A Very Merry Christmas

Hello all! To start things off, I would like to wish everyone reading my blog a wonderful Christmas (or Weihnachten)! If yours was anything like mine, then you had a good time.

To everyone dealing with "Snow Storm 2008" back home in Western Washington: Be safe asnd don't have too much fun without me!

So, a little bit about my German Christmas. I arrived at my uncle Stefan's house in Lübeck on Tuesday the 23rd. Lübeck is a beautiful city in Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea. It is the marzipan capital of the world as well. If you haven't heard of marzipan or have never eaten it, that is simply a shame. Marzipan is a delicious, sweet treat made from almonds and sugar with (normally) a chocolate coating. Just ask my good friend Sara Bear (Hi, Sara!).

I was welcomed with open arms into House Stefan Olbrich by the man himself, his wife Thesi, their two sons, Lutz and Jan. On my first night with the family, Lutz and I promptly went to a local "disko" to do some partying/dancing (Lutz pretty much took care of the latter of the two).

The next day was what we Americans know as Christmas Eve. Here it is called Heilige Abend. This day is the Germans' true celebration day for Christmas in terms of spending time together, going to church, opening presents, etc. Christmas day is also important, but Heilige Abend is the equivalent to our Christmas. We ate a nice dinner, went to a short church service (where the pastor used Harry Potter as a metaphor to his message), then returned home to do the opening presents thing. Now, I like to think of my time here in Germany on the Fulbright Fellowship a good enough present: I am essentially on a year-long vacation, get to see my Mom's side of the family, and have the opportunity to fully immerse myself in a new culture and learn a great deal of 'stuff.' However, I was taken aback when I was given a few very thoughtful gifts from my uncle's family. Add them to the gifts that were in a rather large box sent from the States (from, guess who, my lovely mom) and I essentially made out like a bandit. So, I'd like to thank Family Olbricht and Family Wacker for a surprisingly enjoyable Christmas! :)

The actual day of Christmas was more or less a lazy day around the house. The high point of the day was definitely in the evening, when I got a little "cultured." One of the Christmas gifts from the day before were tickets for the whole family and I to go see a movie called Buddenbrook. This movie is based on Thomas Mann's novel about the rich Buddenbrook family in Lübeck in the 18th century and it's eventual demise. It was a good experience. A pretty good movie that gave me a good perspective on how port cities thrived in the "olden days."

Just when I thought things couldn't get any nicer, the day after Christmas day the boys of the family and I went to visit Oma! (that's grandma for you non-German speaking folk). The last time I had seen her was waaay back in 1997, the last time I was in Germany. We spent a great afternoon talking with Oma and exchanging yet even more gifts. Oma seemed to be in very high spirits and surprised me with her agility when she moved around the house. It sure was good to spend a day with the only grandparent I have yet.

Apologies for the lack of photos in this post - I am using Lutz's computer and don't have the necessary equipment with me to upload photos.

Tomorrow Lutz and I are going to Hamburg to take part in what sounds like a very fun night of what essentially amounts to bar/disko hopping. That should be interesting!

So, again, I wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas!

If you have a chance, drop me a post and let me know how you are doing! Keep tuning in. Ciao!

russ.

the last trip w/ the girls

So I met the girls in Bremen on Wednesday the 3rd after a particularly long day at work. It had already been decided that our last trip together would be to Amsterdam, so we needed to get ahold of our tickets. I had to get my roundtrip tickets, the girls had to get tickets from the German border to Amsterdam (because they had a German Rail pass, which pretty much meant they could travel wherever they wanted to in Germany for free), and we had to get one for Colin, who is a friend of Leah's from college and who was in Europe trying out for several football (soccer) clubs. After a short while, the tickets had been purchased and the trip was set.

On Thursday, the day before we left, we met up with Colin in Bremen and I got to play tour guide once again. So we walked about the historic parts of the city, checking things out, and looked through the (very impressive) Weihnachtsmarkt they have going on in Bremen. The last part of the day was spent on a tour of the Becks brewery located on the river Weser. It was a good tour (much, much better than the heineken tour in Amsterdam) with a great ending - a sort of beer testing session, where we had to try and distinguish between Beck's and Haake Beck's beers (Leah, Sara, and I were right. Colin was wrong). We ended up drinking a decent amount of beer, which helped because the weather outside was freezing with snow flurries.

On early Friday morning we began our 5 hour trek to Amsterdam. The trainride was no fun, as we had to switch trains 3 times. We eventually arrived at the old and always crowded mainstation in Amsterdam. After taking a bus to our Hostel and freshing up, which included a nap for me, we rode back into the central part of the city to do some walking around. Colin had to meet up with a friend of his who happened to be living in the city, so the girls and I went and got some dinner. After dinner, we met up with Colin and his friend. His friend ended up showing us around, kind of giving us an insider's guide for what we should do/see while there.

Saturday was a day of an immense amount of walking. We started off in Rembrandt Square intending to find a place where we could rent bikes. However, at the beginning of our search, we found a huge flea market adjacent to the square and ended up spending a decent amount of time there. By the time we had walked through the whole thing, we were close enough to the museum area that we decided to just go there by foot. We ended up seeing the Rijksmuseum (but did not go inside), which is a wonderful museum of art and history and features a magnificent selection of Dutch paintings from the Golden Age (okay, I stole that last part from the Rijksmuseum webpage), and spent time in the Vincent van Gogh art museum. That was wonderful. I had learned a decent amount about van Gogh from art classes way back in my college days (I can say that now, can't I? hehe), but wow, seeing all of these original pieces of work from him was just amazing. If you are ever in the neighborhood, the Vincent van Gogh Art Museum comes highly recommended from me. (Pictures: Leah and Sara hanging out with a Rembrandt statue, the Rijksmuseum, a sweet shot from behind the Rijksmuseum)

We concluded the day with meeting up with Colin's friend for dinner at a nice restaurant called Ocho (I couldn't help but think of Chad Ocho-Cinco/Johnson when hearing of this place), I had the ribs. On Sunday, right before our train left, we hopped onto one of the canal boat tours you can do while in Amsterdam. It was nice to be able to see the city without walking, but I still prefer to go and see things for myself. However, the very funny captain/guide of the tour had some quality bits of information to share with us. (Pictures: Te smallest flat in Amsterdam! It is only one window wide. It's the one in the center with the protruding white window. Some typical Amsterdam flats.)

After Amsterdam, the girls and I returned "home" to Bremen for their last couple of days in Germany. The last two days were essentially spent in Bremen (when I was done teaching, of course) at the Weihnachtsmarkt because the girls wanted to do some shopping and buy some gifts for their families back home (they also bought a gift for my colleague with whom I live, which was very nice). It wasn't all that bad for me though, as I made a couple of necessary purchases: warm socks and a nice side-satchel man purse type of thing, big enough to carry things I need for school, or food, or clothes for a small trip.

This past Wednesday, at 4 in the freaking morning, the girls were picked up by a taxi and went to the Bremen airport for their 6:30 flight back home. I had a wonderful time with Leah and Sara, and am so thankful that they found the time, money, and motivation to visit me over here in Germany. The three of us accomplished a great amount in 3 weeks and had a heck of a time in doing so. Now, after 3 weekends of spending money, I have accepted the fact that I will have to have a few quiet, uneventful weeks of life if I want to keep my money budget where I want it.

Coming up very soon is Weihnachten (Christmas), which I will be spending with my Uncle Stefan, his wife Thesi, and their family in Luebeck, which happens to be the Marzipan capital of the world, if I'm not mistaken. I am very exited to have the opportunity to spend a Christmas in Germany! Although, nothing beats being home for the holidays, and I will definitely be keeping my family and friends in my thoughts during my time here.

The last time I wrote, I had just returned from a great 1st weekend with the girls (Leah and Sara) in Berlin. Since then, we were able to make a couple of other fun and exciting trips.

The weekend following Berlin, I met up with the girls down in Cologne. They spent the week down in Bavaria, checking out the Swiss Alps, among other things. So, when it came time to meet up with them on thursday evening, we decided to meet at the hostel I had reserved in Cologne. Everything worked out nicely and they were in the lobby of the place waiting for me when I arrived.

Our time spent in Cologne was really awesome. The Weihnachtsmaerkte (Christmas markets) were in full swing this time around which made it all the more fun (the weekend before, in Berlin, they were merely setting up the markets, so we didn't have a chance to check those out). Our first night there, Thursday, happened to be Thanksgiving! The three of us decided that it was only right to try and have as close to a Thanksgiving dinner as possible. So, we walked around a little bit, on the lookout for a good restaurant and, low and behold, we found a place called The Chicago Steakhouse. After a short deliberation, it was decided that this was as close as we were going to get (plus we were by that time very hungry) and we went in. It was a nice Turkey Day Dinner spent with good company, but it didn't even compare to the real thing back home. Despite these shortcomings, we made the best of it and had a good (and our first ever!) Thanksgiving away from home. The rest of the night was just spent checking out the various stalls at the Christmas market and enjoying ourselves. (Pictures: The main stage at the Christmas Market right next to the Cathedral, our Thanksgiving Dinner restaurant!, the three of us at dinner).

The first thing we did the next day was conquer the Cologne Cathedral (Koelner Dom) and all 500 or so steps required to get to the top. It was a pretty decent workout and the reward at the end was great. If you have never seen it, the Cologne Cathedral is really something to behold. It is incredibly large and just as beautiful. We also got to learn a little bit about it's history. During WWII, the entire city of Cologne was bombed, leaving it literally in shambles. Amazingly, the only thing left standing, for as far as the eye can see, was the cathedral. Here's a good link to get what I'm talking about: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral-photos/wwii-bombing-cc-gordonr.jpg

(pictures: view of Cologne from atop the Cathedral, the three of us at the top, the Cathedral from ground level, the part of the Cathedral that we climbed - the tallest part!)

After returning to the safe earth, we had to rest our weary legs a little bit before setting out again. The rest of the day was sort of spent walking around, checking out things here and there, getting coffee occasionally, and getting meals. That night, we went out for drinks with a couple of British fellows who Leah and Sara happened to meet during their travels in Southern Germany. It was a fun time and a good way to cap out trip to Cologne.

The next morning we hopped on a train headed to Duesseldorf, where we would be spending the day/night (we could only get the hostel in Cologne until Saturday, so we kind of had to). By this time, however, we were all kind of tired from all of the traveling. So, long story short, the three of us pretty much were content with getting dinner and relaxing at our hostel with a dvd and some beers. From what I did see of Duesseldorf, it looked like a pretty alright city to me.

On Sunday morning, we had to once again part ways - seeing as how I had to teach for another week, and the girls had to travel for another week. So we said our goodbyes, I headed back up to Bremen, and the girls headed East to Baden-Baden for a (from what I heard) very luxurious time at the world-renown spa. The next time I'd be seeing my two friends would be the following Wednesday in Bremen.

Hi! Major apologies for slacking on my bloggage. I've been quite busy, as you will now find out...

On the weekend of November the 14th-16th, I got to do some traveling. This weekend was spent with some of my Fulbright friends in Amsterdam. It was my first time there and I was totally blown away by it. For starters, it really is one of the more beautiful cities that I've ever seen. The architecture is great. Many of the buildings/houses are painted a variety of colors, and looking at them in pictures online just doesn't do them justice. And bicycles rule that city. By the looks of it, the people on bikes outnumbered those in cars like 10 to 1. It was just insane to see so many bikes, everywhere. Every single place that we went had accommodations for our rented bikes. And pretty much every single street has a bike lane, so getting around is very easy and safe. It's funny how much things can change when you go only a couple of hours by train out of Germany. Alex, Ian, Ashley, and I pretty much went and saw all of the usual tourist spots in our 1.5 days there. It was a very fun weekend after a fairly busy week of work. Here are a few pictures from the weekend: In order of appearance: Ian and I just after renting our bikes - this was taken while riding, A pretty little neighborhood square, Getting food and drinks at a nice restaurant - Alex and Ashley are opposite of us, A small pond in the middle of Vondel Park, And me on the Heineken Brewery Tour (which was only average).

On Monday, the 17th of November, I got the day off from school to attend a meeting in Lueneburg, which is a little bit outside of Hamburg. This meeting was called, in German, "Begruessungsveranstaltung fuer die auslaendischen Fremdsprachenassistentinnen und assistenten im Schuljahr 2008/2009." German is such a fun and beautiful language, isn't it? For those of you who didn't understand that (probably most of you), it essentially was a meeting day for all of the foreign language teaching assistants in and around Bremen. And it wasn't just for English speakers, as I met nice people from France, Spain, and Italy. We spent the day talking (only in German of course) about our personal experiences so far assistant-ing (made that one up) in our respective schools. I found this incredibly helpful because now I know a bunch of people, with wide-ranging cultural backgrounds, that I can meet and have fun with in Bremen. Yay!

Two days later I got another day off from school. This time around it wasn't so fun. I had to go to the "Auslaenderbehoerde" to extend my Visa. I got to experience the wonderful world of sitting in a stuffy room with a lot of other non-Germans and waiting for my name to be called. I arrived at 8:15 (15 minutes after it opened) to find a line already 30 people deep. Then, after standing in that line for about 45 minutes, I got to take my seat among the others hoping for a Visa extension for another several hours or so. Despite the extreme amounts of uneventfulness, I was very happy at the end of the day because of two reason. One was because I got my Visa extended and now wont get kicked out of Germany. The second was because I was out of there in time to go meet Sara and Leah at the airport in Bremen! Boy it sure was good to see two of my best friends in the whole wide world. After picking them up, I gave them a very short tour of Bremen (they were, understandably, very tired), I took them back to my place so they could rest up for a very fun weekend in...

Berlin! That's right folks, my first of three weekend trips with the girls was to my favorite German city/Germany's capitol. We arrived on Friday the 21st and stayed until the 23rd, and what a fun weekend it was. Since I had recently been there, I was able to play a little "tour-guide" role for them. So, long story short, we basically saw all of the great and fun things I saw last time, but with a freezing cold/snowy/christmas twist on it. On the trainride over to Berlin, we got some snow. And then on Saturday night we got to witness our first ever German snowfall together! And snow it did. Unfortunately, the real snowing pretty much began after we had retired to our room for the evening, so we only really got to go out and play for a little bit (plus it was insanely freezing!). But we had enough time to toss a bunch of snowballs, write "OBAMA" on the top of a car, and just about get frostbite in our fingers. Also going this weekend was a miniature Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) at Potsdamer Platz. This little markt had a really big fake-snow inner-tubing hill. Leah and Sara took a go on it and loved it (I opted to pass, as the combination of steepness and iciness looked too perilous for my accident-prone self), even after they smashed into the back retaining wall at what looked like about 60 MPH...alright it was probably more like 10. Other than the normal touristy stuff, our weekend was filled with lots of laughter, my attempts at Usher dance moves (if you don't know what I'm referring to, you will have to look him up on youtube), and good food and drinks. I think it was a wonderful start to what should be a very fun and exciting 3 weeks with those two girls. Pictures in order of appearance: The three of us at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, The girls in front of the Brandenburg Gate, The huge, icy hill that the girls tubed down. They're at the top in this picture. The three of us in the Sony Center after getting dinner, The OBAMA Car! Sara and I at a random/interesting club, Leah and I at the same club.

Aaaand, after all of that fun, I returned to school today (the 24th) by making my usual 40 minute bike-commute. Only this time I had the pleasure of doing it in near freezing temperatures and icy/snowy streets and sidewalks. :) But it wasn't so bad, it definitely beats getting poured on by a bunch of rain!

Hello friends!

I haven't done much since my return from the Mosel River trip, so I thought I would do a small commentary.

Three days ago Barack Obama was elected by the people of the United States as its 44th president. As you all probably are aware of, this instantly goes down as one of the single most monumental things in the history of our country. I took several history courses in my days in school, so when I look back on our nation's history it is simply remarkable to think about how far we have come in such a short period of time. To put it (very) briefly: We, as a people, have come from fighting a war against one another over the issue of slavery. Thinking about slavery now, it just seems utterly ludicrous to force a race of people into slavery. And yet, many of our forefathers were willing enough to kill their own countrymen in order to preserve it. We have come from the Jim Crow Laws, which essentially earmarked black people as an "inferior race," taking away simple civil rights that many of us take for granted today. We have come from listening to people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and countless others standing up for what is right and what they believe in only to be knocked right back down. Now, we have Barack Obama as our next president. I think that president-elect Obama said it best himself when he talked about that 100+ year old woman in (I believe) Georgia, who has lived to see just about everything - now that includes the first black president of the United States.

What an exciting and pride-provoking time that we get to be live in. I think that I will be saying this many times throughout the rest of my life: This is one of, if not THE, proudest moments of my life thus far. Way to go America!

The reaction here in Germany has been great. I arrived at school on Wednesday and was immediately congratulated by one colleague after another. I knew that they, too, sensed the gravity of what had just happened in my home country. I could tell that they were elated as well.

The election of Mr. Obama gives a glimmer of hope to the entire world, and the reaction I received from my colleagues and students told me that they realize that. It's funny, living abroad has enabled me to gather a whole different perspective of the States and the world in general. And, after reading various newspapers here, I am 100% convinced that the United States is one of the only countries in the entire world where John McCain would have stood even the slightest chance against Barack Obama. Go figure.

However, with all of that being said, the work does not end here. In fact, it has barely begun. With the state our country is in, I think it will take quite some time to "right the ship," so to speak. Too much has gone array in our great country to be complacent with what we have achieved.


Moving on to a whole different topic. I want to say something about a side of athletics that too often goes unnoticed. In this day and age when statistics, fame, and fortune are the measure of greatness in sports many other, more important, stories go unnoticed.

After reading these two articles, I was reminded of the special place athletics holds in many people's lives. Many times there is much more to sports than simply winning and losing and getting good stats, and these two stories go to show you that. Go ahead and check them out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3683219&sportCat=ncf

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=clemmons/0811107&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

Well, I hope you enjoyed my once-in-a-while serious talk about things. I think the news back in the States warranted such a post. Hope all is well where ever you are reading this from.

Ciao!

Russ w.

My journey along the Mosel River

Hello everyone! I arrived back in Bremen last night after spending a great week doing a bike tour through the German wine country along the Mosel River with the Baumann Family.

I know the Baumann's because, of course, of my wonderful German mommy, Elisabeth. She and Eva Baumann met one another while in college in Seattle. Since then, both families have made it a point to visit one another whenever one is in the other's respective country. So, for example, when my family visited Germany in 1997, we made a trip to Elmshorn (where the Baumann's live. It is 20 min north of Hamburg) to visit them.

The Baumann's are a great gang. They are made up of Eva and Volker (the parents), Anne (pronounced "Anna," and she makes sure you pronounce it right :) she's 15), Phillip (age 14), and Marcus (one crazy little 5 year old).

The Baumann's! Minus Marcus - he is hidden somewhere in there.

They went out of their way to make sure that I felt at ease with them, as if I were a member of the family. When I first arrived in Elmshorn I found a jar of Jiffy Peanutbutter and a package of "American Style" cookies, which you can find at grocery stores here. So very nice of Eva and Co. Also, the night before we made the 6 hour trainride to Trier (our starting point of the trip), the Baumann's planned an "American-style BBQ" in honor of the American, me! Before we even left for the trip, I was having a great time with this family. Here is a shot of me and the Baumann kids at the "American BBQ."

As far as the bike tour goes - I don't even know where to begin. The Mosel River Valley, located in Southwest Germany, is quite the beautiful place to say the very least. The river is surrounded by fairly decent-sized hills on either side, most of which are plastered with plots of grape fields - sometimes as far as the eye can see. At times my senses were on overload, with the combination of the Mosel, the grape fields, the wonderful fall-colored trees at the tops of the hills, and the seemingly constant smell of sweet wine. It was a lot to take in all at once. One of the best parts about it, for me, was the fact that we were cruising on bikes, many times on paths that cut directly through the endless grape fields. A couple of times we even got a little brave and snatched up some of the grapes to try, and they were very tasty. Here are some pictures of what I'm doing my best to describe:

Another part of our journey was devoted to checking out some of the history behind the small villages that we stayed in. Our first night was spent in Trier, which claims to be Germany's oldest city. We were able to see sights such as the Porta Nigra, which was essentially the "gateway into the city" way back when. Here we also spent a good amount of time in the great big Dom (once again, church/cathedral). It was quite beautiful. Another favorite stop of ours were the many castles that dotted the tops of the hills along the river (Marcus really enjoyed checking these out, which kept him happy much of the time). Here are some pictures from those sight-seeing stops. (1st one is inside the Dom, 2nd is the castle in Cochem, 3rd is the view of Cochem from the castle).

Going on this trip with the Baumann's was a great way to spend the second half of my 2 week Fall Break. I had a very fun time with the family, learned some great things about Germany's history, and saw some incredibly beautiful sights. School starts back up tomorrow and I am excited to hear from my students about what they did over break as well as share my experiences. One of the 5th grade teachers asked me to do a lesson on Halloween in America for her students, because it isn't very popular over here in Germany and they don't know very much about it. That should be fun!

Oh, I almost forgot - Missy, in response to your comment - I actually don't have your email, so if you wanted to email me at russ.wacker@gmail.com we would then be able to set up something where we could both practice the respective languages we are learning (English for you, German for me). Thanks!

Something I was thinking about on my trainride back to Bremen last night - I think I have done more traveling in 9 weeks in Germany than I have ever before in my life. It seems like every weekend I find myself in a new city. But you won't hear any complaints from me :)

One last major announcement - This weekend I learned that I will be blessed with a visit from two of my best friends in the whole world - Leah Wymer and Sara Bear!! Woohoo! They will be in and around Germany from Nov. 18 to Dec. 10th. Pretty exciting stuff.

Thanks again for checking out my little blog here! Bye!

Your teaching and traveling machine,

rw

A wonderful weekend in Berlin

Alright, so, I just spent this past weekend in Berlin. Man did I have a great time there! I feel that I am going to have trouble explaining everything the way I would like to, because there is so much to say about so many different things. So I'll do my best and you will just have to struggle along with me.

I arrived on Friday expecting to meet up with a couple of fellow fulbright friends, Erin and Ian. Erin and I were to arrive on Friday, spend the afternoon together checking stuff out and finding a youth hostel. And then Ian was going to roll in on Saturday because he had to teach on Friday. Well, it turns out that Ian, after "a series of events" as he put it, wound up in Munich and not Bremen. The story behind that is that his train to Berlin was cancelled and before he was able to look for another train over there, he was offered a free ticket to Munich, so he took it. I don't blame him though because Munich is a great city. So it turned out to be just me and Erin for the weekend, which wasn't so bad because she is a cool girl.

So Erin and I first spent Friday afternoon wandering around the city (she termed it "being lost," but I was completely satisfied with just meandering through the city checking things out along the way) looking for a youth hostel. After finally spending too long looking for one, we called them up and then went directly to it. They didn't have any 2 person rooms available, so we got stuck in a 6 person room for the whole weekend. Quite an interesting deal there:

So on the first night, Erin and I made it back to our room (slightly intoxicated) to find it empty. We saw some things that weren't ours, so we knew we had some mystery roommates, but they hadn't returned. After hopping into our respective beds, our roommates finally showed up. And woulnd't you guess, they ended up being two other fulbrighters and a friend of theirs. What are the chances of that! Getting a room with these people in all of the available hostels in Berlin (Germany's biggest city). Needless to say, we felt very lucky to have avoided that awkwardness that was surely to come with random roommates - which is exactly what happened on the second night.

After walking through the city for what seemed like an eternity and seeing the Blue Man Group (so cool, I'll get to that), we came back to our room to find all of our belongings mysteriously missing. I started freaking out because my laptop and passport were among my belongings. We went down to the main desk and asked them about it, and they came up with some bogus reason about how it was actually booked by other people the day before, but then they just told us that we could stay there. So we lugged our stuff back to the same room and had to put new sheets on our beds (what a hassle). Later that evening we met our first roommate - a solo-traveling Japanese dude who knew very little English but whose eyes popped open when I told him that I was from Seattle ("Ichiro!!" he said). He was nice and extremely quiet. Then, after we were well asleep, our three other roommates arrived (around 3 or 4 in the morning?). They were 3 very drunk German girls who made what seemed like as much noise as they humanly could - turning

on the lights, talking on cell phones, stumbling, etc. The next morning was a little awkward, but no big deal.

Okay - Berlin. What a marvelous city. There is really too much history in this place to try to see and actually take in (not just walking up to, snapping a photo, and moving on) in one weekend. However, I think Erin and I did a great job. We decided (she really just talked me into it) on doing a 6 hour guided walking tour through the city. It was all in English, which kind of helped with digesting some of the really astonishing parts of the city. We were taken by the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, several different cathedrals, Hitler's Fuehrerbunker (the site where he and his wife committed suicide), and many other relevant places mainly associated with the Cold War. I must say, the tour was very helpful and informative (there, you happy Erin? haha).

Having learned so much about Germany's history and having actual family be affected by it, I was completely enthralled by this city abound with highly important world history. I was mesmerized by sights such as Checkpoint Charlie (Erin and I spend almost two hours in the museum that remembers it) and the Berlin Wall. It was so hard to imagine that the things that occured during those times actually did occur. Many times I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone in that era, but it nothing really does it any justice. Anyone who takes a particular interest in Germany's history or the history of WWII or the Cold War absolutely must visit this city for at lease a full weekend.

During the day on Saturday, Erin and I came across two other Americans checking out Berlin. We met the first, Craig, at Checkpoint Charlie. He is a 37 year old who is in the Navy. What a cool guy. After C.C. we invited him to have lunch with us because he was nice and was all alone. He ended up paying for lunch behind our backs, saying that it was for letting him tag along. During lunch we found out that he played in a rock band after he graduated high school and actually did some touring with the Goo Goo Dolls! He said that he knew them very well and hung out with them a lot when he was doing the band thing. Then he eventually got a college degree in social work and is now serving in the Navy. Then we met Jamie during the walking tour. She is from Southern California. She was very nice, but we didn't learn as much about her. The reason why I bring those two up is that the four of us decided to go see the Blue Man Group together after the tour!

The Blue Man Group performance was a lot of fun. We somehow got tickets in the first row. When we got there we learned that we had to wear these big rain ponchos, because the B.M.G. performance gets a little messy. Over the course of the highly entertaining and funny show, we were splattered with some paint and mushed up bannanas. The ponchos were a definite must. That being said, the show was worth every penny! Sitting on my butt enjoying the loud Stomp!-like music and theatrics was a perfect way to spend the night after walking the entire day.

Well, that is a brief summation of the myriad things that we saw/did. It was hard to try to explain my weekend in Berlin thoroughly, while trying not to bore you with an endless flood of words and paragraphs. But, of course, I have some great pictures (I took like 80 of them) to supplement my words. Without any further ado..

Photo descriptions (in order of appearance): A view of the Brandenburg Gate at dusk, Several slabs of the Berlin Wall with some historical content in between each piece (they were standing where the Wall actually ran), The booth at Checkpoint Charlie, The sign on the "American Side" of the Checkpoint, A church that was hit by a bomb during WWII and left like that as a reminder to all those who see it, A sign I saw from a 100,000 person protest (This is one of my favorite pics, it's pretty creative. The protest was against government privacy invasion and the happenings in the Middle East), A picture of an American soldier at Checkpoint Charlie looking East, A look along one of the last still-intact sections of the Berlin Wall, An artistic memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, The 4 of use after the B.M.G. show.

Well, it's only fitting that my longest post comes after a visit to Germany's largest and (in my opinion) most history-rich city. Hope I didn't bore you to death. In two days I head up North to Elmshorn to visit a friend of my mom's and her family. We then will take a train all the way to the Southwestern corner of the country and commence a week-long bike tour along the (from what I hear) very beautiful Mosel River. Stay tuned for a post detailing that! Thanks for reading.

One of the luckiest guys you know,

russ

Field Trip!

Ok so I have a couple of updates to make, starting with a trip to the Zoo in Osnabrueck with a couple of my classes! We went on Wednesday, October 8th, for the entire day. "We" consisted of myself, one of the 6th grade classes and its teacher, Frau Kraemer, and one of the 7th grade classes and its teacher (Sigrid, who I am living with), and also Frau Seegert, who kind of team teaches the 7th graders with Sigrid.

We met the students at the hauptbahnhof (train station) in Osterholz-Scharmbeck at 9:30 in the morning and caught our train to Osnabrueck. Once we arrived at the Zoo, it was essentially an "every man for himself" kind of thing. The kids were allowed to roam the grounds as they pleased, and us teachers pretty much did the same thing. A couple of times I veered off by myself to get a longer look at some animals that I was more interested in.

We all had a great time at the Zoo. The kids, of course, loved it because they weren't at school. I think the teachers also felt that way too a little, hehe. I really enjoyed it because I love animals; however, I couldn't help but notice how sad and bored many of them looked - especially the brown bears, elephants, cats (tigers/leopards), and all the monkeys. The only downer on an otherwise very fun day. The weather turned out to be beautiful all day long, right up until about an hour before we planned on leaving - then it began raining. It seemed to not really bother anyone, though.

After the Zoo we hopped back onto the train to Osterholz-Scharmbeck, made sure all of the kids had a ride home, and then rode back to our respective homes. I then had dinner and prepared for my last day of work before my two week fall break and a trip to Berlin!

A few photos from the trip:







The kids getting intructions from Sigrid, or Frau Reimann as they know her.














A cool little money using its tail for balance.
















A rather large, sad-looking elephant. He would later play tug-of-war with a tire on a rope for quite a while.













The giraffes, I think my favorite animals of the day. I just love the patterns on their coats.











A couple of my crazy students on the trainride back to OHZ. They're a lot of fun.












Stay tuned for the Berlin post!

rw