breaking promises

I have to apologize, because I'm about to break 2 promises I made in my last post. First, that I wouldn't be posting for a while (I barely made it two days), and second that when I did post it would be about fun, exciting things that happened during my final weeks in Europe. 

But guys - I got a bookcase! Few things make me feel more adult than a nice big bookcase. It really doesn't take much, people. 

As soon as the new (to me) bookcase was moved into my room, I didn't waste a minute to start organizing it. And I'd say I ended up with a pretty good system!

It's a little ridiculous just how excited I am about my bookcase... So excuse me while I go make googly-eyes at it for a little bit!

can we talk about nothing to do with living in Germany for a second?

Oh hey, yeah, I'm still in Germany and yes I still have about a million things to share that have happened in the past couple weeks. But lets all just take a moment to watch this:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's not secret that I'm a fan of musicals. And ever since I saw Les Mis in NYC on Broadway when I was 14, it's pretty much been one of my favorites! 

But I'm having some mixed feelings about the movie. 

On one hand, I'm so excited they're making a movie so I can get the dvd and watch it and sing along till I'm blue in the face (because sometimes having a movie makes singing along more exciting than just a cd). Also, Hugh Jackman? Yes please, Mr. Valjean. Plus, loved Amanda Seyfried in Mama Mia and I'm pretty sure she's the perfect cast for Cosette. 

BUT, I have a big problem with casting actors over singers in movie versions of musicals. Let's start with Anne Hathaway. She actually sings better than I was expecting - and I'm slightly ok with her role, because she'll die in the beginning so it doesn't matter if she does suck too much. However, she has one big mountain to tackle, I Dreamed a Dream which you hear in the trailer. I wasn't blown away with it, but I feel as though I should withhold judgement till I can hear more.

My biggest concern is Russel Crowe. I mean, I don't know - can he even sing? I'm terrified that he's going to do to this movie what Pierce Brosnan did to Mama Mia. That is to say, completely ruin it! I also love Javert's parts, so they absolutely cannot be ruined! 

Any thoughts out there from the peanut gallery? I'd love to know what you all think of it! 

Otherwise, that's all I had to say about nothing to do with Europe for now. We'll get back to business tomorrow! 

The best part of having my own 5th grade class?

I can plan a birthday party lesson when the class just so happens to fall on my birthday!

And no, I don't feel sad for my life/bad about making 6 ten year olds celebrate my birthday. Because we had fun, dammit. Not to mention it was very educational (as in, there was a crossword with birthday vocab...)! I even made them real American Funfetti cupcakes with real American Betty Crocker icing. Just how real Americans do it (you know, aside from the fact that that icing cost about 7€ instead of $3).

During class we played musical chairs and pin the tail on the Donkey. They liked the latter so much they begged me to play it twice!

It was super cute and my favorite part was the super adorable, heart melting birthday card two of my students made for me!

Birthday Recipe

2kg health

1kg good fortune

500g love

300g faith

2.5kg happiness

it's my birthday!

Surprisingly, I know a lot of people who don't really care about birthdays. "It's just another day" they always say. Well, not me! I tend to take the Lily Aldrin approach to birthdays. 

And since it's my birthday, it's the one day I can shamelessly ask you to follow my blog without judgement! Just kidding! ...or am I? (what can I say, I'm a sucker for online validation)


(following my twitter and/or youtube will make me feel good about myself too :D)

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!

This is my sad face

I made the mistake of checking the number of emails in my WG-Gesucht folder in gmail today. And if I wasn't already depressed after 2 weeks of rejection, I definitely am after realizing there are over 150 emails in that folder with a total success rate of 0%.

This is my sad-no-one-wants-to-live-with-me face. I'm getting pretty good at it.

I'm becoming excessively melodramatic about the whole situation (incase that wasn't obvious). My friend even came to the point of (very affectionately, I'm sure) giving me the nickname "Emoly." 

Basically, this is one of those posts to remind you that even though I like to pretend I'm in Germany avoiding the real world, it's not all sunshine and beer gardens.

It's that time of year again

I signed on Twitter today to see that "Hogwarts Express" is trending. I love that even without the hype of an impending book or movie, everyone remembers to get to platform 9 3/4 on September 1. 

Ever since opening my first Harry Potter book about 12 years ago, I became one of those kids that always wished (sometimes not so secretly) I would be joining the rest of the wizarding world at King's Cross Station to board the Hogwarts Express... 

Ok, so I never made it to Hogwarts, but in exactly one week from today I will be boarding a train heading to Dortmund for yet another exciting year in Germany. 

It may not be wizard school, but I think it's pretty cool anyway. 

das Blog Awareness Day

Did you know you can follow das Blog?! It's true. 

<------Just look right there! Those are all the really awesome people who already follow my blog.

 

Did you know that by following das Blog you can keep up with all my really important and really entertaining posts?

You wouldn't have to miss a single one just because you missed the link on Facebook or Twitter!

 

I can tell you're really excited now!

Did you know that you don't have to be a member of Blogger to follow das Blog?!

all you have to do is have an account with gmail, twitter, yahoo, aim, netlog, or openid.*

Did you know that following das Blog has been proven to lead to higher test scores, enhance your enjoyment of life, increase procrastination skills and give you super powers
...probably
(don't believe me? follow me to find out!)

Did you know that it is SUPER easy to follow das Blog? Just go the left side bar at the top where it says "all the cool kids are following das Blog" and underneath click the button that says "join this site"

Did you know I'll love you forever if you follow das Blog?

Happy das Blog Awareness Day!

*Don't worry if you don't already have an account at gmail, twitter, yahoo, aim, netlog or openid, it's really easy to set up....

and totally worth it to be able to say that you're one of the cool kids that follows das Blog.

sometimes I'm vain/photo booth is addictive

so there is this camera built into my computer. and there is this program called photo booth that makes it really simple to take pictures with this camera. So I do. a lot. Pretty much whenever I'm bored (and when you work 12 hours a week in a time zone that is 6 hours ahead of 90% of your active facebook friends, this is quite often!) I generally just snap a few photo booth photos (or, you know, 20...).

Recently I was going through these photos, which have been accumulating unorganized for over 3 years, and I thought it was really fun to be able to see how much I've changed even in the past year. So, since I'm feeling a little vain, here is my year according to Photo Booth

My first day in Edinburgh - You can sense the excitement.

My first night in Forchheim. No Internet, no telephone. Just alone.

Oh look how long my hair is getting! and what great new style. And great face....

At the Frankfurt airport on my surprise trip home

I particularly like to take pictures when I've bought new things like my new scarf and hat seen here.

Taken just a couple weeks ago... longer hair, new hair style and the sun is shining
(cause that clearly has everything to do with me)

So what can we learn from this? I'm really awesome. And you're jealous. And it's fun to see how much you can change over just one year. 

OMG! only the GREATEST thing ever!!

APRIL FOOLS!! 

But it is a picture of a chocolate bunny sitting in a photo booth. 

 

and you have to admit, that is pretty great.

Categories

I tend to put things in my life into categories: when I lived in the dorms vs. when I lived in Switzerland vs. when I lived in Arbor Creek. I do this especially with the categories PC vs. Mac. For example, there are two major cell phone companies in Germany: Vodofone and O2. Based on advertising and product design it's very easy to say Vodofone is "PC" and O2 is "Mac".... I'm hoping this makes at least a little sense...

Another category I often use is for education. When I was in Switzerland I was at the Universität Zürich, which I would consider a "UGA", where as then neighbor school was the technical university or a "GA Tech".

Well, here in Forchheim there are 2 high schools. One is very clearly a "UGA" and the other is definitely a "GA Tech". The UGA school offers an entire music program, with the opportunity to study individual instruments for class credit. They also focus more strongly on foreign languages and the school is 70% girls. Whereas the other school is more focused on math and sciences, they offer music classes, but not as a "main subject" and there are way more guys than girls. A definite "GA Tech".

So anyway, the point of this entire post is because I've been placed at the GA Tech school for the longer period! How rude! But I'll make it over the "UGA" after christmas.

oh, btw, Oktoberfest Vlog will be posted tomorrow!! So keep a look out, it's pretty fantastic :D