Great Friday

So my project paperwork is in the mail. My deferment documents are on their way to NYC. ahhhhhh.

bliss.

I was walking home from the post office and I followed a whim and got my hair cut! It's been ages since I last had it cut, and it's always been one of my favorite things. Totally flipped my mood around. Then I decided that the rest of the day was meant for fun, because technically I am on vacation for the week due to a Fulbright conference in Berlin. That means that you can check out all sorts of new photos on Snapfish.com. I'll have a whole bunch more when I get back from Berlin. This conference is for all the American Fulbrighters in Germany, which means that I get to see all the cool people that I met last September at orientation. They plan all sorts of events and parties and lectures and seminars. It should rock. On top of all that, I should get to see the Princeton kids, who are all expat-ing it out in the capital.

Definitely ready for it to be March.

one of those days

So I'm sitting here at my desk, literally buried under paperwork. How can this be? I only teach a few hours a week! yuck. As part of my grant requirements, I have to do this big project and mail all of the materials used plus the final presentation back to the grant people by Saturday. I've had a lot of fun working with my kids on all sorts of topics about American teenage life and what an American high school is like. Now that we are at the end of the project period, they are making class newspapers. Sounds good right? well it would be if they would all send me their articles! To illustrate my point, I showed up at one class on Tuesday morning with only two articles out of 8 (!!!) in hand. Come on. So I have to print up the newspapers tomorrow afternoon, because I can only do that at one school. Still don't have all the articles. What do you do in a situation like this? not so much, I guess.

Me & Katie Standing by the Absinthe Depot

Snap Back to Reality

So today was a day of ups and downs. First I woke up with no voice...not so good when your job description is "have meaningful conversation hours with each class." Three cups of tea later and with a bag of lozenges, I made my way to the high school. Let's just say that the voice was there for "most" of the class. BUT then I booked tickets to go up to England and visit Caroline at Oxford over Easter Break! super excited! It will be my first time getting out of the airport in London. double yay! BUT then I looked online at ticket prices for my trip back to the States to visit in May, and wow...if you haven't looked recently, transatlantic prices are ridiculous right now! I can hardly believe it. So this is me running off to find more work and help fund the "reacclimation to the americans" adventure. doh.

The "south sea" at Tropical Islands

A mini reunion :)

So this week I sent Kate Shuipis off on the rest of her European adventures. We had a great time wandering around upper Franconia and Berlin together. In Berlin we checked out this place called the "Tropical Islands Resort." Basically some German decided to build an indoor tropical bathing resort in an old hangar. Crazy, but so far it's worked. Since it just opened this winter, there were definitely still kinks to be worked out, but the water was awesome. During the rest of our time in Berlin, we had lots of tasty food that you can't get in little ol' Bamberg and saw a whole bunch of museums. One of the museums [Pergamon] is dedicated to art, sculpture and architecture of ancient times. It was ridiculously cool--in part due to the huge scale of the works (some were entire altars or market walls) and in part to the general nature of that type of work. Anyways, it was a grand time.

Faschingdienstag, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday

Welcome to carnival. So today Miss Kate Shuipis and I set out in search of the Natural History Museum and some candy. As we reached the main market area, we ran into crowds of costumed people along Lange Strasse...we seem to have stumbled upon a parade. Somehow I missed that memo, but we stuck around to see just what the Germans have to offer for such marching festivities. Here are some things we observed:

1) there are many more cheerleading teams than could possibly go with all the sports teams.
2) it's acceptable to be pelted in the head with large, unwieldy pieces of candy.
3) it's also acceptale to push in front of others along the sidewalk (o that you have a better view of the parade, if you:
a) are ~55 year old asian woman
b) want to knock others over while darting for the candy so that the little kids can't have it
c) aspire to be generally annoying
4) there was no real flow to the parade. there were big crowded sections and then no one would walk by for about 5 minutes. the key is s-p-a-c-i-n-g!

Anyways, it was an adventure, and as always, my town continues to surprise me with unexpected treats. Time to warm up!

My Group on the Slopes

A View from the Slopes

Ribiselschnaps and the Teachers