School Orientation and grocery stores

Yesterday was our first full staff meeting of the year. All the staff, both new and old and from both school campuses. It was nice to meet everyone, and surprising to see that the number of new staff is about the same as old staff. Maybe even more! In the morning various people talked about various things to us. Then in the afternoon we were paired up with the teacher/TA we will be working with and sent out into Frankfurt. Our task was to find somewhere in Frankfurt that we liked, then come back and present it to everyone else. The goal was to spend some time getting to know the other person. My teacher and I went to the Alte Oper:

I love this building, it is so architecturally beautiful. And it has a nice cafe/restaurant where you can sit outside and enjoy the view and the location. The opera house was originally built in 1880 (financed by the citizens of Frankfurt), but was destroyed in the second world war. At that time a new opera house was built. But when a politician wanted to destroy the ruins and built a tower block, the people of Frankfurt campaigned for the opera house to be rebuilt. The building you see today was opened on August 28th 1981, 30 years ago. It is no longer used for operas, but concerts and plays. 

The teacher who I am working with and I went inside to get this information about the building. We picked up a lot of brochures and also a book they made for the 25th anniversary in 2006. I took some pictures of what it looks like just inside the front entrance:

Then we spent a lovely part of the afternoon sitting in the cafe and enjoying the good weather. We did present on the Alte Oper, but were no where close to being chosen the best presentation by the staff. The group that was chosen got 100 € towards their class budget. 

That evening the school took all of the staff out for dinner. The restaurant was right off of Schweizer Platz in Sachsenhausen. This is the area south of the Main river. As another teacher and I were sitting on a bench, eating icecream and waiting for 5:30, I took a picture of two trams. Frankfurt has an amazing transit system. I have been enjoying riding the S-Bahns, U-Bahns and trams. I haven't been on any of the buses yet.

Watching the trams at Schweizer Platz

Right, I almost forgot about grocery stores! The most common grocery store from what I can tell is the Rewe. There is one about a 10 minute walk from my house. I am still getting use to shopping there, because it is different than what I am use to. But milk is super cheap, so I'm happy :) (54 cents a litre!). 

Past the fields to Rewe