Cozy November and my new life

I am sitting here in the warmth of my apartment (thanks to my most necessary space heater) looking out at the seagull sitting on my neighbors chimney and the colorful leaves falling against the rainy, dark sky. It's 3:25, so I have about 35 minutes to enjoy this scene before darkness rolls in, and I can't help but thinking, "Wow, how did I get so lucky?" and "hmmm... rain again. Do I really want to leave this space heater and walk through that slop to go to the gym?"

This blog is the answer to that question.

Since my parents visit, my life has truly begun. I have joined a gym, started taking classes at the University and have almost officially taken over an upper level english class so I am no longer the "assistant"; rather, the teacher. My roomate Wiebke and I have become good friends and I FINALLY have a routine in my life, which is better than birthday cake and christmas and chocolate chip cookies combined. (Not better than Thanksgiving though...)

In the short and sweet: Life is good, because life is settled. Now that I have a settled enough life to comment on, I will tell you all about it. Then we can start with the "research" blog posts. (I hope you all are hungry for some cultural knowledge!)

Of the "I'm officially settled" things I've checked off my list, joining the gym has been the most life changing. If the extreme increase of endorphin dosage in my daily life wasn't enough justification to join, then the massage room that comes with my gym membership certainly was. Yes, you read it correctly: In addition to unlimited classes like "boxing aerobics" and "Bauch Beine Po (stomach, legs, butt), THERE IS A MASSAGE ROOM THAT COMES WITH MY GYM MEMBERSHIP.  I'm waiting for Jesus and St. Peter to make their grand arrival to tell me that this is all a joke and welcome me to heaven, but so far they haven't showed up.

That is not the only cool part of my new life; nerdily enough, taking classes at the University has been really nice too. I'm in 2 big lectures which are nice because I can blend into the background and/or talk to my new friends who also go to these lectures, and 2 small psychology seminar classes. One is called "teaching and learning from a psychological perspective"... which fits pretty nicely into my interests of psychology and temporary profession of teaching.. and the other is called "The Psychology of the Media and Social learning processes" Which fits nicely into my interests in Psychology and advertising. WUNDERBAR!

The other coolest part about that? It only cost 50 euro for me to be a student at this school. It cost me more to go to the gym than it does for me to take unlimited classes and learn for the rest of my life. OH, and did I mention that that 50 euro covers the cost of my bus travel for the rest of the semester? Score.

And the last cool thing about my settled life is my new role as official teacher of the "11th grade" english class. I'm pretty sure it's not allowed that i have the class by myself, but I'm not complaining. I feel lucky to have some purpose in my life and glad to know that the teachers think I can handle it after only a month of observation. My first official class all on my own was the day before break (3 weeks ago) and we discussed the topic of "home" as seen through the eyes of foreigners. It's an interesting thing to ponder, and a question I never really had to deal with until I came here.

The question is this: how do you describe your home to someone who has never been there? What are the important details for them and what are the important details for YOU?  Can I call that what I've experienced in my life "typical american?" I get asked all the time "what is the typical american way of blah blah... what was your high school experience? Is that typical?" Well actually, what IS typical? I lived a life of privilege, and I'm pretty sure that by the numbers I am far from "typical".

So I turned the question on them (my students). Having introduced them to the vocabulary of "stereotypes and national identity" a few days before this first-on-my-own lesson, I asked them to think of what stereotypes of Germany in general were. I showed them a funny video of what American thought of germans (nazi's in lederhosen with full frothy beers singing on tables with pretzels and bratwurst). They laughed and said "that's southern germany!" Their northern experience is so different. They think typically german is sailing and fishing and surfing... but that IS what is typical for them. I asked them, "what do you think is typical Germany?" Can you answer that? What is "home" and when a foreigner asks about Germany, what would you tell them? It's a tough question...

I then showed them a map of the US and a map of germany. I put the map of germany ON the united states and showed them how Germany only covers the states of North Dakota and South Dakota, and followed that with "If it is hard for you to describe with is typical GERMANY and the differences in North and South are that big, how do you think you could describe typical 'America?'


I'll admit, I was proud to have my first "teacher" moment and it felt good to see the perspective change in the eyes of a few students. Some of them really are just straight up punks and could care less, but the ones that got it... man, that was a cool moment.

This week we are talking about stereotypes in a bunch of big American cities... it has been fun, especially with this new perspective of each-place-is-uniqe. I think I like being a teacher, but I think I'd like a lot of things.

That's it for now. In talking about the massage room I've managed to convince myself that going to the gym is definitely doable...

Til next time,
Mere