Kids Camp & Food

Preparations for the Easter "Kids Camp" are officially underway. I guess they probably have been for a little while already, but I've just gotten involved as of the end of last week. I will officially be teaching English for the camp...  which is a first for me. So I'm a little bit apprehensive about that, but overall very excited. I've heard good things about Easter camp, and am really looking forward to being able to take part in one of them.

That also means that come next Thursday I very possibly will have no Internet connection for about a week and a half.  That means that unless I pre-program a few short posts for my blog there'll be about a week and a half of dead-space, followed by a full write up/report on Easter camp.

In other news... I'm loving the availability of cheap food here. Last night after coming home from playing soccer at BFA I raided my refrigerator and had an awesome snack/dinner. German Bread, a little bit of lunch meat, french cheese & something to drink. Total price... my guess is about  $.75  ... in America the price would have been at least doubled. (The cheese I was eating would have been the real killer. 250g, which is just over half a pound here runs about $2.50 I would be shocked if a half pound in the states was under $7).

And the truth is... my eating habits have turned more... European in the past couple of weeks. I'm eating significantly less meat - which isn't a bad thing. I'm actually probably right around the FDA's recommendations (or at least what they were when I had my last health class... yeah PACL). My serving sizes are actually smaller, although I tend to eat a bit more often throughout the day. I'm drinking quite a bit of mineral water. &  Bread... wow... love the bread here, although I always have... its one of the things I always look forward to coming back to.

An old fashioned whippin'

I had a chance to go watch the BFA boys soccer team play against the local German team last night... wow. Congratulations BFA boys on your victory :-).

A New Week

As odd as it sounds I've been in Germany for a little while now. I'm starting my third full week of work (The here & there that I was in the office the first week was pretty minimal - there were a ton of other things that needed taking care of).

The good news is that after a couple of weeks I feel pretty settled in. Not totally at home yet, but that comes in time (I'm sure). I'm still figuring a few things out, but I seem to have a handle on the  most important things.

So overall - life is pretty good. I had a touch of something yesterday, but as of this morning I feel absolutely fine :-) Which is good considering there is work to be done!

I've also feel like I need to apologize - at this point I was hoping to have some pictures to show on the blog. However I've been having some problems with my wonderful camera, but hopefully I can have some pictures up soon!

Cold is a relative word...

So this morning I was walking to work when a German lady on a bike complete with a wool cap, and light winter jacket passed me by and shouted "Can't you feel anything?"  I was wearing a polo shirt and a pair of jeans... And I promise you it wasn't that cold: upper forties at the time, and its supposed to peak near 60.

Update

Hallo everyone & greetings from Germany,

I apologize that its been a while since I've updated. A lot has happened in the past week or so, but a lot of it isn't stuff that is prime blog-fodder. That being said: I'll try to bring anyone reading this up to speed.

1) I am in Germany. I have been for almost two weeks now (wow... still kind of amazes me). I'm settling in well so far - and have been enjoying my time here as well as the work.

2) Plans for English Camp have been progressing. I can't wait for the summer. Although its always a ton of work, and a ton of stress, looking forward to the camps being in session is something that excites all of us in the English Camp Planning team (I think I can safely say that without putting words into anyone's mouth :-) ).

3) My camera died last weekend. I'm not sure what happened. One day it was working fine... the next a black screen with lines through it is all I got when I tried to use it. The menus still work, but I think there is something wrong with the sensor... which isn't really a good sign.

3) I'm involved with a couple of projects now that have exciting implications for camp... without divulging "classified" information here is what I can share... :-)  I'm really looking forward to the theme days and adventure day... Yeah... that's right --- in the "off chance" that campers may be reading this you're not getting more information than that... yet... that's the fun of waiting until camp:-).

 

Ok... I'm going to get back to work on a few things here in the office. But I wanted to post an official update, let everyone know what is going on, let everyone know I'm alive and well, and say a very warm hello to all of you!  

Meetings

Today was a day full of meetings. we kicked the work day off with the weekly English Camp planning meeting. Without divulging too much information, I can honestly say I'm encouraged at what's going on already - and it makes me more anxious for summer to come! I can't wait for the teens to get here. But one step at a time.

We also had an office "Welcome Steve" gathering today, so I could be introduced to the people I didn't know yet, as well as tell the story of how I got here. 

We also had a "camp staff planning meeting" (*disclaimer this is not a direct translation of the German word used), which was conducted entirely in German. I can honestly say I've never been more tired after an hour and fifteen minute long meeting. It all just goes to show my German isn't entirely back yet, (I really don't expect it to be for the next couple of weeks) but it feels good to be working :-), and in a kind of strange way it feels great to be speaking German again.

So - it was kind of a psychologically hard day of meetings: planning, meeting people, having my German tested... But it was a good day nonetheless.

Back to Work

Honestly, it feels great to be back at work. I'm spending a couple of minutes today updating my blog. My work responsibilities don't get a little bit crazier until sometime next week, so I've got some time to spend updating the blog.

I got to Germany yesterday ( running on about 5 hours of sleep for the past 48 hours - so I was dead tired. I unpacked, and then was asleep by 9:30 in the evening. I slept until 9 this morning (My alarm clock said it was 7:00... it was wrong). But the truth is I really needed it. I still made it to the office on time for my orientation meeting as well - so no harm done. But I'll definitely need to make sure the clock is working from now on out (I think its loosing time - because by the time I had left for work it had lost a couple of minutes already).

It snowed last night as well - its still going now. I woke up to find that there was a couple of inches of "the white stuff" on the ground. Kandern is beautiful in the winter.

***Note: this post was written on Friday the 6th of March. I did not have internet in my apartment until this morning (Saturday. So the time stamp for it is wrong... and I'm too lazy to change it (subtext: Its an absolutely gorgeous Saturday, and I've got better things to do this afternoon than sort through blog settings).

"Every new beginnings come from some other beginnings end"

The first leg of my flight starts boarding in just over half an hour. So I'm sitting in an airport restaurant across the hall from my terminal, surfing the web, and trying to get one update in before I leave. Today starts the "Great Adventure" - actually that's not entirely true: in a lot of ways the journey started a long time ago... its just coming to fruition this afternoon. I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm a little bit nervous - but overall I'm excited.

I just wanted to get a quick update out as a first step on the journey, and thank everyone once again for all of the love and support over the past few months! Thank you all!