Thanksgiving in Germany

Hello!

I haven’t updated the blog since my bike accident (just scrapes on my hands and one knee, a rip in some jeans, and some hurt pride), and the email group since even earlier! So here goes:

The Germans have a holiday on October the 3rd to celebrate their Reunification. Every year it’s held in a different province, and this year it was in my province! So I took the train to Kiel, and saw part of the parade of bands from each province (the coolest was the one from Bremen – they had kites and people on stilts!) I met up with some English-assistant friends, and met some new ones too. There were lots of food stands, and info booths on each province. The only problem was, there was a giant crowd of people you had to battle your way through to see these booths. So after picking up a few pamphlets and maps, I gave up. But it was nice to be part of such a national event!

The next two days were less-than-encouraging, with scrapes and cancelled classes all over. But I survived them, had coffee with a friend Friday morning, and then Mom and Dad arrived on Friday! They stayed in my room, and I moved to the blue guest room ( I know- what a hard life I lead). I showed them my schools and the nearby villages, they got to know the Bensels, and we planned the end of their trip. When they drove off for Sweden on Sunday, I actually felt more home-sick! It’s lovely to see them, and they’ll be back today.

I moved on Monday after school – now I live with the Tiefenbakers. The mother, Anna, is a physiotherapist, but isn’t currently practicing, as she has her hands full with the three children. Max, at 8, is in 3rd grade, and starting to be quite independent. Sophie is 6, and loves attention, but is easily irritated by her siblings. Cecila is 4, and still tries to pull the baby card, crying ‘mama’ for all she’s worth, although she can also ride a bike on her own! They’re all sweet as can be, and well mannered, but still a lot of work. I find every night just after they go to bed (7 -8ish), I’m quite ready to crash too! It helps with the early mornings. (Every once and a while I just look around at the little crowd of blonde children and feel like I’m in Mary Poppins or Sound of Music! Just a tiny bit surreal)

The family has a computer connected to the internet, so I’m not at all in the stone age here, but I don’t like feeling like I’m hogging it, so I try not to use it too often.

The other events this week? Mostly at the elementary school. On Wednesday night there was a school conference, which means all the teachers and parents sit and chat. I had to introduce myself, which was intimidating, but hardly the focus of the evening. There’s this crazy conflict between the parents, who want English to be taught from grade 1-4, and the teachers, who just want to do what the ministry requires. I offered to do an after-school English class with the grade 2s, to help smooth things over. I’ll keep you posted on that!

Yesterday (Thursday) evening was Lantern-Evening. The music teacher prepared some songs with the children about fall, and they sang outside around 7:00. I had taught the eldest an English version of ‘The wheels on the bus’ with words about leaves instead. I ended up playing background music beforehand, and also playing piano throughout. That was a bit much, especially when the little curious kids would stand right beside-behind-before me, and stare. But the whole idea of the evening seems really great to me! After this music bit, everyone from the town all marched through the village (the kids had lanterns), with a flute band leading the way. At the end the fire department were selling drinks and wurst, and there were even fireworks! It felt much more social than Halloween.

I have to say, that I still miss Thankgiving. There’s something about turkey that fireworks and sausage can’t replace! But I have tons to be thankful for: wonderful hosts and schools here, and great friends and family back home!

Take care, everyone!
Russ

Not such an amazing day

So I was pretty proud of myself: after a 5-day weekend, I was at school just in time for the earliest morning of the week: 8am! (Some of you out there are saying, "boo-hoo", I know. But! I rode a bike half an hour to get there. So ha!)

That's when my first bit of bad-luck occurred. I went to class, and saw that they were writing a test. The teacher said, "oh! I'm sorry! I sent you a text", and sure enough, she had, that very morning, about 3 minutes after I woke up at 6:30.

But hey, I like reading in an empty staffroom. So I read some German history magazine, and then a english book about growing pot, then I went to my other class, and didn't do too much there, and started biking to the elementary school, where I help last block on Wednesdays. That's when back luck number two happened. I was coasting down a hill, and I saw that there was a lady with a stroller on the sidewalk, so I thought, "oh! I'll just drive around her, on the road!". No problem - no traffic or anything. But the driveway entrance I thought I saw wasn't really so low, so I didn't quite make it back onto the sidewalk/bikepath.

Well, I did, but in more of a skid-to-a-halt-on-hands-and-knee way. It didn't ever really hurt much, but it was a heck of a shock.

The worst part was the spectators. A car driving by slowed down, and I had to shout, "just fine!" in German, when all I wanted to do was sit for a moment. Then the lady with the stroller was there, offering to take me home and patch me up (so sweet!), but I didn't quite feel up to the German-chatting-with-a-stranger, and I was a bit ashamed to be taken care of at 23. So I said, (honestly) that home wasn't far away, and I biked (slowly and carefully) home.

Luckily, I have about 2 hours between schools on Wednesday, so I was still at the elementary school about an hour early, where they told me that they wouldn't need me - they had to shuffle the schedule to fill in for a missing teacher.

So I skinned my knee and hands, and ripped a favourite pair of jeans, so I could make it to one less-than-interesting class today.

Boo. Choir better be good tonight.

September wrap-up

Hello hello!

I've been settling into quite a nice pace here in Hamburg, gradually leading the classes more, and sitting around uselessly less. A week ago, I led a grade 8 class for their entire period, and it wasn't a disaster! I was very proud.

Since I emailed you last I watched a church children's musical entitled "Joseph and his brothers", which had an amazing number of children trooping on and off the stage. My two current host-siblings were the meanest brother, and a guard. I still prefer Joseph with a technicolour dreamcoat, but it was a nice local show.

I've taken books out of the high school library, and borrowed from my host-family too- I now have reading material to last until about January. If not longer.

Last weekend, I met up with some other english-assistants in Hamburg on our Friday off. We saw a nice park, looked through a temporary China-market (made me homesick for Vancouver a bit! lol), and had a few drinks. We also made big plans- we thought, "Let's go to Dresden for the long weekend!" (this weekend, Tuesday is off for German Unity Day, and schools are closed Monday as well)

As one of two people with internet at my place, I was suddenly in the main-organizer role. I asked people to tell me by Tuesday if they wanted to come. But come Tuesday, there weren't any hostels to be found with 9 beds free in Dresden. Luckily, Matt, the other one with internet, found a place in Leipzig. So we went there for two nights, and then to Erfuhrt, a provincial capital nearby. This sounds easy to do, but remember the 9 people part. There were a LOT of phone calls, texts, and emails involved, even before we met each other Thursday afternoon.

Luckily, all these people are worth the effort. We were pretty evenly split: 4 Canadians, 5 Brits, 4 guys, 5 girls.... and other than the hostel hassle, everyone took turns playing leader and follower.

Leipzig has a whole bunch of personality- some parts beautifully restored, and other parts very cheekily modern, like a building covered with cartoons of famous people: Handel next to Arnold Schwarzegger next to Jesus, next to Neil Young, next to Voltaire. God was the best- just his name, no picture. It still has some bits which look quite East-German-institutional, but that almost makes it more interesting.

It's also the city that lays a big claim on JS Bach, so I heard a motet concert at St Thomas Cathedal, where he worked back in the day. It was beautifully sung music (especially "3 Latin Motets" by Niels la Cour 1944-_____, music-types!) That same evening I managed to race across town and watch a Verdi opera I hadn't heard of before: Luisa Miller, based on a Schiller play. It was staged in a really interesting, but not-too-jarring way, with a giant revolving glass building in the middle of the stage.... it was a very typical opera type of story: two lovers torn apart by their families, who poison themselves to be together in heaven, and they sing the entire 3rd act staggering around, already poisoned. I loved it! (and it was good to get away from the others for an evening)

We found a really cool cafe with a yummy cheap breakfast cafe (picture)- it was decorated like the style of an artist/architect named Hundertwasser. He's this really cool artist, who liked bright colors and thought that we should live in houses that aren't so machine-square. He designed a building or two in Vienna which have curved floors and irregular walls and things - he thought it was more natural. SO cool!


Speaking of modern art- a few of us went into the art museum there (I'm getting addicted to all this culture), and the first room we entered was just POWERFUL! (The "over-16" and "enter at your own risk" signs should have warned us) Inside was this giant shack, with a few pictures of Nazis, and a bunch of painted word fragments and things- very obscure. Inside the shack was a sowly revolving building, and this droning organ music was playing. Everything was dirty, and dark. About 8 or 9 video screens were playing often very disturbing loops of Nazi footage... it was very disorienting. Somehow it still felt worth doing. I can't explain it! It made the old masters on the next floor feel a bit mundane, though.

Outside the museum was a Toyota exhibit, as part of a city festival. They were giving out free test rides. So Josh started asking about it, and it sounded like there wasn't a lot of actual pressure to buy the cars at all. He asked Anna and I if we wanted to do it, and we said yes. But suddenly things turned around, and as the non-Brit among the three of us, I was nominated to drive: The other two were used to driving on the wrong side of the road! So I suddenly driving around the town in a Rav 4, with a Toyota fellow in the back seat, giving quiet directions in German or English, as he saw fit. It was a tiny bit worrying, but we stayed on 50km/h roads, and I only had a few honking horns and exciting changing-4-lanes-really-fast moments.

The only other interesting moment came last night: I was catching the city train back to my current Hamburg home last night, and was still with one other girl, Helen. At her stop, the train announced that we should all get off, which was normal, because only every other train goes as far as my stop. We said goodbye, I waited for the next train, but then they were told the same thing! I listened more closely, and the announcement said something about, "next train station is being renovated" and "special bus". So I left the train area, and walked around the less-than cheery station with my bags, (one of those stations with groups of sullen older teens hanging out - really charming at 9pm), and asked one or two bus drivers for help, and they didn't know anything about this special bus. My cell phone wasn't working, my host family was out sailing anyhow, there were no taxis in sight... I just thought, "How is it that I lead 8 people around cities I don't know at all, but I'm stranded here two stops from my home?!" Luckily, the third stranger I asked finally knew something, and directed me to the special bus, which was on the other side of the station from the other busses, (of course). I don't remember being so happy to see a bus!

What's next, you ask? Well, this weekend coming up, my parents are coming to Europe! I'm going to show them around, then they're off to a Volvo plant in Sweden during the week while I go to school next week (and move to family #2, with younger children), and then during their 2nd weekend and week, I have fall holidays, so I'll play tourist with them! I'm very excited about all these changes, but I still need to prepare lots!

Take care, wonderful reader! I hope you're doing well, and settling into your new fall routines.

Russ