MY BIRTHDAY!! Just in case you were wondering when to send me a present... now's the time, people! ;) I kid, I kid!
One month until my birthday, and officially one month SINCE I landed in Frankfurt! CRAZY!!!
This weekend was fun.... and eventful and exhausting! Friday was a nice peaceful night alone, which was much needed! Saturday I had an adventure removing the old washing machine from my kitchen and discovering new ways to take apart my kitchen cabinets to soak up the water! :) Later in the day, my new washer and dryer were delivered and installed... I don't think I have ever been so excited to do laundry! I give it two weeks, and then I'll hate it like a normal person again. Saturday afternoon I helped serve burgers at the FIS back-to-school bbq. It was sooooo good to have a nice big, juicy cheeseburger! I had to slip outside to the grills, though, so all the people in line wouldn't see me eating the one they had been waiting for. Later Saturday night I went with a group to Lantern Fest in Bad Homburg... it has something to do with St. Martin and kids and lights and something or other... all I know is there was a lot of food, a lot of drinks, and a lot of carnival rides (which I stayed far away from), and a ton of people. Sunday morning was nice and lazy, and Sunday afternoon I went into Frankfurt to Museum Fest. We didn't actually go in to any museums, but we walked around through the crowds of people, up and down the river, looking at booths of items for sale and trying not to buy every piece of delicious looking food. I did cave and get chocolate covered strawberries on a skewer....... or "a little slice of Heaven," as we called them yesterday. :) We found a fun band and a table to sit at under a giant umbrella just thirty seconds before the rain started, so we stayed put for a while and had a great day!
Trip week started at school this week, so all the 8th, 9th, and 10th graders are all left for their class trips today. This week is supposed to be easy for me as a 6th grade homeroom teacher because they have a set schedule all week.... but it's only Monday, and I'm already exhausted!!
Tomorrow I have to get to the mall to look for a raincoat because, rain or shine, we have an orienteering/hiking event planned for Wednesday, and I don't particularly want to be soaked AND freezing... I think I can only handle one or the other at this point! It is August after all!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
I ♥ Fridays!
Today was the end of the first full week of school. Just when things start getting into a routine, though, the rug is about to be pulled out from under us! Next week is the upper school "trip week." The 8th, 9th, and 10th graders all take a week long class trip somewhere around Europe, and the 11th graders go somewhere for the second half of the week. The seniors don't take a trip because they have to focus on thier IB work, and the 6th and 7th graders each take a trip in May. I have a 6th grade homeroom, and our kids will be "off schedule" all week long - meaning they won't actually attend regular classes because a schedule has been set for them - and I'll be running some of those activities. Essentially - it's going to be a crazy week!
Since my "big kids" knew they were leaving and my "little babies" knew they weren't having real classes next week, it was a little hard to keep everyone focused. I am excited about getting another start with them when they get back and whip them into shape!
My new washer and dryer get delivered tomorrow, so I excited to FINALLY be able to do some laundry! I used the machines that were here when I got here to wash some essentials after a week or so of being in Germany, but they are long gone now, and my laundry hamper is so full I literally can't close the lid!! My housekeeper - Porn - came today, and it's just another reason I love Fridays... coming home to a clean house is the most amazing and relaxing feeling ever!
There are two big festivals going on this weekend - one in Bad Homburg and one in Frankfurt. A big group is going to Lanternfest in Bad Homburg tomorrow night, the school Welcome Back BBQ is tomorrow afternoon, and a nice relaxing dinner at home tonight. Finally. I don't think I have cooked one real meal in my own apartment since I moved here. Kraft macaroni and cheese to cure my hangover doesn't count. Which reminds me - German hangover kicks American hangover ass! I don't know what I was thinking trying to keep up with an Aussie drinking German beer... I couldn't get out of bed until 4:30 in the afternoon a couple weeks ago! I'm learning though... should be interesting to see how I feel on Sunday after the festival this weekend, though! ;)
Since my "big kids" knew they were leaving and my "little babies" knew they weren't having real classes next week, it was a little hard to keep everyone focused. I am excited about getting another start with them when they get back and whip them into shape!
My new washer and dryer get delivered tomorrow, so I excited to FINALLY be able to do some laundry! I used the machines that were here when I got here to wash some essentials after a week or so of being in Germany, but they are long gone now, and my laundry hamper is so full I literally can't close the lid!! My housekeeper - Porn - came today, and it's just another reason I love Fridays... coming home to a clean house is the most amazing and relaxing feeling ever!
There are two big festivals going on this weekend - one in Bad Homburg and one in Frankfurt. A big group is going to Lanternfest in Bad Homburg tomorrow night, the school Welcome Back BBQ is tomorrow afternoon, and a nice relaxing dinner at home tonight. Finally. I don't think I have cooked one real meal in my own apartment since I moved here. Kraft macaroni and cheese to cure my hangover doesn't count. Which reminds me - German hangover kicks American hangover ass! I don't know what I was thinking trying to keep up with an Aussie drinking German beer... I couldn't get out of bed until 4:30 in the afternoon a couple weeks ago! I'm learning though... should be interesting to see how I feel on Sunday after the festival this weekend, though! ;)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
1 month in...
I have been in Germany now for nearly a month, and it already seems like a lifetime ago! I finally have internet working at my place, and now that school has started I have started to figure out how I'll need to manage my time.... so hopefully I'll be able to update often!
I have so much to tell in just a month....... and I have found it nearly impossible to put pictures into this stupid blog, so you'll just have to look at FB for those!
The day I arrived, I was picked up at the airport with my 4 giant suitcases and 2 carry-ons and brought to my apartment. I got my keys, learned how to lock the doors, open the windows, flush the toilet, lower and raise the blinds.... it was a lot to take in! Soon a couple from school came to take me into town and go shopping for essentials. I have emailed a lot with the husband, Stephen, because he is now the math department head at school, and it was great to finally put a face to the names! Rebekah, his wife, and Stephen taught me how to buy a ticket for the train, how to get a buggy at the supermarket, how to find the essentials at the store, and where to find the most delicious ice cream! After we unloaded everything, we went to the town square for the Oberursel wine festival that happened to be going on the weekend I arrived. Several more teachers from FIS came, and I had a great time hanging out with them all evening! Since I find it physically impossible to sleep on airplanes, though, I didn't make it much past eleven that night, and I slept like a rock when I got home!
Over the next few days I was helped by the teachers so much! Since no other new teachers were arriving until almost a week later, I had a lot of opportunity to learn how to live here before the craziness started at school. I spent a LOT of money at Ikea.... bought a new dresser (just like the one I have at home in Texas!), two end tables, a new bed and mattress (which I LOVE), and a desk for the living room... along with a few odds and ends for the apartment.
As strange as it sounds, Julie (one of the math teachers at school who I have also emailed with quite a bit) and I were both looking for shower curtains and couldn't seem to find any we liked at any store we went to! She ended up taking me to Frankfurt where we went to the big department store - where we were both successful in finding shower curtains - and also spent a little bit of time walking around Frankfurt.
Once the rest of the teachers arrived, life started getting crazy. We had two trips organized the weekend before work started. The first was a tour of Oberursel and then dinner with applewine - a local drink that is sure to knock you on your ass! The following day, we went to the next town over - Bad Homburg - and took a tour of an old castle. It was GORGEOUS, but, unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside. We did get to climb to the top of the white tower at the castle, and the view from the top was amazing! Then the new teachers have a week of orientation and meetings before the rest of the faculty, and we had our entire days planned out for us. We were given tons of information in very little time, and all our brains were spinning. One day we had a "Welcome to Germany" class, another we spent all morning talking about all the taxes we were going to pay, and one afternoon we went to the mayor's office for a private meeting about Oberursel and drank applewine in his office! At the end of the first week, we took a trip to a nearby Roman fort. I'll be honest and say it reminded me a lot of the Alamo... not so much the way it looked, but the concept and organization of the structure... but it's crazy to think this fort has been here since around 700AD!
School started last week, and I actually started a day early because I have a 6th grade homeroom. This is the first year the kids are out of elementary school and in the upper school, and they get to come in an for a few hours on the afternoon before classes start. They get their schedules and their lockers and get to spend a little time wrapping their heads around the concept of 8 days of schedules, 11 different teachers, and organization and time management. I have never had 6th graders on the first day of school, and while I hate to say I was laughing at them, the anxiety they feel over the stress of their new lives in upper school is absolutely adorable!
I am teaching five sections of classes that rotate through an 8 day cycle with 6 periods per day. The kids have a few electives that rotate in there differently from their core classes, but in an 8 day cycle, I see each class 6 times. I also see them at all different periods throughout the rotation. While we haven't even made it an entire rotation yet, I really enjoy the variety of the day-to-day schedule. I have two 6th grade math classes (plus one 6th grade homeroom), one 7th grade math class, and two 8th grade math classes... which is more preps that I have ever had, but I really enjoy the variety of ages and levels of the students I have. Some of the teachers I work with have classes ranging from 6th grade to upper level IB math classes, and the shift in brain power that that must take is beyond my understanding! I am happy right where I'm at! I share a classroom with another teacher, and I have to float for my homeroom and my 7th grade class, so I feel like I am never sitting - and almost always on the run. It keeps my busy, but I don't really have a "home" at school. I don't mind though, because the teacher computer lab I go to work in is the office of a friend at school and is next to the printer, so it's actually easier to work in there! :) I just bring my hard drive to school and bring it with me to each of my different classes.
The kids are amazing. I have one class that is VERY talkative, and might make me pull my hair out, but I moved some seats around today, and hopefully that will help! I haven't taught any GT or honors classes at home, but it's a big change for me to have kids fill out their info sheets and check "yes" to the question "do you like math?" Then when I read the answers to "why?," I feel like I am reading 50 papers that I wrote because they all love math for the same reasons I do! :) It's great!! :)
This past weekend I went on a hike with the 9-12 asst. principal, Pete, Julie, and a couple other new teachers to the top of the nearby mountain. It was about 9 km uphill, and took somewhere close to 2 hours (I think), but the view from the top was AWESOME! Just as we were getting ready to head back town, a massive storm rolled through, and it started hailing. Hail. In August. I don't know what to do with myself.
This week has been pretty busy, and it's the first full week of school. Monday I was caught in a monsoon on the way home, dried off and waited out the storm at my place with Julie, waited over half an hour at the train stop (the trains apparently were not running because of the storm), got money from the bank, went to dinner but the restaurant was closed, walked somewhere else to eat, SPRINTED from the restaurant to the train station to make the train home - in rain boots, nearly missed the train by mere seconds, rode without a ticket, tried to not throw up my dinner and wine from running so fast, got home and sat for ten more minutes trying to decide if I was going to throw up my dinner and wine, and finally went to bed. Yesterday, I was at work until around 6:30 and then went to eat at the restaurant that was closed Monday. Today was my long day at work, and we had a meeting right after school with our grade level homeroom teachers. Tomorrow is an easy day, though, so I went home right after the meeting. A bit later I went on a 10K hike through the woods with Julie, and we just got home from dinner down the road.
I am loving life. I miss my friends and family, but I am so thankful for skype and facebook. And that I can call the US for a flat 5 euro a month. It helps!
Now that I think I'm all caught up, I'll try to keep up to date!
Much love! I miss yall!
I have so much to tell in just a month....... and I have found it nearly impossible to put pictures into this stupid blog, so you'll just have to look at FB for those!
The day I arrived, I was picked up at the airport with my 4 giant suitcases and 2 carry-ons and brought to my apartment. I got my keys, learned how to lock the doors, open the windows, flush the toilet, lower and raise the blinds.... it was a lot to take in! Soon a couple from school came to take me into town and go shopping for essentials. I have emailed a lot with the husband, Stephen, because he is now the math department head at school, and it was great to finally put a face to the names! Rebekah, his wife, and Stephen taught me how to buy a ticket for the train, how to get a buggy at the supermarket, how to find the essentials at the store, and where to find the most delicious ice cream! After we unloaded everything, we went to the town square for the Oberursel wine festival that happened to be going on the weekend I arrived. Several more teachers from FIS came, and I had a great time hanging out with them all evening! Since I find it physically impossible to sleep on airplanes, though, I didn't make it much past eleven that night, and I slept like a rock when I got home!
Over the next few days I was helped by the teachers so much! Since no other new teachers were arriving until almost a week later, I had a lot of opportunity to learn how to live here before the craziness started at school. I spent a LOT of money at Ikea.... bought a new dresser (just like the one I have at home in Texas!), two end tables, a new bed and mattress (which I LOVE), and a desk for the living room... along with a few odds and ends for the apartment.
As strange as it sounds, Julie (one of the math teachers at school who I have also emailed with quite a bit) and I were both looking for shower curtains and couldn't seem to find any we liked at any store we went to! She ended up taking me to Frankfurt where we went to the big department store - where we were both successful in finding shower curtains - and also spent a little bit of time walking around Frankfurt.
Once the rest of the teachers arrived, life started getting crazy. We had two trips organized the weekend before work started. The first was a tour of Oberursel and then dinner with applewine - a local drink that is sure to knock you on your ass! The following day, we went to the next town over - Bad Homburg - and took a tour of an old castle. It was GORGEOUS, but, unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside. We did get to climb to the top of the white tower at the castle, and the view from the top was amazing! Then the new teachers have a week of orientation and meetings before the rest of the faculty, and we had our entire days planned out for us. We were given tons of information in very little time, and all our brains were spinning. One day we had a "Welcome to Germany" class, another we spent all morning talking about all the taxes we were going to pay, and one afternoon we went to the mayor's office for a private meeting about Oberursel and drank applewine in his office! At the end of the first week, we took a trip to a nearby Roman fort. I'll be honest and say it reminded me a lot of the Alamo... not so much the way it looked, but the concept and organization of the structure... but it's crazy to think this fort has been here since around 700AD!
School started last week, and I actually started a day early because I have a 6th grade homeroom. This is the first year the kids are out of elementary school and in the upper school, and they get to come in an for a few hours on the afternoon before classes start. They get their schedules and their lockers and get to spend a little time wrapping their heads around the concept of 8 days of schedules, 11 different teachers, and organization and time management. I have never had 6th graders on the first day of school, and while I hate to say I was laughing at them, the anxiety they feel over the stress of their new lives in upper school is absolutely adorable!
I am teaching five sections of classes that rotate through an 8 day cycle with 6 periods per day. The kids have a few electives that rotate in there differently from their core classes, but in an 8 day cycle, I see each class 6 times. I also see them at all different periods throughout the rotation. While we haven't even made it an entire rotation yet, I really enjoy the variety of the day-to-day schedule. I have two 6th grade math classes (plus one 6th grade homeroom), one 7th grade math class, and two 8th grade math classes... which is more preps that I have ever had, but I really enjoy the variety of ages and levels of the students I have. Some of the teachers I work with have classes ranging from 6th grade to upper level IB math classes, and the shift in brain power that that must take is beyond my understanding! I am happy right where I'm at! I share a classroom with another teacher, and I have to float for my homeroom and my 7th grade class, so I feel like I am never sitting - and almost always on the run. It keeps my busy, but I don't really have a "home" at school. I don't mind though, because the teacher computer lab I go to work in is the office of a friend at school and is next to the printer, so it's actually easier to work in there! :) I just bring my hard drive to school and bring it with me to each of my different classes.
The kids are amazing. I have one class that is VERY talkative, and might make me pull my hair out, but I moved some seats around today, and hopefully that will help! I haven't taught any GT or honors classes at home, but it's a big change for me to have kids fill out their info sheets and check "yes" to the question "do you like math?" Then when I read the answers to "why?," I feel like I am reading 50 papers that I wrote because they all love math for the same reasons I do! :) It's great!! :)
This past weekend I went on a hike with the 9-12 asst. principal, Pete, Julie, and a couple other new teachers to the top of the nearby mountain. It was about 9 km uphill, and took somewhere close to 2 hours (I think), but the view from the top was AWESOME! Just as we were getting ready to head back town, a massive storm rolled through, and it started hailing. Hail. In August. I don't know what to do with myself.
This week has been pretty busy, and it's the first full week of school. Monday I was caught in a monsoon on the way home, dried off and waited out the storm at my place with Julie, waited over half an hour at the train stop (the trains apparently were not running because of the storm), got money from the bank, went to dinner but the restaurant was closed, walked somewhere else to eat, SPRINTED from the restaurant to the train station to make the train home - in rain boots, nearly missed the train by mere seconds, rode without a ticket, tried to not throw up my dinner and wine from running so fast, got home and sat for ten more minutes trying to decide if I was going to throw up my dinner and wine, and finally went to bed. Yesterday, I was at work until around 6:30 and then went to eat at the restaurant that was closed Monday. Today was my long day at work, and we had a meeting right after school with our grade level homeroom teachers. Tomorrow is an easy day, though, so I went home right after the meeting. A bit later I went on a 10K hike through the woods with Julie, and we just got home from dinner down the road.
I am loving life. I miss my friends and family, but I am so thankful for skype and facebook. And that I can call the US for a flat 5 euro a month. It helps!
Now that I think I'm all caught up, I'll try to keep up to date!
Much love! I miss yall!
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