Herbstferien

Well, I have failed in my efforts to update more frequently... But I'll cut to the chase:

Travel Plans...have mostly all fallen through for fall break. Unfortunately the state of Hessen chose to not pay us our whole paychecks for the month of September, and we don't get paid again until the end of October. So the new plan is "Frugal D-land" which so far has been going rather well!

School...has been going well. The last week went by quickly, and I'm almost at a loss for what to do without having to be there 4 days a week at 8am! Not really. It's a little nice. But it was surprising how quickly I fell into a routine in just 4 weeks. Time feels like it's flying by here. Only another couple weeks of October, and then I've got quite a few plans for November, so I'm pretty sure that month is going to fly by as well.

Other Plans...include meeting up with teachers from my school and getting involved in activities at TUD (Technische Universitaet Darmstadt). Tuesday of this week I'm headed to one of my teacher's houses to do a language exchange. We'll talk a couple of hours in English, have lunch, then do a couple of hours in German, each working to help the other one speak more correctly. I've been a bit disappointed with how little practice my German has been getting. I speak so much English as school, and then much of what I do at home on my own in my apartment is in English. Watching dubbed TV is frustrating, but I do read regularly in German.

Wednesday nights I've started going to a choir group hosted by TUD. It's not just students but also a lot of other people. Last week was my first time, and it was pretty cool. I haven't been in choir or anything like it since high school, so there was definitely some nostalgia attached. The music is okay, and it's nice to have a way to socialize with other people. The choir also does fun things like go on trips and take part in competitions, so hopefully that will be something!

I've also been a couple of times now to an international church in Frankfurt. I started going with one of the teachers from my school who is also American. There's a 20s/30s kind of young professionals group there that I've started getting involved with too. They're actually planning a trip to Neuschwanstein the first weekend in November that I'm going along on. It's a mini-retreat. For those not familiar, Neuschwanstein is a castle near Munich in southern Germany that Walt Disney used as the basis for the concept of the Cinderella castle. So that's exciting.

Also in November, my friend Megan from VTech is coming to visit! She'll be here for Thanksgiving which is super exciting. I'm thrilled to have someone to celebrate with. We'll probably try to get a big group together to have a proper Thanksgiving dinner.

Alright, well that's about it for this brief update. Love to everyone!