field trip

Yesterday was field trip day with two grade 6 classes. Besides the fact that I had to get up at 5:30am for this, it was a really fun day. :) I had forgotten how much fun field trips were. lol. We took this AWESOME brand new double decker bus to Dresden with 48 restless, excited, pre-pubescent children and one of the privileges of being a supervisor/teacher is that you get to pick the best seats in the bus. Heck, you can kick kids out of their spots with ridiculous rules like "teachers are supposed to sit in front". So my mentor teacher, Rita, and I got the seats right at the front on the "top floor" lol. That means we just had a giant windshield in front of us and we could see for miles from up there. Neato. (That is such a grand word.)





Anyways, once we got to Dresden we dropped off the other grade 6 class at the Hygienemuseum (yes, a museum dedicated to passing on the knowledge, discovery, and importance of human hygiene...actually a lot more interesting than it sounds. Especially the room about sexuality. I mean, IT SHOWED EVERYTHING...INCLUDING VIDEOS...AND IT HAD GAMES...NOW IMAGINE TRYING TO KEEP 25 ELEVEN YEARS OLDS FROM UNCONTROLLABLY GIGGLING THEIR BUTTS OFF IN THERE...). Anyways, we dropped the first class off while we did a guided bus tour of Dresden. Then we walked around the inner city a bit, which would have been more fun if it had been a little warmer. But I was just loving getting to know some of the students better. I mean, in class it's not really possible, plus I'm not with them very often. Anyways, as of yesterday those girls offically worship the very ground I walk on. Apparently I'm the coolest, most fashionable thing since sliced bread. And I somehow got roped into giving them all makeovers on the 3 day class-trip in May. Ok, so I offered, but they're all so darn cute and they love me. Yes yes, I'm a total pushover and suffer from a need-everyone-everywhere-to-like-me complex. Tell me something I DON'T know.


Anyways, so after our Dresden tour it was our turn at the Hygienemuseum. It's actually pretty cool, cuz they have an entire program for the school classes that come to visit. The class is divided up into 7 groups and each group is responsible for one of the 7 rooms in the museum. Let me see which rooms I can remember: Food drink and healthy nutrition, sexuality, beauty hair and skin, physical movement, knowledge and thinking, the life cycle, and I can't remember the last one. The overall theme was "Wohl fuehlen in meiner Haut" which basically means "Feeling good (or comfortable) in my own skin". Anyways, each group got a little "toolbelt" with different objects to help them figure stuff out and they all had a booklet with questions to help them make the most of their experience. After about an hour and a half we were all rounded up into a seminar room where our museum group leader summed things up and then asked each group to give a short presentation on their room. It was very organized and interesting. Much better than just taking a giant school class on a random museum walk-through where none of them pay attention anyway. This way they actually intentionally learn and discover things with minimal distraction and goofing off. I had an absolute blast just walking from room to room and helping the groups, trying out the different experiments and machines. Really got to know some of the kids better. Very cool museum, too. We didn't even have nearly enough time to really get a good overview of the whole place. I'm not the kind of person to spend hours in one museum, but this one totally rocked. I mean, I learned how to waltz, how many newtons or whatever my legs are capable of lifting, what it feels like to be old, what it looks like when a baby is born (another disgusting video), and ... well, we'll just leave the sexuality room in my memory. Ew. That should suffice.





And then it was 6pm and we were back in Eilenburg. Long field trip, hey? 7:30am-6pm. Needless to say I went home, ate a large amount of Hawaiian toast, and watched that Gilbert Grape movie on TV. Then. Bed.





Oh, one last thing. we could take pictures of random body parts (well, like, hairs and scars and beauty marks etc.) under this microscope and email them to ourselves. This is my hair.

Cool, hey? Ok, not for you, but for me it was...

Strange. Period.

I rented "Natural Born Killers". Basically a not-as-good version of "True Romance". Mass murderer freak couple without the cute funny factor. Plus Christian Slater is just waaaaay cuter than Woody Harrelson. A day I thought would never come: my first Quentin Tarantino disappointment.



And I rented "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Just finished it. I'm so confused. Was there a point? Or does just watching a movie with that much drug content make you high? Cuz I feel like I'm not sure what just happened in the last 2 hours... I don't understand how watching Johnny Depp stumble around Las Vegas hotels in the most bow-legged gait I have EVER seen (wearing waders), narrating a story-less story while Benicio Del Toro throws up in the bathtub...in the toilet...in the car...and on the floor multiple times is supposed to constitute good cinema. I mean, I heard so much about this movie. It's supposed to be a cult classic. My astute theory: the person who labelled it as such forgot the definition of "classic". And did they lose the script and just decide to let the actors come up with their own random lines?


I'm all for abstract artsy movies. In fact I usually prefer them over other brainless unoriginal crap. But this one doesn't even come close to sanity in my books. It's enough to make you never wanna take drugs, that's for sure. Maybe they should start showing it in schools...

I need a nap.

l

When it rains...

...it pours.

So I got an e-mail today from someone at city hall, who is in charge of putting a list together of the web pages I am to translate into English for Eilenburg. Now this person has asked me if I would be willing to tutor her and a former colleague in English. Just basically practice speaking and conversation. Heck why not? I've got the time and can always use the $$. :P

By the way, anyone have any idea what people charge for stuff like this nowadays??? :)

Just a quickie...

Perverts. Get your minds out of the gutter. My title is meant completely innocently.

Anyways, just wanted to let you all know that I just got off the phone with Lufthansa. Flight home is booked - and it all only took, like, 10 minutes! I was expecting a minimum half-hour run-around with a cheery grand finale of

"I'm sorry, the ticket you purchased in February of 2008 cannot be changed or altered as outlined in article 3, point 10, bullet 18, subtext 1 384 274, margin quadrillion of the fine print that even my newborn nephew's 20/20 vision could not decipher and you must either return on the current scheduled date of February the 5th, 2009 or forfeit your current ticket and purchase another for $1500, plus a $500 surcharge because I'm PMS-ing today and my husband, after 11 years of marriage, still forgets to put the cap on the toothpaste, which just pisses me off, in order for you to return to your beloved home country in June. Happy Birthday, Blessed Easter, Merry Christmas, a swell St. Pattie's Day, and a jolly festive Hanukkah. Please choose Lufthansa again soon. We look forward to maxing out your credit card in the near future."

But no. Within seconds and only $100 later I was transferred to the exact flights I wanted so that I can fly home with Zoe and Katrina...I even got the seat next to them! And drumroll please...June 19th, 8:29 pm I will once again be on Winnipeg...ian...er soil. (Winnipegger soil sounds wrong, as does every other extra-suffixed adjective version of Winnipeg...) :) :) :) Feels weird to think that I'm coming back in the not tooooo distant future...

So hip hip hoorah for Lufthansa! :) :)

Ha. I got a job!

So I had a job interview of sorts this morning. No worries, I'm not staying in Germany. lol. I have been asked to translate the city's website into English for tourism purposes! Heck, extra cash on the side - I would be an idiot to say no. I mean, to get paid to write in my "mother tongue" (I HATE THAT PHRASE) sounds like a dream to me! I love writing ... in case you didn't figure that out yet from my blogs. Plus I often have extra time on my hands after school in the afternoon, so it's totally not a problem. Anyways, I met with the guy in charge of the website this morning and he asked me how much money I would want in exchange for my services. Hm, that came out a little more prostitute-y than I intended. Anyways, I told him I have no idea what the "going rates" would be for something like this so he is going to talk to the city and find out what they would be willing to pay. I figured that was for the best, because I didn't want to ask for too much and have them say "no thanks"... but then again I didn't want to ask for too little and be totally taken advantage of. I mean, this will take me HOURS and HOURS!!! Thankfully I'm here til the end of May. LOL. But it's kind of cool to think that in a few months I will be able to read my own translations on the Eilenburger website! Once it's online I'll put up the web address and then you can all go check if I made any major grammar mistakes. lol.

So ya, that's my exciting news for the day. The funny thing is that my landlord got this job for me! He read somewhere that they were looking for someone to translate the website and he knows the dude in charge of all this website crud and told him that he "has a Canadian living in his house". haha. The funny thing is that during my interview today I found out that the computer dude's daughter is in one of my sixth grade classes! She was in the Nunavut lesson and went home and told her parents all about it, even recited the Inuktitut phrases. Hilarious. But kind of cool, too. I dunno. It's all strange and weird and fun.

I'm so inarticulate today.

Maybe they should reconsider letting me translate that website!!!

The Internet is my Hero

Well, it's Friday afternoon and another school week is over. Crazy. Did you know that I only have 17 more weeks left here? Of course you didn't...but now you do. 17. That just doesn't sound like much.

So not much to report. It was a full, but really good week! I taught two classes (grade 6) about Nunavut. The kids seemed to love it and the teacher (Steffi) was just thrilled! I think she had as much fun learning the few sentences in Inuktitut as the kids did! (P.S. The Internet is my hero...I didn't know much more about Nunavut than these german kids before I decided to teach a lesson on it. lol.) Anyways, it was a lot of fun and I'm going to do it with a gr. 5 class next week.

It was kind of cool cuz after class today I ended up spending about 15 minutes just talking to Steffi and another teacher before leaving for the weekend. Just talking about different challenges that teachers face and some of their stories and experiences were really interesting, especially when they got onto the topic of their first years as teachers...I now know what I can "look forward to...". I think that the best part about this year has been learning all the "behind the scenes stuff" that you will just never really understand until you're IN the situation. I consider myself really lucky to have this opportunity before I begin the education program at university. I think I have much more realistic perspectives now. Plus I'm starting to figure out what works and what doesn't. I still have such a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go, but it no longer seems quite as daunting. In any case I at least won't be so nervous of standing in front of a class. I mean, I've dealt with grades 5 to 12 in the past 6 months, so it's been the hugest, most helpful learning curve of my life! And I've never been shy of speaking in front of a crowd. In fact, I actually really enjoy it. So I can't imagine what it would be like for those who don't...or those who are even afraid of it! Thankfully faking confidence is my area of expertise. Boo ya. Lucked out on that character flaw...

So ya, that's about it. This will be my first weekend in Eilenburg since...end of October or beginning of November. I'm actually staying home. I'm going to veg in my pajamas, watch crappy late-night movies, drink tea, eat very little because I'm avoiding grocery shopping til Monday, and finish up my Canada presentation that I'm going to be giving in about 10 million different English classes, from gr. 10-12. By the way, if you can think of cool Canadian stuff for me to include PLEASE LET ME KNOW! There's so much stuff to choose from that I get lost in all the ideas and information and find myself sitting in front of a blank Powerpoint slide. Lol. I mean, I have a whole bunch done already, but I'm struggling to find more. See, the problem is that NO ONE IN EUROPE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT CANADA. If I were from England, the States, even Australia they'd know where to "place me", but Canada is kind of like a giant question mark on their mind maps. That makes it a pretty huge assignment to "present Canada". So any cool ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Seriously.

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'm too excited to write anything of substance, so I'm gonna leave it at this:

My mom can come to Germany in February!

to help you visualize my feelings right now (please ignore messy bedroom in background...):

Can hardly believe it.

Prayers answered. Thanks to all of those who were thinking of us. It may not have been a life-threatening situation, but it definitely would have been one heck of a disappointment!

More pics I found that just make me happy.

Don't you wish you were Audrey???

Another 8.5-year-moment

So this weekend I took a mini-trip to Jena, where an old friend of mine is studying in one of Germany's most famous university cities. Some of the greatest German minds studied here. Maybe it's just me, but I still find it fascinating and incredible to walk in the same buildings and down the same streets as peope like Friedrich Schiller, one of Germany's most prominent poets, who taught at the university Claudia attends. Oh, by the way, this is Claudia STROBEL. So the third Claudia mentioned in my blogs. Sorry, it's confusing, but it's a popular name out here. lol.

I got to Jena at 11am Saturday morning. We walked to Claudia's university cafeteria for lunch and then just toured around the city. We decided to take a quick look in the university's main building. Mistake. Lol. On Saturdays it's totally dead and deserted in there. So when the ancient security guard spotted us he immediately latched on and started talking to us. And wouldn't quit. Like I'm talking 20 minutes. And he took a real shine to Claudia. He kept holding her hands and putting his hands on her shoulders and then he started hugging her and kissed her cheek at least 2 or 3 times ... and it was just creepy! (So maybe I'm not the only one cursed with the creepy-guy-plague...). I have him on a pic but I had to zoom in from the back of the assembly hall, so you can hardly make out his face. But whatevs, it's all the proof I've got.And then he was like, "I know you. I know you! You have two siblings, right? I can just tell, I can just tell. And I can tell you are an amazing student. You get excellent grades. You should bring your parents sometime. And then I could chat with them and show them around." And he kept going on and on. He was, like, psychic or something! All the things he said to Claudia were correct guesses! Either that or he stalks her and reads her school file. Either way it was the strangest thing ever. Really freaked Claudia out. Was definitely more amusing for me.

Once we finally made it outta there we found ourselves an ice cream parlour where we had coffee and just chatted. I hadn't seen her yet since I got here so it had been 8.5 years since the last time we saw one another. Crazy! Again, I was nervous before I got there cuz you just never know if you'll still have anything in common with this person, but I don't think we stopped talking once all weekend! It was a blast. Even just recalling memories from elementary school and talking about where everyone is now what they're all up to was really interesting...and informative. lol. Gossip. The guilty pleasure.

We went to her place for supper and then took the bus to the movies. I FINALLY GOT TO SEE AUSTRALIA with Hugh Jackman, aka. FINALLY sexiest man of 2009, aka. love of my life, and Nicole Kidman, aka. luckiest woman alive who got to make out with him. I had been waiting for this movie for over 6 months. Whoever said it was the modern version of "Gone with the Wind" was dead-on. Except it was way better because Scarlett O'Hara is a hateful disgusting repulsive excuse for a female human being. Australia was definitely more of a chick drama, but it was really well done. Very epic old school feeling. I still need to see it in English, because I'm sure that would make it even better, but it gets a solid 3.5 stars from me. Might be 4 stars in English. Will have to wait and see. The ending was definitely dragged out longer than necessary and there were too many "heart-wrenching emotional" moments all piled on top of one another, plus I'm pretty sure the director, Baz Luhrmann, just liked watching Hugh and Nicole kiss...seriously, I have never seen so many kissing-close-ups...but other than that I thought it was cool.

On Sunday we decided to make a daytrip up to Weimar, another one of Germany's important cities, most famous for being home to Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Was also a major Nazi headquarters city in the second world war. We did some sight seeing and then took part in a guided walking tour so that we would get to know some of the history behind everything. It was ... long. This shrunken 10,000 year old dude, visible in the bottom left-hand corner of this pic...was our tour guide and he was pretty good. I mean, totally knowledgeable and he was so old that he could tell his own stories about how he was there when this and this building burned down and he was interrogated and kicked out of his home in this and this war, but he talked at fricking slow-mo speed and was incredibly long-winded. And if I call someone long-winded, seeing as how I'm not exactly known for my LACK of words, then I'm obviously not exaggerating. In fact, it could be an understatement.

Either way, it was interesting most of the time. It started raining right at the end, about 45 minutes AFTER the tour was SUPPOSED to be finished, so Claudia and I just turned down this little alley and ran, literally, away before anyone in our group could see us to look for a restaurant. We had been talking about how hungry we were since the tour STARTED ... at 11am. It was now 2pm. I felt like I could sink my teeth into just about ANYTHING by then. Well, we had decided earlier that we would really like to try the Goethe Cafe for lunch and by the time we finally found it again Claudi and I were starting to eye one another like in cartoons where the person you're looking at turns into this hallucinatory chicken drumstick or whatever. As we sank into our chairs and ordered much food our thoughts became a little less morbid and Claudia's toes began to thaw...you know, this -4 degree weather will be the death of us all!!!! LOL. Happiness restored.

several seconds later....

Then we just wandered around the city some more, found the COOLEST cafe/restaurant ever called Anno 1900 - one of those ritzy places where all you can afford is the dessert, but SO worth it. It was like some creation on one of those cooking shows. Freshly baked chocolate cake on a "salad of pineapple and balsamico". Made in heaven. Oh. Lord.

Ya, so that's basically it. We walked back to the train station, rode along til Jena, walked to the main train station in Jena, and I made my way home. :)

Good Weekend. Literature student's dream, that's for sure.

If you're interested in more pics.. : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97619&l=11ccb&id=573967603

and: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97624&l=49edd&id=573967603

Prayer Request

Hia.
Today's blog is not a happy one for me. As many of you probably know my mom is planning on coming to visit me this February. Plane ticket is bought and everything. However I just found out tonight that the renewed permanent resident card that my mom applied for in NOVEMBER already hasn't come yet and after calling to inquire about it she found out that her application hasn't even been processed yet! She is working on speeding up the process as much as humanly possible, but we are starting to get very nervous. She was supposed to get a call back today, but so far ... nothing. She can't leave the country without this card!!!!! I would be super disappointed if my mom can't come in February. Super disappointed. And so would she! Plus it turns out my sister-in-law and her mom are also planning on coming and it would just be the hugest bummer for all of us if this didn't work out.
So if everyone could just keep this in their prayers that would be a HUGE help. Just pray that my mom gets some kind of confirmation that it will be ready in time!!!

Thanks a million!!!

On the funnier side...some guy who found me on the German version of Facebook has been emailing me, called me today on the PHONE to chat, and wants to meet me sometime for coffee. Right, I'm gonna spend 80 euros to take the train across the country for COFFEE. Never mind the fact that I would never agree to meet this complete stranger. No worries, it ain't gonna happen. I just don't get why I only get asked out in weird creepy ways. Never any normal nice guys...

well...hey...it was funny to me

Haha. This is going to be so short I'm not even sure it was worth the time it took to sign into my blogger account but whatevs.

So when I log into my hotmail account it always brings me to this start page with just general info about my account. And one of those little info points is the day that I created my hotmail account. Well, today my hotmail account wished me a happy 2nd anniversary. Like, it actually says "Happy 2nd Anniversary!" with a little rainbow and shooting stars next to the date. That's right, 2 years ago to the day I created jdhiebertAThotmailDOTcom. And we've been livin' the high life ever since. I'm one lucky woman...

Hey, don't judge me. If I can't get a man (not including any and all pervs who invite me to join them for nasty train bathroom quickies...see this post if you're confused by that sentence), at least I can get an e-mail account that stays true to me. Or is junk mail the cyberspace version of cheating? Cuz if it is ... my email account is a real player and is treating me like dirt! Shoot I have one skeezy internet relationship! I mean, I don't even have any other e-mail accounts! I'm fricking faithful!

I have to go yell at my inbox now. Maybe throw some suitcases at it and tell it to get out...

Smell ya later!

P.S. So I guess the post wasn't quite as short as I was expecting it to be. Somehow my original two sentences turned into...18...

I love it when someone brings new perspective to a beaten-to-death topic...

Long title, but I couldn't think of any way to shorten it.

So I was on the Matthew Good website today and I happened to read this really intriguing entry. I find that he often brings a perspective to age-old subjects that I had never really thought about before. And sometimes he just voices ideas or thoughts I've had but could never express coherently. So I just cut out a little excerpt to share with you. I found it extremely interesting...

''I once believed that history was the study of past human affairs and their relation to the present and future. But to be honest, I am beginning to believe that it is just the academic practice of counting the dead.

The more death, the more momentous the historic event.

Which is studied more – the civil rights movement or the Second World War? The suffrage movement or the crusades? Religion’s messages of love and compassion or its intolerance of others?

We are vile little creatures with a predilection for death. Unless, that is, we are the ones being killed. Only then does it becomes devoid of fascination.''

I was particularly caught off guard by the sentence I highlighted in red. This has been one of my pet peeves for years: Every time Christians, or members of most other religious groups, are portrayed on TV or in movies, or are interviewed on the news, they come off looking like complete whackjobs! It's always the mentally insane fanatical crazies that make it into the papers and YouTube videos - never the rational, logical, compassionate, kind, or generous; and it's not for lack of their existence! That bugs me. A lot. And I just thought it was interesting that someone who, as far as I know/have heard, has no personal religious beliefs/affiliations recognized this as well, if only briefly :P. Hats off, Matt G.

If you want to read the rest of his thoughts, click here. The entry is called "Counting the Dead"

It's like a bad Rob Schneider movie...another one...

Disclaimer: This note is a little exaggerated due to my one-of-a-kind rock-your-freaking-socks sense of humour. AHAHAHAHAHA. ok, now that we've all had a good laugh....seriously, tho. If you're a guy don't take this COMPLETELY literally. I only include 99% of you in the following description. Chances are, if you're a friend of mine, you belong to the 1% exception category...Consider yourselves lucky...



So tonight I was propositioned. On the train. Ok, well, maybe propositioned isn't the right word. But let's just say it was made clear that some guys thought it would be pretty cool if I was up for a little ... fun ... with them. I mean, not in a scary way, like I was afraid they would do something to me against my will. Just in gross, pervy, funny-to-them, hoping-to-get-lucky way. So like, I wasn't scared of them or anything, I was just ... well, ew.


Then they decided they would settle for my phone number. But I just pretended I couldn't hear them through my headphones and walked past.


Whenever this happens, though, I honest to goodness want to sit down with them for an earnest little chat. And I would ask: WHAT ON EARTH MAKES YOU THINK THAT ANY SPECIMEN OF THE SOBER / MENTALLY SOUND / HUMAN FEMALE POPULATION WOULD ACTUALLY CONSIDER HAVING CRAMPED CREEPY SEX IN A FILTHY GERM- (AND MOST LIKELY SYPHILLIS) INFESTED TRAIN BATHROOM PAINTED IN THE MOST HIDEOUS SHADE OF TEAL KNOWN TO MANKIND (seriously...all train bathrooms are that colour...and I have no idea who that chick is in the picture...I just found it on the Internet...) ???? OH YA ... AND WITH A COMPLETE AND TOTAL STRANGER? I mean, has this worked for them before? Has this worked for ANYONE before???? Has any girl actually ever said, "Why most kind and chivalrous sir, your charming and generous flattery overwhelms...nay, beguiles me. I would be most delighted to oblige you ...in fact I find your request not only appropriate but feel a great honour has been bestowed upon me and I will do my darndest to make sure your desires become mind-blowing reality poste haste. Let me just get rid of these pesky, restricting non-stretch jeans, with their unforgiving, confining waistband and obnoxiously time-consuming button-and-zipper combo, for your easy-access-convenience." Or did I just not appear terribly sober... or mentally sound... or human... or all three previously mentioned characteristics. At least, their powers of deduction were fine-tuned enough to recognize I'm a female...


I honestly want to know! I mean, is there something about my knee-length down-filled winter jacket that, unbeknownst to me, screams "me=skank! take me! i want you i need you o baby o baby"??????????


I mean, one can practically see them snorting, snuffing, panting, and pawing the ground like a bunch of penned bulls in the springtime. Assuming for a moment I didn't think Darwin was full of manure: When did evolution start to work backwards? Are we reverting to Neanderthal...ism? Will animals one day be more sophisticated than humans? If so, should we look into legalizing dog-human marriages? Cuz I often preferred the company of my golden retriever to many .... 'men'... (too bad she WAS a SHE....)

Disappointment with Patterson

Well, things have been fairly silent on the Seeing Stars front. Mainly cuz I don't have anything to report right now. School is just running smoothly. My new laptop is now fully functional and the current love of my life. I mean, I can actually go on facebook now for longer than 3 seconds because when I click on something...the screen actually changes! And takes me to any page I desire to see! I mean, it's basically a miraculous process! Before I would log in to facebook, click on something, and then fly into a redhot rage because five minutes later the page was still only half-loaded. So anywho, anger therapy is no longer necessary, have quit ripping out fistfuls of my silky brown hair, no longer have bruised knuckles from punching solid stone walls, and all is right with the world again in general.

This weekend I was back in Ellefeld. Unfortunately one friend got sick, the other ripped some tendons in her foot, another wasn't in town, and the fourth had tons of studying to do. So I basically just chillaxed for three days. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Read James Patterson's "The Lake House", which btw has nothing to do with the movie starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. At least I don't remember 12-year old winged children with super human strength in that movie...Anyways, in my opinion the book was very poorly written and I can't quite believed something like that got published. Everything seemed so rushed and juvenile and it felt like the first half of the book was missing. I mean, it's called BACKSTORY and FACT CHECKING!!!! I kept getting the feeling that some pimply-faced teenager who'd never left his mama's basement must have written this book. The language was cheesy and seemed forced. Like the teenagers and children in the book didn't actually know how to be teenagers or children. Heck, my blog is better-written than that book. I mean, no offense to James Patterson. I know he wrote "Kiss the Girls" or whatever it's called, and many other best-selling novels, so I was pretty disappointed with this book. Has anyone else read any of his stuff? Was this just a bad first choice? Cuz I don't know if I wanna waste more of my time reading that kind of drivel. Seriously. I mean, the character development left oh so much to be desired, I felt like I had been thrown into the middle of a story that should have had WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more info, and it just came off so...sucky. I don't know how else to describe it.
Anywho, I finished the book anyways, cuz the core of my inner being can't bear not finishing a book I've started...except that Thomas Carlyle one ... and the Henry James one....but they were impossible to read. But ya. Definitely won't be picking a James Patterson any time soon. That is until I forget how terrible this book was and grab another Patterson by accident...
Um ya. That's about it. I ate, read, watched movies, and just hung out with my "rental family" as I affectionately refer to them...actually, they came up with the term. And this evening I'll be catching the train for the homeward trip. Pretty uneventful, but I figured I'd blog anyways, seeing as how it'd been about 4 days...unacceptable...

Rutless...

So today, officially, I have been gone from Niverville for exactly 6 months. That is insane. That means I haven't seen Miriam and her family, my parents, Tim and Andee, Pamela, Naomi and Mark, Cassandra, Zoe and Kevin, Bria and James, Jordan, Melodie, Katrina, Natalie, my grandparents, and many many others in half a year. That sounds like such a long period of time, yet some days it feels like I just got to Germany! In less than 5 months I will be finished my position at this school. And in less than 6 months I will be returning to Niverville. Craziness.
Right now I'm busy filling out applications for U of M and U of W. Need to get into an Education program. I'm so nervous! What if I'm not good enough? What if my GPA isn't sufficient? What if my written essay isn't convincing? What if they don't accept me? And organizing all of this overseas is NOT easy. I have to organize my own skills writing test over here with a professor/priest/principal/police officer to supervise me and have to make sure it's all ok with the university. I have to get references and transcripts and and and and. It just never quits. What if I do or fill out something wrong? What if I forget about something until it's too late? What if I miss a deadline or or or or or. Thankfully my landlord is a professor, so that takes care of one detail. But still. The days are too short. Between preparing classes, organizing applications, visiting people while I still have the chance, working out regularly, and trying not to forget to eat 2-3 times a day I figure that I actually need 30, or possibly 35, hour days. I mean, I never forget to eat. Ever. I love eating. But in the past few days I keep forgetting meals! That is a sure sign that my life is not in its comfortable rut. I mean, I've actually managed to carve out a rut for myself here in the past 6 months. I thrive on my ruts. Anyone over there have some time to spare and send my way?

100 Posts!!!

Happy 100 posts to me! Wooo. (Technically this is the 101st blog post, but the last one was so measly and kind of an ad-on to the post about my New Year's that I'm not counting it as the 100th post...)
So it turns out I'm going to England in May as a supervisor on a class trip! That's ten days all inclusive everything, including sight-seeing in London, for only 200 Euros. Isn't life grand??? Well, other than today: I had to bring my brand-spanking new laptop into the store where I bought it YESTERDAY cuz the screen keeps going dark...but they said if they can't fix that I'll just get a new one. Funny enough my last laptop did that when I got it three years ago, too. What's with computers hating me??? So I'm alright. I was super frustrated this morning tho, cuz I needed my computer for my lesson this afternoon and I had to come up with a whole new plan for the grade 11s in a very very very short time. In fact, I have to go teach that lesson in 15 minutes, so I'm kind of curious as to how it's going to go. Either way, I'm trying not to let things get me down. I'm just so tired of dealing with computer issues already. Let's just say 2009 hasn't really started off that well...But I'm hoping it'll go up from here...

Ok, well I just finished my class with the gr. 11s and it actually went really well. Thank goodness cuz today would have just been depressing otherwise. Actually, that's not true. My lesson with the gr. 6's this morning was excellent! So much fun!

Anywho, I realized that I completely forgot to mention that there is about 15 cm of snow lying on the ground here in Eilenburg! Isn't that crazy? And it's -19. I do know that you are all experiencing a much colder winter, but still, for Germany this is freaking blizzard weather! Lol!!! I can't even ride my bike anywhere!!! I have to take the bus today. Which is, by the way, the reason I am blogging in the teacher's lounge even though I'm done class for the day. My bus only comes in half an hour. And I'm not even sure where my bus stop is cuz I haven't had to take the bus yet. But I'm sure I'll find something that'll take me in the homeward direction. The amount of bus stops in this country is ridiculous! :)

Just something to cheer you up in case you're having as challenging a week as I seem to be:

I'm just a bit of an Audrey Hepburn freak. :P And her face always makes me smile. If I had to define 'classy' I would just say her name. She had more class in her pinkie finger than I have in my whole being.

here are the marburg new years pics for those of you without facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94251&l=3014b&id=573967603
amazing how quick all this uploading stuff goes with a decent computer!!!

Grrrrrrr.

Sorry about the long absence. I had written a blog but my computer crashed completely, the old piece of junk, and so I had to buy a new laptop. And I've been spending all day trying to salvage little bits and pieces from my old computer whenever it feels like turning on and STAYING ON for more than 2 seconds. But setting up the new laptop has been tons of fun. It's so nice to work with something that doesn't move at a snail's pace!!! Anyways, so here's the blog I had written and planned on posting yesterday...


Hia folks! Happy New Year! I cannot believe it’s 2009. Today last year I handed in my application to do this teaching program in Germany. And now my time here is already half over! Unreal. Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m here. It really shoulda sunk in by now, shouldn’t it???
So on the 31st I took the train to Marburg, a famous German university city where my friend, Elisabeth, has been studying for the past 4 years. We made ourselves some supper, drank a bunch of coffee and wine, and then headed out into the city. And what a city! It is absolutely phenomenally gorgeous. I have never seen a city like this before. Now I know why everyone in Germany knows this place. Anywho, so we wandered around just looking at everything and then found ourselves a nice little bar to have some drinks and chat. I had one of the best beers of my life there, by the way. Franziskaner hell. Weizen. Yum. Anywho, so ya, we just sat and caught up on each other’s lives. Then, around 11:30pm we headed up to the castle on the top of the hill…as did everyone else in the city! Lol. There were so many people. Half of them drunk. And EVERYONE had massive sacks of fireworks and stuff. So there we were, at midnight, overlooking the city in front of a giant stone castle and as the church bells struck 12 you could see the entire city light up with fireworks. It was beautiful. We only stuck around for a few minutes because we started to fear for our lives with all the wasted people throwing firecrackers everywhere. LOL. We made it down the hill and over to a friend of Elli’s who was having a bit of a get-together. Around 3 we decided it was bedtime. I was pretty beat from travelling all day.
The next morning Elli announced she was sick. So that put a damper on some of our plans. Poor girl. We got up late and just made a lazy day of it. New Year’s Day usually feels like a lazy day anyway. We read, listened to music, and watched several movies. Lol. I’ve now seen Center Stage, Rebekah H. The next morning we went shopping! We hit every store/boutique in Marburg. So yes, it took us all day. It was snowing and not minus a bazillion, so it was absolutely perfect. Everyone out here walks around in 10 layers with 13 scarves and winter boots….even thought it’s only –4. I’m serious. Elli wears tights, pants, 3 layers of shirts, a scarf, a winter jacket, a hat, and mittens in this weather. I love it. Although I am tired of hearing that I should start wearing something long-sleeved. HELLO! I’M FROM CANADA. DID I MENTION I’M FROM CANADA? YES, YES, CANADA, THAT VERY LARGE COLD COUNTRY ACROSS THE OCEAN. I’M SURE YOU’VE HEARD OF IT. IT’S –30 THERE RIGHT NOW. YES, I SAID 30. BITE ME. Grrrr. Those are the words that would come out of my mouth if I didn’t watch myself. Anyways, we shopped til it was dark outside and then buried ourselves in Elli’s room to watch more movies. 3 movies to be exact. Two German ones and a French one. I miss movie marathons. :(
And then yesterday I took the train back to Eilenburg. I was dreading the stretch from Frankfurt to Leipzig, because when I bought my train ticket the dude said all the seats were sold out. Which meant 3.5 hours of standing/sitting in the hallway. But I snagged myself a spot in the train car for bicycles and sat on my suitcase the whole way, listening to music. Fortunately for me there was a cute guy sitting across from me, so whenever I got bored of counting the dirt clods on the floor I had something to look at. :P
And I naturally left my mittens on the train, so I quickly bought some new ones in Leipzig at the train station because I can’t bike to school every day without gloves. That is one thing that is too cold even for me. (When you imagine the Leipzig train station imagine a giant mall with every possible store and restaurant … and constant arriving/departing trains.) Then I snagged the bus home. I was beat. Unpacked. Turned heater on because bedroom was 4.1 degrees. (It is now a toasty 9.6, so heater is off again. No worries, Katrina…I heard you were wondering whether I would heat when you come to visit. Lol. I only make myself freeze. Not other people. Plus by April it won’t be nearly as cold.) Watched crappy TV. Talked to my mom on the phone. Went to sleep.
That was about it.
Christmas pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93915&l=5c3ae&id=573967603

Will post the rest of the pics once I manage to somehow pull them off of my old computer...this could take a while...