Off to Köln/Altenberg...

Ok... so I haven't been posting. So as Kevin Reiman's license plate once read:

Whooopps. Or something to that extent which referred to the high school girls basketball team. (Mom will remember.)

Anyway... Fulbright conference in Köln...

I'll be there until the evening of the 10th, something like that, and will arrive later in the evening in Berlin that same day. I probably won't have an internet connection for a while but I'll be sure to log some typing time (i.e. save some entries that I can readily post once I'm connected again).

Briefly, things are going about as I expected they would.

More about everything next week.

Brace Yourself, I'm Going To Be Dramatic...

My computer broke fifteen minutes ago but luckily I know just enough Finnish (swear words) that I was able to use Vilppu's laptop to get online and blog about this...

To add to the situation I can't seem to get the sound to turn on on this darned thing which means I can't even call anyone to complain. Ugh.

Placement: Richard Grundschule, Neukölln - Berlin, Germany

About two months ago I received my teaching placement and today I'm finally going to post it. (Clearly I'm running a little behind schedule).

Richard Grundschule is an elementary school that, as per their Pädagogisch-inhaltliches Profil, focuses on the development of language.

Since I haven't actually been there yet there's not a whole lot else I can tell you. The following is the address to the school webiste:

http://www.richard-grundschule.cidsnet.de/

Updates: Germany and Otherwise

Germany:

I'm still waiting to find out which school I'll be teaching in which means that I'm still waiting to find an apartment. Hopefully I'll find out something within the next three weeks.

Here:

I started a new job. I work in "risk mitigation" for an insurance company. It's really boring but I'm learning a lot about mortgages and various types of insurance which I assume will be helpful in the future.

I moved... like ya do...

Tammy, a friend from Iowa whom I met in Germany, came to visit last weekend and Chelsea, a friend from Wesleyan who is soon leaving us for the über selective writing program in Iowa City, was also in town all last week. Good times...

Lauren (from Jersey), my future Berlin roommate, is in Izmir, Turkey right now and I'm extremely jealous because I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska talking about escrow accounts and whether or not a fire policy covers a tree falling onto your house. (It does.)

Departure Date

I booked my tickets to Germany today.

I'll fly out of Omaha on August 26th and arrive bright and early on the morning of the 27th in Düsseldorf. From Düsseldorf I'll head 37 kilometers northwest to Essen to see Vilppu (Finland), who is working at the university there for the summer, and hopefully Francois (France). Francois came to Dortmund to study abroad in the fall of 2007 (the same time I did) and liked it so much he never left. It's really not all that bad, Fran graduated at the end of the year and got an engineering job in Dortmund. Shortly, he'll be moving to the United States (Virgina, I think?) to work for a firm here for a few years so I'm hoping I catch him while he's still in Dortmund.

After my mini-Dortmunder reunion I was supposed to go to Frankfurt to see Julain, the orphaned German exchange student that I found cold and alone on Wesleyan's campus last fall (by orphaned I mean he didn't have an I-Pal/campus guide and I "adopted" him. See the original post.) Unfortunately, Julian will be knee deep in exams so I probably won't see him until October at the earliest. On the brighter side, it'll give me more time to visit with Marcel, "my German son" who studied abroad at Wesleyan this past school year and studied at the same university that I did when I was in Germany the first time around.

Next on the agenda is a four day conference in Köln from September 7th - 10th. After that lets out I'll get on a train and head across the country to Berlin, my soon to be home.

Speaking of my future home, dwelling... box... I'm hoping I can find something as nice as this lovely piece of real estate that I found in the Portland, Oregon area:

I think my roommate and I will have to take turns being home though...

Erika and her Saturn

Fulbright Placement

So maybe you know, maybe you don't, but I'm going back to Germany for another year.

Last time I lived in Dortmund. (See handy-dandy map below.)


Today I received a notification from the Fulbright Kommision that I've been placed in Berlin.

Now because this is a blog and you can't see my face or hear my tone I'm going to use HTML text blah-blah-blah-something or other and a picture or two in order to express myself properly.



I'm going to Berlin!

BERLIN!

The Last 6 Months in Review

November, I've decided, is my second least favorite month of the year, February prevailing. Fall begins to fade into winter, Christmas season forces itself upon us, and it get's cold.

December was a busy month but I had a lot of fun, too. All of the exchange students from first semester were still here and my finals weren't too horrible (at least not in comparison to the current situation).

January escapes me. I don't really remember January... I believe it sucked. Julian (aus Deutschland) had went home, Tara was getting deported (not really but kind of) back to Ireland, and the Estonians were long gone. Second semester started with a crash instead of the traditional "bang" and...

Boom, that brings us to February, my least favorite month. February is a cramped, sad little month. The weather sucks, no one actually like Valentines Day, Groundhogs Day (once my favorite holiday) is a joke (which is why it was my favorite), and most people seem to be suffering from some sort of post-holiday depression. I find this especially true among university student populations who had a nice five to six week break from living in shared 10 x 10 box, ate something other than cafeteria/fast food, and now find themselves back in the box with the same shitty food working long hours and late nights.

There may have been a dance in March. I think there was. I believe March is when Wesleyan holds their "Formal" (i.e. a prom with booze). This year was the first time I elected to go... and one time was enough.

April was a marathon. No, a triathlon. I ran, I swam, I biked... not really. April was really intense though. You know when you're waiting in line to board a roller coaster and you stand there in the hot sun for what feels like hours next to two screaming kids barely tall enough to meet the height requirement and a big fat smelly guy who sweats a lot and keeps bumping into you and thereby branding you with his oder? And you know how when you finally get up to the shaded portion of the line right before you board that you're always like one person away from actually getting on the darn thing? And you know how then you realize you really need to pee but you've already been waiting in line for the better part of your natrual life and suddenly you're consumed with indecision? And then you know how when you finally say, "screw it, I'm getting on this roller coaster!" and you start to buckle yourself in and the cars lurch forward and start to make what seems like a completely ridiculous set of unsafe noises in thier asent and you realize this was really bad idea? And then when your car finally starts to break at the peak you're given two options: throw your hands up and scream or simultaneaously pee and puke. That was April for me. I'm not sure what I did, but it seems to be working out ok...