Bis Tomorrow!

One of my darling little students has almost got the hang of saying see you tomorrow. In German you say Bis Morgen. First she said Bis Morning and now we are on to Bis Tomorrow or Bis Later. So darn cute. Today I got to take half the reception class on an adventure (read walk) in the forest behind the school. We collected stones, tree bark, leaves, and acorns. Oh the English words they can say now.... I'm almost done organizing the library with my friend - we are supposed to have it up and pretty by the opening day, when everyone and anyone can come walk through the school, in a couple weeks. Rooted out some garbage books that I don't even feel old enough to read. So we are left with two bookshelves full of books. It's a start.

Just bought a ticket to Amsterdam for the weekend after Belgium. Woot! Johanna is coming too! Yipeeeee!!!!

Saw a dead hedgehog yesterday. Or maybe it was a porcupine. What is the difference? It had spikes.

I talk a lot. Did you know this? Not as much as Kayleen and Kristin though. My "new best friend" Sarah reminds me of them because often times she just fades out and stops listening to me. And she reminds me that I mumble and she can't understand me. Which makes me think of my Mom. Oh dear.  She is also going to be my stylist. Or I will just buy lots of scarves, leggings and dresses and more toms. Red ones. :)

I was thinking how I wish I had chopped my hair off before I came here. My friend Jess has short hair and it just looks so easy. I was also thinking of straightning my hair tomorrow. Wouldn't that just shock everyone since they are already used to the "I don't brush my hair or wear a lot of make up or normal shoes" and not the "I can dress up and try and look cute also" girl that I am. We'll see.

Thank you to everyone who sent me a present for my birthday or snail mail - I love you all!!!!

Birthday Celebrations!

I had a fabulous birthday weekend! On Friday my friend Will made a huge bowl of guacamole so I was kind of in heaven. I do miss the "mexican" food aka Casa del Matador. If anyone goes there, they are always so kind as to inform me. Meanies. :) Sarah and Jess gave me a giant bday card and chocolate and Seb also got me some schoko and a gift card to my favorite Alnatura where I shop for all my delicious organic goods i.e. chocolate and almond butter. Love that store.
Woke up Saturday morning and had a huge breakfast with the fam - Andrea cooked some delicious goods and Philipp made a giant fruit salad. And I got chocolate. :) The kids and Brit had made me super cute bday cards and I got lots of great presents. After the filling breakfast I biked to the Hauptbahnhof to meet up with friends for a day trip to Heidelberg. Susanne showed up with a bag full of chocolate for me and Marcin brought me yummy Alnatura chocolate as well. And I brought some chocolate, so I was set for the day. We found the others and got on the train. In Heidelberg we walked around the shops, had some food, drank some wine, ate some Frozen Yogurt (I can't believe we found some and it was SO YUMMY!), and then headed back to the train station to meet Katja and Steffan. We then drove to Steffan's parents house and had a really nice BBQ there. I ate lots of food. So much. They are so darn cute and had bought the chocolate covered rice cakes that I love and put candles in them and sang me happy birthday. So funny. Since I can't have gluten/dairy/corn they knew that I would be just fine with these dandy treats that I eat quite often.... Had some prosecco and more food/chocolate before heading back into the city (after the boys purposely sped off to leave us to fend for ourselves with getting back to the city.. typical). Back in the city we found our way to the old bridge to watch the firework show! My wonderful new friends had invited hundreds of people to come watch fireworks with us that were shot off of the bridge. ;) And the castle was all lit up with red light. It was a celebration for something about it being burnt down?? Or for my birthday. The fireworks were pretty fabulous. Made it back to Frankfurt just after midnight.

Sunday morning was pretty lazy. I finished that dreadfully creepy Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, had a delicious Omelet, practiced Clair de Lune (will take me ten years to learn), and then was picked up by Ning in her darling hoodless Mini to go to a Bath house for the day. We picked up Charlotte - who is going to pop any days this week! - and I drove us to Bad Homberg, which is famous for it's bath houses. Something about the qualities of the Spring water... Ning gifted me a day pass to the spa. She is just so darn sweet. We swam around the warm pools. The bath house has many different pools, all of different temperatures. There are also a dozen or so different saunas, sun lamps, tanning beds, water beds, massage tables, massage chairs, beds to pass out on if you need a rest after the sauna, a restaurant, and, of course, a movie theater! So strange. It was raining outside so it was fun to be in the "warm" water and have the rain falling. After trying a few of the pools and "whirlpools" aka hot tubs, Ning and I went to go check out the saunas, while Charlotte went to absorb some Vitamin D. We tested out the Feng Shui sauna first, which was pretty empty. It was a huge sauna room and had a door that went directly outside for one to cool off. Then things went wrong. You go to a certain sauna room at a certain time for the "infusion" aka when an employee of the bath house puts water on the hot stones and fans the hot air over you. The room that Ning and I chose ended up being much smaller than the Feng Shui one and was completely packed full of bodies. We parked ourselves up on the higher steps and waited for the "Aufguss" to begin. It was SO HOT. I was DRIPPING. They make people put towels underneath their feet as well since it gets so darn hot in there. I was dying. One guy left before the "Aufguss" was finished. Ning should have left as well. By the time we got out of the sauna she immediately laid down on the ground. I quickly went back to where we had left our water and bags and grabbed some water. When I got back to her she was still on the ground, people were watching her, and she was being talked to by two people. I gave her some water and then we went and sat on the side. One of the workers left to get her a cola. She then perceeded to seizure on me - she just tipped over on me on the bench, eyes rolling back in her head, and started shaking. AWESOME. I freak out and start patting her on the cheek and about ten seconds later she stops and tells me she thought she was sleeping and had even had two dreams. Uhhhh not really chickadee! The guy comes back, gives her a cola and I tell him what happened and he said she passed out when I was getting her water too! He got pretty upset and said if she did it again he would have to call the hospital. Oh geez. He lectured her about eating and drinking enough and then we went outside and cooled out in the fresh air. Things got calm after that. Once she had regained her energy we went and found Charlotte, they got some ice cream, and then we went and watched a movie about the start of soccer in Germany and then headed home. It's so strange that there is a movie theater there. Sadly Harry Potter was only playing during the week. Lame. So basically I had a great birthday weekend that was very entertaining and... amusing?

Owie-Reports

One child hit another today. The other pushed another one down. Another one got stung by a bee on his chest. Another fell and scratched up their knee. Another ran into another and got a huge welt on his eyebrow the size of a golf ball. I got home from work at 9:30. Today is a day filled with "owie-reports."

Mainufersfest

Excited for tomorrow! Working on organizing the library and then relaxing with the family in the afternoon. Saturday - birthday breakfast with the fam and then off to Heidelberg for the day. Sunday brunch and who knows what else. Week 4 of school is almost through. I'm tired. :)

Apple wine, beer, pretzels, nutella. And popcorn.

This weekend was a bit crazy. It was the Museumsuferfest aka Museum embankment festival. The Main was covered in booths with goods to buy and a lot of food and drinks to consume. The weather mostly behaved and so I had a lot of fun wandering the river with friends and checking out a couple museums. My friend Susanne and I left school at 2:30 and headed straight to the first museum on the list, which was closed because of reconstruction. It was really hot and humid so we headed into the next museum down the river - the Communication Museum. My favorite part of this museum was seeing the SOS Morse code papers from when the Titanic was going down. That was pretty cool. We also went to the Dom museum, and the Shirn Museum, which was showing stuff about secret societies aka a bunch of weird stuff we didn't understand. After that we met up with some other friends and wandered the market - bought some funny monster key chains and chocolate popcorn - my favorite!!!! Then we headed to where we were meeting the crew to do the bierbike. There was 16 of us and it was a crazy evening biking through the city, singing/yelling out songs that our DJ was playing, drinking the apple wine/beer being served by one of the heads of the school, and dancing on the bike. It was quite fun. And ridiculous. More embarrassing pictures to come soon I am sure. After that adventure we wandered through Altsachsenhausen to a couple bars and then Sarah and I stayed over at Jess's.

I woke up at 6:20AM and decided it looked beautiful outside and I would bike home. Well, this is where things went wrong. Jess lives above a restaurant. In order to get into her place you enter through a door into a tiny room where there is another door to go into the restaurant or one other to go upstairs to where the tenants in the building live. I head down the stairs and out the tenant door. I try to open the door to go outside and it is locked. The restaurant door is locked. The tenant door is locked. I have no key. I start digging in my purse for my cell phone to call Sarah to tell her to come get me. I can't find my phone. I left it upstairs. I am stuck in a 6'x 4' room. Two of the doors are solid metal and the one to outside has a window that has the glass that you can't really see straight through. I knock on all doors to no avail for about 10 minutes. Then I'm over that so I just sit on the floor and decide I'm going to take a nap till someone comes out on their way for a run/walk/to go to church/to save me. Five minutes I'm thinking - no this is stupid. So I get back up and start banging a little harder on each door in turn. Then I search through my bag again - still no phone. I try my own keys in all the different doors and none of them will turn. I try to swipe all of the cards I have in my wallet - hey it works in movies. Didn't happen. Then I sit back down. Eyes closed for about 10 minutes. Nope, I won't have it! I get back up and start calling out (at intervals) in English and German "Help," "I'm locked in a room with three doors," "I'm stuck in the entrance of this stupid building," and "My friend lives here and didn't tell me I needed a key to get out." Not a peep is heard anywhere, except from me. My knuckles start to hurt so I switch to banging on the doors. I sit down and eat some rice cakes and the rest of the delicious green olives. I get up and start banging and hollering again. Eventually I spy a guy outside and start banging real hard and he comes over, tries to open the door and says "It's locked" and then walks away. REALLY?!!?!?!?!?!? Bad karma coming his way. Maybe a half hour later, after I have enjoyed leaning against the window watching buses pass by (remember I can barely see out this window because of the weird glass), another person walk by and I catch their attention. They ask me about five time how in the world I have got myself in the situation I am in and I explain multiple times (yelling, because apparently the door is very thick and hard to hear through) that I stayed the night at a friends and then got stuck in this entryway and left my phone upstairs. And no I do not have their numbers. I ask him to yell up at the windows Jessica and he backs away from the door and very quietly says "Jessica" and then comes back to tell me the windows are all closed. I know the windows are opened - they are just covered by shades so they look closed. Apparently, this is not translated. Then he asks me how I got stuck in their again. I mean really mister, I can't explain it any other way! A couple minutes later he brings over a person who happens to be a lady who has come to clean the Restaurant and low and behold she has a key and I am out of the panic room I have been stuck in for, after we check her watch, two hours. I ring the bell up to Jess's place (why didn't I just tell the people to do that for me before, don't ask), they let me in. I get upstairs and Jess & Sarah ask me where I went. Well, since saying goodbye to you Sarah, I have been stuck downstairs in a cell for two hours.

The rest of my Sunday went much better, with a picnic on the river w/ some new friends and many skype calls. I was ready to pass out at 5:30PM. Hopefully next weekend goes smoother.

There are naked people in the park.

Staff BBQ - Kicking the ball around.

Surprisingly, I haven't been through my favorite Grüneberg Park that often yet. Today, on my bike ride home from the bus stop, I went through Grüneberg after hitting up the Rewe for some groceries. As I am passing through the park I look around and there to my right, not that far away, is a nice man all splayed out hoping to get a suntan. Naked. This should not be shocking to me, as I know the park and that this area often has naked people laying out when the weather is nice, but clearly I have been in the States for a while and am not used to seeing a lot of naked adults lying about. Not 20 minutes after I got home it started storming and thundering like crazy and looked like it was 8PM outside (besides the crazy bright lightning) so I can only imagine what happened to all those lovely naked people. :)

Walk in the forest next to the school!

The school is huge.

I have been having such a great time here. I can't believe it has already been over a month since I got here. And, as I have said, I am so at home. The family is like my family so it is easy for me to feel right at home. Work has been crazy. Three days a week I do not get home till almost 8PM. I can't say enough how much I like the people I work with. They are so fabulous. Every Friday two people bring treats for the rest of the staff. Every week there has been a BBQ/Volleyball game. This weekend we are going on the beer bike around the city. I have a trip planned with one of the other TA's to Belgium in a couple weeks. There is a group of us going to Heidelberg on my birthday to watch fireworks. I adore some of the kids that I get to teach and work with two amazing teachers. I am so fascinated by how well they can teach!

Kayleen is going to have a baby any second and I am so excited. I'm sad to be missing out on the birth of her first baby girl, but I am still so stoked to meet her over skype. Yay for me becoming a crazy auntie!!!!

Not too much to report besides the daily grind. Worked a house warming party last weekend - was fun to cut rocks with the kids. Walked around the town and went to my favorite restaurants/shops. Swimming this weekend if the weather behaves.

Don't forget to write me.

The kids aren't allowed to go on the grass yet. Proves to be a problem when kicking balls around...

I've survived (almost) the whole week!

It has been one crazy week! I will try to wrap it up without writing a book.

Monday I met all the 2nd graders that I will be helping and boy were they great! Seb and I have a class of 22 students. He is a fabulous teacher and is great at getting everyone to behave. Of course there are a few that like to misbehave, but all in all we have a great class. The schedules are a bit crazy and basically I am at the school till 6PM three days a week. School is from 8:45-3:45 and then I help out with afternoon care three days a week. On Monday I will be helping out with the choir for an hour (maybe playing piano?!) and Tuesdays I am going to start a gymnastics club for an hour. Yipee! I wish we had trampolines... Oh well. The club will start next week I believe.

The first day of school for the Reception class (Kindergarten but not) is a HUGE deal in Germany. The kids (ages 4-5) come to school with their parents for an assembly where the heads talk and then they kiddos come to the classroom for only an hour and then go back home. They all bring a special cone shaped container with them filled with goodies to celebrate their first day. Well... Maybe 3 of the 22 little ones speaks any English. The rest ONLY understand German. We are only teaching in English. This creates some problems. We had one girl who cried her eyes out the entire time and another clinging to his mother. Another cried periodically. Eventually I started saying a few things to some of the distraught kids in German and then they realized that I was not some scary monster but someone they could communicate with. A little. Lindsay is fabulous and exaggerates all her movements to try and help the kids understand what she is wanting them to do. We sing songs, we dance, we color, paint, play with cars, play in a sand pit (in the classroom!), and try to keep everyone happy. Day 2 for the kids went great - only one or two cried the whole day! Yipee! Some definitely surprised me with how quickly they warmed up. We have a couple trouble makers but really they are all adorable (I really like the trouble makers for some reason) and just love attention - wealthy parents sometimes means the kids just don't get enough attention since their parents are so career focused.We have some snugglers, some hand holders, and some students who really try and comfort the others who are upset. It's so freaking adorable.

Grade 2 I barely spent time in yesterday and today I spent a little more fun. You really start to appreciate the fact that they understand English and can speak some English as well. Today I got to help in math (love math!!!) and basically just walk around the classroom so far helping students who have questions.

I am the only American. Weird! There are a lot of Canadians and the rest are basically German. They are all fabulous teachers and I am so lucky to be working with them all.

Met up with "The Women" this week for Sushi night at Charlotte's. Marlene and baby were not there but Adriana was in town (she moved to London) and Ning was there also along with a new friend from Mexico. I was starving by the time I got there and was so stuffed when I left. I love sushi. Ning was saying that maybe this weekend we should go to the famous thermal spa nearby. We'll see! I drove her new MINI after dinner. Sooo cute. Got to get me one of those! :)

Trip 1 may be planned - yipee!! Amsterdam! This weekend I'll tour some of the newbies around town to my favorite spots on bike trails and in the city. Maybe some hiking? We shall see...

love and miss

I would like my schedule please.

Last Mexican Supper :(

I know this will be hard for some of you to believe, but I stayed out till 5AM on Saturday night. Who's proud?! Gosh it was torture for a couple of hours but the company was great and then I got my second wind. I do know that I am definitely not a night owl though! My goodness. I was with Brittany (replacement au pair) and friend Jörg and Katherine for a bit. We hung out on the Ziel - got creeped out by a guy literally sniffing at Jörg's leg. I'm enjoying drinking in public again. It's so much nicer to just go to the store, buy a bottle of whatever (or chocolate), and then chill outside and people watch. Made some new friends. . .

Jörg has given me his old bike! So that is just AWESOME. It's a boy bike and I always feel like I am racing around on it super speedy like. It's fun. :)

I work with some fabulous people! The Canadians are a hoot and a holler and the Germans are also grand. The school is HUGE. Sadly, we found out we can't play on the grass until Spring most likely so that it can root itself. This week we have been working on setting up our respective classrooms and the teaching assistants (me) have been getting our schedules all worked out. I can officially tell you when I have to be at school now! Yay! I still don't know what holiday camps I will be working but hopefully that will all be sorted out by Friday. HOPEFULLY. There are some pushy ones who are making this a little more difficult... I made the mistake of playing the piano in the music classroom and then the music teacher decided I was recruited to play the piano for her choir. She through out some big names and talked about the kids singing at the Opera house and how I MUST help! So she is going to give me some piano music. Ummm... I am not my mother. I can not play the piano like that! Oy. We will see what happens with that. She also decided that I needed to be in a choir?? What am I getting myself into!!?? I also am going to be baking maybe every week with the reception class (yay!), doing a gymnastics club (if only we had some trampolines...), and then one more afternoon care time slot. I am NOT working in the mornings as I was scheduled to do as I am a push over and let the Mother's have the mornings. So. I am helping almost 50/50 in a second grade class and a reception class (think Kindergarten). And one random 3rd grade science class. What I will be doing is up to the teachers and I to figure out together. The teachers I work with are the cream of the crop. The 2nd grade teacher (German cutie) is in charge of the whole school basically as well so he has a lot on his shoulders. The reception teacher (darling Canadian) is in charge of all reception classes. I'm with the bigwigs. :)

I saw my friend Charlotte yesterday! We went and picked up her daughter at her care place. I can't believe how big she has gotten! I guess she is 8 months older... I think she totally remembers me because she was giving me all smiles and snuggled right into me. Yay! She is such a precious little girl. I think she is going to be a little confused for awhile since all of "the women" have different native languages i.e. we are talking to her in German, French, English, Polish, Spanish, and Chinese. Ha!

READ THE BOOKS AND GO SEE THE MOVIE DAD.

Going to my first Germany family this weekend to celebrate Johanna and Ben's birthdays! Yipeeee! So excited to see them!!!!!!!!!


School starts next week. I'll bring out the camera soon so for now these few pics from NYC will have to suffice... If you want more e-mail me and I'll send you the link to the rest.