It's been a while

It's been a while since I've written. The past couple of weeks since my Italy trip, I've just stayed in Baumholder. Weekends were filled with eating in town, going to the trashy bar for some laughs, having cookouts with my student teacher friends, going to the girls' and boys' soccer games (by the way, our boys' varsity team is SO good), and going to my teacher's house for a very nice dinner one Saturday evening.

Last weekend, I made it back to Bernkastel-Kues with Terry so I could buy a pair of Birkenstocks. I'd regretted not buying a pair when I was there before... they have them for pretty decent prices there. I ended up getting a pair of Papillo sandals, which are the style, girly, color, patterned Birkenstocks. Terry and I also enjoyed a boat ride down the Mosel River. The weather was gorgeous; I definitely got some sun.

The weather has just been pretty nice here for a while now; we've kind of lucked out. It's been sunny most days and anywhere from the 50s through the 70s. Today it was probably about 70 and sunny. I was a little toasty walking home from school.

I have been crazy busy. Student teaching is just getting busy, but I've also got a lot of crap to do for Ball State so I can graduate. It's a pointless pain in the rear. I have been working so hard the past week trying to get all of this stuff done. I'm almost there.

I will be back in time for graduation. I didn't know if I was going to walk, especially because my dad wasn't going to be able to get there. He is officially coming to Germany, but had to get back for that Saturday. Kristin has to be at the county tourney golf meet since he is the coach. Therefore, my dad has to run the store that day. I talked to my dad on the phone yesterday and he said they're just going to close the store that day. :) How sweet. Speaking of my dad, I got an awesome Easter package in the mail this week. Tons of Easter candy, a cool metallic-colored Easter egg coloring kit, and a [child's] t-shirt that says says something about "since 1989." Dad said he thought, "I know something else from 1989." C'est moi.

This week has been very stressful. I've had about 11 hours of sleep in three days. I feel just drained.

So some of you may know I was kind of seeing someone before I left for Germany. Many things went wrong there and it officially ended on Monday night. Honestly, I do feel relieved about it, but it was just a stressful, long, late night. And I lost another friend along the way (that whole old friend, guy loyalty thing, I guess).

Of course, the main reason why things will not work out between us is because I met someone here who I really like. He's a soldier. I said I would never date another soldier. I thought I would never be interested in a soldier. I guess I was wrong. I've known him for a month and just really like him a lot. Only a couple people back home have heard about him from me, so to most everyone reading this, it is probably a surprise.

Anyway, he is really nice. Probably the nicest guy I have ever dated. And so cute. And funny, and silly. And intelligent. And he speaks Creole-French because that was the language he grew up speaking. I honestly like him a lot. Unfortunately, though, he was deployed last week. That was sad to deal with. And of course I worry--he's in Afghanistan for crying out loud.

Yesterday at school we found out that two Baumholder soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. One was the father of a second grader and a fourth grader at Smith Elementary on base. Talk about hitting close to home. The two soldiers were training Afghan police. One of those Afghans turned out to be a "bad guy" (whoever the hell the bad guys even are) and shot the American soldiers.

When I heard the news, I was just stunned. It freaked me out. I knew my friend was okay because I'd talked to him briefly the night before, but it still really scared me. I was eating lunch with the JROTC officer in the teacher's lounge and I asked him what kind of soldiers work with the Afghan police. He told me it is usually infantry or soldiers whose jobs are more related to police-type duties. My friend is a mechanic. He often goes out on missions to recover vehicles that need to be brought back to post to be worked on. But he sometimes goes on other missions too. My conversation with Major Schwab put me at ease a little bit.

This evening I was finally able to talk to my friend for a good length of time. We chitchatted about different things. I brought up the two Baumholder soldiers because I wasn't sure if he knew. He was there. There there. He was there when it happened. (Talk about being freaked out.) He was in charge of a vehicle transporting Afghans and was transmitting messages on the radio (RTO and Vehicle Commander). So he was there and heard the shots, so he got down.

He's been there since last Tuesday. One week. And this has happened already. Not to mention he spent a couple evenings ago in a bunker because of riots right outside his base... Thanks to that preacher in Florida burning Qu'rans, Muslims are pissed. Our soldiers are getting hurt and killed because of it.

Yeah, I think the Afghanistan situation is not good. Why is the US there again?? What is the point of this war? Why do we have to be the world's police? Why can't we just worry about our own country and get out of these other countries?

I have learned so much about the military and these wars while living and teaching here. It has opened my eyes. I am thankful that I have had the chance to learn all of this--to learn the truth (or close to the truth) of what is going on. Everyday I read the Stars and Stripes newspaper, full of world news and what is actually going on with our country in Afghanistan, Japan, Libya, Iraq. It worries me, though. Especially since I know someone over there.

An old high school friend, Patrick Windjack, is stationed here. We've ran into each other a few different times in Baumholder and hung out. I used to drive him to marching band practice. Such a small world. He deploys at the end of April. Great. Another friend I have over there.

This week is just taking a toll on me. I need sleep. I need stress relief. I just had to go and meet that boy...

On the positive side, I leave for spring break tomorrow. I take the 530 train to Frankfurt. I fly to Dublin, Ireland at 940. Friday morning I leave on a tour of Southern Ireland. I have two friends who have gone on this same tour--they both said it was great. I am so excited. So that lasts through Sunday. Monday afternoon I fly to London. On Wednesday I take a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. On Thursday I fly to Amsterdam. On Friday I take a half-day trip to Zaanse Schans Windmills, Marken, and Volendam. I get to see windmills, cheese-making and wooden clog-making, and fishing villages. On Saturday we take a bus back to Germany. Busy week, but it will be awesome. I can't wait.

Speaking of spring break, I need to pack....

*Note: if this was difficult or flighty to read, I apologize. I usually put a little more effort into my blogs, but this is just kind of words spewing out my fingertips. I apologize for the lack of updating lately.