Some pics from the last 2 weeks

I realize I haven't really posted as many pictures lately so here are some of the last 2 weeks :) ENJOY!






Me & my kiddos on our Field Trip to the Basel Natural Science Museum




Me, Anne, Andrea, & Josie at Spring Open House





Me & Ashleigh @ Open House

You can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl!

I just did one of those cheesy online quizzes (should be cleaning up my room but it's Friday night and I'm exhausted!) and here's the response I got to the "How Southern Are You?" quiz...

Are you a southerner at heart
You are a southerner at heart

You seem to love everything to do with the south, you love their food, clothes, weather, anything to do with the south. Hey if you don\'t already live there maybe you should think about moving! You aren\'t going to be happy until you do.

Take this test

Not where you're from, but who you belong to

I mentioned previously that I was reading a book all about Third Culture Kids. It really got me thinking about something that I've probably known for years but it didn't click until recently. Again, the definition of a Third Culture Kid is a child who is raised in a different country than their passport country and takes on the cultures of the country they are raised in. They also really can't pinpoint where they're from when asked. This question is one that I always have a hard time answering and have ever since I graduated High School. My parents moved my senior year to south Florida and I stayed in Savannah to finish my last year. Then I went off to college but when my friends would go home, I would go to my parents home. Two and a half years later they moved again to North GA and 2 yrs after that moved back to Jacksonville. All this to say that I consider myself a TCA (Third Culture Adult). When people ask me where I'm from I have to say "Well, all over Georgia & Florida really because my dad's a minister...." and try to sum it up that way. Today during our prayer partner time I was telling all of this to Cherie, my prayer partner. She gave me some great advice. "Home isn't where you're from, it's where you feel the closest to the Lord."
Well... I have to say that is definitely HERE :)

Prego! Prego!

One of the many, many things I love about living here is all the fun food. I know you all think I just pig out on weird food every day but that's not entirely true (the weird food, yes, the pigging out, no). We have this awesome Italian grocery store called Super Mercato and if you like Italian food, you'd be in HEAVEN! The pasta aisle is like nothing I've ever seen and the cheese section goes on and on forever. Today after picking up a package at the post office (Thanks Mom!) I decided we were all in need of a fun dinner. So I walked on into Super Mercato, got some fresh Romano cheese and some other type of cheese that I have NO idea what it's called but it sure is yummy. I also got 2 cans of fresh pesto sauce. We TRULY enjoyed our dinner tonight!

In other news--Spring is BACK! YAY! The temperature shot up to the high 50s this afternoon and it was one of the most gorgeous days I've ever seen. I sat out on my balcony for a bit just breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the sunshine. Let's hope no more cold fronts decide to come here between now and June!

The Past Week

I realize it's been a few days since I've posted so I thought I'd fill you in on my week...

On Monday the temp dropped over night and by Tuesday morning there was snow on the ground. It melted before lunch and I have to say I was relieved. We've been getting such beautiful weather here that I figured we wouldn't see snow again til next year. However, the relief didn't last long and it has snowed consecutively for the last three days in a row. Tuesday the roomies and I also experienced our first snow shoveling day. Since Anne is from New Jersey and Andrea is from Toronto they've had quite the experience shoveling snow and putting salt on the ground so I was in good hands.

The girls and I have also been asked to help out w/the youth group at our church. We have about 20 kids who come regularly (that's considered a pretty fair amount by European standards) and their youth minister is leaving and so they are in need of people to come and fill in until they find a new person. The young adults in our church are helping out by coming every other Sunday and being the "adult" of the group. I'm really excited about this since I've always had a heart for youth!

Spring Open House was on Thursday night and we had a fair amount of people show up. We spent all day Thursday cleaning the school and making our classrooms spic and span. My 2nd/3rd graders LOVE cleaning which is great for their teacher since I always put it off until the last minute! I'm sure my parents are reading this and nodding thier heads in fierce agreement!

I've also started reading "Third Culture Kids" which is a book we all received at our orientation this summer. It's really good and I wish I'd started reading it earlier when I moved here back in August. It talks all about the different stages of transition in a new country and all about the kids we work with at school--Third Culture Kids. These are kids who basically grow up in a country that isn't their home country but take on the culture of the host country. Hope that wasn't too confusing!

Finally, yesterday after school Diana took the girls and I to our local "mall" called The Rhein Center. Inside is a huge grocery store that reminds me of a Super Walmart type place. It's called Markthauf and we normally go there when we are seriously out of EVERYTHING! I think we bought enough groceries to last us for a while.

Today is our BIG CLEAN DAY which means we have to clean the hallways in our apartment as well as the cellar and sweep outside. We're also having a Lord of the Rings Marathon later today since it is rainy and snowy.

So, I apologize for the extremely long post today. I just figured since I hadn't updated all week I could get it all done in one entry! Sorry if I bored everyone!

Walkin in a Winter Wonderland...in MARCH

Yes it is now flurrying outside of my classroom window. What is up with that?! On Friday it was BEAUTIFUL. No jackets needed. As one of my students said earlier "Well, Miss Stroud, God can do anything. He can make it snow in summer if He wanted to" ...from the mouth of babes!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

So no big celebrations going on over here but I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy St. Patty's Day. Today was a FANTASTIC day. The roomies and I got up and had breakfast together and then sat for a while and did a Bible study with each other. By that time it was time for lunch so we heated up leftovers and then headed to the football field to watch our friend Jamath play some euro football w/the rest of the staff. During the course of the game it got FREEZING cold so afterwards we invited everyone over for hot chocolate and Catharine made chocolate chip cookies! It was a blast tonight just hanging out with each other. Here are a few pictures from the game today. I am really getting into euro football!!!Me & Andrea enjoying the game

Catharine, Amanda, & Nathan just can't take their eyes away from the excitement of the Weil team!

Showin' off my Irish pride (I have not one ounce of Irish blood in me in case you were wondering)

Fancy camera tricks...

It might as well be Spring...

The weather the last 3 weeks has been GORGEOUS. This morning I didn't even need a jacket walking to school! It's so great to go out to Recess and enjoy the fresh, warm, sunny outdoors. I'm hoping this lasts until we go home in June but I did hear a rumor that there's a cold front coming in soon...I hope it's just a rumor b/c I'm getting spoiled by this beautiful Spring weather!

Really randominous!

There is really no point to this post except that my mother continues to inform me that I don't have enough pictures of me on here...This is me in front of my favorite restaurant in Basel, Mister Wong's, which was taken on Sunday. If your a fan of Asian food you'd love it here...Enjoy and Mom I hope this pacifies you for a bit! ;)

Happy Dr. Seuss Day!

All week we've been celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday by starting March w/our Reading Month. Our kids have a goal of reading 17,000 pages by the end of the month. In the first four days back from break, they have successfully reached half their goal!! What a school of bookworms we have :)

Anyways, today each class had a special reader come in and read a story to the students. I was privileged to get Geoff Read, the pastor from my church here, to come and read 2 stories to the 2nd/3rd graders. Afterwards, the mayor of Weil am Rhein came and read a story to the entire school in the library. It was a great way to start off our morning! Here are a few pictures from the event:
Pastor Geoff Read and the 2nd/3rd graders


Mayor Wolfgang Dietz reads to our kiddos

First Euro Football Game & a Lunar Eclipse!

On Saturday, the roomies & I went to with our newest staff member, Josie, to watch her husband, Jamath, in his first home soccer (or football as I've grown accustomed to calling it now!) game here in Weil. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I used to watch a few Manchester United matches back when I lived here before but never really got into them. I think that Euro football is one of my favorite sports to watch now! Later that night, Anne & I got a glimpse of a great lunar eclipse which we later found out was best seen on the Asian, Middle Eastern, & European continents! YAY! Here are some pics of the soccer game and one of the lunar eclipse that I thought I'd share. Hope everyone is having a great day! PS Jamath is number 9 on the white team!Yes that tiny speck is the lunar eclipse!

Pics from Nice & The French/Italian Riviera

Overlooking the medieval village of Eze, France
Sunset in Monaco
The infamous Monte Carlo casino
St. Tropez...this is about all we saw of it!
Feeling right at home in Cannes!
Playing on the beach in San Remo, Italy, Italian Riviera
Does it get any better than this?
Enjoying my last day in Nice