Alles hat ein Ende [All good things must come to an end]

Wow. I can't believe it's time for me to write a final blog post. I obviously didn't utilize this blog as much as I did last time. I think that's partially due to the fact that the longer I'm here, the less I feel I need to write about. But I also think that three years later we're getting even terser with how we share information online. I definitely used Instagram and Facebook a lot this time around, so I hope people were able to follow my adventures. Even my mom got a Facebook to keep up with me, so I don't know if I'll ever resurrect a blog like this again.

I'm not quite finished in Germany yet, but I will be back on American soil in 16 short days, so I figured I should write something now when I am actually able to find a little free time. It's well past 2:00 on a Friday night here, but I find myself wide awake and reflecting on these past 9 months. I've even created a playlist of all the songs that have been popular during this school year to help with my thinking...

Work

I have three days left teaching English at the Berufsbildungszentrum Schleswig in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I've already had my last lessons with 2 of the 8 classes I worked with this year, and I'm actually sadder than I anticipated. I connected with some classes more than others, which depended mostly on how much I was able to interact with them, but even my lesser favorites have left an impact on me. In my favorite class, the students shared what they thought of the year with me and they had very nice things to say.

The first half the year I was quite apathetic about my work at school. I enjoyed a lot of it, but the whole school system was a bit too different for me, and I remember thinking I could never work in a school here. I've changed my tune quite a bit. Although I don't ever see myself coming back to Germany to work as a teacher, I've grown to enjoy teaching English. The more I was able to work independently with the students, the more fun I had.

Probably the greatest lesson I learned here that I will take back with me is that I'm so much more conscious of my language. I have gotten quite good at changing my level of speech to best fit different audiences. And in general, I speak a little slower and more clearly. I'm also better at explaining what words or phrases mean. I hope to carry this skill into my next teaching job.

People

I have met some awesome people this year (from Germans to Americans to a collection of other nationalities). I was so lucky to live in two apartments with great roommates. I had the best mentor teacher ever, and the other teachers I worked with were all super flexible, kind, and fun to work with. I even made a few friends here that I know I will be friends with for many years to come. To top all that off, I reconnected with good friends from years past and strengthened those bonds.

The year abroad also allowed me to think about the relationships I have at home. Thanks to the world of technology we live in, it often felt like I hadn't left my friends and family at all. Of course it helps when you have so many friends and family members willing to come to Germany to visit you. And having your soon-to-be wife at your side (or at most 3 hours away) made home feel much closer.

Overall experience

I am so, so grateful for this Fulbright year. It's a dream I have had such a long time, and I honestly thought it was a long shot for a while. I love this country and this culture and these people more and more. Learning German and being in Germany has brought me so much happiness in my life that I can't imagine it that it will ever stop being one of the most important parts of my life. I met my fiancée in a German class and the most fulfilling work experience I've had was student teaching German in 2012. Who knew that signing up for German 1 in 2004 under the German name "Heiko" would lead to all of this?

I am proud of myself and what I've done with my two biggest passions: German and teaching. All throughout school I strived to be the best, and, if I'm being completely honest, I always felt not good enough. Smart enough to be in the company of the smartest, but I never felt the pride of being a valedictorian or getting some great scholarship or getting a super high ACT score. But I look back now and see what I have accomplished. I excelled with German and teaching throughout college, I studied abroad, and now there's this Fulbright grant. It's what I'm really, really good at. And the best part of it all is that it's also what I really, really love.

Moving on

I have a quick turn around now. I have less than two weeks in Montana before I jet off to Chicago for six weeks of training. The wedding bells will be ringing at the end of July and a few days later Alice and I will be residents of Chicago for at least two years. There's so much coming our way in the next few months, but I hope I don't too quickly forget the past nine months. If I do start forget, I can come back to this blog post to remind myself. It's been a blast, and although I'm not ready for it to end, I am ready for what's coming.

Thank you, Germany.

Nachholen [catching up]

It's mid February, and I haven't blogged in two months. Oh well, I can't dwell on what I haven't done; instead let me talk about what I have done and what I will be doing. I have 3.5 months left in Germany, which is insane (one month shorter than Alice and the others Fulbrighters because of my commitment to Teach for America, which starts its training in June). The past two months have had tons of highlights, changes, and opportunities for reflexion. I've assembled a couple lists to best summarize these.

Four fun happenings:

(1) The family came to visit

Rhine time.

My parents never thought they'd make it to Europe once, let alone twice. After visiting me in Potsdam three years ago, my mom, dad, and brother were very excited to come back. I'm not sure if they were more excited to see me or to eat a Döner again. But it was great for me to have some family time right before Christmas. They stayed a satisfactory (by American standards) / insanely short (by German standards) ten days in Germany, in which Alice and I were able to show them both the North of Germany and the Rhine Valley. All that's left for them to see in Germany is the western, industrial Ruhrgebiet and Bavaria, but then again, does Bavaria count as Germany?

(2) Had my first German Christmas. 

Being as happy as kids on Christmas.

I had never spent Christmas time in Germany, so it was wonderful to celebrate all THREE days of Christmas (nicely played, Germans) with Alice's former host family near Mainz. Even though it was more of a green Christmas than a white one, we enjoyed a village Christmas Eve service, endless amounts of breads, cheeses, and potato salad, and, of course, great company.

(3) Toured the country with friends

With "Brenda" in Berlin.

My great friends that I've known since high school, Brent and Amanda, flew over from England to spend a couple weeks with us, and we had a blast. We hit Germany hard and knocked Mainz, Heidelberg, Hamburg, Kiel, Berlin, Bremen, Oldenburg, and some smaller cities off the "to see" list. We ate way too much but laughed even more. Can't wait to visit England in April and make them host us!

(4) Jetted off to Spain 

Fulbright Fam in Barcelona.

I know I have no right to complain about the weather here, considering how much snow the U.S. has been getting (I think it snowed here like twice, barely), BUT in January I was so sick of cloudy, cold, wet, dark days. A trip to Spain was exactly what I needed. Alice and I flew on the first weekend of February with our Fulbright daughters Amanda and Valeria to Barcelona, where we soaked up the sun, ate paella with sangria, and found the perfect balance between exploration and relaxation. It was so rejuvenating, and I didn't want to come back.


Four changes:: 

(1) Finished a huge project

TTYL, Youtube! 

Anyone who really knows me or has known me in the past, well, 12 years has become familiar with my unique hobby of making homemade reality shows and putting them on Youtube. In fact, I discovered last week that one of my classes at school googled me and came across my videos,: "Paul, we have saw your Youtube Kanal. Wery good!" Anyway, I finished editing and posted the last episode of Survivor: All-Stars that had been consuming many hours of my life every week since August. I am going to miss a lot of the fun of these shows, but am already enjoying the free time I have now. I can, for example, update my blog. 

(2) Moved apartments

Auf Wiedersehen, pretty girl's room

Sadly, my subletting came to an end at the end of January, and I had give up my pink room. It was very sad to say goodbye to my roommates, but I was very happy to find a room in an apartment just five minutes away. I'll have to post a picture of my new room soon: it's very rustic, manly, and equipped with a big TV and a leather couch. Needless to say, I felt silly bringing in my flowery pillows I bought at IKEA for my old room...

(3) Found my groove at school

Not a student, but a teacher!

I'll admit that it was hard to go back to work after three weeks off at Christmas. Trying to readjust, I wasn't having fun. I was sick of the hour commute each way, and I wasn't excited about teaching. But in the last few weeks, I've really challenged myself to change my mindset. I'm staying on top of schoolwork, I'm teaching more than ever, and really unitizing my commute home on the train to prepare stuff for school. Oh, and I've made it routine to take a quick nap during my free periods on the leather couches in the back of the teacher's lounge. With working only three days a week combined with several weeks of break coming up, I have only 30 days of school left until I go home. Crazy!

(4) Saying hello and goodbye 

Hade, Thomas! I mean, Moikka! Wait, are you Norwegian or Finnish again? #confused 

I've been allowing myself more time for social engagements, which is always a good thing. Now that Franzi, the girl from whom I was subletting, is back from Scotland, we've made a weekly dinner commitment where we cook something along with my former roommate Cathi. This week, I invited them over to my new place, and my new roommate Kathrin also joined us. We may or may not have also watched episode two of Germany's Next Top Model by Heidi Klum...

On the other side of the coin, I have to say goodbye this week to my friends Jenny and Thomas, who are both moving (to Hamburg and New York City, respectively) for internships. My social life is about to tank without them here, but I'm hoping they'll come see us in Chicago in September. It was really nice to spend last weekend with them in Bremen.



Now, I'm also working on a top four list of goals I made for myself this year. I want to take a look back at them and see how I'm doing. I'll save that for next time, though... Hope I make it back to this blog before June! :)

Freunde [friends]

Happy December from Kiel! Christmas season is in full swing in Germany with Christmas markets open in every city and town providing those who brave the cold with the extremely popular hot, spiced wine known as Glühwein (among other treats). The holiday season has always been my favorite time of year, and, because this is the first time that I haven’t been home during these weeks leading up to Christmas, I’ve experienced my first real dose of homesickness since I studied abroad two and half years ago. But, no worries; I have been feeling much better this week, and with my parents and brother arriving next weekend, home is right around the corner.

Christmas market in Lübeck. Yes, I visited this one, but, no, this is not my camera work.

With Alice’s being 2-3 hours away in Oldenburg, I don’t get to see her nearly as much as I would like to (usually twice a month), but I also have some awesome friends in Germany that have helped make my stay here so much fun. I’ve decided that I want to use this blog post to introduce them, which will, in turn, also update you on some of my undertakings.  

And for the record, I have met so many nice people, and I have super roommates, and my mentor teacher is fantastic, so I can’t claim that these people I'm highlighting are the only ones who have been nice to me! J

Edda (old friend)

Dug up this hot pic of me with Edda at my graduation party in 2008.
Other exchange students censored to avoid confusion.

Edda was one of the two German foreign exchange students during my senior year at West High, and I’m so glad that we’ve maintained a friendship over these past six years. It just so happens Edda lives and studies here in Kiel, so it’s been so fun to be able to meet up with her and boyfriend, Fidi.

The funniest moment this year was when we bumped into each other at the Kiel Christmas Market on opening night. It makes you feel well acclimated to a new city when you start running into people you know.  

Enjoying a cup of Glühwein with Edda. The Kiel cups are (sadly) orange this year. At least I look better than I did in '08. 

The day before Thanksgiving, Edda and Fidi invited me to their annual Grünkohl feast. It was my first time sampling this typical North German dish, but I thought it was delicious. It wasn’t turkey dinner, but it was a very enjoyable evening.

 

Grünkohl (kale) with potatoes, pork and sausage.

Amanda and Valeria (new friends) 

It's always a party when you're friends with Paul.

When the 140 Fulbright scholars who received English teaching assistantships in Germany assembled near Cologne for orientation back in September, it was a huge blur of faces and names from all across the United States. Luckily, Facebook helped link a lot of these names to faces and also allowed us to all stay in contact. While I have met up with most of the teaching assistants up here in the north, there are two ETA's with whom Alice and I have daily correspondence. 

You can choose your friends but not your family.

We call ourselves the "Fulbright Family" with Alice and me in the roles of “mom” and “dad” to our “daughters” Amanda and Valeria. Weird? Definitely. Creepy? Perhaps. But we have a message chain that is never-ending, and it has allowed us to make jokes every single day and also to give each other support… like when one of us had an emergency plane landing in the Netherlands or when we have concerns with what's going on at our schools.

Family met up in Lüneburg in September.

Amanda lives outside of Hamburg and Valeria in Berlin. Sadly, we’ve only had one full reunion since orientation, but we’re working on the next!

Julia (old friend) 

Enjoying lunch with Julia back in the day.

Julia was the other German foreign exchange student back in high school, and it’s crazy how often we’ve seen each other since then (like 2 or 3 times in America and half a dozen times in Germany).

When I was in Potsdam in 2011, I could get to Julia in a matter of 75 minutes, but now we’re several hours apart. However, that didn’t stop me (or Alice) from making the trek down to Leipzig for Julia’s annual Thanksgiving Dinner.

Dressed up (waaay more than we have to for school here) and ready for the feast!

After Julia’s time in the US, she decided to recreate Thanksgiving dinner with her (always nice and hilarious) friends at her apartment every November. What’s unique is that Julia and most of her friends are vegans. So, no, there was no turkey, BUT we had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner nonetheless. It really did rival a regular Thanksgiving meal at home. After a day spent in our pajamas preparing the meal, we dressed in our finest and gorged ourselves on stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, beans, cranberries, stuffed apples, garlic baguettes, pumpkin pie and peanut butter Oreo brownies. We then had leftovers for brunch, and I went back to Kiel stuffed and feeling like I didn’t miss out on Thanksgiving after all.

Thanksgiving dinner: Alice and I are way in the back.

Thomas and Jenny (new friends)

The fish of Kiel. (I rely too heavily on these stupid cropped photos.)

As I (probably) mentioned in an earlier post, I’m subletting my room from a Master’s student who is doing a semester in Scotland right now. And because I’m enjoying everything she left in her room (like the pink walls, and floral bedspread, and Hello Kitty poster, and I’m going to stop there), I thought it only appropriate that I enjoy her friends, too. When I moved into the room, all my roommates were still on vacation, so the girl I’m renting from gave her friend Jenny the keys to the place. Jenny (German) and her boyfriend Thomas (Norwegian) picked me up from the train station and let me into my apartment, and it’s been nothing but good times ever since. They're the people I have spent a lot of my free time with, and they’ve shown me a very good time in Kiel so far. These adventures include:

Dressing up like Bavarians

and dancing all night long.

Heading to the bowling alley

and getting yelled at by the bowling alley lady for hitting the pinsetter with a bowling ball.
"Are you sure this is the sport for you?" was her final comment.

And our latest endeavor: braving the awful European windstorm "Xaver"

and taking sarcastic photos that were then posted by the local newspaper in Kiel.

Oh, and they have a reaaallllly cute dog named Linus.

I’m going to be so sad when they both leave in a couple months for their practicums. Guess I’ll I have to buy some new friends.

Pech mit Zügen [bad luck with trains]

If you don't have the time to read this whole blog post, this sums it up: if you are on a train, and you see me, get off immediately.

First of all, I need to apologize for my lack of a posting in a long time. I don't want to sound so full of myself that I think people are waking up in the middle of the night and checking their Blogspot subscriptions for word from me, but I do think at least a few people enjoy hearing updates about my year in Germany. The longer I live here, the more accustomed I get, and the less I feel that I have blog-worthy material. I'll try to be better, though!

With that said, there are some newsworthy happenings  (that some of you may have gotten a taste of via Facebook), namely, my continued problems with train travel and public transportation in general. If I had to sum up my first extended stay in Germany, I'd be remiss to exclude my constant challenges with trains: buying a wrong ticket on day three in Germany (leading to a 40 Euro fine) and missing my flight to Edinburgh after some train mishaps are my two most famous train disaster stories. I was hoping that train troubles would be so 2011, but I've quickly learned that, for me, at least, they're still very much in style. 

"The Little Engine That Could" make traveling suck.

Saga #1 Going to orientation and back 

700 km by train. What could go wrong??

 This story is a bit dated, but it's a fun one nonetheless. At the beginning of my stay in Germany, Alice and I had to commute from the Frankfurt area to Cologne for orientation and then onto our host cities (first stop in Oldenburg for Alice, then Kiel for me). We probably jinxed ourselves because Alice and I discussed pre-departure how Alice never has problems with train travel and how I always do. I wish Alice's luck would have rubbed off more. 

Summary of our adventures with trains.

1. Train from Mainz to Cologne:

--Train car 10 (where we had our seat reservations) decided not to show up with the rest of the train, so we were forced to drag our huge suitcases down the train to find some empty seats. To make it even more annoying, over 20 people were doing the exact same thing because they, too, (stupidly) assumed car 10 would be there. 

2. -Cologne to Oldenburg

--1 minute before our train was to show up, we were informed that the train had a 70-(not 7, or 17, but 70!!) minute delay. This would have caused us to miss our connecting train in Bremen, so we had to find another train. Of course there went our paid-for reservations again. 

--Took another train that was like 20 minutes late. Deutsche Bahn (the German railway company) assured us we'd have plenty of time to catch our train in Bremen because we had 40 minutes of layover time.

--20 minutes quickly became 40 minutes by the time we reached Bremen. We arrived one minute too late. Had to wait another 40 minutes or so before we took the final train home. 

3. Oldenburg to  Kiel

-After fighting with the ticket machine for a good ten minutes, I finally got my ticket in the Bremen train station to get me to Kiel.But of course the platform I was supposed to go to was completely blocked off.

--After reading the electronic posting of where I needed to go instead, I was forced to carry two 50-lbs suitcases (by myself) up the stairs to the platform (apparently Tour de France took a detour through Bremen because there was a line of like 40 cyclists waiting to use the elevator).

--After waiting for 20 minutes and still no train, suddenly crowds of people started running down the stairs for some reason. That must have meant that the platform changed, and the only way to find out where to was to pick up my 100 lbs of luggage and walk down the stairs again. Good thing I did because it did change...to the other side of platform I was just standing on. So I hauled my stuff up that same exact staircase one more time. My arms were killing me.

--With no reservation in hand I boarded a train that was packed. I stood for an hour and half in the tiny compartment in front of the bathroom with seven other people. I was lucky enough to be able to stand in the hole created by the step into the train car. 

Saga #2 Going Dutch 

Speedy 3-hour trek...seems easy enough.

~I thought maybe having Emily come to visit us would cancel out some of my bad train luck as we ventured to Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague in October. But I was wrong. While on our way back from Amsterdam, our train suddenly came to a screeching halt. We looked out the window to see the train personnel jumping out of the train and onto the tracks. We didn't hear anything for a couple minutes, but we soon got the report in Dutch, Dutch-German and Dutch-English: "Ladies and gentlemen...we...uh..heet a car." Apparently, there was a car on the tracks (still don't know why), but luckily no one was in the car. Or, as the Dutch train guy said, "Zee accident was nothing personal." 

Emily's patient face on aforementioned stopped train.

"Waarom was de auto hier?!?"

--We then heard things from the loud speaker like, "Um, we don't know what we to do!" as we watched all the Dutch people flee the train. We were stuck with the Germans hoping we'd make it back home by the end of the night. They did give us a bunch of free Coke, juice and water, though. 

--After nearly an hour of waiting, we slowly rolled into the next station where we were rerouted through two forms of local Dutch trains (they were so packed, of course, that I didn't have a seat). We got home over two hours later than we intended. 

Saga #3 Orkan Christian 

My commute from work to my apartment. Surely, this tiny local train route is safe from chaos!

As I've mentioned before, I live in Kiel but work 45 minutes away in the town of Schleswig. Although I always ride with a teacher from my school to Schleswig in the morning, I take the train back to Kiel at least two time a week because the teacher I ride with usually stays quite late. Anyway, last Monday (October 28th) I remember hearing that an "Orkan" (European windstorm is the translation I've found) was coming, but I didn't think too much of it; I really should have. This was a big enough deal to warrant a Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Jude_storm

I finished class at 12:40, and since my ride said he would be at the school till five, I figured I could take my time getting home. Here's how that turned out:

--Walked to train station. It's a 40-minute walk, but I was in no hurry and the weather actually looked nice.

--By the time I was at the station, the wind was starting to pick up pretty badly. I had 30 minutes until my train came.

--Literally the minute the train was supposed be there, we are informed that the trains are no longer running because of the storm. 

--Went to find a taxi and was nearly blown over and had to dodge tree branches. Had to take the taxi back to the school, but because the streets were already covered with fallen trees, we had to take an extremely long way to the school, costing me double the normal fare. 

--Waited in the teachers' lounge for hours because parts of the autobahn were closed.

--Finally left the school at six, but the traffic was so bad that a 45-minute trip turned into a two-hour journey. 

--After getting off at 12:40, I walked into my apartment at 8:00. 

The trains continued to be out of commission for an entire week, causing many more days of complicated commuting. At one point, every train line in ALL of Germany was back up and running EXCEPT mine. 

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The good news is that I stayed home this past weekend and did not step on a single train, and I had a marvelously relaxing weekend. The bad news is I have more train travel planned this month.

Next time, I'm pulling a Harry and Ron.

How to survive a day as Paul, American English speaking assistant in Schleswig, Germany.

(This post attempts to give you a glance into what's becoming my everyday life in Germany. I hope you enjoy it and appreciate how stealth I was in taking all these pictures with my phone.) 

Before School 

The devil takes digital form.

When the alarm goes off at 5:50 a.m., it's time for you to get up and get ready for school. One of the very nice teachers at your school will be picking you up at 6:30, so you must hurry. Give yourself a 5-minute maximum on social media. It's not quite 10 o'clock p.m. in Montana, so all your friends are still awake and active. Sadly, you don't have time to SnapChat out any "selfies" and responding to Facebook messages will take up too much time (you do have time for approx. 2-3 Facebook pokes, however). Don't be too sadened by this whole waking up early ordeal, however, because you only have to do this three days a week. Because the Fulbright program only allows you to work 12 hours a week and your teachers at your school are awesome, you work only Tuesday-Thursday. 

Rigorous schedule

Don't forget to have your raincoat and umbrella with you when you head out the door. This September has been rainier than it has been drier. After a teacher from your school picks you up, you have about a 45-minute drive ahead you from Kiel to Schleswig, where your school is located. Because the teacher you ride with is an accomplished, high-ranking school official/teacher, be prepared to expand your German capabilities by talking about subjects such as election campaign strategies in Germany and the environmental dilemma behind oil drilling in the US. 

Dr. H's ride > Deutsche Bahn

At School 

One part of my school. Parking garage meets skate park.

Outdoor ping pong table at the school. Um, okay...

Your school is called "Berufsbildungszentrum Schleswig," which is a vocational school that offers a variety of programs, including preparation for studying at a university. Most of your students are between the ages 15 and 20 and love trying to add you on Facebook. You also get a couple "non-trads" who are pushing 30. You work with a handful of teachers at the school, and, depending with whom you end up working, you will do different tasks. Sometimes you will prepare an entire lesson about the use of active vs. passive voice, while other times you will be asked to choose an American song and present it to the class (TIP: go for something obnoxiously patriotic like that country gem "Only in America"). Still other times, you will sit at the front of the room and sporadically be asked questions about American English. If you get bored, run to the bathroom. You get to use the "teacher restroom" now!

"WC Teachers" This is worth a teacher's license.

Try not to get lost on campus. There are multiple buildings and everything looks the same after a while. If you stand there for several seconds yanking on a door that is clearly marked "push," play the "I'm-American-and-I-don't-know-German-card." 

"Push"

Don't be alarmed when you have a flashback to the nineties and every room is equipped with a blackboard and box of rainbow colored chalk. 

#throwback 

Doesn't compare to a set of Expos.

Between every 90-minute class (class schedules are more university-style and don't meet every day) you have a 15 minutes break where all the teachers head to one of the teachers' lounges and chill. Contrary to the stereotype that Germans are always obsessively punctual, you'll be surprised to find out that most teachers stay in lounge until the bell rings and then they head to class. Sometimes they will wait to finish their conversations and end up staying a good five minutes into the class period! (To demonstrate, here is a photo taken about 30 seconds following the bell).)

No rush to get to class.

You'll spend a lot of time in the teacher's lounge, since teachers don't have their own classrooms. Sometimes you will be mistaken for a student and asked, "Na, was gibt's?" said in the tone of "What the hell do you think you're doing in the teacher's lounge?" But other times, teachers will be very friendly and thrilled that you're American. But most the time, actually, no small talk takes place, and you can work on your computer in peace. You're more than welcome to write a blog entry during this time, as well. 

Selfie in the lounge.

Pigeon hole

Once you arrange which teacher can drive you back to Kiel (that can range from 1 to 5 p.m.), be sure to use the bathroom first. It's a long drive, remember?

After School 

The ride home takes a little longer because traffic on the autobahn gets backed up. But after you get dropped off, take advantage of all that's near you! IKEA is within walking distance, and as any good German will confirm, this mega affordable furniture outlet also serves cheap--yet delicious--cuisine. The food opportunities on your street are multiple, however. Two grocery stores (Lidl and Sky) are literally one minute and three seconds away from your front door. Please pretend that the author of this did not actually time that. The street is also equipped with several bakeries, cafés, restaurants and the best Döner shop in Kiel. (If you don't know what a Döner is, I feel sad for you.) You can also find an Apotheke, bike shop and even a clockmaker's shop within steps of your apartment. 

IKEA's just around the corner.

Supermarket Central

Haus 69 (my apartment building)

Forgot to pack a key chain.

Now that Cathi, one of your roommates, is back from doing her practicum, you might go shopping together or spend the evening chatting about America with her and her friends in the kitchen (while stuffing your face with something sweet). 

"Here lives . . ."

Although some accuse you of having it too easy, don't listen to them. You know in your heart that you put your sweat and tears into working the past eight months as a substitute teacher and Boys & Girls Club coordinator. And next year you'll be teaching in inner-city Chicago, so don't feel bad at all.  

Have fun and eat a marzipan croissant for me.