Italy

It's been a while since my last update. This past week was incredibly busy. BUT last weekend (the weekend of March 18, 19, 20), I went to Italy! Jenna and I took a United European Airline bus tour for military persons and anyone associated with the military. We left on Thursday evening from Baumholder at 6 p.m. The bus went to different bases in Germany to pick people up. We were the first stop. Oh joy.

We rode the bus ALL through the night to get to Bologna, Italy around 8 a.m. the next morning. I was smashed against the window. The heat was also ALL on the wall under the window. I was roasting for a lot of the trip. I did manage to get some decent sleep, though.

One of my students happened to be on the trip with his mom and three siblings. That was kind of funny. This boy is in ninth grade and definitely has a crush on me. He is just so funny. Always smiling like a fool when he talks to me. Jenna said he blushed everytime I talked to him on the trip. She also said she noticed his younger sister teasing him a lot about me. Pretty funny. He's a nice young man, though.

So we got to Bologna around 8 or 8:30. Italian flags were hanging everywhere. The day before had been the 150th celebration of Italy. We had a tour that started around 9 a.m. The weather started out a little cloudy, but cleared up after the first couple of hours. It ended up being sunny with beautiful blue skies. I didn't wear my jacket for a while either.

We got to go in the Town Hall. It was a huge building. We were able to see the room where marriage ceremonies take place and also another really big hall. What is really interesting at the Town Hall is that the stairs are really strange. They are at a strange slant and are very big. It's basically a slope with ridges that separate the "steps." And the "steps" are really big and awkward. Reason why? They were stairs for horses. Interesting, eh?

We went into the Basilica di San Domenico, which is the church for the patron saint of Bologna. It is the main church right in the main square near the Town Hall. It was built over 700 years ago.

Bologna is also known for its university founded in 1088. So we got to go to the main university building. We saw the Theatro Anatomico, which is the classroom where human dissections took place. The room is like a theater where the stage is down in the middle of the floor. Seats are all around the main floor in the middle and go up so students could look down to see the dissection. The room was actually destroyed during a bombing during WWI or II, so it was just a replica of the original. It was still really cool.

During the days when dissections were taking place, it was a big market to sell a dead body. When there weren't any bodies, people would follow funerals and then dig up the recently-dead bodies to sell to the university.

After that we got to see the old library room. There were a lot of very old books in cabinets along all the walls. Graduations also take place in that room. There were chairs and a stage set up.

We also went to see a really old church Santo Stefano, which is actually comprised of four different churches all connected. The oldest one dates back to the year 200 BCE. That oldest church is very simple and holds the sarcophagi of two martyrs. This whole site is very important because it contains a crypt from 1019 and precious art pieces. Another church is a replica of Christ's tomb and holds the remains of the patron San Petronio. It was really neat to see this church. There are a couple of neat courtyards there too.

After this, we ate lunch at a local restaurant. We were so hungry that we ordered entirely too much food. We ordered an appetizer plate of bread, cheese, and lunch meat. For my main course I had this pasta, sausage, purple-colored thing. It was so strange, but it was pretty good. There was a piece of baked cheese on top. It was so strange. Haha. It was really purple. I took a picture of it, but it just didn't turn out well.

After lunch, Jenna and I went to the market. There is a market in Bologna on Fridays and Saturdays. I got so much cool stuff! And for great prices too. I bought a couple of necklages and a ring, a cute summery dress, a pair of shoes, and a pair of sunglasses.

We left Bologna around 4 p.m. to go to Hotel Ibis in Padova. It was about an hour and a half drive. Our room was nice. Since we had been touring all day from having been on a bus all night, we could not wait to take showers! Wonderful. There were two other young, single people on the trip just across the aisle and a row in front of us, so the four of us all palled around together. Charlie and Sharon--they're both soldiers at other bases. Anyhow, the four of us were all going to go to dinner together. They came to our room around 7:45, but I was konked out on the bed. Haha. I didn't realize how tired I was. Plus, our room was REALLY hot.

Anyhow, about 15 minutes later I woke up. Jenna and I were going to see if we could order food from anywhere or get room service at least. We were looking at the menu when I saw the fine print informing all food is frozen and just heated up. We passed on room service. So we got real clothes on and went to the front desk to ask for a taxi to go someplace to eat. We ended up eating at a really neat pizza place. We shared a pizza and got fountain Fantas. We decided to get ice cream for dessert. This particular ice cream they put espresso on top of. Very interesting, but good nontheless.

After dinner we went back to the hotel. I fell asleep pretty quickly and had a great, restful night. The next morning we ate a good breakfast at the hotel and were on our way to Florence. Our tour guide thought it was only and hour and a half drive to Florence, but we quickly found out it actually takes two and a half hours to get there.

When we got there, it was cloudy and looked like it could rain. It did spit a few sprinkles around noon, but then cleared up and was beautiful. I didn't really wear my jacket at all once the sun came out.

We had another tour for about an hour and half when we got there. We saw the outside of the library. We saw The Duomo (cathedral), Baptistery St. John, and Santa Croce. These three are all right beside of each other and kind of connected. They are pretty cool and pretty. Michelangelo, Rossini, Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei are all buried in the Santa Croce.

We went to the different squares in Florence and learned some history. We ended our tour in the main square where the town hall is located. In this square are a lot of replicas of old Roman statues. That is really neat. Jenna, Sharon, and I ate at outside at Ristorante Pizza Orcagna in the main square. It was yummy and so cool to eat in that location. We shared a small bottle of the house wine and each had out own small pizza.

Are you wondering why Charlie wasn't with us? He overslept. He was such a chump. He showed up Thursday night to get on the bus with a bottle of wine, which he drank. He told us he'd already drank a bottle before that too. He also drank six bottles of beer on the bus. On German buses, you can buy drinks (soda, water, and beer). At one point, he woke our tour guide up at about four in the morning (Thursday night) to buy a bottle of beer. (I was asleep for this; Jenna informed me the next day) Anyhow, she asked him how many he'd had and informed him this one would be his last. Haha! Anyway, he was obviously wiped out Friday, so he overslept Saturday and missed our bus to Florence.

Back to my day now. So after lunch, the three of us set off for the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio, to see some pretty scenery. There are a lot of artists set up on the sidewalks and piazzas, so we took a look at what they had. After that, Sharon and I walked up this big hill right past the Giardino delle Rose (Rose Garden) to look out over Florence. It was so pretty. Up there is a replica of the statue David. There were vendors up there. I bought a couple of cool t-shirts for five euros each. Normally I don't buy really touristy things like that. I also bought a zippie sweatshirt for 10 euros. They all say Italia or Firenze.

So after that we decided to take it easy and get some gelato, which was SO good. We chilled out and bargained for a couple of prints from African guys selling stuff on the streets. It was pretty fun and funny. As we were going back to the bus, it started to get cloudy again and as we were leaving Florence it started to rain a little.

When we got back to the bus, we were surprised to see Charlie! He got a train to Florence and just happened to find our bus. Weird.

Anyway, so we got back to the hotel. After a bit, the four of us decided to go get dinner together. Charlie had the bright idea to just get a cab to the "main" area in Padova. So we got there and started walking... not finding any place to eat. And we were starving. I really wanted some pasta! I never got my pasta. We finally found a place that was more lunchy. I got a panini and it was pretty good. We shared a bottle of wine with dinner.

After dinner we started walking and decided to go into this place we called the Blue Bar. We really don't know the name of it, but all the lights inside were blue. It looked pretty cool, but once we got in there and sat down at a table we realized it was kind of dirty. haha. It was funny. I had a mojito; it was good. We had a fun time just talking and laughing.

When we were ready to go back to the hotel we asked if we could call a cab. The place didn't have a phone and none of our cells worked there. So off we went walking. We couldn't find any main traffic areas where there were cabs, so we asked a couple of police men where to go. They pointed us in the right direction. I was pretty proud of myself. I saw a cab coming, I stepped out into the street a little bit, raised my arm... and the cab stopped! We hopped in and went back to the hotel.

The next morning was another good breakfast at the hotel. They had a fancy coffee machine that made all kinds of different copies. There were also about four sizes of cups to choose from. The morning before none of us could figure the thing out so I asked someone who worked there. I learned how to work the thing AND learned what cups to use for the different cups. Haha. So Sunday morning I knew what cups to use and how to use thing.

At 8 a.m. we left for Venice, which was only about a 30 minute drive away. The weather was the best yet of the whole weekend. We got to Venice and had to take a 25 minute boat ride to the main part. Once there, we had all the time to ourselves. The four of us palled around all morning and afternoon. The canals are cool and the little streets/sidewalks wind around everywhere. We did a lot of shopping. There is Murano glass everywhere.

I made quite a few purchases in Venice. I got a couple Murano wine bottle stoppers, two Murano rings, a scarf, and a couple of glass decorative pieces. We ate lunch at the main canal by the Rialto Bridge at a place called Cafe Saraceno. It was really nice. We sat outside in the sun. It was lovely and warm. I had a macaroni type dish with a red sauce and tuna in it. It was really good. We had bread and shared wine again. It was a really nice lunch.

After that we had to get back to the dock for our boat. We realized we got lost. We had a map and could not figure out how to get back because of the little windy streets/sidewalks that are really narrow. We finally got back after running. We were only a couple of minutes late and luckily the boat hadn't left yet.

We took the boat back and got on the bus around 2:15 to head back to Germany. We drove through the Alps in Switzerland. Roads in Italy were being redone. The one lane was really bumpy and traffic was SO backed up. It was painful. Because Baumholder was the first base to get picked up on Thursday evening, we were the last people to get dropped off on Sunday night. We got home at 3:30 a.m.

I wake up at 5:30 or so Monday through Friday, so needless to say, Monday was a little rough. It was a great trip, though. Lovely weather. I got some sun on my skin. I love Italy, especially Florence. I think I could live in Italy.

Terra Nova Terror

This week at school has been rather uneventful as it is Terra Nova testing week. Terra Nova is the standardized test DoDDs schools take, like the ISTEP in Indiana. Each day is filled with anywhere from an hour and a half to two and a half hours of testing. Monday was reading, Tuesday language, Wednesday math, Thursday is science, and Friday is social studies. There's a good possibility I mixed Thursday and Friday up, but you get the picture.

Because of the testing each morning, the schedule is all sorts of messed up the rest of the day. Yesterday was super hectic with two classes during two different periods of the day. Talk about loud and crowded. During seventh period yesterday it was a rowdy class (they've been coming in the library for a couple weeks), but they also had a sub, so they were even crazier. The other class during seventh period was a middle school class. Enough said. It was crazy. I had to raise my voice and get kinda mean even.

Today was ULTRA boring. We had nothing going on in the library today. It was kind of nice. Tomorrow I have to help with Terra Nova a little bit. I have to go relieve one of the teachers while the students are testing so he can just take a little break. Basically I just have to make sure students are taking the test: no cheating, no talking, no cell phones, etc.

Tomorrow evening, Jenna and I are leaving for a three-day weekend in Italy! I am so excited. Both of our teachers said it was okay if we miss Friday at school. We're taking a bus tour that departs at 6 p.m. We'll mainly be in Venice with two smaller trips to Florence and Bologna. I am just so excited. Rain is predicted some, but oh well. I can't really help it. It'll be a good weekend.

Bernkastel-Kues

This weekend, many BSU folks already had plans, but Terry and I did not. So last Sunday, she asked if I wanted to do something the next Saturday; we decided on traveling to Bernkastel-Kues. We'd made a stop in Bernkastel-Kues once before, but didn't get to explore.

She picked me up on Saturday morning and off we went! It's only about an hour drive. We always have fun in the car, talking and laughing. Not to mention, it's a pretty drive, even though it's on hair-pin curves on the side of a mountain part of the way.

Bernkastel is such a lovely place. It's quaint and so German. Half-timbered buildings everywhere. It's along the Mosel River and is a major place for wine. Vineyards surround the entire town on steep hillsides. It's absolutely gorgeous. Plus, we had awesome weather. It started out as partly sunny, but ended up being sunny with beautiful blue skies. The high for the day was 57 degrees. I'm not sure what the temperature ended up being, but it was the nicest day we've had yet.

We ate lunch outside at a little cafe, Cafe Alter Klosterhof. We sat in the sun. It was so warm, I took my jacket off. I enjoyed a bowl of gulaschsuppe-hausgemacht, homemade gulaschsoup. I've had it once before; it's basically like a vegetable soup with beef and a tomato-y sauce. It's really good. I also had a glass of Bernkasteler Kurfurstlag, which was a mild white wine. For dessert we both had a piece of black forest cake. It was all delicious and very enjoyable.

While we were sitting at lunch, Terry commented on how quaint and quiet Bernkastel is. She said, "There aren't babies crying or dogs barking--It's like everyone is on drugs." Haha! She's so funny.

We explored Bernkastel, founded in 1291, and all of the half-timbered buildings, taking lots of photos. Bernkastel has a lot of great little shops too. I made many purchases on Saturday. :) I bought a purse I couldn't resist and two wallets. I also bought two pottery cups, which I think are for drinking wine out of. On the outside of them are grapes and leaves. Very pretty. I also bought a pottery butter dish. It's a round dish with a lid. I love it! I especially love these purchases because they'll always remind me of Germany.

School and such

I'm starting to feel really weird about how far into the semester it's getting. I don't want to leave. The weather is getting nicer, the days are getting longer. I am just having an absolute blast this semester. I love traveling here. I love my students and many of the teachers. I feel like I've probably changed since I've been here and I'm just really nervous to go back home and have to hang out in Muncie all summer. The only thing I'll be glad to go home for is all the people I miss. I am getting so excited for my dad to visit. He gets here the day after I finish student teaching. We get to travel around for six or so days before heading back.

This past week at school I had quite a few students ask me how long I was going to be here or when I would be leaving. They all acted sad and asked if I could stay longer or if I could come back and visit. So sweet. I will miss these students so much. I just really like them.

A few of my students will be gone this week on the senior trip--I'm going to miss them! I'll be glad to see them next week.

Friday

After school on Friday I went to IKEA in Manheim (about an hour and a half from Baumholder) with my teacher and another teacher. We had a great time! IKEA has so much cool furniture and other home goods. AND it's cheap. I ended up buying an apple cutter, two coffee mugs, a one-flower vase, a coffee thermos, and a bed spread (the kind you insert the actual comforter into). I love it all! Plus, the mugs and apple cutter are in my green. "My green" is the bright, limeish green that I already have many kitchen things in. My Gram will enjoy my purchases, I'm sure.

It's been a good weekend and I'm sad to see it over. Tomorrow I'm back in the grind of being at school at 7 a.m. This week will be kind of messed up, too, because students are taking the Terra Nova tests each day. Terra Nova is the DoDDs standardized test, like ISTEP in Indiana.

Librarian or.... auto parts?

This morning was beautiful. I walk uphill to school for 15 minutes every morning at 6:45. Base is peaceful at that early hour and the sun is just coming up. It was lovely out this morning; it was not cold, it was not windy, the sky was a blue-periwinkle color with pink starting to light up the clouds. I stopped and took a picture.

For student teaching, we have to do a unit plan with a class for 10 days; it's called LAMP (Learning Assessment Model Project). We have to do a pre-test, the unit, and then a post-test to see if our students improved. This is a little difficult to do in the library.

What I'm doing, though, is working with a senior English class on their research papers. They are coming to the library once or twice a week where I work with them and then they get time to research and work on their papers. Today was technically Day 3 of the unit. But it was also like Day 4 because their teacher, Dr. M., had them come into the library to research on Monday morning. She signed up for that just before school began that morning. I didn't do any kind of lesson with them that morning, but just helped them one-on-one with researching.

Today we talked about keyword searches and subject searches. They did not seem to know the difference even though we talked about it two weeks ago this Friday. They were also just not searching well, so I did a lesson to help clarify some things with them. And I think it helped!

Once they went to research, I noticed they were all doing much better and we were finally getting somewhere! Dr. M. said it usually takes about four days of work before they start getting somewhere and start finding good information. I felt so relieved after today.

Today was also good because we just had a lot of fun during that period. I think the students have finally warmed up to me and are more comfortable with me. We just had a good time and laughed a lot.... and got somewhere with their research. It was great.

Toward the end of class, Dr. M. stopped me for a moment and told me I have a really nice voice. She said I have authority in my voice, but also seem interested in what we're talking about. She said my voice is nice to listen to and isn't boring or too much. She said that is a really important quality to have, which made me feel great! It made me feel like maybe I am going into the right profession.

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With all this crap going on in education in the U.S. I'm starting to feel a little concerned. I have no idea if I will find a job.... and it's really scary. It's a scary time to be graduating from college. I am so afraid I'm just going to have to wait tables somewhere or work at Starbucks or Best Buy. I have no idea what kind of job I will have or where my job will be. My life could end up anywhere in just a few months. Whoa. Scary, but kind of cool. I guess that's the perk of being a young, single, recent college graduate.

Something that would make me more hirable for a school looking to cut back on budgets is that I'm fresh out of college=no experience=cheap. I don't have a master's degree=cheap. So, I'd be okay with getting a job in a school... At least for a while. I don't want to work for jack shit the rest of my career. So I'm thinking there could be a chance I do the school librarian thing for a few years until I feel like I deserve more money, then I'll find a different profession.

I don't know what else I could do. Maybe public library, but I'd definitely want to be in the children's area. That means getting my master's in library science and I'm not sure if I want to do that. I don't know that I like libraries that much.

I also have always been really into historic preservation. Maybe I could get a masters in that. I met someone this past winter who is in the historic preservation masters program at Ball State. I asked him if it's possible to get into that program without having a bachelor's degree in architecture; he said, "Yes, they take anyone." Good to know.

Another thought is that maybe I should just go into the auto parts family business after working for a few years in the big, bad, real world. I could totally learn about auto parts and succeed. Plus, it'd be kinda sweet to be your own boss. It'd also be a little worrisome... since it is your income and all. Plus, how fitting would it be of me? The oldest Cox kid, taking over the family business. Totally.

I've always been sad thinking that someday Farmland Auto Parts will no longer exist. Baxter and Cameron, my cousins, have never expressed much interest in taking over the business (except Cameron's class journal in first grade that said when he grew up he wanted to work at the "otto parts"). I never wanted to take over the store, but I did want it to still exist. So maybe I'll just have to take it upon myself to keep the family business in operation. I'm thinking Baxter could possibly be interested in this too. He and I could definitely take over the Auto Parts.

I was talking to a few of my BSU classmates here. We were on a train traveling to Munich a couple weekends ago, talking about all the shit going on in education right now. It dawned on me that maybe I should take over the business. I was talking about how awesome it would be: I would be my own boss, have pretty good hours, have a job that's not super-stressful (like teaching is!), could ride my bike or walk to work in nice weather (if I lived in Farmland), and could wear jeans and flannel everyday! I said this last part with enthusiasm and a big, genuine smile on my face. One girl exclaimed, "That sounds awful!," referring to the flannel and jeans. I said, "I think it'd be awesome!"

So there's my thoughts about my future.

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In my jungle of a library :)

The pretty amaryllis behind my computer:

Halfway Through+Fasching

I can't believe this past week was Week 8. That means I am halfway done with my student teaching in Germany. I feel very bittersweet about the whole thing. I will be very sad to leave the people here. I will be sad because I want to see so much more that I do not have the time to see. But I am ready to go home and be around my family and friends and to get back into my "normal" routine. This past week I started feeling homesick for everyone back home. I miss my people.

This past week at school was long. I'm not sure why it felt this way, but I think it was like that for all the teachers. It was Read Across America Week, which celebrates Dr. Seuss's birthday. It's really aimed more for elementary, but on March 2 (which is Dr. Seuss's birthday) I decided to decorate a little bit for the occasion. I printed off a big banner to hang on a book display case that said, "Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!" It had a picture at each end of it.

Then I also printed off a regular sized piece of paper that said the same, but had a picture with a lot of different Dr. Seuss characters and hung it on the front door to the library. I also printed off a picture of a lot of characters and hung it by my front desk.

I printed off some Cat in the Hat hats and taped them up in different places in the library. The Baumholder mascot is a pirate; we're the Buccaneers. SO, I made a Dr. Seuss hat for the pirate mobile that hangs by my front desk!! I left that up because both Judy and I like it.

Also this past week at school was the science fair. There were 200 entries.... oy. The science fair was on Thursday. Students set up their projects at 2 p.m., but then the fair was actually after school from 3-5. The library was so busy all day with students finishing their projects. They used so much paper, printer ink, rubber cement, glue, and scissors. We did get everything back, though! It became rather irritating because they obviously were making things up and had put no time or effort into their projects. Sad.

But I went to the science fair for a little bit after school. It was absolute chaos in the gym, which is where the fair was held. Students were loud, running around, being immature with their friends. I made my way around the fair looking for students who I know better or students who I said I'd go see their projects. I hardly found any of them. The few I did find I could hardly hear what they were telling me about their projects because of all the madness in the gym.

Friday was just a long day in general. School seemed to drag on and on. After school a lot of students were finishing their history projects that are due Monday. How weird! Students staying after school on a Friday....obviously procrastination. Judy finally had to kick them out.

We went to the mail room, where I had a letter from my grandparents! Talk about really making me feel homesick. I love their letters. Then we went to the PX to kill some time.... we were going to the school play later that evening.

At the PX I needed to buy a new hairbrush. That morning I had dropped mine on the floor, my really hard floor, and it broke into two pieces. Handle. Brush. It was hard to style my hair! haha.

After killing time there, we met Beth, the Wetzel ET, at Judy's favorite doner kabob place in Baumholder. There we hung out until about 6:30. We headed to the playhouse then to meet Urgen, the super nice German maintenance man at school. The play started at 7 and last for THREE hours. Goodness, it was so long. They did The Music Man. It was a combined play with the school drama club and the community theater. Ages of actors ranged from 7 to old. The production was good, the actors were good, choreography was good, sets and costumes were great, everything was smooth. But a few singers were completely tone deaf. It was pretty painful.

I was about to go crazy about three hours of sitting in really uncomfortable chairs. I was so ready to go home; I was very tired. I finally got home after 10 p.m., got combobulated, showered, and was asleep by midnight. I slept until 10 a.m. on Saturday. Then napped form 3-4:45 Saturday afternoon. It was glorious; I needed that sleep so badly.

That evening, Jenna, Terry, Emma, Kristi, and I ate in town at the Statkrug. They cook over an open fire there; it is so cool. It's good food and a really neat, cozy atmosphere. After dinner, we went to the Eis Cafe in town, which is finally open for the season! It was amazing, just like we'd heard. I've realized something they do in Germany is put alcohol with some of their ice cream dishes. We each tried one. I had the lemon ice cream with champagne. It was delicious.

Originally I was supposed to go on a really long day trip on Saturday to see a couple castles on the Romantic Road in Bavaria, one being the big castle Cinderella's castle is modeled after. But because of the two airmen who were shot and killed on the bus going from Frankfurt airport to Ramstein Airforce Base, our tour was canceled. Ramstein was on curfew all week. I didn't think Baumholder was, but someone later told me we had a curfew all week of 10 p.m. I'm still not sure if this is true or not. No one informed me.

Anyhow, so our trip would've left really early in the morning, therefore violating curfew. Plus, I'm guessing they didn't want big groups of Americans traveling around together drawing attention to ourselves. Better safe than sorry. The military has decided the shooting was an isolated incident.

We weren't for sure what we should do on Saturday since our trip was canceled. Terry, Jenna, Quintin, and myself were the ones originally going on that tour. Kristi didn't have any weekend plans so she decided to join us on our alternative plans. We kicked around the idea of taking a trip on Saturday, but decided against it. Instead, we went to Mainz (pronouned Miiiinz) on Sunday for the Fasching parade. Fasching is Carnivale or Mardi Gras.

The Germans take Fasching very seriously. They get into the holiday! It is so fun. It is a weeklong affair. For instance, one day is Women's Day. All the women can be baddasses all day long... they can even cut off men's ties! So funny.

So the Fasching parade in Mainz is the second largest one in Germany, according to Radley, the ET at my school. There are tons of people in it of all ages. There are many marching bands, baton twirlers, dancers, walkers, ax carriers, horse riders, floats, all kinds of stuff. These people are in all kinds of get-ups too. Some look more traditionally Germany, some have the 1700s white wig look, some are clowns. It just varies.

People in the crowd are very into the parade too. Most everyone dresses crazy. There are a lot of colors, especially red, blue, yellow. There are crazy hats, scarves, sun glasses, wigs, entire outfits. Some people dress as an animal, some look like Indians ( like Native American Indians), some look like cowboys and cowgirls. It is just so interesting.

During the parade, everyone in it marches along and yells "Halo!" and everyone in the crowd responds back with "Halo!" It was just SO fun. Today might have been one of my favorite days yet, going to Mainz. I feel like it is one of the most German things I've done.

Mainz was about an hour and a half drive from Baumholder. A few people who were going to go canceled, so it ended up being the trio Lindsey, Jenna, and Terry. We had so much fun. We left around 9:30 and go their just in time to buy a crazy hat and get a FABULOUS viewing spot for the parade, which started just a few minutes once we got along the side of the street. After the parade, we grabbed a brat for lunch. There was a band playing and everyone in the streets was listening, singing, and dancing. It was just so fun.

We observed all that for a while and then got some ice cream at an eis cafe. It was amazing. I had the stracciatella, which is basically like chocolate chip, but its not chips but just swirls of chocolate kind of.

After that we headed back home. We were back by about 4 p.m. The day had been gray during our drive to Mainz, but once we got there it cleared up and was sunny (but cold!). It stayed sunny; the drive home was beautiful. Seeing the clear blue skies, all the hills and mountains with little villages scattered around. Lovely day.

Munich, Salzburg, and Dachau

Last weekend's adventure took ten of us to Munich, which is about five hours from Baumholder. I traveled west to east across Germany basically. Jenna, Liz, Sallie, Emma and I set out at 5:30 p.m. from Neubrucke train station to get to Frankfurt. At the Frankfurt bahnhof, we got on an ICE train for the last three hours of our journey. ICE trains run from 130-170 mph. Pretty cool.

The ICE train was really nice inside. Seating was comfortable with big seats, head pillows, plenty of leg room. We had four seats that faced each other with a table between us. The fifth person was just across the aisle.. asleep. It was so nice. The whole interiors are nice. The bathrooms are really nice for train bathrooms. And they're quiet. There is even a food and drink service you can opt to purchase, like an airplane when the attendant comes up and down the aisles. The ride is smooth, too.

Once we got to Munich, we tried to find out hostel in the dark. Luckily, I printed off walking directions and a little map earlier that day. We arrived at the Wombat City Hostel to find out they'd messed up our room arrangements. Jenna, Kristen (who rode in a car to Munich with four other people), and I were in one room. Emma and Brittany (who also rode in the car) had a different room. In my room, the three other people were already asleep. They basically were always asleep it seemed. Emma and Brittany didn't have as much luck with their roommates: drunk/naked/LOUD snoring. The hostel itself was really pretty nice and even had lockers in our rooms we could put our stuff in for safety.

A few of us decided to go out and get a drink at a hip, non-dancing bar down the street. Because of my charm, our drinks were free. Haha... actually it was because Dennis Morgan thought I was cute, but whatever. It was pretty funny.

After a drink, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. The next morning, Emma, Quintin, Jenna, and I departed from the central bahnhof to Salzburg, Austria. It was a two hour train ride. Salzburg is beautiful. Salz means salt. There's a lot of salt in the area... obviously.

It is very old; people have lived on that land for a very long time, especially because of the salt (i.e. meat preservation). It was gorgeous there, just north of the Alps, so the views were beautiful. In Salzburg, we saw some sights from The Sound of Music movie, lovely old buildings, the Alps, a couple very old churches, the huge fortress from the ground looking up, a very old cemetery, the oldest restaurant in Europe (St. Peter's restaurant), and Mozart's two houses. Mozart lived in Salzburg and so did Charles Doppler (the Doppler effect). We took a walking tour of the city and then Emma, Quintin, and I hiked up to the fortress. It was a tough walk uphill, but the views of Salzburg and the distant scenery was breathtaking. Quintin paid to go inside the fortress, but Emma and I walked back down.

She and I ate a quick bite for lunch then went to the Mozart museum. There are actually two houses and museums of Mozart in Salzburg. We went to the house he lived in for the first 17 years of his life. That museum had artifacts, such as original oil paintings from his life, a harpsichord, a little piano, his first violin, other trinkets of his, and three locks of his hair. No, I'm not kidding.

The four of us all ended up finding each other at the Mozart museum. After that, we set off to find some chocolate torte, a dessert Salzburg is known for. It is a very rich chocolate cake with a slight tanginess to it. We each got a little piece... and it took me a couple different eatings to finish it. It was good, though.

After the afternoon, we got back on the train to head back to Munich. We arrived around 7:15 p.m. We went back to the hostel and met up with everyone. We all decided to go get dinner together at 8:30. We went down the street to indulge in doner kebobs. Doner is usually made by people who have moved to Germany from Turkey. It is either lamb or chicken shaven (like a gyro), with tzatziki sauce, lots of vegetables.. all messy in a wrap or on a sandwich. It is SO good. So that's what we ate for dinner.

After dinner we walked across town (for much longer than we were told it would take us) to the Haufbrauhaus. On the way, we were able to see some pretty platzs and the Glockenspiel. The Haufbrauhaus is where beer was once brewed for only the kings. Now anyone can go there! So we went. It is a huge building FULL of people talking and singing. [Not to mention there had been a futball game earlier that day, so many people were dressed up in their yellow and black and were jolly and yelling and singing. Many of these fans were at the Haufbrauhaus.] Some people are dressed in traditional German clothing and there is a traditional German polka-type band playing. It is so awesome. It took us a while to find a table, but we did find one finally. We each got a mug of beer. They. are. huge. And it's actually good. I usually don't like beer, but this stuff was pretty good. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then left.

Liz and Brittany had left early because they weren't feeling well; Liz had a migraine since Friday afternoon and Brittany was coming down with what I had last week. Oh, by the way, I'm not sick anymore! I awfully sick last week with a virusy, cold thing. I felt like crap. Coughing galore, some nose blowing, just feeling pretty sickly. A lot of people at school have had it. Anyhow, so then the rest of us left the Haufbrauhaus later. Jenna and I walked back to our hostel, while the others went out somewhere else.

I got a nice amount of sleep Saturday night, so that was great. We all left the next morning to go to Dachau Concentration Camp. It was definitely a sobering experience. Dachau was a work camp, not a death camp. So people were sent there to work, which the work ended up killing them. Prisoners were not sent there to be sent to the gas chambers, especially straight away when they arrived. Dachau was in operation from 1933-1945 (I believe) when it was liberated by the Americans. Dachau was a camp for men, except during the last year when women and children were there too.

The front gate to the camp greets you with "Arbeit Macht Frei," meaning work sets you free. We saw the maintenance building, where prisoners were registered and processed. We saw the showers, where they were beaten, the gas chambers (which were used for individuals or small groups, not for mass murder), and the crematorium. It was horrible.

We saw the two barracks that are still standing. We saw a reconstruction of the bunks they would have slept in. As years went on, the camp became more and more crowded, so we saw the three different "eras" of bunks. It was horrible how these prisoners had to live and the treatment they received.... all for no reason.

We learned about the conditions they lived in, about the work they were forced to do. In the maintenance building, there were a lot of displays. I saw a photograph of a man who had hung himself while on his knees using the bathroom sink. Right next to it was a photograph of a man who had committed suicide by tangling himself in the electric fence surrounding the camp. That was how most people killed themselves. There were usually two to three suicides a day. Those two photos made my stomach turn. I gasped aloud when I saw them. It was just horrible.

I can't think of any better words to describe Dachau. I think I barely said anything while I was there. It was hard to take it all in. It was hard to comprehend. I took pictures while I was there; I also figured those photos may be useful someday if I'm working with a class about the Holocaust. Some things, though, I just couldn't take pictures of.

So after that we went back to Munich and then left for home. The five of us got on an ICE train after grabbing a quick dinner at the train station. We took the ICE train to Frankfurt, then got on the regional train to Neubrucke. From there, we took a van taxi back to Baumholder. It was a smooth trip home with some girls I really enjoy. It was nice to be home after a long, fun, educational weekend.