May 12th-19th
Monday
Today was a holiday, so almost everyone had off work. This didn't really affect me though because I usually always have Mondays off. So anyway, the other Kiel assistants and I did a tour of the Baltic coast on the Eastern side of Kiel in the Mercedes Benz that Siobhan had. We started at a lake called Seltener. We parked and walked down to the area designated “beach.” When we got to the “beach,” we couldn't help but laugh because it must have been only about 10-15 feet long, just big enough to get into the water! Here we made friends with some little children. We seem to attract them wherever we go. The one little boy really liked Dee and kept trying to get her to go deeper into the water. We spent about half an hour there and then were back in the car with the map in our hands, looking for our next destination. Lutjenburg was our next stop on the journey. Here we found the Bismark tower and climbed it to the top to get a fabulous view of the city and of the Baltic Coast. The rapeseed fields shone a golden yellow in the sun and added to the scenic view. We also found a giant chess board here with pieces that were about the size of me! It made me think of Harry Potter only here the pieces didn't attack you when playing! After climbing the tour and eating our picnic lunch, we went into town and got ice cream. We wandered around the town which is really small, but very cute and then we went back to the car to continue on in the direction of Schoenberger Strand. The water there was crystal clear and we decided to rent a paddle boat for half an hour. The girls made me do the talking to the man renting them, which of course didn't bother me. The guy asked me if I was from Denmark when I told him my last name. I laughed and said no, that it is English, but that I am from the States. Upon saying that I was from the States, the heads of all the people sitting at the rental place turned to me. I wasn't sure why this was so interesting...perhaps because I was speaking German...hopefully some day, the Germans will get used to the fact that some Americans can and do speak German! Anyway the boat ride was a lot of fun and the water and view were amazing. After this, we were all pretty exhausted from the day in the sun and we made our way back to Kiel. I went over to Dee's and we made fajitas for dinner and watched the movie “Now and Then.”
Tuesday was my first day back to school after my trip to Prague and of course everyone was asking how the trip was and whether I had recovered from it. The kids were happy to see me again, as they usually are when I have been gone for a while or we have a break. I only ended up having one class today and then in the afternoon, I went to the cheap showing (1 Euro) of “P.S. I love you” at the Bruecke Movie Theater with Dee and Shivs. The movie was really good, but also sad and I actually teared up at a few places.
On Wednesday, I once again didn't have much to do at school. I had class with my little ones and then had to help with the Abitur test corrections again.
I finally got to work with one of my 10th grade classes, on Thursday, that I haven't been with for about 3 or more weeks. They were so sweet when I came into the room, they all shouted “Vanessa!” and one of the students was teasing me saying “you don't like us anymore.” I told them that this wasn't true, but that I had been gone on the trip to Prague and then had been busy with some of the other classes. Once again, it's times like these, when you really like the teaching assistant position as opposed to the actual teaching position. Of course they would never have this reaction with a real teacher that they see all the time.
On Friday, after school Dee, Siobhan and I met up with Alex at the train station. He was on his way to visit Ryan in Sweden. We had coffee with him and saw him off. Then I came back home to go running and eat dinner. In the evening, I met back up with the Dee and Shivs and we went to the movies again and this time we saw “The Bucket List.” In German the title translates to “The Best Comes at the End.” I'm not really sure why the translations for the movie titles are sometimes extremely different, but I guess in this case it is because most German's don't understand or know the idiom “kicking the bucket” and would therefore not understand the English title if it were directly translated. It was another good movie, but also very sad.
]I was picked up at 9 am on Saturday by Jens (one of the English teachers at the school), Christiane (his wife), and Tjag (his 3-year old grandson). Jens had invited me to go to an island in the North Sea with them. The island is called Sylt and is the most famous island in Germany, next to maybe Ruegen. Sylt is a very expensive place to live, most of it is a Nature preservation and there are a lot of rich and prominent people who own homes there. We started off heading to Tonder in Denmark where we planning to catch the ferry over to the island. In the car, I was reading some German children's books to Tjag, who was quiet at first. It didn't take long though until he was my friend and talking up a storm. When we stopped in Tonder, we walked around the small, but cute city going in some of the shops. Here we grabbed a Danish hot dog (with pickles, bacon bits, mustard, and mayo). It was actually good, although I don't like most of these things! From Tonder, we drove to the place where the ferry arrives and drove the car onto the boat. Unfortunately, the weather was the worst it had been in days. The sky was cloudy and it was really windy and cool, so we went inside and sat down to enjoy the view. Now I have ridden both a train and a car onto a ferry! After the ferry made it to the island, we got back in the car and drove off. We drove through the dunes, which have formed from the sand and wind. We parked by a lighthouse and then walked through the dunes to the water. It was too windy there, so we drove to the other side because Tjag wanted to build a sandcastle. Christiane and I helped him and it looked really nice when we were done. When we were done here, we drove through more of Sylt and to another small village on the island, where we got out and walked around the old houses and then along the water. This was our last stop for the day and from here we drove on to Westerland, where we went on the German Cartrain. Once again a form of transportation that probably only exists in Germany, the land of innovation. You drive your car onto the train and sit in it, while the train takes you to your destination! There's a first time for everything, I guess! We rode it until it didn't go any further and then we drove into a small city to get dinner. We ate at an Imbiss. We had Currywurst and fries and Tjag was happy. He was starting to get tired after such a long day, but he never got winy and was never in a bad mood. He's a very sweet little boy, who asked me if I would stay the night with them as we came into Kiel and they dropped me off. I thought this was really sweet because Kirstin's kids always ask the same thing. Jens said I had won him over. I had a great day with them and thanked them for taking me and then went up to my apartment.
Sunday, I wanted to go to one of my teacher's (Kirstin's) today, but no one was there, when I called again. I haven't been over to see her and her kids and husband for a while. So instead, I ended up cleaning my room and doing laundry, when I found out that I was having visitors. Rachel and Leah were currently on a European tour and managed to fit me in the plan. They arrived at 1 am after some complications with the trains and I forgot to tell her that there was a Plum and a Plumly living in my building. Therefore, she rang the wrong room at first Oops...they got a little surprise! After I went down and got them, we sat around chatting a bit and then went to bed because we had to get up early to leave for Hamburg.
Monday
In Hamburg, I met up with Eva Schramm, who works for the American Consulate in Hamburg. I was going with her to the Hansa Kolleg a school for students around my age who are trying to get their highest education degree (they already had a lower one), so that they can go to college now. I was supposed to talk to a class of students about the upcoming elections in the U.S. there. She picked me up at the station and Rachel and Leah were off to do a harbor tour that I recommended to them, while I was speaking at the school. We planned to meet back up in the afternoon.
The first thing we did was take the subway to the area where the school is. From there we went to a cafe and she bought me coffee to go and a Chocolate Croissant. We walked to the school and sat outside on the steps drinking our coffee and eating. The teacher who we were meeting arrived shortly later and took us into the school. Eva, from the embassy, knows the teacher very well. Anyway, the teacher, Mrs. Feldner gave us a tour of the school and introduced us to the school director and her colleagues. The school was huge and had a lot of space, in comparison to my school. I was pretty nervous about speaking, but when I got in front of the class, they all smiled at me and this made me feel much more comfortable. They introduced me and then I began with a short introduction and from there didn't have to worry about making the session last long. The students were very interested in the topic and had endless questions for me. They had already covered the topic in-depth and you could tell that they had been well prepared for my coming. At first I was speaking way too fast (probably out of nervousness) and the school director saw the lost faces that I hadn't noticed and asked me if I could slow down a bit. From there on out things went fairly smoothly. Some of the questions, I was unsure of how to answer or just didn't know what they were asking about and left it at this. I tried to explain everything as best as I could and my throat was very dry and I was actually very exhausted after an hour and a half of answering questions. Of course their opinions were quite critical of the U.S. and with sometimes very good reasons. As suspected, one of the first questions was who I would vote for. Eva told me that they would ask me this and I had asked her if I was even allowed to tell them this. She said I was there as an American Citizen and although performing a sort of ambassador task, was nothing more than this and could say what I wanted. I continuously told the kids that some of my answers were my opinion and that not all Americans had the same one. I also tried to present both sides of the debate to them. Overall, I think it went very well and Mrs. Feldner and Eva were very impressed with the activity and participation of the students. They thanked me for coming and then we (Eva, Mrs. Feldner, and I) went to the school cafeteria and had lunch on the school, which was very nice. We said our goodbyes, then went over to the pet store across the street (Eva wanted to look for some things) and then we went back to the subway and rode to the station, where I was to meet up with Rachel and Leah.
It was still early, so I walked with Eva to her bus stop and then I went to the bank to get money. I found Rachel and Leah and then we went to the city hall to take some pictures and then to the bombed church in Hamburg that serves as a memorial of the war. From there we went to the red light district, which is for some reason a “must see” if in Hamburg. There we took pictures and then walked back towards the city and on the way stopped at a really nice park to take some more pictures. We were a little hungry, so we decided to have ice cream, which is very amazing in German and another “must” for any visitor! We were in luck and had a very good looking German boy waiting on us. In addition, the ice cream was wonderful!! After this, we were on our way back to the station. Out of the blue, a boy came up from behind us and asked us if we were American and then asked us where we were from. He had overheard us speaking English. Peter was his name and he told us he was from Kentucky. I laughed and said that I would be moving to Kentucky to study at the University of Kentucky. Then he said that this is where he studies! Rachel, Leah and I found this very random and strange. He ended up walking into the city with us and we talked to him, asking why he was in Germany (he was traveling on his own) and what he was doing. He had just visited a friend in Scotland who was studying abroad and then he wanted to come to Germany. After Hamburg, he was on his way to see Salzburg because he will probably study abroad there in a year or two. He studies international relations and is taking German. Interesting...I could possibly end up teaching him in German 2. We split up once we made it back into the city center and us girls laughed about the strange meeting.
Rachel and Leah were quiet on the train ride back to Kiel. When we got back, I showed them one of the best views of the city from the bridge and then we went to get dinner at the Balkan Restaurant, where I had been with Harald (Dr. Menz) when he came to visit. We were the only customers there, which made it very a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. I struck up conversation with the waitress who was telling us about her family and where they were originally from in former Yugoslavia. Rach chimed in now and then and I told her if she stayed in Germany for a while, she could become fluent. She remembers a lot for only minoring in it. Dinner was fabulous and after dinner, I took the two of them to the Kiel Brewery and ordered them a very typical German drink called “Alsterwasser” in the North. In the South known as “Radler.” After this, we were exhausted and headed back to my apartment to crash for the night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment