Archives for November 2005

today is “turkey day” and I just wish I could be in Ventura with Jon and his family. I remember last year when we had this really delicious turkey roast and watched a movie later. It was so much fun. It has become a special holiday for me and I am kind of sad I am not really celebrating it this year…. [it’s fun to live a cross-cultural relationship and have double the holidays per year,both the German and American ones. Too bad you won’t get both holidays off from work ;)] I miss Jon even more these days.

I went to see my great-aunt today. She’s always so happy when I come to visit. We had some cappuccino and “Spekulatius”, one of my favorite Christmas-time cookies.
Hopefully, I won’t get sick… many people [including my sister] came down with a cold and I hope I will be untroubled by the flu this year. It started raining here today and it’s pretty cold – that’s when usually everybody gets some kind of infection. So keep warm and drink lots of tea or hot milk with honey!

I am almost done with packing my little suitcase and I’ll be off to a wonderful weekend soon. I am looking forward to get away. I will visit my friend Anke who has just recently moved to Kiel from Rostock and we’ll have a wonderful girls’ weekend together :) I’ve never been to Kiel (the farthest north I have come in the western part of Germany was Hamburg – I have visited Anke in Rostock before ;)) and I am really looking forward to seeing some more places in Germany!
I am going to take the train [thanks God I booked in advance and got a pretty good deal, because train tickets are so f***ing expensive :(] and I am really looking forward to the train ride! I get this nostalgic feeling when I sit on the train and see the world pass by outside my window… I made myself a nice care package and hot tea and I’ll just enjoy the “me-time” This is only true of course if I get a window seat and won’t have to sit on my suitcase in the aisle…[I didn’t want to spend another 1,50 euros per train (!) to reserve a seat since I am changing trains a few times].

I hope you’ll all have a wonderful weekend!

it can really cheer you up. My sister asked me on Monday if I could go to school with her on Tuesday morning and fill in for one of her colleagues who usually helps her with the swim class. As a teacher, you’re not allowed to go swimming with a large group of kids on your own, but you need someone to accompany you for safety reasons. Usually it should be someone with a lifeguard license and since I have one, I was the first person she called :)
I had to get up at 6:45 a.m. (don’t know how I managed since I stayed up till 1 a.m. again the night before) and Nina picked me up at 7 a.m. She told me that her class is totally excited that I am coming! They had asked if I would come and visit them again since the summer. Some of them were not shy at all and were running towards me at once and held on to my arms and legs :) so cute!
The swim class was fun… we were in the non-swimmer pool and Nina had prepared a programm of water games. The kids had to dive for objects, we played a relay game and some game called “Waschstraße” where they were allowed to splash around :)
We took the bus back to school and had the breakfast break in the classroom together. I had brought hot tea for Nina and me and we sat among the kids and ate our sandwiches. It really reminded me of the times when we were back in elementary school sitting on these tiny chairs at these tiny tables.

After that, I took the car and made a short trip to IKEA which was pretty close by [and which is ALWAYS worth a trip :)]. Nina’s students didn’t really want to let me go and asked me when I would come back and were clinged to my arms and legs again. I promised I would be back later to pick up my sister and they didn’t let me go before I had promised that I would come into their classroom again. They even suggested that Nina could go shopping and that I could be their teacher for the day :)
I must admit, they were really cute and I liked being there and it definitely distracted me for a while, but once I again I realized that I wouldn’t want to be a teacher every day! It’s a very stressful job and you must have nerves of steel!

I cooked Thai Green Curry for lunch today… something really exotic for my parents who are experimenting cooks, but have never really tried Asian dishes before. It turned out great and my Mom loved it [my Dad has yet to try since he wasn’t home for lunch].