16 – 31 October

16 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C.

I have a very busy day today. I have classes 8h30 – 10, 10h05 – 11h35, 11h50 – 13h20, & 15h – 18h. I was supposed to have one 18h30 – 20h, but he cancelled because he has too much work to do, which, with all the work I have this month, is fine with me.

7h08 – At the beginning of the month, I had thought I wouldn’t have enough work and would be hard up for money next month, but that changed with this intensive course this week and a single class I was given on Fridays. Also, coming up next week is another intensive course and single class. Life is good, but busy. I have to finish correcting dictations and preparing lessons now.

22h – I’ve just uninstalled Real Player. The new Media Player is much better.

17 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C.

18h07 – I’m glad to see this Friday evening. It’s been a long week.

Today was a great day. We have new AK classes this year and I am the class teacher for the Rio group. A class teacher is the person responsible for their attendance and the one to help them solve any problems they may have. Today we had a team– building day, which meant that we spent the day (8h20 – 13h30) out of the school. We walked to Café Einstein for brunch, then walked along the rivers and back to the school. It wasn’t much, but we took are time and enjoyed each other’s company. We didn’t really need the team– building day, because the class works well as a team. However, since it was offered, we all gladly took it, and had a great time. I suggested that we do it today because 17 Oct is the last day of this term and they have two weeks holiday now.

23h35 – I’m addicted. I’ve been listening to air traffic control this evening and love it. You can hear air traffic controllers talking to pilots. It’s great.

18 Oct – 8h – 0°C, but it’s going to be sunny again J.

21h – What a busy day. I’ve been to the mall and two different supermarkets, I’ve done 3 loads of laundry and have ignored several other things I should have done today.

I went to a Rio group gathering today in Geisig, at Benedicta’s house. It was a lot of fun. She has a small house in a village about 25 km from Koblenz. It’s orange and has a nice sunny feeling to it. She made several types of cakes (strawberry, apple, cheese, etc) and other food as well. We met her boyfriend and his son, as well as her daughter and boyfriend, and they were all very nice people. I only stayed for an hour because I had soooo much to do, but it was a good time.

19 Oct – 8h30 – 1°C and foggy. I think our sunny spell has ended.

20h22 – I’m listening to ‘We Built This City’ by Starship. This song has always reminded me of San Francisco, and I remember how happy I was in 1987 when I listened to it while driving over the Golden Gate Bridge (those who know the song will know why).

Are there other songs that are special to me? Of course, but too many to list.

Speaking of special, the TV show ‘Friends’ is very special to me. Bren, Tina, Cory, Doug (RIP), ‘Uncle’ Hugh and others, I’ll never forget you. That was a great time in my life.

21h38 – I’ve just tried emailing a good friend from many years ago, but the email has been returned because the email address is invalid. I’ve tried the white pages on Yahoo, but no phone # or email address was found. John (of John & Katie), who used to live in Meadowbrook, please email me if you see this.

22h34 – I’ve been a bit down lately, so I posted something about that on a bulletin board I frequently post on, and my (real life) friend Jo (in London) responded with exactly what I needed to hear. I hate it when that happens J. Here’s a (slightly edited – names deleted) version of what she posted:

I also think that you need to make a decision: either to start trying to enjoy Germany and to get involved in things that interest you, try and find people that interest you, etc or start making plans to move elsewhere. Don’t stay for the hell of it. Is there NO way you could survive financially in Poland?

As for the rest, I think it will just fall into place for you once you’ve sorted out the to stay or not to stay problem.

You could try taking up new interests to meet people; you could try lots of things but, until you’re happy where you are, they probably won’t make much difference.

Thanks Jo

21 Oct – 21h – It’s been a busy week already, and it’s only Tuesday.

I spent a lot of time yesterday looking for a room in Krabi, Thailand. Inexpensive rooms are very hard to find there in December, but I think I found a good deal. It’s a bungalow across a small street from the beach and is only €40 per night, so I’m going to stay for 4 nights, including New Year’s Eve. It should be fun. I also booked a flight back to Bangkok on Bangkok Airways, as Thai Airways was sold out for the date I wanted. The ticket only cost me THB 2,565, which is about €55, depending on what other charges Deutsche Bank puts on it, since I had to pay in a foreign currency with my Euro Visa card.

I’ve also been working, which is still going well. My Deutsche Telekom group cancelled for tomorrow, which is not unusual for them as the have a lot of work and only four people. My second Compu Shack group cancelled also. That’s fine with me. The first group is great, four 50 & 60 year old women who love learning English, even though it’s difficult at times. I could fall asleep in class and as long as it sounded like I was snoring in English, they’d be happy. The second group is 6 women, late 20s – early 40s, who hate everything. Speaking, listening, reading, grammar, etc. You name it, they hate it. I could wheel in a three–ring circus and they wouldn’t smile. One of them constantly whines about how things are too difficult for her and refuses to even attempt many tasks. She really annoys me and gets on my nerves. I love it when they cancel.

My Dover group was a no show this evening, which is great because I still got paid for it. I had to wait 20 minutes, then left. This is the first time in the 16 months I’ve been teaching them that they no showed.

22 Oct – 6h – 3C. I’m up early to prepare for two classes, one is an intensive one and the other is a single one. I’m taking the intensive one over from Andrew, because he couldn’t handle it. He hates teaching lower levels (and higher levels for that matter) and is taking the two intermediate. However, he didn’t write much on the card, so I don’t know what materials he used. That’s a start. At least he wrote on the cards.

7h – okay, enough chatting. Time to get ready and go to work.

The flight I booked a few days ago ended up costing €55.52…€54.97 plus a 1% fee for a foreign currency transaction.

23 Oct – 20h44 – What a busy week. I’m glad it’s over. It’s four day weekend time! Hooray!

Some relatives arrived in Frankfurt an hour ago and we’re spending the next 6 days together. When we were putting the trip together, we decided to rent a car because it’d be easier and cheaper than taking trains to where we want to go. I ordered a VW Golf Variant (Wagon/Combi/Estate) or similar, as I’ve travelled with them before and know that they usually have large suitcases, and knew that we’d need a bit of extra room. I picked up the vehicle yesterday and we got ‘or similar.’ It’s a Mercedes Vaneo, a small van. Small is a relative word, as it’s huge to me. Luckily, I won’t be doing most of the driving. All I have to do is drive to their hotel near the Frankfurt airport tomorrow morning, then one of them will drive for a lot of the time. Hopefully it’ll be a good mini– holiday.

23h30 – I should be in bed now. I have to get up at 6h30. However, after a hard week like I’ve had, I want to stay up late, even though I’m exhausted. However, I have to be awake enough at 8h to speed down the autobahn to Frankfurt. Considering I don’t like driving and I especially don’t like driving large vehicles, driving a large vehicle on the autobahn it should be interesting.

24 Oct – 0h28 – I don’t want to go to bed, but it’s time. I’d love to stay up for a few more hours, but then I’d be dead tomorrow. Goodnight.

6h15 – It’s –3C. Time for a shower.

26 Oct – 21h25 – I’m in a hotel room in Augsburg (Germany) and am watching CNN. That’s right, I’m finally staying in a hotel room that’s nice enough to have a TV.

Anyway, CNN has a special report on the Muslim world. Their reporter, Thomas L Friedman, who’s been based in the Muslim world for many years, is presenting and it appears to be a show about trying to understand why 11 September happened. He just showed a piece on the Antwerp racial riots from 2002. The lady said that many Muslim youths felt that Belgians didn’t treat them right and wouldn’t give them good jobs. I don’t know anything about that, so I can’t comment on it. However, knowing Germans as I do, if Belgians are anything like Germans, I totally believe it.

21h28 – They just had an advertisement for Inside Africa! I used to watch that all the time when I lived in Poland.

21h40 – They just had an interview with an Indonesian teenager who said that she had been told that some of the people who were responsible for 11 September were Americans, and that Gore didn’t win the 2000 election because he was Jewish (he’s not). However, after that, when asked, she said that she would like to attend university in the USA.

It’s over. It was a good report.

21h46 – He’s showing a report on Bahrain’s first actual election. Women worked at the polls and were also permitted to vote.

21h49 – Friedman: “Wherever I went in the Muslim worked, the thing struck me the most was how much people wanted their voices to be heard.” That’s what people all over the world want…to be heard.

21h52 – It’s over and it was a quite good report. I’d love to stay up longer and watch more, but I’m extremely tired this evening and am going to bed.

27 Oct – 6h55 – There’s been an explosion near the ICRC Headquarters in Baghdad. They’ve been reporting that two cars have exploded, however the building appears not to have been damaged. Many of the shops in a 100– metre radius have had windows blow out.

Violence has been expected today because it’s the first day of Ramadan. I don’t get it. What are they thinking? “It’s a religious holiday, let’s blow things up.” It makes no sense to me.

7h13 – Ben Wedemann is reporting that he’s just heard a loud explosion, but has no idea what it was about or where it came from and has no information on it.

7h16 – Ben just said that there are unconfirmed reports of 3 deaths in the ICRC bombing.

7h18 – Jane Arraf is reporting that, according two witnesses, it appears to have been an ambulance loaded with explosives that ran into a barricade and exploded in the ICRC bombing.

7h27 – Jane is back saying that part of the ICRC complex was damaged, but the main building wasn’t.

7h41 – Now CNN’s Atlanta news desk is reporting that the ICRC building has been heavily damaged.

There are 10 wildfires four Southern California counties (the only one the report mentioned was San Bernadino). Some of the homeowners only had 15 minutes to evacuate.

7h52 – The ICRC spokeswoman is now saying that she believes there have been some casualties, but she doesn’t know how many have been killed or injured. Gee, I’m glad they got her on the phone to report that useless information.

28 October – 6h30 – 2°C. Back to the grind. I had a good time with my relatives, but it’s back to work today.

21h – I’ve just returned home and checked my email. I received a reply to an email that I had sent a good friend here in Germany this morning. We used to see each other every Monday night in passing at school for a few minutes (not only is he a good friend of mine, but he’s also an evening student at our school in a Spanish course), but he’s moving to a Thursday night class. I’m never at then time because I teach in a business in Neuwied, but was last week because they had cancelled due to having too much work. I’ll miss our brief chats, but will keep in touch with him though email, and we’ll probably go out for drinks occasionally (we last did in late June).

Andrew asked me if we could trade his intensive class for my single class tomorrow. I told him that if he could clear it with David, that’s fine with me. He left at 17h today and didn’t say anything, so I called David. As expected, Andrew hadn’t called him and asked. Idiot. David said that was fine, so we’ll do the trade.

29 October – 1h11 – It’s very late now and I should have gone to bed a couple hours ago. However, I didn’t want to. I’ll probably pay for it in the morning, as I have to work at 9h45. Who cares? I need time for myself. Goodnight.

30 October – 21h20 – Ryan Air is having a great special again, so, even though I can’t afford it, I’ve bought a few tickets for 2004. Here’s what I’ve purchased:

Hahn to Pisa – €30.99 (one in January, one in February)

Hahn to Forli – €28.71

Hahn to Treviso Venice (TSF) €34.02

Good news: My second Compu Shack groups informed me this evening that Caroline, the waste of space, has decided not to continue with our class. Hooray! She rarely attended and when she did, she whined and complained that everything was to hard for her. I won’t miss her at all.

I did a survey on Find Your Spot to find out where the best place for me to live in the US would be. No, I’m not considering moving back, I was just curious. They ask you a series of questions and then recommend good places for you to live based on the info you give them. If you do this, be warned that at the end, you have to enter a name, address and email address, but you can enter fictitious information to prevent being spammed (example: Fred Jones, 123 Your Street, Nowhere, AL, 10028 (it doesn’t check the zip code). Here are my results. I was very surprised that the top two were in Texas. The 3rd and 4th didn’t surprise me, as I requested a place with that had warm weather, cheap housing and was also near the beach.

31 October – 21h27 – Happy Halloween…not really, it’s just another day.. it’s been a busy week, but now it’s Friday night and I’m chillin’ out.

22h52 – It’s a holiday weekend here, kind of. Tomorrow is ‘All Souls’ Day,’ a day to remember those who have passed away. However, it’s on a Saturday, which means that everything will be closed.

23h – Here’s what the flights I purchased yesterday would cost today, the day after the sale

Hahn – Pisa (Jan) – €42.95

Hahn – Pisa (Feb) – €64.95

Hahn – Forli – €44.67

Hahn – Treviso (Venice) – €54.02

16 – 31 October

16 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C.

I have a very busy day today. I have classes 8h30 – 10, 10h05 – 11h35, 11h50 – 13h20, & 15h – 18h. I was supposed to have one 18h30 – 20h, but he cancelled because he has too much work to do, which, with all the work I have this month, is fine with me.

7h08 – At the beginning of the month, I had thought I wouldn’t have enough work and would be hard up for money next month, but that changed with this intensive course this week and a single class I was given on Fridays. Also, coming up next week is another intensive course and single class. Life is good, but busy. I have to finish correcting dictations and preparing lessons now.

22h – I’ve just uninstalled Real Player. The new Media Player is much better.

17 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C.

18h07 – I’m glad to see this Friday evening. It’s been a long week.

Today was a great day. We have new AK classes this year and I am the class teacher for the Rio group. A class teacher is the person responsible for their attendance and the one to help them solve any problems they may have. Today we had a team– building day, which meant that we spent the day (8h20 – 13h30) out of the school. We walked to Café Einstein for brunch, then walked along the rivers and back to the school. It wasn’t much, but we took are time and enjoyed each other’s company. We didn’t really need the team– building day, because the class works well as a team. However, since it was offered, we all gladly took it, and had a great time. I suggested that we do it today because 17 Oct is the last day of this term and they have two weeks holiday now.

23h35 – I’m addicted. I’ve been listening to air traffic control this evening and love it. You can hear air traffic controllers talking to pilots. It’s great.

18 Oct – 8h – 0°C, but it’s going to be sunny again J.

21h – What a busy day. I’ve been to the mall and two different supermarkets, I’ve done 3 loads of laundry and have ignored several other things I should have done today.

I went to a Rio group gathering today in Geisig, at Benedicta’s house. It was a lot of fun. She has a small house in a village about 25 km from Koblenz. It’s orange and has a nice sunny feeling to it. She made several types of cakes (strawberry, apple, cheese, etc) and other food as well. We met her boyfriend and his son, as well as her daughter and boyfriend, and they were all very nice people. I only stayed for an hour because I had soooo much to do, but it was a good time.

19 Oct – 8h30 – 1°C and foggy. I think our sunny spell has ended.

20h22 – I’m listening to ‘We Built This City’ by Starship. This song has always reminded me of San Francisco, and I remember how happy I was in 1987 when I listened to it while driving over the Golden Gate Bridge (those who know the song will know why).

Are there other songs that are special to me? Of course, but too many to list.

Speaking of special, the TV show ‘Friends’ is very special to me. Bren, Tina, Cory, Doug (RIP), ‘Uncle’ Hugh and others, I’ll never forget you. That was a great time in my life.

21h38 – I’ve just tried emailing a good friend from many years ago, but the email has been returned because the email address is invalid. I’ve tried the white pages on Yahoo, but no phone # or email address was found. John (of John & Katie), who used to live in Meadowbrook, please email me if you see this.

22h34 – I’ve been a bit down lately, so I posted something about that on a bulletin board I frequently post on, and my (real life) friend Jo (in London) responded with exactly what I needed to hear. I hate it when that happens J. Here’s a (slightly edited – names deleted) version of what she posted:

I also think that you need to make a decision: either to start trying to enjoy Germany and to get involved in things that interest you, try and find people that interest you, etc or start making plans to move elsewhere. Don’t stay for the hell of it. Is there NO way you could survive financially in Poland?

As for the rest, I think it will just fall into place for you once you’ve sorted out the to stay or not to stay problem.

You could try taking up new interests to meet people; you could try lots of things but, until you’re happy where you are, they probably won’t make much difference.

Thanks Jo

21 Oct – 21h – It’s been a busy week already, and it’s only Tuesday.

I spent a lot of time yesterday looking for a room in Krabi, Thailand. Inexpensive rooms are very hard to find there in December, but I think I found a good deal. It’s a bungalow across a small street from the beach and is only €40 per night, so I’m going to stay for 4 nights, including New Year’s Eve. It should be fun. I also booked a flight back to Bangkok on Bangkok Airways, as Thai Airways was sold out for the date I wanted. The ticket only cost me THB 2,565, which is about €55, depending on what other charges Deutsche Bank puts on it, since I had to pay in a foreign currency with my Euro Visa card.

I’ve also been working, which is still going well. My Deutsche Telekom group cancelled for tomorrow, which is not unusual for them as the have a lot of work and only four people. My second Compu Shack group cancelled also. That’s fine with me. The first group is great, four 50 & 60 year old women who love learning English, even though it’s difficult at times. I could fall asleep in class and as long as it sounded like I was snoring in English, they’d be happy. The second group is 6 women, late 20s – early 40s, who hate everything. Speaking, listening, reading, grammar, etc. You name it, they hate it. I could wheel in a three–ring circus and they wouldn’t smile. One of them constantly whines about how things are too difficult for her and refuses to even attempt many tasks. She really annoys me and gets on my nerves. I love it when they cancel.

My Dover group was a no show this evening, which is great because I still got paid for it. I had to wait 20 minutes, then left. This is the first time in the 16 months I’ve been teaching them that they no showed.

22 Oct – 6h – 3C. I’m up early to prepare for two classes, one is an intensive one and the other is a single one. I’m taking the intensive one over from Andrew, because he couldn’t handle it. He hates teaching lower levels (and higher levels for that matter) and is taking the two intermediate. However, he didn’t write much on the card, so I don’t know what materials he used. That’s a start. At least he wrote on the cards.

7h – okay, enough chatting. Time to get ready and go to work.

The flight I booked a few days ago ended up costing €55.52…€54.97 plus a 1% fee for a foreign currency transaction.

23 Oct – 20h44 – What a busy week. I’m glad it’s over. It’s four day weekend time! Hooray!

Some relatives arrived in Frankfurt an hour ago and we’re spending the next 6 days together. When we were putting the trip together, we decided to rent a car because it’d be easier and cheaper than taking trains to where we want to go. I ordered a VW Golf Variant (Wagon/Combi/Estate) or similar, as I’ve travelled with them before and know that they usually have large suitcases, and knew that we’d need a bit of extra room. I picked up the vehicle yesterday and we got ‘or similar.’ It’s a Mercedes Vaneo, a small van. Small is a relative word, as it’s huge to me. Luckily, I won’t be doing most of the driving. All I have to do is drive to their hotel near the Frankfurt airport tomorrow morning, then one of them will drive for a lot of the time. Hopefully it’ll be a good mini– holiday.

23h30 – I should be in bed now. I have to get up at 6h30. However, after a hard week like I’ve had, I want to stay up late, even though I’m exhausted. However, I have to be awake enough at 8h to speed down the autobahn to Frankfurt. Considering I don’t like driving and I especially don’t like driving large vehicles, driving a large vehicle on the autobahn it should be interesting.

24 Oct – 0h28 – I don’t want to go to bed, but it’s time. I’d love to stay up for a few more hours, but then I’d be dead tomorrow. Goodnight.

6h15 – It’s –3C. Time for a shower.

26 Oct – 21h25 – I’m in a hotel room in Augsburg (Germany) and am watching CNN. That’s right, I’m finally staying in a hotel room that’s nice enough to have a TV.

Anyway, CNN has a special report on the Muslim world. Their reporter, Thomas L Friedman, who’s been based in the Muslim world for many years, is presenting and it appears to be a show about trying to understand why 11 September happened. He just showed a piece on the Antwerp racial riots from 2002. The lady said that many Muslim youths felt that Belgians didn’t treat them right and wouldn’t give them good jobs. I don’t know anything about that, so I can’t comment on it. However, knowing Germans as I do, if Belgians are anything like Germans, I totally believe it.

21h28 – They just had an advertisement for Inside Africa! I used to watch that all the time when I lived in Poland.

21h40 – They just had an interview with an Indonesian teenager who said that she had been told that some of the people who were responsible for 11 September were Americans, and that Gore didn’t win the 2000 election because he was Jewish (he’s not). However, after that, when asked, she said that she would like to attend university in the USA.

It’s over. It was a good report.

21h46 – He’s showing a report on Bahrain’s first actual election. Women worked at the polls and were also permitted to vote.

21h49 – Friedman: “Wherever I went in the Muslim worked, the thing struck me the most was how much people wanted their voices to be heard.” That’s what people all over the world want…to be heard.

21h52 – It’s over and it was a quite good report. I’d love to stay up longer and watch more, but I’m extremely tired this evening and am going to bed.

27 Oct – 6h55 – There’s been an explosion near the ICRC Headquarters in Baghdad. They’ve been reporting that two cars have exploded, however the building appears not to have been damaged. Many of the shops in a 100– metre radius have had windows blow out.

Violence has been expected today because it’s the first day of Ramadan. I don’t get it. What are they thinking? “It’s a religious holiday, let’s blow things up.” It makes no sense to me.

7h13 – Ben Wedemann is reporting that he’s just heard a loud explosion, but has no idea what it was about or where it came from and has no information on it.

7h16 – Ben just said that there are unconfirmed reports of 3 deaths in the ICRC bombing.

7h18 – Jane Arraf is reporting that, according two witnesses, it appears to have been an ambulance loaded with explosives that ran into a barricade and exploded in the ICRC bombing.

7h27 – Jane is back saying that part of the ICRC complex was damaged, but the main building wasn’t.

7h41 – Now CNN’s Atlanta news desk is reporting that the ICRC building has been heavily damaged.

There are 10 wildfires four Southern California counties (the only one the report mentioned was San Bernadino). Some of the homeowners only had 15 minutes to evacuate.

7h52 – The ICRC spokeswoman is now saying that she believes there have been some casualties, but she doesn’t know how many have been killed or injured. Gee, I’m glad they got her on the phone to report that useless information.

28 October – 6h30 – 2°C. Back to the grind. I had a good time with my relatives, but it’s back to work today.

21h – I’ve just returned home and checked my email. I received a reply to an email that I had sent a good friend here in Germany this morning. We used to see each other every Monday night in passing at school for a few minutes (not only is he a good friend of mine, but he’s also an evening student at our school in a Spanish course), but he’s moving to a Thursday night class. I’m never at then time because I teach in a business in Neuwied, but was last week because they had cancelled due to having too much work. I’ll miss our brief chats, but will keep in touch with him though email, and we’ll probably go out for drinks occasionally (we last did in late June).

Andrew asked me if we could trade his intensive class for my single class tomorrow. I told him that if he could clear it with David, that’s fine with me. He left at 17h today and didn’t say anything, so I called David. As expected, Andrew hadn’t called him and asked. Idiot. David said that was fine, so we’ll do the trade.

29 October – 1h11 – It’s very late now and I should have gone to bed a couple hours ago. However, I didn’t want to. I’ll probably pay for it in the morning, as I have to work at 9h45. Who cares? I need time for myself. Goodnight.

30 October – 21h20 – Ryan Air is having a great special again, so, even though I can’t afford it, I’ve bought a few tickets for 2004. Here’s what I’ve purchased:

Hahn to Pisa – €30.99 (one in January, one in February)

Hahn to Forli – €28.71

Hahn to Treviso Venice (TSF) €34.02

Good news: My second Compu Shack groups informed me this evening that Caroline, the waste of space, has decided not to continue with our class. Hooray! She rarely attended and when she did, she whined and complained that everything was to hard for her. I won’t miss her at all.

I did a survey on Find Your Spot to find out where the best place for me to live in the US would be. No, I’m not considering moving back, I was just curious. They ask you a series of questions and then recommend good places for you to live based on the info you give them. If you do this, be warned that at the end, you have to enter a name, address and email address, but you can enter fictitious information to prevent being spammed (example: Fred Jones, 123 Your Street, Nowhere, AL, 10028 (it doesn’t check the zip code). Here are my results. I was very surprised that the top two were in Texas. The 3rd and 4th didn’t surprise me, as I requested a place with that had warm weather, cheap housing and was also near the beach.

31 October – 21h27 – Happy Halloween…not really, it’s just another day.. it’s been a busy week, but now it’s Friday night and I’m chillin’ out.

22h52 – It’s a holiday weekend here, kind of. Tomorrow is ‘All Souls’ Day,’ a day to remember those who have passed away. However, it’s on a Saturday, which means that everything will be closed.

23h – Here’s what the flights I purchased yesterday would cost today, the day after the sale

Hahn – Pisa (Jan) – €42.95

Hahn – Pisa (Feb) – €64.95

Hahn – Forli – €44.67

Hahn – Treviso (Venice) – €54.02

16 – 31 October16 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C. I have a very…

16 – 31 October

16 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C.

I have a very busy day today. I have classes 8h30 – 10, 10h05 – 11h35, 11h50 – 13h20, & 15h – 18h. I was supposed to have one 18h30 – 20h, but he cancelled because he has too much work to do, which, with all the work I have this month, is fine with me.

7h08 – At the beginning of the month, I had thought I wouldn’t have enough work and would be hard up for money next month, but that changed with this intensive course this week and a single class I was given on Fridays. Also, coming up next week is another intensive course and single class. Life is good, but busy. I have to finish correcting dictations and preparing lessons now.

22h – I’ve just uninstalled Real Player. The new Media Player is much better.

17 Oct – 6h30 – 2°C.

18h07 – I’m glad to see this Friday evening. It’s been a long week.

Today was a great day. We have new AK classes this year and I am the class teacher for the Rio group. A class teacher is the person responsible for their attendance and the one to help them solve any problems they may have. Today we had a team– building day, which meant that we spent the day (8h20 – 13h30) out of the school. We walked to Café Einstein for brunch, then walked along the rivers and back to the school. It wasn’t much, but we took are time and enjoyed each other’s company. We didn’t really need the team– building day, because the class works well as a team. However, since it was offered, we all gladly took it, and had a great time. I suggested that we do it today because 17 Oct is the last day of this term and they have two weeks holiday now.

23h35 – I’m addicted. I’ve been listening to air traffic control this evening and love it. You can hear air traffic controllers talking to pilots. It’s great.

18 Oct – 8h – 0°C, but it’s going to be sunny again J.

21h – What a busy day. I’ve been to the mall and two different supermarkets, I’ve done 3 loads of laundry and have ignored several other things I should have done today.

I went to a Rio group gathering today in Geisig, at Benedicta’s house. It was a lot of fun. She has a small house in a village about 25 km from Koblenz. It’s orange and has a nice sunny feeling to it. She made several types of cakes (strawberry, apple, cheese, etc) and other food as well. We met her boyfriend and his son, as well as her daughter and boyfriend, and they were all very nice people. I only stayed for an hour because I had soooo much to do, but it was a good time.

19 Oct – 8h30 – 1°C and foggy. I think our sunny spell has ended.

20h22 – I’m listening to ‘We Built This City’ by Starship. This song has always reminded me of San Francisco, and I remember how happy I was in 1987 when I listened to it while driving over the Golden Gate Bridge (those who know the song will know why).

Are there other songs that are special to me? Of course, but too many to list.

Speaking of special, the TV show ‘Friends’ is very special to me. Bren, Tina, Cory, Doug (RIP), ‘Uncle’ Hugh and others, I’ll never forget you. That was a great time in my life.

21h38 – I’ve just tried emailing a good friend from many years ago, but the email has been returned because the email address is invalid. I’ve tried the white pages on Yahoo, but no phone # or email address was found. John (of John & Katie), who used to live in Meadowbrook, please email me if you see this.

22h34 – I’ve been a bit down lately, so I posted something about that on a bulletin board I frequently post on, and my (real life) friend Jo (in London) responded with exactly what I needed to hear. I hate it when that happens J. Here’s a (slightly edited – names deleted) version of what she posted:

I also think that you need to make a decision: either to start trying to enjoy Germany and to get involved in things that interest you, try and find people that interest you, etc or start making plans to move elsewhere. Don’t stay for the hell of it. Is there NO way you could survive financially in Poland?

As for the rest, I think it will just fall into place for you once you’ve sorted out the to stay or not to stay problem.

You could try taking up new interests to meet people; you could try lots of things but, until you’re happy where you are, they probably won’t make much difference.

Thanks Jo

21 Oct – 21h – It’s been a busy week already, and it’s only Tuesday.

I spent a lot of time yesterday looking for a room in Krabi, Thailand. Inexpensive rooms are very hard to find there in December, but I think I found a good deal. It’s a bungalow across a small street from the beach and is only €40 per night, so I’m going to stay for 4 nights, including New Year’s Eve. It should be fun. I also booked a flight back to Bangkok on Bangkok Airways, as Thai Airways was sold out for the date I wanted. The ticket only cost me THB 2,565, which is about €55, depending on what other charges Deutsche Bank puts on it, since I had to pay in a foreign currency with my Euro Visa card.

I’ve also been working, which is still going well. My Deutsche Telekom group cancelled for tomorrow, which is not unusual for them as the have a lot of work and only four people. My second Compu Shack group cancelled also. That’s fine with me. The first group is great, four 50 & 60 year old women who love learning English, even though it’s difficult at times. I could fall asleep in class and as long as it sounded like I was snoring in English, they’d be happy. The second group is 6 women, late 20s – early 40s, who hate everything. Speaking, listening, reading, grammar, etc. You name it, they hate it. I could wheel in a three–ring circus and they wouldn’t smile. One of them constantly whines about how things are too difficult for her and refuses to even attempt many tasks. She really annoys me and gets on my nerves. I love it when they cancel.

My Dover group was a no show this evening, which is great because I still got paid for it. I had to wait 20 minutes, then left. This is the first time in the 16 months I’ve been teaching them that they no showed.

22 Oct – 6h – 3C. I’m up early to prepare for two classes, one is an intensive one and the other is a single one. I’m taking the intensive one over from Andrew, because he couldn’t handle it. He hates teaching lower levels (and higher levels for that matter) and is taking the two intermediate. However, he didn’t write much on the card, so I don’t know what materials he used. That’s a start. At least he wrote on the cards.

7h – okay, enough chatting. Time to get ready and go to work.

The flight I booked a few days ago ended up costing €55.52…€54.97 plus a 1% fee for a foreign currency transaction.

23 Oct – 20h44 – What a busy week. I’m glad it’s over. It’s four day weekend time! Hooray!

Some relatives arrived in Frankfurt an hour ago and we’re spending the next 6 days together. When we were putting the trip together, we decided to rent a car because it’d be easier and cheaper than taking trains to where we want to go. I ordered a VW Golf Variant (Wagon/Combi/Estate) or similar, as I’ve travelled with them before and know that they usually have large suitcases, and knew that we’d need a bit of extra room. I picked up the vehicle yesterday and we got ‘or similar.’ It’s a Mercedes Vaneo, a small van. Small is a relative word, as it’s huge to me. Luckily, I won’t be doing most of the driving. All I have to do is drive to their hotel near the Frankfurt airport tomorrow morning, then one of them will drive for a lot of the time. Hopefully it’ll be a good mini– holiday.

23h30 – I should be in bed now. I have to get up at 6h30. However, after a hard week like I’ve had, I want to stay up late, even though I’m exhausted. However, I have to be awake enough at 8h to speed down the autobahn to Frankfurt. Considering I don’t like driving and I especially don’t like driving large vehicles, driving a large vehicle on the autobahn it should be interesting.

24 Oct – 0h28 – I don’t want to go to bed, but it’s time. I’d love to stay up for a few more hours, but then I’d be dead tomorrow. Goodnight.

6h15 – It’s –3C. Time for a shower.

26 Oct – 21h25 – I’m in a hotel room in Augsburg (Germany) and am watching CNN. That’s right, I’m finally staying in a hotel room that’s nice enough to have a TV.

Anyway, CNN has a special report on the Muslim world. Their reporter, Thomas L Friedman, who’s been based in the Muslim world for many years, is presenting and it appears to be a show about trying to understand why 11 September happened. He just showed a piece on the Antwerp racial riots from 2002. The lady said that many Muslim youths felt that Belgians didn’t treat them right and wouldn’t give them good jobs. I don’t know anything about that, so I can’t comment on it. However, knowing Germans as I do, if Belgians are anything like Germans, I totally believe it.

21h28 – They just had an advertisement for Inside Africa! I used to watch that all the time when I lived in Poland.

21h40 – They just had an interview with an Indonesian teenager who said that she had been told that some of the people who were responsible for 11 September were Americans, and that Gore didn’t win the 2000 election because he was Jewish (he’s not). However, after that, when asked, she said that she would like to attend university in the USA.

It’s over. It was a good report.

21h46 – He’s showing a report on Bahrain’s first actual election. Women worked at the polls and were also permitted to vote.

21h49 – Friedman: “Wherever I went in the Muslim worked, the thing struck me the most was how much people wanted their voices to be heard.” That’s what people all over the world want…to be heard.

21h52 – It’s over and it was a quite good report. I’d love to stay up longer and watch more, but I’m extremely tired this evening and am going to bed.

27 Oct – 6h55 – There’s been an explosion near the ICRC Headquarters in Baghdad. They’ve been reporting that two cars have exploded, however the building appears not to have been damaged. Many of the shops in a 100– metre radius have had windows blow out.

Violence has been expected today because it’s the first day of Ramadan. I don’t get it. What are they thinking? “It’s a religious holiday, let’s blow things up.” It makes no sense to me.

7h13 – Ben Wedemann is reporting that he’s just heard a loud explosion, but has no idea what it was about or where it came from and has no information on it.

7h16 – Ben just said that there are unconfirmed reports of 3 deaths in the ICRC bombing.

7h18 – Jane Arraf is reporting that, according two witnesses, it appears to have been an ambulance loaded with explosives that ran into a barricade and exploded in the ICRC bombing.

7h27 – Jane is back saying that part of the ICRC complex was damaged, but the main building wasn’t.

7h41 – Now CNN’s Atlanta news desk is reporting that the ICRC building has been heavily damaged.

There are 10 wildfires four Southern California counties (the only one the report mentioned was San Bernadino). Some of the homeowners only had 15 minutes to evacuate.

7h52 – The ICRC spokeswoman is now saying that she believes there have been some casualties, but she doesn’t know how many have been killed or injured. Gee, I’m glad they got her on the phone to report that useless information.

28 October – 6h30 – 2°C. Back to the grind. I had a good time with my relatives, but it’s back to work today.

21h – I’ve just returned home and checked my email. I received a reply to an email that I had sent a good friend here in Germany this morning. We used to see each other every Monday night in passing at school for a few minutes (not only is he a good friend of mine, but he’s also an evening student at our school in a Spanish course), but he’s moving to a Thursday night class. I’m never at then time because I teach in a business in Neuwied, but was last week because they had cancelled due to having too much work. I’ll miss our brief chats, but will keep in touch with him though email, and we’ll probably go out for drinks occasionally (we last did in late June).

Andrew asked me if we could trade his intensive class for my single class tomorrow. I told him that if he could clear it with David, that’s fine with me. He left at 17h today and didn’t say anything, so I called David. As expected, Andrew hadn’t called him and asked. Idiot. David said that was fine, so we’ll do the trade.

29 October – 1h11 – It’s very late now and I should have gone to bed a couple hours ago. However, I didn’t want to. I’ll probably pay for it in the morning, as I have to work at 9h45. Who cares? I need time for myself. Goodnight.

30 October – 21h20 – Ryan Air is having a great special again, so, even though I can’t afford it, I’ve bought a few tickets for 2004. Here’s what I’ve purchased:

Hahn to Pisa – €30.99 (one in January, one in February)

Hahn to Forli – €28.71

Hahn to Treviso Venice (TSF) €34.02

Good news: My second Compu Shack groups informed me this evening that Caroline, the waste of space, has decided not to continue with our class. Hooray! She rarely attended and when she did, she whined and complained that everything was to hard for her. I won’t miss her at all.

I did a survey on Find Your Spot to find out where the best place for me to live in the US would be. No, I’m not considering moving back, I was just curious. They ask you a series of questions and then recommend good places for you to live based on the info you give them. If you do this, be warned that at the end, you have to enter a name, address and email address, but you can enter fictitious information to prevent being spammed (example: Fred Jones, 123 Your Street, Nowhere, AL, 10028 (it doesn’t check the zip code). Here are my results. I was very surprised that the top two were in Texas. The 3rd and 4th didn’t surprise me, as I requested a place with that had warm weather, cheap housing and was also near the beach.

31 October – 21h27 – Happy Halloween…not really, it’s just another day.. it’s been a busy week, but now it’s Friday night and I’m chillin’ out.

22h52 – It’s a holiday weekend here, kind of. Tomorrow is ‘All Souls’ Day,’ a day to remember those who have passed away. However, it’s on a Saturday, which means that everything will be closed.

23h – Here’s what the flights I purchased yesterday would cost today, the day after the sale

Hahn – Pisa (Jan) – €42.95

Hahn – Pisa (Feb) – €64.95

Hahn – Forli – €44.67

Hahn – Treviso (Venice) – €54.02