Mittwoch.

The week is half done now, and I must say things were really great today. Such a relief, because Monday and Tuesday were a bit miserable. The kids, for some reason, decided they didn´t like me very much, and found every possible way to let me know! But today we´re all friends again. We made puppets out of toilet paper rolls at the end of the day yesterday, and a theater out of a cardboard box with red tissue paper curtains (very fancy, let me tell you...). We did all this in the garden house work room while listening to my Nightmare Before Christmas CD, in proper Halloween spirit. Today we had the grand opening of our new creation, and performed a few plays. They started with Emma Sophie taking turns with the penguin, dragon, tiger, purple bird, frog, and a strange puppet with teeth-like marks around the top - Emmi says it is a castle... She hummed and "la la"'d some tunes, and let each puppet take a turn doing ballet and interpretive dance routines. I must say, the castle´s dance routine was my favorite! So cute. I like the way this girl´s mind works! When it was my turn, I acted out the story of Little Red Riding Hood using a penguin as Red, the purple bird as Grandmother, the tiger as Wolf, and the frog as Narrator/Woodsman. I changed the story so Grandma simply ran away from the wolf/tiger and hid in the forest, instead of being eaten and having the woodsman cut her out of the belly of the dead wolf. I wasn´t really sure how to stage that scene... tempting as it was. :) When I got to the end, the children informed me that the play was not complete without a song, and without using ALL the puppets. So I made up a scene where Grandma and Red received visits from their good friends Dragon and Castle, they ate some bread, and then Grandma got tired and made them leave so she could sleep. Red sang the Beatles´ "Here Comes the Sun" (it was the first song to come to mind...) to her Grandma until she fell asleep and had happy dreams.... The End. Paul Luis quickly grew bored and played with Legos, but Emmi was all about the puppet theater, and wanted to know EVERYTHING there is to know about it. I taught her the proper order of a curtain call, and the difference between a bow and curtsy (kind of difficult to distinguish with toilet paper roll puppets, but we made it work), and how to be a proper audience by hissing at the villain, to cheer "hooray" at the happy parts, and to say "bravo" as she clapped at the end and during curtain calls. We had a great time, and took several turns doing this with other childrens´ stories, like Hansel and Gretel, Thumbelina, and some story Emmi knows about a fairy ballerina named LillyFee. I think she could have done this for hours! I need to come up with some new stories now...

My German course in Kiel tonight was pretty good. My teacher said I am learning very quickly. I know I am doing well in comparison to the rest of the class (most of whom are in their 50-60s from non-romance language speaking countries like Russia, Kazakstan, Thailand, etc.), but I still feel like we are moving SO SLOW. At the same time, I feel like it is too late for me to jump over to the 2nd level class. They move so quickly, and I don´t think I would ever catch up with them. The thing is, most things we learn in my class really are new to me, so I don´t want to miss out on learning these important early parts of the language by skipping ahead. I just wish we could move faster! If only there was a class in between the two... Oh well. I guess I can do some studying and practicing on my own... but I´ve never really learned well that way. I doubt it will happen. I´ll just keep chugging along....

Speaking of, the train ride to Kiel tonight was beautiful. It was a bitterly cold day, and because the temperature dropped so quickly there was a very low fog. The sun hadn´t set yet, so I could see the fog looming above ponds and creeks, around haystacks, and in low dusky valleys between hills and hedges. I can´t even try to describe how beautiful and peaceful it all looked. Something about the very tight color palette of grays, greens, blues, and almost purple soil. The only sad part about this scene was how COLD it was when the sun set and I got off the train again! I had on my heaviest coat, scarf, gloves, and hat, and was still freezing! It isn´t even November yet! I am going to be a sad frozen thing in a couple months... at least it is beautiful this time of year. I might not survive, otherwise!