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.
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