On our Monday off, my teacher Karla took Meg and I around the city. She showed us some of her favorite places and took us out for coffee and cake! Germans love their cake, this is why I have started jogging in the snow
Later on in the week, I got out of school early one day, so I decided to borrow Meg’s German/English dictionary and try and get my hair cut! I walked into the barber shop and asked if the lady spoke English. She said NO. So I was able to point to the phrases to make sure she knew what I wanted. We talked for about 10 minutes making sure she knew only 2 inches (I have the game of sharades mastered). She did a nice job but it was scary when her eyes got really big when some pieces were longer than she thought during the layering process. That’s when I got really nervous!
Wednesday night we celebrated Meg’s birthday with Irmgart and the other intern Andrea who is from the University of Kentucky. We went to a nice Italian restaurant which they have at every corner, it’s amazing. Irmgart was so helpful to translate everything on the menu for us.
This weekend was great, we started it off going to the Grune Woche (Green Week) which is an international food/homeliving/livestock/animal fair. We payed 7 euro and went to so many different booths from different countries all over the world. We sampled different types of food and drinks. Some of my favorites were the Switzerland fondue cheese and the Norwegian waffle with different flavors of marmalade. Oh and of course the gelato from Italy! After 4 hours of visiting the different countries, Meg and I were exhausted. It was kind of an emotional roller coaster because one second you really feel like you are in China, and then the next minute you are in France. CRAZY!
Meg and I with the Norwegian girl and the delicious heart waffle and marmalade!
The best part of my weekend was Saturday morning. I woke up because it was bright in my room!! That means the sun was shining and it’s the first time we have seen sun since we have been here! This has been the longest Berlin hasn’t seen sun in a long time-over two weeks! And according to the locals and what the news tells us, this is the coldest winter for Berlin on record! Thank you Lord for the sunshine! Meg and I took advantage of this and went to Mitte and did some shopping! We found the Ritter Sport Shokolade store where you can create your own chocolate bar with any type of mix-in! I got the dark chocolate with jelly bellies and yoghurt chips. Delish, I promise.
On Monday, my students were the only 6th graders that hadn’t gone sledding for good behavior. So my teacher let them go and I got to go down too! I only went once because I’m pretty sure I have bruised my tailbone…haha
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Gesundheit!
One week of school down! This picture to the left is the flat that we are living in, 100 years old! We have a ten minute bus ride and a ten minute walk in the snow to school. A lot of times, Meg and I like to pretend we are walking on the beach! Haha! But the snow has been fun, I’ve never seen such big snow flakes!
My first day at school was exciting. My mentor teacher has 27 students. Half of them are “mother tongue” English speaking and the other half “partner tongue” which means their mother tongue is German. By the end of the day, I was a little overwhelmed just by learning a new school system and my teacher having me start teaching poetry on the third day! But everyday got better as I became more comfortable with the students and making myself LOVE poetry
The kids are starting to warm up to me, in the beginning I don’t think they really knew what to think about a “student teacher.” I’ve almost learned all of their names, probably won’t get to last names till next week I’m still so amazed with this “bi-cultural/lingual school.” I sat in a 6th grade math class and half the time the teacher is speaking German and the other half in English. I’m learning a few words but I know when I teach that math class, I’ll be using a lot of English
Meg and I have mastered the grocery shopping, especially the part where you only buy what you can carry home! We had to get use to that real fast. It’s been fun trying to cook together.
This is a picture of Irmgart and I, she cooked for us to celebrate our “one week anniversary” and thankfully it was delicious pasta. One time she made us boiled eggs for breakfast and I was trying so hard not to laugh while Meg, who is not an egg person, swallowed pieces of it like a pill! Oh Meg…love you girl!
This is Meg and I in front of our flat! We have figured out our bus routes around Zehlendorf through lots of careless mistakes. The first time we made it home with only one time of getting on the bus and not getting lost, I think we were so excited we were giving each other high fives. I’m sure the locals were thinking, “What in the world?” Oh and I just have to say this, I thought it was so funny. One time, we were trying to get on the bus and Meg was trying to communicate as to where we were trying to go and there was definitely a language barrier and she kept saying yes but he was still saying something so then she just started saying “Si!” We laughed so hard, oh yeah they speak German not Spanish!
>On Saturday, Irmgart was so nice to take us around Mitte. She showed us a lot of museums, the Sony center, the different embassies, and the Brandenburg gate! She should definitely be a tour guide one day, it was great. Afterwards we got some coffee and cake. I got cheesecake and I could definitely tell that there was way less calories in a German cheesecake than any cheesecake I’ve ever had. Irmgart clued me inthat almost everything in America is so much sweeter!
My first day at school was exciting. My mentor teacher has 27 students. Half of them are “mother tongue” English speaking and the other half “partner tongue” which means their mother tongue is German. By the end of the day, I was a little overwhelmed just by learning a new school system and my teacher having me start teaching poetry on the third day! But everyday got better as I became more comfortable with the students and making myself LOVE poetry
The kids are starting to warm up to me, in the beginning I don’t think they really knew what to think about a “student teacher.” I’ve almost learned all of their names, probably won’t get to last names till next week I’m still so amazed with this “bi-cultural/lingual school.” I sat in a 6th grade math class and half the time the teacher is speaking German and the other half in English. I’m learning a few words but I know when I teach that math class, I’ll be using a lot of English
Meg and I have mastered the grocery shopping, especially the part where you only buy what you can carry home! We had to get use to that real fast. It’s been fun trying to cook together.
This is a picture of Irmgart and I, she cooked for us to celebrate our “one week anniversary” and thankfully it was delicious pasta. One time she made us boiled eggs for breakfast and I was trying so hard not to laugh while Meg, who is not an egg person, swallowed pieces of it like a pill! Oh Meg…love you girl!
This is Meg and I in front of our flat! We have figured out our bus routes around Zehlendorf through lots of careless mistakes. The first time we made it home with only one time of getting on the bus and not getting lost, I think we were so excited we were giving each other high fives. I’m sure the locals were thinking, “What in the world?” Oh and I just have to say this, I thought it was so funny. One time, we were trying to get on the bus and Meg was trying to communicate as to where we were trying to go and there was definitely a language barrier and she kept saying yes but he was still saying something so then she just started saying “Si!” We laughed so hard, oh yeah they speak German not Spanish!
>On Saturday, Irmgart was so nice to take us around Mitte. She showed us a lot of museums, the Sony center, the different embassies, and the Brandenburg gate! She should definitely be a tour guide one day, it was great. Afterwards we got some coffee and cake. I got cheesecake and I could definitely tell that there was way less calories in a German cheesecake than any cheesecake I’ve ever had. Irmgart clued me inthat almost everything in America is so much sweeter!
The Brandenburg Gate
It was a great week and we get Monday off for Martin Luther King! I’m thinking about getting my hair cut…I’ll need to get the phrase book out to make sure they don’t try to do something crazy!
It was a great week and we get Monday off for Martin Luther King! I’m thinking about getting my hair cut…I’ll need to get the phrase book out to make sure they don’t try to do something crazy!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Snow, snow, and more snow!
Guten Tag!
I have made it to Berlin safe and sound! Steven, the principal picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the Elementary School. I waited there a while and met my host home mom, Irmgart. She took me to her flat and it is beautiful! It is called Villa Elisabeth, it's like a fairy tale:) Meg and I have our own rooms but we have been in each others most of the time discussing all of the traveling we want to do in these next few months!
My first day here I enjoyed the German chocolate Irmgart made me and unpacked while waiting for Meg to arrive. I soon received a call from Meg telling me her flight was delayed:( poor Meg! In the meantime, Irmgart and I had "tea time." She bought some cakes from the bakery and we had some raspberry tea to go along with it.
The next day Irmgart took me to the School and I met my teacher who I will be working with. She is from Wisconsin and has been teaching at the JFK School for three years now. I'm excited to be in 6th grade with her! Meg is right next door to me so I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of each other.
Meg finally arrived and it was good to finally see her! Irmgart took us around the town to show us how to get to the school. She also did a few errands which was fun to see what a "local" does on the weekends. There were so many children on their sleighs, I keep telling Meg we need to get one and pull each other around! :) She also took us to the lake where everyone likes to go--especially during the summer time. I'm sure Meg and I will be doing a lot more exploring over the next few days.
There is so much snow it is beautiful! I asked her if school might be cancelled because of the snow storm this weekend and she said she doubts it. She thought it was funny that my little sister and brother were out for school because of the ice on the road!
Irmgart gave Meg and I each a map of Berlin and Europe, then we gave her an Auburn T-shirt which she loved and said she can't wait to exercise in it and slim down:) She has been so welcoming and I'm excited to be here!
Auf Wiedersehen!
I have made it to Berlin safe and sound! Steven, the principal picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the Elementary School. I waited there a while and met my host home mom, Irmgart. She took me to her flat and it is beautiful! It is called Villa Elisabeth, it's like a fairy tale:) Meg and I have our own rooms but we have been in each others most of the time discussing all of the traveling we want to do in these next few months!
My first day here I enjoyed the German chocolate Irmgart made me and unpacked while waiting for Meg to arrive. I soon received a call from Meg telling me her flight was delayed:( poor Meg! In the meantime, Irmgart and I had "tea time." She bought some cakes from the bakery and we had some raspberry tea to go along with it.
The next day Irmgart took me to the School and I met my teacher who I will be working with. She is from Wisconsin and has been teaching at the JFK School for three years now. I'm excited to be in 6th grade with her! Meg is right next door to me so I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of each other.
Meg finally arrived and it was good to finally see her! Irmgart took us around the town to show us how to get to the school. She also did a few errands which was fun to see what a "local" does on the weekends. There were so many children on their sleighs, I keep telling Meg we need to get one and pull each other around! :) She also took us to the lake where everyone likes to go--especially during the summer time. I'm sure Meg and I will be doing a lot more exploring over the next few days.
There is so much snow it is beautiful! I asked her if school might be cancelled because of the snow storm this weekend and she said she doubts it. She thought it was funny that my little sister and brother were out for school because of the ice on the road!
Irmgart gave Meg and I each a map of Berlin and Europe, then we gave her an Auburn T-shirt which she loved and said she can't wait to exercise in it and slim down:) She has been so welcoming and I'm excited to be here!
Auf Wiedersehen!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Berlin! Berlin! Ready or not here I come!
My Journey to Berlin, Germany starts on January 6, 2010. I am so blessed with this opportunity and I’m excited to see what is to come! When I first heard about the COST (Consortium Overseas for Student Teaching) program, I was a little unsure about what my parents might think about me going overseas to do my student teaching. Thankfully they liked what they heard so I signed up! I was told from the beginning to not try to go with a friend because the chances of that were extremely low. However, my friend Meg Terry and I, who is also an Auburn student, decided we would try anyway and pray that God placed us at least in the same continent to know someone somewhat “close by.” Through many prayers and trusting God, we got an email saying we have been placed at the same school and we will be living together. This was such an answer to prayer and we give all of the glory to God! We will be at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. Meg and I will both be in a 6th grade classroom which I am excited about since I haven’t had much experience with the older grades. We will be living in a flat with a High School Geography teacher named Irmgart.
It has been both exciting and crazy trying to plan my life in Germany for 4 months. I’ve only seen snow a couple of times in my life and I’ve been told it is like a ski resort right now. This should be interesting. Meg and I bought bikes from the girls who are moving out of the flat so that should be fun! We have a good amount of vacation for winter break and spring break which Meg and I have great things in mind! Stay tuned….
It has been both exciting and crazy trying to plan my life in Germany for 4 months. I’ve only seen snow a couple of times in my life and I’ve been told it is like a ski resort right now. This should be interesting. Meg and I bought bikes from the girls who are moving out of the flat so that should be fun! We have a good amount of vacation for winter break and spring break which Meg and I have great things in mind! Stay tuned….
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