Blogs from Dresden, Saxony, Germany, Europe
December 24th 2011
My next stop was Dresden to visit Tim, the foreign exchanged student who lived with my family last year. Tim and his family were great about showing me around Dresden and some of the surrounding area. I learned that around Dresden is wine country and in season you can take a walk through the vineyards and do wine tastings! But I am getting ahead of myself. On my first evening, Tim showed me around the old city - everything from the Tourist Information Center to the location of Dresden's many museums. On my own the next morning, I explored the Christmas Markets - of course - and discovered another medieval market!! I also found the Pflaumentoffel, what I called Dried Plum Men, which are a traditional Christmas good luck charms in Dresden (they are supposed to ... read more
September 26th 2011
Dresden was known as the ‘Florence on the Elbe (river)’ or the 'Jewel Box', because of its baroque and rococo city centre until the beautiful city was bombed in World War II, killing thousands of civillians. Now mostly rebuilt, Altstadt (Old Town) and Neustadt (New Town) are split by the Elbe River and these days Dresden is home to many museums, beautiful old churches (like most of Europe!) and err.. hot air balloons! I had just under 2 days to explore the relatively low key city and marvel at its beauty, growth and history. To get the best possible view of the Old Town and river Elbe, I climbed one of Dresden’s most beloved icons – the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady). The church was originally built between 1726-1743 and was flattened by a bomb raid ... read more
September 13th 2011
We only spent two days in Dresden. We camped at a site about fifteen minutes from the city center and I must admit we didn't see much of the city. Having been obliterated during the war (80 % destroyed) it all looks fairly new compared to many cities in Europe and most of the old buildings that remain have turned black with age. The campsite was populated almost entirely with retired people and I think we made up a handful of folk that were under 60. Lots of white hair and socks, beige shorts and sandals. Most of them were there in camper vans and caravans, complete with kitchens and satellite dishes. Most of the people we encountered were unhelpful and slightly rude and didn't inspire us to get to know the place at all. We ... read more
July 23rd 2011
So here l am as predicted. l am back here in the wonderful world of Germany with my love Andre. We have been here since flying from the land down under on the 17th of June 2011! Leaving my crazy world behind of long work days, hungry animals, and sick mother l set out for a holiday and a visit to Andres family who have long awaited his arrival since our last departure. Although l miss my family, friends and animals back hope dearly, l am happy to be able to rest and not take on too much responsibility and have no stress right now. Since my last blog alot has changed. l was told by a specialist that l had Crohns Disease and at that point was really bad and l had to take ... read more
July 4th 2011
Yesterday it rained and dribbled and poured and was generally miserable so we visited Dresden which is a big city on the Elbe river. On a warm summer day you would sit in the cafes and near the Elbe enjoing a very scenic city but since it rained we visited the Art Gallery and the church, Frauenkirche a Lutheran church. The church was extensively bombed in the second world war and has been rebuilt almost exactly as it was. The Art Gallery houses an impressive collection of art from the 15th to 18th centuries including Vermeer and Rembrandts and has been in existence for over 300 years. All the art was evacuated during the second world war. Beside the art gallery is also a massive collecton of armour, guns and swords from the early ages. Massive ... read more
June 5th 2011
Well, to celebrate our last Sunday together, Anna, Brittany, Kara and I set out last Sunday to get some (ironic) Mexican food and ended up decided that we wanted to play in the fountains at Albertplatz and then get into the Elbe River near Old Downtown- so we did! It was pretty awesome, since it was so hot that day, and splashing around in the water was definitely something that was spontaneous and fun and a memory worth keeping forever. ... read more
June 1st 2011
The past three days (plus today) have largely just been spent doing things that need to be done here according to my schedule. Jamie took off Monday morning for Berlin, and I went to my mittelschule observation and taught six 7th graders for 90 minutes, which were the longest 90 minutes of my life. Ugggghhhh do not want to teach middle school ever oh my god. But at least after that, things got slightly better. I wrote up a full lesson plan "just in case" my teaching partner's didn't get approved by Dr. G and it's a good thing I did, because in the lesson planning meeting yesterday, he basically told me that we'll just use mine (without having ever seen it- does this say something about his faith in my abilities?). This week is a ... read more
May 25th 2011
The last two days have been mostly teaching. Yesterday I went into lesson planning only to be told that Jake, although I emailed him and ASKED him what he had covered in the class before me, had NOT told me that they had covered the topic we were going to talk about. So last night all I did was drink a bottle of wine and re-do my whole lesson plan. Which wasn't really fun. I also observed two TUD classes, which was more fun. Today, we went back to the Mittelschule and saw two more classes. This getting up at 6 AM thing is pretty much death on my schedule. After we got back, I took a nap and totally crashed, and then got ready to go teach again. I was nervous, but at least I ... read more
May 23rd 2011
We started our observation in our school today, and got to sit through two 7th grade English classes. It was super easy to find and when they gave us our schedules, we only are going 7 days in 4 weeks, lol, and only to see 2 classes per day. LOL WHAT IS THIS we totally lucked out with this, because our travel time is so low and we started late to begin with. Maybe it's to make up for the fact that we are actually teaching way more than other people. I was nervous because this morning went wonderfully, with the kids, but I had to teach tonight again with a ton of people watching, observing, and critiquing. Joern, who is one of Dr. G's assistants in the program evaluation and such, met us at our ... read more
May 19th 2011
Today was a pretty uneventful day for me. Anna and I had our last TUD observation of the week today, which was a Bioengineering class. We managed to come in again just as they were doing a role-play presentation, this time a seminar where they gave information about Hepatitis B and the link to cancer and cures. The teacher was really nice and awesome, and we just sat in the back of the classroom by two of the students and listened to the simulation seminar. It was really cool and they did really well. We hit up the grocery store again (we have to go so often because we just can't carry that much!) and then Anna and I ventured past old downtown to find this Italian restaurant that the other girls went to last night ... read more
