American BBQ
As the foreign language assistants from France, Spain, and England started to reach the end of their assignments, us 5 Americans in my region of Germany decided that we had to have a blow-out American BBQ to show all our friends what a "Grillfest" in USA is like (corn on the cob, watermelon, hamburgers, cornbread, pasta salad, brownies, s'mores, etc.)
At our international party, almost everyone was a s'mores virgin; and all were impressed by this American dessert.
Me and my German friends: Carina, Sabine, Julia, and Anna.Just a week after Moscow I headed out to Athens and Rhodes Island in Greece. I spent the weekend couchsurfing in Athens with a really lovely host who was totally linked into the Athens CS-social circle, so I had a lot of opportunities to meet other Greek hosts and party all night while also getting to see all the sites. I spent most of my time just enjoying the sun while walking around town, marveling at the astonishing ruins at the Acropolis, sipping Greek Frappes and munching on fresh Greek salads. I’ll certainly have to take another trip to Greek to visit my CS host, Elena, sometime when she is at home on the small island where she grew. While visiting her I got to enjoy homegrown & jarred pickles, home brewed apricot wine from their own apricot trees, fresh feta cheese, fresh honey, homemade barley bread…just to mention a few of the tasty, healthy things she shared with me.
Flying just a few hours south from Germany brings a wonderful range of fresh, ripe summer vegetables that aren't readily available here.
The olive man. Greece wouldn't be Greece without kalmata olives.
Ancient Grecian frying pans.
View of Athens from the Acropolis.
The Parthenon!
Ruins above Athens.
My couchsurfing host, Elena, and me.
Tried to get a good pic of me with the Acropolis in the background for about 10 min. This is just one of the great pics from the series.
Finally someone else decided to take the hike with the best view that Athens has to offer and took a pic for me.
Wouldn't be Athens without an Olympic stadium.Athens used to have a really bad reputation apparently, but I had a wonderful time there and can only say good things about the city—easy to get around, great subway, nice people, and to-die-for weather.
After a wonderful weekend, which convinced me to continue traveling with couchsurfing and to try and hook up with a local CS community in the US wherever I finally settle next year, I met my aunt Lenor at the Athens airport and we flew to Rhodes island together to enjoy a few days of utter relaxation. It was a great chance to spend some quality time with my aunt, to take many photos of idyllic Greek island settings, appreciate all the Greek cats wandering around, eat wonderfully, and get some color on my skin.
Relaxation resort.
Lindos...idyllic Greek town on Rhodes Island now overrun by tourists but still picture perfect.
Overall, Greece was wonderful and I was very sorry to leave just as my aunt was starting her Athenian part of the trip. Definitely worth another visit! Oh, and I got along much better with the language than I did in Moscow (partially because I looked at the alphabet before my arrival, partially because I had just been in Moscow and dealt with some of the same letters, partially because Elena and I worked endlessly on my pronunciation, and mostly because things were often written in the Roman alphabet as well so I could check myself.)England
I came back to Bielefeld for one day of work before repacking my bags to head off as a chaperone on a class trip to Southern England. 42 students from Ratsgymnasium, 2 English teachers, and myself climbed onto a bus for the long journey over Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and France to the Eurotunnel, which took us right under the English Channel into England.
On the Eurotunnel you drive into this freight-car-like tram and then put the car in park and the train transports you across to England. (My mom was really stoked that I was taking the tunnel and so I took pics for her).
Our bus in EurotunnelWe stayed in a small town called Andover, where each of us (including teachers) stayed in a homestay family. My hosts, Mary and Rob Taylor, were a very kind retired couple. I learned a lot about English culture by chattering endlessly with them and just observing their and their neighbors lifestyles. The Andover program was really great—I learned a lot and I’m sure our students did too! We heard from a prison security guard about the British prison system, which was interesting. We spent a day in Oxford (where I got to see Avi again as well as Christchurch College and the dining hall Hogwarts’s was based on), visited Stonehenge, saw the towns of Winchester and Salisbury (including King Arthur’s Round Table), and toured the H.M.S. Victory Ship at Portsmouth.
Me at Stonehenge
King Arthur's Round Table of legend.
Do you feel like a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin?
H.M.S. Victory
I gained a new respect for the English gardens by visiting in early June when all roses and other flowers were in bloom.Us teachers basically had a culinary tour—as soon as the students departed at each place for their afternoon of free time, we headed straight to a pub for a beer and included in the week strawberry cream tea, fish n’ chips, curry, and a traditional English breakfast.
The definite highlights of the trip were the two days that we spent in London. I got to see both Jake and Maria!! What a treat! Jake took me out to Hampstead Heath, where we strolled the park and caught up on life—we both have ambiguous goals for the future but are certain we’ll meet up again with a SIT or Pomona crew somewhere Stateside. Maria and I also spent our time strolling, talking, and catching up. Getting to see all these friends was the best part of the trip for me. The ten days flew by, and by the time we returned to Germany almost half of June was already gone!
Outside Buckingham Palace rehearsing the Queen's birthday celebration for the following weekend.
From California to Kenya to England...Alex and Mr. Bell reunite at Hampstead Heath.
Look Ma, I'm in London.
In order to make sure that all the students didn't get lost in London, I was walking at the end of the stragglers who were a good ten minutes behind the rest of the group strolling along, chatting, and stopping to take pictures now and then. I almost died laughing when a group of about 12 of them stopped all together to take a picture of.......a squirrel.
Maria & Alex: Known each other since 2nd grade. All grown up and living in Europe now.Föhr Island in the North Sea
Again, I returned for only one day of work at school before heading off on another trip. I went on a girls’ weekend to an island off of the northern coast of Germany in the North Sea, called Föhr. Julia, Carina, and I drove out of Rheda-Wiedenbrueck at the crack of dawn (well, at 6 am, but this far North the crack of dawn is actually closer to 4:50 am) and onto Hamburg, where we picked up Anna Jansing. After a 2-hour delay on the Autobahn because of a 4-car pile up that happened just a 100-200 meters in front of us, we finally arrived on Föhr and dug into our first Fischbrötchen of the weekend, which became a daily routine. It was a fantastic weekend filled with the pleasures of having a trans-Atlantic friendship. We took a ton of photos, played on the beach despite the fact that we needed to wear jackets all weekend long, drank champagne in the shower, had Danish ice cream, fought off hungry seagulls, played Set & Phase 10 (card games), saw Sex & the City, watched Europameisterschaft soccer matches, and chatted non-stop (in German nonetheless).
On the ferry: Carina, Julia, Anna, and me.
Strandkörbe (beach baskets) are typical Northern German beach ornaments where you cuddle up with a book and avoid the chilly wind while still enjoying being on the beach.
Wir machen uns fertig. A sample from our mirror photos series.
Champagne in shower while washing sand off our feet and warming up.
The weekend made me really appreciate the friendships that I have made during my year here. It also helped me realize that my time was coming to a close and that I would have to say goodbye to all these lovely people I've come to know :( I'm looking forward to hopefully having Carina in the US next semester when she studies in San Diego.
Wrapping up
And now it is really over. The past week has been filled with goodbye celebrations: disko with all the Amis, last trip to Ikea for some swedish meatballs, coffee at Frau Jansing's with all my English department colleagues, schnitzel with Shawn, nice dinner & movie night with the roomies, and a formal ceremony at school. Amidst it all I remained an avid fan of the EM 2008 (Europameisterschaft--European wide soccer tournament) and watched many of the games. Roomies and I rooted Germany on as they beat Turkey and progressed to the Finale, which I'll have to watch from Morocco.
Americans do breakfast by Bernsteins (me, Dan, Shawn, Robert and Lauren). Next time we do this it'll be a reunion in the States. I'll still count on Dan getting a beer with breakfast and Lauren to find a Milchkaffee served to her in a bowl.
see-saw bei Ikea
Watching Fussball at Sausalitos with roomies (Anna and Sabine)
Finale...woo hoo...celebration on Jahnplatz in the center of Bielefeld.I'm all packed and will be leaving in the morning for a July filled with travel. I'm meeting my family in Morocco for 2 weeks, then Max and I will continue on to Southern Spain for 10 days together, then I'm off to Paris on my own for a while and I'll probably head back to Germany to see either the Black Forest or Lake Constanze before coming back to Ostwestfalen and flying back to the USA on Aug. 4th. The last couple of months really flew by. I still haven't quite dealt with the reality that I'm leaving. Sitting here with my roommates watching a movie, sharing pics, and eating a late night snack, I feel like this could be any other night during my time here...not my last. The future (post-Aug. 4th) is still to be determined. So, stay tuned for that I guess.
Can't wait to hear from friends living in the US once I'm back in August. miss all of ya tons! Wishing you a wonderful summer :)
