I come from the land of Plastics.

The last two weeks have been rather uneventful to be entirely honest. however, I have had (as always) some weekend fun. Bochum turned into going to a tiny ghetto movie theater (which was only 5 Euros!) to see the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Emily and I did an extremely good job following this rather acid trippy movie in German. I did sort of start to lose my attention span when I realized they put real melted butter on the popcorn. There was an actual pool of it on the bottom of the bucket...cold soggy butter popcorn = the first time in my life I thought "maybe that's too much butter." Saturday we met a few girls in Essen where I was forced to sled down an ice ramp in front of Germans as well as go ice skating. Now when you picture the sledding hill...think of those big colorful slides at the fair that you ride down on a towel. Cover that with ice and there you go! (was that too Midwestern of a comment?) This past week though was an interesting one for the German school system. Student report cards get handed out tomorrow (on Friday). In order to insure that they are ready in time the following measures are taken: 1. Tuesday there is no school and teacher sit around with their big black folders of grades and decide which students are nice enough to deserve better grades than they earned. No I'm not joking. Teacher 1: "Well Timo only got a 4, but he's a pretty nice kid." Teacher 2: "Yea I think he's a pretty swell kid. Should we give him a 2?" Teacher 1: "Yea sounds like a plan." 2. All German teachers shut down. In other words I got to teach an extra four lessons this week because they didn't want to do any more work than fill out their gradebooks into the big black folders. It's very stressful when you only have to figure out their grade twice a year. 3. Fridays are the equivalent to that last day of elementary school that only lasted an hour. The kids go in get their report cards and at 10:25 they get to go home. Pretty sweet huh? 4. Last but not least Monday morning the school schedule changes. The teachers are emailed their new schedules on Sunday night; however, I not being a teacher will not receive a schedule. Aka I'm going in blind on Monday. Woo. I didn't intend to sound sooo grumpy, but I'm a little grumpy today so it comes with the territory. Other school news: One of y 13th graders told me she sees Americans as plastic people who come from a land of plastic. I picked up an extra hour every week where I get to teach whatever I want (alinging to the theme). Tomorrow I got invited to a school dance. Sweet. The theme is "over and under the sea." Oh and my school "tentatively" offered me a teaching job for next year. I politely said I'd have to consider it, but I didn't think it would align with my plans for next year. Saturday I'm going to a wedding expo with Katie (the engaged one), Emily, and Merianna. We are going to pretend to be rich snotty foreign women and demand only the best. Katie herself said she expects a lot of "tutting." Well that's it for now. A very boring post...don't you think?

Wait...what am I supposed to be doing again?

Well hello boys and girls...ladies and gents.

The past two weeks since my re-arrival in this wonderful weird twilight zone of a country have proved to be survivable. That's right, I am not dead....yet. Needless to say they have led me to have some interesting observations on this far and distant land that I was yet to have.

School was as always rather uneventful. No one showed up to my tutoring classes yet again. I did not get to teach any lessons yet again. BUT I had one more girl show up to my speaking course last week. So rather than having an hour of talking with Dennis the self-proclaimed American hating anarchist 17-year-old...Marie the cute little violin player joined us! I got a tip from my friend Sadie (she's the one on the left in that picture) and decided to try to talk about "What Germany means to me?" You know that age old question posed to third graders across the USA (insert America for Germany obviously). Their insights were rather entertaining.

Neither of them, both young Germans had EVER thought about their country with any sense of pride. They had never thought of what they found positive or proud of...so I attempted to switch the question--"What do you not like about your country?" They listed things for roughly 30 minutes. The politics, the politicians, the way they treat people, they way Germans tend not to be so friendly, etc. etc. etc. I've tried to think of the implications for a country where even the youth are not proud to be a part of it. They are not proud to be German, but as of yet I'm not quite sure what that means. I do realize where the sentiment comes from; however, I'm not sure where it will lead them in the future. Ideas?

Outside of school I haven't accomplished too much. Our hip hop class added an old song to the playlist (Janet Jackson's "All for you" ). I ventured down to my friend Sadie's with Katie (on the right in that picture) and Merianna for the weekend. We baked (scones, cookies), ate, drank, and went bowling with a German girl named Pia, which changed the language from the evening to German. We danced and made fools of ourselves during "disco bowling," which was more like 50's bowling. On Saturday we had a leisurely morning breakfast and ventured to Cologne for a meal at the Frueh (one of my favorite spots in this whole country) and a bit of walking around the shopping streets. Followed by a great night of chatting and hanging out. I must say I WOULD NOT survive this place without these other Fulbrighters (and PADers). They add the worthwhile part to this experience.

Oh and I want to give a "shout out" (I'm so in with the lingo)...in all seriousness... Sadie writes a hilarious blog about her German experiences and explains similar feelings to mine in a MUCH more entertaining manner. http://sadieorlowskisblog.blogspot.com/

Take a minute and give it a read.

Bis bald,

Sara

Round 2...

Um well that picture is sideways...about how I'm feeling right now so I suppose it's fitting.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am back in Deutschland. Reluctantly, but I have returned for round two of three (round three starts post spring vacation). It took a lot to get here in terms of just travelling annoyances (cancelled flights, extra security, delays, etc.).

So Since I've been back I haven't been doing much. My roommate built the snowman above on our roof deck porch thing. I got a chance to go the Russian Ballet's performance of the Nutcracker last Friday. Not terrible, even for it being performed in what felt like a high school gym. Sadie stayed the night on Saturday and I checked for boogie men for her at about 4 am. Needless to say I'm yet to sleep through the night, or at a reasonable hour. I need to try tonight though as I have to be awake in T-ten hours.

Nothing really to report...just thought I'd let you all know I'm alive and let you chuckle at what Germans are considering a snow storm worthy of stocking the pantry for a week (we got two inches this weekend). I'll give it to them though, they've got nearly a foot total so far this winter, and since they don't shovel the or clear any sidewalks or roads it sure looks a lot worse than it is.

Bis spaeter!