Just a Few Left!

This weekend we have a lot going on:
-the dorm parents are off...so that leaves Lizzy and I to run the dorm
-9 girls are gone for away soccer games
-1 girl is gone for a Spanish field trip to Spain (hello that is sweet)
-2 girls are on French field trips in, you guessed it, France
-1 girl on an orchestra field trip
-3 girls will be leaving for the away track meet
-1 girl is getting baptised and I get to pray for her! I am really pumped about this!
-the church picnic is on Sunday
-we are in charge of open gym
-plus all of the normal things like cooking, taking care of the sick, grocery shopping, and van runs

So tonight we were left with only 5 girls in the dorm. So Lizzy and I took them to the "Mona Lisa" which is an Eis Cafe (Ice Cream Shop) in Lorrach. We had a good time and came home and played "Ticket to Ride." It was a restful evening. I should get to bed since I have to take the girls to school at 5:25 am...so I am off!

Personal Development Day

 This past Tuesday the Res Life Staff at BFA has a personal development day....I know it sounds fun!!!  We started off at my dorm at 9am (just after we sent all the kids to school) with devotions and coffee.  Then we pounded out the details of the Dorm Parent and Resident Assistant roles.  Again very exciting...but I got to keep the notes...so I was happy (really & truly I am not being sarcastic this time!)  Then we ate a huge lunch and had our normal break from noonish to 4pm. 


After that we met at the Rose Garden, which is a local country club type of place with Amazing gardens. We had some more meetings, but then we got to wander around the gardens.  Lizzy (my fellow RA) and her fiancee Brandon had a pre-wedding wedding! Which I was able to be a witness for!

 See how good she is at whipping off the veil!!!  Can't wait for the big day on July 9, 2010!!

As the staff was coming in from the gardens for dinner...I discovered this lovely green deer...well I think that is what it is suppose to be...I know it is not a moose or a horse...so with those antlers...I am calling it a deer.  I love the German creativity!!!

A Lazy Day in Ankara

Cathy and I took a walk to her favorite park. It is beautiful with wonderful fountains and green grass...which is rare in Ankara.
Cathy likes to frolic over the stepping stones.

Ankara does not have goats roaming the green hills like Germany has, so they have made statues of goats on the grassy fields.

These are the beautiful fountains in the beautiful park.

The park also has exercise equipment throughout the park. The Turks will exercise in shoes similar to mine.

There was also this lovely plastic wicker furniture that they have all year in the park.

After our leisurely walk in the park Cathy and I had a wonderful lunch of Turkish food.

We then found a bench next to this lovely tree and played some rummy.
Cathy introduced me to her friend and we had some more Turkish food made with red spicy rice.

Cathy's friend invited us to her house for Sunday lunch were we at pancakes and scrambled eggs. I taught them both how to my syrup. Cathy loves that she can work on her Turkish language.

And my final memory of Turkey is the Turkish toilet. This is in Cathy's house, but she also has a regular toilet that she prefers to use.

Traveling thru Turkey

Cathy was happy to show me her home in Ankara, Turkey. She lives down the street from the US Embassy in the downtown area.

This cool fountain in in the park near Cathy's home.

It was the Children's Holiday on Friday, so the whole city decorated their building with Ataturk. He is the Turkish leader who changed the alphabet from Arabic script to an alphabet that is more similar to the English alphabet. He is know as the Father of the Turks.

Bread is very important in the Turkish culture. A meal is not considered a meal unless there is bread. Vendors sell bread in small red carts or out of shops like this one.

The streets of Ankara are very busy. You take your life into your own hands when you dodge cars as you cross the street.
Here are bags of wool that will be used to make the famous Turkish rugs. Notice the Turkish flag in the background. The Turks are a very patriotic people.
There are spices, nuts, dried berries and everything you can imagine on sale in the marketplace. Cathy and I bought some almonds, salted peanuts, and some dried berries. It made a wonderful snack.

Turkey was part of the acient Ottoman Empire. This is part of the outside wall to the Ankara Castle. You can see that they used pieces of brick with Roman words written on them. This piece was put into the wall upside down.

Here I am in the Ankara Castle courtyard. This castle is very different than the castles I am use to seeing in Germany, Switzerland, or France. Which makes sense since this castle is in Asia and not in Europe.
Cathy in her new hometown: Ankara, Turkey.

I am such a tourist...me and the HUGE city of Ankara...which is smaller than Istanbul.

Cathy, Bonnie and the wonderful city of Ankara.

This is the biggest mosque in Ankara, and maybe even in Trukey. It is a massive building.

The mosque is so large that I had a hard time fitting into my camera lens. I had a wonderful first experience in Asia, Turkey, and in a Muslim country.

die Blumen (The Flowers)

Germany is famous for it's wonderful flowers and gardens.

Cathy and I went on a walk in Kandern,

and we realized that SPRING has SPRUNG!!

All of the apple trees are in blossom.

Fields of yellow and green.

Germany is beautiful in the SPRING!!

BFA's Got Talent

 Every year BFA has an annual talent show called, "BFA's Got Talent."  Anyone at BFA who would like to preform in one way or another is able to show of their talent. 

 This is the BFA sign team.  "S" is from my dorm.  She is the 4th person from the left.

 Seven of the Palm girls did a dance to a K-POP song.  K-POP is a genre of music that I had never heard of until I came to BFA.  It is short for Koren Pop Music, which is a favorite among the Korean students.

 Then the guys in Maugenhard (the boys dorm above Palmgarten) wrote a song about how the do not like to do their chores.

 Finally it was the climax of the evening...the RA performance.  Last year we did the "Evolution of Dance", which was a huge hit.  This year it was a bit different.

Some of us, (I am the one in the center) preformed a lip sinc to "Funkytown."  I played a stellar air guitar.  Then we had a magic show where we sawed someone in half!  And finally we ended with matrix soccer.  In the end we did get a few laughs.

The Last Hurah in Germany

For Erin and Denise's last adventure in Germany, I took them to Sausenburg Castle, which you can actually see from my dorm. It is only a ruins of a castle, but it is cool none the less.

The girls enjoy the lovely view...even if everything is hazy and foggy and we can't see to far.

Erin and Denise on the top of the tower. What lovely fair maidens!

The Sausenburg Tower in all of it's vines and glory!

Staff Meeting

In the mist of all of my wonderful visitors over the month of April I still had to work. The last two days Erin and Denise were here the girls were back from their spring break. Then I had a day until Cathy came. In that time my staff needed to meet and get caught up on dorm life. We decided to go to Fumfshilling for lunch and talk over some tasty food. Stephanie ordered lasagna...look how HUGE it is. Who says the portions in Europe are smaller than in the States?

Kasteel Hoensbroek

Dwight and Letty then took us to the Kasteel Hoensbroek in the southern part of the Netherlands. It is a beautiful castle with a mote and was lived in until the 1800s.

Ruben and David are excited to explore the castle. It is the most decorated castle I have visited.

Oh no!!! Ruben is in the stocks and Dwight and David just watch...

The castle was set up like it looked when people last lived there. Here it is set up in the time of the 1700s...imagine Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" as the setting.

Dwight, Erin and Denise enjoy exploring one of the towers in the castle.

Look how dashing these two are. We have Dwightenna and Lettold! They are very elegant.

In the castle they have a set up of the room. This is the kitchen. Please notice the loaf of bread with two mice crawling on it. There was also a dead duck hanging and some meat on a spit along with the fish on the table. Needless to say this kitchen would not pass a FDA health inspection.

Oh look...I finally found my knight in shining armor!!! Lucky me!