It was by far the best wedding ever.....I'll post pictures soon.

Wedding......TOMORROW!

The wedding is tomorrow...everything is ready! I am so excited!! We're starting pre-wedding festivities in a couple of hours!!! I can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!

Side note

On a side note...Katie and I managed to lock ourselves out of the house. Rick had to come from work to let us in!!!

Never a dull moment! (That's a quote from my mother, who I love!)

With Katie and Rick

Since I've missed so much in the last four months of the wedding planning I am pleased to say that I now get to attend the "meetings." The past couple of days I have got to be with Katie and Rick. It's so much fun. We've had meetings with the hotel, the photographer, and the DJ. I like them all, Katie (and Rick) has done a great job with everything. It's really exciting now to think about the next few weeks!

If anyone has any suggestions on what to say in my "toast" let me know!

Milan three...

Carla grilling! YUM!!!!!
Little Italian house.
Elisa and I in a big frame!! We're so cute!

Milan two...

Duomo Catheral
The plaza
Weird skeleton
One of the many parade of cows!! Originally started in Chicago!

Milan one...

One of the tunnels through the mountains!! They were CRAZY long!
Beautiful flowers in Clara's yard!
Filippo!
Mom and Carla at the castle, how adorable!

One great week..with my mama...

I’m aware that I haven’t written in a few weeks. I have been driving all over Europe with my mom. We ended up staying in Kusel, Germany for two nights because her luggage was misplaced by the airlines. It was actually really lovely, the only down side is that we did not make it to Amsterdam. We then went to Strasbourg for a day to see Nelly and Christian. I had no idea it was an EU capital. We went on a boat tour so we learned a lot about the history of the city. Christian and her husband cooked us a beautiful dinner too.

Over night we stayed in Thionville, France. It was an unexpected stop, but so much fun. We walked around the square and people watched. Mom ended up taking pictures of these boys riding their bikes over a fountain. It was actually really neat because the boys barely spoke English, but one did say, “I don’t like my English teacher.”

We continued to Giverny to see Monet’s garden and home. It was breathtaking when I saw it with Liz and Steven, but it blew me away this time. The flowers were huge and vibrant. We stayed for quite a long time and we enjoyed every minute. Mom LOVED it, it was awesome to be able to share that with her. That night we stayed in Blaru, a small B&B. Our hostess was Pierre. She was an adorable little French woman who had five children. The house was incredible. I don’t know how we found such a gem in the middle of the French country side, but it was like a fairytale.

Off to Paris…we did the big three art museums: the Louvre, l’Ongerie, and d’Orsay. We were pooped, but we saw a lot. The next day I did not feel well and ended up going back to the hotel after seeing the Eiffel Tower, going to where some Impressionist lived, and Vosges palace. After a long nap and a note from the reception desk, I realized mom was lost. She got back around 7:30. She was lost for two and a half hours!! But she made it back safely! We went to the bar and met “Ryan” who is from Mauritius and Edsel from Georgia, USA.

In the morning we started our long drive to Geneva, Switzerland. The tolls are well, tolling. It was quite expensive, but the view of the mountains and waterfalls was almost priceless. After finding parking and our hotel, we walked around the old part of the city and bought chocolate. The breakfast in the morning was a grand expanse.

We made it to Milan and to Elisa’s house where we found a note to go to the post office were her mom worked. Clara shrieked with delight when she saw us. She doesn’t speak a lot of English, so she was very worried. We ate dinner at Carlo’s, her brother, house. It was just simple rice and cheese, but it was delicious.

Milan was on the agenda for the next day and we took the train into the city center. The Cathedral Duomo was a gorgeous white and pinkish marble. There was tons of shopping, of course. We went to the castle and walked the parks. After we got back to Elisa’s and I took another nap, when mom woke me up Elisa was home!!! We ate another terrific dinner.

Mom left in the morning and Elisa and I watched movies all day. She made me real Italian pizza and mushrooms and rice for dinner. In the afternoon between rain storms we went to a little medieval town. It was quite adorable, but it started to rain again. (There wasn’t rain for the entire month of April, but May has brought the showers.) We talked after dinner like friends who had never parted. It was really lovely and I wish that I didn’t have to get up at 4am the next morning because I know we could have chatted all night. I had the greatest time at her home, but the stay was so short. I can’t wait to go back and maybe she’ll be able to come to Istanbul next year! Some people you see after a long time and wonder why you were ever friends with that person, but then there are others when it makes perfect sense. I love Elisa and I know that we’ll always be friends. :-)

So now I’m in Heathrow airport just waiting to go back to America, not excited about the country, food, government, etc, but I cannot wait to hug and see my family. It’ll always be home.

Mom is just too cute in Switzerland!!

Geneva

Farewell dinner

Last night was our “going away” dinner. It was held at Lichtenberg Castle in a little village near ours. They have a beautiful room for banquets. There was pork, chicken, salmon, and these cauliflower pancake things. The food was okay, not really worth the price we were told the dinner was. I got to sit by two of my three teachers. It was really nice because everyone was complimentary of Ball State and all the student teachers. They said we had really reestablished a good rapport with the school and community. (The last few groups really weren’t up to par, or so we’ve heard.) My teachers were very complimentary of me, really, it made me feel great. Everyone got to say a few words about their teachers. When it was my turn I introduced my teachers and the subjects that I had taught with them. I had gotten them all little gifts. Carol, gum, Carter, Diet Vanilla Pepsi, Joy, Club Crackers (because I always eat/drink those things. It is the food/drink that they keep in their classroom, kind of like my dad and his tootsie rolls. They all laughed at the little things. I couldn’t get them anything they “needed” and I probably could not afford something they wanted, so I took the “cute” and “joke” road. I always got them Ball State t-shirts and said “I know this is always something you’ve wanted, you just never knew.” I tried not to get too sentimental because I would cry.

Joy got up later and told everyone how well I had done at MUN and how well I adapted to teaching psychology. Carter said that because of how awesome I was he would take any student Ball State offered. (That was a really big compliment.) Steven’s teacher got up, he’s a big talker, but I like him very much. We had dinner at their house early in the semester. He said the funniest, yet very nice thing about me. He said I was like a RAM. Because I was a go in, take charge kind of a person. I didn’t let things slide if I knew they weren’t right and I wasn’t one on to let people walk over me. He was very excited when he was saying all of this, but it was really cute and I was a little embarrassed, I know that I stick up for myself, it was just funny how accurate he was. He said that Steven and Liz were very professional and Jeff “just came over for dinner,” which was really funny.

I bought Pat flowers (red and white, Ball State colors, but her favorite color is red, so that was perfect!) She really liked them. She had painted little pictures of the castle, one for every guest. We also were allowed to take home a raku vase that she made. I appreciated everything.

My mom will be here next Tuesday! It’s going to be fabulous. We’re going to Amsterdam, Giverny, Paris, Strasbourg, Milan, and Venice!!!! WOO HOO!!! Then HOME!!!!!!

And I miss Katie very much and I can't wait to see her on the 8th!

Over looking a little German village
This is really what it looks like here. The little steeple sticking up from the middle of cozy little homes, there is always atleast one bakery and one deli in every town. Today I went in a meat shop (I thought they might have cheese, but NO all meat) I wish my dad and grandpa were there, they would have loved it. I bet it was all delicious.

More pictures from my walk

I know we have trees in America, but look at the sun hit. It was really a beautiful evening.
Just a big German house.
The Jewish plaque I had mentioned..
Up close

Picture from my walk

This picture is from one of my walks. It is actually in front of a cemetery and marks all of the German soldiers lost in WWI and WWII. It's very sad. On the right there is also a plaque commemorating the Jewish people lost during the Second World War.

Thesis update

Well, I have about four pages...of 25. But that's better than when I started. I feel like I have a lot of ideas, but no one thesis statement. That could be a problem. I'm just writing, I suppose I'll organize my thoughts later.

I've been taking little walks to clear my mind, and it's a good thing too. My newest theory is that thesis writing = consuming a lot of chocolate.

Just two more pictures from Liz's camera.

I'm really thinking...
"Hello Mom! Wish you could be here with me!"

Last day of teaching!

Seder table!

The week before the end of the quarter is crazy! There is so much going on and so little time to do anything. I may feel like I do not have so much time because I started going to softball practice with the high school girls. I love being with them. They’re hardly a team and it’s very different from sports in the US. Dodds’ schools would probably be around a 2A school. For their game yesterday, I got them all bouncy balls and wrote “Bounce over Bitburg.” Except there was no bouncing and they lost horribly. I think the final score was 12-4, but the other team scored eight runs in just the first inning. They’ll improve. Whether they’re great or not, it’s nice to get outside and play around with the girls and not stuck in school until six o’clock.

Also, I got to do a Seder for my two honors classes. We sent home permission slips and only the students who got it signed and signed it themselves got to come. Mrs. Rudd made the choroset and boiled eggs. Mrs. Kretz brought in candlesticks and holders. I bought parsley, root, horseradish, and matzah! We had a blast. We all sang Dayeinu and I sang the Four Questions. I was nervous about the Hebrew, since I had never led a Seder before, but I did great. Haha. Not that they would have known when I missed up though. They learned so much about Jewish tradition and I felt proud of my heritage. A girl let the holiday candles and I said the prayer. They loved searching for the afikoman. They were going everywhere to look for it and of course I pulled our old family trick of hiding it under the tablecloth. It was nice to be able to share something about my family with all the students, especially since I couldn’t be with my family.

The students filled out mini evaluations for me. If there were “bad” things, they were mostly things about not liking quizzes because they had to read or that I wasn’t mean enough. A couple people wrote that I have to outline my notes/lecture better, which is great feedback from students. Also, that I didn’t go in depth enough. I think this is interesting because there is so much to cover in such little time. A lot of the students have trouble with the little amount of material we do study. Some were very sad. I’ve helped a lot of kids and believed in a lot of kids who have never had someone in their corner. Those few students really poured their hearts out on that half sheet of paper. There were thanks for patience, blessings, and poems. It was very touching and I will sincerely miss those students. I will miss them all, but I will especially miss them. I have a special place in my heart for the kids who everyone else sees as “bad.” In my class, they always prove everyone else wrong. They are respectful, sincere, honest, helpful, and outgoing. I think the “trouble makers” just need a little extra love and support.

I was AMAZED and very proud of myself because every student turned in their poster for this unit and took the test. It was unbelievable. I did not have any Fs and only a few Ds. The students were really working hard. The students that I was worried about really came through strong and took care of things. I believe that when the teacher cares, the students care. I reminded them and helped, I went to tutoring to make sure those kids really knew what was expected.

My teacher gave me a great compliment today and asked me for the email list to the parents. He said, “Hey, that’s really working,” about the hundreds of emails I send to the parents about their projects and test dates. It felt good to have a teacher want to do what I had been doing. It was a great way to phase out of my teaching.

MONET weekend pictures!

THE BRIDGE!!

Liz and I giving Monet kisses!! We love him!!

French crepes!! This was good, but Nelly's are better!! I REALLY miss her!

The sign for our chateau!!

For Katie =)

We're adorable. (Notice the long hair, Katie??)

Versailles' gardens!

In the gardens.

Monet's home!

Pictures from Poland!

Birkenau

Isn't this little guy cute?

Auschwitz 1.

The square at night.

Dwarfs carved in the salt mine!

In the river!!!!!!!!!