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.