The next few days

On Friday I went out to dinner with the two teachers that I will be working with most of the time, Katja and Andrea. They are lots of fun and again I have to admit that I am very lucky to have landed in Kiel with all of these great people. We had a great time and it was like we had known each other for a long time! I am excited that I will be working with such nice colleagues and am confident that they will be helpful with everything. They told me that on next Friday, my first day in the school, I can just sit and watch them and they will show me around. So no stress, we are taking everything pretty slow, which I find to be good. They are letting me decide which age level I want to work with, which I can’t decide because I have only taught some language labs at Bethany and teaching experience with other age levels, I lack. I guess I will just go where they need me.

My colleagues also signed me up for student housing through the university and I will find out in October if I will receive a room. If not, then I am thinking about possibly staying with my host family. Although it is not directly in the city, which I would prefer, it is nice to have someone to constantly talk to when I want and like I said before they are just very wonderful people in general. Last night we had a dish from India for dinner, which was delicious. After dinner, I spent the next few hours showing them pictures from my hometown, family, Bethany and much more. We had interesting and hilarious conversations the rest of the night.

The weather remains rainy and is a bit of a downer but this will hopefully be better next week. Silke, my host mother, said that if the weather is better next weekend that we can go to Denmark!! See what I mean, when I say they are amazing! It’s like I am really their kid and they want to show me everything. Today we had a large breakfast with lots of delicious German broetchen! Mmmm…nothing beats German bread. After breakfast we went into the heart of Kiel and I took a few pictures even though the weather was not so beautiful. Then we went to see the ships entering the Nord-Ostsee Kanal (North-Baltic Sea Canal). If I understood correctly, this canal is the most important in the world and the number of ships that go through it yearly is higher than anywhere else. It was created by Kaiser Wilhelm for military purposes and it is very practical because the ships do not have to go north to get around Scandinavia, they can simply use the canal, which shortens the length of travel. Currently one of the locks is damaged because a boat drove into it, so they are working to fix it. Right now everywhere in Kiel is a construction site. Lots of roads are closed for repairs in every direction.

Tomorrow I leave for my orientation in Cologne and I have to leave early to make sure I catch the train because we are not sure if I will have delays because of the construction.
Orientation is four days and is held in an old monastery in a small city called Altenberg that is about 30 minutes outside of Cologne. All hundred and some assistants from the U.S. are meeting in the train station, where the buses will then take us to the castle. Needless to say this should be interesting and I am already wondering what exactly we will do for three days.

One more interesting thing I would like to add that has nothing to do with orientation but that I find wild, is that Silke’s grandmother is still alive. She is 101 years old. I have never met a person that old…close…but not quite that old. When I met her she opened her eyes to see who I was, but she doesn’t talk. She sits in a chair until 4 in which she usually sleeps the day away and then she goes to bed to sleep more. It isn’t really much of a life. She doesn’t move much at all and she has to be spoon fed. My host grandmother who takes care of her says that she thinks she was forgotten by God, which is kind of sad but in a way seems to be true. Anyway, that’s all for now. My next entry will cover orientation, where hopefully I will meet more interesting people and maybe I will find out that there is someone placed in a location near me in Schleswig-Holstein. Until then…much love!