would you like a waffle on a stick?

If your answer is yes, then you are in luck. Just head to the main train station in Dortmund and look for for the Waffel am Stiel (literally means "waffle on a stick") stand right past track 7.

Here, for a mere 60 cents, you can get a deliciously warm waffle with powder sugar on a stick. They're available with a chocolate shell as well, but for some reason that doesn't seem as delicious, so I've never tried it. They're also the perfect size so you feel like you've got enough to enjoy, but not so much that you feel like you shouldn't eat again for a week or anything. It's basically pure happiness to go. 

I mean really, for only 60 cents, how can you say no? I'm not going to lie, they've become a pretty standard part of my trips to the main train station. 

3 generations of awesome

I feel like that title is one for Barney Stinson, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Exactly one week from today, Germany will be rocked by the presence of 3 generations of Gallo/Gauld women. You heard me correctly, world. For my mom, it will be her first return to the Fatherland since her small stint as an expat in the 70s. So for those of you keeping score at home, my mom and I have much more in common than just our good looks...

For my Grandma, this will be her first ever trip outside the US (aside from Canada, but that hardly counts)!


Words cannot describe my excitement - Germany is not going to know what hit it! 

I could read 6th grade ESL writing everyday.

While my 5th graders were getting crafty for the big Leap Year holiday, I put my 6th graders to a little more work. We talked about the last Leap Year in 2008 and everything that has changed since then. Then we collected ideas for what might be different by the next leap year. Eventually I had them write letters to themselves on the next Leap Day. 

I left the assignment pretty loose. I told them they could ask questions about how life had changed or they could tell about their life now, whatever they might want to ask or say to themselves in 4 years. And the results were pretty amazing!

I decided to share some of my favorite letters with you guys, but before we get to that, I feel the need for a little disclaimer:

I'm NOT posting these to make fun of the students in anyway. If anything, I was overall really impressed with the letters. The cutest part, on the whole, were the things they decided to talk about, and not the language mistakes. While the mistakes may enhance the adorableness of the letters, you have to remember that these kids are 11 and 12 years old and have been learning English for just over 1 year. If you had asked me to write a letter like this after 1 year of learning German. Well, I'm not sure it would have even been understandable. Also, I currently spend my life speaking a foreign language on a regular basis. And I make a lot of mistakes. So I know just as well as the next guy, what it's like to try to learn a new language. 

Also, my roommate is keeping a running list of the ridiculous things I say in German, so I feel like that's a freebie for keeping a list of my own. 

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Dear Ewa,
My life is cool I'm in the class 6c. It's the year 2012. My favori fafourite favorite food is Pizza, Chips and Vanille Milch Shake. I do not like vagetable soup. My favorite song is, I can't dance, the got we one we got away, eagy of the glory. I haven't a boyfriend.

Dear Fabian,
How are you?
I'm fine. I found the world is good in my time, but how is it in your time. I play handball and chess and I play piano too. How is it, to live? Can cars fly? Is Dortmund german cup winner? Text me back with the answers! Whats your hobbies.
Love, Fabian

Dear Anika,
i'am 12 in 2012. I like purple, grey, black and peace. I love my family and my friends. I don't like spinach. I have a dog. I have brown haars. My Hobbys are skating, drawing, meeting friends, play football, sport, ice-skating and...
Love Anika




Dear my self,
I have got some questions?
How tall will i bee?
Wil i have a drivers license?
How old will i be?
In witsh class will i be?
Can cars fly in 2016?
Love, Simon



Dear Linus,
How old are you? I'm 11
Do you play football? I play football by SC Husen-Hurl
Do you have a appartment? I haven't a appartment because I'm 11. 
I'm leaving in Husen, you?

Dear Marcel in 2016, 
Today I'm twelve and I'm in clas six. I play in the U12 of BVB. My favorite film is today Hangover. What is your favorite Film today and are you play still Football? Do you now still Tobias and your old team in the U12?
Love, Marcel in 2012

Dear Simon,
In this moment I was 2012, how old are you? I am played football, you? I am had very good Noten. Write you good Noten? I am had thyrty-three hours in the school, how much have you? I am live in Dortmund, you too? My best friends are Linus, Felix and Malte and you? Good luck!
Love, Simon

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Not gonna lie, my absolute favorite line in the bunch is "I haven't a appartment because I'm 11." Kids are awesome. 

Important vocabulary for quadrennial holidays

Last week for Leap Day, my 5th graders and I made some origami Leaping Frogs. I don't remember when or why I learned how to make origami frogs - just that I've been doing it for forever. It was sort of my school version of a party trick. So, when the opportunity arose, I decided to put my useless talents to... well, use. 

I thought they turned out pretty great. Though I have to say, I was a little surprised they all chose green paper. I figured we'd have some blue or red or pink frogs. But at least now, on one day every 4 years, they just might remember some unique English vocabulary!

frOOt lOOps

Before we get started here, can I just say that I never realized Fruit Loops is actually spelled "Froot Loops." As a current teacher of the English language, I have to say I'm a little disappointed in the mass-spreading of bad spelling (of course, let's not bring all my spelling errors into this argument). 

When I was in high school I basically lived off cereal. Just ask my parents - who often reminded me that I could not eat cereal for 3 meals a day. However, somewhere between UGA dining halls and grocery shopping in foreign countries, I stopped the addiction. But last week, while buying food, I felt inspired to go back to my old ways and picked up a box of Fruit Loops. 

I didn't even make it all the way home before noticing the first difference from American cereal. The cereal over here is multilingual. Every word on the box could be found in German, French, Finnish and Swedish. 

Even the game on the back (my favorite part of cereal as a child) came with instructions in all 4 languages. Seriously, if I had grown up with multilingual cereal, I would have abandoned the cereal box games for learning how to say useful phrases like "made with natural coloring and flavors" in as many languages as possible. 

The second difference I noticed immediately as I poured the cereal. Instead of the neon array colors in American Fruit Loops, German Fruit Loops consist of only 3 very "natural" looking colors. It gave me the impression of a sort of organic, hippy version of Fruit Loops (wow, I feel like an angry, old woman calling something "hippy"). 

The final difference was in the taste. As the coloring may have lead you to believe - the German Fruit Loops also had a much more natural taste. All in all, they were good, but I have to say, it kind of made me miss my 90% sugar, potentially toxic American Fruit Loops. 

9 things

Oh hey! I'm back after an unexpected 2 week blogging hiatus (ok, I had 1 post in the last 12 days, but that hardly counts). I guess I wasn't busy by any normal standards, but between getting used to a new class schedule and watching a whole lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, blogging just fell to the back burner. So what's been going on in the last couple weeks? 

 

Honestly, not too much. But in the coming week or so you can look forward to reading about a few of these things that did happen (and are about to happen soon!):

leap year frogs from my 5th graders || battle scars from my latest fight against the sidewalk || awesome letters from 6th graders

Some uniquely delicious Milka flavors || Waffles on a stick || German Fruit Loops

3 Generations of Gallo/Gauld women || all 7 seasons of Buffy || My favorite brother

why Karneval really is the German Halloween.

I know I've compared Karneval to Halloween in the past because of the whole tradition of wearing costumes. Well, after finally experience Karnival first hand, I can safely say that - aside from happening all day instead of only first when the sun goes down - I stand wholeheartedly by my original assertion. 

See there is this parade (ok, not exactly Halloweeny, but bear with me). By the time we got there at 1pm the parade had already started on the far side of the city. It was supposed to go until 2:30 pm, so we tried to find a place among the masses to get a good view. This proved much more difficult than expected, and we ended up finding a good view that was unfortunately very removed from the actual parade. 

After a good while of enjoying the parade from this vantage point, we decided to head down into the crowds, expecting the parade to end shortly anyway.

Little did we know this was apparently a never-ending parade. I don't know where the city of Cologne's website got it's information, but this parade did not end at 2:30. In fact, it was still going strong when worked our way up to the front lines around 4pm. And that's where things got exciting (and here comes the Halloween-ish part).

The candy. Oh the candy. I know people throw candy at parades in the US, but this was like that on steroids. I'm talking entire chocolate bars, even complete boxes of chocolate. Not just thrown here and there into the crowd but seriously continuously chucked among the masses. If you looked away for 1 second you were at risk of chocolate to the face - trust me, that's how I caught a few of my pieces. And it wasn't just candy. The occasional stuffed animal was tossed in, and all kinds of individual flowers. I was pretty proud of my catches. And the people living in the buildings with windows facing the parade found a pretty ingenious method for collecting the goods.

I also loved that even the Policemen across from us were stocking up on the goods.

We stood there for at least an hour watch the parade - the floats, the marching bands, the costumes - catching candy, and just enjoying the whole atmosphere.

Finally, the parade that was supposed to end at 2:30  drew to an end around 7. And as we headed back to the train station that night - in costume, with bags full of candy collected throughout the day - I couldn't help but smile for finally having the Halloween that I'd missed for the past 2 years!