2 x Sydney and back
... discover our footprints
It sounds pretty crazy: Monica, the beautiful and extremely likeable girl from Bogotá / Colombia takes a six-month break in Sydney / Australia to study English and to take a break from work.
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In 1999, Jörn from Germany put a 4-week English language course on his to-do list.The choice was between in Sydney and Malta.
On the very first Sunday, October 3rd, 1999, a bus trip from Sydney to Canberra was offered. There sat a certain Monica from the suddenly very interesting country of Colombia and the even more interesting city of Bogotá.
That's how we got to know each other.
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A short time after Jörn's journey home to Germany, my Chiqui, I followed him a few weeks later to his former place of residence Großräschen, snowy at minus 20 degrees, but I myself just came from Wagga Wagga at plus 40 degrees.
After a month we went back to Wagga Wagga to learn English and
then back to Bogota.
Bondi Beach 1999
Opera Sydney 1999
From Bogotá to Germany
As it should be, Chiqui visited me at my parents house in early 2000, I introduced him to my parents and he picked me up from Bogotá to fly to Germany together.
When I get to Großräschen, I start learning German.
Unicentro 2000
Manizales 2000
We married on April 7, 2001
Marriage with Jörn's parents
... and celebrate with many relatives and friends
July 7, 2001in Grünewalde, my parents-in-law's weekend property.
... later came our pets:
Chanda, Mocosa, Mocoso and 2005 Pellitos, not forgetting the many fishes in our large 500 l aquarium!
Moccoso
moccosa
Chanda
... life in Großräschen
I teach English at adult education centers throughout our region: in Senftenberg, Finsterwalde, Lübbenau, Cottbus and many other places. I drive my own BMW!
I worked with Ms. Groß at the adult education center. She used to be Jörn's English teacher, my Fachbereichsleiterin at the adult education centre, a very nice and open-minded woman.
Mrs. Big
... and we love to travel
2001 Italy Venice, Vatican+Rome, Pisa ...
2001 Usedom Island + Dresden by bike
Baltic Sea
2002 Egypt, Austria, Dresden, Nuremberg
Hurghada Diving
2003 a sad and happy year
At the beginning of the year my father-in-law Siegfried died of cancer.
In April 2003 we went to Colombia:
Bogota + Cartagena
Cartagena
... in October we went to Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and in December to snowy Thuringia, in the middle of Germany.
Oberhof Thuringia
2004 - finally the move to Berlin,
Lupus and the Amazon
In mid-2003 we made the decision with Chiqui to move to Berlin. Dresden was still an option. But Berlin seemed more open to us and certainly the better choice. We landed near the center west, the Kuh`damm, in the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The decision to do this came after 14 trips to various points in Berlin to find "our" neighborhood.
Unfortunately, in 2004 I also fell ill with lupus, an autoimmune disease. I saw different doctors and the disease was kept stable with medication.
Bogota
Guatavita
Amazon
Amazon
2005 Bogotá, Claudia, Hamburg, Andalusia
Claudia in Berlin
Uncles and aunts in Berlin
In 2005 I fly to Bogotá for the wedding of my sister Veronica and her husband Danilo.
back in Berlin
... and in December 2005 we will go to Andalusia and Gebraltar
Andalusia
Ship of Columbus
Seville
Ship of Columbus
2006 Kitchen, Berlin, Baltic Sea and the little animals
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Berlin
Senftenberg
Usedom
2007 Grünewalde, Dresden, Bogotá, Austria ...
Grunewalde
Berlin
Dresden
Bogota
mauricio
daddy
Claudia
2008 Munich, Weimar, Prague, Ivan in Berlin, Poland, Oskar Schindler, USA, ... the incredible story, Berlin
I meet one of my closest friends in Munich: Javier Ballesteros
javier
Weimar
Prague
Theresienstadt
shipkau
Preparations for the trip to Poland
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who saved the lives of over 1000 people, was the destination of some of our trips: Kraków - the old enamel factory, Svitavy (heute Svitavy) Birthplace of Schindler or Brünnlitz, the concentration camp outpost where Schindler saved people.
And then came our first cruise through the Caribbean on the "Freedom of the Seas",
starting from Miami, one of our happiest moments
shipkau
After our journey came the great miracle...
After our trip to the Caribbean and the USA, we went back to Berlin with Chiqui's Mutti to "our" pizzeria. A couple was sitting there, Moni recognized the gentleman from yoga. A little later the woman looked at me and asked:Monica?Of course, Chiqui didn't understand anything.
It wasMaria Helena, my classmate from elementary school in Bogotá, according to the motto:
Let's meet 20 years later and 10,000 km further in a Berlin pizzeria.
How unlikely is that actually?
Since then we have had our "Women's Day", a stroll through the city every Wednesday.
... and the year came to an end
2009 Easter bike tour, Bonn,
Fehmarn on the Baltic Sea
shipkau
Island of Fehmarn in northern Germany directly on the Baltic Sea with an interesting
Maritime Museum, a submarine museum and lots of maritime air
2010 Colombia + Caribbean, Berlin tours, Denmark, Hamburg, Kassel and the inner-German border
We were in Hamburg over the turn of the year, and in April we went to Kassel. On the return trip we looked at a piece of German-German history: the old border between the two countries. In May to Denmark, there were many tours to Berlin again, Berlin Friedrichshain and Müggelsee, Chiqui got his boat license, so we were later able to drive the boat through Berlin ourselves, I of course as first officer. And in November / December we went back to Colombia and the Caribbean to San Andres and one of the most beautiful islands of all: Providencia - the dream
The dreamiest island ever:Providencia. Everyone should have seen it.
With real pirates, even if it's been a while. Fantastic beaches and nature.
The inner German border, never recognized for some, for others the anti-fascist protective wall.
One thing is certain: it was built by inhuman criminals!
Trip on the Müggelsee in Berlin with a pleasure boat
One of our many Berlin explorations: Park Friedrichshain
Kassel, a Hessian city
Usedom, a Baltic Sea island
In 2010 we were also inDenmark.
2011
Danger ! A construction site begins here, work will continue soon!
Jorn Grosse
Brandenburg Street 75
D-10713 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 235938685
+49 174 3174393