Spring Break in Holland

Festival

It seems each time we go out in the city we run across some sort of celebration, festival, or event. Today we came across a parade of bands from each region in Austria. They had on their national dress and were marching around the Ring - which was closed to traffic (including the trams!). It was a nice way to end our 'first day of summer'.

Cherries!

School View...

... from my classroom window.

May Day Flowers

Happy May Day!
(a day early... )

winter in the city

Urban Sledding

For the kids in the city - what do you do when it snows?
Find a cobblestone road with a hill, put hay bales at the bottom, block it off from everyday traffic, and SLED!

Posters on building walls

Direct light and snow!

We were quite excited on Thursday when we returned home to find no more scaffolding and plastic outside our living room windows! We have a yellow building, can see the street again, and have direct sunlight streaming in through the windows! What a concept!
This event was highlighted by a day of snowfall in the city - everything has a beautiful white covering of snow. Today we have a layer of snow and blue skies - something unheard during the Viennese winters!

All Saints Day

Nov. 1 is All Saints Day. A holiday for the Catholics, and a tradition for most Viennese. Each Nov. 1 families visit the cemeteries and the grave sites of their loved ones. It is the time each year for fresh flowers, large wreaths, and new decoration in general. The decorations are large and quite noticeable. The cemeteries are busy for the whole day. A flower shop had set up a stand outside the cemetery gates to sell wreathes and flowers for the visitors, as the shops are closed on Sundays.

Kurbis Festival

We went to a pumpkin festival!
Here are some pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35924&id=1064838518&l=4e95e027dc

Happy Birthday Meredith

The boys celebrated just for you!
Aren't they thoughtful?

Sigh...

Birthday Dessert

For my birthday we visited a cafe that serves nothing but elegant desserts. It was a hard decision, but I ended up with creme brule. Yum. A good find by David!

Mom and Dad's Visit

Here's a link to the album!

Graduated

Plymouth Univ.

Final iImage

My final draft of an image that was to represent an educational topic in a compelling way... I chose literacy.

(click to enlarge... I think... )

Meme

Meme: element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, that are transmitted from one mind to another

Quickfire Challenge: 20 minutes to use a random title, 4 words from a random quote, and a random photo to create an album cover for 'my band'. Using Wikipedia, QuotationsPage, and Flickr, I used to assembled it all at Photoshop.com. The final project is a little dark, but alas, I was a bit limited. It was a great challenge and was fun to see what everyone created.

Riverford Organic Farms

The MAET program took a field trip to an organic farm, just 30 minutes from Plymouth. We toured the farm, did a little taste-testing, and learned about their functioning philosophy as an organic farm. They have even started making the lunches for the local grade school. It is becoming popular in the UK to order 'boxes' from these organic farms. Each week you get a new box of fresh veggies and fruits delivered from the farm.
The trip culminated with a delicious lunch from all organic foods - great salads, grilled veggies, and I hear the salmon was great. My favorite was the dessert - shocking!