So, at the last minute (nearly), I have found an apartment! I'll be living here this year. I have no idea what the room looks like, but it has all the furniture I need. And, since it's a Studentenheim, I'm basically living in the dorms again, and each floor has a kitchen and the bathrooms are shared. I'm actually really excited. A friend of mine lives in one of the other houses, and says that it's an amazing opportunity to work on your German, because it's full of students and the landlady doesn't really let you speak English. I move in on Wednesday.
The location is great, close enough to the middle of the city that nothing is out of reach and right next to Schrevenpark, Kiel's version of Central Park. I keep realizing Kiel is a much smaller city than I thought, as I have walked almost the entire thing in the past week or so. I love that all I have to do is turn a corner and then I recognize where I am and can figure out where I need to go.
Next step: bicycle!
25 September 2010
20 September 2010
Nacktschnecken
I don't think that I have mentioned this yet, but it is important. There are more slugs here than I have ever seen before in my life. And not just a lot of them, these things are huge. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I would definitely be upset if I stepped on one, and then my entire canvas shoe were covered in slime and slug guts. Even better, the leaves that fall on the ground and are soaking wet because it rains every day, are camouflage for these slimy invaders, so I never really know what I'm about to step on. There are several dead slugs as well, though my CSI skills lead me to believe they were not the victims of my Converse but rather of someone else's bike tire. Something about the way that they were cut in half.
17 September 2010
Wohnungen
The first two apartments that I was deciding about both fell through, so I have decided to just go full steam ahead with apartment finding. I am also fairly sure that if I manage to actually accomplish this in Germany, finding apartments in America will be no sweat. Right?
Anyway. I visited two apartments this rainy rainy Friday. I don't actually work on Fridays, so I slept in, showered, looked up apartments on the internet and waited for it to stop raining. Of course, as soon as I was a few 100 feet from the house, it started to rain again. Apparently, it rains a lat here. Something about being directly on the Baltic Sea.
I wandered into town, found a teacher friend of mine, and we hung out on the train ride into the city. We went our separate ways because it was still raining, and she had a bike. I went to the mall to look at shoes. I very nearly bought myself trendy knee-high European boots but have decided that those will have to wait until I have an apartments, as a reward.
After several hours in the mall, I wandered towards the apartments, to see the neighborhoods a bit. The first apartment, with a dude named Merten, was cool. Kind of small, has two cats, my room comes with a loft bed and an armoire, it has a fairly good sized balcony. Merten and I hung out for about an hour, drinking apple juice and talking. So, I hope it went well?
The second, with Andrea and Maike, was much cleaner, a larger room that comes with all of its furniture, a bathroom in the kitchen, an actual cleaning schedule, and pretty fun roommates. I hope this one also went well, because the sublet lasts just about exactly as long as I need it, though it starts a bit late.
Learning from my last mistake, I'm not going to get optimistic. We'll see how it all goes.
Anyway. I visited two apartments this rainy rainy Friday. I don't actually work on Fridays, so I slept in, showered, looked up apartments on the internet and waited for it to stop raining. Of course, as soon as I was a few 100 feet from the house, it started to rain again. Apparently, it rains a lat here. Something about being directly on the Baltic Sea.
I wandered into town, found a teacher friend of mine, and we hung out on the train ride into the city. We went our separate ways because it was still raining, and she had a bike. I went to the mall to look at shoes. I very nearly bought myself trendy knee-high European boots but have decided that those will have to wait until I have an apartments, as a reward.
After several hours in the mall, I wandered towards the apartments, to see the neighborhoods a bit. The first apartment, with a dude named Merten, was cool. Kind of small, has two cats, my room comes with a loft bed and an armoire, it has a fairly good sized balcony. Merten and I hung out for about an hour, drinking apple juice and talking. So, I hope it went well?
The second, with Andrea and Maike, was much cleaner, a larger room that comes with all of its furniture, a bathroom in the kitchen, an actual cleaning schedule, and pretty fun roommates. I hope this one also went well, because the sublet lasts just about exactly as long as I need it, though it starts a bit late.
Learning from my last mistake, I'm not going to get optimistic. We'll see how it all goes.
In which I am bad at being a grown-up
I realized last night that my favorite shirt, that I have had my mother looking for in my house in Missouri and that I've been trying to remember when I last wore it for days, was left hanging in the closet in my room at Haus Altenberg. That is, at Orientation. Well. That's a problem. How do I get that back?
15 September 2010
Raisdorf/Schwentinental/Kiel
Right then. Epic train rides. Like I said, it was raining in Cologne. It actually continued to rain, the entire trip north. I rode to Hamburg with my new friend Lauren, who's on one of the Frisian Islands this year.
We were going to sit with another Fulbrighter, but she got a reserved seat, and we did not. And then all of the seats we found for two cars were reserved, so we just sat down. Luckily, we never got kicked out of our seats.
In Hamburg, I had an 8 minute layover before the train to Kiel, so I ran quickly, after helping a nice old German lady with her suitcase, because she told me to. Despite me carrying a giant pack, a suitcase and a computer bag. Orders from old German women are hard to ignore.
A short one hour train ride to Kiel (realization: I'm only an hour from Hamburg! Day trip!) and then I had one more train one more stop to Raisdorf. I eventually figured it out. I got off the train in Raisdorf and was hoping against hope that someone would come get me and it wouldn't end like that time in Boston. And, sure enough, Rainer Lembke came up to me and said, "Christine McCormick?" I was so excited.
Turns out, he's the dude I was going to be living with, with him and his girlfriend Susanna, who also teaches at the Albert Schweitzer Gemeinschaftschule. They took me home, gave me coffee and ice cream, set me up in the basement room and then cooked me dinner and gave me beer. It was great.
The next morning, I slept too late to make it to school on time, but Rainer came back and picked me up. I got a quick tour of the school, and went to observe a tenth grade class. And by "observe", Rainer tends to mean, "Hey, you take half the class and teach them, and I'll take the other into this other room and teach them." So that was a fun surprise. I also learned (remembered) that German schools have breaks quite often. And that it has been awhile since I've been in a classroom. Experiential education is different from regular education.
After work, I went home and started trying to find an apartment. The school day ends around 1, so I had plenty of time before we went to a book reading. The author was a local farmer who started to put his hilarious rural experiences to paper. Some of it was in Plattdeutsch, a dialect which I did not understand, but everything else I got. There was free food and all the drinks were a euro. Champagne, beer, water, soda. 1 Euro. After the reading - which, by the way, took place with the author sitting on a tractor - we all took a shot with the author. Me, and a bunch of old German villagers, and an author sitting on a tractor.
Saturday, I went to the German villager version of Relays. Awesome. I was the photographer for our village team.
Oh! Friday I also went to a Drachenboot Race which some of our students were in. It's like crew, but less series. And the boats look like dragons. And we discovered Museum sailboats in Kiel.
Sunday was mostly notable because it was the second time in three days that I was invited to take shots with old German villagers. 'Cause that's what you do here, I guess.
This week, I've been teaching (actually observing this time), being introduced to the classes, apartment searching and things like that. The fifth graders are my favorite because they are adorable, enthusiastic and they try so hard, despite their total lack of vocabulary. The hardest thing is pretending that I don't know any German, when, in fact, fifth grader German is pretty much exactly what I understand.
I visited a couple of apartments, and may have one. I am waiting on an e-mail, but I may call him to expedite things, because I don't want to miss it.
We were going to sit with another Fulbrighter, but she got a reserved seat, and we did not. And then all of the seats we found for two cars were reserved, so we just sat down. Luckily, we never got kicked out of our seats.
In Hamburg, I had an 8 minute layover before the train to Kiel, so I ran quickly, after helping a nice old German lady with her suitcase, because she told me to. Despite me carrying a giant pack, a suitcase and a computer bag. Orders from old German women are hard to ignore.
A short one hour train ride to Kiel (realization: I'm only an hour from Hamburg! Day trip!) and then I had one more train one more stop to Raisdorf. I eventually figured it out. I got off the train in Raisdorf and was hoping against hope that someone would come get me and it wouldn't end like that time in Boston. And, sure enough, Rainer Lembke came up to me and said, "Christine McCormick?" I was so excited.
Turns out, he's the dude I was going to be living with, with him and his girlfriend Susanna, who also teaches at the Albert Schweitzer Gemeinschaftschule. They took me home, gave me coffee and ice cream, set me up in the basement room and then cooked me dinner and gave me beer. It was great.
The next morning, I slept too late to make it to school on time, but Rainer came back and picked me up. I got a quick tour of the school, and went to observe a tenth grade class. And by "observe", Rainer tends to mean, "Hey, you take half the class and teach them, and I'll take the other into this other room and teach them." So that was a fun surprise. I also learned (remembered) that German schools have breaks quite often. And that it has been awhile since I've been in a classroom. Experiential education is different from regular education.
After work, I went home and started trying to find an apartment. The school day ends around 1, so I had plenty of time before we went to a book reading. The author was a local farmer who started to put his hilarious rural experiences to paper. Some of it was in Plattdeutsch, a dialect which I did not understand, but everything else I got. There was free food and all the drinks were a euro. Champagne, beer, water, soda. 1 Euro. After the reading - which, by the way, took place with the author sitting on a tractor - we all took a shot with the author. Me, and a bunch of old German villagers, and an author sitting on a tractor.
Saturday, I went to the German villager version of Relays. Awesome. I was the photographer for our village team.
Oh! Friday I also went to a Drachenboot Race which some of our students were in. It's like crew, but less series. And the boats look like dragons. And we discovered Museum sailboats in Kiel.
Sunday was mostly notable because it was the second time in three days that I was invited to take shots with old German villagers. 'Cause that's what you do here, I guess.
This week, I've been teaching (actually observing this time), being introduced to the classes, apartment searching and things like that. The fifth graders are my favorite because they are adorable, enthusiastic and they try so hard, despite their total lack of vocabulary. The hardest thing is pretending that I don't know any German, when, in fact, fifth grader German is pretty much exactly what I understand.
I visited a couple of apartments, and may have one. I am waiting on an e-mail, but I may call him to expedite things, because I don't want to miss it.
13 September 2010
Einführungstage
Orientation! It began when some lady with a sign met us in the Cologne Hauptbahnhof and led the 160 of us gathered there to three buses. We put our luggage in a trailer, and climbed aboard. I sat next to John, a fellow Grinnellian, because a familiar face was very nice to see. Plus, we could gossip. The three giant charter buses rumbled through very narrow German village streets and I tried not to actually look out the window and see how close we were to hitting things. Anyway. The bus was raucous as you might expect from 140 Americans, 16 Brits, and a couple Aussies and Kiwis. It was so loud.
John told me that he thought orientation was at a castle. We were both unsure how unlikely or likely that could be. I mean, it's Germany. Why shouldn't it be at a castle? We pulled up to a small complex of buildings, got our luggage out of the trailers and walked to the main building, accompanied by the beautiful music of hundreds of rolling suitcases on cobblestone. Walking up, we saw rising before not a castle, no, but a giant cathedral. Awesome.
We laid down our luggage, carried the heavier stuff down to a basement room and were crammed into a hall for our welcome speech. We were given packets, schedules, keys and roommates and told to shove off until dinner. Turns out, my roommate, Barbara, studied abroad in Dortmund with Lissy, one of Steph's friends from Ames. SMALL WORLD.
For dinner, there were exactly as many seats as there were people, forcing us to meet new people. It was a lot of fun. Not a lot of food, but I think everyone went back to get seconds from the nice German kitchen ladies.
During our intro speech, we were told that because this is a church, we were not allowed alcohol. However, as a program, we were allowed to make an exception and would do so, every night. So one of our classrooms was turned into a bar every night, staffed by former Fulbrighters.
The next morning, we split into our Ländergruppe, or our groups by land or state in Germany (there are 14 of us in Schleswig-Holstein), and went over the school system and our role in the schools. Later, we split into Arbeitsgruppen, work groups, and learned more about the teaching systems. We were told to prepare a lesson for the next day, each of our groups being split again into smaller groups, one group for the Oberstufe (11-13 graders), one for 9-10 graders, one for 7-8th, and one for 5-6th. My group was 11-13 graders and we created a lesson about immigration, especially illegal immigration.
Another night at the classroom bar, and we were told there was going to be a talent show.
In class, we all taught our lessons to our classmates, pretending to be German kids. It was quite fun, except we were quite bad at pretending not to know English. I did get to be Big Ben in a skit about British stereotypes, with two British people in our group, so our accents were great.
The talent show later was awesome. I got roped into playing in the jug band, accompanying John on his banjo. So Lauren and I tuned our water bottles so that we each had one high and one low. I also ended up with a set of spoons to play. Other acts included real talent, like piano playing and slam poetry, and one girl from New Zealand taught us "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Maori (Upoko, Pakaiwi, Turi, Waewae), and one girl downed an entire beer and then let out a great belch (Keep in mind the recruiting for the talent show was done at the bar), and a girl did the worm really well and then it was our turn.
We went up and sat down. John took off his shoes and socks and rolled his jeans up to his knees, because "You can't play banjo with shoes on." Lauren and I started the jug band while he proceeded to tell the Cheerio joke. If you don't know it, I won't ruin it for you. But this five minute long joke, accompanied by a jug band and banjo, had everyone laughing. Including me. Then, after the joke, we all stopped, and John played a piece for banjo that he actually wrote, which was cool. After the show, the bar was open again for our last night.
At 6 am Thursday morning, we woke up, stripped our beds, packed, turned in our keys and went to our final breakfast. All in the rain. We walked out to the buses in the rain. We waited for our luggage to be loaded up. In the rain. The entire drive to Cologne it rained. In Cologne, we went our separate ways. Mostly.
Epic train rides, next post.
John told me that he thought orientation was at a castle. We were both unsure how unlikely or likely that could be. I mean, it's Germany. Why shouldn't it be at a castle? We pulled up to a small complex of buildings, got our luggage out of the trailers and walked to the main building, accompanied by the beautiful music of hundreds of rolling suitcases on cobblestone. Walking up, we saw rising before not a castle, no, but a giant cathedral. Awesome.
We laid down our luggage, carried the heavier stuff down to a basement room and were crammed into a hall for our welcome speech. We were given packets, schedules, keys and roommates and told to shove off until dinner. Turns out, my roommate, Barbara, studied abroad in Dortmund with Lissy, one of Steph's friends from Ames. SMALL WORLD.
For dinner, there were exactly as many seats as there were people, forcing us to meet new people. It was a lot of fun. Not a lot of food, but I think everyone went back to get seconds from the nice German kitchen ladies.
During our intro speech, we were told that because this is a church, we were not allowed alcohol. However, as a program, we were allowed to make an exception and would do so, every night. So one of our classrooms was turned into a bar every night, staffed by former Fulbrighters.
The next morning, we split into our Ländergruppe, or our groups by land or state in Germany (there are 14 of us in Schleswig-Holstein), and went over the school system and our role in the schools. Later, we split into Arbeitsgruppen, work groups, and learned more about the teaching systems. We were told to prepare a lesson for the next day, each of our groups being split again into smaller groups, one group for the Oberstufe (11-13 graders), one for 9-10 graders, one for 7-8th, and one for 5-6th. My group was 11-13 graders and we created a lesson about immigration, especially illegal immigration.
Another night at the classroom bar, and we were told there was going to be a talent show.
In class, we all taught our lessons to our classmates, pretending to be German kids. It was quite fun, except we were quite bad at pretending not to know English. I did get to be Big Ben in a skit about British stereotypes, with two British people in our group, so our accents were great.
The talent show later was awesome. I got roped into playing in the jug band, accompanying John on his banjo. So Lauren and I tuned our water bottles so that we each had one high and one low. I also ended up with a set of spoons to play. Other acts included real talent, like piano playing and slam poetry, and one girl from New Zealand taught us "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Maori (Upoko, Pakaiwi, Turi, Waewae), and one girl downed an entire beer and then let out a great belch (Keep in mind the recruiting for the talent show was done at the bar), and a girl did the worm really well and then it was our turn.
We went up and sat down. John took off his shoes and socks and rolled his jeans up to his knees, because "You can't play banjo with shoes on." Lauren and I started the jug band while he proceeded to tell the Cheerio joke. If you don't know it, I won't ruin it for you. But this five minute long joke, accompanied by a jug band and banjo, had everyone laughing. Including me. Then, after the joke, we all stopped, and John played a piece for banjo that he actually wrote, which was cool. After the show, the bar was open again for our last night.
At 6 am Thursday morning, we woke up, stripped our beds, packed, turned in our keys and went to our final breakfast. All in the rain. We walked out to the buses in the rain. We waited for our luggage to be loaded up. In the rain. The entire drive to Cologne it rained. In Cologne, we went our separate ways. Mostly.
Epic train rides, next post.
10 September 2010
Wieder in Deutschland
In my first 8 hours in Germany, my passport was not stamped to enter the country, I managed to buy a Bahncard 50 in German at 7:00 local time (1 am my time), I checked into my hostel, I found a giant flea market, I found a summer festival and I found the zoo.
After the zoo, I went back to the hostel, put my bed together and accidentally fell asleep. I woke up when two German girls came into the room. We talked for a bit, then I decided that I should probably go get some dinner to counteract the jet lag. So I watched the night settle over the Rhein while sitting at this little restaurant on the bank, drinking a beer and eating bratwurst. It would have been very romantic, had I any friends there.
The second day, I walked forever. I found the Altstadt (old city), the Cologne Cathedral, a wall built by the Romans in 50 AD and took some cool pictures. Then, I walked over the bridge, which is covered in locks (like actual padlocks) representing anniversaries and things like that. I waited for sunset while enjoying a Kölsch, so that I could take the famous picture of the Cathedral at night, but I was impatient and ended up heading back toward the hostel.
The third day, I had to check out of the hostel by ten, so I sat in a nearby park with all of my luggage, writing in my journal. This was also the first day that I woke up for breakfast. I wandered towards the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), put my suitcase in a locker, bought Pride and Prejudice auf deutsch, and then found the other Fulbrighters, sitting on the floor in the middle of the station, surrounded by luggage.
We all hung out for several hours, having arrived very early. At one point, some of us went outside, and discovered ambulances and EMTs. Apparently, a man had collapsed and died on the steps to the cathedral. We headed back inside, were picked up and loaded into three buses.
Orientation, however, will be another post.
After the zoo, I went back to the hostel, put my bed together and accidentally fell asleep. I woke up when two German girls came into the room. We talked for a bit, then I decided that I should probably go get some dinner to counteract the jet lag. So I watched the night settle over the Rhein while sitting at this little restaurant on the bank, drinking a beer and eating bratwurst. It would have been very romantic, had I any friends there.
The second day, I walked forever. I found the Altstadt (old city), the Cologne Cathedral, a wall built by the Romans in 50 AD and took some cool pictures. Then, I walked over the bridge, which is covered in locks (like actual padlocks) representing anniversaries and things like that. I waited for sunset while enjoying a Kölsch, so that I could take the famous picture of the Cathedral at night, but I was impatient and ended up heading back toward the hostel.
The third day, I had to check out of the hostel by ten, so I sat in a nearby park with all of my luggage, writing in my journal. This was also the first day that I woke up for breakfast. I wandered towards the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), put my suitcase in a locker, bought Pride and Prejudice auf deutsch, and then found the other Fulbrighters, sitting on the floor in the middle of the station, surrounded by luggage.
We all hung out for several hours, having arrived very early. At one point, some of us went outside, and discovered ambulances and EMTs. Apparently, a man had collapsed and died on the steps to the cathedral. We headed back inside, were picked up and loaded into three buses.
Orientation, however, will be another post.
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