Getting bigger...

It's official... you can tell that I am pregnant. My students are no longer wondering if I just started to eat too much and are now asking about the baby.

But here I am 5 1/2 months along and still growing. I cannot seem to stop eating... or sleeping. I keep on waiting for the stage where all your energy comes back, but I am still waiting. We are working on collecting all sorts of things for the baby. I never imagined that babies required so MANY things. I started panicking last week when the weekly email told me only 112 days to go and all we have are some clothes and a crib. But now we have a changing table (and more clothes). Now we just have to finish the bookcases to put in the office / nursery and then put everything together. Hopefully it will all be in place by the time that she gets here!

SOO COLD

So I know that at one point in time I had mentioned that I missed this freezing weather, but I am now dreaming off warmer climates. I cleary did not think of early mornings and having the car take so long to heat up... or had forgotten that when it is snot freezing weather, it actually hurts to breath...

Memories of Scotland

I am slowly but surely going through our photos and other momentos to make our scrapbook(s) of Europe. We were going through everything and I found this photo. It always made me laugh...

In Guatemala

Another teacher (Ann) and I arrived safe and sound in Guatemala. We were picked up in Guatemala City by the hostel we are staying at, which was wonderful. You can really see how poor the country is in by driving through Guatemala City, but we are staying in Antigua. The city is beautiful and surrounded by rolling hills and volcanoes. It is incredibly old and the entire city is protected against development, which is spectacular. We met two other teachers that we work with here. They were studying Spanish at one of the schools here. SO last night we were able to have dinner with their host family, and then go to a party at their school. Lots of free booze and salsa dancing, but Ann and I were so tired after our early start we didn't last very long. Today we explored more of the city, and went to some markets. We found one that was purely for the Guatemalans. We got some dirty looks becuase we clearly didn't belong there, but it was really interesting to see all the food vendors. And I didn't even yak at the meat vendors. ALthough the smell was more than gag worthy. Tonight we are being picked up and brought to the place where we will be working for the week. The principal of the school is having us all over for dinner and then putting us up in his hotel. It should be an adventure!

Ballonfest

Every June Howell has a big hot air ballon festival. This year it is June 27-29. You can check out what there is to see here. Mom and dad are coming over on Saturday... let us know if you want to come over too!! (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday)

A new addition to our family

I am way behind in posting this... we got a new addition to our family in December. He is incredibly sweet and cute, and we fell in love with his picture on the Internet. He goes everywhere with us, so some of you may have meet him already at mom and dad's. Heis INCREDIBLY spoiled. He even has his own kiddie chair on the porch (it's Dora the Explorer). He was getting upset because he didn't have anywhere to sit when Mike and I were both out there, so we found a chair on sale and now he has his own place to sit... Crazy, I know... but we don't have kids... or a house

I made it!!

I know that it has been forever, but I am finally done with my first year teaching. I didn't loose my sanity (too many times), hit anyone, etc. The firewall did go out once when we were doing presentations... therefore one hour (7th graders) did get a glimpse ofa nudey webpage. HUGE OPPS. But I blocked the screen automatically and they were more excited about the fact that it actually popped up in school versus what they actually might haven seen. And to the best of my knowledge, there were not any angry parent phone calls. So, after 9 months I am still employed, and they seem to like me. I hear that the first year is the hardest, so next year I am hoping that I can stay up later than 8:30pm every night (that is really as late as I was able to stay up most nights). And I will now be able to update more often!

SOOO Disappointed

So... with the Writer's Guild striking there will now be re-runs of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I feel like I have been cheated. All this time and I thought that THEY actually came up with their material.

Opps...

Well, after a silent 2 1/2 months, all I can say is opps...

So...

• Prague was AMAZING. Slightly creepy and overwhelming at first as we were taking the train through the Czech Republic, but it was better once we hit Prague. The city was incredibly beautiful, but it was the only place that we had been to in which neither of us knew any bit of the language. Little scary. But the trip was wonderful.
• Leaving Germany was great. Scotland was sad, but by the time we moved to Germany we were ready to be home.
• In the first two weeks of being home, I had 5 interviews (in 2 school districts) and 2 job offers. I am now one of the two new Spanish teachers in the district, and I really like it. I teach 5th, 7th and 8th graders. Those awkward early teenage years...
• In those first 2 weeks, we also moved to Howell. Its a bit of a commute for Mike, but at least he doesn't have to make it every day. AND next semester he doesn't have class, so it will be cut down even more. WOO HOO!! And the commute for me is great. Only 15-20 minutes.
• It has been great being back home and seeing (most) everyone!! I will try to keep this more up to date from now on...

Down to one hand finger counting now

That´s right... only four more days until we start the long trek back to Michigan. So... this is more than likely the last time that you will hear from us until we get home. We are heading to Prague this weekend with a couple of friends. Its dirt cheap to get to from Bavaria, so we might as well go. We are really excited, and I am sure that we will have tons of pictures to show you all. We have most of our pictures uploaded onto our Flickr account now. I think that there are over 6,000 pictures of the last 11 months... and Germany is not all on there. Thank goodness for digital cameras! :)

Down to Finger Counting!

That’s right folks… I can count the number of days until we’re home on my fingers!! WOO HOO!!

Harry Potter

Since we had spent 9 months in the UK, I really wanted the UK version of Harry Potter. Not only is the cover different, but the spellings are in UK English and some of the UK slang is used. My wonderful husband took me out on Saturday and bought it for me. I was surprised that it wasn’t longer, but it was still good. All the theories everyone had were right and wrong. I don’t think that anyone had it right, only partially. I started it on Saturday, but couldn’t read a lot as the family we are staying with had a party in which we were invited to. It was really uncomfortable and no one talked to us though. We even got dirty looks from the dad of the family and he asked the people who finally sat near us what they were doing over sitting near us. I think he forgets Mike does understand and speak German. Jerk.
Anyway, I read all but 150 pages on Sunday evening and finished it Monday morning. I couldn’t sleep very well on Sunday I was so preoccupied with what was going to happen. It was well worth the wait. And now I need to read them all over again. It was a spectacular series and I am sad to see it finished. At least the ending was good.

Yet Another Beer…

July 23, 2007
After today we are officially done with our Christmas shopping!! WOO HOO!! I don’t think that I have ever been this organized, and I am pretty sure that Mike never has either. Last year we went shopping on the night before Christmas Eve for our presents for each other. I am sure that living in Europe has helped us to complete our Christmas shopping in July though! :)
After we finished our shopping, we passed by a restaurant that was selling a beer that we had not tried yet – Aylinger-, so we of course HAD to stop. (The restaurants here only sell beer from one brewery.) There are normally not many different kinds of beer that a certain brewery makes. A pils, lager, dark, wheat, and dark wheat. I normally do not like the wheat beers here as they taste like cloves. BUT there is something here called a Cola-weissen that is very tasty. Half coke and half wheat beer. Radlers (half lemonade, half lager) are also quite nice. Especially on hot days. Mike tried their wheat beer, which was surprisingly not clovey. Which made for a wonderful cola-weissen. :)

Art, Art, and More Art…

July 22, 2007
On Sundays many of the museums in Munich are only €1, and since it was looking pretty cloudy out (again), we headed to the Alte Pinakothek. The BIG art museums in Munich are broken up into three different buildings: the Alte Pinakothek – 13th to 18th century art-, the Neue Pinakothek – mainly 19th and some 20th century art-, and the Pinakothek der Moderne – modern art. We started with the Alte Pinakothek. It was a very nice collection which included many Rembrandt, Rueben, and even some Da Vinci and El Greco. The paintings were, of course, amazing.
After walking through the Alte Pinakothek, we headed over to the Neue Pinakothek. There were some Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, etc there. It was a very nice exhibit, but half the museum was taken up by a temporary exhibit that we didn’t buy tickets for. We walked over to the Modern Art building, but we know very few modern artists and don’t always understand modern art. I need help most of the time getting the point. Mike only really likes Dali, and there were only 2 Dali paintings in the whole building, so we skipped it. By then we had been looking at art for about 4 hours and were near our limit anyway.

A Quarter of a Century and Counting

July 20, 2007
Yup, that’s right. As of July 20th I am a quarter of a century old. I only panicked a bit and have now decided I am no longer counting. No more candles, etc. I still want to celebrate my birthday and presents are always okay. But I am doing away with counting.
Anyway… the day was beautiful, so Mike skipped class and we went out to one of the lakes about a half an hour away from Munich. It was a great day. We walked from the town of Starnberg to Possenhofen. It was a nice walk, except for the 2 km in which the sidewalk disappeared and we had to walk along the side of the road. That was NOT fun, but we survived unscathed. We had brought bathing suits so we could go swimming, but in Germany there are no changing facilities. That is what the beach is for. And bathing suits are optional. Many don’t use them. We were actually surprised that most of the kids and all the men had bathing suits on. Many were Speedos, but at least it covers things. Many of the women were topless, but you get used to it after awhile. Although I don’t think I could go topless sunbathing with my neighbors or family watching. Stripping down in front of them, putting my bathing suit bottoms on, and then - while topless – carry on a conversation with them. It would be weird.
In Possenhofen there is an old Palace that is still occupied. By whom we have no idea, but you can walk around it, which was nice. Then we headed to the train station to go down to Tutzing. We did not want to walk on the shoulder of a narrow road again, and we had already walked probably 4 miles. While we were there we saw a crazy lady. In Germany you buy your tickets for the transport before you get on the train, many of the tickets have to be validated before you get on the transport, but its all up to you. I have been riding the Public Transport for 2 months (with a ticket) and have never had my ticket checked. So… many people ride and take the chance that they will not be caught. The people that check your tickets on the subway, buses, and trams are in street clothes, so its very risky. The people that check your tickets on the train are in uniform. But on the trains not only do you get the fine, but you also have to pay twice the fare. Well, this lady got caught, wouldn’t give the people her name so they could write out the fine, so they took her off the train and called the police. We got there with the police. Wonderful. Her story was that she had a month pass, but was at the beach in Starnberg. It was there that some one got into her wallet and stole her transport card AND all her money. But they left her wallet. Well, the police sided with the train people and asked to see her wallet so they could get her name. She FREAKED. They had to take her wallet from her while she was screaming and trying to beat them away. They got her name though, gave her the fine (which was even more because she also had her bike with her), and she freaked even more. She ran off screaming at the police and train people. It was amazing. I’m guessing the police didn’t haul her in because it wasn’t worth the effort. Back home they probably would have tazored her and then hauled her in with multiple charges. But she went off to the other side of the tracks, got on her phone, and started yelling hysterically to someone. People are entertaining…
After the excitement, we got on the train to Tutzing and explored around the city. Its quite small, so it didn’t take that long. But we were able to find a non-naked beach, side on a small wall, and stick our feet in the water. It was a hot day, so it was quite nice. And we had a view of the Alps in the distance as well.
After we were done exploring Tutzing, we headed back into Munich and decided to have a Birthday beer in the Hirsch Garden. It’s the biggest beer garden in Europe and can hold 8,000 people. Well, we got there and it was a huge disappointment. It was the white trash beer garden of Munich. So… we downed our beers as quickly as possible and left.

Beer Floats

My friend, Lisa, told us about beer floats when she was here visiting us. We were wary about the whole idea but she assured us that they were good. We figured you would have to do it with a dark beer, such as Guinness, but we were told that any beer would work. So we bought some beer and ice cream and tried it. Well, I am here to tell you that any beer will not work. The beer we used had quite a bit of a hops flavor. Which attached itself to the ice cream. I think it would be great with a dark beer, or a less hopy beer. Now we’re just going to wait until we get home to try it. And until we get a specific name of a beer she has successfully used in the beer float equation.

The Most Disgusting Beer in the World

July 19, 2007
There is a beer garden near us that has been voted the prettiest beer garden in the Munich area before and it sells a beer made in Munich that we had not yet tried. It was a nice day, so we walked over there before we went grocery shopping. We had heard that the beer was not very good and the only reason it was still in production was due to tourists. We now know that this has to be the truth. It was horrid beer. And to top it all off, they were out of beer mats for Spaten beer. Most of the beers have their own beer mats, so we have been collecting them. Free souvenirs! :)

Back to the Oldest Brewery in the World

July 18, 2007
Well, after Mike told people that we had gone to the oldest brewery in the world, they wanted to go to. And Mike was, of course, more than willing to take them there. He was sure that they could not get there without him. I’m pretty sure that he just wanted more of what he claims is one of the best beers in the world. SO today, we headed back to Freising and the Weihenstephan Brewery. We were able to try a couple more of the different types of beer they brew that we didn’t last time. The rest of the beers that they brew that we didn’t try, we bought. They are dirt cheap in their store. There is a beer store in Mt Pleasant that will order anything that they can for you if you ask. When we get back to Michigan, and settled, we are going to find out if they can get the Weihenstephan beer in. We’re also going to check with Erica’s in Grand Rapids, so hopefully we can share the beer with others!

Paulaner Brewery Tour

July 17, 2007
We were able to go on a brewery tour for only €3 each through the school Mike goes to. It was all in German – of course – but I still picked up a bit of it. The guide had a very thick Bavarian accent (which is the most difficult German accent to understand.) But Mike was able to explain it to me after he stopped talking. The tour was incredible. It last an hour and a half, and he took us through the entire process. The best part for me was watching the bottle cleaning (they re-use the glass bottles up to 6 times), bottle filling, and labeling. I got another video of that, it was so fast Mike wanted to document it. :)
At the end of the tour we were told we would get a pretzel (a big soft pretzel), and a beer. Mike and I figured that the beer would be a small taste. We were wrong. At the end of the tour we were given two 0.5L beers, two big pretzels, and dinner. It was amazing. And all for €3. If we had known about it sooner, we would have probably gone a few more times.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

July 15, 2007
The next day we went over to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is an hour train ride from Nuremberg, and about 4 hours from Munich due to all the train changes you have to make. So, it was now or never for Rothenburg. It was incredibly hot that day. In two days it went from jeans and sweatshirt weather to shorts and tank tops. It was horrid and made eating hard. But Rothenburg was wonderful. It is an old medieval town in which the old city has not changed drastically since the mid 15th century. And it was not bombed during the war, so it is actually intact. Pretty rare around here.
Stephan told us that when we go, we have to try Schneeballens. They are a type of ball like butter cookie dessert made only in Rothenburg. (I think.) They were pretty good. For the rest of the afternoon we just walked around the city. There are a couple of pretty churches we looked at as well. There was a concert going on in the Frauenkirche by American High Schoolers. It was really pretty sounding, and interesting that it was Americans. Every week there was another group of American High Schools from different states singing in the city. St Jakobs Kirche was also wonderful. The altar and windows are incredible, and upstairs is another altar carved all out of wood with the image of the Last Supper. After St Jacobs, we just walked around more of the town. You can still walk on the city walls, which we of course did. It was a lot of fun, but there are some HUGE spiders hiding out in the overhangs. Big and hairy too. After that, it was time to get onto the train and head back to Munich. Unfortunately, the three hour train ride turned into almost 4 ½ due to our train being so SLOW. SO irritating.