upDATE! (read it like humpDAY!)

Hey what's up!

It's not snowing here!

Suck it Indiana!

But seriously, I'm like worried about all of you guys back home :/ Friends haven't had school, my brother hasn't been able to go to work, but my dad's company still needed him to go into work. It's just a mess over there right now and I just hope that everyone is doing well, staying warm, and keeping safe.

School:

It's been going well here at Ramstein High School. I've been gathering, planning, and creating ideas to teach in my upcoming Romeo and Juliet unit. Actually, there were 2 students today that were excited because they thought that I was going to start teaching today :) Sorry kids, that's next week. I'll start up on Thursday I believe with my unit. I'll start in with sonnets, only cover that for a little bit, and then move right into the meat of the play.

I've got ideas of activities that the students can do to break up the play into Acts. This way it'll be more manageable and hopefully they won't lose interest too quickly.

Oh! Ms. Marks did just mention to me that the 3rd quarter will end before spring break, but then we'll have another 2 weeks of me being here. So she brought up the idea of me doing a shortish poetry unit :D Apparently, her freshman have conveyed to her that they have an interest in poetry. I'm already thinking of things that I can do with them! Trick is, I'll really only have 4 class periods with them to work on this because they've got this alternating Blue/Red day thing. But still 4 days of 90 minute class periods. I think I can make some headway. Then Ms. Marks is gonna go right into The Odyssey, which is one long poem.

Travels:

Alright so, my latest travels. So this past weekend was gonna be Holly coming over and hanging out. Then we might go over to K-town and do some shopping at Globus. Then it turned into us going to Saarbrucken and hitting up the Gallerie. Then it turned into Andy coming along with :P Then! it turned into us going to Primark and my life was completely changed!

This was my actual first purchase of the day :) The Book Thief! While I was waiting for Holly and Andy to get to the train station in Landstuhl and I decided to pop into the book store. I've been looking around for a book that I've read before so that I can practice my German. The plan is to have a German dictionary, my book in English, and then my book in German and drag myself through it :) I'm so excited!

©Holly Brown

This is Holly and I on the train to Saarbrucken. She tried on my glasses and poor girl just went cross-eyed! But she liked Andy's glasses :)

I got so much stuff! I bought:

• A jacket for 9 €
• A pair of jeans for 12 €
• a purse for 12 €
• a pair of shoes for 5 €
• 2 shirts for 5 € each
• a pair of gloves for .50 €
• and I bought 4 scarves for 2€ each, these may or may not be presents for friends ;) 

All in all I spent 48.90 €, which equates out to $66.79 

The conversion rate is ridiculous, but that's still not bad!

It was awesome though when we walked in. They had so many great things! There were 3 floors of shopping! It was beautiful and glorious and so much fun :) I now know why Andy is such a religious follower of Primark.

Other Superfluous Information:

I've been trying to get a workout regime going on over here. We're working out Monday and Thursday over at the gym. But we're really only going over there for an hour. I'm used to the more hour anda half workouts where I can build up momentum and just charge right through. There are so many different work out machines over at the gym. But like yesterday, there were a ton of people working out and I just didn't know what to do with myself. 

I was browsing Imgur last night, per usual, and came across a post that could be quite helpful.

100 no-equipment workouts

So I'm gonna check these out and maybe do my own thing the days that I don't go to the gym. Maybe use those days for a quick run and then some time with the weights. 

I miss you all! Hope you're doing well!

Trip to Trier (the lazy version)

We went to Trier, Germany last Saturday. Our group consisted of Andy, Justin, Taylor, Emily, Holly, and myself.

.....but I'm feeling real blogged out at the moment so I'm gonna use a supplement and just share Holly's blog with you, which is basically the same thing that I would say, because we were with each other all day lol

Holly's Blog about Trier, Germany

Although there is one thing that I would like to share with you guys that definitely holds a level of hilarity. A couple of us were running late to the train the morning we were going to Trier. They pointed out a shortcut to get to the train station. Ok cool.

Now we ran up one side but then we had to run back down the other side. Imagine you're at the top of this image and you're having to run down it.

{Photo courtesy of Emily Bauer}

Not safe......

Well we're hurrying, we're hurrying, and I think to myself how funny it would be if I fell since we're in such a rush. HAH! No sooner had I finished my thought than the tip of my shoe caught the upturned edge of a loose cobblestone and with my full moving momentum I fell hard on my left shine. I assume this must have looked quite comical from some other perspective, but from mine all I knew was that I was suddenly in exquisite pain all along my leg. But there was no rest for the weary! We made it to the station and on the train I checked out my leg already incredibly swollen from the fall. It was a nice hard lump on the top of my shine. 

We walked around Trier all day and I put up with it to the best of my abilities. To my siblings if they're reading this, I would say that I had a bit of metalcrafting. Soon though I felt myself getting irritated. When we stopped at Karl Marx's house I was quite tired and just ready to get off my leg.

As soon as we got home I checked what the damage was.....

**IF YOU GET QUEASY DON'T SCROLL DOWN**

It's gonna be quite a beauty by the time it goes green I'm sure. I was and wasn't surprised by the sheer size of this. I knew that it was going to a gorgeous display of purples just because of what I was feeling earlier that day. 

Other than that lil fall it was a good day :) Trier was beautiful and we got to see a lot of beautiful things. 

Work dat body

After school today Seth, Taylor, and I went to the gym on base. It had a lot of the same equipment that was have on campus back at Ball State. At first I was like, ughhhhh, but then when I got out there it was actually great. Hopped on a treadmill for a good 30 run. Not the fastest runner. Not gonna lie. But I'm trying to get good technique and also push myself. I'm trying to strike my feet so I don't hit the ground so hard. I did really great today. I wasn't as fast as Taylor or Seth, if you guys are reading this ;) But I had fun.

Pretty much the whole time I was thinking about 3 things:

1. This creepy-ass man beside me who was seriously just looking at me as I ran while he "stretched". Bleh!
2. What great technique this girl had with her squats on Fit For Duty, the show that was on the tvs.
3. And I was checking out what sort of weights they had over there.

They didn't have all the fancy weight stuff that Ball State has down in it's basement, but they had a lot. While I was running I had this sudden urge to hit something, to exert strength in some manner. This feeling goes all the way back to when my siblings and I were growing up, and still goes on to this day really. My dad has always been strong. The man is built like a solid wall. And growing up we did a lot of projects all the time and they demanded that you have the strength to cope with it. So my siblings and I have always known strength. 

Well when I started doing my workout this summer I was doing a ton of cardio, which isn't bad, but it wasn't fulfilling for me. I finally figured out what it was: I needed to feel strong again. So this was actually really good for me today going into the gym. Got my warm-up on the treadmill for half an hour then worked out with the weights for 20 min. 

We're thinking of doing this every Tues/Thurs. We'll see how long we stay with it, but I really enjoyed myself. And actually I liked it a bit more than just running outside. On the treadmill I can see how far I've gone, how fast I'm going, and really no one cares about what you look like running. Everyone has their headphones in and is just doing their own thing. 

Good finish to a Tuesday :)

First couple days in the classroom

I'll come back and write about my trip to Trier, but I wanted to jot down some of my experiences here in the classroom. We're supposed to be writing reflections of our times in the classroom, what we see, what we like, what we don't like, and important ideas we can use later on. This is Day 5 of Student Teaching. I was taking notes in my green composition notebook but then it just turned to poetry and doodling....so I'm also transposing my reflections via word document.

Current Student Teaching Self Reflections

Interestingly enough, its already like 3 pages. Granted when I am doing more teaching I may/may not jot down as much. It's a very interesting....experience so far. We travel through security to get onto the air force base every day. The school is this odd shape.

It's really hard to get use to, but the way the teacher's described it its just all flows out in a circle. Still. When you're in the building walking around the hallways, it's easy to get lost. And there's this pod area for the teachers between 4 classrooms for lunch. We all looked like fools the first couple days because we didn't know where the heck we were walking to when we went on explorations. And we were tripping all over the students because their cafeteria is so small! All the kids are strewn about the hallways leaning on windowsills, sitting by their lockers, or walking around outside.

I now know at least where the front office is, where the cafeteria is, how to get outside, and roughly where my other cohorts are placed throughout the school. And right now that is all that really matters :P

I now have my own desk! Technically, it's not really a desk it's just a very large table. BUT! This is a whole lot better than the lil "ghetto" desk that I had before. That's what my cooperating teacher called it when they I saw it for the first time lol But let's see....Friday I got my desk and then later during our planning period we got me all decked out. I now have trays, folders, hi-liters, paperclips, and binder clips. I already had all my post it notes that I brought from home. And thank goodness! Cuz they don't have any fun colors :/ But I've already gotten fairly creative with my lil corner over here. I used some of the post it letters that she had up on her door and put them on the front of my desk :)

I got real thrifty with my pens too. I wanted to have a cup or something for them so I can have them on my desk, but Ms. Marks didn't have anything. So I cut up some of these huge water bottles that were going to be recycled and I'm using the bottoms to hold my pens, hi-liters, paper clips, and binder clips :)

There's just south of 30 desks grouped together. She's got them in pairs somewhat facing the front of the classroom. It's a bit pinched, but overall it works for us. It's fairly nice when we have them do group work because they're already set up for that.

Sneaking up on Ms. Marks :P She's got an actual desk with full on drawers and such. Not gonna lie I'm a lil jealous.....but not that much. At least I have something bigger than the students' desks. And before I got my desk I still had this anxiety. I felt like I was just a participant. I thought of when I visited a friend last semester when she was student teaching. She had this control, this rapport with her students. And she had her own desk. It's just a little thing, but it's a big thing. It sets you apart from the students. It makes you more noticeable. It shows that you're one in charge. I know this is a lot to read into just a desk, but to me I needed something more.

My lil rinky dink desk that was pulled out of the basement wasn't going to cut it. I couldn't do my work on it. How could I expect students to turn papers into me in the future if I didn't have a place for a tray or something? And now that I have my desk, I have some things settled in, I feel more like I'm really invested in this program.

Oh! And I finally got my own key to my classroom today! Now I can let myself in when I get there before my teacher :P The German guy was coming around to all of us student teachers and giving us our keys. And btw the "key" is that thing that looks like a dog tag. The actual key over there on the left is the key to my apartment. 

Tattoo Idea!

I mentioned this to a couple people on facebook the other day, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it here too. Alright so I've got my first tattoo on my back of my beautiful oak tree. Love it! And I've really thought about wanting to get another one. Seriously, as soon as you get one it's addicting :P And I'm the type of person that I don't want to just walk into the shop and get a flash piece that's in their portfolio. I want to have something that means a lot to me.

Little bit of context:

For the past couple years I've been sketching, using watercolor, and sculpting pears. There's just something about the full shape, the highlights and the shadows that it casts, and just the pure beauty of it that just speaks to me. Yes, going full artist on ya here. Then there's also the fact that my friends tease me because I also have a pear-shaped body ;) So of course that must be why I'm so attracted to pears lol

Well anyway, I'm walking around my new apartment, checking the place out, and I go into our lil semi-room that includes a foosball table and I see this tile on a shelf.....

And low and behold it's of a pear! :D I knew the second I looked at it that this was what I wanted for my tattoo. It's gorgeous, it's simple, I'll see it and think of my cute lil apartment, and it'll be something to commemorate my trip here. 

Winner winner chicken dinner!

There are a couple tattoo places that I've been looking into. Apparently, there was a really good one here in Rammstein-Meisenbach but he's booked up until April. Right when we're gonna leave. So that one's a current no. I may just walk in though with the picture and ask him if he has anyone who cancels and if he could do mine real quick. 

But yea :) Found what I'm gonna get. Now I just need to find the artist :)

Finally stepping into the school

Been here for about a week or so now and we are finally able to get into the schools. It was freaking ridiculous trying to figure it all out today though. We thought we were going to have a meeting with our principals and then we thought we weren't. I woke up this morning to my roommate knocking on my door saying that we were indeed having a meeting with our principals at 1 and we had to find our own way there. So....shit! We're out there. Like...it's no easy task to get onto base plus find the schools. Taylor and I were blessed that Ashley, Seth's wife who lives above us, was home today and so she drove us onto base and to our school. Everyone else in the house of 9 had to walk :/ So they walked from their house over in Rammstein-Meisenbach onto base and then had to find their way to the school. I felt really bad for them and I definitely felt lucky that Taylor and I had Ashley with us. Cuz we were thinking about trying to figure out the train system to get to the house of 9, which we don't know well enough, and then try to find the base from there, which we didn't know the way to, plus then find the high school, which we didn't know directions to either. Please excuse the run-on sentence above. It was for emphasis :P

But yea! I'm sorry you guys if you're reading this!

Anywho, met with the principal. He seems super chill :) We were asking all sorts of questions and getting our feet wet. We were asking around about the extracurricular activities that are going on in the schools. I was interested in the Reading club, the Lit Lovers as they're called, but apparently they're going through withdrawals. It looks like they're having a rough time because they can't quite procure enough books to have everyone read the same books :/ Bummer. The other club I was interested in doing was the German club. It wouldn't hurt to continue brushing up on my German in more ways than 1. I've got this app on my phone called DuoLingo that is a lot like Rosetta stone with showing pictures, having you practice speaking, and writing it out. It's really neat. I just haven't had the time to look at it more. Actually, scratch that. I have had the chance I just didn't want to :P I've been engrossed in this book series called Codex Alera. My siblings know what I'm talking about ;)

Hail, Gaius Octavian, Princeps of Alera!

But yea, so we got shown around the school a bit. Weird layout....that's gonna take some getting use to. Took a picture with this neat looking whale that was painted on the side of a wall for I-have-no-reason-why but it looked awesome!

That's Isaac Fields over there on the left :P and dats me posing with the whale cuz it's that awesome! And we got to meet our cooperating teachers :) It was kinda funny because I was talking to someone else in our group, probably Isaac, and then someone said that we were at Mrs. Marks class and I was like, "OH! That's mine!" And so I literally skipped over to the door quickly and very enthusiastically shook her hand :) It was fun. I think I made a good impression. I was there during her seminar class, which works a lot like a study hall, except that it's 90 minutes long. Yikes!

They have a set up similar to a block scheduling over at the high school. They have Blue days and they have Red days. It's not like college where you have classes Mon/Wed/Fri and Tue/Thurs. It's literally every other day. So it's just back and forth. I'll get use to it. But she's got 9th graders for 3 periods, a planning/reading lab, and 10th graders for a period. I told her what is expected out of me for my student teaching. Observing and participating for the first couple weeks. co-teaching for a couple weeks. Then doing my own teaching, with basically my LAMP unit, which is what a bulk of my ST is graded on I've been told. And then yea petering off at the end and giving her back her classroom towards the end in April.

What we discussed is me co-teaching with her in all of her classes. We'll work all that out as we go. And my actually LAMP unit that I have to do is going to be done in her Freshman classes. And it's going to be over Shakespeare. Of course :P But I haven't had the chance to teach Shakespeare yet so it should be interesting. It's so weird to think about though because I've read Shakespeare's work soooo many times and it just feels weird when I think about the fact that for these kids it'll probably be the first time that they've read his work. We're going to read Romeo and Juliet, of course, dabble with Julias Caesar, and then read Othello. I'd love it if we could read a comedy like Much Ado About Nothing rather than a history but whatever.

I don't have a desk yet......hopefully gonna get that tomorrow.....
But things are looking good :) It was super stressful getting processed and getting into the school, but it looks like it's definitely going to be worth it.

My co-teacher is young, funny, chill, and flexible. I think we're gonna hit it off great :)

P.S. Isaac introduced me to the art teacher, who focuses on ceramics! and that was a funny introduction. He was telling me that she was the art teacher when I was shaking her hand and then he went on to say that she taught ceramics. So my one-hand-affirmative-grasp turned into a two-handed-eyes-locking-enthusiastic handshake :P I think I spooked her a bit with my sudden excitement, but at least she knows where my interests lie :) And she said that I could come down to her classroom anytime and hang out with her and her kids. I could teach her a few things, she could teach me a few things. It'll be great! I'm gonna broach that with my co-teacher tomorrow during our planning period so she's on the up-and-up. I'm like incredibly certain that she'll be fine with it :)

Yay! :)

Trip to Karlsruhe

Look at me having all these adventures!

Seth had this great idea to take Andy, Taylor, and I all out on this trip to Karlsruhe the other day. I don't remember the specific day and no it's not because I drank too much ;) We walked around to 4 different Brauhouses and when I say walked I mean walked. We seriously were hoofin' it all over the place. It was kinda fun though because I'd sober up a bit and then have another drink!

Pic at da Wolf :P

But yea it was a great trip. Got fairly drunk and got to walk allllll over the place :) Not gonna lie I got some serious blisters from the trek everywhere. Good times :)

Looking around Heutschenhausen

These were just a few of my favorite pics from walking around Heutschenhausen :) This person literally had SO many things out on their yard and decorating their house.
I fell in love with all the little decorations they had around their place :) I hope they don't mind me going public with this...but then again they have them all on display for everyone to see anyway :P

But yea it was a good time walking around with Andy, Taylor, and Chris. It was a gorgeous day out. No snow ;) 45 degree weather. Lovvvvvely.

Getting processed

So here's my smiling face from this morning. Ready to take on the world! Bah. At least I was out of bed lol

Right! So here we go.

Yesterday:
What a day! We all had to get processed so that we could all get onto base, get privledges (aka buy groceries at American prices), and validate our being here.

Taylor and I both woke up at 6 or so to get onto base and meet with an official to start the processing. We waited there like an hour anda half because we weren't supposed to meet until 9. Then once everyone else was there we still had to wait 45 min for our representative to bring us the necessary paperwork. There was a lot of tedious back and forth going on from getting our pictures taken at the mall, to getting our numbers in line to get our cards, and then waiting and waiting to get our official cards. But hey....

I'm official now!

So now I'm able to get on base with my military card. I can buy my own groceries now. And.....yea those are the important things :)