Pictures and MY Schultüte!

I said that I would post pictures from the awesome fireworks festival last week Sunday. Well, here they are:


The balloons that were flying above our house earlier in the day.


The show with the dancers with fire


The tightrope walker






I also didn't remember to post about my own Shultüte! My friend Iris, who is German, gave me my own Schultüte to commemorate my first day of first grade. Even kinder, she got me a PINK one! I really love my first Schultüte ever! Thanks Iris!

My first week of first grade

Sadly, Joern is away, putting a new muffler on my car, and has the camera. This means that the card, with pictures from last Sunday are with him. But, I really want to post now for three reasons:
a) one week is ridiculously too long to post
b) now that I am back to work, I want to get back into a better posting rythm
c) I have time now while I finish watching last night's missed episode of my German soap opera, Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten (GZSZ.)
When Joern gets back, I will post the pictures. But for now, enjoy the stories.

On Sunday night, after checking the internet to find out why all the balloons were floating over our town, we discovered that it was for the Flammende Sterne (Flaming Stars) festival in Ostfildern. We had seen advertisements for the fest, but didn't really pay attention, until of course, the sky was filled with balloons. The fest was actually a fireworks festival. Germans absolutely adore fireworks, and most fireworks displays here make the one I've seen at home seem quite embarassing. This fest highlighted three international teams, Friday was a show from an Australian firework team, Saturday a team from the UK, and Sunday was the German team. We decided that even though it would mean a late night, going to see the German fireworks would definately be worth the draggy day on Monday.

Joern, Marcel, and I arrived at 9:30 pm, and found an amazing festival. It was HUGE! Definately not what we had expected. There were three music stages, tons of food tents, and people everywhere. The only drawback was that the tickets were quite expensive- 20 Euro per person, and there was no way to purchase a ticket only for the fireworks (the 20 Euro ticket was for the entire day.) Forutnately, Joern and Marcel were surprised to find the sister of their friend Fabio working at the ticket booth. She helped us out- even though we still couldn't get in for free. But, it was well worth it. The fireworks show began at 10:30, and there was a huge crowd. We stood by a beer tent, and I had to stand on a beer crate, otherwise the entire show would have been a bust for me. The first part of the show was actually a display with a tightrope walker and people dancing with fire sticks, drummers, and specially timed fireworks. Sadly, I still had trouble seeing, but it seemed like it was good.

The fireworks themselves began around 10:45. There are no words to describe the show. Definately Macy's quality, if not better. The show lasted about 40 minutes- HA! Fairfield's last about 15. Of course, it was all set to music. The fireworks were huge, and absolutely filled the sky. INCREDIBLE!

Of course, we got home at 1:00 am. I had to be up by 5:45 in order to get ready for my first day of work. I was quite tired, and knew Monday would be tough, but I am so glad that we saw those wonderful fireworks!

Work started on Monday morning. I skipped Kindergarten, and am now in first grade. It is all a big change for me. My new teacher, Andrea, seems really great. We get along quite well. On a sad note, I really miss last year's teacher, Stefanie who was so much fun to work with. But, I think that the year will work out pretty well.

Our week was filled with meetings. We got to know our new school director, a fellow New-Englander, much better. I had a little time to catch up with my friends and meet new colleagues. And, I got to work in a pair with my principal- lucky me! But, overall, the first few days of school worked out well. I guess it is kind of nice to be back.

The kids started on Thursday. It was a little hectic on the first day, things didn't go according to plan. But our class seems great. We have quite an international group which represents: the US, Germcay, Korea, Japan, Australia, England, Russia, the Philippines, and Mexico. Some of our kids speak fluent English and some don't speak a word. There are strong personalities as well as very quiet kids. Some are new to the school, and some, I have known for 2 school years now. I was so surprised to see which kids ignored me and which ones lit up when they found out I would be in their class this year. We had a few tears, but those dried up pretty quickly compared to the 4 year olds.

The highlight of Thursday of course was the German tradition of the Schultüte, or School Cone. In Germany, the first day of first grade is highly celebrated, as Kindergarten here is more of a pre-school, and kids do not formally enter primary school until first grade. As a means of celebration, and helping with homesickness, the Schultüte is filled with favorite candy and new small toys and school-related items. Normally, Schultütten come from home, and some of our kids did have theirs from home. But, since our school is an international community, the German department of our school sponsors the Schultütten. At the end of Senior Kindergarten, the students decorate their own Schultütten to prepare for first grade. They are then filled with sweets and school suppies. All first graders received them in the morning. You could tell the kids were excited and proud to receive theirs.

Friday went quite well, and we were provided with lots of opporunities to learn lots about the kids. I also visited one of the Senior Kindergarten classes, the kids I worked with last year. It was wonderful to see their faces when I came in, and I really enjoyed talking with them about their summers.

So, I am excited about this year. Hopefully, it will be full of changes. It seems to hold lots of surprises!

Outside my window

I spent the entire day thinking about how to fashion my "last post of Summer 2008" post. While scrubbing the corners of the rooms, mopping the floors, and schlepping the last loads of laundry up and down the stairs, I thought, "how can I best capture the spirit of my summer?"
As I finished the floors, I walked back to my bedroom, and this is what I saw outside the window:




Okay, it is not totally uncommon to see one or two hot-air balloons fly by our windows, although usually not so close. As we watched the Ritter Sport balloon lower periously close to our neighborhood, we ran to the front window to see where it would land. Here's what we saw outside our front skylight:




What a perfect way to sum up my wonderful, relaxing, travel-heavy summer break. I'd imagine that this summer was like flying in a balloon. It wasn't until the sun set that my feet, ready for new challenges, touched the ground.

Where on earth is Mulhouse anyway?

In one final hurrah, Joern and I spent Monday night in France. He has a lot of customers lying along the French border, so it made it simpler to stay overnight. Of course, it is much more enjoyable when you get to stay overnight somewhere together, otherwise, you tend to spend your evening getting a quick dinner and then alone in your room.
So, we spent most of Monday along the French border, a beautiful area, bordered by the Black Forest on one side and the Rhine River and Vosges Mountain range on the other side.

It is also beautiful wine country. Okay, I know I can't drink now, but it still makes for beautiful landscape.
We made it over the border, the Rhine River, by driving over a bridge with a simple sign that says France (but in German, so actually, the sign says "Frankreich.") That's all. The open borders in the EU is really a lovely concept.
The area of France which borders Germany is called Alsace, or Elsäß in German. The region was disputed between the French and Germans for hundreds of years, and the area finally came under French control in 1945 following World War II. Driving over the border to France is really interesting. There is no transition. You drive onto the bridge in Germany, and when you drive off the bridge, there is no doubt that you're in France. But Alsace is incredibly charming, and when you look a little deeper, you can clearly see the German influences that still exist.
We stayed in a small town, Mulhouse. Driving along the border of the town, it appears an industrial town, as there is a large Peugot factory along the outskirts. We quickly learned that the center is quite the opposite. There is a charming center, with cute hotels, and a wonderful atmosphere.
We stayed in the Hotel de Bale. It was a charming hotel, with unbeatable rates.

After getting our stuff settled in the hotel room, we walked towards the town center. The town center is full of winding streets lined with shops and restaurants. The exact center, Place de la Reunion, was incredible! The town hall, or Hotel de Ville, an amazing, albeit slightly tacky, over the top pink building covered with Trompe-l'oeil painting.


It was so enjoyable to just stroll around the adorable town center,


to gawk at the Hotel de Ville and to admire the towering spires of the cathedral.

By the time we decided on one of the many restaurants, it was already dark. Our dinner was amazing! I had salad with warm goat-cheese, and Joern had a Flammkuechen, a traditional Alsactian pizza-like dish.

We sat outside, and were amazed that the later it got, the more the center filled with people. And what a spectacle for Germans, the restaurants were all full!!
On Tuesday morning, we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, of croissants and bread with butter and jam. The hotel had a wonderful breakfast room.
After breakfast, we headed back to Germany for Joern's work day. He was finished by 4, and back over the border we went, this time to Geispolsheim to our grocery store. We love going to grocery stores in foreign countries, and we frequently visit this one grocery store.


We bought lots of great food, like goat cheese, quail eggs, baguette, croissants, Diet Coke with orange (!), mustard, pastries, and oh my gosh, lobster bisque! It was a wonderful few days, and I feel so lucky to be able to spend some of my vacation time with Joern. It really wrapped up my vacation in a special way!

Spanair

Today there was a plane crash in Madrid. It was horriffic. I am sure that most everyone has now heard, they think over 140 people died, that there are only 26 injured and they are the only survivors.
As someone who has to travel, it is really difficult to learn of these situations. While I was not immediately impacted, I feel deeply for those who lost loved ones today. The flight was to bring 166 people to bring people to relaxing happiness in Las Palmas. Now, there is sadness and suffering.
I am deeply saddned and sorry for the tragedy which has occurred today.

Romantic weekend in Venice, Friday & Saturday

Joern really surpised me last week Wednesday by telling me that he booked a hotel in Venice for 2 nights. Since I am still on break, it worked very nicely. I went to work with Joern on Friday morning. Joern planned his route for the day so that his route brought us to the Swiss border, in the direction of Venice. We were able to start our trip around 2 pm. We drove through Switzerland, through the Alps, and through the St. Gotthard tunel. Our drive got a little worrysome as the lightning started really strong as we neared Venice, and there was a huge accident which really slowed traffic.Since our hotel was on Venice Lido, one of the Venetian islands, we had to take a ferry over to the island, and we were a bit concerned about time (we got to the ferry dock at 10 pm,) and the weather. But, we were lucky, and got on the ferry at 10:15, and made it to Lido by 11:00 pm.

Our hotel, Hotel Ville della Palme was really everything I could have expected from a hotel in Venice. As this was our first time staying directly in Venice,it was a pleasure to stay in a converted mansion. The rooms had high ceilings and huge windows, and the walls were covered in a beautiful jaquard fabric.


The hotel also had a wonderful rooftop terrace that affored amazing views of Venice and the Alps beyond on one side, and the Meditteranean on the other.



On Saturday after breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to the beach. The great thing about Lido is that it is the beach of Venice. Our hotel was about 7 minutes from the beach on foot.Plus, walking from the hotel to the beach took us on some quiet, lovely streets and through the center.

Although it is part of Venice, it hasn't been taken over by tourists the way Venice has, so we were able to appreciate the quiet Venetian charm. We really enjoyed relaxing at the beach and swimming in the marvelously warm Mediterranean.
In the afternoon, after getting showered and changed, we hopped on the Vaporetto and headed over to the main island of Venice. It is truly amazing to me that no matter how many times I see Venice, my heart skips a beat. I find it so incredibly romantic there.

We meandered through St. Mark's square, and made our way over to the Museo Correr,which served as a home to Napoleon.

From the museum, we met our tour guide for our tour of the clock tower. We really enjoyed the tour clock tower in St. Mark's square. Our tour guide was very informative, and with only one other person on the tour, it was very personal. We learned all about the clock and the tower, that was completed in 1499. Much of the clock remains today as it did in 1499, which is simply amazing. We wound our way up beautiful iron spiral staricases to see the mechanisms of the clock, and to find breath-taking views of the city. Most amazing of course was the top of the clock tower, where the two Moors (named so because of the dark copper used,) ring the bell over the city.

It was beautiful! After the tour, we wound our way down the main shopping passage to the Rialto Bridge, one of the oldest bridges in Venice.
We returned to Lido for an amazing dinner of Carpaccio di Bresola, pasta with arugula and tomatoes, and pizza with ham and mushrooms.

Romantic Sunday in Venice

On Sunday, we left again for Venice at 10:00. We decided that we would make use of our 24 hour Vaporetto pass by trying to find a good seat on a water bus and ride around. Our first boat took us from St. Mark`s Square to the northwestern part of the island, where the Grand Canal begins.

We walked along the Grand Canal, went by the Rialto bridge again, and did some window-browsing. We found a shop with amazingly beautiful costumes for Carnivale, which piqued my interest in returning to Venice for Carnivale.


Then we decided to get on another boat that would bring us by some of the beautiful buildings along the canal such as the Grand Casino and the Ca d'Oro.

We then made our way back to Lido, to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the beach.

We were sad to leave at 6 pm, but knew we had to go.
The ferry ride back to Tronchetto was wonderful. We even got to enjoy the lovely church bells at 7:30.

One of the highlights on the ride home was watching Friends in Italian on the TV in the car.

Even more amazing though, we got to see the beautiful sunset over the Alps which brought our trip home to a beautiful ending.