I got a job!

That's right ladies and gentlemen. I got a job. Yippee!! I interviewed last Thursday at the Child Development Center for a lead teacher position. The school is walking distance from our apartment which is a good thing because that is how I will be getting to work everyday. Walking. It will be good exercise to and from work everyday, and it will give me an opportunity to come home for lunch every now and then. Luckily I checked my email today because that is how the offer was sent. I opened my inbox and saw an unfamiliar name with the subject reading, "Potential Job Offer." I opened it and saw, "Congratulations!!!" The email was sent on Friday, but it was only going to be available until tomorrow. After tomorrow the position would have potentially gone to someone else. It is crazy how things work in the military. Not a phone call. An email. Hah! It's okay. A job is a job. The director said that my hours would start at 5:30 AM and that I could potentially stay until 5:45 pm. Gasp. It is not ideal, but I am used to working crazy long days from my time at Copeland Elementary. I know I can do it, but it will definitely take some getting used to. I am not a morning person. Eek.

Now that the exciting news has been shared I am going to try to fill you in on the last week. Let's see where we left off....

Monday- You already heard about my Monday being a Monday. It sucked, but luckily the week got much better!

Tuesday-Lenea and I went to downtown Mannheim for her haircut. Her appointment wasn't until 2:15 so we went to DolceAmora before to have the business lunch. It was so yummy! We chose the business lunch because it only had 3 choices where the menu was filled with pages of German. It was much less overwhelming to look at 3 German options, even if the selection wasn't as good. We lucked out! I ordered an Asian salad with Tuna and tons of yummy veggies. Lenea ordered an Asian inspired chicken and rice meal. We then finished our meals with latte machiattos. Mmmm! My new obsession :) After that I walked Lenea to her hair appointment and headed to the walking district. It is a large street that is lined with shops. Essentially it is an outdoor shopping district where cars are not allowed, only the trains. I haven't decided which is more dangerous. Trains or cars? Anywho... I bought some aviators because somehow I managed to pack everything I needed except for sunglasses. Then I picked up a thank you card for Mr. Donaldson for all of the work that he has done to help us. I am almost positive he is part of the reason I got my job so quickly at the CDC. Mr. Donaldson is close friends with all of the higher ups, including the director of the CDC. He told me to mention his name in the interview and use him as a reference if needed. He is a great man!

The inside of DolceAmora. It is so eklectic. I just love it!

Wednesday- I went with Lenea to the clinic for her dental apointment. Last week the dental hygenist broke one of her tooth. Needless to say she is a wee-bit intimidated by the dentist, so I accompanied for moral suppport. What else was I going to do?

Thursday- Job interview. I pretty much knew I had the job because the assistant director kept introducing me as the new teacher on staff. Everyone seems very relaxed and laid back, but I haven't been hearing too many wonderful things about the CDC. Hopefully I can help to change things and show these people how to love what they do. After the interview I came home and did 10 loads of laundry. This unfortunately is no exaggeration. My aunt Lenea had her tooth worked on. One of the educated dental hygenists broke her tooth, so she had to get a crown. She was not feeling so hot so I took on the household responsibilities for the day. That night we went to Flea Market BINGO. It is a pretty cool idea minus the fact that it is BINGO. I don't care what kind of spin you put on it. BINGO is just not my kind of fun. After each round of BINGO, the winner got a prize from the local flea market. They were pretty cool prizes, but I did not win a single one. I can successfully check off BINGO on the list of things I never want to do again. :)

Elizabeth and me getting ready to go to what we thought would be a fun night of BINGO. Hah!

Friday- I got my haircut by Toby, a gay Germany. He was wonderful! I pretty much gave him free range on my hair and he did a spectacular job. Apparently the stacked bob is the look for me because I get some form of that hairstyle everytime I give a hair stylist free range on my hair. After my haircut we walked around Mannheim and ate wonderful lunch at Vapianos. Friday night Lenea and I ventured out into Mannheim nightlife. It was pretty funny. I called Toby the hairstylist and asked him where Lenea and I could go to dance. He told us Baton Rouge and reassured us it was safe for just the two of us. So we got on the train and arrived at our stop. We get to inside and it costs 6 euro a person to get in. Not too bad...that is about 9 USD. Then we get inside and their is coat check. The whole concept of coat check is completely foreign to me. I have never lived where it has been cold enough for their to be a need for a coat check. Once we checked our coats, we walked to the bar to get some drinks. Oh my goodness... two drinks cost us 16 euro. Yikes! We then decided those would be our only drinks for the night. We danced for a little bit until our ears started bleeding from Techno. I finally had enough once I heard Snow (Hey Oh!) by the Red Hot Chili Peppers turned into techno. We then got back on the train and headed home. Paul picked us up at the train so we didn't have to walk home. Thank God! because we saw some of the most irresponsible soldiers I have ever seen. These young boys went out and got hammered to the point that they were crawling on the ice/snow to get back to their barracks. Ridiculous. One of the fun things about living on post is that you are suspect to random searches. Of course we got picked at 1:30 AM. When your car is picked you have to exit the car, open all of the doors and the trunk, and stand to the rightside of the car so that the security people can search your vehicle. I don't blame the guards. I would search every car that came through the gates on the graveyard shift because there aren't too many people that drive through the gates at that hour. Unfortunate for us because it was cold! My Texas skin has not adapted to these temperatures yet. Everyone keeps telling us that it never snows. I don't believe them. Since I have been here it has snowed almost everyday.

Lenea, Elizabeth, my new haircut and myself at Vapianos! This is the outside.

Saturday- Movie Day. It snowed crazy hard Friday night causing icy roads and bad driving conditions. We stayed home and enjoyed the freedom of not having to do a single thing, and not feeling guilty about it because there was nothing else we could do. I watched the latest Harry Potter movie and Public Enemy. Both great flicks.

Sunday- We went to the Spinelli barracks because they have a large spread of cheap furniture/home decorations available. We purchased a large beige floor rug for my room and a black and white picture of James Dean. He was a handsome man. I promise I will upload pictures of our apartment soon!

Monday- Today I finally got my 90 day installation pass. Do you hear the sound of trumpets for this glorious occassion? I walked out of that office on cloud 9! My pass looks like a military ID but it says VISITOR instead of listing military information. When they took my picture the lady commented on my smile. I told her it was so big because it was so hard to get that stinkin' piece of plastic. No more 24 hour passes. Thank you Jesus! Go figure that I get my pass the day I found out I got the job. Oh the irony.

Me holding my 90 pass!! Joy!!!