a surprise visit to school

This post is pretty belated but, at any rate, I feel it's significance still warrants at least a little something said about it.

So this happened about a week before the Berlin Fulbright Seminar (coming soon in a post).

I was sitting in the teacher's room, reading The Pillars of the Earth (What a great book! Mom, I can't believe that Tom Builder died just like that! I'm almost finished.) on my free time when a girl from one of my 9th grade classes came in, asking for me to come with her. I asked her what all the commotion was about, being slightly perturbed by having to leave my book, and she tells me there is a visitor.

I had no idea who in the world might be visiting me in the middle of the day at school. When I walked into the secretary's office, there is a big black dude awkwardly standing there. I was slightly caught off guard because it's not every day you see a man like him in little farming-town Osterholz-Scharmbeck. I was even more caught off guard when he greeted me with a beautiful, American sounding "Hi!"

It turns out that the man, named Eugene, was a student at the very school I teach at now 27 years ago when OHZ (the hip way of saying Osterholz-Scharmbeck) was occupied by the American Army.

***(History Lesson: As I wrote in a post a while back, OHZ was occupied by the American Army for a while some 30 years ago. It was, for all practical purposes, a real little American town in Northwest Germany. It had American schools (high schools, etc), sports, foods, etc.)***

I ended up showing Eugene around (I know, it doesn't make sense since he was a student there) while we talked about all kinds of random stuff. He was on a short 2 week vacation and wanted to pay a visit to his Alma Mater high school. He lives in Dallas, is a huge Dirk Nowitzki fan, and forgets a lot of his German. On this particular day I had 2 hours of afternoon lessons with the 6B, not one of my more enjoyable classes. So I decided to take Eugene along, knowing that the pupils would be totally intrigued by this guy.

Surely enough, they were. And they had plenty of questions to prove it too. We spent most of the afternoon doing a little question and answer session with him and the pupils. He gave some of them 1 dollar bills (they loved that) and had some wonderful things to say to them about education and whatnot. He understood the whole Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium deal they have here in Germany, so he knew that my students were not the best of the best. It also looked like he realized that they were hanging on every word he said, so he took the opportunity to tell them, basically, that if they want more of those dollar bills, they have to go to school, learn, and learn to enjoy it.

All in all, it was a great surprise. I met an energetic person who enjoys life, got to hear some good stories, got to practice my German (I was translating mostly everything..), and the students, I think, learned something from him.

Thanks Eugene! I hope you are doing well down there in Texas.

Stay tuned for posts on the Berlin Seminar and my time spent with my family.

Also: Click the silver FOLLOW button on the right hand side of the screen. It makes it easier to keep yourself fully updated. If anything, just do it to humor me :)

Some photos...

It's been faaar too long since I've made a post, but I'm too tired to do anything productive tonight - so I'll give you a little taste-test list of what's to come.

I have a whole lot to write about after spending a week in Berlin and Eckernfoerde.

Soon to come:

- A story about a surprise visit to my school.
- A recap of my Fulbright Seminar in Berlin - Including party/family photos.
- Detailed account of my German family get-together party-fest that took place in Eckernfoerde, which is where Mom hails from. Photos included.

Here's a photo some random dude from the German Bundeswehr (Army) took of me on the streets of Berlin. It was a totally random deal, which I will be including in my Berlin post.

Ciao!

Get a load of this article, found on ESPN.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3965863

How this girl is not sitting in jail on charges of attempted murder, I have no idea. Something tells me that if a man were to stab his girlfriend in the head with scissors and in the neck with a knife, he wouldn't get away with just a slap on the wrist (aggravated battery with a deadly weapon).

I just don't get it. I am a supporter of woman's rights. I think it is a tragedy that women with the same qualifications doing the same job as men earn less in the workplace. To me, that's something that just isn't right.

But, come on, shouldn't there be equality in the courtroom? Can all girlfriends get away with stabbing their boyfriends after this precedent has been set?


On another note - I've recently tricked out my blog here a little bit with some new features, one of them having the ability to automatically send you and email whenever I publish a post. If you would like to be put on the list, simply say so. That way, if you want to read what's going on over here, you don't have to keep coming to the blog only to be disappointed by the lack of activity.

Possibly more to come later in the afternoon (my time).

russ.

Also -

As you can see, I updated the blog's layout a little bit and added a couple of gadgets on the right hand side and under the posts.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

r.

Spent a great weekend in Amsterdam (I'm beginning to get to know that place fairly well now) with a couple of friends I've made while living in Bremen. One, Mena, hails from Italy and teaches Italian at the Gymnasium in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, which is the town I work in. The other, Cristina, is from Spain and, you guessed it, teaches Spanish. Although, I'm not sure which city/school she is in: It's a small dorf (village) close to Bremen.

At the moment I have a few too many things to do to be writing a comprehensive review of the weekend, so I may get to that and throw some pictures up later.

My main reason for the post is to pass along, simply put, a great story. I found it on ESPN.com. It's about a Duke basketball player and his story.

I don't want to give away too much, so all I'll say is that it reminds me how lucky I am to have two parents who love me and want, above all things, for me to be happy.

Love you Mom and Dad! (And cant wait to see you and Eve and The Dude in less that a week!!!)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=nolan

Hi folks.

So I just got home from a rather strenuous day of managing the organized chaos that makes up my pupils.

I've kind of developed a routine of reading (online) all of the newspapers, sports news, etc that happened the day before in the World (please remember that when I'm sleeping you are busy being awake, so I sleep right through lots of the important stuff) when I get home from work. Today, while reading my stuff, I came across yet more Obama-bashing stuff.

Articles, message boards, facebook groups, and the likes. One thing I found particularly disturbing, or annoying, or very "little kid like" if you will, was a group on facebook criticizing the "lack of change" that was once promised and the raising of taxes, citing the fact the former Clinton Administration employees are being brought back, yadda yadda yadda.

News flash everybody. It's now official. Many Americans have a shorter memory span than your house pet! It seems that they have forgotten the WONDERFUL lives they had the joy of living these past 8 years. The worst terrorist attack in our country's short history, a never-ending (and terribly, terribly expensive, something most Americans fail to remember)war, an economic crisis that we might never recover from, The Patriot Act, and..wait...I'm forgetting something..ah! That's right, RAISED TAXES! These are all things that "the guy THEY voted for" helped bring us.

Here's my problem: Quit complaining. That gets us no where. What's wrong with bringing back people from the Clinton Administration? How is that not change? They aren't Bush Folks and they were part of our last successful Administration. That is damn good enough for me. Hell, right now I would say it's the best choice. I mean, they did SOMETHING right, didn't they?


Okay, this has been a far too negative post. I think you all know by now, after reading my 20something blog posts, that I am an uber-positive guy. My glass is always half-full. I'm a peaceful guy (off of the football field, hehe). If I grew up in the 70's I would have been one of the people saying, "Make love, Not war." My reason for bringing this up is two-fold:

1) The way I see it is this: Where the heck does complaining get us? I feel like this is the time, if there ever was one, for our country to UNITE (A word our incredibly respectable Founding Fathers found important...hmm...) for a single cause. Many people may not like Obama, but I think EVERYBODY dislikes a terrible economy and a lower quality of life, and I wrong? So what's stopping us?

2) I felt I was being counterproductive with my ranting, but it had a point. Which is outlined in #1.

REMEMBER ALL YOU NEGATIVE NANCIES: A democracy (Remember, this is that ingenious style of government that was implemented waaaay back in 1700's) doesn't function when everyone acts like a toddler who just had their favorite toy taken away.

The rather great idea behind this whole democracy thing is that, through ACTION, you can get your government to work for you. Action means actually doing something. I know, that sounds hard. But it actually works. Ask Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is a time to celebrate!!! Like these people! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfgCEzhYVDg&feature=related. I implore you to watch this, very funny!

Anywho, my rant is over. Big thanks to Mom and Dad: Both forwarded good links to me in the place where you can leave COMMENTS (hint, hint). Plus, they're just really, really good parental units.

Thanks for your continued blog loyalty.

And now, a bunch of random stuff for reading/viewing pleasure:

Music I have been listening to a lot as of late:

-Bob Dylan
-Bob Marley
-John Mayer
-Tenacious D
-John Legend

Books I'm currently reading: (I like to switch a lot)

-Harry Potter #1 in German
-Obama's "The Audacity of Hope" (An X-Mas gift from my great family!)
-Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" <--Way, way good book/author. Comes highly recommended from me.

-Number of books I have finished since arriving in Germany at the end of August: About 22. That's almost embarrassing, almost.

Wicked-awesome websites:

- www.pandora.com
- www.surfthechannel.com
- twitter - www.twitter.com/russellwacker
- www.theonion.com <--If you're in the mood for satire on almost any topic.

Today is a day of great jubilation!

Earlier, I was thinking about things I've been meaning to do/stop doing (i.e. long term tasks, bad habits, etc.), and I realized that I have completely quit biting my nails. That's one bad habit I can check off my list; one that I've been doing for as long as I can remember (especially during football season) and that has been near impossible to stop.

Yay!

You know, each day I work here as a "teacher," I enjoy teaching more and more. I think I know now for sure that I will be, at some point in my life, a teacher. I just find it very fun and fulfilling (that's some nice alliteration right there). When, I have no idea. Things (like COLLEGE!) are expensive. And these days it's not good to be spending money that you don't have..So we'll see.

Anyway, I'm pretty beat after my second long run of this still very short week, so I'm going to call it a night and zone out to a movie for what's left of the night.

Cheers,

russ.

ps - Alliteration is the repeated occurrence of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words in the same phrase. Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant in a string of words, not the sound as is in alliteration. An exemplary example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" or my nifty one, "fun and fulfilling." :) Thank you Ms. Glock in 8th grade English at Skyview Jr. High, I specifically remember learning this in her class when learning how to write poems. How I remember the specifics, I have no idea.

Hello blog readers!

Quoting an exchange I recently had with Mom in an email, "No news is good news."

I picked up a few extra classes at the school because I had free hours on a couple of days, so now I am teaching English around 15-16 hours a week and not 12. I've spent the past couple of weeks just sort of going about my everyday business:

- I've been enjoying teaching more and more recently. A couple of teachers have finally branched out and gave me the opportunity to prepare some lessons of my own and teach smaller groups of pupils. It's been very fun and has kept me more involved at my school. I decided to give my pupils some say on what exactly I teach them on a week to week basis. So far I have done lessons on how America got started (Albeit it was a VERY simple version), a couple of Obama-themed ones, a little bit on St. Patrick's Day (it coincided with the teacher's theme), and then some routine grammar stuff (for example, the differences, similarities, and difficulties of "I will" future tense and "I'm going to" future tense). You would be surprise at how incredibly tricky the "I'm going to" tense can be for Germans who are learning English.

- I've been spending and increasing amount of time in the city meeting up with friends. I think we all get a mutual satisfaction and enjoyment out of meeting and being able to practice our respective foreign languages. Lot of my friends just relish the chance to practice their English, so I get the opportunities to speak a lot of the only two languages I know. (Note - I would normally use this opportunity to start a new language, since French, Italian, and Spanish are all there for me to learn from friends, but I'm still working on getting down this whole German Language thing. It's a tough one.)

- Still doing my best to maintain a high level of fitness and show-up my Mom's prediction, but have been slowed recently by an illness. I stayed home in bed on Wednesday with a cold and have been slowly recovering. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, all is well. The Mini-Apotheke I came to Germany with helped out a lot).

That's about all the update I have for you at the moment. About to start what should be a very exciting month of March, as the whole Wacker gang is coming out for a week's visit, during which is a week-long Fulbright Seminar in Berlin - my favorite city.

Also - After getting somewhat hooked on Coach Sark's twitter updates, I thought to myself, "Why the hell not?" So now you can keep even more updated on my daily happenings - check out my twitter page @ http://twitter.com/russellwacker

Tonight I'm going to a Jazz concert in the city with the family I live with! Should be a fun night. Hope everyone is doing well back home. I read that it snowed again. The weather here has been somewhat warmer as of late, in the 5-7 degree Celsius range.

Gotta run!

Russ

Wein Abend

Breaking from my usual of detailing school or family outings, I have a little bit to write about a fun night of partying at a friend’s apartment in Bremen. The evening, Friday, Jan. 6, was dubbed “Wein Abend” (wine night) by the hostess, Amelie.

Amelie is a friend I have made while living around Bremen. She is also a language teaching assistant and teaches French, because she’s from France (duh?). Oddly enough, most of the friends I have made that live in or around Bremen are neither German nor American. I have more French, Spanish, and Italian friends in my host city than those other two nationalities combined (almost all of whom are also language teaching assistants).

Anyways, it was a fun party – with lots of wine (every guest brought at least one bottle), cheese, bread, yadda, yadda, yadda. We were at Amelie’s until, oh, about midnight or one in the morning or so. Then we decided it would be a good idea to go out and hit a couple of clubs before it got too late. So, it was at around that time when our group of at least 10 people, a mix of several different nationalities, hit the streets. Long story short, we weren’t walking back to Amelie’s until 7:30 in the morning!

A good story that came from this night: Upon waking up on a mattress in the middle of Amelie’s living room (I wasn’t about to go home at 7:30 in the morning while still…under the influence…and already developing a hangover), I quickly realized that a very important item of mine is missing – my bag! I bought a bag that I call my “side satchel,” and take it with me everywhere. Eva, my sis, likes to call it my “man purse” when I refer to it. Anyway, this thing is extremely important to me. Not only for practical purposes, but also because in it are my house and school keys, my iPod, and a Christmas present from my family – Obama’s newest book, The Audacity of Hope. The first words that came to my mind are not appropriate for this type of media and audience.

Now, imagine this situation. You wake up fairly (that means very, in this case) disorientated and a little hung over from a long but fun night with friends, only to first realize that you are missing some very important things. To say the very least, I was not feeling too good about my current situation.

Despite my current levels of high stress, I was able to sit down and logically think out what happened. We first thought it was at the first club we went to, because she didn’t remember seeing me with it at the second and final club. Upon further review of the photos on my camera, however, we were able to establish that it was indeed with me at club #2. So the next thing we did was call Helga, who was also at the party and whose apartment we stopped at on our walk home early in the morning. To my great, great relief, it was there! Crisis Averted!

Photos from the night (the last one is "upon further review" picture!):

Bosseln and Gruenkohlessen

Off we go!

Way back on the 29^th of January, of this still very young year, some of my colleagues and I went and did what is a very traditional Northwest Germany tradition – we played a game called bosseln and ate a delicious dinner called Gruenkohlessen (basically a sweet dinner focused around green cabbage).

I’m sure you are sitting there in front of your computer or notebook thinking to yourself, “What the heck is bosseln?” Well since you’re wondering, here’s what this game is all about. It’s actually about as simple as it gets.. Bosseln has a couple of possible ways of playing, so I will just explain what we played, which I think is the most common one. There are two teams, each team having one ball. The ball is made of a hard material (so that it wont break when you roll it down the street) and weighs about the same as a big grapefruit. The teams start at a predetermined spot and begin rolling the balls. For example, player 1 from team A rolls it as far as he/she can. Then player 1 from team B does the same. Then the second players from each team do the same, with the team with the least distance always rolling first. A team earns a point when they have “lapped” the other team. This means that, for example, when player two is up for team 1 and player three is up for team 2, but team 1 is ahead, team 1 gets a point.

After a point is scored, the balls are set back to an even distance, and the next players roll (obviously, the players in the same position must make the first roll here).

That’s pretty much it. There is some strategy involved when there are obstacles are involved, like ditches, small hills, cracks or dips in the road, etc. But other than that, there’s not much too it. But there is a secret reason as to why it’s such a simple game. That is, the game is normally played with a bottle or two of some form of hard alcohol. Every time a point is scored, the team on the wrong end of the point must take a shot. This way, the game gets more interesting and fun as it goes along. Unfortunately, I was not exposed to a proper game of bosseln, as the alcohol was left out. But it was a great time nonetheless!

Now, a short little bit about the dinner. As mentioned before, the dinner is essentially focused around gruenkohl, which is green cabbage. The other main types of food associated with a gruenkohlessen are pinkel (a type of sausage special to the area), potatoes (I am in Germany, after all), and other wurst (sausage) varieties. Oh, and let’s not leave out the beer – that is a necessity at something like this.

Bosseln and Gruenkohlessen – a great cultural experience, a fun time, and good eats.

Here are some pictures! (If you are having trouble seeing, simply click the photo for a much bigger version)

Shots From My Way To Work

Hello all -

Here are some pictures taken from random spots during one of my many bike rides to work/school. They are, for the most part, in chronological order.

While looking them over, you will see a Northern German "hill" that I struggle up on my way home, a nice sunrise over an expansive cornfield, some frozen things, me not trying to drop my camera, the most bumpy, uncomfortable road I've ever biked on, the city I work in, and my school!

So now, when I write that I struggled through another day of biking to and from work, you can imagine me laboring through these photos on my stylish lady's bicycle.

Coming soon: Photos of my stylish lady's bicycle. Also of the house I live in and my room.

Today (well, tonight for me) is the Super Bowl! It starts at 6 PM on the East Coast, which means that it starts at 3 PM on the West Coast, which means that it starts more or less at midnight for me. But naturally that's not going to stop me. I'll be faithfully watching on the internet from my little corner of the world.

Bye!

Hi folks. So in keeping with my usual trends, here is a much belated post for your reading enjoyment..

Well, what a great time to be an American! This past Tuesday, as I'm sure you are fully aware of, was the inauguration of Barack Obama. I've already written about what the magnitude of Obama's accomplishments mean to me, but I don't think a person can talk or write about something like this enough. This type of thing only happens once in a person's life. I am sure that there is a lot of excitement back home in the States, as many people here in Germany are quite excited themselves. Many people, including colleagues and friends, have been asking me questions regarding Obama. And, from the sound of it, Obama hasn't been disappointing - he has been busy at work in the White House in his first week on the Job.

Now, with that said, I did note some pretty funny things during the inauguration ceremony (while I was using the internet to watch it live, thank you world wide web!).

- The first was the look on George Bush's face as he was making the long and ceremonial walk to the stage where the inauguration was taking place. I remember thinking that I wanted to make it a point to notice his face whenever they showed him, and I just could not quite place his look. It appeared to be a mix of confusion, pleasure, and fear. Confusion, maybe, because he just wasn't quite sure which way he was supposed to go during his approach to the stage. Pleasure because of the knowledge that he would no longer have to make so many difficult and hard decisions, and act like you know what you're doing. And, finally, fear - because of the realization of not knowing what the heck he is going to do now. I don't know. I just thought it was a really funny look. Plus I was just happy to see him making that walk :)

- The second funny thing happened during Obama's speech. Throughout the speech, the TV station, I believe I was watching FOX News, would switch between shots of Obama and people in the crowd. On one of these particular crowd shots, I happen to see a black man yawning and dozing off! At the inauguration of the first black president in the history of the United States. One of the most important moments of your life. You are there in person. And you fall asleep. Man, the the irony of seeing that got me laughing out loud by myself.

- Lastly, how about that poor lady that had to follow up Obama's speech with that poetry? I am not taking away from her poetic skills, but honestly - they want follow up entertainment for one of the best speech givers of recent history, and they pick the poem lady? Anybody is going to have trouble following Obama and the poem lady was no exception. I felt bad for her.

So, all-in-all, I was pretty excited about the whole inauguration scene. I'm happy and I'm hopeful for my country. It's a great time to be an American.

On a completely different subject, a couple of weekends ago I made a short trip up to Elmshorn to visit the Baumann Family. The Baumann's, if you remember, are the family I did the bike tour on the Mosel River with. It was both a fun and relaxing weekend. The Friday that I arrived, I ended up hanging out with Anne and Philip and watching movies. The highlight, I would say, was watching Terminator 3 on television. I got to show the two Baumann kids a little bit of American culture, hehe. Saturday was a cool day. The whole family and I drove into Hamburg to do some sightseeing around the harbor. We were still in the middle of a big cold chill in Northern Germany, so a good portion of the Elbe River (the main river that makes Hamburg such a big/busy port city) was prozen over. It was so cool! I had never in my entire life really seen a river as major as the Elbe with more ice than water at the surface. We checked out some other things, including climbing to the top of a ship-shaped building that had stairs on the outside of it. It was a good day spent in the harbor area. Funny enough, after dinner that evening, the family and I capped off the night watching Terminator 2, which they happened to have on DVD.

Lastly, I have a little something to grip about. This may not come completely as a surprise, but there are different driving rules over here in Germany. Now, this doesn't make driving a completely different experience over here (I don't drive, this is just from a passenger's perspective), but it is a big enough change to where you would have to do some studying should you want to drive on a vacation to Germany. So now to my grip. One of the rules here, apparently, is something called "right before left." What this means is that at unmarked intersections of streets, the car on the right always gets the right of way. Example: I am making the long, 40-minutes bike ride home from work this past Thursday. On the home stretch. I am on the main drag in a smaller residential area, so there are so traffic signals. A dude on a motor bike approaches my street, wanting to turn onto it, as I am crossing. He quickly does his best to communicate his frustration with having to wait 5 seconds for a dog-tired biker and drove off. This is one situation where I do not miss America's rules at all. I definitely prefer our rules of the first one to an intersection with stop signs gets to go first and when turning onto a road, you must yield to traffic already driving on your desired road. Small, but still, it bugs me.

This weekend has been a lazy weekend for me. This past week I felt like I had a cold the whole time. Particularly on Friday and Saturday. So I stayed home this weekend, saved money, and got healthy. Luckily, I came to Germany with a small doctor's office-worth of stuff to help stave off disease. Thanks Mom!

I am a little behind on updating my computer with pictures, so when I get the Baumann weekend pictures uploaded, I'll update this post with some pictures of our day at the harbor. That's all for now!

russ.

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Hello family, friends, and whoever else might be reading this! A few days ago I returned to Bremen after a great time in Luebeck. The past couple of days have been spent getting my life back into order (I sort of lose touch with reality while I am vacationing from my already vacation-like life) by doing massive amounts of laundry, getting out and jogging, and general cleaning-up around the room.

My first order of business is to wish you all a very happy new year! (Which is exactly what the title of this post is doing. Just a little FYI for all you NON-German speakers out there..shame on you). I hope that you all had a great time ringing the new year in. I, too, had a very fun time on New Years Eve (called Silvester over here). I tagged along with my uncle Stefan (Mom's Bro) and my aunt Thesi to a small town on the Baltic Sea called Travemunde. This town is essentially at the spot where the Baltic and the river (can't remember the name of the particular river right now) that runs through Luebeck meet. A very pretty place, with a long beach and a big boardwalk-type area along it. We got there right on time, as people were beginning to really start their firework shows. And, damn, these Germans sure take their fireworks seriously. The place looked and sounded like we were in middle of a war-zone, or what I would imagine a war-zone to kind of be like. The sky was aglow nonstop. The air was full of smoke. So full, in fact, that many of my photos ended up looking like I had taken a picture a greyish wall. The lights and explosions lasted long after the strike of midnight; and were still going as we were driving off after we had had our fill of watching people blow their money up. It was a nice, quiet (well, not really. But I hope you get what I mean), and enjoyable new years.




















I've never been particularly huge on new years, except during the whole Y2K deal, that was a hoot. To me it always just feels like any other day. I never get that "little kid" feeling I get on Christmas, or that feeling of great anticipation during Thanksgiving when I smell the bird cooking. However, despite this, I like to view the turning of the year as a good time to set some good, long-term goals and to reflect. So with no further ado, behold my goals/reflections list!!

1. If you came to me a year ago and told me that, a year from then, I would be sitting in Germany writing this blog post, I would have laughed it and you off. Goes to show what a little hard work, persistence, and a year's worth of time can do. Cliche, I know, but true.

2. I want to return to the States in better shape than when I arrived back in August. Two reason for this: to prove my mom wrong, hehe, and just because I enjoy getting out and being active.

(a little history about that: back in the Summer as I was preparing for my trip over here, mom told me that I would undoubtedly return with a beer belly, or some form of one. afterall, I was going to the land of beer, Germany. so this is a little stubbornness on my part. but it also helps me with staying motivated. hell, for all I know, that was a little bit of reverse psychology on mom's part. or maybe I'm thinking too hard..)

3. By the time they make me leave here, I hope to have improved all of my students' English speaking abilities. But, more importantly, I hope to have instilled in them a little desire to learn about "stuff" in general - different cultures, languages, whatever.

4. I want to become as proficient in the German language as I can.

5. I want to find a real job, so I can start the multiple-decade-long process o paying off the dreaded student loans. Hopefully I can do this (find a job, that is) before I return.

6. I want to run and complete a half-marathon. And possibly get into triathalons.

7. When back in the States: Ride my bike more, and drive my car less.

8. Get good at waking up early. And do it regularly.

9. Write a short story or get a sports related article published somewhere.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I know for sure that I am forgetting some major things, but I just can't pull them out of my brain at the moment.

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure, here are some photos: (Decorating the tree w/ Lutz being a goofball, the dudes of the house and me, an artsy-fartsy picture I like, preparing food in Oma's kitchen while Oma refuses to sit idly and let us do the work, eating a very nice lunch with Oma - Anna-Maria, my aunt, is on the right, Stefan and cousin Jan - Lutz's younger brother.)




















So, there you have it - my first blog of 2009. Hope you liked it. And, like I've been continually saying, I am going to give it my all with becoming a more frequent blogger - hey, that's another thing for my list above :).

This week I plan on getting my first haircut/trim in Germany, how exciting! It'll be the first time since I was in the States, woah.

Start planning your trip over here, Tony!!! Ciao!

Much love,

Russ.

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.