First Day of School

Here I am on the first day of school! I am trying to look severe, no nonsense, and authoritative. Ha ha ha.

The Exciting Search for....

History Textbooks!!!!!!!!!!

I have spent far too much time this week attempting to find history textbooks for my history classes. Guess what, no publishing company is going to put enough content from their textbook online for me to ever know if it would meet the needs of my students. Not that it's possible to meet their needs anyway, but hey, I could get close. I have no way of browsing through English language textbooks at the non existent English Language Textbook store... so I am sort of lost.

Luckily during my exciting journey through Basel today I found a guy in an English language bookstore who offered to do some research for me on history textbooks. We'll see how that goes.

In other news, today I completed the process of getting a Swiss bank account. I'll have the paperwork by the end of next week, so then I'll be paid. The truth is, I have no idea how much I am getting paid...but I do need the money. In between converting from swiss francs to euros and figuring out what is taken in taxes, I decided to just wait and see what the first check is.

Speaking of money, I realized the coffee I have been indulging in is incredibly overpriced so I am banned from buying coffee in the train station. This is very difficult for me, because by the time I get to the train station in the afternoon I feel like I am about to collapse and really need a caffeine jolt. This week it has been rainy and chilly - perfect coffee weather. I did have a good excuse to buy the coffee the first time. I owed Patrick from Ireland 50 swiss francs after he so generously saved me from life under a bridge in Basel. So, in order to pay him back I got 100 swiss francs out of an ATM. Shockingly, instead of 5 20s, I ended up with a 100 swiss franc bill. Of course, I needed to break this, hence the coffee. That does not explain the three subsequent coffees this week...but I do have some sort of excuse.

And speaking of living under a bridge - I will entertain you with the solutions my students suggested to me when I explained my no money, no train ticket, no ID etc predicament.

1. There are lots of bridges in Basel, you can always sleep under a bridge.
2. Beg...but of course first make yourself look dirty and poor.
3. Are you asking us to give you money? Because we won't.
4. My father flew to the US without an ID or any money. My mom just wired money to him and it was no problem.

Very helpful kids. (By the way, this was educational because we were speaking English in our English language class.)

I also had an interview this morning at the Sprachlerinstitut. The SI is a language school affiliated with the University of Freiburg. They pay well, they are located in the middle of the city...basically perfect. At the moment they don't need me, but I am assured that as soon as anything opens up they will get in touch with me. The sad news is that I could have taught conversation class to university professors...but the class in on Weds. mornings while I am in Basel. I am quickly realizing that I am far too busy to really work more, but it definitely is good to get my name out there.

Adventures on the Train

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I have a very long train ride to Basel. It can last between 1 hour and 2 minutes and more usually, 1 hour and 45 minutes. The German system of checking tickets is tricky. For days nobody will ask to see your ticket, then in one week somebody will ask every day. So you may think you'll get lucky if you are going just once to some destination and don't want to pay, but you never know. I of course, am somewhat paranoid, so I make sure that I have a ticket.

Only, yesterday, I forgot my wallet in the midst of waking up at 5am and rushing to catch my 6am train. I didn't realize that I didn't have my wallet until the ticket checker showed up. I checked to get out my ticket and to my shock, I had no wallet and no ticket. Buying a ticket on the train isn't an option...and if it was, I had no money anyway. What's more, I didn't have a passport or any form of ID. Luckily for me, the ticket checker did not really speak English, and I do not really speak German, and he said 'This time it's ok.' So, despite my embarrassment having everybody nearby staring at me, that was a relief. However, I still had to make it into Switzerland and back. Of course nobody stopped me demanding to see a passport as I entered Switzerland (although it does happen.) A nice fellow teacher lent 50 swiss francs to me. (which is sort of a lot) and I managed to buy a ticket home as well as a comfort Cosmo for 14 swiss francs.

Which brings me to another topic...it is sooooo confusing to figure out how much money is actually worth when you try to get your head around dollars, euros, and swiss francs. It turns out that the cosmo would have cost 8.70 in euros (a lot) and 11.75 in dollars. Sadly, I am working in a place where things cost a lot, but I get paid in a unit of money worth less than the dollar. I am still not sure exactly how much I'll get in my pay check, so I'll wait and see.

Shopping in Germany

I have not really attempted to shop in Germany - I have more than enough clothes as it is and very little money. But I decided to browse through H&M anyway to see if there was anything really cute, that I had to have. And they had nothing!! Now this is very depressing because all the other stores in Germany intimidate me... Mostly huge department store esque places that are overwhelming. H&M is a known commodity which is comforting. Sadly, at the moment, all their clothes are hideous.

In other news...one more day of teaching and then I have a week off. The kids are all going on 'class trips' either hiking or biking around Switzerland. It's a really neat idea but I'm glad I'm not going. Jan and I will probably take some mini trips to check out the area because he'll be done with lifeguarding at that point too. So far we have the Bad Krozinger baths on the agenda. We'll see what else comes up.

Back to the warzone

So the dreaded first day of school has come and gone and I am still alive. I did have several teaching nightmares leading up to it...but luckily they are over. And I haven't had anybody swear at me or accuse me of stealing their Pringles.

I have come to the realization - this realization has been reached multiple times - that teenage boys are aliens from another planet put on earth to torment me and drive me crazy. I do not relate to teenage boys at all. I mean, I liked them when I was a teenager, but it's very different as a teacher. First they will not shut up. Not when I ask them nicely. Not when I ask them not nicely. And especially not when I am exhausted and don't feel like dealing with it. Next they do bizarre things like try to shoot each other with fake guns and make up weird names for each other. I think it's half me and half them - because they definitely do not act quite like this for all teachers. I do not have the teacher X factor that makes everybody do what I say when I say it. Can this X factor be developed? I am not sure. Two + years of teaching indicates probably not. I think perhaps as I get older, uglier, and less young looking, perhaps it will lead to the development of the X factor - but who wants that to happen. Perhaps I should start wearing my glasses to work to add some semblance of the X.

I hope that any children I have a female. Now girls can be difficult too. They whisper to each other, they can be very very mean, and they are more likely to have meltdown temper tantrum periods of crazyness. However, mostly they are sweet, helpful, and eager to please. With boys, that is the rare, delightful exception.

Otherwise, life in German is good. I have been doing a lot of reading and internet surfing while Jan works in the evenings. That is not all bad, but I am ready for my German courses to start. I will also attempt to swim on the swim team although I think that I may not be able to keep up. I tried to train a little at Jan's pool, but there is no such thing as circle swimming or lanes. No problem for the Germans...they do breast stroke with their heads out of the water in slow motion. But attempting to swim quickly while dodging legs, bodies, and people that definitely were not in your direct path a few seconds ago makes swimming pretty dangerous for me.

I will attempt to update more regularly!!!!!!!!

Day at the Pool

Jan and I have been out and about most of the time, but today I am spending in cramp induced misery, so I will update on the big events of the last week.

1. Jane left last weekend, so I am abandoned with the Germans. No more studying abroad Americans to grill with and sister to hang out with. I do need to develop some more female friendships around here. All in time.

2. I had my get to know you interview with a family of 4 kids who I will babysit/teach English too. They are adorable and sweet and it seems like a pretty easy way to make some cash. All I can say though, is I hope if I ever have 4 kids we have more space to keep them in. A Freiburg size apartment is just not big enough. All 4 kids share 1 room. Crazy. I will start working with them in September for about 6 hours a week.

3. I spent the day at the pool where Jan 'lifeguards' although there is no such thing as real lifeguarding in Germany. For a country that is supposed to be highly structured and regulated, they forgot about swimming pools. Jan keeps telling me that the parents are watching the kids so they don't really need lifeguards at every pool. After watching parents totally ignore their 2 year olds as they wander towards kiddy water play areas, I don't believe it. At the pool I also got yelled at by a woman for not showering before getting in the pool. I thought that nobody was serious about the pre pool shower, but apparently here it is. Jan saved the day and told her that I had showered earlier and had since dried off.

Otherwise just relaxing and getting ready for the busyness that will start in a few weeks. I'll be ready to get back to work by then.

I think I'll make a pizza out of the ready made pizza crust I found... so that I can pretend to be good Haus Frau for a little while.