Lernin Meself Scouse, Part Two

Okay, so when I last wrote you all I had described my trip to Liverpool and the extent to which the English, as a nation, drink. In part two, I bring you:

Christmas-Eve Eve

On the 23rd I went to lunch with Caroline and her family. This was the first opportunity I'd really had to meet them, seeing as how my first night there (the 22nd) was spent staying out late. So, on the 23rd we all grab a taxi and head into the main part of Liverpool for lunch at a restaurant called Panoramic. It was up on the 34th floor of this building, the tallest building for miles around, and it had an amazing panoramic view of the city and the river that flows through it (the Mersey). The food was that kind that you only see in nice restaurants, where half the point is how creatively it comes arranged on the plate. I had some creatively arranged pasta with little orange squiggles of sauce and tiny perfect cubes of what I think was mango, followed by a mini tower of christmas-pudding-flavored ice cream with crunchy decorations. There was also an appetizer, but the details on that have been lost in the back of my brain. It was all delicious, and Caro's family was wonderful.

Christmas Eve

I went out on the town with Caroline and her friends. We went to this student bar called The Brook House, which was absolutely packed with people. We had some drinks and chatted. People came up and chatted with us. Some of them were friends; others were strangers. One guy hears me talking and says, "Hey, are you American?" And I, not being able to pull off any accent other than my own, say "yep." He gets a ginormous kick out of this and proceeds to talk my ear off in the thickest scouse (Liverpool) accent I've ever heard. I have to stop him every five seconds and go, "What did you say? Pardon? What?" He gets an ever bigger kick out of this.

So, yeah, I watched the clock turn over to Christmas Day in a bar in Liverpool, surrounded by new friends whose language I don't always understand.

Christmas

I had Christmas Day proper with Caroline's immediate family. We all got up at 8:00 a.m. because Caroline's younger brother couldn't wait any longer. Sitting in the living room in my pajamas, I was just enjoying watching people open presents and being, to a certain extent, part of the family. I was looking at all the little piles of presents and thinking of how Christmas morning goes at home. This was really getting me down, so it was good that I had other people around.

I'm sitting there, watching people open presents, and Caroline's mom says, "Raychel, aren't you going to open yours?" I was like, "whuh ....?" I look over and there's a little pile of presents, just for me! They thought of me! How wonderful is that? I was thrilled. So, like a little kid, I'm going to list to you every neato thing I got for Christmas: I got a scarf, matching gloves, perfume, a makeup bag, lotion, a nail buffer thingie, a day planner, a box of post-it-type notes that matches the planner, and a book from Caroline called "Lern Yerself Scouse". I even got a gift from a an American friend of Caroline's dad's - Barack Obama's book, Dreams from My Father. How nice are people? So freakin' nice! Hooray!

Christmas Day was ended with an awesome dinner, comparable to our Thanksgiving dinners at home. Roast beef, turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, sprouts, little meat things wrapped in bacon, more veggies, more meat .... jeez, I can't even remember what all we had. But I do remember having Christmas pudding for dessert, which is probably the best English dessert ever.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, otherwise known as Get Out Of The House Day. You can get out of the house to go shopping, visit friends, or go out on the town and party. Guess which one I did.

Getting Lost

I went out shopping with Caroline, her younger brother, and her boyfriend. After a while I got a map and split off on my own to see the town some. We all agreed to meet at John Lewis' (a store) at 4:15 to drive back home. On my trip around town I saw The Cavern (where the Beatles played in Liverpool), a cool bombed out church, St. George's Hall, and the Walker Art Museum. On my way back to meet my people, I asked for directions. But when I follow the directions I end up at a place called Lewis', NOT John Lewis'. So now it's almost 4:15 and I've gotta find my ride. I get directions to the real John Lewis' and am off running. But when I get there, I don't see them. My cell phone is dead, and it has all their phone numbers in it so I can't even use a payphone to call them. I don't know Caroline's address, so I can't take a bus or a taxi. I'm lost and stuck in Liverpool, and I don't have money for a hotel. Great. I'm freaking out, standing there and trying to come up with a plan, for about 20 minutes. Then, miraculously, I just happen to turn around and spy Caroline's boyfriend. Saved!

I now carry phone numbers and addresses on paper with me everywhere.

Nights On The Town

So, you've heard about some of my nights on the town, but here are a few funny notes from those times:

I went out on New Year's Eve with the girls. We hit a couple of clubs and eventually settled on Heebie Jeebies, a big multi-story club with a live band outside. I had my jacket with me and decided to set it down behind a booth with some other jackets. It'll be fine, I thought. End of the night comes and what do I find? No jacket. Who wants to say "I told you so" first?

Also on New Year's Eve: I was talking to this guy outside, watching the band set up, and I noticed that he kept looking at his watch. I ask him if he's waiting for friends and he says no, the guys he came with are over across the bar there. We keep the conversation going and, when he jumps in to fill a lull in the conversation, I realize why he keeps looking at his watch: it's almost midnight! Is he trying to keep me talking and with him until midnight? I kinda laughed out loud at this 'cause ... well, I thought it was funny. I wondered what he was thinking. "Just ten more minutes of talking and then we get to kiss .... ten ... more ... minutes ..." Funny times. So I waited until midnight, gave him a kiss, and went back to my girls.

On another night, I met a French/Turkish guy in a club who pretty much asked me to marry him after only seeing me across the club and talking to me for a few minutes in halting English. I was flattered at his offers to kiss my hand, take me home, marry him, etc., but I declined them. I do, however, give him my phone number, thinking -- hey, I'm probably never going to see this guy again so what's the harm. He says he's just going to see where his friends are and he'll be right back. I say, okay I'll wait here. But my friends come by and tell me that they're leaving. Which means I've gotta go too. I leave without saying goodbye to my multicultural beau, but I'm okay with that. Several days later, at a different club, I see him again. He looks all mad that I haven't been answering his calls. "But my phone is dead!" I say. He insists that we meet again before I leave for Germany. I demur. He persists. I say I'm going to the bathroom and get up. Then I sneak outside for a smoke. Who follows me out before I've even taken my first drag? My most ardent and tiresome suitor. Now, I don't mind people being admiring. In fact, I'm flattered. But this guy was way too intense for me. I finally tell him, sure, I'll meet you. Let's meet here at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. Okay? Okay. Great. Except that I have no intention of being there. Oh, Overly Admiring Club Guys. Why do you make me lie to you?

Oh, and on the last night we went out in England I made a DIY cocktail dress out of a long skirt, a hair ribbon, and a brooch. It looked great! Go me, making new fashion out of dowdy duds!

Lernin Meself Scouse, and Other Adventures

'lo all! I'm in Liverpool, celebrating Christmas. Here's a brief recap of my trip, part one:

Getting There

So, to get to where I am now I had to 1) take a train to Bremen, 2) fly from Bremen to Manchester, and 3) drive from Manchester to Liverpool. I'm like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles ... except without the John Candy. So, I'm on the first leg of this trip, the train from Braunschweig to Bremen. I have bought my ticket with the 50% discount that I get with the BahnCard 50 that I bought back in September. Only I don't technically have the card; I have the voucher saying that I've bought the card, but my actual card never arrived in the mail. However, I've used the voucher before and it's worked just like the card. So I get on the train, thinking everything's all good. Around Hannover the ticket taker comes to me. He says, "Ticket please (in German)." I say, "Here you are, my good sir (in German)." He looks at my voucher and says, "This is no longer alwkrhejkhfdjsbcfdsrt (in German)." Now, I don't know what alwkrhejkhfdjsbcfdsrt means in German, but I get the gist of it. My voucher no longer vouches. Wish I had figured that out sooner. So, what do I do? Well, the ticket taker suggested that I get off at the next station and buy a full-price ticket. Strongly suggested. As in, saw me to the door of the train at Hannover and watched me get off the train. Wow. So I had to spend half of the cash I had on me to buy another ticket. Bum deal.

Once I got to Bremen, though, it was smooth sailing - er, flying. I flew with RyanAir, which is super cheap because they cut out pretty much every extraneous thing they can. No free in-flight snack. Flights to only a limited number of places. Awful advertisements for little trinkets over the intercom during the flight. But the people were nice and they were speaking English, so I was happy.

Caroline and her guy picked me up from the airport Manchester and we drove to her house in Liverpool. That was my first taste of England: listening to people talk with foreign accents, watching people drive on the wrong side of the road, and eating prawn cocktail-flavored potato chips. Yum yum!

So, as soon as we get home we pretty much turn right around and leave again. Where, you ask, are we going? To the pub! I really like England, but English people can drink more than any collective people I've ever known - and I've been to Germany. I've been here since the 22nd, and do you know what my time has been spent doing? I'll break it down for ya:

Dec. 22: Arrive. Beers at The Brookhouse, followed by more beers at Bumper.
Dec. 23: Wine and lunch at the Panoramic. Beers at Cain's brewery. Cocktails and beer at a Christmas party at The Flute.
Dec. 24: A beer and wine at home. Christmas Eve party - much beer - at The Brookhouse.
Dec. 25: Christmas. Presents, wine, and dinner.
Dec. 26: Boxing Day. Cocktails, beers, a cider, and more at Hannah's, The Peacock, Lago, and Heebie Jeebies. Whew.
Dec. 27: Coffee. Lots. And. Lots. Of. Coffee.

And now today! There is actually much more to say about these individual days, but I'm going to put that all in another post. 'Till then -- ta, lovelies!

xoxo, (which is what all the English people keep putting in their texts to me. That's hugs and kisses, right? What if I just want the hugs? Can I just have "ooo"?)
-Raychel

Quick Note

Hey all,

Just sending a quick note to let you know that I've made it to Liverpool. I'm doing alright, spending the holiday with my friend and her family. A bigger update will come later, but I just wanna say love you, miss you, and Merry Christmas!

xoxo,

-Raychel

The People Thatcha Meet

I meet some interesting people here in Braunschweig. It happens all the time. I just go outside, speak English, and -bam!- someone starts talking to me. Sometimes this turns out well and sometimes it turns out, well ...

So I'm out at my local pub the other night with Caroline. We're doing the whole have a beer and chat thing. This guy standing with a group six feet away glances back over his shoulder when he hears us speaking English and then decides to come over and talk to us. We're like, "Oh no" because what usually happens after someone comes over is this:

1. They ask "Where are you from?"
2. They ask "What are you doing here in Braunschweig?"
3. They invite themselves over to our table.
   

The inviting themselves over is not always necessarily bad, but I'd say more often than not it leads to 1) English lessons, 2) crazy people showing us pictures of ALL of their cats, or 3) a good hitting-on by a man old enough to be my father. I was not up for any of these. However, the guys who came over turned out to be awesome. They were like, "Hi, we're just three gay guys out on the town. Do you want to dance?" And then we danced. Not like ghetto-danced. Like danced danced. With proper form and stuff. This one guy showed me pictures of his boyfriend in Amsterdam and another, after learning that we're teachers, called up some other English-speaking teachers to hang out. The guys were so friendly, spoke great English (in addition to, of course, German), and were definitely not hitting on us. I had a wonderful time, probably the best Tuesday night I've had in Braunschweig.

Cut to tonight. I'm with my roommate at home and she says, "Hey could you do me a favor tonight? I met this guy named Joe who only speaks English and I wanted to invite him over for coffee. Can you translate for a while? I think he's American." So, I'm like, hey cool. No worries. So he's supposed to arrive at 8:00. But at 7:30 there's a buzz from downstairs. I let the buzzer person in and it's Joe - with a friend. Turns out, Joe also brought a translator, named KC (short for some very long name that I can't remember). They're super early, and Nadine is kinda freaking out. She's like, "Can you make some coffee and entertain a bit while I help my daughter with her homework and get ready?" Sure. No worries. So I'm making with the hostess duties (in my pajamas; I was also not prepared). Turns out Joe and KC are from Zimbabwe and Nigeria, respectively, but are here in Braunschweig to work. They like football and a couple of American TV shows that I like and oh yeah KC is seriously in love with me from the moment he meets me. We step outside for a moment to have a smoke and he starts laying on the smooth talk. He says I'm beautiful, a princess, well-built, nice, funny, and probably a good dancer. Within 30 minutes of knowing me. He wants me to sit on his lap on the balcony. He wants me to stay with him. He wants me to spend Christmas with him. He says that a woman needs a man in her life to make her happy, and that he knew that HE was the man for me. Within 30 minutes of knowing me. I tried gracefully to say no, thank you, and extricate myself from the awkward situation that had moved itself from the balcony into the kitchen. He was totally not getting it. So I made up a fake date that I simply had to be at at 9:30, texted Caroline from the bathroom with my "This is an emergency, I need a fake date. Coffee in 20?" text, and beat it out of there. True, I left my roomie without a translator, but I think she'll understand.

Oh, the people that you meet here. I have stories, people. BUCKETS of stories.

Merry, Merry!

I went to the Post-Bank-Depot today (what's a PostBankDepot? See this earlier post.) and sent off all but one of my Christmas gifts. So, Mom, you've got a package coming for the family; Marcy, you've got a package coming for my Norman peeps; and Eli, if you read this, you've got a card and choco coming. Ambie, I'm still working on sending yours, but I don't have an addy. E-mail it to me, por favor? Also, the stuff I sent is supposed to take about two weeks to get there, so I'm afraid this is going to be a New Year's gift instead of a Christmas gift. At any rate, stuff is coming!

Also, I booked my flight to England today. One of my friends invited me to stay with her family for the Christmas break so I wouldn't be all alone in Germany. Most awesome of her. So I'll be hanging around Liverpool and Manchester from the 23rd of December 'till the 5th of January. There will be many pictures and stories to accompany the trip. I may try to make it to London, but that's looking like a pretty expensive trip in and of itself, so it'll prolly hafta wait. Speaking of expensive, my flights were priced really weird. From Bremen to Manchester cost £26 (about $40), but from Manchester to Bremen cost €100 (about $133). HUGE diff there. What gives?

That's the short of it today. Later, gators!

Oh, wait, speaking of gators .... OU is totally gonna own this BCS Championship game. Sorry Miami, but you're going doooooowwwn! Ungh! ... ahem. Seriously, though. January 8th. It's coming. A national championship for my Sooners. Of course, it happens when I leave the country. Frak.

OMG Care Packages!!!

Hey all,

I've gotten three - count 'em, THREE! - care packages since coming to Germany. That's awesome! First came the one from Mom with much needed electronics cables and good-smelling favorite t-shirts and gloves. Then came the one from Marcy and company with books, CDs, DVDs, Mad-Libs, and (don't ask why) underwear. This box of goodies has been eating up a lot of my free time lately, as I tend to devour media as soon as I get it. And last, but certainly not least, I got a lovely Christmas care package from Dad, Rachael, and the gang with a card, a paint-it-yourself nutcracker, smelly-good incense, and thermal underhosen for keeping warm. I was so happy to get all of the care packages, but I'ma talk about this last one since it was the most recent.

So, the package came on Wednesday. After I opened it I immediately started playing with the stuff inside. I put up my card from Madeline, put on my thermals, and sat down to paint me a nutcracker. The thermals are awesome, btw - I've got a long shirt, pants, and really thick socks. They're so freakin warm that I can wear them like pajamas. Am, in fact, wearing them like pajamas. As we speak - er, as I write - I'm sitting at the kitchen table, listening to SomaFM and blogging it up in my thermal p.j.'s. I look kind of like a mountain climber at base camp, but I feel good. So, I painted my nutcracker's hat red and lit my incense and had myself a merry little Christmas. And then, not one day later, I get a card in the mail from the fam. It's our Thanksgiving picture! Usually, the pic includes all of us who are there at Thanksgiving and I was kind of sad because I thought I wouldn't be in it this year. But, lo, what was in this Thanksgiving photo but a screenshot of me on a laptop with the rest of the family! I was a part of the family! A disembodied head on a computer part of the family. :-)

Aaanywho, the gifts are all wonderful and I wanted to thank yous guys for sending them. The clothes are being worn, the books read, the CDs listened to, the false eyelashed worn, and the nutcrackers painted. Pics will follow. Thanks guys! Getting things from you makes me feel like you're all here with me, lame as that sounds. But even more clingy, it lets me know that I'm not forgotten, which (as it turns out) is a big fear of mine. Thanks again, lovelies. Merry Pre-Christmas!

Moar Photoz!!1!

For your perusal, I have collected photos from the farthest reaches of exotic Braunschweig. Enjoy!

Churches, Cloisters, and Cathedrals, vol. III: Marvin's church, St. Martini, and Pete's place, the Kemenate, which is not a church but which is still old and cool.

Heidelberg: my trip to Heidelberg over Halloween weekend.

Weihnachtsmarkt: the Christmas market in Braunschweig and the people who frequent it.

Wandern: I've updated this section.

I've also posted videos: Here's one of the Christmas market ....

And here's one of my room, in case you haven't seen it:




And last, but not least, here's me jumping on a trampoline in a park around Braunschweig ...

Stolen from FB: 16 Things About Me

This is a little chain note I stole from my Facebook account called .....

16 Things About Me:

Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a note with 16 random things, shortcomings, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end choose 16 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. You have to tag the person who tagged you (since this isn't Facebook, I'm not tagging anyone).

Here we go ...... *drum roll*

1. I went to a pentecostal holiness church for, like, the first decade of my life.
2. I went skydiving for my 20th birthday. Jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet.
3. I was engaged once but didn't get married.
4. I memorized the alphabet backwards at age 6 and the Greek alphabet at age 9 ... because why not?
5. I took second place in forms and and one-step sparring in my division at this year's ATA Taekwondo World Championships. That makes me the second-most-deadly noob between the ages of 18 and 29 to be found doing taekwondo in 2008.
6. I can speak German and English. Woo!
7. I have eight siblings, including step-brothers and step-sisters.
8. I used to model ceramic corsets at art shows.
9. I have an unreasonable fear of needles. The one time I went to OBI to donate blood, I nearly fainted after looking at the needle going into my arm.
10. I want to be everything when I grow up. I can't be just one thing, and I'm afraid that choosing one path will make me miss out on all the others.
11. I google people. I google me all the time. I've probably googled you.
12. I have a real chip on my shoulder about borrowing money from people. I have no problem loaning it out (assuming I know the person's someone who'll make good on their debt), but it physically causes me pain to have to ask people for help.
13. My first ever job was in a Michael's craft store.
14. I'm really proud of who I am as a person, and I don't think that's a problem.
15. I have been known to, now and again, embellish the stories I tell to people. My friends kindly call these tall tales "right hand true stories". I don't think this is a problem either.
16. I don't want kids. Like, EVER.

Well, there you have it! Stayed tuned for more randomness and the Braunschweig News At One.

Raychel's Life, the CliffNotes Version

Hey all! I'm not dead! I've just been very, very lazy with updating my blog. I'll try to make up for it this week by posting lots of little new updates, things like:

• My planned Christmas in Liverpool
• Why I want to be a cop
• Christmastime in Braunschweig and why we need it in the U.S.
• Weird English slang that has popped up in my vocabulary
• Pictures of me pretending I don't know I'm taking a picture of myself
• ....and much, much more!

For the meantime, know that I'm safe and cold here in Germany. Much love!

A Quick Note On Quiz Night

I went to The Wild Geese the other night for a quiz night with some friends. Quiz Night is when you team up with a couple of other people and get an answer sheet on which you write the answers to 20 questions asked by two emcees. (Why two? Because it's all done in English and in German -- bilingual fun!) The questions range from math word problems to "Name This American President". It's not a race against time kind of quiz night, but more of a take-it-easy, have a beer and then answer a question kind of night. And I loves it. Yes, I does. I had an absolute blast racking my brain with questions like "Was Jimmy Carter bald?" and "What IS the capital of Bolivia?" (half of you will go wiki the answer to this right now; the other half will just look down in the comments section to see if someone else has already found the answer). The winner of this quiz night gets a 30 Euro gift certificate to the pub. This is incentive enough for me. But then again, I get really competitive over little things, so they probably could have told me that the prize was a half-eaten sour apple lollipop and I still would be there every Tuesday night.

And I don't even like sour apple.

The Braunschweig News At One

Hey all! Long time, no write. I know. I've been catching up on the real-time real world lately, skyping with family and sorting out stuff in the states. But now I'm all caught up and ready to bring to you all NEWS OF BRAUNSCHWEIG!

*cue the news theme music*

Good Evening / Morning and welcome to the Braunschweig News at One. I'm Oh No Raychel.

In our top story of the evening, Early Thanksgiving at Raychel's was a smashing success. Attendance topped out at eight people and, according to exit polls, the cooking was well received. Let's go to our field correspondent, Raychel, with the story. Raychel?

Thanks, Raychel. I'm currently sitting in Raychel's apartment on Charlottenstrasse, eating the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers. Normally, Thanksgiving would be tomorrow (Nov. 27th) but, due to poor calendar-reading skills, local American Raychel Whatserface held the annual food festival last Thursday, on November 20th. She spent over eight hours cooking delicious homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing, and turkey. She bought two turkeys, but the oven was actually too small to accomodate more than one bird at a time. Hence, the marathon cooking. Friends of Raychel's and friends of Raychel's roommate stopped by at around 3 to enjoy TONS of excellent food, a semi-live performance of Arlo Guthrie's Thanksgiving hit "Alice's Restaurant" (or is it "The Alice's Restaurant Masacree"?), drinking of beers, watching of sports on TV, and the saying of "what I'm thankful for"s. Raychel even dressed up like some 1950's June Cleaver lady to present it all. Festivities lasted until the next day, culminating in a post-feast leftover lunch where friends munched on turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches and avoided the now disgustingly congealed turkey gravy. Back to you, Raychel.

Thanks, Raychel. Pictures of the Thanksgiving festivities will be made available to the public as soon as whoever took some posts them on Facebook, because Raychel sure as shoe polish did not have time to take pics herself.

And in news abroad, Raychel went to a fun house party here in sunny Braunschweig with some of her English-speaking friends. The theme of the party was "things that are dead / things that do not exist any more." The English-speaking group went as ... disco! Get it? Disco is dead? Anyone? Moving on ... pictures of this event to follow. Needless to say, the costumes were hilarious and a hit. The party-goers had a great time disco-dancin' and love-romancin' and ... (any Hosty fans out there who can finish the song I just started singing?)

And now, we're over to Raychel with sports. Raychel?

Thanks, Raych! Hey, folks, it's Rowdy Ray here, comin' atcha with the WACKIEST sport in Germany, handball! Can someone please tell me the rules for this sport? Because I spent most of Thanksgiving evening watching it on TV and all I can come up with is that sometimes you bounce the ball and sometimes you throw it, but ALL of the time you fall or are knocked down. They play on concrete, though, making handball the roughest sport I've ever seen. Also, yours truly was invited over to a colleague's house last week to watch England play Germany in soccer. Over mini-pizzas and Wolters beers, the rabid fans poked fun at each other, cheering and groaning over goals scored and missed. The game was excellent and, in the end, England pulled ahead by one point. Go, fellow English-speakers, go! Woo! Back to you, Raychel.

Thanks, Raych. And now, the weather with ... Weatherman Dave, who is live outside Rayche's apartment. Dave?

.... Dave?

Okay, we've lost Dave's feed. We'll have to cover it from the studio. Well, it's snowed here in Braunschweig. The temperature has hovered somewhere between "stick your hands in your armpits" cold to "my eyeballs hurt" cold for the last five days or so. It snowed on Early Thanksgiving and a few more times after that. The snow has stayed in little pockets of white fluff all over the place, on parked cars and nestled into bushes. It's absolutely beautiful. I licked some the other day. It's a little embarassing to admit, but I did. It was such a pretty snow and I was so happy to be out in it that I licked a snow-laden bush branch. Yes I did.

*cue the outtro music*

Well that's all the time we have for now. This has been the Braunschweig News at One and I've been, and always will be, Raychelicious. Goodnight.

Quick note -- I won't be on Skype from 5 to 7 my time today. I might be on from 7 to 8, though (noon to 1 p.m.). More news later -- bye!

Skype, Day One

Hey all,

Just a quick note to say hello. I was on Skype today. I found a friend from here in Braunschweig and an Algerian named Lotfi who said I was very pretty, asked me to call him, and then promptly got blocked by me. No talking to strangers. My muddah would not approve.

Anywho, I won't be on tomorrow, as it's my Pretend Thanksgiving. I, in my infinite wisdom, thought that Thanksgiving was this Thursday and not the next one. I decided to have Thanksgiving dinner and invite all my friends. We're going to eat turkey and stuffing, listen to "Alice's Restaurant" and other American classics, and watch any kind of football we can find. This day just happens to be my mom's birthday, so if I don't getcha on Facebook or phone you then Happy Birthday, Ma! I love you bunches!

It's Skype Tutorial Time!

Hi lovelies,

It's been about a week since I posted last and I have many things to say, but most important among those things is this: I have Skype! my user name is raychel.winstead -- come look me up! For those who aren't in the know, Skype is an awesome free software that lets you phone people up through your computer. If I call your computer from my computer and we both chat over Skype, then that's totally free. If I call from my computer to your telephone, then that only costs maybe ten cents a minute or something. I'm still working out the details but here's the basic tutorial so that you can come join me:

Get (And Install) Skype

1. Go to the Skype website at http://www.skype.com/download and click on the big green "download now" button. I'm using Skype version 3.8, but if you get the 4.0+ beta versions (the newer stuff) that's okay too.
2. You're gonna get a dialogue box popping up that says "you have chosen to open SkypeSetup.exe -- would you like to save this file?" Yes, yes you would like to save this file. Once saved, it should show up as a blue box icon on your desktop saying "Skype Setup".
3. Double-click that blue box and get to installin'. It's easy. Just follow the little steps and, at the end, you get a neato Skype all installed. It looks like this:
4. 

Getting Your Account

1. So, now that you've got your Skype installed, you'll wanna create an account for yourself. On the log-in screen, click on the little blurb under the "Skype Name" box that says "don't have a Skype name?"
2. Follow the steps in the box that pops up. Make up a user name and password, blah blah blah. At the end you click "Sign In" and it creates your user name and signs you in to Skype. You're in! It looks like this:

Getting Started On Skype

1. Okay, so by this point there's a Skype tutorial that's much better than mine to take you through the rest. All you need is a headset with a microphone (any of the normal ones you'd buy for your computer will do; just head out to Wal-Mart and grab a pair. Headphones + microphone = your friend!)

A neato bonus when you first start using Skype is that your first call to a land line is free. I tried calling home at 11 p.m. my time, but neither Mom nor Marv picked up. I left a message.

Well, anywho, I'm on Skype now. Add me! You can leave me a comment, an e-mail, or smoke signals letting me know when we can get together and chat. If not, I'll be online every day between 5 and 7 p.m. my time (10 a.m. and noon for you Central Standard people) unless otherwise posted. Love ya, guys!

Alles Neu

So, I haven't posted here in over a week. I've had internet access; I just haven't had either anything particularly interesting happening to me or the desire to write about nothing in particular. But now I do! I wrote a list in school today, an actual list of things to talk about on my blog. Like, for example, the fact that I had to make a list of things to talk about on my blog. Or the fact that I was in school today.

So, let's see ... school is awesome. I have a 5th grade class, an 8th grade class, a 9th grade class, two 11th grade classes, and a 13th grade class regularly. The others I will occasionally sit in on, but I don't do as much with them. I'm really enjoying working with the students on my own. Usually I'll get a group of five or six kids and, while the teacher is doing the lesson in one room, I'm doing either the same thing or a conversation group with my kids in another room. This makes me like a special vacation to the kids, who are eager to get out of the classroom where they spend the day for any reason. Everyone wants to go hang out with Raychel. Yeah.

So, I sometimes get to plan my lessons. Like for one lesson, my co-teacher was talking about magazines -- just magazines in general, and how they're different reading material than books or newspapers. An hour before the class starts, he's like, "Would you like to take a group and do your own lesson on magazines?" You betcha! I was on that like syrup on waffles. What we did was this: first, we brainstormed all the magazine titles we could think of. My students named them and I wrote them on the board. This was actually kinda funny, because there were a lot of titles that I didn't know (being not German and all) and they kept having to explain it all to me. Then we talked about what sort of things are in a typical magazine -- cover, table of contents, articles, letters to the editor, advertisements, fashion shoot pictures, yada yada ... This is all pretty normal stuff to do in a class. But then we played this fun game: I had the students rip pictures out of some magazines I'd brought (all sorts of pictures - old men, pretty ladies, babies, weird guys in outlandish swimsuits), then I posted them around the room and asked the students to go around looking at them all. I said, "Okay, imagine that you have to spend one weekend in Braunschweig with one of these people. Who would it be?" and then I had them go stand by their choices. Of course, there was a huddle of boys around the pretty lady picture. Us talking about this decision went like this:

Me: "Okay, so why did you choose her?"
Boy: *with laughter* "Well, it's obvious ...."
Me: *i'm-waiting look*
Boy: "She is very ... uh ... beautiful." *and we're all laughing*
... at this point I'm just getting a kick out of the fact that he's shy about his choice, so I press on.

Me: "And what are you going to do on your weekend together?"
Boy and friends: *increasingly childish laughter at what we all know is the first answer to jump to mind.*
Me: *i'm-waiting look*
Boy: "I would take her swimming."

I genuinely did not expect this answer, and it cracked me up. So, I laughed, he laughed, everyone laughed, and we had a good time. After that exercise we did another one where students read an article in pairs, then one member of the pair rotated groups. The new person had 60 seconds to explain to the person who stayed seated (in English) the plot of what they just read. More switching of places and 60 second explainations lead to a kind of fast-paced loud game of Telephone. At the end I had people tell me what they learned from the other articles, and the result was also funny. The lesson plan itself wasn't actually brilliant, but we did have fun and I did get my students talking the entire hour, which is pretty tough to do with older students. The older they get, the more reluctant they get to talk and play games. It makes it hard to be a language teacher and not just resort to worksheets all the time. Bo-ring. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I had a lesson plan that really made me proud of myself at the end of the day because 1) they spoke the language, 2) they heard me speak the language, and 3) we all came out smiling. English doesn't have to be torture! Hooray!

Speaking of speaking the language, I get made fun of so much for the way I talk here. Not by Germans, mind you: by other English speakers. I hang out with people from England, and at least once a day (on a day that we all meet up), they will laugh at something I say that is "American". Like "tomato". It's not "tuh-MAY-toh", apparently, but "tuh-MAH-toh". Oh! Or the way I say "dig this" which is, admittedly, really more of an idiosyncracy than an American thing, but still ... oh, and don't even get me started on the way we pronounce the Dreaded D-Word, the tasty late night meal of lamb and yogurt sauce on pita bread -- the döner/donner. I have been told that I say this word "wrong", and that it is physically painful to at least one of my English friends to hear it my way. That's okay, though. I don't mind. I just call it "soccer" instead of "football" and watch them all freak out. >:-)

Photo Dump!

Oh, lovelies -- I'm a happy camper! I have photos for y'all. Check out each photo gallery by clicking on the bold title with the gallery's name. If you can't get to the photos, send me a comment and I'll make it better.

Wandern - really, just photos of pretty things I see day to day.

Up the Asse Mountain - I went hiking up this mountain called Asse with my roomie and her daughter.

Signs, Stickers, and Graffiti - a collection of my favorite street art in Germany.

Schulball 2008 - now with updated behind-the-scenes photos!

Sights to See - what to do and photograph in Braunschweig.

Hannover - a trip I took to visit a friend in Hannover. Lotsa sight seeing good times.

Narcissism - photos of me. Me, me, me, me, me.

Rubber Duck Race and Children's Circus - just what it sounds like.

Berlin in a Day - a daytrip to Berlin I took with a class of German and Polish exchange students.

Churches, Cloisters, and Cathedrals - parts ONE and TWO.

I also have several video and a Skype tutorial following soon, which I'm working on right now. Hope you like the photos. :-D

My Noble Steed

WoooooHOO! Got me a li'l bitta mon-ay! HOO-rah!

I checked my bank account today and had €600 in there. I was expecting more - something more like €1600 - but I'll take this little bit for now and wait a bit to see if the rest comes in within the next day or two. At least this allows me to catch up on my rent (from September, at any rate), pay my U.S. bills, and send some care packages. I am most definitely stoked!

Oh, and real quick -- I got this link from a friend of mine (thanks, Eric!) to what may be the bext German pop music I've heard since coming here: It's Peter Fox - "Alles Neu" (read the article and then check out the video at the bottom of the page). The song is heavy and catchy at the same time -- heavy because I don't know what else to call the awesome drum line and string combo and catchy because, well, it is.

Also, I had no school today. Well, I mean, the school had school today - there were students there. But my mentor and co-teacher for today was not. Hence, no work for me. I, however, woke up all early, got myself all dolled up, and walked to school without knowing this, so I was a little disappointed. I went into town anyway, went to the library, had lunch, and then hit the cafe. I'm thinking about going to the theater (the Theater Proper, not the movie theater) later this week. There's a funny musical-spoof playing called "The Phantom of the Oker" (the Oker is the river that runs through this area). It's about the rivalry between Braunschweig and Hannover and it looks like it'll be pretty funny. I'll let you guys know how it turns out, if I can manage to get tickets.

In the mean time, I'm going everywhere on foot. My bicycle -- my noble, noble steed -- is total kaputt. You see, I'm riding this bike on loan from a very nice colleague of mine. It's all I've got to ride, and it came to me as is. It's a men's mountain bike, though, which makes it not the most optimal of rides for a girl in the city. Also, the gears will slip now and then when I try to push the pedals too hard. So, say I'm riding up a hill and I try to put all my weight on one pedal, standing up and using the pedals kind of like a stair climbing machine. My noble steed decides that this is too much stress for one pedal to bear, the chain slips and my foot goes slamming down on the pedal -- crunch! -- as I go careening off into the bushes. Haha, bicycle, haha.

Okay, so it's more like a stubborn donkey than a noble steed, but it's my ride. It's got a bell that goes ching-ching! and a thing on the back for me to stick my tote bag in. I'm pretty happy with it. But I took it around town the other night and left it out by a club (my friends and I had all stayed out until late and taken a taxi home). I think to myself, "No problem. I'll just retrieve it in the morning..." (This is not a strange thing to do here). But when I come back the next morning, some drunken dork had let all the air out of my back tire and stolen the cap that keeps the air in. Faaaaaaantastic. So I drag my rattling bike back home. But later that day, when my roommate and I try to reinflate the tire, the inner tube keeps popping out to the side in one part and we can't make any progress with it. I'm like, "stupid noble steed ..." but my roommate says, "No worries - just take your bike on the bus to Radeklint. There's a good bike repair shop that I know there. I'll ride my bike and meet you there." Right on. Off we go.

... except that the only bus I could find to Radeklint went aaaaall the way around the city first. And this grumpy old bus driver-woman said I had to pay twice the usual fee to take the bike on the bus with me. And I didn't get to sit down. And, as I was in the bus buying my ticket, someone knocked over my bike and messed up the handle bars so that they don't point straight anymore. Ugh. Okay, fine. On the bus. So, I'm riding along .... and I'm riding along ... and the bus number for the bus that I'm on changes and now I'm on the 439 to some place called Donnaustraße ... and I keep riding because I haven't found the Radeklint stop yet ... and I'm in the country. Great. I get off the bus. I look around. There is NOTHING around me. I call my roommate and tell her where I am and she gives the pause like, "how on earth did you get there?" She tells me to just get back on the next bus coming the other way and to get off at Radeklint then. I say, "But I've only got €2 left" and she says, "Well, I'm sure if you explain to the bus driver that you're lost he or she will help you out."

... kay. So I'm sitting in the cold, in the country, at dusk, waiting for a bus that will not be arriving for another half hour. I am SO NOT having a good time. And when the bus pulls up, who's driving it? Grumpy old bus driver-woman! I think, oh this has to be good because she knows I was just on the bus and she'll understand that I'm lost. No. Not only is this woman not at all understanding of my situation, she tries to tell me that I'll have to pay double AGAIN for my bicycle, which was more money than I had on me. I end up pointing out that my bike pass is technically good for 150 minutes (as opposed to just one or two bus rides) and get away with only buying a new ticket for me. Still. I am not a happy camper at this point. And as I'm taking my second 45-minute bus ride of the day, my roommate calls to let me know that the bike place is now closed and we'll just have to go tomorrow or the next day. And then? Then the bus driver yells back to me that there is no Radeklint stop (something I had asked her about earlier, to no response); there are only three street stops that happen to be in the area known as Radeklint.

...

Why did no one tell me this? This would have made my life much easier, I think as I drag my bike - whose back tire now refuses to move at all, making a hideous squealy noise whenever I try to roll it - away from the main station. But no. Even the bus plan was ambiguous and unhelpful. It said "Radeklint" on it in such a way that made me think there was a Radeklint stop, I think. Then, as I am pulling my broken, squealing bike down the sidestreets towards my house, it starts to rain. Ah, my noble steed.

Alles Klar, Kommisar

Hey lovelies,

A quick side note before I get on to the blog post proper: there is a new step in the ritual of my coming to the internet cafe. See, you all know that I come to the same cafe all the time. And you all have heard about how I am on familiar-ish terms with the owner, and how my favorite computer is number 27. But now, the owener and I have this way that we greet each other. It goes like this:

Me: "Hallo!"
Him: "Hallo! Alles gut?"
Me: "Alles gut."
Him: "Alles klar?"
Me: "Alles klar!" (and sometimes, "Alles klar, Kommisar!")
Us: *laughter*

... and then I go on to my computer. I love this place.

So, the post:

I went hiking with my friend and her daughter a while back. Actually, we went "spazieren gehen", which I thought meant "taking a walk" but which actually means "to embark on a dangerous, arduous journey up a mountain where death is a real possibility". Who knew? Anyway, I wore a t-shirt, cute jeans, and these pair of fashionable tennis shoes with no tread on them whatsoever. And we're walking up these steep paths and down into these valleys and I'm like "oh, this is fun." We even found a cool rope swing over a little valley and had loads of fun swinging back and forth like monkeys. Videos and pics to follow, promise. But we come to this part of the hike where we either have to scale this steep, steep slope about the height of a three story building or double back and go a long ways around it. My roommate and her daughter are like, "No problem! We'll just climb up this." ... Mind you, this slope is so steep that you can't actually walk up it; you have to scramble up a step or two, hang on to a tree that is somehow managing to grow on this slope, and then scramble/leap/run to the next available tree. It's not spazieren gehen, it's mountain climbing.

So, I make it like this about two-thirds of the way up the slope, clutching my stupid, fashionable purse to my body with one hand and grasping at limbs with the other. But I'm watching my roommate's daughter, hoping she doesn't miss a limb and go tumbling. So what do I do? I miss a limb I was reaching for, slip on my treadless, fashionable tennis shoes, and go tumbling. I'm sliding down this pseudo-mountain in a pile of leaves at a frightening pace and I think "Well, there are two options here: Either I can try to save my jeans by skidding on my feet, which will probably send me flying and end in me breaking my neck, or I can accept that I'm going to get all dirty and just slide on my butt. So, I kind of stick one foot out in front of me, slide on my butt, like I'm a runner sliding into home plate, throw my hands up in the air, and yell "woohoo!" like I'm on some sort of slip-and-slide ride. And you know what? It actually kind of was like a slip-and-slide ride. I get back to the bottom in my now muddy and definitely no longer fashionable jeans, stuck in a giant pile of leaves, laughing out loud. I thought, "Well, I'll just start climbing back up again now ..." but then ZOOM! The roommate's daughter slides in next to me in a flurry of leaves. Now it's a game! We had a hoot sliding down the slope, then we got our act together and climbed back up it. At the top of the mountain, we had cold waffles and apfelschorle. For a near-death experience, it was kinda cool.

Oh, and on a side note: I'm on IMDB! Your baby's a film star! Check me out here.

It means WHAT in German?!

WOW. I haven't blogged in almost a week. Here's a bit of everything:

1. This computer at the internet cafe, number 27, is now MY computer. I come in now and the man behind the counter says, "Hello! You're computer is free!" and I say, "Thanks!" and go to number 27, which has the nice mouse that I can put on the lefthand side. Hooray!
2. We STILL do not have internet access at my apartment. What was the net company's excuse this time? Well, when they sent us the package containing (supposedly) everything we needed to hook up the internet, they forgot to include the ONE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE, the modem. We have cords, we have a wireless router thingie, and we have power cables to a modem that we do not, as of yet, own. Interessant. Now we have to wait on ANOTHER package. Yes, we do. No, we cannot just go to these people's store and pick up the necessary device. Why? Because that would be too easy. When the package finally arrives, I suspect we will have to jump through hoops of fire before we're allowed to open it. Just my guess. Okay, that moaning and groaning aside, I can move on to ....
3. Spencer Davis!!! As these kids on the interwebs say, OMFG. I actually got to see Spencer Davis, along with Peter Jameson and Miller Anderson, play at Barnaby's. They did this fantastic acoustic performance and I got to see them. I ended up sitting right next to these pretty cool guys who were also blues fans. We sang all the songs we knew along with the band and impressed each other by knowing about Keb Mo and Robert Johnson. I ate chex mix at the bar and had a couple of fantastic beers. At the end of the night they played "House of the Rising Sun" and "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66"; I had a hoot cheering whenever they said that Oklahoma City was mighty pretty. I couldn't believe I had the good fortune to be sitting in this little bar, so far from home, listening to legendary music and just having a grand ole time.
   
4. I went hiking today. My roommate, her daughter, and I all drove out to this mountain called Asse. Yep. That's the name of the mountain. Asse. It's pronounced just like you think it's pronounced. I had a grand ole' time with that too. (whoops, here goes a digression...) In general, my roommate and I like to find words in our respective languages that change meanings in translation. For example, "gift" in English means something that you give to someone without expecting something in return (although Christmas is sort of an exception here, isn't it?). However, in German, the word "gift" means poison. Delicious! I love it. Or, as a further example, I was trying to describe why I like fried mushrooms the other day. I said to my roommate, "well they taste good and they're mushy" ... and she looks at me like, "they're what now???" Hmm. Apparently the word that sounds like "mushy" in English means something completely different in German. I'll leave it up to your inquiring minds (and Google searches) to find out what that German word is. ;-)

Whoops. Gotta go -- next time, more about the mountain and how I almost lost my life climbing in cute little tennis shoes!

Things The Germans Do The Same (As We Do In The States)

Hey all. I'm back in the 'net cafe. Hopefully by the time I get back home today I'll have my own connection there. Until then, I'm listening to this great girl with an acoustic guitar sing in my headphones (Reina Del Cid. Check her out on YouTube and follow along with me!) and typing away. Today's topic:

Things The Germans Do The Same (as We Do Back In Zee States):

Smoking: In the U.S. there are soooo many different brands of cigarettes to choose from - variations on Camels, Marlborros, Pall Malls, Parliaments, Lucky Strikes, Winstons, Capris, Virginia Slims, Kools, Monarchs, GPCs, Newports, and on and on... but Marlborro and Camel seem to be the big ones that everybody knows. So, when I got here I guess I expected the Germans to have an answer to this American Cigarette Market Domination in the form of weird German cigarette brands like Das Smoke or ÜberZiggies or something ... but no. It looks so far like they all smoke Camels and Marlborros just like the people in U.S. do. Except this one guy. I did meet this guy the other night who was rolling his own cigarettes with some tabacco that I'd never heard of. I was like, "You go, bar man who kind of looks like Mick Jagger! You go!"

Radio: All I ever hear on the radio here is American music. In every cafe, bookstore, clothing boutique, and funeral home I am bombarded with every Top 40 hit from this year - "I Kissed A Girl" and "Disturbia" - as well as some really random older stuff - like the other day when I heard Ginuwine's "My Pony" in a hair salon. Weird.

Yes and No: I'm coming to realize that I don't have to say "ja" and "nein" anymore. For example, as long as I get out an "n" sound and then pretty much any vowel, it comes out as an informal No. "Ney." "Noo." "Nei." "Nyeu." "Ngueiuo." It's all good. English kinda does the same thing. Think about it: "no", "nah", "nuh-uh", "nunghe", "nyeuu". As long as it doesn't start with a Y sound, you're golden. Try it today -- see how many people you can get to understand your new negations! Nyeugh, my friends, nyeugh!

Schulball 2008 Photos Are Up!!!

Okay, it's certainly not the photo dump I've been promising, but the photos from my school's annual dance (called the Schulball) are up on Facebook. If you can get on there and see them, check 'em out. If not, I'll post some of my favorites here. And, after I get 'net access on my laptop, I have some more funny backstage photos from this event.

First, a little about the Schulball:

Every fall the Wilhelm-Gymnasium has a school dance/prom thing - the Schulball. This year, the theme was "Unterwegs" which is like "Under way". It was all about travel and going places. The teachers performed a bunch of skits and musical numbers from each country that we had an exchange program or a school trip with: America, France, Poland, and Greece. I danced with a bunch of other women teachers in the American skit. So, thousands of miles from Oklahoma, I find myself dancing like a cowgirl to "Cotton Eye Joe" with a bunch of Germans while my students laugh and cheer. It was fantastic.

There was also a group of the biggest, manliest man teachers we had. They danced the can-can as pretty ladies from the Moulin Rouge, of course. There was also a Polish song that the Polish exchange teachers and some German teachers danced to (my mentor being one of them). And at the end there was a big dance number where we all got in a line and danced to this traditional Greek music. It was the kind of dance where you all do the same leg movements over and over, but the line of you moves and whips around so that the ones on the end are really running around. Do you wanna take a guess as to who was on the end? Yessir, it was me! I did that on purpose! I had a hoot, running around onstage and laughing and getting worn out from dancing.

The dancing went on late into the night, but I was pretty beat. I rode home in my cowgirl clothes. Yee-haw!

For more photos, check out the Facebook album here.

You can be the hat, but I totally get to be the shoe.

Today is an insanely beautiful fall day. I'm sitting in the ole' internet cafe, at computer number 27. 27 is my favorite because the mouse cord will move far enough across the desk that I can use it with my left hand. It's leftie friendly. I'm listening to the owner talk to somebody at the front desk in Turkish and, as much Turkish as I've heard in the last four weeks, I think I'm actually starting to understand him. I've just had my first Big Mac in weeks and I'm thinking about visiting a couple more churches before I go to my friend's to play Monopoly tonight. I'm so very excited about this Monopoly in particular because it's not just plain old Monopoly. No, no, my friends! It's ... Braunschweig Monopoly! As in, all the different sights around town are now places in the board. How COOL IS THAT?!

Yep. I'm easily amused.

So, anyway, I'm having great cheap fun around the city. I went back to the library today and picked up some more books. I got a Stephen King novel called Blaze that - shockingly - I've never heard of before. I also got a trashy medieval romance novel, a translation of Kafka's Amerika, a book that I've heard of before but have no clue what it's about (it's called Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), and a funny political satire piece of fiction that "imagines the serial resurrection and assassination of tireless muckraker and writer Upton Sinclair." Huh. I love just going to the Foreign Language section of the library here and seeing what kind of bizarre combinations of books I can come out with. And I know that some of you may be saying, "But Raychel, you're in Germany! Shouldn't you be reading only German-language books?" The answer is, of course, NO. No I shouldn't. I live in German. I begin each day with a million things I want to say, which must be funneled through the sometimes narrow spout of my German vocabulary. This gets tiring and, at the end of the day, I just want to read something where I understand every single word. I read the newspaper in German and advertisements on the streets in German and my roommate's daughter's homework in German. My books are English.

Captain's Log, Stardate 10102008...

Oh, and a few miscellaneous notes:

Churches

Amber's church is here! It's the Dom St. Blasii, also known as the Braunschweiger Dom (Dom = cathedral). It's the biggest, baddest mo-fo of all the churches here because it's where the old Herzog who took over / founded Braunschweig proper was buried (he died in 1195). His name was Heinrich der Löwen (Heinrich the Lion) and he's the reason the symbol of Braunschweig is the lion. The church itself is big a really cool combination of the romanesque, the gothic, the neo-romantic, the über-modern, you name it. It's a cool mixture of style on top of style with lots of interesting little nooks and semi-hidden rooms to explore. It also has tour guide pages to take with you in Estonian, in Esperanto, but not (that I could find) in English. So I had an interesting self-guided tour in some 19th century made-up language. That would be Esperanto, not Estonians. The Estonians are real.

Right, so, on to ....

School

I went to school at the "other building" this week. That means I taught the younger classes. See, Gymnasium is for grades 5 - 13, but at my school grades 5 - 8 are in one building and grades 9 - 13 are in the other. It kind of helps to have them separated out that way. The atmosphere is way different between the two schools because of the age differences and, in my pre-Germany imaginings, I couldn't figure out how a school with all those grades together would work. The answer is that it doesn't, probably. You have to have two buildings or somehow split it up, I think.

In any case, I was at the younger building in a 5th grade class. The teacher brought me in as a surprise and introduced me as "a guest who only speaks English". This meant that the students didn't know anything about me and had to ask me questions in English to find out about me. In groups of three these kids would meet me out in the hall and ask me all the questions they could think of in their little heads. I would answer in English and then ask them some questions.

So, I got asked my name a million times. And my age. And some questions that, although they made perfect sense to a ten year-old, were totally out of left-field to me. Like, what's my favorite number? I don't know ... but, I thought, I liked Douglas Adams' books where the answer to life, the universe, and everything was "42". So I answered 42. Now my favorite number is 42.

Oh! And there was one kid in the class who had a Canadian mother, so he could speak great English with just a little accent. But I didn't know this. So, this group of kids comes out into the hall and starts asking me questions. One kid asks "how old are you?"; one asks "what is your favorite animal?"; and then it's this kid, David's, turn. And he asks me, "So, you know about the financial crisis in America right now with the stock market and how it's bad for the dollar? So the dollar is not worth very much against the euro, right? Do you think that will get better any time soon?" In English. THIS TEN YEAR OLD GERMAN KID IS ASKING ME IN ENGLISH MY OPINION ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY. I was like, "Right on, little man!" and answered his question like I'd talk to an adult. He totally loved it. I totally loved it. His friends were totally dumbstruck.

One last note on this day with the 5th graders: at the end of class, I came back into the room and the kids then had to tell the teacher everything they'd learned about me. They told my name, my age, my favorite color and number, and so on. And one little guy raises his hand and says, "Raychel has two partners." As in, I have two boyfriends/girlfriends, because "partner" can go either way here. I was like, "WHUH??? When did I say this?" and the teacher is just looking at me and raising her eyebrows. After a lot of miscommunication and a game of charades I get that the kid is trying to say "Raychel has two pets" -- my two dogs back in the States. OH. RIGHT .... two pets ... heh ...So that was fun.

Blog Stuff

I've added this blog as a feed to my FaceBook page (thanks for the help, Amy!), so if you're a FaceBook friend and a blog reader, it's redundant stuff. You can read it in either place.

And finally ....

Notes to Everyone

Kelly: I'm glad you read my stuff! I heard about the thing that happened at IGI, but only in the vaguest of terms. Can I get an update? oh.no.raychel at gmail.com

Scott: You are a video-making machine, sir! I always check your profile for RDI and OUI stuff. You're my connection like that. Like a pusher. An improv pusher for my laugh addiction! My, what a nice analogy ...

Maddy: I most certainly WILL send you an e-mail. Tell Cody I says hello. And congrats on one year, pretty lady!

Everybody say, "Yay Pete!"

Dear Money God(s) and/or Goddess(es),

Thank you. Thank you thank you thankyouthankyou. I'm holding a feast in your honor or sacrificing a goat or something. Unless money gods are vegan, in which case I'll burn a little soy instead.

So, I owe my sanity to a man named Pete. You see, I was broke at home last night, so down I couldn't sleep. I've never been so depressed that I couldn't even sleep before. And what, Dear Reader might ask, had got me so depressed? Well, what gets any of us depressed? Money. As I had said before, I'm quite broke. I took out a loan before I came to Germany with the expectation that I would use half of the loan to pay my bills in the USA while I was gone and the other half to sustain myself my first month here. $1,000 is what you need to survive a month here, so said the government committee overseeing my trip. $1,000? It was more like $2,000 or $2,500. Think about it; I have:

• a BahnCard 50 (necessary to make train travel a viable option) - €110
• necessary travel by train and bus around Germany - about €160
• a hotel room my first two nights here (no youth hostel to be found) - €110
• a bed, blanket, pillows and sundry things needed for work and home - €250
• cell phone and minutes - €50
• camera - €40 (okay, maybe I didn't need this)
• shoes, tights, gloves, a hat, and a belt (because it's cold here, I only brought open-toed shoes, and I'm losing weight) - €55
• batteries, power adapters, and things to make things work - €30
• food - somewhere between €5 and €15 per day, so somewhere from €150 and €450 (I'm gonna say €300, because I ate out a lot before I got my own kitchen)
• internet and a few calls to the US - €50
• gifts for people back home - €10
• various costs like entry to Barnaby's to see Tom Principato and the odd beer at a cafe - €40 to €50.
• my bills back in the US - $290, which is something like €217 - €220

All of this (so, everything that I can remember) comes to about €1435. That's somewhere between $1920 and $1950. That's what I can remember off the top of my head. I'm sure that with various bus passes, maps, sundries, yada yada yada, I've spent my $2,000 and more. I was dead broke. I couldn't pay my rent (€300 a month to a very understanding roommate), I couldn't pay the €56 that I owed for my part in a field trip to Berlin --I couldn't even pay my roommate back the €12 she lent me for a library card. I had asked my mom, my roommate, even my friends for money. I had stopped eating anything that didn't come from my house. I wanted to call home and whine or write an e-mail, but I didn't have the money for either of those. I was the most broke I could possibly be.

And then today I was like, "I have a euro. I'll go check my e-mail real quick (Okie-ism: "real quick". I get made fun of for it here.)..." I get an e-mail from my stepmom saying (from her e-mail to me) "Hey, I was telling my boss, Pete, about you and your situation over in Germany and laughed and said that you young and resilient, and one day you too will laugh about it... "She later brought him some company checks to sign and he said to write one to me for $1,000.

Serious as a heart-attack. It's in my bank account right now. I checked. Then I checked again. Then I started crying in the internet cafe. Then I payed my bills with it. Now I'm gonna go pay my rent. I have no idea how to thank this guy. If you're reading this, Pete, then know that for one Okie in Germany you are a dream/prayer come true. You are better than Nutella. You go, Pete. You go.

I sent my stepmom back an e-mail with more on this, which she will send on to Pete. I hope to pay him back soon. And to send him a church. And a nice card. But first and foremost I wanted to say thanks.

Well, on a completely different note, the movie I was in -- No Burgers for Bigfoot -- is finally up on IMDB. The cast and crew are being added bit by bit for some reason, so if you don't see my name there, check back in a week. I'm a movie star! Can my day GET ANY BETTER?!

Oh, Gimme Gimme Some Lovin'!

So, I'm back in the internet cafe. My roommate got a 136€ bill today from the phone company because, apparently, we were charged 6€ per hour for every hour we used the internet. Think about how often you guys are on the internet. Now think about paying $8 for every hour you use it. Wanna check your e-mail? $2 - $4. Read your comics? let's say $6 - $8. News stories? EBay? My blog? You get the picture. So junk is getting really expensive here, and I am SO out of money it isn't even funny. I've used every little bit of savings I had and every little bit of the loan I got before I left. $1200 - $1500 is what I'd need to make it here until my first paycheck, they said. "Ha!" I say. A very bitter, broke-down "ha" ...

Right. I'm done with that. Now, on to direct addresses:

Ma:Thank you for the cords!!! I await them eagerly. Also, I love you bad. I miss going to Taco Bell late nights with you. When I see you next, the first thing we are going to do is eat awesome food. If it's in America, we're eating King Wah and then Taco Bell. If it's here, then we're eating at this good pizza place I know run by a funny little Italian man. Also, say "loveyatalktoyalaterbye!" to Marvin for me, because I know you're probably reading this aloud to him right now. Hi, Marvin!

Dad: I miss my daddy. I was on the street the other day and smelled something that really smelled like the inside of that old brown molester van you used to drive (the one that took the whole softball team to state competition one year) and it made me really miss you. I wish you and Rachael could visit me so that you can tell me what the hell's going on in American politics over there. I hope I get Skype soon so I can talk with all you Eltern.

Musketeers: Ladies, you are leading crazy fun lives of your own but know that I miss you and am constantly finding funny little things that I would love to share with you. Drink a strawberry margarita to me and keep on writing to me! PS: Ambie, I showed a picture of you and me to a fellow teacher here and he said you were pretty. Actually, he said something a little more graphic, but I'm the censor here!

Improv gang: Amy, I love you for commenting on my posts! Comments make my day. Also, do we have any other improv people with blogs, or am I going to have to give in and make a MySpace page? Clint and Jen: Happy wedding! I saw the pics. You are beautiful, funny people. Are there videos of the ceremony or anything? Also, to everyone: I still get to read the listserv stuff for RDI, and it makes me pine for the stage. Can someone send me an e-mail and say what's new there?

Madison/Heather: Copernicus, I know you read this thing, but do you not have a blog for me to read too? And Bug, do you read this or not? I have no e-mail contact with you and I wants it.

My people here in Germany: I have two weeks' vacation coming up -- get ready for a visit!

Anyone else: Do you read me? Are you here? Would you like a comment?

Moving on to ... Barnaby's Blues Bar!

I have a place to go! Barnaby's, like I said before, is a little place in the middle of town with some pretty good live blues bands. I went to see the Tom Principato Band play last weekend and the place was packed. Everyone was quite older than me -- the blues crowd always seems to be more my dad's age than mine -- but we were all grooving and enjoying the band. I sat next to this group of older guys at the bar and ended up talking to them. One was rolling his own cigarettes and looked just like Mick Jagger; another had an earring and said nothing; still another was Bavarian (which meant I could barely understand him when he spoke German) and had coke-bottle glasses. A motley crew. But I had fun with them. And I'm totally going back on Wednesday. Spencer Davis is playing. Spencer effing Davis, who sang "I'm a Man" and "Gimme Some Lovin'", is playing. Granted, it's 42€ to get in -- and I do NOT have 42€. But I can hang out outside, have a beer, and listen that way. Vicariously take part.

In more boring news, I'm gaining class after class on my work schedule. I'll be working with the younger classes soon (5th, 6th, and 7th), which I'm excited about because I haven't had much experience with that level of English learning yet. I'm still pretty psyched about the whole teaching thing in general. My colleagues are letting me be more than just a living dictionary, which I hear some teaching assistants get. They want me in their classes; they want me to lead discussion groups and do fun stuff with them. I love it. The other day I led a bunch of 11th graders in a conversation group. Our topic was "film": what makes a film different from a novel, from a poem, etc ... So I had them talk about films with me: what makes a good film and what makes a bad film, what should all good films have, etc. Then I put them into groups and had them create a pitch for their own film. At the end of class they pitched their movies to me. It was hella fun. Can you imagine if your job were just to do this kind of thing every day? I heart my job.

Voodoo Chile

Hey, all!

I'm writing really quick from home today, again on the dial-up. Just wanted to say hello and that I'm still alive. I've had a really easy week this week. Monday and Tuesday were field trip days, Wednesday and Thursday I had no work, and today (Friday) is the Day of German Unity -- a Fourth of July without so many firework-related fatalities. Next comes the weekend! It's like I'm getting paid to take vacations ... if I were getting paid. I'm still waiting on my first paycheck and it's killing me. Please, please, Money Gods, get me some cash! I would dearly love to pay my rent.

I had an awesome day today. First, my roommate and I listened to our respective reggae collections and danced around the room. Then my roommate's daughter and I played with my make-up. Then we all dressed up in our fanciest clothes and had a fashion show and had fun making "Top Model" faces. Then we watched The Aristocats in German. I'm dead serious. That was my day. Now I'm watching German news and getting ready to go to a live blues performance -- the Tom Principato Band is playing at Barnaby's and I'm very psyched to go check it out. W00t!

Secret Move, Secret Move

Hey all! I'm writing from my apartment today. No, we don't have REAL internet yet (that doesn't come until the 14th) but I do have dial-up. My roommate and I make the connecting noises for fun whenever the thing boots up: "Wheeeeeeee-whaaaaaaaa-whooooooo-beeDOObeeDOOba-brqztztztrsschqrtr!!!" I hope the dial-up knows we're making fun of it. Stoopid dial-up.

Anyway, back to:

Hannover

I just wanted to mention here that, after hitting Hannover's version of Oktoberfest, my friend and I went looking for this club called Cafe Glocksee on the word of her friend that it was a cool place with good music. Well, we show up in front of this big building at 11:00 p.m., but there's nobody there and the place is dead quiet. We're like, "kay, what's going on here?"... We walk around the dark, scary, graffiti'ed up building and finally find an entrance. We pay our entry fees (ladies have to PAY to get into clubs here?!), check our coats, and go inside.

The place is totally empty. I mean, there's music playing but the red-lit, techno-filled, goth-type club is practically empty. There's nobody on the dance floor. There's nobody at the bar. There's nobody in the big leather couches at the back. Heading for the couches, my friend and I half-joke that we're in some sort of horror movie where the monsters come out at midnight and eat unsuspecting party-going tourists.

This was not the case. It turns out that, in Hannover at least, the party doesn't really start until 1 a.m. or later. Chalk it up to Things The Germans Do Differently. My friend and I had nursed a drink apiece, tried to talk over the loud music, and considered dancing for a while -- but just as we're like, "nothing's doing here" and get up to leave - the club gets busy. We ended up going home with the idea that, next time, we were just going to sleep until midnight and then get up and go to the club. We felt like old ladies, going home tired just as the party was just getting started.

Anyway, the next day was all about awesome waffles for breakfast and sight-seeing. We saw the new Rathaus and this cool bombed-out church. The Rathaus had a tower almost 300 feet tall and you could go up in it and take pictures of the town. Which we did. It also had a glass-bottomed elevator on the way up, so you could take pictures of how high up you were going. Which we did. The bombed-out church had been, well, bombed out in World War II and the people of Hannover left it that way as kind of a tribute to the lives lost and the general nastiness of violence. More talk of this, however, requires a digression to ...

Churches

So, I've been giving people their own special churches. Whenever I find a church around here that reminds me of someone, I light a candle there for them and think of that specific church as that person's church. So, for example, now whenever I drive by Aegidien Church in Braunschweig I think of my dad, because that's his church.

I have two new churches to add for people today: one for Rachael, my stepmom, and one for Marcy, my musketeer. Marcy, you're got the Aegidienkirche in Hannover. It's a beautiful old medieval church that was bombed out in WWII and now stands as a memorial of sorts. It's a really cool mixture of man and nature; there's red and green ivy growing all over one wall and you can look up where the roof used to be and see big, blue sky. It's really beautiful, and it reminded me of you. Pics to follow.

Rach, you've got the Katharinenkirche in Braunschweig. It's not only one of the oldest churches in Braunschweig, but it's also where the first performance of Goethe's Faust was shown (in the old opera house that used to stand in front of the church). Goethe is, like, the most famous writer in German history. Period. And Faust is his big work, the one that the most little German kids have to learn in school. I spent a whole semester just studying Faust. It's a big deal. This cool little old German curator at the church told me all of this after I had already decided that it was your church, so the whole historical importance is a nice bonus. Pics will also follow.

Right, back to ...

Hannover

Actually, I was done there. So, on to ...

Berlin

I went to Berlin! I got to go on a field trip yesterday with some Polish and German exchange students at my school. We saw all the sights - the Bundestag, the Brandenburger Tor, Unter den Linden (a famous street), KaDeWe (famous dept. store), the Siegesaule, the Staatsoper, museums, museums, museums, oh GOD! I spent my last semester at OU studying 20th century Berlin, so to actually go there and see everything was like a tourist/Germa-nerd overload. I took so many pictures that I wore out two rounds of batteries. I want so badly to write back to my German professors. As a matter of fact, if any of them are reading this right now:

Prof. Schutjer: I saw the place where Faust is supposed to have been first performed! I had an intelligent conversation in a cafe about the book and what the symbols and everything in it mean!!!

Prof. Baer: I saw Berlin! I saw graffiti in Berlin! I did not see the East Side Gallery, but I did lead another foreigner on a tour of some of the most important parts of the city! Oh, and I bonded with a German over Das kunstseidene Mädchen!!!

Prof. Sullivan: I saw the Dom in Köln! I explained to someone the difference between Romanesque and Gothic architecture and used German words to do so! "Look! Kreuzrippengewölbe!!"

Aaahh! I'm using what I've learned -- I'm living the dream -- I'm in Germany!!!

BOOMSPLAT *head explodes*

Raychel 85 is all for Hannover 96!

Hey all,

So, it kinda sucks not to be able to update every day because I get so many things happening one on top of the other that I can't remember what all I've done. I want to talk about my trip to Hannover and my students and the Schulball (like our prom) and something else that I can't remember right now. Okay, quick breakdown:

Hannover

I went to Hannover this previous weekend to visit a friend from teacher training. I took the train in on Saturday morning and we were going to watch Hannover play Bayern München that afternoon. Hannover against Bayern München is a big deal in the area, because Bayern is maybe the most rockin' awesome team in Germany ... but I came to root for Hannover. I didn't have huge hopes for a victory.

Anyway, we went to buy tickets, but they were sold out and we had to find someplace to watch the game on TV. We found this outdoor place nearby with a big screen, a couple of beer tents, and a ton of already half-drunk Hannover fans. It was actually kind of funny. There was this guy a few tables over who, despite the fact that it was only 2:00 in the afternoon, was so drunk he was lying sprawled all over a bench and his friends would only let him have water to drink. And there he was, trying to watch the game. A dedicated fan.

Watching the game there was really cool. I bought a cheapo soccer scarf like every soccer fan on earth with the local team's name and a disparaging comment about some other team. Only I found one with a disparaging comment about my town! The scarf says "Danke, Papa, dass ich kein Braunschweiger geworden bin" and then the Hannover city symbol. This translates loosely to (correct me if I'm wrong, my Germans): "Thanks, Dad, for not making me a Braunschweiger (someone from Braunschweig)". I bought this scarf even though I'm from Braunschweig because ... well, this requires a digression to a story about:

My Students

I observe and sometimes teach in classes from grades 9 - 13, which means the ages range anywhere from 13 to 18 and the English levels vary accordingly. One of my classes, the 9th graders, were asking me questions one day. That was their lesson for the day, asking The American questions and listening to the answers. Well, one of my students asks me what I think of some local football (soccer) team. I tell them, look guys, I'm an American football fan. And then I proceed to tell them about American football. I tell them all about coming from Norman and about OU, which is kind of a football program with a school attached sometimes, and about our rivals in Texas. I even show them what the "hook 'em horns" hand sign means and how to turn it upside down for the proper Sooner effect. What I ended up with was half a class full of 14 year olds getting a kick out of yelling "Sooners" (it came out "Zoonahs!") and the other half getting a kick out of throwing up the horns and yelling "Texas!", just to get my goat. So, of course, I have to work out something like this that I can do to them. Which brings me back to ...

Hannover

... so now I have a scarf that is the soccer equivalent of "Hook 'Em Horns!" to a Sooner fan. And I'm totally wearing it to class.

Anyway, my friend and I saw the game. We clapped with the other fans when we saw something good and muttered when we thought a call was unfair. We went insane when Hannover scored an improbable goal and went even more insane when, at the end of the game, it was Hannover who came out ahead. There were Germans songs being sung that I didn't understand. There was also much beer and "Prost!"ing, though, which I did understand. Football is fun!

Later, we went to a local version of Oktoberfest. It was pretty much like a local fair: games, good food, lots of rides, lights, lights, lights. The only difference was that, as you were strolling down one of the streets, you would see a big modern neon sign for fair food on your left ... and then an old-school wooden cuckoo-clock-looking beer shack on your right. It was a most excellent blend of what I've always imagined German fairs would be like and what they're like back in America. I still hope to go to Munich, though, and see the Big One for myself.

Well, I've gotta cut out of here, so the rest of this post is gonna hafta wait until next time. Next post: Most Hannover, student antics, and me dressed up as a cowboy! Also, churches.

Love love love,
-R.