Meine Klein Welt

From the Land of Cheesesteaks

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img_0005.jpgI'm going to be doing some retro-blogging over the next day or two before I head out to England. So check back often for more posts.

I just spent 6 days in good old Philadelphia eating Cheesesteaks and Tastycakes and all kinds of other yumminess. Here's me at Rick's Steaks in Reading Terminal Market. I find it a bit amusing that they have an official certificate from the self-proclaimed King of cheesesteaks, Pat's. Somehow this validates the cheesesteaks they make, though I certainly had no complaints. Fill 'er up!

As always I had a wonderful time catching up with friends, seeing new babies and spouses, and distributing chocolate to the masses. The more I go back to Philadelphia the more I miss it, and the more I'm glad I'm back. I spent many an afternoon walking about the city from West Philly, to Center City to Old City seeing what's changed and what remains.

Thanks to all who made this a wonderful trip. I look forward to seeing you all again next year if not sooner.

The Da Licious Code Continues

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Two more "murders" took place today. The first one happened during homeroom in Chad Elwell's Science Lab and left poor Jar Jar with his arms detached and impaled with a compass. The ketchup blood was a nice touch. On the back of this "bloody mess" was a code in transliterated Greek. Actually, someone probably wrote some text in Word and then changed the font to Symbol. In any case the code translated to "Priority of Klein." Interesting.

The second murder took place just before lunch in Megan Tice's office and involved a banana with raisen eyes and a raisen belly button(which some people said was a bit too low for a belly button). It also had wooden popcycle sticks for arms and legs. One thing to know about Megan is that she hates bananas, raisens, belly buttons, and wooden things. The "Greek" above is transliterated "Sucka!"

So far all our leads have run into dead ends. Seems the usual suspects are innocent this time, but that doesn't leave too many other options…

And just for the record, I didn't eat the banana. SICK! 

The Da Licious Code

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So after lunch today, I found this disturbing object on my desk. Apparently someone really didn't like the frankies in blankies we had for lunch today.

I'm not sure if this is a code or just Greek gibberish. I can't make any sense of it…and is that a Euro symbol in there?

Can anyone help me crack the code?

And just in case you're wondering, yes I did eat the "murdered" frankie after documenting the crime scene. Da Licious!

Marathon Leftovers

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The night before the Marathon I decided I needed racing stripes (left). So I got Natalie, the art teacher, to design them and John, my roommate, to carve them into my head. The most baffling question I got about them, and from more than one person, was, "How long are you going to keep them?" I didn't quite know how to answer this question. I mean, it's not like I grew out my sideburns…or a mustache. So I would look confused, and say, "I don't know…maybe a week? How long do you think it'll take my hair to grow out?" And it did take about a week…These things are good to know.

On the right you can see me pre-marathon in my cute running outfit and new wristbands. The wristbands were very handy during the race as running a marathon apparently makes me sweat a lot.

In the post race goody bag, mixed in with powerade and some fruit and crackers was a small container of goose liver pate. That's right, goose liver pate. Though my first thought was that it was included in case I needed to induce vomiting, I'm guessing I was supposed to spread that on my crackers. Sick.

Family Fun Day

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So the school has a picnic every year on my birthday, or some would say, the date of Christ's ascension (40 days after Easter). Either way, this is a public holiday in Austria, and the school organizes a picnic in a park for the kids and parents and teachers.

This year we also programmed the Staff vs. Alumni basketball game into the festivities. And, as always, the staff won. The same thing happens every year. You get a few kids who talk smack about how they're going to beat their teachers at basketball. The teachers get the students to "bet" something (usually this involves shaving someone's head). And the teachers beat the students and shave the aforementioned head. It's great fun.

The day is a good time to hang out with kids outside of the classroom, meet parents, and enjoy some nice weather. When Mike realized that it was actually my birthday, he tracked down the bullhorn and made everyone sing Happy Birthday. Embarrassing, but fun.