On my way home...

So I am currently sitting in the Chicago O'Hare airport waiting for my flight to Minneapolis. I can't believe that my 10 months in Germany are over. There were a lot of ups and downs this year, but I'm glad I did it. I met great people and learned a lot about Germany, teaching, friendship, and myself.
I've been behind on posting lately. I don't think I've posted at all during June. The first couple weeks I just hung out in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, and Gross-Bieberau. Lynn came up for a week because she was done at the end of May. We had a great time, and she finally got to see the Bieberau.
Last week Wednesday to Saturday I went to Berlin with the 10th Grade Bilingual History class from my school. It was a neat experience. A lot of the things we saw I had seen before, but I also saw some new things. It was also neat to be there with a bunch of 16 year olds who had never been there. They pretty much all fell in love with Berlin. It's such a great city. It was also really nice to get to know some of my student better. It's just a bummer that it was right at the end of the year.

Last Thursday at School...

Yesterday was my last Thursday teaching. Next Thursday we have off for Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi), the following Thursday I will be on a school trip to Berlin, and the Thursday after that I will be at home!

Thursdays I work with a 9th Grade Realschule class (but I will be helping them with a project on Australia next week), a 6th grade class, and have my AG of 9th and 10th graders. The 6th graders were really cute. They sang me a song, and we played a game. I was definitely sad to be leaving them. I really like my AG too, but I will still see most of them in other classes over the next couple of weeks.

This weekend Lynn is coming up from Vienna. I will meet her in Frankfurt this evening. We are going to hang out in Darmstadt and Frankfurt with Emily, and then she will stay with me in the Bieberau until Thursday.

München mit Caitlin

This past weekend I took the train down to Munich to visit my friend Caitlin. Caitlin and I lived in Farley together and were both German majors at ND. Caitlin moved to Munich a few weeks ago and is spending the summer there. We had a lot of fun. We spent most of the weekend just hanging out and catching up. I've been to Munich on a few other occasions, so I'd seen most of the sites already. We walked around the area she lived in quite a bit, and on Sunday we had a picnic in the Englischer Garten. It was really good to see Caitlin.

Things here are going fine. I'm feeling pretty ready to head back to the States. School is going alright, but as the end of the year approaches, there is less and less for me to do. I will be helping out the 9th grade Realschule class with an Australia project next week, so that should be fun. This week is my last AG since it is my last Thursday at school (next Thursday is a holiday and the following Thursday I will be on a class trip to Berlin).

Mom and Dad in Germany!

My parents flew into Berlin on May 8 and spent 2 days there before flying to Frankfurt to meet up with me on my birthday! I picked them up at the airport in Frankfurt, we got our rental car and headed to Gross-Bieberau. That evening we went to the Italian restaurant in town for a nice dinner and then came back to hang out. We also watched the movie Pleasantville, because I need to see it to decide if I wanted to watch it with the 11th Graders to go along with the book, The Giver.
Friday I showed my parents around Gross-Bieberau. We also had lunch at the Blaue Hand, which is the a nice, traditional restaurant. We also saw the Post, Rathaus, and Bieberplatz.
On Saturday we headed to Giessen to pick up Mark. Mark lived with us from 1999-2000 when he was a foreign exchange student at my high school. We spent the day with him in Marburg. There we saw the castle, old city, St. Elizabeth's church, and walked along the river. It was really nice to see Mark again. I was able to see him a few other times this year, but I think it meant a lot to him to see my parents.
Sunday morning we got up and went to mass in Reinheim. Then we headed to Michelstadt for the afteroon. Michelstadt is a beautiful town in the heart of the Odenwald. We got lunch at the local brewery and walked around the old town. The town also has a really neat city hall.
Monday, the weather wasn't very nice, so we decided to take care of some things I needed to get done in the area like laundry and grocery shopping.
On Tuesday, my parents got a chance to get a look at my life over here. I had to go into school in the morning. After I was done, I picked up my parents and we went to school. Monika and I took the on a tour of the school. In addition to getting to see the school, they were also able to meet a few of my students. Afterwards Monika took us out to dinner in Ober Ramstadt (the town she lives in). We then spent the afternoon in Darmstadt. we went to the Mathildenhoehe which is an artist colony. There is also a beautiful Russian chapel there. We then headed to the Rosenhoehe where there is a gorgeous rose garden. We then went and met up with my friends Emily, Lisa, and Jessica for pizza in Darmstadt. It was nice to have a chance to show my parents my school and have them meet my friends.
Wednesday afternoon we headed to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) after I was done with school. The driving was not very pleasant due to traffic, construction, and rain, but we made it there. We found our way to our hotel in Konstanz and then headed out for dinner.
Thursday the weather was rainy, but after going to Assenscion mass at the Muenster in Konstanz, we decided to take a ferry to the island of Mainau. Mainau is a small island that has absolutely beautiful gardens. It also has a castle, cathedral, and a butterfly house. Despite the rain, we really enjoyed it there.
Friday the weather was looking better, so we drove to the island of Lindau, which is on the opposite side of the lake, near the Austrian border. We programmed the GPS and headed on our way and were surprised when we found ourselves driving through Switzerland and Austria to get there. The drive was beautiful and Lindau was wonderful too. We had a wonderful lunch looking out at the lake. We walked all around the island and saw the various churches and other neat buildings as well as great views of the lake with the Swiss Alps in the background. After driving back to Konstanz, we decided we were a little tired of German food, so we found a wonderful Indian restaurant.
Saturday we drove back to Gross-Bieberau. We had a relaxing afternoon and then headed to Darmstadt for mass. Emily met us for mass and we went out for Lebanese food. We also borrowed the movie Goodnight and Goodluck from Emily and watched it after we got back. It was a good movie and especially interesting to watch with my Dad since he remembered watching McCarthy and Murrow.
Sunday we drove to the Frankfurt airport to return the car. We then took the shuttle to my parents' hotel. It was a little farther outside the city than we had anticipated, so we had to take taxi into town. We went to Sachsenhausen and walked around. We then walked up to the river and had a wonderful lunch right on the river. We then toured around the city some more before heading back to Sachsenhausen for dinner and Apfelwein. After dinner we walked around some more before I put my parents in a taxi and had to grab the train to get home for the night.
It was absolutely wonderful having my parents here. It was nice to be able to show them what my life is like here and have them meet the some of the people I talk about. My apartment is lonely now that they are gone, but fortunately I will be going home in 4 weeks!