Think It Over

I realized last night that its been a week since my last update. In blogging terms, thats like ten years. I was too tired last night (as I passed out while taking my bath, safe) to update then.

Today in Deutschland, well at least in the state of Nord-Rhein Westphalen, where I call home, it is a holiday. NRW being both a Catholic and Protestant state, we usually celebrate both holidays. :) Today is All Saints Day. So nobody is working really.I beg and pleaded to have tomorrow and Saturday off. Well, its not that hard seeing as my Saturday morning class was canceled for this week anyway and I normally on Fridays only teach one to two classes. However, I got the day off. I originally going to take the day off and go to the Consulate in Frankfurt to take care of some personal matters, however upon calling them learned that any German notary will do. Already having the days off, I booked a last minute flight to Dresden to visit my friends. Its a much needed release. This is my first weekend off since I've been here. Its going to be fantastic. I'm flying from Düsseldorf to Dresden and come back Sunday evening.

Besides that, the weather has gotten a bit worse. Now we are lucky if the daily hi's kiss around 48 or so. Some days are absolutely gorgeous and other days are absolutely miserable (ie Monday). My skin is so dry over here. I don't understand why because there is no lack of moisture in the air. I wake up and I have scratches all over my legs from where in my sleep I've been scratching my legs. Nichts kosher.

Work is fine. Sometimes I have some students who I'm convinced will never grasp the basic concepts of the English language. I have two in particular. An older Vietnamese woman who allegedly had four years English schooling 20 years ago (no, I do not believe this ever happened). She slaughters the entire language in a way I wasn't sure was possible. In this basic English class, I have students from Belarus, Turkey, Khazakistan and Germany and all of them seem to be doing just fine. This woman though kills me. Every time she opens her mouth to speak, I cringe. I left my class last night with a headache. Now, I'm a patient person and I appreciate the difficulty of learning a foreign language, but this, this takes it to a new low. I correct her and she can't seem to fix it. I have a Russian woman who is also a bit older. While she knows the basic grammar structure, etc she can't speak. She taught herself basic English so there are many mistakes that I have to correct. She's nice enough (and creepy too). She keeps paying me compliments in a way as to make me slightly uncomfortable. "You're voice is so beautiful Christopher." "Umm....thanks." Nobody has ever accused me of having a beautiful voice before, ever.

I'm really getting to know some of my colleagues and they're all pretty fantastic on a level I've not seen before. Of course, Faye and I have really taken off. We mesh real well together and I appreciate her because she's really showed me some of the inside loops here in Aachen (like where to find the best grocery store that closest to American) and what I have to do to get a German drivers license. However, I'm waiting with baited breathe for Holly to arrive. It'll be a glorious day when she arrives and we can enjoy the DE together! The FSU Colony has really taken off at full-force and for that, I'm thankful. I'm going home at Christmas and I"m looking forward to it. Only a week though. I thought about staying loner, but I needed to get back here. I have a life here and I'm going to be using this time to get ready for Holly to arrive and I'll be looking at some apartments if anybody will let me.

Gotta run. I need to get ready to leave for Dresden!