About a week left to go!

Well, a week from now I'll be heading off to Bochum to stay at Emily's. We decided that we'd then take the train to the airport together the next morning, since our flights are about a half an hour apart in Duesseldorf (and her town is at the halfway point for me...looking forward to not having to leave my apartment at 3am to make the flight).

I'm definitely becoming uber-anxious at this point, but luckily there are some distractions so that I don't go completely insane. For example, my friend Sara came to visit yesterday and we went walking around at the Weihnachtsmarkt in my city. A little Gluehwine, some Schnitzel and good conversation were all in order.

Tomorrow Emily and I are flying out to spend the weekend in Salzburg!!! We're both really looking forward to that, since we've both had previous abroad experiences in the South. In fact, my whole first month abroad during my Junior year was spend in Salzburg, so luckily we won't have to worry about getting lost. That trip will distract us for a good three days, thank God! We're staying there two nights and will fly back on Monday (flying is surprisingly cheaper than taking the train down there) Here's a link to recent coverage of the market there:

http://www.partyreporter.at/Videos/29.11.08-Salzburger-Christkindlmarkt_1179

Next week should fly by relatively quickly as well. Tuesday I give a little presentation to one of my eighth grade classes on Christmas in the US, and then later that day I'm going to bake cookies with some of my student teacher friends. Looks like I'll need to brush up on my baking vocabulary...wonder what "rolling pin" is in German??? Then on Friday I'm doing another lesson plan for one of my tenth grade classes on peaceful protests in the US and the media's influence. Sounds kinda boring, but I'm thinking it should go pretty well. At the very least the lesson plan should keep me busy up until then.

At the moment I'm getting ready to go to dinner at one of the English teachers' houses, but decided to take some time to make a blog entry because it was requested that I entertain some friends while they're hard at work at their job :)

Also getting very excited about the New Year's Eve celebration that will be taking place in Chicago in a few short weeks!!! I'll have the good fortune of being able to see all of the people in the picture below (one of my personal favorites). The only way the plans could get better would be if T could join us, but alas she now has a real job that she has to get back to and will not be able to join us. Rest assured, T - you will be with us in spirit!

But yeah, there's the update so far. I'd write about more, but to be quite honest not too much has been happening. Will post some pictures from Salzburg when I get back on Monday, because they will most definitely be spectacular.

Liebe Gruesse aus Duelmen und bis bald!