8/31/11 Schnitzel

Tonight after work Deb, Julia, and I went to Hohenecken for dinner. We went to the main hotel in the village which also happens to have a restaurant...the Burgschanke.

Not long ago this place still had dirt floors (OK, its within the 20+ years that George, one of the other teachers, has been in the Kaiserslautern area that the place got a real floor).

This place has real German food (go figure in Germany) but its supposed to be like "home style" food...if that makes any sense at all to you. They have the most delicious salad (wish I had thought to take a picture of it). It has springs lettuces, carrots, thin sliced cucumbers, some pickled cabbage, albino green beans and their "house" dressing...its kind of a mixture of yogurt (or so I think) and such. It is hard to do this salad justice but it was so good!

I decided to have the Jagerschnitzel

Admittedly, the picture does not do the food justice. According to Deb the schnitzel wasn't as good as usual, but I thought it was awfully tasty. Look at all that food, oh my gosh...and that was after having a salad. Needless to say, I will be having some jagerschnitzel and pommes frites for lunch tomorrow.

Not sure what I will do this weekend. It is after all a long weekend, but don't know if I can still get in on some of the USO tours or not. I was thinking of taking one to Amsterdam (If they still have room available). Not only does it go to the city but also to a wooden shoe factory and a cheese place. Or perhaps I will go on the tour to Trier for the Bread and Games...Trier is the oldest city in Germany. I guess I better see if any tours are still available before I start making plans. So anyway, that was my day...the only bad part was getting back to the room in time (or so I thought) to talk to the boys on Skype only to find the WiFi was out. Barely came back on a bit ago :( Oh well there is always tomorrow.

8/29/11

Today was the first day of school...what a feeling of being out of ones element! I definitely over-estimated the ability level of the 4th and 5th graders....serious need to reconsider how I do things and how much time it will take. They were very nice kids though, so that made up for it. Luckily the majority of the time was just for the "specials" anyway (somehow my gifted enrichment got lumped in with art, music, pe, etc). The regular science class went ok. Review of scientific method...not always the most exciting of subject areas.

Ended up staying for an hour and a half after school, yes, still doing some work. Finally had to leave: the power went out. So we made our way over to the other side of this base (it's really kind of a mixture of base, air stations, and barracks) to my lodging...I sure hope it didn't take Deb too long to get off base. I have been sitting here for a few hours attempting not to go to sleep...if I went to sleep before the power came back on, I couldn't set the clock and the alarm.

I am so ready for sleep. Didn't sleep well last night, so kind of drowsy now. Needless to say, didn't go anywhere today, so didn't take any pictures :( Tomorrow is another day!

Oh yeah, almost forgot...I guess that hot humid weather was just to confuse me...it is now cool (only 61 degrees F at the moment) and when its not raining, it looks like it will...rather chilly!

8/28/11 Sunday before school

I admit readily, I am a workaholic, but even I have never had to work up until the day before school to be ready for the first day of school...but I have now. Got up this morning, started working on some things for the classes that I may or may not have all year long, ended up going over to the school for a bit so I could make copies of the few things I was sure I would be using, then hitched a ride with Deb back to lodging. Nothing really exciting in all of that (if you were excited by it, you need to seek some serious help). But rather than just taking me back to lodging we took a short detour.

We drove up the 270 for a short distance and drove through the village of Hohenecken, then up to this little lake (not a clue what its name is, but you can get little boats etc there)...anyway, there was this cute little hotel that is right next to the lake. It is called the Seehotel Gelterswoog...maybe the lake is named Gelterswoog. Point being cute setting. I guess when the school secretary was thinking of places for me to stay she thought of it, but then I would have been more dependent on a ride plus its three times as much as what I am paying and considering that I would probably just be there for sleeping...makes sense to be where I am for now. All of this is on the route to Queidersbach, which is someplace I am considering living at...well actually so is Hohenecken...time will tell.

At any rate, I digress, on the way back I noticed a castle or at least the ruins of a castle (I hadn't seen any until this point in my adventure). So we turned back around and went through part of Hohenecken to look at things a little better (but we were limited on time since Deb needed to get home and that is 30 minutes away from my lodging). So this village is quite cute. All the European houses (go figure in Europe), the cobblestone streets and walkways, a strange fixation with big fish on their buildings (from what I understand that is the mascot for this area... don't ask me, I am the newbie)...long story short it was just very quaint.

I didn't take too many pictures, after all we were just skimming through and I can return another time and do that, but here are a few from today's excursion. I guess you have to hike up to the castle ruins to get a good view.

8/27/11 Happy birthday to little man Jake

Feeling kind of bad, today is my little man Jake's 1st birthday and I am missing it...let alone can't seem to even find them on internet or Skype :( Thank goodness we had a birthday party for him while we were in Colorado. Fingers crossed that perhaps they will come online before I go to bed so that I can tell him Happy Birthday (would be nice to get to talk with Nikki too)

I actually got to sleep in today...well, if you want to call it that, I slept till about 7 am. I haven't gotten to do that in a long while. Seems once I accepted the DOD job I started waking up at 5:30 - 6 am (heaven knows why since I am not a morning person). I think this is the first time since then that I slept so late...who knows maybe tomorrow I will sleep in till 7:30 am LOL Anyway, I woke up seemed to waste a bunch of hours looking for things in my baggage (no, I have no unpacked it all just yet). Finally, decided I would go over to the school to get some things done for next week.

The funny thing is in order to get from Kapaun (where I am staying) to Vogelweh you have to either drive over (going through the gates) or if you are walking you have to cross this bridge from one side to the other. The problem was that I was not sure exactly where the bridge was. So, I ended up strolling through the schools that are on this side and still wasn't sure where it was, so luckily, I came upon these two kids who were goofing around by the school and they showed me where the bridge was. I don't care what anyone says, sometimes it's a Godsend to find some kids goofing around.

I got to the school (my school) in time for the rain to start; it was kind of nice to sit at my desk, working, listening to the rain. I actually got a lot of work done (although not all of it) in time to think about coming back to my room...it was important to get back in time for my scheduled Skype time with Heather and the boys. Like I said, I had thought perhaps I might get lucky and get to Skype with little man Jake and Nikki too, but perhaps another time soon. My sponsor went to the school too, so thank goodness she gave me a ride back to my room as it was still raining.

Deb, my sponsor, brought me the community magazine...it has a list of the USO tours for the next month. It will be kind of difficult to figure out which are the better choices...so many sound so good, but they are scheduled on the same days. They have one coming up soon as a little trip to Alsace for wine tasting...I am thinking that one sounds good. Then there is one going to Paris for a dinner cruise. Then there are the castle tours, the festivals, the tour of the Black Forrest area...so many to choose from. Somewhere in all of this, I need to get a car and find a place to live...so much to do.

So not much exciting to post for today, but I did take a few pictures along my walk to the school. It really is pretty around here, and the pictures don't do it justice, but thought I would share a few.

I just thought this tree looked cool.

The bridge from Kapaun to Vogelweh.

This is the street that the bridge crosses.

Ok, so this picture may not make sense to you, but basically this is like a runoff area. Rather than just having a rush of water (its behind the one of the playground areas) it is broken up into "steps"...if you look closely, its all bricked...as are the sidewalks...very cool.

These next pictures are just part of the 10 acres that the school sits on.

As an update, after many hours of trying, I did finally get to talk with Nikki and my little man Jake, so I did get to tell him Happy Birthday. Besides that, I thought, while talking to them about doing a screen shot...wish I had thought of that earlier in the day when I was talking with Heather and the boys...but now I know for future reference...so I got a picture of Jake on his birthday :)

Man I love my boys...now I just have to find a way to talk with Jack (miss that little guy...miss the others too but I get to at least Skype with them sometimes). I am blessed to have such wonderful grands...wouldn't trade them for the world. :)

8/26/11 Made it to Friday

Well, it's been an interesting week, gotta give it credit for that. I started out the week flying into Ramstein, going to the school then basically passing out at my lodging. Then up bright and early the next morning to start the confusion (I have to admit, as much as I hated the returning teacher training at BUHS at least I knew what I was doing...I am still in a bit of a fog now...but this too shall pass).

To make a long story short, I am obviously doing more than just gifted ed, as I thought I was. It seems I am also on what they call the "wheel" for special classes (like art, music, PE, etc). So each day I have a class from a specific grade that comes to me for gifted education...even though they are not all gifted (don't ask me, I still don't understand it, other than that the regular classroom teachers need their prep time and that is what the "specials" are for. So, yesterday I was told that besides doing the gifted job (which is quite entailed here...I am the gifted department), I will also be teaching an hour of 5th grade (science/social studies...unless of course the district oks for the teacher of that 5th grade class to become full time...all dependent on numbers enrolled etc...fingers crossed they will ok it as of today, but who knows). Then add to the real "gifted" course load, and the 5th grade science/social studies, I also have the 5th grade classes  for that special "wheel" time during the last period of the day. Fair enough, I will have a lot of work to do and more than likely have to bring a lot home to do my job well, but I can do this (especially with the hope that the half time 5th grade teacher will be given full time). Oh but wait, they sprung on me today that not only will I have the 5th grade classes for the special wheel time (who came up with that name???) but I will also have the 4th grade classes for special wheel time. So now I have 3 periods out of the day that I am teaching things other than gifted and yet still have to figure out how to schedule my real gifted students to come twice a week...and still be able to test new students who might qualify for gifted and it time permits actually do observations (which are a normal thing for gifted in most schools). LOL, good thing it is pretty here :)

Needless to say, after many odd meetings, and being told this, then that, I still have no clue what I will really be doing next week when school starts. But everything has a way of working out, even if we have no clue how or when it will. So, I will just go with the flow and hope for a quick simplification of the chaotic school stuff.

I did get invited to go to Paris for the three day weekend, but I don't think I will be able to go this trip. Besides, I should be looking for a car and a place to live. Speaking of places to live, if anyone thinks that the lodging on base is opulent or even "really nice" hmmm well judge for yourself. It's not great but you know, it works for now. (yep, these are my lovely pictures for the day...and here you thought it was always going to be some landscape or the like...NOT):

Let's start off with my scenic view from my room...yep, its raining again...but at least that cuts some of the heat  :)

Ok, ok, can't do this without some pretty picture, so here is one of the sweet little teeny tiny flowers outside...

Not really much to say for today. Went to work early, got out late...will be going back tomorrow to attempt to be ready for whatever may come on Monday...confusing yes, but I am in a really cool place for the confusion! For those friends and family that are disappointed in this not being a bit more exciting...sorry, but pacing myself...can't have excitement everyday when I will be here for a few years.

8/26/11 I got out and about

It's not like I have been out and about much since getting to Germany, so today when one of the other teachers asked if I would like to go with her to dinner, I jumped at the opportunity. If nothing else I knew it would let me see a house here (since we had to stop and get her dog to take to the vet...Lego, the dog, was then going to dinner with us).

So we leave Kapaun (the base that I am staying on...its next door to Vogelweh; the base I am teaching on) get on the autobahn (nothing I haven't seen already) and then we turn off on a different route than I have gone thus far. You have to understand that the autobahn is lined with big trees (at least on the way to Ramstein, and I haven't gone beyond that until today) so you never could really see the countryside. So we go on our merry way and next thing I know the trees open up and you see this beautifully green rolling countryside with freshly cut and rolled hay, horses running in fields and flowers, everywhere.

There was this field along our route that was filled with flowers. It seems that people can go to this field and cut their own flower bouquet then pay for it (for cheap). Next thing I know were are in this village with cobble stone roads that are barely wide enough for one car, and yet it has two way traffic. Quite the puzzle as to how   to determine who gets to go first when you come upon another car. Thank goodness I was not driving LOL.

I know it will disappoint some, but I did not go out for schnitzel and beer. No, instead we went to an Italian restaurant, but it did have really good lasagna and after a few days of living off Ramen noodles, it was a welcome change. Yes, you definitely do wait a bit for your meal but it was delicious and it wasn't that bad of a wait and the service was actually quite good (despite the horror stories that some tell). They had the most delicious chocolates with the check too (I guess their version of an after dinner mint...it was yummy).

I didn't take many pictures, as I was taking them as we drove along (I didn't want to be rude and ask Laurie to stop so I could take pictures...let alone you can't stop on the autobahn, and we were on it half the time), but I have attached a few. More to come!

In Germany

Ok, I have been terrible about this blog. So to summarize, I spent a week thinking that packing and moving was going to go well. Afterall, the hold baggage pickup went well...what the hell happened to the household goods packup? First they show up as scheduled on Tuesday (August 16, 2011) but only stay for about an hour. The funny thing, they show up, look around real quick then went on to take a 15 minute smoke break.

Anyway, the decide there must have been some mice in the garage at one point or another as they found some droppings. Heaven forbid they work with that sort of situation, so rather than moving into the house to pack things up, they whined and cried and went home. So the next morning the JPPSO inspector came out and saw that the droppings had been cleaned up and gave the thumbs up for packing to resume. It took the movers almost 3 hours to show up...and then they worked slow as slow can be. The next day luckily the movers brought a few more packers with them, so the house was completely packed (or so I thought). The next day (yes, Friday, the day before I was flying out of Colorado) the loaders show up. They worked hard and fast and had to do some of the packing too since the packers hadn't done their job well.

By the time all this happened, I didnt have time to clean up the townhouse as planned, so the landlady got it back with somewhat a mess (not like I expected her to return the deposit anyway). So then she said Heather could go over and clean up the townhouse for me but she changed the locks almost immediately...what a wench.

So, Saturday morning at 0 dark thirty, I got up to get ready to go to the airport (well as ready as I could be). Heather was so great and got up to take me (really hard not to cry at that point...heck I had started crying saying goodbye to Luigi at the house). I got on this little puddle jumper plane that was my ride to Minneapolis. That thing was so small that I (short as I am) couldnt stand up straight other than in the very middle of the aisle on the plane.

Pictures from the Minneapolis area (from the plane)

Ok, so I made it to Minneapolis then transferred over to my flight to Baltimore. Thank goodness a bigger plane.Not a bad flight at all, really. Pictures from that part of the flight:

So, I flew into Baltimore thinking everything was going well...oops, shouldn't have been thinking. I collected all my baggage and moved my way to the AMC (military flight area). Of course no one was there, so I called the number listed and somehow my flight was not on the recorded flight list. I still had a few hours till there might be someone at the counter so I decided to go down to the USO to at least check in my bags so I didnt have to lug them around. Come to find out that the flight had been cancelled and the USO had been informed a week earlier. I took their suggestion and called a hotel close by the airport; at least I would get a good nights sleep (which I did since their bed was so comfy). The next day I headed out to the airport (Still having hours to wait for someone to be at the ticket counter for the military flight. I did (once they opened up the check-in) get checked in and sat there wondering if the flight would be cancelled yet again (there was a huge storm...loads of lightning and heavy rain)...but all of a sudden the clouds started to part and it looked like things would go right.

So after waiting six more hours it was time to board the plane. How silly of me to think that just because the storm had ended hours earlier that it wouldnt effect the flight. We were delayed due to the storm being in our flight path. After about an hour they had decided on a slight flight path change, we got extra gas and were on our way. I know now that if at all possible, any time I take a flight to the US or back, I will hope I can afford 1st class on a commercial flight (this flight was quite uncomfortable). I did however make it to Germany (only a little late too).

We got off the plane in time to be given our customs speech...you know, only so many tobacco products, no meat products, only so much alcohol, etc. Went through to show passport and orders...so disappointed, since we landed on a military base, no stamp on the passport. At any rate, so I go to get my luggage (all of it) but first went to get a cart...it took cash not credit card. I had no cash as I had given it away thinking I wouldnt need it...silly me. Luckily some nice people paid for the cart for me...thank goodness for kindness of others. I packed all my luggage on the cart, again told the customs people I had nothing to claim and was on my way, thanks to my sponsor. She is the best!

We stopped off at the school to get the secretary to start the paperwork for my pay (oops DOD didnt have me do that despite telling the secretary that they had)...got my paperwork done for my password and login for the school system, then off to lodging...oops, once again, another snaffu. Oh yeah, my sponsor is so good that she got me a flower bouquet and a snack bag...yummy stuff in it too!

Somehow lodging had the time frame of my stay wrong, plus they had me on the 4th floor of a walkup building (with all that luggage...grrrrr). So the clerk worked his magic and got me a first floor room...but it is further from the school...cool though, a place to sleep. Stopped by the tiny commissary on Kapaun and off to see what my room was like. (Not bad by the way).

I was exhausted! Despite the exhaustion, I did stay up till about 9 pm in hopes that it would take care of the jet lag...not quite, still working on that.

Tuesday, up bright and early to start my time at Vogelweh. Funny thing, when the principal introduced me she said that not only would I be doing gifted education but somehow I was also teaching 5th grade science/social studies in the afternoons...news to me. I have been trying to talk with her about it, but havent gotten a chance yet. Not a big deal, just kind of irritating that she didnt bother to tell me in advance. My classroom is kind of interesting. It is in a portable building that says DECON on the outside. The windows are normal european windows so they are interesting. What I like best is that on one side of my room the windows face these lovely trees (see them below):

Oh to add fun for the day, I got up bright and early again today...not to go to school, oh no, it was to go and take my USAREUR drivers license test (what a pain in the butt that was). Egads, it was such a traumatic thing...first all those odd signs, then their strange way of looking at who has the right of way (which isnt always quite as it may seem)...100 questions later I was done. You have to keep in mind you have to get at least an 85 to pass. I barely skimmed by with an 86. I may always strive for A's on tests but this one I was overjoyed to get an 86. So that means when I get brave enough, I can rent a car or buy one and be able to drive. I think I might let that wait just a few days more...not that brave yet! But when I do get brave (or can go someplace with someone else) I will post some pictures :)