The news from America

















These birds should have been the according to Benjamin Franklin. Look what he wrote about bald eagles, the national bird we ended up with:

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him."

Huh. He makes the eagle sound like a Republican. At least the bad moral character part fits pretty well.

























This heron was hanging around by my house this weekend. I saw him in flight on Saturday morning, and he was sitting for a long time like this on Sunday morning.






















A week ago I was invited to dinner at a friend of a friend's house (this friend of a friend is from Germany!) and there was this bat on their house! How cool is that? I love bats. I've never gotten to see one so close before!



















Here is a view from my house. Well, it's not my house, it's rented, but I live there now for the next 6 months or so. It's on the river! Yay! The flags came with the house, I didn't put those up. I counted 6 American flags on neighbors' property on Saturday, all in view of my house. Flags flags everywhere! Unfortunately I can't brag too much about how pretty it is, it's cold and rainy right now.

In other news, a German exchange student from Dresden showed up at school today!!! I am so excited! I haven't met her yet. She is going to the high school where I teach in the afternoon, and she's taking a class with the other German teacher there. He told her that I am there in the afternoon and hopefully she will stop by! I can't wait to meet her! I really miss Dresden. I can't wait until my two guys get here, that will help, but I just miss Dresden soooo much. It's funny, I miss the things I complained about before: the fast supermarket service (they do throw your food, but here the cashiers are soooooo sllloooooowwww, I feel like I am going to lose my mind every time I go to the store). Customers in German supermarkets are pushy and crowd you, but here they just wander aimlessly from place to place, and there is no system to their navigation of the store. Wow, and Dresden is so beautiful. It is pretty here, but Dresden is breathtaking. And I miss my friends. I even miss the cute cashier at the supermarket who always smiled at me. Wow, but I was impressed yesterday, two people complimented me on my haircut (it hasn't changed) and while out with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, everybody was just going crazy about how cute my niece is. That is definitely one very nice thing here: people are very child friendly!