It’s been fun walking back through our time in Germany. Anyone want to sign me up for a summer in Italy?

Today, I’m sharing a post I wrote shortly after we’d arrived. It highlights some of my thoughts as a stranger in a strange land. Enjoy!

This morning I taught my first class at GISMA. It’s a joint venture with Purdue…students receive a MBA from Purdue as well as a degree from a European university.

Nope, I don’t lecture in German — thank the good Lord! Instead, I have 40 students from literally around the world who all know English very well. The students graduate in July from this intensive one year program. They are READY to find jobs and be done with school — so the challenge is to take a class few of them want to take and make it engaging. That’s my challenge every summer and I love it.

This year, I just get the challenge in Germany. The awesome thing is that the school is literally an 8 minute walk from the apartment … or if I time things right, about a 4 minute train ride. It couldn’t get much more convenient.

Today I was able to get around the train system without pulling out a map every five minutes. After teaching I met the rest of the family at the zoo where we took the boat ride around then caught the tigers we missed on Saturday. For those of you counting that’s three trips to the zoo in four days. I think we’ll more than get our money out of that annual pass.

Then we hit a taste of America: McDonald’s! We were kind of rushed to get Abigail back to the gym and the kids were ready to eat out after all the meals we’ve eaten at home. We’ve been taking full advantage of the kitchen in the apartment and the fact that there are two grocery stores within two blocks. I’m certain the kids will be convinced going to the grocery store at least once a day is completely normal. Have I mentioned the apartment didn’t have a crumb when we arrived? That means we’ve had to get things like salt, sugar, and flour. When you’re starting with nothing, it does take quite a few trips — especially when you have to hand carry everything you buy. And have I mentioned the Germans (at least in Hannover) are REALLY into recycling? A good thing…but REALLY into it.

So McDonald’s was a taste of home…and not terribly over-priced. The McDonalds has essentially no seats (maybe two tables) on the first floor. Instead, there is cafe style eating or a second floor. We opted for upstairs and I was so glad! There was A/C — an absolute luxury here. Oh, and the receipt had the door code to use the restroom — I think you were still supposed to tip the man guarding them — not certain about that.

The weather averages LIED. The weather has been gorgeous — into the low to mid 80s every day. As a result Eric and I needed to go shopping. Neither of us packed shorts. When the high is supposed to hit maybe low 70s, that’s the thing you leave out of the suitcase. Instead, I’m thinking I won’t be needing that turtleneck that seemed so prudent when the lows were supposed to be in the 30s. Who knew 😉

Tomorrow, we’ll take Eric to the gardens. And we need to plan what we want to see when we start traveling this weekend. By the way rental cars are EXPENSIVE in Germany. I guess we charge more to international tourists in the States and they return the favor. Ah well. This is a once in a lifetime trip. And our friend Penny connected us with her family — so we won’t need very many nights in a hotel. So excited to start meeting them this weekend!