What do you get when you mix about 500 American Fulbrighters in Germany, American Fulbrighters in other European countries, and future German Fulbrighters going to the US?
Answer: a very loud week that was definitely not designed by introverts.
For me, the week of networking kicked off on Saturday, when I met J and E's ETA friends from Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. Since Berlin was actually sunny, we headed to Treptower Park and the former Tempelhof airport (now a park). I also brought Puppy because she's always up for a little exercise. :)
On Sunday, several of my friends and I went on tours of Berlin. I've been to most of the government buildings, major museums, and tourist attractions, so I decided to go on a tour of Neukölln. It wasn't quite what I had expected (we only went to a mosque, and I thought we were going to see more parts of Neukölln), but the mosque was beautiful, and the tour guide was informative. After we got back, we had dinner with plenty of free wine* and chatted with a few Germans who are heading to the US next year.
(*I mention this only because we supposedly drank more wine than any other previous Fulbright group. Of course, that's also because we had the highest number of participants.)
I attended panels, of course, but I think my favorite part was the music gala on Tuesday night because the performers had such different talents and interests. (The Marlene Dietrich impersonator was definitely a hit amongst the German-speaking crowd!) Closing with "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" is also always a good choice. (Wenn ich nur fleißiger geübt hätte...)
During our trip to the Rotes Rathaus, someone asked Ingeborg Junge-Reyer (Berlin's mayor and senator for urban development) where you could find the best Döner in Berlin. She gave a very diplomatic answer about finding the best döner stand next to a very busy, very good currywurst stand. Unfortunately, most non-Berliners thought that this was general commentary on the ubiquitousness of good currywurst and döner stands. She was actually referring to Curry 36 and Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap in Kreuzberg. :) (Sadly, that day was the first and last time that I ate/will eat at Mustafa's. I'm allergic to one of their spices, most likely cumin.)
Since I live in Berlin, I had to commute to and from the Park Inn Hotel. However, that didn't stop me from taking full advantage of the breakfasts and dinners! Even as a vegetarian with food allergies, I was able to find plenty of things to eat. I also greatly appreciated the free trip to Weimar that I won through the nametag lottery. :)
When I got back to My Gymnasium, one of the teachers (Musik/Ethik) approached me and said (auf Deutsch), "I didn't know that you're a Fulbrighter." (One of the English teachers interjected, "I didn't know that, either! Not bad.") Musik/Ethik teacher: "My daughter was at the conference last week and saw 'My Gymnasium' in the program. She had such a great time, and she came back raving about the Fulbright family atmosphere." I told him that if she has any questions about studying in the US, she should email me, and he responded: "See? Networking in the Fulbright family."
Showing posts with label sightseeing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sightseeing. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
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!
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!"
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
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! :)
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! :)
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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.
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.
 |
| 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.
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