Laura Beth in Germany

I'm not singing this year, but was proud to help with the flyer design. Anyone in Germany is welcome - if you're in need of some Christmas-feeling. I'll save you a seat!

It's noon. I just made coffee with our inherited coffee machine, which is missing the actual pot. You have to stand there and trigger the mechanism with a ladle while the coffee drips into a glass bowl, but at least I've got coffee. Outside we have our first dustings of snow, above us, fickle grey clouds and strips of blue sky. Picture the New England Christmas paintings you find wrapped around popcorn tins during the holidays. I'm sitting in one.  My Thanksgiving decorations on the living room table. Last night I had a proud moment. My Monday night students had a substitute teacher last week so that I could attend Fabi's graduation ceremony. When I returned yesterday, only 2 of 8 students were present. They tried to explain their experience with the sub, and I assisted by teaching them the expression "I couldn't get a word in." So apparently they got stuck with an overbearing English teacher. After class, my star pupil/teacher's pet (whate...

On Monday evening Fabian celebrated his graduation from the Dual University of Baden-Wurttemberg (the DHBW). Margit and I left Kleinbottwar at 4:30pm, dressed to the nines, and arrived at the convention center near the airport an hour later for the champagne reception. We met Fabi (in his spiffy new bowtie) and his father there. I helped Fabi put on his cap and gown correctly. The business school of the DHBW celebrates graduation in the Anglo-American style, with pomp and circumstance and funny costumes. Not even the public universities in Germany do this, so it was a really special evening. After champagne and jazz music in the foyer, the 2,000+ guests made their way into the hall and took their seats. The celebration opened with dancing girls, acrobats, a muscle man balancing on stilts, and a 15-foot glowing puppet in the form of a man, who "ran" through the audience in pitch darkness, controlled by 5 real people. It "reached" the stage and threw its ar...

This past weekend marked my third visit to the city of Munich. I had gone before with the Brosi family during my exchange year, when I walked around the city and the English Garden, watched the famous Glockenspiel alongside many other international tourists, and got my first buzz at the legal age of 16. In the summer of 2011, I returned to Munich with Fabian to visit his cousin. That time, we took a guided city tour, visited the expansive national museum and ate Indian food to celebrate our 1-year dating anniversary. Our visit this time was more focused on the "festivities" Munich has to offer: food, shopping and the nightlife. We stayed in an affordable, centrally-located hostel with 8 of Fabian's friends from his track and field team. We ate giant pizzas in the Italian/Thai restaurant under our hostel on the first evening, then walked back upstairs and got dressed to go out dancing. Our first club was called "Pacha", which was conn...