Two weeks ago I got to teach my kids about Thanksgiving. It was quite fun to tell them about the Pilgrims and the Indians, to see their reaction to foods like cranberry sauce, stuffing and sweet potatoes, and to tell them how all the men watch football and there's a huge parade in New York with giant cartoon character balloons.
Gloria, one of our "KiBA Amis" - one of the women who worked at our VBS here this summer - came to Berlin for a week to check out job opportunities. (She wants to teach English here.) She stayed with me and Anna most of the time and we had some fun adventures together, including a visit to my school, a visit to Judith's preschool, a sneak-preview of our friend Yasha's new store (see below), my first Christmas-market visit of the season, and a craft night at church to make Advent wreathes. We also had some lovely snow while she was here.
I celebrated Thanksgiving last week with my friend Annie from Fulbright and a bunch of other random people (friends of friends of friends). We didn't have turkey unfortunately, but we did manage to have cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, candied yams, some kind of casserole, and pumpkin pie, with chicken breasts replacing the turkey. It was a fun and interesting evening - I even met someone I actually already "knew" from Penn. We both graduated the same year and figured out that we visited the same class one time three years ago. Funny coincidence.
On Tuesday a new store opened here in Pankow, called "Obstmann" - Fruit-Man - because it is owned by Yasha, who until now has had an outdoor produce stand just outside our church building. We are all so excited for him that he has his own store now, and it's really neat - not just produce, but also basic grocieries, baked goods, coffee, and traditional Mediterranean spreads and salads. It was so exciting to go to the store on its opening day; tons of people came to congratulate Yasha, and he has a whole table full of flowers that people brought. It's cool to live in that kind of community.On Thursday I got to go to a faculty meeting at school, which was pretty entertaining. First we got to watch a short film that was made about our school - VERY cool, if they get it in the right format to post online I will definitely post a link. The rest of the meeting was interesting too, since some things are very different from in the States. For example, the principal and vice principal are teachers too, and still teach even as principal and vice principal (though not very many hours). The previous vice principal left relatively recently, so they basically had to vote for a new vice principal from the teachers currently on the leadership board, which is also elected by the faculty. It was already pretty clear though who would be the best candidate, so they basically just voted to confirm her in the position. Toward the end, the teachers broke off into groups and were given slips of paper where they had to write down things that needed attention in the school. At the end all the groups came together to share. What became apparent to me at this point of the meeting is how big a help something like the PTA would be. (PTA = Parent Teacher Association, for my non-Ami friends) Our school has very little parent involvement, so the teachers have to take responsibility for things that would probably be done by the PTA at a school in my hometown. Another thing that sort of struck me at the meeting was that there really aren't many young teachers at my school. There are probably only 3 or 4 who are under 40. I knew this already to some extent, but it became more apparent when I saw all the teachers together in one room. I almost felt more like a student than a teacher at the meeting.
Tonight was another fun evening. Simone and I went to the Jewish Museum to visit the Hanukkah Market, then made a special trip to Starbucks - my first one in Germany. It's very expensive here, but Simone likes to treat herself to a Starbucks every once in awhile on special occasions, and we decided this was one. Ordering a decaf tall non-fat mocha in German was slightly awkward - "entcoffenierten tall Mocha mit Magermilch" just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way. And of course, if you're not having it to-go, you get your drink in a real mug. After a lovely time chatting at Starbucks we visited the Christmas Market in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg. The highlight of our visit: a warm-up station, with big coats hanging over heaters with boards laid across them so you could sit on them and wrap up in the coats.
In the meantime, we're getting less and less sunlight every day. According to weather.com, the sun rose today at 8 am and set at 3:54 pm. Here's a picture of a pretty sunset at 3:30 pm:
Last piece of news:
Only 12 more days till my mom comes, and 18 till my dad and brother come!
I can't wait!
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