November, the third month of this crazy adventure. Also the busiest by far of the three months. It seems like almost every weekend there was something. Pretty fantastic. The past several months have been so unlike the last three years of having just a few minutes between school, work, and activities that I sort of felt like I was doing something wrong. So to have things to fill up some of that extra time was really nice.
First - a day trip with Robert to Aachen and the place called the "Dreiländerecke," or the "Three Country Corner," where Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium all meet. First, in Aachen we visited the cathedral. I'm pretty sure it is the most beautiful church I've been to. There are unbelievable mosaics depicting different saints, apostles, and just patterns decorating every single arch, curve, and wall. Everything is sparkly and brilliantly colored. The stained glass windows are incredible. Worth a trip.
We spent a little bit of time walking through the pedestrian areas full of shops and little fountains or sculptures, where we found this slightly creepy yet uniquely interactive fountain. Each of the several figures had moveable joints, so you could bend them into really odd poses.
But the main attraction for us on this particular day to the far eastern reaches of Germany was the Dreiländerecke, or the three-country corner where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands meet. It turned into a bit more of a safari than the half-hour bus ride and five-minute walk we had imagined it to be. It was actually more like a half-hour bus ride, and a half-hour hike along a dirt road and trail through a forest to get to the top of the hill. But it was worth the effort. Just before we reached the official corner, we climbed an observation tower to check out the view.
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Semi-creepy, yet pretty forest. Robert: "this is just like those
movies where the hikers get lost and then killed by the
serial killer!" *quote may or may not be exactly accurate,
but the gist is the same. |
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| Some would say this is the best view of all... |
We kept going. Just another 20 minutes and we were there! It was glorious. There were snacks!
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| Practicing for the main event...see below |
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On the ground there are lines to mark the national boundaries.
I totally jumped over Belgium. |
I'm playing in the Big Band and Wind Band with Nicolaus Cusanus Gymnasium, the school I work at. The week after our trip to the Dreiländerecke, I got to go on the bands' 3-day retreat. We took a bus out to a hostel in a small town about an hour northeast of Bergisch Gladbach, where we slept, ate, and rehearsed Wednesday through Friday. It was a great opportunity to get to know some more students and for them to sort of get used to me as well. I discovered they play a card game they call "Arschloch," or "Asshole" in English, but my family plays it too! Except we call it Slimeball. I spent a few hours playing with them one evening, and it was fun to just sit around with some students and a few teachers. I roomed with a music teacher from NCG, whose class I sit in on every Friday, and learned that he played trombone in the Deutscher Oper in Berlin for a few years before he became a teacher! It isn't every day that you get to meet a professional musician of that level who is now teaching.
The next weekend, I went to Düsseldorf for a meeting of all the foreign language assistants working in the Cologne-Düsseldorf area. That's roughly half or a bit more of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and it includes assistants from Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, etc., so there were lots of us there. It was especially nice to see some people from the Fulbright program that I had only seen once since orientation. I also enjoyed meeting several other assistants in Cologne, and learn that there are a few that actually live pretty close to me.
Apart from having lots of opportunities to chat with other assistants, we got a tour of the NRW government building, got to visit a museum about the Ruhr region, the Weihnachtsmarkt in the Altstadt of the city, and several other things that gave us the chance to learn and see more of the region we all work so close to.
Other things I did this month:
- Played in the Big Band/Wind Band concert.
- Went skiing at an indoor, one-run "Skihalle."
- Taught a lesson in a 13th grade class.
- Celebrated Thanksgiving by buying a counter-top oven and baking a pizza.
