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GERMANY JOURNAL

December 14, 2004
Dear Friends and Family,

I am way over due for my letter regarding Turkey. I think I am resistant to writing it as one, you may be tired of the stories, and two, then putting it on paper makes it a memory, rather than the reality I wish it was on an every day basis. This trip was so good, that I was ready to sell all my earthly possessions, buy a boat and sail around every where. It was that great. Turkey is fantastic. Lush with history, filled with funny and friendly people and some of the best food that I have had anywhere. It was just unbelievable.

We began our trip by flying into Dalaman airport on the coast of Turkey, paying our visas to cross into country and then driving about 1.5 hours out to a town called Marmaris for an over night. Marmaris is kind of like a classy Myrtle Beach for the Europeans. We enjoyed a nice stroll along the boardwalk and had some decent Turkish food, but it definitely wasn’t the kind of place we’d like to stay very long. But we did have an oceanfront room for about $35 for one night. We tried to hook up with two of our crewmates, Jackie and Dave Cattanach (aka, "the Canadians"), but missed them that first night; however, we had made plans to meet the next morning and travel out to Keci Buku to get on the boat, so we got to meet the couple that by day 3 of the trip, we ended up being their best man and best lady for their wedding ceremony! More to come on that!

Once in Keci Buku, we met up with the lovely crew of Seascape Sail. For once, Treb and I were not the couple with the disastrous travel plans, but instead, several other travelers were laid up by over booked and late flights. We all got there eventually, but it delayed our departure by a bit. Never ones to lose time to kick back and relax, Treb and I found Dave and Jacquie to be lovely beer drinking companions and we sat down to enjoy the view and the poorly drafted Effes bier while we waited on the rest of our travelers. More and more, we found Jacquie and Dave, and then Marilyn, Kaz, Gary, and Brian, to be cut from the same sail cloth, and we just had a great time. These folks could make it to any tailgate and not miss a beat, plus they adored adventuring as much as we. We were minus Marilyn and Brian when we finally set sail, but managed to pick them up in Bozburun the next day. Our "sail" to Bozborun was a 3-hour power-sail into a stiff 25-knot wind, but Treb took the helm early and loved the day. In Bozborun, Treb received an hour long Turkish shave and massage – and they even burned his ear and neck hair off! I think he finally realizes why I like to be pampered so much! Bozburun is also home to the Aphrodite hotel where we swam and bathed and ate a lovely dinner, while of course enjoying the fine Turkish brew, which is known as Effes. I also beat Treb at Tawli here.

We sailed aboard the Anna Maria, the same lovely 55-footer that took us around the Dodecanese in Greece back in the summer of ’02. www.seascape-sail.com – See our Greece pictures here: http://courie.com/albums/Greece/ This time we sailed around the southwestern tip of Turkey, where the Aegean meets the Med.

Datca, Datca Datca. I love Datca. Datca is famous for many, many things. First, it is famous for our first true Turkish bath experience where to get exfoliated down to a soft pulp, fluffed up by soap bubbles, and swatted on the rear by a giant, hulking, honking, old Turkish man (who looked like an overweight Saddam Hussein). I’ve never felt so clean in my life but as nice as the man was, I don’t think I’d want to run into him in any dark alleys! Then, that night we enjoyed some more lovely Turkish food and went exploring for Turkish Rugs. I swore to Treb that we would come a way with rugs, and so the next thing you know, we are having a "caaaaaapet paaaaaaaateeeeeeeeee." That is Cornish fora "carpet party." Well, in Turkey, when they sell you a rug, they also must wine and dine you. Or at least, Effes and Raki (kind of like Ouzo) you. I had thought I would spend a moderate amount on rugs and get one nice one. I ended walking away with three, one of which he threw in since I brought so many good wallets with me to the party. I got to roll around in silk carpet (divine!), haggle for hours, be educated on the history of carpet (woven rugs) and kilm (knotted tapestry) that Turkey is famous for and have a rousing time – all from our good friend "Ali." My rugs are gorgeous, except that they are kind of tied up in German customs right now. We hope to pick them up this week. Then, our captain, the "honorable" Captain Ray (I didn’t learn Ray’s last name until two weeks ago) informed us that the wedding of Dave and Jacquie got moved up a day, so what do you know, we had a "hen party" (bachelorette party) that night on the boat for Jacquie in which we persuaded her that toilet papering our sister boat was a fine idea. I would have done it, but Kaz insisted that it was Jacquie’s hen party, and she should do the honors. Not sure how it happened, but somewhere in the boat crossing, I wound up with three honking bruises on the back of leg that hurt like crazy!:) Oh, what we do for our friends!

The next day, before leaving Datca, we set off to the Olive Farm for a visit on oil making processes and more shopping. I was getting quite the reputation for being a shopper at this point. I bought a ton of stuff for everyone, not just myself though! From the Olive Farm (yummy oils and tampande) we motored yet again (poor winds) to Ova Buku and "Ogun’s Place" for the wedding. Ogun is a fine fellow. He prints maps of the area on the back of his shirts so that folks like our fine Captain Ray can use them to navigate. We’ve got a great picture on line of them doing just that! Ova Buku has fantastic snorkeling, although I thought the water was a bit cold. As Jacquie’s best lady, I had to come and get cleaned up and then help Jacquie get ready. Then captain Ray got to marry the lovely couple, while Treb and I prayed we wouldn’t drop the rings while standing ankle-deep in the water. We didn’t and they didn’t fall off the rock in the harbor, so they got married right and tight and we enjoyed toasting to their long happiness well into the night! It was just lovely and yes, I cried! We had a surprise visit from a belly dancer (who was actually Ogun) to the wedding and then this old French lady in orange (Pumpkin woman) tried to pick up one of our crew mates all night long. Unfortunately, we all thought this was funny, so egged the whole thing on!:) We left the newlyweds in the hotel for some privacy, while the rest of us stumbled back to the boat. The weather and winds were quite rough and evidently there were some issues with the anchor lines crossing which is a terrible, terrible, terrible thing to happen. Luckily, no boats sank, and no damage was done, which allowed us to pull out the next day without too much ado….

Off for our crossing to Bozuk Buku with rough waters. So rough, that Dave was feeling a bit sea sick. Still haven’t really gotten the sails up for a good sail yet, but using the motor keeps the beer cold, so always a positive spin on everything! Here, we got to see the Loyma Fort built on the coast. Some folks did some hiking, we just chilled and swam and enjoyed doing little to nothing.

Day 5, off to Kapi Creek on a long windless crossing (about 35 miles). It was so painful, that we were forced to pull out the Effes just to get through the day. We were taking navigation bets, and I honestly had no faith that Ray could get us, there, but he proved us wrong. Along the way, we got to see a cool water spout a few miles to starboard. In Kapi Creek the French "wankers" (excuse my French) emptied their bilge tank into the bay (which is illegal and gross) and got ugly about it when our fierce, captain Ray told them to stuff their bilge back where it came from. On the up side, Kapi Creek had a little lady that makes homemade pancake/crepes on her boat and comes right up to the dock to sell them. Kapi Creek also has a little villager that hand makes carpets in his home and we got to see them being made! Kapi Creek was lovely swimming! Need to exercise to keep off all the divine food from my hips! Every place we went delivered fresh baked bread to have with breakfast! It was yummy!

Day 6, off to Gocek for a short windless crossing, where we got hit hard with some torrential rains. We’d run out of beer this time, and decided a wine party with cheese and bread and olives for lunch for just the thing! It was lovely! It didn’t stop us from shopping though! My only regret is that I didn’t pick up this very lovely ring I found…. That night, I got to eat garlic prawns (shrimp, for those of you from South Carolina). It was like dying and going to heaven, except the next day, we got to get up and head on a bus trip to see the Dalyan River Trip and funerary monuments (a necropolis—i.e. dead people) carved into the side of a mountain. Fantastic! We ambled around the ruiuns of Kanau and then were off to play in the mud at a natural mud bath and springs. It was lovely, but Treb chickened out and didn’t want to get dirty. It felt so good on my bones! More exfoliation! On the bus trip back, there was some weird coughing going on in the back of the bus and some weird popping of cans and sharing of Pringles, but I really don’t know anything about it. We lost Kaz and Gary that day, as they were only there for 7 days. It was quite sad. That night, Ray must have felt the need to punish us, b/c we still didn’t have beer, so (cough, cough) we raided the Angelina because they were basically teetotalers and didn’t really need their beer after all and we had more people on our boat any way, and Ray kept drinking it all up, so really, it was justifiable. Plus, to this day, we are convinced Dez stole two flats of beer from us to begin with. Right, Dez?

Day 8….we got the sails up a bit today. More reason to party. This time, we got to see Tomb Bay for lunch…more monuments in the mountains, some hiking and swimming and some lovely HOT weather. It was great. Then we were off to Cleopatra’s baths for more hiking and to meet the character of Regip. Regip cooks on his boat so he doesn’t have to pay taxes. He once had to go to jail, b/c he wouldn’t pay taxes, but then again, they were charging him more than he ever made cooking for the sailors. The Turkish Army destroyed his taverna, so Regip just docked a two-decker boat, built a kitchen downstairs, and put tables upstairs. The food was fantastic once again. That night, however Regip called the cops on some fancy pants that decided to chop down trees for firewood (illegal in Turkey). They had a bit of a boat bumping and cussing contest, but finally Regip won. Ray was asked to leave a statement for the police, which he did as the honest, law abiding citizen that is Ray. We were all getting a bit despondent as the trip was winding to an end. Three of us were off to Istanbul from the coast and decided to meet up for a couple more sight seeing trips and dinners.

Dy 9 was a lazy trip to restaurant bay. All of our meals were very similar. Meat. What kind of meat you might ask? Meat we were told. Adana kabaps, lamb, prawns, chicken, bread, fries and salad. It was all about the same, but very, very good.

Day 10, we arrive in Fethiye for our last night and departure the next day for Istanbul. None of us were ready to say good bye, so we met up for dinner and farewells. Both Jacquie and I cried. I’m sure at some point in our lives, winds being what they are, we will all cross paths again, but for now, it was time to let the lines go and head back in different directions. Again, we were the beneficiaries of cheap, fine Turkish accommodations, as we stayed in a 3rd floor waterfront room (that would sleep 5 easily) for only 40 euros.

Day 11. Istanbul. There is no other city in the world like Istanbul. It’s old, it’s new, it multi-cultural, it’s loaded and reverent and just amazing. We hit the Grand Bazaar for shopping and what not. Treb was such a sucker for the lines these guys made up! One guy had him in his shop and talking for an hour and contemplating the purchase of another rug without even a ripple. I was laughing, b/c he always blames it on me! We’ve decided that when we go back to Turkey, a silk rug will be in our future!

(I got to bargain for this lovely Turkish plate. Haggled him down from $150 to $67, and he threw in a painting as well as painted my name in Arabic for free! It’s lovely! Then we went and bought a painting of Istanbul, one of the things we do when we travel, and haggled with him a little, although he was a tougher sell. We enjoyed sitting and talking and drinking apple tea though!

Day 12—River Trip up the Bosphorous to the Black Sea with our traveling pals Dave and Jacquie and Brian and Marilyn. It was cold and dark, but neat to see such a historical park of the world. This is the division between Europe and Asia, which really baffles Treb as he says there is no real rational reason why the two are divided. We also saw the entrance to the Black Sea. That night, the Fab 6 went to a dinner dance club for a night of traditional Turkish belly dancing and music. Up until 10, when they brought out the Turkish Julio Iglesis, it was great. There after, the show went down hill and we bowed out. They also tried to poison me with a hot pepper that literally tore my stomach to pieces. Ugh. Here we said quick good byes to our pals for lack of wanting to cry again and promises that we would keep in touch. This is a crowd that I can imagine traveling with again. They are that great.

Day 13: Touring of the Haga Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the newer part of Istanbul (only because Treb was craving American food and there was supposed to be a TGI Fridays in this area. No such luck with TGIF…it had closed down and become an American Sportsbar, but the food was still good). This was the first day of Ramadan, so the Turks fasted all day (we felt guilty eating), but then at night they had a big festival out next to the Blue Mosque. We didn’t see it, but we were told that the Turks were all sitting down with plates full of food at sunset; and as soon as the last prayer call was completed, they dug in! We ate some delicious Turkish food at the Ramadan fest, and it stuck us as ironic how friendly and western this Muslim country was while our friends in Iraq feared increased violence during the Holy Month. We also ran into Brian and Marilyn and shared one last beer with them – and, in the true Turkish fashion, we even bargained the price down on the beers!

Turkey is one of the best places we’ve ever visited. The people are friendlier than anywhere else we’ve ever been. They LOVE to talk to Americans. And there is something surreal about hearing the prayer calls five times a day whether you’re out sailing in southwestern Turkey or walking right next to the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque.

Day 14: A quick visit to Topkaki palace and the famous harem of the sultans. It was probably one of the best palaces I’ve been to in Europe. Unfortunately, we had to book it back to check out of our hotel and catch our plane. The great trip had finally come to an end. But the good thing is that there is always adventure around the corner and I can see Treb and I doing more great things in our pursuit of the world. If you want to know my favorites for your traveling purposes, Turkey and Italy would be one and two respectively, which probably Greece and Croatia coming in third.

My best,

Love,

Anna

August 8, 2004
Good morning!

Let me see where I left off last in our tales. I think I last told you about my wine tasting trip to Alscace (which is a must do for anyone over here! Wundebar!), so I really didn't do much else until I headed back to the states at the end of July. My friends and I went to a couple of weinfests (also a must if you come over during the summer--NOTICE TO ALL TRAVELERS: Haus Courie closes in May 2005 to move!!!! We'd love to have you before then though.) did a lot of shopping and worked a lot unfortunately. Now that we know we are leaving next summer (we just don't know when) I've got the ants in my pants to find out where and go. That's just me though.

At then end of July, I flew back to the states for a week with family and friends (it was oh so wonderful!!!!) I got lots of sugar from my nieces and nephews, got to shop and eat southern food and I just did not want to go. Oh well. After that, I flew out to Albuquerque, NM to present a poster on a project that I've been working on for the last 7 months called Walk to Iraq. Everyone, but my rater, loved the poster but he poopooed it as not scientific enough. I had to just thank him for his feedback and smile when instead I wanted to stick my tongue out at him and tell him he didn't know his knee from his elbow. I maintained my cool though and was only a little disappointed that we didn't win. It's such a good program and has gotten huge publicity over here. The conference was pretty cool on the health and wellness of our armed forces in garrison and in combat, so I learned a lot. On the Sunday that I arrived, it was our 6th Anniversary and I'd been moody all day. Well, when I checked in, the counter girl gave me six roses in a vase. Treb had sent me roses (like he always does) from Iraq to my hotel! What a sweetie! So of course I start bawling and they wonder why, so I tell him he's in Iraq and we were spending our anniversary a part, so they bought me a drink at the bar! :) Good old America! And oh how good it was to have a REAL margarita and REAL Mexican food.... Those flowers pretty much got me through the week b/c I was antsy to get home as it was kind of a race between when Treb would fly home and when I would get there. I actually flew home a day early b/c I had feelings that he was going to come home early!

Well, he did sort of! He arrived at 0230 on Monday morning, about two days earlier than expected and it was so wonderful! He looks great, although 15 pounds lighter, he's in good spirits, but keeps looking around the house for his gun that he had to live with for 6 months and is a little unnerved that he doesn't have to carry it anymore. We hung around the house for two days taking care of small things and just enjoying being together. Sometimes I have to pinch him to make sure he's real! Well, we went out to dinner one of his first nights and he had a small bier and was basically asleep before the meal was finished. Heh. The mighty can't handle their drink anymore!:) He's enjoyed eating all his favorite foods again and my only concern is that I'm going to get fat. we've been running though, so hopefully that will help. Both our jobs called us back to work pretty quickly, but then we took off for a three day weekend last weekend to enjoy Dresden for the day. They had a huge festival going on, so it was quite the party town. I was still suffering from jet lag, so I was tired the whole time.

This weekend we are off to another weinfest for Treb to enjoy, I am the designated driver. I figure he deserves that!:) with a TON of friends, some who have gotten back from Iraq, some who are going and some who are spouses, so we are all in the same boat of knowing what it's like. Next weekend we are off to Dubrovink, Croatia to enjoy one last chance at summer (it's been cold and rainy most of the summer in Germany--I think we hit 80 twice--Stacy you are just going to have to get over the weather thing--you can still travel!) and then our final big trip of the year will be to Turkey for another sailing trip! Treb is working very hard with everyone going prosecuting a ton of folks (I think he has like 12 folks in the next couple of months or something) and stuff keeps coming in! But it's good and he seems to be enjoying the work and it's good that he's busy be/c my job is always keeping me on my toes and out and about.

Thank you all for your prayers, support, packages and love while Treb was gone. We could not have done it without you all and knowing that we have great friends and family makes everything we do worthwhile. Please continue to keep the rest of our troops in your thoughts and prayers. This war is not over yet.

love,
Treb, Anna and Koshka

June 2, 2004
Greetings Friends and Family!

Well, it’s been a usual wild ride over here, and I apologize for not keeping up with the news. I’ll begin with old news and move to new news (that’s why it’s news right?) just to let you know where we’ve been.

As you all know, Treb left for Iraq in February of this year. It’s 117 days, and let me tell you, it gets old very quickly. I have no idea what they were thinking when they thought 1 year was ok, but then I have to remind myself that folks in WWI and WWII were often gone for several years at a time. It’s very hard. At first, it was ok and I was doing great, but then the newness wears off and now, it’s just old. I sort of have had a trip planned every month to keep my mind off of things and give me something to look forward to. In February, I went to Baden Baden to experience the healing waters, and I think you all remember my $84 face lotion fiasco, then in March; I was so busy with school and Civilian Fitness and Walk to Iraq assessments, that I barely had time to breathe. April came and went with a trip to Holland to see the tulips. I think that was the last trip I have yet to tell about. The tulips were unbelievable. I have pictures, but since my friendly, neighborhood webmaster is in Tikrit, I haven’t found the time to get them up for preview. It doesn’t really matter, since the pictures don’t do God’s beauty much just. Suffice it to say that it is well worth any flight over and is a must do for Europe in the spring time. The Keukenhof gardens are open March 25 to May 25 each year for viewing of the tulips. My friend Audrey and I went and we had a grand time. We stayed in the town of Delft, which is just adorable, and had a blast driving around and seeing everything. The funny highlight of the trip was the night we got there, we parked in visitor parking and the next morning, the car was gone and a marketplace had been set up! Audrey turned right and left and then right again, and there was her car parked on the side of the road! They had somehow moved the car in the middle of the night and it truly looked like someone had gotten in the car and just moved it across the street. It was such a weird experience. Thank Goodness they didn’t tow it!

Several weeks later, I went a little crazy and bought a Volvo station wagon and I am so happy that I did! The car is a dream, although it was a faster, quicker step towards parenthood, than I guess we are really ready for especially since Treb isn’t here! However, it will give us something to work on when he gets back as we will need to fill it with something other than goodies from our travels! The car drives like a sports car though and I’ve passed a couple of Z4’s and Porches on the autobahn! The funny thing is that Treb’s car is being driven by one of our reservist’s right now for his family and it’s got a car seat in the back now too….poor Treb, first I wreck his car, then I rent it out and then someone puts a baby seat in it! He’s made me promise to keep the car until he gets back though so that he can drive it one last time!

I consider the Volvo my graduation present as I finally finished my MS with UWYO this May and had my official graduation on 15 May. I’m still waiting for the piece of paper to arrive in the mail, but the thesis is done, off to printing, it’s been defended and supposedly we all walked the graduation march on the Saturday. Yeah! It’s done!:)

This past weekend, my friend Katie and I hopped on a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark for the Memorial Day weekend. It was honestly a bit of a let down, but we still had a good time. Katie’s fiancé is in Iraq right now, and we were both a bit mope-y to be traveling without our favorite traveling partners. Originally, we were supposed to have gotten on a cruise ship to Oslo as a part of the trip, but the company lost our reservation request and they didn’t have any more room on the ship. We were pretty peeved. However, we made the most of our trip and had we known it prior to doing so, we would have spent less time in Copenhagen and gotten hotels along the train route that we took into Sweden. We arrived in Copenhagen around 1115 on Friday, got to our hotel and then hopped on the subway to the US Embassy. Katie has an old Democrat friend that works as the deputy PAO and we got the grand tour of the embassy. It was very cool. We had a wonderful lunch, got to see the ambassador’s office and then we were off to wander the shopping district of Copenhagen. Our biggest problem with Copenhagen is that it was a typical big, European city. There wasn’t anything that was traditionally Danish (well, except the Danishes maybe, and they were really good). We looked and looked for gifts to buy that were from Denmark, but really couldn’t. I got a magnet and postcards, and Katie got stuffed teddy bears at this place that let you stuff them yourself. It was really cute. That night, we ate at the Hard Rock Café, because we were both over come with a craving for American junk food. It was oooooh so good, and such a good thing we were walking so much!

The next day, we decided to hop on the train and go visit Sweden (since we would not be able to go to Oslo) and had a grand time hitting two countries at once! We were having a lovely time visiting the different towns…we walked and walked and walked…tried to find the coast and sort of did, but there isn’t a real beach there. All the boats made me miss Treb terribly though. It was happy/sad. We got back on the train and were heading towards Helisingborg to go see a famous castle. There is a castle in Helsingborg, SW and then one in Helsingor, DA that faced each other and used to be on the look out across the bay to watch for the others attack, or attempt to take their land. Once we got to Helsingborg, the guidebook said to pick up Bus 219 to Sophien Castle, so we did, and the bus didn’t stop and it didn’t stop and it didn’t stop. Katie finally asked the driver where the castle was and he said he wouldn’t go back to that stop for another 2 hours. So we got off at the next bus stop and waited 30 minutes for the next bus to come and we passed the castle on the way back, but by that time it was too late to visit. It was such an American moment. He said that he posted the name of the castle stop, but they hadn’t and it wasn’t the one the book said to stop at! How frustrating! We got some good laughs out of it, and for once, I took the situation as simply the usual traveling adventure that happens to me when I am out and about. From there, we hopped on a ferry to take us back to Denmark and then to the train to return to Copenhagen. We both agree, that if we had known this prior to the trip, we would have planned to stay in either Helsingborg, or Helsingor for a night or two, instead of all our time in Copenhagen. The countryside is truly beautiful to see. It’s very flat, full of farmlands and sporadic towns. I can only imagine what it is like covered in ice and snow 9 months out of 12! We got back in time to sit and enjoy a beer, and then on the spur of the moment, decided to check out the movie theatre. We watched the “Prince and Me” with Danish subtitles, English voice and were surprised to find out that part of it was set in Copenhagen! It was insane and pretty funny to boot!

On Sunday, everything closed down except the tours, so we hopped on a tour bus to see the whole of Copenhagen. It was a very bad tour. So, what do you know, we got off the bus at the Hans Christian Anderson sculpture of the Little Mermaid and picked up a boat tour of the harbor and canals. This was fabulous. We sat in the boat for over and hour just enjoying the sunshine, views and life in general. From there, we sat and ate a leisurely lunch on the canal. After lunch, Katie and I went on a walk trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. We’d seen most of the sites, nothing was too HUGE of a “must-see” that would take up a lot of time, and quite honestly, it was a VERY expensive city to visit, so Katie and I looked at each other and decided to get an early flight back. Even with having to pay $50 to change our tickets, it was cheaper than an extra hotel room, meals and entertainment. All in all, we had a good time, but would recommend to folks to enjoy the country side and not spend more than a day/day and a half in Copenhagen. That’s more than enough. The Danes are friendly folk though and other than being bums about the whole trip, we still had a good time. My friend is easy to travel with, so that always makes it nice as well.

I now have our JAG intern living with me for the summer. Hopefully, she will keep my mind off the house being empty until Treb gets back. This weekend, I am off to Heidelburg with a friend, and then in a couple of weeks, we will go to Alsace, France for a trip. No big plans for July, although it will be weinfestival season, so that should be pretty fun too. August will mean a trip home for me to present a project at a conference and then a visit with family and friends in Columbia for a week. Hopefully upon my return, Treb will be flying in a few days after that. I am ready for him to be home.

The other big/sad news, is that we thought my dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of weeks ago. Now, they are not really sure what he has going on, so we are on the wait and see mode for some more diagnostic tests to be completed to find out exactly what it all is. I’m a little peeved that we were given the cancer scare, but I am also honored and humbled by all the support, love and prayers that have poured out from family and friends! I like to think that you all prayed the cancer a way! We will see what the doctor has to say over the next month.

Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers through all this, especially with Treb gone. It is hard, but it is ever so much easier with the great family and friends that I have. God bless, love,
Anna and Koshka

February 20, 2004
Greetings Friends! Just an update on where we are in life. It will be two weeks tomorrow that Treb left....I can't say that I am getting used to having him gone. I have good days and bad days, just like all the wives, but I do stay busy. There is a new Walk to Iraq and back program that I am more involved in than I thought I would be, and some times I just want to yell, I'm a wife too!:) But over all, I continue to love my job, enjoy encouraging people to take care of themselves, but sometimes I am not so good at taking care of myself. I tried to rectify that with my first trip away.....I spent my Valentine's day a part from Treb at Baden Baden Germany enjoying the therapeutic waters, a massage, good, distracting company and a nice facial...unfortunately, I think they drugged me during the facial, b/c some how I got talked into buying $84.00 face lotion, that I have no recolection of realizing I was buying....I thought it was like $34.00, but I had paid for it and gotten back to the room before I realized that I had spent a whopping $84.00 on face lotion....my face better look like a million buckis! I mean, I can drop $84.00 on just about anything, but face lotion? I was drugged, that's my story and I am sticking with it.

It was a wonderful time and it kept my mind of Treb spending his Valentine's day in the sand. I am sure he was imagining it was beach sand, but from what I hear, it's like talc and gets into EVERYTHING. Ew. Sand food, sand site, sand toilet paper, sand drinks and sand beds. Not so fun. He's off to the range for the next couple of days, so I won't hear from him...it's been very sporadic when I get news.

I really don't have anything big planned soon...mostly I have too much school work to do...maybe a shopping trip to Poland and or Belgium and maybe a trip to Norway...we will see how things go. I am just counting down the days and it is so hard to realize that we have so long to go. I just can't imagine anything and can't really see into the future too far.

Treb has written a lovely journal so far.....It is below. Enjoy, take care and many thanks for all your sweet notes,
love,
Anna

To My Mother in Law, with Love
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Dear Family and Friends,

Well since my Mother-in-Law left after Christmas, I got a new refriegerator, new washer, and new vacuum cleaner – not all of which were her fault. However, if I get all of those things after she visits, she’s free to visist for mosre often. We had a splendid Christmas and New Year’s and took Sandra on a whirlwind tour of Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Czech, and of course Germany. The new vacuum cleaner was a result of her sticking an American vacuum into a German plug and testing out the voltage difference; the new refrigerator was a result of us buying too much food; and the new washing machine was a result of old, shoddy government equipment.

Sandra came over in early December for a month-long stay. We sometimes forget to look at life over here with new eyes and forget the little adjustments we’ve taken for granted. For instance, Sandra discovered the hard way that the restrooms marked Herren and Damen aren’t German for "Hern’s and Da’Men’s" (think about it with a Southern drawl). Luckily, no men were at the urinal when she walked into the Herren restroom.

The houses, the roads, and the automobiles amazed Sandra. She would give us a hard time for driving "fast" on the autobahn (only 110 mph) by saying that she came to Germany to sightseeand see the countryside, but that she couldn’t see anything because we were zooming past it too fast. One day after a trip to one of our favorite brauereis/restaurants about an hour away (the best German food, copious amounts, for about $10/plate), we let Sandra drive home. She quickly understood how easy it was to drive a 750iL fast down the autobahn when she hit 100 mph with no problem. Of course, I was in the back seat complaining that we were going too fast to see the countryside… J

But we had a WONDERFUL visit with Sandra. The first day she got here we went to Treb’s office Christmas party, and Sandra ignored her jet lag the next morning by going to downtown Würzburg for her first taste of Germany and a German Christmas Market. She especially loved the Birkenstock store and treated herself, Caroline, and myself to new Birks. That was just the first of her many, many, many, many purchases—in the next few weeks she made trips to the Rothenburg WeihnachtsMarkt (twice!) and a big crystal/china extravaganza to snowy Karlovy Vary, Czech. The look on Sandra’s face as she tried the powerful healing mineral waters that the town is known for was a classic look of disgust as she spit the contents on the street.

Treb also made his Mom go to a commemoration march along the perimeter that the 101st held around Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. Although Sandra didn’t walk the 12 miles with us, she enjoyed a visit to Patton’s Grave in Luxembourg City and about seven trips through Luxembourg City as we wandered the tiny country trying to find the way to our hotel. Luxembourg roads are not nearly as well-organized or marked as the ever-efficient Germans. The weekend ended with a drive down the Rhine to see why I don’t look twice at castles anymore. There are too many to count.

We took Sandra to Salzburg, Austria, for New Year’s Ever. Although she was a little distraught as the crowd shot fireworks off in the middle of all of the revelers, she enjoyed her earlier tour that day to the sights of the Sound of Music tour. We were treated to another nice snowfall in Salzburg, although the low clouds obscured her views of the Bavarian Alps as we detoured home through Berchtesgaden. Anna was trying to describe the magnificence of the Bavarian Alps, to which Sandra replied, "Anna, I’ve seen Mount Fuji." I guess other people in the world have seen big mountains too.

We took Sandra to the Dutchman’s (http://www.goldener-stern.iphofen.de/ )restaurant several times on our trip, and she’s come to realize why we love him so much. Great time and great food abounded. We also enjoyed a nice visit from my cousins Liz and Roy who brought me an African fertility doll. I think someone is trying to tell me something.

We sent Sandra on her merry way (in another nice snowstorm) and Treb and I headed back to the world of work, school, thesis, deployments, and training. We took a bit of time off to spend together to get Treb ready to go. Some of the highlights of that included a trip back (see http://www.courie.com/#Friday_January_24_2003_4:44_PM ) to Mieders, Austria, for rodeling. This trip started off with a bang as we hurtled down the rodelbahn – it was our first run and it was much faster and icier than last year. Treb is typing this letter for me right now as a result of me trying to miss my husband (who can’t control his rodel), hurtling off the mountain, and then hitting a tree 30 feet below. I had multiple head lacerations, bruises, pulled muscles, and a broken wrist. Nevertheless, a tight-binding ankle splint allowed me to continue my winter wonderland adventures until I had the diagnosis of a broken wrist confirmed three days later. I’ve come to the sad realization that at 28, I am not getting any younger, but that I will continue to pray that God gives me a care-free attitude for adventure well into my 90’s (a toast to my Aunt Dodie). The JAG office has decided that they want to take me instead of Treb to Iraq since I am so tough!!!!

School has started back and I ask for all your prayers to finish this dang thesis and graduate inMay. While I sound like I’ve talked about this forever, it has only been two years and I will be graduating right on time with God’s help.

This past weekend, I took Treb for a surprise trip to Europe’s largest boat/sea extravaganza. He was so pleasantly surprised and we enjoyed dreaming about the boats we will own one day and the sailing trips that we hope to go on. I’ve decided that if we are ever able to buy a really expensive boat, it will be because I did sell a book and thus the boat will be called "The Book." There was one section of the show where the plebeians of the world got to shuffle along as the rich and famous brokered for multimillion-dollar boats. The sort that D and Dodi al Fayd probably hung out on in the South of France. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The rich will stay rich and the lesser folks will look on wondering what it’s like. However, it’s kind of a senseless existence. I told Treb if that ever happened to us that I hope we stay normal. Plus, what’s the fun in sailing if there has to be a crew to do it.

Well, that has been our life the last couple of months. Treb leaves in the next two-four weeks for his second deployment and I keep myself in a great state of denial. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I count the days to when we come home, but I also remember what a great experience we have had. It’s been worth every moment. We love you and miss you all.

Check out all the new pictures of Sandra’s Excellent Adventure at www.courie.com

Anna, Treb and Koshka