Saturday, August 30, 2008

I Have Become a Shut In

Because any time I change my body position I start gagging and have to practice deep breathing nausea control techniques. This is very miserable. That is all.

Now I´m a Librarian

I have been put in charge of our school library - not exactly by my choice, but I don´t really mind.

This involved carrying maybe 200 books up two flights of stairs and then alphabetizing them. Not too bad.

Now I am responsible for ordering books appropriate for 10-18 year olds with varying levels of English proficiency. This is actually not so easy to do given my exposure with adolescent literature was severely limited during my own adolescence. I was much more likely to be reading A. a romance novel or B. some book by Stephen King or Michael Crichton. All of which don´t exactly fit into the adolescent lit category. However, I racked my mind and did come up with a few options. Then I searched the internet and found more.

Jane - I might have to order some Stephanie Meyers.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Really - we are married

I have found that the default in Germany is to assume that Jan and I are not married, rather than that we are. This is especially surprising when it comes from doctors - who you would think would be more tactful.

It has happened twice so far, with two different doctors. (Jan accompanies me to the doctor to facilitate the communication)

Lesson learned - we have to introduce each other as my husband or my wife.

I think the reason for the mistake is that fewer and fewer Germans are getting married - especially at my age. The ripe age of 26 isn't exactly old - but it not shockingly young either as far as marriage goes.

Interesting statistics:
only 1 in 10 women having a baby in her 20s is married
only 1 in 4 women having a baby in her 30s is married

That is pretty drastic.

Of course Germans are having fewer and fewer children and I have read newspaper reports that the country is hitting the point of no return - when population can no longer sustain itself and in fact will continuously decrease. I believe the point of no return is .8 births per person. In fact, Germany has the lowest birthrate in Europe.

I have also put my foot in my mouth a few times assuming women in their thirties with children are married.

I just have to remind myself - the default expectation needs to be - no partner until tactfully proved otherwise.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Back to Work

The temperature has dropped, the constant drizzle is back, and I have resumed my treks to Basel.

On one hand it is nice to have a little more purpose in my weeks - on the other - I miss lying around, reading as much as I want, and visiting beautiful lakes, the pool etc.

It was a good summer. 6 weeks, with a visit every other week. A perfect balance of alone time and visiting time. I also didn´t go to German class during the summer so as to complete de-stress.

I had a major shock when I found out - shortly before school started, that I would be working 5 days per week. After 3 days last year, I thought I would have 4 day weeks. No such luck. This is devastating as far as getting enough sleep goes, but it does have its benefits. My work is evenly distributed and most days I only have 5 classes. (Last year it got to be as many as 9!) So overall it has not been as bad as I thought it might.

German class is German class. Many familiar faces are missing - I am not sure if, like me, some students decided to take extended vacations or if they dropped out altogether. The atmosphere was certainly getting tense before the summer with fights between the teacher and students about her teaching methodology and the students' lack of learning. A lot of anger coming from both sides. Of course, I don't participate in any of this - but it still makes German class more unpleasant and stressful than it has to be. I did find out that I got a 1 on my last German test. Only 1 mistake!!

So...there it is. Back to the grind.