Quick Catch-Up

Tuesday's Zumba class was great!  It was not as difficult and quick-paced as the classes I have been to before, but it was fun and I was sweating with six other teachers, so it was good.  Yesterday, I went had some meetings and went shopping for cat supplies.  I ended up buying myself two pairs of pants and two shirts as well as birthday cards and gifts for my roommate Katrina and my co-teacher Petra because its their birthdays tomorrow and October 1st, respectively.  Laura's Birthday is the 4th of October, too, so I will probably end up doing the same thing for her.  I bought them each a wine glass which I am about to paint.  I've never painted glass before, so I'm a little be nervous.  On my way back from the superstore sort of place, I was rushing to catch a bus and had to go between some railings to make it in time.  I threw my backpack over the fence and placed my cat-carrying case on the other side while I held the wine glasses and bent down to go between the two bottom rungs.  Suddenly, as I went to squat through, I heard the small rip in the left inner thigh part of my jeans rip further.  For all I knew, I was going to be walking around with small shorts with a paint leg hanging from my left leg until I got home.  I simply covered myself as I got on the bus and checked with my hands to assess the damage while the bus was moving.  The tear was definitely longer, but I couldn't tell if it could be visible by others or not.  Luckily, I was able to go straight home and find out that the tear was not likely noticeable to anyone.  That's when I ended up going shopping for the pants.  With another pair of jeans on, I went out with two of my 30ish couples to coffee, the movies, and then for drinks.  We saw the movie Drive with Ryan Gosling and it was AMAZINGly well done.  I felt like making the fifteen minute walk home instead of taking the tram, but I was so on edge the whole time after watching all the gore and being unknowingly filled with adrenaline.  It took me a while to sleep because of the caffeine.  Today's highlight (so far) was taking one of my classes outside to be talked to and get to play with police officer equipment.  One of the students' fathers was a police officer and took a day to bring his partner and two police vehicles to our school.  The second grade teacher I was working with came over and translated his introduction for me, informing me that they were immigration police!!  I almost died with laughter!  Getting a working visa/green card is a process here, so I won't have mine for at least a few more weeks!  I only have a tourist visa at the moment, and am doing everything I can to fix that, but I found myself shaking hands with the officers who could have arrested me if they felt inclined to do so!  I watched the kids climb in the car used for arrests and the car in which all the equipment to determine validity of visas and IDs and could not refrain from telling my secret to the teacher Kacka.  She laughed along with me and said "Hmm...what can you do for me?"  A few minutes later, a new German teacher came out and spoke English with me.  I told her what was going on and she said she, too, hadn't received her working visa yet.  The father of my student jokingly asked to see my passport and I said, "I'm sorry, officer, I don't have it with me...you might have to take me in"  and he and I laughed while Kacka told me she had not sold me out.  Such a funny thing.  The kids were taking turns handcuffing themselves to the soccer net and I was simply staring and laughing at the whole situation... What a day already!