Since it's been a while there will be an influx of posts coming about different things we've done the past couple weeks! A couple Saturdays ago we hopped on the train towards the French border to the city of Saarbrucken. We were going there originally for this awesome meal and ended up finding out about shopping...so we obviously left earlier to experience both of our favorite things. We entered a three story building housing Primark aka our new favorite place in Germany. The amount of people that we saw around the city with these bags was absolutely ridiculous! There was so much to see we had to give ourselves a time limit so we wouldn't miss our dinner reservations?! We both ended up with crazy amounts of stuff for super cheap prices...seriously, a purse for 7 euro! Basically what it comes down to is we will need to make a trip back before spring break.

After our shopping adventure we headed towards The Grand. We have never seen so many people waiting outside a restaurant for it to open...actually come to think of it we've never heard of anyone waiting for something to open, unless it's Walmart on black Friday. As we skimmed the menu we were pretty excited and we realized once we got in we did not know what we had gotten ourselves into...basically each table has an ipad set up at it andthere are 5 rounds of food. Each person enters 5 items in per round of food, so if you need help with that math (we don't judge) that's 25 different food dishes. Yes, 25. Clearly we had to make a game plan and we started with lighter foods like miso soup and sushi then we moved to the big stuff like beef. Surprisingly the bacon wrapped asparagus was actually the most filling (we still managed to get about 8...). Of course we ended our courses with plenty of green and purple ice cream. Don't ask what the flavors were because we literally have no clue. Since the restaurant charges if you don't eat all the food at your table, to say we were sufficiently stuffed would be an understatement. So we showed off our American spirit (of eating ourselves to death) and made our way through this delicious evening. If you're ever in the area...definitely try this place but we reccomend not eating for about two days before...

This is for all the people that have gone through their schooling thinking teachers are awful and just need a drink or something. Well kids...they probably do need one and chances are they have them readily awaiting them on the weekends. Seriously, photo to the left is our night currently (I'm participating in my "positive reinforcement" break by writing this...and eating my snowman chicken nuggets and pizza rolls). But really, teachers do more work than any we've done in our college career. For all you teaching majors out there...we are definitely sorry to say that all the bull they put you through at school is only like 35% worth it BUT welcome to society, gotta do what you gotta do. Nothing ever really prepares you for the real world except experience and that's just that. So our daily schedule from 8-3 with kids is a blast and then the whole going in at 7, leaving at 5, taking work home and popping in at least once a weekend is the part we have been adjusting to. Elementary age kids are SUPER needy and we mean SUPERRRR needy. For example, I made copies and folded little books that the kids take home for practice reading, thinking I had everything in line I started the small group work with the books. Come to find out, the  books apparently needed to be STAPLED because they were "broken". FORRRREAL?! Yeah...it comes down to nitty gritty details that you can't pull out in an all nighter. So between our planning sessions and executing the plans we are right up there with all the other teachers in needing a drink or two...which take us to the "teachers are fun" part. 

This past weekend there was a wine festival in Freinsheim, about 45 minutes from our house via train. I can't exactly remember how many wineries there were but I can tell you there were more teachers there than I have seen during a school day! Seriously, teachers love their wine (and gluhwein for the winter). There was food at every vendor from meat on a stick (you bet that was purchased) to shrimp and potato cakes. Spending an afternoon walking through vineyards on the side of a mountain in the middle of January was pretty surreal. So next time you say comments about teachers playing around all day just remember they probably deserve it. Try running on enough coffee and diet coke to get you through 7 hours with 7 year olds...

It's Thursday night and our first three day week of the semester. Thinking back to about a month ago if someone told us we had 3 days of school we'd be jumping for joy and planning the soonest trip to Puertas margs. It's kind of funny how much has changed in our short time here so far. No, waking up early isn't fun (at all...even a little) but going to school everyday and thriving off these kids energy has been such an awesome experience. Obviously we're in a little honeymoon stage and we realize that but actually teaching classes and being 100% immersed into the school environment is so much better than the hour here and there we get through college. It's sad when you get to the end of 3.5 years and question your whole college career and major choice, so being this sad about not seeing our kids for a full week is pretty exciting stuff (yeah we're old...). 

For all our friends at home, we have been spending our evenings singing "a is for apple, a, a, apple" and looking up Storybots videos on youtube for our projects. Alex just checked out like 15 books for Presidents' day and I now have a tendency to sign while talking. Our teachers have definitely rubbed off on us though. They are both hilarious and sassy (aka older versions of us) which is totally fine. We even got invited to the poppin elementary teacher party tomorrow night. We're assuming it will be a little different than Dill (we are bringing appetizers..woah? Did I mention we're old?) but nonetheless we've been talking about this thing all week. So I think it's safe to say, we're officially teachers...

It was the first long weekend of the semester and we decided to knock out London (and apparently the use of our feet for the next week or so) on our list of "must sees". To say it was a LONG weekend would definitely be accurate...lets just begin on Friday when we realized on the ride to the airport that Alex may not be making it to London with us...

As we all know, I have been the weirdo itinerary bound planner for all of our shenanigans. I took everyones cards and booked the London passes (which are highly recommended for anyone spending a few days there), hotel and pub crawl. Since Alex happened to be in the room I thought it would totally be fine to have her book her own flight...come to find out she not only booked the wrong flight TO London (6:30 am instead of 8:00 pm..?) but she also booked the wrong flight back to Germany. Our families should probably just be happy that we didn't strangle each other arguing about this. We ended up somehow getting her on the flight with us to the city but going back we had to leave for the airport at 3:50 am and as she got to her flight (after going to the wrong gate and getting driven by security so she wouldn't miss it) the rest of us sprawled in the airport waiting area for 5 hours. Good thing people watching is prime in airports eh? 

Other than this minor (kinda not minor) mix up, the trip as a whole was great! We were able to see as much as we could in two days including the: Tower of London, Tower Bridge (we went to the top!?!), Globe Theatre, Trafalgar's Square, Covington Garden, London Bridge and tombs, Benjamin Franklin's house, Big Ben, Abbey Road, Westminster Abbey, St. John's Park, Buckingham Palace, Platform 9 3/4, Kensington Palace and gardens (*hot makeout spot...see below), and of course the London Eye. There is clearly a reason for our feet feeling like they are currently falling off but it was all totally worth it. It was amazing to actually be part of the history we have learned about our whole lives. Alex kept laughing at me for getting teary eyed when I'd realize all the people who had walked on the same places we were walking on at the time...like I said it was a long weekend. We also managed to go on a pub/dance club crawl Saturday night where we met people from all over the world! Definitely an interesting time. 

As for the last necessary story of the trip, we must talk about the London bridge experience. It was the last thing we were doing before everything was closed and of course we had no idea how to get there so we were literally running around London back and forth for a solid 25 minutes because Hailey "swore she saw it" (we promised not to hold it against her). Anyway, we really didn't know what to expect but as soon as we got in we realized someone in our group was leaving with some pee in their pants. Granted, we did learn a lot about the bridge (it's pretty morbid if you don't know) but the whole underground tombs deal was not really our cup of tea. We made it through though and since we were all drenched in sweat we figured that it was totally acceptable to stay in public. The next move was clearly to get fish and chips (and diet coke). 

We totally enjoyed our time but we realized it's not really the place for a bunch of broke college kids...or people who don't enjoy excessive amounts of PDA (*Kensington palace was a hot spot..yummm). As we lay with our feet in the air and our 5 am alarms set we are more than grateful for our experience and ready for more to come! 

As we sit in bed setting our favorite 0500 alarm we realize we have officially been in Germany for two weeks. It is pretty wild to think about but we are more than thankful for the next 15 to come!! Our last two weeks have flown by with grocery shopping, trips and minor illness between the two of us (Alex is still snoring terribly in her sleep...cute I know). Believe it or not, our morning yoga is actually going well and we are more than awake when we get to school at 7 to prepare for the day. We even go in on weekends to work with our teachers on lessons...who knew we'd get old so quickly?! 

Yesterday we got to explore Kaiserslautern (or k-town) which is similar to Indianapolis (if we're talking in terms of size). We are in a suburb of K-town and it's just a quick train ride over. We were a little nervous because apparently some guys got in a fight the night before and one got killed by being pushed into the train tracks...so that's morbid...but the train was still running the next day so we grabbed our tickets and hopped right on! The Greek restaurant we ate at was a lot fancier than we anticipated so our sweatshirts were a littttle uncomfortable but you know YOLO as Alex says (although a lot less since Germany thank goodness). We ended up ordering lamb knuckle and stuffed mushrooms. Talk about seriously stuffed! Now that we kind of know our way around we will definitely be going back. 

The day has finally come that we begin our student teaching journey here in Ramstein. As we previously discussed, Alex will be in first grade and I will be in kindergarten. We were both lucky enough to meet our teachers, who could not fit our personalities more perfectly! Our processing day was about 7 hours of sitting around...to say we weren't about to strangle each other would be a lie. Poor Dr. K actually saw Alex punch me and walk away. Don't worry, we made it through alive and with all of our IDs (that would be three if you're wondering). It's taken a few times (and some yelling back and forth) already to figure out which ID goes to what. We finally get to shop in the BX which is like the mall, grocery store, movie theatre and restaurants combined. Having everything tax free is definitely a huge perk!

Since we both have issues with the whole going to bed early and waking up early deal, we decided sleeping pills + a 10 pm bedtime are our best bet. We also have a 5 am wake up time that makes us cringe but we've solved that by preparing coffee the night before and waking up with the roomies to do morning yoga...yeah...who are we right? Well keep your britches on because we are ALSO doing the teacher workout classes after school 4 days a week. If that's not taking SB bod to the next level, I'm not sure what is (we ARE going to Italy after all). We're hoping all of this wakes us up enough to keep our energy levels as high as they need to be all day! We'll see how that all pans out in the next week...

To start off our trip and our year we decided to head to Heidelberg for a couple days. The adventure began by our alarms not going off (win) and getting lost on the trains but have no fear we had a more than fabulous time. Let's just say that siri is absolutely no help when it comes to directions in Germany...just happened to learn that the hard way. We ended up walking about ten miles around the new city and finally realizing where we needed to go to get to old town. From now on we will be relying fully on maps and not our lovely phone friend.

Old town was one of the cutest places we have ever been. Not only was the hotel cozy but everyone was so friendly and helpful! We headed straight to the Heidelberg castle when we (finally) arrived and we were definitely in for a treat when we saw the hill/stairs we had to walk up to get there. After huffing and puffing some of (all of) the way we now know why Americans get their out of shape reputation. We were able to roam around the castle and get to the old bridge before it got too dark then we obviously headed back down to find brats and beer! There was a little Christmas section square set up, fully equipped with ice skating, food and drinks. We somehow managed to make it here twice before the fireworks...aka two brats were involved but who's counting right?

When it comes to the Germans and their firework laws, we're going to go ahead and speculate that there probably aren't any. Not only did we see a guys skin melted off his finger (you're welcome for the visual) but we pretty much couldn't walk anywhere after midnight without almost getting hit...so there's that. Once we did make it out and back to the room we were able to dance around to a timber a few times while trying not to get shot by a firework through our bedroom window!

As for our first day of the new year, we managed to get ourselves into a hike all the way up the opposite mountain from the castle. How that happened, we honestly don't know. We saw a cute little trail and thought it'd be a good idea to start walking and when we got about halfway up we realized we had no water and there was a road to drive to the top of the mountain...smooth we know. Regardless, the view was beautiful and the fort at the top was from 1094?! You can actually see the opening in the mountain in the picture above. Overall, we had a fabulous time and if every trip we take is as awesome as the first we are more than ready! 

For anyone who knows us, food is clearly one of the first adventures we had to take when we arrived. While most places are closed on Sundays, there was a nice little restaurant and bar called Paradox that we stumbled upon near the train station that happened to be open! We're not going to lie...we were a little (or a lot) nervous about our first restaurant experience. Knowing us, we'd order some weird fish or offend the waitress in some way! As it turns out, pointing and talking in English actually works in our town. Thank goodness. Our waitress picked up pretty quickly on the fact that we knew absolutely no Germany except for "danke" (that's thank you for anyone who didn't know...we learned on the plane). 

We ended up going big (because go big or go home right?) and ordered schnitzel, which is a common dish here. Alex got plain schnitzel, or weiner schnitzel, and I obviously had to get something smothered in cheese, aka schnitzel parmigiano (pictured above). We were a little worried but it honestly ended up tasting a lot like chicken parmesan with thicker noodles! Of course, with dinner there must be drinks right? Well, of course there was coca cola light involved (aka diet coke, aka God's gift to earth) and then there was beer. If anyone is wondering...beer is cheaper than water here so "prost" to that right?! 

Monday we were able to make our way to two different grocery stores to scope everything out. We aren't able to get on base for another week or so, which means we needed some food to hold us over for the time being. Proudly, we got plenty of food and only spent 28 euro which is about $38. The Ecenter (first stop) was huge. Literally anything we could imagine needing was at this store and to our surprise almost none of it was refrigerated...which is actually good seeing as we blew a fuse in our kitchen and currently don't have either refrigerator (snaps to us, we know). In general, all the packaging is smaller here but everything is pretty much the same otherwise. Minus the whole "we have higher standards for food than you" deal. Some things say "tastes American"...LOL good advertising...more like "lower quality but...America"! Don't worry, we were sure the buy the "American" peanut butter (creamy not crunchy) so we won't be starving anytime soon. 

Off to make some tea (yay caffeine) and then off to Heidelberg to ring in the New Year! On that note, enjoy and Prosit Neujahr!

It has officially been one of the longest days/nights of our college career…jk we pulled an all nghter at least once a week last year, BUT it has been a little different than our average all nighter. Instead of getting to run to get Diet Coke and coffee, we had to wave down our attendant and get water so I feet didn’t swell too much. It’s probably a good thing that we weren’t allowed to take our shoes off on the plane (dance and track through high school really ruined that for us).

As a whole our trip went really smoothly and we are beyond grateful for that. We both started off by overpacking by a few pounds. The funny part of that is that the guy literally said “why don’t you just take out a couple pounds”….uhh…and magically teleport it to my house in Germany? No thanks man. Of course one of us had to get stopped at security. Yes, it was Alex. She for some reason thought the three ounce rule didn’t apply to her carry on bag. We did the whole mimosa and bloody mary deal in the morning (you can guess who got what) and of course Starbucks before the plane ride. To be honest, the biggest issue we encountered was the fact that Starbucks didn’t accept the 50% off coupon we got. Not cool Starbucks…not cool.

Our day continued in Dallas for a few hours where we enjoyed some burritos and Ben & Jerry’s (great food choices for a 9 hour plane ride if you’re wondering). We were most surprised by not only how big the plane was but how many people were just headed to Germany. This sounds very naïve of us but all we wanted to do was ask what everyone was doing because apparently we thought we were the only people going there (Hello Muncie bubble). We were both pretty fortunate for having open seats next to us on the plane flight. Yes, that means we were not next to each other. Shock and awe we know. (Okay maybe for a few hours to watch Friends and the Beyonce music videos but that's it). 

The flight was long but it wasn’t horrid. Having access to movies like Despicable Me 2 and We’re the Millers definitely made time fly a little faster. We made it safe and sound to the ever so large Frankfurt International Airport and took a shuttle to our humble abode. Alex and I will be sharing a room/floor (the second to be exact) and surprisingly we're already more unpacked than we were in Muncie. Updates will come soon enough on our house (look for a video from Alex!). We are alive and well friends. Happy Sunday from your favorite world travelers! 

Our last 24 hours are slowly dwindling here in Carmel and it's safe to say we still feel unprepared. Crossing our fingers our checked bag is under 50 lbs and scrambling to choose the most important items to squeeze into our bags have been the only things on our mind. Now that it's pretty much here, we're taking these last few precious moments we have to say our goodbyes to family and friends. We've never been the best at goodbyes, actually we are the queens of avoiding them like the plague (more Alex than myself). We will "accidentally" leave and more often than not we are called out by our friends (*cough* Looker and Taelor *cough*), but this time we are actually doing it. 

Between the emotions of that and the anxiety that's settling in, it's safe to say we are definitely going to miss good 'ol Indiana. I know personally I went to Dunkin' Donuts to get a glazed doughnut sandwich (they actually have less calories than the bagel one) and am headed to see Saving Mr. Banks with the fam. While Alex is shopping (again) and having a fam dinner later. We are truly lucky to have this experience and we are even more lucky to get to go together. So to all of our friends and family that we may not have had the chance to see, know that we love you and we'll be back!! And remember, if there's anything you'd like to see on here or hear about just shoot us an email, text, tweet, fb message, etc. We aren't falling off the face of the Earth!