Laura Beth in Germany

Training for my new job starts on Tuesday. I've bought my "4er Tickets" for the bus/train to and from Stuttgart during the eight days of training. I signed myself up for the yearly public transit plan - I pay for 10 months and get to ride unlimited, day or night, for 12 months. It's a pretty good deal compared to the price of single tickets. Still - and I almost hate admitting this - I am going to be spending  €144 per month (the equivalent of $183) on these suckers. Talk about an arm and a leg! To all you students out there - ENJOY YOUR DISCOUNTS while they last! In preparation for training, I received a short booklet with materials about grammar, teaching styles, and the history of the company. In one section, I was asked to explain the minute differences in meaning between sentences like "Have you seen him?" and "Did you see him?". Digging back into my brain archives, I discovered that Mrs. Marquart's voice and image are still there in ...

If there's one message that Webster drilled into my brain for eternity, it's "Be involved!" And since I had some extra time while Fabian was gone, I began attending Messiah-Singers practice again. For those of you who don't know, it's a gospel choir organized by the Großbottwar Evangelical church. We sing German and English songs/hymns/spirituals either as a capella harmonies or accompanied by our rock band. Rejoining the choir was a wonderful excuse to spend time with Marlene, Uli and Philina, and I figured I would meet new people. Turns out the choir has grown! Where we used to just have 1 bass and 1 tenor, we now have 8 men with wonderful voices. There were a few familiar faces, but only 1 or 2 people were left from the time I took part in the choir six years ago. So as far as meeting new people goes, mission accomplished! We had our first performance of the fall yesterday during Schiller Sonntag - the one Sunday of the year where all the shops in Marb...

October in the States definitely has a Halloweeny vibe. But in Germany, Halloween didn't gain popularity until about the last decade. In 2006 when I was here for Halloween, only the other American in my class had a costume, and we only spotted about five families with kids under the age of 5 who even went door to door Trick-or-Treating. In fact, some of the Evangelical kids of the neigbhorhood will all go to church on All Hallow's Eve, to pray and have godly fun as an alternative to Halloween, which they describe as a "pagan festival that celebrates only evil and death."   Regardless, Halloween is gaining momentum as a secular festival in Germany. Now in 2012, you can find many of the same types of decor that you see in the stores at home - giant coffins, plastic jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treat bags, etc. However, not many people have mastered the art of pumpkin carving! Margit used to carve them whe...

It's harvest time in the Bottwartal! Today we had an usually warm day in this "Golden October" - one of the best months to be in Germany. I took the opportunity for a walk around the vineyards on the other side of town. It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the other edge of town, and then I mosied upwards for another 45, snagging the extra grapes that were left behind by the harvesters this week - not good enough for wine, but still tasty!     Above is a photo of the vines before harvesting - a process that usually involves large buckets, tractors, a portable picnic table, and comeraderie with the 10 or so friends and relatives who volunteer to help out that year. Last week you could find little groups set up at tables scattered all throughout the hills, laughing and eating buttered pretzels with their coffee (they bring along their ceramic mugs, glass plates and silverware from home). Then they got back to work, dumping bucket...

Today I became the proud keeper of a 1970's sewing box from Fabian's late grandmother. Margit and I were chatting at lunch about my mother's job as a seamstress, and how I have an un-used sewing machine at home that was too heavy for me to bring on the plane when I moved. I told her about repairing my friends' clothes at Webster, and that I would love to continue my crafty hobbies here. She told me to wait a moment, went to the laundry room, and came back with this awesome box! We drank our coffee together and then I carried the box back to my apartment - to find that it matches every single pillow, tapestry & couch in the living room and brings all my mis-matched decor together nicely.  I spent the next two hours cleaning out cobwebs, dusting the thread, and sorting between useful things and items I had to throw away. The end result is an upper level that looks like this...  ... and a lower level underneath the tray that contains yarn, scissors, safet...

The last four days of my trip were spent with my friend Paige, who is currently an au pair in the outskirts of Paris. They live in a 3-story (plus tower) house about 30 minutes from the city center by Metro, in a lovely and quiet neighborhood. The family graciously let me stay with Paige up in her tower, and I helped play with the kids here and there in between exploring the city. I was able to see all the major attractions because we were always on the go! In four days, we managed to see: Versailles palace & gardens Arc de Triomphe The Louvre - grandest museum I've ever seen     kudos to Lisa for the suggestion! Eiffel Tower Champs-Élysées - high dollar shopping street The Grand Palace The Petite Palace Moulin Rouge Montmartre - artsy district, filming location of the movie Amelie Sacré-Cœur cathedral Notre Dame - I sang Disney songs the entire time We attempted the Catacombs and the Opera House too, but had bad luck with the tour t...

As stated in the previous post, I met Katja on Friday and we carpooled down to Karlsruhe to stay with Annika for the weekend. In Germany they have a carpooling website where you can search for or offer carpooling opportunities to most major and medium-sized cities, for a fraction of the cost of a train ticket. Our passage to Karlsruhe was only 10 Euro per person. Annika welcomed us with dinner at the Thai restaurant and then we went back to her dorm to drink new wine and talk about life. We sat on the outdoor patio at the very top of the building, watched the stars, and laughed about German grammar and funny translation mistakes. The entire next day (after brunch on the town) was spent on a bike! We rode about 7km outside the city and then rode a cog lift up the side of the only hill in Karlsruhe. On top there was a lookout tower - the ruins of a castle built in the 1100s. It was very windy, but beautiful. We could see the first changing leaves of fall in the forest b...