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.