July 12, 2008

Riquewier (or something like that)

On Friday night Betsy, Michelle and I joined our professor, Dr. Mac and Katerina, the on-site director for the international program, for dinner in this adorable little town hidden in the midst of Alsacian wine country. It was about an hours drive from where we were staying in Germany. Dr. Mac really wanted to go and I volunteered to come along and translate since it is in France. We started out just following the map, but when we got to Freiburg we couldn't figure out which route to take out of the town to go towards Riqueweir. Thankfully we found a very helpful French couple at a gas station and they even drew us a detailed map through round-points and lights to get us back on track. Once there we wandered the cobblestone streets and enjoyed the antique quaint-ness that is impossible to find in the US. Dinner was delicious and we even had live entertainment - a parrot that pulled up a EU flag and then refused to be coaxed into putting puzzle pieces together.

7 in the House

There were 7 in the house and the little one said, "roll over, I'm squished!"

When I arrived in Germany for my two weeks of classes I met Betsy (jean jacket in the front), a woman teaching in Spain. We shared a rather large apartment that first week. The second week 5 more roommates joined us. We were all more than a little curious to see how it would work out (there was 1 full bath, 1 half bath, and 4 bedrooms). We had a good mix of personalities and ended up getting along great.

Last Roommate Dinner

For our last roommate dinner we went to a delicious restaurant right on the beach. It offers excellent local food and is a place I always visitors - Kim, Dan, Joy... My roommate Lauren had never been there, and Karen I couldn't let her escape without the experience since she won't be back in September.

I made it (so did my luggage)

For those of you wondering about my wanderings, I did arrive safely in Basel yesterday and was very happy to find that my luggage had arrived as well. After waiting for about 45 minutes I called the details coordinator to find out how I could be missing my ride. As it turns out, she had somehow missed my email about my flight details. I was really glad that my African cell phone liked working in Basel. It didn't particularly like Charles de Gaul in Paris. Eventually, I got a ride to Kandern and now I am drinking in all the green grass, green trees, green bushes, green plants...

Here, There & Everywhere

For those of you who have been curious about my summer schedule, here it is...

June 23-July 7
Germany

July7-23
Milford NJ, Philly PA, Lancaster PA, Dover NJ, Hatfield PA, Woodstock CT, New York NY
(not necessarily in that order)

July 23-29
Pasadena CA

July 30-31
Philly PA, Milford NJ

Aug 1-9
Greenville SC

Aug 10-13
Beverly Hills FL

Aug 14-16
Milford NJ

Aug 16
flight back to Africa

Can't wait to see you all! Email me if you're going to be in any of those areas so we can connect :)

C-A-T (in the Hat)

The Cat in the Hat

When I first read books to my classes by my favorite children's author - Dr. Seuss - I wondered if they would ever really be able to understand them. I read the two Cat in the Hat books when we studied the letter C in October. It took very creative reading/acting to get through such long books with these little English language learners. I decided it was better not to tackle Green Eggs and Ham just yet... I was excited to see them point out "Miss Rebecca, Cat in the Hat!!!" every time we read a Beginner Book (which has the Cat as the logo). In January we read them again when H was our letter of the week. This time the kids were excited to read them. I'm not sure if it was the familiarity or not, but it was cool to have them ask me to read it again after school while we were waiting for parents to come. Then in March Miss Mary from K3 brought us a special treat - a Cat in the Hat puppet she found in the resource room. The kids LOVED having the Cat read to them!

Green Eggs & Ham

In May our theme was TRANSPORTATION, so I borrowed Green Eggs & Ham from the library. The kids by this time were speaking enough English to understand the story and they LOVED it. A week later we watched the animated version that someone had given me on video. A few days after that my two giggling queens were riling up the class after school as we waited for moms and drivers. The kids have free play at this time which sometimes needs to be corraled into guided playtime :) I cornered the two rascals and asked them if they wanted me to read them a story. One of the girls asked me "Miss Rebecca, where is Green Eggs and Ham?" So I told her it was in the library. The library was still open, and these girls have moms that never come until they are in aftercare, so I decided my assistants would have a much quieter classroom if I whisked away the ringleaders of mischief. We went up to the library and found three copies of the book. So I gave each girl a copy and I had one myself. They learned how to follow along turning the pages appropriately and were so proud of themselves to be reading in the library like the big kids. They even helped me out with the words...

My Principal & My Mentor

I am so thankful for the great elementary principal that we have, as well as my mentor teacher. They have made this year more enjoyable and helped me keep my sanity at times.

Green Eggs and Sushi

I am sure that someday when I'm pregnant I'm gonna crave sushi. I had been craving it for about two weeks, so my friends got together at my favorite restaurant in the city for some great concoctions. My favorite was a new one we hadn't seen there before (the sushi all runs past on this little conveyor belt around the area where the sushi chefs work & you just pull stuff off the line and pass it around the table). It was topped with avocado, orange and green eggs. I guess the official word is roe, but I like the idea of having tried real GREEN EGGS and sushi for my birthday.


Mary loves sushi as much as I do. Don't put it past her to take up the occasion of a picture for some sushi swiping...


Even my non-sushi-loving roommate consented to come along with us to celebrate. About a half hour after we got there (downtown = parking nightmare) we realized that we left the coffee pot on, so she graciously left the party early :(


Scot and David opted NOT to feed each other tender morsels.

How to Eat a Cupcake

We've celebrated many a birthday in our classroom this year. Usually this means that somebody's mommy comes in with an incredibly over-priced adult type birthday cake, juice, party hats and goody bags full of candy and noisemakers. In all our celebrations, we haven't had one kid-friendly cupcake on the birthday menu. So, this being an American school, I couldn't let my birthday slide by without giving my kids a chance to sample that All-American school birthday celebration classic. Thank goodness Betty Crocker has made it to Africa. She saved me a ton of time as I prepared 48 cupcakes. Now, I would have been doubly lucky if she'd brought cans of frosting with her. As it was, I found a great recipe for cream cheese frosting, but got a little carried away in my efforts. Consequently I've got about enough remaining pink frosting to frost that double decker cake that the Cat in the Hat was eating in the tub with the hot water on and the cold water too...



I gave a brief lesson on how to eat a cupcake - I didn't realize that would be part of the course when I signed up for this job. My kids are now experts - at least on sticking their fingers in the icing... I don't think anybody tried to down the paper either!

Birthday Muffins

My roommates & I have a tradition for our birthdays. We cannot get blueberries here, so our blueberry muffin mixes are saved for special occasions. Birthdays do make the list of special occasions, so I enjoyed my birthday candle in a breakfast muffin this year.