Daheim is where das Herz is... : Ahoy there!

Well well... it has been a few weeks since I last posted about my winter break trip and honestly, not too much has been happening in Schleswig-Holstein. The snow piled up, the temperature dropped and then the next week the sun was out and everything melted. That's fine with me though; bring on Spring!

In mid-January the new semester started at Schule Hohe Geest (where I work), but I lucked out by still only having to teach Tuesday-Thursday. I'm looking forward to soon starting my after school English Club, where hopefully I'll be able to encourage the students to use English more and to show them that learning a language can be fun! w00t!

February is rounding the corner to being almost over and as March approaches I am getting ever more excited for our Berlin conference. In mid-March all of the English Teaching Assistants in Germany (and from some other countries around Europe) will be attending a week long gathering with other Fulbright grantees from the US and Germany. Judging by what other people said of it last year, it is quite the week. I'm excited to see other ETAs that I haven't seen since the orientation and to also meet some new people as well. There will be tours of Berlin, speakers, networking sessions, talent showcases and of course parties. I haven't been to Berlin since our Rotary Berlin Tour in 2005, so I can't wait to see it through older, more educated and experienced eyes.

In other, less work related news, my German class finished last week. I was pretty happy with the grade of "2" that I got. Just in case you freaked out when you read that, the grade scale is from 1-6, with 1 being the best. ;) I am debating taking another course next semester, in hopes of getting my C1 certificate, C1 being the highest level of foreign language certification you can get in Europe. That would certainly be a good thing to have! On the other hand, the class last semester was Thursdays from 7:30pm-9pm and Fridays from 3:15pm-6:30pm... which was a huge drag. Well, considering the new semester doesn't start until April I have some time to debate it.

Last weekend I took a little trip to Hamburg to do some sightseeing. My friend and I visited the Miniature Wunderland museum, which has huge rooms full of model trains that chug through tiny and intricate scenes from different countrysides. We also went to The Beatles museum! Since The Beatles were playing in Hamburg when they started to blow up. It is a big source of pride for Hamburgers (and yes, people from Hamburg are called 'Hamburgers'). It was pretty awesome seeing it too, since I'm a huge Beatles fan. :) Another very cool thing we did was walk out onto the frozen Alster. The Alster is a lake in the middle of the city and it is very rare that the temperature drops enough for it to entirely freeze. Well, last weekend it was the perfect conditions so the city opened the ice for people to skate on and enjoy. It was pretty much a once or twice in a lifetime experience! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. Fail.

Speaking of pictures, I got the roll of film I brought to Turkey with me developed. Some came out pretty well, so here they are: