3.12-9.12: Gingerbread man, Mercedes Benz, Weihnachtsmarkt

Just another boring week in school :) But the end of the week got a little more fun!
The English lesson for my second graders this week was about the gingerbread man. Frau Jung had brought up this idea a few weeks before. The lesson this Friday was going to be working on vocab and reading the story. Bert and I were in charge or reading the story. Well Friday morning I received a message from Bert that he had a family emergency and wouldn't make it to class. Poor guy. (All was okay in the end. No worries people!)
So off I went to read the book solo! The kids were sad that Bert wasn't there but they got over it and were very excited for the English lesson. They are so much fun. They work so hard to remember those words and there were a lot of them! Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, flour, eggs, baking powder, old man, cow, horse, fox, old man, old lady, farm, oven, river. They did so well!
I read the story twice. Then switched to the other book Frau Jung had. We read that one twice. Then we talked about the differences between the stories. They actually caught a lot of them! I honestly didn't think they would understand so much! I set the bar waaaaaay too low for them. What little amazing sponges these kids are :)
After school I headed back to the Wohnheim to finish up a few things before I headed to Sabrina's for the weekend. Bert needed to borrow my bed again this weekend because he had another friend coming to visit. So I had to clean, change the sheets, pack, and I was finally finishing up Sabrina's birthday present. Her birthday was in August. Whoops. But it's hard when we are so far apart. And then I just never got around to it. But I got it done! I made her a big poster with pictures of the two of us and put a couple of cute sayings on it plus the TWO cards I had for her. One store bought, one hand made!
She picked me up and then we turned around to take the bus to go into town. She had to buy train tickets for our excursion the next day so we stopped there first. Then we went to Marktplatz to buy her some tights to keep warm tomorrow. We stopped at H&M, got tights, and then walked around the Weihnachtsmarkt. I really wasn't in the mood to hang around downtown but I didn't have much of a choice. A couple of her friends met us in town and they all went and had Glühwein. It's this warmed up wine pretty much. The Germans drink it at Christmas time. There is also a non-alcoholic kind (Kinderpunch) which is what Sabrina normally drinks due to the fact that she doesn't like wine normally. I didn't feel like having any. I really didn't feel like doing anything but curling up in bed. Don't know what was wrong with me that day. It happens though. Another friend came too. Sabrina saw I was kind of miserable and shaking because it was cold so she found us a spot in front of the fire. Not too long later we headed home and I went to bed right away hoping sleep would help me shake off the bad mood.
Saturday we (as in all of the Erasmus and tutors) were going to the Mercedes Benz museum and then to another Weihnachtsmarkt in Esslingen. A good 8 hours of sleep sadly did not help shake the bad mood. First thing that made me smile that day was Bert :) He was borrowing my room for the weekend and I realized I didn't have a good purse with me for Saturday. So in the morning I sent him a text begging him to bring me a specific purse. And he's a rockstar and did! :) There he was, on the bus, carrying a purse :) Love that kid!
We went to the train station and waited around for the train. I chatted with Christoph a little who I hadn't seen in what felt like ages. We all got on the PACKED train. Sabrina, Dayna, Bert (and his friend), Christoph, and I all stood together. It was a good train ride. Let's just say that by the time I got off the train my head was in a MUCH better place. We walked to the Mercedes Benz museum and waited outside while Sabrina bought the tickets.

 Alas, inside we went to put away our coats and bags. I kept mine with me because it was just easier and I didn't really trust the big bin everyone was using...
We all got an audio tour thing to carry around. I got the kids version but in German. :) Sabrina, Christoph and I walked around together looking at everything. Cars aren't really my favorite thing. And neither is history. But it was nice to look at all the different things. If only all the walking didn't make my back hurt so stinking much! :/
Christoph was taking tons of pictures. Sabrina and I just walked and talked. Dayna found us at one point and joined our little group.

We had fun.

We finished walking through the museum and sat at the cafe downstairs to have a snack. Then we went back up to meet everyone else and then head to Esslingen. Once people got their ducks in a row (which took way too long for a bunch of college students) we were off to Esslingen. We got off the train in Esslingen, Sabrina told them when trains would take them back to SG, and off we all went in our little groups. Sabrina and I just stuck together. The Weihnachtsmarkt was huge! There were 2 parts: one normal and the other was medieval/middle age! It was cool. Sabrina got Glühwein (the real stuff this time!) and we walked around. I had a lot of people I was trying to find gifts for but nothing grabbed my attention. Bummer.

There were so many people it was hard to get any good pictures of anything. After about a half hour we were pretty much ready to head back to SG but had to wait almost an hour for a train. So we did a few more walk throughs, got food, and started walking back to the train station. But we STILL had time to kill. Plus it was cold. There was a small mall that we decided to pop into just to warm up and waste time. There was a huge Christmas tree inside where we snapped a few photos.

We finally headed to the train station but we were still early. So more pictures it was.

We got on the train (apparently the rest of the Erasmus students were on it too) and headed back to SG. When we got off we decided to go back to Marktplatz. I had some shopping I wanted to do and was finally in the mood to do it. Plus it was only like 5:30 or something like that. We started walking towards town and Bert and his friend followed us :) As we were walking Bert stopped. He had found a nice (and it looked practically brand new) smartphone in the snow! A couple of teenage boys claimed it was their friends but couldn't prove it. We decided to take it to the information center in Marktplatz if it was open. The boys came back with their friend on the phone who they claimed was the owner of the phone. The kid on the phone said it was his brother's phone. But once again couldn't even tell us the color or make of the phone. So sorry greedy boys. You aren't getting this phone! As we continued to walk the phone rang (just as I was saying we should look for a home contact or a mom or dad and call to let them know we have the phone). The name on the caller ID was Mama! She was so grateful we had found the phone and was at the Mexican restaurant just down the street. Bert and his friend had somewhere to be so Sabrina and I took it to the lady. Just to be sure we asked her a question about the phone and she got it right so we gave it to her. She was so happy she forced us to take 5 euro, no matter how much we said no. So we decided to give it to Bert and were on our way (finally) to Marktplatz.
So we went to H&M again where I found a couple of things for a couple of people back home (which I have yet to send. Not sure if I reeeeeally like what I bought....). We were cold and hungry and tired so we decided to go back to Sabrina's, pack the car and go to Adelberg.

Another low key weekend for us. Just the way we like it :)

Lots of love from Germany!