A Cultural Note

Ever so slowly my coworkers are opening up to me, asking me about myself, and telling me about themselves. It is kind of amazing that it took me so long to find out that this colleague lives in Freiburg and that colleague's wife just had a baby.

I am glad that I will be working at my school for another year. After four years of new schools (sometimes more than 1 new school) and four years of having to figure out how to function, I am ready to see what it is like to get used to a place.

After my life has been in flux for so long, this is a chance to have a bit more normalcy in an environment where nothing is really normal.

I imagine it would take years to become habituated to all of the differences of life in Germany and Switzerland.

So far am focussing on adjusting to the following:

Married life - so far so good, although growing up with a full house still makes me jittery and uncomfortable when I am alone for too long. So I guess my major complaint is that Jan and I have somewhat conflicting schedules. If that is the biggest problem, I think we're doing well.

New language - slow going...although I do attend 9 hours of German class it is frusterating to be learning so slowly. My class moves at a snails pace. I keep saying that I will start working on my own during the classes - memorizing verbs etc., but by the time I crash into my chair after 8 hours of work, I have little motivation to do anything but try to stay awake.

I also spend my days teaching in English and speaking English with everybody I come across! This must change. I am thinking about getting a German tandem partner to meet with each week. I think that may be a summer project.

Work - As I said above, new school, new culture, new rules etc etc. I also started my other new job in Feb. Last week I taught over 40 lessons - which is lucrative, but I think that's the maximum.

Angst over my future - My dream is to go to graduate school and study psychology. How will I manage to do this? I'm not sure. I also am not sure how much I really like this teaching thing. I love the idea of teaching, and sometimes I love teaching, but dealing with teenagers wears on me.

Jan's big tests - This has been dominating our life to some degree. We've hit the two week mark. Hopefully he will pass, although even if he doesn't it is ok. He'd have another chance in the fall. It will be a tense few weeks up to the tests.