Twice this week, I randomly ran into people that I know. Once in a while it still hits me that I’m living in Germany far away from my home, but this time it hit me that I actually live here and it’s normal. I’ve made friends from the UK, Israel, Germany, Romania, India, Poland, Ireland, Pakistan, Canada, Iran, Russia, Bulgaria, Korea, Italy, France, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, and probably more, and it’s just normal. It’s pretty surreal when I really think about it.
Today is the first day of a week long “ski break,” which is a week off from school. Lucky us! It’s funny though because I really could have used a week off like this in the USA, but here I’m not stressed with my job (I’m a much much happier teacher!!) so this break feels like a treat, not a necessity for my sanity. I’ve made it through 4.5 weeks of teaching 🙂 definitely a milestone!
It’s been pretty cold and rainy all week, but today has been beautiful. I love that I live so close to a park by the Rhein River. I took a long walk, wearing a lighter jacket. I found a farmer’s market just a few blocks from me, which apparently takes place every Saturday. Continuing my walk to the river, I found some cute smiles!
Looking across the park at my part of town, I noticed something that I really like about Düsseldorf. That is the mix of old and modern architecture. Sadly, Düsseldorf was heavily bombed in WW2, so I’m not sure how “old” the older looking buildings are. Below, you see the leftmost and rightmost buildings are super new and modern, with older buildings in between (I think they’re government buildings…I can’t read the German on the signs in front!).
Teaching and Learning in the Journey of Life 