"Simon Says FART!!!!!"

How amazing is this: I can officially say, that I, Audrey Bashore, have TEACHING EXPERIENCE in GERMANY!!

Forgive the caps. This entry is going to be positively LITTERED with them. It's just my complete and utter happiness/excitement/pumped-up-ness exploding out of my fingers and into my blog. [Ew. That sounds kind of gross.]

So. The story starts like this.

Last week I met with a woman who runs a music school for kids. I'm going to end up working with her and her students starting in February (amazing) and she also put me in touch with a bunch of other educators in the area (amazing), as well as an american student here who sings in one of the opera companies in hamburg (also amazing). One of the women she put me in touch with runs a school called Sunny Side Up English for kids. It's a little outside of town, but the woman who runs it (Addie) returned my calls and we managed to set something up for this past Wednesday.

So I got started at a relatively early hour - I mean, when you're kind of a homeless american english teacher looking for work and apartments, it's easy to schedule your appointments for later in the day rather than earlier, so getting up at 8:30 to be in Wandsbek-Gartenstadt by 10:30 did kind of feel like the crack of dawn. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know that the aforementioned Wandsbek-Gartenstadt requires like an HOUR long commute, so I was running a touch behind and getting a liiiiittle nervous about being so late (germans are amazing people, but they are sticklers for punctuality). So after my subway and bus adventure (yes, it takes two modes of transportation to get to W-G), I was a good 15 minutes late. I found the building, walked up to the second floor, knocked and found the door unlocked, walked inside, and was greeted by the MOST adorable pug. I used to think that pugs looked kiiiind of like alien dogs (helped, no doubt, by the fact that in the classic film Men In Black, the pug in the movie, is, in fact, an alien) but this one was adorable. She suffers from asthma. Which explained the wheezy/excited noises she was making upon my arrival. And I just thought she REALLY liked me. So much, in fact, that she was rendered short of breath. But no. It's just her medical condition.

Right. So Addie and I sat down and had a nice long chat - talked about her school, where she started when she first came to Hamburg, her family, etc. She was great. We got along right off the bat. After the end of an hour or so, she paused in the middle of our conversation, leaned in and, after lowering her voice, said, "So I know this is super unprofessional, but I can't teach my class tomorrow...would you be able to fill in for me?" After picking my jaw up from the floor and making sure I'd be able to teach the class ("all you really need to do is play games and speak english and make sure the children don't kill each other"), I commited. I was ready to start lesson planning for my VERY FIRST CLASS IN GERMANY. AMAZING!

The class was scheduled for 45 minutes. I had three students (in these private language schools the classes are usually pretty small) between the ages of 8 and 10, who had all been raised bilingually. I put together a loose lesson plan, and then got to the school a half an hour early to get materials together and put stuff up on the board. The kids arrived right on time (those germans!) and we got right down to business. Because they didn't know me, and I didn't know them, I thought we'd start with an ice breaker of sorts. (Tried and true TEFL method right there.) I had written a couple of things up on the board (brothers/sisters, sports, instruments, birthday, what you ate for lunch, etc), and went through each category and introduced myself, and then asked the kids to pick three categories to talk about. It worked like a CHARM. They were super bubbly and energetic and in to it.

After introductions, we transitioned nicely into an absolutely ROUSING game of Simon Says. It did get sliiiightly out of hand (so much for thinking that because it was my first time teaching the group they'd hang on my every word and follow all my directions. ha.) but it did warrant some pretty good prompts: "SIMON SAYS FART!!! FAAAAART!!! Ahahahahaha!!" "Simon Says KILL STEFFEN!!! KILLLLL HIMMMMM!!!" We went through all the body parts during Simon Says, and then drew a big body up on the board and went through and labelled all the different parts. Although the kids have been raised bilingually, their reading and writing are way behind. So we got some pretty interesting results (stomag, confusing fingers and toes, the shoulder and the elbow, etc). But after going through and labelling the entire body, we had a racing spelling quiz. They got SUPER into it. And before I knew it, time was up. And I HAD A BLAST. The kids were great, they had tons of energy, were super open, listened (for the most part) and enjoyed themselves. I considered it a RESOUNDING success. As soon as I get my work visa figured out and a more definite schedule (an apartment would be nice too) I'll be working for them on a more frequent basis. It was great. SO EXCITING.

After class was over I actually ended up walking back to the bus stop with one of my students and her family. We were talking about school and family other random 8-year-old topics when she asked me where I lived in Hamburg. I explained that I'm from the States and don't have a home here, but that I'm looking for an apartment, and staying in a hotel in the meantime. She was shocked. "You don't have a home here???" I explained again that I didn't, and she proposed the following solution: "Come stay with us! Live with us until you find something!" I nearly died it was so cute. And if that's not proof of my mad teaching skillz, I don't know what is :)

I'm hopefully going to start teaching at another institute in Altona - working mostly with higher level conversation classes. Other than that, I'm about to start my training as a liscensed 'Kindermusik' instructor, and as soon as I'm done with that I'll start working at another school for kids. Man. I kind of can't believe that this is all working out. That I just kind of decided that I wanted to get trained (and did), wanted to come back to Germany (and did), wanted to move to Hamburg (and did), wanted to get jobs (and did), and wanted to get an apartment (working on it). I'll be walking down the street and burst out into spontaneous laughter when it hits me how amazing this all is. I guess that's why they call it Deutschland-Land of Sausages and Dreams, right??

LOVE,
aud


pictured: the Binnenalster (downtown area).
[photo credit: google]

Dear Hamburg: I think I'm in love with you

Buckle up, sports fans, and get ready for the latest!

My birthday in Frankfurt was AWESOME. The day before my birthday, my good friend Catherine got back to Frankfurt after spending Christmas with her family in the Statues, so we met up for coffee before cooking dinner at her apartment. Then it was off to Oeder Weg (near where I used to live) for drinks with Catherine, my friend Emelie, her boyfriend Timo, and Timo's friend Dennis. My friend Nico was also celebrating his birthday, so we met up with him at the Frankfurt famous Hamburger am Turm, and then it was off to Pony Hof in alt Sachsenhausen for tunes and rug-cutting. It was a grand old time! For Sunday, my actual birthday [tangent: in German, when you start celebrating early, they call it 'reinfeiern', a word you won't find in any dictionary - the huge nerd in me is so STOKED to learn stuff like that], I met up for lunch with my friends Melanie, Daniela and Bobo, and had a delish lunch (and got presents!!) before taking the train up to HAMBURG.

And so now I'm in Hamburg. And It. Is. Incredible.

The city itself is beautiful - huge, clean, with amazing old (preserved, original) architecture (as opposed to Frankfurt) and really diverse, vibrant neighborhoods. The one I'm staying in, Schanzen Viertel, is teeming with hippies and hipsters and covered in graffiti and full of awesome little restaurants and bars and boutiques. It's apparently pretty expensive to live around here, but I can SO see myself here. Here's to finding a really well paid teaching job. Or to finding a FEW well paid teaching jobs.

SPEAKING of finding jobs, I had an interview today with a woman who runs a music school for kids. It went really well, and if I find a couple other options in Hamburg, I'll definitely end up working a couple of hours a week with her and her students. SO EXCITING! Other than that, I've just been hitting the pavement and trying to peddle my Mad English Teaching Skillz around the streets of Hamburg. I've stopped in to a few different Language Institutes, with varying results: call back tomorrow, sorry we're not hiring, etc., but everyone seemed very happy to meet me face to face and wished me luck with the job hunt. Tomorrow I'm calling a couple of offices and then I'm off to two neighborhoods west and south of downtown

And then FRIDAY it's off to Munich! I have an interview scheduled with an Language Institute in the late afternoon, and then I'm taking the train back to Frankfurt for the weekend.

Miss you so much, Family! More to come soon!

aud

OMG I'm in Germany what?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So I made it! My flight over (on beLOVEd Air India) was a lot more like a movie montage of international travel than the actual trans-Atlantic trip that it was. I checked all three bags (yes, THREE - I was trying not to think about how exactly I would transport them from the luggage carousel to my Hostel in Frankfurt...along with my guitar and backpack...but I digress) in Chicago. And then, for some reason or another, I was allowed to carry BOTH my guitar AND backpack on. It was almost too easy. I wish I could chalk it up to my awesome smooth-talking abilities. But that would just be a lie.

The flight itself was fine. I started reading Julie & Julia (and was SO excited to start it - I mean - the movie was so good! How could the book disappoint?) and put it down after an awful thirty pages and decided to catch up on my less than stellar offering of in-flight movies. The food was, as usual, delish. 7 hours later we started to make our descent into Frankfurt. At this precise moment, the adorable little Indian boy who'd been peacefully napping across the aisle from me decided it was time to get sick. Inside a plastic bag. Twice. Ah well. Thank god for my stomach of steel.

I cleared customs without so much as a 'business or pleasure' question and found my way to baggage claim. Ah yes. Those three bags. Those THREE. HUGE. BAGS. I managed to disengage one of the luggage rack carrier things with little difficulty, heaved my three huge backs on top, topped it all off with my guitar and made my way verrrry slowwwwly to the first exit I saw. Which, I swear to god, came complete with a line of waiting taxis. I splurged and went with the mini-van model (but only when the first cabbie took a look at me and all my luggage and gave me a look that clearly said...yeeeeeah...that's not going to fit in HERE, you crrrrazy American). But my driver was awesome. We have the same birthday. We shook hands. We're besties.

And then - poof - I was at my hostel! It was quite possibly the easiest time I've ever had traveling over hrr. And oh my LORD the hostel is amazing. I HAVE MY OWN SHOWER. I was NOT expecting my VERY OWN SHOWER. AND it comes complete with Real Shower Doors. Which are a rarity in Germany. As in - somehow, Germans have perfected the art of showering without shower curtains. I've tried it a couple of times (that makes it sound like I tried it for fun or something, but I was forced to, at various other hotels and hostels) and I'm AWFUL at it. The floor gets all wet and slippery and treacherous. Thank god for my shower doors.

The first day was a blur of check in, lugging my suitcases around, buying a cell phone etc. I had a quick nap and went out to meet [my german friend] Daniela and [my brazilian friend] Rodrigo for drinks downtown. It was completely surreal. It was as if I had never left. And then I walked back to the hostel in the rain - drinking in my beautiful Frankfurt - the huge church downtown [Dom], the row of re-built traditional houses in the town square [Roemer], the bridge [Eiserner Stegf] over the river [Main]. It felt great to be back :)

Day two I talked to Mariella [my old host mom of the family I Au-Paired for] and we made plans for dinner. It was a really warm and cozy feeling to ring the doorbell at the old house and see Mariella in the kitchen and Livia [the 4-year old] running around on the couch. It's like having a second family here. Bernd [the dad] and Lara [the outspoken 11-year old] came home from shopping a little later, and after exchanging a couple of awkward greetings [Lara: "Um. So...why did you get your hair cut?" and Bernd "You lost weight."] we were right back to where we'd been a couple of months before - joking and eating, drinking wine, telling stories, the girls crawling on my lap and tugging my hands every which way, showing me what they had gotten for Christmas, arts and crafts projects I had missed, etc. It was great. They [Lara and Livia] are pretty much convinced that I should be looking for a job here in Frankfurt and stay. Forever. Awesome.

New Year's Eve I went to a party with my friend Daniela. A german party. LOTS of germans. Hoo boy. They're not the most outgoing of people, but the party mood and a little champagne helped them relax a bit. The whole gang headed down the street a little before midnight to Friedberger Platz to countdown to 2010 and watch the fireworks. [New Year's Eve in Germany is Kind Of Awesome. They are LOTS of fireworks. Last year, in front of the old opera house, a burned-out firework fell on my head. Not to worry. Nothing like that this year.] After counting down and hanging out outside for a while, Daniela and I moved on to a party at an apartment of a friend of ours. And I get to see ALL these old friends I hadn't seen in forever - Nico, Thomas, Martin, Bobo and Robert. The whole gang was there. Crazy shenanigans ensued. It was a great New Year's.

Since then, a major highlight of being back in Frankfurt was a late night walk-about past the opera. I was on the prowl for a cafe that was open (things in Germany close all the time. Sundays, holidays, it's impossible. Meijer and the 24 hour Beaner's left me SO spoiled) and found myself close to the Oper Frankfurt and decided to check out the schedule. Little did I know, minutes before, a production of Die Zauberfloete [The Magic Flute] had started. They have a huge speaker outside of the main entrance of the opera that broadcasts whatever is going on in the auditorium, so I stayed for an aria or two. For all the closed grocery stores and expensive internet cafes, it's amazing to be able to walk for 15 minutes from your youth hostel and hear a little snippet of a live opera. Reason number 583 I love Germany.

I went for an awesome run along the Main river today. The second day I was here it rained all day and I was forced to work out in my hostel room. Um. Yeah. I jumped rope. Without a jump rope. For twenty minutes. And then did twenty minutes of jumping jacks. I'm sure it's my just-arrived-from-the-states paranoia, but I was convinced the hostel police were going to knock on my door and frown and say something like "Let's just try and keep it down in here, shall we?" So running outside was nice. Cold, but nice.

I'm determined, over the course of the next two days, to finish my cover letters and be ready to send everything out to all of the various language schools this coming Monday. And then I'll get a job. Can't wait.

I'm going to try and end each entry with a little "What I Love About Germany" section. For today's entry it's going to be about restrooms. I totally forgot that the restrooms in restaurants and bars in Germany are IMPOSSIBLE to find. For example, I'm sitting in a cafe downtown right now, and if I wanted to use the restroom, I would have to walk to the back of the cafe, go down a flight of stairs (!) and through a hallway to find the ladies' room. And that's nothing. There's a restaurant close to where I used to live in an old watch tower. And THEIR restrooms are literally up four flights of a winding staircase, down a hallway, through multiple doors, and behind a curtain. At movie theaters, forget about ever finding your theater again. Multiple split levels, going up (and then down?) stairs, turning right, turning left. They certainly don't make it easy. Ah well. So ist es, einfach. [That's just the way it is.]

Hope you're all doing well, family! Life in Germany isn't the same without The Jukes! Give my love to Michigan!

Aud