A Place To Live!

well, its about that time for an update. I really like those people who try to earn money by dressing up as statues and standing very still in cities. I saw one yesterday as I was in Hamburg with Jeff...and he was the best one Ive ever seen! I gave him a euro and he offered to take a picture...but of course the one time I DIDNT have my camera with me. damn. Ill just have to remember it for the next time I wander around the city looking for a decent and relatively inexpensive place to eat (which usually takes us an hour or so haha partially because Im often indecisive when it comes to stuff like that). And then after shaking my hand he went instantly back to statue mode and it was rediculous. then there was this creepy guy dressed up as a Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungsshild (heh silly germans squishing words together to make new words, however long they may be...but apparently as I just learned today they changed the grammar/spelling AGAIN this year so that words that mean the same thing separated should no long be smushed...I prefer smushed so I will keep writing them that way...just as I will continue to use the s-z symbol for "ss".) This guy was dressed as a speed limit sign with a huge wig and moustache like super mario and was most likely drunk and was tormenting this absoulutely terrified little child...I was terrified. I was prepared to intervene. Jeff and I saw Koenige der Wellen ins Kino, and it was such a great movie! The theatre was full of kids, but like the proper american boys we were, we took the opportunity to enjoy a German luxury and bought a huge Becks for the movie...heh. so is life/so ist dass Leben!. Either way, great movie, see it, the end. We searched for lunch one day and ended up going into a huge Bavariaesque pub that was for Fussball fans and ended up not eating there, haha. We went walking in this place called Planten un Bloomen which was really beautiful and right up my alley, i have pics (i discovered a new button on my camera which lets me take close up and focused pictures...woo!) ill upload them later. I have my solid fester Stundenplan/schedule, and now am working with two 6th grades, 1 8th grade, 1 9th grade, 2 11th grade, 1 12th grade (patrice's class, my hostbrother who's a pretty cool kerl), and 1 13th grade class. So far so good, Ive actually been working on one successful project with the eleventh year and am taking it to my new 11th year class tomorrow, it is a project about characterization and expressing emotions through looking at photoart and developing personality based upon those emotions. its a tough project, but they are doing really well! one girl said I was the best teacher she had all day! woo! Me and Camilla, the AFS exchange student from Brazil, also in my English class for 11th grade, went together to Sambucada, a Brazilian drum group in town to meet some kids our age and have some fun, it was great! They played at our Jubilee festival last Friday where we celebrated our 25th anniversary as a gymnasium in Tostedt. I stayed at school that day for 10 HOURS! it was horrible. haha. but the kids were cute. This week I have to come to school yet again on my free day, friday!, and introduce myself to the entire student body with the other new teachers. sigh. I cant event begin to discuss the level of...im not sure what, at this school, everything needs to be proper and perfect and professional and strickt....im already being EVALUATED and OBSERVED in class by the principal...rediculous. We will see how that goes! Ive taught quite a bit so far, with the older classes this week I talked about Big City versus Country culture, the American Political System, the Military, American Schools and Universities amongst other things like Wal-mart and my 9/11 experiences abroad. Its been going rather well. Im using the Purple America political map to try to break down a few prejudices and barriers many Europeans have built up about america to show them even more how diverse the country is, and how different the culture is from one region to the next. It has been very successful so far and the students seem very interested (either that or they have no idea what im saying and are very good actors haha!). I had some difficulties in the 9th year today, I had to have them try to explain a short article about War of the Worlds to their parents in 4 sentences...which isnt so hard, except I went at it with the assumption that they knew already from other classes in German how to write summaries, what a summary was, introduction was, etc.... this turned out not to be the case. I need to learn a lot still about teaching, but luckily with some help they got it in the end. I have to come up with something to do with them next class that will be fun and educational but also age/level appropriate...just have to wait and see. ps. I love it when im wandering around Hamburg or waiting on the train and hear groups of guys and girls chanting their infamous fussball songs, especially after their favorite team, the HSV, has won! Its pretty fantastically German/European, and it makes me smile. Oh yea! I found an apartment and am moving in this Weekend! Its the second floor of a house literally right in front of the school where I work. I have a kitchen a bath, a small living room, a large bedroom and closet. its perfect and the couple im renting from are rediculously nice, and its mobliert! meaning there is already all the furniture I need there! (now the trick will be to figure out how to make it "home", my kind of "home" without spending too much money, plus i need to get internet and a bigger tv) I know I know, I shouldnt care about TV, but its a great way to hear german, particularly when you are speaking english all day in class. Well, this weekend is Reeperbahn Festival, kind of like the Kneipennaechte in Stendal back in the day, and I plan on going with some buds, Kyle is coming up from Koeln, and I have a friend from Sambucada who might go with me and Jeff and perhaps Jennifer and Alex from Bremen, we will see. Its like one big city party! Then next weekend ill be off to Berlin to visit Katie, one of my favorite professors ever! Ill be living with Milli there, a friend from my Gymnasium when I lived there SIX YEARS ago! can you believe it! Ill get to visit my old hostfamily again, and Malak and her family, if they havent moved to Jordan. Im really excited!

Bis bald!
Shim