Brrrrrrr

Well, it has cooled down here again. It is supposed to get up to the 40s todays (Fahrenheit). Sadness. But by the middle of next week we should have respectable weather again. Thank goodness. lol. I hope at home it's nice and warm.

Yesterday we went dancing and I stayed up too late. I believe I saw the sun rise.....hee hee. Don't do that very often!

Today makes five months for Chuck and I, I think we're going to dinner tonight. Mmmmmm.

Not really much news here. Tomorrow is a holiday. I made sure to get enough food yesterday. I went to the market and it was crazy busy and sooooo yummy! I even got a new kind of cheese to try. I have no idea what it is, but it looked interesting. lol.

That's about it for me. Need to study today and want to do some reading. I know, the exciting life I lead! : )

Happy Post

Thanks to Dad, Kathie and Rosa who sent me cute new glasses that I can acutally SEE through!!! Yay! And my MP3 player arrived today as well, so it was quite exciting for me.

The lady at the glasses place said that the people who made my pair that are all scratched did something wrong and that is why they got so messed up so quickly.

This week school has been going well. I've been trying discussion groups with the kids, taking them to the hall in groups of 3-5, and one class I even took them individually. It's worked pretty well so far. I am also subbing for Thomas's 5th grade. How cute!

That is it for the Kate Update. Stay tuned for more! Ok, so that was way corny, but at least you smiled, right? : )

Sun and School

School is back in session and it went quite well today. I'm excited for this week's lessons. I am doing little groups of English discussion in the hall with many of my classes, and today's trial went great!

My hand is doing better. I'm trying not to use it, as that causes a bit of pain. But I can almost straighten it now, so definite improvement! lol.

The weather was lovely and I studied outside at the park a bit.

Hope all are well. : )

Hospital Fun

I got to spend some time at the Westpfalz Klink (hospital) yesterday. I already said I hurt my hand, and I didn't want to over-react so I decided to wait a day or two to see a doc to see if it would heal first. But Saturday I still couldn't move my finger and it was a bit swollen and painful and making the use of my left hand not very possible. So I showed Rita and Thomas and they said I should go to a doctor. But of course, they were all closed because it was Saturday. Argh! So they said I should go to the hospital. To which I said no. That sounded a bit exteme to me. But they explained how that was normal and the only way it would be looked at for a few days. Sigh. I eventually gave in, and Mark, dear sweet man, took me to the hospital. We were sent round and round with lots of forms but it wasn't bad at all. Apparently it was quite the day for hand injuries! And I learned how to say x-ray in German. A learning experience.

So finally I saw the specialist and he said no bones were broken and then tendons were ok. And he pushed my hand in many painful directions. Then they wrapped it up and said it should be fine. lol. It was just a bad jamb. So I guess I could have just waited it out, but it's better to know. Plus, now I know a bit more about how a German hospital works. It just seemed rather ridiculous to me, going for a little non-moving finger. I mean heck, I wasn't even bleeding!

We have nice weather today. Lots more studying to do and lessons to prepare! Hope you all are well. : )

: ( Sad news

I didn't get the UNESCO internship. They got 123 apps for 6 positions. How sad. I really wanted it. Oh well.

And I'm typing this in a pecking mode. Chuck and I were attempting to enjoy the warm weather today and played football outside. It was going great until I caught the football wrong and really jambed my finger. So my left hand isn't working very well. If anyone knows what to do for such a thing, please let me know.

Other than that I'm great. : )

Pics from our trip to Nudi's

The first pic is at the Viktualenmarkt in Munich. A very yummy olive stand. The second is in a church in Munich and for Mom.The third is Chuck and I in a garden in Munich enjoying an iced coffee. And the last is Chuck and I in Augsburg in front of the Rathaus. I forgot to put the pics online, so I will try to do that soon.

Pics from Montesilvano

The first three pics are from Penne, and the last one is me at the beach in Montesilvano. It was a great trip!

This week has been busy. I've been working like mad on my big fat paper. So much work to do! I've also not been neglecting my social life. hee hee. Speaking of which, I think some of us are getting ready to make dinner together. Los mit mir!

Home Again

Well. After lots of traveling I am back home and enjoying it. Italy was wonderful. I had a bit of a stomach bug at first, but once that was gone it was really great. We just bummed around, reading in the garden and eating pizza and walking along the beach. It was a bit chilly for swimming but we took off our shoes and walked through the water. We also took a day trip to Penne. It was an hour bus ride through gorgeous, green hills full of olive trees. The city itself is old and has narrow streets filled with old bricks. Everything was closed b/c it was about 1 pm when we arrived, and finding lunch turned out to be an adventure. Plus it was rainy. But after lunch the sun came out and we wandered around town, found some amazing views, and a cute little dog followed us around.

Saturday we spent 11 hours traveling to get back to Germany and by then I was exhausted. We didn't have much food left and it was Easter so we had to do Chinese take-out for dinner. Sadly the next day was also a holiday and I couldn't get food at the grocery store. Hello pasta! Today I managed to get food, finally. I like the fresh fruits and vegies. Ahhhhh.

Yesterday Chuck left for Barcelona. He'll be there til Friday. I'm glad I didn't go with, it was just too much traveling and I have a big fat paper I ought to be working on. hee hee. Last night I went to the Cotton Club to hear the Midnight Movers, a mixture of music and people. There are Americans with southern accents that sing with Germans, a cutie from Trinidad, and many more that sing blues, jazz, R&B, rap, and songs from the radio. And the MC is American, and he always speaks in German and English, but his accent in German cracks me up. Try waaaaay southern trying German. Wow. Fun stuff.

I will get pics up soon, I'm still getting things together.

Hope everyone's well! : )

From Trip to Trip

Last weekend in Augsburg was good. We saw Augsburg, Munich, and a bit of Nudi's village. The time flew by and yesterday was spent getting ready for today, and in an hour I'm catching various forms of public transportation to get to Italy by this evening. Juhu!

I get back late Saturday night. Then I'll be here and will put some pics online.

There is actually sun outside my window this morning, though I'm not sure it's too warm. But it will be warm in Pescara! Hee hee. I'm excited.

Hope all is well across the big pond.

: )

Vacation!!!!!!!

It is now officially vacation time! Yay! We only had til 4th hour today. Tomorrow morning Chuck and I are going to Augsburg. We are spending the weekend at Nudi's.

Tonight some of us are planning to rent a movie and just hang out, before everyone does stuff for break. Will be quite nice.

Nothing much new, it's cold here again. But at least we have some sun today, so I'm happy. We're about to go for coffee, so I'll sign off. hee hee, wow was that dorky!

Hope you all are well.

Kate : )

Mensch Aerg Dich Nicht

Ok, I'd like to take this moment to vent about a few things.
1. My MP3 player has suddenly died, claiming "Hardware Problems", but it won't let me do anything. Sadly I use it daily and the train ride is not as fun without it. If only I knew how to fix it!
2. My glasses have gotten so scratched that I am having trouble seeing and reading. And I have to wait three months til I'm home to order new ones. And I've only cared for them like they told me to and even got scratch resistant lenses. I'm not impressed.
3. The German train service has canceled the train I take home quite often for the next two months. Of course, there was no info about it, so after my train didn't come, I asked a train person, then waited in the cold for the next half hour. And the next train was late. lol.

Other than those annoying whatnots, things are well. It's Thomas's birthday, so Chuck and I are baking later. That will be nice. And last night we went to his school's musical, which was over three hours long and written by teachers there. It was really, really good.

Horse...Mmmmmmm...

It's Market Day again! Yay! This morning it was warm and sunny, but quickly turned cooler and rainy. However, I made it to the open market, which I love. I got lots of fresh vegies, fruit, cheeses and bread, then decided to help myself to a yummy Wurst for breakfast/lunch. Normally I really like the red ones, so I walked around until I found a not so busy stand and ordered one. As I waited, two of Chuck's roomies walked by and said hello. They decided to get a Wurst as well. As we got the Wurst and were ready to dig in, Stephan goes, "you know it's horse, right?" Stop. Um. No? "No way," I said. "No really, it's horse, look." He pointed to the sign and sure enough, it said Horse Specialities. Oh dear. Ew. Mom would be so disappointed!

So you are now wondering, did she eat it? Did she get some normal pig? Surely she couldn't eat it, knowing what it was! Well, darn it, I'm here to try new things, and I'd already paid for it and sloshed some mustard on it. I took a bite while making a face. Mmmm. Chewy. Tastes like.......pork, actually. Not bad. The idea did gross me out quite a bit, but hey. Then the rest of the day I've been burping up horse after taste, which also kinda grosses me out.

Tonight we're doing our group dinner at Chuck's. Should be great fun! I actually must go now to help him prepare.

Oh, I found some interesting things out in my own research on German/Turkish relations and integration today. I was quite surprised. Hmmmm.

Hope everyone is well!

: )

So viele Freizeit!

Also. Heute sind die drei Stunden, die ich normalerweise habe, ausgefallen. d.h., dass ich nichts zu tun hatte, und bin nochmal nach Hause gefahren.
Morgen ist diese Abi Ball, aber ich weiss nicht genau, wo das ist. Und es ist spaet. Hm. Werden sehen.
Samstag machen wir bei Chuck einen Abendessen, aber leider kann der Jan nicht kommen. Schade.
Ausserdem, regnet es gerade. Rita und ich moechten nach Ashley, und es ist ungefaehr 30 Minuten zu Fuss, und das wollten wir machen.
Nur eine Woche, dann kommt die Ferien! Zwei Wochen.
Heute ist es schon vier Monate fuer Chuck und mich. Wir haben es aber ausgemacht, dass wir naechste Woche feiern.
Ich glaub, ich muss jetzt los. Bis spaeter, Alle, und mach's gut!

Kuesschen : )

Abi Streik

So today was the Abi Streik, where the 13th graders do something crazy during school hours to celebrate being done with tests and school. So after the fourth hour they made a lot of noise and called everyone to the Schulhof (courtyard) and had a stage set up. They had "kidnapped" Herr Dohna, our principal, and taped him to a toilet. Then they had a mock beauty contest, mocking the tv show "Germany searches for the top model" and they also had teachers and students dance around and played games. At the end they played a sort of Who wants to be a millionare game with the principal with 10 questions about the teachers, and if he lost they all got to go home, and if he won then classes continued. He lost. Game over. I went home.

It was fun and interesting, but I didn't think the drinking and smoking in front of the younger kids was a good idea. I was a bit disappointed. Chuck said they had Abi Streik today as well, but it was really bad b/c the kids were drunk and everyone just left. Yikes. The Abi Ball, sort of like our Prom, is on Friday and I plan to go for a short while. I don't really have anything prom-like to wear, but oh well.

It got unseasonably warm here today, in the 60s. But it's rainy, too. And yesterday Daylight Savings started so I'm quite content.

Sadly, due to all the excitment, I didn't get to give two of my lessons. Oh well, there's always next week!

: )

. . .

And another thing, how totally cool is this putting pics on the blog thing? I'm very excited about it, it makes it so much easier to share what's going on here! Ok, I just needed to say that.

: )

Karlsruhe

Today Chuck and I met his friends Eva and Alex in Karlsruhe, a city described by The Lonely Planet as not having much really worth seeing. The castle (palace) was bombed in the war and rebuilt and turned into a museum and that's about all there is to see. So we saw that and then went for some delicious food, then coffee, and talked and walked around. There was rain and a bit of sun, but it was definitely not freezing! Yay! And tomorrow the day will be later. I like it when we set the clocks forward.


The pics: We got to try on hats in the museum, and there was a mini train you could sit in. Of course we are also standing in front of the rebuilt castle/palace.

Tight Budget

Ok, so I just checked my account and I have 8 Euros. lol. I get paid on the last day of the month and realized I am almost out of food. Kinda funny, really. Sadly it means taking money from my home account which is mostly funded from student loans. Chuck is done to 9 Euro, I think. We both just suddenly hit broke gleichseitig and are having a competition next week to see who can live the cheapest. See? Silver lining!

It was not freezing today, but cloudy and rainy. I have to run, Chuck and I are making some dinner at his place.

Hope everyone is having a great almost last week of March!

: )

Cafe Moments in the Almost Warmth

Where did my spring go?

Ok, so it's cloudy again. It's supposed to be cloudy, rainy and cold for at least the next week. Oh, sad days.

I had my first private French lesson last night. It went well. I found the right bus and took it two villages north of town and after a brief wrong turn found the right street. The lady is French and has two children, but her husband looked after them during the lesson. I think it will work out well.

Not much new here, I'm just trying to get my lessons planned and studying done. Chuck and I are cooking Mexican for our teachers on Sunday. That ought to be fun.

Is anyone still reading this blog?

Spring! Yippee!

Spring came Sunday (and sadly left yesterday) but it was so beautiful! Above freezing. Ahhhh. Chuck and I took a long walk in the woods, then headed back to town to get an ice cream. The line was long, as many people were enjoying their first cold treat of the year. Cafes had also put their outdoor tables back out. Yay! Ah sun, how I've missed you!!!

Yesterday (and today) they are having the final oral exams for the 13th graders at my school so I am off. So yesterday I went with Chuck to his school to see how it was there. Interesting. And today I'm studying and running errands. Very nice.

Strikes. I'm getting a bit fed up. I think two groups are striking in Germany right now, the civil people still (garbage, day-care, etc.) and doctors are now striking, demanding a pay raise. And however annoying/bad that may sound, thank goodness gracious I'm not in France! They have been striking at Universities for so long that my friend Ren (who was also a TA here but went to France this semester to study) has barely been to any classes all semester and they are thinking of simply closing the Unis for the semester and many Brits have already headed home. Or so I hear. The French are enough to drive one mad! I'd best not elaborate, it may get a bit heated. But honestly people!

Chuck and I are going to Karlsruhe this Saturday to meet up with some of his friends. I've never been there and it's not far from here, and there should at least be a nice church to see! Actually, I think it will be cool to see another German city.

That's about it from the K-Town front. Hope you all are well.

: )