How is it already Thursday?

I don't know where the weeks have been going. It feels like every time I turn around it is Wednesday evening and I am done Hort for the week, and then it's the weekend. And the cycle keeps going.

This week has, so far, been a great week. The weather has improved, warm and sunny but not too hot. On Sunday, one of the other teachers and I biked all the way into Frankfurt. I don't know how far it is (maybe just over 10 km?) but it took us 50 minutes to get there. And I even made it back, in about 75 minutes! I can't even really complain, there are barely any hills. But still, I was tired. The ride is so nice though, first you go through the fields with a view of the city. And then I got to bike through some nice areas of the city that I hadn't seen before. The last part, before we got to the Main was going through the centre of town. We met up with 3 of the other teachers for a picnic lunch. We went a bit down the river because of the Museumsuferfest and just sat on a bench on the river. I think I could have stayed there all day it was so nice.

School-wise this has also been a good week. Everyone is really getting into the swing of things. I am still learning a lot of names though. I know almost all of the Hort kids, but when I am in gym (with about 50 kids) I think I know maybe 50-75% of the names. Today in sports we were outside playing some games and then learning how to throw properly. That was a lot of fun, because it is something that I can really help them with. But I also spent the time asking names and trying to remember them. I am hoping that a couple more weeks and I will have them all remembered.

Tomorrow evening we have the Parents Evening for my class. It is basically meet the teacher night, where all the parents come and listen to the teacher talk. However, apparently at this school they often run later than the hour and a half they are meant to be. Sometimes even an hour over! All the teachers will be there - classroom teacher, sports, English and German. I will mostly sit after having introduced myself, I believe. It will be nice to listen to what each teacher is planning for this term. And then the parents ask questions. And since I work at a private school I think there will be many. I will let you know after tomorrow evening!

Well I guess that is all for tonight. I will leave you with a picture of Midnight (thanks to my Mum's iPad):

Bier Bike!!!

Saturday evening I met up with a group of the other teachers to go on the Bier Bike. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the bike, but it is basically a large vehicle where you sit around a bar and pedal. Oh, and drink. The company supplies a driver, and you go all around the city while enjoying the beer or applewine. Someone also brought their iPod and we plugged it into the bikes audio system. At one point whoever was DJing couldn't get it to work though and one of the other teachers started us of on "There was a great big moose." We even had some of the non-Canadians joining in :)

One side of the bike, as the sun was setting

We had a blast! I didn't expect it to be as amazing as it was. We went as 8pm, and the evening was beautiful.

Willy Brandt Platz, and the Euro sign

Towards the Hauptbahnhof

We started south of the river, in Sachsenhausen, biking around in a big circle through the main area of Frankfurt north of the river. The bike goes right in traffic, so that was a bit interesting. It was a bit daunting to turn around and see an S-Bahn coming right for you. And occasionally when we stopped we'd all switch seats, like musical chairs... 

We stopped by the Alte Oper for a break, and took some photos:

All 14 of us on the bike :) 

And then having some fun trying to get a jumping photo. I wasn't too great a photographer:

After we were finished on the Bier Bike we headed towards the Museumsuferfest along the river. We stopped by a bar in Sachsenhausen where you can buy a meter of beer. I was kind of confused as to how a meter could define an amount of beer, but it turns out that it was a row of glasses in a rack that measured a meter. After that we headed to the river, but didn't spent too long at the Museumsuferfest (mostly to find a washroom...). Those of us who had to take the S-Bahn back headed home. Some how in the crowds we managed to find each other again and take the train together. 

Jewish Museum

On Saturday afternoon I met up with a friend at the Jewish Museum. It is about the history of Jews in Frankfurt. It was a great museum. In Frankfurt the Jews were made to live in a confined ghetto, which burned in 1711. When it was rebuilt, all the plans had to be submitted to the city council. Because of this they survived, and a model has been created for the museum.

The museum also had a lot of information about religious history. The Torah's they had were amazing. The amount of work it must have taken to hand write a Torah scroll I think is unimaginable. I took a photo of one of the beautifully decorated ones:

They also had history of the Jews during World War II. Including some information about Anne Frank, who was born in Frankfurt. One highlight was some postcards and photos of Frankfurt pre-war. The Zeil looked so nice: Now it looks so modern. 

The Zeil, pre-WWII

Museumsuferfest!!!

Yesterday was the start of the three day long Museumsuferfest. This is a festival along the Museum Embankment (Museumsufer) that includes stalls up and down both sides of the Main, special events at many of the museums, late hours for all the museums, 4€ entrance for ALL the museums, and fireworks on Sunday night. One of my TA friends and I left school early and went down at about 3:30. We walked past some of the stalls on the way to the big art gallery, the Städel Museum. However when we got there it was closed! It is under construction and will be closed until November. Later on, I also found out that the Historiches Museum is also closed! No surprise there if I had known that the building we saw demolished had been the museum. So two of the museums I really wanted to see will have to wait.

Some of the sights we saw on the way:

All the stalls up and down the Main, I've never seen so many!

One of the stalls selling champagne-like punch. It looked beautiful.

One of the many stages. I even saw competing stages: two stages set up facing each other only about 100 m apart. On this stage they had children dancing in German traditional costume.

As we were in desperate need of an air conditioned building (it was 33, super sunny and super humid), we went into the next museum, the Communications Museum. It was great. It was the history of communication from early post (circa 1700s) to modern cell phones and internet. Here are some of my highlights:

- Old letters. They had letters from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. I loved looking at the handwriting. I wish I could write like some of the old calligraphy. They also had drawings and paintings of the first mail carriers.

- The collection of Deutsche Post vehicles and post boxes:

The "Kaiserliche Post"

A post van from the 1920s or 30s. It said that this van went 18 km/h

A post VW bug, from the 1950s

Post boxes through time. It was interesting reading what they said. Some had a day of the week and a time, some had multiple days and times, others had places as well. Some just said the day of the week. Now, the post boxes look like the one of the very bottom right (of the right picture).

- Telegrams sent to and from the Titanic. Some were telling people when and where to meet them when they arrived. Others were to and from other ships about the Titanic hitting an iceberg. It was quite something walking around reading all the telegrams. 

- mail sorting machine. They had a working machine that sorts all of the letters. We even got to watch it working! The lady first told us to move back because it moves very quickly and can be dangerous. The letters are lined up in the trough at the very front of the photo (you can see a few there), and then they shoot through the computer part and into the sorting chamber. The sorting chamber then spews them out into the various black cubbies. 

Mail sorting machine

- Telephones! They had a set of rotary phones where you could phone between them and watch the machine connecting them. We had some fun trying those out:

Cara trying out the phones

- The collection of various machines. Old phones, radios, morse code transmitters, etc. 

After the Communications Museum we wandered back through the stalls and to the Römer. By the time we got there we had to sit down. So we sat on the steps of the city hall, ate chocolate covered popcorn and people watched. That revived us enough to check out the Schirn art gallery. It is not a gallery with permanent collections, but an exhibit gallery. We went into the "Secret Society" exhibit. It was weird. We couldn't really figure out the connection to secret societies for most of the works. And being all modern art, I wasn't too much of a fan. Some of it was interesting to wander round, but we didn't go to the other modern art exhibit. 

Instead, we headed to the Dom Museum inside the cathedral. This was a small collection of church related objects. Unfortunately it was all in German, so I'm not sure exactly what the relation was. They might have all come from the various churches that have stood on that site, though there were also some that did not. There was a Jewush headstone from the 14th C. They had many robes worn by priests or bishops, all the way back to the 14th C. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the amazing embroidery. There were also ornate alterpieces and decorations for the altar. There were items that must have come from chapels. The last object was a large model of what the cathedral looked like in 1942. 

The one object I took a picture of was the replica crown from the Holy Roman Emperors. It must have weighed a ton with all those huge gem stones on it!

After that we met up with some other friends for dinner, drinks and watching the amazing thunderstorm. We were sitting on a patio under cover and it was really nice watching and listening to the rain, lightning and thunder. Luckily it paused for us to leave. By the time I got home though it had started again - good thing I had an umbrella. 

This afternoon I am going to head back into Frankfurt, check out some more museums. This evening a big group of teachers are meeting up to go on the Beer Bike :)

Stadtbücherei und Kleinmarkthalle ... and more

After an early lunch I headed into Frankfurt today to meet up with a friend. I had an enjoyable afternoon wandering around with her and running some errands. The first stop was the Stadtbücherei to get a library card. For €12 I know have a year membership at the library. They have a large English section in the basement and movie collection on the main floor. It is so nice to have books to read now!

After the library we walked through an outdoor market which was a flea market and a medieval market/festival in one. This explained the odd costumes I had seem earlier on the Zeil. It wasn't a very big market, but there was a stage set up with some performers. There were also many stands, some made to look like they were medieval. One was selling wine and elixirs. Just make sure you end up with the one you went to buy! 

A medieval street performance

Then we walked through the Kleinmarkthalle. This is something I had not known about until we tried to go last weekend after it had closed. It was like going home to Granville Island. It is a covered market with all kinds of stalls set up. We looked at various foods, from meat and cheese to speciality vegetarian foods. There were also flower stalls and sweets stalls. Many looked like they were small owned businesses. There was also an upper half floor with restaurants. While the stalls were amazing to browse through, the building was rather disappointing. It was very unremarkable to the point of almost being ugly! Would have fit in in North America more than in Europe. 

The almost hidden entrance

Finally I ran some more errands. We headed over to the Römer because I had been told the information office had bike maps of the city. Indeed they did, but the map has an insert right over where I live! So, while it will be great for biking in the city and many surrounding areas, I still need to find if I can get one for closer to home. On the up side, while in the info centre we saw some advertisements for the Museumsuferfest which is next weekend. For €4 I bought a button which will get me into all the museums next weekend. Yes, €4 for ALL the city museums (oh, and there are a ton of them). And all the museums are open until 1am :) Our plan is to leave school early (we are both done at 2:15 on Fridays since we work late doing Hort earlier in the week) on Friday and head straight downtown. 

Entrance button for the Museumsuferfest

We stopped after in a little courtyard my friend had been shown by another teacher at school. It was behind the Katharinenkirche. It is also called something like the quiet corner, because you can't hear the street noise. Especially when the organ starts to play! It was a nice place to sit and have a quick snack. 

Votive candles at the Katharinenkirche

I also looked into getting a discount card for the German trains, but need to get some passport like photos of myself first. Then I can book some tickets to go to Brussels hopefully! Last stop before heading home was a cheap grocery store to buy a few things to get me through tomorrow, when all the stores will be closed (I'm having to get used to this everything closed on Sundays). 

Tomorrow I have very few plans. More relaxing and reading before back to school on Monday. If the weather doesn't rain on me I will take out my bike. Maybe even ride to somewhere on my new map! 

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Update from the week:

I had a great week at school. Busy and tiring (especially with the heat and humidity!), but getting more into the routines. My class is going to take a while to get into the routines I think, but they are fun. I just get a bit tired of them not listening. 

On Tuesday a group of teachers met up for volleyball and a barbecue. I had hort until 6, so just joined for the barbecue. We wheeled one of the cafeteria tables outside and sat around chatting and playing some football (soccer). The barbecue was a bit of a production, but they finally got it lit and working. They had bought some garlic bread which was delicious!!! I think I ate almost half of it... We are meeting up again next Wednesday for another barbecue, can't wait!

Then on Thursday some teachers got together again. The same group (ie. all the Canadians and Americans) plus some more met up at the Applewine festival. Applewine is a Hessen speciality. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos, but there were many stalls set up and a stage. The stalls were selling all kinds of applewine and food, mostly barbecued meat. I had applewine with strawberries in it. You get it in a glass (which you pay a €1 deposit for) and a huge skewer to eat the strawberries. The evening was so much fun, one of the many reasons I am so happy I came here! 

More Photos!

Just took some new photos of my apartment. I still have a list of items I want to buy (another Ikea trip!) but it's getting there. On Friday a colleague drove me to Real and I picked up a toaster oven and some baking supplies. Some things here are super cheap: Milk is €0.54 per litre and flour is €0.25 per kilo!

Kitchen, with a new toaster oven

Office area of my room

Bed/Couch

Busy Weekend Update

The first update I need to share is that I have booked my first trip!! On Nov. 11 I am going to Porto, Portugal for the weekend. 3 other teachers and I are going together. We booked the tickets on Friday with not much thought because it was a Lufthansa sale. Doesn't matter because we have lots of time to figure out where to stay. I didn't know anything about Porto, but having read the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto) it looks pretty amazing!! I can't wait for November now :) I am also hoping to go to Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam before Christmas. I love living in Europe where it is possible to fly to Portugal for just a weekend!!

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In other news I finally have a washing machine. Not too excited, but it is actually quite confusing. I have never seen a washing machine like this. It is a top loading machine, but it spins like a front loader. So you have to put your clothes in, then close the spinning drum and then close the lid. The choices for washes are also very different.

Too many options...

Top load, but spins like a front loader

I still don't really know which cycle to pick. The options are cook/cotton, easy (?), fine, shirts/blouses, hand wash (cold), wool and mixed/fast. The cycles vary from half an hour to two and a half hours! Depending on the cycle the amount of clothes you can put in varies. For the fast wash you can only put in 1.5 kg where as the cook/cotton cycles take 5.5 kg. For many of the cycles you then have to choose the temperature (30,40,60 or 90 degrees for cotton). And finally you pick the spin speed, from 300 to 1000, I presume rpm. It is all so confusing, I don't know what to pick, and for what clothing! So far I don't think I have ruined anything, clothing or machine :)

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Yesterday I went into Frankfurt. I wanted to go to Staples and then meet up with some friends. I took a bus for the first time because they were redoing the tram lines and had a bus replacing the tram. Confusing when they explain the changes in German and then everyone gets off the tram (which is at a stop I didn't think it went to) and then I don't have a clue what is happening... I can't wait to learn more German. 

I spent a long time at Staples checking out all the stationary. It was great! I bought one of the pencil cases that all the kids have. They come with everything you need, and everything has it's own spot. I also bought a fountain pen to go with it. The pencil case has a spot for it, and lots of ink replacement cartridges. Oh, and of course I bought a purple one!

There were a lot of "back to school" items on sale since school has already started. I bought some other things that I need, like tape and notebooks. 

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 After my trip to Staples I headed back to the Zeil, where I met up with one of my fellow TAs. We wandered around the Zeil, the Römer, and through that area, as she showed me various places of interest. Good to know where the best chocolate stores are! She spent a year in Frankfurt about 8 months ago and is a good person to know! We tried to go to the library so I could get a library card, but it had already closed.

We did go into the cathedral. Inside they have some information about the archaeology of the site. Since it had to be rebuilt after WWII they found out some things during construction. I saw where they found the grave of the young girl from about 1500 years ago (the items from the grave are in the archaeology museum). They also showed a map of the various foundations underneath.

The black was the first church hall built in 680. The red is something from the Merovingian era. Then the church expanded with the beige in 790, and in 840 the yellow (extension and covered hall leading to the kings hall which is where the archaeological garden is. This is something else I learned about at the archaeology museum). The orange, included a "Salvatorbasilika," in 900, then in 1150 more expansions and a new west facade was built (green). In 1240 the blue extension was built. I think this is when part of the skull of St. Bartholomäus was enshrined in the cathedral. I am trying to piece all this information together from what I can read in the photo and from wikipedia. I will have to go back and read it properly. The black drawing is the church today. 

Here are some other photos of the church. When it was rebuilt it was decorated with donated pieces. In some places things creates a rather interesting style because different parts have been put together. I took some pictures of the nave and the HUGE organ. 

After some wanderings I headed home for dinner. Later in the evening I went back to Frankfurt to meet up again with my friends. 4 of us met up at an Irish pub right by the Hauptbahnhof. The place was huge, and apparently is a hang out for English speaking Frankfurt. It was nice to relax and hang out with some friends. 

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This morning I repeated what I did yesterday and went for a bike ride. Yesterday I went through the fields and came back through the forest. Today, after stopping at a post box, I headed straight for the forest. This one piece of forest isn't too big, but has lots of paths. I took the main one straight up to the road on the north side, but then found a side path to come back on. I saw lots of people walking, some other bikers and even one person on horse back. 

You can see my lovely purple bike. It is a bit squeaky but I love having it. I am looking forward to more exploring, especially when the weather isn't so muggy. Sometime I want to make it closer to the Taunus hills. One great thing about where I live: it is not at the top of a huge hill. If I ride in one direction I go up hill first and the other way, down first. It is great because I go downhill to the train station - so I can go quickly if I'm trying to catch a train. But if I want to ride for fun I go the other way and get to save the downhill for the way home. No 8th Avenue hills after a day of riding :) 

If I get homesick I can just jump on my bike and ride through the forest. Or head to my friends house in the west end of Frankfurt. Near her house reminds us both of Yaletown. 

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I am going to have a relaxed rest of the day - I need to rest for the school week. I have been cleaning and organizing a bit, and later I'll probably turn on the TV. See what I can find to watch in German!

Tomorrow I have Hort after school, but then in the evening I might be going to the movies. The one movie theatre that shows movies in English has a special on Monday nights, the CineSneak. They show a movie that hasn't yet come out, but you don't know going in what movie will be played. They are all played in their original form, so most I think are in English. One of my friends and I have agreed that if it is a scary movie we will leave! 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!! 

First Days of School

School started this Monday, and so far I have been too tired to write. Even though I am still unsure of many of the routines at school, I love it. I enjoy working with the kids, I like being part of a staff, and I like the idea of working at a school for a whole year. It is also exciting for me to be part of a brand new school. Ok, well they have actually been in containers for 2 years already, but the building and half of the staff are new.

All the students, except the students in reception and grade one starting school for the first time, started on Monday. My grade ones were in reception last year so that is when they started. We met them in the foyer and then took them back to the classroom. It was fun getting to meet them and over this week start to get to know them. They are a fun class and seem to work pretty well as a class. They have been having some trouble listening...but we'll see how much of that is just getting back into school routines. The first two days there were no subject classes, the kids were with their teacher for the whole days. I liked this because it meant we got the time to get the year started and do all that beginning of the year stuff. We decorated labels for things, talked about our summer holidays, toured the new school, played outside...

Thinking about summer holidays, that conversation was rather different than any school I've been in. Students had been to France, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Turkey (that one was popular!), Spain, Switzerland! They didn't all sound like extravagant big trips, like when you go to Europe from North America, they were the equivalent of going to visit family in another province or going to California or Hawaii to lie on a beach.

On Mondays - Wednesdays I work after school running the after school daycare program, or Hort. This week was a bit hectic as kids came and went way more than they normally will (with parents touring the school and attending the opening). Today we took them outside, brought out the bin of toys and just let them play. It was fun to have some time with students from all different classes and just be able to relax and have fun with them. After it raining on and off for the past two days, today we had the perfect weather. I wish it was like today all year round.

It is interesting listening to the kids play. As most are native German speakers that is how they communicate with each other. But they are so use to teachers who only speak English. Joining in with them creates a neat mix of English and German. They know when they need to speak English, and when they need to translate. Sometimes even we have conversations where I am able to pick up what they are saying in German and respond in English. And no this isn't because I have an amazing ability to pick up languages, rather that it is amazing how much of communicating doesn't need you to understand every word that is spoken. Rather I use the non verbal cues and being able to guess what they are saying (pretty easy sometimes!). I had some interesting conversations with one of the new reception students. He speaks less English than I speak German (if any) but kept coming up and asking me things and telling me things. It was like we were having a conversation with each speaking our own language, but I think for someone who understands both it would have been pretty funny. I doubt we were actually talking about the same thing!

The new students started today. They had their big Einschulung yesterday. It is like a big welcome to school extravaganza. It even involves these weird decorated cone present-filled things that the parents give their kids. Check it out: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einschulung

Yesterday they also had the big opening for the new school building. There were press people taking pictures after school and lots of important people in suits being given personal tours by the heads. Luckily, I was doing the after school hort and so couldn't go. Today I heard that it was way too long and kind of boring. It was suppose to be from 5-7pm but didn't end until 8:30! There were students who were at hort until the end, as their parents were attending. At about 6:20 I went home as there weren't too many students and the hort coordinator said he'd stay until the end.

Well that was quite a bit longer than I'd anticipated. But now my laundry is done so I can hang that up and go to bed. A post about the laundry machine here will have to come another day!

Tschüss!

Archaeology and views of the city

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Frankfurt, and took so many photos it has taken me until today to get organized. First, I went to the Archaeology Museum. It is housed in the Carmelite Monastery and Church. Originally built in the 15th C and continually added to, first by the monks and then by the city, it has survived quite well. The museum has sections focusing on Frankfurt history from the pre-historic, Roman, and middle-ages. There is also some Greek pottery. These are all housed in the church. In the monastery you can visit the cloister and the refectory to see the restored frescoes by Jörg Ratgeb, painted in the 16th C. After the building came to the city they were white-washed over and some destroyed due to renovations. Still much of the paintings were able to be restored in the 1980s. They are all biblical depictions sponsored by monks and local people. I couldn't take any photos inside, but here is one of the church:

Carmelite Church - now the Archaeology Museum

After spending a couple hours in the museum I walked over to the Römerberg, via the Main. And what did I discover, but that there was a fair going on! Earlier I had to navigate my way around a triathlon (yes, another one!). So while almost all stores are closed on Sundays, apparently Frankfurt makes up for it by special events. Here are some things I saw at the fair:

Bubbles!

Mainufer and a Riesenrad

I then headed to the Archaeological Garden. Behind the main square and infront of the Dom, it is the ruins of various foundations. You can see:

- walls of a Roman military camp
- Roman baths from the 1st and 2nd C with characteristic heating under the floor
- remains of the Carolingian Imperial Palace, erected by Ludwig the Pious in the 9th C
- large rectangular king's hall (Aula regia) with centre piers
- parts of the northern passage to the Salcator Chapel (under the present-day cathedral)
- foundations and cellars of medieval middle-class houses

Pretty cool! In the museum they had a computer model of the Imperial Palace and how it was added to and adjusted with the king's hall and chapel as well as the Merovingian church that was where the cathedral is.

View of the Dom from the Archaeological Garden

Ancient walls and foundations

And finally, I went up the Dom. 328 stairs (of course a tiny spiral staircase) to go up 66m. The view from the top was amazing! I took a lot of photos, and here are some of the best:

View upwards, from the viewing balcony

Spiral stairs

Across to Sachsenhausen and the Dreikönigskirche

Selfie overlooking downtown

Looking west over the Römer and financial centre

Looking east down the Main