Yesturday was the most beautiful day outside since september, and where was I? Sick in bed. boo :-( I rarely get sick so it was really out of the blue for me. I hope it's not bird flue :-0 ! I seem to be better now, I guess it was just a 24 hr thing, but I skipped school this morning anyway... no one feels good at 6am. Sigh. Caroline is here with her mom and grandma too, and I couldn't even go meet them for dinner. Hopefully I'll see them tonight after their trip to Neuschwanstein. I was perfectly healthy all weekend doing absolutely nothing, and then as soon as I have things to do.... bah. And now it's raining again and it's supposed to keep raining for the next two weeks.
Have I mentioned how excited I am to go to Greece??? It better be warm and sunny! I'm also excited because I have lots of babysitting work in the next two weeks. I just met a new mom this weekend with a teeny tiny little 8 week old baby. So cute :) They're going out of town around the same time I am for three months, so she only needs me the next two weeks, which works out well. I had to miss going yesturday of course, but will go this afternoon. I'm excited to hang out with a bity baby, it's been a while since I've had one of those around, and I'm excited to make some extra money to spend on my trip.
That's all my news for the week... Things should remail pretty dull for the next 11 days
Pics from Vienna are up!
Tuesday, March 28
Thursday, March 23
Good morning
It's unusually early for me to be posting, but I just got up to say good-bye to Jackie and it's too early to get ready for school. It was really nice to have her, I feel so popular with all my visitors :) It was strange as well. Jackie studied abroad in Vienna two years ago and was back in Europe for the first time since then. And she was so incredibly excited about everything European and being here and begging me to speak German with her. It made me realize... hey, I'm probably going to miss this some day. I'm so adjusted to all the little things that are different here. Walking to the grocery store, public transportation, sitting in a cafe for two hours in the middle of the afternoon, hearing German everywhere, beautiful historic buildings all around, being just a train ride away from six different countries, liters of German beer, and buying Milka chocolate bars on a regular basis! I've been kind of bored with it all the past couple months, missing home and waiting for it to be over. I don't especially love my job here right now. But I know a year from now I'm going to be sceaming and planning how I can get back to europe again (or convincing Eric to learn German). I still have three months left and I'm definitely going to enjoy them. In German they say "geniessen", to enjoy, savor, or relish. It's a word they use A LOT, which probably says something about their european mentality.
Spring seems to finally be arriving here, it's supposed to rain all week, which is better than snow. In Vienna they were putting in flowers already and Jackie saw them setting up tables in the Beer garden in downtown Munich-- a sure sign of spring around here! This weekend I have three days with absolutely nothing to do and I'm definitely going to savor, enjoy and relish it. I've been gone the past four weekends, I'm looking forward to some down time.
Spring seems to finally be arriving here, it's supposed to rain all week, which is better than snow. In Vienna they were putting in flowers already and Jackie saw them setting up tables in the Beer garden in downtown Munich-- a sure sign of spring around here! This weekend I have three days with absolutely nothing to do and I'm definitely going to savor, enjoy and relish it. I've been gone the past four weekends, I'm looking forward to some down time.
Tuesday, March 21
Wien
Jackie arrived here Friday morning. We did some shopping friday because I desperately needed a new wallet. Then we rented Sissi which I absolutely had to see before going to Vienna :)
We left for Vienna (Wien in German) on Saturday where we met Chris, Jackies friend who studied in Richmond whil I was abroad in Muenster, we stayed in his place. We did a walking tour of the city Friday and ate some Wienerschnitzle because I insisted that i had to eat it once while i was there! It is a really beautiful city. Considerably more impressive and big city like than Munich, despite actually being smaller. Sunday we went to three different museums which were all really good and I finally found out where all of Klimt's work has been hiding from me :) I got to see his "The Kiss" Along with his Bethoven freeze. It was very impressive, deffinitely something to see in person, with all the shiny gold and its really pretty big.
Monday we went to the Palace Schonbrunn and had coffe and the famouse Sacher Torte at the Sacher hotel. After some speedy shopping we were back on a train headed back to Munich. It was a quick trip, but I'm really glad I got to see Vienna and of course it was much better to see it with someone who has studied there and a real live Wiener (hee hee).
I'm at school now. blah. I'm meeting Jackie tonight at the Hofbrauhaus which I've been to, but have yet to actually eat or drink in, so it should be fun. I'll take pictures. I have pictures from the trip too of course. My camera cord hasn't shown up yet, I'll clean more thougholy this weekend.
Bis Bald
We left for Vienna (Wien in German) on Saturday where we met Chris, Jackies friend who studied in Richmond whil I was abroad in Muenster, we stayed in his place. We did a walking tour of the city Friday and ate some Wienerschnitzle because I insisted that i had to eat it once while i was there! It is a really beautiful city. Considerably more impressive and big city like than Munich, despite actually being smaller. Sunday we went to three different museums which were all really good and I finally found out where all of Klimt's work has been hiding from me :) I got to see his "The Kiss" Along with his Bethoven freeze. It was very impressive, deffinitely something to see in person, with all the shiny gold and its really pretty big.
Monday we went to the Palace Schonbrunn and had coffe and the famouse Sacher Torte at the Sacher hotel. After some speedy shopping we were back on a train headed back to Munich. It was a quick trip, but I'm really glad I got to see Vienna and of course it was much better to see it with someone who has studied there and a real live Wiener (hee hee).
I'm at school now. blah. I'm meeting Jackie tonight at the Hofbrauhaus which I've been to, but have yet to actually eat or drink in, so it should be fun. I'll take pictures. I have pictures from the trip too of course. My camera cord hasn't shown up yet, I'll clean more thougholy this weekend.
Bis Bald
Thursday, March 16
Karnival
the whole gang
Originally uploaded by annieswims05.
Blue hawiian cowgirl, santas helper, two kitties, and one masked man... sounds like a recipie for a good time!
Karnival pics are up :)
Monday, March 13
Socialist Breakfast and other Berlin Adventures
If I lose one more thing.... I'm going to lose my mind along with it! I can't find the cable for my camera. Which is why I'm not uploading Karnival photos right now. But I didn't bring it with me so it has to be here somewhere, hopefully when (and if) I clean my room I'll come accross it.
So! It has been quite a week. One of the greatest I've had here I'd have to say. The conference was great. The actual conference parts as well as the massive amount of partying and socializing that went along with it. I love my Fulbrighter friends. I got to Berlin a couple days before the actual conference started to hang out with Caroline. Chris came down as well to escape bird flue up north :-P We did some exploring around berlin together. We also went to a socialist breakfast. Hee hee, I get a kick out of that every time I say it. They had a buffet of cold breakfast foods, all vegetarian and vegan, and when you were done you paid between 3 and 7 euros depending on how much money you have and feel you should pay. I love it.
Sunday we got to check into our fancy schmancy hotel on Alexanderplatz. Gotta love Fulbright. The next four days were kind of a blur. I went to some workshops, one on the push for elite universities in Germany (never going to happen in my opinion), one on Muslims in Germany, one on the city in german literature, and some research presentations. We heard the Mayor of Berlin speak as well as some other important people. It was a great atmosphere of academics and intellectuals. It really made me want to go back to grad school after next year. There were also of course free dinners and, more importantly, free wine! There was some exploring of Berlin, although mostly of the nightlife. There was a really really impressive Music Galla at the end with all the Fulbrighters studying music performance here. I met lots of people, got to hang out with my favorite people, and had a generally great time. When the conference ended Thursday afternoon I went back to caroline's and promptly crawled into bed for the rest of the afternoon. It was an intense exahsting experience.
Last weekend I got to hang out and play with Caroline and once again wish that I were living in Berlin with her. We saw a great art exhibit at the New National Gallery on the theme of Melencholy, we ate wonderful food, I got to go to Desperate Houswives night with some of Caroline's friends. Saturday we went to an amazingly cool poetry/rap/music open mic performance at a tiny callery/bar/soup place. There were some really really talented poet/rappers there and it was just so very... Berlin, big city. I liked it. Sunday I took a bus back to Munich because it's like a quarter of the price of a train. It was not as bad as I expected. I managed to sleep almost the entire 8 hours.
All in all, despite losing my wallet, my hat, my scarf, and my phone charger....it was a great trip! I wasn't terribly excited to come back to munich again, but I have so much to do and plan now that it doesn't really bother me. Jackie gets in this friday and we're going to Vienna together for the weekend, Caroline and her mom and Grandma will be here the week after next, then I leave for the big trip to greece! As soon as I get back Elena will be here and as soon as she leaves Shannon will be here and a week after that I'm going to Paris with Mom! So I'm not too worried about being lonely and bored anymore.
By the by, I just discoved "SkypeIn" and "SkypeOut" yesturday, so now I can call land lines in the US and I also have my own number with a VA Beach area code that anyone can call and reach my computer. It's pretty nifty. Technology is cool.
So! It has been quite a week. One of the greatest I've had here I'd have to say. The conference was great. The actual conference parts as well as the massive amount of partying and socializing that went along with it. I love my Fulbrighter friends. I got to Berlin a couple days before the actual conference started to hang out with Caroline. Chris came down as well to escape bird flue up north :-P We did some exploring around berlin together. We also went to a socialist breakfast. Hee hee, I get a kick out of that every time I say it. They had a buffet of cold breakfast foods, all vegetarian and vegan, and when you were done you paid between 3 and 7 euros depending on how much money you have and feel you should pay. I love it.
Sunday we got to check into our fancy schmancy hotel on Alexanderplatz. Gotta love Fulbright. The next four days were kind of a blur. I went to some workshops, one on the push for elite universities in Germany (never going to happen in my opinion), one on Muslims in Germany, one on the city in german literature, and some research presentations. We heard the Mayor of Berlin speak as well as some other important people. It was a great atmosphere of academics and intellectuals. It really made me want to go back to grad school after next year. There were also of course free dinners and, more importantly, free wine! There was some exploring of Berlin, although mostly of the nightlife. There was a really really impressive Music Galla at the end with all the Fulbrighters studying music performance here. I met lots of people, got to hang out with my favorite people, and had a generally great time. When the conference ended Thursday afternoon I went back to caroline's and promptly crawled into bed for the rest of the afternoon. It was an intense exahsting experience.
Last weekend I got to hang out and play with Caroline and once again wish that I were living in Berlin with her. We saw a great art exhibit at the New National Gallery on the theme of Melencholy, we ate wonderful food, I got to go to Desperate Houswives night with some of Caroline's friends. Saturday we went to an amazingly cool poetry/rap/music open mic performance at a tiny callery/bar/soup place. There were some really really talented poet/rappers there and it was just so very... Berlin, big city. I liked it. Sunday I took a bus back to Munich because it's like a quarter of the price of a train. It was not as bad as I expected. I managed to sleep almost the entire 8 hours.
All in all, despite losing my wallet, my hat, my scarf, and my phone charger....it was a great trip! I wasn't terribly excited to come back to munich again, but I have so much to do and plan now that it doesn't really bother me. Jackie gets in this friday and we're going to Vienna together for the weekend, Caroline and her mom and Grandma will be here the week after next, then I leave for the big trip to greece! As soon as I get back Elena will be here and as soon as she leaves Shannon will be here and a week after that I'm going to Paris with Mom! So I'm not too worried about being lonely and bored anymore.
By the by, I just discoved "SkypeIn" and "SkypeOut" yesturday, so now I can call land lines in the US and I also have my own number with a VA Beach area code that anyone can call and reach my computer. It's pretty nifty. Technology is cool.
Thursday, March 2
Viva Colognia
Greetings from snowy Berlin! It's been a heckuva week. Karnival and chocolate and drinking and dancing and parades and pick pockets--- but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I very hapily bit fairwell to the shoe box that I call home in Munich on Saturday morning and borded a packed train where I got to sit in the smoking car allll the way to Duisburg. I'm pretty sure I lost two years of my life on that train. So, then in Duisburg I met Matt, Lindsay, and Chris and then promptly turned around and took a train back to Colonge to get Caroline and Marrissa. After luggage was saftely stowed in lockers we went out to hit the town. I heart Cologne. We waisted no time in finding some drinks and jumping into the throng on people on the streets. There were groups of tribal type drummers and costumes galore. I have loads of pictures that I'll upload when I get home. It was PACKED. Karnival costumes don't have to follow any particular rules, it's pretty much like Halloween, anything out of the ordinary goes and most everyone is dressed up. Somehow we ended up at some bars and did a whole lot of dancing- at least I did. We also met the TA who works in Cologne. Things get a little hazy at that point so I'm not quite sure how all the logistics worked out (I'm pretty sure Lindsay is the one to thank!), but we made it back to the train station in time to get the train back to Duisburg and crash there. It was an obsenely fun evening.
Sunday was considerably more low key. We went out in Dusseldorf-- oh the high school memories-- the city where I went to my first real bar ever! Monday was the big parade day in Cologne, it's called Rosenmontag (pink monday?), We got up really really early and Caroline and I somehow managed to paint on some wiskers and noses as well as craft some snazzy cat ears on teh incredibly crowded train. Yeah I know, a cat, my old fall back costume. We ate the traditional karnival food, Berliners, known in the south as Krapfen, known in the US as jelly dohnuts which go surprising well with the also traditional cheap champain drunk out of the bottle ;-P Then we waited outside in teh SNOW for nearly two hours before the parade started, but we got a darn good spot. The floats weren't really that impressive, they are mostly political cartoons. I had heard that karnival is kind of the one time in Germany when they can let down their guard and say and do whatever, including making lewd jokes about polititions and such. What the parade did have was candy and flowers and lots of them. We all suddenly became seven years old again waving and screaming and pushing to get as many low quality chocolates and candies as we could. And Marrisa worked her charms up front collecting a whopping boxload of roses and carnations among others. We left a bit before the end of the parade to avoid some of the crowds and because we were pooped. Matt left and it was just us girls for the night. We finally made ourselves some semi-healthy nourisment and crashed early.
Tuesday Marrissa left and in the midsts of cleaning up a bit and gathering my things I realized that my wallet was not in my purse. We searched the apartment with no success. I was still hoping it would miraculously show up somewhere, but then we went to the Deutschebank to report my lost cash card and found out someone had already tried to use it. :( So I cancelled it as well as my american credit cards. Thank goodness I still have my passport. I lost 50 euros cash :( And I found out in Muenster at the bank yesturday that someone took out 300 from my account on tuesday before I got in to cancell it. I reported it to the police and everything, and the banker had my sign some things, so hopefully they'll return the money too me. For the next week I just can only get money by going to a bank during open hours. Kinda sucks, but could be worse. I'm pretty sure someone must have grabbed my wallet while I was buying a bratwurst at the parade. I had some difficulty getting the mustard out and probably hadn't thourouhly zipped my purse yet. How can people be so mean? Sigh, ok, I've let it go now and I'm getting on with having fun for the rest of my vacation.
Wednesday I took the train to Muenster where I was welcomed with open arms by Eva. We hung out, had some meals, some coffe, of course cake, took a little buble around the city. Silke came over for a little bit but is busy working on her masters thesis. It was good to see them again, and nice that I always have someone to visit back in Muenster. Apparently there's another Richmond student coming in the spring! exciting.
Today I hoped yet another train to Berlin where I am at the moment with Caroline. Not sure what we'll do for the next couple days. The conference starts sunday. Good times, yay for Berlin!
updates and pictures will be coming in a while...
I very hapily bit fairwell to the shoe box that I call home in Munich on Saturday morning and borded a packed train where I got to sit in the smoking car allll the way to Duisburg. I'm pretty sure I lost two years of my life on that train. So, then in Duisburg I met Matt, Lindsay, and Chris and then promptly turned around and took a train back to Colonge to get Caroline and Marrissa. After luggage was saftely stowed in lockers we went out to hit the town. I heart Cologne. We waisted no time in finding some drinks and jumping into the throng on people on the streets. There were groups of tribal type drummers and costumes galore. I have loads of pictures that I'll upload when I get home. It was PACKED. Karnival costumes don't have to follow any particular rules, it's pretty much like Halloween, anything out of the ordinary goes and most everyone is dressed up. Somehow we ended up at some bars and did a whole lot of dancing- at least I did. We also met the TA who works in Cologne. Things get a little hazy at that point so I'm not quite sure how all the logistics worked out (I'm pretty sure Lindsay is the one to thank!), but we made it back to the train station in time to get the train back to Duisburg and crash there. It was an obsenely fun evening.
Sunday was considerably more low key. We went out in Dusseldorf-- oh the high school memories-- the city where I went to my first real bar ever! Monday was the big parade day in Cologne, it's called Rosenmontag (pink monday?), We got up really really early and Caroline and I somehow managed to paint on some wiskers and noses as well as craft some snazzy cat ears on teh incredibly crowded train. Yeah I know, a cat, my old fall back costume. We ate the traditional karnival food, Berliners, known in the south as Krapfen, known in the US as jelly dohnuts which go surprising well with the also traditional cheap champain drunk out of the bottle ;-P Then we waited outside in teh SNOW for nearly two hours before the parade started, but we got a darn good spot. The floats weren't really that impressive, they are mostly political cartoons. I had heard that karnival is kind of the one time in Germany when they can let down their guard and say and do whatever, including making lewd jokes about polititions and such. What the parade did have was candy and flowers and lots of them. We all suddenly became seven years old again waving and screaming and pushing to get as many low quality chocolates and candies as we could. And Marrisa worked her charms up front collecting a whopping boxload of roses and carnations among others. We left a bit before the end of the parade to avoid some of the crowds and because we were pooped. Matt left and it was just us girls for the night. We finally made ourselves some semi-healthy nourisment and crashed early.
Tuesday Marrissa left and in the midsts of cleaning up a bit and gathering my things I realized that my wallet was not in my purse. We searched the apartment with no success. I was still hoping it would miraculously show up somewhere, but then we went to the Deutschebank to report my lost cash card and found out someone had already tried to use it. :( So I cancelled it as well as my american credit cards. Thank goodness I still have my passport. I lost 50 euros cash :( And I found out in Muenster at the bank yesturday that someone took out 300 from my account on tuesday before I got in to cancell it. I reported it to the police and everything, and the banker had my sign some things, so hopefully they'll return the money too me. For the next week I just can only get money by going to a bank during open hours. Kinda sucks, but could be worse. I'm pretty sure someone must have grabbed my wallet while I was buying a bratwurst at the parade. I had some difficulty getting the mustard out and probably hadn't thourouhly zipped my purse yet. How can people be so mean? Sigh, ok, I've let it go now and I'm getting on with having fun for the rest of my vacation.
Wednesday I took the train to Muenster where I was welcomed with open arms by Eva. We hung out, had some meals, some coffe, of course cake, took a little buble around the city. Silke came over for a little bit but is busy working on her masters thesis. It was good to see them again, and nice that I always have someone to visit back in Muenster. Apparently there's another Richmond student coming in the spring! exciting.
Today I hoped yet another train to Berlin where I am at the moment with Caroline. Not sure what we'll do for the next couple days. The conference starts sunday. Good times, yay for Berlin!
updates and pictures will be coming in a while...
Wednesday, February 22
The F word (future!)
Guess where I am?
Right, at school.
Guess what I'm doing?
Did you say nothing? Right again!
This is the stupidest job ever. Once again I was signed up to go to a class today and cover for my advisor who isn't here, but I guess he forgot to tell his class or the administration this because no class showed up. grr. I may or may not have one class to go to in another couple hours. If she doesn't needs me and I came all the way here (it takes about an hour to get here) and sat here all morning when I could have just stayed home... grrrrrr. I suppose I have no right to be annoyed since I don't actually have anything else to be doing and I am getting paid for this. But really. I feel so useless. I need to find a useful job for next year. I've been thinking a lot lately about my not so distant future...
Hey, what the heck am I doing after this gig is over? You may be asking yourselves. I wish i knew. I'll be back home in MN in July and will spend the summer and fall there happily living with my parents, hopefully working somewhere. Nannying, or looking for an internship or volunteering or something (Ideas anyone?). Beyond that I have to wait and see. Eric is currently working on a congressional campain in VA Beach. Should they win in November then he may have a job in DC, in which case I would go along and look for a job there and eventually for a grad school- maybe. If not then I will somehow lure Eric up to Minneapolis. My plan is to get him to visit in the summer so that he thinks it's a nice warm pretty place. He wont realize until much later what he's gotten himself into. I would be quite happy either way. DC is a cool city and it would be fun to live there (and Shannon may be there too!). Minniapolis is also cool and I would really like to live near my family and friends for an extended period of time again.
Anyway, probably most of you already knew this, just thought I'd fill the rest of you in in case you were wondering. Most important is that I will be home in July and there will be much rejoicing and party throwing and swimming in lakes and boating and driving my car and waving american flags around while singing patriotic songs, eating apple pie, and playing baseball.
It's official... just talked to another teacher... no one needs me today. Sigh. At least I can go home and take a nap.
Right, at school.
Guess what I'm doing?
Did you say nothing? Right again!
This is the stupidest job ever. Once again I was signed up to go to a class today and cover for my advisor who isn't here, but I guess he forgot to tell his class or the administration this because no class showed up. grr. I may or may not have one class to go to in another couple hours. If she doesn't needs me and I came all the way here (it takes about an hour to get here) and sat here all morning when I could have just stayed home... grrrrrr. I suppose I have no right to be annoyed since I don't actually have anything else to be doing and I am getting paid for this. But really. I feel so useless. I need to find a useful job for next year. I've been thinking a lot lately about my not so distant future...
Hey, what the heck am I doing after this gig is over? You may be asking yourselves. I wish i knew. I'll be back home in MN in July and will spend the summer and fall there happily living with my parents, hopefully working somewhere. Nannying, or looking for an internship or volunteering or something (Ideas anyone?). Beyond that I have to wait and see. Eric is currently working on a congressional campain in VA Beach. Should they win in November then he may have a job in DC, in which case I would go along and look for a job there and eventually for a grad school- maybe. If not then I will somehow lure Eric up to Minneapolis. My plan is to get him to visit in the summer so that he thinks it's a nice warm pretty place. He wont realize until much later what he's gotten himself into. I would be quite happy either way. DC is a cool city and it would be fun to live there (and Shannon may be there too!). Minniapolis is also cool and I would really like to live near my family and friends for an extended period of time again.
Anyway, probably most of you already knew this, just thought I'd fill the rest of you in in case you were wondering. Most important is that I will be home in July and there will be much rejoicing and party throwing and swimming in lakes and boating and driving my car and waving american flags around while singing patriotic songs, eating apple pie, and playing baseball.
It's official... just talked to another teacher... no one needs me today. Sigh. At least I can go home and take a nap.
Tuesday, February 21
I guess I'm not the only one who's noticed the problems in Germany's school system...
UN condemns German school system
Last weekend I went to a comedy night at an Irish pub with Peter, I think the Irish comedians may have been a bit difficult for him to understand, but it was fun. Sunday I helped Uta move, well, actually I was a bit late and she had a bunch of other friends also also so I didn't actually do much moving, but I did eat a Weisswurst breakfast with them. yum. Sunday I went ice skating with Diana and other assorted people.
Now I'm counting down the days until break this weekend... can't wait to get out of here, this room is starting to close in on me!
UN condemns German school system
Last weekend I went to a comedy night at an Irish pub with Peter, I think the Irish comedians may have been a bit difficult for him to understand, but it was fun. Sunday I helped Uta move, well, actually I was a bit late and she had a bunch of other friends also also so I didn't actually do much moving, but I did eat a Weisswurst breakfast with them. yum. Sunday I went ice skating with Diana and other assorted people.
Now I'm counting down the days until break this weekend... can't wait to get out of here, this room is starting to close in on me!
Thursday, February 16
sniff sniff
I just watched Tatanic on TV. Great movie. The string quartet playing on the deck at the end always gets me. Kate Winslet is fantastic. I want to be her. When she goes and gets the ax and then goes back through the flooded halway hanging from the pipes above to save Jack...what a heroin. I definitely like her better than Mr. Leo. I'm pretty sure I hadn't watched Titanic since nineth grade when I saw it at least three times in theaters with Chelsea. I miss Chelsea :( Can we have a costume party this summer guys? pleeeease? We can have it at my house... ooh, at the lake house. Another Tatanic party... on the pontoon boat! hahahaha, oh, I kill myself... seriously though. There will be a themed party of some variety this summer.
Summer... mmm... that sounds... far away. Although it's been getting pretty warm around here. And all that ice and snow I was complaining about? well it's turning all of Bavaria into a giant slushy right now now, if only I had a giant bottle of cherry flavored syrup. It's pretty messy out there. On the one hand I'm happy that it's raining instead of snowing, but I'm not too optimistic that this is the end of winter just yet.
It was a boring week at school with not very much to do... hopefully the weekend will be more eventful. Tomorrow I'm tutoring a little boy. I haven't met him yet, his mom hung a flyer on my building, looking for an english tutor with good pronunciation. She was a little leary when i called because I'm american and of course they teach british english. but I assured her that it would be fine. I'm pretty sure if he goes into school with a perfect american accent they won't mind. Stupid British English. Seriously. If this whole experience has made me think differently about anything it's that I now loath British English. Have you got a pencil? No, I haven't got a pencil, I've got a pen. Arg, who talks like that? and stupid "can" and "caaaaaahhhn't". I don't care if it confuses the fifth graders, I can't say caaahhhn't. It would unpatriotic :-P And we read a text last week called, "Can you fetch us Mum?" fetch us? is Mum a dog? because otherwise I don't see how she could fetch you. And everyone, EVERYONE sounds rediculous when they say trousers. and jumper. I had a ten minute discussion last week with a teacher over whether of not americans really pronouce missile like mistle. yes, yes we do, don't you think I would probably know possibly better than you would?
whew, glad I got that off my chest ;) sorry if I offended any Brits out there.
time for bed I think. night night.
Summer... mmm... that sounds... far away. Although it's been getting pretty warm around here. And all that ice and snow I was complaining about? well it's turning all of Bavaria into a giant slushy right now now, if only I had a giant bottle of cherry flavored syrup. It's pretty messy out there. On the one hand I'm happy that it's raining instead of snowing, but I'm not too optimistic that this is the end of winter just yet.
It was a boring week at school with not very much to do... hopefully the weekend will be more eventful. Tomorrow I'm tutoring a little boy. I haven't met him yet, his mom hung a flyer on my building, looking for an english tutor with good pronunciation. She was a little leary when i called because I'm american and of course they teach british english. but I assured her that it would be fine. I'm pretty sure if he goes into school with a perfect american accent they won't mind. Stupid British English. Seriously. If this whole experience has made me think differently about anything it's that I now loath British English. Have you got a pencil? No, I haven't got a pencil, I've got a pen. Arg, who talks like that? and stupid "can" and "caaaaaahhhn't". I don't care if it confuses the fifth graders, I can't say caaahhhn't. It would unpatriotic :-P And we read a text last week called, "Can you fetch us Mum?" fetch us? is Mum a dog? because otherwise I don't see how she could fetch you. And everyone, EVERYONE sounds rediculous when they say trousers. and jumper. I had a ten minute discussion last week with a teacher over whether of not americans really pronouce missile like mistle. yes, yes we do, don't you think I would probably know possibly better than you would?
whew, glad I got that off my chest ;) sorry if I offended any Brits out there.
time for bed I think. night night.
Tuesday, February 14
Pink, Hearts, Chocolates, and Roses
Happy V-day! I miss seeing the Vaginia Monologues at UR... they must be going on sometime this week. Good show, you should see it. I saw it three times and it was just as powerful, funny, enlightening every time.
I also miss my Valentine date :( He got up early to call me on my cell this afternoon, so that was sweet. But now I'm home alone watching an old episode of Home Improvement in German... woo hoo. The show, by the way, is called "Listen to who is hammering" in German, roughly translated. It's stupid. Oh well. The clerk in the super market was giving out a rose to every costomer today, and he gave me TWO, so at least I have roses!
Anyway... Last weekend was good... Saturday night I went out with Uta, the student teacher, and her boyfriend and a couple friends. We went to a bar and then to a club. Turned out the club was having a 60s night, only it was more like every song you've never heard from the 60s. Gag. It was pretty terrible... But the germans were dancing to it all the same. They're so cute... they each have their own little step. Left together right... or forword and back.. and they just keep doing it over and over and over regardless of the music. Germans. Uta and the other students teachers are all leaving after this week, which is the end of the semester. Which means that all the young nice teachers who actually talk to me are leaving. boo.
Just a week and a half before break!!! yay!!! I can't stop looking at my calendar over and over... Karnival, Berlin conference, then Jackie is visiting in March, then spring break in Greece in April, then Elena is coming, then Shannon, then in May my Mommy and then it's June already!! fun things.
Hope you all had a love and chocolate filled day.
I also miss my Valentine date :( He got up early to call me on my cell this afternoon, so that was sweet. But now I'm home alone watching an old episode of Home Improvement in German... woo hoo. The show, by the way, is called "Listen to who is hammering" in German, roughly translated. It's stupid. Oh well. The clerk in the super market was giving out a rose to every costomer today, and he gave me TWO, so at least I have roses!
Anyway... Last weekend was good... Saturday night I went out with Uta, the student teacher, and her boyfriend and a couple friends. We went to a bar and then to a club. Turned out the club was having a 60s night, only it was more like every song you've never heard from the 60s. Gag. It was pretty terrible... But the germans were dancing to it all the same. They're so cute... they each have their own little step. Left together right... or forword and back.. and they just keep doing it over and over and over regardless of the music. Germans. Uta and the other students teachers are all leaving after this week, which is the end of the semester. Which means that all the young nice teachers who actually talk to me are leaving. boo.
Just a week and a half before break!!! yay!!! I can't stop looking at my calendar over and over... Karnival, Berlin conference, then Jackie is visiting in March, then spring break in Greece in April, then Elena is coming, then Shannon, then in May my Mommy and then it's June already!! fun things.
Hope you all had a love and chocolate filled day.
Friday, February 10
Passion Lives here
I swear I wrote about the German eduaction system and tracking in here somewhere, but I can't find it and it bears repeating. German students are tracked into three different types of schools when they go into fifth grade. Realschule, the lowest, a few years shorter and sometimes leading to an aprenticeship or something in some sort of handwork trade, or more likely unemployment at the moment. Haubtschule, in the middle, also shorter and often leading to aprenticeships but often in more technical trades I think, or maybe other bluecollar jobs or basic secritarial administrative stuff. Not entirely sure. And then Gymnasiums, like the schools I teach at, goes through 13th grade and nearly all students go on to University. The students are tracked based on test scores and performance in school so far, but the school and teachers actually can only make recomendations, the ultimate decision in up to the parents. Of course after a year or two in Gymnasium a student can be moved down, or, less often, a Haubtschule student can move up. Of course the system is biased. The class that I mentioned was all boys was actually an advanced class within the Gymnasium. Other than that there seem to be an eaqual number of boys as girls in the Gymnasiums. There is a more recognizable bias when it comes to immigrants. One of the biggest reasons being that they don't have any kind of "German as a second language" programs for young students, so obviously those kids who don't learn German at home stuggle more in school and tend to be held back and placed lower. Immigrant students and families may also have different priorities and sending their kids to university may not be as high on the list. Economic class can also play a role, but it's not so outright, since the parents decide. If the kids parents are lawyer or doctors then of course they're going to think their kid should be in a Gymnasium, where as the child of electicians or janitors is less likely to be pushed into the college track. The same thing happens in the US. I don't know that the German system is more or less fair. At least funding is evenly spread out among the schools so that in theory everyone has the same oportunities regardless of where they live, small town or big city. One thing that is certainly less fair is that their programs for students with learning disorders are barely existent and someone with say, dislexia, is not likely to make it to the college track.
Hope that helps :)
And now on a completely different topic: STOP SNOWING!!!! enough already, seriously. It was blizzard conditions most of the day yesturday and continued all day today as it has been all week. I never want to leave my room. ever. Right now I'm staying in and watching the Opening ceremonies of the Olympics. yay Olympics! They're so close to me this year. If it had been the summer games I would have gone in a heartbeat. But winter sports aren't quite enough for me to spend the money and fight the crowds. Someday I'll go to a summer Olympics.... I'm afraid I have to give up my dream of actually being in them now, I'm too old :( and synchro is way too hard :-P But I can at least go see it! I've stopped going to synchro here... it was just too awkward. I can't actually compete with them. and all the girls were like 18. And they were nice... but not really friendly or eager to make friends with me... so yeah. no synchro this year. I'll join a masters team when I get home and it's in english again :)
Ok... time for bed...
PS. Thanks for the package Shannon! It came at just the right time... I was bored and stuck in my room not wanting to go out in the snow storm. I miss Oprah...
Hope that helps :)
And now on a completely different topic: STOP SNOWING!!!! enough already, seriously. It was blizzard conditions most of the day yesturday and continued all day today as it has been all week. I never want to leave my room. ever. Right now I'm staying in and watching the Opening ceremonies of the Olympics. yay Olympics! They're so close to me this year. If it had been the summer games I would have gone in a heartbeat. But winter sports aren't quite enough for me to spend the money and fight the crowds. Someday I'll go to a summer Olympics.... I'm afraid I have to give up my dream of actually being in them now, I'm too old :( and synchro is way too hard :-P But I can at least go see it! I've stopped going to synchro here... it was just too awkward. I can't actually compete with them. and all the girls were like 18. And they were nice... but not really friendly or eager to make friends with me... so yeah. no synchro this year. I'll join a masters team when I get home and it's in english again :)
Ok... time for bed...
PS. Thanks for the package Shannon! It came at just the right time... I was bored and stuck in my room not wanting to go out in the snow storm. I miss Oprah...
Wednesday, February 8
Hi
Hi. Have I really only posted three times since christmas break? I seems like it's been an eternity and a half since then. I am once again at school with nothing to do because a teacher signed up to have me come in, but then forgot and doesn't actually need me so I've got three hours of down time... if only it didn't take me a full hour to get home. Oh well, I'm not quite so upset this time because it was the fourth hour rather than the second and I got plenty of sleep last night. So So So... how was my week?
I don't really remember the rest of classes last week, so I guess they weren't exciting. Friday I had the most frustrating afternoon ever trying to straiten out a ticket I got because my transport was was expired... missing my S-bahn to baby sit, taking the next train which only went to the stop one before mine, taking the next train from there which mysteriously decided to skip the next two stops and go to the end stations, waiting in Holzkirchen in the middle of nowhere at the end of the S-bahn line for 40 min, finally getting a train back to my stop only to find that the family had already left and taken the kids with them. God I miss my car. After that I went over to Jen's apartment. She's the other American TA here in Munich and I hadn't seen her since like October, so it was nice to catch up a little and see what her life here is like.
Saturday I got up at the crack of dawn to go to the train station and head out to the mountains for some cross country skiing! woo hoo! I met Diana and a couple woment we got in contact with on the Toytown site. Katie decided she also wanted to come along, though I hope she didn't end up regretting it. She had never been any kind of skiing before and isn't exactly the athletic type. I thought that cross country would be fairly easy to start with. I was apparently wrong. I really didn't think a person could possibly fall so many times on flat ski tracks. Poor Katie. She ended up waiting in the lodge for us while we went out a second time. It was a really really gorgeous trail and a lot of fun to get out there and ski around. I wish I had my skis with me because I want to go again and again and again. I think I'll try a closer place this weekend.
School has been good this week. I did another creative writing kind of lesson with a class on monday. Yesturday I tought a lesson on cowboy which was great. They had a lot of ideas that I had to straiten out a bit. Some seemed to think that there weren't really cowboys, that it's all a myth, others think a cowboy was just anyone walking around the american west with a hat on. oiy. We read some old cowboy poetry, it was fun. I also found out yesturday that the lower grades each have a special advanced group separated based on intelligence tests. And in most cases it's all boys. Hmm. Something smells fishy. The teacher said boys are just pushed more and that girls prefer to stay in the regular class with their friends which boys are more excited to be in an advanced class. I don't know....
It's been snowing a lot this week and things are all messy and slushy. Yesturday morning I had a bit of a scare when my bus was in an accident. It wasn't too bad, but one woman fell out of her seat and was hurt, I'm not sure how badly. Everyone just got off the bus and walked away right away. It seemed like we should have had to wait for the police or something... but I guess not. Anyway, I missed my first class but am otherwise quite alright, I'm glad it wasn't worse. I guess that's the advantage of not driving a car, I don't have to drive in snow or deal with all the repercussions of accidents. It seems weird to just walk away and not have to worry about insurance and accident reports and everything. The inpact of the crash would have been a whole lot worse on a little car as well.
That's all at the moment... nothing particularily intelligent to say... maybe next time ;-) ciao
I don't really remember the rest of classes last week, so I guess they weren't exciting. Friday I had the most frustrating afternoon ever trying to straiten out a ticket I got because my transport was was expired... missing my S-bahn to baby sit, taking the next train which only went to the stop one before mine, taking the next train from there which mysteriously decided to skip the next two stops and go to the end stations, waiting in Holzkirchen in the middle of nowhere at the end of the S-bahn line for 40 min, finally getting a train back to my stop only to find that the family had already left and taken the kids with them. God I miss my car. After that I went over to Jen's apartment. She's the other American TA here in Munich and I hadn't seen her since like October, so it was nice to catch up a little and see what her life here is like.
Saturday I got up at the crack of dawn to go to the train station and head out to the mountains for some cross country skiing! woo hoo! I met Diana and a couple woment we got in contact with on the Toytown site. Katie decided she also wanted to come along, though I hope she didn't end up regretting it. She had never been any kind of skiing before and isn't exactly the athletic type. I thought that cross country would be fairly easy to start with. I was apparently wrong. I really didn't think a person could possibly fall so many times on flat ski tracks. Poor Katie. She ended up waiting in the lodge for us while we went out a second time. It was a really really gorgeous trail and a lot of fun to get out there and ski around. I wish I had my skis with me because I want to go again and again and again. I think I'll try a closer place this weekend.
School has been good this week. I did another creative writing kind of lesson with a class on monday. Yesturday I tought a lesson on cowboy which was great. They had a lot of ideas that I had to straiten out a bit. Some seemed to think that there weren't really cowboys, that it's all a myth, others think a cowboy was just anyone walking around the american west with a hat on. oiy. We read some old cowboy poetry, it was fun. I also found out yesturday that the lower grades each have a special advanced group separated based on intelligence tests. And in most cases it's all boys. Hmm. Something smells fishy. The teacher said boys are just pushed more and that girls prefer to stay in the regular class with their friends which boys are more excited to be in an advanced class. I don't know....
It's been snowing a lot this week and things are all messy and slushy. Yesturday morning I had a bit of a scare when my bus was in an accident. It wasn't too bad, but one woman fell out of her seat and was hurt, I'm not sure how badly. Everyone just got off the bus and walked away right away. It seemed like we should have had to wait for the police or something... but I guess not. Anyway, I missed my first class but am otherwise quite alright, I'm glad it wasn't worse. I guess that's the advantage of not driving a car, I don't have to drive in snow or deal with all the repercussions of accidents. It seems weird to just walk away and not have to worry about insurance and accident reports and everything. The inpact of the crash would have been a whole lot worse on a little car as well.
That's all at the moment... nothing particularily intelligent to say... maybe next time ;-) ciao
Tuesday, January 31
plugging along
You know what's great? I got up at 7am this morning (after going to bed at 3am), ran four blocks to the bus stop because I was late, just to come in to school to sit and watch a fifth grade class like I do every tuesday morning, but then, when I got here, the teacher told me that, he forgot to call me, but they're taking a test so I don't need to come. And my next class to go to is not for four hours. "It's ok, I have a book, blah blah" *grumble grumble smolder smolder* Why don't they put some beds in the teachers lounge? a cott at least... I'm sooooo tired :(
ok... deep breath...rant over...
I haven't posted in a while. I've just been very boring lately and am pretty sure you all don't want to read me whining about the same things day after day. But as for the last week or so.... Last wednesday I tought a fifth grade class all by myself. It went reasonably well, plenty of room for improvement. It's hard to not go too fast with them, I think lots of the poor little ones were lost. I don't think any of my other lessons were too interesting. One of my discussion groups, the one with 9 girls, has decided they want to make a movie in english. I'm quite pleased, I never have to plan anything for them, they just talk and talk and talk. And now they have a project, so it's great. Who knows if the movie will acutally ever be made, as long as they practice a little english along the way. Although it would be a shame to not film it, so far the plot sounds pretty stellar. It involves "Cool Girls" and "Girly Girls" and a high school dance competition, and an action scene where the girly girls use their hand bags to fight against the Cool Girls' switch blades. I smell and Oscar.
Friday I babysat for a little 7 year old girl who I'm going to be watching every friday afternoon. It's a German family but they lived in the US for a while and want her to keep up her english. The problem is that after 4 months back here she already doesn't want to speak any english with me. So it's mostly a lot of her speaking in German and me responding in english. I'll have to come up with some games or something. Friday night Katie and I rented Chicago. I love musicals.
Saturday evening I went out to a few bars with the French TA here and her two friends visiting from Paris plus another TA from Quebec working in a small town north of here. Thank heavens the Austrailian TA came later to rescue me from sitting and listening to French with occasional english translations from the Canadian all night. :-P It was quite fun though.
Sunday... I slept and read and only left my room briefly to go for a run in the cold cold coldness. I wouldn't mind running in the cold so much if only my nose didn't run the whole time. Oh, and also if they would shovel something somewhere so I didn't have to run on snow and ice. At least it was sunny and peaceful. Though there are a suprising number of people out walking around in the woods still in the winter time.
Yesturday I actually had to go to work. That's right, only a three day weekend. boo hoo. I had to go in to school for a whole hour. I know, my life is so stressful you're wondering how I manage... anyway, I tought a fun lesson to some 10th graders involving making them write a poem. hee hee hoo hoo, I'll definitely be doing that again in the future. Yesturday evening I went to see Geisha with yet another French Canadian girl I met a few weeks ago. The movie was ok, of course dissapointing after i loved the book so much, as films so often are. The film felt rushed and too short. I think if you hadn't read the book it might be confusing and you woulnd't understand the charactors motivations most of the time. But it's very pretty and it was fun to see all the Kimonos and things I had been reading about. After the movie Diana (said Canadian) talked me into staying to watch the next showing of Munich because some of her coworkers were coming to meet her. So I did. It was good, certainly entertaining. Some very overly romantisized Spielberg moments and I'm sure the whole political situation was way over simplified and dramatized. But it was good and I think did a fairly good job at not being too confusing and trying to show the motivation behind all the terrorism. Usually movies that involve terrorism confuse me a lot, so I'd say that's and accomplishment. Plus it's super emotional and sappy as well, as expected. Also really quite gory, just to warn you.
I didn't get home until after 1am and then Eric called me! which was a lovely surprise. We don't talk on the phone often, or ever. I don't have a land line so I can't call the US unless I pay out the nose to use my cell phone. (So I hope you havn't been expecting a call from me) We e-mail and chat on IM a lot. I think its something about our english major nature, because sometiems we're better at writing things than speaking. I also have the tendancy to talk very very quietly, you may have noticed, which is not good for phone calls. But it sure is nice to hear his voice from time to time. If anyone else wants to call me, I'll be very happy to hear you!
Still four weeks to go until my next break at the end of Feb. I'll be traveling to Duisburg to stay with Lindsay and go to Karnival (Mardi Gras, Fasching, Fat Tuesday) in Cologne. Then hanging out somewhere up in northern germany, probably visiting Muenster at some point, until our Fulbright conference starts the next week in Berlin.
I'm working on planing spring break in April... planning on meeting a few other fulbrighters in Corfu, Greece. Hopefully Eric can come too, not sure yet. I'm soooooooo excited to go somewhere warm! Have I mentioned that it's cold here??
ok... deep breath...rant over...
I haven't posted in a while. I've just been very boring lately and am pretty sure you all don't want to read me whining about the same things day after day. But as for the last week or so.... Last wednesday I tought a fifth grade class all by myself. It went reasonably well, plenty of room for improvement. It's hard to not go too fast with them, I think lots of the poor little ones were lost. I don't think any of my other lessons were too interesting. One of my discussion groups, the one with 9 girls, has decided they want to make a movie in english. I'm quite pleased, I never have to plan anything for them, they just talk and talk and talk. And now they have a project, so it's great. Who knows if the movie will acutally ever be made, as long as they practice a little english along the way. Although it would be a shame to not film it, so far the plot sounds pretty stellar. It involves "Cool Girls" and "Girly Girls" and a high school dance competition, and an action scene where the girly girls use their hand bags to fight against the Cool Girls' switch blades. I smell and Oscar.
Friday I babysat for a little 7 year old girl who I'm going to be watching every friday afternoon. It's a German family but they lived in the US for a while and want her to keep up her english. The problem is that after 4 months back here she already doesn't want to speak any english with me. So it's mostly a lot of her speaking in German and me responding in english. I'll have to come up with some games or something. Friday night Katie and I rented Chicago. I love musicals.
Saturday evening I went out to a few bars with the French TA here and her two friends visiting from Paris plus another TA from Quebec working in a small town north of here. Thank heavens the Austrailian TA came later to rescue me from sitting and listening to French with occasional english translations from the Canadian all night. :-P It was quite fun though.
Sunday... I slept and read and only left my room briefly to go for a run in the cold cold coldness. I wouldn't mind running in the cold so much if only my nose didn't run the whole time. Oh, and also if they would shovel something somewhere so I didn't have to run on snow and ice. At least it was sunny and peaceful. Though there are a suprising number of people out walking around in the woods still in the winter time.
Yesturday I actually had to go to work. That's right, only a three day weekend. boo hoo. I had to go in to school for a whole hour. I know, my life is so stressful you're wondering how I manage... anyway, I tought a fun lesson to some 10th graders involving making them write a poem. hee hee hoo hoo, I'll definitely be doing that again in the future. Yesturday evening I went to see Geisha with yet another French Canadian girl I met a few weeks ago. The movie was ok, of course dissapointing after i loved the book so much, as films so often are. The film felt rushed and too short. I think if you hadn't read the book it might be confusing and you woulnd't understand the charactors motivations most of the time. But it's very pretty and it was fun to see all the Kimonos and things I had been reading about. After the movie Diana (said Canadian) talked me into staying to watch the next showing of Munich because some of her coworkers were coming to meet her. So I did. It was good, certainly entertaining. Some very overly romantisized Spielberg moments and I'm sure the whole political situation was way over simplified and dramatized. But it was good and I think did a fairly good job at not being too confusing and trying to show the motivation behind all the terrorism. Usually movies that involve terrorism confuse me a lot, so I'd say that's and accomplishment. Plus it's super emotional and sappy as well, as expected. Also really quite gory, just to warn you.
I didn't get home until after 1am and then Eric called me! which was a lovely surprise. We don't talk on the phone often, or ever. I don't have a land line so I can't call the US unless I pay out the nose to use my cell phone. (So I hope you havn't been expecting a call from me) We e-mail and chat on IM a lot. I think its something about our english major nature, because sometiems we're better at writing things than speaking. I also have the tendancy to talk very very quietly, you may have noticed, which is not good for phone calls. But it sure is nice to hear his voice from time to time. If anyone else wants to call me, I'll be very happy to hear you!
Still four weeks to go until my next break at the end of Feb. I'll be traveling to Duisburg to stay with Lindsay and go to Karnival (Mardi Gras, Fasching, Fat Tuesday) in Cologne. Then hanging out somewhere up in northern germany, probably visiting Muenster at some point, until our Fulbright conference starts the next week in Berlin.
I'm working on planing spring break in April... planning on meeting a few other fulbrighters in Corfu, Greece. Hopefully Eric can come too, not sure yet. I'm soooooooo excited to go somewhere warm! Have I mentioned that it's cold here??
Tuesday, January 24
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose...
But you can't pick your friends' noses.
I was reminded of those great words of wisdom today when the little boy I was babysitting tried to pick my nose. But when I shared my little saying with him he promply responded, "No, mom says we can't pick our nose." The obvious solution being to pick mine instead... kids are weird. At least the little ones are more managable than the older ones....
The seventh grade classes are currently practicing for or have recently taken oral exams and a few teachers have asked me to help by taking half the class into another room to oversee some roleplay excersizes. This is generally the kind of task that I like, one in which everything is pre-planned for me, and I feel useful. But the last class I've worked with the last couple weeks if awful. They know I'm not a real teacher, I can't give them grades, i can't punish them , I can't test them, so why should they listen to me or do anything I say? arg. They can be soooooo obnoxious and horrible and rude. It's unbelievable how inconsiderate seventh graders are. I mean, I fogive them for it, because they are 12 or so and life is rough, but the lengths some of the boys will go to to get attention and show off are rediculous. gah.
That's all for my rant today.
In general life has been pretty slow... hence the blogging has also been slow. I've taken to reading a lot, I nearly forgot how much I enjoyed it. I finished Kafka on the Shore last week, and read Five Quarters of the Orange, now I'm on to Memiors of a Geisha which I plan to finish this week so I can see the film Sunday or Monday. I would be quite content to stay in my room under my warm covers with a stack of books for the next couple months until it gets warm outside again. I know.... I'm a terrible Minnesotan. But really, it's cold. And my bed is warm. I'm going to get into it now.
warm wishes!
I was reminded of those great words of wisdom today when the little boy I was babysitting tried to pick my nose. But when I shared my little saying with him he promply responded, "No, mom says we can't pick our nose." The obvious solution being to pick mine instead... kids are weird. At least the little ones are more managable than the older ones....
The seventh grade classes are currently practicing for or have recently taken oral exams and a few teachers have asked me to help by taking half the class into another room to oversee some roleplay excersizes. This is generally the kind of task that I like, one in which everything is pre-planned for me, and I feel useful. But the last class I've worked with the last couple weeks if awful. They know I'm not a real teacher, I can't give them grades, i can't punish them , I can't test them, so why should they listen to me or do anything I say? arg. They can be soooooo obnoxious and horrible and rude. It's unbelievable how inconsiderate seventh graders are. I mean, I fogive them for it, because they are 12 or so and life is rough, but the lengths some of the boys will go to to get attention and show off are rediculous. gah.
That's all for my rant today.
In general life has been pretty slow... hence the blogging has also been slow. I've taken to reading a lot, I nearly forgot how much I enjoyed it. I finished Kafka on the Shore last week, and read Five Quarters of the Orange, now I'm on to Memiors of a Geisha which I plan to finish this week so I can see the film Sunday or Monday. I would be quite content to stay in my room under my warm covers with a stack of books for the next couple months until it gets warm outside again. I know.... I'm a terrible Minnesotan. But really, it's cold. And my bed is warm. I'm going to get into it now.
warm wishes!
Monday, January 16
cold cold cold
dark and cold. is how I'd describe munich at the moment.... most of the northern hemisphere I suppose. sigh... january... blah.
So, this week... school was fine. definitely had trouble adjusting to getting up early, not that I was every really adjusted, it doesn't work when you only have to get up early three days a week. I'm still figuring out which classes I may kind of switch into within the next couple weeks. It's frustrating. I wish more teachers would approach me and ask me to do something, and not "oh, just do anything for 45 min" that's the worst, I wish more of them had specific things for me to do. I don't feel particularily useful most of the time.
Anyway. I haven't done much during my four day weekend... a little shopping, a bit of running out in the cold cold coldness, watching movies on tv. I cleaned my room finally. Yesturday I went to Narnia with Katie (I love it!), met Peter for coffe and the baby sat. Today I got my hair cut finally. It's a bit shorter than I intended, but it works. Also, I wanted to excersize today but couldn't bring myself to go outside in the cold again, so I jump-roped, in my tiny little room. If you could see my room you would realize how rediculous this picture is, but I manged without hitting anything and now I have something to do while I watch Gilmore Girls every day at 4pm! Tonight I went and saw Match Point with Peter and his friends. It was really good, but I'd like to see it again in English next time, I don't mind watching some movies dubbed in German, but this one has Brittish and Irish and American accents and it seems like so much of the charactors is missing without the language. And I think I missed a lot of the humor, it's quite dark at parts and all the germans were lauging and I could see how it could be funny... it's just hard for me to read tone of voice when I'm listening to German.
Tomorrow it's back to school.... three long days....
I've been a bit down this week, I had been looking forward to seeing my family and Eric for so long, and now it's over and I don't have anything to look forward to for a while. My next break is at the end of February when I plan to go visit Lindsay near Cologne to go to Karnival there and then we have the Berlin conference the next week. So all that will be fun. And Munich can be fun too... I just am kind of sick of it I guess, and less anxious to make friends and settle in more because I'll just be leaving again in five months. Five months is plenty of time I know. That's like more than more whole semester abroad. So I can certainly make more friends and continue to make myself more at home here in that amount of time. I miss home! I know I still have a lot left to learn and experience here somehow, I just don't see what it is at the moment. I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'm looking forward to springtime.
Better get to bed... I'm teaching and babysitting tomorrow so it's going to be a long one!
So, this week... school was fine. definitely had trouble adjusting to getting up early, not that I was every really adjusted, it doesn't work when you only have to get up early three days a week. I'm still figuring out which classes I may kind of switch into within the next couple weeks. It's frustrating. I wish more teachers would approach me and ask me to do something, and not "oh, just do anything for 45 min" that's the worst, I wish more of them had specific things for me to do. I don't feel particularily useful most of the time.
Anyway. I haven't done much during my four day weekend... a little shopping, a bit of running out in the cold cold coldness, watching movies on tv. I cleaned my room finally. Yesturday I went to Narnia with Katie (I love it!), met Peter for coffe and the baby sat. Today I got my hair cut finally. It's a bit shorter than I intended, but it works. Also, I wanted to excersize today but couldn't bring myself to go outside in the cold again, so I jump-roped, in my tiny little room. If you could see my room you would realize how rediculous this picture is, but I manged without hitting anything and now I have something to do while I watch Gilmore Girls every day at 4pm! Tonight I went and saw Match Point with Peter and his friends. It was really good, but I'd like to see it again in English next time, I don't mind watching some movies dubbed in German, but this one has Brittish and Irish and American accents and it seems like so much of the charactors is missing without the language. And I think I missed a lot of the humor, it's quite dark at parts and all the germans were lauging and I could see how it could be funny... it's just hard for me to read tone of voice when I'm listening to German.
Tomorrow it's back to school.... three long days....
I've been a bit down this week, I had been looking forward to seeing my family and Eric for so long, and now it's over and I don't have anything to look forward to for a while. My next break is at the end of February when I plan to go visit Lindsay near Cologne to go to Karnival there and then we have the Berlin conference the next week. So all that will be fun. And Munich can be fun too... I just am kind of sick of it I guess, and less anxious to make friends and settle in more because I'll just be leaving again in five months. Five months is plenty of time I know. That's like more than more whole semester abroad. So I can certainly make more friends and continue to make myself more at home here in that amount of time. I miss home! I know I still have a lot left to learn and experience here somehow, I just don't see what it is at the moment. I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'm looking forward to springtime.
Better get to bed... I'm teaching and babysitting tomorrow so it's going to be a long one!
Wednesday, January 11
Winter Break Part Two: Eric!!
snow angels!!
Originally uploaded by annieswims05.
After my parents left I had one day to chill and clean my room before getting up well before dawn to go and pick Eric up from the airport.
I shall try not to be to nausiatingly mushy here, but really it was a magical week together. Walking around Munich, going out to eat, cooking together, seeing firworks on New Years Eve --- which was crazy! I thought there would be like a big city sponsored display and then a few people with sparklers, oh no! Everyone and their mother was out with huge amounts of explosives and alcohole in town shooting off fireworks wherever they pleased all over the city. It was fun and exciting and very terrifying all at the same time. We also went to Salzburg for a couple days which was soooo pretty. They had just had like three feet of snow and it continued to snow the entire time we were there. We hiked around the mountain with the castle on it. It looked like what I imagine Narnia would have looked like to Lucy when she stepped out of the wardrom. Seriously. Gorgeous. We wandered, threw snowballs, made snow angels, went back to town and had some beer and soup. It was great :)
It was very hard to say goodbye saterday morning and I spent all of Saturday sitting in bed holding back tears and watching every movie on television includeing some really bad ones, like 'The Fly'. gross. By Sunday I pulled myself out of it and even went out ice skating with a girl from Toytown and a random guy staying with her through couchsurfing.com, Oh internet... how would people ever make connections without you?
Monday I went to the city to the housing office to try and figure out why they had sent me an eviction letter a couple weeks ago. Did I mention that? yeah. Turns out I didn't give them a copy of the reciept I got when I registered my address with the city, which no one ever told me I was supposed to give them in the first place. Luckily I've learned by now that Germans like paperwork and I managed to find the little flimsy carbon copy slip at the bottom of my drawer. So I have to go back friday and give that to them.
Since then it's been back to teaching! whoopy... I have to go teach now in fact, so I'll continue this later. But it's been nice catching up.
Happy New Year!
Winter Break Part One: Family time
neuschwanstein
Originally uploaded by photoschwalbe.
This photo is the winner of our family vacation photo contest which my parents ingeniously came up with during their trip here. It kept Scott at least mildly entertained trying to take the best pictures at all the horribly boring (for a 12 year old boy) sites that we visited. Sadly Scott's photos were beat out by the Japanese tourist who snapped this shot for us. Sorry Scott.
I had a great week with my family despite some hectic moments despite being somewhat unprepared for EVERYTHING being closed the 24th-26th. We still managed to get in some shopping, we saw the Nymphenburg Palace and the Deutsches museum, and ate our fair share of Bavarian food. The last couple days we went to Garmish, but stoped on the way to see Neuschwanstein (King Ludwig II's fairy tale castle in the Alps). We did some skiing and walking around the cute little town in Garmish before they had to head back home. I'm happy that they came, but sad that I couldn't go home and see everyone, I miss everone and everything. July seems awfly far away sometimes....
On to part two...
Tuesday, December 27
Froeliche Weinachted
I've been having a merry last few days here with my family plus Julia who came down from Rostock. Today we are off to Garmish for some skiing.
Just wanted to write a quick update and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Peace and Love,
Anne
Just wanted to write a quick update and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Peace and Love,
Anne
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