Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Catch up

Sorry that it's taken me a while to catch up with my blog. I ended up not going on the third trip to Oldenburg due to sickness so I've been at school. The end of school is quickly approaching. Our last day is June 22. I'm a little envious of everyone who's already out. I have a lot to tell you about Krakow and Vienna so I'm going to break it up into at least two or three posts.

I went to Krakow with 7 other teachers from school. It's an 11 hour train ride so we left at about 8 am and arrived after 7 pm. That is a lot of train riding! We passed the time with a special game that Florian and I made up. We name a letter and take turns saying countries of the world that start with that letter. Once there is only one left, the first person who names that country wins a point. We have played the game before and were both looking forward to it. So to make things official, we printed off a list of independent countries as recognized by the United Nations. I printed off study guides and then an official list for our "moderator." What makes things even better is that he is just a competitive as I am. We probably played the game for 4 or 5 hours on the way there and back. Joe joined our game, but was at a disadvantage as he did not have a study guide. Yes, we are NERDS, but it is a super fun game. Btw, we tied, but I never lost a point. (You lose a point by not being able to think of a country when there are still countries left.)

On to more interesting things, Krakow is truly lovely. Here's a picture of the main square. The basilica is on the left and the town market is on the right. There are a lot of carriage rides for tourists which is why you see all the horses.


I have more pics of Krakow on my flickr account. We stayed at a hostel in the center of town and went exploring the first night. We decided to get up and go to Auschwitz on Friday.

Auschwitz and Birkenau are only about a 90 minute bus ride away from Krakow. We needed to be on the 9:00 bus in order to go on the English speaking tour at 11:00. We arrived late and thought that we would miss the bus because all the seats were taken. However, in Poland, you can stand in the aisle of what basically amounted to a church bus. It was not fun. I tried not to complain though because of where we were going. 1.5 million people were killed there; I can stand up for less than two hours.

There were a lot of tourists there so we started at Birkenau which is usually the second part of the tour. Our guide was really good. I think he was probably a grad student because he knew a lot. One man had a female relative at Auschwtiz and our guide was able to figure out where she stayed and worked even though her account seemed to contradict what the maps and signs said. We were asked not to take pictures, but this is not enforced at all. I only took one of the train tracks into Birkenau.
They told us about the select prisoners who worked in the gas chambers. They were usually selected because they spoke the same language as the victims who would soon be arriving. After the people were killed, these men had to remove any fillings from their teeth and shave the women's hair, which was used in the German textile industry. They even had hair that had not been shipped to factories when the camp was liberated by the Red Army. After a few months, our guide said that these prisoners were "liquidated."
Overall, it was fascinating and very somber, but it wasn't emotional for me like I thought that it would be. I am very glad that we went.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Vienna Philharmonic

Okay, another quick post to tell about a really cool thing that we did. We heard that the Vienna Philharmonic was giving a free open air concert in Schoenbrunn Palace so we decided to go. There were a ton of people there (think Alabama/Auburn game). And the best part? Bill Clinton was introduced at the beginning because he was accepting a check for an AIDS charity. It was freaking awesome!! Plus, we saw some old ladies have a shoving match because one stepped in front of the other. Toss in some Tchaikovsky, and that my friends is a great night.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Quick update

I'm now in Vienna in the middle of my travel marathon. Krakow was really nice. We went to Auschwitz, which I'll blog about later. Krakow is must see. Vienna is really nice too, but after so much traveling and walking around, my feet and legs are killing me. I did see Gustav Klimt's The Kiss at the Belvedere today. Wow, so cool!! I'll try to write more and add pictures this weekend.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Travel (Again!) and a Zoe update

Thanks so much for your prayers for Zoe. Today on our third trip in one week, the vet finally took x-rays, and noticed two areas of concern on her mid and lower back. She is stocked up on pain and other meds (including B Vitamins). It's wait and see now because Wednesday I leave and will only be back home for a day or two until June 2. I'm taking her to her usual boarder with strict instructions for no climbing stairs, jumping, running, or playing with other dogs. Pobrecita! How boring!

Now for the travel details. I leave for Krakow on Thursday with friends from school. Since Auschwitz is close, we are going there too. It should be a great trip, and I'm going with the funniest people I've met so far here. (Although they don't compare to Trey and Co., the Lunch Crew, or the Glencoe girls for peeing in the pants laughter) We get back Sunday just in time for me to turn around and leave Monday for Vienna with the Grade 10 on their European Destination field trip. We're there til Friday. There's a possible trip to Berlin for Saturday and Sunday to watch English movies, and then Monday, I leave to chaperone a Model United Nation group in Oldenburg, Germany. We get back Saturday. My poor Zoe won't recognize me!!

As I type, a good old fashioned Southern thunderstorm is going on outside complete with hail. A part of me wants there to be a "weather event," but it's just not the same without James in the weather center. He wouldn't have even taken off his coat for this one much less rolled up his sleeves. Oh what the Germans are missing with their sedate weather!

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Prayer Request

Zoe has hurt her back. I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but she has been in pain since the night that I got back home to Dresden. I took her to the vet first thing on Tuesday morning. He gave her several shots and some pain medicine. I am supposed to bring her back on Friday for more tests. She doesn't want to walk and even drags her back legs behind her. I'm really scared that she is seriously injured and will need surgery. I think most of you understand how much this upsets me. I've cried more in the past few days than at The Notebook and Steele Magnolias put together! Please be praying for her and for me.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Wedding!!

I just got back from Haley's wedding. It was gorgeous. Here are some pictures



From the rehearsal dinner


My new brother-in-law!!


These are from the day of the wedding. My dad looks very handsome and my mom looks beautiful...



The flowers were some of the prettiest that I've ever seen.





Haley even had each girl's initials on her bouquet.








Haley and Keith are big Alabama fans so when they left the reception, everyone had shakers instead of throwing birdseed or blowing bubbles.



I love her dress.


Here are some other pictures from the reception.





Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Travel

I will be going back to the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon for my lovely sister's wedding. I am very excited about seeing all my family at the celebration. I know that she will be a gorgeous bride. The only thing that I don't look forward to is having to fly from Atlanta on Sunday afternoon to be in Dresden on Monday for school. I am praying for blessings like sleep on the plane, a good seat mate, and to be bumped into first class. I would be thrilled.