Ok, so I've been meaning to post for a while and haven't. Things have kind of fallen into a routine though, and I'm feeling pretty settled. I'm really starting to appreciate a lot of things about living in Gross Bieberau. I've been seeing more students around town, and faces are starting to be familiar. Plus, the weather the past week has been great! Although it's been foggy and cool in the mornings, most of the afternoons have been sunny and warm. This afternoon Emily and I went and walked around the Naturpark outside of town. It was great - perfect weather!
Things at school are going pretty well. Things are definitely picking up. Break started this weekend, so I have 2 weeks free, but after break, I think I will be pretty busy. I will hopefully be starting up with some tutoring to make some extra money. In addition my English AG (after school club that will include creative writing, discussion, short stories, and maybe some films) will be starting the first Thursday after break. There seems to be quite a bit of interest, so that's exciting. I think the students are getting more comfortable with me, and some are really excited that I'm here.
I've kind of accepted that I don't really think I'm going to have German friends here, at least not really my age in Gross-Bieberau. Fortunately, there are some TA's in the area that I can hang out with. I hung out with Emily (TA in Roedermark, living in Darmstadt), Jessica (TA in Darmstadt, living just outside of Darmstadt), and Lisa (TA in Frankfurt). We hung out Friday night and yesterday. Tomorrow we are making dinner together at Emily's and may be going to a movie. We are planning to hopefully get together at least once every week to make dinner at someone's apartment.
Tomorrow Emily and I are headed to the University in Darmstadt to hopefully, finally get ourselves registered! We both have our diplomas and transripts, so hopefully it will work out. Then Tuesday we are heading to Poland. We are planning on going to Warsaw and Krakow for about a week. Lisa may come with us to Warsaw and then come back. We are pretty excited. Emily and I have both never been to Poland, so it should be quite the adventure!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Teaching, Teaching
This weekend I spent hanging out with Emily. On Friday, she moved into an apartment in Darmstadt. Her mentor owns the apartment, and no one is using it, so they are letting Emily stay there for the year. The apartment is right near the center of town and is super nice! Friday was also Emily's Birthday, so it was nice for her to finally get settled on her birthday.
Friday night we went out for dinner. We found a cheap, good Asian restaurant in Darmstadt, so we are pretty excited about that. After dinner we just went back, hung out, and went to bed early. We are both getting used to our schedules during the week...we went to bed around 11 and got up before 8am! Saturday we ran errands around town to help Emily get settled. Although her apartment is fully furnished she needed somethings like laundry detergent, trash cans, and groceries.
Saturday evening we took the bus back to Gross Bieberau. Again Saturday night we just hung out, watched a movie, and went to bed early. Sunday morning we went to mass here in Gross Bieberau. This weekend was a Family Mass (every other week was a family mass), which was nice. The whole mass was geared toward children, and although the message was simple, it still s important for everyone. I really like the church here and am hoping to get to know some people there. I'm hoping that as people start to notice I'm there, and as I get more comfortable, I will start talking to people.
Emily took the bus back to Darmstadt around 11:30, because she needed to get back and work on her apartment. In addition, I needed to get to work on my lesson plans for today. Today I taught a lesson on the "Roaring 20s" to the 10th grade bilingual history class. I think it went relatively well. We talked about various political happenings, inventions, fashion, and other important events. They seemed to respond pretty well. I really like the 10th grade history class. There are only 17 students, and they all seem very nice and are hard-workers. I think the plan is that I will teach them on my own every Monday.
This afternoon, I taught a double period to the 12th graders. I taught about the US Constitution, includng the branches of government and checks and balances, the electoral college, and the upcoming midterm election. It was a lot of information, but they seemed to get it. There are two students in the class who did an exchange year in the United States, so it's a lot of review for them. It's nice to have them in the class though, because they are less afraid to participate and are more comfortable speaking English.
Monika told me that both the lessons went well, so I'm happy about that. It's really hard to tell what the students think, but hopefully they learned something!
Friday night we went out for dinner. We found a cheap, good Asian restaurant in Darmstadt, so we are pretty excited about that. After dinner we just went back, hung out, and went to bed early. We are both getting used to our schedules during the week...we went to bed around 11 and got up before 8am! Saturday we ran errands around town to help Emily get settled. Although her apartment is fully furnished she needed somethings like laundry detergent, trash cans, and groceries.
Saturday evening we took the bus back to Gross Bieberau. Again Saturday night we just hung out, watched a movie, and went to bed early. Sunday morning we went to mass here in Gross Bieberau. This weekend was a Family Mass (every other week was a family mass), which was nice. The whole mass was geared toward children, and although the message was simple, it still s important for everyone. I really like the church here and am hoping to get to know some people there. I'm hoping that as people start to notice I'm there, and as I get more comfortable, I will start talking to people.
Emily took the bus back to Darmstadt around 11:30, because she needed to get back and work on her apartment. In addition, I needed to get to work on my lesson plans for today. Today I taught a lesson on the "Roaring 20s" to the 10th grade bilingual history class. I think it went relatively well. We talked about various political happenings, inventions, fashion, and other important events. They seemed to respond pretty well. I really like the 10th grade history class. There are only 17 students, and they all seem very nice and are hard-workers. I think the plan is that I will teach them on my own every Monday.
This afternoon, I taught a double period to the 12th graders. I taught about the US Constitution, includng the branches of government and checks and balances, the electoral college, and the upcoming midterm election. It was a lot of information, but they seemed to get it. There are two students in the class who did an exchange year in the United States, so it's a lot of review for them. It's nice to have them in the class though, because they are less afraid to participate and are more comfortable speaking English.
Monika told me that both the lessons went well, so I'm happy about that. It's really hard to tell what the students think, but hopefully they learned something!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Tent....Weekend at Oktoberfest
So on Friday after school I took the bus to the train station in Darmstadt. Since I was taking the bus at about 1pm, it was full of students from my school! It was kind of interesting. A couple of the them recognized me and talked to me, which was nice. From Darmstadt I got on a train to Munich. In Stuttgart, Erin joined me on the train. When we got to Munich, we decided to wait for Liz and Amber, so we grabbed some dinner. Once Liz and Amber got there, we ventured to our hostel, "The Tent".
We made our plans to go to Oktoberfest pretty late, so we could not find a reasonably priced hostel. We still really wanted to go, so we decided to camp at "The Tent". It's located on the outskirts of Munich, so it took a while to get out there on Friday. We got out there, checked in, and set up our tent. It was pretty late by then, so we decided to hang out there for the night. There was a campfire and a lot of people around. While sitting at the campfire, I saw a guy wearing a Notre Dame fleece, so I asked him if he went to ND. Turns out there was a group of kids from the Notre Dame program in Toledo there, so we hung out with them for the night. They also lent us some extra blankets for the night! Needless to say that was very helpful, because it was very cold on Friday night, and none of us had sleeping bags.
Saturday we got up, packed up our stuff (determined not to return to the tent that night), and headed off to Oktoberfest. Fortunately, Erin's Dad was able to get us into the tent where his company had a table. Before heading in we met up with Pete, a 2000 ND grad. It can be really difficult to get into tents at Oktoberfest since they have limited capacity. But the only way to get beer and really experience Oktoberfest is in the tents. There was a live band and lots of people dancing and celebrating in Lederhosen and Dirndl (the traditional Bayerish dress).
In the afternoon, we headed to the train station to meet Emily. She wasn't able to come until Saturday afternoon, because she had been on a field trip with her school to Cornwall. The rest of the day we spent around Oktoberfest. That night we headed to a bar where we were hoping to watch the Notre Dame game against Purdue. Unfortunately, none of the channels in Germany were playing it. We did get to hang out and watch some football though. The only game that was showing was the Alabama/Florida game, but at least it was football! That night we were able to stay at Pete's apartment, which was a nice change from the tent. Liz and Lotti took the night train back to Vienna because Monday was their first day of teaching.
Sunday, Erin, Emily, and I headed back to Oktoberfest. We spent the day hanging out at the tents and meeting different people. Emily took and evening train back to Roedermark, while Erin and I took a night train back to her house in Weil am Rhein. I had Monday and Tuesday off form school (Tuesday was Tag der deutschen Einheit, German Unity Day). Monday, Erin and I spent the day watching movies and hanging out, and I took a train back early Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday, Emily came to Gross-Bieberau for the day. We were able to buy plane tickets to Vienna for Thanksgiving (there is hopefully going to be a Waldsee Thanksgiving in Vienna), and we talked about our plans for our fall break. We have the last two weeks of October off and are hoping to maybe plan a trip to Spain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
