But we won't dwell on my ideas for retirement and future for too long.
On Tuesday I was invited to go on a field trip with a class at the school. They were headed to a place called Die Baumberg. (The Tree Mountain) Even though it wasn't what I would call a mountain, more of a foothill really, I was more than excited to go and enjoy the day with a class of german students.
The class + Herr Shürman (left)
One of the teachers I work with.
Wind farms are very popular in Germany. I honestly can say, as someone who wants to keep construction off the Mountains, they aren't that much of an eye sore. No more than powerlines.
Now what a lot of these students hadn't counted on was that it had been raining here for the past 3 or so days, including that day with it spitting on and off. Therefore the trails were slick and muddy, I must confess it was quite amusing watching these kids slip and slide around. Only a couple actually fell. and we only lost one shoe to the mud. (which was retrieved afterwards.)
Wednesday I spent my day in the training room. Something like detention, but the students aren't just required to sit in the room. They have to write a page on why they are there and how to remedy the situation.
After that I went to a math class room and help teach fractional mathematics. Not exactly what I thought I would be doing but, as usual, I'm making the best of it.
Thursday I convinced my self I have lost my mind as I bought a book...... No thats not the surprising part. I decided that once again I'm not completely overloading myself with things to do.
So lets see what we have....
- The obvious learn German. A daunting task that absolutely never ends. Sometimes i feel like I'm in a place that everyone speaks German except me. .. .. Oh yea I am.
- Put forth effort into my internship. The internship is great, but with the simplicity of what I do (for now) it will become ever more possible to simply slip into compliance.
- Still adapting to the new culture. It hasn't persay been hard on me. In some ways I feel more at home and relaxed here. Maybe its because this is my "vacation." Not to say the program hasn't/isn't/won't be work, but it's still way less then I do back home.
- Trying to make new friends. It is extremely difficult to convince yourself to talk to random people and try to make friendships. Let alone when you barely speak their language. Nor do I really know where to go, clubs, bars, cafes If I were to hear a conversation I'm interested in, I'd probably get involved in some way.
- Maintaining relations back home. It takes some effort to keep in contact with everyone back home who I miss. I want to keep of with the lives of the people back home, not only to avoid the draining idea of asking "So what happened in the last year?" when I get back.
- Trying to learn the fiddle. I'm still working at it and the songs I've been working on are getting much better. The instrument is by far the hardest I've ever tried to learn and one of the first that I will completely self teach. I've had to relearn; sheet music, key signatures, musical counting, and pitch. Not to mention all the new things that come with it; posture, bow technique, left hand techniques, finger position, pitch identification, and thats just what I know now.
- The book. That brings us back to the book I bought. For some reason the crazy man inside my head said that reading a buch auf Deutsch would improve my German. Makes sense right. As I had explained in my last blog I was debating starting the game of thrones, but decided against it. However I did buy a book.... and heres the description auf deutsch see if you can guess the story. "In einem Lock im Boden, da lebte ein Hobbit. Datim beginnt die Schöne und spannende Geschichte vor Bilbo Beutlin, der sich aufmacht, einen geraubten Schatz zu suchen." Any Guesses?
Yup I'm now going to attempt to add translate a book to my list.
Sometimes I wonder if I intentionally bite off more than I can chew, or if my ambitions are just crazy. I believe one of my host dads phases fits well; 99 voices in my head say I'm ok, and one plays the tetris music.
Friday fellow PPPr Josh came down to Münster to visit. It was a great weekend. Now if you all remember Josh from my last mention of him (Ein prosit...) We made a true firehouse chili and fed it to Germans. After telling my host dad about it he asked us to make some chili on saturday. We happily complied and made two pots of chili "the German" and "the American." Which contained 3 red and 3 orange habaneros and 10 red chipotle chilis. Gladly our chilli didn't have much left and after watching the host family try "the american" and even admitting it was good but they could handle only a few bites.
Then saturday evening we decided we wanted to make cheese cake. Only a bad idea when your recipe is in American measurements. So backing became interesting and cream cheese scarce. We ended up having to buy an entire case of cream cheese to get enough.
Josh searching for a conversion
crusts in
couldn't find gram crackers so we used these and 10 things of cream cheese.
Sunday we went on a short drive with the host family and other PPPler Bri, (who Lives across the street) on a Rural tour of Munster.
Schloss Huelshof
Billerberg
Me, Bri, Anderas
Schloss Steinfuert
Schloss Nordkirchen
Burg Vischering
Erika
We had stopped along the way and had a nice picnic of tea and Cheese cake.
Cheesecake and tea picnic
I felt pretty in the rain unter das blume regenschirm
"I feel Pretty, Oh so Pretty, I feel pretty and witty and Gay!"
yes those lyrics continually went through my head.
The three of us (Josh, Bri, and Myself)
That rounds out the week. Over the next two weeks I don't have my internship due to a school holiday break, so to keep myself entertained I'll be doing some research into folklore around Muenster. This will most likely become a special blog outside of my ordinary weekly posting, so stay tuned.
Bis den,
Cody A. Glick
No comments:
Post a Comment