Pankefest, Chagall Exhibit, etc... (more pictures)

Two weeks ago we had a big festival in Pankow, Pankefest. (I think the Panke is like a creek - not quite a river...) It's a pretty big deal, a pretty big portion of two streets gets blocked off for an entire weekend and filled with tents where people selling crafty things or food (or beer). One of the streets used for the festival happened to be the street our church is on, so we were able to have our own table at the festival without paying to set up a tent. We had games for kids and tried to just talk to people and invite them to our Chagall exhibit. And we were the super nice people who let people use their bathroom for free. :)

The Chagall exhibit opened right as I got back from Altenberg/Cologne. Our church did this last year too (when I wasn't there) - we were able to rent original lithographs of Marc Chagall's artwork from an organization for a few weeks and open an exhibit in our church building. Chagall's work portrays Biblical themes so it's a neat way to bring people into our church who might not otherwise think to come in, and through the exhibit they are (hopefully) able to learn something about God through the stories in the paintings. This year's exhibit is the Exodus cycle. The artwork really is amazing and so far we've had tons of visitors!

Click here for Pankefest/Chagall pictures (more to come)

Other than that, life has been pretty "normal" - but certainly not boring - here in Berlin! School is going great, I'm still totally in love with my students. My one struggle is with the teachers - a lot of them complain A LOT. And I'm a pretty positive person so that gets annoying pretty fast! I'll also probably have to do a post on political correctness in the near future because this is a concept that is no where close to being as important as it is in America, and sometimes I get a shock when I hear things that Americans would never say. But all in all, school is great and I'm excited to get to start doing more on my own and developing my own ideas. If anyone has any tips or suggestions for fun things to do with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders learning English, let me know!

As far as life in Pankow and stuff at church, there are two new developments: We have started Bible class for 11-13 year-olds, and I'm helping with that as sort of a co-leader with Timo. So far it's been great and I'm super excited about the curriculum and all the things they (and I!) will learn. Also, I'm going to start leading worship more regularly and really investing into it as a ministry. This is something I'm hugely passionate and excited about, but also a bit nervous! I'm definitely looking forward to all God has to teach me in this area.

<-- (Learning the books of the Bible with the help of Robert's Legos...)

Last piece of news: I got my first German hair cut! This was not only my first hair cut in a foreign country, but also my first hair cut by a new hair stylist since about six years. Tori has been cutting my hair since some time in high school and it was a little leap of faith to trust someone else with the scissors for the first time. Luckily, Jacqueline at Ha(a)rmonie (hair = Haar, isn't that the cutest name for a hair salon in Germany?) did a great job!

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That's the news from here! Much love to y'all!

Belated updates on travels

I have two things to report on, primarily through photos...

First, I went to Lutherstadt Wittenberg (Stadt=city) a few weeks ago with Anna and some people from her church (mostly Americans who came to help with the English camp they did a few weeks ago). Wittenberg isn't far from Berlin - maybe an hour and a half? - so we made a day trip. We were fortunate to have beautiful weather and we had a great time. Wittenberg is really just a little Dorf (=small town) with some historical landmarks - quite charming and peaceful. Luther really is the star of the town - everything there is Luther this or Luther that. Luther became an extremely important figure in German history, not just in church history, and was especially celebrated in the 19th century as Germany was forming a united national identity for the first time.

Wittenberg photos

Then last week I traveled to Cologne for the Fulbright/Pedagogical Exchange Service orientation/seminar. I arrived early and had a little bit of time to check out Cologne before meeting the bus to the orientation site, which was outside Cologne in a town called Altenberg. We stayed and had all our sessions at an old monastery which had been turned into a sort of hostel/retreat center. So I didn't get to see much of Cologne, but what I did see was nice, it didn't seem very tourist-friendly (although there were tons of tourists there). There were several things I tried to see/visit but either couldn't find or couldn't find entrances to or the opening hours were wrong, etc. But it's a nice city.

Cologne photos

The monastery in Altenberg really was beautiful. Orientation was interesting - we had a sort of crash-course in teaching English with a handful of wonderful German English teachers. The main teacher for my group actually did a teacher-exchange year in Philadelphia, so it was really interesting to hear her impressions! We had to do mock-lessons and when we weren't teaching a lesson we had to play student, which at times became quite amusing. Scattered inbetween these coaching sessions were a handful of very unhelpful information sessions about insurance, banking, etc. Mostly repetition of things we already knew from all the stuff they sent us over the summer, interspersed with some really stupid questions from some of the teaching assistants. And of course at night there was nothing to do except drink beer that the program directors were selling, so the evenings weren't so much fun either for the few of us who weren't interested in getting drunk at orientation. (Couldn't they at least wait until they got to their cities and could go to a real bar?) But in general, it was nice, and I met some cool people, including several who are also in Berlin.

Pictures of the monastery

This week I've been back at school and having a great time. Some of the classes have been a bit hyper but it's still fun and I love them all. Tomorrow I'm staying in the afternoon to see what sorts of things they do (since they have to stay at school until 4 but usually don't have class after 2) and if there are ways for me to volunteer.

Pictures and such for those who are curious!

Here are some pictures from my school - right now I only have pictures of the outside, hopefully I'll get a chance to take some inside too.











And in case anyone is curious what a typical week of school is like for a 5th-grader at E.-O.-Plauen, here is Ulrike's class's schedule:



The first break is basically recess - the second one is sometimes another recess, sometimes lunch. I can't really figure it out, and it's different depending on what the schedule is like for a certain day. Recess is different from what I remember from grade school - the teachers don't take their classes outside, the kids just go, and then a bell rings that tells them they have to go back to class. There are usually a couple teachers outside during the break but the kids are basically on their own during that time. The classes with a * are only for kids that are struggling and need extra help. AG stands for "Arbeitsgemeinschaft," I haven't figured out exactly what this means but I know there are different AGs for different things - for example, there is a soccer AG and a drum AG. I think they're sort of after-school clubs.

Also, you did indeed see Islam on the schedule. In Germany there is not a separation of church and state like we have in the U.S., and so kids have religion class at school. Usually they pick between Catholic and Protestant, and then they added a sort of non-religious alternative, Ethics. Some schools in certain areas now of course have almost exclusively Muslim students, so those schools now - although this is still highly controversial - offer Islam class. Religion classes aren't just taught by anybody - they of course have teacher certification but also have some sort of certification from the state churches, or in the case of Islam class, a mosque. Not sure how all that stuff technically works. But anyways, not all the kids go to Islam class, but I think most of them do. I'm not exactly sure what the other kids do instead.

Expect more updates to come! Tomorrow I'm not going to school because Ulrike doesn't have many English classes and I have to go to the dentist - the last appointment available this week is Friday at 11:30, and it would be a hassle to ride all the way down to school for an hour and then have to leave. (If you're curious, my tooth that has a crown has become very sensitive to hot and cold. I'm sure this can't be good news, so I figured I should see a dentist as soon as possible. I'm kind of nervous.) Next week is orientation in Cologne, so I'll try to report on that. And don't think that I've forgotten about the post on man capris and socks with sandals. The other day an acquaintance actually was wearing both - and not just any socks, but black socks. Yikes. I would've taken a picture but I had just met the guy and I thought he might be offended.
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My first day of school!

I have to go to bed soon but I absolutely had to write about my first day of school today!!! First of all, it was pretty unexpected... I'm not actually supposed to start until after my orientation, which is next week. But all the kids go back to school today, and since I'm already here I thought it would be exciting to experience the first couple days of school, since it's kind of a big deal. :) I emailed the teacher I'll be working with last week to ask her if I could come visit the school this week, and I didn't here back from her until late last night, just in time to head straight to bed so I could get up early today and go to school!

To put it simply - it was wonderful. I am so incredibly happy to be where I am. I'll even admit - when I stepped onto the school grounds I got a little teary-eyed. I have read about German schools and studied the situation of immigrant schoolchildren for several years, and to finally be at an elementary school in Kreuzberg was almost like traveling for the first time to a foreign country you've always dreamed of seeing, that you've read and learned about for years. It was a similar feeling to how I felt when I first visited Germany my sophomore year of high school. I don't know why I didn't think through it sooner, but the feeling was totally unexpected... and incredibly beautiful.

I absolutely adore these kids. The teacher I work with - her name is Ulrike - has a 5th grade "homeroom" class, and teaches English and math for her homeroom as well as a few other classes - for English, another 5th grade class, two 4th grade classes, and a 3rd grade class. I will probably be assisting in all of those classes. Today I met Ulrike's homeroom class and the two 4th grade classes. Almost all of the kids are Turkish. In Ulrike's homeroom there are two German boys, and in the 4th grade classes there is a Lebanese girl, an African boy, and a few others who aren't Turkish. The kids all speak German pretty well though, and speak mostly German with each other - though I wasn't with them at recess. The kids got to interview me and they asked the funniest questions - first the obvious, where I'm from, how old I am, if I have siblings, what my hobbies are, my favorite color, but they also had to know if I was married, and when I said no, if I had a boyfriend! They also wanted to know my parents' and brother's names, and where/how I learned German. One kid asked if I'd ever seen Indians, and what they look like! :) Then Ulrike had them guess what 3rd language I am learning, and when they guessed Turkish they were very excited and got to ask me a few questions in Turkish. They liked the idea that I could teach them my language and they could teach me theirs.

For English class, the kids all get to pick English names. They had names like Mary, Betty (they thought it was cool that that's my mom's name too!), Nicole, Jennifer, Sandy, Miriam, Angela, Olivia and the boys were Henry, Harry, Bob, Johnny, Michael... Keep in mind, they learn British English. In their textbooks there are pictures of little British kids in their British school uniforms - so funny! But Ulrike is not a teach-out-of-the-textbook kind of teacher. She is very spunky and likes to have the kids up and moving around, singing and dancing. We sang songs like "Good morning to you," "10 Little Indians," and, my favorite, "5 Little Frogs." I'd never heard this one before, but it is very funny and involves some dancing and jumping. :)

The school itself is very nice. The building is beautiful - not like American schools, which are often just big brick boxes, but a 4-story dark brick building with big windows and a big courtyard where the kids play at recess. Instead of a big huge cafeteria, there is a kitchen where the food is prepared and then the kids eat in a couple different smaller lunchrooms at round tables. I'm pretty sure all the kids eat the cafeteria food, but they bring their own snack for the morning. The kids are at school until 4:00 because the school is on a "full-day" program (Ganztagsschule). A lot of schools with mostly immigrant students do this because the kids don't have much support at home for their education - a lot of their parents have little education or don't speak much German, and education isn't always as much of a priority in their culture as it is for Germans. After around 1:30 or 2 the kids don't usually have any more classes, but they can get homework help and take part in sports clubs and other activities. The kids do almost all of their homework at school.

The teachers I met were very nice, as well as the principal. The teachers' lounge is basically the same as in the States (I spent a decent amount of time in Brentwood High's when I shadowed Emily Sherman) except the teachers don't eat lunch there - instead they eat in the lunchrooms where the kids eat, and sometimes they sit with the kids too. Another thing that's interesting is that when the students have a different teacher for a different subject, it's not the kids who change rooms but the teachers! The kids stay in the same room for most subjects (not gym and such, of course!) and have all their books and supplies in that room, and the teachers move around to teach different classes. (In secondary school this changes and the kids change rooms.)

By far the greatest part of the day was meeting the kids. They seemed so excited to have a new teaching assistant, and they were really having fun today. Just to see the look in their eyes, the way they are hungry to learn and to grow (though many don't really know it yet :) and to be loved and valued. Their faces are all so beautiful! I absolutely cannot wait to get to know them all and to go on this adventure with them. I am totally in love!!!

Now I absolutely have to go to bed so I have plenty of energy for Ebru, Ayse, Hasan, Orhun, Ali, Nuray, Melek, Mimi...