In case you're wondering what I meant by "teaching mode"... I offered to help a friend out this week while she is on vacation. She tutors students in English, so while she was away, I volunteered to teach her students. I have to say that I was a little nervous at first, but once I got started, I fell right back into the swing of things. :) I worked with two students... One was a younger man from Hungary that is here in Germany for work. He's on a 5 year work contract, and he's been here for about a year. Working with him was a piece of cake! He studied English in elementary, high school, and college, so he was already pretty fluent. However, he signed up for additional classes with my friend so that he could practice his conversational English skills... I was informed that all I would have to do for the sessions was sit and talk with him for 90 minutes... Seriously?! :) Yes, folks, you read that correctly... I, the infamous chatterbox, was given the task of talking to someone for a whole 90 minutes... It was such a perfect job for me! (Hmmm... now if only I could find a job like that in the U.S.!! :))
The other student I worked with was a little boy (he's just finishing 1st grade) who's mom is American and his dad is a doctor here (he also studied in the U.S. for a few years). Needless to say, the little boy is already fluent in English. However, his parents just want to exposed him to extra English classes to ensure that his English skills continue to grow. I had alot of fun working with him! I definitely went back into "teaching mode" while working with that little guy... :) Overall, it was great to get back into teaching, if only for a few days... And, who knows, maybe I'll be able to help my friend out again sometime and work with some more of her students. :)
Yesterday, I met up with my friends, Val and Theresa, and we went out and got ourselves pedicures... How fun! (For those of you that know me, you probably realize just how much I love getting pedicures! In the U.S., I typically got one per month... Yikes! Now that I'm living in Germany, I'm not quite sure how to go about getting pedicures here, so I've gone without them recently. My last one was in December when I was in the U.S.... So, let's just say, I was LONG overdue for another one! :)) It was the first time that any of us had gotten a pedicure in Germany. And, it ended up being quite an interesting learning experience for all of us! :)
Upon arrival, we were informed that each one of us would take about 45 minutes, and the woman could only work on one person at a time... We immediately thought that that was a very long time for a pedicure! But, we were all feeling very optimistic so we opted to go along with that time frame. :) Val was the first to go in, and after about 40 minutes she called us into the room. This is where things got interesting! Now, in most places where pedicures are given, they have a wide variety of nail polish to select from. Well, in this case, there was no nail polish... Hmmmm... Apparently, when getting a pedicure in Germany, they don't include painting the nails. :)
When the woman noticed how puzzled the three of us looked, she called her daughter downstairs and told her to take us to the store so that we could pick out some nail polish. So, Theresa and I (and the daughter) drove downtown to pick out some nail polish. Once we picked out our prospective shades, we took them to the counter to pay. Now, being that the woman had told her daughter to come with us to get the nail polish, we were under the assumption that she would pay for it and it would be included in the pedicure... Wrong!! We ended up having to purchase our own nail polish... Very odd! After making our purchase, we headed back. After giving the woman our nail polish selections, Theresa and I went to go sit in the garden while the woman finished up Val's pedicure.
Shortly thereafter, Val walked out with her fresh pedicure... And, I have to say, Theresa and I both had to hold back giggles when she walked out (and, based on Val's expression, she was not overly impressed with the finished product either)! :) Apparently, the woman does not know how to paint toenails whatsoever! Val walked out with nail polish on her toe nails... However, the polish was simply in the middle of the toe nail... The woman didn't cover the entire nail with polish... It was simply a wide stripe of polish down the middle of each toe... Very, very strange!! Definitely can't say that I've ever seen anything like that before!! :)
Needless to say, the pedicure was quite an interesting experience! The pedicure itself was fabulous, but the nail polish aspect was definitely not up to par. :) I honestly don't remember ever having to repaint my toes after a pedicure... which is what I ended up doing yesterday! :) I do have to say, that as much as I miss getting pedicures on a regular basis, I think I'm just going to wait to get back to the U.S. before I get my next one. :)
On that note, I'd better get to bed. My goal is to get up early so that I can make it to the Friday Farmer's Market tomorrow... Fresh fruits and veggies... YUM!! Plus, I've got quite a few other errands to run as well... Fun, fun! Hope you're having a great Thursday! Miss you much!
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