Mini-Trips #3 and 4: Postdam and Mainz

A few weeks ago, J and J's friend decided to visit Potsdam before the weather got too bad, and since I'm an adventurous person who has a Semesterticket for the ABC areas, I decided to join them.

So, off we went. Germany always feels so empty on Sundays, and Potsdam was no exception: it felt almost like a movie-- gorgeous buildings with no one in them. I love how every German city feels a little bit different (Munich: schickimicki; Bremen- gemuetlich and friendly; Berlin- chaotic, grungy, but still pretty relaxed; Potsdam- beautiful but empty). Even though Potsdam is less than an hour from my WG, it's in a completely different world.

It was a beautiful, peaceful, and empty world. To be fair, that's partially because we visited on a Sunday, and even Berlin is quiet on Sundays.

This week, I briefly visited another Fulbrighter in Mainz before taking the CBEST in Frankfurt. Mainz reminded me a lot of Bremen: it had the small-town charm in a slightly larger setting, and a lot of the buildings are very stereotypically German. I loved the orange/pink buildings with the white trim! As we were walking back to E's apartment, I commented that it was very quiet, even for a Wednesday night.

Well, it was calm and pretty until we ran into a group of teenagers, who asked us if we were interested in being models. I got the "you're very pretty" speech from yet another creepy guy, while E was complimented on her hair. I also got a strong impression that they would have given us a harder time if we hadn't spoken German; they intercepted us as we were talking in English, and they completely surrounded us. Sooo... yeah, okay, don't walk alone in cities!

What is it with Rice Krispie Treats?

A week and a half ago, my WG hosted a small decorating party to prepare for the holiday season. Of course, we didn't really get to the decorating part; we were too busy talking, eating, and drinking Gluehwein. :)

If you ever need to make something "American" for a German party, I recommend Rice Krispie Treats. It's hard to find Rice Krispies in Germany, but you can find Choco Krispies in most large grocery stores-- and let's face it, chocolate improves most recipes. Marshmallows can be a bit more difficult to find, but I lucked out and found them (only slightly stale!) at the local Real, which is kind of like a disorganized version of Wal-Mart.

Really, the biggest problem was that most Germans have never considered the combination of marshmallows and Choco Krispies. The entire WG stopped by the kitchen as I was melting marshmallows, and all (except for Dumpling, the 6-year-old) had skeptical looks on their faces. The skepticism turned into confusion as I dumped the sticky blob onto a sheet of Backpapier and told them to let it cool for awhile.

And then it was ready to eat! We had Stollen, Gluehwein, pumpkin pie, some other cake, and my Chocolate RKTs. The conversation was pretty interesting-- when I'm not scared of WG-A, she's very funny, and Fulbright-J and S&S (neighbors who are also Americans) were also at the party.

Fulbright-J stayed after to work on GRE math, while I finished my German homework and worked on my own math problems. (I offered free math tutoring sessions to my friends in Berlin; I figured it would be a more interesting way for me to review for the CSET!)

After J left, I decided that I wanted another small slice of Rice Krispie Treat, so I wandered into the kitchen and began to poke around. Poke, poke, shuffle, slide, where are they? I saw the cake, the one remaining piece of pumpkin pie, the Stollen, and the bottle of Gluehwein, but I didn't see the RKTs anywhere... and I knew that there was about 1/3 of the batch left when the last guest left. Then, WG-A poked her head around the corner and said with a guilty look on her face, "Deine Marshmallow Kekse sind verdammt lecker... Ich war skeptisch, als ich die Marshmallows gesehen habe, aber..." (Your marshmallow cookies are damn tasty. I was skeptical when I saw the marshmallows, but...") She said that she may even consider making them in the future! LOL. Okay, so, no Rice Krispie Treats for the rest of us! :)

The funny thing is that I don't eat or make Rice Krispie Treats in the US. The last time that I made Rice Krispie Treats was in Munich, when I had to bring something to a birthday party! I find it really strange how certain foods are ingrained in my brain as being typisch amerikanisch, even though I don't eat them on a regular basis. For example, as soon as I got here, I started to crave Mexican food and really good salsa. Do I eat chips and salsa in the US? Unless my family left a bowl of chips and salsa on the kitchen table, no! Qdoba and Chipotle are nowhere close to the top of my favorite restaurant list. Yet, for some reason, I noergele regularly about the lack of spicy Mexican food.

On the other hand, Germans have equally even stranger ideas about typisch amerikanisch food. In Munich, the Mensa (cafeteria) regularly offered Pizza Amerikanisch. Typical American pizza is something like tomato sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni on a thick crust, ne? It was a thin-crust pizza with canned corn!!! I think it must have been a regional thing because I haven't seen "American" corn pizza in Berlin, but I definitely saw it in multiple pizza places in Munich. Several of my students have also asked why I'm not fat. Believe it or not, liebe Schueler, the vast majority of Americans cook for themselves at least part of the time! Why aren't you Germans fat from Schnitzel and beer? :)

In reality, there are a few things that actually are American or at least very North American-- peanut butter, marshmallows, and microwavable hot dogs come to mind. (Also, we probably can claim fast food as one of our brainchildren.) But why is it that we turn to certain types of food while abroad when we feel homesick, and why do we present certain ideas or foods as being "typical american" dishes when in reality, they're not reflective of what we eat on a regular basis? And what was it with that "Pizza American" with corn? The best that I can come up with is that Muencheners must see canned corn as especially American, or maybe the local pizza makers had a competition to come up with a new creation, and "Pizza American" was a perfect mix of sounding familiar and slightly exotic, just enough to pique interest. Okay, the latter idea is a little far-fetched, but not as far-fetched as the idea of corn pizza being American!

... and this is how this former English major turned a post on Rice Krispie Treats into a (very shallow) babble about cultural commodification. Just be glad I wasn't talking about Turkish food.

Oh, and just so you know, the average German has very little experience with marshmallows. A few days ago, I noticed that a lot of the remaining marshmallows were missing, so I asked what happened to them. They put them in the advent calendar-- unwrapped-- and some of them are scheduled to be eaten next week! Sigh. Silly Germans.

A New Record!

In the past five days, I have spent more time at parties than I did during my entire five years at Miami.

Granted, this wasn't a difficult record to break; I only went to three legitimate parties at Miami, and I was an extremely reluctant guest at two of them. (For the record, party #1 was my freshman year after a gymnastics meet. I got pretty tired of dealing with drunk guys, so within a half hour of arriving, I was standing by the door with my arms crossed. Party #2 was a friend's 21st birthday party during my 1st senior year. (I spent my 21st birthday with my parents, which was actually perfectly fine: no pressure to get ridonkulously drunk!) Party #3 was also during my senior year, part 1, and it was also after a gymnastics meet. I agreed to accompany a teammate who had never been to an American party (she was a graduate student from France). She decided that the American house party scene was pretty sketchy and asked to leave after about 15 minutes.)

I'd argue that one of the best things about being in Berlin is that I live near quite a few other Fulbrighters. I probably depend on the other Americans a little too much for social outings, but it's really wonderful to have a group of friends in a new city, especially when the holidays roll around.

Two of the parties this week weren't *real* parties, but come on, I had to have a good title and lede. :)

Anyway, party #1 was the Fulbright Thanksgiving, which was hosted at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy on Tuesday. I was less than thrilled with its organization, but it was nice to run into some people whom I hadn't seen since orientation. We showed up at 6 with food in hand, and the panel discussion began around 6:30. It lasted until somewhere around 7:15-7:30. Needless to say, I had a very lukewarm (and very small!) Thanksgiving dinner. I tried not to complain about Fulbright's tendency toward excessive speechmaking because I'm sure that Fulbright probably made a deal with the ICD in order to host it in their building and because as far as I'm concerned, I can trade a few hours of my time for 9 months in Germany, but come on: serving dinner an hour and a half after people get there was a horrible idea to begin with, and the panel discussion itself was a very shallow examination of intercultural issues in Germany. All in all, the people were very nice (I really like the researchers), but the meal was not so great.

Party #2 was on Thursday at another ETA's house, and about 20 Americans and Brits showed up. There were a few minor issues, such as the host putting the oven on the wrong setting and the turkey needing to roast for an extra two hours, but the food and people were great, and snarks about the Fulbright Thanksgiving abounded. :) I ate green bean casserole, two types of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, a meringue, and a little apple cobbler. (As a side note, several of the ETAs got Thanksgiving off because it's a national holiday in the US. I went to school like always, and the only person who wished me a happy Thanksgiving was an 8th grader! And this was after I paraded my little handprint turkey around the staff room for the two days leading up to Thanksgiving! (In the event that anyone from My Gymnasium ever finds my blog, Thanksgiving is very widely celebrated in the US. In fact, some of the ETAs argued that Thanksgiving is more important to Americans than Christmas! I'm from the edge of the Bible Belt, so that doesn't quite align with my experience, but I fully support calling a non-religious holiday the main national holiday!)

I just got back from party #3-- the first Christmas party of the year! My Gymnasium celebrates early, I guess (and no, they did not call it a winter party-- it was very explicitly a Christmas party!). It was also an incredibly LONG party-- I got there at 6:30 and didn't get home until midnight! I admit that the first hour or so was a little meh because it was so hard to hear conversations over the music, but things picked up from there. The food was very good (I had egg noodles, three types of salads, and chocolate pudding with berries for dessert), and I had a pretty long conversation with a German/French teacher. (The best part of the conversation? She spoke in English, I spoke in German, and neither of us made any attempt to switch languages.) Around 9, they broke out the karaoke, and I thought it was fascinating to hear what songs the Germans pick when they sing karaoke. Most of the songs they selected were in English, but they definitely weren't the typical things that you'd hear in the US... For example, the second song they chose was "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash. I also distinctly remember them requesting "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd. On the other hand, I tried to get other people to sing "Don't Stop Believing" with me, and no one knew it! They didn't even know Journey! What the heck, Germans? You sing "Ring of Fire" but not "Don't Stop Believing?" You can't even use age as an excuse; Journey is from the same era as Pink Floyd!

Okay, end of karaoke rant, and I'm almost to the end of today's blog. I only have one more mini-party left this week; my WG is celebrating the first Sunday of Advent by finishing the decorations in the living room and eating lots of sugary food!

Funny story of the day: the hotel that hosted My Gymnasium's Christmas party is located one U-Bahn stop away from school. It should not have been difficult to get there. However, yours truly was spacing out to an extreme degree when getting on and off trains (I nearly wrote "einsteiging and umsteiging"-- thanks, Denglish) and caught the wrong train not once, but twice! Instead of switching lines after one stop, I plopped myself down and daydreamed... until I looked up and discovered that I was heading in the direction of Korean class. Oops. I ran off the train and went back two stations, where I got on a train that was going south. The hotel was 12 stations north. I got there... eventually.

Hope all of the American readers had a lovely Thanksgiving! :)

Teaching Post-Miami: Part Two

I've hinted a few times that I returned to the US over fall break and had had a few interviews... and I'm happy to write that I just committed to Teach For America as a member of the 2011 corps!

I probably will not continue this blog once I start TFA because I'm totally identifiable (although there is at least one other Berlin Fulbrighter who is doing TFA next year!), but I do plan to write a few posts about the application process and other TFA-related thoughts between now and then. :)

The latest My Gymnasium story: I had another run-in with German bluntness today. I was sitting in the teacher's room, and a teacher whom I had never met or seen walked up to me. She said, "Oh, I recognize you from the website! But you're much prettier in person than I had expected from your picture." Um, thanks, I guess? It's better than being much uglier than my picture, right?

Edited to add another My Gymnasium story: on a test, a student declared that he is a "terist" and needs information about the most popular tourist attractions in New York. I might have to do a quick spelling and pronunciation lesson so that none of my students get detained if they ever visit the US...

Trip #2: Bremen

I think I mentioned Trip #1: Indianapolis at one point, but my weekend trip to Bremen was my first trip in or close to Europe.

I have a list of places that I want to visit this year, and Bremen was pretty high on my list. I knew that Bremen was one of the three city-states and had heard of the Stadtmusikanten (town musicians), but that was about the extent of my knowledge of the town. It turns out that J, one of my Berlin Fulbright friends, has a German friend in Bremen, and I tagged along with her.

Really, the only bad thing was that I had to wake up around 5:30 to get to the train, and I was up until 1:00 talking to my parents on Skype. I tried to sleep on the train, but there was a little girl with a piercing, obnoxious voice that narrated every event that was happening on the train. If you've ever seen the Youtube video "Kittens Inspired by Kittens," it was that voice but in German. I made it to Bremen on time and very, very sleep deprived.

F (J's German friend) gave us a walking tour of Bremen, and we hit the main sites: Die Sogestrasse, die Gedaechtniskapelle, die Stadtmusikanten (of course), Roland, and a Glockenspiel. By then, we were hungry and ready for food, so we stopped at a cafe and ate. It was so comfy and warm, and I was totally falling asleep over dinner. Oops!

We walked around a little more after getting food, and I convinced F to take us to the windmill, even though our legs were about to fall off. It turns out that a few of F's friends had driven to Bremen, so we packed into their car (breaking several laws, I'm pretty sure), where I promptly fell asleep on F's shoulder. (My only quote that made it onto a gymnastics t-shirt was, "I could drive, but I'm slightly narcoleptic," which pretty much sums up my sleeping habits in moving vehicles.)

F attends a private German college, where the main language is actually English. When we got back, we had a few minutes to relax (the guys took showers; I slept) before heading to Deepawali (Diwali). I enjoyed learning a little more about Diwali, but I have to admit that the Miami production was a lot more impressive. Afterwards, they had Indian food (I need to figure out what I'm allergic to; it must be a spice because there weren't any nuts in the dishes), and we went back to F's room to hang out before the fireworks!

German safety standards are not quite the same as the standards in the US, so some students launched fireworks from one side of the field while we stood at the other side. There was also a fire juggler (there has to be a technical name for that, right?), who appeared to toss his burning sticks or ropes on the ground every so often (they did a few fireworks, then the juggler did a few things, and they kept switching back and forth).

Let's see, what else? F, J, and F's cousin, also a J, wanted to go clubbing downtown, but I was exhausted and had already fallen asleep spontaneously three times that day, so I decided to stay in F's room. Since I was going to be asleep when they got in, they decided to give me the bed (still don't quite understand the logic of that), have J sleep on the couch, and have the guys share the air mattress. Anyway, I was sleeping very peacefully when something hit me on the head: a poster! I don't know what it is with me, sleeping, and things falling on my head, but I'm not liking this trend! :)

All of us woke up late on Sunday, so we just wandered down to breakfast, annoyed the lunch ladies because we took so long to choose food, ate, packed, and set off for the train.

Miscellaneous impressions of Bremen: it felt like a very stereotypical German city with old, beautiful architecture, a thriving cafe scene, and a pretty gemuetlich atmosphere. There are bizarre quirky statues scattered throughout the city; some are spinoffs of the Stadtmusikanten, and some are completely random. This mini-trip to Bremen definitely highlighted the things that I like and dislike about Berlin: Bremen felt very peaceful and relaxed-- and also very ethnically German!

Thanks for a great weekend, F and Js! :)

Mauerfall and Miscellaneous Musings

Today is November 9th (oh. you probably see the date at the top of the post.), which is a day with a lot of baggage for Germany.

Germany celebrates the reunification of Germany on Tag der Deutschen Einheit (the day that East Germany was incorporated into West Germany), which was last month. Despite the fact that the fall of the Berlin Wall was a much bigger celebration than the official unification day, Germany does not recognize November 9th as a national holiday; it is the same day as Kristallnacht. I haven't heard a thing the whole day about the Mauerfall or Kristallnacht.

We discussed this briefly in my German class today, where I proved my dumb Ami-ness by saying that pretty much everything I know about the DDR, I learned from Goodbye Lenin and Sonnenallee. I mean, she asked. It's a little scary how little I know about European history and especially German history. I've taken plenty of 17th-19th century literature classes and even a class on post-Wende (after 1990) literature, but I have never actually discussed the 1930-1990 period in a German class. This means that I look... well... like a dumb American. And it's kind of true.

To be fair, I don't think the other students had very insightful things to share, either, although it was interesting to hear how their perspectives were shaped by their native countries. For example, the students from Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Russia thought of the DDR as a place with a lot more freedom, where socialism was functioning pretty darn well. (Also, most of the other students are older than I am, so they at least had something to say. It's easier to talk about memories of the DDR when you actually remember it existing. I was barely a year old when the wall fell; the other American wasn't even born.)

A Collection of Anecdotes

I am super tired and don't have the brainpower to put together a coherent post, so here are a few stories from the past week or two:

After three hours of Korean, I am very happy to say that I can read pretty much everything in Korean. Of course, I can't understand anything that I read except for hello, my name, and sushi, but that's a start!

The Korean instructor loves pointing out my American accent. When I was identifying letters of the alphabet, she said, "Ha, you can already hear K's American accent at this stage!" This would be amusing if she pointed out the other students' German accents, but she doesn't... and even *I* can hear where their German accents sneak in. On the other hand, the instructor was impressed with my ability to pronounce the R/L sound; she says the American R is closer to the Korean R/L than the German R.

My German class highlights the fact that my speaking ability lags behind my writing ability. I took 18 months off German while I was focusing on English, which exacerbated the gap. To be fair, it might also just be a K-issue, because I have similar problems in English! On top of this, the professor only calls on me when I'm spacing out... and I'm pretty attentive in classes. Crap. I don't know how she does it.

A few weeks ago, Dumpling knocked on my door, handed me a bowl of grapes, and said, "Danke, dass du so gut auf mich aufpasst." (Rough translation: Thank you for babysitting me so well.) Awwww. When he's not a monster, he's oh-so-cute.

Some of my friends and I decided to check out a Halloween party that someone mentioned through the Fulbright listserv. Let's just say that you know a party is a dud when *I* walk out after two minutes because it's too boring.

It is very interesting to see how different people from different countries react to me being an Asian-American. My students (predominantly from the Middle East) asked, "Where are you really from?" A Russian teaching assistant did a double take when she heard me blabbing away in English and said, "You're speaking American English!" A Chinese teaching assistant said, "Excuse me for asking, but do you have Asian heritage?" (Heh. It's nice to hear an attempt at PCness, but come on.) Another American Fulbrighter asked, "Did you always know you were adopted?" (When I'm standing near my parents, I like to say that I got all of the recessive genes. My parents have brown hair and blue eyes.)

I'm getting annoyed with German bluntness. In some ways, it's great-- I don't expect one of my WG-mates to blow up over something trivial just because she has been waiting to tell me off for the past few months. No, most Germans wouldn't do that. Instead, they provide you with a running commentary of everything that you are doing wrong.

For example, one of my WG-mates told me that she couldn't tell that I cleaned and that since my mother probably did all of the cleaning at home (hello, sexism), I should watch and help her clean this weekend so I can learn how to do it the "right" way. This was after she stuck her head in the bathroom and told me that I was cleaning things in the wrong order. See, you can't mop the floor before you clean the sink and the tub. Clearly. I pulled a passive-aggressive move of my own: I showed up in her room with a piece of notebook paper and a pen and told her to give me explicit directions on what things to clean, which cleaning solutions to use, and in what order I should do everything. It still didn't get me out of "How to Clean the WG 101."

I also got a note that said, 'Please don't leave dishes in the sink.' I did not leave dishes in the sink. Don't blame the dumb American for all of your woes...

Yet another story: I wanted to make soup for dinner. I was poking through the kitchen and making a list of what I needed to buy, and the same WG-mate said, "I don't know if we've discussed this earlier, but you really shouldn't use things that other people have bought. For example, I bought this lettuce, and I am going to eat it for dinner, and if you use it, then I won't have my dinner." I agree to an extent, but my WG-mates ate almost everything that I bought during my last trip to the grocery store: both of my cucumbers, an apple, some of my broccoli, all of *my* lettuce, the last of my cheese, all but three of my organic potatoes, and even my frozen spinach. Hypocrite.

In other news, according to an informal survey of the Fulbrighters in Germany, 85% of us identify as moderate to very liberal, and 65.9% strongly disapprove of the Tea Party. Only 10% believe that the Republican party best represents their political leanings. Who's surprised? Not me!

*grumpy noises*

I have not exactly had the best week.

On Monday, I had babysitting duty like usual, and one of Dumpling's friends came over. Since Dumpling's mom decided it wasn't fair to make me watch two kids, the other mother (also an American) came over, and we played with the guinea pigs while the kids hung out. Because the other kid made kind of a fuss when it was time to go, the mom decided to let them play a little longer; she thought it would be a good idea to run across the street and buy some samosas from the Indian restaurant across the street. No. Bad idea. It turns out that the samosas had ground walnuts in them, which made me have my standard allergic reaction with an itchy mouth, itchy throat, shaking, and eventually getting symptoms that present as food poisoning (you can fill in the details; I actually thought it was food poisoning at first because my mouth and throat were feeling better by then). Let's just say that babysitting isn't fun under those circumstances...

I went to school on Tuesday only because it was the first day of my AG (after school class). I planned a game that required about 15 kids. 5 showed up. Yeah. I had to do some major revising on the fly, and it was not very good.

Today, I woke up at 6 AM, not because I had to be at school early, but because my lamp fell on my head. Yes, you read that right-- my lamp fell on my head. I get the feeling that I was wrestling myself and clipped the lamp while shadowboxing.

Then, I looked at the election results.

When I got to school, my first teacher said, "Oh, K, do you mind if I leave you in charge for this class? I need to make copies for another class, and the copy machines were broken when I got in this morning." I said, "I don't mind, but I'm not allowed to teach a class by myself," and she said, "Oh, I might be back during class," and left. Of course, I didn't see her for the rest of the day. I really am fine with teaching by myself (I've led enough classes by now to know how to handle students, and 12th graders in a Leistungskurs usually behave pretty well), but it's prohibited by my contract, and I'm under strict orders by the head of the languages department never to substitute again. So, can't say I was too pleased.

4th period-- My Gymnasium has come up with a way to get around the can't-teach-solo rule in the contract. I am not allowed to take a full class by myself. However, it does not say that I can't take *half* of a class by myself (generally about 15 students). Today, I took half of a class to a different room, discovered that some of them were supposed to be with the other teacher, and sent them back in exchange for the rest of the students. They never came. Instead of having 16 students, I had 6... and they were having a behavioral issue day. Also, in my contract, it says that I am not allowed to teach grammar. What was I doing today? I was teaching grammar that I had never learned myself-- and yes, I told the teacher that. (She blew me off.) It didn't matter; I ended up asking a German English teacher to explain the worksheet because I didn't know the difference between X, Y, and Z. (Obviously, I understood the concept when I saw the examples... but we never learned what it was called. The teachers were all shocked that I had never learned it by name, but let's be fair-- I betcha I know more technical German grammar terms than my students do.)

After school, J and I decided to register at McFit so we can run during the winter. The problem is that she forgot to print directions, so we decided to walk around and see if we could find it. We failed. And then it started pouring.

However, I don't want to be a total Debbie Downer (probably too late), so I'll end by listing a few good things: I made a pretty good stir fry. J and I went to Soluna and bought amazing, chewy bread. I taught two lessons by myself, and they were pretty successful! The other teachers trust me enough to give me a lot of autonomy-- I'm teaching at least five full lessons/week! I also get to talk about SB 1070 tomorrow, which I am totally excited about! (I bet my lesson would be illegal in Arizona.)

Another story to make this post a little more cheery: I might need to have a talk with the 9th graders about American vs. British English. Why? I am used to 5th graders talking about school supplies in dialogues. I am not used to 9th graders coming up and asking me for a rubber (eraser). They might be a little confused as to why I do a double take, snort, and try not to laugh every time they do that.

Having One of Those Days...

As the title says, I am having one of those days where I am sucking at everything that is not controlled by my autonomic nervous system... and my parasympathetic nervous system isn't working nearly as well as it should! (Did I mention that I'm a nerd?)

Let's start from the beginning.

Germans seem to believe in starting construction early in the day. I woke up at about 6:30 AM because they were jackhammering away across the street, so I stuck in earplugs and went back to bed. Bad idea. I always set my alarm, but usually, I wake up when Dumpling wakes up. His school starts at 8:30, and he's pretty loud when he starts to move around. Today, I did not wake up to his thudding and crashing; I woke up at 11:24 AM. I was supposed to help in an 8th grade class at 10:55 AM. I had set my alarm for 8:00 PM (I have an American alarm clock).

I ran around my room crazily, managed to think clearly enough to grab a DVD, my notebook, and my train ticket, and was even awake enough to notice when Puppy scratched a hole in my jeans. (I went back, changed into new jeans, and now am refusing to play with Puppy for the rest of the day because I'm really annoyed; it was my favorite pair.) I called My Mentor (it turns out that she isn't actually my Betreuungslehrerin, but whatever) twice and eventually texted her a run-on sentence like: "Handy geht nicht, weil ich auf die U-Bahn bin, aber ich habe meinen Wecker fuer abends statt morgens angemacht und moechte mich zu Frau B dafuer entschuldingen, ich komme gleich, bin schon in Wedding" (translation: cell phone isn't working because I'm on the U-Bahn, but I set my alarm for PM instead of AM and wanted to apologize to Mrs. B for that, I'll be right there, I'm already in Wedding.)

I burst into the teacher's room, discovered that no one was there because it was in the middle of the 5th period, and decided that I had time to eat something. I went to the cafeteria, bought a roll with cheese and cucumber, and returned to the teacher's room, where I immediately dropped the cheese and cucumber on the floor. Of course, My Mentor was in the adjacent room when I grumped my way in and threw away the cheese with an utterly dour look on my face.

Then, My Mentor's class was crazy and disruptive for the entire double hour, and it probably didn't help that I still wasn't functioning at a very high level.

And... I got home and discovered that Puppy had eaten one of my apartment-mate's boots.

The only thing that went successfully was apologizing to Frau B, who said it was fine and looked amused that I managed to sleep until almost 11:30. It helped that she knew that I'm currently suffering from a mega case of jet lag. :)

How (not) to deal with Berlin guys

I spent five years at Miami being invisible to guys. I mean, sure, they talked to me in classes and worked with me on projects, but I somehow deterred all of them from flirting or asking me out. It worked out wonderfully.

For some reason, this anti-charm hasn't been working as well in Berlin. I get stopped on the sidewalk and on the U-Bahn on a semi-regular basis... and I don't think I'm doing anything differently. I guess my clothes are slightly nicer than my hoodie and gymnastics T-shirt uniform in college, but I'm not exactly dressing up and primping in front of the mirror before heading out to teach. In fact, it's a good day if I have enough time to throw on moisturizer and concealer before running out the door. (I hit my snooze button way too much for my own good.)

I don't have a lot of things to talk about because I'm just getting back into the swing of things, so I thought I'd write about my most awkward experience with a German guy. Unfortunately, I have multiple stories, but this one definitely wins.

During my first week in Berlin, I spent a lot of time apartment hunting. Around my 6th interview at an apartment, a guy stopped me outside the U-Bahn station and said that he would like to get to know me because I'm very pretty. Whatever. Thanks, I guess. We shook hands and talked while we were waiting for the U-Bahn. Then he tried to insist on showing me his room; he told me I could move in that day so I wouldn't have to keep looking for an apartment. By that point, I was pulling all of the turn-off-guy tricks in my book, and said, "No, I already have friends in Berlin, and I can stay with them." Most people would get the hint, right? He didn't.

After that, I resorted to giving one-word answers, but he thought it was a comprehension issue. I refused to make eye contact and started edging away from him (we were sitting on the U-Bahn by then), and he patted me on the shoulder and told me that I was very polite. He asked me about my friends, and I took advantage of the "Freund" translation (it can mean 'friend' or 'boyfriend'): "Yeah, I have a boyfriend. His name is Alex. He's in law school. We've been together for two years, and I think we're going to get married." (Don't laugh. I was getting desperate.) And then he laughed and said that he could be my boyfriend in Germany, and Alex could be my boyfriend in the US. After all, he has this thing for Asian women. For anyone romantically challenged who may be reading this, let me tell you that those two sentences are really effective libido busters (not like I had any intention of going out with him in the first place). By then, I was sick of trying to drop not-so-subtle hints and just blurted out, "I have no interest for you." (My German gets worse when I'm stressed out.) Then, he pulled the race card and said that I had probably never met a Black person before. WHAAAAT? Don't worry, I let him know that about 45% of the students at my high school were Black and that he was really creepy.

Lesson learned: I need to be more aggressive when turning down guys. Or, better yet, they could stop being creepers.

Another lesson learned: Germans blame many forms of blatant rudeness on translation issues... even if your German comprehension is pretty much at a near-native level. I could use this to my advantage and become a total jerk in Deutschland... or I could just figure out how to turn down guys more effectively auf Deutsch.

The Festival of Lights and a Catch-up Post

For the most part, Berlin is not a pretty or romantic city. As I think I've mentioned before, it lives up to Klaus Woworeit's quotation: "Berlin ist arm, aber sexy" (Berlin is poor, but sexy). However, the Festival of Lights makes Berlin sparkle, shine, and glow-- quite literally.

Brandenburger Tor

I walked around downtown with S and T on Saturday night. We started at Alexanderplatz, took pictures of the Fernsehturm, took pictures of the Berliner Dom, walked down Unter den Linden, walked a mile to Brandenburger Tor, saw the American Embassy building, saw a few random hotels, and called it a night after walking to the Bundestag and realizing that it didn't have a light show. (We also ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant that is about a gazillion times better than Chipotle. I got a vegetarian burrito with mole tofu! It was the first dish that I've had in Berlin that was actually spicy!) Then, H Skyped me on Sunday afternoon and asked if I wanted to take pictures downtown... and off we went again! It turns out that some of the attractions had already turned off their lights, but we went to Brandenburger Tor and ended up at Gendarmenmarkt to take pictures of the gorgeous square.

Monday was my first day of classes. I signed up for a German C1 class to refresh my grammar and to meet other international students, and I think it will be really helpful. Even on the first day, the teacher was giving us lists of verbs and synonyms, and pointing out which words are more or less formal. My word of the day is "aufpolieren" (to dust off). For example: Ich habe diesen Kurs belegt, weil ich auf meinem geroesteten Deutsch aufpolieren wollte (I took this class because I wanted to brush up on my rusty German). (I think it's a dative preposition in this case.) I also signed up for a Korean class, which meets on Fridays. Yay for working on my fourth language! (Not that you can really call my command of French a third language... but hey, I'm doing a little French aufpolieren on the side. Give me some credit; I'm an American!) (Wow, I'm using and abusing parentheses today.)

Today was the first day where I felt like my teaching was subpar. Usually, I'm pretty good at controlling classes, introducing terms and concepts in an interactive manner, and all of that fun stuff, but it just did not click today. I made a handout for a Leistungskurs with a fake schedule from an American high school and a list of school rules; I thought that would get them talking. The problem is that I never pushed the discussion beyond the most superficial level, and I really should have emphasized that my high school is not representative of many American high schools. For example, most schools have not banned hoodies due to the possibility of students hiding weapons in hoods. I may have gone to Miami, but I did not attend one of the nicer school districts. In fact, Teach For America places in my school district.

On top of that, the 7th graders were loud and crazy, and only half of them accomplished anything during the period... and then I had to give an introduction to the Great Depression in a Grundkurs. Here's the problem: I really don't know that much about the Great Depression. The sad fact is that we covered it in one day in 11th grade. I was 15 years old. That was seven years ago (oh my gosh, I feel old), and I don't remember anything from that lesson. So, yeah, I knew it wasn't going to be a pretty lesson going into class, and then I learned in the first 10 seconds that the students didn't know the word for "stock market" (Boerse). As I said, it wasn't a good lesson.

Another student konnichiwa-ed at me today. I gave him my teacher glare and said, "I'm not Japanese." Apparently, I'm getting scarier, because he slunk over to me later and apologized.

Weekly Update

A few unrelated thoughts from the past week and a half:
- I'm getting very good at telling off people and animals in German (I practice a lot on Puppy). I snapped at a student who decided to bow, make slanty eyes, and greet me in Chinese. At least it actually was "ni hao" and not "ching chong." If you're going to be offensive, you might as well do it properly.

- I got to teach an entire Leistungskurs! This really shouldn't be so exciting because I've led more than my share of college classes, but it was the first time that I taught a potentially 'touchy' topic. We talked about 'Otherness,' and I used a vignette from The House on Mango Street, which went over really well. What surprised me was how willing the students were to share their experiences and thoughts... and they nailed it. I barely needed to prompt them-- they brought up problematic comments in the vignette; they bounced around ideas about how Otherness reflects dominant privilege (okay, they didn't use the phrase 'dominant privilege'... after all, they're 16, and they're learning English as their third language); and they just plain understood the text. I am no longer in Miamiland-- I am teaching in a school in a low-income neighborhood, where 70% of the students are Muslim, where 70% of the students are not ethnic Germans, and where they are confronted with racism, classism, and xenophobia on a daily basis.

- Are my students perfect? Oh, no, they are not. Anti-Semitism is a significant issue at My Gymnasium. I think one of my future lesson plans will involve parsing the differences between governments and people.

- Fall break is lovely. I went to the zoo with J and spent the entire day wandering around the animal exhibits and walking through the aquarium. German zoos seem to have much less stringent fencing rules-- it's possible to hop the fence and walk into most of the exhibits if you really want to. Also, the lions have individual cages inside (and, of course, an outdoor area), and the cages do not have solid sides. The zoo authorities thought ahead, though, and posted a sign to warn visitors: "Lions may spray urine through the fence." I also went to the botanical garden with J, H, and E.

- I love my mom's chocolate chip cookies. Best recipe ever, I'm telling you.

Wandertag

So far, My Gymnasium has canceled a ridiculously high number of classes. I'm told that this isn't usually the case; I just happened to show up right when everyone decided to have a field trip. :)

To summarize the classes that have been canceled:
1. On my second day at the school, a Grundkurs was canceled due to student elections. I showed up to the room and waited... and waited... and waited... before wandering down to the teacher's room. Apparently everyone else knew about the voting ahead of time.

2. Sportfest! My Gymnasium canceled the entire school day to let the kids compete in 3 events: throwing a ball, running 100 meters, and doing a shuttle run. I heard that the other kids got to do long jump, too.

3. Two Leistungskurse went to the Berlin Literature Festival. I got to go with one class. :)

4. Studientag-- where all of the teachers (well, all of them were invited; not all of them showed up) went to Gransee for a day. It wasn't for a faculty meeting, like I thought-- it was to wander around the lake and visit churches.

5. Today was Wandertag. Apparently the younger kids (10th grade and under) get one day off when the Oberstufe (11th grade and up) takes a 3-hour, subject-specific exam. I think they have quite a few of these tests, so I'm not sure how My Gymnasium picked today (it was originally supposed to be Wednesday), but... well, another day off school! I went with a 10th grade class to Olympiapark, saw a film and an exhibit about the Berlin Olympics and the relationship between sports and politics, and went to the top of the bell tower.

Anyway, enough about field trips, and on to the more interesting things.

I didn't have to go to class on Friday because of test preparation sessions, so I met up with a few ETAs, and we decided to walk around Tiergarten. I think we ended up walking through Moabit and eventually ended up at the edge of Wedding. (One of my students said that she saw me walking down her street!) On Saturday, I laid around the WG and did nothing until 8 PM, when I went to a Fulbright potluck. Sunday was Tag der deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity, 20th anniversary!), which I celebrated with a few other ETAs by going to a local sushi restaurant and walking through Mauerpark. When I got back to the WG, one of my apartment-mates had bought some dessert for us, and she amused us with her wordplay: "Heute ist Tag der deutschen Feinheit! Die Hundies koennen auch etwas Suessiges essen! Es ist Tag der deutschen Gemeinheit! Wir wollen nicht feiern!" (Today is Day of German Refinement! The dogs can eat something sweet, too! Today is Day of German Meanness. We don't want to celebrate!)

One thing to leave you with: in high school, we had songs to remember accusative and dative prepositions. For no apparent reason, I started singing the dative song (to "The Blue Danube") in my head at an U-Bahn station and then cracked up when I imagined the monotone bullfrog "GEGENUEBER" that always concluded the song. The great thing is that in big cities, most people don't judge you.

Explaining My Gymnasium-- Part III

My Gymnasium is located in a neighborhood where the unemployment rate is particularly high. A high percentage of families in this area are first- or second-generation immigrants to Germany, and the kids still consider themselves 100% Turkish, or 100% Palestinian, or 100% Lebanese, etc., even though most were born in Germany and have a German passport. Approximately 2/3 (probably more) of my students are not "ethnic Germans," and I'd estimate that somewhere between 60-70% are Muslims. About 1/4-1/3 of the female students wear headscarves; no one at the school wears a burqa. I've surveyed two classes, and I've learned that my students are from: Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Palestine (yes, I know that Palestine currently isn't recognized as a state in Germany or in the US), Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Chechnya (this student was very clear that s/he is from Chechnya, not Russia!), Poland, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Bosnia... and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. It is an incredibly diverse school.

I also want to emphasize that I have experienced ZERO issues from my students about being an American or not being Muslim. Muslims =/ terrorists. Got that? Even the students from Iraq and Palestine, who might have legitimate reasons for resenting my presence, said they were excited about having a real American teacher.

My students are awesome. (Except when they are walking on tables-- then, not so awesome.)

Classes in the Gymnasium are big-- I was told that the average is 32 students. I *think* this is typical for German Gymnasien in general, but the problems might be exacerbated in My Gymnasium due to the limited number of rooms and teachers.

My Gymnasium labels classes by numbers (reflecting the grade) and letters (reflecting the strength of the class). For example, 10a and 10b are "hochbegabte" (highly gifted) classes, and the students are supposed to be stronger academically than the students in 10c, who are supposed to be stronger than students in 10d. The A and B classes skip 8th grade together, so I think they're roughly equivalent to AP/IB students in the US. I haven't noticed a significant difference between the As and Bs, and the Cs and Ds, but there is definitely a difference between A/B and C/D. I'm not sure what the students think of having letters, but it's probably similar to US schools with AP, honors, regular distinctions.

Notice that A/B classes skip *8th* grade. I can't speak for all American school districts, but mine had us skip grades as early as possible. In Grundschulen, classes have a combination of hochbegabte kids, 'regular' kids, and kids with special needs; gifted kids aren't moved to different classes until 5th grade at the earliest. Many US schools actually track the 'gifted' kids into "hochbegabte" classes earlier than German schools!

Explaining Germany's School System- Part II

In Part I, I talked about the general structure of Germany's school system-- now, I'm going to focus more on everyday life in schools and how it differs from the US. Be prepared for a very rambly post!

In the US, students can choose each class in their schedule. Some students end up being in all of the same classes, but it's because they chose that level of class. When German students enter a Gymnasium, they are assigned a homeroom and take classes together all the way until 10th grade. Teachers, not students, run from room to room. Once German students get to 11th grade (now called 12th grade at My Gymnasium-- long story, it has to do with reforms), they can specialize in certain subjects, but it's still nothing like the AP, honors, regular, remedial distinction in the US. The classes are separated based on the number of hours per week that the class is conducted, not based on students' skill levels.

Compared to the US, the classroom is a more formal environment. At the beginning of every class, the teacher says, "Good morning, students," and the students are expected to respond, "Good morning, Mr./Mrs./Ms. X." (They still have not figured out my last name; there is always this awkward pause that's followed by a butchered version of my name.) One would think that the rooms would be nicely decorated because the same kids (for the most part) stay in them the whole day, but most of them are empty and plain with maybe just a few posters hanging on the wall. Students sit at short tables (long desks, short tables, whatever... flat surface, four legs) in pairs, and most rooms are either arranged in rows or a in horseshoe with a few tables in the middle. I've only seen one room where desks were arranged to form clusters.

In the US, students' classes are always in the same order. In Germany, students' schedules are different every day of the week. For example, a class might have French, biology, math, a double hour of English (2 45 minute periods with a break in the middle), chemistry, history, and physics on a given day of the week. The next day, the same class might have a double hour of chemistry, math, French, math, and physics, and leave school after the 6th period. It's confusing, and I still see my students checking their schedules between classes. This also makes substitute teaching a complete headache. There are no permanent subs in Germany. Instead, teachers at My Gymnasium check the online system to see if a class needs to be covered, and then those students will just have an additional lesson in that teacher's subject.

German teachers teach at least two subjects. Sometimes they are in the same department (e.g. modern languages); sometimes they are completely different. There are quite a few English/French teachers at My Gymnasium, but I also met a Sport/French teacher.

At a Gymnasium, German students learn at least two foreign languages. Most students begin English in 3rd grade, although a few start in 1st grade or in 5th grade, and they begin French somewhere around 5th-6th grade at My Gymnasium. I believe students at Hauptschulen and Realschulen are also required to take English until they graduate-- but don't quote me on that! I'm beginning to realize that the quality of foreign language instruction is very similar in the US and in Germany (e.g. it depends on the school, but Germans don't have any magic secrets to teaching languages); the biggest difference is that Germans start English so much earlier than Americans start a foreign language. I'd guess that the students in Leistungskurse are about at the same level as students at the 202-301 level at Miami.

Interestingly, there aren't as many discipline issues at My Gymnasium as there are at many schools in the US, including at My High School. Even the schools with the worst reputations, like the Ruetli-Schule in Neukoelln, are downright pleasant and calm compared to many inner-city schools in the US. Methods of disciplining students are much different at My Gymnasium than in the US. My Gymnasium does not assign detentions, but I can't speak for other schools. Instead, if a student turns around and talks to friends, it's acceptable to grab his or her shoulder and turn him around. In many areas in the US, this would be a great way to get fired and possibly sued. It's also normal for teachers to yell to get students' attention (one of the teachers yelled and swore at students for talking) or to assign extra homework for students who act out. The extra assignment is almost always something tedious, like copying vocabulary words or copying a page out of the book. I'm really not comfortable with manhandling students (and let's face it-- they're bigger than I am) or making them copy pages, so I've been enforcing discipline by walking around the class, consistently calling on students who are talking to their friends, and knocking on tables. I've done my share of, "LEISE, BITTE!" and "SETZ DICH, BITTE!" (that was the day a student was walking on a table), but I really prefer to have a voice at the end of the day.

As a side note, there seems to be a lot more repetitive work and worksheets in German classrooms than in the US. My students are more willing to participate when I ask them direct questions than when I give them a more open-ended prompt. I've noticed that students focus much more on being right than on exploring new ideas; even students at the Leistungskurs and Grundkurs levels constantly ask, "Is this right? Am I doing this right?"

All students in Berlin in certain grades are required to take ethics classes, and schools also offer optional religion classes. The interesting thing here is that the majority of students at My Gymnasium are Muslim, but My Gymnasium only offers classes in Protestantism and Catholicism. Berlin is a very secular city, so not many students actually attend these classes.

When students want to answer questions in class, they raise their hands. Unlike American students, German kids typically point their index finger in the air, and if they really want to answer the question, they'll snap. (Hint to German students going to the US: don't snap at American teachers!)

Explaining Germany's School System- Part I

Some people might be wondering why I keep referring to My Gymnasium, especially since I haven't found a gymnastics club yet. Don't worry-- I'm here to help!

In Germany, the most common types of schools are Grundschulen, Hauptschulen, Realschulen, Gymnasien, and Gesamtschulen. The exact names of schools and the breakdown of grades differ across the country, so it's difficult to make generalizations about the school system. I'll focus primarily on what happens in Berlin.

From what I understand, most children in Berlin start 1st grade between the ages of 5-7 (the cut-off date is December 31st). They continue in their Grundschule until either fourth grade or sixth grade.

At this point, students are sorted into several tracks for high school. This is partially based on the students' grades and work ethic; teachers can recommend students for a certain type of school. However, in Berlin, it is possible for parents to overrule teachers and elect to send their child to a different type of school. (The process of choosing and getting admitted to a Gymnasium is confusing, so I'll just leave it at that.) In many states, there are three or four types of schools after 6th grade; however, Berlin sorts students into two kinds of schools.

The Gymnasium is the most highly regarded type of school in Germany, and it covers 5th grade to 12/13th grade (beginning this year- 12th grade, formerly- 13th grade). I don't have exact numbers, but we were told at orientation that about 50% of the students in Berlin will attend a Gymnasium (the percentage is lower in other states). It is roughly equivalent to taking AP, Honors, and the most motivated "regular" students from an American high school. Hochbegabte (highly gifted) children and/or (depending on the school) children who want to take an additional foreign language have the opportunity to move to a Gymnasium as 5th graders; other students move to Gymnasien in 7th grade. Gymnasien are essentially college-prep schools that usually end with students taking the Abitur exams. Colloquially, the "Abi" refers specifically to the written and oral tests, which are much more demanding than the SAT/ACT.

The other 50% of Berlin students attend a Sekundarschule, which is also referred to as a Gesamtschule in other German states. The Sekundarschule and Gesamtschule combine two other types of schools: the Hauptschule (the lowest performing 30% of students; the American equivalent would be remedial/special education programs) and the Realschule (approximately 20% of students). The Sekundarschule ends at 10th grade. In other states, the Hauptschule ends at 9th grade, and the Realschule ends at 10th grade.

After graduating from a Sekundarschule, students have the opportunity to attend another school for additional training, and some pursue the Abitur. It is possible for students to move between schools, although it's more common for students from a Gymnasium to move to a Sekundarschule (after failing out of a Gymnasium) than vice versa.

The main criticisms of the German school system are that it's inherently classist and elitist, and that it tracks children at a very young age. (Some states sort all children in 4th grade. Berlin waits to sort most children until 6th grade.) I read an article that stated that children from higher income families are 4.5 times more likely to attend a Gymnasium than children from lower income families, even if they tested the same on IQ tests. (Berlin, by the way, has the lowest social gap out of all of the German states.) There is no German as Foreign Language support at the Gymnasium level, nor do German students have IEPs or other accomodations if they have learning disabilities. What does this mean? If little Hazan moves to Germany in 4th or 5th grade and doesn't speak German, she has virtually no chance of succeeding at a Gymnasium. If she happens to make it into a Gymnasium through the lottery system**, she will struggle immensely because there is no support for immigrants who are learning German.

(** Beginning in 2011-2012, Berlin Gymnasien will be required to take something like 20-30% of students from a lottery. In theory, this is meant to give students from lower income or immigrant families a chance to attend a Gymnasium. In reality, it will probably set up 20% of the Gymnasien students for failure because of the general lack of academic support at Gymnasien.)

Here's the thing: is Germany's system really all that different from what we do in the US? Several other Fulbrighters have mentioned in conversation that they hate how classist and discriminatory the German school system is; they think the US has a fairer system. I'm extremely uncomfortable with a lot of things in the German school system, but let's not pretend that the US's educational system isn't also deeply flawed and unjust. My district tracks students into gifted classes in 1st grade. Despite the fact that my district is quite ethnically and socioeconomically diverse (my high school is less than 50% white, and about 40% of the students come from low income families), the gifted classes were about 95% white and close to 100%-- if not 100%-- came from middle- to upper-middle-class families. It's really easy to see how German schools track students-- they're physically sent to different schools-- and point fingers at the dominant privilege embedded in this system. But we do it, too. The racism and classism in the US educational system is just more subtle.

I'm not sure where to put this, but this might be an important thing to know for my next post: another difference between the US and Germany is that students in the US can be in different levels in different subjects. (Sorry, I'm too tired to make this sentence less repetitive.) In Germany, a student at a Realschule wouldn't be able to take, say, math at a Gymnasium. In the US, students might be in honors English but regular math. American students of different ability levels attend the same public schools, but they take different classes.

Of course, I've left out quite a bit of information and made my share of generalizations about the German and US school systems, but I hope this is a decent enough overview. :)

Registered!

Just a quick catch-up post to cover the past week:

- I registered at the Bezirksamt near my apartment. It took about an hour, but I now have a little piece of paper to prove that I have an address in Berlin!

- I opened a bank account just down the street from my apartment. Yay for being located in an awesome neighborhood! Double yay at the prospect of getting paid in the next few weeks!

- Instead of going to school on Thursday, the teachers had a Studientag. All of the classes were cancelled, and we carpooled to Gransee, which is a Dorf (village) about an hour north of Berlin. We walked around, sat through three short organ concerts at three churches, ate lunch (and ice cream!), and had a nice, relaxing time. And then I totally fell asleep on the way back to Berlin. I mean, I am slightly narcoleptic in moving vehicles... :)

- Apartment is all right. As I said, it's not an ideal situation, but I love the location, the neighborhood, and The Price is Right! I may have to babysit once/week, but I have a great deal on rent. Negatives: Dumpling (the 6-year-old) jumps on my bed; I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor, and it's not very comfy; and the puppy chews and pees on things. As a result, Puppy is banned from entering my room; I pick her up and deposit her outside my door if she sneaks in.

- As an aside, I can dog-talk quite fluently in German. I've also won over Puppy's affection: I hate the fact that she jumps onto my mattress whenever possible, but I'm also happy that she only goes there to flop on her back. Yes, that's right-- I'm one of your bosses! Now get off my bed!

- The weather has been beautiful, so I've been wandering around my neighborhood when I have a little extra time. It's seriously a great area-- it's in an area of the city that is becoming gentrified-- and it has everything: affordable markets, small cafes, good restaurants, and a ton of funky little shops. I could live here for more than 10 months, I think!

- I met up with another JYMer and wandered around downtown Berlin for a few hours. Yay for former Munich people in Berlin!

- A bunch of us went to a Mexican restaurant (it was actually good!) to celebrate another Fulbright's birthday. It was fun-- spoke almost entirely in English, compared schools and schedules, and got to see people my own age!

- My schedule at My Gymnasium is being revised. I'm dropping the 5b class for at least the first semester (I'm sad about that; they're great kids!), and my after school class for conversation/writing practice was cancelled because the school just got a grant for MSA and TELC classes. Basically, another native speaker who is actually certified as a teacher will come in once or twice a week to teach after school classes to 10th grade students and up... exactly the population I was targeting. I'm going to revise the class and market it at 6th grade to 9th grade, but then it'll only be one hour. I think that means I can pick up an 11th class at the school. (If I have any input, it'll be 10b.)

Je parle l'anglais, l'allemand, et... le français?

I've reached a pivotal moment in my German language acquisition: I'm at the point where both my German and English are getting worse. Since this has always preceded a sudden, significant jump in my speaking ability, I'd like to say that I'm excited about this-- but I'm mostly just annoyed that I'm babbling nonsense in two languages. I am, however, extremely excited about one recent development: after years of German, a semester in Munich, and even being made fun of in a German class at Miami (by a professor, nonetheless), I can roll my Rs on occasion. YES!

When I introduce myself to new classes-- and I met three more classes this week (one of which I'm assigned to; two of which I visited to say hello)-- I give the standard, "My name is Ms. A. I'm the English foreign language assistant at My Gymnasium for this school year. I'm from the United States, and I live about four hours south of Big City" spiel and then ask if they have any questions. In 9 of the 11 classes that I visited, the questions were pretty basic-- how old am I; am I still in school; what do I want to do when I grow up? But those 10th graders... they are inquisitive!

A few questions that they asked:
- What sports do you do? ("I do gymnastics, and I also figure skate a little." A girl in the front said, "I KNEW IT" auf Deutsch after the figure skating part, which is... odd... considering that I've only been skating for about a year and a half.)

- What's your favorite fast food? ("I don't eat any meat, so I don't really eat fast food. Does Subway count? And does falafel count?" The falafel comment led to a kind of fascinating tangent about 'American' and 'German' food. I forget how I got to this comment, but I definitely remember saying, "You know what Germany doesn't have? Good Mexican food. No offense, but your Mexican food is awful. But the US doesn't have Turkish food-- no doeners! We should trade-- we'll teach you how to make salsa if you give us some falafel stands." I also remember the students agreeing that 'German' food is always represented by Bayerisch specialities and that German-ness is often falsely represented by cultural aesthetics from the south. They're so smart!) Oh, and I did find a good Mexican restaurant in Berlin.

- What do you think of Obama? ("I definitely prefer Obama to Bush and McCain <*smile*>, but I don't agree with everything that he has done. Or what he hasn't done.")

- What do you think of the death penalty? (I explained that I was morally opposed to the death penalty and that even from an economic standpoint, life in prison without parole is the better option.)

- What do South Koreans think of North Koreans? ("Well, I haven't lived in South Korea since I was a baby, so I'm not sure I can really answer this question. I think I would say that South Koreans don't have anything against the North Korean people, but they disagree with the North Korean government." This kid also got a glare from the teacher for that question.)

- Are black people discriminated against in the US? What about Asian people? (So, so, so hard to answer this question succinctly in simple sentences. I settled for something like, "Discrimination still exists in the United States. The US was still segregated about forty years ago, so it has improved a lot... but there are still problems." I also mentioned 'driving while black' and discrimination in hiring. As for the "Asian people" question, I said that the stereotype of Asians is that they're hardworking and smart, so Asians tend to face less overt discrimination in hiring practices and criminalization.)

and, of course, an insensitive question that everyone wonders:

- Where are you really from? ("I'm from the United States.") No, where are you actually from? (I was quite surprised at the other students' reactions; I had been asked that question in almost every class, and the 10b was the first to smack down the question asker. You can't ask that! That's rude! She said she was American!

I really did have a wonderful conversation with the 10bs-- they asked questions for the full 45 minutes, with the teacher's approval ("I want to ask Ms. A some questions, too!"). After responding to the "Where are you really from" question, I diverted the conversation by pointing to my experience as a German as Foreign Language learner and asked how many of them learned German as a foreign language. I also asked if any of them were like me-- identifying as German but born in another country. As a complete nerd, I thought the answers were fascinating: 2 students are native speakers of Russian (one born in Russia; one in Kyrgyzstan), 1 is a native speaker of Mandarin, 1 of Cantonese, 1 of Vietnamese (born in Vietnam), 1 of Polish, and only 1 of Turkish. Hmm, I'm forgetting one or two languages. Anyway, there are only 18 students in that class-- the diversity at My Gymnasium is really remarkable!

My favorite question: "Do you speak French?" One of the other students looked at the question asker and said something like, "Why would you ask that? Of course she doesn't!" I smiled, always glad to disprove stereotypes of Americans, and said that I took French for a semester in college and would like to sit in on some French classes at My Gymnasium. I'm still kicking myself for not responding, "J'ai étudié le français pendant quatre mois, mais je ne parle pas très bien français." I think that would have given me some serious street cred. :)

But that's okay-- I had built up my German street cred already by drawing a super simplified comparison of the major American and German political parties. Their eyes actually widened when I started plotting the CDU and SPD on the graph, and they were shocked when I added Die Linke, Die Grünen, and the NPD.

No, actually, I lied; there was a better question: "Well, I'm not sure how to put this, but you look very slim, but in the US, when you go to restaurants, you get so much more food, and everything in stores is bigger... so how are you so slim?" (HAHAHA!)

Ich habe Angst vorm... Singen?

So. Busy. I put in about 18 hours of time at the Gymnasium this week (don't worry-- it was my choice!), found and moved into a WG, and I'm exhausted.

My Mentor decided to change my schedule because she thought the 9ds would get more out of my presence than the 5bs. She's probably right, but I love the little 5bs, and I finally figured out most of their names! :) Instead of working with the 5b during the first hour on Friday, I'm going to help the 9ds with pronunciation and conversational skills during their double hour. I think I'm doing a similar thing with the 7c and the 8ds-- I'm taking half of the class for conversation and then switching during the second half of the class (only a single hour for these classes, though).

On Friday, I assisted in three classes and actually got to stand up and teach a little for the first time in the 5b class. I also talked a little in a Leistungskurs, where they watched an episode of Desperate Housewives as an introduction to white flight and the suburbs (yeah, I know-- *cringe*). I went with a Leistungskurs to the Berlin Literaturfestival, where we attended a reading by Priya Basil, an author from the UK. I'd love to get my hands on a copy of The Obscure Logic of the Heart. Despite the fact that the questions were quite, um, blöd, her answers were fascinating.

When that was over, I went back to My Mentor's house, attempted to walk the dog (more accurately, I dragged Maya about 10 meters and then gave up), and then headed back to Lessing for the Herbstfest.

At orientation, we went around in a circle and told others our name, what school we attended, if we had spoken to our host school, and our biggest fear about this year. One of my friends said that she was afraid of dancing because she's at a ballet/acrobatic school. Well, I think I should have said: “Ich habe Angst vorm Singen.”

Yes, my fellow English teachers talked me into singing karaoke at the Herbstfest (“Another Brick in the Wall” and “Money Money Money”). Why did I go along with it? I may be a bad singer, but at least I have a great command of English. :) We'll see if it turns up on Youtube; there were a bunch of students who were taking videos on their phones...

After that-- yep, I ran around the whole day!-- I went to a friend's apartment for a house warming party. I couldn't stay for very long because my U-Bahn ticket expired at midnight, but it was very nice to gossip and chat in English and to meet some Danish and German students.

Once I got back to My Mentor's house, I tiptoed around and got ready for bed on the couch downstairs. I fell asleep almost immediately and was in the middle of a dream when Maya decided to sniff my face and lick me on the nose. Thanks a lot, Maya. I always like waking up to doggy breath and a wet nose.

And now, here I am, in my new room!

I (Almost) Have an Address!

The past few days have been pretty uneventful, mostly WG searching and observing classes at school. The good news is that I finally found a WG, even though it wasn't exactly my top choice. (I'm sharing an apartment with three women-- non-students, I think-- and a boy who looks like he's about 7.)

Classes have been pretty... well, nonexistent. I usually have Monday off, but I went to school to talk to some teachers and to observe a class or two. Afterwards, I went WG searching and visited two places that seemed relatively decent. 

On Tuesday, I was supposed to observe in two classes, but one was canceled due to electing their version of student government. I ended up in the 7c (it might have been 7d), where I gave a make-up quiz to a few students and then observed the rest of the lesson. Then I went WG searching again. The first one was sketchy and kind of gross (plus, I'd be living with a 60-year-old man-- sorry, no thanks), but I was offered the room at the second WG on the spot. (I think it's because I played with the dog-- she said that she found me ganz sympathisch, or very likeable.) Even though it wasn't my top choice, I said yes on the spot-- the rent is perfect, the location is decent (a little far from the school, but the area is awesome), and people seemed nice. Too bad I'm allergic to dogs.

Classes were also canceled today due to the Sportfest, which is about what it sounds like in English (field day). My Mentor had to meet the 5b class at 7:45 to walk them to the stadium in the park, so I decided to go with her to learn names. (When your school assigns you to 10 different classes with 9 different teachers, you really can't pass up opportunities to get a little one-on-one time with kids. We were under strict orders to learn students' names as quickly as possible, but I think most Fulbrighters only work with 3-5 classes.)

Field day wasn't nearly as fun as it could have been. The kids only had three events-- throwing a ball, a 50m sprint (which replaced long jump at the last minute due to the weather), and a relay race (in which only 12 students per class could participate)-- and it lasted four hours in Berlin's wet and cold-for-September weather. I told some of the other teachers about events that my elementary school had at field day-- like racing across a field with an egg in a spoon or doing a water balloon toss. The general consensus among the teachers: total waste of time. 

Some of the girls chatted with me on the way back to school. I think they started English in 3rd grade; there's no way that this is their first year of English. Like earlier, we communicated in a mixture of English and German-- not Denglish, but alternating between sentences in both languages. For example, I asked one of them why her hands were bright orange, and she told me (in English) that it was henna and explained (in German) that it's a Muslim tradition to henna your hands (is henna a verb?) at weddings. All of them agreed that I really need to visit Turkey at some point-- they visit family there every summer.

Even though the Sportfest wasted an entire school day, I really did like spending a little time with the 5b-- they are cute. (Also a little wild.) I'm pretty sure that I have all of the girls' names down, and I've learned about half of the boys' names (there are 9 girls in the class and about 16 boys). Of course, I'm not convinced that I'm pronouncing some of them correctly; in fact, one girl ran to My Mentor and told her that I couldn't say her name. So, to all of the Gülçins and Müjdats (not their real names) in my classes, I apologize in advance for butchering your names. :)

9/10- Wilkommen in Berlin

My mentor teacher and host for the first week met me at the Hauptbahnhof on Thursday night (9/9), and we only walked past each other a few times. (Keep in mind that I was still pulling my luggage!) We managed to get a suitcase and my backpack into the apartment, which is on the equivalent of the 5^th floor (4^th floor in Germany)—her boyfriend brought up my other suitcase after dinner. I also discovered that I really like her dog, Maya.

On Friday (9/10), I visited the Gymnasium for the first time, and I attended eight classes: 6 Leistungskurse, the 10c, and the 5b. (Don’t worry, I will explain the school system and the class numbering system a little later. All you need to know right now is that a Leistungskurs covers something like 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th grades—it’s confusing for even the regular teachers because Berlin is in the middle of some school reforms.)

A few impressions:

• I want a 5^th grader. I’m really not the maternal, hugging, flowers and rainbows and teddy bears and unicorns type—but these kids are adorable, smart, and excited to be in a school with the big kids.

• The 5^th grade boys are not nearly as ‘tough’ and ‘macho’ as their American counterparts—and I love it. One kid started crying in front of the class because he got in trouble for talking, and it wasn’t entirely his fault. Instead of laughing, the other kids looked genuinely concerned. When he got back to his seat, the boy next to him even put his arm around his shoulder. It was sweet. :)

• Every student in the Leistungskurse thought that I was an exchange student from China.

• The school is in a fairly low-income area, and about 2/3 of the students have an “immigrant background.” (I think the working definition is first/second generation German citizen or recent immigrant.) However, the social problems that I noticed had nothing to do with ethnicity or religion; they were related to social class. That being said, I am at a Gymnasium, and I expect that things might be different at a Hauptschule or Realschule. (Again, explanation of schools to come.)

• A student asked me if I was couch surfing this year. I laughed and said no, and I explained that I was staying with My Mentor until I found a permanent place. “So you are couch surfing!” Ha. Okay, she won.

• Apparently, the 5^th graders shoot baskets with their garbage. A girl in the front row chucked a wrapper at the garbage can out of habit. Unfortunately, she didn’t even come close to the garbage, because I was standing directly in front of her. Poor kid—she was so embarrassed!

• In the UK, "erasers" are called “rubbers." The 5th graders were reading a dialogue about buying school supplies, and I was trying not to giggle as they said, "I want a green rubber. Ugh! No, I don't want a green rubber. I want a yellow rubber."

This is going to be a great year… once I stop couch surfing.

9/6-9/9-- Orientation at Haus Altenberg

I made it through orientation, which was a little overwhelming. There were about 180 other teaching assistants (140 Fulbright ETAs, 20 “diversity” Fulbright ETAs, and ETAs from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand), and we were surrounded by people from about 8 AM to 8 PM. I roomed with two British students, but we segregated ourselves by country pretty quickly—that was kind of disappointing. Fortunately, the getting-to-know-you part was easy and painless, and it was also easier because they split us by Bundesland (German states). The irony is that only a few of my friends from orientation are also in Berlin, but I think that was due to eating meals with the same people for three days (see last paragraph).

I really enjoyed meeting (most of) the other ETAs. For the most part, the other ETAs were nice and friendly, with just the right amount of nerdiness mixed with just the right amount of coolness. And it’s always exciting (and humbling) to be around 160 equally motivated and talented (often more talented!) people. It’s doubly exciting when almost all of them were German majors or minors. :) Some of us kind of bonded over the fact that we had so many different second majors or minors, and we decided that we have an official answer to: “What can you do with a German major?” Our answer? “Whatever the fuck we want!” (Sorry @ Mom, Fulbright, and the US Dept. of State. It loses its effect without swearing. Really. Try it. Then try it again in a gangsta voice.)

The “learn to teach” part of the course was pretty minimal, and it was designed for students who had never taught before. I UAed for four classes in college, so it wasn’t especially enlightening—but it made me feel better once I realized that we were all making the same mistakes. We prepared a lesson for a certain age group for about two hours and then presented it the following day (my group had 7^th-8^th grade, and our lesson was about activities that you can do on vacations). Although some of the presentations got a little long (to put it nicely), they were mostly helpful—but I would have liked to have spent a little more time on registering in cities, opening bank accounts, and figuring out the health insurance, and maybe a little less time hearing about what amazing plans the Fulbright Alumni Association has planned.

Unfortunately, despite 60 years of US occupation, Germans have never quite figured out Americans’ culinary differences. They actually had a separate area for vegetarians and vegans, which I thought was ironic because the country is currently in an uproar about integrating immigrants and minorities. When Fulbright asked us for our dietary restrictions, I laughed—I knew Germans’ heads would explode if I gave them the full list. I stuck with the important ones: being a veggiesaurus and being allergic to nuts. Despite that, they tried to serve us fish one day. Na ja. (Oh well.)

And… off to Berlin I went.