Stylin' Dragons...

With the whole free school thing going on, all of my students are exceptionally creative. and I love that. However, when I become the object of their creativity, things get a little interesting. The girls always want to paint my nails crazy colors, request that I wear absurd jewelry, and constantly try to style my hair. The only thing I let them do on the reg is style my hair. Lets be honest, its out of control already so they can't really do much to mess it up. And surprisingly, their styles have improved drastically over the past few months. As of late, I am really liking what they have done!

These were at the beginning of the year...a crazy twist braid and an attempt at straightening.

But recently, they did a beautiful fish tail braid and three braids merging into one...both of which I was pleasantly surprised by! Maybe this whole "free school" thing does work out in the end...

xoxo

the islands of italia!

Everyone pictures the boot when you mention Italy, but poor Sardinia and Sicily are often forgotten. I honestly forget about them too, but I will most certainly remember them now after visiting beautiful Sardinia this weekend.

It was beautiful, as I'd heard, but unfortunately the weather was not ideal. But, anything is better than the snow we've had in Germany for five months and counting.

I was in Alghero, an older port town with great historical charm. I enjoyed exploring the old city, eating delicious italian food, and soaking in the warmer-ish weather. The culture seemed typical italian with bright colors added, displayed in the rainbow duomo (pictured below)!

 However, the most fun thing I did (by far) was spend a morning collecting beach glass. I've always loved sea glass and collect a few pieces every summer at Lake Michigan. But, in Alghero, there was TONS. I mean, tons. I spent a morning wandering the rocky, less popular beaches and collecting it until my purse was completely full! It was so fun and I loved the variety of colors.

I can't decide what I should do with it, but I hope to come up with a cool way to display it and remember my Sardinian vacation (Number 54, check!). I would not necessarily recommend a solo vacation, but I would certainly recommend visiting Sardinia if you ever get the chance!

Although as I told my sister, sitting at a rooftop bar overlooking a beautiful city and ordering beachy drinks just is not as fun when you are alone :(

xoxo

Islands and Bucket Lists...

I absolutely love "bucket lists"...and my new one is trying to do 101 things in 1001 days. Ask me how that went on November 18, 2015!

I have always heard wonderful things about Sardinia...it looks nice, right?!

Have you ever taken a solo vacation? I'm headed to Alghero, Sardinia this weekend...feeling excited about the warmer weather (anything is better than this snow storm we've got going on in Germany!), the italian cuisine, and the beautiful beaches but nervous about going on an actual vacation alone. And also marking my first task off my 101 list...

Wish me luck, and please pass on any reading recommendations you may have!

xoxo

President's Day Inspiration...

"Whatever you are, be a good one."
-the one and only Abraham Lincoln

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear, for newer and richer experience." 

-the lovely Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy President's Day from Germany!

xoxo

The Black Forrest

I took a quick trip to southern Germany to check out the Black Forrest yesterday. It was neat, but I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I skied. I just took a short, icy hike up to this cool old castle with a restaurant and then enjoyed the view of Freiburg as I warmed up with a nice bowl of soup.

 The coolest part? There was an option to slide down the last part of the hike.

 I wish I was cool enough to say I'd done it, but I had shopping bags, it was icy, and I am accident prone...so sadly I decided against it. I still thought it was so awesome that the slide was there...Would you have done it?!

xoxo

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