Friday before vacation

Well, I am officially done with school work for the next two weeks, although next week I will still be busy. Today I gave two lessons in two different classes, and it was so fun! The teachers all say that the students are excited to have me in their class, because it is one less hour they have to look at the teacher. There is usually one guy in the back of the class who won't answer my questions and will only mutter rude things like the equivalent of "this sucks", but that is the other cool part of my job. I'm not the disciplinarian. I can't write people up. That's why the teacher has to stay in the class with me. So it's not really my problem. So, in one class I talked about elementary school, and in the other class about sports. I learned things like in the winter you can ice surf on the lake in storkow. who knew.

I hadn't seen Frau Florschütz to tell her that I would be going to Berlin yesterday to go see a play, and apparently she was telling a fellow teacher here last night when they were at the sauna together that she was worried that I had never come home from school yesterday. So I can't write much longer, because I need to go home and tell her that I am in fact here, and fine.

It was good to get out a little bit in Berlin. We saw a play at what is apparently the largest children's theater in Germany. This was the premiere of a dutch play that was translated into german about girl and her mother, and the fights they have after the father moves out. It was all very edgy and modern, with card board boxes as the props and the stage spinning around and a big video screen in the back. it was interesting, and not badly performed, but it was sort of intense for a 6 year old, which is who the program said it was aimed at. well, 6 and up. It was too confusing for a child who hadn't lived through something similar to understand what was going on, and too intense for one who had. I'm still glad I went though.

It was in a part of Berlin that I wasn't as familiar with, but now I know how to get from Storkow to the city with the train. It takes about an hour, to get there, another 45 to get into the heart of the city, but is still pretty navigable. I'm hoping to get up there for some of the second week of vacation.

Fall has really set in here, with grey skies, cold temperatures, and enough rain just to keep everything wet. But the heat has finally come on in my apartment, and so I'm not really that bad off. But when the sun actually manages to break through the clouds every so often, I try to get outside for it. just take whatever I'm doing and put on a third layer and sit on the porch until it's not sunny anymore.

I'm going to go now, visit Frau Florschütz and tell her my schedule for next week, which involves visiting about three different lakes, a water purifying facility, the labyrinth in the corn field, the local bike man who makes functioning bikes bigger than a house and smaller than a skateboard, a canoe trip down the canal, this huge contraption that lifts boats from one level of the lake to the other, because the difference between them is too big for a lock, and a trip through the spreewald. At some point during which we will roast bread on sticks in a german tipi. At least, that's what I got from the explanation the leader gave me. Anyway, I'll be busy and far from a computer, so I don't know when I'll write next. But certainly some time during the week after that I can get to the library and write again. I hope that everyone is well, and knows that I am thinking of them.

Things I have yet to get used to

1. How having a dirt road to my apartment is really messy

2. Hearing roosters from my front porch

3. Just how big snails can get

Long Weekend

This was my first three day weekend since I got here, even though that is how it is going to be the rest of the time. Marlies and Klaus's grandson was visiting this weekend, Marvin. Marvin is 5 and quite a handful. It's tricky to talk to him, first because he's five, and the art of conversation isn't really there yet. And he makes mistakes sometimes, and I don't know if I misheard him, or if he's really wrong, or if it's just another construction that I don't know. Usually he's wrong. Still, he's a sweetheart, and came with on all of our fieldtrips. Saturday there was a Harvest Festival in Friedersdorf, just down the road. Marvin came with Marlies and Klaus and I. There was a parade with everyone's horses either decorated or pulling decorated wagons, and then came the tractors, also decked out in the best this harvest had to offer. A lot of people wore traditional costumes or just clothes typical for a farm a hundred years ago. It was really neat, and it's fun taking a little kid to a parade. He alternated between standing on the trashcan so he could see over everyone's heads and running up to the edge of the street to collect candy that was being thrown to the kids in the crowd.

Sunday we planned to take a bicycle ride after lunch, but Sunday morning Lars collapsed while working in the garden, and when he went to the doctor, the doctor sent him right to the hospital. We were all pretty worried, but it looks like it's nothing worse than too much stress at work overwhelming him. He has to take a week off of work, and get some more tests, but they let him go from the hospital the same afternoon. Then Monday we were going to go to Ikea after Marlies went to the doctor early. Well, that appointment took hours longer than she expected, and it turns out she's going to have to have surgery. She's hoping to be able to put it off until after Christmas, if at all possible.

After she got back though we did make it to Ikea, which was really fun. I now have a new bookcase, laundry basket, and dishwashing brush.

Today is the first day of my real schedule, although it's already been changed once, and other parts of it aren't happening today for what must be like field day here. All the seventh and eight graders are having sport competitions. I have gotten most of the books I am going to need for all the classes I'll be working with.

So far, we have had a lovely mild start to fall. Mostly still very sunny and warm. And the local folklore says that if it starts like this, it will stay that way, and we will have a mild winter. No way to know for sure, but I can hope. :)

Another bit of good news - I've already gotten paid! I thought it was going to take much longer, another couple of weeks at least. But once I told Fulbright my bank account information, it only took a week for the money to get to me. Which is awesome.

This is the last week before our two week fall break. The first week (next week) I will be working with the Schülerclub from this school and two other clubs from schools in Poland and the Czech Republic. This is the third time that these three schools have met, and this time they're meeting here in Storkow and taking lots of field trips to various important sites regarding water. I think it will be fun, we'll see a lot of great stuff. We have to sleep on the floor in one of the buildings here... I may see about sneaking home one or two nights, but otherwise it will be great. And I will be completely provided for with meals and everything, and all for free. The Student club program is apparently very well funded, and can take another student along no problem. Anyway, most of next week I expect not to be able to get online. And that is why.

On thursday this week I've been invited to go see a play premier in Berlin with the drama class. I am really looking forward to it. Drama kids are always fun, the teacher seems really nice, and I havn't been back to Berlin yet since I got here. And all I saw before that was what i could see from the train as it drove through town.

I think that is all I have to say for now. Hope all of you are well, and know that I think about you often.

Two weeks down

Well, I got my schedule all worked out. And I don't have to come in every day at 7:30! So great to hear. I also got a cell phone, and am at least partway back in touch with modern communication systems. If I were to have internet at home, all would be peachy.

I think I have to finish reading Catcher in the Rye this weekend, so that I can be ready to discuss it on Tuesday. (Oh yeah, I always get Monday off). Otherwise I don't really know how to prepare for next week. But I will have one week following my schedule, and then comes a two week Fall Break. The social worker here has a project planned for the first week that I will be helping with. But the second week I will have to myself. I may see about calling up friends in Berlin and visit there for a bit. I havn't seen anything since I rode the train through it to get to Storkow.

Frau Florschütz got the cold I had all last week, so the trip to Ikea was shot. And the local author reading is actually next Thursday, not this Thursday. So this week was a little quieter than I expected. But Saturday the Familie and I will be going to.. a nearby town whose name I've forgotten, to see the Harvest festival. And since I have Monday off, we're taking the trip to Ikea then. Apparently, it's in quite the shopping center. There's even a movie theater there, and if there's anything good showing we just may go see it.

The Familie is also letting me read their newspaper every day. The first section (there are only two) is international and national news, all in the equivalent of AP soundbites. But the second section is the real treat - local news. There was a story about the favorites in the local table tennis league this year. Of course about all the high school sports teams. There's usually an advice column from one of the local administrative offices, with telephone numbers. This last one was from one office that for a few hours you could call with any questions concerning how to write a will. My favorite story so far though was a short blurb. "Unknown horse found dead in field." Apparently two people were taking a stroll through the meadow (as many do here) and happend upon a horse that had been killed with a blunt object. That was the whole story.

Well I need to go into town, go to the market for some fresh veggies. I don't need much fresh fruit, because Lars Florschütz brought me apples, pears, and grapes from his garden yesterday. All very lovely, and naturally never treated with anything, so I have to be sure to cut the apples open before I eat them, since there really may be a worm in there. The apples look like the ones from story books of snow white. Bright red with paler whitish spots, round, and inside as bright white as anything. Just lovely.

Hope all is well, and I'll write more when I get back to school next week.

German household appliances

Well, really only one, but my new favorite German household appliance that I hadn't seen, let alone used, until last week: The BREADSLICER! Yes. Germans eat a lot of heavy dark bread. the only way to eat it is in thin slices that are difficult to make evenly. and you have to make a lot of them to feed your german family. so what do you do? Invent the bread slicer, that always makes them as thin and even as you like. Every german kitchen has one. Here at least. It's just really cool. If I ever get to putting up pictures, I may take a picture and put it up here. Just to show you all how cool it really is.

I think that's all for now, just wanted to pass along that tidbit I forgot. bye!

Getting back to School

Hi Everyone! Last week the school had its "Projektwoche", during which half the school went on various trips, and everyone else stayed here to complete some kind of project. Getting me acquainted with the school and with the town was the project of three of the students. The teacher responsible for them was also in charge of getting my paperwork at the various bureaucratic offices in town taken care of, and so we all went around together. I have now registered my address, applied for a visa, opened a bank account, applied for "Wohngeld" (extra money from the government to pay my rent)and had a tour of Storkow, Beeskow, and the school grounds. It was a mostly relaxing way to meet a couple of students, and get to know Storkow better. Now the real school work is beginning. I am visiting all kinds of classes this week to see what they are like and where I will be able to help the most, and by next week I will hopefully have a set schedule. For the most part, the teachers here are nice, and excited to have me in their classes.

Yesterday was a little more difficult, because I sat in on 8th and 9th grade classes. They didn't want to have to start regular class again after their trip to London, and were generally pretty restless and disinterested. I havn't been helping teach yet, I just sit in the background and watch. Today was a lot more engaging. The most advanced class is reading Catcher in the Rye, and seemed to mostly understand it. Rereading it with them though, I wonder if they aren't a little more confused than they're letting on. At least, the discussion we had today always went better after I explained what that paragraph really meant. But this might have just been a particularly difficult passage. The next class down was analyzing the rhetorical style of Bush's first inaugural speech, and then started watching Bowling for Columbine. So right off the bat getting into pretty heft material. But I think it keeps the kids more engaged, when it's something a little more real.

Finally I got to sit in on a seventh grade class, and the difference is huge! Of course they only started the language last year or the year before that, so they're not very advanced. But they have so much energy, and so many interesting things to say. I just hope that if I#m ever in charge of the class, I can get some of that energy focused on the lesson, and not on making faces and throwing balls of paper, which is a lot of what happened in this one. Watching the back and forth between the teacher and the students, though, reminded me of seventh grade in the states, too, and just how much and how often the teachers had to stop class to yell at us. It's sort of remarkable how much of what I remember from elementary school being when the teacher finally lost it. All pretty funny.

Still, despite the progress in school here and all the paperwork pretty much being done, no phone, and no internet. I found the quiet teacher lounge where there is rarely a wait for the computer, and so I can get on here about every day, which is great. I'm still going to try and get the Florschützes to get an ISDN for the apartment. Lars says it shouldn't be hard (Lars being the son, btw), but Klaus and Marlies (the parents) still belong to the generation where, when i said i was going to see about getting a cell phone, they said "oh, young people and their cell phones! I remember in the DDR (east Germany) when we didn't even have phones! If you wanted to know if someone was at home, you rode your bike there and asked. It was much simpler. Of course, once we did get phones, you never knew who else was listening..."

I am getting along very well with Familie Florschütz, even though we're still all using the formal You, which is tricky for me. They're the people I have spent the most time with, but are pretty much the only ones I still Sietz. Oh well. Marlies has a friend who grows pumpkins. And she keeps getting these huge pumpkins, and having to cook them. So she invites me to dinner so there will be more people eating the pumpkin soup. This weekend I had Saturday and Sunday dinner over there. After Sunday dinner we took a road trip down to Eisenhüttenstadt and then Neuzelle. Eisenhüttenstadt wasn't a town until the DDR put a steelworks there, and then it exploded to like, 60,000 people. And now that the steelworks has closed, it's emptying out. But it was for a long time the model east german city. Then Neuzelle has a lovely baroque church that we didn't get to see. It is part of a monastary, and Klaus wanted to go see the brewery first, and by the time we got done there, the church was closed. At this brewery, I have to mention, you can buy "bath beer". Yes, beer that you buy to bathe in. You can even buy a set that comes with a towel and everything. They also have their own distillery, where Marlies and I went to sample the various local specialties. She ended up buying their herbal mix, which is pretty tasty, and a bright pink color. Tomorrow the Familie and I are going to IKEA to get a laundry basket, and then Thursday Marlies and I are going to try and get down to hear this local author read at the House of Art. Oh, and I am glad, because it has been shown to me that Storkow actually is a big town for around here. Well, a Städtchen, rather than a dorf. A little city, not a village. Because it has 4 supermarkets and a bank. And there are towns just down the road that don't have anything like that. Just houses clumped up together. So there you go.

I'm going to head on out now, but one last thing. I started explaining pumpkin pie to the Familie as Marlies was talking about how she could cook all these pumpkins. And somehow ended up volunteering to make one. Does anyone have a recipe for pumpkin pie that doesn't involve the pumpkin out of a can? Or know how to get a pumpkin to look like the stuff from the can? Please help! Also doubt they have pumpkin pie spice here, so need to get estimates on that, too.

Hope you are all well, and look forward to hearing from you!

I'm here! (and in the library)

I am writing to you from the library in storkow. I got here no problem, the only problem is that there is no phone line, and naturally no internet, in my apartment, and i have no cell phone still. I am hoping I can get some of that changed in the next few days, but there's really no telling. Apparently my landlords figure that if I have my own phone line I will call home too much. Mostly though, I want a line so I can call at like midnight, when it is a good time to reach my folks at home.
It is really pretty here. I have borrowed and ridden (?) a bike already... that sounds funny. and it is so great to ride a bike where it is flat. it was really cold yesterday, but it is warm and sunny again today. We went to the foreigner registration office today, and they basically could do nothing besides give me a form to fill out and tell me to come back in a week. whoopee.
the apartment aside from the phone thing is really nice. small, but nice, I don't think I'll feel too alone there ever, which is a good thing.

but yeah, this is a tiny tiny town. everyone really does know everyone else. My hosts, the florschüzt family is great though. the parents are like... late fifties? early sixties? and their son that lives with them is like 30. but some of my dishes say "made in the GDR" and that made me really happy. But the place is beautiful, lots of windows and natural wood. The ceilings are wood paneled, which is a little funny, but makes it very cozy. the kitchen is tiny. the stove is two electric burners, and there is no oven. there is a small sink, and a fridge that fits under the counter. that's about it. a lot of the dishes are kept in the living room, because there isn't enough cabinet space in the kitchen. the bathroom is tiny, too, but that means there is less to clean, which im ok with. The living room has a two person table that mosly fills the room. there is a sofa, and a cd player, and a tv that is apparently sort of confusing to use. There is a wall with shallow shelves, and that is great overflow storage space. The bedroom is separated from the living room by a door with glass window that has curtains on both sides. there is a big double bed, but one set of pillows and sheets. there is a desk and a wardrobe, too, and the entire far wall is a bank of windows. it's realy pretty.

Anyway, I should go and get shopping. I need something to cook for dinner tonight! I will try and post more later, and eventually will get to like, pictures and stuff. Bis später!

First entry

Well, as I've been telling peple, I have now officially created a blog for updates from my time in Storkow (SHTOHR-koh). It'll still be a little bit before I get there, leaving Tuesday, then a week of orientation outside of Cologne, then getting settled in. For the most part though, this title will work, and so I'm keeping it. I'll write more later!