Strikes

I forgot to tell a fun story about leaving France. We couldn't really communicate with the nice B&B lady most of the trip because we don't speak French and she didn't really speak English. Well, on the last day I found out she spoke Spanish and so does Chuck so finally we could really talk to her! We were going to leave earlier for the airport, but ended up talking to Esperanza.

When we got to our tram stop everyone got off the tram, we got on, then someone was saying something in French and everyone got back off. How odd. It already seemed weird that the whole tram had emptied there, so I turned to someone and asked if they spoke English (which was quite hard to find down there!). She did, thank goodness, and explained that the trams were striking here and to go to the Place de la Comedie to pick up a tram.

So Chuck and I hauled our luggage up many flights of stairs to run through a lovely park and past the 50-100 student demonstrators and caught the next tram. Sadly we didn't have time to buy a ticket. Not a good idea. Did you know you can go to jail in France for riding without a ticket? I didn't know either!

Ok, we didn't get caught, don't worry. We just made it in time to catch the bus shuttle to the airport. We also met some nice Germans on the way there. Actually, we met all sorts and nice and interesting people on the trip.

The part I found most amusing was that you always here of the French striking, and then I really got to see it! So my stereotypes were definitely reinforced. Baguettes, berets (though not so many), strikes, and little to no English. lol. It was great.

Montpellier

Last week in France was wonderful! We didn't do much, just walked around the city, enjoyed the architecture, parks, good weather, went to the beach one day where we built a sandcastle and laid out and I just stood with my feet in the water. Very nice. We also did a day trip to Aigues Mort, town of the dead waters. It has a fully intact city wall that you can walk around. Very cool. A bit too touristy for my taste, but gorgeous. It is right by all these swamp lands/salt water ponds and horses were grazing in the fields of surreal greens. We even saw real live flamingoes! In the wild! lol. That was awesome.

It really was just a relaxing vacation.

This morning I went and got some art supplies so I can try and do a real painting. hee hee. I'm quite excited. I also stopped by the market and picked up some fresh vegies, fruits, and meats and cheeses. I love that they let you, no, insist, that you try the meats and cheeses. It's great. Since then I've been fighting a war with the mold. There's just so much it's hard to beat. I put up a decent battle, but gave up for now. I will go after it again some other day.

The weather here is warm and sunny again. We're having an incredibly mild autumn! I love it.

Yes, I will be home the 22nd of December. Dad is getting married the 23rd. After that I should have some time. I leave again on the 7th of January.

I will put pics of France up soon, but they are not so spectacular. It was mostly just the city. But I enjoyed it.

There was an article on Mom's business on the FRONT PAGE of the KC Star yesterday. Check it out!

I miss you all and really wish I could be there now. Thanks for the emails and electronic hugs.

Love you guys.

Home for the Holidays

I GET TO COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! I miss everyone and everything so much. My very generous parents have offered to help me make my way back to the Mid-West in late December. So any of you who will be there and want to see me, well, I want to see you too!

That completely made my day. I think I'll stop smiling sometime, like tomorrow. hee hee.

Tonight Chuck and I carved a pumpkin. It was so much fun! He's not as good at carving and did the first eye and accidentally cut out the inside so I did the next eye which worked so sadly it has one pupil for two eyes. Oh well. We cooked the seeds as well. His roommates thought it was quite amusing because they don't do that here. But they did like the seeds. lol.

The weather here is still nice. What a great day!

Liebe Studentenausweis, hier bist du!

My lovely Student ID card arrived today! All right! By German bureaucracy standards that was crazy fast. I'm very grateful. That means today was the last day that I'll pay for my train ticket. Yes!

It is still sunny and cool out. Very nice weather. I am so lucking out!

Chuck and I are planning to carve a pumpkin this afternoon. I'm excited. Granted, I should probably be studying, but how can I resist pumpkin carving?

Last night at Stammtisch Chuck and I were late and our regular guys were at the other end of the table so we sat by this guy who we couldn't really understand. Basically it was a lot of nodding and smiling and hoping he didn't ask questions that required lengthy and/or intelligent answers. lol.

Today two of my classes simply didn't show up. I think because the teachers are doing the play (which I'm going to Friday) but I didn't know about it. lol. So again I just kinda sat there then gave up and caught a train home.

Friday will be exciting because I have an appointment with the washing machine and dryer! Yes! Then I'm meeting a woman from the Uni who has been helping me. She wants to work on her English so we're meeting for coffee. Should be nice. And Koto is coming to visit this weekend! Things are really picking up here.

That's about it for my life update. Hope things are good at home. : )

New Government

Ladies and Gentleman we have it! A new government. Sadly not the Jamaica Coalition I was hoping for. They've decided on a CDU/SPD "big coalition" with Angela Merkel as Chancellor! Wow. It will be interesting to see how things go....

Last night was an American dinner at Thomas's. We made burgers and brownies in a muffin pan and everyone enjoyed it. Lots of fun.

I am going to Scotland for Thanksgiving! I'm meeting Auntie there. My principal said I could have two days off to go (very nice and understanding).

The weather is still sunny and cool here. What a great fall!

Hope everyone is well.

: )

Market Day

I think Market Day might be among my favorites. On Tuesdays (sadly I'm at work) and Saturday mornings there is a big square where people come out and set up tents and stands and sell the most brightly colored, delicious looking vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses, flowers, and more! They are all fresh and inviting and hard to resist. So much better than shopping at a grocery store. And they let you try things. I wanted to get some lunch meat and I didn't realize there was such a selection of salami, so the lady recommended one then insisted I try it to make sure I liked it. Yum! And you can get organic there as well. So I filled my backpack with vegies for some wonderful salads to come, splurged on a few pieces of fruit, and got a pumpkin for carving. It just won't be October without a pumpkin.

There are also stands that sell food to eat right there, and I couldn't resist getting a red wurst in a little broetchen (roll). Mmmmmm. It's all so delicious.

The market square is modern and redone, however just past the tents you can see the towers of the church in the Altstadt, the Stiftskirche (as the church is called) and it makes for a magical setting. I really wished I had had my camera there. I will try to remember it next time.

Well, the laundry in the sink calls, as do my studies.

Das Teehaus

Today has been quite delightful. I got to sleep in, then as I breakfasted, I saw the Hausmeister outside of my window at the trash recepticles. I waved and he came over (my window was open because I was luefting and airing out my bedding as well. He said he could fix my window right then and there and did! Yay!

Then I went into town on my hunt for the visa office. It took a few tries because it's a bit hidden, but then I walked the five floors up and waited until the not so happy woman let me in. She insisted I wait until I get a proper appointment although I had everything with me, but she ended up being nicer by the end. I think she couldn't resist all my big grins and trying to persuade her into a happier mood. So on the 2nd of November I can go get my visa, hopefully. She mentioned something about waiting on something from Tuebingen but I have no idea what or why.

I was feeling quite successful by this point. I also got a text message saying that my student id card was taken care of and would be sent to me. Now this means it could arrive anytime from next week to next month. Lol. I'll hope for next week. Come on free transportation! (or at least sort of free...)

I felt the pull to frequent my newly favorite tea store, a quaint and cozy little shop that is beautiful and has all lovely things having to do with tea. I walked in and the owner was there, and said I could go behind the counter and look at the teas. And feel free to take off my backpack. So I did. Then he let me smell lots of the yummy teas. So many delicious and exotic choices!! So I settled on a wild cherry black blend and then also a crazy fruity one that is caffiene free. He also gave me a free sample of this summer dream one I had been eyeing. Being the gracious small business owner and friendly guy that he is, he offered me a glass of a tea he had brewing and some chocolate. How could I resist? So we sat down and enjoyed a marvelous cup of tea and nutty chocolate and talking to the customers that came in. It was really wonderful. So perfectly relaxed and European. He used to work with handicapped people (and has their art in his shop, it's very fun) and always told himself he would buy this store when it was up for sale, and this spring it suddenly was so he jumped in and bought it and now he loves coming to work. Doesn't that sound great? : )

I was pulled away from my movie-like tea time because I'd forgotten I was going to stop by Chuck's for tea before he left for Stuttgart for the weekend. Oops! So I rushed over there and we had some tea (also from the same store), a mild and not bitter green tea. Yum. I don't even like green as much, but this stuff is seriously good. I feel so spoiled with the non-bagged tea. Ahhh. And the weather was beautiful today. A perfect fall day with sun and we sat on the balcony overlooking our favorite fat bunnies and the perfect little yard with a bench and lily pond. (Contented sigh)

Then Chuck had to run and he let me stay to use his phone and yes, I spent awhile talking to Mom and Lexi. I love it when people have landlines and let me call home!

Side note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!! Hope it's going well.

Tonight I'm meeting Mark at a new and shiny bar for drinks because, let's face it, I don't want to spend all evening sitting alone in my room studying. : )

Last night I accidentally ran into the other TAs in town. Beautiful! They invited me along to dinner and it was quite fun. There are two from England and one from Canada. There are two more in town, but they were elsewhere. It is good to meet new people because I feel like while I have met a few good people, my friend circle (Freundkreis) is significantly small right now. I really need to add some Germans to it, perhaps when Uni starts.

I suppose I've gone on enough for one day. Especially about tea. But, to be fair, it is amazing tea! : )

Happily Home

I'm back! Sorry I took so long to post an update. I was near Augsburg for my birthday weekend. And yay, I'm back! It's good to be back. Thank you everyone who sent packages, postcards, letters, called, etc. I REALLY appreciate it!!! I felt so loved. Makes it easier to be away.

Since I've been back. Let's see. Yesterday morning I tried to luft and suddenly my window broke. Or at least the handle. Now it won't open. And it's the only window that tilts open from the top, so I have to completely open the others if I want to let in fresh air. The Hausmeister was supposed to stop by last night and have a look at it, but I was at art and it's still broken.

I've also decided my main means of clean laundry this year will be my sink. It's so difficult to find a time to sign up for washing clothes that I will only do jeans and bed stuff when I can. Everything else gets hand-washed and hung up on my rack and/or over my tiny heator.

Bureaucracy is still kicking my butt. I finally got the papers to the nice woman at the Uni and she is going to try and get my student id to me next week. Fingers crossed! However, my quest for a visa is not going so well. I called the office today because they are only open during my working hours, only in the mornings. Sheesh. The woman I talked to was very unkind and told me opposing things then said I couldn't be working without my visa but they couldn't give me an appointment for over a month but I couldn't go to the Uni to get it taken care of because I can't be a student AND employed. But I am. It's possible. She then said that I could do it at the Uni and then she couldn't help me and I wished her a good day through gritted teeth and hung up. I'm going to find another way to do this.

Today I did a class on dating in America and another one on Halloween, which is celebrated much more emphatically in the U.S. I even wrote a little story and had my students finish the ending, either with a story or play that they will read/perform next week. Fun stuff. They were interested and it made it enjoyable. Much better than last week's lesson on regions in the U.S......zzzzzzz.

The weather is nice here. In Augsburg it was yucky. Here the sun is shining and it's warmer, almost 70! So warm. I know, it's still like a heat-wave there, but Germany is a colder climate.

I have to run some errands soon, I need to get more shower curtain rings to hold up the curtain because it's too short and my floor is getting quite wet and the shower curtain then blows in and sticks to me and I spend the whole shower swatting and yelling at the shower curtain. (the cute rubber duckie one Mom sent).

Oh, I almost forgot the train ride(s) to Augsburg! It was quite amusing. Time to play Laugh at what Kate did. So I stopped by Chuck's to drop off some food I didn't want to go bad and he invited me up for tea. I accepted because it's always fun to hang out with him, then I stayed too long and missed two trains. I ran to the train station but just missed them. Then I waited for the next train, about half an hour later. Sadly I'd missed the quick trains and had to take the slow ones. By then I had to pee but didn't want to leave the track because there was nowhere quick to go, so I thought I'd wait because trains always have bathrooms. So I got on and put my stuff down and looked around and didn't see one. I asked the guy next to me and he said this particular kind of train didn't have no. Uh-oh. No!!!! I had just over an hour on it, but I wasn't going to make it. Surely he was kidding. But no. No wc. I tried to think of other things. I tried to listen to music. But after water and two cups of hot tea there was no way I was going to make it. I made the decision to jump. Sigh. So I waited until I got to a larger city (as opposed to a small, one-track station in the middle of nowhere) and got off the train. As luck would have it they were having a big festival and I found clean bathrooms right away. Sadly the next train wasn't for another 40 minutes and then was even slower than the previous. So I grabbed a snack from the bakery and sat and watched the ferris wheel. Finally the train came and I took it to Mannheim where I changed to a faster train for the next 2.5 hours. So after missing trains, having to abandon and wait for more, etc. it took me about 5 hours to get to Augsburg. Dear goodness.

And on the trip back it was a holiday and the last day of Oktoberfest and the trains were more full than I had ever seen. The first half hour I sat on the floor with many other people, then a sweet lady told me of a free seat as she got off, sadly I later got kicked out because some had reserved it, then I had to stand in the aisle. The next train was also very packed so I just stood like a good sardine among many others. As I said earlier, it's good to be home. But it was quite the adventure.

Ok, that is a book! It's about time I walk into town anyhow. Take care! : )