Ich bin ein Englisch Lehrer, so heißt es jedenfalls
So on a short walk was pretty much the only event for the day. Unless, of course, you count the few hours I spent staring out the window at a tree blowing in the wind. I like to think it was Artsy, but based on the look I would most likely see on your face after owning up to my tree watching I would probably guess you dont agree. You'll change your tune when everyone's doing it. Anyway, so we started this walk and got to the church and had just decided to walk around the town proper, when we heard a loud whistle. This was proceeded by the shouted words: 'I LOVE YOU' which was chanted, of course, by three teenage German girls. Though it was nice to hear that we were loved, the obvious response from us English teacher types is: 'It's WE, We love you, it's more than one' followed most likely with the same thing in German, just in case. They kept it up until we were out of sight, stubbornly sticking with I instead of We. At least I know what Bill from Tokio Hotel feels like (when he's surrounded by teenage boys..., sorry, inside joke again, but this time from Altes Lager)
In other news I am starting to replace certain English words with German ones. And sometimes I find myself pronouncing 'w' like 'v.' ´Most notibly I almost typed Wohnung instead of Apartment. I also have a habit of wanting to capitalize all Nouns.
An Immortal Day In History, oder Ein besonders Tag
To Ben Friesen
So nevermind the fact that it's Monday, or that, of course the day after I walk to buy a winter jacket it decides to get warm all the sudden. Nevermind that I got to wake up at 6AM after a few short days of sleeping in. Forget that just as I got my hopes up for a nice cup of coffee I found out there was no coffee. All that is in the past.
No, friends, today was indeed a special day. Not for a good reason like work being particularly good, though it wasn't particularly bad. Not because we narrowly escape killing a poor, helpless deer (see Canadian Boys Blog for details), though it is rather special to see wildlife of any kind here. No, it was something much simpler than that. It was something so simple that the only way to honor it is by mortally Bloggerizing it for a short (maybe week long) span of glory.
I had a friend last year named Ben Friesen, now, if your reading Ben, I have taken your advice. He told me that when I win, I need to gloat more. So, here it is. I WON SIEDLER! I BEAT YOU GARY, DOROTHY AND JAKE HAHAHAHAH.....HAHAHAHAH...okay...that is enough. Now important to know is that I lose most of the time, and may never win again.
But really, it was a fun Monday afternoon, attached to a free meal and including Siedler Von Catan, which we haven't played in awhile, so it was nice to hang out and play a nice game with good friends. Then we taught English to Adults...also pretty fun. So maybe Mondays aren't so bad after all.
A Walk not To Remember
So if anyone has been worried about me getting hypothemia, you can put your mind at ease. I have aquired a 'most premium' winter Jacke. I always feel weird calling them that, sounds childish, but that's what they call them. Well that or a Mantle, but I usually forget to use that one and end up saying Jacke anyway, I don't mind sounding like a kid sometimes. Which is good because most times I try to speak German I end up sounding like a 3 year old.
Anyway, so yesterday we decided to go out to Jüterbog to get me a jacke. Since we had all day, we decided to walk out there. Well we were going to bike, but one of our bikes has a perpetual flat tire I need to get fixed. So we set off, and the journey there wasn't bad. But of course we got there when most of the stores were closed...dang half day saturdays!! Luckily the store I was hoping to go to was open, and I found a nice brown jacke that'll keep me nice and warm in the cold cold cold December in Deutschland. So the walk back seemed to take forever. It just kept going and going, until finally a good 30 minutes walk from home the pastor's wife, Dorothy, happened to drive by and offer us a ride. It ranks in with one of my top 5 sits of all time.
Then, upon arrival to our Flat, we found a gangle of people stationed out front, gathered around a Grill. And they happened to all be people we knew from work, in fact, one was my boss Herr Lehman. (Who I can use the Du form with, even though I still call him Herr Lehman.) They all jumped at the chance to invite us for free food. So I stayed and enjoyed some Bratwurst and good German conversation, though I still have a little trouble saying everything I would like to. But everyone there was good people, and it made for a most enjoyable Saturday evening. It is also crazy to think that just a month a go I would have had no clue what anyone was saying, and now, I pretty much understood everything with a bit of effort. Still translating to English, but I hope to get over that soon. But, so far, life is good.
A Long Awaited Quote
So I meant to write more about that quote, but it's been busy here. Well not busy, but I've been tired and not really in the writing mood. Just in the sitting and thinking about writing mood. Tommorow I get to sleep in, which is good. Other than that not much to report, except that I'm currently mad at tree stumps. I was riding (driving?) my bike to the store and I decided to take the 'secret path' there, but not the one by the train tracks, the other one. I was preoccupied thinking about something deep and meaningful, like what I wanted to make for dinner, or ways the meaning of life could really be 42 when I saw a tree stump. Luckily I had just enough time to swerve my front tire out of the way, unfortunatly over correcting and swinging the back wheel dead center of the stump. I remember falling down and being angry about my thought process being ruined. Stupid tree stump. What kind of a jerk cuts a tree down anyway. I guess I should take a little consolation in that, had the tree been there, it would've been a bit more embarassing. Upond arrival to the parking lot of the store, I'm pretty sure some random lady kind of muttered to me complaintively about me not shaking her hand, but she could very well have been talking to herself, I was a bit self-aware at the time seeing as I had just flipped my bike over in full view of the parking lot.
The quote from Henning Mankell was this: ' ''There's all sorts of things you're not supposed to do,'' said The Old Bricklayer ''you're not supposed to wear odd shoes, you're not supposed to live in an old smithy, you're not supposed to have hens in your house. No doubt you're not supposed to make changes in books, either. Even still, I do all that, I'm not doing anybody any harm.'' '
I dont know why it struck me as profound, but it did. I guess it is just talking about things that other people tell you you shouldn't do, even if you have a good reason. It's more about societal rules and rule you should follow to fit in, but the Old Bricklayer doesn't follow them when they don't make him happy, or when he has a better way to do things. I don't know, it just made me think.
A Long Awaited Quote
So I meant to write more about that quote, but it's been busy here. Well not busy, but I've been tired and not really in the writing mood. Just in the sitting and thinking about writing mood. Tommorow I get to sleep in, which is good. Other than that not much to report, except that I'm currently mad at tree stumps. I was riding (driving?) my bike to the store and I decided to take the 'secret path' there, but not the one by the train tracks, the other one. I was preoccupied thinking about something deep and meaningful, like what I wanted to make for dinner, or ways the meaning of life could really be 42 when I saw a tree stump. Luckily I had just enough time to swerve my front tire out of the way, unfortunatly over correcting and swinging the back wheel dead center of the stump. I remember falling down and being angry about my thought process being ruined. Stupid tree stump. What kind of a jerk cuts a tree down anyway. I guess I should take a little consolation in that, had the tree been there, it would've been a bit more embarassing. Upond arrival to the parking lot of the store, I'm pretty sure some random lady kind of muttered to me complaintively about me not shaking her hand, but she could very well have been talking to herself, I was a bit self-aware at the time seeing as I had just flipped my bike over in full view of the parking lot.
The quote from Henning Mankell was this: ' ''There's all sorts of things you're not supposed to do,'' said The Old Bricklayer ''you're not supposed to wear odd shoes, you're not supposed to live in an old smithy, you're not supposed to have hens in your house. No doubt you're not supposed to make changes in books, either. Even still, I do all that, I'm not doing anybody any harm.'' '
I dont know why it struck me as profound, but it did. I guess it is just talking about things that other people tell you you shouldn't do, even if you have a good reason. It's more about societal rules and rule you should follow to fit in, but the Old Bricklayer doesn't follow them when they don't make him happy, or when he has a better way to do things. I don't know, it just made me think.
Bad Habits of the Sun
So lately it has been getting colder here, and I still haven't bought a winter coat. I always have intentions to do so, but things get in the way, like laziness. Sometimes I feel kind of lazy, but lately I don't blame myself, I blame the Sun. Cruel of me, perhaps, to blame something that cannot defind itself, but allow me at least some explaination. I wake up every day before the Sun does, and every night I stay up later than it does, so I figure I can't be being lazy if I am beating the sun to breakfast while going to bed later. Plus I have always felt a bit solar powered, like the sun gives me energy. Especially in the winter, when it is cold and you get a nice ray of warm sun on your face, I don't know, it just makes you feel good. Full of life and vigor and all that.
Like I said, it is getting colder here, but it is still novel coldness and hasn't yet gotten mundane or monotonous. And it isn't all bad for the sun to get up late, because the past two days it has still been a little dark when I get to school. So I get a cup of coffee and start readying my book and just feel like it is going to be a great day. Today I taught my hardest class. They have a hard time remembering the words and I have a hard time not blaming myself for it. Maybe I'm not making it fun enough, I worry about it. But tommorow is my favorite class (1st Grade), they are always excited and usually remember things pretty well, but tommorow I am doing the weather with them, a hard subject, so we will see.
I read a good quote in my book today, and it just made me think about life and the way we do things and all that. It was this:
'''You're probably not supposed to do alot of things,'' said The Old Bricklayer, ''not supposed to wear funny boots, or keep chickens indoors,....well I will have to look it up. But it made me think...more about it later.
A Case Of the Mondays ??
So today has been one of the oddest I've experienced thus far, perhaps in my life. No particular reason, just I've felt weird all day, can't put my finger on it. I know I feel generally tired, and I know that I spent a majority of my day in my room alone, and I know I ate some over greasy 'Hähnchen Curry' which was in no stretch of the imagination spicy in any way, shape, or form. I also know that after forgetting to plan my lesson I gave one of the best English lessons to date, a stroke of luck really. But everything has just felt odd since I went to bed last night. For starters I tossed and turned for a good three hours, after going to bed at 11:30. The sleep I did get was full of oddly realistic dreams, but I don't remember much about them except for there being a rock in one of them...a big rock.
All that aside it was a pretty good Monday. The bus rides were a bit noisey but my acheing head survived them. I got to school in time to realize that today I did have to teach a class by myself (I had previously assured myself that Monday's were the days I was free), so I frantically looked for something to teach. Inspiration came at the last moment, litereally. I was in front of the kids and halfway through reviewing Animals. I taught about 'My Room' and it went off without a hitch, in fact it went of with a counter hitch, being that the teacher helped me out by letting me write the words out on the board (something previously discouraged of me by other teachers) hopefully it will help the kids memorize the words better. Then we sang Old MacDonald.
After that peice of glory I made my way to the Lerherzimmer (teacher's lounge) where I found a spread of free food which could only mean it was someone's birthday. So free lunch. Another good suprise was that one of the teachers had bought me a present over the break: A book by her favorite author. I started it today, and it is about the cold, and there is a rock in it, a big rock. Weird huh. At first I thought it was going to be a poorly writen book, but then I found out it was originally written in Swedish, so I realized some of it wouldn't translate properly. So it just earned alot of cool points for being from a country I would like to visit. Plus it was a present. It was nice to feel appriciated and accepted, so I tried to talk to her in German, it went allright because she knew what I was trying to say, and helped me along.
Yesterday was also an interesting day. We met a Canadian couple at church. They gave us their contact info in case we ever wanted to Mennonite our way through Canada. They were nice and quite talkative if you got them going. And we were pretty sure they knew Pennsylvania Dutch. Then we said goodbye to the folks from Espelkamp. In the afternoon we went for Kaffee und Kuchen to Ina's. Ina is one of our bosses, well so to speak, well she at least works with the Diakonie and we talk to her somewhat regurlarly. So we met her family, and then went on a walk where we saw Wild Boars and Osteriches. Okay so it was an Osterich farm, but still pretty cool, and good practice in speaking German. One of the Ostriches, though, let out a bucket of relevation right in front of us, which was not the best sight to ever blind my eyes.
New Friends and Bad Trends
So, we have a lot of catching up to do here. I’ll try to be brief. This week the church had an Erdankenfest/Oktoberfest celebration. I didn’t really do much during that because I was working the Hort, but I helped with dishes and hung out with the youth a bit. Gary and I are starting to get to know them (and German) a bit better, so it is fun to hang out with them. Another exciting thing this week was the presence of guests from Espelkamp, a city about four hours west of here. There was a pastor and two guys about the same age as us. At first I didn’t spend much time with them, I was working during the day, and not confident in my German skills. As the week wore on I started seeing them more. But it wasn’t until Friday that I really started talking to them. It happened thusly:
(You love me cause I used that word, I can tell.) Friday we had an adventure with the youth group to the Kristalbad, which was way the hay out near Poland (or so it seemed). Originally we weren’t really up for the trip, it was Friday and I was feeling more like bumming around. Gary and I were hanging out in his room pondering dinner when Johann, our neighbour and the youth group leader knocked on the door needing a van driver. I haven’t completed the van driving training session; I blame my fear of driving big vehicles and manual transmissions, so Gary was the only person who could fill the role. I decided to come with, but neglected to bring swimwear. The drive took a good while, and was punctuated often by the teenage girls in the back of the van giggling like teenage girls so often do. This habit of theirs is an annoyance to Gary, and I can see why, but it doesn’t bother me mostly because I never listen to what girls say anyway (That one’s for the LUC, and is an inside joke, so imagine us all in The Convent laughing our heads off and alienating you, bet you wish you lived with us now ; ) …[that was a wink]) We finally reached the pool, and let me tell you, German pools are where it’s at: no annoying lifeguards, wave pools, waterslides, hot tubs, Jacuzzis, the works, and this one even had a salt water pool (not sure what the point of it was, but I used it anyway.) Much better than the square and sometimes L shaped pools of the States. Johann bought us swim passes before he found out we had no swimwear, so we had to at least go to the pool. It was then that one of the youth offered me his extra swimwear: A Speedo, and a rather small one at that. I took the proffered wares but wasn’t sure I would sink that low. I held out for as long as possible and finally figured, when in Germany, well, don’t worry about it, after a year the people that judged me will be laughing their heads off, but not loud enough that I could hear them from the States. Long story short I did what every USAnian has solemnly sworn never to do unless swimming professionally, I entered the pool in a Speedo. They are not comfortable. But I got to enjoy an awesome water slide, so it’s a trade off.
At the pool I was able to talk to one of the guys from Espelkamp. It started off with me just asking the simple questions I’ve been forced to repeat 100 thousand times during my German lessons: ‘Was ist deine beruf?’, ‘Wo wohnst du?’ (What’s your job, Where do you live) Simple stuff, but then as it got more complex I was eventually forced into the ‘Deutsch ist eine schwer sprache’ conversation (German is hard). It’s a true enough point, but it makes me sad to go there, because I had hoped to know German well enough by now. Then he informed me of the presence of the water slides. I think in English the friendship may have been forged of sterner stuff, like his training to being a youth pastor, and my thoughts of doing that as a vocation as well, but this was in German, so it would have to be the water slides, they were something I could talk about.
Later, on Saturday, we all hung out with the youth group. It was fun and I even randomly made it into one of the skits the youth group did. We collectively poked fun at the language barrier between us and tried to play UNO, but it didn’t work very well. Then there was a little program, with skits from the youth group. One was about gambling and how it’s not good to do. That’s the one I was in; I played Nervous Gambler Number 2. Though I auditioned for Nervous Gambler Number 1, it was still an honour to be included. I had one line it was: ‘Zwanstig Euro.’ (Twenty Euro). I was flawless. After that we drank coffee and ate cake. Then the youth left and we had a jam session/Hymn Sing. It was fun, but we stayed up too late.
The next morning Gary and I had our every second Saturday religious style English lesson, and the guys from Espelkamp came along. Christian, the guy who showed me the water slides, came with me to Niedergörsdorf. While we waited on the kids to come we talked about things and translated some German kid’s songs into English. Then we decided to keep in touch via Email and that Gary and I should visit Espelkamp some weekend. Thus I made my first German friend in the same age bracket as me! (awesome sound effect of something good happening) And that, my friends, is that.
Prolouge
Perhaps, dear reader, you are upset about the time period between my last blog and this one. Or it is quite possible you don’t mind, but some explanation is due and necessary really. So the first two days of this week were days off, national holidays in Germany. Well the 3rd was Reunification Day and I don’t know what Monday was, but I wasn’t complaining. It was the most consecutive days that I could sleep past 6AM that I’ve had since my arrival. Now, you may be thinking to yourself something to the effect of ‘It only makes sense that he should write more when he has more free time.’ I assure you that that is not the case. Indeed, more free time is never bad, but I spent that free time reading or thinking or sleeping. I did some laundry and some dishes. I checked my email, but I didn’t feel like writing. The rest of the week just slipped right by due to stress. I have been planning a vacation, and found out after plans were made and tickets purchased that my boss had turned down my vacation days. I was upset and forced to argue in German for my cause. Eventually I was able to get the days off for a one time thing, apparently future days off must be taking during school breaks. The weirdest part was after finally meeting with my boss (he’s at the top of a somewhat lengthy chain of command, so it was my last resort) and telling him, he just sort of complied and then told me that my German is getting a lot better. Then we laughed. It was weird after being annoyed by him and thinking he was being unfair for so long to finally realize that he was a person and that he cared about me. And so we just had this moment that was like a normal, we’re just hanging out, moment. It was pretty cool, and I was relieved that I was good to go on the vacation I’ve been planning and looking forward to for a long time.
Okay, on to more real things.
Black & White
So my two days off were a sort of perfect example of Yin and Yang, or Black and White or Feng Shui or anything else that’s equal and opposite. Oh right, I’m a scientist, so I can’t forget Newton’s Third Law of Motion. So Monday was a day of action, warm, alive, mobile. We decided to take a bike ride. Like all bike rides we ever take this one started off innocent and short. But we had all day so why not keep going. We made a loop from Altes Lager to the next town over and back, but then we just kept going to Treubritzen. It was only 9 Km from where we were. Then we kept going to this city, I forget the name but it was pretty far away. From there we just kept going until it was clear the next big place was Potsdam, which is close to Berlin and about 30Km from where we were. Then we turned around and headed back. Shortly after turning around both Gary and I realized how incredibly tired we were. We kept booking it because we had to make it home, there wasn’t a lot of option there. By the time we made it back my legs felt like jello and I was exhausted. Gary and I decided to celebrate with a nice Curry Wurst at one of our favourite restaraunts. We go there often enough to be able to say, ‘Give me the usual’ and they know what we mean (though we never say that, we just walk in and they know what we’re going to get and we take a seat.) We sat and ate and took a few deep breaths, looking forward to another day of sleeping in.
And now for the day of inaction, cold, laziness. I slept in and then did nothing. Then I walked to the church and got on the computer, played some guitar, and sat around. Then Gary and I went to Jüterbog, but everything was closed. We found an Asian food restaurant and got lunch or dinner or whatever it was. It was really good because it was spicy, which most food in Germany isn’t. We had to eat out because we didn’t have much money, and the grocery store was closed. After that I think we watched some music videos, I don’t remember because I try to block that day out. It wasn’t bad but it was boring I guess, or just not really memorable. But really, I think everybody needs a day like that sometimes.
Hort (Translation: After School Care Club, Refuge, or Shelter)
So after my day off I obtained a volunteer position through my boss type people at this thing called a Hort. Hort is like day care during the school breaks, and it is a really fun place to work. My first day we flew kites in a field nearby; it reminded me of my last few days in Louisville, when me and Pete (one of our many guests at the Convent) randomly decided to make a kite after catching a snippet of Mary Poppins. It was a good kite, and had a button warning everyone that it did, in fact, collect souls. It was a black kite, made from a garbage bag and some of Katie’s dowel rods, she wasn’t too happy about that. We decorated it with a piece of a bag of Tortilla chips that said Fiesta or something in Spanish. Then we took it to the skies and got a pretty good flight time. I figured after making old Darth Fiesta (we named the kite something like that) fly, a proper kite would be no problem, even without much wind. It seems, however, that our kite design was somewhat superior to some of the cheaper store bought kites, so, Pete, if you’re reading, Kudos to us and Darth Fiesta (or whatever his/her/it’s name was). After a bit I was able to make most of the kids kites fly, as long as that got a running start that didn’t stop. After successfully helping one of the more impossible kites fly I was sought out as the kite master. This was cool, because I felt pretty popular and intelligent, but it also meant that every kid came and asked me to help them with their kite, and that worked at to someone asking me at least once every 15 seconds. After the kites got boring we went to a playground, where the kids decided to attack and jump on me. That went on for a long while.
Then I rode my bike home. Yea, I rode my bike to work, which wasn’t really far away, only 5 Km or so. After the hort that day we were supposed to have an English lesson at this internet café in Nidergörsdorf. Gary had a meeting in Berlin, so I went solo, and on my bike. I ended up getting there late because on the way the chain on the bike fell of and it took about 15 minutes to get back on. It didn’t end up mattering too much because no one was there when I arrived, so I knocked on the door of the café and a woman answered with a look that told me I wasn’t expected. She only spoke German, so I did my best to explain the reason I was there. She told me she didn’t know anything about that, but checked with the other lady that was there, then called the lady that is usually there when Gary and I are and came back saying ‘Yea, you’re supposed to be here, but the kids aren’t’. Then she gave me some Powerade and I waited. An hour later it was time for the sport in the gym. Three kids came, but neither of the two adults that usually help us showed up. So I was alone, and we played in the gym for 2 hours. It was confusing and weird but I got through it. Then I rode my bike home.
The next day at Hort we went to Jüterbog where I held the kids hand while we crossed the street and other supervisory type things. I got a free lunch out of the deal. The best thing about the Hort is that the kids are from the school, so I get a chance to spend time with them where I’m not a teacher. Because they know me, they trust me. It’s fun to get to play with kids that I usually teach, even though the teaching is mostly playing games anyway. It is still different. And it’s a lot more fun than having any real responsibilities, at least for a while.
