Paris!

I'm very late in posting details of our trip to Paris. This is primarily for one reason: I am lazy. But to be fair to myself (and I'm always fair to myself) I have been working a lot. Anyway...

When we first moved to Europe, my policy was to spread our travel around, not to visit places more than once. After all, when there are so many things to see here, and with limited time, we shouldn't spend vacations revisiting places we've already been. But I've come to realize that places change. Vacationing in Spring is different than in Summer. It also depends whom you are with. Visiting a place with family is different than visiting alone with your sweetheart.

So in that vein, we are revisiting some well-trod places for our vacations this year. First stop Paris. We'd visited twice before, once in winter with the whole Strange clan, and once in summer with my brother-in-law, Max.

There are so many wonderful things to see in Paris, and I'm the type of traveler who wants to check off all of "3 triangle" rated items in every Rick Steves book, but it was nice to have already visited so many major sites. Louvre? Check. Eiffel Tower? Check. etc, etc. This trip was slower-paced, and we spent a lot of time just strolling around.

One of the highlights was an amazing dinner that Ryan booked (did I mention he planned the whole trip as a surprise? I am a lucky lady!) at a small restaurant called "Le Carre des Vosges." It can be surprisingly difficult to find a real French dinner in Paris, there are so many tourist trap restaurants. But this place was perfect. We humbly acknowledged our lack of savoir faire, and ordered the menu-of-the-day. The waiter patiently recommended wines and the meal was beautiful. They served foods I normally hate, but they were cooked so well I cleaned every plate. And for dessert they offered strawberries and cream so good they made my knees weak!

A key difference between Germany and France is that Germany is very simple. You can walk into any German restaurant and feel completely at ease. There's no wrong way to order schnitzel. (Even my request for dressing-free salad is generally accepted.) But in France everything is so elegant, I always worry about looking uncultured. And that is why I recommend this restaurant so highly, because the waiters put us at ease. They seemed to understand that we came to try to understand and appreciate their culture, and they wanted to help us. It was a huge relief! Maybe it was just what I needed-- after the first few days my mangled French started to flow, and even when we came back I found myself exchanging "Ja" for "Oui."

Crash Course

I just finished my first course and so far I've learned a lot about teaching, and perhaps specifically about teaching middle-aged Germans. I've compiled a list of likes and dislikes of my students thus far:

LIKES:
talking about their families
speaking German
jokes about dating Brad Pitt
singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"
complaining about English

DISLIKES:
singing "The ABC Song"
spelling
grammar
speaking English
jokes about Daniela Katzenberger

So, if I can just utilize more "likes" and avoid all "dislikes"....

Who's the boss?

I've survived a grand total of three days of teaching so far, and I have to say I'm pretty amazed. Part of me was pretty sure that when my class came into the room, they would take one look at me and say "Why should we listen to you?" It is strange to be the youngest person in the room and be in charge.

I have a "crash course" for the next two weeks. 5 absolute beginners for 6 hours a day. Despite my fears, they are all delightful. I've made a few mistakes so far (mostly of the "duh" variety such as writing "Who What Whe Why?") But instead of demanding my resignation, we mostly laugh about such things.

There is usually at least one headache a day. Today it was the present progressive tense. ("I am going" instead of "I go.") But its really exciting when they understand what I'm saying, and I'm very pleased that the shy students seem to be gaining confidence. There are also students who have gone down a peg confidence-wise, but that was perhaps necessary. Not even the teacher knows everything.

Their vocabulary is still pretty small, so they don't make really funny mistakes,but they do manage to surprise me. Today they had an assignment to talk about clothes that they never wear. I taught them it's too big/small/short/long/old. And a very quiet woman told me "I never wear my black dress because my children tell me it's too sexy and tight."

10 on 10

I still haven't taught my first class yet. They're starting a new session on Monday, so I'm jumping in head first with 32 hours next week! But in the meantime, here's "10 on 10", an idea I borrowed from my friend Bonnie. The idea is on the 10th of the month to take 1 photo an hour for 10 hours. So instead of my usual verbose self, I'll let some pictures do the talking.

Training Daze

Today was the last day of my training for my new job. Starting tomorrow I'm available to teach, and will find out soon what my first class is. All pretty nerve wracking! Last week was spent doing practice lessons, which I felt very comfortable with. But today I was given orientation in our Frankfurt school and sat in on a difficult grammar lesson...and now I'm feeling pretty nervous! The teacher was explaining "reported speech" i.e. "He said he was going to the doctor tomorrow." or "the secretary informed me that he was out of the office." I've never thought about all the verb tenses in a sentence like that, but soon I could be teaching that very lesson!

To my American friends, cross your fingers. To my German friends, hold your thumbs. Maybe between all that we can drum up enough good luck for some smooth sailing through the first few classes.

Opa Patrol

Today was my first day of work, well training really, and it went well. Its a bit dry at the moment, mostly going over the "principles" of the school, which are not to be confused with the "language learning conditions" or the "learning cycle." We did get an example lesson in Russian, which was kind of fun. I can now say the colors in Russian, but can't spell them, so you'll just have to trust me on that one.

BUT what was really odd today was the Opa (grandpa) patrol. I must explain. When my parents lived in Germany 20-something years ago, my mother was continually harassed as she pushed my brother and I in the pram by German Omas (grandmothers). We were not dressed warmly enough, or not wrapped properly, or simply too skinny!

Perhaps because I don't have children, I haven't encountered the Oma patrol. Though if I'm ever in the grocery store, I find asking old ladies about the various foods to be quite helpful. Do you want to know the difference between the red and white sauerkraut? Ask an old lady. (But be prepared for a 20 minute answer.)

What I do find is that old men like to give me unsolicited advice. Usually its about general safety or cost effectiveness. The other week an old gent told me I shouldn't buy the crate of beer, but rather take all the beer bottles out of the crate and carry them individually, as there is a deposit on the crate. Right. Normally I just smile and say "Thank you, I will think about that in the future." But today an Opa really got on my nerves.

I was weaving through the crowded supermarket after work, just stopping in for a bottle of wine, when I felt a jab in my back. An old man was poking me quite hard and saying, "HALLO! You must hold your bag closed! A thief will steal your wallet!" I was pretty annoyed, jerked my bag away from him, and walked off. He called after me "THANK YOU!" in that voice that meant I should be the one saying it.

I simply rolled my eyes and kept walking. But I'm starting to think I should really say something to all this undesired advice. I don't want to be rude, but I would like to let them know that their advice is un-asked for and undesired. So here's what I've come up with:

1. Thank you, but I'm 25 years old, not 15, and I can look after myself just fine.
2. I'm sorry, do we know each other? Then why are you telling me this?
3. Dad? Is that you? You look so different!

No offense to my dad, of course. But he's the only man that can give me such advice without receiving a quite exaggerated eye roll. Leave a comment and let me know what you would say to such advice.

Ah Bureaucracy....

I've been stressing for a couple weeks, trying to get all my paperwork together for my new job. Our "Aufenthaltserlaubnis" (residence permission) expired the 11th of February. We went in to reapply on the 1st, and were told that we should've come MUCH earlier. She issued us a temporary visa until the end of April while Ryan's work permit was reviewed.

Two weeks later I was offered a job, on the condition that I had residence permission, to start at the beginning of March. So the last few weeks I've been calling and calling the Ausländerbehörde (foreigners' office) only to find out that no one knows anything about the progress of our visas. Then today my boss called because she's nervous that none of my paperwork is done yet. I explained the situation and she recommended persistence.

So I called again, and spoke to the woman who's in charge of our case. After giving a myriad of personal information a light went on.
"Kat-a-reen-a Sh-tr-ah-n-guh. Didn't you call yesterday?!"
"Uh, maybe a few days ago."
"Yes, and I told you it will take perhaps 4 weeks."
"Uh, yes, well the thing is..."
"Call back in a few weeks."
"I will call you again next week." Silence.
"Wait a minute. Your husband is R-oo-an Sh-tr-an-guh? Yes. Your papers are ready."

So the squeaky wheel triumphs again. I can pick up my job offer letter tonight, and if all the stars align, I can go in tomorrow and get my Aufenthaltserlaubnis and Arbeitserlaubnis (work permission) all in one go. No, that's probably completely unrealistic. But cross your fingers for me anyway!