North Sea Mudflats

April 22-28th

Monday

In my LK class of 13th graders, we started the interviews today. They actually went quite well. The students did make some of the mistakes that we had talked about not doing in the dos and don'ts class, but overall I was impressed with their answers. This was the only class I had today and in the evening, we had a meeting at Andrea's for the chaperons of the Prague trip, which was myself, her and Sascha, a history teacher at the school. It's required that a male and female chaperon go on any trip with the students. Otherwise it could have just been Andrea and I and I wouldn't have had to pay for the trip. O well, I know it will be worth it! We planned out the five days and set times and rules for the students. I'm starting to get really excited, both to see the city and to meet up with my friends!

Tuesday

We had more interviews, I did my tutoring after school and then Siobhan, Dee and I went for a walk along the harbor. We went to subway and got sandwiches since Dee had some coupons that were going to expire and we took them to the seating area at the harbor so we could sit along the water. It turned out not to be the greatest idea because it was cold and windy, but we did have a nice view. I am finally going to be taking part in the Meet US program that I had written about at the beginning of my assistantship. It is the program with the embassy, where they send you to other schools to talk to students about life in the U.S. I have been invited to Rostock. I had really wanted to go here, but didn't think that I would be able to manage the money and get there before leaving, but it looks like everything has worked out this way! The embassy is even allowing me to stay overnight because the journey is a longer distance and the program begins in the morning. The embassy booked a youth hostel room for me on board a boat! I'm really excited to get to have this experience! This will be at the beginning of June.

Wed.

Not much exciting happened today, I just continued the interview lessons with my 13th graders, which still seem to be going generally well, even if the kids aren't highly motivated. I was also invited by my 6th graders to participate in their Sports day at school next week on Monday, but unfortunately I won't be able to join them, since I have to substitute for one of my teachers then.
Thurs.

Today I had class and then one of my teachers called off because she had a migraine. This teacher was supposed to meet up with a Finnish lady who was visiting our school to try to set up an exchange program for students. The teacher who called off was supposed to show the woman around Kiel and since she wasn't there to do this, Andrea asked me if I could do her this favor and show the woman around. I cannot for the life of me remember her name, but she was nice. Andrea dropped us off at the harbor and we walked along it to the old part of the city. She bought a few postcards and then we went around little Kiel and past the city hall. We spoke a mixture of English and German. Of course her English skills are much better than her German, since most Scandinavians are perfect at English, but what surprised me, was when I found out that she teaches both English and German. I found this interesting because of her lack in knowledge of the language, but then remembered that this happens in the U.S. also because most of the time you are not forced to study abroad if you study a foreign language. After this we decided to stop and have a drink. I ordered coffee and she ordered a beer and I kept the receipt since I had paid because Andrea told me if we stopped to have coffee I would be reimbursed for it. I wasn't sure if the school would reimburse the beer or not, but then I remembered, this is Germany and not the U.S. and that they would most likely do so. After stopping, we went to the post office so that she could get some stamps for the postcards and then we called Andrea and told her where to meet us. We all three then went for coffee and cake. Once again on the school's money! This evening it thunder-stormed and rained heavily. The reason I wanted to write about this, is because I don't think this happens in Germany as often as it does at home. At least not from my experience of living here! This may be only the second one I have ever seen here.

Friday

Siobhan, Dee and I went to Preetz after school to try and pick up Siobhan's free Mercedes-Benz rental car that she won for a weekend at her school's Christmas Bazaar back in December. During the train ride, Dee was hit on by a creepy drunken man with long blonde hair who must have been in his mid-thirties. His pick-up lines were the best we've ever heard. Here's what he said: “Are you sixteen?” (eyes not moving from her face) Dee didn't answer so he continued by saying “younger?” Luckily he got off at the stop before ours. We couldn't stop laughing about this the whole way to Preetz. When we arrived at the dealership, the man told us that we couldn't have the car immediately, but that it would be at least a week, so we decided to get it on the weekend of the 9th, when I will be back from Prague and they will be back from Copenhagen. Since we were in Preetz and our plans had changed, we decided to actually look around the town. We had been there before but only when it was dark and before Chris, another assistant, left. We stopped and got ice cream and just enjoyed the beautiful weather we were having today. After wandering around a bit and sitting at a lake in Preetz for an hour, we decided to get the next train to Kiel. We went back to the station and were sitting on the platform waiting for the train to come. We watched a boy climbing a tree in the distance and it looked like he was going to fall, he was up so high. We got so distracted, that when I looked up and questioned why the train on the track across from us said Kiel and had been sitting there so long. Originally we had thought it had come from Kiel, but it turns out that this was our train and we were on the wrong platform. We didn't pay any attention because the train to Kiel usually leaves from the one that we were at, but it just so happens that this one didn't. So we ended up waiting another half an hour or so for the next train back to Kiel.

Saturday

Nick, one of the assistants had planned a get together on the North Sea for us all for his birthday on the North Sea, since this is where he is located. First we went to Heide to pick him up and then from there we rode the train to Buesum. It is a small touristy town because it is known for its Wattenmeer. This term doesn't really translate very well into English, but I think the closest you can come to it is mud flats. This area is preserved and it is popular to walk on and is said to be good for your skin. When we got to Buesum, we found a supermarket and all of us purchased a picnic lunch. We paid to go down to the water and the mud flats (yes this is normal in Germany, in some places you have to pay to go onto the beach; this keeps the beach clean and in order and Germans love order!). We ate our lunch and then took our shoes off in preparation for the mud flats. This would be another first for me. Contrary to what I thought, it was actually solid in most places. This is probably a good thing or else you would sink and get stuck in the mud! We walked all the way out to the water, which also wasn't as cold as I had thought it would be. It was slowly working its way in for high tide. By the time we had gotten back onto shore and put on our shoes after washing our feet, the mudflats could no longer be seen. The water of the North Sea is just as clear as that of the Baltic. Both being the clearest water sources I have ever seen... After walking around the town a little, we took the train back to Heide where we had reservations for dinner. It was not quite time for dinner, so we walked around Heide for a little while and sat in a cafe for an hour or so. Our dinner reservations were at an Italian restaurant. The food was delicious and very well priced for the portions that we received. I couldn't even finish my pizza, it was so large. After dinner we left for the station to catch our train. We had to change trains on the way back and our train had a delay. We almost missed the last train back to Kiel, but the conductor was nice enough to contact the train and ask them to wait for us, which they did since it was the last one for the evening. On the train ride back, we had another strange encounter with a drunken man who kept asking us if we smoked. He must have asked us about 3 or 4 times until he finally got the point that none of us do! His last comment to us was “There are 7 of you with sunglasses and all and you're telling me you don't smoke.” All we kept thinking, was how could having sunglasses automatically make you a smoker? When we finally got into Kiel, it was after midnight because of the delays. I went straight to bed.

Sunday in the park

Today, I decided to just relax and take it easy after our fun packed weekend. I knew I had a few weeks of traveling ahead and didn't want to wear myself out before this. Dee and Siobhan called me and asked if I wanted to go to Schrevenpark, the big park close to us. I agreed and we packed a picnic lunch to take with us. The weather was the best it has been the whole time. We were wearing shorts and laying in the sun and most of the students in Kiel had had the same idea. Everyone was out grilling in the park or playing frisbee or some other sport. We had fun people watching and Siobhan found some fellow jugglers who asked to borrow her clubs. The Rastafari man of Kiel was also in the park dancing around and singing. We spent the whole afternoon there and around 7 we called it a day.