April Showers

Hey everyone! I've not been posting lately out of laziness....the problem with the Fulbright is that you have so much free time that you don't feel motivated to do anything because you'll always have time for it later. This had been made worse during the present cold snap - it's been in the 40s for about a week now, which is unfortunate because it was so nice back when I could come home from school, eat a snack, go for a walk for about an hour, then come home and make dinner. When it's cold I don't want to walk around for an hour, so I end up eating all the junk food in my apartment and watching Sailor Moon dubbed into German. 

This is the last full week of school for the 12th graders. I don't help with any 12th grade classes, but it's hard to ignore the fact that it's their last week because German 12th graders dress up in costumes every day of their last week of school. Today was cross-dressing day. It was odd.

Another thing - I don't think I'll ever get over finding it hilarious when a fifth grade girl come up to me very solemnly and shakes my hand at the end of a lesson.

Anyhow, here are some pictures I've taken recently.

My apartment door & the ladder to the sky.

When it was warm, I loved to go on walks. Now it is cold and I love to stay indoors.

If I understood this correctly, these signs were a bit of an embarrassment for the SPD because they forgot to mention the candidate's name. It reminds me of the episode of Parks and Rec where Leslie makes the pro-Pawnee ad and forgets to mention that she's running for city council. Yay Pawnee! Fuer Erfurt!

We've been having some nice storms lately - it reminds me of home!

I'm not sure why I took a picture of this, but this is the tram stop Rieth (pronounced Reet), which is the next stop after my school. To the left is a creepy abandoned Plattenbau.

I went to Saalfeld last Wednesday to see the Ostereierbaum.

Germany is covered in yellow flowered plants right now.

I had to walk from the train station to the neighborhood where this tree was - it took me about half an hour. It was pleasant because there weren't other people walking. When I go for walks in Erfurt, I always see other people.

Here are two trees that show what a typical Easter egg tree looks like. (They're all over the place.)

And here is the famous Easter egg tree.

I had to climb up a bit of a hill to get to the tree.

View out the window on the ride home.

Last weekend I went to Arnsdorf to hang out with friends! It was nice - we played Bananagrams. On the way home, I had to switch in Zwickau. The train station there still looks really eastern.

I got a package with Easter candy from my old host family! I think my host family definitively won the "my host family is the best" debate from 2012.

There was a storm with amazing clouds two days ago!!

Side note: the pink building burned last week. Out of the 28 people at home, 11 had to go to the hospital because that building, much like the one I live in, just has one exit per 10 apartments and the fire started in the stairwell.

There are decorated Easter bunnies in Anger 1 - this one is from my school!

Here are some others. They are obviously less cool because they don't say "ASG Erfurt" on them.

I think it's very interesting that I'm getting 2 weeks of vacation for Easter. When I asked my 7th grade class if they're going to go to church this Sunday, about 4 out of 28 said yes. I think that Germany is proof that having religion in a society doesn't make people more faithful - they get off for every Christian holiday and have the option of taking religious classes in school, but hardly anyone goes to church.