Sunday: My grandparents and I woke up late and got moving. The room was very warm and I had to spend the night sleeping in my clothes because I forgot to bring something to sleep in. I felt rather dirty and in need of a shower when I woke up, but there was no warm water so I just settled for washing my face. I then went down and had a quick breakfast which included some bread and some yogurt and some really nasty coffee. We then packed up and my uncle Denny showed me how to pop there van out so it turned into a camper and that was cool to see. We left the van at the hotel and then ventured on to the second museum to see. The 2nd museum had a famous alter piece and a lot of paintings by this famous painter. The museum, which we thought was going to be small, was actually quite large. We entered through a small entry way that passed by a stone well. We paid and got our tickets and then walked to another desk where there was hand held audio touring devices that you could use. They pretty much worked like this… By some paintings or displays of art there was a number and when you typed it into the little walky talky thing it would tell you about the piece. It was really cool. There were a lot of different paintings depicting the crucifixion scene. A lot of different artists portrayed it in different ways, designs, lighting and textures. A lot of the paintings had John on one side and the Virgin Mary on the other side. Some of the art shown were stone carvings that were only displayed once in a while to protect them. Some dated all the way back to the 1500’a… which isn’t surprising, but it is cool to see something that old! There was a lot of paintings and different forms of art that led up to the main attraction of the piece called the “Issenheim Altar Piece”. It had four different that folded out, but only one was shown at a time during the different seasons. The painting of Jesus had an interesting detail in it. Jesus was not only bloody and beat up, but he also had a lot of black spots (sores) on Him caused by “St Anthony’s fire” which was a disease caused by ergot (fungus) in the rye. Now days they are able to take the fungus out during the process, but back then it was bad and all over the place in the bread because they couldn’t get it out of the seeds. The altar was really amazing and there was so much to take in! I was kind of ahead of everyone because they were stopping at every painting and listening to the information about it. I did too, but only at the important ones. I then moved on to the second part of the museum which was on the second floor. The building was a large square with the center cut out as an outside garden. It had a brick walkway around the bottom and then the top walkway was an enclosed wrap around hallway with large glass display cases with different items. One hallway had painted plates, and different vases. Another hallway had large bells on display on the ground and then keys, locks and different door handles in glass cases. The third hallway had different glass cups and some paintings. And the fourth had some wardrobes. There were several rooms off each hallway that all connected in a couple spots. I started through one room that had some really old furniture and it had good lighting so I was able to get some pictures. The room then went into another room with a few large paintings. As I walked down the hallway there were a couple small rooms on display with large long paintings hanging on the wall. I then walked into two large rooms. The first one had three large, detailed hardwood wardrobes with some very precise designs. There was also some silver goblets and pewter dinner ware that was very interesting. The next room had some large glass cases of armor and weapons. There were some very interesting swords and spears. I didn’t see any shields though. The following rooms had some more paintings and then one wall had a huge rug that had been very detailed designs. After looking around for a while I met up with everyone and they were just starting to come into the 2nd floor. We had all. The churches we saw had different patterns of We also went back to a small Café that we had seen the day before and we had some coffee and cheese cake. It was very delightful! We also saw some different people who were playing instruments on the street and making quite a bit of money doing it! I remember one guy who had a big amp that was playing music and then he played his saxophone along with the music. It was kind creative and very interesting. ON Saturday we saw a couple of people playing their accordions. After we ate at the Café we walked back to the hotel where our van was parked. My cousin Ana and I have been playing a game as we walked along. There is a special way to trip someone and you walk behind them and as they lift up their foot you take your own foot and gently kick theirs forward. They really don’t trip but it makes there leg go up high. So Ana and I did this back and forth to each other all day and I think I won :P We got back to the hotel and loaded up. We then decided to drive back on a different route on the “Wine Road”. So now I have been down Romantic Road and Wine Road.
The special route that took us through a bunch of small wine villages’ a3nd we got to see hill after hill of rolling vineyards and I even got a picture of two hills of vineyards and white capped mountains in the back ground. It was very pretty! Each vine was pruned and the hills were very colorful because the ground was different colors in different places. It was fun to just stare out the window at the rows as we flew by them… it was almost like a slide show. The houses along the road were all very quaint. We passed one that was very happy yellow and had a really dark blue motorcycle outside! We also passed a beautiful cemetery with flowers on every grave stone and all around the perimeter. We saw a castle on a hill and behind it the hill had been specially molded to look like steps for farmers. From a distance we saw a statue on the top of the hill. We passed a large park filled with storks and the trees were spotted with large nests. And right after that we saw the Rine Valley with the black forest and the foot of the Alps. The churches we saw had different patterns of tiles on the roofs and it was interesting to see the colors they used.
My grandma bought a post card back in Colmar with a blue house on it that was not from Colmar, but from one of the small villages. As we drove through the wine villages on the wine road we kept eye out for the little blue house, but despite our eager attempt to find it we never did see it. After our search for the blue house we began a search for some where to eat. We stopped in a small town and walked through it , but everything was a little expensive so we moved on. We stopped in a little town called Andlau and checked again for a place to eat, we didn’t, but there was some nice photos taken J - We finally found a little Café eloquently named “Café Bistro”. It was very blue and had some nice timbers along side of the building. The people were every nice and translated the menu for us. My guess was it was a couple that owned or at least ran the Café. The husband described all the dishes for us in English and helped us all decide and then when we had decided he said “C’est fecile!” and in English that’s “It’s easy!” He was a very very nice gentleman and was very hospitable. The ambience of the Café made it, by far, the best place I have eaten at yet. He was very interested in the going to New York someday to listen to the jazz there. He was really into jazz. I ordered a dish that was duck and some sauce with rice and some vegetables (Carrots, Zucchini and onions). I also helped my cousin and aunt eat some of their left over food. My aunt had homemade noodles with mushrooms (which were extremely delicious) and my cousin had the same noodles with chicken and sauce that was very good as well. After we ate I got a coffee and then we were off. I found a good spot to take a picture of the Café, but my camera decided to be crabby and would not record the pictures I was taking correctly and kept showing up “corrupted”. This was really frustrating and I’m not sure why it’s doing it. This camera is starting to be very troublesome! I thought I figured it out, but then I took a picture again and it repeated it’s previous bad mood. Oh well… It will work out. Traveling back was very beautiful. We passed the French town of Strasbourg and saw a little bit of it from the autobahn. It was very cool. There were some nice gardens that were all split up into different sections for different people. There were many sections that you could see the mountains from and there were a lot of deer stands along the way. We saw some deer and a dead badger along the road.
As we crossed the Rhin river we saw a swan that was fixing it’s nest as it’s little duckling (?) swam around. The sky was really beautiful all day and the sun was shining most of the time. IT provided some nice walking weather as we were out and about. The rest of the ride home was relaxing and it was nice to do all this typing during the trip. My Uncle brought home an Alphasmart board which is pretty much a keyboard with 8 different files that you can type on. So I was able to document the whole trip while I was on the road!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
My weekend in France!
Saturday In France,
I got up at 7:00 and went with my uncle to pick up Broetchen (bread) to eat for breakfast. We then got back and got everything together and had a German breakfast. We had hard boiled eggs with a half soft yoke in special little stands. They eat eggs different over here. Instead of taking all the time to peal the shell you just cut the top of the egg and then scoop it all out. Talk about efficient! We also had fruit and bread with Nutella and jelly. It was a very good breakfast. After we ate I quickly got on the computer and finished up my blog on Yesterday and then helped with the dishes. We then made sure we got packed and then headed off on our adventure to France.
It was a good trip and I slept I fair amount of the way there. I woke up very very out of it right as we were crossing the border and woke up as best I could to start looking around. The first thing I saw where some mountains in the distance with snow on the tops. We stopped at a place where there was a monument set up for where the German had attacked the French. There was a bunker there and some tanks and stuff. I was able to get some cool pictures. I also tripped and got my self a nice brown spot on my jeans from the dirt :P and it had to be the weekend I only brought on pair for over night. We ate lunch in the van and then were on our way. I do have to mention that when we got there we saw a sign that told us not to leave anything in the car because it might get stolen while “you” were away. When we were out looking around we were the only ones there and while I was around back taking some pictures my aunt saw me crouching and thought I was some thief watching them… we all thought that was funny.
We drove on and saw more really cool houses and villages. My aunt had commented on how the houses seemed very bland and from that point on we saw a large number of houses that were very abstract and colorful… we kind of teased her for saying they were bland. I wanted to take some pictures, but there were a couple people in need of the WC (bathroom) and we needed to keep pressing on. With in the next 15 minutes we learned a very important fact about the French… they obviously don’t ever need to use the bathroom because you can never find one anywhere! We decided to just go to our hotel because we knew they would have one. We got there and checked in and got a pass to open the gate to the parking garage. The van barely fit in under the archway, but we made it!
The rooms are really nice and really small. They are all three people bedrooms and they have bunk bed type beds. We then got our stuff and headed out to the museum we came here to see. We left and started walking and I noticed my camera battery was a little low so I then walked back and got it and then we were officially on our way. We got to the museum and it was filled with all the sculptors that made. There was one floor that had all these squeaky floor boards and it was very tricky to walk across the room with out making a squeak. After that we walked around Colmar and looked at different shops and then went to a church where there was a really famous painting and alter piece. I wasn’t aloud to take any pictures though. It had a really tall ceiling and had some really descriptive and detailed stained glass. After that we found a place to eat. Once we did we sat down and quickly found out that there was an inappropriate channel on the T.V. so we all had to turn and keep our eyes on each other and not be sucked in by the tube. I ordered a potato dish that was kind of like hash browns with some really good cheese in them with some ham sausages mixed in. It came out in this skillet and was still sizzling. It was very good! I found out mayo is really good with it when I ate 6 packets of mayo :P
After we ate it was dark out and we decided to walk to a small part of Colmar that was called small Venice. It had some canals and the houses were all lit up really nice. It was a very nice walk in the cool night air and the lights all over. It was a very unique experience that I won’t forget. We then spotted a Crepe shop and stopped and got some Crepes with Nutella. I’m seriously into Nutella now and have it when ever I can. It’s so amazing on bread in the morning. I’m going to have to try and get some when I get back into the states… though we won’t have the amazing bread. We then made our way back to the hotel and got ourselves settled. I went over to the room my cousins were staying in and hung out with them for a little bit.
We watched some Miss France show where they had all these live performers. We watched some amazing balancing acts on rolling tubes and a guy who took the head of this lady and then made it float around… we also so this amazing juggler who juggled and rolled the balls around his body. It was really cool. We also watched some soccer. Saturday night wass day lights savings time for over here so now it's 7 hour difference!
My adventure continues with... France... On a Sunday...
I got up at 7:00 and went with my uncle to pick up Broetchen (bread) to eat for breakfast. We then got back and got everything together and had a German breakfast. We had hard boiled eggs with a half soft yoke in special little stands. They eat eggs different over here. Instead of taking all the time to peal the shell you just cut the top of the egg and then scoop it all out. Talk about efficient! We also had fruit and bread with Nutella and jelly. It was a very good breakfast. After we ate I quickly got on the computer and finished up my blog on Yesterday and then helped with the dishes. We then made sure we got packed and then headed off on our adventure to France.
It was a good trip and I slept I fair amount of the way there. I woke up very very out of it right as we were crossing the border and woke up as best I could to start looking around. The first thing I saw where some mountains in the distance with snow on the tops. We stopped at a place where there was a monument set up for where the German had attacked the French. There was a bunker there and some tanks and stuff. I was able to get some cool pictures. I also tripped and got my self a nice brown spot on my jeans from the dirt :P and it had to be the weekend I only brought on pair for over night. We ate lunch in the van and then were on our way. I do have to mention that when we got there we saw a sign that told us not to leave anything in the car because it might get stolen while “you” were away. When we were out looking around we were the only ones there and while I was around back taking some pictures my aunt saw me crouching and thought I was some thief watching them… we all thought that was funny.
We drove on and saw more really cool houses and villages. My aunt had commented on how the houses seemed very bland and from that point on we saw a large number of houses that were very abstract and colorful… we kind of teased her for saying they were bland. I wanted to take some pictures, but there were a couple people in need of the WC (bathroom) and we needed to keep pressing on. With in the next 15 minutes we learned a very important fact about the French… they obviously don’t ever need to use the bathroom because you can never find one anywhere! We decided to just go to our hotel because we knew they would have one. We got there and checked in and got a pass to open the gate to the parking garage. The van barely fit in under the archway, but we made it!
The rooms are really nice and really small. They are all three people bedrooms and they have bunk bed type beds. We then got our stuff and headed out to the museum we came here to see. We left and started walking and I noticed my camera battery was a little low so I then walked back and got it and then we were officially on our way. We got to the museum and it was filled with all the sculptors that made. There was one floor that had all these squeaky floor boards and it was very tricky to walk across the room with out making a squeak. After that we walked around Colmar and looked at different shops and then went to a church where there was a really famous painting and alter piece. I wasn’t aloud to take any pictures though. It had a really tall ceiling and had some really descriptive and detailed stained glass. After that we found a place to eat. Once we did we sat down and quickly found out that there was an inappropriate channel on the T.V. so we all had to turn and keep our eyes on each other and not be sucked in by the tube. I ordered a potato dish that was kind of like hash browns with some really good cheese in them with some ham sausages mixed in. It came out in this skillet and was still sizzling. It was very good! I found out mayo is really good with it when I ate 6 packets of mayo :P
After we ate it was dark out and we decided to walk to a small part of Colmar that was called small Venice. It had some canals and the houses were all lit up really nice. It was a very nice walk in the cool night air and the lights all over. It was a very unique experience that I won’t forget. We then spotted a Crepe shop and stopped and got some Crepes with Nutella. I’m seriously into Nutella now and have it when ever I can. It’s so amazing on bread in the morning. I’m going to have to try and get some when I get back into the states… though we won’t have the amazing bread. We then made our way back to the hotel and got ourselves settled. I went over to the room my cousins were staying in and hung out with them for a little bit.
We watched some Miss France show where they had all these live performers. We watched some amazing balancing acts on rolling tubes and a guy who took the head of this lady and then made it float around… we also so this amazing juggler who juggled and rolled the balls around his body. It was really cool. We also watched some soccer. Saturday night wass day lights savings time for over here so now it's 7 hour difference!
My adventure continues with... France... On a Sunday...
Friday, March 27, 2009
A day in Sinsheim, Germany
I was up kind of late last night watching an episode of 24, I'm kind of enjoying it, but it's kind of slow. I used to laugh at my dad for fast forwarding the shows and watching the subtitles really fast, but it actually works really well... especially when the girls are crying. I got up around 7:00 with the voice of my grandpa through my bedroom door. I very groggly got out of bed and ate some breakfast. Then we got ready for the day and went down to the bus station. We decided to go to Sinsheim for the day and visit the "Auto and Technik Museum". The bus came at 8:29 and was on time! We took the bus to another station and got on that bus and took it to the train station. It was two sort of long bus rides so I looked out the window and listened to my IPod. It was the first day I brought it along and I did it because I had three songs stuck in my head and just needed to keep listening to them so I didn't drive my self nuts humming. We then got off the bus at the train station my grandparents spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get tickets from the machine in german. It was interesting. I walked around and took some pictures and then was temporarly freeked out when it wasn't recording the pictures I took. They kept showing up as currupted files. I figured out that it was because I wasn't waiting long enough for it to aim or something. I was definitely releaved! We waited for the train and went through an underground tunnel to the other side of the tracks and it smelled like urine and smoke. Pretty gross! We waited for about 15 minutes and watched some crunstruction workers lay some footings for a foundation. They were building another station on the other side of the track as well as more tracks.
We then got on the train and I experienced my first train ride! It was pretty fun. It was a long ride to Sinsheim, but we got there in about 25-30 minutes. We walked to the museum and I was quite amazed at how big the planes were that were mounted on the buildings. We went inside and got our tickets. We had the option to watch an I-Max film, but we decided not to because we wouldn't really have enough time. So then we actually did end up going into the I-Max right away because we had to watch an introdutcion fild for the Museum. Something really funny happened. We were standing there waiting for the line to open up and we saw this mouse walking around. The area was pretty open and empty and he just ran around and looked in the corners and then walked over to a door and someone let him out. It was the strangest, most random thing ever, but funny. After we went to the I-Max thing, we started to look around.
There was a ton of cars! And all kinds of them. There were a lot of Marcedes Benz, but there were also Farraries and then a couple of the U.S. brands. There were a couple rooms of cars (Like really huge rooms!). And at least 1000 cars in all. There were countless displays of motercycles and old mopeds. There was even a large section just for military stuff like helicpters, guns, tanks and life size World War 2 models. It was a lot of fun. Oh and there were these large player organs all over the place and even machines that had a ton of instorments that would play mechanically. My grandpa stopped at almost every single one and would put the 1 Euro in to play it. The first time he did it made me jump because it was so loud! The organ could be heard through out the whole museum! My grandma and I were always able to find him though! haha
After walking around a little bit we got a little hungry and went over to the little snakc shop. I was then greatly disappointed with both things that I got to eat. One was hot chocolate which tasted like watered down dirt. Then I ate some pizza that didn't taste too well either. Oh well though, you got to have a bad food experience sometime. So then we finished looking around in the first building. There were some big trains and old tractors and bull dozers. IT was really cool! We then went over to the second building which had some airplanes in it and mor modern cars. I looked around for a little bit and took pictures. There was also a big train set that was really cool! I then climbed a huge set of stairs to the roof of the building where all the airplanes were. You were able to go into all of them. IT was a lot of fun, but they had a lot of the stuff fenced off on the inside, so you had to "look with your eyes not your hands". One of the airplanes had a big slide that went down from it and you slid down on a special pad. It was a lot of fun! I also went to the gift shop and got a cool german jacket shirt type thing. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's camouflage and has two German flag patches on the sides. I liked it and knew I wouldn't see it again so I got it.
We then left the museum and started walking back to the train station. On the train ride back I just looked out the window and thought as I wrapped my day up. I also had the song stuck in my head still. I sang it like the whole time I was at the museum, it was the worst case of "Stuck in my head" that I have ever had...
We then got home and I played some piano and hung around the house. Then we watched some family videos and I got to see myself 8 years younger :) I was so little... and now I'm so..BIG! I also got to see my little brother when he was the size of my little sister Abigail.. if not smaller. It was fun! I also wrote a story on a cool little keyboard with my cousin Ana. Then I went with my Uncle to pick up my cousin Emily at a small group she was at. We also brought to of her friends home. My uncle and I had a nice trip there listening to some of my music and I got to show him what I was interested in. I then came home and went to bed! It was definitely needed!
So that was the Friday I had in Sinsheim! It was a lot of fun, but really long!
My adventure continues with... My trip to France!
We then got on the train and I experienced my first train ride! It was pretty fun. It was a long ride to Sinsheim, but we got there in about 25-30 minutes. We walked to the museum and I was quite amazed at how big the planes were that were mounted on the buildings. We went inside and got our tickets. We had the option to watch an I-Max film, but we decided not to because we wouldn't really have enough time. So then we actually did end up going into the I-Max right away because we had to watch an introdutcion fild for the Museum. Something really funny happened. We were standing there waiting for the line to open up and we saw this mouse walking around. The area was pretty open and empty and he just ran around and looked in the corners and then walked over to a door and someone let him out. It was the strangest, most random thing ever, but funny. After we went to the I-Max thing, we started to look around.
There was a ton of cars! And all kinds of them. There were a lot of Marcedes Benz, but there were also Farraries and then a couple of the U.S. brands. There were a couple rooms of cars (Like really huge rooms!). And at least 1000 cars in all. There were countless displays of motercycles and old mopeds. There was even a large section just for military stuff like helicpters, guns, tanks and life size World War 2 models. It was a lot of fun. Oh and there were these large player organs all over the place and even machines that had a ton of instorments that would play mechanically. My grandpa stopped at almost every single one and would put the 1 Euro in to play it. The first time he did it made me jump because it was so loud! The organ could be heard through out the whole museum! My grandma and I were always able to find him though! haha
After walking around a little bit we got a little hungry and went over to the little snakc shop. I was then greatly disappointed with both things that I got to eat. One was hot chocolate which tasted like watered down dirt. Then I ate some pizza that didn't taste too well either. Oh well though, you got to have a bad food experience sometime. So then we finished looking around in the first building. There were some big trains and old tractors and bull dozers. IT was really cool! We then went over to the second building which had some airplanes in it and mor modern cars. I looked around for a little bit and took pictures. There was also a big train set that was really cool! I then climbed a huge set of stairs to the roof of the building where all the airplanes were. You were able to go into all of them. IT was a lot of fun, but they had a lot of the stuff fenced off on the inside, so you had to "look with your eyes not your hands". One of the airplanes had a big slide that went down from it and you slid down on a special pad. It was a lot of fun! I also went to the gift shop and got a cool german jacket shirt type thing. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's camouflage and has two German flag patches on the sides. I liked it and knew I wouldn't see it again so I got it.
We then left the museum and started walking back to the train station. On the train ride back I just looked out the window and thought as I wrapped my day up. I also had the song stuck in my head still. I sang it like the whole time I was at the museum, it was the worst case of "Stuck in my head" that I have ever had...
We then got home and I played some piano and hung around the house. Then we watched some family videos and I got to see myself 8 years younger :) I was so little... and now I'm so..BIG! I also got to see my little brother when he was the size of my little sister Abigail.. if not smaller. It was fun! I also wrote a story on a cool little keyboard with my cousin Ana. Then I went with my Uncle to pick up my cousin Emily at a small group she was at. We also brought to of her friends home. My uncle and I had a nice trip there listening to some of my music and I got to show him what I was interested in. I then came home and went to bed! It was definitely needed!
So that was the Friday I had in Sinsheim! It was a lot of fun, but really long!
My adventure continues with... My trip to France!
Change of plans
Well because of some bad weather issues instead of skiing this weekend we are going to ski next Wednesday. Instead we are then going to all got to France. It should be fun! I will update with info on the trip when I have more, but for now, that's the update!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Weekend plans
So really quickly...
The weekend plan is to go to Oberstdorf and Ski. We were going to be leaving Friday night, but now we have changed plans and are going to be leaving at 5:00am Saterday morning to go to the ski place. It's about a four hour drive to the place so we'll get there before ten when it opens. There is usually a lot of people so we are trying to avoid the long lines. We are going to be skiing for a fair portion of the day and then we will be staying at a place called Familie Mohr . The weather is supposed to be good so I'm pretty excited.
The weekend plan is to go to Oberstdorf and Ski. We were going to be leaving Friday night, but now we have changed plans and are going to be leaving at 5:00am Saterday morning to go to the ski place. It's about a four hour drive to the place so we'll get there before ten when it opens. There is usually a lot of people so we are trying to avoid the long lines. We are going to be skiing for a fair portion of the day and then we will be staying at a place called Familie Mohr . The weather is supposed to be good so I'm pretty excited.
Today we are pretty much pulling another Tuesday. It is really cold and rainy out and we don't feel like doing much today. I'm kind of tired and could use another day to rest. I'm excited about this weekend. We aren't really sure what the whole plan is yet, but it's going to be another fun road trip. I'm also looking forward to Crete in less then two weeks! Though the flight there is going to be kind of rough. Our plane leaves at 3:00 in the morning on Saterday which means we need to be there at 1:30 and that means we have to leave the house at like 12:00 which then means we will be up to get ready...or just still up from being up... anyway it;s going to be a long day, but we'll get an extra day in Crete which will be fun! So anyway, I'm not up to much today, just hanging out. I'll probably try and get some pictures up later as well.
Till later :)
Till later :)
11th Grade Middle Schooler!
I woke up at 5:00am Wednesday and got ready for my day. I took a shower and ate a small breakfast. My stomach and what not were kind of feeling weird. I wasn't nervous or sick feeling, they were just kind of making lots of grumbling noises. So my cousins and my uncle all hopped into there little Mercedes and headed off to school. We dropped my cousin Emily off at the high school (Where I will be going on Friday) and then drove to the base where the middle school was located. We first stopped and I sent some post cards. WE got to the middle school and we all got out and went to my uncle’s class room. He teaches 7th grade English. I met one of Ana's friends and we talked for a couple of minutes. After that we got a pass from her dad and walked around the school. She introduced me to her different teachers and when I met the math teacher I knew she was going to have the best class ever (Which I was right about). It was nice to meet the teachers before hand.
The buses started pulling in so Ana and I walked over to stand in front of the school. IT was kind of cold and rainy out, but everyone was still standing outside. Ana saw a group of her friends so we walked over. The first thing that was said was... "Wow you're tall!" That was not to be the last time I heard that and many other comments. I was known as Ana's cousin or "Tall Guy". I talked with them for a while and then went inside and to her first class which was
actually a study hall type thing called seminar. We then got a pass from her teacher to go to the library instead. We walked over there and talked to a couple of her friends again. Then it was time for her first "real" class which was World History. The teacher, Mr. Cook, was very interesting. He was energetic and taught good, but he was also sarcastic. It seems the kids have a lot of fun with him. There is a lot of teasing that goes back and forth. Not really the kind of teaching I admire, but he had a good classroom and taught well. As a teacher I don't think you should tell kids to "shut up" or be sarcastic and say things like "Your face", but that's just me. In world history they were learning about the "Good Feelings Era" and then went over some test questions that they had missed. I had helped Ana study for the test and she got a 98% so I was excited for her. Oh and this is a conversation between on of the students (Andrew) and the teacher.
Andrew: *raises hand*
Mr. Cook: Yes, Andrew?
Andrew: Would you be mad if I threw this pencil at you?
Mr. Cook: No, I would not be mad, because you couldn't throw it all the way to the front of the room."
Andrew: Yeah I could, can I do it?
Mr. Cook: Sure, go ahead.
Andrew: Will you get mad or put me in detention?
Mr. Cook: No...
Andew: Will you send a letter home to my parents?
Mr. Cook: No...
Andrew: Will you do anything?
Mr. Cook: Yes...
Andrew: What?
Mr. Cook: *picks up heavy stapler*
Andrew: *eyes widen*
Mr. Cook: I'll just say it has something to do with this.
So after History class we went to science class which was my least favorite. The teacher knew her stuff, but was kind of boring and was really grumpy. No one got a 100% on this quiz they had taken and so they went over it and she kept going on about how many times they had gone over it. They were learning about the DNA and how all that worked. IT was interesting, but I didn't like her teaching at all. You need to bring a little more encouragement and happiness to learning otherwise this kids will ignore you and do their homework like the two kids across me did. I was watching the girl across from me do her math homework and was watching her do it from an upside down view. I saw her doing it wrong so I helped. It was really fun to know everything AND THEN to be able to help with out not knowing myself. It was just the start of the encouraging day I had in teaching. The boy across the table from me was interesting and asked how old I was. When I said I was 16 and in 11th grade, he gasped and I got this as a response... "Wow, good thing because if you were an 11th grader I would have been like, man you're F****** tall 8th grader." I kind of coughed and raised my eyebrows and kind of said... "Yeah I guess soo." It is sad how much kids swear and how many don't even know what they're doing. I told him he should be more creative/imaginative with his vocabulary because swearing sure isn't imaginative at all! If people really need to use a "profanity adjective" they should come up with something more interesting to say then "wow that's so D**** sweet...." Anyway... I heard a lot of swearing. After science class we went to lunch. I stood in line to get lunch and had a couple come up to me and tell me I was tall and then ask who I was. Several people like seriously had a conversation about me right in front of me like they thought I couldn't hear them o something. I heard a lot of people talking about me... especially in class. It was interesting. So I got my lunch and went and sat by Ana where I proceeded to get in trouble by the lunch lady for being an extra person on the bench at the table. I wasn't the only extra person though so two other people left and then there was room for me. IT was kind of funny. After lunch was recess. Since it was cold and wet outside they had it inside. Most of the kids just sat in the hallway, but there were two gyms with different activities going on in them. One was soccer where a bunch of kids just ran around chasing the ball and the other was basketball. I was kind of hoping for a game, but it was just a bunch of kids chasing around a basketball. I worked my way over to one of the hoops where the kids were shooting and stealing the ball from each other. Being as tall as I am I was able to jump and get the rebounds pretty well. It was kind of weird how the whole gym thing worked. There was a certain limit to the number of kids in the gym so they would blow the whistle every 5 minutes and everyone would file out and get into the line waiting to go in. One time there was like 3 people in line waiting to go in the gym and they blew the whistle and everyone got out went back in line and almost everyone went back in again. :P
Then it was time for math class!! I was pumped! Right away the teacher calmed everyone down and then introduced me. She then asked if I would like to help, which I did, so I collected homework on the right side of the class and looked through it. I was kind of confused to what she was looking for so the kids kind of helped me. Then she started the lesson which was about Transversal Angles... One of my favorite middle school math topics! After the lesson she went over the homework of the previous days work. Those who had trouble went to the back of the room where I proceeded to be a math teacher to them for 15 minutes. I drew some problems on the white board and worked through them making sure they got all the steps correct. The homework they were doing was find indirect measurements. It's the whole "if there is a 50ft tall building that casts a 20 ft shadow and there is a man standing next to the building that is 5 ft tall how long is his shadow" kind of a problem. They did well and got it. IT was a lot of fun to help out. Over the past 6 months or so I have really been thinking about being a math teacher and being in the classroom and actually doing it was encouraging and kind of made me want to do it more. I may not just teach math, I might end up teaching something else, but it was a lot of fun. And BY FAR my favorite class.
After math we went to her last class, which was English. Evidently something happened in the class earlier that morning and she had lost her temper. It was a kids birthday and two kids had given her "birthday punches". It got a little out of hand and the teacher got really upset. It was just one of those things that she would not allow EVER! When it happened in her own classroom she got very mad. She then spent about 15 minutes talking about how stupid hitting/abuse/hazing was and gave some very good reasons. I hope the kids were paying attention because it was a good life lesson. We then went over vocab words and the definitions. After that one of the girls had done a book report project and made a cake so we all had some. After science school was out and I went down stairs to find my uncle in the computer lab. I had a nice talk with the librarian there and that was fun. He was originally from
Then my uncle came and all three of us went to go pick up Ana and dropped Emily off at ballet. Then we drove to a new music store that had a ton of drum stuff! They had 6 rooms full of drums, cymbals, sticks, hand drums, trinkets... it was like drum heaven.... but it only lasted about 10 minutes. I could have spent all day there!!! It was a lot of fun! We then drove to a bible study that they have on Wednesday nights and ate at the potluck they had. The teen bible class was a lot of fun and it was a cool group of kids. At one point this kid was telling this story about how he was lost in a shoe store and I could not stop laughing. He started out talking about he had been looking at these shoes and he was very precise... like down to the minute. Being 10 years old it was interesting to hear his tale. However his brother and sister were kind of making the exaggerated faces and made a couple people start laughing. For some reason it hit me funny because I was overcome with some pretty hefty laughter and proceeded to try and hold it in which was not good because I hurt my side and my abs doing so. It felt like trying to keep a grenade from exploding by holding it really tight.... almost :P Anyway it was really funny and I wish I could have just burst out laugh so I could have gotten it over with. After bible class we went home and got ready for bed. I then stayed up and did some writing and watched a couple of shows of "number" and then went to bed.
It was a good day and very fun. I'm looking forward to Friday and going to high school with my cousin Emily!
My adventure continues with... A Rainy Thursday! :)
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