Packing Up & Heading Out

Hi...well it is almost time to head out and say goodbye to Germany! My bags are mostly packed and today was the last day of work. Tomorrow is a free day to finish packing and hang out with people here before leaving. I guess it's not completely off because we're going in from 6-9:30, but I'm not too upset. Today was my last day working with my SAS kids which was pretty sad, but tomorrow night the other SAS workers (my age) are taking me and another guy out so I'm looking forward to that. And then all of us have to be in the lobby at 3:30 a.m. Saturday to drive about an hour to Nuremberg, because one of the girls has a 6 a.m. flight. The rest of us will fly together at 11:30, go to Amsterdam, Minneapolis, and finally Cedar Rapids. Let's hope the weather cooperates so I can get home!! I can't afford to miss more than I'm already missing at school!! I must get home! Anyways, that about wraps up this little blog and trip, and I hope to see you all very soon =) Love, Kelly

Dachau, Munich, Flossenburg, & Weiden

Hey...I cannot believe I've already spent my last weekend here in Germany! This weekend was very good...but a little depressing, as you can imagine after visiting 2 concentration camps in 2 days! On Saturday we actually worked like I already mentioned, and Sunday we went on a trip with the military rec department to Munich and the infamous Dachau concentration camp from WWII. The trips are unbelievably cheap and so convenient...the bus driver picks us up and drops us off right at our hotel door! A group of about 10 of us went together and the rest of the bus was full. We first went to Dachau which is about 30 minutes outside of Munich. We walked through the gate the prisoners walked through, which states in German, "Work brings freedom"...but the reality was that death was the only way to freedom, since over 30,000 people lost their lives in Dachau during the Nazi era. There is a huge museum there which was very informative and full of pictures and documents. We walked through the entire camp which is very large, and through all the cells, barracks, and even into the gas chambers and crematoriums. I really just felt sick imagining all the corpses that once piled up where I was standing. And to walk through the degrading undressing/cleansing rooms with hooks on the ceiling to hang people was not so pleasant. The whole area was very very calm and quite, but very creepy too. The conditions must have been horrendous. We walked through the big open area where roll call was taken and so many collapsed each morning and evening. On a lighter note, Munich was a blast. We went to the famous Haufbrahaus...Munich's most well-known beer hall. It was sooooo fun! The staff all dress up in traditional German attire, and a lot of the customers did too. There was a live band playing in full costume too and the beer mugs were enormous! I think they are 1 liter mugs haha. This is the same place Hugh Hefner took his girlfriends for his 80th birthday haha. And now I can see why =) After awhile we walked to the main square and stumbled upon a mass in one of the cathedrals. The choir was amazing and the people were all dressed in fur coats and hats. Then we went to another little German pub for some warm drinks, and then headed to the famous Glockenspiel. Munich was really fun and I thought it was funny because the store windows had manequins advertising the traditional German clothing. Monday I went along with some friends who have a car here to Flossenburg, a smaller concentration camp about an hour from here. Over 30,000 people also died here, although it was very small and located in the center of town. We walked through the valley of death where most of them were shot or died of other means of torture. A ramp still stands where they used to run wagons full of corpses from the top down to the crematorium, which also still stands. Very sickening...we also walked to the shooting range and buildings where medical experiments were conducted on innocent prisoners and hangings were done. After that I was ready to be done with concentration camps for awhile! We then drove to a university down called Weiden for some good walking around/shops. Then we headed to Vilseck for some good Italian food. Funny note about Vilseck...the railroad arms that come down for trains are still hand-cranked by a little man that runs out each time a train comes, and then he cranks them back up when the train is gone =) I'll write more later, but that's all for now. Love, Kelly

An Interesting Week...

Hello hello! Well this week has been quite interesting to say the least...on Monday my schedule was messed up because I worked with a fitness class for the spouses. Tuesday was pretty normal except for having a 6-year-old tell me he was planning to run away and kill himself because everyone else hated him. It's all taken care of now, but the other staff members told me that his dad's deployment in Iraq is starting to get to him pretty bad (he was usually one of the best-behaved and now is among the worst in only a week's time)...and I also worked with a boy who would only speak German to me, but I'm pretty sure he knows perfect English haha. That was interesting. Wednesday I was sick and stayed back watching movies all day, but am feeling great now! Yesterday our schedules were once again messed up...very sadly, 16 soldiers from our base were killed or seriously injured in Iraq this week. A special meeting was held yesterday morning for support and counseling since this is a fairly small base and I think many of the soldiers had been here for at least a few years with their families. By coincidence all of their families are currently in the states for the holidays visiting family, but it's definitely changed the mood around here. So we watched the kids for the meeting and then afterwards took a break and then worked until 9:30. The base has been very empty and "soldierless" up until this week...for some reason a lot of soldiers and families have been arriving. I thought it was kind of strange because a decent amount of the soldiers are handicapped and on crutches...not sure what the story is with that. Today (Saturday) we worked too. I had about 14 school-agers to myself so I'm not doing much tonight, I am physically and mentally exhausted! Today I learned that it may not be such a great idea after-all to take 14 kids rollerblading when you are by yourself. It's amazing nobody got injured, but then again I don't think it would be possible with all the protective gear they had on! It was pretty funny watching them...some had never done it before, and they could barely move with all the pads on, but it's a rule so I couldn't really do anything about it. But they had a good time =) Tomorrow my friends and I are headed to Munich on one of the military trips, so I'm definitely looking forward to that!!! Until later! Love, Kelly

Austria, Garmisch, and Prague

Hi again! This weekend was once again a jam-packed and fun-filled time. On Saturday we hopped on a 6:30 a.m. train down to southern Germany aka heaven on earth, and then trekked a little ways into Austria. The train took 5 1/2 hours since we had to switch in Munich and a few other towns. The train from Garmisch to Austria was beautiful! We were surrounded by the Alps and blankets of snow. We only spent about an hour walking around a small little Austrian town called Seedfeld or something. The little town was a ski-town full of horse-drawn carriages, music, and clowns...and was surrounded by the amazing Alps. We then headed back north to Garmisch (Germany), which is a bigger ski-town near the border. Major ski competitions are held here and we felt out-of-place without lugging a pair of skis over our shoulders! But the town is gorgeous and we spent most of the time just walking around. We enjoyed walking through a 1 Euro store (like a dollar store) and checking out a cathedral, shops, and some little pubs. It's so funny how the Germans take their dogs everywhere! The dogs go inside the restaurants, shops, basically anywhere their owners go. It was so neat to be in a town completely surrounded by the enormous Alps and covered in snow! On Sunday our entire group left for Prague at 5:00 a.m. on one of the military trips. We were fortunate to make it to Prague, considering Vilseck got hit with a nasty little ice/snow storm. We are only about 25 minutes to the Czech border, and maybe 2 1/2 hours from Prague, so it wasn't too bad of a bus ride. Especially with our crazy and very entertaining bus driver named Alan from Iowa...let's just say he has gray hair to the bottom of his back, missing teeth, smokes 4 packs a day, and uses more swear words than non-swear words haha. But he entertains us with his wacky stories and always drops us off at our hotel so we never have to walk home after the trips =) I've got some sweet videos of him and the rest of our travels. So-back to Prague. First we drove around the city and a native lady from Prague was our tour guide. After a little while we got off the bus and she walked us around for awhile pointing out certain areas and historical info. The city is amazing!! It was beautiful and snowed the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen in my life...they actually looked like snowflakes!! But the architecture and colors of the buildings were incredible. A huge river also flows along the city, and a big gothic cathedral, famous astronomical clock, palace, and marketplace were the highlights for me. We had a lot of time to walk around on our own, and I bought some beautiful paintings of the city and famous St. Charles Bridge. The few downsides to Prague were the freezing cold and wet weather, crowds (mostly Russians) due to holiday, and one of my friends getting pickpocketed (she lost her purse which unfortunately had her passport, wallet, eurail pass, and i-pod). But our director is taking her to the U.S. embassy in Munich tomorrow to straighten everything out for her. On a lighter note I fortunately did not lose anything, other than my circulation a few times from being cold and wet! But the snow was pretty beautiful, so I can't complain too much! Anyways, today was back to work. Luckily I had an easy day, I worked 10-12 and 2-5 only. This morning we held a fitness class for the wives of deployed spouses, and so we had on-site childcare while they worked out. We had all ages for that, and this afternoon I had my school-agers back. I'm kind of relieved they are back at school now from Christmas break! Tomorrow I'll work 12:30-9:30 so I'm looking forward to sleeping in =) Not much else, I hope to hear from you all soon!! Love, Kelly

Bamberg, Rothenburg, & New Years!

Happy New Year!! I cannot believe it's already 2008! Well, on Friday night a bunch of us just hung out here at the hotel and then on Saturday Jana and I headed to Bamberg. Bamberg is a city a couple hours away by train, and there we met up with Jana's German friend who is from Bamberg. Sylvia was amazing and gave us a full tour of the city, showed us all the good shops including a gummy bear store. We hiked up to two cathedrals, and one of them had a wedding going on which was exciting to see! We saw an amazing view of the city from the area outside the church. We spent a lot of time walking around, stopping in shops, and then Sylvia took us out for a very nice dinner and then to a neat German pub for some drinks. She also took us to her parent's home...this was very interesting because Sylvia's two sisters and brother all have their houses built right next to their parents', so all the houses are members of her family. We got to meet the family...her parents didn't speak any English, but the others did. Sylvia speaks perfect English and German since she lived in Texas for 3 years. It was so nice to have a native host to drive us around and tell us all about the city she grew up in! She is also planning to move to Des Moines in maybe a year so her daughter can attend American school, and she loves Iowa. On Sunday, Jana and I headed to a neat little city called Rothenburg Ob Tauber...which has no new buildings or stores. The city is surrounded by the original city wall, and you can actually walk around the city up on top of the wall, it was amazing! The views were great, and the little city (which was more like a village) was full of cute guesthouses and old shops and pubs. It's a little touristy, but we still enjoyed it. All the streets are cobblestone and there are horse-drawn carriages to take people around. I took some videos so you'll have those to look at later =) On the train back to Vilseck I was excited to find it was full of Spaniards! I talked to a group from Sevilla and a couple from Madrid on the way back in Spanish, pretty exciting when all you've been hearing is German and English!! Interestingly, there were a lot of Asian and Spanish tourists in Rothenburg. Yesterday (New Years Eve) we had to work, but we got off at 5. Afterwards a girl I work with named Kelly was very generous and drove me to Grafenwoer to take me to the PX and Commissary (the military version of Target and Hy-Vee). We don't have access to these ourselves, so it was very nice of her to take me, and I am so happy to have American food in the fridge!! The prices are equivalent or a little cheaper than in the U.S. and you pay in U.S. dollars so it's better than the German grocery stores. Kelly is a 24-year-old who's husband is in Iraq, and when we were driving back to Vilseck her husband called from Iraq! She was telling me a lot about the military lifestyle...fascinating! After that, our friend Sue drove Jana, Danielle, and I to Grafenwoer to meet up with our other friends. We all went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and then headed to the bars and a dance club called Ed's. It was so much fun! At midnight, everyone in the bar went outside for a crazy fireworks display right over our heads! Germans are huge into fireworks for New Years! Then we headed back into the club where the bartenders were collecting all the ashtrays, since a law passed starting Jan. 01 that bans smoking in bars here, so at 12:00 it went into effect. We stayed there until maybe 2, and then Sue was very generous to drive us back to Vilseck. We all had today off, so we all just slept in and pretty much spent all of today in bed watching movies and relaxing =) Tomorrow is back to work for another busy week! I hope you all had a great New Years! Miss you lots!
Love, Kelly

Big Kid Week

Hi! I'm pretty excited to see that some people have left me comments, I didn't think anyone would be interested in reading my incredibly long first entry =) This week I was with the big kids all week, which I really enjoyed...but it was a LONG week, even with Christmas Day off. It's been a lot of fun getting to really know the kids and finally get their names straight. I don't know why, but all of them have very unusual names like Jaybri, Tadairius, Tajay, Serran, Keeshawn, Naima, Dante, and our little problem child Timmy. I've been working with a few on their behavioral issues and slowly but surely we are noticing some slight improvements on things like listening skills, anger management, etc. But there is still a long ways to go! Today my coworker and I met with the program director here on base and we were able to bring up our concerns and thoughts on how to improve the program and activities to incorporate, so I think next week will run a little smoother (next week is the same format as this week with New Years'). Anyways I'm happy to have the next couple of days off. Tomorrow Jana my roomie and I are headed to a nearby town by train to meet up with some of her family that is German...more to come on that. Hope all is well back home, enjoy all the snow I've been hearing about! P.S. Funny thing...turning on the news here recently the CNN world headlines was broadcasting live from none other than Des Moines, IA...pretty exciting. Apparently there is some sort of political event going on?! Haha =)

To Fill You In...

Hey! So I wasn't planning on blogging for this trip, but after being here and doing so much, I want to make sure I write things down to remember and be able to share with others, since it's not so easy to keep in touch otherwise. In case you're wondering, I am here in Germany with Camp Adventure (same program that sent me to Korea) but this program is much different. First off, I am living and working on a U.S. army base in Vilseck, Germany (30 minutes from the Czech border) and working with all ages of children. I arrived on Dec. 16 or so and will be here until January 19, so it's a much shorter program, but I still get some college credits and an amazing experience! There are 7 counselors here at Vilseck and 4 at Grafenwoer (our sister base about 15 min. away). Base itself is like a small American town...we've got Subway, a movie theater, bowling alley...and well, that's about it. We are living at an on-base hotel which is really nice, there are 2 of us to a room, and each room has a tv/dvd player, 2 phones, nice bathroom (with a heated towel rack!!), etc. and breakfast is free each morning =) I can't complain about the maid service either =) Work usually consists of an 8-hour day with a 1-hour break in the middle. For me, a typical day means working in the Child Development Center in the mornings with infants-kindergarten kids, depending on the day. The afternoons are spent in a different center for school-aged kids. They are incredibly challenging to work with but a ton of fun too! Working with kids on an army base is completely different from what I've been used to...90% of the kids have at least one parent deployed to Iraq. Many kids have major emotional/behavioral problems and some have lost a parent to the war. I think the group deployed from this base has taken a pretty big hit, and has lost over 20 soldiers so far. Pretty sad and a difficult environment to be around, but at the same time I know that we can do a lot for these families just by being here. One of our main goals for being here is to help relieve the staff at the youth centers, since 75% of the staff have spouses in Iraq now...so as you can imagine there are many stressed-out people, in need of some extra breaks and time away from work! Our schedules have been somewhat varied, but we always have 2 consecutive days off each week...which means travel time! This weekend our group went on a day trip to Nuremberg, a 45-minute train ride away. Nuremberg has a world-famous Christmas market, and it was beautiful! Basically it is where the city square becomes filled with musicians, wonderful food, tons of people, and booths full of interesting ornaments and Christmas items. Nuremberg is also famous for it's role in the Nazi era, and is the location where the Nuremberg war trials were held. We visited the documentation center, similar to the Roman Coliseum, which is the worlds largest former Nazi grounds still standing. It was used for large rallies and meetings, but is currently an interactive museum about the Nazi regime and the role of Nuremberg in it all...very interesting!! We had actually planned on going to the trials courthouse, but after talking to our awesome taxi driver (who was more like a tour guide!) we were encouraged to head to the museum instead...which I'm sure was much better =) The next day we went on a tour with the Outdoor Rec program from base to 2 castles near the Austrian border. We left at 4 a.m. and drove 5 hours each way, but wow was it worth it! The tour was not expensive, and was great, we got to see some of the prettiest areas ever! We toured 2 castles, including Neuschwanstein, the famous castle Walt Disney used for the movies! Both castles are nestled up in the Bavarian Alps and located near a beautiful lake. At the bottom is a small village that was adorable! And the whole area was covered in snow. Horse-drawn carriages take people up to the castles, or you can hike. We hiked. It was exhausting. But it was amazing! We then worked on Christmas Eve, but today (Christmas) we had off. This morning we attended Christmas mass in nearby Amberg. A few of our friends who work as child behavior specialists with us both have cars and were able to drive our entire group around. Mass was in a cathedral, and included a full choir and orchestra...amazing! Everything was in German and Latin, but it was still cool to see. Afterwards, we all went to a coffee shop to hang out and talk for awhile. And then, we went to the home of one of our bosses here. She is American, but her husband is German. We had a full Christmas dinner consisting of goose, potato dumplings, ham, gluwein (hot wine), and Christmas punch...pretty much amazing! They were so welcoming and it definitely felt like Christmas time =) The remainder of today was spent watching Christmas movies. Sorry this is sooooo long! Love, Kelly