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

A few photos

Here are a few photos of Bremen - the city I live in , more or less.. All of these buildings/structures are in the Innenstadt (inner city) of Bremen.



The dude protects the city. Also, rumor has it that if you enjoyed your stay in Bremen, and want to return, you must make sure to touch him before you leave. I haven't done it yet, but I'll definitely be sure to do that eventually.









This is the old city hall of Bremen. It is a very old and very beautiful building. For those of you who dont know, the roofing is green because of this: the outermost layer of the roof is made of copper. When copper is exposed to the earth's elements (i.e. rain, wind, sun, etc) for a very long time, try 100 year or more, the copper turns this greenish color. Sometimes you will even see a U.S. penny with this greenish tint if it is old enough.








A pretty looking church. Again, notice the green tips.













The same church from a farther distance. When I took this photo, I was walking down one of the main shopping areas in Bremen. Initially, when I started walking down this street, my back was to the church. When I turned around to go back to where I started, there is was, popping out right in the middle of the whole deal. I thought it made for a nice shot.






Well there you go. I know that these photos don't necessarily do a great job of showing you where I live or other places in Bremen. But, they are all I have on my computer at the moment, so you will just have to be patient for the other photos to come :) Miss you all.

rw

Oktober 6th, 2008

Sorry to let you down, but there is not anything super exciting to report today..

Teaching is going great. I am slowly but surely becoming a normal face around the halls of Heinrich-Horstmann-Schule (HHS). This comes as a relief to me because during my first two weeks there the students looked at me like I was a celebrity (not necessarily a terrible thing) or like I had something really gross in my beard/on my face (yes, Mom, I have The Beard again). It is kind of an uncomfortable feeling having every kid you walk by gawk at you. But at the same time, it is really cute when they approach me and say "hello" in their very best English. I still get that obvious giggle from a number of the girls when I walk by or am in hearing range, which can get kind of awkward at times. Also, I probably learn more German during school hours than any other time, so it's a win-win situation for me!

Last week I went to the local Herbstmarkt (Fall Market) with all of the 6th graders. The Markt was actually pretty cool - it had a farmer's market-styled area, and also a carnival-type area with good food and some fun looking rides (didn't ride any unfortunately). They even had an "American Hamburger and hotdog" stand. I, naturally, had to give it a try and let me say - the hotdog was far from what I would consider "American Style." Nonetheless, it was tasty. One of my colleagues brought her son, Kevin, along for me to hang out with and practice German with (he is 19 yrs old). While we were checking the scene out, I mentioned how crappy it is that German stores don't normally carry peanut butter because I really like it/miss it. (Peanut butter is just not that popular here, unfortunately). Kevin took this comment in stride, seemingly unmoved by it. A day or two later Sigrid, the lady with whom I am living (she's a cool/chill lady), told me that she had a gift for me from someone. And just guess what it was.. A jar of some (very tasty) American-made peanut butter!! Man, I was jacked to say the least.

Other than those two things, I have nothing else worth writing about. I spend the weekend laying low and saving my bankroll for the two weeks to come because I will be traveling during my 2-WEEK FALL BREAK! Yay! So, later I will have some good stuff for all of you loyal readers.

Thanks for reading,

rw

p.s. - shout out to "Elliott," who said he is a noble reader of this blog. i thank you brother!