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.

People Person

Hello all!

I'm over my homesickness for today. Today was spent watching people.

I like people. People are people everywhere. I mean, they're doing the same kinds of things all over the world.

There are the teenage boys out front of the cafe trying to look cool for the teenage girls who walk by.

There's the woman who chit-chats amicably with me in the bathroom about her life, her hair, and why aren't these bathrooms cleaner -- even though we've never met before.

There's the grouchy old man on the beat-up bicycle who yells at everyone in his way like he owns the road. "Ach, Mädchen! Was machst du?!" as in "Girl! What are you doing on my bicycle path?!" And I can't help but laugh because he does this to everyone within ten feet of him, so even if you're walking your bike on the other side of the broad sidewalk, he yells at you.

There's the eight year old who definitely wants to be a top model when she grows up and prances around the house in some "borrowed" boots from Mom's closet making a face like she's too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York and Ja-pan ....

And there's the cute foreign guy who runs the internet cafe who's phone number I totally just got even though neither of us speaks gut deutsch. So, when I feel like I'm all alone, I go people watching. I sat with a glass of vanilla tea in a cafe today for an hour, pretending to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and checking out people. I found that I'm not really in outer space or anything; I'm just in a bizarro version of home where nobody speaks English. So I don't feel so totally lonely, because these are just people, people whom I can eventually make friends with and ask on dates and oh man here comes the cute foreign guy look natural look natural look---

Gotta go. Love you guys!

PS: Next post - Rachael's church and Marcy's church and why I love a store here called New Yorker.

Mreh.

Mreh. So, my new place STILL doesn't have DSL. My roommate and I have, between the two of us, been calling and harassing the cable people for a month. They set up an appointment to come, then they come but say we weren't home, or they come to the wrong address. That is followed by another appointment, two weeks out, and then the admission by the handyman that he forgot some integral part or something that must be ordered or something or other. I don't understand it. When I'm frustrated, which has so far only been in relation to the cable, I lose most of my German skills. This rant is basically to say that I still don't have access so I still don't have pictures, video, Skype, or any of the stuff that I really want. I promise, guys, it's coming!

So, my friends got married on the 20th. Clint and Jen, if you read this then know that 1) I saw the wedding as much as I could, 2) it was beautiful!, and 3) that I really miss you guys. I really miss everyone. I miss home. At home I know where the best hangouts are, where to find Cocoa Crispies, and who will want to hang out at either 1:00 in the afternoon or 1:00 in the morning. I have none of that here so far. I miss home. I miss it I miss it I miss it.

A List Of Things That I Miss:

1. Mom, Dad, Marvin, Rachael, Heather, Madison, Megan, Chris, Patrick, Madeline, Marcy, Amber, Michael, Clint, Jen, Buck, Stf, Eric, Stefan, Zac-wait I mean Mein Hans!, Tyler, Melissa, Amy, Jay, James, Mary, - okay, this is going to get tedious, so I'll just write it like this: I miss my family. I miss everyone in Red Dirt and O.U. Improv. I miss people who are not in improv but who are friends with people in improv. I miss my Germans. I miss my cousins. I miss my mother's dogs, you tiny puppies. I miss Marcy's cat.
2. Mr. Bill's. The Mont. The Library. The South Oval. Marcy's house. My apartment. Main Street in Norman. The OU student union. Campus in general. Mom's house. Dad's house. Tinker AFB. Andrews Park. I miss King Wah's and I miss Tarahumara's. There's no decent tex-mex here. I miss Midwest City and Norman and Edmond and Bricktown and even Tulsa, now that I think about it.
   
3. My knick-knacks. My PDA cables. My mp3 cables. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All my grungy t-shirts that I left behind. My art that my friends gave me. Red dirt. The river. the words "howdy" and "y'all". MY CAR. Oh, God, my car. Country music. Most of my shoes. Notes. My photo albums. I miss being surrounded by my junk.
   
4. I miss knowing what all the words in an advertisement mean. I miss random calls from my Mom and the phone messages that are always like, "Do you even love ya muddah? You must not, 'cause you nevah return her calls! Love ya, mean it, bye". I miss going driving. I miss bowfishing. I miss the weather. I miss knowing which floorboards to avoid because they creak. I miss people I know knocking on my door to say what's up. I miss being able to say "what's up" and having people understand me. I miss always being busy. I miss stuff being open on Sunday. I miss improv. I miss going to bed late because there's something fun going on. I miss making long-standing inside jokes.
   

I miss not having to pay for ketchup.

Notes From All Over

I have an address, lovelies!!! Prepare yourselves:

Charlottenstraße 4A
38102 Braunschweig
Deutschland

That's exactly how you write it. I thought for a moment that maybe I shouldn't put my address up here, but I have too many people that I want to send me stuff to send them all personal e-mails. Also, I thought, who would send me a bomb? Also, my apartment has a front door that's locked all the time and you can't get in unless I personally invite you in. Like a vampire! So, Mom, nobody's going to come and kill me because they got my address from here. ;-)

Also, I cut my hair! Pictures to follow in later posts.

Oh, and finally, here's the symbol of Braunschweig. The one on the left is the actual symbol of Braunschweig. It's an old, medieval take on the lion. Apparently, way back in the day this Herzog saw a vision of a lion in the forest here and decided to build a town here.
The one on the right is a stylized version of the lion. I think that if I survive living in Germany for ten months then I'll get one of these as a tattoo. Thoughts?

Schooled

I love school here. I rock so hard at being a teacher/assistant. Eff. Yes.

So, my first two days of school have gone well. First, I met my mentor, Matthias Preller. He's an awesome, engaging teacher who rocks both English and Geography classes. To back up a little, at my school it's the teachers who move around between classes and the students who stay together in the same place. So, for example, one group of 11th graders - Klasse 11a or 11b, for example - will stay together in a room and every Tuesday at, say, noon Herr Preller will come and teach an hour of English to them. It's a little more pressure on the teachers, I think, to have to run all around, but it works.

So, I went with Herr Preller on Monday and observed two 11th grade English classes. I had a great time just observing and making occasional comments on How We Say It In America. The students here are all really chic and, I think, most of them come from money. To be honest, that can be really intimidating, coming into a room of possibly super entitled kids. But they were interested in what I had to say and willing, at least for the day, to listen to me.

The next day I went along with Frau Rech to her 13th grade English class (yes, they have a 13th grade). There, we talked about cloning and air pollution and carbon credits and all sorts of cool, controversial topics. I even got to lead my own discussion group! Woo! We talked about stem cell research, how cool is that? By the end of class, I had gotten all of them to talk pretty willingly, no small feat for a language teacher. I was super, super proud of myself. Then, after class, I got a key to the teachers' lounge and my own English books and made friends with a bunch of different teachers and made funny German jokes and I am so freakin psyched that I'm making a run-on sentence oh no! Whew. Anywho, I had a great time and I did a great job. I'm totally going to survive here.

"So, the soup is my soul?"

Over the weekend I did a whole buncha stuff:

Saturday night: I went to a poetry slam with some friends in this cool little black box called the Lot Theater. It was so packed that people were sitting on stairs, standing along the walls, hunching over each other, you name it. Fire code? Ha! We laugh nervously in the face of the fire code!
The poetry was, for the most part, hella difficult to understand. They spoke so fast and with these typical slam poetry off-beat cadences that I got maybe 50% to 75% of what they were saying. Not bad in general, but when you add in the fact that poetry is usually lots of metaphors and similies and everything stands for something else, I really probably only got 10%. In spite of that, good times were had by all.

Sunday day: The Day of The Open Door. A bunch of Denkmals around town were open on Sunday - old churches, museums, monuments, yada yada yada. So I rode around on my (borrowed) bike and checked them all (okay, some) out.
The first place I went was this way old Cistercian cloister in Riddagshausen. It was built in 1145 and ... well, it's neat. I took some pictures, but since I can't get them up here yet (still at a public computer), I'll borrow some from the cloister's website:


Anyway, I don't know if these pictures can really capture how awesome and beautiful everything was. And I don't just mean awesome in the "Hey, look at this awesome sweater that's on sale" way; I mean it in the "Our god is a terrible and awesome god who shall either smite or redeem thee" way. Super impressive. I looked around and found the little part of the church where you can light a candle for people who you want to think of / remember. Well, for some reason I was really thinking of my sister Madison. So, Maddy, I lit a little candle for you and put it on the neat little candle holder that looks like a tree. I don't know if that somehow spoils some Catholic tradition to tell the person you lit a candle for them, but whatevs. I'll post pics soon, Maddy, and the you can see your church and your candle.
Having done this, I thought to myself, "You know what? I ought to give everybody a church and a candle here. That way, whenver I drive by that person's church, I'll think of them." So, that's what I did. I rode around the city and found churches for people. Dad, you have a church called St. Ägidien and Mom, I gave you St. Magni at first, but then I saw the Rizzi House and decided that was your church instead. Stories on these churches and more churches for other people in upcoming posts.

Sunday night: I went to a genero-Protestant church with some friends. This is funny, as I'm not really a big "Let's go to church!" person, but they were going and I thought it would be neat to see a German church service. The place was pretty modern. By that I mean that the building was really new and that there was a band onstage with drums, guitars, and a keyboard. Most of the other people there were my age, so I'm thinking "rock and roll! a groovy young-people church..." But it was pretty much just a normal church: a little singing at the beginning (in English and in German) and then a sermon. The sermon was titled "The Congregation: God's Family?" (except in German) and it was all about how the church is like one's family in God. Okay, again, not a big church person, so I have to admit I kinda tuned out for the exact details on this part. But there was a projector screen with pictures, so I followed that.
There was this picture on the screen of a table with a bowl of soup on it. Each table leg had a word written on it - prayer, for example, or brotherhood - which, I would guess, represents the idea that each of these things is equally important to ... something. Because when the next slide came, one of the table's legs - "prayer", I think it was - was cut short and the table was all wobbly. The cartoon bowl of soup on top slid off. Which, of course, symbolizes .... uhm ... I didn't know. Is the bowl of soup somehow representative of the congregation? Of the community at large? Is the soup my soul?! Without prayer, brotherhood, and two other things, will my soul fall to the floor and get into the carpet? Will God have to get out the vacuum cleaner? German church. Hmm.
On a more concrete note, there was free dinner afterwards! I ate some dish with potatoes, meat, cheese, and stuff in it that Brigit told me was "Kartoffelauflauf" but which I heard as "Kartoffeln of Love" or "Potatoes of Love". So, I had potatoes of love for dinner. Good thing; I think I'm all out of soup.

Precious and preiswert

Hey all, a quick technical note: I've added some stuff on the side bar to your left that should make navigation a little easier. First, there's an archive section for all of my old posts. Second, there's a button now that you can click to subscribe to my blog (with or without comments). How cool, yeah? Indeed. Now, moving on:

Good news, lovelies -- I've found a place to live! I'll be living with a lady named Nadine. She and her daughter have a cute, awesome second-story apartment pretty near my school. They live in a quiet old neighborhood with lots of trees and they have a big room open for me. I get to move in on Wednesday, which means that I can finally start the long paperwork process to get my first paycheck. See, coming to a new country and working takes up a lot of paper. First, you must get an apartment. That's a contract, which is a piece of paper. You take that paper to the Einwohnermeldamt (think of it as the office where you go to register "Hey, I live here now!"), where you get the I Live Here piece of paper. You take that to the bank, where you open a bank account. The bank gives you another piece of paper with your bank account number on it, which you take to your work (the school, in my case). Your work takes these various pieces of paper with information on them and files another piece of paper off to the state so that the state will pay you. The state will probably also send you a piece of paper saying "We got your papers" and will then credit money to your bank account electronically every month around the 15th. The funny thing is that nobody here writes checks. It's all e-transfers or cash. All that paper just to get hooked into a paperless banking system ...

In any case, I'll be starting that out. Also, I start school on Monday, which I'm super excited about. I meet with the principal, Herr Thamm van Balen, and maybe with some of the teachers at 8:30 in the morning. Way, way early for me, but the Wilhelm-Gymnasium starts at 7:45, so 8:30 is no problem for them. They're probably all eating lunch by then, having worked a long hard day thus far. At any rate, I'm ready to start teaching.

I bought a camera today. I so love shopping in Germany that it's not even funny. It will probably become a terrible addiction soon. Everything that comes from Germany seems to be well-made, but some well-made things are cheap and some are expensive. For example, I bought a digital camera today for 39€ (I finally figured out how to make the euro sign!). Yes. 39. I don't care if the dollar is 2 to 1 with the euro (which it isn't), that would still be a pretty good camera for $78. Super cool, super cheap. Too bad the shoes aren't all so preiswert.... Oh, I also bought a camera with attached microphone (for 12€) so Skyping is in the cards very soon. Tutorial to follow.

I had an intense moment of homesickness/Heimweh today. It's the first I've really felt, but I sure felt it. I listened to some Flogging Molly on my computer and looked at all of my pictures from home. Then I read my birthday cards from my 23rd (which was just August 28th, not too long ago). The apartment was all quiet and I was looking through these sentimental cards. I completely forgot that the one Mom and Marvin gave me played "Ce-le-brate good times, c'mon!" really loud when you open it ... so, that was a startle. But it made me laugh. Thanks, guys! Also, Daddy, I am p-r-e-c-i-o-u-s, precious!

Post-Bank-Depot: Your One Stop Shopping Paradise

I'm back in the good old internet cafe in Braunschweig, typing and listening to The White Stripes beat out "Seven Nation Army" over the room's radio. Now that I know the city a little better, I can tell you that the cafe is on Bohlweg (a street) right next to the Rathaus. The Rathaus - er, literally, the "advice-house" - is just the German name for the local munical/capitol-type building where all of the local government stuff goes on. It's in downtown Braunschweig, which is known as the inner city or "Innen-Stadt". I came here on a bike lent to me by the nice colleague lady I've been staying with. Biking around the city is super fun and super fast. I spent the morning just zipping around town on this bike. I went to a Penny-Markt, which is like a nice cheap little grocery store, except that it also sells some weird stuff like jackets and lightbulbs too.

Oh, a note about German stores: I'm finding that many of them have one main thing that they sell, but that they also sell lots of other strange things, and that these things change from week to week. So, for example, Tchibo may sell mainly coffee ... but one week it might also sell men's and children's clothing and another week it may also sell camping gear. Penny-Markt and Rossman are two other store chains here that do it, so far as I know. So, do American stores do this too? I'm thinking on Starbucks, and how it also sells CDs and miscellaneous things ... but it's not exactly the same situation. Strange.

Anyway, I went to Penny-Markt this morning and bought a nectarine, a sandwich, and some chocolate milk that tasted just like the stuff you get at elementary schools. Nummy - or, as the Germans say, lecker. I also went by my school. It's big. Like, nice and big and roomy on the inside. Which I'm totally not used to in Germany. But I wasn't there to do any work just yet - I don't actually start until Monday. I was just there to meet my colleague, who took me to the Postbank. The Postbank is another one of those mish-mashed stores. It's a post office, but it's also a fully functioning bank and an office supply store. Like Post-Bank-Depot, or something. Anyway, we went there to see if I could open a Girokonto (bank account). Turns out, I have to have an address first. Which brings me to my current trial - finding a room to rent. I've found an okay place with this guy named Peer and I think I may rent from him, but if that doesn't work out I may also have a place with a friend of a friend named Nadine. I'm meeting them both this weekend and should have a place by Monday. Finally.

Oh, and here's another cool thing: I just found out that a German friend of mine from Oklahoma now lives here in Braunschweig. She is, in fact, right around the corner from me. I know someone in the city now, which means I may just have a social life. W00t! I found her on Facebook and gave her my cell number, so I'll let you guys know later if I found her or not.

One more note to add to the Things the Germans Do Differently file: German bedding. Every German bed I've slept in so far has had a bottom sheet (like a fitted sheet) for the mattress and then a big poofy comforter that is not tucked into the bed. There's no top sheet and you don't really make the bed. I mean, there aren't a lot of covers and things to tuck back in. You just fold the comforter - "The Poof", as an old boyfriend of mine who had one used to call it - and lay it on the bed. Also, the pillows are all big square downy things and aren't nearly as firm as American pillows. It took a lot of punching and rolling and such for me to get the ones on my bed like I like them. So, the bedding I like; the pillows, not so much ...

Things The Germans Do Differently, Part II

And now for another round of ....

Things The Germans Do Differently:

Everybody - everbody being all the Germans I've seen on the street - seems to be writing on graph paper instead of plain ole' lined paper. I have NO idea what's up with this, but apparently all Germans write on teensy little graph paper.

They make weird drinks. See, I had heard when I first got here that the Germans drink "Mineralwasser", which is basically tonic water, over plain tap water. This is nothing new to me. I like tonic water. It's like soda plus plus. But what I didn't know is that there are other drinks, like Apfelschorle, which is half apple juice and half tonic water, that you can buy in a vending machine. I was drinking it and thinking, "What the ...? Did somebody spike the juice or something? This tastes funny .... " Turns out you can -schorle a lot of things: apple jucie, orange juice, blah blah blah. It's zingy. I recommend that you in the USA try to create it. Taste the authentic German experience! Mmmm!

Planes, Trains, and Graffitimobiles

So, some random notes about my trip so far:

There isn't that much hazelnut candy in America, but this stuff is everywhere here. It seems that every vending machine, every bus stop snack counter, every cafe in northern central Germany has at least three kinds of candy chocolate bar involving hazelnut. This is okay by me, because I love the stuff. But where's all the peanut butter?

So, I got to eat on the train here. I took the InterCity Express - the ICEtrain - between Braunschweig and Köln, and they had a cute little dining car where I got to eat a salami and swiss and drink applejuice out of a glass-glass. The train car was all pink and full of mirrors and the seats were semi-circular blue crushed velvet stuff. I felt like I was eating in a '50s doll house. It was awesome.

There are also private cars with four seats where you can sit in relative peace and quiet. I chose one of those and read the entire time. Also very awesome.

PS: As soon as I get a camera, there will be a LOT of graffiti photos up here. The graffiti here is prevalent and beautiful. Soem of it's just names scrawled in black spraypaint, but some of it is really colorful or written high up on dangerous ledges. I actually saw a really nice piece done by someone with the tag "mozes" on a stopped ICEtrain. It's illegal, fast-done art. Quelle awesome.

Mona-staring

Hello, all! And now for a slightly more coherent post than yesterday's:

So, wie gesagt, I'm in Altenberg. It's this teeny little town that's basically a monastary, a hotel, and some houses. We're staying in the monastary. That's right. I'm staying in a big gothic place where, for hundreds of years before now, monks used to hang out. Not anymore, though. Too bad. Now it's just a church with occasional tours.

So, the place is beautiful. And the training is getting harder. We've had a really long, really hard day so far - and it's only one in the afternoon. So, I expect to not be writing later tonight, as I'll be passed out sleeping.

Oh, and I had my first German hangover this morning. That was nice.

In any case, I'm finding that the people here at teacher training are just like me: smart, funny people who give a damn about teaching and are excited about the many little vacations we get to take. Some are really homesick and some are really just into partying right now, but in one week all of them will be at least üpartially responsible for little German minds. Scary, and neato.

All for now. Kirk out.

I'm a Bitburger! Does that mean I come from Bitburg?

Hey people, I'm writing you from a public computer (again) in Altenberg, which is just outside of Köln. I've just finished my first day of teacher training, and it was super easy and super awesome. I'm staying in a hotel-like situation paid for by the Fulbright Kommission with two other chicks, one from near Chicago and one from near Baltimore. I heart them. You'll have to forgive the badness of this post, as I am a little drunk offa nice german beer. The one next to my computer right now is called Bitburger and the one before that was called Riessomethingorother and the one before that was called ... uhm ... beer. Nice, nice beer. Nice, strong, German beer.


ANWAY, moving on:

I just wanna note really quickly that the trip to this teacher training was great. I made lots of friends and met lots of cute guys. Also, I wanna note that the ladies I've been staying with in Braunschweig are awesome. They took me all around town and bought me sweet cake products and made me feel right at home. I was only in Braunschweig for four days and they took me to two festivals during that time! Quelle awesome. Er, that was french .... see, Beer? See what you do to me???

Ermmm ... gotta pee now. Gotta end this post quick. I love you all!!! Sorry for the low quality of this post again, but rest assured that I am healthy, happy, and painfully full of German beer!!!

"Ist hier noch frei?"

Hey, all!

Again, I'm writing you from this internet cafe. The Turkish man at the front desk and I are on comfortable speaking terms now. That is to say, I don't have to come in and ask for a computer or how much it costs of if one's free. I just walk in the front door and he looks at me and says "Einundzwanzig (number 21)" or "Siebzehn (number 17)" or whatever numbered computer is mine for the next hour or so and I say "Danke! (thanks!)" and go to it. I love this little guy.

Anyway, on to my post for the day:

So, I'm staying with the sweetest couple in Europe right now. One lady is a coworker of mine at the school and her partner is nurse. They have THE COOLEST APARTMENT EVER in this neat little part of town that's all old buildings that survived the bombings in WWII. Their apartment has cool, creative decorations and they have great taste in music, asian food, and beer. They gave me my own cute little room and my own laundry hamper and fed me breakfast and showed me around town and have pretty much taken the best care of me. We sat up and chatted in German until, like, midnight with beer and chocolate crispies. I also love them to death and will post a picture of us up here soon, if they don't mind.

I'm taking the train to Köln (Cologne) early Monday morning for teacher training. I don't know what the internet situation is there, so I don't know how frequent my posts will be, but I will try to let you all know what is going on. As soon as I get back I'll be diving right in to school stuff, so wish me luck!

On a side note, I'm still looking for an apartment. I wish I could have somehow taken care of this earlier, but no one would rent an apartment to me without meeting me first, so it had to wait until I got here. Oh, well. I have one place right in downtown that's a reasonable price. It's a cute second-story two-bedroom place that is owned by a cute young guy named Peer (sounds like "pay-er"). He's got a couple of other people looking at the place, but he's going to give me an answer one way or the other on Monday. I hope he picks me. I would dearly love to live downtown with a cute German named Peer. ;-)

The other viable option was one on the west side of town, but that turned out to not work out so well. The owner told me that the rent was 280 euros before I got there, but when I arrived he said that someone had moved out and that the rent had gone up to 370. Adding in security deposit, I would have had to pay almost 1,000 euros! Das geht nicht, people. I can't afford that. So that option is out. But even if the other option -- hallo, Peer! - doesn't work, I have a couple of colleagues with open rooms, so I'm taken care of.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm going to buy a train ticket and then meet my new friends for a birthday party. Remind me on my next post to tell you about the big palace here that got turned into a mall! Oh, and the symbol of Braunschweig, which would make the coolest tattoo in history.

Another Day, Another Cafe

Hey, guys. I'm writing from the same internet cafe that I wrote from yesterday. I can only really post blogs right now because I'm not at my own computer and this public one has no microphone. I would dearly love to Skype with you guys but, until I can get a place with reliable internet access for my laptop, I can't do that. Rest assured, though, that as soon as I do have access I'll post info up here and let you all know how to Skype with me.

Well, there was that. Now, moving on to a little section I like to call Things The Germans Do Differently:

Dear Traveler, when you are walking down the sidewalk in Braunschweig (and probably all around Germany), you will notice that it is extra wide. One portion is paved with neat little bricks and the other with smooth asphalt. You will think, "Oh, neat, a really nice sidewalk..." and walk all over it willy-nilly. But be warned, Dear Traveler, for the asphalt-paved section is not for you; it is for the bicycles that go whizzing past. If you wander aimlessly into the bike lane, the cyclists will ring their cute little bells or honk their cute little horns at you. This much I have learned - stay on the bricks.

Also, I think the tipping here must be weird. I tried to tip a cabbie and he just looked at me funny.

And now for Things The Germans Do Just Like Us:

I got kind of down sitting in this internet cafe the other day. You see, I was sitting here, typing and listening to the exotic blend of German from the front door, French from the girl next to me, and Spanish from the radio. But then all of a sudden the song changes and I'm listening to that song "Mad World" by Gary Jules (If Marcy or Ambie are reading this, they'll know this song; it's the one that went with that video of the kiwi who flies down the side of the mountain). Anyway, the point is that this song is in English and that it is something I could be hearing in America right now. I was like, "Awwww .... Oklahoma... " And then another American Top 40 song came on and another and I realized that most of the music here is the same as it is over there. That was actually what made me feel down.

Also, skinny jeans and fringie scarves are still "in", so I'm good to go.

24 Hours of Travel

Here I am in an internet cafe in Braunschweig, writing getting ready to write to you all about my first few days here. I am full of brötchen and Coca Cola and thinking two things: one, that I've had more coke to drink in the last 48 hours than I had my entire last week in America AND two, that German keyboards are weird. They have places for letters with umlauts, so ü, ö, and ä are all a single letter you can type. BUT ... theyäve also switched the places for the z, y, apostrophe, and a couple of other things. So, if I'm typing and all of a sudden you see something like "Iäm" instead of "I'm", please forgive.

Also, denn - to Braunschweig:

The flights out of the USA were ridiculously easy and stress-free. At Will Rogers Airport I expected to have to wait in line for hours and jump through many, many hoops, but I was all ready to go within 30 minutes of arriving. Well, I was technically ready. Emotionally, I was not ready at all. I was so stressed about the details of my flights and arrangements thereafter that I completely forgot to remind myself that I was leaving the bleeping country. So when I came to I was standing in the security checkpoint with my mom crying and hugging me. I was like, "What? Wait! I don't wanna go to Germany!!!" But I went anyway, of course. A couple of hourse later I arrived at Dulles with just enough time to eat a ridiculously expensive tuna sandwich and exchange some dollars for euros.

Side rant: Euros - what the EFF, Europe?! Why is the ratio of dollars to Euros something like 2 to 1 (I got 178 Euros for my $304, minus a $7 service charge), and yet the price of things is the same? What I mean is, my money supply just got cut in half numerically and yet a Big Mac still costs 4 something-or-others. 4 euros is, like, 8 dollars. Why am I paying $8 for a burger?! RAWR!!!

Annnd, end rant. Moving on: The flight from Washington DC to Munich was absolutely lovely. It lasted 7 hours and 51 minutes, but I got to sleep, watch Kung Fu Panda on a little screen in my seat, and they fed me! I got a cute little salisbury steak, itsy bitsy corn and mashed potatoes, a teensy little roll, and a cute little salad. (The brownie, though, was huge.) I even sat next to a wee little girl who, I think, spoke very little English. It was kind of neat to be on a flight where all of the announcements and everything were in German and in English, by the way. It made me feel like I really knew what was going on in German because there was an automatic translation right wafter whatever was being said.

Anyway, I got to Munich and almost didnät make my connecting flight to Cologne because of the hold-up at customs. You think we were some delicious steaks, the way the customs guys were grilling everyone (haHA, jokes abound). Anyway, I had my stuff scanned at another security checkpoint, took off my belt, gave 'em my passport, told 'em where I was going, blah blah blah, and then just barely made it onto my flight. That flight, from Munich to Cologne, was carried out completely in German, but I had been conducting my business in German since the start of the Munich flight (to practice, right? Like I wouldn't be practicing in the coming months. hahah...), so it was no biggie. The only problem came after I got off of the plane and collected my baggage.

The problem was that I had no clue what I was going to do after that. I knew that I needed to get to Braunschweig, but I didn't know exactly how I was going to do that. So, I did what seemed like the smartest option and took the train from the airport to the city's main station (Hauptbahnhof, or Hbf). On that trip I met a Spanish college student who spoke some English but no German (And, no, my Spanish was not passable enough to have a conversation with him in his language. My Spanish is not passible enough to order basic food or do a first grader's homework.), a Turkish (?) family who asked for my help finding the correct platform, and a matching set of elderly German women who said I had lovely, well-flowing German.

At the Hbf I bought a ticket to Braunschweig for later in the afternoon, stowed my luggage for a while, ate an overpriced sandwich, and decided to have a look around. Again, two things struck me as soon as I stepped outside: one, nobody tells you that right outside the train station is the biggest, most beautiful gothic cathedral you've ever seen. It's right out of The Hunchback of Notre Dam, all black with time and overbearing. Oh, and two - there are people everywhere. I found this out when I was almost literally struck by a reporter's microphone. She was from a radio station in the area and wanted to know my opinion on the proposal to use taxpayer money to update the train station. I told her that I hadn't a clue about the proposal, but that if she'd explain it, I'd try my best to answer. So now my rambling answer, which I don't exactly remember, is on some radio station somewhere.

With that ordeal over, I went on a tour of the Dom (big, gothic church thingie). I hope Mr. Sullivan, my old German professor, is reading this right now because I want him to know that I went through that church and I knew all the names for all the different gothic architectural features therein. Spitzbogen, Kreuzrippengewölbe, you name it ... I felt like a gothic genius. (PS: to my stepsister Megan - you were right. It was amazing. I'm actually going back there when I have time for a tour.)

Anyway, outside the Dom I sat on the steps, where I was accosted by pigeons and invited to coffee by a gypsy-looking Polish man with what looked like undereye-liner. I declined to entertain both and got on my train.

The train to Braunschweig was long and had two stops. Unfortunately, my first train ran late, so I missed all the others on my schedule and had to find the next routes to my destination. In this I was helped by a happy old German women whose accent was almost unintelligible. She towed me around like a surrogate granddaughter and told me about the pain in her shoulder and her next vacation as she helped me find my train. We parted ways at Padebourn, but she was most helpful in getting me where I needed to go. She even gave me a sorely-needed hug. Thanks, German Grandma!

Anywho, I got to Braunschweig at about 9:00 p.m. and thought to myself, "Okay, I'm here. Now to just find one of those much-talked-about youth hostels and get a room." Haha .... no dice. He service point said there were NO youth hostels in the area and could only think of one hotel nearby. So away I went to the Hotel Mercure ... and it was booked solid. Minor panic set in, but I asked if there were any more open places in the area and the kind receptionist gave me an inner-city map and pointed out the only one she knew, about a ten minute walk down the road. So away my luggage and I go. The hotel Fürstenhof did have a room free, but I was so tired and just worn out that it took me a few minutes to make out in German to th elady what I wanted. People, NOT everyone in Germany speaks English. I am learning this.

Anyway, my room was expensive and tiny, but it had a shower. A lovely, lovely warm shower and a big comfy bed. Also, German complementary stuff WAYYY beats American complementary stuff. For example, they let me use their computers, printers, and internet access for free. Also, their breakfast place had a server who brought me my own pot of coffee and their breakfast itself had all sorts of brötchen (little rolls) with fixins like cheese, meats, and jams, along with all sorts of yogurts, cereals, and fruits. Germany has expensive food, but it's quite good. I was very happy.

The rest of the day (today) was spent wandering around Braunschweig. I saw The Dark Knight in a theater here in English, which I thought was funny. I also bought a new pre-paid German phone, an international phone card, and an adapter for my power plugs (which was only 2 euros). The phone card, by the way, goes like this: When you wanna call me, call 1-888-579-0208 and dial my account number, which is 3101484455. Then, leave me a message. I'll call you back on my cell phone (through the international card payment thingie) when I get it. And remember, I'm seven hours ahead of you guys in the USA, just so's you know.

Anyway, I'm off now. I have a colleague of my mentor's to call. She's going to take care of me while I'm here until Herr Preller, my mentor, gets back on the 15th. Wish me viel Spaß (lots of fun)!

Tschüß, lovelies!
-R.

Made It

Hey all,

I'm writing this from a computer in a hotel in Braunschweig. I don't have a lot of time here, but I just wanted to let everbody know that I made it here alright. I have a place to stay (with a fellow instructor at the school where I'll be teaching) and I have enough money to last me. And, yes Mom, I'm getting enough to eat and nobody has attacked me yet (except some pigeons outside the cathedral in Cologne). I'll update this blog with a nice juicy post about my first days here shortly. Until then, readers, please let everyone else know that I'm doing well!

PS: I LOVE YOU, MA!
PPS: Dad and Marvin, that caribbeaner thing you guys decided to put on my bag to hook my two pieces of luggage together turned out to be invaluable on the shaky train rides and long walks. I love you guys too!