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.

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!

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!

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!

Tapas for Thanksgiving

I was in Madrid, Spain last week for a teacher's conference. It was great. The conference sessions were really informative, and I had a chance to go to the Prado and the Reina Sofia museum. I love Spanish art, so I think the Prado has been my favorite art museum so far. Plus I got to see Guernica at the other one. It was way bigger than I expected.

Speaking Spanish was wonderful too. It was such a relief to know the language, to communicate, and to understand!

One of the best things was going out to a tapas bar for dinner on Thanksgiving. We had great food, although my paella had what looked like a whole baby chicken in it. Plus, it's a fun memory to eat tapas for Thanksgiving dinner in Madrid.

Seiffen

On Saturday, a group of us drove to Seiffen. Seiffen is a village in the Erzgebirge Mountains south of Dresden. Seiffen is where all those famous German Christmas decorations are made. We have seen some snow in Dresden, but nothing has stuck yet in the city because the temps are still above freezing most of the time. Since Seiffen is in the mountains, it has colder temps and LOTS of snow. I'm still really unsure when walking in the snow. It's scary!

I did some shopping for Christmas. It was really nice to get away for the day. A student from school was sweet enough to come by and check on Zoe twice. I'm getting in the Christmas spirit!

More Paris pics

Here are a few more pictures from my trip to Paris. I haven't had a chance to post them in all the Zoe hullabaloo.

at the Louvre

the gardens at Versailles

an unflattering picture of me in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
Montmartre

a view of the gargoyles at Notre Dame.

Paris

After much tribulation due to the Metro strike in Paris, I have arrived back in Dresden. I found Paris to be really great. I don't know how it got such a bad reputation, but I thought that the people in Paris were so nice and friendly. The crepes were delicious. My favorite was banana-nutella -- oh so yummy. The museums were great. I got to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and lots of Impressionists at the Musee d'Orsay. One of the best things was just walking through Paris and going into all the fun shops. The churches were great too. I was at Notre Dame for a Vespers service. I would definitely love to go back to Paris. I would rank it with Florence and Venice as my favorite European cities. I will post pictures very soon (tomorrow, I hope).

P.S. Please be praying for Zoe. She is in pain. The dog boarder said that she had been sick all week. I'm not sure if it is her back or her tummy.

Leipzig

So last night Zoe and I were at a Biergarten with friends enjoying possibly one of the last outdoor, Biergarten opportunities. I so love eating outside and the roast chicken with pommes(fries) at Schillergarten. Some of them were talking about going to Leipzig today, and I decided to join them. Our main point in going was to tour the Stasi (East German secret police) museum that is in the former Stasi headquarters. It blows my mind just how much they spied on the East German citizens. They opened letters, examined scents (what does that tell you?), taped phone conversations, and even took pictures of people who attended church.

We also went to St. Thomaskirche where Bach was the cantor. We had a treat because a choral ensemble was practicing for a concert tonight. They sung beautifully, and I got to hear them for free. The acoustics in the church made it seem as if the music was filling up your body. Then we went to the Nicolaikirche, which is a really cool church that has columns built to resemble palm trees. Someone was getting married there today. It was a really nice day overall.

School's barely started,

and I'm already thinking about my first vacation. I just booked a flight to Paris during my fall break for 100 Euros.

Feed the birds... or else

I just got these pictures from my friend who met me in Venice. In San Marcos Square, tourists can feed the birds. You can buy birdseed from vendors for a euro. The birds are used to this and are very bold. You can see from these pics that it started out well, but then the pigeons attacked.

Eagle's Nest

I forgot to post pics of my tour of the Eagle's Nest. It was cool to be in a place where so much history had taken place.

Ich spreche Deutsch...

Well, not so much yet, but I start a German course on Monday that is four weeks long. I will go to class four days a week from 9:00-1:00. I am going to what is the equivalent of community college although they offer really cool stuff. I could take Japanese or even belly-dancing classes if I wanted. Friends from school and church have taken courses like these and say that they are really good. I don't want much. I just want to be able to say hello and carry on simple conversations with my neighbors. Now, if I see one approaching, I practically run inside my apartment to avoid having to talk. It's just so frustrating!!

Now for the Sound of Music Answers:

#1: obviously, the gazebo for the songs "I am 16" with Rolf and Liesel and "Something Good" with the Captain and Maria

#2: The back of the house where the kids fell in the lake after going around in their "play clothes."

#3: From the end of "Do Re Mi." The kids hop up the stairs and Maria walks up and hits the high note at the very end of the song.

#4: Fountain in "I Have Confidence" when Maria leaves the abbey. Unfortunately, I think I took this from the wrong angle.

#5 and #6: These are probably the hardest. They are from "Do Re Mi." The kids walk around the fountain (but that is shot from above the fountain) and then have a pretend race while singing down the walkway.

Stefano?

On the way from Rome to Venice, two Italian women were having a discussion and the name Stefano came up several times. Of course, I didn't understand any of it, but I wanted to say, "I know, can you believe what he's doing to Marlena right now?"

Obviously, I've been too influenced by Days, but doesn't it seem weird that someone is actually named Stefano?

Cool stuff

I'm having a good time so far. It can be a bit lonely though, but I had nice conversations today in Florence as I waited 9 hours total to see David at the Accademia and the Boticelli's at the Uffizi. Totally worth it though. Pics will be coming later

Come on ride that train...

I hope you now have the Quad City DJs stuck in your head! I am leaving Thursday for almost two weeks to go to Italy and Austria. I will be traveling by train the entire time. I am looking forward to it, but I'm a little nervous too because I am going by myself. Here's my itinerary so you can think about me on these days.

Thursday, June 28: Munich
Sunday, July 1: Milan
Monday, July 2: Florence (Since I'm only going to be there a day, please be praying that I can get into the two museums that I missed when I was there in October)
Tuesday, July 3: Rome
Friday, July 6: Venice
Sunday, July 8: Innsbruck, Austria
Monday July 9: Salzburg... I've booked the Sound of Music tour. I'm giddy with excitement.
The next day I'm going on the Eagle's Nest tour to where Hitler had a vacation retreat.
Wednesday, July 11: Back to Munich then home to Dresden

Please be praying for my safety as I will be alone, for clean, safe hostels, and for some traveling companions. I will try to post while I'm gone.

On to Vienna

So I'm still playing catch-up. We arrived back in Dresden after our trip to Krakow at 7:15 pm. Guess when I left for Vienna? 5:15 the next morning! Yes, I am crazy.

After a LONG 8 hour bus ride (and being in 4 different countries in less than 24 hours), we made to our less than clean hostel. Five chaperones and 30 10th graders; let the fun begin!! Actually, our group was really well-behaved. They were on time and polite, especially compared with other school groups we saw.

We went to several art museums, including the gallery at the Belvedere Palace. Gustav Klimt's The Kiss is there. It is one of my favorites. The gold in the painting is luminous. I snuck a picture when a guard wasn't in the room. Another highlight of the trip was a visit to see the morning workout of the famous Spanish riding school in Vienna. We were able to see one of the horses work on jumping back. It was really cool. Several of our students ride and show horses so they were able to explain a lot about the different techniques. Here's a picture of their stables.

The absolute best part of our trip was going to the Schoenbrunn Palace to hear a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic. This was not part of our plans, but we saw advertisements decided that it would be fun. This was a really famous outdoor, free concert. There were over 80,000 people attending. Plus, Bill Clinton was there accepting a check for his AIDS charity. You can say what you will, but I like him a lot so I was super excited. Plus two older ladies got into a shoving match. So we had multiple forms of entertainment!

I ended up not going on the Model United Nations trip the next week because I wasn't feeling well on Sunday. I was a little disappointed, but I was able to get Zoe a week early and get some work done at school.

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.