BEER BIKE!

Seriously. I don't know why they don't have these amazing beer bikes in other parts of the world - or in Portland!! It was one of the best nights I've had here. I've got a ton of pictures and even a few videos (although quite dark) to post on here.

We went to dinner at 6 and filled up on pizza, pasta and one euro a glass Prosecco. It was about a ten minute walk to the beer bike place after dinner, but it was a beautiful night. I had woken up yesterday morning to an ugly, ugly day of wind and rain. By the time I ventured down to the Zeil to get my trash can and a couple other things, the rain had stopped. It was surprisingly warm, although it didn't look it. I think it was pushing low 60's. The rain held off and the wind even died down. It was honestly the most perfect night for beer biking.

All 18 of us piled on the beer bike. Lizzy's husband, Tobi, was our "bartender" and stood in the middle area behind the wrap around bar. He was in charge of the beer, glühwein (mulled wine) and music. Rik had made some perfect mixes for the "ride" so we jammed out to those as we rode around Frankfurt. I don't even know how to describe this thing. You'll have to check out the website to get a better look, but we had a driver from the beer bike place. He didn't do anything but steer and stop us at red lights and ring a little bell - although I think most of us who sat near the front at one point during the night took over the bell ringing duty. Whenever we stopped, we'd all get out and do a "Chinese fire drill" where you run around and switch seats, but you had to take your drink with you and climb back up. Most of the seats had pedals. The bar wrapped around and then on each side I think it sat 7 on bike seats. The people over the wheels didn't have to pedal and then there was a back bench that 3 people sat on and they didn't pedal. We ended up playing truth or dare, but without the truth bit, so we were just giving people dares throughout the night. We were all over the place, people jumping off the bike and running up to taxis and buses and random strangers. It was an awesome route too - we rode through Sachsenhausen, down by the river, across a bridge, through the city and the Zeil, to the Römer and back to where we started, which actually was a little dodgey being down a dark side street.

After two hours on the bike, we got back around 10 and decided to hit the pubs in Sachsenhausen. I think Sarah had a fabulous birthday, and it we think it should be our new tradition to do whenever it's someones birthday. For 18 people, it only cost 17 euros each and the beer and wine (in the winter) is included in the price. When people come to visit, this is one touristy thing we are going to do.

Enjoy the pictures!

Looking towards the back of the bike - Lee and Steve are on a bench. Lizzy and Brooke are on the side pedaling.

Frankfurt at night - looking towards a bridge

Along the River Main

Rik with his beer goggles. Scott enjoying the wine.

Bike from the back - you can see Tobi standing in the middle as our "bartender".

Birthday girl - Sarah!

Frankfurt

Tobi and Ashley

Lee and Steve relaxing in the back

Natalie and Scott enjoying the ride along the river

Brooke - whoops need to flip the picture

Sarah, Ashley, Lizzy and Brooke - I think there was something funny happening near the front

Tobi in the middle, Scott and Rik on their side

It's hard work pedaling the bier bike!

Lee, Ash, and Nat relaxing in the back

Lisa, Fabio and Steve - oh and our driver

This is us - pedaling hard!

Love the bier bike!

Lizzy's dare...hahaha

Car driving by - we like to be friendly

Sarah and I with our wine

Carsten and Dave - they stole my camera for most of the night

Trying to organize a group photo at the end of the ride...

...still working on it...

...it took a few tries...

This one's a little dark, but it's everyone!

Nat, me and Brooke enjoying the rest of the night :)

Video will be coming...

Busy busy busy

These last few weeks have been so busy, but I am loving it! We've been having girl's nights, trivia night and pancake mornings. The first week back after October break was full of Halloween fun. The kids dressed up on Friday and were so adorable! We had a parade in the morning and then our party in the afternoon.

Getting ready to start the parade!

Halloween Parade!

Tasting red, yellow and green apples

Colored their apple and making a graph of our favorites!

Making pumpkins with torn paper

Looking good :)

Finished product!

Compared parts of an apple to the parts of a pumpkin

Halloween morning - everyone's excited!!

Check out those costumes!

Check out those costumes!

Check out those costumes!

Decorated for Halloween

Decorated for Halloween

Decorated for Halloween

Pumpkins we carved at the party!

I have more pictures of our party on the school computer. I'll have to get some of those on here.

I felt like the week after Halloween was a mess though! I hadn't done anything school related over Halloween weekend. Instead, I went to dinner with the girls, had a movie night at Brooke's house and went to Nat and Ben's for pancakes Sunday morning. I did everything but prepare for school and that was pretty evident the whole week. Especially because we were starting our new unit: Tell Me a Story. Normally I've got my week planned ahead of time (although it always changes) and my materials gathered and prepped. The whole week I felt like I was scrambling for ideas and activities. I hate feeling that way. By Friday I had finally gotten my act together and worked my kids pretty hard - I think I was trying to make up for the rest of the week. They were troopers and did such a great job, especially for it being a Friday.

We started practicing for our Christmas show. It's doesn't have to be Christmas themed, but every grade puts on a show in December. The kindergarten classes are doing Sleeping Beauty. Most of the play is singing and a few kids have one or two lines. We're having some grade 5 kids be the narrators, but we have 6 songs to learn. They are SO cute and are picking up the songs pretty quickly.

Last weekend was busy but so much fun. We went shopping on Saturday and I got a few more things for the apartment. Stephanie and I went to Brooke's in the afternoon and ended up going to dinner and out with her boyfriend and some friends. She lives in Sachsenhausen, which is across the river but still only a couple stops away from my place. I looked at Sachsenhausen when I was looking for apartments, but ended up finding one in Nordend instead. Sachsenhausesn is beautiful, close to the river, near a ton of museums and has a lot of restaurants, shops and bars. We went to a couple bars and pubs, played some darts and ended the night (or morning) getting pizza at 4:30...got home and into bed by 5am. It's crazy - the bars really don't close here. If people are still there, they stay open, unlike the 2am closing time at home.

Dart lessons

Nick, Steph, me, Brooke and Steve

SOOO close!

This week I felt so much more prepared for school. We had several singing practices with the other kinder classes, and the kids are picking up the songs really quickly.  I've changed around the dramatic play area in my classroom, and the kids are loving it. I'll have to post pictures soon. We've got finger puppets, stick puppets, hand puppets and character masks from different fairy tales. This is a really fun unit, and I think the kids are enjoying it too. I'm getting more comfortable with the PYP, and I'm excited for the conference we get to go to in Berlin in March.

Felt board - Red Riding Hood

Making finger puppets!

The wolf and Little Red :)

If the boys were in the construction area, they had to be building Little Red Riding Hood's house or Granny's house. I came over and they were building cars. I reminded them of their task and they decide to tell me that the cars were for Little Red to get to Granny's house faster. Ha.

On Tuesday we had a girls night. Natalie had stayed home with her daughter Rosie who was sick, so we brought girls night to her. We ended up at a cute little restaurant across the street from their apartment so she joined in the fun. It was a night of good food, good drinks and good fun with friends. We stayed for hours talking, laughing and planning our fun filled weekend to come. Wednesday was a crazy day. Not only did Ashley and I have cooking club (we made delicious pita bread pizzas with the grade 1 kiddos) but at 4:30, the lantern walk started. All kids had made lanterns for St. Martin's Day and it's a tradition to do a lantern walk with them all lit up around the area. I'll have to post pictures soon. Our walk was led with torches and a trumpet and singing. We ended up at Possmann's apple juice/apple wine factory right next to the school. We had a bonfire, apple cider, warm apple wine and gingerbread cookies. It was really fun! Thursday was trivia night - we came in 7th out of 17 teams! Our team name was Alcohooligans

Today I'm hoping to get up off the couch and go down to the Zeil to get a few more things for the apartment, a couple more long sleeve shirts and maybe some Christmas decorations!!! Sarah's birthday is on Sunday, so we're going for pizza tonight and the beer biking at 8! I am excited for this :) Check it out: http://www.bierbike-frankfurt.de/start.html

I am having a wonderful time here, but am very excited to come home for Christmas! I'll be home in 5 weeks...can't wait!