I'm in chains ...

... at least that's what I feel like! I'm all caught up in work. But let me tell you - it's a lot of fun!

I really enjoy working with the kids. Especially the English lessons are extremely funny and cool. Just today we learned about the United Kingdom and it's pretty funny to get them pronounce "Northern Ireland" right *giggle* cause "th" is really hard for Germans. In most cases it sounds like "norsern" "nordern" or "norfern". Just watch some old SChwarzenegger movies and you'll see what I mean ;)

The lesson I'm looking forward to this week will be Geography. We're talking about the solarsystem and I will have them literally "act it out". They're going to rotate around each other and the guy in the middle will have a flash light to show how lunar and solar eclipses work.
I hope the students will have lots of fun.

Ok, stay tuned for more glimpses into my classroom!
Luv Julia

P.S.: Thanks for PR 2 by the way :D

Thursday Thirteen #4

First of all - thanks for visiting last week. I wanted to tell you that the little colored tomatoes were de-li-cious!

And now for something completely different ...

Todays Thursday Thirteen is a little test and a great exercise for your brain. If you want to participate, take a piece of paper before reading on - just a normal sheet - and a pen, and get ready to flex those brain-muscles. This test is time limited. You've got 2 minutes, so set your alarm-clock and be honest ;) Got everything? Then go:

1. Read through all the instructions before you do anything!
2. Write your first and your last name in the upper right corner of the sheet.
3. Draw 5 small squares on the upper part of the sheet.
4. Pencil a * (star) into each suare.
5. Sign the sheet with your last name in the lower right corner.
6. Turn the sheet upside down and write down your date of birth.
7. Put the sheet back in to normal position and write your first loves name underneath the squares.
8. Write the letter "X" into the lower left corner of the sheet.
9. Draw a circle around the "X" you've just written.
10. Use the lower part of the sheet to solve the following calculation: 6+9-3x3-17
11. Underline the result twice.
    
12. Now add together all the numbers on your sheet (don't forget you brith date!)
    
13. And now, after you've first of all read all the instructions, just do what you are asked for in point No.2 !

I hope you enjoyed the test and succeeded in passing it :)
Happy TT!

Luv Julia

The First Time I Ever ...

... spent a day at school as a real teacher

Wow - what an experience. Today I officially signed my contract and pledged allegiance to the bavarian state, my new employer. It felt strange to enter the school afterwards for the first official teachers-meeting of the year. We got our keys and were told which classes and subjects we're goin to teach and - oh and this was the best - were introduced and treated as colleagues!!! It was sooooo great I still can't get the smile of my face. Of course it was scary as well, cause literally everything is new for me - the other teachers the pupils, the school, the job - all of it! But life would be boring without challenges, wouldn't it?

At least I have a lovely colleague, a 26-year-old elementary teacher who also had her first day today. It's much easier if you have a fellow sufferer. She lives nearby and we will carpool as well.

And you know what? A couple of posts ago I wrote that I was in dire need of a decent bag, that offers enough space and doesn't look like sh*t. I thought about getting one of those old-school leather bags, but my girls (former bar colleagues) surprised me with this beautiful bag:



So - thanks very much you gorgous hotties *gropesandsmooches* I will never forget working with you, we shared some of the best moments in my life so far!

Finally for my girls, me and you - just relax, kick of your shoes and enjoy 4 minutes of peace and one of the best singers ever:



Luv Julia

Thursday Thirteen #3

Today's Thursday 13 was inspired by this mornings shopping tour. While buying the vegetables for tonights dinner at the grocery sotre I saw them - a pack of wonderfully different colored and shaped small tomatoes. And because I didn't have a better topic for this weeks TT anyway, I decided to post 13 interesting facts about TOMATOES:

1.) First of all a picture of the tomatoes I bought today. They were sold in a box labelled "wild
wonders". It's a variety of cherry tomatoes, aren't they beautiful?

2.) Tomatoes inspired John de Bello to produce his series
"Attack of the Killertomatoes", staring the young George
Clooney in the sequel "Return of the Killertomatoes"

3.) The latin term for tomato is Solanum lycopersicum, meaning "wolf peach". There are at least 10,000 varieties of tomatoes (from the small marble-sized cherry one to the Ponderosa, which can weigh over three pounds).


4.) Tomatoes are fruits from the botanic point of view! As
well as eggplants, cucumbers, pumpkins and zucchinis.
But in the culinary world and in some old laws tomatoes
are seen classified as vegetables.

5.) Since the 1940's, "La Tomatina" takes place on the last
Wednesday of August. Then 20000 - 40000 people meet
in the town of Bunol in Spain to be part of the big tomato
fight.



6.) The worlds biggest tomato weighed 3.5 kg, or 7 lb 12 oz! An average size tomato has 148 gram, or 5 oz, and boasts only 35 calories.

7.) In 2003 Rob Baur succeded in breeding a "Tomacco"-plant, inspired by the "Simpsons" episode "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)". It is a tomato-plant hybrid that also contains small amounts of nicotine. It is possible because they both belong to the nightshades, also including potato and belladonna.

8.) Tomatoes were first cultivated in 700 AD by Aztecs and Incas. Explorers returning from Mexico introduced the tomato into Europe, where it was first mentioned in 1556. The French called it "the apple of love," the Germans "the apple of paradise."

9.) Tomatoes are rich in vitamins A and C and fibre, and are cholesterol free. The consumption of lycopene - the stuff that makes tomatoes red - may prevent cancer.

10.) The tomato is the most popular fruit of the world, with over 60 million tons produced every year.

11.) Tomato juice is the official state beverage of Ohio. Arkansas' official state vegetable is the vine ripe pink tomato (of South Arkansas).


12.) Until the 1800's tomatoes were thought to be poisonous. Though some claimed that they have aphrodisiac powers.

13.) And last but not least, my favorite tomato recipe - Bruschetta:


That's it folks, hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to comment, cause I follow ;) and I don't mind if you drop a card as well.

Luv Julia

Holiday! Celebrate!

Ok here we go - the official holiday round up!

As I already told you, I spent a week at the wonderful lake Chiemsee. My roommate and I rented a small appartment on a farm about 5 miles away from the lake. It looked like this:



As you can see it was very quiet there, the next village was about 1,5 mile away. That's why our only neighbours where the farmer's cows and cats:



Luckily we had good weather, so we spent most days at the lake, swimming and cruising around with a little boat:




On the third day we had to do the tourist stuff ;) we visited the beautiful castle built by Ludwig II and the monasteries - all of them are located on little islands in the middle of the lake. We took one of the official ferries to get there:





Well, now you know what we did, it wasn't much, most of the time we just chilled or bathed in the sun :)
But still it was a wonderful holiday, very relaxing and I really soaked in a lot of fresh energy to get things properly started in a week when school starts here.

Greets Julia

Top Droppers, Topless, Topping

Hi folks!

I'm back from my wonderful holidays at the Chiemsee, I'm relaxed and tanned and I will tease you with a full record and pics soon.

But first of all - THANK YOU!!! - to last months Top Droppers, namly:







Topless - oh not what you think, but the boat we used to cross the Chiemsee on a sunny day was topless ;)



Topping:

I won!!! I won the bonus prize for "funniest post" at Hot-O's contest. That's 15$ cash from ThaCash.com
Yeah!

Greets Julia

To boldly go where no man has gone before ...

... well maybe some people have gone there before, but for me it's all new territory - dark and scary!
What I'm talking about? My own website of course!

I really want my own domain and I will get it as soon as I start working, so I can afford it. The only problem I had so far was my lacking knowledge about the subject. Have you ever tried to search for the right web host? It's bottomless like quicksand - Google spits out 155.000.000 hits for "web hosting". No, no, no - there's no way I check all of those by myself!

Luckily other people did this for me. The guys from webhostingrating.com compared and rated web hosting companies, using parameters like affordability, customer satisfaction and technical support. They did a really good job and offer a clear strcuture that makes it easy for everybody - from blogger to entrepreneur - to navigate and find the matching offer for your needs. For me it might be more important that it is not too expensive, others might need more space or unlimited traffic - anyway, you will find it there.

They also offer customer reviews and articles on a variety of topics. I found the one about domain names very interesting and helpful.

So if you're planning to enter unknown territory and do your OWN website, make sure to get the best consultation at webhostingrating.com . I definitely will ;)

Greets Julia