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!
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!
Posts
5 comments:
42, cool.
I'll be editing clips from last weeks show this afternoon, then go to the show tonight and shoot more video. Just for you!
Scott
I forgot my sinister laugh...
MMAW-HAW-HA-HA!!!!
Hi Raychel
I'm not sure where you received the information that Esperanto was not "real"
Can I suggest a google check on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
A reality check?
Wow, my first troll.
Esperanto is a constructed language. When I implied that it was not "real", I really meant that it was the product of one man's mind and not the product of thousands of years of linguistic evolution. Both languages exist and are, therefore, technically "real". No worries, man. I'm not an Esperanto-hater.
Also, how did the Esperanto Lobby find my page?
Yes, Esperanto is a constructed language. Just check it out on google, because google, much like the Bible is infallible.
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