I wrapped up this week by going to the Children's Film Festival with my students!
So basically I got to spend the day at the movie theater, seeing international movies and getting to chat with my students and fellow teachers about them. It was a fun day! (And the not-teaching may have factored into that too...)
I got to see the indie film Molly Maxwell, which was made in Canada and so hipster it hurt my soul a bit for not having an oversized flannel shirt and pegged jeans in closet. After the movie, some of the students I talked to told me they had trouble understanding the slang and Canadian accent in the film. I don't blame them, they mumbled a lot and the witty one-liners were hard to catch. Sometimes, I felt like I was the only one in theater who understood the jokes.
I also watched the Dutch film 20 Lüge, 4 Eltern, und Ein Ei (aka 20 Lies, 4 Parents, and A Little Egg). The movie was in Dutch with English subtitles, but the movie theater also brought in a German translator. The 3 languages at times was overwhelming for me, especially when the English and German translations didn't match each other. The students struggled with it too - the 8th grade girl sitting next to me got very indignant, saying: "We can read English, we're not idiots. Why didn't they leave those subtitles?"
Although I enjoyed the movies and thought they were excellent, I hardly would have classified either as children's/young adult films. Both dealt with complex and mature issues with were also ambiguously resolved (or in the case of the Dutch film, not at all, really).
In keeping with the cinematic theme, I was just updating to say that now that I'm on my two week fall break (woohoo!), I'll be traveling all over Germany and also border hopping a bit and I just wanted to give you, dear readers, a sneak preview, a trailer of sorts to all my adventures.
This weekend, I'm heading up to see Wittenberg. Yes, Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Hopefully, after nearly 500 years, they won't throw me out for being a Papist.
I'm also taking a trip with other Fulbrighters to Prague for 4 days. I've never been there and I've heard wonderful things from everyone who's been there.
After a short break, then I'm exploring the north of Germany in Bremen, Hamburg, Schwerin, and Lübeck.
So this is just to say, expect a lot of updates (and photos) in the future!
Lots of Love,
Your Humble Blogger
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