Last Big Weekend!

So, in hopes of spending my last weekend relaxing, cleaning, and packing--I am having an awesome and jam -packed weekend this weekend.

All starting with a wonderful meal out with the teaching staff. Every Thursday the staff picks a different restaurant to go to dinner to and everyone is invited. This week's dinner choice was Gourmet Temple. It is a very unique and authentic Chinese Buffet. The building was beautiful and I felt like I was sitting in some Asian country instead of snowy Germany. We sat at this beautiful booth with a huge, gorgeous chandelier above us and decorative vases on the shelves. 

The buffet was delicious! They had a Mongolian grill side where I pilled my plate high with a wide assortment of veggies, pineapple, and oranges. Then, I went over to the meat side and decided to be adventurous. I got pork, kangaroo, rabbit, and shrimp. While I was waiting for them to cook up my main meal I went over to the other buffet side and got some squid rings (like onion rings), lots of different types of sushi, fried bananas and pineapple, some yummy sweet sesame seed balls, and some duck meat. For dessert, coconut lined banana with vanilla yogurt on top, banana at the chocolate fountain, and kiwi and apple salad. It was a fantastic meal! 

Then Friday, Sunshine and I ventured to Cherith's house for the night so that we could spend the day in Nuremberg. My mission: go to the Nuremberg Zoo and the FCN German Soccer game.

Now, if you haven't been living under a rock for your whole life, you know that European Soccer is a big deal. Well, Germany is no exception to that rule and the FCN (Footbal-Club Nuremeberg) is a SUPER big deal here so I was not going to miss out on the excitement!

Saturday morning we woke up early, made scones, and then set off for the main market in Nuremberg. They were set up for their Easter Markets and there were tons of vendors selling everything from food to kitchen supplies to decorative Easter crafts. We then stopped by a cute french cafe to have a cup of hot chocolate.

 Marco--our cheese guy selling cheeses from cows that are grass fed and treated very well. 

Looking at the Easter crafts 

Very cute things 

Cute pottery 

Hot Chocolate with cream and Nutella Crepes!  

Sunshine, me, and Cherith at the French Cafe 

After walking around and checking out all of the market stands we stopped to have some lunch and I decided to be adventurous and have mushrooms with garlic sauce. It was actually pretty good!

After lunch we hopped on a bus and went to the Nuremberg Zoo. I completely recommend going to this zoo. It is set in a forest like atmosphere with 75 animal exhibits that make you feel like you are encountering these animals in their natural habit. Some of the exhibits had enclosures, but there were many that were open and very cool to explore.

 Monkeys! 

 Giraffes roaming around 

 Ostriches 

 Pretty blue birds 

 Weird rodent creature 

 Open baboon exhibit. They had many ropes to swing on and lots of rocks to climb on. 

So then we walked down this path that led to the manatees and dolphins. First, we went through this amazing Amazon-like enclosure that was complete with flying butterflies, insects, manatees swimming around, and huge gorgeous trees and plants. The only problem was that the temperature was about 100 degrees and the humidity was about 200%. That meant that my camera got water vapor inside of it and became dysfunctional for another hour of our trip so I missing a bunch of very wonderful pictures of animals such as: manatees, dolphins, cranes, snow leopards, rhinos, red pandas (!!!), bison, buffalo, wolves, bears, otters, and cheetahs.

 Seals 

 Polar Bears 

 Penguins

 Tigers 

 Lions 

Then we hopped back on the bus and headed over to the football stadium to see the FCN game. 

Cheering fan section 

 So close to a goal 

 So many people!!! 

 Congratulations on a 2-0 score so far 

 Action shot 

 The fans are crazy--they are hanging off of the railings 

 Waving giant flags celebrating a 3-0 win against their friendship team. 

 The team thanking all of their fans for supporting them. 

 At the end of the game the fans sing their team song and hold up their team scarves. 

 One team member took off their jersey and threw it into the crowd. 

 Getting a congratulations from their fans and the team clapping for them. 

Then we went to O'Shea's Irish Pub to celebrate St. Patrick's day. 

 I had a delicious pear cider and vegetable soup with a turkey and tomato sandwich. 

Then we stopped at a beer hall for a drink

The train on the way back read Happy Birthday when it arrived at the station. 

Then on Sunday, we were invited to the school counselor's house for a tradition St. Patrick's day meal of Corned Beef, cabbage, red potatoes, vegetables, brownies, shamrock cookies, pistachio/whiskey moose. The party consisted of a lot of teachers in the Ansbach/Illisheim area but I only knew a few people and Sunshine only knew me. However, everyone was so welcoming and engaging us in conversation that we felt right at home. It honestly felt like a family reunion.

Sunshine took Irish Dance when she was younger and I have been taking classes at school for the past 2-3 years. I brought my collection of Irish music and we taught everyone how to dance a Ceili which is an Irish gathering dance. I also taught one of the kids how to jig and they in-turn taught me a fun card game! It was such an amazing time and made me wish that I didn't have one more week left so that we could hang out with them more often. They have really built a community here that is just so wonderful and inspiring.

One more week in Germany and then I'll be on my way home!