First bike ride of the season

Finally on Saturday we had a day of nice, warm weather! In the midst of days forecast for rain, Saturday was 14 degrees and sunny. And the start of my holiday! I took out my bike for the first proper ride of the year. I decided on somewhere not too far, Seligenstadt, about 35 km from my house. It has been on my list of places to visit after my dad biked through there last summer.

I started out just before lunch, hoping to ride during the warmest part of the day for once. There were lots of people out on the Main, but not far out of Frankfurt the crowds petered out. I rode for about an hour, before finding a lovely place overlooking the river for lunch.

Sitting on a reclining bench and enjoying hot cross bun ham sandwiches.

The first hour of the ride was perfect. I was just warm enough, enjoying being out on my bike and the sun was shining. After that things started to go downhill...

A stop for ice cream in the very pretty Alt Steinheim, mostly to use their washroom!

The last part of the ride was a bit of a struggle. My left knee and my backside were complaining, but I finally made it! And discovered that apparently the thing to do on a sunny day is bike to Seligenstadt. The place was full of people and their bicycles. I was smart to have had my ice cream earlier, as the lineups here were 20 people long at least!

A walk around the old monastery next to the church. I want to come back in a few weeks when all these tulips are in bloom.

The buildings lining the main square. As many others in the old centre, they were beautiful timber-framed buildings. 

One of the original gates from the town wall

After about an hour of wandering around the old town, it was time to catch my train home. It only runs ever two hours, but just over 20 minutes later I was back at Frankfurt Südbahnhof - a lot easier than the journey there! Hopefully in a few weeks I will go back, when all the flowers are in bloom. Until then I think I need to buy some biking shorts, and do some more practicing!

Waiting for the regional train.

Skating and Ice Hockey

On Thursday Anna and I took our classes (43 kids) on our annual skating trip. We have been doing this for four years in a row, and it is a really enjoyable trip. We now know exactly how things work, and have our routines to make everything go smoothly. We skated for about two hours, and all had a great time.

I spent quite a while skating around with a penguin - both to find students who needed one, and because it is kind of fun.

Me, Caitlyn and Anna, taken by one of my students.

Finally, after four years of waiting, the hockey team practiced for part of the time we were there. After half an hour of skating we had to move outside, because the inside rink was taken over for their hockey practice. Caitlyn and I both spent some of our time inside just watching ...

Getting ready for their playoff match versus Kassel the next day. I think the practice was partly in English - they have 8 Canadian players and their assistant coach is Canadian.

We had 12 parents (plus a few more that just dropped by to skate for a bit?!) helping out. Fun for the kids to have their parents come, and so helpful for us. By the end the kids are pretty independent, but at the beginning 16 adults and 10 penguins don't seem to be enough to help everyone who is scared to skate on their own. Some of the kids spent most of their time falling, but at the end were refusing to use a penguin to help. One of mine even ran nose first into the boards, ouch!

Trying to return all the skates we rented!

Then last night a large group of us went to the playoff game Frankfurt Loewen vs. Kassel Huskies, at the same rink we skated the day before. It was the first round of the playoffs, and Frankfurt was down 3 games to none. Given the opponent was their biggest rivals, we were expecting a large crowd and a great game. We definitely got the crowd, not so sure about the great game. It ended 1-8 ... though it was not as lopsided as the score. I felt things went in waves. At the very beginning there was a lot of energy and excitement in the crowd.

Then Kassel scored two goals very quickly ... and the whole atmosphere deflated. Frankfurt fought well despite trailing, and in my opinion were outplaying the Huskies. Unfortunately it felt like every puck the opponents shot at the Frankfurt net went in. For a while Frankfurt was really playing hard, and the fans got back into it. Then there started to be penalties all over the place, and then it got a bit silly. One fan group took down their large banner and put it up backwards. A lot of fans were yelling insults by the end, but mostly in a joking manner, kind of let's have fun even though the score is ridiculous.

Probably right before Kassel scored a goal.

Overall it was a fun evening, and hopefully I will be able to catch an early season or pre-season game in September before I go back home.

First Outdoor Training

This weekend I really feel like spring is coming. Our weather is still cool, especially the wind, but with some sunshine it is great. Yesterday I took out my bike for the first time this year. I fixed up the back light which had been broken, took it to a gas station to pump up the tires, and had a quick cycle around Sachsenhausen. It ended up a short trip because my ears started to hurt from the wind, but it felt so good to be out!

Today we had our first outdoor softball training of the season. Three hours of having the infield to ourselves was glorious! Normally we have to share with the men's team. It took a while to get used to more space, longer throwing distances, and of course outdoor softballs, but then I just had fun. We did a bunch of different infield drills and also got to do a tiny bit of batting. Can't wait for the season to start now!

Photo courtesy of a friend

School

While we are all counting down the days (and maybe minutes) to the Easter holiday, I am still managing to have some fun with my class. We recently finished up an instructional writing unit and then did some baking. Now in math we are learning about money, so of course I had to bring some food into the unit! On Fridays we have our Dolphin Shop. The parents donate healthy food, and then the students get to buy and sell it. They each have a bank account, starting with 60 cents, and have to budget how much they want to spend each week. They love it, and it is neat to see which students really excel when the learning is so hands-on.

This week one parent sent in some very cute things. Her son has been sick all week, and I think they were bored.

The spread for the day. Some parents have a very different take on healthy food.

9 more days until we have two weeks off ... in case anyone was interested.

Kommunalwahl 2016

Today I voted in Germany!!! I got to vote in the Stadtverordnetenwahl (city government) and the Ortsbeiratswahl (neighbourhood representation).

I had some help from my housemates (one of whom kindly told me who all the crazy parties are, and banned me from voting for any of them). I also managed to find a newspaper online who had facts about each party. Pretty much I read their stand on traffic (ie. bicycles) and education ...

Ansgar reading up on the candidates - that huge paper is the ballot!!

In advance of the election we all received sample ballots in the mail. What a waste of paper! These ballots were huge! I couldn't even open the thing up completely when I was voting. For the big election for Frankfurt, everyone in the city has the same selection of people to vote for, no ridings. You have a choice if you vote for a party (and those people share your votes) or if you give out your votes individually to people. If you do that you have up to 93 votes!! Each person can receive up to 3. I really wonder if anyone actually does that, I would be so worried I would miscount and spoil my ballot accidently by giving 94 votes.

Turns out it is actually pretty easy to vote here. I took in the identification paper I got in the mail and my passport, and didn't even have to get out my passport. They gave me the ballots and then checked my name of a list. All done in about 5 minutes.

Success!!

Skiing

Last weekend a group of us from school drove out to Winterberg to go skiing. Winterberg is two hours north of Frankfurt, and surprisingly not a bad place to ski. Given it's not a really mountainous area, I was a bit sceptical. But in the end there was plenty of runs and plenty of snow. Not quite like skiing in the alps though :)

Out of the 7 of us, only 2 are regular skiers. I hadn't skied in four years and some hadn't skied since childhood. I was happy to find that I pretty much remembered what I was doing (as long as I was on a blue or red run). I fell down once, but that was not while skiing. It was trying to turn around after stopping to get something to eat! Plus I was trying to avoid taking off a kid's head ... 

We had perfect weather for skiing - just above zero and beautiful sunshine. We skied from about 11:30 to 4:30, when the runs closed. I could have kept going all evening too! Unfortunately it's a bit late in the season now, but if I'm lucky I'll get to go back at the beginning of our Easter break. For once I am actually hoping the chilly weather stays! 

Here are some photos of us:

Pretty snow on the trees, and many many people on the runs and in the lineups for the lifts!

Ceilidh, me, Adrian and Jess

Taking a break in the snow: bratwurst for lunch.

Nearing the end of the day

Anna, Anne, Ceilidh and Adrian taking a break before our last run down the hill