An Incredibly Small World

So last night I'm out Blues dancing, and after a group of us leave the bar where we dance, we're walking down the streets of Heidelberg, and suddenly someone calls my name from behind me. At first, I'm confused, so I turn to see if I was maybe just hearing things, but then someone calls it again. I see a tall fellow with blonde hair walking toward me, a younger guy with a beard, who doesn't really look familiar. He says, "Is your name Ian? Ian Hathway?" I say yes. "From Janesville?" I say yes, wondering who the hell this random person is who knows where I come from, and he says "I went to Craig high school. Eric; we were in Band together. I played sax."

WHAT.

That's right. I come to Germany, go Blues dancing in Heidelberg (admittedly a very international city), and by chance run into a person who went to high school with me. I saw him AGAIN by chance early this afternoon at the train station, and we talked a little bit more. He graduated in 2009, and after seeing him again, I clearly remember him being in Jazz Band with me my junior year, when I was in Jazz II. He's studying at the university in Heidelberg for a semester.

The world is a far smaller place than we ever realize.

Well That Was Fun

Things are collectively going well, which is the good news. I cooked dinner for five other teachers tonight, and it went pretty well, though somehow some of the rice didn't cook properly, but it was all right in any case. It's interesting trying to host anything in this apartment, though, since there really isn't a table made for more than four people, nor seating for even that many, so it's kind of an adventure. It all worked out though, and we had fun, as usual.

I'm also going Blues dancing again tomorrow, which should be great. I will have to be careful, though, which brings us to the bad news: I have somehow managed to rather heavily bruise my ribs on my left side. There is no outward sign of it, no swelling or discoloration, but the pain is definitely reminiscent of a bruise, as opposed to having pulled a muscle or something similar. I say somehow because I'm not quite sure how I did it. I did collide with another player while playing soccer on Tuesday last week, but my ribs didn't start hurting till the following Sunday, so I'm not sure if that's the sole cause. So I'm taking it easy and not moving too fast for the most part, since anything that jars my upper body hurts. Unfortunately, laughing also hurts, so I spend a fair amount of time in pain when I hang out with some of my friends here. One compassionately suggested that she could punch me whenever she made a joke, so that I wouldn't laugh, but I kindly refused her generous offer.

Things are picking up in school. I'm now singing with the a capella group, the Voice Boys (kind of an amusing name, in my opinion), as well as playing with the big band, playing soccer (though not right now), and tomorrow is the first meeting of Center Stage, the English theater group, which I am now the head of. The teacher who normally leads it is pretty swamped, and although she'll be helping me at all stages of the group, I'm the one actually in charge of it this year, so that should be fun. I'm looking forward to it, though (Dona, thank you for so many good theater exercises! I will put them to good use!), and to picking a show for us to do. I also have to write the first Klausur, or major test, for my English class. They'll take that on Wednesday.

The other note of bad news, which is something I find thoroughly infuriating, is that a student turned in homework that was quite literally a paragraph copied straight out of a National Geographic article. I cannot stand intentional plagiarism like that. When a student forgets to quote something, okay, that's an honest mistake, but cribbing a whole paragraph and turning it in as your own is lazy and insulting to your teacher, besides being illegal. Not to mention how ridiculously obvious it is. Suddenly perfect grammar and an expansive vocabulary? Hmm, whatever could this mean?
I spoke with my class about the issue of plagiarism at some length, and I believe I made enough of an impression as to not have to deal with it too much in the future, but only time will tell. I of course also spoke directly to the student in question after class was finished, and said student seemed genuinely repentant, so here's hoping the lesson sticks.

I think that's all for now. I hope life is treating everyone well.

The Best Day

Yesterday I went to a theater piece at the school, called "Tannöd," and although I only understood perhaps 40% of the speech, I enjoyed it. It was an interesting, dark piece, about a family who had been murdered, and from what I understood, I believe the killer stayed in their house for a couple days, feeding the cattle, etc. Very bizarre. The play itself dealt with the after effects, interviews with other townspeople and things of the sort. It's amazing how much can be communicated through simple body language and expressions.


But the real meat of this post, though it may not be very long, is that I just had the best day. My friend Jana picked me up around 12:30, and announced "We're going to Heidelberg." I had no problem with this, and so we got into the car and drove to Heidelberg, talking about music and listening to a French group called ZAZA, who I really like, now. I joked that I was glad I'd made a friend with good taste.

In Heidelberg, we continuously joked around, and ate Japanese for lunch, and walked up to the castle in the humidity (and were sweating more than we thought we would. She griped, so I picked her up and basket-carried her up the last set of steps as a joke.), and just stood and enjoyed the view. I hadn't grabbed my camera, since I didn't realize we'd be going to Heidelberg, but I'm sure I'll go there again. We turned back when we saw you had to pay to actually go into the castle, and randomly talked with some older ladies from Alabama on the walk down the hill. We then stopped and ate what are without doubt the BEST WAFFLES IN THE WORLD. I kid you not. I had a fresh-made Belgian waffle with homemade raspberry sorbet and hot chocolate sauce on it. It was pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. She had the same, but with maracuja sorbet. We walked back to the car and drove back to Rimbach, where I showed her some Lindy Hop videos so she had some idea of the kind of dancing I do, and then upon her protesting that she cannot dance, I taught her a little basic Blues, at which point I discovered that she follows very well. We then proceeded to dance for an hour and a half to the songs on a Blues CD I gave her last week, before she went home, instead of watching "Shawshank Redemption" like we'd planned. Best change of plans ever made.

Today was the best day. ^_^

What Will You Do When You're Old?

So, in my conversation class today, we talked about what we're going to do, and what we all want to do in the future, and I encouraged the students to ask questions, either of me about the United States or about myself, or else of each other, as well. And one student asked about whether or not I wanted to have kids later in life, since I had mentioned that I'm not a fan of small children. I responded that I don't want to have children, or don't see any reason for me to have children (with my usual caveat that I'm not going to say "I will never have children," lest I end up with eight). And another girl promptly asked me, "But what will you do when you're old?" I knew what she meant, more or less, but for the sake of a little black humor I cocked my eyebrow and looked at her, and said simply, "Die." I laughed and said I was joking, of course, but that I would probably continue doing when I was old whatever it was I was doing the year before, and the year before that, etc. And she said, "But you'll be alone." To which I responded, "Of course I won't. I have brothers, and they'll have kids, and I have very close friends, and very tightly knit friendships. But as for dying alone, well, even if I had kids, I wouldn't force them to live in my basement till I died, so I highly doubt that they'd be in the house in any case." We all laughed and joked, and kept the conversation light, but it did spark a thought that I think is rather odd.

In the U.S., and here as well, it seems that people think that to have family means only to get married, and have kids. I think that's silly, since our families are much larger than just that small nuclear unit, but also because we oftentimes forge friendships that are at least as close as the bonds that blood makes between us. My brother Andy, for example, is neither biologically nor legally my brother, but calls my parents Mom and Dad, and is such a part of the family in so many ways that he can't really be called just a "friend." He's my brother. For my parents, for quite some time I imagine it was almost like having another son, since he was at our house so often, and would help out with things when we needed it, would go on family trips with us, or take care of things for us when we were gone on trips he didn't/couldn't go on. The concept of ever actually being alone, truly alone, is preposterous. The only way for someone to be alone is for them to be physically or socially isolated, by themselves or others, from contact with other human beings.

Coupled with this idea is the implication that a person can't have a fulfilling life without having kids. That, I definitely think ridiculous. Now, this is not to take anything whatsoever away from parents. My own, for example, are incredible people. As a matter of fact, I would argue that raising a child is by far the most difficult endeavor a human being can undertake. But to think that it is somehow the only way for a person to feel fulfilled in their life is something I just cannot credit.

So, if I end up old, lonely, and bitter at all my friends who have children, please remind me that I said this now, and say "I told you so." :-P

Best wishes to you all.

Out of Shape

I just got back a bit ago from playing soccer with some teachers from around the area, and while I did all right (though I missed a TON of shots that should have been sure things. I blame playing in tennis shoes :-p haha), it has definitely been too long since I've run that much.

I had originally written something about how I was clearly less fit than the other players, but in retrospect, I really didn't do that badly. I mean, I didn't play as well as they did, but my ball control has always been sub-par, and I've never been able to look around and be as aware of the field as I should be when I have the ball. That being said, though, I did have a couple of good plays, two assists and two goals, out of the 14 or so that we scored. The main difference that showed was in strategy; I'm not used to playing on that small a field, and I've never really learned how to, except through trial by fire. You learn a lot that way, but it helps to actually be taught, too. It was a lot of fun, though.

This year is turning into practically a St. Olaf experience: if I keep on the way I'm going, I'll have a foot in everything that happens at MLS. I've been invited to sing with the Voice Boys (the school A capella group), I play in the Big Band, I am sort of in the process of organizing two dance extracurriculars, one for students and one for teachers (though I still need to run those ideas past Frau Wilhelm, to make sure that I have the O.K. to do so), and I'm going to be starting another conversation class, possibly two. When Center Stage (the English theater company at the school) gets going, I'll have a proper full schedule. But hey, I'm an Ole; that's how I like it.

Speaking of schedules, there were some major changes made this week due to various reasons, one of them being how late the classes often go, especially for the 11th grade classes. It's not uncommon for them to be in classes till past four in the afternoon, and then if they have an extracurricular afterward, it's past six when they leave. That being said, they also don't always have every class. German schools are organized on a weekly schedule, rather than a daily one, so every day's lessons are different. Anyway, they rescheduled a bunch of things, and changed classes and people around, and the end result is that instead of my previous 24, I now have 31 students in my English class, more than half of whom I have not met before (it was 30, but a student emailed me and begged to be let back into my class; an encouraging experience for me). I still have to arrange the lesson for tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes. My dance class is slightly smaller now, which will make it easier, actually, and by suggestion of another teacher who sat in on it the other day, I'm going to try giving the whole lesson in English, and then get feedback from students on how it went, and how much they understood. It will make teaching easier, since I won't always be grasping for words, and they're an 11th grade class, so they understand English pretty well.

The weekend was great; I DJed a Blues dance in Heidelberg on Friday night to a positive response, so now I can say I'm big in Germany :-P haha Saturday I played games with my hosts, a wonderful couple named Merle and Lorenz, and I taught them how to play Egyptian Rat Screw (ERS for short), and they loved it. Lorenz especially did rather well. For those unaware, it's a simple card game that involves slapping the central pile of cards whenever two like cards are played on top of each other, or with only one other between them (called a sandwich). It's a lot of fun, and it really hones your attention and reflexes. Saturday night I grilled out with some other teachers, and then we went to a Kerwe, what was essentially a city fair. They had fair games, bumper cars, etc, though it was very small. There was also a very large tent/center where one could buy beer and other beverages, and there was a stage there for dancing, with a DJ (who was incredibly irritating). It was all right. I know they're rigged, and mostly a waste of money, but I do enjoy carnival games, on the rare occasions I play them. There was a shooting game there that I gave a try, and won a small prize, but I could really see where my shot was hitting, so I had difficulty figuring out if the gun shot low, or high, etc. But it's a carnival gun, so who knows?
Sunday I had breakfast with my friend Jana, and we went to listen to a band playing in a nearby town. The drummer was a regular at the pub Jana works at (the previously mentioned Sonne), and a pretty cool guy. He and I talked about the Blues for quite some time, when we met in the pub. The band was good, though some of their songs were definitely just playing what the crowd wanted to hear. They definitely have potential for more, but...a band has to make a living, too.

Today....today was an adventure. I had to go to Heppenheim to have my visa and whatnot cleared, and planned on taking the bus. I was foiled, however, in that either the bus ran about seven minutes early, or at least fifteen minutes late. It didn't show up, so I had to try the train, which was kind of a roundabout way of getting there, but I got there about 13 minutes before my appointment. I discovered from a taxi driver that it took about that long to get to the Auslanderburo if you knew where you were going. I did not. So I arrived late for my appointment, much to my chagrin, and was then sent on a merry little chase trying to figure out where I was actually supposed to be. Thankfully everything worked out in the end, but it was a very frustrating morning. The return trip offered a wonderful surprise as well. I got on the bus, and two stops later, was thrilled to find that this bus was going to be the home for the next twenty or so minutes of about thirty children under the age of six. While I appreciated the irony of reading the book American Psycho while in a foreign country surrounded by my least favorite demographic, I was not particularly thrilled at their presence. In truth they were pretty well behaved, all things considered (surprisingly so), but it was still just one more little surprise to add onto the day. Oh well. Such is life.

That's about all (Oh? Is that all? He says after posting a small novel), so I'm going to end this here. I hope all is well.

Oh, on a personal note, I would like to congratulate my friends Llama and Dan, who just got married this past weekend, and my friends Tom and Megan, who are now engaged (and became so in a wonderfully nerdy, creative way). And while we're on the topic of congratulations, my parents recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, which I think is spectacular. All my love!

Getting the Ball Rolling

Nothing terribly exciting, but some things getting moving I figured I ought to say something about. Last Thursday Romy and I met with Helmut Hartmann and Hans-Jurgen Schmidt about the Living History project we are heading together with some of the students at MLS. We talked for hours (I mean that literally) about the history of the program and the new generation of teachers, about how the program was funded, and all sorts of other things.

Romy and I (she does the lion's share, I have to admit) will be working with a class of students to create an exhibition that will be showcased at the end of the year, chronicling the history and development of the program, and how it exists today. Frau Wilhelm's hope is that it will be transportable, and that we can bring it to St. Olaf to be showcased there as well. Herr Hartmann and Herr Schmidt gave us a lot of information, and we'll be working with the students on Thursday to get things started in full.

On a thoroughly unrelated noted, I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday night two other teachers and I, Annett and Susanna, went to see Planet of the Apes. I was unsure as to how I would like it, especially seeing as it was dubbed, but I had wanted to go see it. I'm glad I did; it's rare to see a science fiction film that is moving as well as thrilling. I highly recommend it.

On Saturday I went to see a band called Soulfinger. They were playing at Rimbach's "Cool Tur" festival, a pun on the German word for culture. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I really loved the band. They had some great vocalists, good instrumentals, and put on a great show. I also met a number of Americans at the front of the group of people dancing. They noticed my dancing, we all started dancing together, playing off each other, and at one point I asked one of them where she was from. She said she was from Alabama, and I told her I was from Wisconsin. She was a bit taken aback, and told the others, and we all sat down after the concert. Turns out they all live in Heidelberg, and the husband of one of the ladies was one of the singers in the band. So I got to meet a couple of the band members, and made some new connections in Heidelberg. This is their website, for anyone interested: http://www.sweetsoulmusicrevue.com/
There's a handy little pair of flags in the upper left corner of the text display that you can use to toggle English or German. One of their singers toured with James Brown, as well. It was a pretty great night.

Other than that, things are going well.

Oh, and one more thing....

I GET TO GO DANCING ON FRIDAY!!!!
Friday the teachers are heading to Mannheim, I believe, for part of the day, and then afterward I'm going to take the train to Heidelberg, where I got in touch with the Blues scene. I've been in contact with some of the dancers there, and I can crash at one of the dancer's houses for the night, since the trains to Rimbach don't run very late. I'll probably stay Saturday in Heidelberg to swing bomb a park there with some of the dancers, and then there's a (Blues?) houseparty that night. Knowing Blues dancers, there will probably be at least some dancing that night. It will also be a great opportunity for me to get in touch with the dance scene in Heidelberg, and make some connections there. I can't wait. :-)

So...I'm a Teacher...

Yesterday was my first day of teaching at MLS, and I think all in all it went pretty well. I started the day with my 8th grade dance class, which was six eighth-grade girls, some of whom already had some dance experience (Disco-Fox is a popular dance in Germany. It hasn't really spread, that I know of, but one video of it I saw looked almost like Hustle, but it's not, so I don't yet know the basics of it; I'm sure I will learn.). We will be probably about 9, next class, with the possible inclusion of a boy who is more or less auditing the class when he has time (what he's actually doing is coming to it as an AG, or extracurricular activity). So needless to say I'll be teaching everyone how to lead and follow, because otherwise it would just be silly. It went pretty well, though teaching dance in German was interesting. My technical dance vocabulary in German was pretty limited, so that's my homework for teaching dance classes. That, and make CDs so I have plenty of music to use. But I think it will go well.

My English class went well, too, I believe. A couple kids seemed a little too cool for school at the start, but I was still fairly pleased with how they responded. I want the class to discuss more, though, since right now it's very....teachy. Obviously, I am supposed to be teaching, but what I really want to accomplish with the class is making them more comfortable having a discussion in English; expressing their opinions and arguing their cause, things like that. I may end up playing Devil's Advocate a bit in class, but we'll see how things go. I may not need to. Should be interesting, regardless. I think they're a good class, though, and we'll see how the short writing assignment I gave them comes back. It was very strange, also, standing in front of a class room at the chalkboard. Kind of a surreal experience, in some ways, like I wasn't sure it was real. But it was a good experience.

The other teachers have been very helpful, both in helping me find resources to plan lessons, etc, and also just in helping me with daily functioning at the school. Everyone has been very nice, and tomorrow I'm sitting in on a 12th grade English class, because their opening unit is on the US, so we'll be having a discussion. Should be interesting, and maybe fun. Plus I'll get my name out there a little more, so that maybe my conversation classes (which I have to advertise for) will be better attended. I'm not too concerned, since small groups are good, too. I also hope to do a dance AG, since not everyone can take the classes, and that would be a little more free.

Things will get a bit busier after I add the two or so conversation groups, and also Center Stage, the English theater group, and possibly the dance class. Right now my teaching schedule is actually rather meager, but I know I'll be gradually busier as it goes, most likely. On a wonderful note, I have found Blues and Lindy Hop in Heidelberg. Now I just need to figure out a way to get there and back, since trains stop running to Rimbach rather early at night. So either I need a friend here with a car who wants to learn to swing dance, or else I need to find someone in the scene in Heidelberg I can crash with after dances. I'm emailing the groups' aliases to find out. :-)