I'm Lindsey, your travel agent

This was my first full week at the middle school/high school and it went great. I am so happy there. Today was a teacher work day, so all the teachers were calculating grades and submitting them. I, however, got to watch many online tutorials about a new program the school has bought. It is the information specialist's and technology person's job to figure it out and then teach the teachers how to use it. Needless to say, my head was bobbing. I realized today, I could never work at a computer all day long for my job. I need to get up and move around some. I think that's a good thing. I also got to have a lunch at the DEFAC (or something like that) on base.. like a mess hall, essentially. It's all-you-can-eat for $4.25. There's a line with a meal to choose from or another line with things like burgers. There's a salad bar, other things to make nacho stuff. Also a dessert area. Pretty neato. It was nice to see someplace new on base. Plus I was able to eat with J. and the technology person from Wetzel who is way cool too.

After school, I basically spent all my time figuring the weekend out. Originally we'd hoped to go on a military-sponsored free trip to Munich and Dachau. We tried to sign up earlier in the week when there were quite a few spaces left, but since we aren't in the military, they told us to call back on Friday. So we did. It was full... supposedly. We were disappointed. I did a lot of researching (thank goodness I'm a librarian.. no one else really did anything to help) and found out we can take a bus from downtown Baumholder to nearby Idar-Oberstein. My thought was we could go there for the day. It is known for it's gems and stone-cutting. There is also this apparently pretty neat church up in a rock on the side of a mountain or huge hill.

Some other student teachers went to Ramstein after school to book their Spring Break trips with the travel agency there. The teacher who drove all five of them offered to take them all to Luxembourg tomorrow. I am jealous... :\ Oh well, though. I was wanting to go to Idar-Oberstein sometime before we left in May anyhow. It would be a waste to not go someplace so close. It will be a good day.... plus, I can probably buy a piece of jewelry! And it is awesome to be in Germany and I am absolutely thrilled I was given the chance to come student teach here--the opportunity of a lifetime! I just don't want to sit on base all weekend, so heave-ho, let's go!

Tomorrow will be low-cost, too. I think it's only about 4 euros for the bus ride. And it's also nice to know about that bus because we can take it to the Idar trainstation and take trains out from there. Some other girls were freaking out wanting to book a better day trip for tomorrow and wanted to go further away. I got to do all the research... yay for me... Everyplace was too far away. The nearest place they wanted to go was about 3 hours away. It could've worked except for the bus back to Baumholder in the evening.. the latest bus was about 6:45 or so. Too early. We wouldn't have had much time in Heidelberg (the nearest place they settled on going. They originally wanted to go someplace even further away. For one day... ?).

We also realized today that we got screwed over by the chick at the travel agency on base here when we went to Trier a couple weekends ago. We tried to get the weekend train pass for 5 people that is only about 30 euros. We explained what we wanted and she pretended like we couldn't get that. She made us buy two train tickets to Trier and two back (we had to include 6 people; only 5 could be on 1 ticket). All four tickets were 40 euro a piece. Yeah. Sucks. We could've spent about 60 euros between six people probably for the train pass. So at least now we know there is the actual cheaper train pass. All you have to do to buy it is go to the train station where there is a machine. You pay there. That's it. SUCK. Live and learn. Everyone gets cheated when they're abroad at least once. That's been mine this trip... so far...

Tonight, we used the RTT travel through Ramstein base (good deals for people connected with the military) to book a three-day weekend in Paris on President's Day weekend. It will be Jenna, Terry, Al, Quintin, and myself. I am so excited. It's three days and two nights. We get to go to the Jardin du Luxembourg, Notre Dame, the Opera House, Fragonard Perfume Museum, Place de la Concorde, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower (ride to level 2 and can pay 7 euros more to go to top). We can also partake in a three-course dinner at a restaurant and the Seine River cruise at night. We will also go to Versailles, Dome des Invalides (Napoleon's tomb), and the Louvre. The first time I went to Europe with my awesome high school French teacher the summer after my freshman year of college, I was only there for a couple of days. Many of the things included on this trip I did not get to do back in 2008. Most of it I saw the outside of, but was not able to go in, such at Notre Dame (there was an event going on inside), the Opera House, the Perfum Museum, and I did not go up in the Eiffel Tower, on the Seine River cruise, or to Versailles. I am so excited about this trip.

So now I'm feeling more knowledgeable about travel here and I still have a lot to learn. I am glad that I am adventurous (is that the right word?) enough to put forth the effort to find things to do and figure out how to get there... and do it in a pinch. We've planned ahead some weekends and know now how we can get the weekend train passes more easily. Hopefully things will start going more smoothly. It's hard when we don't have transportation and are stuck out in Baumholder. The nearest train station is a 20-minute drive from here. There are usually more than four of us going on one trip it seems. Terry is the only one with a car and she can only fit four other people in her car. And since we aren't in a city, there isn't a subway or anything like that to use. It's a little difficult, but we're figuring it out. Learning is good.