Lousy at Leaving (Prague and Budapest)

As excited as I am about each leg of our journey, it’s still difficult to bid farewell to each city. Prague was so much more than I could have ever hoped. On the first day, we had some fantastic Czech food in a dungeon like restaurant and spent the night celebrating with some really cool Canadians (and one guy from Colorado).  The next day started with free breakfast and getting our sandwiches, followed by a tour of the city. That evening, we joined a Pivo tour. We met two larger than life men from Texas, a pair of nice guys from England, and three (eventually six) great guys from Sweden. It was many times more fun than I could have guessed and may be the highlight of the trip thus far.

Early the following morning (because my body would HATE for me to get a solid night’s sleep), Sue and I walked in the much cooler air to explore the castle grounds. Afterward, we walked through a handful of Jewish Synagogues, the cemetery, and Ceremonial Halls before attempting to create a Swedish flag.

I failed, but we were still invited to join the Swedish guys for their midsummer celebration. They treated us to holiday traditions and Swedish meatballs…yea, legit Swedish meatballs. I can feel your jealousy radiating, and it isn’t unfounded.  It was a fantastic time, which made it even harder to leave for Budapest.

And this is what I’m learning, I begin each city with the nostalgia of the sites, hostels, people, and food from the one before. There is little glamorous about arriving in a city after a day of trying to sleep on a bumpy train, which compounds with my lack of ability to cope with change to make me a less than pleasant arriver.

The time in Budapest was enough to make a couple new acquaintances, try some amazing new food, and develop routines. We were again blessed with a free breakfast,  and were able to swim in the healing waters of a bath house,  attend 3 walking tours, visit a gigantic market, and eat plenty. Perhaps my favorite part of the city was the affordability. A scoop of gelato will cost you about $.75, pizza is under a dollar, a huge bowl of creamy mushroom goulash is $3, and a big falafel wrap will set you back about $2.50. So, you can understand my repeated reticence boarding a plane to yet another new city,  Rome.

This was not totally aided by my less than smooth trip through security. However, there’s nothing like getting real friendly with an airport agent to build trust in the security of Hungarian flights, right? Next we were sent outside to what appeared to be a hanger before boarding the plane. And maybe I’m crazy, but I swear it was our pilot’s first time flying. Crazy pressure changes (my cold might not have helped), no warnings for turbulence,  and being greeted, upon landing, by a pilot who couldn’t be more than a couple years older than myself confirmed my suspicions. Since then, however, Rome has been absolutely splendid. Perhaps when it’s time to leave I’ll be able to beat the goodbye nostalgia this time. Only time, and another post, will tell.

Falling Asleep on Trains

There are a handful of embarrassing moments from my childhood I remember vividly. One I’ll admit to is falling asleep on a stranger on a shuttle from Disney world. Who could blame me? I was dehydrated, over stimulated, and exhausted, so my parents let me rest, even if it meant that when they woke me I felt completely humiliated Today is ending with that exact feeling…except instead of letting me sleep on strangers (thank goodness), my sister insisted we visit a pub for dinner.

I suspect it has something to do with her wanting to reform my morning behavior. While she was able to sleep in (6-ish) I woke at 3 and wasn’t able to fall back asleep. By the time she opened her eyes I was ready with a flood of words and energy (the choice to make myself caffeinated tea may not have helped).

When she was ready to face the world with me, we visited a supermarket and logged on to the internet for the first time in Berlin from a street café. Afterward, we joined a free walking tour of Berlin. It was a brilliant tour, igniting pangs of nostalgia from giving tours of UWL. After the three and a half hour long tour, we visited the Deutsche History Museum (free for the day!) and made a voyage back to the Topography of Terror exhibit located near a portion of the Berlin wall.

Since we visited on the anniversary of the workers uprising in East Berlin,
the memorial was bordered by hundreds of roses  

It was a great day, but extremely exhausting in every way. Today, I was glad that much of history can only be seen in black and white.  The words, the stories, and the faces of the pains of the past are enough for me. If every terrible pair of broken eyes or shattered dream were also captured in clear color, it might be too real. Berlin is steeped in history. Like every city (and more so in this case), much of what is remembered is negative. From serving as the capital for the Nazi party, resulting in shameless murders of the holocaust, book burnings, and political/economic manipulation, to the more recent struggles caused by the Berlin wall, The city is forced to walk a fine line between remembering and honoring those who have lost loved ones or livelihoods from these occurrences while trying to move forward as a city worth being proud of. The result is an artistic emotion and information overload.

The exhibit for the Topography of Terror is located in the ruins of  this building,
looking up towards the Berlin Wall

But, there is only so much one can feel in one day. So, when we dragged our feet back onto the U-Bahn, it was with sore feet, tired muscles, burnt skin, and the exhaustion of too little sleep.  But, as previously mentioned, Sue helped me stick to my no-naps plan and we made our way back to the pub Marlise brought us to yesterday. Because there were no empty tables, we found ourselves sharing one with an older gentleman (I was pretty stoked about it). When he killed a mosquito and began inspecting it, we struck up a conversation and discussed language, politics, and history for the remainder of the night.

A beautiful night to eat with a stranger

After all, tomorrow, President Obama will be visiting Berlin. It’s causing quite a stir because
a) He’ll be eating dinner in a castle that is normally reserved for only historic/artistic use
b) The set-up prevents some tourist/ building viewing opportunities
c) local residents will need to show passport identification to be let into their homes while he is visiting the castle

A Day of Trains and Bad Luck

Captain's Log:

June 14th-Uneventful

(Okay, maybe not totally, but enough not to merit a full description.) I cannot promise to keep my blogging this succinct for the rest of the trip. However, I'll try to maintain a high quality of writing. Aaaaand if I don't have time to be linguistically interesting, I'll use pictures. Deal?)

June 15th-I always forget that stepping off a plane is just the start of a journey rather than an excuse to relax, rest, and start enjoying where you are. Instead, it feels like stepping up the starting blocks of a sprint. Our trip was no different. Our flights went smoothly, and then the day went a little wrong.
1340-Arriving in Amsterdam, we’re informed that Eurail trains between Hannover and Berlin were down because of water levels. Using our resources, we log onto internet just long enough to email the information to our German hosts.
1407-Leave for Hilversum. If our first ride was at all representative of the train system here, I decided I would like it very much.
1550?-  We reach our transition station and find a place to wait 30 minutes for the next train. I noticed several emergency vehicles going by, but didn't think much of it. Then, police officers, transportation officials, and fire fighters started sprinting past us. We were evacuated from our comfy seats and a nice young man explained that someone had stepped in front of an oncoming train. The blond dude was also heading to Germany, and, in retrospect, it may have been wise just to say, "Okay, we're going to follow you." Instead we look at some maps, meet some lovely helpful people, visit the only Starbucks in the world without wifi, communicat with German hosts, and wait.
1627- (9:27am in WI) I'm running on about 3.5 hours of sleep and half a caffe  Americano
1722-Leave for Bad Bentheim after being told they would give us more instruction on the train
1914-Almost get off at the wrong stop, but a kind German lady sends us back onto the train
1920-…I don’t like Bad Bentheim, even if they have a free toilet.
1958-Board train to Osnabruck where they will supposedly send us to Hannover and then Berlin
2015-Encounter AWESOME bachelorette posse, but refrain from buying alcohol from bride to be
2045- Find Osnabruck DB info center to be informed that there aren’t any more regular trains in the direction we need to go, we’d need a reservation to board a night train, the reservation desk is closed, and EVEN if we boarded a night train from Osnabruck, we’d need another impossible reservation to ride from Bielefeld to Berlin.
2046-Either I have train legs (similar to sea legs, but more 2D), stress and lack of sleep are getting to me, or this office is definitely moving.
2047-Two men speaking to the woman next to us have the same problem and explain the Hilversum accident
2052-Our steward gets it “okayed” for us to board the night train, calls the hotel in the city (WAY over our budget), talks to a steward in Bielefeld (telling him that two desperate American women and two Indian men will be coming through and begging on their hands and knees to board the train to Berlin…I mean, I don’t speak German, but that’s what it sounded like). He checks with a Bielefeld hotel…which of course is all full because we’re arriving on the day of a carnival. He sends us on our way with the advice to ask the conductor if we may ride the next train and, “If ‘No’, then McDonalds. Open 24 hours.”
2135-We have adopted Amazing Race language, “Oh good, the Indian guys are here”
22:49-Board train. Technically, our travel buddies don’t have tickets anymore, so it’s a good thing the steward checks our tickets twice, but never theirs
23:00-Meet two Texans, but immediately dismiss them as possible allies as one is a Cowboys fan.
0012-Upon arrival, we meet a German only speaking steward who immediately asks if we’re going to Berlin (guess we’re an easy 4-some to recognize). He explains that he’ll talk to the next train steward for us.
0030-It’s cold. We finally exchange names with our travel companions CK and Aushwin*
0040-No steward, train seems to be running 15 minutes late
0043-A drunk man engages me in conversation and attempts to convince me that I speak German. I presume that he was so intoxicated he was under the impression that we was speaking in German rather than English (which is pretty impressive really). Even as a raging feminist, I have no issues with CK stepping in to suggest we walk away as Mr. Smelly Breath starts to forget to leave a social bubble for me.
0045-evasive z pattern relieves us of Mr.SB for a bit
0055-board night train…possibly accidentally in 1^st class?
0105-After lots of arguing, Mr. SB is escourted off the train because he doesn’t have a ticket
0300-Wake up less than fully rested, but unable to fall asleep
0500-Berlin!!!
0700-After a short train ride, the bus, and a 10 minute walk we reach Heidi’s flat and are let in by her friendly neighbor
1235-Wake up for mistakenly long nap… begin day.

Prepping for an Adventure

Change is not one of my strong suits. Even the best developments leave me feeling exhausted and particularly weepy. In less than 8 hours, I'll be on a plane to Europe. That combined with the idea of being a real, regular, full time teacher is yielding me plenty freaked out (but also VERY excited).

It's also been a crazy week. My sister and family arrived back in the states last week, and Monday was the final day of school for La Crosse. Between celebrating surviving the "year", getting together to catch up with Sue, and saying "good-bye"s before the trip, my calendar has been rather full. I've have laughed extremely hard, eaten too much yummy food (boy-oh-boy to middle school teachers know how to put together a pot luck!), and been able to spend time enjoying all the social opportunities I've had to decline throughout the school year.

Yesterday, I met with my mentor teacher at Holmen. I got to walk through my classroom and have tons of questions answered. I have a desk. A real one. To use for many years to come. I wont be borrowing another teacher's work space or temporarily filling things away on a table. I have an office with drawers and cupboards, and squirrel crossing signs, and the potential to be filled with all kinds of wonderful things. While there is still an immense amount I need to learn, I feel entirely confident that I'm in the best place to learn it. All the staff members I've encountered have been crazy supportive, and I can't wait to get to know everyone better.

Today, though Sue and I fly to Europe. I'm hoping I'll be able to update some while we're gone, but am not sure how much I'll be able to. We'll be gone until July 17th and will have limited internet access. We have a phone for emergencies and calls within Europe...if the SIM card we ordered decides to arrive on time. For anyone who is curious, here's our tentative schedule

15-18-Berlin
19-21-Prague
22-25-Budapest
25-28-Rome
29-1-Trento
1-2-Venice
3-4-Geneva
4-5- Leysin
6-10-Nancy
11-12-Paris
13-14- Amsterdam
15-Iceland
16-HOME!

Now, it's time to get back to packing and my AMAZING brunch

Fingers crossed it all fits in my pack

My stir-fry always comes out a little onion-sentric...

One Hundred and Seventy-Two Handshakes

You may already know that I love graduation ceremonies. So, getting to congratulate each of the Longfellow 8th graders on finishing middle school was a very special kind of treat. Some students took the hand shake seriously and used a firm grasp. Others tried to speed through the line, offering just their fingers and a quick wiggle. For each student I taught, however, I did my best to hold their attention long enough to let them know I was proud. I even got three tremendous hugs. It was a much needed celebration after the last few weeks.

I'm tired, so extremely tired. It's been one of the most dramatically stressful months of my life between school, my personal life, and trying to plan for my summer trip. I've stopped being conscientious of half the things I'm eating, have given up on regular sleep schedules, and am liable to start yelling or crying at the drop of a hat. With one and a half days left, I have a million things to do. The crazy schedules of this week (and many students' blanket refusal to do any more school work) have created a pile of unfinished assessments, making the steady stream of EXTREMELY late work quite preferable. It is June 6th, and even if the weather refuses to cooperate, we're all ready for summer.

There's a tulip on my desk though. When students waste fifteen minutes of class chattering away, or one student tells his peers again that he doesn't need to listen because I'm "not even a real teacher", or another accuses me of failing to help him, or when a third gives me her death glare which so clearly communicates how dramatic of a let down she feels I am...I remember that there is a tulip on my desk. One of my students with EBD gave me the fake flower a couple weeks ago. It's not much, but from a student who struggles each day to remember to bring anything to class or use social manners, it means absolutely everything.

Tulip, with 4 postcards I got to write to parents regarding some positive behaviors I witnessed

So, on days like today, the "Don't fall apart until you close the car door" kind of days, I take a second to remember the flower and that there are students who don't hate me. There are students who have learned things from me. There are students who enjoy my class. There are students who ask for hugs at graduation and who's parents tell me that they've heard about the fun things we did in math and science.
Deep breath in, deep breath out. From this experience I've learned many things. I'm am not a failure. I will walk out of the school next Monday with my head held high, ready for the next adventure life throws my way...Europe

The two second floor windows to the left are to my classroom as viewed from my car
...just thought I'd share.