The day-to-day and the day dreams....

Since I am in the process of applying to graduate school, I keep having to think about where I want my life to be ten years from now. The answer is...I have no idea. But all that talk has caused me to think and laugh about my current daily routine and the places and goals that I often day dream about! Here are a few snippets of both...

I am Laura Grace, the english teacher at The Dragon School. I want to visit India.

I read Dr. Seuss books out loud everyday as eager students laugh at the pictures and try to pronounce the words. I want to write a novel.

I laugh and cuddle up with my adorable students everyday. I want to fill up my entire passport.

I attend "Morgen Kreis" (translation: morning circle) every day and hold several kids on my lap while the day's announcements are made. I want to ride an elephant.

xoxo

Dragons do Faschings...

I walked into school yesterday in normal clothes and the dragons were livid. Although the party did not start till 11, they wanted me to wear my costume all day. So I went back to get suited up. And that was the beginning of the hilarious day. I do not think I can depict the day with words, so I'll just leave you with plenty of pictures!

Lina looks freaked out by my (creepy?) clown costume!

 

A special shout out to Nina Ingham, who is my most faithful blog reader, for donating these sketch books which the kids are absolutely crazy about!

 

Linn Sophie had one of my favorite costumes, a mermaid, but Eva's pink cowgirl theme was hilarious!

The games were also quite a hit...we did about 15 rounds of Limbo and the dragons had a hay day playing with the balloons and decorations!

Happy Faschings!

xoxo

Happy Faschings!

Faschings is the German version of Mardi Gras...It is quite the celebration!

Yes, that is a family of giraffes. My personal favorite.

Yesterday I went with my American neighbors to the local parade. It was hilarious. If you know me at all, you know I absolutely love costumes. So I was excited when I heard everyone dressed up for the parades...I could have stayed there people watching all day. Unfortunately I was limited to the school's costume closet, so I wore a dragon mask.

  

 Everyone from newborn babies to old folks were decked out in every kind of costume you can imagine. This little dinosaur was just too cute.

The floats in the parade were similar to Mardi Gras...but every single person on them was, you guessed it, in full costume. And instead of throwing beads, they threw candy and airplane bottles of alcohol (The Germans love a good party!). We had prime position and the parade, and because I was holding little Julian aka Spiderman, I actually had a valid reason to dive for candy. The day was hilarious and such a fun, authentic German experience.

Some schools are given the whole week off, but the dragon school is only off today and then tomorrow they come for our very own Faschings parade. Stay tuned for tomorrows festivities, too!

xoxo

Welcome to 23, Bizzell!

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to one of my funniest and closest friends, Miss Meaghan Bizzell!

From the poof hair cut and our awkward years, to infamous christmas parties, baby twin days, to long talks in the car and contemplating life over Bread and Company...

...to entertaining Wake Forest visits, to nights  spent at sonic followed by chocolate chip cookies, to countless lazy days at the beach, to ugly costumes and hilarious stories....you are a wonderful friend and I am so blessed to have you in my life.

I can't wait to show you Germany in exactly one month. Happy Birthday Bizzell! Love you!

xoxo

Dragons on Ice!

On Monday, I had the privilege (or duty...) of taking my students ice skating for the day! I was skeptical because they were being dramatic beforehand saying things like, "Laura...if you wear five coats I will not speak to you all day." I'm just trying to stay warm!! But, it ended up being hilariously wonderful day.

First of all, I had not been ice skating in at least ten years. Secondly, of the 19 kids who went, 15 owned ice skates so I was already nervous that they were going to be amazing ice skaters. Apparently not, everyone just owns ice skates here in Germany (probably because its SO COLD). Also, for the less experienced ice skaters, you could rent these little chairs/walkers with blades on the bottom like ice skates. 

I LOVED these...why weren't they around when I was a kid?!

Our new student, Dominik, happens to have a dad who is a professional ice skater so he came and showed us all some tricks. It was quite impressive.

The dragons were all levels...some were amazing and others just wanted to hold the wall all day. 

My least favorite was when they wanted to hold onto me...aka have me pull them around the rink.

We almost made it through the day without injury, but unfortunately Max fell and broke his foot on the ice. Everyone seemed completely unfazed by this, but I was really worried about him. He still has not come back to school and probably won't be here for a few weeks :(

All in all, the day was a success and the students had a really fun time!

xoxo

Reunion: Antwerp and Amsterdam

It has been wonderful having Kate and Lisa both in Europe...and all of our adventures together have been fantastically entertaining. This weekend was no exception when we visited Antwerp, Belgium and Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

We visited our friend Kate Thomas' parents, who live in Antwerp, and could not have been more welcoming or generous hosts! Mrs. Thomas gave us a tour of the beautiful port city of Antwerp, fed us delicious meals (including Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate, and Belgian beer!), and we enjoyed a weekend of chatting and discussing life. 

 

Saturday we took a day trip to Amsterdam, which was fantastic. I expected it to be dirty and full of prostitution and weed, but we actually enjoyed the scenic canals, two beautiful museums, and the quaint little restaurants. We completely avoided the red light district, which was fine by me. One of my favorite places we saw was the colorful flower market!

And, as always, after a cozy weekend in the Thomas' beautiful home, we were sad to say goodbye but are excited for our next trip together (we are considering Sweden...thoughts?)!

 xoxo

Protests at The Dragon School...

Firing someone from a job is never goes off without a hitch, but here at the dragon school it seems to be going over even worse than normal. For one, releasing two teachers at once makes it twice as noticeable. Secondly, after announcing their release to everyone, they are expected to continue teaching til the end of February. And, on top of all of that, many of the students are very unhappy about these changes. 

I walked downstairs on Thursday to find Lina, Linn Sophie, and Jonna organizing a protest. They recruited other students and got signatures before parading around the whole school chanting. I couldn't help but laugh, but it was also extremely uncomfortable given the whole context of the situation and the fact that the principal and the one of the newly fired teachers were both present.

I could not help but laugh, but Katha's face shows shock as she first saw the protest taking place! All in all, it was an interesting series of events.

And I have just returned from an absolutely wonderful weekend in Antwerp and Amsterdam...so details and photos of that will be up shortly!

 xoxo