Hi all, I thought I had better update our blog - I seem to be getting quite slack at it! Maybe because we are almost heading home and so I almost think... well i can just tell everyone when we get home next week! Only two more sleeps until we leave Germany (can you tell I'm excited?) I will be excited to see everyone again and to see home, but not so excited to be leaving everyone here. It's good to know that we will be back though!

The Christmas markets have begun and they are beautiful - especially at night when you can see all of the christmas lights. I have bought a few little presents for people - the christmas decorations are georgous, and quite reasonably priced too. Unfortunately it has been raining for the last couple of days so not the best weather for walking around outside. But the songs and atmosphere definitely put you in the christmas spirit!

It is my last day at work today, I have received a few small presents from students and their parents which is very cute, alot of home-made pictures too hehe. It will be sad to go because a couple of the children have said that I'm not allowed to leave, and that they want to come with me in my suitcase (how cute). But again, it will be made better by knowing that I am coming back again - it makes the 'goodbyes' more like 'see you laters'.

We had a good weekend out last weekend - one of the bars in town that a rugby boy DJ's at had a special; €15 all you can drink! Needless to say we all got quite drunk... aye Jace... but had a great night. Hopefully this weekend will match it considering it's our last Saturday night to cause havoc in the city of Frankfurt! A group of us are going out for dinner tonight at an American bar in town called the 'Chicago Meatpackers' so hopefully it will be yummy food!

Anyway... I'm actually at work right now and I think the kids are about to come in from their lunch break so I had better get off the computer and start looking like I'm actually doing work. I think we are going to be making christmas decorations today so I've got a lot of hard work ahead of me (notice how I spelt 'a lot' Nicola!!)

Write soon xox

4th Posting...

It's the start of 'Movember' yay... (hear the sarcasm in my voice!) The boys have erected a shrine with photos of each other, and their mentors on our lounge room wall (we are all about class) and are going to take weekly photos to see their progress. They are all discussing what facial hair they are going to grow, what design they are going to do and are also planning a party for the end of Movember - a 70's dress up. Some of the guys are already quite hairy and it's only been 6 days!! I think us girls should make up awards for certain things like most inventive style, longest moustache and stuff like that?

The guys are going to Prague this weekend for Jared's stag night and the girls are organising a German hen's night for me... let's hope I don't get too embarrassed... but with Nicola working at the front I don't know if I like my chances... haha.

The boys played in Cologne last weekend, it was a game against a second division team and Frankfurt won 81-5. It was horrible weather and a pretty boring game really, but we got free food... mmm... it was really yummy tomato pasta. Their clubrooms were very interesting... I don't know what was happening but their were guys walking around completely naked!! I like to think it was a dare and not something that usually happens there...?

Ngatai organised a small sweepstake for the Melbourne Cup. We didn't know the names of any horses so we all just randomly chose a number and hoped for the best... I WON!! Yay, I think I get 20 euros out of it so that's pretty sweet :)

Will write more when there is more to tell, Ciao

3rd Posting

Now, as pointed out by Nicola I have been a bit lazy with updating our blog... so, my apololgies (thanks Nic...). I've also been a bit lazy with going to the gym too, only been once this week - I started the sunbed too (gotta bring a tan home for a NZ summer) but the one thing I did differently was wear no underwear... big mistake... my ass was sooooooo red!! It didn't hurt at all, but I can't imagine it looked very nice.

Today at work seemed like it took forever... we had the kids all day and I was on lunch duty :( Maybe it's a full moon tonight because the kids were nuts - really crazy! They wouldn't listen, wouldn't sit still and wouldn't keep quiet (really... what's new?) Or maybe it's Halloween? We have been decorating the classroom with witches and bats and have made Halloween masks for the kids.

We had a reasonably quiet weekend, went out for dinner with Satch & Janine to a place called Midora (I think). We both had a really nice steak... MMMmmm. Then we went to the American 'Yours' bar and had dessert and a few drinks. The boys haven't had a game for a few weeks so I think they are looking forward to playing in Cologne this weekend. Hopefully the girls will be going up too - do some sightseeing and see one of the last games for the year.

My bike has decided to crap out on me again for a wee while; the chain has come off and it's rather hard to pedal... I've been stealing 'borrowing' a bike from the driveway and no-one has complained so far. It's daylight savings now so the weather is cold and it's getting very dark very early... another excuse I used for not going to the gym tonight!

Anyways, me and my fish-fingers and off to do some socialising next door while the boys are at training, Ciao xox

2nd Posting

Nicola and I went to an Aqua-Fit class at the gym and it was awesome! It went on for about 45 minutes but it went by really quickly. I felt so un-co with some of the exercises though - I just had no balance and was flapping around in the water haha! The instructor was a male as well which I thought was a bit wierd considering it was mostly middle-aged women doing the class...

Jared and I went to the Eissporthalle (Ice-hall) and tried ice-skating today. It was really difficult... not so much to actually move around but to steer and stop was really hard! I pretty much stayed along the side so I had something to hold on to to stop me from falling over, only venturing out into the middle a couple of times. Jared was better at it than me but still had trouble stopping. There were alot of little kids there (because it's holidays) that were putting us to shame!! Skating around really fast, backwards and stopping to flick ice at their friends. A couple of little girls had these penguin things that they lean on and skate around with so that they don't fall over - I think I should have looked into getting one of those hehe!

1st Posting

Hi Guys... so Nicola has shown me how to do this website thing and I can say it's already taking up alot of my time and filling in my days during the holidays! This way, you guys can easily keep up to date with what we are both doing over here in Germany.

Jared has stubbed his toe walking up the stairs to our bedroom last week and part of the toenail has ripped off. He went to the doctor because it became swollen, red and very infected and looked as though he was getting an ingrown toenail. Instead of just fixing it like normal doctors do and because the health system over here is so particular, they wanted to send him to a dermatologist and get it x-rayed in case it was broken!! He walked out of the doctor surgery and fixed it at home by himself! Well at least we know we will be thoroughly looked after if something did happen and we needed medical care!

I have already emailed people with our recent information so will update this website when more happens.

Ciao! Amy & Jared