomington!!)

Successfully mooched off my parents for roughly 3 weeks. We miss my mom's cooking and the constant entertainment of the day care kids.

We were also blessed to spend some quality time with friends we love and miss before we left the country.

Left the U.S. and arrived in Deutschland safely.

Oh wait we don't have a picture of that because we forgot the camera in my Dad's truck. We got it a couple weeks later- thanks mom and dad!

We spent 6 amazing weeks in the city of Marburg. The big picture at the top of this blog page is overlooking Marburg. The castle was an awesome sight to see everyday from the bus on the way to class.

We both passed our German course! We are officially level B1 speakers, Sam got 94% I got 88%. I guess that's the difference between a Madison and a Princeton education.

Took several exciting and educational excursions with the Fulbright group.

We made some great friends through Fulbright who are now scattered about Germany doing their own projects.

(Sorry T.J., you're not in any pics because you were always taking them...)

We moved in to our homey little "studio apartment", if you will, in Mainz (see previous blog).

I got a really bad hair cut (see previous blog). Poor Sam.

We have only begun our exploration of this city. One of these times when we go out we will remember to bring the camera : ) So far, these are the random pics we have of Mainz.

There was a traveling carnival in Mainz our first weekend here. Notice the American charicatures on the hounted house...and there is the train bridge over the river Rhein. There are much cooler pics of Mainz I swear...coming soon.

At this point we have EACH read 8 books since our Honeymoon. Most of these as a result of no internet or T.V. for 6 weeks in Marburg.

Books Read Since July 6:
Sam

Same Kind of Different
Crossing to Safety
Brothers Karamozov
The Last Lecture
Three Cups of Tea
The Four Loves
Wind In the Willows
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Alice in Wonderland (IP)

Jamie

Same Kind of Different as Me

Crossing To Safety

Time Traveler's Wife

Tender is the Night

The Great Divorce

Agnes's Jacket

The Pact

The Last Lecture

The Wind in the Willows (IP)

Sam took me out on a date last Friday. We had delicious German brats (HUGE and on a delicious freshly baked bun) and french fries (covered in ketchup AND mayo...the German way). Then we went out for ice cream...ice cream shops are EVERYWHERE here! LOVE IT! I got Zitrone and Himbeere (lemon and raspberry) and Sam got Cookies (cookies) and After 8 (mint choc chip). YUM!

On this one hundreth day Sam began his very first class at the University of Mainz. A German course. I went to the grocery store AGAIN and most recently...I leaned over the desk to plug the camera in and caught my hair on fire in the candle. Sweet, it's already too short, now Sam will have to cut it even more. It smells awful.

THE END.

Gervais oder Lacy?

It has been a week of settling in, appointments, registrations, applications and purchaces. The number one complication? My last name. It depends who you talk to on which day of the week, where and which paperwork they consider. At the city registration I am Jamie Gervais. My Bahn Card (the discount train card) says Jamie Lacy, my check card says Lacy, credit card says Gervais, the Institute uses Lacy on the mailbox but my International Student card says Gervais. I have to be careful when I have to sign reciepts or forms of any kind to be sure I use the correct name. Germany has strict policies on most everything but we have found that it truly depends on which person you speak with at the train station or the city office or where ever.

In other news, I went to get my hair cut. Things did not turn out so well for me. I chose the cheapest place I found (1st mistake) and ended up with a stylist who spoke no english (2nd mistake). HOWEVER I brought in pictures of exactly how I wanted my hair to look. I thought it would be fine.

The pictures I brought in...

This is what I got...
Brutal, right? It's okay my mother told me I looked like a 12 year old girl. I cannot argue. The stylist missed the whole concept of long in the front and short in the back. It is just one short length all the way around. Oh well...it will grow. I learned my lesson.

So we are very thankful to have this place to live at. It is so cheap and the accommodations really are great. Here are some pictures of our humble home.

Spell check...

Our lovely "double" bed. Notice the odd pillow size. German pillows are large squares that seem nice and fluffy at first but upon laying your head down you realize it sinks directly to the bed as the nice fluff surrounds your face. We fold our pillows in half. Twice. Then use them...

Where all of our hard work gets done...

Becken (Sink)...

I love the nice big windows...

This is the closet we share ...

This is my bed which turns into the couch for the day and you can see Sam's bed folded up there...

The view from our window at night. Too bad there is construction going on and the big crane kind of ruins it...

Well, that is our living situation for now. We have only begun exploring this city. There is so much more here to see and visit.

I have promised myself to blog more often so that it is not us much of a novel when I do write. Later this week I plan to post more pictures and hopefully have some stories.

For now life is grocery shopping, going for runs along the river or around the Altstadt, trips to the Uni for Sam to get organized, watching the Today Show podcast at breakfast and NBC Nightly News podcast at dinner, cooking way too much food for 2 people, going on walks and reading good books. Currently I am reading Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sam is about to finish The Four Loves by C.S.Lewis and just began The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L.Frank Baum. We found a book store in Marburg with some English books. We decided to buy some classics because we did not bring many books over here due to the weight limit for our luggage. We bought Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Father Brown Stories by G.K.Chesterton, Gulliver's Travels, The Wind in the Willows, Tender is the Night and The Wizard of Oz. Sam also was thinking about the future and said these are great long term purchases so our children can read them!

Oh yeah...MN made the Suddeutschland Zeitung!! (Southern Germany Newspaper)

and of course...GO TWINS!!!!!!