Rudesheim am Rhein and Easter Sunday

My life is still a whirlwind.

Last weekend, Jenna, Terry, and I went to Rudesheim am Rhein (Roodis Heim). It is a "romantic" town along the Rhine River. We had a bit of trouble getting off to a start. Terry overslept a bit, then we stopped at McDonald's right before they quit serving breakfast, Hans (the GPS) was acting up because the cord to connect it to the cigarette lighter wouldn't stay in very well. Then the piece completely broke and we had to go to Power Zone on base (where there's electronics) and pray they'd be open on a Saturday. They were. Whew!

So we found a cord that fit and seemed to work when the woman working let us test it out in the car. She said sometimes they'll fit, but won't work. So Terry purchased the cord so we could have Hans's help at every turn and roundabout for the hour and a half journey. Off we were to Rudesheim!

Hans must not have liked the new cord because he would spontaneously turn off... and always right when we'd get to a tricky place! It would take a long time to turn back on and then we'd have to reenter the destination.

We finally made it to Rudesheim and had to pull the car onto a ferry to take it across the Rhine to the town. Once we got there, we paid for parking and bought tickets to take a boat cruise down the river. We had a little less than an hour to kill before our boat ride, so we got ice cream.. naturally.

The boat cruise was so relaxing. It was beautiful scenery of little towns, vineyards on the hills, and castles. The day was gorgeous. It had to have been close to 80 degrees. The sun was out and it was beautiful.

After the boat cruise we went into town to get some lunch. We ate at an Italian place and sat outside on a veranda-type porch. After that we went into the cute, Germany part of town and did some shopping. We walked around and then decided to get some more ice cream. We went to a nice shop and sat in a courtyard that was lovely. I had a scoop of yogurt and a scoop of lemon (yum!). Also got a latte macciato. Delicsh.

After that we decided to mosey back to the car where Terry of course had a parking ticket. There were no empty spaces when we got there around 12:30, so she had to park in a bus space since SO many were open. That poor lady always gets parking tickets. Haha... story of her trip.

We went back to Baumholder and made the healthy decision to get McDonald's for dinner. We brought it back to the apartment and ate it. Just a few minutes after we'd gotten back, Jenna's teacher called to invite Jenna, Terry, and me to an Easter brunch the next day.

Earlier in the week, Jenna and I painted Easter eggs. My dad sent me an Easter box with candy and an Easter egg coloring kit earlier in the month. So the week of Easter, Jenna and I colored eggs. It wasn't the traditional, pastel-colored, dipping of eggs. Instead, it was a metallic egg color kit. And you paint the eggs, rather than dip them. It was so fun and definitely stained our fingers. We made some pretty cool eggs.

On Sunday around 11, the three of us met Mrs. Braddish, her husband, and her daughter at The Rheinlander, which is a banquet hall type place on base. They were having an Easter brunch from 10-2. It was nice to do something for Easter and get kind of dressed up in one of my new dresses purchased the day before.

A lot of my students were there with their families, so that was cool to see them dressed up. We had a fun time just eating and chitchatting. But we were so full and it was getting so very warm in there that we all ended up being complete bores.

After lunch we went to the Commissary to try to find some staples to last us for the next week and a half until we leave. Terry dropped Jenna and me off at the apartment... I ended up falling asleep for two hours. And I slept hard. I decided to get out of my bed and go lay on the couch and pop a movie in. I thought watching a movie would help wake me up so I could get something accomplished. Wrong. I fell asleep for another two hours almost. But when I woke up, I felt great. I needed that sleep--I was still exhausted from spring break.

It was a nice last weekend in Baumholder since my dad would be coming the next weekend (for the official last weekend in Germany).

It's all coming to an end

I've known my time here is winding down, but it didn't seem real until last night. Yesterday evening, we had our end-of-year banquet for the student teachers, our mentors, school administrators, and a few other key people at Burg Lichtenberg castle in Kusel, which is maybe 20 minutes from Baumholder.

After school, Judy and I ran some errands. We went to the post office and then to the car rental place in Baumholder so I could reserve a car for next weekend when my dad arrives! I got an automatic Toyota little station wagony thing. Haha. The price on it isn't bad, though. But we will have to pay for gas.. and gas is pretty expensive here. And they only pay by the liter, not the gallon. But I was relieved to get that off my checklist.. I was getting kind of nervous, anxious, and stressed about it. We can even go to the car rental place the day Dad gets here, have him show his license and passport, sign a paper, and then he could drive it too.

So after doing that, we went to Judy's house in Motzenbach, which is about a 40-minute drive from Baumholder. We hung out at her house, she showed me her plants outside, we talked to the neighbors, then we headed over to Beth's house. Beth and Judy are really good friends. Beth is the Educational Technologist at Wetzel Elementary. Before I moved over to the high school, she and I were going to work together on some things. Anyhow, so we went to Beth's house and hung out for a bit. We unpacked the stuff she bought in Turkey over spring break and admired it in all its blue glory (everything she bought was blue; it was pretty funny).

Beth was one of those "key people" from the semester, so she went to the banquet. The three of us left around 5:40 or so to go to Kusel. Kusel is a pretty good sized town. We drove up to the castle on a hill where there are great views down into the valley. It was really pretty. Plus, we've had GORGEOUS weather lately. Sunny and in the 70s. We got to Burg Lichtenburg right on time, but a few people still hadn't arrived. We looked around the outer parts of the castle and took some pictures. It was nice.

Earlier in the semester a teacher had us over to her house for a party/dinner thing... and I wrote about how you could see a castle from her house. It was this castle.

So after everyone arrived, we went in to the restaurant. We had all kinds of food to choose from: salad stuff, two different kinds of turkey (one in slices and one in strips with a gravy), rice, noodles (I can't remember the German word right now), cauliflower cakes that seemed like potato cakes. There was some more stuff too, I think. So we all ate dinner.

For dessert we had apple strudel, ice cream, and vanilla sauce. Of course it was wonderful. During dessert, we had to go around and say something nice about our teacher and what we've learned. We each had a rose to give to our teacher. Then, our teacher said something about us.

Judy and I kicked the whole thing off (thanks, Terry). I talked about how Ball State taught me different elements of being a librarian, but Judy taught me how to actually apply it. She taught me about classroom management. She taught me how to actually run a library. And she helped me improve my teaching skills, especially because I didn't have any experience with that. But more importantly, I learned that all librarians are pretty similar. We like our own space, we like order and organization, we like quiet, we like to sit in the same seat at lunch everyday. But more than that, we like peanut butter. The only difference between us is that I drink coffee and she drinks tea. And as I said that, the tea she ordered was brought to her at our table. Pretty funny.. great timing!

So then it was Judy's turn.. I knew she was going to embarrass me. She had a whole list of things to say, which she pulled out of her pocket, and a bag of props. So of course she had to start off with when I arrived she had me cut down boxes and how I had a lot of trouble. She talked about how she was wondering how I would handle the high school boys since I'm barely older than them, some of the boys are "interesting," and that all the boys have crushes on me. But she was surprised to find out that half the girls have crushes on me too!.. and they're more of a problem than the boys. All the girls want to be my friend. (Everybody was cracking up during this whole thing, by the way).

So then she started talking about how everyone says I'm her mini-me. She mentioned how we both eat peanut butter a lot and every morning I drink my coffee out of a "Judy" coffee mug. The mug seriously says Judy all over it. I'll sit at the front desk with my Judy coffee and she sits past me in her office drinking her tea. Sometimes I'll eat a piece of peanut butter toast for breakfast at school. And once a week, Rick (the tech guy who is awesome and I will miss a lot) and his kids stop at their local bakery. They bring both Judy and me a pretzel. We put peanut butter on our pretzels. So then on those days, I'm drinking my coffee out of a Judy mug and eating a pretzel with peanut butter (the jar on the desk next to me) and she's sitting past me in her office drinking her tea and eating her pretzel with peanut butter (with her jar on the desk next to her). So funny. People crack up when they walk past us and see us. One time, a teacher's seven-year-old daughter came in to the library (before her bus picked her up at the high school to take her to the elementary school) and she asked, "Are you guys eating the same thing??" Even little kids notice. So funny.

So during this speech, she pulled out a Judy coffee mug to show everyone. Of course everyone is laughing really hard at this. So then Judy starts talking about how she thought I needed my own mug... she pulls out a mug that says, "Judy's intern"!!!!!!!!! Everyone is really laughing by now. But then she said she always wanted and asked for an intern. She finally got one and that I am the last librarian to come through Ball State.. and that I was the perfect intern.

But then she says, "Well, I got her another one too, and it says 'Lindsey' on it." How sweet and funny. So basically we get through all of this and everyone's laughing and she's done. It was time to move on to other teachers and student teachers. Everyone else was really sappy... It was basically a big cry fest. One girl was crying so hard she could barely talk. Oy.

This proved to me that Judy and I are even more alike than I thought. We don't feel the need to get sentimental like that, especially in a room full of people. I will be giving her a gift and a thank you card before I leave. I plan to write more in there about what I've really appreciated and how wonderful I think she is.. that doesn't need to happen in front of a bunch of people. So weird.

Anyhow, it was a good night. Liz (who lives across the hall from me) and I rode home with Terry afterward. We were all talking about how sad we are to leave here. We have grown close to these people and it will be hard to leave. But Terry was right when she said we need to leave now while everything is still good. If we were to stay much longer, everyone would start hating each other, and it's true.... there's already too much drama and people being mad at each other, living in such close quarters where everyone knows everything about everyone. So it's good that we're leaving now, even though it's going to hurt, because it will stay a wonderful memory forever.

Terry gave a speech last night, which had funny parts, but was also really touching. She talked about how this is the most amazing semester she has ever had and how we have all grown into a family. She talked about the awesome, unique experience we have had in this diverse school setting. The community is close-knit and our students are wonderful. We have been there to help them as a parent has deployed. And we have been there when the unmentionable happens in Afghanistan. The teachers at these schools are awesome; they put the students first.

I am so sad to leave Baumholder. I am ready to come home and be with my family and friends, but I am really sad to leave my people in Baumholder. But I know I'll stay in touch with them. Both Judy and Radley (the ET at my school whose office is in the library) have told me I have a place to stay when I come back to visit. So sweet. I will definitely have to come back to visit.

Radley has been such a help to me. He is just a good guy who everyone loves. He has helped me with school stuff, personal computer problems, and anything else. He is so fun and so funny. I have loved getting to know him and feel honored that he enjoys me being around BMHS and in the IC. He has invited me to go to events and breakfast (before the soccer game). Anytime we've gone to McDonald's in the morning, either for breakfast or coffee, he always pays (awwww). He's given me a couple of rides. He's having Judy, Quintin (other student teacher), Quintin's teacher, and me over to his and his wife's house on Tuesday for dinner. The other day he told me, "You know if you ever want to come back and visit, you know you have a place to stay, whether you're alone, bring your family, your boyfriend, your fiance.. You have a place to stay." I thought that was so sweet. I'll miss Radley.

And Judy. She has just been amazing. I have learned so much this semester. She is so knowledgable about this profession and about life in general. She has helped me improve as a librarian and as a teacher. At first, I was so intimidated by her, but now I don't feel that way. It hasn't quite hit me yet that I won't see her in less than two weeks.. I am going to miss her SO much. We have so much fun together. I can't count all the things she has done for me since I've been here. She has given me countless rides, taken me to run errands, taken me to dinner, paid for my dinner, had a dinner at her house, made sure I had a coffee pot in the IC, brings in good water for me to use for my coffee (rather than the nasty water we have here at school and in Baumholder), let me put her as a reference on my applications, sent me links to jobs, is writing a letter of reference for me, brought me a gift back from her spring break in Turkey (a cute elephant bag... she hunted all week for an elephant-something for me. She finally found the bag.. everything else was too junky, she said. But the bag was nice, useful, had elephants, and a lot of green--which is one of my favorite colors). Judy is a wonderful person who I will miss so much. I have no doubt, though, that I will always know her and will at least stay in contact with her. It will be sad not seeing her everyday.

On a different take, now that school is winding down, I am getting more and more excited for my dad to visit... in one week and one day. Whoa. How time has flown! Dad has never been to Europe before. I am just so excited for him to see everything. When I first got here, everything seemed so magical: all the hills/mountains and valleys, all the little towns, all the trees, everything. It has become normal to me now. I still admire it during a drive, but I am no longer mesmerized by it. I know Dad will think it's awesome. I am so excited to get to show him around. And he's coming at one of the prettiest times of the year in Germany: beginning of May. There are lots of shades of green... and really bright rape fields (yes, rape). Rape is what is used to make canola oil. The bright yellow fields are popping up everywhere. Judy told me by the time Dad is here, there will be even more.

I'm excited to take Dad around in Germamy, I'm excited for him to see Roman ruins in Trier, I'm excited to take Dad to Baumholder Middle School High School some morning and show him around and show him the information center, I'm excited for Dad to meet Judy. One evening, we're going to have to go eat with Judy and Beth... Beth has some restaurant that is her favorite, so we'll have to go there. I am just so excited.

This weekend is Easter weekend, which is a big deal in Germany. The Germans really know how to do Christmas and Easter. Everything is closed Good Friday and Easter Monday. Now that the wine, tourist season has begun, most touristy and shop things will be open Saturday. Terry, Jenna, and I are going to go to near-by (hour and a half drive) Rudesheim. It is a "romantic" town along the Rhine River. Terry went there once before and said it is very charming. We're hopefully going to go on a boat ride down the river! Anyway, I'm excited.

Terry is a wonderful person. We have really grown to know each other. She was a wonderful supervisor, mentor, confidante, fill-in-mom, and friend. I am going to miss her so much in a couple of weeks when I don't see her every couple of days and talk to her all the time. We are definitely going to have to get together this summer. We've already talked about going to eat at Puerta's and getting margaritas, going out on photo adventures, and her coming to Farmland (showing her my dad's place and going to Tanglevine). I just love her. She's awesome. She wasn't even supposed to be our original supervisor, but I'm so glad she was. She is a wonderful woman who I admire and love.

This semester in Germany has been a life-changing experience. I am a different, more independent, and better person because of it. I have had a wonderful student teaching experience; I have met and gotten to know some incredible people; and I have had amazing travels and seen so many different places. I can't believe it is all coming to an end. I have been living it for almost four months now and soon it will only be a memory. As Terry said last night, "Two weeks from now I'll be sitting in my kitchen thinking, 'Did I really live in Germany for four months?'"

Final two weeks of student teaching

Everything seems so surreal right now. We get back from an amazing spring break and only have 10 days of school left. Crazy. Two of those days are gone now, too. Eight days of school left. I have all of my stuff turned in for Ball State. I'm signed up to walk in graduation. I've created welcome home/birthday/graduation parties and invited my friends and family to them.

Left to do:

Give my student teaching showcase presentation on Monday the 25th

Pack up stuff and mail some of it home

Get a rental car for when my dad visits

Buy a train ticket to get to Frankfurt to pick Dad up from the airport Saturday, April 30

Have someone pick up my cap and gown from the BSU bookstore

I was really dreading going back to school on Monday, but it turned out great. Sure, I was tired because I didn't sleep much the night before, but it was a good day. It was really nice to see my students and the teachers. I am going to miss those students so much. I was looking through the schedule to see what teachers were signed up for the library during the next couple weeks... I noticed the senior English class I've been working with is signed up every other day... my last day with them will be Thursday the 28th. I am so sad! I have really loved getting to know those students and helping them research and write their papers. And their teacher is wonderful. I am so glad that I've gotten to know her, too. She is truly a wonderful woman who I think so much of.. I will really miss them.

Last night when I was creating a couple different events on Facebook to invite people to for birthday/welcome home/graduation stuff... I was going through my friends list selecting people to invite. I wanted to invite my teacher and another teacher at my school, but then I remembered they would be in Germany and it made me sad. I have had a wonderful semester getting to know students and teachers at Baumholder Middle School High School. I am really excited to get home and see my family and friends, but I'm going to be sad to leave the people here. I can't really think much about it yet... I'll just think about that tomorrow! (Scarlett O'Hara!)

So, I've been working with this senior English class since the end of February. They are the lower English class with only a handful of college-bound students. Most have never done research before. I've taught them about research and APA citation. I've helped them everyday they come to the library while they are researching and writing their papers. We've been together a lot. Part of my assignment for Ball State is to give a pre- and post-test to measure student growth. Let me tell you, I was nervous. They didn't do so hot on the pre-test, which is good... They shouldn't know a lot of a subject before we begin. The class average was about 52% on a 10-question multiple choice quiz.

One of my challenges with this class has been bad attitudes from a few of the students. Senior girls think they are the shit. Some of them are complete witches.. and that's putting it nicely. Senior girls and eighth grader girls are nightmares for teachers. I've got a couple of those girls in this class. Some of the boys are completely not motivated; they would rather sleep or stare blankly at the computer screen. Some students don't want help from me, some don't want help from Dr. M, some don't want help from either of us.

One student in particular is really mean to me. I could not figure out what his problem was. He is just such a jerk. He won't respond to me when I speak to him a lot of the time. He won't pay attention if I'm leading a lesson. He wouldn't take the post-test.. he just sat there. He's just a jerk. After I talked to my teacher about this, she told me that he hates women. And he's a special ed student, as well. I'd given up on interacting with him already, so I told her that I just avoid him and don't talk to him. She told me that is the right thing to do.. because there's just no getting through to him, especially if you're a woman.. he won't listen to women. I mentioned something to the English teacher (Dr. M) about it in an email when I told her about the students' test scores.. She said she can't make him do anything either. He just will not listen. On Monday during class he said something to the English teacher about how he doesn't talk to his mother. She and I exchanged glances. Why is this boy like this?? He's not stupid.. He's writing his paper on a history topic. He is much further along than most of the students and knows a lot about the subject. Oh well.. I only have four more class periods with him.

After working with the class for over a month and a half, we played a Jeopardy review game one day when I visited their classroom. Their teacher was gone for a conference, so I went to them instead of them coming to me in the library. I was pleasantly surprised that they knew all the questions except for one or two. They got really into the game, too... I was afraid they'd be bored and think it was too kiddy.

I gave them a post-test, which was harder than the pre-test. It had multiple choice, matching, fill-in-the-blank, and a lot of short answer. Each and every student's score improved (minus the boy who wouldn't take the test). I was thrilled! I was just so impressed with them and with myself.

Research isn't really fun.. I don't think it's fun, but I can do it and am pretty good at it. They don't know much about research and it's a bit of a dry subject, but some things I've done must've stuck with them.. at least for the time being while they're using the skills. Five of my 17 students got 100% on the post-test too. The class average improved to an 87%. I am just so impressed with them.

Here is a graph showing each student's improvement:

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While I was in Amsterdam I checked my e-mail to find someone had commented on my blog. It was from someone who lived in Baumholder in the early 1980s and went to Wetzel Elementary. He thanked me for keeping this blog and enjoyed my pictures of Baumholder and the barracks. He wrote that the creepy little rooms in the basement were storage closets and that each apartment was assigned one. He also said there was a scary, old man at one end of the basement who shoveled coal into the boilers. The kids would be down there messing around, he'd yell at them in German, and they would run off screaming. So funny.

I thought it was so cool that someone found my blog, read it, and enjoyed it. I thought the only people reading it were friends, family, and other people I know in Farmland. Guess I was wrong! Kinda neat. In honor of my new blog follower, I took some pictures around base today on my walk home from school and took some pictures near the building he lived in. I also took a couple of the springtime view out my window.. how it has changed since January!

So thank you, Dan, for enjoying my blog. Enjoy.

9-day, whirlwind spring break--Part III in Amsterdam

We landed in Amsterdam around 5:30 p.m. The flight was only one hour, but we crossed back into Germany's time zone and lost an hour by skipping ahead. The flight and landing were uneventful and we got through the airport pretty quickly.... minus that huge, heavy suitcase of Jenna's.

We took the train from Schipol Airport into Central Station in Amsterdam. It was only about a 20 minute ride, so that was nice. Once we got to Central Station, we had to figure out how to get to our hostel. We had walking directions, but the roads aren't exactly squares like they are in the US... they just kind of went off at odd angles, so that was a little annoying and stressful. It was pretty funny, though, with five suitcases (Al didn't have a suitcase) rumbling on the sidewalks, cobblestones, and streets. We finally made it to the Bulldog Hostel, which happened to be located right beside a canal. It was kind of pretty.

Amsterdam is a pretty city. There are canals everywhere and the people are nice. It's just a little slower paced and nicer than a lot of cities.

Damrak Square:

We checked in fine. Jenna, Emma, and I had a triple room to ourselves with its own bathroom too, so that was awesome. It was a really nice room too. It seemed like a hotel. Kristen, Brittany, and Al waited until much later to book the hostel, so they were in a 12-person room. They kept their stuff in our room and showered in our bathroom.

That first evening, Jenna, Al, and I went to the Anne Frank house. It was so cool. I used to be really into Anne Frank when I was in 8th/9th grade, so it was so neat to see what I'd read about in her diary. It was just so neat, I still can't get over it. By the end, I was a little choked up even. The Holocaust is such a horrible, horrible event that can't really even be put into words.

After touring through the huis (check out my Dutch spelling!), we went to a late dinner at a place called Oviudo. It was kind of a big, fancy, open building; I think it used to be the post office. So we ate there and had cheeseburgers and fries, which was an advertised special on the sidewalk sign. I think it was corned beef because it was very red, but not bloody, and kind of tasted different. Anyhow, it was okay and I didn't get sick. On the walk back to the hostel we did a little souvenir shopping in Damrak Square, which is a main square and was close to our hostel.

The next morning we went on a five hour tour to Zaanse Schans to see the Windmills and taste cheese, and to the fishing villages of Volendam and Marken. In Volendam I had some fish and chips for lunch. From there we took a 20-minute boat ride to Marken. Marken is known for it's wooden clogs. We saw a demonstration of wooden clog making. I didn't get to see much, though, because it was so croweded. Our tour group was huge.. it was a double-decker coach bus. Oy. But I got some cool souvenirs on that little trip. I bought four wooden tulips and the little traditional Holland figurine of a little boy and girl kissing. Cute.

Zaanse Schans:

Volendam:

Marken:

We got back into Amsterdam around 2:30. We took our purchases back to the hostel, then Kristen, Al, and I set out for Keukenhof Gardens. To get there we had to take a train from Central Station to the airport (this train was direct and only took about 10 minutes), then from the airport we had to take a 35 minute bus ride out to Keukenhof. Once we got to the airport, though, we could not figure out where to buy bus tickets. People kept sending us back and forth back and forth until we finally found the place. We could buy a ticket that included the bus ride there and back and admission to the garden.

Keukenhof Gardens are these huge gardens of all different kinds of flowers, especially tulips. It is so beautiful. Some of the flowerbeds are in patterns with the different flowers and their colors. We were there for a few hours. It was just nice to be in nature where it was more quiet and away from the city. There were lots of trees and grass, too.

There is a big windmill at the Gardens. Al decided to climb up the windmill, whereas Kristen and I walked in front of the windmill to look out over the river/canal at the massive tulip fields. We came back around to the other side and got a chocolate waffel from a vendor right there. We sat down to eat and wait for Al to come down. He never came out of the windmill.... he'd gone off and disappeared from us in these HUGE, winding gardens. He did this ALL of spring break... would just wander off by himself and no one could find him. Kristen and I hoped he remembered what time the last bus left so he could get back to the airport. We coincidentally did run into him later.

In a little pond are cement stepping stones... we ventured out on them and were able to get close to swans. It was pretty cool. After walking around some more, we headed back to Schipol to get the train back to Amsterdam Central Station.

We had a heck of a time figuring out the train back.. we got on two different trains when I asked if they were going to Central Station, the person would respond, "no," and we'd hop off before the doors closed. Awful. But we finally got the right train. This one, though, did make a couple stops, so it took 20 minutes to get back to the city.

We finally got back to the city and ate dinner at our hostel because the food is relatively inexpensive there... Got a toasty ham and cheese. Kristen did too, so we split an order of fries. Later that night, all six of us went to get crepes at a place three of the girls found the day before. To get there, we had to walk through the Red Light District. Prostitutes in skimpy underwear stand in doorways lit up with red lights. If the curtain is drawn, it means they have business. It was just so strange. Haha.. definitely an experience for sure.

The crepe place was delightful. I got the cookie monster crepe with bits of cookie and melted chocolate. It was so good, but I definitely couldn't eat the whole thing. We went back to the room and went to bed, and I slept in the next morning until 10:30.

We had to check out by 11; I managed to shower, pack my suitcase, and put a little make-up on all by 10:55. Got checked out on time and ate a spot of lunch downstairs. This time, I got a cheeseburger... it was really good. Around 12:30 we headed to Central Station to find the Metro near there.

After some searching we found the Metro place and purchased tickets after a huge ordeal of not being able to figure the machines out. You need a special card to purchase tickets with those machines, it wouldn't accept our cards. We were starting to panic. A really nice man working there helped us. He took us to a machine that accepts cash, which was in the other direction from the machines by the gate. He helped us get six tickets, bless his soul. He was a lifesaver!

We had to get to Amstel station.. Next to Amstel station is the Eurolines bus station. Our bus left at 2:15. We needed to be there by 1:45 to check in and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. Whew! Back in February we booked a 13 euro bus ride back to Germany... so that's what we did. Eight hours on a bus. It ended up not being too bad because the bus wasn't full. We were all able to have two seats to ourselves. I ended up sleeping a lot of the bus ride back or just listened to my iPod.

We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany around 9:45 at night. We made good time getting to Germany. We were dropped off at the Central train station. Emma's teacher and her husband picked us up from Frankfurt around 10:15. That was SO nice of them. They drove us the hour and 40 minute drive back to Baumholder. We got back home around midnight... I have never been so glad to be back to those barracks.

I ended up not going to bed until about 2 a.m. from piddling around and taking a shower. I slept in Sunday morning until 11:30. After that I just lounged around until 4 p.m. when Terry came to pick us up to take us to the Commissary to get groceries. Sunday was filled with piddling, writing in my journal, taping mementos into my journal, and uploading pictures to Facebook. I was dreading school the next morning... And definitely couldn't fall asleep early on Sunday night!

9-day, whirlwind spring break--Part II in London

On Monday afternoon of April 11th, Jenna and I flew to London. The flight was only an hour long. Emma, Kristen, Brittany, and Al had been in Spain for the weekend and were meeting us in London. Their flight got in a couple hours after ours.

When Jenna and I landed at Heathrow airport, we had to figure out what Tube line (subway/metro) we needed to take. Our hostel was right next to the Edgeware Road Tube stop. We were able to buy Tube tickets there and found out we needed to take this line to this stop and then switch to another line to get to Edgeware Road. Well, we got to the stop where we needed to change lines. I stopped to ask someone for help just to double-check we were going the right way. We'd been told wrong. We had to get back on the same line as before, ride to the next stop, and then switch to a different line. Anyhow, we got there.

A lot of the Tube is under construction right now, so some of the stations only have stairways, or some only have "lifts," or elevators, rather than escalators. There are often delays too and the trains will just stop for a few minutes underground.

So Edgeware is one of the old stations that has a lift. However, we must've found the back exit or something because we walked up a flight or three of stairs. When we walked out of the entrance/exit of the Tube station, the Green Man Hostel was no where to be found.... it was supposed to only be a few steps to the right after exiting the station. Not there. We walked around forever asking what street we were on... Edgeware. But we could not find that dang hostel! We later found out we'd gone out some back exit rather than the main one. But we found our hostel and got checked in. And the hostel really is the next building after the main entrance to Edgeware station.

The Green Man is a bar or pub on the bottom floor, while the dorm rooms are on the two floors above. We were of course on the very top floor... the staircase is narrow, windy, and very steep. It was a challenge getting our luggage up there. We booked this hostel because Emma has a friend who recommended it.

So we get up to room #6, open the door to find...... a TINY room. There was absolutely no floor space. One person could open her suitcase at a time. Instead of having a room with three bunks to make six beds total, there were two bunks stacked three beds high. What an adventure. The bunks overlapped at a 90 degree angle. There was just zero amount of space. And the floor was really dirty too. The bedsheets were clean, though. And at least the six of us BSU teachers got to stay in a room together.

The beds were made out of 2x4's and were held together by screws and glue. I'm not even joking. The beds creaked and shook a lot. Luckily they held together. This hostel was just horrible. It was like a bad joke. We called it Dachau because of the bunks being three-beds high and SO close together and overlapping. Maybe that wasn't very nice, but we couldn't help it. It reminded us of Dachau when we went there at the end of February. On Sunday after we got home I was telling our supervisor, Terry, about "our concentration camp... I mean hostel!" Haha.

The bathrooms were of course shared, but were at least cleaner than the ones at the Kinlay House in Dublin. And we couldn't beat that it was in a pretty central part of London right next to a Tube stop. We were in the part of town, though, where there are a lot of Indian people. Apparently some people refer to it as Little Baghdad..

Anyway, so Jenna and I were so hungry, but waited for the other four people to arrive. Their Tube line stopped twice in the underground, so they were really late getting to the Green Man. Jenna and I had fallen asleep. They got to the hostel close to 8:00 probably. We all got combobulated and went out for dinner and to a couple of bars/clubs that were boring. And it was really cold that night too. It put us all in a pisser mood.. especially because of a certain Debbie Downer who pissed everyone off. What a great start to London.

The next morning (Tuesday, the 12th) we slept too late, but I woke up first around 9:30 and woke everyone up so we could get ready and head out. We went to Picadilly Circus to eat lunch at a Japanese restaurant called Wagamama's. I got a delicious salad and then Wagamama Ramen Soup with chicken, fish, and tofu. It was good, but had no flavoring... and it was monstrous. I ate a lot of it, but it only looked like I made a dent.

After that I bought a couple cheesey Royal Wedding souvenirs and we headed to the Tower of London. I'd gone to London a couple years ago and got to see most all of the main attractions, but one thing I didn't get to do before was go to the Tower. So that's what I did this time! And it was awesome. Al, Brittany, and I went into the Tower while the others walked around and saw the main sites, like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye. While we were standing in line to get tickets for the Tower, we saw one of the teacher's from the high school with his family. What a small world.

In the Tower, we went through ALL the buildings. We went through the Medieval Palace, the White Palace, the chapel, etc. We saw torture instruments, where Anne Boleyn got her head chopped off, and the Crown Jewels. Way cool. It was awesome. We were in there for a few hours. It was a beautiful day, too. Sunny and warm enough for just a light jacket.

At 5:30 we met up with the others outside the Tower. Brittany, Jenna, and I went back to the hostel to get ready... we were going to see Wicked that night at 7:30 at the Apollo Theater! London Theatre is huge. You can tickets for shows the day of in Leister Square and Picadilly Circus. We bought our tickets after lunch earlier that day.

So we made our way on the Tube to the Victoria stop. From the Victoria Tube station, the Apollo Theatre is just across the street. We stepped up from the underground and right in front of us was a big Wicked sign. So cool. We had enough time to grab a pizza bread thing from a vendor, and it was really tastey. Our seats of course were in the very tip top, but that was okay. It was a fabulous show! I'd never seen Wicked before, but had read the book. The musical is way better than the book. It was just so cool! We had a great time.

Afterward, we made our way back to the Green Man and stayed in for the night. The next morning (Wednesday the 13th), I got up early to take a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. I knew I needed to go the Victoria station again to get to the Victoria coach station somewhere near the Tube station. I was about to leave when Al wanted to go with me. He hadn't even bought a ticket yet... so he was going to go with me and try to just buy one there. I had to wait on him to get all his stuff gathered and we were hauling ass to even get there on time. It was hard to find the coach station... I don't know if I have ever speedwalked as fast as I did that Wednesday morning.

We did get to the coach station with only a couple minutes to spare before we needed to begin checking in. Al was able to buy a ticket.... and I had been looking forward to having a day to myself. I like to be alone; I'm a bit of a solitary person. And spending days and days with the same people constantly and in close quarters really makes you pissed off at all of them. Anyway, so we got to the tour in time.

Windsor Castle decided it wanted to be closed for the day because that's what they do in Europe, so instead we went to the Hampton Court Palace, which was our first stop of the tour. Hampton Court Palace was Henry VIII's main place he liked to go. It's now in London, but back then it was outside of London along the River Thames (Timms)... it was a four-hour-long boat ride for ole Henry.

Hampton Court Palace is pretty cool... it's massive. You could spend a whole day there just looking around. There are Henry VIII's apartments, his kitchen, and another area of his. There are Mary II's apartments, and a few other peoples' apartments. We only went through Henry and Mary's apartments because we wanted to get outside to explore the massive gardens; those were really cool. We grabbed a spot of lunch to take on the bus with us from a cafe at the palace.

From there we set out for Stonehenge. I have always wanted to go to Stonehenge. I've always been interested in things like Stonehenge, the pyramids, Lock Ness, Big Foot, ghosts, etc. I just like that stuff and like to watch shows about them. So this was my main reason for booking the whole tour: Stonehenge. I thought it was really cool.

Some people (like Al!!) say, "It's just a pile of rocks." "I'm not impressed." I thought it ruled. These stones are MASSIVE. The place is 5,000 years old and was built in three different sessions. Many of the stones are from Wales, too. How in the world did these people get those massive stones there? And why did they put it there? What is special about that site? What was the purpose of the site even?

And these people who built the thing were ancient people who didn't have modern equipment. They were so ancient that a lot of them didn't even have proper clothing for the environment; they wore animal skins and lived until about the age of 30. Something I did learn about Stonehenge is that it is thought to measure the Winter and Summer solstices by the way the sun passes through the rocks. These ancient people were especially concerned about the Winter solstice because they needed longer days and warmer weather.

The weather this day wasn't the best. It spit out some rain all day, was kind of chilly, but was quite windy. The wind was the main problem really, but that's okay... it was just true England weather.

After Stonehenge we made our way to Bath. Bath is a picturesque town nestled in a valley. It has a Roman bathhouse that still has water in it. They even have baths there you can still use if you want to book a spa day six months in advance. This bathhouse is the only one in England (and most of Europe) with water from hot springs. There were different rooms and treatments with different water temperatures used for different therapies. Bath was THE place to be in the 1700s... just think of Jane Austen novels. If you were rich or in the incrowd of society, you went to Bath. Jane Austen lived in Bath for a few years and two of her novels are set in Bath: Northanger Abbey and I don't remember the other one off the top of my head. But anyway, Bath was the place to go.

We toured the Roman baths, which I would've liked to explore more, but Al wasn't impressed. He liked the ones in Trier better.... even though these ones still have water in them! We walked around town and he complained about how it was boring. He didn't care that it was pretty and historical. He wanted to try a scone because he'd never had one before. We ate at this tiny little cafe beside an old bridge, which was nice. We each got a piece of cake; I had the chocolate something and he had the Victoria pound cake and a scone. I got a latte and he had a hot chocolate. It was all really good.

By this point in the day, it was raining pretty steadily, so it was kinda icky to be outside anyway. Al wanted to go into a sport shop and ended up buying a cricket set. I don't know why because then had to carry it around with him everywhere and it was too big to be a carry-on for our flight to Amsterdam, so he had to check the dang thing... it was just an ordeal. Oh well. He wanted it.

So we walked around Bath a little bit. I wanted to look inside a church, which Al seemed to be offended when we got there and realized it was actually a cafe inside instead of a church still. Oh well. So finally it was time to leave and I could stop having to listen to him complain, which was getting close to ruining the day trip. As soon as we got on the bus, I popped in my earbuds and listened to my iPod and took a snooze for part of the way home.

I was so glad to get back. Al wanted to freakin eat fish and chips for dinner, so Jenna, he, and I set out to find some.... there aren't any fish and chip places in that part of town with all the Indian people... There's kebab places. So we went to a kebab place. He still got their version of fish and chips, which I'm sure wasn't as good as could be. Oh well. I was just very irritated by this point if you couldn't tell.

We got back to the hostel and Jenna and I went upstairs to chill for a bit. We went downstairs to meet Al to have a drink with him. We talked to some Irish guy named James (I think) who was trying to move to London. After a while we went upstairs. Jenna and I both took showers so we wouldn't have to try and do it the next morning when everyone else was getting ready. The three girls had gone out that night.

The next morning (Thursday, the 14th), we got up and got ready. We had some time to kill after check-out time and before getting to the airport. Emma and I walked a couple blocks to get McDonald's for an early lunch while the others got frozen pizza from the hostel bar. We took the Tube to London Central Airport. There, we flew to Amsterdam, which was another one-hour flight.

Cheers, London!