Hi everyone!
Well, things have been pretty busy here for the last chunk of time. This past weekend, Gitti the social worker had a birthday party, and I was invited to come a little early and help set up, which I was very willing to do. Gitti has hurt her knee, and her boyfriend Heiko and both of her parents are on crutches, and can't really help carry all the stuff out to the garden where we were, and they were really glad to have be be the runner back and forth. After staying up late talking, we got a c ouple of hours of sleep before I got picked up by Frau Kühne and her Family and we drove to Seiffen, a small town in the Erzgebirge on the Czech border. Seiffen is where all the wooden christmas decorations come from, the nutcrackers, Räuchermännchen and Schwibbogen. It is a little like disney world only with christmas figures. That was a full day (since it was a good 2 and a half to 3 hour drive there) and I got home and crashed. Sunday was dinner with the Florschützes, a short bike ride, coffee with the Florschützes, and then an Amway event. Terrifying. Anyway, I have plenty to take care of at home, so naturally I am sitting here online rather than going grocery shopping or vaccuuming.
This coming weekend the Polish chorus is coming to us, and we are giving two big concerts. It will be quite a whirl. And the weekend after that is another chorus concert and probably a trip to Wörlitzer park with the Florschützes.
The weeks are pretty full too. We've been having two chorus rehearsals a week rather than one preparing for the concerts, and I have been taking dance lessons on Wednesdays down at the army base. Rayk has also been away for his job most of the week, and since I usually write my blog from over there, I havn't found a lot of time to update.
Lessons continue to go well. The thirteenth graders are all taking their A-levels now, which means they have stopped having classes. The 10th graders are preparing for their exams, and the last three weeks I will be here (I have found out) the 9th and 10th graders will also be gone. So I will have 11th, 12th, 7th, and 8th graders. I don't know how my lessons will be divided out exactly, I think I will have to double up on the lessons for some of the classes or something. Visit twice a week rather once. We will see.
The weather is also fantastic and I have been trying to spend plenty of time outside. The cherry tree has stopped blooming, and the peach is about over. But there are lots of other flowers that are taking their places, and after everything being so bare for so long, it seems hard to believe how much green there really can be everywhere. And there is still more to come. I am enjoying it all, and not thinking too much about how soon I will be home. Hope you are all well, and would love to hear from you when you have the chance.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Family visit
Hey folks! To my regular followers here, sorry for the long pause. For those of you who check here less often, why? Why aren't you checking at least once a day? You should be hanging on my every word! ha ha, just kidding, phew... (hoping for a laugh...)
Ok. So, just (well yesterday) went with my family to the airport to send them back after they came to visit for a little over a week. They all said they had a good time, and I'm willing to believe them. It wasn't the mostly structured trip in the world, but it was good that way, because it made time for the invitations we received. Frau Kuehne and her family and already invited us over to a cook out after I went with them to Eisenach. In fact they bought the bratwurst on that trip, since that is the best place to get bratwurst, Thuringen. Familie Florschuetz was also eager to meet my "real" or "other" family, and so we went over for coffee and cake on the first day. As Marlies described it "I was going to just buy some cake from the store, but it got too complicated and I just decided to go ahead and bake everything myself." Not the order that I would have done it in, but hey. She made three wonderful cakes for us, themselves, and Lars's new girlfriend, who everyone is excited about. I mentioned that Alex being the thoughtful guy he is, brought his juggling balls with him to Germany to juggle for Marvin, and so we planned to meet again for the Easter egg hunt on Monday. (Easter is a 2 day holiday here. And all the stores close on Good Friday, too, so the stores on the Thursday and Saturday before Easter, and the Tuesday after, are nightmarish.) When we got to the house Monday morning, Alex and I found out that we had easter baskets to hunt, too. The parents were supposed to hunt for the regular eggs (parents: My parents and Herr and Frau Florschutz) and the kids all had easter baskets that were hidden as well (kids: Marvin (6), Peter (16), Alex (20), me (22), Rayk (36 and Marvin and Peter's dad), Heike (Marvin and Peter's mom), Lars (also above 30), and Lars's girlfriend (who had been introduced to Lars's parents... 4 days earlier. But, I suppose, so had Alex). Marvin was enchanted by the juggling, and Alex ended up playing catch with him the rest of the visit. Marvin is like the energizer bunny. Marlies wanted us all to come over at least one more time, and it worked out that the only time could be the very next evening, when Rayk was there to help translate. So we went over again on Tuesday for a very nice dinner, where there wasn't enough room for the guests and the food to all be at the table at once.
In our spare time, we did get to do a little sightseeing. We went to Beeskow to a medieval festival, saw the castle Sans Sousci in Potsdam, saw the main sights in Berlin, took in a few museums there, and saw Blue Man Group. Everything went well, although I have to say it is nice not to have to translate quite as often now. But I am really glad that they all could take the time to come out and see me and little Storkow.
School starts tomorrow, although I don't have to be back until Tuesday, and like almost any vacation, this one feels too short. The 13th graders will be gone, which is going to be odd, so I will be getting a few new classes. I am also trying to remember any really interesting points of American culture that I want to pass on before I leave in 10 weeks. I think July will be here far too quickly, and once the concert schedule with the choir picks up, the time will really fly by. But everything is greening up, and the forsythia are blooming like crazy. (It is traditional here to hang easter eggs inside the house from Forsythia branches before they bloom, so they bloom inside. The flowers were falling off of mine, so they had to depart).
Hope everything is going well for you all, and that you had a nice Easter!
Ok. So, just (well yesterday) went with my family to the airport to send them back after they came to visit for a little over a week. They all said they had a good time, and I'm willing to believe them. It wasn't the mostly structured trip in the world, but it was good that way, because it made time for the invitations we received. Frau Kuehne and her family and already invited us over to a cook out after I went with them to Eisenach. In fact they bought the bratwurst on that trip, since that is the best place to get bratwurst, Thuringen. Familie Florschuetz was also eager to meet my "real" or "other" family, and so we went over for coffee and cake on the first day. As Marlies described it "I was going to just buy some cake from the store, but it got too complicated and I just decided to go ahead and bake everything myself." Not the order that I would have done it in, but hey. She made three wonderful cakes for us, themselves, and Lars's new girlfriend, who everyone is excited about. I mentioned that Alex being the thoughtful guy he is, brought his juggling balls with him to Germany to juggle for Marvin, and so we planned to meet again for the Easter egg hunt on Monday. (Easter is a 2 day holiday here. And all the stores close on Good Friday, too, so the stores on the Thursday and Saturday before Easter, and the Tuesday after, are nightmarish.) When we got to the house Monday morning, Alex and I found out that we had easter baskets to hunt, too. The parents were supposed to hunt for the regular eggs (parents: My parents and Herr and Frau Florschutz) and the kids all had easter baskets that were hidden as well (kids: Marvin (6), Peter (16), Alex (20), me (22), Rayk (36 and Marvin and Peter's dad), Heike (Marvin and Peter's mom), Lars (also above 30), and Lars's girlfriend (who had been introduced to Lars's parents... 4 days earlier. But, I suppose, so had Alex). Marvin was enchanted by the juggling, and Alex ended up playing catch with him the rest of the visit. Marvin is like the energizer bunny. Marlies wanted us all to come over at least one more time, and it worked out that the only time could be the very next evening, when Rayk was there to help translate. So we went over again on Tuesday for a very nice dinner, where there wasn't enough room for the guests and the food to all be at the table at once.
In our spare time, we did get to do a little sightseeing. We went to Beeskow to a medieval festival, saw the castle Sans Sousci in Potsdam, saw the main sights in Berlin, took in a few museums there, and saw Blue Man Group. Everything went well, although I have to say it is nice not to have to translate quite as often now. But I am really glad that they all could take the time to come out and see me and little Storkow.
School starts tomorrow, although I don't have to be back until Tuesday, and like almost any vacation, this one feels too short. The 13th graders will be gone, which is going to be odd, so I will be getting a few new classes. I am also trying to remember any really interesting points of American culture that I want to pass on before I leave in 10 weeks. I think July will be here far too quickly, and once the concert schedule with the choir picks up, the time will really fly by. But everything is greening up, and the forsythia are blooming like crazy. (It is traditional here to hang easter eggs inside the house from Forsythia branches before they bloom, so they bloom inside. The flowers were falling off of mine, so they had to depart).
Hope everything is going well for you all, and that you had a nice Easter!
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