Lessons, class trips and Abschied

January 14th
I retrieved my computer from the Repair place, where I had taken it. It ended up costing 160 Euro, which is by no means cheap, but now I don't care becuase I at least I have a working computer and don't have to worry about it anymore. Ryan came by to visit since he would be leaving in three days and I tried to figure out how to get my internet to work.

Not much happened on Tuesday, I got my internet to work (since the wireless wasn't working, I bought a cable) and then Ryan came over in the evening and we watched a movie.

January 16th

On Wednesday, I went on a class field trip with a Marcus, one of the History teachers and his 9th graders. He and the other history teacher, always invite me along on their trips to special musuems or historical sites in and around Kiel and the nice thing is I get to experience/learn about historical aspects of Germany, first-hand, that I would otherwise not have the chance to do. This time the field trip was to the Bismark Stiftung in Freidrichsruh, close to Hamburg. The Bismarck Stiftung is a privately-run organization with the help of some government funding and is free for classes in Schleswig-Holstein to visit. The Stiftung houses over 10 million (insured) dollars worth of papers, writings, pictures and other archived realia of Bismarck and his fellow politicians. The land, which the Stiftung occupies, was presented to Bismarck as a gift and the house that he lived in remains standing on this piece of land. Marcus informed me that his decendents continue to inhabit the house. Unfortunately we only got to see this from a distance, but it was still interesting. There is also an exhibition/museum recording Bismarck's life and time as a ruler at the Stiftung.

We had a guided tour of this and then were allowed to look around ourselves, so that we could actually read some of what was written. Out of all of the influential historical figures of Germany's history, I would dare to say that Bismarck is the greatest and most positively portrayed throughout Germany. This is evident through the overwhelming presence of statues, memorials, and monuments in his honor. In addition, almost every city in Germany has a Bismarck square, and when not, then at least one street that is named after him. After doing the guided tour, we were split into two groups and given a short tour of the archives. The man who did the tour showed us some original documents written by Bismarck. Some of them were in French, as this is the language that the political elites used when they met in Europe during Bismarck's era. I think this was the highlight of the tour, knowing that we were in a room full of worthless in actuality/priceless in terms of what they are, pieces of paper. You don't get to do this every day. I must admit though, I had to laugh when he took out his white archival gloves (who knew they were the same all over the world, haha) because it made me think of Bethany's archives and when I was working some the summer before last with Jeanne Cobb, our archivist in the library. For those of you who don't realize how much work goes into preserving these articles, then you should take the time to visit a local archive and appreciate it. The work is dilligent and has to be exactly marked/ordered/packaged/housed or else it can be of no further use.

After seeing the archives, we had the opportunity to try and transcribe a text from the old german writing style. For me, this was almost completely impossible. I could only identify a few words, even though we were given a key to help decipher it. This didn't halp much because the r and e looked exactly the same and so did the f, h, and many other letters. Even the students found it to be extremely difficult, although they were able to read quite a bit at the end. This was the final activity of our trip and then it was time to head back to catch our train. We were already running behind, as the tour of the archives lasted longer than we had planned and so we had to walk really fast to catch the train at the next town/station which was a little over 20 minutes away. We made it there just in time to jump on and take off. We arrived back in Kiel around 5:30. It had been quite a long day and exhausting, even though half of it was traveling there and back. We didn't lose any kids though, so that was good. When I got off the train in Kiel, I was thanking my teacher for inviting me to come along and when I looked over, I saw Ryan, Deirdre and Siobhan, the other teaching assistants sitting on a bench at the station. They were supposed to be in Preetz visiting another assistant and I went to see why they hadn't left yet. They said that they missed two trains and then asked me if I wanted to go get a ticket and take the next one with them and that the train was leaving in like 3 minutes. I went to get a ticket and couldn't get what I wanted to come up. After I finally got it right, the train they wanted to take had left, making this the 3rd one they had missed. We all had a good laugh and waited around for the next one. We got to Preetz about an hour later and Chris met us at the station. He gave us a really quick (Preetz is tiny) tour and then we went to a Restaurant for dinner and spent a nice evening together.

After we got back from Preetz around 10:30, I wanted to get in the shower and then plan my lesson for the next morning on Sports in Australia, however, I didn't get to shower because our boiler wasn't working. It was freezing in our apartment and there wasn't any warm water. I ended up boiling water and using it to wash my hair. Nicholaus, one of my roommates and the one in charge of the apartment said he would call to see if he could get it fixed the next day.

January 17th

After waking up freezing, I headed to school. My class on Australian sports didn't really go as planned, but I guess you can only learn through trial and error. If I could do it over again, I would do a few things differently. I also got mad at this class because they were laughing at one of the weaker students while he was reading. The student got angry and I yelled at them and said that their behavior was unacceptable and not appreciated. I'm not sure if they knew what to think after that. After school I met Deirdre and Siobhan. We had planned to have lunch with Ryan in the afternoon and then get dressed up and go out for cocktails in the evening before Ryan boarded his ship to leave for Sweden for the next semester. Since Dee, Ryan and I went to a Subway the first time we all met up, that is where we went for lunch. Ryan of course being the punctual man he is, showed up almost two hours later than we had planned. He did, however think it was a sweet idea. After lunch we went back to Dee's and finished a calendar we made for him with pictures of all of us on it (idea taken from my friends in Heidelberg; they gave me one when I left and I loved it). We gave this to him and he really appreciated it, he even almost cried, but keep in mind he is... well let's just say a bit crooked ; ) Then we changed and went out for cocktails at the Blue Angel. It is a jazz club as one can imagine from the name and we had been there a few times before. The atmosphere is quite nice there, it is located directly on the harbor, and sometimes they have swing nights with really good dancers performing. After we all had a cocktail, it was time for Ryan to leave to board the Stena Line, his cruise ship to Sweden. We stood from a parking lot along the harbor and waved goodbye with our tissues (no sarcasm here, we actually did this because we are silly like that) and Ryan popped a bottle of champagne from the back deck of the ship. He wanted us to try and catch the cork, but it didn't travel that far. It probably will wash up on the Ostsee shore...I was really sad to see him go because he was my closest friend here and we had a lot of fun together in the short time that he was here, but I hope that he has a great time in Sweden. Who knows, maybe I will even get a chance to go visit.

January 18th

I had prepared a lesson on the primaries in the U.S. and the potential candidates for the 2008 election. I printed out articles from NPR.org on each of the most popular ones and then split the class up into groups of 2 and gave each one a candidate. They had to read the info. and present the main political viewpoints of each. At the end of the class I had them vote for their favorite candidate. The teacher of this class, thought it was a great idea and I think the students enjoyed it, too. I find that they are really interested in political issues in the U.S. and take advantage of every opportunity to ask me about them. I wish that students in the U.S. were as interested in politics as they are here. We're lucky if students in the U.S. can even form an opinon of their own on an issue. Mostly their ideas are taken directly from the mouths of their parents because it is just easier to go along with someone else's viewpoint than to come up with their own! That involves thinking and thinking is too much work...woops did I write that? In one of my other classes, we were dealing with the civil war and then we decided to connect the lesson and talk about the War in Iraq. Keep in mind that these lessons are all in English and that the students are able to clearly express themselves and their thoughts! The kids hat lots of questions about this and wanted to know my stance and perspective on it. They asked questions, such as if I knew anyone who was/is in the war and why the Americans supported it and if they still do. After school, I met Siobhan for coffee and cake and later we met up again with Dee and Heather at the Rathaus. Here we saw a random woman walking around in a Bee costume having her picture taken by people who appeared to be her friends. Just as this was happening, one of my students walked by and asked if I knew what the girl was doing. I told him that I had no clue and that there is always something crazy/random happening in Kiel. In the evening, I had plans to meet up with the history teachers from my school and some of their friends at the irish pub down the street from here. It is really nice that they invite me because it is a good opportunity to practice my German skills. They are the ones that take me on their class trips. They are also leaving our school this coming Friday when the term is over. They are currently doing their "referendar" what we as Americans would refer to as Student teaching. They just finished their exams and now have recieved jobs at other schools (our school doesn't have any openings for them).

January 19th

I woke up late because I had decided to sleep in. I had been helping plan a trip to Karneval in Duesseldorf (originally we wanted to go to Cologne) with 4 other assistants. Cologne is supposed to be the best place for Karneval but we had to settle for the second best, which is ok with me since I haven't ever been to Duesseldorf and I am sure it will be just as good. We ended up booking a hotel and figuring out how we were going to get there the chapest way possible. I have been wanting to go to Karneval (Mardi Gras) since I have read about it in my German books in the 8th grade and will finally get to experience it. My guess is, there will be tons of people dressed up in crazy outfits. In the afternoon, I went over to Dee's. Siobhan and I had planned to have her cut our hair and then we wanted to cook dinner together in the evening. I found out that Siobahn has more talents than just juggling. Apparently, she can sing, plays the guitar and writes her own songs. They are really good. She showed me her book with all of them written in it and I read through some of them. She played a few for me and Dee and then Dee cut our hair. Dinner in the evening consisted of carrots, potatoes, corn and chicken and was quite delicious if I might say so myself.

January 20th

I had been wanting to see the movie "Das Leben der Anderen" (The Lives of the Others) for a long time and finally got to do so on Sunday. The film won an academy award in the U.S. for the best foreign language film and is about a German Stasi officer who is hired to observe and record the life of a playwright in the DDR. I went to a theater on my street to see it and my expectations were more than met. It was a great movie, one of my favorites now, and I would recommend it to anyone. Besides this, I didn't do a whole lot.