Leonardo Weimar

... place and happy that I’ve decided to stay another year.

I have officially signed my new contract, and it looks like I’ll continue to live in the same apartment next year which is convenient. Most of the same teachers and staff will also be there, so I won’t have to worry about learning new names and all that stuff!

The last couple months saw the seniors finish school and take their IB exams. We don ...

... those carbon emissions…but I also work hard to offset them by commuting via bicycle.

Well the last couple weeks here have been pretty normal, just life as usual in Weimar. My flat is currently very quiet as Ximing went to England to be with his girlfriend for a couple of months. Julia is in Berlin doing a practikum so it's just me holding down the fort. I’ve realized why I like living in these WG arrangements ...

... ever been to. It is filled with old books and artwork that shows the famous people of Weimar. The 3 story Rokoko Hall is stunning. Heavily damaged by the fire, it has been wonderfully restored. They even make you wear these big slippers over your shoes when you go inside (perhaps for noise control as well as protecting the old wood floor.) Unfortunately they don’t let you take pictures, but I’ll try to take some from the internet and put them in my ...

... So many people attended this science thing which was exciting to see. Maybe there was some future Albert Einstein out there!

Saturday afternoon I have a couple more couchsurfers arrive from Frankfurt. They are teachers there at the international school and are originally from NY and WI. Fun to hang out a little bit and it is such a hoot that all these people want to come visit the city I live in! They spend the day exploring the ...

... in the afternoon. I met Anne in Iguazu, Argentina back a couple of years ago at a hostel and we hit it off back then and kept in touch. When I moved to Germany I told her, and we have been trying to visit each other for a while, but we are both travelers and it hasn’t worked out until now!

She arrives mid-afternoon on the train from Halle, and I walk to the train station to meet her. It was really weird to see her get off the train, and I ...

... the countryside for a bike trip. It is very cold when we start (frost on the ground!) but it quickly begins to warm up with the sun. It turns out to be a picture perfect fall day, in contrast to the iffy weather of the beginning of the week. The blue sky, changing colors, and crisp temperatures place this day amongst the best of my autumn memories. We bike our way to a few villages out in the country and then double back across the Autobahn and ...

... It was fun and while I was obviously terrible, (and I used the "I’m American" excuse many times) it was fun and nice to have a good run around. After I got home we were going to go to a big party thing, but it got pretty late, and I was exhausted after a long week, so we sorta just called it quits. (the whole working full time thing really makes you feel old fast…even if I’m still only 22!)

Yesterday was a busy one. When I ...

... in the mail, written in Academic German, I have them take a look at it and tell me what the gist is. Martin has been especially helpful in trying to learn German. He is willing to stare at me as I stutter in a mix of German, English, and Spanish until I give up, and then he teaches me the proper way to say something. I am also looking for a bike to buy, and he quickly volunteered to put an advertisement on his university’s website ...

... where I start on Monday) and they are excited to have me here, and even had a bag of groceries waiting for me when I arrived!

My other flat-mate Martin is a computer programming student at Bauhaus University here in Weimar...his English isn't as good, and got in very late from vacation. I'll hope to get to know him better soon.

Today I woke up early and surprisingly have already adjusted to the 7 hour time ...

... it was pretty good. This may be a new trend for myself. The Spanish lady started giggling and I thought it was because she saw what I did. Here she put sugar on her hard boiled egg instead of salt! She was pointing to the sugar & then to the egg and I showed her what I did to my sandwich. So we had a good laugh from the lack of food situation. There was a light rain when we departed Frankfurt at 7:30 and were introduced ...