Living on a military base is way different than I was expecting! We have 2 different ID cards that we have to carry at all times to get on base, to use when grocery shopping, at the bowling alley, movie theater, all kinds of places on base. It took us almost a week to get both of our ID's, so it was hard to keep food at the apartment for those first few days but we survived :) It also took a while to get used to walking and taking a bus or train to get anywhere, which we are still trying to get used to.
I started school 2 days after getting here to set up the classroom and get everything ready. I absolutely love my teacher I am working with and all the other staff I work with. The atmosphere is so fun and outgoing and very laid back. I felt very comfortable and welcomed right away. I follow a group of special education students that are included in general education classes throughout the day. I have just started teaching some of my own lessons, but for the most part I make my way around the room and make sure they are on task and keeping up with the rest of their class. I have also had to do a lot of reading assessments and I have begun to see how much paper work is involved!
I am living in an apartment with 8 girls! Yes, 8! Six of them are from Western Michigan University that I have had in all of my classes, so I know them all pretty well. The other 2 are from Miami of Ohio. They have fit in great and we all are getting along very well. Sharing one shower with 8 girls was tricky to get used to, especially since we are all getting ready to go to school at the same time, but we have finally got into a shower schedule. We have been doing a lot of our traveling together and it seems to be working for us. You will be seeing a lot of "family pics" from all our our trips.
Our first two weekends here we spent in Heidelberg. We went downtown and got a tour of the entire city from a teacher and her teacher's husband, who is a tour guide. We walked up to the castle and toured the castle grounds then went across the river and took a hike up "Philosopher's Way" which is high above the city and has an amazing view! He then showed us the city's library, the university, some fountains, and where to find the best ice cream and food.
Labor day weekend we spent the whole day Saturday in Mannheim. We knew of a castle to see and a water tower. While trying to find the castle we found a huge, beautiful building...after walking for an extra 20 minutes, realizing that cool, huge, beautiful building WAS the castle. Whoops! Anyways, we toured the castle and couldn't figure out what all the people and cameras were doing out front. Come to find out it was the auditions for Deutschland Super Star (Europe's American Idol). It was cool to see the whole crowd in action for recording. On Sunday we took a train to Lake Constance, which was so pretty! It is at the very bottom of Germany and is shared with Switzerland and Austria as well. It wasn't the nicest of days but we had our own fun.
This past weekend was our first big travel. We went to Brussels, Belgium and visited Brugge, Belgium for the day on Saturday. It didn't start out the greatest, seeing we got on the wrong train, but we ended up where we were supposed to be (kind of). We got off the train in Brussels, but had another hour and a half walk because we got off at the wrong Brussels train station. It made for a long night, but we finally made it to our hostel and went straight to bed. Early Saturday we took an hour train ride to Brugge and toured a brewery, walked through the town, and had lunch. I've never seen so many chocolate shops, waffles, and lace! Of course the chocolate was great, and the waffles were by far the best I have EVER had!! We made it back to Brussels for the evening and had dinner and went out for drinks. Sunday morning we visited a chocolate museum and saw the Mannequin Pis before heading back to Heidelberg.
I have been loving the food here way more than I was expecting too. I have been adventurous and trying everything at least once. I've had schnitzel, donor kabobs, seafood spaghetti, bretzels, and lots more that I have forgotten or can't pronounce.
I miss you all back home! I will try my best to keep this updated for you. This weekend we are planning on staying around here. There is a huge wine festival in Bad Durkheim, which is one of the biggest in Germany. We are also planning on heading downtown again and seeing some more of the city of Heidelberg.
Will write again soon!
Amy
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