Christmas Market/Weihnachtsmarkt

Keeping it brief (after the monstrous post I just made)... and because I'm pretty much a Grinch when it comes to the holiday season...

Dortmund has a Christmas Market... lots of stands selling various goodies... mainly food... warm candied nuts, cheeses, schnitzels, doofy looking heart shaped cookie necklaces, and let's not forget Glühwein (warm sweet wine). On Friday nights, with weather permitting (which is never, but the Germans seemed to have developed an immunity to bad weather called "the scarf"), the place pretty much turns into a large outdoor bar with nomadic patrons. Below are 1) A picture taken near Reinoldikirche and 2) a picture of Dortmund's Christmas tree (actually, it's like 1200 trees stuck together to make one huge tree).

The WEEK of my Birthday (Nov 19th - 25th)

Turning twenty-one is Germany is like kissing your sister, or so I thought.

As most of you know, the drinking laws in Germany differ greatly from those in the States (sixteen for beer and wine, eighteen for anything with more kick). The worst part about not being of legal drinking age for me while I was at home was that all of my friends were.

Of course I knew before I came that things would be drastically different here. I also realized that by the time I would turn twenty-one I would have been in the country for almost three months. That being said, I was kind of preparing myself for an anti-climatic twenty-first by treating myself to a week of doing nothing but what I wanted.

Monday, November 19th:

I do three things every Monday; I teach from 9 - 2 p.m., I spend three hours at a grad course, and then, rather deservingly I feel, I go to Eastend (the student bar in my building) talk about my day and drink a tequila sunrise (and sometimes, it even has tequila in it.... long story).

What I did this Monday: I taught from 9 - 2 p.m. I ate Chinese food. I got on a train, skipped my grad course, went to Bonn, saw Beethoven's childhood home, ate dinner at a famous brewery and drank a famous Bonnsch beer. (Apparently they only make and sell this beer at this specific restaurant/brewery.) Then I hopped on the subway and went to Bad Godesberg and had baklava under the ruins of a castle that was destroyed to prevent Bad Godesberg from ever being occupied again (so I was told) : http://www.godesberg.de/godesberg/stadtrundgang/bild.php?bild=inne/13 . Then I got back on the train, went back to Dortmund, went to Eastend, talked about my day and had a tequila sunrise.

(This trip/dinner/birthday present courtesy of Dan and Laurn Giesey)

Tuesday the 20th - Thursday the 22rd:

More of me skipping classes... and shopping. H&M had a great sale... I couldn't resist.

Friday, November 23rd:

One thing I should have mentioned is that Sam and I decided it was 100% necessary that we bring Thanksgiving to Germany and to the other exchange students. Soooo... in typical American style (meaning completely overzealous) we decided that we were going to host a Thanksgiving dinner for fifty people... even though neither of us have ever cooked an entire Thanksgiving on our own, let alone in another country. So, from 10 a.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday I cooked two turkeys, made cranberry sauce and eleven casseroles with Sam's help.

Saturday, November 24th:

We celebrated Thanksgiving today and it went fairly smooth. People seemed to enjoy themselves.

So....
2 Turkeys and Gravy
1 batch of homemade cranberry sauce
3 Green Bean Casseroles
3 Potato Casseroles
1 Bowl of Stuffing
1 Pan of Southern Dressing
1 Corn Casserole
2 Pans of Sweet Potatoes
3 Dozen Deviled Eggs
2 Pumpkin Pies
1 Mixed Berry Pie
1 Chocolate Loaf
(Pies and Loaf generously provided by the lovely Leila, IA Caroline, AL and Isidro, AL)

After dinner we made plans to go to Prisma to celebrate my birthday at midnight. David Barbour (Scotland) surprised me with cake, candles, and a song before we left. Vilppu (Finland) brought me a bottle of port wine back from his recent trip to Portugal. Dan (Pittsburgh) gave me crackers (long story), a bottle of Rotkäppchen, and a Mai Tai the size of my head. Sam (Alabama) also gave me crackers and bought me a Pina Colada at Prisma. Francois (France) and Laila's (Iowa) gift to me was a round of tequila shots at midnight. Radim (Czech Republic), who is apparently my only friend here who didn't' want to get me drunk, gave me a Halloween postcard, house shoes/slippers, and pink rubber gloves for washing the dishes. Three of the Turkish girls, Sevgi, Iszgi, and Bahar gave me an "evil eye" (I can't remember the actual name of it) but it's an eye that's suppossed to ward off bad luck and apparently it's especially useful for people with blue eyes since those with blue eyes are supposed to have worse luck than everyone else (yay me).


After Midnight (the 25th): The Part I Hesitate to Write About

Prisma is by all means a normal club... and clubs, as a business, use certain gimmicks to make money such as holding special events in order to encourage greater attendance. Well... this was one of those nights. Near the entrance to one of the dance floors were two strippers... one of which was from Seattle (and no, I'm not posting their picture as I did with the scary people in latex). But hey... here's a picture of Radim and I... Radim's nearly the perfect man... he doesn't speak English or German,... basically he just walks around looking pretty saying, "ohhhh... schön" (oh... pretty) or "Du bist so schön" (You are so pretty)... luckily Laila's been teaching him both German and English.... so he only knows how to say nice things to women. On the other hand, he calls me Madonna... which I assume is either a reference to the virgin Mary or the cone-bra-wearing Queen of pop...


... oh, and later that night David got arrested for calling the police wankers... something I feel really pushed my party up to that next level of awesome... good food, good friends, dancing, strippers, and an arrest...

To My Wonderful Family... even Freddie...

The quilt that mom made with all of your names and squares arrived on Friday afternoon. It's absolutely wonderful... I was so surprised. Thank you all so much!

Last Saturday, November 3rd

Milja's boyfriend was in town this weekend... so we went to a club (excuse me, a "disco"... I hate that word). This is a picture of myself and two other lovely Prisma patrons. Notice the whip and chain I'm holding. Unfortunately, you can't see the stilts that Lars (I like to call him Lars) was using or the rather interesting protrusion in his latex suit.


Dear Mom,
Don't show Grandma Feenstra.

Dear Grandma Dee,
Don't show grandpa.

Dear Kori,
Don't get any ideas... but show Laurel!

TAN = Damage

As most you know, I have a very strict no tanning policy. I wear spf 30-55 everyday, my sunglasses cover half of my face, and I am terrified of wrinkles. I eat a lot of tomatoes and tomato products because I've read that lycopene has numerous anti-aging and skin care benefits. I try to sleep on my back (even though I prefer my stomach) because it's better not to put any extra pressure on delicate facial skin (Readers Digest, Fall 2005). In high school I decided that seventeen was a good age to start fighting the aging process...
>>>>>FAST>FORWARD>>>>>
Relevant Fact: The drinking age (for beer) in Germany is sixteen. You must be eighteen to purchase "spirits."
>>>>>FAST>FORWARD>>>>>
Dortmund, Germany. One month before my 21 st birthday.
I tried to buy alcohol.
I got carded. Carded! IN GERMANY!


For more information about the relationship between lycopene and tomatoes:
http://www.cancer.prostate-help.org/calycop.htm

For a nifty chart of various country's drinking age:
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html

For basic information about drinking in Germany:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2226609,00.html?maca=en-tagesschau_englisch-335-rdf-mp

For a picture of Connan O'Brien and Finnish President Tarja Halonen
http://www.shanatinglipton.com/blog/uploads/separated.jpg

http://www.smartskincare.com/treatments/topical/lycopene.html

Last Monday: Hauptschule

October 29th, 2007

Last Monday I went with my adviser, Sibylle, to Lützowstraße Hauptschule where I'll be teaching English. Basically I'll be assisting five classes on Monday and one class every other Wednesday in pronunciation, comprehension, and everything else that goes with learning a language. To be quite honest I'm not entirely for sure what I'm suppossed to be doing at this point as last week was basically a meet and greet with the classes.
I'm working with one class of sixth graders, two groups of freshmen, and two groups of sophomores/juniors... I think? Last week was a bit hectic, but all in all I think I'll be working with about seventy students. The school itself was interesting, as I was told it was going to be "sooo different." Hauptschule is basically high school, it's just a different kind of high school. A lot of the students there have some migration background but for a better explanation see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauptschule (Ya that's right, I'm citing Wikipedia... deal with it). Basically, it's just not a very good school. It's not in a bad neighborhood, but it's the equivalent of what you'd find in one.

Just the same, I'll let you know more tomorrow.

Class Update

TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25th
This is primarily a lecture/theory course, and although the professor asks questions, students don't seem to be required to participate (at least not from what I've observed in most classes). Moving on, Dr. Roters was discussing a language method that at one point was very common and was also very similar to what Pavlov did with his hound. She was explaining why this didn't work and how it created automated responses and that the speakers weren't able to produce the language for themselves, only respond to a preconditioned stimulus. Anyway, this is the example she gave:

Dr. Roters: "Now one reason this theory doesn't work is because the language learner isn't able to answer spontaneous questions. Maybe some of you," (there are about fifty people in this class), "have traveled or studied abroad in the United States, and if you have you've surely been to a grocery store. Of course you expect to stand in line, show them your things and then they'll tell you the amount, but what else do they ask?" No one says anything, we sit there, we wait and then she continues, "They ask 'debit or credit'. Now who can tell me the difference between debit or credit." Again, no one says anything... but I know this one :) .

Me: "Debit is money you have in your checking account and credit is money you don't have."

Dr. Roters: "Exactly, and if you ever purchase anything, nearly anything, in the United States you'll be asked this question." She pauses and looks at me sitting in the very back next to the two guys reading a magazine and then continues to say, "And I can tell by your accent that you've spent some time abroad. How long were in you in the United States?"

And I, with a very straight face reply: "Oh about twenty years."

It was at this point forty-nine faces turned to look and laugh as Dr. Roters face flushed.

Dr. Roters: "Oh, I'm so sorry! I should have known."

The next two minutes consisted of, "Oh, we have an American in class... let's all point and ask questions about American Pie and other U.S. teen movies that must be factual!"

Sometimes being an American is like being the bearded lady at a carnival. No one really wants to pay to see it, because it's just not that interesting, but if happens by you... you may as well get your kicks in.


IDEALISMUS UND EMPIRISMUS: DIENSTAG, 30 OKTOBER
I spent the an entire ninety-minute class period writing a single page on what I assume were the logical connections made by Hegel in his philosophical progression from logic (Logik) to nature (Natur), and finally nature to spirit (Geist)... in German. I had a German student read it after I was through, she said there were a lot of mistakes in it, but also that it was understandable. This was a vast improvement from the week before where my greatest classroom accomplishment included sleeping upright.