I don't really remember anything that happened 5 years ago today.
All I remember is that it was the last day that I wasn't sure of my salvation in Christ Jesus.
The rest isn't really worth remembering.
.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Future Plans.
I figured I should probably also update my future plans, since a lot has happened in that department recently.
I have decided to go back to the States to get my Masters in education. I considered doing it in Germany but it would've involved a lot more jumping through hoops, would've taken a lot longer, and would not have offered me the same caliber of education in the specific field I want to study, namely, bilingual/bicultural education. This is not offered as a major subject of study in Germany, but rather as a sort of extra minor done in addition to whatever other subjects you're studying to be able to teach. It's really kind of sad because there's huge need to study and research this field and to prepare teachers for these kinds of classroom environments. Hopefully one day I'll be a part of helping German schools and universities become aware of the need for such programs. :)
Anyway, so that's the plan. I have currently been accepted to Masters programs at NYU and at the Monterey Institute, an affilitate of Middlebury College. I'm still waiting to hear from DePaul, and to find out what kind of scholarships they offer me. I have an idea of which one my first choice would be but I want to consider all the possibilities first.
Other future plans which are equally exciting but probably less "important" in the life-altering sense: I'm going to Turkey in April and I'm going to be in Amani's wedding in July. I'm super excited about both. The Turkey trip will be just shy of two weeks, and I'll spend about half of it in Istanbul and half of it in Ankara, hopefully with day trips between the two cities as I travel back and forth. I am so fortunate to have friends in both cities - the two Turkish TA's I had at Penn - and I really look forward to spending time with them, discovering more of Turkey and practicing my Turkish, which is not doing so well! :( I'm also really looking forward to Amani's wedding, being a bridesmaid for the first time (for an amazing friend, with some amazing friends!) and seeing Oregon for the first time. Only tricky part is ordering a dress and having it actually fit me when I get home less than a week before the wedding... Good thing my mom is a great seamstress!
In other news, I have started branching out a bit at school and trying to get more involved. I visited a 1st and 2nd grade class two weeks ago before our winter break, and next week I will go back again. (Most schools in Berlin are doing this thing where 1st and 2nd graders are mixed, and the older kids help the younger kids... Honestly I don't get it. Hopefully someone will explain it to me soon.) I also talked to one of the music teachers last week and I am going to start assisting in music class too, starting with 5b (my homeroom class) and then maybe also doing the other 5th grade classes. I'm very excited about it and the music teacher seems excited too.
Things at church are still a work in progress for me. I would appreciate prayers for that. Next weekend is a sort of retreat/lock-in for the preteen Bible class I help with. That should be fun but we need your prayers for that too!
Oh yes, and one other totally random story. The day of Obama's election, I got this random phone call at school. I called the guy back, and it was a TV station that wanted to interview me about the election and Obama's presidency. They needed Americans who could speak German well enough to be interviewed. It was a very interesting evening! First they were going to have me come to the studio, but then they sent me to a party that the station was covering - a party hosted by Democrats in Berlin and Republicans in Berlin or something like that. They ordered a cab for me and I got in free to this party at this pretty nice club-like place. The interview was short and I never actually saw it on TV, nor did the couple of friends who were watching for it. I have no idea if it actually aired. But it was nevertheless an interesting experience!
That's all the news I can think of for now.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
.
I have decided to go back to the States to get my Masters in education. I considered doing it in Germany but it would've involved a lot more jumping through hoops, would've taken a lot longer, and would not have offered me the same caliber of education in the specific field I want to study, namely, bilingual/bicultural education. This is not offered as a major subject of study in Germany, but rather as a sort of extra minor done in addition to whatever other subjects you're studying to be able to teach. It's really kind of sad because there's huge need to study and research this field and to prepare teachers for these kinds of classroom environments. Hopefully one day I'll be a part of helping German schools and universities become aware of the need for such programs. :)
Anyway, so that's the plan. I have currently been accepted to Masters programs at NYU and at the Monterey Institute, an affilitate of Middlebury College. I'm still waiting to hear from DePaul, and to find out what kind of scholarships they offer me. I have an idea of which one my first choice would be but I want to consider all the possibilities first.
Other future plans which are equally exciting but probably less "important" in the life-altering sense: I'm going to Turkey in April and I'm going to be in Amani's wedding in July. I'm super excited about both. The Turkey trip will be just shy of two weeks, and I'll spend about half of it in Istanbul and half of it in Ankara, hopefully with day trips between the two cities as I travel back and forth. I am so fortunate to have friends in both cities - the two Turkish TA's I had at Penn - and I really look forward to spending time with them, discovering more of Turkey and practicing my Turkish, which is not doing so well! :( I'm also really looking forward to Amani's wedding, being a bridesmaid for the first time (for an amazing friend, with some amazing friends!) and seeing Oregon for the first time. Only tricky part is ordering a dress and having it actually fit me when I get home less than a week before the wedding... Good thing my mom is a great seamstress!
In other news, I have started branching out a bit at school and trying to get more involved. I visited a 1st and 2nd grade class two weeks ago before our winter break, and next week I will go back again. (Most schools in Berlin are doing this thing where 1st and 2nd graders are mixed, and the older kids help the younger kids... Honestly I don't get it. Hopefully someone will explain it to me soon.) I also talked to one of the music teachers last week and I am going to start assisting in music class too, starting with 5b (my homeroom class) and then maybe also doing the other 5th grade classes. I'm very excited about it and the music teacher seems excited too.
Things at church are still a work in progress for me. I would appreciate prayers for that. Next weekend is a sort of retreat/lock-in for the preteen Bible class I help with. That should be fun but we need your prayers for that too!
Oh yes, and one other totally random story. The day of Obama's election, I got this random phone call at school. I called the guy back, and it was a TV station that wanted to interview me about the election and Obama's presidency. They needed Americans who could speak German well enough to be interviewed. It was a very interesting evening! First they were going to have me come to the studio, but then they sent me to a party that the station was covering - a party hosted by Democrats in Berlin and Republicans in Berlin or something like that. They ordered a cab for me and I got in free to this party at this pretty nice club-like place. The interview was short and I never actually saw it on TV, nor did the couple of friends who were watching for it. I have no idea if it actually aired. But it was nevertheless an interesting experience!
That's all the news I can think of for now.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The long-awaited Christmas update
So... I never wrote about Christmas. And I haven't been very good about blogging lately. :(
But here's a very very belated report on my family's Christmas visit, because it was super awesome and shouldn't go unblogged!
Mom arrived on Dec. 17th, which was a Wednesday. Because she is Superwoman (did you know that my mom is Superwoman? I don't always tell people that right away...), she came to school with me on Thursday to meet my kiddos and bring them some Christmas sweets and see what the school is like where I teach. It was super fun, the kids loved her! Afterward, we did a little shopping and wandering around Alexanderplatz and the Christmas market in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg before having dinner back in Pankow and crashing. The next day was Friday and I don't teach on Fridays, and since I was a bit under the weather and the jet-lag was catching up with her, we had a day of vedging on the couch watching movies and snuggling (but no sugar plums). After that I don't really remember what we did day for day, but it involved lots of Christmas markets, having Simone over for barbecued chicken and cornbread (hooray for Mom's home cookin' in a foreign country, tastes even better!), eating at fun places including the pancake place in Pankow (wee alliteration!) and Tutti Gusti, the Italian place in Charlottenburg where I ate all the time during my year of study abroad. They remembered me! It was so cool to go back there! We also did all the Christmas shopping for the whole family. That is, we not only picked out stuff to give my dad and brother, but we also picked out stuff to give each other and for my dad and brother to us and each other. This wasn't a big year for presents for us, but that was cool because none of us really wanted anything that badly except to be together and have fun, and we had that one covered! Before the boys arrived we also made sure we got to watch our favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life.
Then the boys came on Tuesday. We had gulasch waiting for them, and afterward they pretty much crashed, especially the bro, who's trick for dealing with jetlag was to stay up the entire night before and stay awake until it was somewhat close to bedtime in Germany. The first couple days were pretty quiet, since they got here the day before Christmas Eve. We roasted a turkey (more precisely - Mom roasted a Turkey, and I "helped"), which was amazing! And we had a great little Christmas tree and a couple of presents which Mom and I had picked out. :) And of course we watched Elf. And we ate lots of Brötchen. Brötchen are just plain bread rolls but because there's a bakery on every corner here, you buy them fresh and they cost like 12 cents a piece. Even though they're quite simple, they're very tasty, primarily for the "I'm eating fresh bread on a regular basis" effect. Mom and Dad never really managed to learn how to pronounce the "b-word" though. This provided entertainment for me and my bro.
After Christmas we ventured out into the city to see the Berliner Dom, Alexanderplatz, the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, the Reichstag, and of course a couple Christmas markets, including the one at Schloss Charlottenburg (palace). We took the boys back to Tutti Gusti, and we also discovered the Nicolai Viertel (St. Nicholas Quarter) around the Nicolai Kirche (church), which is wonderfully charming! My parents also had a "date night" and treated us to the symphony and to dinner at Tony Roma's at Potsdamer Platz! Sounds strange to eat at an American "place for ribs" in Germany, but this was our favorite restaurant as kids and the one in Brentwood closed like 8 years ago or so. We also were invited to Kaffee and Kuchen (coffee and cake, the 4th meal of the day in Germany) at the Heimlichs'. Our last sight-seeing endeavors included Checkpoint Charlie, the TV and Film Mueseum and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
And then they had to leave... much too soon...
(Fortunately I was able to spend New Year's Eve with Simone, her boyfriend and another friend of his, so that I wasn't too lonely! We had a great time too, and made raclette!)
.
But here's a very very belated report on my family's Christmas visit, because it was super awesome and shouldn't go unblogged!
Mom arrived on Dec. 17th, which was a Wednesday. Because she is Superwoman (did you know that my mom is Superwoman? I don't always tell people that right away...), she came to school with me on Thursday to meet my kiddos and bring them some Christmas sweets and see what the school is like where I teach. It was super fun, the kids loved her! Afterward, we did a little shopping and wandering around Alexanderplatz and the Christmas market in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg before having dinner back in Pankow and crashing. The next day was Friday and I don't teach on Fridays, and since I was a bit under the weather and the jet-lag was catching up with her, we had a day of vedging on the couch watching movies and snuggling (but no sugar plums). After that I don't really remember what we did day for day, but it involved lots of Christmas markets, having Simone over for barbecued chicken and cornbread (hooray for Mom's home cookin' in a foreign country, tastes even better!), eating at fun places including the pancake place in Pankow (wee alliteration!) and Tutti Gusti, the Italian place in Charlottenburg where I ate all the time during my year of study abroad. They remembered me! It was so cool to go back there! We also did all the Christmas shopping for the whole family. That is, we not only picked out stuff to give my dad and brother, but we also picked out stuff to give each other and for my dad and brother to us and each other. This wasn't a big year for presents for us, but that was cool because none of us really wanted anything that badly except to be together and have fun, and we had that one covered! Before the boys arrived we also made sure we got to watch our favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life.
Then the boys came on Tuesday. We had gulasch waiting for them, and afterward they pretty much crashed, especially the bro, who's trick for dealing with jetlag was to stay up the entire night before and stay awake until it was somewhat close to bedtime in Germany. The first couple days were pretty quiet, since they got here the day before Christmas Eve. We roasted a turkey (more precisely - Mom roasted a Turkey, and I "helped"), which was amazing! And we had a great little Christmas tree and a couple of presents which Mom and I had picked out. :) And of course we watched Elf. And we ate lots of Brötchen. Brötchen are just plain bread rolls but because there's a bakery on every corner here, you buy them fresh and they cost like 12 cents a piece. Even though they're quite simple, they're very tasty, primarily for the "I'm eating fresh bread on a regular basis" effect. Mom and Dad never really managed to learn how to pronounce the "b-word" though. This provided entertainment for me and my bro.
After Christmas we ventured out into the city to see the Berliner Dom, Alexanderplatz, the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, the Reichstag, and of course a couple Christmas markets, including the one at Schloss Charlottenburg (palace). We took the boys back to Tutti Gusti, and we also discovered the Nicolai Viertel (St. Nicholas Quarter) around the Nicolai Kirche (church), which is wonderfully charming! My parents also had a "date night" and treated us to the symphony and to dinner at Tony Roma's at Potsdamer Platz! Sounds strange to eat at an American "place for ribs" in Germany, but this was our favorite restaurant as kids and the one in Brentwood closed like 8 years ago or so. We also were invited to Kaffee and Kuchen (coffee and cake, the 4th meal of the day in Germany) at the Heimlichs'. Our last sight-seeing endeavors included Checkpoint Charlie, the TV and Film Mueseum and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
And then they had to leave... much too soon...
(Fortunately I was able to spend New Year's Eve with Simone, her boyfriend and another friend of his, so that I wasn't too lonely! We had a great time too, and made raclette!)
.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Pict-o-Stina
1. Search the Flickr website for the following things:
a. Your name
b. Your middle name
c. Your home town
d. Your favorite food
e. Your favorite color
f. Your celebrity crush
g. Your favorite beverage
h. One place you'd rather be
i. Your favorite dessert
j. Your future occupation
k. One thing you're scared of
l. One word that describes you
2. Insert pictures into: http://bighugelabs.com/fli
(The original photos: 1. Mt Christina mist, 2. Orange Julia Butterfly, 3. Cal Turner's Christmas Barn, 4. Caprese Salad, 5. escape, 6. Gene Kelly, 7. Cafe Mocha, 8. Wildwood Boardwalk, 9. Tiramisu - Rao's @ Caesars Palace, VEGAS, 10. My School Desk, 11. Follow the red line, 12. Day 68 :: touch)
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
