TONI STARK!

I have to admit my first impression of Salzburg was lame. It felt dirty, cheap, ghetto, and well scary, but Sunday afternoon was just wonderful. When we got back to the hotel from the crazy taxi ride we took afternoon naps and lounged around our hotel because we were not in the mood to get lost again. Hunger finally took over though and we decided to find somewhere to eat and came across a freakin' sweet little Thai food place. So siick inside and the food was so good! We then walked around and found a huge garden in the city center that was so beautiful and had so many funky statutes. I am learning that is what Europe is best at, off the wall statues. lol. We then headed over the river into a quaint little town and saw Mozart's house and school and did a bit of shopping. It was just a chill day, exactly what we all needed.

We spent Monday traveling home and doing homework, eh. The today was our first official 'normal' day. Class till 11 then service learning at the kindergarten. Talk about cute kids! I walked in and it was so bright and cheerful and had so much artwork from the kids hung up all over. Kindergarten here is from one year to six and is optional, similar to our pre-schools in the states. They had me with the four and five year olds and learned that none of them speak English, just German and Polish. You just hear crazy 'jibberish' all over and kids running up to you speaking German faster then I have ever heard. I just started laughing because it reminded me of when kids are making up languages and playing make believe except its not, people actually understand them. It was fun to try and communicate with the kids even though neither of us understood each other. Best part was when they learned my name though. One little boy could understand me to an extent and so I asked his name and then he asked me mine. I said Toni and he immediately started screaming a bunch of German and running around yelling excitedly at the other kids and they are started talking to me in German. Finally I heard the little boy, Pachell, say "Toni! Toni Stark! Iron Man!" and all the kids smiling and laughing and screaming. They apparently are huge Iron Man fans and I just made there day being named after the main star. Rest of the day the kid was attached to my hip. He was like my personal German tutor though teaching me what everything was called and gave me a 'tour' of his classroom and showed me how to clean up, set up snack, read at story time, etc. It is amazing how patient and understanding kids can be, I think he liked the idea of knowing so much more than me and being able to be the 'teacher' for a day. He also found my English rather funny and at one point actually was mocking me. haha. He started to mimic my facial expressions and in the middle of a German sentence he would throw in an English word I had said and start laughing and laughing. He would run off and grab a friend and have me say hello or my name and then they both would be laughing and pointing. It is a rather strange feeling to be mocked by a five year old. :)

Needless to say, I had an amazing day and loved learning about the German schools and playing with the kids. They have such an interesting way of doing schooling here and I find it fascinating. I have grown to love kids even more (if that is even possible) seeing them today and realizing how sweet their spirits really are.