My last few days in
Kescheid were actually quite fun. Roy
from Hong Kong arrived on Sunday evening, just in time to help me make a pizza
dinner for the family. He is traveling around
Europe for three months, and so far, had been all around Germany, to Romania
and to Turkey. He is very energetic and
small and wants to learn everything about everything. So, he’s like the Asian version of my mom. I actually learned quite a few interesting
things from him, namely, that Hong Kong and China are basically like two different
countries, even though Hong Kong is really a city in China. Roy kept saying Hong Kong, Hong Kong, never
mentioned China, so finally I asked why.
He never called himself Chinese or anything, as if he didn’t identify
with the country at all. He said they are completely separate from China--I never knew that! He told me that
Hong Kong has better quality products than China, and that all of the Chinese
people come to Hong Kong to shop, and then the Hong Kong people have nothing to
buy…etc. It was interesting to hear him talk about it, and at times difficult to understand through the accent, although he spoke pretty good English. He also wrote a bit in traditional Chinese for Lisa and I, and I asked
him how long his papers had to be in high school, since each Chinese character
is a word, and he said they always wrote them in English! Strange guy, but he
was interesting. The best ones are.
On Monday, Lisa,
Roy, and I finished all of the work in only a few hours, so we took Leo for a
walk out into the forest/meadow area. It
was kind of fun having Roy, simply because he doesn’t speak any German, so I
kind of got to play translator for a few days. He cooked a Chinese dinner for
us that night, which was paired with a few glasses of Austrian wine, a lot of
laughter and joking in English and German, and a tipsy Hayley trying to walk up
the stairs to get to bed.
I promptly woke up
at 5 am this morning and rushed around my room trying to pack all of my things
back into my suitcases. Wasn’t sure what
to do with my dirty boots, which are covered in horse poop and mud. I just kept packing other things, hoping
somehow they’d get clean before I had to put them in my suitcase, but alas,
they are probably stinking up my clean clothes right now. One is wrapped in a plastic bag. The other one is going commando. Oh well. By 6 am I was downstairs and making
a last American meal, requested by Guido, waffles. Except Melanie didn’t have some of the
ingredients I needed to make them, so I just improvised. They turned out okay, especially with Nutella
on top. Then, at 7:30, I left for school with Ulrike (finally figured out her
name), Melanie’s mom.
I was slightly
nervous going into a German school and didn’t quite know what to expect, but I
really ended up loving it. I got to
attend 3 different English lessons with 6th, 9th, and 10th
graders, and one German class with 8th graders. It was so different from anything in
America. When we first walked in, we
went straight to the teacher’s lounge which is a big room filled with 5 or 6
long tables, and every teacher has their own spot at the table. It felt like a very close-knit community,
everyone interacted with each other, and most came up to me and introduced
themselves, not even knowing who I was or why I was there, but just because
they saw a new face. The teachers come
back to the teacher’s lounge in between every lesson because they change
classrooms instead of the students. The
students have their own homeroom, which they can decorate and organize however
they like and make their own. There was a lot of art covering the walls in all
the hallways, and not sucky art like you usually see, with one good piece out
of fifty, but amazing drawings and paintings.
I couldn’t believe the students had done it all.
The lessons each
last for 45 minutes. There are 5th-13th
graders in the same school. My first lesson was English with Monique, who was
probably only a few years older than me, and she had 10th
graders. She said they were pretty
shy. She let me introduce myself, where
I was from, what I was doing in Germany, and then gave them time to think of
some questions to ask me. At first they all looked down at their books and
nobody wanted to try speaking to me in English, but then Monique told them to
each write a question down and then they would all ask one by one. This worked better. I got some questions as simple as: What is
your favorite German meal? What do you like about Germany? What is school like
in America? Have you ever seen any “stars”? And then, of course, what do you
think about the gun laws in America? What is your opinion on the death penalty?
Are you a Republican? What do you think of Obama? They totally grilled me. I answered honestly and explained why I
thought what I did, knowing that they probably only hear one side of the story
in Germany, and then asked them what they thought and why. Then they got a chance to ask me questions in
German, which they were much more comfortable with, and I had to answer in
German, which didn’t go as poorly as I thought it would.
Next I sat in on a
class of 6th graders while they had their English lesson. The teacher was a younger guy and had
actually been to Eugene and Portland and Seattle, so that was pretty cool! He
seemed quite flustered by his students, and I think they knew exactly how to push his buttons, but when he included me
into the lesson, I think they forgot about being obnoxious and were a bit more
fascinated than usual. They had only
studied English for a year at that point, but I found that they were fairly
good at it. They, too, asked if I’d ever
seen any stars. Perhaps they think L.A. is kind of like a zoo, where Ryan
Gosling walks around with his shirt off all day. If only.
They also asked me if I rode horses.
Horses are a popular thing in their town.
Next I accompanied
a native Brit to his English class with 9th graders. He was a total ass. I think he thought that was his “thing”, like
he was sarcastic and jokey, but really he was just rude, telling the students they
sucked at English and everything. It was
kind of strange. But he walked with me
into the classroom and said, “Class, this is Ms. Peterson, you have the rest of
the period to ask her questions, and your homework is to write a full report on
her for Thursday.” Oh, how I’d love to
read those reports. Some students were
pretty interested and willing to practice their English, others were shy, so I
totally felt their pain. That’s me in
language classes. They asked me how old
I was, IF I HAD KIDS (HECK NO), if I watched the NBA (HECK NO), what I thought
about gun laws in America, did I have a boyfriend (“Julian wanted me to ask!”
As another boy turns red in his corner seat and everybody snickers…), did I
want to be a teacher, etc. Again with
the stars questions. They were amazed
that it could get up to 70 degrees in California in December. Yes, these
reports will be great.
Once back in the
teacher’s lounge, I had a nice conversation auf Deutsch with the Assistant
Headmaster (I think that’s what they’d call it…?) who came to greet me. She was in America when the first iPhone came
out, fun fact. She was very nice,
everyone was. Then I sat in on a lesson
with Ulrike and some 9th graders.
They were working on presentations about current events. One group presented today and then the others
gave compliments and critiqued and graded the presentation. I found that really interesting because we
rarely did anything like that in school growing up, and it’s very common in
German classrooms. It makes sense,
Americans sugar coat things and don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, Germans
just say what they think and that’s that.
I did feel slightly uncomfortable at times, or just bad for the group,
because all of the students were saying, “Your poster is really good, but the
presentation was boring.” So sad! But I guess that’s just the American in me
talking. Another thing I thought was interesting was that every single student
participated in the discussion without being prodded or asked. They readily shared their opinions. I would have never wanted to critique anyone
to their face in school.
After the fourth
lesson, we had a bit to eat and drink and then Ulrike sent me with Andreas,
another teacher, to Montabaur. He lives
around there and offered to drop me off at the train station, which was
incredibly nice of him. He didn’t speak
very much English, which was good for me! But we managed to talk for the entire
30 minute drive to Montabaur. All of the
teachers asked if I would be coming back for a practicum or some type of
internship. I think I actually would, if
I had time. I really enjoyed it.
So I hopped on a
train in Montabaur, rode it to Frankfurt, and then switched over to a train
headed for Zürich. That is where I am
currently sitting right now, about 25 minutes from the city center, and then 30
more minutes by S-Bahn to Anja’s house. Earlier we passed through Mannheim,
just 15 miles west of Heidelberg or so—I wanted to stop and explore! Then we passed through Freiburg, too bad it
was already dark, I wish I could have seen everything. Oh well, I have plenty
of time left for that, and I am very excited to wake up in Switzerland tomorrow
morning and see it for the first time in daylight. Melanie and Lisa were sad to say goodbye to
me, but I told them to visit in Heidelberg…so perhaps I will see them
again. Plus they have Roy now. A good substitute.
PS: Aaron, the horse from some of the first pictures
I posted, is sick and went to the clinic on Friday night! Last we heard, things
were not going so well for him. It was sad to pass by his stall all weekend and
have it be empty and untouched…I hope he is okay.
PPS: I made it to
Anja’s house! I finally got to meet her
husband, Olaf, and son, Tom. It’s going
to be a great week, I already know.
