Learning to drive....in France?

Greetings to all of our loyal and lovable followers,

 Team Manrin has decided to share with you their most interesting tale of the weekend. It began after Erin and Manny were both presented with employment at an English school in Freiburg. Since the job requires some travel on the part of the teacher, the school coordinator asked if Erin and I would be confident to drive. Of course we both nodded and agreed at our own interviews but did not reflect until afterward that neither of us had driven a manual transmission vehicle. This may not sound difficult to some, but having driven only automatic vehicles as is quite common in Canada, we tend to be.... at a loss when presented with this situation.

As a safety precaution and a means of practice, not at all an excuse to travel, Erin and I decided to rent a car for the weekend and travel to the neighbouring nation of France. We were fortunate to walk into the rental office a half hour after closing and be able to get service. Our vehicle, a lovely pale blue Opal with a complete sunroof, was the automobile of choice. We prepared ourselves strapping in seat belts and slowly walking ourselves through the process of driving stick. And so began the most painful driving Freiburg has seen in decades. Ninety year old persons would have put us to shame.  Manny, having had a quick lesson from a friend before traveling overseas, began the driving experience. His attempts weren't terrible, but he did manage to stall the car at least two dozen times in the first half hour. The many honking horns, questionable looks from pedestrians and missing a streetcar by 3 inches were only a few of the reasons we thought we should simply return the vehicle. Erin was having no more success than Manny either, we just couldn't get it going. As we sat parked in a small alcove next to a construction site, trying desperately to stay positive but finding little success, a light bulb went off in Manny's head "I think we've been trying to start the car in 3rd gear". Needless to say, the driving became significantly smoother thereafter.

That does not mean it was easy by any means. France is notorious for roundabouts and tightly compressed roads that have vehicles brushing past one another like shoppers during Christmas season. That, and the faulty GPS (aka Helga) made the 3 hour journey become a 5 hour journey. Couple that with angry Frenchmen whose living room Manny accidentally shone the headlights into while desperately searching a map and you've got yourself a 6 hour journey in the dark on mountain slopes.

Yes, it was stressful and difficult, but on the bright side our hotel had a fantastic spread of many foods and desserts for dinner and breakfast. Fresh bread, fruit, cheeses and meats of our choosing, a variety of salads, cold cuts and a few things that I'm not sure what they were (I think one was asparagus except it was white and strange tasting). Desserts of ice cream, mousse (chocolate, strawberry, lemon) figs, dates, apricots, banana pie, coconut pie, something that may have been chocolate cake... among other things (can you tell I'm a connoisseur of food?). The return trip was a visual masterpiece. Erin departed from our hotel in Lon-le-Saunier amid 15 degree weather onto a canvas of sunny blue skies,  alpine mountains coated with deciduous trees, valleys absolutely filled with vineyards and the occasional castle still standing proudly upon its high peak in the mountains. Small villages and towns  occupied valleys creating quaint picturesque scenery which made the previous days disaster worth the drive back. We took what pictures we could and hope you enjoy them. They should be available on facebook for all of you interested.

Until the next journey

Manrin

Searching for house and home, with a sprinkling of hiking on the side

Hello everyone!

Well, it's not yet been a week but we already have much to share. As some of you may know, we are currently residing with friends from the Guelph area living in Freiburg. They have been very gracious and accommodating hosts, still we don't think they'd be overly pleased if we ate all their food for the entire year of our stay.

Searching for an apartment is a difficult task, but in Germany it seems the rules are... different from those in Canada. In many situations apartments will not come with a stove, fridge, or in some cases even a kitchen sink! A deposit worth two months rent is generally required and top that off with several owners asking for a commission simply for choosing you to be their tenant. The commission usually ranges from $1500 to $2500! Those are the landlords who we've decided to have nothing to do with. So, browsing the web has led to several potential apartments which have the basic utilities, don't ask for a commission (Provision) and don't charge ridiculous rates. We were very close to having a lovely 2 bedroom apartment...until we discovered the home was actually 40km from the city, out in the middle of the Black forest. We had a laugh and are continuing our search with many possibilities presenting themselves. 

For those of you who would like to visit us, we'll have plenty of hiking ready for when you arrive. Pictures will be posted soon, but we both agree that the mountain forests are absolutely stunning. We spent a good 6 hours of yesterday hiking through the mountains, getting lost in the fog, but inevitably enjoying the serene beauty. The trees stretched a good 25-30m (80-100 feet) into the sky and there was something breathtakingly haunting about walking the misty alpine trails where Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood and many other fairytale stories took place.

That's all for now, but we'll keep you posted in the coming days, weeks and months.

Manrin

Traveling Abroad!

Hello friends and family!

Well it was a lengthy travel but we finally made it to our destination. We said our goodbyes in Toronto, Tottenham and Guelph over the past week and it was difficult not to try and drag each and every one of you with us.

The plane ride from Toronto to Heathrow was manageable, with a strong selection of movies and shows to keep one occupied, as well as the actually edible meals and snacks served aboard. Our connecting flight was a slight panic. The first flight had arrived late at Heathrow and our connecting flight was set to depart 40 minutes after we landed. If any of you have had the fun of wandering the football field length hallways that encompass Heathrow you'll understand why 40 minutes is too little time. That, and the ever present security scans, make for a lengthy indoor journey. Fortunately, Odin was watching over us and managed to delay the second flight, giving us plenty of time to stumble upon our gate somewhat haggard and dishevelled. We landed in Frankfurt around 2pm German time and from there loaded up enough baggage to survive a year abroad. To save on space I (Manny) wore both my spring and winter coat. Needless to say I was not cold at any point, but I may have lost a few pounds of weight from all the sweating I managed to do.

From the airport in Frankfurt we took a train to Freiburg. We feasted upon fruit, water and some pre-made sushi Manny found in a train station supermarket. We arrived in Freiburg a few hours later, barely awake. The taxi driver had no idea where the address was, but eventually asked a friend and discovered it was really not very far.

We buzzed the door and were greeted with the smiling face of Jonas, a friend and former U of G German TA. With a little help we hauled up our luggage and finally sat down in a place that allowed us to stretch our legs without fear of being trampled or rolled on. After a nice dinner and a display of wedding pictures we decided sleep might be a good option. I think the 13 hours of sleep is a testament to how we were feeling last night. Today we are relaxing and beginning our search for a home of our own and checking out the local job market.

We both miss our friends and family terribly. Although the adventure has only just begun it will not be the same without each of you there to make our lives the joy that they are... but hopefully we can convince a few of you to fly in our direction in the coming months.

Lots of love

Manrin

The Bachelorette!!

It's the story you've all been waiting for...what happened @ the bachelorette party!?!?  All I knew is that on Wednesday, August 31st, something was gonna go down so I was prepared for anything, almost.  I got a text from my sister, Shayna, telling me she'd be at my apartment in 20 minutes.  She didn't say anything about what we'd be doing or where so I just put on an outfit and waited.  Turns out, I needn't have put on an outfit at all!

It sounds scandalous, I know!  As soon as Shayna arrived, she opened a Mary Poppins-esque carry all out of which exploded a cornucopia of white clothing items.  She told me I was to change immediately and to don only items that had burst forth from her bag.  I emerged robed in white short shorts, a pretty knit tank top and my only white long sleeve item, a lab coat (I looked like a sexy doctor all night, lol).  You think I was getting away easy, right?  Wrong!  Then I got a "Bride to Be" sash (a la beauty pageant), a bride button and to top it all off, a princess tiara complete with veil.  I looked smashing, truly.

We rushed from our building and hopped in the WHITE car Shayna had rented and illegally parked outside our building for a quick getaway.  Next surprise, Em was waiting in the back seat!!  Since I got shotgun, I also got navigator duties and we headed to the Woolwich Arms & Arrow for dinner.

Yay!  Everybody was there!!  Julia, Erica, Sara, Johanneke, Jane, Fatema and Janiene joined shortly by both Karolina and Anneke!  Let us not forget to mention that the rest of the girls were all sporting black, further accentuating my whiteness!  Smart Shayna told us to order post haste because the waitress said the kitchen was very busy and we were on a schedule.  But we were talking too much and we didn't get to order right away and we ended up having to take almost all of our food with us!!  At least we got the appetizers that were ordered before I got there and Sara got her Bison Burger...lol, what is a Bison Burger?  It's like a hamburger but it's a leaner meat.  What is Leaner?!  A Bison is like a...a cow with a beard!  Thank you Sara, Julia and Erica for that one, hehehehe.

Not to worry, while we tried to wait for our food, we had plenty to do and talk about, naturally, and I had so many gifts to open!!  I wasn't expecting gifts!!  I am just so surprised at the naughty nature of my friends!!!  So many sexy games and sultry outfits and giggly gifts.  Plus glow sticks and a penis straw and a book of erotic poems...ahem!  "Himalayan ballsack, and it's purple!"  That sent us roaring and of course, that is NOT how the poem actually goes!  Emily had little WTF dares for me to complete and first on the list was to get a kiss on the cheek from 2 strange men.  With my girls to back me up, I approached the table next to us...I'm sure they were already impressed by our boisterous festivities so I figured, we couldn't make their meal any MORE awkward, right?!  They obliged me and we got some great pics of the peck.  One terrible pic I will not mention here and it need not be posted on facebook!


So we got our "eat in" orders turned "to go" and hightailed it out of that joint sweetly singing "I feel pretty" at the top of our lungs.  We said goodbye to Karolina, the brave new mommy of 6 week old Alexandia who was alone for the first time that night with daddy, Demetri.  She said farewell as she pulled up beside us in her Porche!!  Sexy Mommy!!


Next it was off to Kitchener.  I was navigator again but this time the destination was only an address...no name of venue so I didn't know what we were up to.  We achieved our destination and met up with the gaggle.  Veronica welcomed us into her POLEDANCING studio!!  We all got changed into our poledancing clothes, mine kindly pilfered from my bedroom, and joined Veronica on the floor...literally. We also learned to lapdance.  We learned the body slide, the body walk, the body wave and so, so much more.  Then we partnered up and demonstrated our newly acquired skills for our partners.  I've never felt so close to these girls!!  Next we learned some pole basics and not so basics.  We were spinning around and working those poles in no time.  We also couldn't resist climbing UP the poles and sliding down like firefighters.  I swear to you, some of my friends must have been pole dancers in their past lives because we were HOT!  Our loud, chatty, happy group went overtime but Veronica (extraordinary dancer btw) was very gracious, I hope she enjoyed herself too.


So we reassembled ourselves and headed out.  But where to on a Wednesday night in Kitchener?!  We thought we'd go back to Guelph to try our luck there but as luck has it, as we were walking towards the cars, we turned a corner and found our spot!  Bobby O'Brien's...I think, with a HUGE outdoor patio complete with beach volleyball setup!  We couldn't resist and we headed over with trepidations because Jo forgot her ID!  Luck was with us again, the bouncer let us in when we told him Jo was a mommy and from Holland ^_^  The vibe was fantastic and after only one whiskey sour I was on the court with some friendly strangers having a bang up time playing beach volleyball.  I was quickly joined by Shayna, Anneke and Sara and we got our game on.  We had so much fun and the game opened the door for me to accomplish another WTF card from Em.  I had to get a guy to buy me a drink and Peter generously did just so.  Then I got some more cheek kisses and yelled as loud as I could (like Xena Warrior Princess) "I'm getting married this Saturday!!" (another WTF dare).  I got lots of cheers.  After finishing my last whiskey sour/rum'n'coke we were thinking about packing it in.  That's when the rain started.  Naturally that sent us screaming down the sidewalks to our cars in the pouring rain, pausing only to run around the street cleaner and hug voraciously in the middle of the street.


The drive home was a spectacular display of lightening and through the miracle of texting, we all were able to sleep soundly knowing everyone got home okay.


I hadn't slept so well in weeks.

Love you my girls xoxoxoxox Erin

Bachelor Party

Hey guys,

I (Manny) just wanted to send a huge thank you to my friends for putting together an incredible bachelor party on Saturday. With less than 2 weeks before the wedding my friends Andrew, John, Matt, Chris, Pat and of course Steve put together a fantastic day and a crazier night.

 I was kidnapped from my apartment Saturday morning and driven to Niagara Falls. While I'm not at liberty to discuss the events of Saturday it was a day filled with fun, even kid-like events with some fantastic meals and an alcohol soaked night. I really appreciate all the effort you gents put into planning and executing everything, even though for some it meant putting other things aside for the day.

Also, a huge thanks to Anneke from Erin for all her help in cleaning and polishing the horse bridle on Saturday.

Peas yo

Our Registry!

Hey all!

We've finally organized our registry and have the list set up online. As many of you may know Erin and I are planning to do some traveling and living abroad shortly after the wedding. This makes conventional registry items a bit impractical since we will not be able to use them and/or be forced to store them.

Still, we think the idea is solid and decided to make a registry with the Mountain Equipment Coop or MEC. Our list consists of items to help us in our travels and we encourage anyone interested to take a look. I'm including step-by-step instructions below for those who may need assistance with the process.

To find the wish list simply type mec.ca into your internet browser. When you reach the homepage look at the top right corner of the page. You'll see a tab marked "My Account" and to the right of it you'll see "Wish List". Click on the button marked "Wish List". When the page loads look to the centre of the page for a gray box marked "Look up". In the small white rectangle type "Povelofskie/Young" (minus the quotation marks but including the / mark). When you've typed this in click the "Find" button.

You should now see the words "Select your friends from the list below". Click on Immanual/Erin. You will now find the list of items we've put up. From here simply an item to the cart and proceed to follow the instructions. As a final note, if anyone does decide to be generous enough to use our registry, please don't forget to type in the "has" box a 1 and then click "Save changes" if you decide to purchase an item from the list. This is located beneath the picture of each item. I suggest this because it helps prevent several people from gifting the same item.

That leads me to one final point. Under each item it says "Wants" and "1". If someone has purchased this item already it will say "Has" and a "1" will be beside it. If it says "Has" and a "0" is beside it then the item as not been gifted. Hopefully there is no confusion but if there is please feel free to message Manny or Erin via facebook, text or good old fashioned telephone :)

Looking forward to the day! Only a month and two days away!

Stag and Doe

Hey friends and family!

Our stag and doe has officially come and gone! A busy day of chopping, cooking, counting, and carrying (that's right I'm using only verbs that begin with C) resulted in a most spectacular evening.

Family members were quite helpful in the process so we would like to thank them all if they ever read this.
Janiene and Fatima worked as our official bouncers for the hall and candy counters for the guessing game. Good job ladies! Also congratulations to Fatima who won the mystery cooler.

Joshua sold many tickets to the games we planned making them quite successful. In fact he actually managed to walk away with the giant jar of candy. Knowing Manny's family and their sweet tooth he was probably quite satisfied.

Julia and Erica were our dedicated and hardworking bartenders. Despite the intense heat of the hall they both managed to pull through while providing our guests with drinks to cool off. Thanks so much girls.

Much thanks also to Shayna for organizing music for the evening. The band was spectacular and the crowd had nothing but positive comments for "organized chaos".

Tickets and posters were the result of the diligent efforts of Steve who continues to show how he is one of "the better men".  :p

Also a hearty thanks to our many friends, neighbours, and family who supported us simply by showing up and making the evening as marvelous an event as it could be.

Manrin

Engagement Story Time!

Hey friends and family,

I thought I would share with all of you the story of my proposal to Erin on June 20^th of 2010. I had planned this moment in my head many months prior trying desperately to manipulate all the details without spilling any of this exciting information, not even to my closest of friends. This meant I had to be creative if I were to execute the perfect proposal. The answer to my dilemma came one morning while at the University of Guelph library busily doing what every other student at the library does, checking my e-mail incessantly.  

I received congratulations from the University of Victoria telling me I had been accepted to a week intensive study program of digital humanities. What that entailed I was clueless to, still, I was ecstatic to realize I had won myself free airfare to and from the west coast of Canada and as a result my plan of proposal was set into motion.

I met Erin at the Vancouver airport where we rented a cheap hatchback and began our journey through the interior of British Columbia. The plan was to make a loop through B.C. reaching as far as Jasper in western Alberta. I’m sure I could rant for hours of tales from our journey and likely put to sleep several friends in the process, so I’ll avoid a tangent and skip ahead to June 20^th.

We had arrived in the small town of Jasper the previous evening. It was a quaint place, nestled in a valley surrounded by seven mountain ranges. Upon our arrival it was quite clear that Jasper was far less traveled than the touristy town of Banff, located several hundred kilometres to the south.  Its natural beauty burst forth from every direction. Our elation was so great, Erin did not falter for a moment when I pointed to one of the nearby snowy peaks and told her that the following day we would be climbing many thousand feet up for a snowball fight. Little did she know that this was the chosen peak for the long-planned proposal.

We awoke early in the morning, eager to begin the day’s events. We packed up our belongings, loaded them into our rental vehicle and drove to the small grocery store where we purchased the necessary provisions for our day’s journey. Breakfast consisted of a feast of yogurt, granola and fruit at the base of Whistler’s Mountain.  The entrance to the trail had a sign posted detailing the risk of glaciers and the minimum 6-8 hours of hiking required to reach the summit. We remained positive having a wonderfully clear sky and warm weather on our side.

The trek began at a strong pace, but we soon realized the challenges we would face when our ascent became more vertical than horizontal. Nonetheless, our positive attitudes did not wane, even when passing three young men whom the mountain had defeated. As we climbed, our view of the world below grew at an incredible rate. The forest thinned and small streams of recently melted snow glided down our now makeshift path. The smiles on our faces would stretch farther than a ruler as we stopped for lunch on a large flat rock on a secluded slope. The journey up continued, becoming more and more treacherous as snow and rocks turned into the new landscape, and the valley below gave way to tunnel vision.

Finally, after 4 hours of hiking (we beat the sign by 2 hours!) we had reached the summit. This was where I was going to make it official. I did my best to conceal any nervousness, hoping Erin would not notice the gurgling sounds that came from my stomach.  Several people had taken the lift to the summit, which made the area more populous than I had hoped. Still, I wouldn’t let this take away from our achievement, our moment. We found a nice secluded spot away from the crowds, on a large rock facing several mountain ranges and the now lego-sized town of Jasper in the valley below. We sat enjoying the most spectacular view, soaking in our sense of accomplishment. At the moment I decided to act. I removed from my knapsack a bottle of wine from our previous anniversary, two glasses and an opener. Erin was absolutely thrilled at this surprise and now realized why our provisions were unusually heavy as we trudged up the mountain.

As I was about to make my move, I heard a young women walking up beside our hideout exclaiming  “What a purty view”. I waited, biting my lip and wanting her to move on, only to be disappointed as her friend approached and admired with her. After waiting several minutes Erin graciously suggested we climb to the peak of the neighbouring mountain about a kilometre away. I humbly accepted and we found ourselves a spot away from all others, on top of the world. At this point I was certain Erin knew of my plans, so I decided to try and confuse her just a little. I told her I had one more surprise for her and that she needed to close her eyes and... open her mouth. She did as requested and at that moment I unearthed the ring box from the cavernous depths of my carhartts. I lowered myself onto the smooth rock and told Erin she could close her mouth and open her eyes.

She looked down upon me and a small diamond ring resting in the shelter of its box in my outstretched hand. Her hands covered her mouth and tears began to stream down her cheeks. I looked up and finally asked in a very shaky voice “So...uhm... will you marry me”? “Of course I will” She said in a most tender voice. At that moment we were on the top of the world, and the only thing that could’ve made the moment more beautiful was a slight snowfall, since Erin had always envisioned a wintery wedding as romantic. It seemed that the day was meant to be ours, for as we stood on that rock, distant from all others but closer to each other than ever, it started to snow.

Later that evening as we celebrated with a lovely dinner and a bottle of champagne, which the owner had given us as a compliment to our wondrous story, I explained why I chose this manner of proposal. In my view, marriage is much like a mountain. It can be hard and very challenging and sometimes you even want to turn away from it, but if you stop and take a moment to simply look how far you’ve come, you’ll realize how beautiful it really is.

Thanks and I hope you all enjoyed our tale!

The Invitations Arrive

The invitations are here!  They arrived last Thursday.  They made it because they were sent via Purolator.  Does anyone see where I'm going with this one?  Yeah, we've got 100 Wedding invitations and Canada Post has locked out its employees.  I purchased the stamps months ago!  Now there's a bill to mandate the employees back to work but until it passes, we've been delivering our invitations ourselves.

But let's not be pessimistic.  The invitations are absolutely gorgeous, and they'll be just as gorgeous if they're delivered a little later than originally anticipated.  They are a collaborative effort of Steve, Manny and my creative talents.  I really, really love them and I've gotta give big props to Steve for making them a reality.  I could see them in my head but getting it across to Steve took a lot of patience on his part, lol.

My mom came over yesterday and we stuffed all the envelopes.  Now all we have to do is address the ones that will end up in the mail eventually and hand deliver to our closer neighbours.  The important thing is to remember that the wedding is on September 3rd so you can mark it on your calendars before the invitations arrive.  Oh!  And inside the invitation is a tiny little "save the date" sticker that you can put on your calendar.  Last night, when we gave Pat his, he stuck the sticker right onto the back of his blackberry.  Very creative ^_^

Also big thanks to Jack and Jason Walmsley who printed our invites!

The Hair

The title is capitalized for a reason...it was an epic journey.  You'll never guess how long it took to arrive at the right style so I'll save you some time and I'll tell you.  It took 3 1/2 hours.  Granted, 1 hour of that was setting the hot rollers...however, that's approximately 1 hour longer than my mom's patience.  She left about 2 1/2 hours into the process.  She said something like "I've had about enough of this".  But Julia was a trooper and she helped me say what I couldn't find the words to say because I was feeling overwhelmed. (I know right, overwhelmed by hair) 

I started with Gillian, the head stylist of the salon.  She got the side part right in the front and the braid but the back was very wedding hairstyle and I didn't like it and I felt soooo bad because it was beautiful!  So, by that point everyone in the salon was watching the process and Maddie asked to see the pictures I had brought.  I showed them to her and we started discussing what I wanted.  She seemed to have a better idea so Gillian suggested that Maddie have a go.

After that it was smooth sailing but it still took about 3 tries to get it just right.  I gotta give those girls props, they didn't stop until they got it right and Maddie made me feel better for being such a princess about my hair.  So now, on the big day, there's no excuse for a me having a bad hair day!

http://www.thebodybar.ca/hair/

Big news

So I've got Big News.  Mom and Marvin sold the farm.  This is big news for several reasons.  I was intending to have photographs taken at the farm before the wedding and I've booked the photographer already for an 8 hour day!  The farm was where I was going to get ready.  Also, our very special Dutch guests were supposed to be staying there before the wedding!!

I should digress...many of you don't know of my Dutch Connection so I should explain.  When I was 16, my best friend Stefanie did a student exchange with a lovely girl named Johanneke Schaap from Holland.  Stef went to Holland and then Jo came to Canada for 3 months and stayed with Stef's family.  Jo and I decided we should become the best of friends and when she left we resolved to become pen pals.  She's been my steady pen pal for going on 12 years now and it's really, really cool.  We've visited over the years and I got to be a guest of honour at Jo's wedding in the fall of 2009.  Now she is Mrs. Johanneke Delsink and she has a beautiful baby boy, Liam (who will be coming to the wedding and I can't wait to meet him).  So, for our wedding we will have Jo, Dennis (her husband) and Liam and Jo's parents, Kitty and Henk. 

So what should we do for our special guests?  They are renting a camper from September 2 onwards until they leave but there are a few days before that when they'll be in Canada without it.  Mom and Marvin have found a new place in Campbellford...technically in Godolphin, lol, and it has plenty of room but it's just so much further away!

Don't worry though, everything'll work out.  The person buying the farm is going to let us take our pictures there anyway.  Check out our photographer, Julia Busato, @ http://www.nirinphotography.com/ or at her flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravengirlstudios/ . And there's a Bed and Breakfast just around the corner from the farm where I can get ready with my girls.

All is not lost, it's just waiting to be found.

Creating our first Blog

I know, too cute for words, right?!  Shayna suggested we create a blog for our wedding because we wanted a site accessible to all internet users ^_^  Here is your source for all things Manrin related...should we explain "Manrin" for all the people?  Weeeeeell,

When we first got engaged, I heard about a wedding contest on the radio for a Carlsberg wedding!  I thought we should go for it so I had Manny make us a profile on the contest page.  He did a wicked job of telling our story and then he had to name us!  He decided on Manrin and it stuck.  To promote our efforts, Steve (best man) made Manrin movie posters that I'll put up here on the blog for all to see!  During our annual camping trip to the Pinery, Manny got a call that we had made top 5!!  So we went for an interview for top 3...alas, we did not make it but boy was it fun.  And we got some free Carlsberg to boot ^_^

So this will be our place to show and tell how everything is going in preparation for the big day.

Cheers!!