Real hits (lessons, dinner, visits, and a car crash)

Sorry it's a long one. I have quite a lot to share from last week.

Monday

I spent most of the morning cleaning my apartment because my host family is coming on Friday and Ryan and Helen are also staying with me this weekend. Yesterday, I had tried to go to my teacher's house in the afternoon because she told me to stop by again sometime soon, but noone was home. So, I decided to venture over today. I got there around 3 in the afternoon and stayed until around 10. Her son was sick and had a fever so he slept most of the time, while Mathilda and I drew pictures and then we had a picnic dinner. After the kids were in bed we watched some more British comedy DVDs and I left to go home. I enjoy spending time with them and she invited me to bring my sister over for dinner when she is here.

Tuesday

I prepared my presentation about me and Barnesville for my year 13. I decided putting some pictures on a power point slideshow would be the best way to show and tell them. I knew the kids were going to get a kick out of what I had to say, but I didn't think it would be as funny as it turned out to be. My students and teacher were laughing hysterically almost the whole time that I was talking and I was too! It was great. I warned them before I started my presentation, that what I was about to show and tell them was not like what they see in the movies or on tv. I told them, I'm from small town USA, where things are a lot different.

I put up some pictures of the town first. One of main street, some of the "historical" sites, some victorian houses, and a few churches. I told them this was pretty much it and they were already laughing. I talked about exaggerated patriotism (2 American flags on every pole in the town) and they started pointing them out whenever they saw them. I used a picture of the king pumpkin and they thought this was hillarious too. Then I showed some pictures of my family...don't worry, they didn't laugh at these! But when I put up the picture of my friends from home standing around a bonfire and told them this is what we country folk do for fun they were laughing again. Then came the Amish pictures and the picture of my grandpa with an old rusted tractor. I talked about farming being important to the area and the Amish population and their traditions. They found this really interesting and were asking me questions about the Amish. Then I talked about Bethany and showed some pictures of the college and some from graduation. The last two slides were meant to be ironic. I put pictures up of me from cheerleading and of my sorority and told them, that I know they probably didn't guess that I was either of the two, but that this proves that stereotypes are generalizations. The final slide was of pictures from Pittsburgh and I told them that I do get out of the country and into the big city every once in a while. This got a lot of laughs and a round of knocking on the tables (Germans traditionally knock on tables after a good presentation or class, they don't clap). I experienced this at the PH in Heidelberg after lectures everyday.

After talking, I let the students ask me questions and then showed them some flyers from Barnesville, Bethany, and my high school yearbook. These also got some laughs. After the presentation, I found out that one of my students had lived in Namibia for two years, after explaining that I had been there with my college. He told me that he went to the German school there and that his dad is a marine biologist and did research on the coast. All in all, the class and presentation were a huge success and my teacher complimented me, saying she thinks that I will be a great teacher because I can raise my voice well and I know how to make the kids laugh.

Wednesday

I was riding the bus to school because of my bike and one of my teachers drove by, saw me and picked me up. It was somewhat ironic, because the reason I had gotten up so early today was to go to her first period class. She invited me to come to her chemistry class after English, so I thought, why not? I actually understood everything she was talking about, even though it was German scientific terms and I got to participate in an experiment that she did with the class. It's fun to just sit in on random classes at the school.

After her classes, I had class with my sixth graders. They had a task to write down sentences, cut the words out individually and give them to their neighbor to put in the correct order. One of the girls asked me what she should do with her extra paper and I said throw it away. My teacher for that class Herr Meyer, sarcastically told them to eat it. Of course this led to the boys actually doing it and the girls yelling "Herr Meyer, Paul and Phillip are really eating it!" He and I just laughed and then his response was, "Millions of flies eat shit, can they all be wrong?" I couldn't believe that he had said this and I was laughing hysterically. The kids looked quite disgusted. After class, as the two of us were leaving the room, he said, "if I had told them to glue the paper to their belly buttons, they would have." This is one of the reasons, they are my favorite class to work with. They are so sweet and innocent and take everything so seriously.

My next class was to perform their Amish dialogues for me and I was to give them grades. They all did a really great job acting and most of them had memorized all of their lines. This was also quite funny.

My 13th graders just took their Arbitur last week and so they get to take a break and watch movies for the next few weeks until Easter Break. We started watching "The Color Purple" today. I have also never seen this film and so far it is very moving.

Thursday

My 10th graders presented role plays that they created on the topic of liberty and equality. They are working on the Revolutionary War and so they created scenarios leading up to the war either in England or the U.S. We had worked on these together last week and I was quite impressed with the final products.

I finished up my unit on immigration with my 12th graders today, using a caricature of Lady Liberty stirring immigrants in a bowl. I had the students talk about the picture and its symbolism. Then I had them work in pairs discussing whether the U.S. is best described as a melting pot or a salad bowl and then they had to present their opinion. Most of them sided for Salad Bowl, mentioning that many immigrants to the U.S. are proud of their heritage and retain their language and culture although they are part of America and its culture. Following this we had a discussion about immigration issues in the U.S.

In the evening, I met up with Dee, Cara (a friend of Dee's who was here visiting from Canada), Siobhan, and Ryan, who had flown in today from Sweden to stay and visit for the weekend. We headed to the Kieler Brauerei for dinner, where the portions are well worth the price. Of course it never fails, I can't go anywhere without meeting Americans in need of help. It just so happens, that while I was on my way back from the restroom, I ran into two Americans trying to buy cigarettes from a machine downstairs. They were trying to use their credit card but it wasn't working and they couldn't read what the machine was saying in German. So when they saw me, they asked me if I spoke English, I answered yes (knowing they had to be Americans) and then helped them figure out what they needed to do. After this, they started asking me questions about what I am doing here and where I am from in the states. I found out that they were here as part of a Naval fleet from NATO. A portuguese ship was also in the fleet and they were all out together. They invited me to come over and they introduced me to about 20 other American men and 2 women. Three of the men were from Ohio. They were all very nice and seemed really interested in what I am doing here. They did ask the question everyone asks...Why made you come here? I was thinking, do I have to have a reason!? Anyway, they are on a two-month tour around Europe. They had already been to England, Scotland, and France and were heading to Denmark from here and then to Eastern Europe. They said that the Germans were the friendliest and most helpful people that they had met thus far. And I said well what did you expect! : ) I even ended up talking to a few of the portuguese men that evening. The funniest part of the entire evening was when one of the guys thought that Ryan was my boyfriend...we both broke out into side-splittling laughter since Ryan isn't straight!

Friday

I only have one class on Fridays now as I think I mentioned before. So I went to school today, this time, for a one-on-one conversation class. The other two students were taking the Arbitur in a different subject and were therefore not in class. Of course the 45 minutes went by quickly and then I was free for the day. I met up with the usual suspects (the Kiel Crew) and we went out for cake and coffee. This involves each person selecting a different piece of amazing cake and us tasting each one. We usually reward ourselvs with this once a week. We like to think of ourselves as coffee and cake connoisseurs.

After this, I headed back to my apartment to start preparing dinner for my host family and host grandma. I guess I should have left to do this a bit earlier because my host family was extra punctual. They came early because they had ridden the bus from Altenholz. My suspicions are that they had planned in advance for us to go out for drinks after dinner : ) So anyway, I was running a bit behind with dinner preparations and felt like a horrible hostess at first, but then realized that this didn't matter at all. I was so happy to see them again and I could sense the same from them. I showed them to my room and they were very impressed with the size, location, and setup. They arrived with flowers and an Easter basket as a thank you for me cooking dinner for them. This is quite typical in Germany if you are invited to dinner, that you should bring a gift, but it is also just typical of my host family as they are very thoughtful and appreciative people. We exchanged stories from the past month or so and I found out that Tiki, the great grandmother who I had mentioned before was a 101 years old passed away 2 weeks ago. They hadn't told anyone really as they had been expecting it for quite some time. I was sad to hear the news, but knew that they had long been prepared for this moment and were happy that she was finally at peace and no longer just barely existing. Finally dinner was finished. I made a noodle casserole that we often eat at home. Everyone had seconds so I was under the assumption that it must have tasted good to them and then my assumptions were proven true after they said numerou times how delicious dinner was and that they were going to give me a "Kochmuetze." (chef's hat) They also wanted me to give them the recipe so that they could make it in the future. Following dinner, we had desert, which was supposed to be a type of tiramisu...apparently I didn't beat the egg whites long enough so the coating for the lady fingers remained a liquid. Just when I thought I had failed, my host family was there to boost my self esteem by eating it anyway and saying it was delicous. To be fair, they aren't people who would say this if it wasn't the truth (they are very honest) and so I believe that they really did like it, although it is also possible they saw my disappointment and felt sorry for me because I was putting forth such an effort to make things perfect, although I highly doubt this. I, too, thought that it was nevertheless delicious, in spite of the form and state it took.

After desert, my they tried to get me to let them do the dishes (we don't have a dishwasher and they do), but I reassured them it was the least I could do after all that they had done for me. After finally convincing them, that I would take care of the dishes later, my host dad, Helge, asked if it would be ok for us to go out for drinks down the street. So the four of us headed to the Irish pub down the street, where he knows the owner, Dennis. We spent two hours there talking more about current events in our lives and we filled out a postcard to send to their daughter who is in Australia for the year. There is something very special about these people and you don't find people like them too often. At one point, while at the pub, my hand accidently hit brushed the hand of my host grandma, and I grabbed her hand and she held mine and we both just smiled. I'm pretty sure, that at that moment, we felt deep into each other's hearts and she realized just how much I appreciate them allowing me to become a part of their family, while here. Even the first day I met them, it was as if we had known each other for a long time. I'm not sure if they felt the same way, but my host grandma always said, once you get to know someone here in the North, they will always be a part of your life.

When we finally called it a night a few hours later, I headed to Dee's, because Ryan an the rest of the Schleswig-Holstein Assistants crew were hanging out there. When I arrived, they all sensed my good mood and asked why I couldn't stop smiling, I told them that I was simply happy because I had just seen my host family and that I feel lucky in general. I then shared stories with them about when I lived with my host family and they basically said that I had been spoiled by them. I agreed. When we came back later, I walked into the kitchen and saw that the dishes were no longer piled up. I immediately felt like an idiot and knew that my roommate, Nicholas had done them. We take turns doing them and do them together a lot of times, but I totally felt like an idiot because there had been so many. I told him it was my turn now and he just laughed and said he was bored! Ha a man who does the dishes when he is bored! Here that ladies...and he isn't gay either (not sterotyping)!

Saturday

Nicholas had offered me his extra mattress in the morning so that Helen wouldn't have to sleep on the floor tonight. This was again really sweet of him. He's always really helpful.

Today it was such a beautiful day. Whenever Helen comes to Kiel, she somehow manages to bring nice weather with her. The two of us wanted to go up in the Rathaus tower to get the view of Kiel from above on the clear day. Ryan decided to go to the library so we headed out. Unfortunately the city hall is closed on Saturday and therefore, we couldn't go up the tower. This was disappointing, but we vowed to do it some other time. Instead, we decided to go for a walked to Schrevenpark. After walking through the park, we made our way down to the harbor. We spent three hours walking and finally met up with Ryan at a cafe to get some lunch. Dee and Siobhan had called and we planned to meet in an hour to get the next train to go to a small city called Ploen that is about 45 minutes or so from Kiel. They had a weekend ticket for the train that they had bought the day before and we decided to make use of it.

The city of Ploen is a nice little place with a castle and really old buildings and churches. We spent the afternoon wandering about and taking pictures. At one point we were walking along the lake there and there was a lot of dog crap in the grass. Ryan ended up stepping in it and having to clean off his shoe and as we continued to walk, we could still smell it. We then realized, that the smell wasn't just coming from his shoe but from the city in general. Every five steps there was dog crap beside the sidewalk and we decided, that this must be where the whole city walks their dogs. We finally got on the train back to Kiel and went to Subway to get dinner. Going to Subway in Germany is always an interesting experience because all of the sandwich names, bread names, and sauces are in English, but you order in German. It is really confusing. I wish they would just translate the stupid names into German because if you ask for the sauce using what it would be called in German, strange as it may sound, they stare at you like they don't understand you...and you are thinking but this is your language and English is not. It's funny to say the least. We ate dinner at Dee's and then Helen, Ryan and I came back to mine and crashed. On the way back we saw a lot of glass in the streets and realized that there had been a bad car accident on my street. A car had plowed into a huge potted plant on the corner and then smashed into the drugstore window. Luckily it wasn't completely broken through, but it still left quite a mess. Nicholas had heard it and said luckily, he didn't think it looked like any was hurt.

Sunday

Dee invited us over for pancakes in the morning since Ryan was leaving this afternoon. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and recovering from the exhausting, but fun-filled weekend.

I'm a true Kieler at heart

Tuesday Febrary 26th

Had a flat on the way to school had to park my bike and walk the rest of the way. I had left with enough time to spare though because I knew that my tire hadn't been cooperating and was going to do this soon. I had tried to repair it last week (found 4 holes in the innertube and patched them, but there must have been one that I didn't find.)

I went to my 13th grade class and the teacher told me that I would be presenting on myself (hometown, college, etc) the next week in class. Then I went to my 10th grade class where we had an intern join us. She asked me if I could speak any German since I have been here for a while and I had to laugh...she didn't know that I studied German. She probably thought that I studied English and that was why I am here. So then I explained everything to her. I walked back from school to pick up my bike. When doing so it started pouring down rain and the wind was gusting at high speeds. My bike and I were being blown forward and I didn't even have to put much effort into walking, since the wind was aiding me in the right direction! I was pretty much soaked by the time I got back to my place and then changed and warmed up. This is usual weather on the Baltic Coast. It clouds over out of nowhere and then pours. This is what you get when you live by the water!

Wednesday February 27th

We started watching the movie American History X in my other grade 13 class. I don't know if anyone reading it has ever seen it, but it is an intense movie. Unfortunately, I won't get to see the end...but my teacher told me what happens. This led to a small discussion about extremist groups in the U.S. My teacher was shocked that they aren't outlawed and I told her that they can't outlaw them based on freedom of expression. Anyway the movie deals with a lot of major and controversial issues in today's society in the inner cities of America. The movie takes place in Venice Beach in California. I was quite appalled by the end of the first scene, but I won't go into too much detail about the movie. Watch it yourself or read about it online.

On a lighter note, I did a lesson on the Amish with my 10th graders. We had already watched the movie "The Witness," also a good movie for anyone interested in learning about the Amish and interesting in general, so since the kids already had background knowledge to work with, we listed the Pros and Cons of being Amish on the board and then they were assigned to form groups and write dialogues as parents trying to convince their child/children not to leave the Amish community. Next week, they will present these in class. I think the kids find it intriguing to know that there are people living in the 21st century as if they were living in the 16th. They asked me a few questions about the image of the Amish in the eyes of Americans and whether or not they are integrated into society.

Thursday February 28th

I did a lesson on immigration again with my 12th graders. This time, I compiled a bunch of pictures that I got offline that had to do with immigration from the past and present. Some of them were of Europeans on boats to the U.S., some of Mexicans crossing the border, one of the wall along the border, one of the KKK and so on. I had the students look at each picture, tell me what they saw, thought of, how it made them feel, and why they thought I chose the picture to represent immigration to the U.S. This was one of my best lessons so far. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to get through the whole slideshow, but I could tell that the students really found the lesson interesting.

Today, I took the bus to school and then walked back. I found out it only takes about 40-45 minutes which is shorter than i thought. Apparently Germans Crime Investigation Series "Tatort" was being filmed this day and I walked right past it and didn't even notice. One of the teachers from my school had seen me walking and told me that I missed the excitement. I guess I just wasn't paying any attention because the weather was so nice that it was distracting me.

Friday 29th

Today was an extra day in February. I found out what Leap year is called in German from one of my teachers. She told me the name for it and I was unsure as to why it was called what it was called. I thought I must have misunderstood, so I came back and looked up the word online to make sure I had heard right. The word in German is Schaltjahr. In English, this translates to switch year. This is similiarly pronounced to what I thought I heard her say... which was "Scheitjahr" translates to Shit year! Now you know why I thought I had to be wrong with my listening comprehension!! I only have one class on Fridays now because one of my teachers asked to change my schedule. This is nice, but also somewhat pointless... Anyway, the class was my conversation hour (with three students) and we were continuing our discussion on the movie "Forrest Gump." The three students I work with are preparing for an important test and therefore the teacher is having me work with them individually and seperate from the class itself. It's fun and they are good at English so that helps a lot. In the evening, I just spent time making travel plans.

Saturday March 1st (It's March already!!!??)

It rained almost all day, but I did manage to go for a run in the 25 minutes that it stopped. I brought my bike upstairs and Nicolas my roommate had a look at it for me. He found another hole, patched it and now it appears to be fine other than the fact that the tire is bulging... which means I will probably need a new one. He was impressed with my patchwork on the other holes. He said I did it right and that he was shocked because Anke, our other roommate was the first girl he ever met that could do this and now he had another one to add to the list. I didn't think it was that difficult to do even though it was my first time patching a tire. I told him he just doesn't know the right girls! In the evening, it hailed and the wind was so strong, I thought it might blow us away, but this is actually quite normal as I said before! Welcome to rainy coastal Germany! I don't mind it though. I have definitely gotten used to it. It also makes you appreciate the days that are nice more and I make full use of them when they come!

Sunday March 2nd

Today began rainy and I thought it would last all day, but it didn't. Around 2 the weather turned to blue skies and I went for a run and later for a nice walk down to the water and back. It's days like these that I realize how beautiful Kiel is. I know I have probably written this a million times now but this place has become a part of me and I have become a part of it. I like to think of myself as a Kieler. I find myself attracted to the water and find it to be the most appealing part of Kiel, as do it's inhabitants, I have also found myself defending Kiel's beauty to one of the interns at the school (she was comparing it to Heidelberg, after I told her I had been there), I greet people with the traditional "Moin," and I find myself saying "na" a lot, which can mean a number of things depending on the context of its usage.

To add a little change to my routine, I didn't wake up to my alarm or the sun shining in my window this morning. I woke up to a strange alarm going off outside. My first thought was that it was a fire alarm in our building because it was so loud. But then I remembered that Germany doesn't have these or smoke detectors in buildings. I know, it is quite surprising. I finally did find the source of the alarm, it was on a building directly across from ours, but I never figured out what is was for or what caused it to go off. After about 15 minutes it finally stopped.