Well, as you can tell by my 2 day absence, things have been a little wild around here. From Friday- Sunday, I’ll be in Hannover for the Association of German International Schools teacher development conference. Since that means I will have no time next weekend to do my planning, I wanted to get it all done this weekend. Planning for 3 weeks in one weekend = no “fun” computer time. I’m really looking forward to this conference for several different reasons: 1. Three days of awesome courses on everything from improving teaching practices to classroom management. 2. Travel/ hotel stay/ all food payed for by my school. 3. Hopefully reconnecting with a good friend who has recently been quite distant. I can not wait share my ideas and learn from the success of others. Yippie!
So, let’s catch up on my weekend.
Friday could easily be described as a Pete and Repeat day. Nearly every meal on Friday was identical to Thursday’s eats.
Yes, that would be coffee and apricot almond oats again! My morning break time provided a sweet surprise- lemon pound cake with a sweet and tart glaze.
Lunch was leftover butter-sage tortellini with vegetables.
One (of the many) things I love about the school I work for is the afternoon fruit snack rota. The parents take turns bringing in fresh fruit and vegetables for a whole class afternoon snack. Usually they are so generous we have enough for the kids to have a morning and afternoon fruit snack. I like to play games with the food like banana catch (it’s amazing how this has improved some of their catching skills) and fruit for a friend where the kids say something nice about someone else in the class before getting their fruit. Friday was a fruit salad type snack.
I had tutoring after school and was starving by the time I came home… after school snack was another repeat, toast with almond butter, agave, and cinnamon- this time accompanied by a clementine!
Since I was not able to eat at the delicious Karawane restaurant last week, I wizened up, made reservations, and ate there for dinner with Sebastian and the Aussies on Friday night.
The photo may be awful, but the concept is awesome. You start off with this plate. There are 9 little golf-ball sized holes in the plate, each filled with one of the restaurant’s dishes for that week. You taste everything, make notes, then order which numbers you want. It’s an all-you-can-eat type thing, but the food is fresher than a buffet. I have never been able to eat more than 3 additional regular-sized servings. This week, the food included:
1. Yogurt creme dip with tuna fish and capers from Turkey.
2. Stuffed grape leaf with a yummy lemon-butter creme sauce.
3. Couscous with vegetables from Marocco
4. Spicy chopped vegetable salad from Anatolia
5. Baked onions with tamarind from Lebanon
6. Noodles with lentils, herbs and brown butter from Syria
7. Mixed salad with herbs and tahini dressing from Arabia
8. Goat cheese and spinach roll from Turkey
9. Rise and zucchini paty from Iraq
I also had a glass of red wine and a wonderful time!
Saturday was an adventurous day of traveling in a snow storm to shop at Ikea!!! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home. 
Breakfast was vanilla French toast with roasted pecans.
The shopping outing was great fun! We started out going to another store called Metro, it’s probably the closest thing to a Sam’s Club or Costco in Germany although the prices aren’t as good. I was so happy to find something for school that I’ve been looking for for ages- a headphone hub. Now the listening to reading station is ready for its new and improved grand opening! I also bought an exercise ball/ posture improving desk “chair.”
IKEA always provides a good time. We started in the food court. I had the kid’s menu spaghetti marinara and subbed the desert for a salad. Just the right amount! I love walking through Ikea and imagining the little model rooms are a part of my home. It just makes me want to buy it all and reorganize my entire apartment. I bought almost everything on my wish list- most of the stuff was for school.
Once we were back home, I did a ton of planning before breaking for dinner. Sebastian wasn’t excited about the idea of veggie quesadillas but once he smelled them cooking, he changed his mind. It’s a good thing I’m such a generous girlfriend.
Quesadilla Includes: Red onion, green and red peppers, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, and tortilla shells.
After dinner, I continued to work on school stuff until about 11:30- then I hit the hay.
I slept in today until 9:30 and was starving when I woke up. Although it wasn’t quite brunch time, I decided I was going to have just that. A meal large enough to encompass the calories and fat for not one, but two meals.
I tossed together some potatoes, red peppers, red onions, mushrooms, scrambled egg, and cheddar cheese for a DIY Denver Skillet. Yum!
My morning project was to blow up my new exercise ball but upon opening the package, I realized there was no pumping device included… so being the innovative problem solver that I am, I used the tip of a pen attached to my bike pump. It worked like a dream!
Half-way there!
I also mentioned earlier that I bought a bunch of stuff for school- most importantly, some living, breathing, inspiring Gerber daisies. Ikea has an awesome selection of plants for such a good price. I’ve decided to re-organize my students into groups based on the flower color. I’ll put one of these beauties on each group of desks. They give me energy and a mood boost so I figure they’ll do the same for the kids!
Orange Group Yellow Group Pink Group
Unfortunately, the pink pot took a beating in transport and lost one of its blossoms.
Fortunately, it encouraged me to honor the lost hope of that blossom with an independent photo shoot. I must say, these are probably some of my new favorite photos!
Stunning beauty.
This afternoon, I had a snack of fruit Müsli with milk then set off to making another batch of homemade almond butter.
Since the oven was already warm from roasting the almonds, I decided to bake some bread. About a month ago, I bought a 6 grain bread mix but have been too intimidated by the German instructions to try it. Today was the day!
I think the oven was still too hot when I put the bread in to rise in a warm place because it didn’t do much rising. Oh well, now I’ve got a dense, crusty bread.
Eating Abroad
