I'm sitting here in my orange chair in my friendly looking room. I'm drinking German water, chowing down on Corny bars, and listening to M.A.S.H. in the background.
This week was a good, but long week. Monday, I took my first turn driving in Germany. I drove from the school to Anne and Allison's apartment. I, then drove back to the school because Allison forgot her wallet. Then we had to get gas because the gas light came on. We stopped at a new (for us) gas station and had no idea if we were supposed to pay first or pump first. So, we went in to ask. The guy had no clue what we were saying in English and we had no clue how to ask in German. Then a paramedic was in line to pay behind us (they were filling up the ambulance) and he said in broken (yet to ears that don't hear English from Germans often, perfect) English that we were to pump first and then pay. We go out to pump, and at this station the pumps don't stretch (they do at other stations), so I had to back up and pull into another spot. I got the pump to exactly five euro even though it kept wanting to pop out.
The whole reason for getting the car was so that we could go to the grocery store "Hiebers" and stock up on a bunch of groceries. I tell you, it felt like a trip to Costco because there were ten times as many choices and it was four times as big as any other grocery. Anyway, it was fun. And, it was raining, of course.
Tuesday morning, I went to get my visa, but didn't have passport photos, so I got the photos after school and then went for a nice walk.
Wednesday, Amy Jo arrived and we moved into our new apartment. It's quite bare, but it will come along soon. I also got really sick on wednesday and had to leave school early.
Thursday, I was well enough to go back to school. We, then went to Tadim, which is a Turkish Restaraunt on the haupstrasse. It is so good and has some amazing food. It was really fun to have the whole staff out to eat. We hadn't done that since my welcome dinner.
Friday was an inservice day, so we got to come in an hour later. We had a really good bonding experience learning about Biblical Intergration, Curriculum Mapping, and Differentiating Instruction. I aslo got time to work in my classroom, moving things around and whatnot, which I am so excited about. The stuff in my room is not fully organized, but the furniture is pretty close to where I want it to be. I'll put up pictures when the room gets settled.
I also went to the Strassenfest in Weil. We saw the mayor (Herr Dietz) give a speech and tap the keg of beer open. He then serves the beer to the people who want it. We went up and got some. It was pretty bitter, but alright. We had to dump most of it out because it was hard to finish. Herr Dietz immediately recognized us and started speaking English with us. He came up to us a bit later to see what we thought of the beer and see how we were doing. We then, walked around and got some food (waffles with honey and powdered sugar, and onion bread with bacon). Oh my goodness, the food was so good! I also got to try new wine, which is the first batch of wine for the new harvest season. It tastes as though there is almost no alcohol in it and get I guess it contains quite a punch (you get get quite drunk without realizing it). I also had the pleasure of listening to a brass band in one of the pub stalls. They were so good. They filled the whole stall, around the customers of course. The best part was that they played "My Guy" and all of us girls were dancing around and singing at the top of our lungs while the Germans stared at us like we were nuts. Neddless to say, it was a ton of fun.
Today, we have the big clean of the apartment complex. I'll explain more about that later. We will also be going to IKEA to pick some things up for the apartment and classroom. Then, I will probably crash because after church tomorrow I have to go into school to do my lesson plans for the week.
