Hohenwestedt Tag & Nacht

Take 25 eleven year olds, stick them together all day, everyday and add just a dash of drama and what do you get? No, not the world's youngest production of Les Mis... RIDICULOUSNESS is the answer I was looking for.

Today I went for the second time to a 6th grade Regionalschule class.  Last week when I went they were extremely interested (albeit fidgety) and asked me tons of questions about myself.  This week however, as soon as the teacher and I walked into the room fighting broke out (or more likely continued) among the students and two girls burst into tears.  I sat myself down at the teacher's desk in the corner while the real teacher took over in German to try to solve the problem.  As I sat there, slack-jawed and squinty-eyed, trying to concentrate and follow the discussion of what had happened, the voices just kept rising and more tears started flowing. 

It was just like watching a reality drama show! But it was real! And it was 6th graders! That made it not so great.  Once I finally figured out what they had been fighting about, I almost stood up and yelled at them in English, "Are you guys really THAT ridiculous??"  From the sounds of it, one girl had been looking weirdly at another girl and the other girl got mad and familial insults flew, then one girl shoved another but the other told everyone she punched her... and that's where I got lost.  By that point in the lesson most of the class was giving their input against one girl and the one who's side everyone was on was sobbing on her friend's shoulder while intermittedly yelling things that, if translated to English, could have sounded like something from Jerry Springer.  It was in German though, so the interaction was more like this:

Thankfully there was half a room between the girls, or else it might have ended the same way. The teacher I was with did a wonderful job of being fair and settling everyone down as much as possible, and we were able to finish the last third or so of the lesson as planned.  Or so I thought.  While the students were supposed to be writing down "celebration words" in groups, I walked around and noticed one group had only written down "borrring".  I told them to write more and they flat out refused.  While we were going over the words the groups had written down I noticed two boys in the front eating glue sticks.  What the hell?  On top of that, hardly anyone was paying attention at all and the poor teacher had to continually stop to get everyone to listen again. 

The whole lesson was so weird and so not what I'm used to, but I suppose that might be what all the teachers refer to as the difference between the Gymnasium students and the Regionalshule students.  It could also be an example of "Pubertät" that the teachers are constantly complaining about.  The other 6th grade class I have loves answering questions, is always engaged, (for the most part) listens intently, and I usually teach a half of the class without the teacher there at all.  The class today sort of scared me.  One of the more vocal and rough looking girls was much bigger than me too, which wasn't a good feeling.  

It was only after class that I remembered why most of the kids looked familiar.  In the first weeks at the school I had to do a substitution lesson for a gym class.  Their gym class... and it basically had gone the same way, but with more flustered-ness from me and even more crying on the girls' parts.  One girl had even run away from the gym building and we couldn't find her! Super! They scarred me in my first month, but I am determined to over come them.  I will gain their respect and they will end up listening to me, if its the last thing I do.

Ahoy there!

Well well... it has been a few weeks since I last posted about my winter break trip and honestly, not too much has been happening in Schleswig-Holstein.  The snow piled up, the temperature dropped and then the next week the sun was out and everything melted.  That's fine with me though; bring on Spring!

In mid-January the new semester started at Schule Hohe Geest (where I work), but I lucked out by still only having to teach Tuesday-Thursday.  I'm looking forward to soon starting my after school English Club, where hopefully I'll be able to encourage the students to use English more and to show them that learning a language can be fun! w00t!

February is rounding the corner to being almost over and as March approaches I am getting ever more excited for our Berlin conference.  In mid-March all of the English Teaching Assistants in Germany (and from some other countries around Europe) will be attending a week long gathering with other Fulbright grantees from the US and Germany.  Judging by what other people said of it last year, it is quite the week.  I'm excited to see other ETAs that I haven't seen since the orientation and to also meet some new people as well.  There will be tours of Berlin, speakers, networking sessions, talent showcases and of course parties.  I haven't been to Berlin since our Rotary Berlin Tour in 2005, so I can't wait to see it through older, more educated and experienced eyes.

In other, less work related news, my German class finished last week.  I was pretty happy with the grade of "2" that I got.  Just in case you freaked out when you read that, the grade scale is from 1-6, with 1 being the best. ;) I am debating taking another course next semester, in hopes of getting my C1 certificate, C1 being the highest level of foreign language certification you can get in Europe.  That would certainly be a good thing to have!  On the other hand, the class last semester was Thursdays from 7:30pm-9pm and Fridays from 3:15pm-6:30pm... which was a huge drag.  Well, considering the new semester doesn't start until April I have some time to debate it.

Last weekend I took a little trip to Hamburg to do some sightseeing.  My friend and I visited the Miniature Wunderland museum, which has huge rooms full of model trains that chug through tiny and intricate scenes from different countrysides.  We also went to The Beatles museum!  Since The Beatles were playing in Hamburg when they started to blow up.  It is a big source of pride for Hamburgers (and yes, people from Hamburg are called 'Hamburgers').  It was pretty awesome seeing it too, since I'm a huge Beatles fan. :) Another very cool thing we did was walk out onto the frozen Alster. The Alster is a lake in the middle of the city and it is very rare that the temperature drops enough for it to entirely freeze. Well, last weekend it was the perfect conditions so the city opened the ice for people to skate on and enjoy.  It was pretty much a once or twice in a lifetime experience!  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.  Fail.

Speaking of pictures, I got the roll of film I brought to Turkey with me developed.  Some came out pretty well, so here they are:

There were also miscellaneous photos from the first half of my year here:

Kiel

Dr. Soldberg

Denmark

Annie (fellow ETA) and her boyfriend, Matt, in Denmark.

Flensburg

Flensburg

Well, that's all I've got for now so...

Until Next Time,
Chelsea

Winter Break: Estonia & Finland

Last night I got home from almost 12 hours of traveling from Finland.  By "home" I of course mean Germany, and by "Finland" I mean... well, Finland.  The first week of my Christmas break was spent celebrating the holiday with friends and then lounging around my apartment in my new footie-pajamas (thanks mom!)  Last Friday, however, I finally mustered up the energy to get my butt out of bed and do something.  That something happened to be taking a train to Bremen with my friend Erika.

We had a plane to catch in the morning to Estonia and being that was are but poor Fulbrighters we decided seeing some sights and then sleeping in the airport was the best solution after our supposed CouchSurfing host didn't call us.

Bremen main square

Erika at the main square

Bremen town musicians

A Glockenspiel with bells that didn't actually move. I think the music was a recording.

People staring at the Glockenspiel.

Asian food and Thai beer

Bedtime beer at the airport.  And look! We definitely weren't the only ones overnighting it!

So the next morning we awoke (more like never fell asleep) at 4:30am thanks to some very loud, possibly drunk people whom I want to call Spaniards, but I don't actually know what nationality they were.  We freshened up as much as possible and went to the RyanAir terminal to go through security.  We were both pleasantly surprised that our huge packs passed as carry on and then the waiting game started. We were both exhausted and trying not to fall asleep as we waited to board the plane.  Once on we both promptly passed out for the 2 hour flight.

We landed in Tallinn, Estonia and followed the directions we had to the hostel.  After being a confused and a tad lost, we finally located where we had to go.  The girl at the front desk said we were a little too early to check in, but she let us leave our bags at the reception and she gave us some maps.  We wandered around the old town for a bit, bought some Scandinavian sweaters (pretty much goal #1 for our stop over in Tallinn) and got some dinner.

Freedom Square. Conveniently located across the street from our hostel.

hehehehe... am I the only one who finds that hilarious?

That one makes me giggle too. 

Grandmas selling sweaters by the old wall. Just where we were told they would be!

The reindeer you could pet were disturbingly near to the stands selling food with reindeer meat.

We got back to the hostel in the early evening and napped for a good 4 hours.  The reason for that was that it also happened to be New Years Eve!  The common room of the hostel was a pretty bumpin' place anyway, so we figured it would be a good starting point to the evening.  After readying ourselves we had some drinks and made some new friends (mostly Germans strangely enough).  Around 11:45pm we all made our way to the aforementioned Freedom Square to watch the fireworks.  It was a bit confusing though, because there was no count down to midnight.  Instead we noticed at one point that there were a lot of fireworks going off and checked the time, "Oh... its 12:03 already."

New hostel friends.

Happy New Year!

Snowy streets on the way to Estonian karaoke.

The evening was capped with karaoke (mostly in Estonian and Russian) and a not too late night out.  The next day we used most things being closed as an excuse to sleep in.  When we finally rolled out of bed around 2 the sun was pretty much on its way to setting.  We first went to the tourist info office to book our ferry to Helsinki for the next day and then took a stroll around the upper part of the old town.

Maybe we hadn't noticed it before, but we definitely were very aware of the copious amounts of Russian tourists that day.  You can usually tell who they are because they wear LOTS of fur, don't usually pay attention to where they are walking, pose for picture seductively against walls and just assume you speak Russian too.  When taken individually, each component seems a bit funny... but together: uggggg.

seductive-Russian-tree-pose

normal-Chelsea-pose

Because of the heavy Russian influence, the Christmas market is left up until January.

The snow really added to the charm.

We had read at the tourist info office about a "sword fight" that was happening at the restaurant Peppersack that night.  We were intrigued.  Reservations were made and we had a good (but expensive) dinner in a medieval themed restaurant.  I had been naive in thinking that "sword fight" meant a real sword fight. You know... with swords.  It wasn't.  That might have also been because the whole medieval theme of the restaurant was a little off.  Sure the decor was pretty medieval, but I'm pretty sure they played Enya at least once and the wait staff were definitely wearing more 1600s style clothing.  There were also no swords involved, but instead fencing foils. FAIL.

On the way back to the hostel we noticed a little cellar that we had read about on our map.  We went in to check it out and low and behold... a REAL medieval themed restaurant.  It was tiny, cramped, lit with candles and run by a tough looking woman in authentic period appropriate clothing! Also, elk soup was only a euro!

Elk soup only 1euro!

The next morning we packed and went to a place called Kompressor for what we were told were "HUUUGE pancakes."  They weren't.  Well, at least not in the American sense.  They were more like crepes, in either sweet or savory, and they were delicious and cheap.  Erika and I definitely both recommend going there if you're ever in Tallinn!  We then grabbed our packs and trudged to the ferry dock.  Our ship, the Baltic Princess, was waiting for us and after doing a lap or two of the decks we settled in a lounge sort of area.  Most people curled up to sleep and some enjoyed some cocktails.  After the ship started to move and the band began playing annoying swing/jazzy covers with thick Estonian accents we peaced out and moved to another part of the boat.  We then found ourselves in the karaoke lounge.  After about 2 hours of Finnish karaoke the motion of the ocean started to get to me and I had to lay down for fear of being sick.

Goodbye Tallinn.

I'm still confused as to why most of the karaoke songs seemed to have an undertone of Soviet to them.

The next thing I knew we were in Helsinki!  It was 4:30pm and dark and snowing.  Perfect introduction to the true Scandinavia.

That night the Graz reunions began when my friend Jaakko picked us up from the train station.  He, Erika and I went to get coffee while we waited for our other friend Susi's plane to land from Germany.  It took a bit longer than expect as the luggage trolley was stuck in the snow for a while.  But eventually we did meet her and we all went to go get some dinner.  Unfortunately that was the only time I saw Jaakko while I was there, but it was very nice!  

We figured out the trains and train tickets and rode about 25 minutes to the outskirts of Helsinki to where we would be staying with my friends Mave and Ulle, who actually met in Graz.  They were amazing hosts the whole week, especially considering they were both sick when we got there.  We really owe them a lot! That night was spent catching up a bit and talking about Graz some.  We eventually passed out and slept until late the next morning when we went to meet Anni.  She lives in a city a bit north called Jyväskylä and came to Helsinki in the afternoon.  We went into the city and walked around with her doing a bit of sightseeing.

Yes, it was 3:36pm and it was pretty much dark with the moon out.

Anni and I 

obligatory-Russian-wall-pose

That night we had dinner at a cute little cafe/restaurant that looked like it could have been right at home in Brooklyn.  We slowly made our way back to Mave and Ulle's house for a relaxing evening of watching X-Factor and chatting.  

The next day we woke up earlier than before and made our way to the Helsinki harbor.  There we visited the fish market where Ulle had previously worked and sampled some different fishes.  

Harbor and a boat named after my favorite tyrannical Czar.

Inside the market hall

 

If you know me well, you know I'm not really the biggest fish fan.  But I did try the little buggers.  Head and all...

We then ran to the other side of the harbor to catch the ferry to Suomenlinna, an island fortress off the coast.  Though the weather was extremely windy and a bit rainy we marched around the islands for a while, stopping in the church (that has a lighthouse on the top!), walking through the passages of the fortress walls, and gazing out to the rocky coast of the island.

People actually live on the island too. 

 

After being sufficiently frozen, we thought it was as good a time as any to try out the Finnish past time of  visiting the sauna.  If I'm being honest, I must admit that the Americans were a little nervous about the prospect, seeing as how Finnish saunas require one to be naked.  Americans tend to not be the most open people when it comes to their bodies.  But we all agreed that we didn't want to miss the opportunity for a true Finnish experience.  By the end of the sauna session we all agreed that when we were rich, we would immediately put a sauna in our own home.  It was a wonderful way of warming up and experiencing the culture.  Thankfully we had two Finns with us who knew what they were doing!

The sauna we visited was from 1929 and nothing has been modernized.  Though repairs have sometimes been made, almost all of the furnishings and equipment were original.

The night was ended by meeting Mave and our friend Aarne for dinner at a traditional Finnish restaurant.  

The name of the restaurant means "tractor" in Finnish.

The next day, our final in Helsinki, was spent shopping for souvenirs and presents.  Afterward we went to Torni Hotel, which we had heard had a great view of the city.  We weren't disappointed, and even the bathroom had a spectacular view!

Our last night in Helsinki was topped off with a party at Aarne's apartment with my American friends, old Finnish friends, and new Finnish friends.  Overall a great way to end the week, despite the fact that I was too enthusiastic with the alcohol.

Even though I'd heard some warnings from other people about visiting Scandinavia in the dead of winter, I'd say the country exceeded our expectations.  For some of us (Erika and Susi) there weren't really any expectations going in, and therefore a great first impression was made! For others of us (me) who has known Finns for a while and heard stories of their majestic land, I was certainly not disappointed!  I have to give a truly heartfelt thank you to all my friends who were awesome guides and hosts to us last week, especially Mave and Ulle who let us pretty much take over their apartment!  Even though the three of us have memories to last a lifetime, I hope it won't be a lifetime before I get to come back and visit again! <3

Until Next Time,

Chelsea