First Day of School

I start school today.

Teaching, that is.

Not freaking out at all.

As long as I don't mess up too badly, things should be okay, right?

  

  

  

Kind of Hating Germany (Right Now)

I meant for my next post to be a cheery, photo filled explosion of Chemnitz.

The Blog is supposed to be about my experience abroad, which sometimes includes bad experiences. And this weekend has been pretty terrible so far, so apologies for the honesty hour, but let me vent for a bit.

My power blew out today while I was cooking dinner.

And I couldn't find my landlord.
And I couldn't call him because I don't have a phone.
And I can't get a phone because I don't have a bank account.
And I can't get a bank account because I haven't registered my address with the city.
And I haven't registered my address with the city because I need my landlord to sign a piece of paper.
And I can't find my landlord.

Sometimes, I hate Germany.  (Despite the bread, the chocolate, and the shopping.)

Rage, my dear followers, a slow, boiling rage.

On the other hand, with the help of my Dad and Kaylee, I was able to find the breaker, flip the right switches, and viola! Power was back.  And I learned something about fuse boxes today.

So hooray for successful adulthood!

Even without a landlord.

Now if only he could fix my leaking sink...

Orientation and the Worst Train Rides Ever

Okay so I lied.

No photos. Not of Chemnitz at least.

Instead I went to Fulbright ETA orientation!  Orientation itself was a great experience - I met amazingly talented and driven people and overall had a great time.  It was like college orientation all over again. Except everyone there liked German and teaching too, so new topics of conversation had to be found. (Also apparently I have a very strong Chicago accent that I never realized I didn't have! Who knew?!)

We were just outside of Köln (that's Cologne to you non-German sprächige Leute out there) at a lovely resort.

A not too shabby view for breakfast!

A quick snapshot of the gorgeous
(and continually under repair) Kölner Dom.

We got broken up into groups based on our "state" for the group activities, while all 140 ETAs came together for plenary sessions.  A lot of it was technical - like visa information and job rules/regulations - but we also learned some pedagogy too.  Each state group was further divided into teaching groups, and at the end of the orientation, the teaching groups presented a lesson to their state group.

Needless to say, the Sachsen group got into being the fake rowdy students for each of the teaching teams. We were especially boisterous while pretending to be the Level One (first through fifth grade) students.  We made basic grammar mistakes, asked random questions, and channeled our inner six year olds.

I had a great time teaching and I'm already feeling really optimistic about my school and teaching in general!

So, to recap:  Orientation was awesome.  The people at orientation were awesome.  This year will be awesome.

You know what's not awesome: the Deutsche Bahn.

According to Google Maps (the font of all mapping knowledge) and Deutsche Bahn's own website: it's a long way from Köln to Chemnitz.

A long, long way.  About 7 hours by train.  And the trains don't even go directly across the country, since the fastest trains are the ICE (InterCityExpress) trains, which means that they usually go through large cities, like Leipzig or Nuremberg.

I was all set to get to Köln.  I had decided to go a day early, see the sights, and crash in a hostel before meeting the bus to the convention center in the middle of nowhere.  My Kindle and my iPod were charged and ready.  Enormous bottle of mineral water and snacks were bought.

The trouble started when I tried to buy my ticket to Cologne.  I wanted to buy a Bahn 50 card since that would give me half off the exorbitant ticket price.  I paid for the card with no problems, but when I went to buy the ticket, my Bahn card wouldn't work right and for some reason, I couldn't get the reduced rate.

Even though I was seething, I had to catch my train to Leipzig, so I sucked up the ticket price and got onto the train.

Everything was going well - other than the awkwardness of having to ask someone to move out of my reserved seat and the four train transfers - until about halfway through the trip when the ICE reached Madeburg.

The conductor came over the intercom and announced that since the train was needed in Berlin they were going to ask all the people headed to Cologne to get off the train at Madeburg, so they could send the train back.  

They promised that there would be two train options: one that would be leaving in 20 minutes from the Madeburg station and other that would be there in an hour to take the passengers to Cologne.

Although everyone on the train was angry, at least there was an option in the works to reach Cologne in time.  But then we learned that the faster train was also broken and we were going to have to wait for the other one.

 We were all dumped off on the curb at the Madeburg station as we waited for the train. Which was running late.  And then we had to change tracks twice before our train pulled up.

It was a tiny Interregional Express (read: slow train) with only 4 cars.  The Germans, being pushy as always, barged their way onto the train.  I was forced to climb into the last car along with a business woman from Berlin, this young guy, and six bicyclists all of whom were pissed that so many people were getting on the train.

There was only standing room throughout most of the train and I used my suitcase as a makeshift seat while I hung out in the bicycle storage area of the train.  I quickly learned as the Berlin businesswoman struggled to understand what the bicyclists were saying that they were from Swabia near Tübingen! Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear the nearly indistinguishable Schwäbisch!  It almost made the whole I'm-sitting-on-my-suitcase-when-I-paid-an-extra-5-Euros-for-a-reserved-seat-thing bearable.

And then one of the adorable old Schwabian men started talking to me because I was helping the Berliner understand his Schwäbisch and he told my German was excellent!

Happy Seal of Approval Indeed!

So even though my trip ended up taking an extra two hours, I got to Cologne safe and sound.  At the hostel, I found a wild pack of Fulbright Americans and I had a great time getting to know a bunch of them. 

Needless to say, I assumed my troubles with Deutsche Bahn were over.  During orientation, I forgot about the annoyance of 5 train transfers and 2 delays.

Then came the trip back.  (At least this time, the other Fulbrighter in my city, Alex, was with me!)

Instead of going north, this train was going south through Nuremberg and after an hour layover, going back up to Chemnitz.  Which was fine, since Alex was planning on meeting up with people she had studied abroad with in Nuremberg and I was thinking more along the lines of lunch and soaking up the free wifi at the nearest Starbucks.

We climbed aboard the train with all of our baggage and were headed off to Nuremberg. And then our train decided to act up.  And by act up, I mean, the cars came uncoupled.

Obviously we had to stop.

For over an hour.

And we missed our connected train.

And then we had to wait another hour and a half for our next train.

Which took 4 hours to get to Chemnitz.

Plus, the uphill walk home pushed me
into a state of wordless rage.

But, on the bright side, I finished reading The Sun Also Rises on the train!

I have no idea what it all means and it made me vaguely depressed.  Also I openly recant part of my Hemingway hater-ade (except for the annoying fanboy thing; I totally standby it).

So that was my weekend.  And I start work on Monday! Eeeeeek!

All My Love,
Your Humble Blogger

13 Things (That Happened to Me Yesterday)

Yes, my lovely followers, it's true, I'm finally in Chemnitz!

I'll be posting photos soon, but for now because I'm still a wee bit jet-lagged, here's a list of a what happened to me yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday? Anyway, it doesn't matter):

1) A long plane ride to Amsterdam (Note to Self: get aisle seat next time)

2) A long wait at the Amsterdam airport for the flight to Berlin where Your Humble Blogger who never drinks coffee, discovered the joys of being fully awake thanks to coffee.  I WAS NEVER MORE AWAKE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.  And then it wore off and I wasn't. Bummer.

3) A very short, but very embarrassing bus ride to the main train station in Berlin with all my luggage. Contrary to popular belief, some Americans can speak German and we understand just perfectly when being scolded by Germans. (Note to Self: Take taxi next time.)

4) Hanging out the Berlin train station and munching on the world's biggest Bretzel.  Am happy to report that it was delicious and perfect.  Also happy to report that using the ticket kiosks in the train station brought back all my latent German, including several swear words.

5) Train from Berlin to Leipzig.  Met an adorable little old lady on the train who wanted nothing more to chat with me in English until she got kicked out of her seat by someone with a reservation. Also learned about seat reservations on trains.

6) Train from Leipzig to Chemnitz.  A group of drunk punk-goth gypsies (yes, you read that right) got kicked off the train.  Sadly, most of the yelling and the police intervention happened on the platform, not on the train, so no gossip.

7) My cooperating teacher, Andrea, picked me up from the train station!! She even had a little sign! I was so happy to see her.  She loaded up all my luggage into her car (it fit, thank goodness) and she drove me around town a bit.  We went into the city center to get dinner where....

8) We ran into Maria and Kaylee, two of the ETAs from last year in Chemnitz.  Luckily, Maria recognized me from my photos on Facebook! Huzzah for the internet!

9) After dinner, Andrea took me to my apartment where my landlord, who is really nice, gave me a pick of 4 rooms in several WGs (Wohngemeinschaft aka a flat share) in the apartment which he both lives in and renovates.  I am the first person to live in this new WG so I may be all by my lonesome until October, when the semester at the Uni starts.  I picked a big room with lots of natural light on the 3rd floor and I have a lovely view of a little park behind the apartment.

10) Andrea is amazing - for many reasons, but especially because she brought me sheets and towels!

11) Maria and Kaylee draw me a city map on a pizza box lid since I have no paper.

12) The three of us head down to Lidl and I get some food for breakfast. Mmmmm yogurt and Musli. I feel German already.

13) I crash onto my new bed for a blissful 14 hours of sleeping.

In Case You Were Wondering How I Feel Right Now

(You probably weren't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.)

This has been my life today.

Frantically doing laundry:

 

Discovering I scheduled multiple appointments at the same time on the same day:

Apparently I can't be at the dentist and getting my hair cut at the same time? 

Trying to fix that:

Unable to find my Official Fulbright letter:

Trying to make lunch while my brain melts:

Overall:

How to Avoid a Pre-Departure Panic Attack in 8 Easy Steps

Step 1: Refuse to quit your 9-5 job until the last possible minute. Being forced to wake up early and go to bed early leaves little time for pondering the terrors of being abroad.  Practice the zen of the cash register, my friends.

Step 2: Find a tv show or book that you've forgotten about or everyone has been talking about and become ridiculously invested it. Worry about the problems of fictional people and remind yourself that your life could be much worse.  Like Breaking Bad worse.

Step 3: Take up a large, time consuming project.  Like souffle-making.  Or knitting a sweater on size zero needles.  Or an enormous cross stitch pattern.  Something that goes along well with Step 2.

Step 4: Don't pack until the last possible minute. Otherwise, you'll just keep having to do laundry because you'll take favorites out of commission. No thank you.

Step 5: Visit with friends and family and try to avoid talking about going abroad.  Pretend you have a normal job like a normal college graduate to obscure the truth that you're absconding off to Europe. (Plus, bonus points, you get to be with the people you love.)

Step 6: Take out the empty suitcases you plan on packing at the 11th hour in an attempt to fool the Parental Units into believing that you have outgrown your college ways of procrastination.

Step 7: Every time you feel like crying, swallow it deep inside you.  Hysterical sobbing should be reserved for the plane ride.

And...

Step 8: Make sure you put your passport in spot where you can remember where you put it when you're frantically packing on the eve of traveling.

Of Course Everything Comes Together Last Minute...

A couple of days ago, I got an email from my coordinating teacher.

In English! (Gasp!)

Who seems really, really nice.

She also complimented me on my German.

Oh, stop it.

And I got an email from the former ETA there and he just about gushed rainbows and kittens about the school, the faculty, and the students.

Which made me really, really happy.

But best of all....

 I finally have an apartment!!

So I guess I should start thinking about packing?

Nahhhh, probably not.