So, last night at Stammtisch, karen and i were sitting in the pub, hanging out with the kids, talking about random things, and Karen brought up the fact that she's afraid to go to the barber's because she's not sure how to ask for what she wants. (I share a similar fear, we will get to this!) So she asked one of our kids how to ask for a little trim off the ends, and was told how to order it. They then started talking abt me and the mane i have going on at the moment, and i expressed similar fears to karen's. Being that Germans tend to have "interesting" hairstyles, i was worried that i'd end up with a multicolored haircut with different-length chunks all over my head, or a mullet. I got several quizzical brows after that comment, and they told me i had to clarify "mullet." So, i described it to them, and the entire table cracked up. They don't have one word for it, in typical german fashion, so, instead, it is called "vorne-kurz, hinten-lang," or VOKUHILA. <--new german word. literally translated, this means: short front, long back, or: business in the front, party in the back!
so yes, new german word for the day.
enjoy!
-s
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
friday rambling
Yesterday was awesome. This week is the last of this semester, and so my new schedule starts next week (on weds, mon and tues are holidays!) Instead of having a schedule handed to me, Ulla, my supervisor, handed me a list of teachers that has requested me, and when their classes were, and asked me if I had time to make my own schedule. Do I ever?!!? So, I get to make my own schedule, which is sweet… In addition to that, yesterday, Philipp took the last part of his bar exam, and in German tradition, a bunch of his friends met him outside the building at 1 in the afternoon with beer, and we stood outside in the freezing cold for an hour or so, drinking and celebrating with him. I got to meet a bunch more of Julian and Philipp’s group of friends, and they’re all really fun and easygoing. Had some great conversations with pretty much all of them about everything imaginable, and go to practice much more of my real (not academic) German. We continued celebrating throughout the afternoon, switching venues several times, watching a rugby match and a handball match, and finally going to see Rac’s play for his theater class, which was… interesting. We ended the night at the Irish pub, which is always a great way to end things. Karen had joined us about midway through the festivities, and also seemed to be having a great time. After the play, and before Irish pub, I made a stop at döner king, and I had quite possibly the best döner of my life. I don’t think I shut up about it for at least 30 mins. Sorry Karen.
This weekend, we’re planning on doing a little touristing. Since we have Monday and Tuesday off as well, (YAY 5 DAY WEEKEND!) we’re gonna head up to northern Niedersachsen, and visit some of the cities we haven’t seen yet. I’m also planning on hitting up Hamburg again, because I love it. One of Karen and my friends from BC is coming up for the weekend, (she’s teaching at a boarding school in southern Germany) and she’s gonna come with and see all that lovely Niedersachsen has to offer!
I’m still undecided about what I want to do next year. I’ve gotten advice from all sides about whether to extend, stay here for school, go back to the states to find a job, or go back to the states for school. I’m going to re-apply for a second year here, just to keep my options open. Thankfully my school has expressed an interest in keeping me a second year! I’ve also taken Karen’s advice to start doing more research every day into my options, to better inform myself, and to stave off anxiety attacks at 3am about failing in life. So far, its worked wonders, and I’ve been sleeping soundly.
I’ve had a stupid sinus infection for the past week or so, and its finally starting to really get a deep hold on my brain, so today’s chores start with going to the pharmacy for some hardcore decongestants, and some sinus meds. Then I really really need to buy food, because I’m down to potatoes, onions, rice, and milk (and lots of each, thanks papa!) I also need to go buy a new inner tube for my bike, UGH! Apparently the one I got last week is defective or stupid, because it refuses to hold air when it dips below freezing. Which it does here. Regularly. Such a pain! At least I can get my back wheel off, unlike Karen! Makes changing out tires/inner tubes a little easier…
K, sorry, this has dragged on long enough, and I’m rambling. Have a great Friday, everyone!
-seany
This weekend, we’re planning on doing a little touristing. Since we have Monday and Tuesday off as well, (YAY 5 DAY WEEKEND!) we’re gonna head up to northern Niedersachsen, and visit some of the cities we haven’t seen yet. I’m also planning on hitting up Hamburg again, because I love it. One of Karen and my friends from BC is coming up for the weekend, (she’s teaching at a boarding school in southern Germany) and she’s gonna come with and see all that lovely Niedersachsen has to offer!
I’m still undecided about what I want to do next year. I’ve gotten advice from all sides about whether to extend, stay here for school, go back to the states to find a job, or go back to the states for school. I’m going to re-apply for a second year here, just to keep my options open. Thankfully my school has expressed an interest in keeping me a second year! I’ve also taken Karen’s advice to start doing more research every day into my options, to better inform myself, and to stave off anxiety attacks at 3am about failing in life. So far, its worked wonders, and I’ve been sleeping soundly.
I’ve had a stupid sinus infection for the past week or so, and its finally starting to really get a deep hold on my brain, so today’s chores start with going to the pharmacy for some hardcore decongestants, and some sinus meds. Then I really really need to buy food, because I’m down to potatoes, onions, rice, and milk (and lots of each, thanks papa!) I also need to go buy a new inner tube for my bike, UGH! Apparently the one I got last week is defective or stupid, because it refuses to hold air when it dips below freezing. Which it does here. Regularly. Such a pain! At least I can get my back wheel off, unlike Karen! Makes changing out tires/inner tubes a little easier…
K, sorry, this has dragged on long enough, and I’m rambling. Have a great Friday, everyone!
-seany
Monday, January 26, 2009
happy monday!
So, I've realized that I'm almost completely unqualified for my job here. Aside from the fact that I've spoken english for the majority of my life, I still cannot tell a german why the hell you need to break a paragraph-long sentence into separate ones, other than the fact that it "sounds terrible." I almost feel bad for these kids, having to try to understand why it is they need to do the things I tell them, with little to no explanation. whoops! I've realized this after having a slight life-crisis at the convenient time of 3 am today, when I was supposed to be sleeping. It started off as a realization that my German still isn't anywhere near as good as I want it to be, followed by me wondering if I'd rather spend a second year here, improving my german, or actually get started on my real life, and possibly start thinking about what I want to do with it. I'm basically right in the time where I need to decide what I want to do with my life, and how I need to go about doing it. granted, my German is pretty damn good, especially considering I'm not a native speaker, but... what exactly is it going to do for me later in life? ugh!! so, I'm juggling a few options in my mind: 1) stay here a second year, perfect my german, and then move back to the states to do...... (?) 2) Apply to culinary schools here in europe, (germany or france) complete that here, then come back to the states, get a job in a restaurant/bakery, start to pay off my $60K in student loans (thanks BC!) 3) come back to the states, go to culinary school, prolly CIA either in NY or CA, while working to pay off said student loans, before finally getting a job. 4) come back to the states, attempt to find a "real" job which will help pay off student loans, while going to culinary school at night/in spare time. so yeah, those are kinda my options at the moment. any suggestions from anyone? comments always appreciated...
in other news, Karen and I finally got her TV hooked up to her DVD player, and watched a movie this afternoon... that was my accomplishment for the day. school today was relatively normal; I got to dissect Obama's inaugural address with my 13th graders, which was a lot of fun, seeing how much of the subtext they understood (not much of it) other than that, not really much new going on.. had a nice relaxing weekend, read alot, and hung out. Tomorrow we're gonna show "supersize me" to the kids, instead of having Stammtisch, and we'll talk about how the fast food culture of america has really spread out, and actually been blown WAY out of proportion (most of my kids would assume that its the norm for americans to eat that much mcdonalds :x)
ok, now I'm rambling... have a great week, everyone!
-seany
in other news, Karen and I finally got her TV hooked up to her DVD player, and watched a movie this afternoon... that was my accomplishment for the day. school today was relatively normal; I got to dissect Obama's inaugural address with my 13th graders, which was a lot of fun, seeing how much of the subtext they understood (not much of it) other than that, not really much new going on.. had a nice relaxing weekend, read alot, and hung out. Tomorrow we're gonna show "supersize me" to the kids, instead of having Stammtisch, and we'll talk about how the fast food culture of america has really spread out, and actually been blown WAY out of proportion (most of my kids would assume that its the norm for americans to eat that much mcdonalds :x)
ok, now I'm rambling... have a great week, everyone!
-seany
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Happy Thursday!
So basically, it has been a combination of awesome and awful week. First off, I’ve had a lovely migraine that’s been coming and going in varying intensities all week. Pretty much all of my classes this week were a lot of fun, I got to play around with my kids, and they got to see a little bit more of my personality. (migraines tend to make me slightly more sarcastic…) I got to talk about the election, and the inauguration, and got to lead some pretty cool discussions. The afternoons were mostly spent cowering in bed or the bathroom with a cold wet towel wrapped around my head. I missed stammtisch on Tuesday because I spent the majority of the afternoon yacking, and didn’t think it’d be a good idea to leave my little cave. I watched Obama swear in online, and watched his speech, and then passed promptly back out. I also had fun bike misadventures this week, and so I ended up spending more time and money (neither of which are plentiful) than I wanted to, attempting to get it back to operating status… Other than that, the week has been kinda un-eventful. (I think… but then again, in my drugged out stupor, another war could’ve broken out, and I still wouldn’t have noticed…) Julian is taking one of his final bar exams today, and Philipp is taking the actual bar exam this week and next, so we’re going to go out tonight to celebrate a little bit. No plans for this weekend yet, but, who knows how that will develop! Have a great rest of the week, kids!
OH!! yesterday, while still under insomnia from Imitrex, i discovered a fantiastic website that allows you to make obama-style icons of yourself, so i made a few funny ones:
I felt a little elvis-y... my hair was doing crazy stuff anyways, so the sneer comes automatically :D
...just having fun with my webcam, as per usual...
So basically, it has been a combination of awesome and awful week. First off, I’ve had a lovely migraine that’s been coming and going in varying intensities all week. Pretty much all of my classes this week were a lot of fun, I got to play around with my kids, and they got to see a little bit more of my personality. (migraines tend to make me slightly more sarcastic…) I got to talk about the election, and the inauguration, and got to lead some pretty cool discussions. The afternoons were mostly spent cowering in bed or the bathroom with a cold wet towel wrapped around my head. I missed stammtisch on Tuesday because I spent the majority of the afternoon yacking, and didn’t think it’d be a good idea to leave my little cave. I watched Obama swear in online, and watched his speech, and then passed promptly back out. I also had fun bike misadventures this week, and so I ended up spending more time and money (neither of which are plentiful) than I wanted to, attempting to get it back to operating status… Other than that, the week has been kinda un-eventful. (I think… but then again, in my drugged out stupor, another war could’ve broken out, and I still wouldn’t have noticed…) Julian is taking one of his final bar exams today, and Philipp is taking the actual bar exam this week and next, so we’re going to go out tonight to celebrate a little bit. No plans for this weekend yet, but, who knows how that will develop! Have a great rest of the week, kids!
OH!! yesterday, while still under insomnia from Imitrex, i discovered a fantiastic website that allows you to make obama-style icons of yourself, so i made a few funny ones:
I felt a little elvis-y... my hair was doing crazy stuff anyways, so the sneer comes automatically :D
...just having fun with my webcam, as per usual...
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