In brighter news, the parental units came over this week and we had a FABULOUS time!
Bruges - They drove from Paris to pick me up at SHAPE, ate a delicious little lunch at my favorite French bistro in town, and we drove onto Bruges. I love this city. It’s big enough to feel like a city, but still quaint and cute. There’s canals everywhere. Literally, everywhere. Thus giving it the nickname of “The Venice of the North”. The Hotel we stayed at was absolutely fabulous. Hotel Patritus - if you’re ever in Bruges you must stay here. It’s a 19th century mansion that’s located right in the middle of downtown. The rooms themselves are stunning as well. Anyway, we wandered around the city for a couple of days, and gave mom and dad adequate time to recoup from their jet lag. They were troopers.
Valkenburg - We changed the itinerary and headed here on Sunday, rather than Amsterdam. None of us were feeling the whole “big cities trip” this time around, so we decided to explore the smaller villages. Valkenburg is beautiful! Lots of rolling hills and trees that were changing colors while we were there. The people were all so pleasant and easy to communicate with. I almost felt like I was back in the states. Well, a particularly beautiful portion of the states.
Wurzburg - Monday morning we headed out for Wurzburg. This was probably my favorite stop of the trip (and I know it was Dad’s). Wurzburg is called the “City of Cathedrals”, and rightfully so. There’s at least 20 of them there. Also, fun fact that I picked up a few months ago: If a cathedral has a cross on the top, it’s Catholic. If it has a rooster on top (Peter), it’s Protestant. Anyway, on Tuesday Dad and I went and walked around the city. With it being a holiday over here, there was literally nobody on the streets! It made it nice, until I realized I left my coat back in Belgium and I was freezing my toes off. Luckily the flea market was open, so I purchased a way too expensive, very “European-ish” coat. I’ll definitely look out of place if I wear it back in the states, but that’s ok. :) Pops and I found Residence Palace…also known as the palace where they had the parade for Dirk this past June. It was fun to be there. Dad wore his Mavericks sweatshirt that day and we had several people (including our waiter) stop and yell “Go Mavericks!!”. Hahaha.
Mainz - We left Wurzburg on Wednesday and headed to the Mainz/Wiesbaden area. I had been here before, so I basically just took them to the same places that I had already been, haha. We went to Rudesheim and looked around the cutest little German village ever. They were starting to set up for their Christmas market already. YAY. I’ve got my schedule booked to go to one this weekend, one next weekend, and the girls and I are going to one when they’re over here in December. I’m such a sucker when it comes to the holidays.
Paris - Eh, our last and least favorite stop. :) Our family just doesn’t have any luck with Paris. I’m hoping that will change when I go on the AP Hemingway trip in a few weeks for Thanksgiving. When I explored it by myself, I had a fabulous time, so maybe my parents are the curse. :) We stayed out close to CDG, and the next morning Dad had the wise idea of saying “Hey, let’s go drive into the city.” This was probably the dumbest thing he said on the trip. Love you Pops. :) Of course, we got stuck in horrible traffic, a beggar came and washed our windshield and then started kissing the car and rubbing her belly until we threw euros at her….so we just turned around and explored out by our hotel instead. We’ve all already seen the major stuff in Paris, so that was a little comforting.
Saturday - My parents flew out of CDG on Saturday morning. The train station that I take from Paris to Mons is located within the airport, so on Friday, Pops and I went to the airport and found where the train station was, bought my ticket, etc. After my last missed train, I did not want to screw this up. Famous last words. We get to the airport in PLENTY of time, I say my goodbyes to the parents, and head towards the train station. Then, I notice there are police everywhere. Dad couldn’t return the rental car to the particular spot because it was also blocked off by police, but I didn’t think anything of it. I get within sight of the train station, and the police make everyone stop. It was that particular part of the airport where there was a “suspicious package”, so they completely shut it down. And, just to show how humorous my life is, the police let us go at 8:45. My train left at 8:47. I could see it leaving. ARGH. I literally started laughing out loud when I saw it was 8:45. It’s ok, they see plenty of crazy people at CDG.
Now, the parents are gone, and I’m a wee bit homesick. Hopefully it will pass. :) 5 more weeks until I’m back in Texas. I’ve got to soak up all of Europe that I can in those 5 weeks! It’s been such a great experience working on the NATO base here. Instead of just learning a ton about the Belgian culture, I’m learning bits and pieces about the French, Germans, Canadians, English, Spanish, Italians, Dutch, etc. etc. I have a lot of languages to learn when I get home. :)
My memoir is going to titled A Series of Unfortunate Events. I’ll deal with the copyright issues later.
I love these kiddos! Sure am going to miss them when I go back across the pond. :(
(This was at Lakenheath’s Model UN competition. We ROCKED IT. Not that I’m biased.)
They’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover. There’ll be love and laughter and peace ever after. Tomorrow, when the world is free.
Just you wait and see.
Even the buses in England are polite!
I want to live here.
(A house in Canterbury. It’s seen better days.)
People in England are by far the most polite and friendly people I’ve ever met. I want to hug them all.
I only have 13.5 days of teaching left! (Because of Fall Break & various other days off.) Ho-ly Mo-ley. Where has my time gone?!? More importantly, can I take all these kids back with me to the states? That’s legal, right?
Occupy Amsterdam
Oops. I kinda forgot about this thing. :) It’s kind of funny seeing that the last time I posted it was my first week teaching. Now I’m 6 weeks in and feeling SO much better! My life these past 5 weeks in bullet format:
- My classes are amazing. Teaching 2 Honors World History 10th grade classes, a 12th grade Government class, 9th grade World Civilizations class, and a Model UN class. Lesson planning is a tad crazy, but I love it!
- While I first thought I would want to teach the younger kiddos, the further into the semester I get, the more I am loving the older ones. There’s definitely less “life skills” training you have to do. :)
- 9th graders are so hilariously awkward. Watching their presentations this week has kind of been painful. Just a general fyi: standing in front of the classroom with your back turned to everyone and reading exactly what you have on your timeline is *not* a presentation.
- Going to Lakenheath next week with the Model UN kids! I’m thrilled. It will be such an interesting experience. It will also be my first overnight field trip with high school kids. It will be nice practice for….
- Going to Paris the week of Thanksgiving with the AP Lit students! The teacher asked me if I could help him chaperone the trip. It’s a “walk in Hemingway’s shoes” Paris tour that he takes his AP kids on every year. I could not be more excited.
Outside of school:
- Headed over to Brussels about a month ago. By myself. It was such an experience! Wandering around a city by yourself where you don’t speak the language is exhilarating. And a fast way to teach yourself French.
- Went to Wiesbaden a couple of weeks ago for the first time. It was BEAUTIFUL! We went on a riverboat tour down the Rhine on possibly the most beautiful day in history. The next day we went to Mainz and went to the Gutenberg Museum. I cannot put into words how much I love Germany. It’s so stinkin beautiful. Hard to imagine what was going on around here just a mere 70ish years ago.
- I spent last Saturday in Amsterdam. Totally different, but equally awesome experience. I was told that I have to put everything that I know as “normal” aside. And I did. And it was a good thing that I did. Walking along at a flea market at 10:00am I saw antiques, books, souvenirs…right next to all kinds of memorabilia that I do not care to mention on here.
- People watching is probably the best thing to do in Amsterdam. Don’t worry about seeing anything. Just the people. Also, the Occupy Amsterdam rally was going on. That was fun to watch.
- It is getting COLD here! So windy and dark and cold. I am in love. I was told that you fully cannot understand the concept of hibernation until you move to Belgium. I now understand.
- Going to Canterbury this weekend and driving into London on Saturday to see Billy Elliot! I’ve always wanted to go stay in a cute village in England. The fact that it’s going to be Canterbury? Even better.
- Absolutely loving everyone that I am meeting over here. They have all made the transition so easy. I’m already bummed about having to leave. Maybe I should just concentrate on enjoying the rest of my time here. :)
