The Return to Innsbruck...

On Thursday morning my friend, Maria, flew in from Minnesota. Maria and I had German together our first semester at ND and have been friends ever since. Our friendship was solidified during our year in Innsbruck when we were basically inseperable. She is now working for Lockheed Martin in Minnesota and is working in Bonn this week. She came early, so we could spend the weekend together, and we will hang out again this coming weekend.

Friday morning Maria, Emily, and I took the train from Darmstadt to Innsbruck (well I first took the bus back to Gross-Bieberau, because I had forgotten my passport). In Innsbruck we met up with Liz and Lynn (Lynn also studied in Innsbruck with us). It was so amazing being back in Innsbruck(even though I was there a month ago with Amy adn John), and it was especially neat to be back with Maria and Lynn.

We spent the weekend hitting up some of our favorite spots in Innsbruck - pizza from Simay, dinner and beer at Theresienbraeu, 11erhaus, Limerick Bill's, Sillpark, Goldenesdachl...etc. We also ran into Herr Guertler (the ND Innsbruck program director) on the street. He had told us he wasn't going to be around because it was semester break, and he was at Notre Dame, but he had to come back early. We were able to have breakfast on Sunday with him and his wife Anita. It was very cool to see them again.

Also, on Saturday I was able to meet up with my guest family - Camille, Andreas, Arabella (now 15), and David (now 9). When I was in Innsbruck I lived in a dorm, but had a guest family that I would eat dinner with our hang out with regularily. They were wonderful. We went out to lunch and then up to their house for cake. I really enjoyed catching up with them again. We may try to get back to Innsbruck sometime, and I will hopefully see them again.

It was really hard coming back from Innsbruck since it was such an amazing weekend! This week I'm pretty busy with teaching (I'm doing some extra teaching) and working on some other things. My weekends in March are really busy, so I need to get things done during the week! Maria will be back on Thursday night or Friday morning and we will take a day trip to possibly Mannheim or Heidelberg. Then on Sunday it's off to Berlin for the Fulbright Conference!

(Pictures: top - Maria, Lynn, and I with Herr Guertler, middle - Maria, Lynn, and I with our favorite pizza-maker, bottom - Liz, Emily, Lynn, Maria, and I in our hostel)

Life goes on...

This weekend was relatively low key. Friday night I went to Emily's and we just hung out Friday night and Saturday during the day. The weather was not very nice, so we didn't really feel up to doing much. Also, we are going to be busy during the upcoming weeks and won't have much time to just hang out.

Saturday night we went to Frankfurt to meet up with Mark - he lived with my family as a foreign exchange student in 2003-2004. We decided to go ice skating. It was really fun. It was disco night! The inside rink played disco music and had disco lights. We spent most of the night at the outside rink though, since it was pretty warm (around 50 degrees). (In the pictures you can seem Mark and I as well as Emily and I doing some pairs skating!) After skating we went to Konstablerwache and met up with our friend Lisa for a drink. It was great to see Mark again. We hung out also during December. We are hoping to go to the Opera maybe sometime in March (along with his twin brother Philip) and maybe kegeln (a game similar to bowling).

This week I'm starting a unit with a 10th grade class. I met them for the first time today. They seem like a nice class. The unit is called Righting the Wrongs and focuses on some issues in the United States. It should be interesting - I will teach my first lesson with them tomrrow.

Culture in Leipzig and Weimar, Karneval in Mainz

I meant to write this entry last week, but never got around to it. Last weekend we had a long weekend due to Karneval (Germany's form of Mardi Gras). We had Monday and Tuesday off. On Friday morning, Emily and I took the train to Leipzig. Emily's and my friend, Lena from Waldsee lives in Leipzig. Unforutantely she was out of town for a seminar, but she was kind enough to let us stay in her apartment. We also were able to meet her roommate Franziska who gave us some great tips about what to see. We both enjoyed Leipzig. It is a beautiful city. Bach spent most of his career in Leipzig, so we were able to see the church where he worked as well as visit the Bach museum. Also, we went to the Museum in der Runden Ecke, which was the former Stasi (secret police) headquarters for Leipzig during the time of the German Democratic Republic. We were able to catch the daily tour and learned a lot about how the Stasi worked and gain insight into the fear the Stasi fueled into everyday life.

On Sunday we headed to Weimar for the day. Weimar is where both Goethe and Schiller spent most of their lives. We went on a tour of the city and were able to see many of the places where they spent time as well as other important parts of the city. Weimar is also a beautiful city. It is relatively small, only 60,000 people, but full of culture and history.

Sunday night we headed back to Darmstadt, so we could go to the Rosenmontag parade on Monday in Mainz. It was really fun! Our train was absolutely jam-packed with people dressed in wild costumes for the celebration. The parade ahd tons of different floats with people tossing not only candy, but also bread, popcorn, and other random things. It was a really fun experience!

The pictures are from the weeekend. The first one is the Museum in der Runden Ecke, the second one is the Völkerschlachtdenkmal (Monument of the Battle of Nations), and the final one is the Garden House that was given to Goethe in Weimar.

Off for the weekend

Well apparently I've been very on top of posting lately! Crazy, considering right before Christmas break I pretty much totally stopped. For whatever reason I was really tired during the day all week. It made it difficult to stay enthusiastic during classes. It may because we didn't really see the sun all week!

Today though the weather cleared up, and it was sunny and gorgeous. I went for a run, and the weather was perfect! This weekend Emily and I are heading to Leipzig and Weimar in the former East. They are suppose to be very pretty, historical cities, so we are excited! Monday we will head to Mainz or Cologne for Rosenmontag. We have Monday and Tuesday off for Fasnacht (The German equivalent of Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras). The weather is suppose to be in the 50's and sunny this weekend, so it should be wonderful!