GLORIOUS!

It's the weekend.... "hear angels singing in the background"... I'm photographing at the Ascend Gala tonight, so no break for me. Me work. Oh joy. But I'm excited to try out my new flash! Hopefully this one won't explode on me. That'd be embarrassing... "Lavell Edwards! Smile!....Hey, there's smoke coming out of my flash!"

Anyway. I'm glad the weather should be nice. I plan on going OUTSIDE, I don't care when how or who with but I WILL go outside! :)

And yes, that is about all I've got. I'd better go, we're having a pizza party in my AP Art History class because we're talking about Rome! :) Yay!

Admittance

Ok, I'll admit it. I don't know much about the economy. I don't know much about investing. And I don't know much about how the market works. But I am frustrated. I make 30,000 a year. I work more than 40 hours a week. Last night I worked 13 hours because of parent teacher conferences. I get a "compensation" day but it's about 5 hours short when you count in the other two parent teacher conferences I am REQUIRED to do. My salary does not go up for spending more hours on the job. So where does the government come off thinking it can pass some idiot millionaire investor's iodot choices onto MY paycheck? You know that taxes are going to be raised eventually for the American people to pay off the debt the investors are benefitting from. I'm sorry but why do they deserve 10 milllion? They invested poorly, they should suffer the consequences. What happened to "if I do something wrong, I have to pay for it"? I understand forgiveness and all that but lets not be ridiculous. I see this attitude in my students. Parents or friends or counselors bail kids out on a daily basis. Make them suffer the consequences and then they'll learn not to do it again. It's harsh but I've seen too many lazy people expecting someone to bail them out because they didn't do anything in the first place. Anyway. There's my schpeel.

Well now that I'm done with Europe...

Evan was teasing me because I haven't written about anything since Europe.. which was two months ago. Ok. What I've been up to...

-Hanging out with Evan
-We had our 6 month in July: Went to Brewvies & played pool & saw Get Smart
-Went to an awesome wedding reception at La Caille with Evan
-Went to my first drive in movie with Evan- The Mummy #3 and Batman Dark Knight: very fun! We stuffed a bean bag chair into the back of my truck
-Went to my family reunion in Wolf Creek and played a LOT of games, went on a hike/short walk and went swimming...
-We went to Las Vegas and Zions with Patrick
-Getting Evan ready for BYU
-Moving to Orem
-Hanging out with Evan some more
-Started teaching at Lehi High
-Had lots of meetings for work
-Going to BYU Football games and seeing my first and second shut outs! Awesome! #3 here we come!
-Decided to go to a figure drawing class when Evan was busy
-Went out to Cold Stone with my friend Andra
-Went school clothes shopping
-Went to India Fest- they burned a 12 headed bad guy Ravanna (I THINK)
-Took Evan to Sam Hawk (yummy Korean food here in Provo)
-Hiked to Bridal Veil Falls with Evan and his roommates
-Went to Sundance with Kelsy&Dan. Took funny pictures

Anyway- We've done a lot :)

This week we went to FHE, tonight we're going to a Bodies exhibit, tomorrow is Parent Teacher Conferences, which I am NOT excited about- Parents complain a LOT at Lehi... I get an email a day. It's really annoying because they expect me to justify my job on a daily basis when their child comes unprepared to work in my class. uuumm, oh yeah. THE OFFICE is on Thursday! Friday is the Gala and this weekend we're doing something outdoorsy! And then it's the week again. I'm all for staying an extra two hours a day at school in order to have Fridays off. Carissa, I'm jealous!

Europe Day Eight

Today was a DOWNER. We went to Dachau. Very sad. Also depressing because today was our last day. Jess really didn't want to go to the concentration camp because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it. I can't believe there are people who think that the Holocaust was just made up by some government. Really made you think walking around there. We watched a video on the victims first. Women were little less than sex slaves and the men were forced to do hard labor, sometimes they were forced to just stand perfectly still for hours on end. All because someone thought they weren't human. You see this today. You'd think we would learn from history and have a little compassion for each other. Guess we'll never learn. What will will do when the world has killed everyone off? After the video Jess, Jen and I walked around. They had two bunkers rebuilt. Inside, men were stacked like chickens in a chicken coup. The "showers" were even more frightening. I started having an anxiety attack in there. People were split up into groups. One group was told to go get ready to take a shower. They really did look like gym showers! This was to fool the people into a false sense of security. Only it wasn't water that came out of the pipes. The gas chambers were never put into use in Dachau but it still made me sick. I am German and Austrian. The worst part is that people living nearby didn't really know what was going on. Those that found out and tried to help also disappeared. Everyone was really quite when we got back onto the bus. We had a lot to think about. How lucky we are to live when and where we do. I wish there was a way to end suffering around the world. Maybe I'll get to see that day. I can hope for it anyway. That's why I love to learn about other cultures. By learning about them I can appreciate our differences. I don't hate the extremists that are tearing our world apart. It makes me sad because I am so interested in their culture. Too bad people can't learn to appreciate one another's differences. The world would be a better place I think. Anyway. I'm off track. The rest of the day we chilled in Munich and hung out with people in our group. I was SO excited to go home and see Evan! Luckily we just had one flight on Luftsansa...NICE AIRLINE. I would definitely fly with them again! You felt like first class! And yes, I've flown first class by a happy accident so I know I'm comparing correctly. I slept most of the time and watched The Spiderwick Chronicals and Friends. Anyway. Evan picked Jess and I up and had a great time!

Europe Day Seven: Munich

Well... Munich is pretty "tight" as my students have been saying this whole trip! We took a bus tour in the rain, visited the Glockenshpiel which was AWESOME! Wish we had cool stuff like that in Utah! Lunch was Italian since Jennifer, Jess, Rachel and I were sick of German food. Delish. Dinner was in this cool old brewery.. But alas. It was German food. Jess and I walked around and tookcool photos. It's been so much fun hanging out with her. I really miss all of the people I've met along the way. It's good to be home with Evan though ;)

Anyway, after dinner Jen, Jess and I watched Friends and The Office and went to bed.

Hey You Gu-Uys

Check out my old Europe Posts. I added pictures :)

Europe Day Six

So, I am getting better at this right? It helps when you have nothing to do at work because your kids are finishing up projects :)

Day six we woke up and drove to Neuschwanstein Castle. I LOVE this place! We walked around town for a bit, Jess and I went shopping but I didn't find anything I wanted. It was all cheap tourist crap. Jess bought a cute necklace though. Then we took a bunch of photos and had lunch. I got the Schnitzel. Good but heavy food. Again, I will reiterate. I am not a huge fan of German food. The place where we had lunch was cool though. We had a good view of the castle and the waitresses were dressed in peasant dresses. Kind of fun. So, funny story. We had to hike up to the castle because Ben told us we could take a trolley or hike. Well the "Trolley" was a horse drawn carriage! I was so mad! That would have been SO cool to ride up to a castle in a horse drawn carriage. Sigh. Maybe someday. Anyway, those of us that wanted to get a shot of the castle from the bridge had to RUN up these very steep mountains in order to get there and what did I find when I arrived? A VERY sketchy looking bridge at least 300 feet over a roaring waterfall. Oh, and did I mention that this bridge was PACKED with people. Talk about hyperventilating! I stayed long enough to get my shot and then I be-lined it back to the castle. Everyone started hanging Ben their cameras to get a shot of the group. How annoying, they should have just gone on the website and downloaded it from there. So after 50,000 shots of the same thing Jess and I escaped to take some funny photos of us running up the stairs towards the castle & losing a shoe. The castle inside was SO cool! I wish we could have taken photos but no such luck. There was an AMAZING gilded ballroom and even a CAVE! Home sweet home. We even saw them making a movie. A girl in a Cinderella costume was wandering around being filmed. No idea what for but it was cool. I miss being on set sometimes. Anyway. After the castle tour we went back to our coach, drove and drove, and drove some more. The Austrian, Swiss and German countryside seem to be plagued by large marshmallows :) Stopped in a LITTLE town, looked at a church and drove.... to Munich, where we had more German food, I called Evan, watched Friends and the Office with Jen and Jess and went to bed, still tired even though I'd napped all day on the bus. :)

Europe Day Five

:) Yes yes, it has definitely been awhile! Ok, Day Five...

This day was fun. We spent the day traveling to Austria. We stopped and had lunch in Liechtenstein, I had my first European Donner Kebab- TASTY but I wish Evan would have been there to share- IT WAS HUGE! On the bus ride, as soon as we got into Austria we sang "Edelweiss." Kind of cool going back to where a good portion of my family is from. I'm not going to lie though, after Switzerland, Austria was kind of a let down....it looks like the Rockies. Anyway, at the border we all had to give Ben our passports so they could be stamped and we made a big joke about him running off with them and selling them to the Communists or the Muslim terrorists. I think it was one of those, "You had to be there" things but it still makes me laugh. After driving some more we made it closer to Innsbruck. We went to the Swarovsky Crystal Factory. It was SO cool! You walk through this hall of mirrors like Dorothy in 'Return to Oz' and into the factory. Imagine every sort of decoration you can-but all very modern- covered in crystals. They had a waterfall made out of crystal! Tres-Chique! Everything was, of course, VERY expensive- but fun to look at. I did buy a few crystal beads though. They're cheaper there than in the states at the bead fairs. Anyway. That was fun. Then we headed back on the bus to Innesbruck. In Innesburck we had a little time to do some shopping and take pictures- most of the shops closed around 6- weird. Anyway, I bought my mom a Christmas tree ornament (rocking horse- cute) and I took some cool photos. Then, again, back on the bus to go to our hotel which was up in the mountains. I do not like German food. It's all meat and potatoes- no fruit, unless it's cocktail. Gross. So dinner was uneventful. Bu-ut. We got our hotel room assignments. I was in room number 13 overlooking a graveyard. Spooky. Jennifer and I went for a walk and took some pictures of this old bar that wasn't open and heard some people singing in the church. The lady with the "stinky frommage feet"( according to Dragon (yes that's his real name) our old bus driver in Swizterland and France) was taking PHOTOS inside the church while people were trying to practice for their church choir. Very rude. We got back to the hotel and I went to hang out with my sister and some of the students. We sat around outside and talked until it got too cold and then I went to bed.