Applying for Fulbright- the Germany ETA, Diversity Program version

During the last few months, I have been asked several times about the application process for Fulbright, both in interview settings (more on that later) and in casual conversations with friends. I remember finding blogs of Fulbrighters while I was going through the application process (yes, I Google-stalked. Don't judge.), so in the event that a prospective applicant comes across this page, I hope it helps a little! :)

The possibility of applying to Fulbright's English Teaching Assistant program began to come up during my junior year. At that point, I was considering switching my major to English and was preparing to go abroad. I ended up deciding to stay an extra semester at Miami (which turned into an extra year because I decided to take some grad. classes), and during the summer before my victory lap, I decided to apply. I loved UAing and loved (and still love) the idea of spending ten months in Germany.

Although some countries don't have a language proficiency requirement for their English Teaching Assistants, Germany requires an intermediate level of proficiency. My best guess is that this translates roughly to two years of college-level German, although most of the ETAs whom I've met had 4 years in high school, 4 years in college, and sometimes even 1-3 years in middle school. I've always been one of the top two or three students in my German classes, and it was humbling to come to an environment where I am very average. :)

The first round application was pretty standard: I had to write a statement of purpose and a personal statement, found three recommenders (I used two English professors for whom I had UAed and a German professor), and filled out a few pages of biographical information. The most difficult part was figuring out how to respond to the naturalized citizen question, and I actually totally messed it up. (I thought it asked for the date when I renewed my passport.) Oops. It didn't seem to matter, though.

Miami's campus deadline for Fulbright was about a week before the official deadline-- just in time for the Fulbright committee to interview all of the applicants and suggest changes! My interview was short but pretty intense; I had to defend my reasons for wanting to be an ETA over a researcher, given that my career goals lean a little closer to the research side, and had to talk about the most recent news article that I had read in German. Fortunately, I got a positive review from the committee, and they told me that I didn't need to revise anything.

And then I waited... and waited... and waited... The campus interview was at the beginning of October. We heard back about the first round of cuts on January 29th. That's a solid four months of silence!!!

About two weeks after learning that I made it through the first round, I received an second application, this time all in German. We had about 2.5 weeks to translate our essays into German, fill out more biographical information, and request three Bundeslaender.

And then we waited, waited, and waited some more. We knew that we would hear back from Fulbright at the end of January, but the final decisions could be released at any time. Fortunately, Germany is usually one of the first countries to notify Fulbrighters, and I got my acceptance letter (USPS) on my mom's birthday. At that point, I also had to get medical clearance and all of that fun stuff. Unfortunately, I got kicked off my parents' health insurance plan in January and had to foot the bills myself.

A month later, I was at Miami when my mom called and said that I got something official looking in the mail, and I made her attempt to read the letter. I was pretty sure it was my Bundesland assignment. :) My mom butchered the German language, but I determined that I was heading to Berlin! (I gave up on trying to understand her German and asked her to spell the sentence that contained the word 'Berlin.')

At the end of May, I finally got a letter with my official placement: My Gymnasium!

Applying for Fulbright can be a nine month process... even longer if you include the essay writing time. Another Miamian did not hear from her host country until after graduation. (And you thought your wait was bad!) However, know that it is possible to get a Fulbright, even if your school doesn't provide a lot of application support. (Other than chasing down a missing recommendation letter, my campus advisor's most helpful comment was, "Your essays look good!") Miami is not a major feeder for Fulbright; there are 14,000 undergrads on the main campus, and only 15 of us applied for a Fulbright in 2009-2010. Six of us made it through the first round, and three of us ended up with a grant. But hey, three is better than zero!

I forget at which point I learned that I was in the Diversity Program- April or May, maybe? Anyway, I guess all you need to know is that the program exists and consists of 20 ETAs... so I believe Germany actually has 160 ETAs. I love My Gymnasium, but I know that some students in the Diversity Program were placed in more challenging schools.

Probehalbjahr

When students first arrive at a Gymnasium, they have one semester to prove that they're worthy of studying at this level: the Probehalbjahr (trial half year). If they pass their subjects, they can stay. If they fail, they leave and go to a Sekundarschule. (I don't know if students have the opportunity to switch to back to a Gymnasium after finishing Sekundarschule, or if 5th graders who fail the Probehalbjahr can return to a Gymnasium in 7th grade.)

This is a lot of pressure to put on 10-13-year-olds-- screwing up the Probehalbjahr and leaving their Gymnasium can mean that they'll never go to college.

In some ways, the arguments for the Probehalbjahr make sense: students who can't pass (5s and 6s are considered failing) won't have the skills for 8th grade, and then they won't have the skills for 9th grade, and so on. Germany also has a different (more academic) university system with a better developed vocational track. On the other hand, these kids are immature. They're young. Many of the kids at my Gymnasium learned German as their second or third language, and there are no language remediation programs that I'm aware of.

Two weeks ago, the class leader of the quieter 7th grade class announced today that Berlin decided to shorten the length of the Probehalbjahr by a week, effective immediately. Some of the kids were indignant (and rightfully so!), and all of them were obviously stressed out for the rest of the day. In the teachers' room, I asked how many kids were expected to leave after their Probehalfjahr, but I never got a general answer; my best guess is that 5-10% of the kids have to leave.

I work with this class once a week, and I've been at the Gymnasium for... I don't know... around 14 weeks. The kids aren't angels, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for them, even for the ones who regularly misbehave. I know that after the February break, some of the kids won't be there.

I suppose it would be nice not to have to deal with fireworks in the courtyard. It would be nice to be able to write on the board without students trying to snatch markers and play with the board. A quieter, less crowded classroom is always great.

But I want them all to stay. I hope they eked out those 4-s.

A Summary of the Past Few Days...

Went to bed late. Woke up way too early. Tiptoed around. Knocked over stuff in kitchen. Oops. U-Bahn. Bus. Tegel no haz security. Sat on runway for four hours. Got to Munich four hours late. Smiled sweetly at employee and got both flights rescheduled. Oh, wait, my new flight boarded 15 minutes ago. Ran to new gate. Got two seats to myself!!!!! Studied. Slept. BART. Oakland. Hug from stranger? Don't know names.

Figured out names. Slept on couch. Woke up early. Went to school. Helped to prep classroom. Went back to apartment. Shower! Cafe. Pretended to study. Arizmendi Bakery! Yum, pizza. Walked around Lake Merritt. Sun! No ear muffs needed! Woo! CVS. Apartment. Studied. Mini nap. TFA Meet and Greet. Stood around awkwardly, tried not to fall asleep. Must eat food. Went to food court at restaurant. A vegan restaurant!? Yay! Mario Kart. Lost badly. Early to bed.

Woke up early. Played Mario Kart. Nap. Studied. Ready for test? Checked bag once, twice, then a third time. BART. MUNI? Oops, MUNI bus, not MUNI subway. Out of change. Grrrr. New ticket. Board MUNI bus. Sit. Wait. Pretend to study. Check in. Someone brought the wrong calculator? CSET time. Subtest II. Brain hurts. Where's the bathroom pass? Why is the free response so much easier than multiple choice? Subtest I. Much easier than Subtest II! Back to Oakland. Totally won at Wii Frisbee Golf. Fell asleep on couch while the others went to a club. (Such is my life.)

Loud people back at 4 AM. Dancing in kitchen. Devouring chocolate. L is dancing with boiling water? Hope the neighbors like Phantom of the Opera. Taboo! L tells me to wear stilettos and a suit while teaching next year. Others went to bed. I played Mario Kart.

Nap. Mario Kart. Nap. Check email. Mario Kart. Shower. Sun! Sconehenge. Mmmm @ the Mexican veggie omelette. Berkeley is lovely! Sat in sun! Mario Kart. More sun! Pack. First run-in with new security scanner at SFO. Surprised they're not doing strip searches. Guy ahead of me gets the full pat-down, but I waltz through. (Young Asian women don't make people suspicious.) Sleep. Hit head on window. Sleep. Run to catch plane. Berlin! (Still no security at Tegel.)

Goodbye, sun. I miss you already.

Mini-Trips #5, 6, and 7-- Dresden, Nordhausen/Schierke/Brocken, and Weimar

As soon as I learned that I would be Fulbrighting in 2010-2011, my parents started saving for a Christmas trip to Deutschland. They flew over on the 20th and arrived without their luggage. One suitcase showed up on the 23rd, and we went to Tegel on the 25th to try to track down the remaining things. (We found two. We told Lufthansa to fly the last suitcase back to the US.) Well, at least they got a nice discount on some clothes over here!

They spent most of the first two days in bed or on the phone with Lufthansa, but they went to My Gymnasium on Wednesday and went party hopping. :) None of my classes had normal instruction because it was the last day before the break, but I think it worked out pretty well. I expected the 9th graders to talk to my brother more than they did, and I was totally shocked that the 7th grade monsters crowded around my entire family to ask questions, while the more disciplined 7th grade class barely acknowledged their presence. After school, I introduced my family to Turkish food, and they walked away saying that someone needs to open a Turkish restaurant at home! We also went to the Pergamon Museum, which should be on every tourist's to-see list.

The following day was my first day of vacation (we had class through Dec. 22nd), and I spent it playing tour guide with my family. My brother whined the whole time, but we went from Alexanderplatz to Hauptbahnhof to Reichstag to Brandenburger Tor to Checkpoint Charlie... and was that everything? I think so. It took about 7 hours after we stopped to take pictures, munched at cafes, found a place for dinner, and split a Rittersport McFlurry. (The only Rittersport they offer is strawberry yogurt.)

On the 24th, I had promised to keep my family out of the way for as long as possible so Dumpling and Mama could celebrate Christmas together. It didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned, but I think everyone was satisfied with the results. My family was still a bit jetlagged, so they slept until about 10:30. My mom woke up before the others, so we went to Soluna (an AMAZING local bakery) for rolls and bread. After we ate breakfast, I dragged the others to the grocery store, where we wandered and wandered and wandered and still didn't find everything. I forget what we did in the afternoon-- probably spent it complaining to Lufthansa and Tegel-- and I think I also took a nap somewhere in there. I had assumed that I would take my family out for dinner so Dumpling and Mama could have a quiet dinner and open presents, but Dumpling wanted us to stay while he opened his presents! :) None of us were in the mood for cooking, so we agreed to get Indian and Arabic food from some local restaurants. Mmmmm. Mama also made some amazing baked apples with cream and cinnamon-- we need the recipe! After dinner, we made chocolate chip cookies with Dumpling! It was very cute; he had never seen chocolate chips before, and he spent half of the time sniffing the bag.

We slept in (again) on the 25th, and the only productive thing we did the entire morning was walking Puppy. I showed my parents the graffiti wall around the corner, and my brother slept. Dumpling and Mama left to visit friends in Brandenburg, so we kind of took over the apartment. We cooked for quite awhile, but the final result was definitely passable for having limited space: baked chicken, basmati rice, green bean casserole, potato salad, salad with feta and pears, and Turkish flatbread.

On the 26th, we rented a car and drove to Dresden. It was beautiful!!! We really only made it through the Altstadt area, but it might have been even more amazing than Munich. I also highly recommend the apple cinnamon Gluehwein.

We were supposed to leave for the Harz mountains pretty early on the 27th, but we had to clean, do laundry, and run to the store to replace the toilet paper and laundry detergent. While we waited for my dad to return with the car, I did a little photoshoot with Dumpling, Mama, and the two dogs. As we lugged our stuff to the car, Dumpling got very sad because he thought I was leaving for good. He perked up once Mama said that I would be back in three days, and he told my mom (auf Deutsch; Mama translated it for my mom): "You can go back to the US, but you have to leave K here." Hahaha. We piled into the Mercedes with bags and suitcases poking into our sides, and heard Dumpling yell from the window, "Why did you get a Mercedes? Everyone knows they're small."

The following day, we went to Mittelbau-Camp Dora, which was a forced labor camp during WWII, and which is best known for serving as a production factory for V2 rockets. I didn't realize that some of the major working camps had been demolished after the war; very little was left. At the risk of sounding crass or insensitive... don't take non-German speakers here; take them to Buchenwald. After we escaped from the tour guide, we headed to the Harz mountains! When we arrived in Schierke, we discovered that we missed the last train to Brocken (the highest point in the Harz mountains, I think) by about 10 minutes but decided to walk 1 kilometer (uphill, in the dark, with snow and ice on the trail) to the station to figure out times for the 29th.

I definitely recommend visiting Brocken during the winter, and I imagine it would also be a great hiking area during the summer. The trees were covered in snow, and some of them looked like really cool snow sculptures! The largest ones were strong enough to climb, but my mom and I both ended up waist-high in a snowdrift after taking pictures near a tree that looked like a sea serpent.

On the way to Frankfurt, we ran through Weimar to take pictures of Schiller and Goethe's houses. I meant to get a picture of their statues, but I just discovered that I took a picture of the wrong dude. Oh well, it was really late. My mom and I ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant about a block and a half from Schiller's house, and it was seriously the best food I've had in Germany so far-- barley pearls with spinach and goat cheese? Lecker! My mom's cheese ravioli was also-- forgive my cliche-- bursting with flavor. (Meanwhile, my dad and brother went to McDonalds, where my dad discovered that Roesti is a potato pancake and not a local name for bacon or beef. Should've asked me first...)

My parents flew out of Frankfurt on the 30th, and I took a train back to Berlin. All of us arrived safely but with a few minor issues: the missing suitcase still hasn't arrived in the US (!!!), and I had to stand the entire 5 hours (there were delays due to the weather) back to Berlin.

I think my parents enjoyed their visit, and I'm not sure whether my brother appreciated wandering around Berlin-- but it was definitely nice seeing them and spending a few days in an English-speaking bubble! :) I appreciated having a personality again-- I still have the personality of your average robot auf Deutsch-- and they seemed to like playing with the dogs. Considering that my brother has three snakes, two fluffy and friendly (but exhibitionist!) dogs have to be an improvement!

Sleepy Puppy says, "Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!"