Monday, November 29, 2010

Not in America

You know you're not in America when your classroom is provided with an Advent wreath and candles.

That being said, I feel like the concept of Advent is much more ingrained in the culture here than back home.  Sundays are commonly called 1. Advent, 2. Advent and so forth.  I bet a lot of Americans would be left scratching their heads.

November Update

It's been way too long since my last post, and a lot has happened since then!  It's hard to believe that it's already the time of year for the committee at St. Olaf to search for next year's guest teacher.  It doesn't seem like I've been here that long yet.

I have been singing with the Rimbacher Singkreis, which many of the other guest teachers have also sung with.  Our last concert was on October 31, where we sang Franz Schubert's Mass in A-flat-major and the orchestra played Robert Schubert's 4th Symphony in D-minor.  Today I also had the opportunity to sing the tenor solos with the Evangelischer Kirchenchor Rimbach.  We sang Georg Telemann's Machet die Tore weit and Antonio Vivaldi's Magnificat.  I certainly appreciate the chance to keep singing and especially to explore such great repertoire.

Last night I attended the annual Christmas concert (Weinachtskonzert) and had the chance to be introduced to the MLS musical ensembles.  18 groups and three hours later, I got to see how the school achieved its certificate as a school with an emphasis on music (Schwerpunkt Musik).  I was especially impressed with the JEM, the "MLS Big Band" which is the school's jazz band.

I also haven't written yet about my trip with the 11th grade class to Berlin.  I left at 0:15 on Monday, November 1st, which was just a few hours after the Singkreis concert.  We traveled through Monday morning and arrived at our hostel.  Throughout the week we visited many museums, landmarks and even saw some theater and other kinds of shows (I saw Blue Man Group).  It is a trip for the history and political science departments, and I personally learned quite a bit in both categories; I can only hope the students did as well.  Highlights for me were the Reichstag (where the German parliament meets), the DDR Museum (about the former East Germany, which I attended on my own) and the German Historical Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum).  We left Friday evening and returned very early Saturday morning (2:00).

Me in front of a section of the Berlin wall at the East Side Gallery:


Here is a link to my Facebook photo album.