We thought we would give ya'll an update on our life.
Craig is currently working full time at Leipzig International School. He is working to get some new programs started. He has already attended a training for one program he will be working on. Craig is also anxiously waiting to hear if he has been accepted into Graduate School. The plan is for Craig to start his Master's in Guidance Counseling in January. Craig is also training to run a 20k and Mika (our border collie) is his training partner.
Amy is still teaching Grade 5 at Leipzig International School. She is getting more experience this year with planning field trips in German. She takes a German class 3 nights a week for 3 hours a night at the community college. She will be starting her first two Master's classes next week. The unfortunate part about getting her Master's is that she has to log in to the online chat. This will be happening at 2 a.m due to the time difference between Germany and Eastern Kentucky. She will be doing the Reading/Writing Specialist program.
We are really looking forward to heading back the USA in December.
Amy and Craig
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Italia -- Fall 2010
Buongiorno!
We recently spent 5 days travelling in Italy. We started off from Berlin, Germany and flew to Pisa, Italy. From there we travelled to Florence and then on to Rome. Since Italy is one of our favorite countries, we thought it best to start this blog entry with a few of our favorite (Italian) things.
Pizza!
Gelato.
Little bitty cars (or whatever this cute little guy is).
Chocolate croissants.
Vespas.
Cannolis. Mmm cannolis.
Pasta.
Now time to talk about the trip. We are going to use our pictures to help tell about our time in Italy.
We started off in cold Leipzig. We caught a train from Leipzig to Berlin were we then flew to Italy. Amy was a bit nervous about travelling because Germany was on alert for terrorist attacks.
After arriving at the Pisa airport, we found our way to this gem. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's just breathtaking. To see it in person is unreal. It actually exists and is incredible to see.
Amy had been practicing her pose for the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Everyone was taking pictures of them "holding the tower up."
Except for Craig. He likes to be "different."
This is a basilica next to the Leaning Tower.
We absolutely love going into basilicas/cathedrals.
This however was a bit disturbing. This is a box containing a skull and crossbones. Like the pirate flag. Except bones.
Yep, that's a body. A very, very old body.
We awkwardly stood around and scouted out people who we thought wouldn't mind taking our picture. I think the person we chose did a pretty good job. However, Amy made an oops when asking because she said, "Will you make a photo of us?" Darn, German. It's really messing with our English.
After seeing the Leaning Tower, we caught a train to Florence. Once in Florence we had dinner and then decided to find our accommodations. We were on the bus for about an hour when we realised he was starting his route again (in Germany they would've kicked us off the bus by that time). Amy ran up to the driver and asked if he knew where our stop was. He was very polite and told us we had missed it and then told us where to catch a new bus. Once on the new bus, we showed the driver where we were going. We got off at what we thought was our stop. However, the driver was nice enough to say, "No, no, not yet, get back on." And then we he came to our stop he said, "Now, this is your stop."
At the campground where we stayed we found this "coke" machine. Doesn't look like it has any coke in it. More like wine and beer.
This is where we stayed for both nights in Florence. Amy prefers this over to sleeping in the same room with strangers at a hostel. The weather was cool, but not too bad.
This was the best part of our accommodations. We had this amazing view of Florence.
Right up the street from the campground was a lookout point.
We decided to walk down the hill into the city of Florence instead of taking the bus. However, the stairs were closed off for construction so we had to take a less safe way. Look at this crosswalk. Drivers in Italy like to drive fast too. Anytime we had to cross the road we would just say a prayer and run.
This is not the real Statue of David. However, there were lots of replicas around the city of Florence.
Craig was so excited to see the Duomo. This is the 4th largest Cathedral in the world. The person who built it did not know how to build a dome when he started. However, he was confident that when the time came for to build the dome, technology would be more advanced and there would be a way to do so. How crazy to start a project with the hopes of technology catching up to your idea (Back then cathedrals sometimes took more than 100 years to finish, so I think the odds were in his favor)?
The ceiling inside of the Duomo was amazing. It actually hurts your neck because you want to see everything but it's so high up.
The skeleton was a very interesting detail in the paiting.
Chiesa di Santa Croce
Inside of this basilica were the tombs of Galileo
and Michelangelo.
Some of the statues and monuments were huge. And no Craig is not looking up the Angel's dress. She had very interesting wings. Really.
Florence and Rome are very religious cities. This is apparent even on their traffic signs.
Florence at night.
The next day we walked a bit up the road from our campsite and found a monastary.
The monastary was beautiful.
However, the view from the Monastary was amazing.
After poking around the Monastary, we checked out of the campground and wandered down into Florence for the morning. We spent the morning wandering the streets. We also went back for a second look at the Duomo.
Then it was time to catch the train to Rome.
This time we stayed in a hotel. We stayed about a 15 minute walk from the Vatican City.
Once we arrived in Rome and checked into our hotel, we had to go see Vatican City. For those of you who do not know this, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. They have their own postal service and money. Oh, and it's where the Pope lives. We read online that there is even a dress code to enter the Vatican.
On our first full day in Rome we decided to see the Vatican City Museums. We waited in this long line for about an hour so that we could get tickets. It was not a boring wait. There is a main road next to the line and we were able to see how CRAZY people on Vespas are.
At first we didn't care much about seeing the museums because our minds were focused on the Sistine Chapel. However, once we started wondering around, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. Some of the statues in this room are 2700 years old! We also learned, from all the paintings and sculptures, that back in ancient Rome, men rarely wore clothes and women were often topless. Crazy Romans.
We were so excited for the Sistine Chapel.
It was a big NO NO to take pictures inside the chapel, but I just couldn't resist. I'd come all this way to see this, I HAD to get a picture. Pretty cool, huh.
St. Peter's Basilica. This is the largest Christian Church in the world and holds the remains of the apostle Peter. And it's amazing.
Swiss Guards still guard the Vatican.
This is a scuplture by Michaelangelo which is located in St. Peter's Basilica.
The Pantheon.
We recently spent 5 days travelling in Italy. We started off from Berlin, Germany and flew to Pisa, Italy. From there we travelled to Florence and then on to Rome. Since Italy is one of our favorite countries, we thought it best to start this blog entry with a few of our favorite (Italian) things.
Pizza!
Gelato.
Little bitty cars (or whatever this cute little guy is).
Chocolate croissants.
Vespas.
Cannolis. Mmm cannolis.
Pasta.Now time to talk about the trip. We are going to use our pictures to help tell about our time in Italy.
We started off in cold Leipzig. We caught a train from Leipzig to Berlin were we then flew to Italy. Amy was a bit nervous about travelling because Germany was on alert for terrorist attacks.
After arriving at the Pisa airport, we found our way to this gem. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's just breathtaking. To see it in person is unreal. It actually exists and is incredible to see.
Amy had been practicing her pose for the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Everyone was taking pictures of them "holding the tower up."
Except for Craig. He likes to be "different."
This is a basilica next to the Leaning Tower.
We absolutely love going into basilicas/cathedrals.
This however was a bit disturbing. This is a box containing a skull and crossbones. Like the pirate flag. Except bones.
Yep, that's a body. A very, very old body.
We awkwardly stood around and scouted out people who we thought wouldn't mind taking our picture. I think the person we chose did a pretty good job. However, Amy made an oops when asking because she said, "Will you make a photo of us?" Darn, German. It's really messing with our English.
After seeing the Leaning Tower, we caught a train to Florence. Once in Florence we had dinner and then decided to find our accommodations. We were on the bus for about an hour when we realised he was starting his route again (in Germany they would've kicked us off the bus by that time). Amy ran up to the driver and asked if he knew where our stop was. He was very polite and told us we had missed it and then told us where to catch a new bus. Once on the new bus, we showed the driver where we were going. We got off at what we thought was our stop. However, the driver was nice enough to say, "No, no, not yet, get back on." And then we he came to our stop he said, "Now, this is your stop."
At the campground where we stayed we found this "coke" machine. Doesn't look like it has any coke in it. More like wine and beer.
This is where we stayed for both nights in Florence. Amy prefers this over to sleeping in the same room with strangers at a hostel. The weather was cool, but not too bad.
This was the best part of our accommodations. We had this amazing view of Florence.
Right up the street from the campground was a lookout point. 
We decided to walk down the hill into the city of Florence instead of taking the bus. However, the stairs were closed off for construction so we had to take a less safe way. Look at this crosswalk. Drivers in Italy like to drive fast too. Anytime we had to cross the road we would just say a prayer and run.
This is not the real Statue of David. However, there were lots of replicas around the city of Florence.
Craig was so excited to see the Duomo. This is the 4th largest Cathedral in the world. The person who built it did not know how to build a dome when he started. However, he was confident that when the time came for to build the dome, technology would be more advanced and there would be a way to do so. How crazy to start a project with the hopes of technology catching up to your idea (Back then cathedrals sometimes took more than 100 years to finish, so I think the odds were in his favor)?
The ceiling inside of the Duomo was amazing. It actually hurts your neck because you want to see everything but it's so high up.
The skeleton was a very interesting detail in the paiting.
Chiesa di Santa Croce
Inside of this basilica were the tombs of Galileo
and Michelangelo.
Some of the statues and monuments were huge. And no Craig is not looking up the Angel's dress. She had very interesting wings. Really.
Florence and Rome are very religious cities. This is apparent even on their traffic signs.
Florence at night.
The next day we walked a bit up the road from our campsite and found a monastary.
The monastary was beautiful. 
However, the view from the Monastary was amazing.
After poking around the Monastary, we checked out of the campground and wandered down into Florence for the morning. We spent the morning wandering the streets. We also went back for a second look at the Duomo.
Then it was time to catch the train to Rome.
This time we stayed in a hotel. We stayed about a 15 minute walk from the Vatican City.Once we arrived in Rome and checked into our hotel, we had to go see Vatican City. For those of you who do not know this, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. They have their own postal service and money. Oh, and it's where the Pope lives. We read online that there is even a dress code to enter the Vatican.
On our first full day in Rome we decided to see the Vatican City Museums. We waited in this long line for about an hour so that we could get tickets. It was not a boring wait. There is a main road next to the line and we were able to see how CRAZY people on Vespas are.
At first we didn't care much about seeing the museums because our minds were focused on the Sistine Chapel. However, once we started wondering around, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. Some of the statues in this room are 2700 years old! We also learned, from all the paintings and sculptures, that back in ancient Rome, men rarely wore clothes and women were often topless. Crazy Romans.
We were so excited for the Sistine Chapel.
It was a big NO NO to take pictures inside the chapel, but I just couldn't resist. I'd come all this way to see this, I HAD to get a picture. Pretty cool, huh.
St. Peter's Basilica. This is the largest Christian Church in the world and holds the remains of the apostle Peter. And it's amazing.
Swiss Guards still guard the Vatican.
This is a scuplture by Michaelangelo which is located in St. Peter's Basilica.
The Pantheon. Architects today have no idea how the domed room was able to be built without the tools we have today.
So big!
As mentioned before, Florence and Rome are very religious cities. In Rome we found more than one store selling apparel for the priests and nuns. We also found a briefcase containing a communion kit.
This is a very good example of our time in Rome. We would be wandering down the street and come across ruins. Craig would then read about the ruins and then tell Amy :)
On our last night in Rome we decided to get take-away pizza and sit in one of the squares and eat and people watch. It was a lot of fun.
On our last day in Rome we had to check out of our hotel by 11, but we had until 8:30 pm. So, we decided to lock up our bags. However, the place to lock up bags was locked so we had to carry around our bags which wasn't much fun.
So big!
As mentioned before, Florence and Rome are very religious cities. In Rome we found more than one store selling apparel for the priests and nuns. We also found a briefcase containing a communion kit.
This is a very good example of our time in Rome. We would be wandering down the street and come across ruins. Craig would then read about the ruins and then tell Amy :)
On our last night in Rome we decided to get take-away pizza and sit in one of the squares and eat and people watch. It was a lot of fun.
On our last day in Rome we had to check out of our hotel by 11, but we had until 8:30 pm. So, we decided to lock up our bags. However, the place to lock up bags was locked so we had to carry around our bags which wasn't much fun. This brings us to a quick tangent regarding how nice people are in Rome. We were riding the subway on our way to the airport carrying these now-super-heavy backpacks when a girl offered Amy her seat because she was obviously carrying a superheavy backpack. Also on this subway ride, Craig accidentally hit a woman in the face with his bigger-than-he-realized backpack and she didn't get mad. Such nice Romans.
We just liked this building.
Ruins of the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum. It was colossal.
A section of a department store (KaDeWe in Berlin) devoted entirely to American food. How much do you think the poptarts cost? If you were thinking 8 euros (over $10), you'd be right.
We just liked this building.
Ruins of the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum. It was colossal.
A section of a department store (KaDeWe in Berlin) devoted entirely to American food. How much do you think the poptarts cost? If you were thinking 8 euros (over $10), you'd be right.And, after meeting up with some friends for lunch in Berlin, we got back on the train for our last bit of travelling before getting home.
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