Jetlag is no fun...

hello again!

so far i have spent 2 full days in germany and am still no where close to acclimating myself to the new time zone here. my body still craves sleep during the day here (which is normally my nighttime in the States) and it is very hard to stay active and not succumb to the natural urge to sleep.

since i last made a post i have done a couple of very fun/interesting things. on sunday, i went for a walk with my aunt and uncle through some woods right behind their house. they do it twice a week and actually hoof it quite fast; they call it nordic walking (just like nordic skiing, but minus the skis). my uncle even had two poles that he used as walking sticks. they take their exercise very seriously, which is perfectly okay with me. the woods were flat out beautiful. i wish i had taken my camera so i could share some pictures with you all. as we were walking and talk i kept being reminded of the woods early on in the movie, The Patriot, starring good old mel gibson. if you remember the movie, you'll know what i'm talking about. the woods were thich with trees, but at the same time it was as if i could see for over a mile. my words simply don't do it any justice. next time i will have my camera handy.

today (monday) i had my first unofficial taste of teaching English. my aunt, kirsten, teaches English and business English two days a week at a volkshochschule in bad salzuflen and she brought me along today to be her special "mystery" guest. there were six nice ladies in her class today, all adults. it was a great experience for both me and them i think. they seemed enthralled with everything i had to say, which wasn't much. at the beginning of the class kirsten had them ask me "yes and no" questions until they figured out who i was and where i came from. they really enjoyed the game and got very excited when they asked a question correctly and i responded with a "yes." they were all incredibly friendly and seemed to really want to learn English. we did some exercises out of a book that dealt with airports and flying (very ironic, given my rencent 24 hr adventure). after we got home from this, i jumped right into bed and took about a 2 hr nap because i was no exhausted from just a short bit of activity.

time for me to go now. kirsten and i are going to watch either babel or syriana in german so that i can get more practice. on that note, in just 2 and a half days here my germany has improved greatly. it is so gratifying and fun to see results so quickly. so far, i am really enjoying my time in germany, and will only get better from here!

bis bald!

russ