If you’ve ever sat down and talked with German teacher Anne Bulger, you know that she has a lot of stories to share about her life experiences

Bulger definitely strayed from the textbook way of going to college and spending her first years out of high school.

Bulger — who is commonly known as “Frau” at CMR — started off at the University of Montana with a double major, in German and history.

She had taken three years of German in high school already, and then decided to continue speaking the language in college. During her junior year, Bulger headed off to Vienna, Austria in an “experimental” group that the University of Montana was sending in order to have them completely immersed in the language. After that, Bulger spent time in Germany working and was even able to pay off some student loans by working in a darkroom in a Kodak shop.

After Bulger’s Austrian school came to an end, she finished up in Missoula and then over the next several years worked all over the country for an oil and gas company. In 2000, after deciding that she wanted to spend more time with her young kids at home, Bulger landed the job as the German teacher at CMR and has been teaching it ever since. Although Bulger could also teach history, she has never had to do so.