Snow and Lightening, Who Da Thunk

I am sitting here in our staff room working on the computer and looking at the snow falling outside. Then all of the sudden I hear thunder. What the heck? I can´t believe it. I love thunderstorms but I have never seen it with snow. It is the craziest thing.

For all of you in Missouri, I know the weather is nicer, and you probably are not getting snow. But I know your jealous of the snow/thunder combo.

Die Eisbaren!!!

Last night was so much fun. I went to my first hockey game. The team is die Eisbaren, or the Polar Bears. They are the Berlin ice hockey team. Originally when Berlin was split into two different cities, there were two ice hockey teams, just like there was two of everything. The Eisbaren were the Eastern team. Now they continue to be the team for Berlin. With that said, there were so many different kinds of uniforms the fans were wearing last night. Some were wearing the traditional eastern colors and others were wearing the newer colors. It was very interesting.

It was the Quarterfinals game for their division and Berlin was playing Hamburg. Most of the fans there were Berlin fans, but there was this small section of Hamburg fans. Fans brought drums and flags into the stadium. And when we got to our seats, there was a stiff paper waiting for us. You would fold this paper like a fan and it made your clapping even louder. I thought what a great, cheap way to get more noise into a stadium.

I went to the game with two of my girlfriends from school. When we got their we all bought the same shirts. It was great.

After the second period my friends and I were sitting around waiting for the action, when the guy in front of us starting pointing at us. My friend was like, WHAT!! and then he pointed to the Jumbo Screen in the middle of the stadium. We were on it. All three of us stood up and started screaming and dancing around. It was so much fun. I have only been on a Jumbo Screen once before in my life and so I was really excited.

The Eisbaren did win the game, which was nice. The final score was 5-3. After the game we went to a really good fondue place and ate the heck out of some cheese and bread. I even spoke to the waiter in German, I was so proud.

Also there was one other thing that happened at this game that I have never seen before in all of my history of going to sporting events: A women asked a man to marry her on the jumbo screen. I couldn't believe it, but it was true.

Below are some pictures I took of the evening, for those of you on Facebook, there will be more posted there.

Nothing Much

I don't really have any inspiring topic today. I just haven't posted in a really long time and I don't want anyone getting worried. I'm still out there doing my thing.

I'm getting pretty excited because my parents are coming to visit in less then a month now. I have been trying to plan for that that last week. We are going down to Southern Germany for a couple of days then to Switzerland. Two places I have never been before, so that is exciting. It will be nice to see some other things. I now have to plan what we should do while they are in Berlin. I know there are some touristy things I will talk them to do. I know this trip will not be a boring one for them.

School is going as usual. This week was our 100 day of school. For those of you teaching in the US, I know what your thinking. But you have to remember we are in school until July. Which is going to feel so long. Oh well. It was also Math Week at our school, and we went on a field trip. It was quite a busy week.

In my personal life I am trying to branch out and make new friends and learn some German. My roommate gave me a hard time a while back about not knowing enough Germans and not have any German friends. Of course what she doesn't realize is that it is hard to meet Germans here. You have to get into the right circle, or crowd. So I put out a post on the TU website that I was interested in meeting some people for Tandem. Which is when you talk back and forth, sometimes in German and sometimes in English. This allow the German speaker to practice their English and the English speaker to practice their German. I have met with two people so far, both of which were very nice. We talked mostly in English, as my German is "nicht so gut" but it was good.

The weather is starting to change here. I know that most of you in Kansas City have already started to have, and probably still do, good weather. Trust me I am jealous. I wish that I could be there for that. But here in Berlin, you can tell it is starting to feel more springy. It actually got up to 57 degrees this week. I just hope that it is nice when my parents come to visit. I want them to experience a little nicer weather then what it has been like here all summer.

So to recap, life is good. I miss everyone at home, and I hope all is well. Keep me updated!!!