Tag der deutschen Einheit!

Hello Everyone! Sorry I haven't written in a while! I thought since today is a holiday in Germany and I have the day off I would write what has been happening the past week or so. FYI the holiday today is German Unification day, so the day East and West were formally reunited into one country. This will be pretty long...so here goes.

As you all probably have seen in the news, the Euro hit an all time high this past month. It is trading at approximately 1.42 to the dollar, which is bad news for me since I have yet to get my paycheck...but will be good once I get paid!

Last week I actually got to take over a few of my classes and pretty much teach on my own. I was really nervous, but it was fun and my teachers seemed impressed with the way it went! I was excited to hear that. Slowly I am being integrated into the classroom and the students are getting used to seeing me around. The topic in 13th grade right now is the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms, the death penalty, and violence in the U.S. Sometimes I start to think that the only thing the students learn about the U.S. are the worst things. But looking at reality, there are a lot of things that need to be changed in the U.S. The students of course think that the 2nd Amendment is out of date and were shocked to learn that it comes after the rights of an individual. They couldn't believe that something like that would be seen as so important. They believe that the right to have a weapon is a vicious circle. I myself agree, however, many Americans feel that this is the only way they will be safe. In Germany guns are illegal for citizens to possess and the crime rate is MUCH lower than in the U.S.

On the weekend I was invited out to dinner with the head of our English dept. at the school, with whom I work very closely. First we met at her place and watched the Hamburg Soccer team play to victory (she is a huge soccer fan and they have a basement set up like a movie theater with a projector and big screen!!!) Then we went out to El Greco, a very nice Greek restaurant, where we met up with her sister, who really wanted to meet me and two of her friends. They are all in their thirties, but are a lot of fun. After dinner we went to a student bar called "Trotzdem." This was a very nice evening.

On Sunday, my hostmom, grandma and I went into the city to the Pottery market. This is once a year and there were so many amazing pottery pieces! If I had had a million dollars, I would have bought it all!

Monday, I went to Hamburg to the U.S. Consulate to meet with the director of the program "Meet US," in which I will be taking part. It is the outreach program for schools who do not have teaching assistants and want to have Americans come to speak to their students. I will be paid to do this and I think it will be a lot of fun. When I first got to the consulate, I felt like I was entering a prison with all the police and gates, but once I got inside it was much better. The director of the program gave us a tour of the building and told us that the 1st consulate general in Hamburg was a man from Scotland. I thought this was an interesting fact. There were 7 of us total who arrived for the meeting. Three of us are Fulbright teaching assistants and the other 4 are exchange students at high schools in the area.

Today, since we have the day off, my host mom, grandma and I went to Schilksee to walk around. The olympic games were held there in 1972. Sailing and such took place there. It is a beautiful day here so it was perfect for walking along the coast. A lot of fisherman were out today, my host dad included!

I'm starting to get used to Kiel and am better at finding my way around. I wanted to share some of the things that make Kiel and the surrounding area special or things that I now associate with it:

Horse Riding
Fields/farms/animals
Sailing/fishing
Handball (Kiel has the best Handball team in all of Europe, maybe I will get to watch a game!)
houses with straw roofs (in the outside villages)
Plattdeutsch--- Wat is dat? (a German dialect spoken here)
Wind energy
Beaches (sometimes you have to pay to enter certain areas of the beach...this is because they keep them very clean)
Strandkoerber (wicker seats that are rented out on the beach for people to sit in)