Pencil Cases

I think that just about every country outside of the United States has a tradition of using pencil cases - but I think the Germans may take it a little to extremes. If a German kid showed up in an American high school with the type of pencil case they use here, they would get laughed out of class.

Things that appear in German pencil cases:
- at least two black/blue pens and two pencils
- fountain pen with extra ink cartridges
- a complete set of colored pencils
- glue
- tape
- protractor
- compass
- colored pens
- ruler
- eraser
- white-out
- etc....

And the thing is: they USE all of these supplies. If you ask them to make a table with two columns, they will take out their rulers and draw super straight lines. They will use their rulers to underline things. They underline in different colors. Their notes are marvelously straight and colorful. Some of them will even take their rulers up to the board to underline things on the board.

It's a far cry from the traditional American school child whine: "Mr/s. So-and-so, can I borrow a pen/pencil? I lost/forgot mine....."

Issaquah, Washington

In eighth grade, the students in Ilmenau (and I suppose, all of Germany) learn about a town called Issaquah, Washington.

A few facts about Issaquah, from the Green Line textbook:

- Only 8,000 people live in Issaquah but many more live outside, quite close to town.
- There are 53,000 people in the Issaquah School District.
- There are 200 miles of hiking trails in the forests around Issaquah.
- Lake Sammamish State Park is ideal for swimming and other water sports, and picnics too.
- And if you want to ski, there's the Snoqualmie Pass Ski Area just 40 minutes from Issaquah.

But why, you may ask, as I did, why would anyone want to learn about Issaquah? Why pick this town?

Because --- Issaquah is where Twin Peaks was filmed!!! My new obsession - Twin Peaks - was filmed in Issaquah!! No WONDER they learn about Issaquah! It also explains why all the teachers here have heard of Twin Peaks even though I had never heard of it before.

random things

1) I was running through the woods today, listening to my iPod, when suddenly I thought I heard music that was not coming from my iPod. I took my headphones off and looked around - and lo and behold - there on a path below me - at least 2,5 km from anywhere - was a trombonist practicing his music. He had a stand and everything.

2) I finally figured out where the tofu was in the grocery store.

3) I joined the choir at school today. We sang Joy to the World in German which threw me off like crazy.

4) I have a part time job at an after school tutoring center. Amazing how much easier it becomes to find jobs like that when the headmaster at your school is the husband of the woman who runs the tutoring center.

5) I also got Dave a job at the tutoring center.. and he will be here in two weeks amazingly enough. It's been four months since I've seen him. That's a long time.

6) If you're reading this blog, you should leave comments... so I don't feel like I'm just typing out there in cyber space. I changed the settings so anyone can comment without being registered.

7) Coming soon... a historical and artistic tour of the lovely town of Ilmenau... and perhaps a visit to the capital of Thuringia, the Vasold homeland, Erfurt.

No substitute teachers...

One of the weird things about German schools - which could definitely be improved - is that they have no substitute teacher system. That in itself is not really a problem - substitutes in the United States don't really do much usually - but the problem is the way the system they have instead works.

If a teacher is absent, then another teacher - any teacher who has a free period - covers for that teacher instead. It isn't necessarily the same subject though - so the teacher will just teach whatever subject they normally do. This means that if the English teacher is absent, maybe you have an extra chemistry lesson that week instead. If the class is early in the morning or in the afternoon, usually the school will just cancel the class instead and send the kids home early.

The PROBLEM with this system became apparent to me when I sat in on a lesson today. One of the teachers just came to school for the first time this year (she had a broken arm) and this is the third full week of classes. For this English class, it was the first English lesson they had during the entire three weeks. Something seems wrong with this picture doesn't it? Also, the whole culture of sickness is different here... apparently there is no limit on the number of sick days. There are two English teachers who I have still not met because they have been out sick for the entire time I have been here (again, that's two whole weeks).

There must be something that could be done differently.

At least the school is not trying to pull what they do at some schools and use the ETA (aka me) as the substitute teacher to fill in for any missing English teachers. That would be diastrous.

Crazy Swimming

The indoor swimming pool here in Ilmenau (Schwimmhalle am Stollen - it's a very creative name - it's the swimming pool on the street named am Stollen) opened last Saturday. I've been a few times, but it is really a crazy pool. Let me give you an idea of what it's like to swim there.

Picture your normal twenty-five meter pool that is about four lanes wide. There are no lane lines up. There are about thirty people in the pool, most of whom are swimming laps and all doing breaststroke. Why only breaststroke? Because it's basically a free for all. You have to dodge people right and left, and breaststroke is the only way you can possibly swim without causing a major pileup. At the same time as you have thirty people randomly swimming laps, there are the inevitable twelve year old boys jumping off the side into the pool, horsing around, swimming back and forth (not in the same direction as the lap swimmers of course), swimming underneath you and squirting each other with supersoakers. Then there are the teenagers who are just soaking in the pool, making it even harder to find a place on the wall to turn around - especially since they are usually making out so you can't really go in between them. It's really quite adventurous. I've never swum so much breaststroke in my life.

Other than the utter chaos of the pool scene, I really quite enjoy it. It's cheap (8 euro for a ten visit card) and clean and only a twenty minute walk from my place (everything is a twenty minute walk from my place). The website has a section called Fotos where you would think they would just have pictures of the facilities. Instead they have a series of pictures which in America would probably be construed as mild softcore porn. Quite interesting.

Radfahren

Apparently I should remember that it is not a good idea for me to drink a lot of caffeinated tea before bed since it is now 1:30 am and I am not even remotely sleepy. Also, I shouldn't start watching Season 1 of Twin Peaks (which I have never seen before) right before bed. Probably if it had been in German I would have fell asleep a long time ago.

The exciting news of today was that I bought a bike. A Trek 3900 hardtail mountain bike. It cost €349, but I think it will be well worth it. I was so excited that I decided to go for a ride and ended up riding for six hours and about 50 miles. Unfortunately, it has been a month since I have ridden a bike so now I am a little sore from sitting on a bike seat. There's a Radwanderweg that passes through Ilmenau and goes all the way to Weimar and a little beyond, as you can see from the map. I rode to Kranichfeld, had some lovely German Pflaumkuchen and then rode back. It was a lovely day, probably the nicest weather we've had. Good thing I didn't have to work.

Afterwards, I was laying around in the apartment and the doorbell rang. I answered the phone thing and a random English voice came over the intercom. It so completely floored me that I didn't know what to do. It turned out that it was another English Teaching Assistant from London and his Betreeungslehrerin. I had written him an e-mail, but he never replied. I forgot that I put my address down so I was completely freaked out for a bit that he knew where I lived. They came in and we talked for a bit. Apparently he has nowhere to live and they had spent the entire day looking at apartments. He seems like a nice guy. I think he is quite a bit younger than me (most of the British ETAs are only 19 or 20, but that's fine with me. It will be nice to have someone to hang out with. I really enjoy hanging out with Achim around the apartment at night, but he's always so exhausted from this super intense course he is taking that he doesn't want to go out at night or anything.

I was going to go start looking around for part-time job opportunities and visit the people at the university today - but it was such a gorgeous day that I decided to take advantage of it. Who knows when it will be this nice again? Of course, now that I gave in and bought an umbrella, I'm sure it will be gorgeous every day.

Becoming a Legal Alien

I finally took care of all of my paperwork yesterday. It was incredibly easy. At orientation they went through this whole long talk and elaborate step-by-step procedure that we would have to do, but apparently in Ilmenau they have streamlined the whole thing so I just had to show my passport, answer a couple questions, and then everything gets automatically sent off. One of the teachers from school came to help me out but it was completely unnecessary - but then we had Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) which is really my favorite part of Germany. I'm going to have to be careful that I don't spend TOO much time having cake - but it is SOOO incredibly good. Even the packaged cakes on the train are excellent - especially since they warm them up on put them on real plates with silverware.

I have to say that one of my favorite things about school in Germany is how there seems to always be food in the teacher's lounge. Today there was an elaborate breakfast (not sure why) with mountains of bread and sandwiches and coffee and etc. Granted, most of the bread had really disturbing looking meat products on it, most of which I don't even want to think about what they are - but that's ok. I like bread and tomatoes just fine - and it's free so who's complaining?

This week I've been continuing with my Hospitation period - which is fine although a bit boring. Next week, all the English teachers and I are having a meeting so we can talk about what I want to do, what I'm allowed to do, what they want me to teach, etc. I think I definitely want to work with the older students (since I have NO patience with younger children), but we'll see how it works out.

Exciting news for all you Hausers out there. I have been talking to Sue Rohrer about the Vasold family history and where we come from in Germany. Apparently we come from a town called Rudolstadt. Rudolstadt is a smallish town located 35 km east of Ilmenau. Yes that's right. Of all places I could possibly be put in all of Germany, I was placed in a town only 35 km from where we come from way back when. Unfortunately, it is hard to get to Rudolstadt because there is a mountain range in the middle. But I will be going there as soon as I figure out the best way to get there (it takes two hours on the bus or train). Stay tuned for pictures etc.

Another Rainy Day

Ilmenau's slogan is "Ilmenau, Himmelblau" (Ilmenau, Blue Sky), but to be honest, except for the first day here I have not seen one single blue sky. It rained yesterday - it rained today - I think basically it has rained here every day since I got here. It's okay though, because it's not really a heavy pouring down rain, more the light, misty, slightly annoying type of rain. I've basically decided that if I wait for it to stop raining outside, I will never do anything, so this morning I got up bright and early, got dressed, and went on a hike to Schmücke.

What is Schmücke? Well, according to something I read very briefly the other day, it's a cute little town. Ha. Ha. It is actually a guesthouse/inn located 981 meters above sea level. There's a little grill and a bar and some little Ferienhäuser - and that's it. Sort of a let-down after hiking 15 km to get there, but oh well. At least there was something to eat because I was starving. Schmücke may be the highest "settlement" around so it is exciting. Not really heartening place to start on a 15 km hike back to Ilmenau - especially when the temperature has dropped and now its literally pouring. All in all though - a nice hike.

Today was also Tag des offenen Denkmals - which is supposed to translate to Day of Open Monuments - but in Ilmenau that apparently means churches. St. Jakobuskirche was open so we could look around and you could go up into the church tower and look around. That was nice because it's really the tallest thing in the Stadtzentrum so you can get a better idea of how the town is laid out. There was a trumpet and organ concert also - but I didn't know it cost money and hadn't brought any with me.

It's amazing how tiring 30 km of hiking can be - even if it's relatively flat like this hike was... so I'm off to bed a little early. I don't have to be at school until 9:15 tomorrow morning - staying until 2 - and then off to take care of my residence permit and work permit and other such things.

First Day of Work

I started bright and early at 7:45 this morning. I went to four class hours today and I'm going to four on Monday - theoretically that means I am already one-third of the way done with my required work. Apparently this job is really what you make of it. It can be a total joke and you don't do anything - or it can be a really good experience and you really learn a lot about teaching and all of that. Luckily, my Betreeungslehrerin really seems excited about me being here and really flexible about what I am going to do. We're supposed to sit down on Tuesday and look at all of the English teachers' schedules and figure out what classes I want to work with and when. I'm really hoping that I can get two days free. They're required to give us one day off per week - but if I could get two days off - like Friday and Monday or Monday Tuesday or Thursday Friday that would be FANTASTIC. Just think how much more travel time I will get. And really - if it is going to keep raining here EVERY FREAKING DAY - I'll need to get out of here at some point. Other than the stupid rain, I like Ilmenau a lot.

The first class I went to today was a double period of twelfth grade Leistungskurs (these are the top English kids in the school). I did a little introduction of myself and then I answered questions. The amusing part was that they had gotten to see my transcript and course lists and CV type thing that I had written - so they started asking me about why I had taken Japanese. So I basically ended up teaching an entire lesson about the three different Japanese writing systems. And then of course, all the students in the next English class heard, and so on, and so I basically taught people Japanese for four hours. Funny how I thought I was going to be teaching English here.

In the second half of the double period, I did a little "teaching". Not really. They were doing some vocabulary work and they wanted me to read the words out so they could hear the American English pronunciation of them. They are learning about characterization so they have this 280 word list of words to do with talking about people. I got a copy myself - which was very useful because I don't know the German equivalents of most of them myself. They are reading "The Old Man and the Sea" in class - which I actually have never read - so I helped out a little bit with that as well.

The second class was an 11th grade Leistungskurs - and they spent a period and a half asking me questions. One girl was definitely asking the hard ones. I got asked "What do you think of George Bush?", "What do you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger?" and some other exciting ones like that. We definitely got a bit of a lecture at orientation about sort of sidestepping those questions - so it was lovely to be asked them on the first day.

Famous People in my Classes: Max's father is both a world and Olympic champion in the bobsled - and now he does skeleton. Impressive eh?

Einfuhrungstagung in Altenberg

So I spent the last four days in Köln learning how to be a teacher. Or something like that. The extent of learning to teach was that we prepared one lesson each with a group of three or four people. The first day was actually more useful since we learned about how the German school system works, got to meet the other people from the areas that we are in, and ask all those questions you never got to ask during German class in high school/college.

The trip started out poorly. The SudThüringerBahn (the train from Ilmenau to Erfurt) was late, so I missed my train connection in Erfurt. The next connection didn't leave for an hour so I ended up not going to Cologne until 4:05 (we were supposed to be there at 3:30), so I missed the bus out to Haus Altenberg. That sort of sucked. I had to take a taxi - which cost 30 euros. They did tell us that it was going to cost 50 - so at least that was a nice surprise. We ended up following the buses all the way to the place, so I just got out of the cab, paid the guy, and blended right in so no one knew I hadn't been on the bus. Other than that, the trip went well.

The train in Germany is just so much more relaxing than trains in America. In Germany (usually) you get on the train for a six hour train ride and you KNOW that you will be arriving at your destination in exactly six hours. On Amtrak, as we all know, it's much more, "I'll be on the train for maybe six hours, or maybe seven, eight, nine, ten...."

Haus Altenberg was pretty cool. It used to be a Catholic monastery and now its used for church youth group meetings and things like that. It's also a "big" tourist attraction so there are random people wandering around all the time.

On Thursday, we got back to the train station just as the train I had wanted to take was leaving - which was actually nice because I got a chance to see the Kölner Dom (which is super famous). Unfortunately, there was a mass going on at the time so I didn't get to see much inside. Surprisingly though, they do still let people inside during the service. That means that there is an entire congregation sitting there listening to a guy give a sermon - and then in the back are random people milling around pointing and talking and yelling about this or that frieze or pillar or whatever. The flashes are making the place look like a freaking disco and the priest just keeps on going. If I was in charge, I would just close the whole thing...

Arnstadt Stadtfest

Today was the third day of the Arnstadt Stadtfest so I took the train up there to check it out. The first frustrating thing was that the ticket machine at the train station doesn't take money, only EC cards - which I don't have one of. Luckily, a nice guy explained to me that you can buy tickets on the train in the machine there - and luckily that one takes cash. Arnstadt is about the same size as Ilmenau, but I think it had a little bit more going on during medieval times. It has a castle (or at least the ruins of a castle) and some nice churches. According to Wikipedia, Arnstadt is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia and is known as the Gateway to the Thuringian Forest. Johann Sebastian Bach also grew up in the area - his family lived here for generations. He supposedly wrote the famous Toccata and Fugue in d minor here. There's a trail that connects Ilmenau and Arnstadt and not surprisingly it is called the "From Bach to Goethe" trail. It's 28 km long though. I wasn't quite up to it today.

Street fairs are really funny - they are always exactly the same no matter where you are. They always have the same crappy stuff for sale, have the same type of entertainment, and mostly people just go to eat food. The big difference between the Arnstadt fest and any festival in America is that there are a LOT more beer tents/stalls here. There was one guy who sang along to American country music for four hours (non-stop). Another guy played the accordion. He was up on stage having a grand old time, but I couldn't figure out who was singing along. It definitely wasn't him, and it wasn't a recording. Finally I noticed a guy with a microphone sitting down drinking at one of the beer tents. In between sips of his beer, he was providing the vocal portion of the music.

The most amusing part was the big competition for strongest man and woman in Arnstadt (if not Thuringen, Germany and the world). The contestants all had shirts that said "Trabiheben 2007", because they were lifting not weights, but that favorite old car of East Germany, the Trabant, or Trabi as it is more familiarly called. This special renovated Trabi was outfitted with a bar coming out from underneath the trunk, so that the aspiring strong men/women could lift the back end of the Trabi off the ground. Since all the contestants could lift the Trabi, they then added more and more weight to the trunk of the car. Apparently last year's winner lifted around 485 kgs (1,069 lbs). I didn't stay too long to watch this because Germans are too damn tall and I couldn't see a thing. But it was probably pretty cool.

Yesterday I took a little hike through the woods around Ilmenau and found the luge track. Ilmenau is the WORLD CAPITAL of luge. More Olympic champions have come from Ilmenau then anywhere else. This is a random thing to be famous for - but still pretty cool. They have a summer luge thing - sort of like the alpine slide at Bromley and the kids were sliding down on it. Next weekend is the FIL Sommerrodel Championship something or other - aka world class luge competition right here in sleepy little Ilmenau, Himmelblau. Stay tuned for pictures - it's supposed to be quite the party.