Monday, April 22, 2013

The home of the Ampelmann - "The Traffic Light Man"


Hallo from Werne!!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic monday! Im still trying to recover from Berlin haha. 

On Thursday, I only had one class for first and second period. That meant I could leave school at 9:50 :) Mary only had one class as well and then she was going to go to an elementary school in Lünen around 10:30. So I joined her when she went.  We both observe an English teacher, who taught 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. She use many strategies and methods Mary and I are used too. We felt at home. We then went back to her house and her mom cooked us a delicious  lunch! We then decided since it was so nice, to  lay out in their hammock. Once we got it hooked up, we coulnt get on it. It was way too high. We just slid right off..... Well I just slid off because I was getting on first. Then we moved it down and we both got on. Mary noticed that the rope was a little thin. I reassured her it wasn't going to break but if it did we were only 3 inches from the ground. We had  pillow under our head and it wouldn't hurt too bad. Since it was so nice, we were going to take a nap. We were both almost asleep and about ten minutes later there was this loud noise and we grabbed each other.... The hammock had fallen and the rope broke. We were on the ground and we were laughing so hard we were crying. Her two sisters and her mom came running outside but we couldn't talk because we were laughing so hard. Her sister brought us new rope and we fixed it. I
told Mary they were probably waiting for it to break because they already had new rope cut. 

We went to our morning classes on Friday and then we met with the press around noon. He interviewed us and we took more pictures; I guess we're still famous haha. Then straight from school, all seven of us, Heike and another teacher walked to the train station. Our train left at 2:05 for Munster. Then from there we took about a four hour train ride to Berlin. This was my first time being on a train, and i wasn't impressed haha. I pulled a Rusty and Christine, I wiped down everything near me. The train station in Berlin is bigger than the Nashville Airport. It had four levels, shops everywhere and so many people. Then we got on a bus that took us to our hostel. We dropped our stuff off and got on the subway nearby. We rode two different subway lines to dinner. After dinner we walked around Berlin some. It was very beautiful at night. 

The real journey began on Saturday.... We met our tour guide around 10am at Fernsehturm,  a TV tower that was constructed between 1965-1969 by the German Democratic Republic. We then got on a bus which took us to our first stop, a Jewish market square. We saw what the streets looked like during the war and how they developed after the war. It was very interesting. From there, the rest of the tour was mostly by foot. I think we walked over 7 miles.... We went to the memorial museum for the Berlin Wall. Here we saw many copper poles showing where the wall used to be, parts of the actual wall, a guard tower, a cemetery, and a death camp. After that, we saw the United States Embassy, the Brandenburger Tor, the  Holocaust Memorial, the World Clock, Check Point Charlie and much more! That night we were all exhausted and we went to a restaurant that was close. It was just the seven of us and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. We had a blast. Something else about Berlin that I found neat were the traffic lights. There were red and green men with top-hats. We left Berlin Sunday morning.  This train was called an ICE train. It was so nice!! I take back everything I said about trains haha. It was like an airplane but bigger, more space and nicer. You didn't even know you were moving. Once home, I took a shower, ate with my family and skyped my mom and bruce. It was nice to talk to them. 

Monday was my last official day at Anne-Frank and being with my 5th graders. I played a vocabulary game with them and then gave them each a penny. I drew the penny on the board and talked about the different parts. On Tuesday, May  7th, I will go back to Anne-Frank to say an official goodbye and I will get to see my 6th and 7th graders one more time. I will also give them pennies. 

Tomorrow is my first day at the elementary school in Stockum. I am very excited but nervous at the same time. Wish me luck!! 

Talk to you soon! 

P.S. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of Berlin! :)

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