The past week I have spent getting more settled into my school and learning the ropes of being an assistant language teacher.  I now have a set(ish) teaching schedule and have met almost all of the classes I'll be with. Here's how its looking:

Monday- FREE DAY! :D

Tuesday- 2nd&3rd periods with a 6th grade class (they have a double English lesson that day), 4th period with an 8th grade class.  

Wednesday- 2nd, 3rd & 4th periods with three different 5th grade classes.  These are the classes I haven't visited yet and they are with the Regionaleschule, not the Gymnasium so that will be a bit different from what I'm used to.  In case you aren't sure how the German school systems work (and I'm sure you don't, since I'm still not totally clear on it...) the Gymnasium was traditionally the school that the kids who were going to go to university went to and the Regionalschule kids went on to trades after their high school.  There are new schools here called Gesamtschules (which is what I teach at) where the two are combined into one big school, presumably to give the Regionalschule kids the opportunity to get a better education than they traditionally would, but I have a rant about that which is best left for another post..... So where was I....

Thursday - 1st period 8th grade, 2nd period a different 8th grade, 3rd period 7th grade

Friday - 1st period 7th grade, 2nd period 8th grade, 3rd period 7th grade

So over all, I don't work a whole lot (12 hrs a week actually), have Mondays off and am done by 10:15am on Thursday and Friday.  The complication comes with the fact that I live about an hour from the school I work at, so getting to school and getting home depends on the carpool of other teachers who live in Kiel.  The days when I have to be to the school for the 1st period, I have to be PICKED UP at 6:25am.  That means I have to get up no later than 5:15am unless I want to be late (and therefore not very German).  Its a bit stressful and extremely tiring, but I am getting into the habit of a good afternoon nap and savoring the mornings that I get to sleep in an extra hour.  

This weekend was spent exploring Hamburg and Kiel with other Fulbright English Teaching Assistants. Friday I walked around the Hamburg harbor and the area of the city called "HafenCity" with two of the Americans living in Hamburg.  We were fortunate enough to have really sunny (if not still chilly) weather.  Saturday was spent in Kiel resting and later hanging out with some of the American ETAs, and Sunday some of us took a lovely stroll around the harbor.  I've been in Kiel for just under two weeks, but I honestly haven't seen a whole lot.  Sunday we walked farther toward the ocean that I had before and saw some really awesome old sailing ships, people playing kayak polo and even some seals (in German: Seehunde = "Sea Dogs") at the outside aquarium.  Two thumbs up for that day as well, even though I unfortunately didn't bring my camera.  Some pictures from Hamburg though:

Hamburg Rathaus

Jessica and Wes at a cool beach themed park by the harbor

Hamburg tries really hard to push the beach theme but there's something lacking... oh yeah, the beach.

The flags of Hamburg, Germany and something maritime-y.  

A Russian ship from 1706 moored in HafenCity, which is known for its very pricey apartments and penthouses (see background). 

Today, during my day off, I went to the store and picked up the film I had dropped off last week.  Some of the pictures I had taken in Macedonia and some were from just last week, so its quite a jumble of subjects.

Igballe at the Painted Mosque in Tetovo.

Prayer beads

Adorable little girl at the Dervish community in Tetovo

Ooo girl! Look at that sass!

Orthodox Macedonian church in Tetovo.

St. Nikolai Church in Kiel

Though creepy and horned, that's not the devil folks its Moses.

Erika and Ariel at the Harbor in Kiel.

Yeah I guess Kiel is kinda cool sometimes.

Kiel Town Hall and Opera house

Town Hall and "Kleiner Kiel" park

As I now prepare for bed and early 6am start tomorrow (though later than some days!), I leave you with an image from my lovely, sunny, late start from today.

My favorite coffee and our kitty, Doctor Zoidberg, staring out the window. 

Until Next Time,

Chelsea

The Beginning.

Well, since I wrote a couple weeks ago quite a lot has happened!  I am currently sitting at the desk in my new apartment in Kiel, attempting to pass the hours until I feel sleepy (damn you, 3 hour afternoon nap!)  I suppose a recap of the past 13 or so days is in order, so I will start from where I left off in my last post.

... I don't quite remember where that was off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to open another browser tab and look, so I'll just go by the pictures I had set aside to put in this post.  Igballe's cousin came to visit from Kosovo for a couple days and we all went into Skopje to visit with their other cousins.  The two sisters we met with had each just had an adorable baby boy, so we spent the say hanging out with them before bidding adieu and wandering around the mall.

Mother Teresa's "house" in downtown Skopje.  As I mentioned before, she was born in the city.

Alexander the Great looking majestic in the setting sun. 

The next day we went to Igballe's family's house to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, breaking the Ramadan fast.  The meal was great, and fortunately by that point I had learned to eat the amazing food, but politely refuse when I'd had enough.  The previous meal we had there I didn't want to be rude and ate everything heaped onto my plate.  That resulted in me feeling like I was about to vomit and being thankful that I was wearing a high waisted dress, leaving room for the gut I acquired. 

Me with my awesome hosts!

The next couple days were pretty chill as I had a lot to do to get ready to leave for Germany and Igballe started a new job on September 1st.  The time I spent in Macedonia was truly unforgettable and I sincerely hope I'll be able to visit again soon.  

Last night in Tetovo.

On September 2nd I went to the Alexander the Great airport in Skopje for my flight to Germany.  Just a side note, in case you're wondering if the airport is "great" in the vein of Alexander, the answer is no, not really.  There were two departure gates. Two.  To be fair, they did just build a whole new airport complex, but it was opening a few days after I left, so in my mind it still doesn't exist.  I had a few hours to kill during my layover in Vienna so I left the airport and wandered around, found a Turkish/Greek restaurant (I just wasn't ready to give up that great Balkan food), and saw the Stephansdom without scaffolding for the first time ever.  That night I stayed in Frankfurt before my Saturday morning train to Bonn to meet up with my friend Stephanie.  

In the Frankfurt train station, about to board to Bonn.

Train ride from Frankfurt to Bonn along the Rhine river. 

The infamous Lorelei.  Not Gilmore. 

Stephanie is from Australia and was in town for a scholarship thing she got from Deutsche Welle to do some media coverage of some sort of UN gathering.  That sounds like I was uninterested in what she was told me, but it did sound pretty awesome.  We had studied together in Graz, Austria a few years ago and since then have only seen each other once when she was in NYC last New Years Eve.  Even though we only had one night together we definitely made the most of it and I think its safe to say we both a great night laughing, catching up and partying.  

Steph at the start of our great night together.

The next day I went to Cologne and met up with some guys we had met the night before.  They were nice enough to drag themselves out of bed on extremely limited sleep and show me around the city a bit.  We went to the top of one of the skyscrapers across the river from the Cathedral.  The view was pretty cool and when we came down we also discovered there was a huge race in the city that day.  

Cologne.

Tilt-Shift mini train station below us.

That marathon was all over the place!

That night I met up with another German guy who was my first official CouchSurfing host.  And what a great host he was!  After dropping my stuff at his apartment he took me around the city old town and told me a lot of the history of the city.  We then went to a tapas restaurant before heading to the apartment so I could rest before my big day.

Cologne old town at night.

Monday September 5 found me wandering around the Cologne train station looking for a large group of Americans, which I found.  After some standing around and making introductions, 140 of us were piled onto buses and taken to Altenberg to begin our three day Fulbright orientation.  There we spent the time listening to lectures, learning teaching techniques, and mingling.  Overall, I'd give the orientation two thumbs up, even though I'm still kind of scared shitless to start teaching children.  

Cologne cathedral.

Last Thursday, after the orientation ended we again shipped back to the Cologne train station.  I took a mid-morning train 5.5 hours north to Kiel, where I presently find myself.  My awesome new roommates met me at the train station with this adorable sign:

That night was spent getting acquainted and unpacking a bit, and even though I told myself I would go to bed early I ended up going to sleep around 2am.  Flash forward to Friday morning when I was supposed to be up at 6am to get ready to be picked up for my school's carpool at 7am.  As I blearily open my eyes and squint at my ipod, I realize my alarm never went off and I had five minutes to get ready.  No use accounting for my ride being a few minutes late, Germans never are.  As I was hopping around trying to put my pants on and grabbing my bag, I completely forgot to eat anything, do my hair or put makeup on and turned up at the school to meet the head master looking like a huge slob. Very embarrassing for my first day.  Technically it wasn't my first day however, as I was just there to meet people and be introduced to some of the classes. 

I was shown around the school, introduced to a handful of teachers and asked the same "Do you like horses?" question from every student that interviewed me.  Apparently all equine-related things are very popular in this area.  Overall the day was *interesting* if not totally overwhelming.  Luckily the school day ends around 12:30 and I was driven home in the carpool again, desperately trying to keep my eyes open and vaguely follow the conversation.  At home I scarfed down cold pizza and napped for a good portion of the afternoon. 

My first official day is Tuesday as I have Mondays as my free day.  Tuesdays and Wednesday I have open at the moment and teachers can ask me to come to their classes those days for the next few weeks and I'll suss out which ones I like best.  Thursday and Friday were pre-planed for me with a few 7th and 8th grade classes, and each of those days I'll have three morning classes and am done around 10am. Sweet. 

Back on track: Saturday I met some a couple of the other Fulbright girls living in Kiel and we saw some sights and shopped in the city.  That evening we took the train to Neumünster to visit two of our other Fulbright friends and go to a wine festival.  The trains stopped running earlier than they stopped selling wine, so we decided to stay at our friend's house for the night.  The next morning when we got back to Kiel there was a big city wide marathon going on.  I lazily walked the route from the train station to my apartment, watching children 15 years younger than me easily run gazelle-like toward the finish line on Rathausplatz with not a bead of sweat on their foreheads.  Dumb super in shape German children.  One day... just one day that beer will catch up with you.  Cherish the ease of fitness while you can.  The rest of my walk was extremely pleasant in the beautiful warm sunny Kiel weather.  

Kiel Rathaus

Kiel marathon.

Kiel houses.

The park near my apartment.

View from my window.

Back at home I spent the day finishing my unpacking, cleaning, napping, etc.  Tomorrow being my day off, I have a billion errands to do to officially be allowed to live in Germany.  I really hope I don't forget anything I need and that everything goes smoothly.  Wish me luck.

Until Next Time,

Chelsea

Well here I am, back from a great four day trip to Lake Ohrid in southern Macedonia.  Igballe and I went to relax by the water, get some sun and check out the sightseeing in the area.  And boy did we ever see some sights... from the seat of a paraglider!  I will get to that more later, but first I guess I should clarify some of the geography of Macedonia.  Since I have been planning my trip for some time, I kind of forgot that other people might not be exactly sure even where Macedonia is.  It is a republic formed as one of the nations born of the former Yugoslavia and as a result has a very interesting mix of cultures, as I previously described.  So anyway, here are some visual aids:

Macedonia in relation to the rest of Europe

We have been spending most of our time in Skopje (the capital) and Tetovo to the North West, and just got back from Ohrid in the South West.

  So back to what we have been doing the past few days... On Wednesday afternoon we left Tetovo for Ohrid.  We got there in the late evening and went into the town for dinner and some shopping.  The region is known for a type of jewelry called Ohrid pearls, so we perused the shops and boutiques for a while.  In the main square we stumbled upon a folk festival where groups of young dancers from different countries were performing the various dances of their regions.  We headed back to our room after some coffee so we could rest before hitting the beach the next day.

Driving to Ohrid from Tetovo

Polish folk dancers

  On Thursday we drove to a beach area a little outside the town and settled into our lounge chairs to enjoy a day of reading, swimming and sun bathing.  The beaches were rocky, but the water was clear and warm.  The beach areas at Lake Ohrid mostly seem to be accompanied by a bar or restaurant who you pay to rent your lounger from and where you can order food and drinks to be consumed at your lake side leisure.  Overall the day was a pleasant one and when the sun started to sink toward the horizon we packed up and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.  We strolled through the town for a while before finding a cute outdoor restaurant by the lake.  There were musicians performing traditional Macedonian songs and the food was delicious.  Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for the day!

The view from my lounge chair

Candlelit dinner by the lake with musicians in the background.  Tres romantique.
Notice my new Ohrid pearl earrings I'm wearing! :)

 Even though the previous day was highly enjoyed, we wanted to try a new beach the next day and decided on one called "Cuba Libre."  It wasn't really a beach but instead a bar on a pier that went out into the lake.  The pier was lined with super comfortable loungers, sofas and large round cushion things. It was very enjoyable and comfortable, if not extremely hot.  But the hot weather didn't bother us because jumping in the refreshing water was just a step off the pier.  

Relaxing at Cuba Libre

Iggy enjoying the sun.

Weeee! Pier jumping with the town of Ohrid in the background.

The sun beginning to set at Cuba Libre.

After the beach we again decided to head to our new favorite restaurant and were met by a friend of Igballe's.  We chatted and drank coffee for a while before heading to the nearby town of Struga.  In Struga we went to a bar where Igballe's friend's band was playing.  'Beni & Non-Stop' are apparently pretty famous in Macedonia and there was a large turn out.  Some songs were in English, though a lot were not and it was a cool introduction to Balkan rock music, which is much different (and better!) than the "Eurotrash" dance music I'm used in the area.

Ohrid town

Iggy lookin' all cute.

Another amazing waterfront dinner.

Ohrid town still bustling at night.  Notice the sign: "Unique Product: Pop Corn With Caramel"... wow. Innovative.

Beni posing for the camera.  His 13 year old groupies look a little shell shocked,
but I swear most people there were of actual bar going age.

The next morning we prepared ourselves for the most exciting part of our adventure yet... paragliding!  Iggy and I had been talking about it a day or two before Ohrid and the first night we were there we saw an ad for paragliding at the lake.  We had to do it!  So Saturday we met up with the instructors and after a bumpy (read: terrifying) jeep drive up extremely steep, rocky and twisting roads we found ourselves at the top of a mountain overlooking the lake and Ohrid town.  After being strapped in and given translated instructions, me and my tandem pilot ran into the wind and shot off into the sky!!!... well not so much "shot" as glided.  Which makes sense because it's called paragliding, right?  The journey was very peaceful and calming (apart from the pilots equipment which kept beeping loudly.  Of course I only found out after we landed that it indicated changes in altitude NOT that we were about to drop to our deaths as I had suspected.)  

Iggy at the top of the mountain waiting to take off.

Ohrid panorama from the mountain.

Igballe soaring above Ohrid.

It was a little scary at first...

But it got better...

Us and our pilots safe and happy on solid ground.

We did survive, however, and had a great experience in the sky over Ohrid.  After our thrilling ride we re-grouped and made our way to the Ohrid fortress where our afternoon of sightseeing (from the ground) began.  We started at the Ancient Theater, which is a Hellenistic theater built in 200 BC.  The stone seating areas are largely in tact and when looking toward the stage, one has a breathtaking view of the lake and surrounding mountains.  We then trekked up the hill to the stone fortress.  It was built in the middle ages during the rule of Samuil.  Now there are a lot of archaeological digs on site and the walls have been renovated so tourists can walk the battlements. 

Ohrid Amphitheater

Meh... I guess its an alright setting for concerts and plays and stuff...

View from the hill climbing to the fortress... pretty awesome.

The fortress entrance with the Macedonian flag.

Inside the fortress are a lot of ruins which are being excavated.

The next stop on our tour was The Church of St. Panteleimon.  The Byzantine-style Macedonian Orthodox church was built by Saint Clement on top of an existing Roman basilica on a hill known as Plaosnik.  There is continued archaeological work being done on the site and scholars believe St. Clement intended for the church to be used as a literary school for his followers.  We walked around the site and went into the church, where we were given velcro skirts to cover our bare legs and scarves to cover our shoulders.  Inside was a monk chanting, a man standing opposite him reading from a book (the Bible, I'd assume?) and three lonely attendees.  

Archaeological digs around the church with the fortress visible above the trees.

The Church of St. Panteleimon

The Church of St. Panteleimon

Next we climbed down the hill via a lovely path overlooking the setting sun over the lake and Albanian mountains.  After getting a tiny bit lost we finally made it to the Church of St. John at Kaneo.  The church is situated on an outcrop of rocks overlooking the lake with a view of Ohrid town.  It is believed to have been built by John the Theologian (writer of the Gospel of John) and it shows evidence of being built sometime around the 13th century.  We didn't enter because it cost money, but as we were walking back up the hill to the car we stopped and were able to witness a beautiful sunset behind the Albanian mountains with the church in the foreground.  Truly inspirational.

The path down to the last church... notice the beach at the bottom with the people swimming.

The Church of St. John at Kaneo

The Church of St. John at sunset.  The guys at the edge of the cliff danced around there for about half an hour and finally  got the nerve to jump into the water.  It was a bit high, but no Six Mile Creek.

  After a great day we had some dinner and drove the two hours back to Tetovo, exhausted but pleased with a great trip.  Since Saturday night when we got back we have been enjoying the company of Igballe's family, doing some shopping and living a bit of a more face paced city life in the north of Macedonia.  Tomorrow we will be joining Iggy's family to celebrate Eid, the end of Ramadan, followed by a couple days of parties before my departure Friday.  I am not sure I'll be writing again before I leave for Germany and my Fulbright orientation next week, but I think I've already posted enough on this part of my trip to keep everyone entertained for a while.  I hope you've enjoyed and please leave me any comments you wish! I'd love to know what things would be better changed and what things people enjoy seeing/reading!

Until Next Time,

Chelsea