Dachau

Visited Dachau, the concentration camp, which now stands a memorial to the people who lost their lives there. We were only there for 3hrs but it felt much longer. There are no words to describe the horror that lingers in the air, that's seeped into the earth, and felt within the buildings.

Day 7- Dachau

Altomünster

Went down to Altomünster to visit Dachau and Munich. The drive there and back was fun, it was only about 2.5hrs. Oscar, Monica's GPS devise, took us on a couple of scenic detours but always got us were we wanted to go. I am constantly amazed by the number of Catholic Churches there are around Germany, small, large, simple, or ornate. It is wonderful to ask where the nearest Mass will be held and they point across the street! Almost as frequent as the Churches are the number of hops fields there are- we were apparently traveling through the "Beer Mug" of Germany. (Yes there are lots of pictures of fields, but there are other things too!)

Christmas Eve & Day

Christmas Eve Mass was beautiful! The church was so old and cold but so amazingly beautiful. The service ended they turned out all the lights so only the candles on the trees & alter were lit. Then we sang Silent Night, they sang in German but I quietly sang along in English. I love the Catholic Mass, no matter where I am in the world I can go and understand exactly what is happening.

Weiden

A life size Advent calendar in the center of Weiden at the Christmas Market.

The evening ended with some wonderful German desserts! Ben had the damphnudeln covered in vanilla sauce while I had a waffle with powedered surgar and caramel. (I am still surprised that at the Christmas Markets -all outdoors- they give you real plates, forks, and spoons, very rarely do give you diposable anything)

Nuremberg

We went to Nuremberg where there is the one of largest Christmas Markets (possibly THE largest). One thing I could not get over were all these dolls made of PRUNES and walnuts for heads. Not to mention they were all always looking in the same direction. CREEPY! And they were all over the place. Apparently they are traditional but still ...

I did actually eat the bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard. It was pretty tasty and was excited to take part in a very traditional German custom. However 30 minutes later I was reminded as to why I am a vegetarian. (Not too fun.)

For the rest of pictures go HERE.

Netzaberg

Monday began with another German breakfast, fresh baked bread is probably one of my favorite things ever. From there we took the autobahn to Monica's very large very nice German house. We stopped by base and went to the nearby Christmas Market. Lots of snow everywhere but I am adjusting to needing at least 5 layers with/on me at all times.

Heidelberg

I arrived in Frankfurt at 5:15 am and was in Heidelberg by 8am. Breakfast was huge wonderful event, breads, meats, cheeses, veggies, jams, and pickles. Monica’s family is so nice and welcoming, Anneliese & Guenter (aunt and uncle). After breakfast we went to the local monastery where they brew their own beer and have a little Christmas market. While there I got to have my first cup of mulled wine, the first of many come- I hope. Then we returned to house and had a traditional German lunch (or dinner as they call it). We had beef rolled around pickles and cheese with mashed potatoes and red cabbage.

After lunch we stopped by Heidelberg Army base where they have a Jesus Land(?). If it wasn’t snowing and so cold we would have gone into it so I can’t tell what Jesus Land is all about. From there we headed to the main Christmas Market.

The Christmas Market was so FABULOUS! So many stalls with tons of fun German things and from around the world. We began with another cup of the wonderful mulled wine (or Glowing Wine), Ben had hot cocoa. There were so many people there despite the snow, making the whole atmosphere festive and exciting. I would describe more but I think the pictures tell a much better story than I could.

My first day ended when my eyes refused to stay open any longer (8pm). Looking forward to tomorrow.

Friday/Saturday

I was challenged to take 25 pictures in one day. I was only able to get 8 on Friday, apprently school days just aren't that exciting. But I was then given an extention and was allowed to include Saturday pictures. The total is now 30 pictures. They are pretty normal days given that it is the holidays.

Friday after school I went to the gym and the Lighthouse.

Saturday I went on a run around my neighborhood (there is a picture at the start, middle, and end), back the Lighthouse for gingerbread decorating, and then Mass in the evening.

Slideshow

Friday/Saturday

Orchestra

I feel very cultural today.

After church this morning Jill and I went to a community orchestra concert. They played Beethoven and it sounded beautiful. The instruments were mostly played by local students (one of which being a student at YMS) and the chorus was almost entirely older Japanese people.

Deployment

Here are few pictures from the couple of days before Frank flew off in on of the 10 really cool blackhawks.

ATTACKED!!!

I was attacked in my own home!! Okay maybe I am being a little dramatic but wait for the story.

Here I am sitting on couch just finished with dinner and I decide I would like to paint my nails. Unassumingly I head upstairs when half way up what do see just as I turn the corner?? A HUGE SPIDER!! I am not exaggerating at all, see photo below. Having no bug spray in my house I get a bottle of 409 from the kitchen. Just as I begin to spray he runs away, UP the wall! So I go after him... once I am upstairs he changes direction and starts to head towards ME! I continue to spray with all my might. He starts to run downstairs and then stops, KNOWING I won't come anywhere near him and am therefor TRAPPED upstairs with a low running bottle of 409. I considered switching to hairspray but it is pump and probably wouldn't act fast enough. Luckily I find a pair of shoes I had taken up stairs. I throw them at him and I SWEAR he DUCKED so both shoes missed him. Looking around upstairs I decide the only thing I have left to throw at him are my bags of garbage. Only having two bags I have to quickly fill other bags to have enough weight to throw. Three bags later he is on the floor. I spray a huge pool of my remaining 409 and wait 5 minutes just to be sure. Thankfully I had finally won!

I am now okay but tomorrow I will be buying bug spray.

1st Day Half Done

I checked my car and it is MOLD free!! At least visable MOLD is gone, I am going to have it professionally deep cleaned. I will not have it cleaned today since we are at TCOR1- meaning a typhoon is supposed to hit soon. According the weather service we should expect it around 6pm. We are supposed to go straight home ASAP after school.

And here it is!

My MOLDY car!

And my MOLDY boots:

By Demand

I will be posting pictures of my MOLDY car soon. There will also be a surprise MOLDY picture just because I kept you waiting for so long.

Back in Japan

I have only been in Japan for 2 days but it feels more like 2 weeks.

I arrived Tuesday at 3pm into Narita. The flight itself was fine, long, boring, and cramped but nothing that bad. At the airport I luckily ran into some friends so I was able to ride back to base with them. That night I stayed with some friends who live across the street from school. Long and tiring day but with my friends it all worked out well.

Wednesday I got up at 4am- jet lag is so fun. It was really nice to see all my friends when I got back to school. At lunch I went to my car, which I hadn't seen for 10 weeks, and it was covered in MOLD!! That's right I said MOLD, like on a sandwich! It is so gross. But then I tried to take someplace to clean it and it wouldn't start! So now my car won't start and it's covered in MOLD. I called autoport and they came to tow it since it couldn't be jumped. Have I mentioned I haven't even been to my house yet? and my car is covered in MOLD!?

Thursday the autoport fixed the car and even with the tow the total was only $75. It is still covered in MOLD since even they won't touch that crap. I covered the seat with plastic bags and tried not to touch anything to take it off base to have it cleaned. The only place I can find who will even try are going to charge $420 to get rid of the MOLD!

Luckily I have really great friends, they are letting me borrow their cars until I can figure out this whole MOLD thing. Can't wait to see how things develop.

Math In Motion

The movie I created for MAET.

Graduation Party in PHX

Saturday night my family had a very nice graduation party for me. We had dinner at the Salty Senioritas then went to Maggie Moos for icecream.

Tintagel

One the second weekend we took a trip to the mythical home of King Arthur in Tintangel.

and HERE it IS

You can watch the graduation HERE!!!

GRADUATION

ON MY WAY!!!! That's my cap and gown behind me! Picture to follow!!

80's Night

Our second week here in Plymouth we all went out to an 80's bar. The decade is very popular here in England, so finding clothing is very easy (just go to the local mall).

Through the Window

Here is a "window" looking at me relaxing in Plymouth. This was a really cool class project, can't wait to do more!

Still In Plymouth

It has been brought to my attention that I have not blogged since arriving in Plymouth and I am getting a degree in tech. Very good points. And now that I am done with all the really big work I finally have the time to write.

What have I been doing you ask? Mostly I have been learning how to do thing QUICKLY!! We have had many "quick designs" to accomplish. During class our professor will tell us to make a video and we have two hours to complete it and upload it to a share drive. Below I have embedded a stop motion movie of a Haiku. We had to take close to 200 pictures before formating then loading them into a movie production program. We did not get to choose the haiku and we had to wait for "GO" to read it. Overall it was a fun process and now I know can do given a short time and a surprise topic. I am excited to try this with a topic I am passionate about and will have more time.

I will share more of my work later. For now you can follow me on twitter for more current updates as we are using that for class daily. http://twitter.com/mariall919

Back in Plymouth!

So far I have been in Plymouth 3 days. The trip here was suprisingly uneventful-- can't remember the last time I flew without some kind of yuckiness! I am sure that I am jinxing it by mentioning it here but I am too excited over the ease of travel to not comment on it.

My first night was great. There was a welcome get together-- appetizeres and wine. Then JP planned for us to visit a skooner (sp?) boat for nothing less than a wine tasting. What better way to kick of my trip to England than with lots of drinking with my old friends.

Monday was a good day back in class. Not too stressful, just getting an idea of what's to come, okay that was a little stressful. We tried to go to that mall in the afternoon to pick up a few things we forgot. But, the mall closes at 5!!!! What is that about?!?! I forgot how early everything closes around here.

Tuesday, already feels like a week! There is so much to do, I need to get my iImage together. Some picture to show my passion (math). Ideas are welcome! I also got to see the Mars Rover, VERY COOL. She is visiting for the week while the scientists have meetings to talk about the really cool things she can do.

Who says integers aren't helpful?

Better than Google?

I finally got to try the newest search engine and oh what fun!

For my birthday it told me I was born on a Monday exactly11563 days ago making me exactly 31 2/3 old! Sunrise was at 6:15am and sunset was 6:30pm, the high for the day was 98 degrees at 4pm and low was 65 degrees at 5am. The whole day was sun shiny, no clouds at all.

When I entered just Peoria, AZ and it told me the population, where it was, current time and temp.

I tried graphing equations and it will solve a system of equations giving me both the exact and approximate solutions.

There is so much more fun to be had!! Try it for yourself: http://www12.wolframalpha.com/

HAPPY MOTHRS DAY

Happy Mothers Day, MOM!!
I want to say how much my mother means to me, she is the best anyone could dream to ask for. Here are just 10 of the things I have learned from my mom.

1. Birdhouses are not always meant for birds.
2. Gambling is a legitmate investment
3. If you like a blouse you should get it in every color
4. Superbowl IS a holiday (requiring special outfits, decorations, and LOTS of food)
5. Sit ups are harder than giving birth
6. Stealing is not always a crime, what if you REALLY want it?
7. There can never be too many Christmas trees in one house
8. I am perfect, thank you very much
9. Mom's voice can make any situation better
10. There is no end to the love she can show

There is so much more I have learned from Mom. And I am pretty sure my lessons aren't over yet, thankfully.

I LOVE YOU, MOMMY!!!

May... Not so go so far

I can't believe it is already May! and almost 1/2 way through May at that. This has already been a dramtic month. From sick friends to loss of job security, I am worried for the second half of this month.

Last week we got word that Dr. Miles is planning on cutting 350 middle school teachers! That translates to 13 teachers at Yokosuka Middle school alone. Since this is only my first year (technically) I have no security at all that I will be kept. Yet another reason to switch to E.T.

This weekend I got to run in a race on Ikego base for Friendship Day. It was a very nice day, made even better since the whole week leading up to Saturday was yucky and rainy. I beat my time from my previous race and consdering this one had a hill included (both ways) I feel pretty good. Didn't beat my time but much, but still I am improving. This coming week will be my first 20mile in a very long time. I am feeling very good about my improvement. I am still behind from where I was last year but I can't dwell on that and must just look at moving forward.

Got Lost

Again! This weekend I went for a short run (about 4mi). I thought I knew the route I was taking, I had run it before...

But when I ran it before I had gotten a little lost and very luckily ended up where I need to be. Very lucky, since I expected my house to be on the right side of the road but it on the left up hill!

Back to this run... I thought I would get luckily lost again but nothing looked familiar. I was confused but didn't want to stop running to figure it out. Usually when I get lost I go though some magic vortex and end up where I need to be so I wasn't all that worried. Finally when I was reached the end of the 4mi I stopped to really look around. Turns out I had taken a wrong turn WAY back and had ended up running away from home almost the whole way. My little 40min run turned into a 2hr adventure.

That's life in Japan, you never know what to expect and getting lost is the norm.

500 miles

As of today I have officially run 500 miles with my Nike+ tracker. YAY ME!
http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/v1/html/milestones/print_certif.html?id=618738622&region=us&language=en&locale=en_us&dateFormat=MM/DD/YY

This weekend

Sunday isn't even over yet and this weekend has been very eventful!

Friday night I planned on making enchiladas for my friends and then stay the night so I could wake up on base for the Sakura 5k race. I arrived around 5pm to begin cooking, everything was going just fine by 6 with dinner being on the table at 6:30. But at 6 there was an emergency, one of the twins suddenly got sick. It was very sudden, and very scary. My friends rushed her to the hospital, thank God I was there to stay with the other baby while they ran out quickly. I was very worried and the baby was confused, she just kept saying "Sister make mess". She didn't seem worried just a little unsure about what was going on. I tried to keep things fun for her, we watched cartoons, danced, read books, took a bath, sang (poor baby), and got to bed. My friends returned just before 9pm, it felt like forever for all of us. Turns out everything is okay, there was spike in fever and now she should be okay, this was hopefully a once in a lifetime thing. Thank you Lord.

Saturday I wasn't sure if we were still going to race but since the babies were both doing okay and we weren't actually going far to race (about one block away) the two of went. I reached my goal of finishing in less than 35 min, very slow but I have to start (or restart) somewhere. That night I watched one of the worst movies, New in Town, even Harry couldn't save that one. Afterwards we went for yakiniku, slightly unusual for a vegetarian since the whole premise is to grill meat. But I was able to grill veggies, have some soup and salad.

Sunday I went to Church to celebrate Palm Sunday and then went to the worst breakfast ever. Chili's should definitely not be making breakfast and for reason 5 total tables is very busy(?). The base is having an open base celebration to allow the local Japanese in for the day. I really wish I had my camera with me, how often do you see a group of elderly Japanese ladies in cowboy hats and boots? Sometimes things are just a little odd.

Spring break has now started. For the remainder of the break my only plan is to not go onto base. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Really wants an iPod touch now! I am so excited Skype can be downloaded!

Life since Pi Day

I am the worst host ever! I forgot all kinds of things, but luckily I have some great friends who are easily contacted. Davia called Jim and Martha to ask them to bring a cake cutter and server. We called James (not Brackett) to bring flower cutters. And then upstairs from the party was Karen who brought down an extension cord and scissors. It's like I wasn't planning on a party at all!! But it in the end it went very well and there were plenty of people to wish Jill and James best wishes on their wedding.

6 days, 5 school days, 4 student days until SPRING BREAK!!

I realized I never reported on my great Pi day party. It went very well, surprisingly well actually. There were many more people than I was expecting, honestly I only thought 10 people would show (my friends humoring me!). But instead there were probably about 30 people there with lots of round food. We then played Pi-ctionary and everyone had fun trying to guess all the pictures of words that begin with pi-. I say it all the time but I have some really great friends here and there are some truly wonderful people I am still learning to know.

Happy Pi Day!!

There are many sites dedicated to the celebration of Pi!! Instead of posting all the cool stuff, there is WAY too much I just gave a few links to sites you might want to check out.

PiDay.Org
Pi Raps
Celebrate Pi Day and Einstein’s Birthday

Have fun and let me know what you did to celebrate Pi Day!!!

Happy Pi Day Eve!

‘Twas the Night Before Pi Day
Written by Jenny & Amanda

‘Twas the night before pi day
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
The pies were all out

Topped with cherries,
Blueberries and peach
In hopes of pleasing
Our favorite math teach

I was lulled to sleep
By the scent of the cream
Vision of math men
Danced in my dream

When out on the lawn
There arose such a plop
I dashed outside
To see 3 pi men plop

The moon glowing brightly
The stars would reveal
3.14, were my eyes forsaking me?
Were they actually real?

3 was the leader
And 1 stood behind
Followed by four
This all boggled my mind

But that was not all
There appeared to be more
One, five, and nine
Were behind the door

Two, six, and 5
Were behind the tree
What do I do?
The pi men have surrounded me!

Intimidated by the numbers
They all formed to one
A strange looking symbol
This did not look fun!

The symbol approached me
Then muttered strange words
About solving equations
It all sounded absurd

“Pi r squared, solve for the circle”
I started to run
I did not wish to solve,
My brain hurt a ton

Its squiggly legs
Came bouncing behind,
Chanting along
“The answer you must find”

Hiding proved
To be in vein
He always found me
He even knew my name

I finally gave in
To his evil grasp
I solve the equation
As he had asked

Pleased by my actions
He gathered all of the numbers behind
They started to leave
It unclogged my mind

And before they’d depart
It had one last thing to say
“Happy Pi celebration to all
And to all a great day!”

Running On Base

After school Monica and I went for a run around base. The first 45 min were completely uneventful. Then suddenly we were in the middle of some kind of drill. The Japanese military who share our base were setting up posts, patrolling, and overall acting like we were being attacked. (We are not being attacked.) I ran into a group of soldiers first, for me they moved aside and apologized for being in my way. Monica came along and they made her stop, but then waved her through. Finally some actual Navy officers came running along they were stopped and frisked! The captain was very upset that they let me pass right though but HE was forced to take part in their little scenario. Continuing on for the lat 20 min of the run we were passed by many trucks filled with soldiers and temporary posts they set up along the road.

Guess that's life on a military base. Never dull.

Wicked

Saturday I went into Tokyo to watch the Broadway musical "Wicked." The show was identical to the one I got to see in London with one small difference. The entire thing was in Japanese, okay not the entire thing -- they said "Wicked" in English. There were a few other words that they left in English, apparently there is no adequate translation for a few phrases. It was a little strange to suddenly hear English in the middle, like wonderful, my dear, sentimental, etc. . . Overall it was a very good show.

This Week

This week was pretty normal, for Japan. I found out I can run to base in the same amount of time it takes the drive there and in less time than it takes to drive home from there. And I run REALLY SLOW. I found it interesting that it is not at all unusual to anyone here that 8 women took a bath together (actually a couple more, but we didn't know them). On Friday night some of us went to a near-by onsen to relax after our "short" week. I love onsens, sitting around in a bathtub with very hot steamy water is great, especially when that tub is outside under the stars. It was pretty cold outside so it felt even better to in that water and then step out and see our skin steaming. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, if you can call those two things events.

Sailing

Saturday was a great day! I began the day on the phone as usual. Then I met Davia for lunch. Then. . .

I WENT SAILING!!! For the first time in my whole life I went sailing. I was a little afraid at first. Once I was on the little boat after not falling into ocean I got excited. Stefan is a great teacher and taught me to how to steer. And I am the BEST STEERER EVER! I didn't run into anything and was able to find the wind. I got to steer for almost an hour, probably because the wind was so light. The whole day was beautiful, the sun was shining and I was with some great friends.

Lost

So I got lost today. I wanted to find out what would happen if I took a turn I had never taken before. At first all was well, I completely recognized the area from my runs and previous life in Yokosuka. But then it got very . . . circley. . . I was trying to take logical turns but that never seems to work here in Japan. I found a Japanese army base (?), it was a base of some sort with lots of guards and fences and security. Past that I got to tour some of the country side, who knew it was so close. I found a lake, a strawberry farm, someplace I can't seem to describe but you had to pay to park there and there were A LOT of people there, bunches of schools, and a really good view of Mt. Fuji (I think that's what it was). Basically I spent 2hrs driving randomly. Finally I found a sign the the name of my neighborhood on it, drove through a reeeaaaalllly looooong tunnel and was suddenly home. A little strange but not at all unlike Japan.

Mind42

This week I introduced Monica to Mind42.com. It's a really great site for setting up mind maps and she is using it to create a really cool webquest for her students. I had a great time showing her this tool and helping her set it up, maybe one day it can be my job?

Not much happened this week and this weekend is very low key. It is raining and I melt so I really need to stay inside. Tomorrow I will take the risk and go to Mass then drop some Superbowl necessities off in my classroom to be fully prepared for Superbowl Monday. My students and I will be watching the big game and doing some mathematical analysis of teams' winning records for the year. (I will do whatever it takes to watch the game at school!)

My work out updates: Total Minutes: 435, Run/Walk: 13.3miles, Bike: 14miles, Swim: 1200meters, and of course my personal trainer: 150minutes. (No elliptical this week, I was kind of tired.)

2 days to SUPERBOWL!! GO CARDS!!!

Cardinal Fan in Japan!!

From Cardinal Fan!

Working Out

At school we have started an exercise challenge called "Anchors Away," and because of that I have begun keeping a bit more accurate total of my workouts. I am really surprised at how much time I spend at the gym working out. The Total Time listed below is my time working out, I am actually in the gym much longer since I usually shower and change there. I think I take more showers in the base gym than I do at home.

Totals for this week:

• Total Time: 490 minutes
  
• Run/Walk: 12.1 miles
• Bike: 25 miles
• Swim: 1200 meters
• Eliptical: 70 minutes
• Trainer: 120 minutes

Just thought I would share.

Back Again

Well, it has been a VERY long time since I have posted. Mostly because I keep this blog for my family and friends back home and I was there for three weeks. I have been back in Japan now for three weeks so it probably time I got around to updating things. I will leave out my trip home because most of you were there and already know the summary of that.

Back here I am COLD!! I am sure it is colder in my house than outside, because when I enter I zip up my jacket, wrap my scarf tighter, and run upstairs to shiver under some blankets. At the same time I am frantically turning on all 4 of my heaters. Why don't I leave my heaters on, you ask? Well let me tell you why. If I leave my heaters on all day they freak out and shut off all gas to my house, easily fixed but still. Once the heaters are on it takes about an hour for my house to get into the 60's, allowing me to get out from under blankets, unpack my stuff from the day, and begin to get dinner ready. . . enough complaining.

Never mind, one more complaint. Last night I was called ma'am by one of the sailors! I know he was just trying to be polite, but I am NOT a ma'am.

I really shouldn't complain, things are going very well. My friends let me hang out in their warm houses whenever I want, the Cardinals are going to the Superbowl, and my family back home are too sweet and wonderful for words. I am so lucky to be surrounded and loved by such wonderful people.

GO CARDINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!