In the blink of an eye...

Somehow there are only days left of my summer vacation. I knew it would fly by, but I still wished it wouldn't. I know having summers off is a big, needed perk of the job, but it still goes by too fast, just like it always has and will.

So, since my last post about my travels in Europe with the school, I've kept extremely busy! After stressfully and frantically finishing that first summer class, I breathed a sigh of relief for about three seconds and promptly started the second summer class...I spent two weeks on Sanibel Island with my grandparents. My grandma and I spent a lot of time scrapbooking together and taking breaks in their pool. 

I also watched the World Cup, and obviously rooted for Germany the whole time. In true me-fashion, I painted my nails for the final game to show my support :-)

Then Dorina, my roommate from Switzerland, came to visit for three weeks! It was the perfect amount of time to show her my hometown, where I studied, and where I currently live. A few days after she arrived (to let her acclimate to this time zone a little first!) we drove to Michigan--all 13 hours. It went by fairly quickly, and we shared the driving, so it was really great. 

My brother had his graduation party, for which we made most of the decorations. 

Then we went to Grand Rapids for a few days. Some sweet friends were gracious enough to open their home to us so we could avoid hotel costs. I showed her Calvin, some of my favorite places in GR, and we ventured to Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, it was a cooler day and super windy, so the beach was not as lovely as it normally is. Nonetheless, we enjoyed ourselves :-)

Back in Waterford, we hung out with my family and helped my brother shop at IKEA for college dorm things before beginning our return 13-hour drive.

And back we went, with a car stuffed full (I can never seem to leave with only the things I brought!) and my cat. 

Once back in Columbia, we mostly did what we love to do: hung out together. Some of our favorite memories together from my year in Switzerland was watching movies and talking for hours. So we did just that! Some might think that's boring or think we should have done more sightseeing or something, but for us, it was perfect. In between movie and chat sessions, we went to the movies and in my apartment pool with a friend of mine, had a girls night with some girls from church, took her to see my school, went to church and lunch with friends afterward, and went shopping lots. 

We also ventured to Charleston for a day. It was cloudy and full of predictions of rain, but we managed to miss the rain. We ate at Hominy Grill for some especially Southern cuisine, walked up and down King Street for some window shopping (and a little real shopping mixed in ;-D), and to Sullivan's Island, one of the many beaches in Charleston. Although it was cloudy, it was quite warm and perfect for sitting on the beach and not sweating our faces off :-)

And then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye! The time was perfect, but (as usual) not nearly enough. It was fun to show her all the things that make up my life, to show her the little and typical American things, and to spend so much time with one of my best friends. After spending a year where we lived and traveled together, and spent almost all of our time together, three weeks was a wonderful gift. 

And, to answer the most common questions: 

1. Yes, we spoke mostly in English. Normally, we switch off and on, but before she got here, I thought to myself "If I were spending three weeks (or any amount of time, really) back in Germany/Austria/Switzerland, I know I would want to speak German as much as possible" and knowing that Dorina likes to speak in English, I decided that I would intentionally talk in English with her, for as much as she wanted to. Of course, we had random sentences or words that were in German, and yes, when we didn't want people to know what we were talking about, we would often switch to German :-)

2. She really enjoyed being in the US. It was her first time here, so it was fun to show her all the little differences. She loved Target and Hobby Lobby, just like I knew she would and was as amazed about our "low" prices as I was about the exorbitant prices in Switzerland. She enjoyed the food we ate and restaurants we went to.

3. The differences I think she was most surprised/impressed by were: free refills at restaurants, the number of lanes on our streets, and our typical greeting of "Hi, how are you?" where we don't really care about how the other person is--it's just a part of the greeting.

And now, I'm enjoying my last few days of nothing, while my brain begins to remind me of all the things I could have (and maybe should have) done in preparation for this school year, but I don't really feel bad. This summer was full to the brim, but so perfectly full and just the break I needed. 

Traveling abroad with students

I had a whole post typed out, describing my trip in Europe, and then it disappeared. I guess that's what I get for trying to type it up on my phone in Airplane Mode...

So, I spent the beginning of my summer break with eighteen students, three other teachers, another group from a school in Missouri, and an EF Tours tour guide, traveling around Europe--specifically Germany, France, and Spain. We had a jam-packed trip, and were exhausted every night. The students were really awesome, and I'm glad they were able to go, especially to experience the language and culture that they were learning in context. Overall, it was a really great trip. I'm hoping to plan one for the future of just the German-speaking countries, though.

Because it was so jam-packed full, I'm going to try to give you the highlights of the trip, since the details would go on for far too long.

We left June 8 and had an overnight flight to München. Once we arrived, we waited for the other school from Missouri to arrive and then went full-force ahead into the day. We first went to Dachau, a concentration camp. It was unfortunate that we went to a concentration camp on the first day of the trip, because the students were so exhausted that I don't think they were able to appreciate it fully. After that, we spent some time at BMW-Welt, with some awesome cars and motorcycles (did you know Mini Cooper is made my BMW? I didn't!), followed by a walking tour of the city, and finished by dinner and then finally the hotel. We were exhausted. Needless to say, I slept like a rock.

The next day, we went to Neuschwanstein, which is the famous castle that Mad King Ludwig II built (and that the Disney Cinderella castle is supposedly modeled after). We had a tour of the castle and time to look around after. Then we went to Oberammergau and had an awesome tour of the Passionstheater, which is where they perform the Passion play of the life and death of Jesus Christ--but only every ten years!

The following day, before heading to Heidelberg, we had a really interesting 3rd Reich Tour, where we walked around Munich and were told of all the places that were of importance in the making of and during the 3rd Reich. It was really interesting to see, because you wouldn't know it by just looking at the places as-is. Then, we had some free time, where I finally got to buy my very own Dirndl :-) There was a lot of traffic on the way to Heidelberg, so we made it in time for dinner and that was it.

The next day, we had a tour of Heidelberg, including the castle and the wine cellar, followed by plenty free-time before dinner, in which I bought some German kids books and German movies for my classroom.

The next day, we drove to Paris, stopping in Reims for lunch and to see the cathedral. Once in Paris, we had a delicious dinner and a boat tour on the Seine river (which could be romantic, just not with three other female teachers and 18 students). The students LOVED seeing the Eiffel Tower and took full advantage of the free-time afterward to take pictures in front of it, buy delicious crepes, and buy a zillion Eiffel Tower figurines from all the street sellers there.

The following day, we had a bus tour of Paris, and time to visit the Notre Dame. On the way to the Louvre museum, we saw the famous bridge of locks (with an INSANE amount of locks, let me tell you.) Once in the Louvre, we had just enough time to see the Mona Lisa and the Napolean apartments (although the students were so exhausted, many of them booked it for the Mona Lisa and then sought out benches until it was time to go). Then, we went to dinner, wandered up the Champs Élysées and finished the night by climbing the Arc de Triomphe for one of the best views of Paris.

Although we normally spent every day with the other group, sometimes only one group wants to go on the extra excursions offered by EF Tours. The next day, my school wanted to go to Versailles, and only half of the other group wanted to go. The other half went to the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower again, and Montparnasse/Sacre Cœur. I decided to go with them, which ended up being a lot of fun and really cool to see. We met up with the rest of the group/my school at Montparnasse/ Sacre Cœur (where there's a lot of really cheap shops). After dinner, we went to Montmartre Tower, for probably the BEST view of Paris.

The next day, we were supposed to have a train to Avignon, but there was a train strike, so we had to take a bus for 12 hours. I secretly love long bus and train rides, because it's a chance to sit and think and watch the beautiful scenery pass you by. I love putting in my earphones, playing my current favorite music, and just looking out the window. Although, after 12 straight hours with 40 teenagers on a bus, that tends to be a little less lovely. We stopped in Avignon really late, so we could see the outside of the Pope's Palace, which was amazing, but we didn't get to see the Aqueducts. So, we got to stay overnight in Avignon just to take another bus the next day (this bus was planned) to Barcelona. We stopped in Carcassonne on the way, which is a really cool medieval city, with a fortress and everything. Once in Barcelona, we had dinner and went back to the hotel.

The following day started out with a bus tour of Barcelona. After which we had a tour of La Sagrada Famíla, which is a church that isn't projected to be finished until 2026, and will have been in progress for over 100 years at that point. It was an amazing church, both on the outside and inside, and every single detail has a specific reason behind it. Goudi really put a ridiculous amount of thought into it. We had free time after the church, which was meant to explore the main shopping streets of downtown Barcelona, but the students were enraptured with the Mediterranean Sea and preferred to spend the whole time lying on the beach (save for 10 minutes where they actually went in the cold water). Oh well, this meant the adults got to split some real Spanish Sangria at a beachside café :-)

The next day we took a train--finally!--to Madrid. This happened to also be the coronation day for the new king, so it was crazy! There were people everywhere, some protesting the monarchy system, and police all over the place. We went to the Prado museum, where our tour guide had prepared a sort of scavenger hunt for us--and the royal botanical gardens, where the students had some free time to rent a little rowboat on the pond. We then had some free time to go shopping in Madrid, although it was crazy crowded because of the coronation.

For our final day before flying home, we had a tour of Madrid, including the bull-fighting arena and a tour of the Reina Sofia museum (with really cool Picasso and Salvador Dali pieces, but no pictures allowed). We had lunch, which was paid for by EF because of the train strike problems, and then my school group went to Toledo, while the other group stayed behind. We had a tour of the city, the church, a giant painting by Greco, the synagogue, and a sword-/jewelry-making place. We had dinner, and then said our goodbyes to the other school and the tour director. And although I was happy to be going home after twelve long (but good) days, I couldn't help but feel the familiar bittersweet sadness in the pit of my stomach. I guess my old blog name (europeanatheart.blogspot.com) was truer than I realized.

So, it was a good trip. It was thoroughly exhausting, as we were go-go-go for twelve days straight, from early morning to late evening. The students were great and real troopers. I'd say it was a successful first trip with students.

Thank God for the Summertime

Somehow a year has flown by, right before my very eyes. When I think back to my very first day at my school, the week before students started, it seems like forever ago. And yet I feel like I just started.

Today was the last day with students. Honestly, last week was kind of the last week with students, because most stopped coming after their exams were done, and grades were due on Monday, so there wasn't much of a point to come after Monday. That was strange and a little frustrating, because I didn't have a proper goodbye. When they left after their exams, I didn't know if they would be back for the handful of classes we technically had left or not. Some promised they would come say goodbye--while others mentally wished me good riddance, I'm sure. Some did come say goodbye, some passed their Well Wishes through other students, and some came to school until the very last day. Don't get me wrong, it was everything I wanted all year, just not at the right time. A work week without would have been great earlier in the year, but there's not much to done once grades are turned in and your room is packed away. The other Frau and I managed to work out a skeletal outline of what we want next year to look like (topics, grammar goals, quizzes, projects, etc.), so we did put the time to good use.

And my brain is buzzing with ideas for next year. I've been waiting for next year since day one of this year! I knew I would make mistakes this year. There would be days that were beyond frustrating and lessons that would flop and whole units or projects I would want to redo. And the beautiful thing about my job, is I get just the chance to do just that. And even the things I don't change might not work on next year's students, so I'll have to spontaneously change it at the right time. That's what I love about the job. Although my content does not really change, the students sure do. I'm fascinated by how students in one class can love an activity or ace an assessment while another class of the exact same lesson can hate the activity or fail the assessment. That's just how it goes. There's no special formula for being a good teacher or engaging your whole class or getting the students to learn your content; instead, there are tons of great methods and theories that all work for various students in various situations. But I wouldn't change that. Sitting around with the students this week reminded me just how much I love this job. I love how, even on the bad days, the classes zip by (unless I'm giving an exam). Weeks may seem long, but but the days generally don't.

When I think about all I anticipated and all I was unsure about, I still feel the same way in some ways. I understand the general workings of my school and responsibilities I have besides planning and teaching lessons. I have a better idea of the curriculum and the flow that it should have. And I have a year's worth of experience finally under my belt. But there's still so much I don't know. I don't claim to be the best teacher, or even close. I know I had some awesome ideas and awesome lessons, but I know I also had some miserable and awful lessons that I do not want to repeat next year. I'm constantly learning and figuring things out, and I hope that never changes.

Graduation was also yesterday, and as a teacher, I was in attendance. I only knew a handful of seniors, because the majority of my students were freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Seeing them all graduate made me think back to my high school and college graduation, and all the hope and excitement it brought. It also made me really excited to see the students I had this year graduate over the next three years. I know the ceremony will be more meaningful to me when I know more of the students. Hopefully I'm here long enough to see them all graduate! :-)

So, now I just have one more half-day--a half-day of stuffing envelopes for my homeroom class report cards, checking off everything on the school's checklist, and saying goodbye to the friends I've made. Then it's off to home for a week for my birthday week and Europe (Germany, France, and Spain) with the school for two weeks!

And now for the perfect song to describe my feelings about summer:

Thank God for the Summertime - Ben Rector :-)