Want to know what isn't so great?

A week of temps above 80 in a southward-facing school with many windows. My answer to this sauna? Ice cream bars.

Lucerne

Sorry that it's taken me so long to post these pictures from Lucerne. I had a lovely, albeit short, time. I took the overnight train from Dresden and arrived in Lucerne around 10. I spent about 12 hours on the train. That's why I look so tired in these.

In front of the famous bridge and water tower in Lucerne. It was built in the 14th century.

Another shot of the bridge from the opposite side of the river.

On a boat ride around Lake Lucerne. We got off at a little village to walk around and had to run back to the boat. We almost missed it.

A view from the balcony of the hostel

Fondue!

One not so nice thing about Switzerland are these political advertisements. This is about foreigners getting Swiss citizenship. Notice the color of the hands. Here is a BBC article about an upcoming citizenship vote, and here is an interesting article about another poster.

Transitions

In less than two months, I will be home. My flight is booked for June 27, and Zoe is confirmed too. As I get ready to leave, I am going to share some things that I'll miss and some that I won't.

I'll miss spring in Dresden. It is so wonderful when the weather finally changes. I love being able to open all the windows. Eating outside, especially at Biergartens, is a real treat. Everyone's spirits seem lifted.

I'll also miss not having the expense of a car. I buy a tram/bus pass for 44 euros, and that is pretty much the extent of my transportation expenses for the month (unless I take a taxi, which is rare).

I won't miss seeing people drinking openly on the street. It's just odd to me to see someone drinking straight out of a wine, beer, or liquor bottle at anytime of the day or night anywhere, including the trams and buses.

I won't miss not having the convenience of having a car for grocery shopping. Yesterday, I misjudged and carried home close to 40 pounds of groceries for about half a mile. I weighed it when I got home. That's not even the heaviest grocery load that I've carried.

An unexpected trip!

In two weeks from right now, I will be boarding an overnight train to Lucerne, Switzerland. I've not been to Switzerland, and I'm very excited about going. A friend will be in Switzerland for a month and is meeting me there. I'm going to be sure to have some fondue and Rösti. Yummy. I'll only be there for a day, but I love unexpected trips!

Books

I've read some really interesting books lately and wanted to share some of the good ones.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: This is the story of fraternal twins. It is set in India, which is one of my very favorite settings for a novel. The best part is Roy's writing style, which is really inventive and different.

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly: I picked this up in Dublin. It is about a female doctor around the turn of the century in London. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the East End, but I didn't think there was much depth to the book.

The White Mountains by John Christopher: I read this science fiction book to help one of my students write a book report. I liked it. It's about a boy who escapes from tripods that enslave humans.

A Painted House by John Grisham: I'm not really a John Grisham fan usually, but I really liked this book. It has no lawyers in it and is the story of a young boy growing up on a farm in Arkansas.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: I loved this book. It is enchanting.

Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey: He is my favoriite Christian author. In this book, he profiles people, especially writers who have influenced him. I have a whole new list of books to read from this book!

My next book is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Easter (a little late)

This was the lovely view on Easter morning. I meant to post it on my blog, but I hadn't uploaded my pictures until recently.

Homeward Bound

Well, as many of you know, my father has been ill for quite some time. He has recently gotten worse. After much prayer, I have decided to move back after this school year to be closer to my parents. In many ways, I am torn by this decision. I am happy to be closer to friends and family and to be a country where I speak the language. I am also sad because I really enjoy working with my students here. I will miss my friends here and all the traveling I get to do. It's much easier to get to Italy when it's just a 3 hour flight away instead of a 10 hour one. It's also much cheaper. I feel totally at peace with my decision though despite the fact that I'll have to pay three times as much for good German chocolate.

I feel that it's important that I am Gadsden, but I also have to get a job. I already have some prospects in Birmingham. I really enjoyed living in Birmingham, and I definitely need a job, but is this best for my situation? I'm just not sure. I would really appreciate your prayers!

I also have to end all my contracts here, find someone to buy/take my furniture, move out, and fly back with Zoe. I am praying for another teacher to take over the apartment. That would be a blessing. I will keep you updated on what's happening.

Busy...

School has been crazy these past two weeks. Every day last week, I stayed after school for a meeting. Then we had a field trip for a Rainforest walk/run fundraiser on Friday. Today, we had personal project presentations. In the Middle Years Programme of the IBO, 10th graders do a year long personal project. We had to read through their essays, listen to presentations, and mark their work. Then we had an accreditation meeting afterwords. Tomorrow is the official grand opening ceremony, and on Thursday, the middle school kids go to an art exhibit of the grade 12 DP art students. Progress reports go out Friday and next week are teacher-parent conferences. I think there are some things I'm missing. Right now, I'm just praying for the grace to get through each day without forgetting something major!

Dublin

I just got back from Dublin. I chaperoned a group of five students who were involved in a Model United Nations conference there. Dublin was very cute but dirty compared to Germany. We left very early on Tuesday morning to go to Berlin for our flight. The next day, I went with other MUN advisors to tour the city. We went to the Guinness storehouse and brewery. It was pretty cool and had a great panaromic view of the city on the 7th floor. I didn't try any Guinness though. I opted for a Coke instead of the pint that is included with admission.

After that, I went to Trinity College and got to see the Book of Kells, which was SO COOL!!! That was probably one of the coolest things I've seen in Europe so far. For the rest of the time, I sat in committees and hung around the conference to be there with my students. The worst part of the trip was this morning. There was a dance last night for the students that ended at midnight. We had to leave for the airport at 3:15am. The students came back to my (very small) hotel room after the dance because they had been staying with host families. They all sacked out on the floor. It's funny how teenagers can sleep anywhere for any amount of time. I didn't sleep at all.

Dublin is pretty cool. It was great to be in an English speaking country, and most people were really friendly. It is crazy expensive though. A whopper value meal at Burger King (not supersized) was over $11!!

It's good to be back in Dresden, especially since this is our spring break. Happy Easter!

Grumpy

Lately I have noticed that I have been a grumpy gus. I have just been so annoyed by complete strangers recently. There was a couple at the grocery store on Friday, and the guy was licking the girl's neck! It was completely disgusting, and I wanted to ram them with my shopping cart. Then today, an old woman got on the tram and asked for my seat even though there were at least 5 empty seats in the area. Oh no, she wanted the exact seat where I sat. I was more than a little frustrated. I need to go to the beach and chill out or something.

Great Weather and Spring Trips

The past two days have been great here. It's been sunny, and yesterday's temp was in the 60s!! Also, since there's more daylight now, the winter seems to be fading away. This spring, I'll be going to Dublin, Ireland as a chaperone for Model United Nations. I'm going the week before Easter, so I'm hoping to attend some Holy Week services in English while there. (if there's any chance) Then, we have the European Destination trips in June. Since I speak Spanish and was the geography teacher last year, I'm getting to go with the Grade 11 geography students to Barcelona! Those are my only spring trips so far. I still don't have anything planned for Easter break yet. I might stay in Germany but go to Cologne or Hamburg. I've also thought about Budapest with a stop off in Bratislava. I might even stay in Dresden.

Pics from Berlin

This is from Checkpoint Charlie. My dad was stationed in Germany in the early 1960s and also has a picture of himself in front of the checkpoint.

The Berlin Wall was mostly dismantled, so Berlin has this to commemorate where the wall one stood.

A small section of the wall near Potsdamer Platz

Fun and Games

My friend Amanda came to visit last week. She was a trooper as she is not only about 6 months pregnant but also has a broken kneecap. She broke it the Monday before she left on Friday to fly to Germany. It only changed our plans slightly, and we had a great time. We went to Berlin and Prague. This was the first time I had been to Berlin as a tourist. We went to the DDR museum, Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, and Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival. We also went to Prague and stayed only a few houses down the street from the Charles Bridge!

One of the most fun things we did was a game we entitled "How well do YOU know the 'Coe?" We each gave three clues about someone from Glencoe, and the other person tried to guess. It was great fun. An example of a clue might be "went on one date with Amanda" or "was the salutatorian." It was really fun. We played the game for at least an hour on the train back from Prague.

It was a great week. Unfortunately, school starts tomorrow. Yuck!

Zoe at PT

This is a short video of Zoe at physical therapy. She is walking on the underwater treadmill. She is doing much better; however, she still doesn't walk all the time. Tonight she wore weights on her right leg to make it stronger.

'Fridge

After more than four months, at least four visits from repairmen, and lots of frustration, I finally have a permanent refrigerator! It came last Thursday. They decided to repair the old one because they couldn't order a new one that fit my kitchen. They brought the repaired fridge and took away my replacement fridge that I've had since October. All I can say is "Hallelujah!"

Books

I love to read. In fact, I've read 4 books this week alone and half of two others. I would recommend most of them. Here are a few of them that I read this week.

History of Love by Nicole Krauss: This books has a lot of intricate details that come together at the end in a unique way. It's main characters include Leo Gursky who lost the only woman he ever loved when she thought he had died during the Holocaust. The other character is Alma who is named after a character in an obscure book that her deceased father gave her mom. It is a poignant book.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: I read it all in one sitting. Haunting. When I finally figured out why most of the women of the "bad guys" were pregnant, I was really disturbed . I even dreamed about it last night.

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult: A fast-moving book about a mother who kills the man accused of molesting her child. It definitely made me think about how far I could be pushed if a loved one was hurt like that.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen: I'm reading this to make a reading guide for the 7th graders when they read it later it in the semester. It's pretty interesting. I'm not finished with it yet

So those are some of the books I've read this week. I've read a lot of books for students this year. I think my favorite is Tomorrow, When the War Began. It's about a group of teenagers who become resistance fighters when their country (Australia!) is invaded. It is a series. I've already read the second and want to read the others when I have extra money to buy them.

Happy New Year

First of all, I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I posted. December was a busy month for me. Of course, Zoe went to PT three times a week. Our school moved buildings over the Christmas break so there was a lot of work between packing and working on things that might get pushed aside in the chaos of starting at the new campus. Plus, my lovely friend Brooke came to visit, and I went home to Alabama for two weeks. So I neglected my blog. I'll give an update of what's going on.

Zoe stayed behind in Dresden. I think this is the last time that I'll leave her for so long. I'll either take her with me or not be gone for so long. I missed her terribly, and it's almost cheaper just to pay for her to fly with me instead of boarding her. She seems to be doing better. She can walk a few more steps on her own. Although it seems like she falls over everytime I'm about to get really excited about her walking ability. I'm like "Hey! You're walk..." and she's down.

Being at home was great. I got to spend a lot of time with my family and see almost all of my friends. In fact, being at home is so nice that I'm usually in a funk for a few days after I get back. Being jet-lagged doesn't help much either.

Having a friend come visit was so nice too. I know the city so much better now and it was great to show her around. Plus, Christmas is such a pretty time here. I'm looking forward to having another friend visit soon.

I think jet-lag is calling again. It's barely 8:00 and I can hardly keep my eyes open.