Since...

Since that last quite pitiful blog entry, things have been looking up. I've met s many more people, been more places, and somewhat settled into my apartment. I still don't love it- it is "Keebler Elf" sized, and in a semi-suburb, but it will do for a bit of time.

Since I last blogged I've hung out on a beach (okay, the banks of the Spree), been to the Altes Nationalgallerie, watched people tango on a boat, seen a conspiracy theory movie about 9/11, organized the furniture in my classroom, purchased a bike, been to San Souci, shopped at KaDeWe and IKEA, made two batches of snickerdoodles (without cream of tarter,) and attended a birthday party picnic. It has all been wonderful. I feel like I'm finally settling into my new home.

Since school inservices start on Monday and grocery stores aren't open on Sunday, I better go get some food for next week.

Pictures of recent fun

At KaDeWe, scaring the Polar Bear

A display in Woolworths. What an eclectic mix of items?

At Dunkin' Donuts, my home away from Internet home.

Graham and Bethany at the San Souci Palace.

T-Punkt

So, the postman didn't deliver my code to set up the Internet at my apartment, but I found some free WiFi near my home. Below is the blog I've been keeping on Word, but I haven't kept upvery well. I'll write a really good update for tomorrow, but my power is about to die, so tschuss!

What Would Fergie Do
Yesterday was really rough. I felt absolutely isolated, overwhelmed, lonely, and frankly, miserable. I suppose I didn’t realize how much I relied on being at the hotel with the other new teachers. There, I could sit in the lobby and wait for people to sit and visit, or go to school and meet other people who will work with me, or call home on the telephone in my room. Right now, I’m in a different neighborhood with no phone or Internet access wondering what kind of a mistake I made. This is, perhaps, the most ridiculous decision I have ever made. Who am I to think that I can thrive in a totally new environment with new people, and a new culture? When I first told people that I was moving to Berlin, they usually responded with, “Wow. That’s amazing! You are so brave,” and in my head I laughed it off. Brave? I thought. Anyone would jump at this opportunity. I’m just lucky.

They, however, were right. It does take courage to leave everything that is familiar, but it also takes luck to get there.

Now, writing this on Microsoft Word because my Internet is not hooked up, I glance around my apartment so see a place that could soon be familiar. Piles of my purses (the three which Katie allowed me to bring) lay pell-mell in the doorway. My two personalized coffee cups the kids in previous classes know so well, sit by the sink. Pictures of friends and family are scattered across bureaus, table tops, and bookshelves. A small stuffed lion rests on my bed in a nest of oddly shaped pillows. They are my talisman. These objects show that I am not alone- that I have a history and a future- and that growth comes from change and change is usually painful. So, as Fergie so philosophically stated, “It’s time to be a big girl now, and big girls don’t cry.” (I find it amazing that she also came up with the phrase, “I’m gon’ gon’ gon’ get you drunk. Get you love drunk on my hump.”)

(45 minutes later)
Big girls don’t cry is much easier said than done because here I am again sitting on the hideous furniture (which IKEA will move when they bring my new things) wishing for someone familiar to sit down and give me a hug. Simply having my cat, Fiona, would be fantastic. I would even take Kerstin, the relocation agent. Or Rick Astley. But really, I want someone to share these times with me. The other new teachers all seem to have someone with them- sons, a spouse or partner, a mother in a neighboring country or sharing the hotel room. I need to plan a trip to see Diane. I need a taste of home. (But really, I need to get up, get a grip, take a shower, and go to the grocery store.)

So that’s what I’ll do. Even in Germany I need bread and toilet paper. And Nutella.


NOTE: DANG IT! I wrote three other entries, but can't seem to find them. Sorry. I'll try to catch you up later, but things are going well now. Very well, in fact.

Strike

T-Home (My Internet/Phone provider) was on strike about two weeks ago. This apparently means I will have to wait another week to get Internet service at home. I promise I'm blogging on my own laptop and will post it as soon as the T-Home people get off of their bums and hook me up. I can't find a place in Germany with Free Wifi... I'll keep working at it by carrying my computer everywhere in the hope that free Wifi will jump out at me. Hey, the local coffee shop sells underwear and clock radios. Who knows who might have Wifi? A bike shop, perhaps...

First Impressions

Well, I made an impression today, no doubt. Tonight the new staff members of the school met to have dinner with the school director and the high school principal at the Greek place Bethany and I muddled through. Well, I knew that the souflaki wasn’t exactly for me based on the time I ate it last time so I decided to try something new. When I examined the menu (with the school director across from me), I noticed a meal with only a few words and I knew most of them. Victory, I thought. Mushrooms, rice, salad, french fries and then a few other smaller words less important words. I figured I could eat this without any major issues. I was SO wrong. About 25 minutes later the waiter appeared and began calling out food words and people chose plates. My mushroom dish had yet to arrive when he asked who ordered the liver.

The new PE teacher next to me nudged me and said, “Here. She ordered it.” Crapcrapcrapcrap. Apparently I didn’t hide my facial expression because ( I thought I would die) the school director offered to trade meals repeatedly. I’m a big girl, however, and decided to try it. I couldn’t bring myself to place a single bite in my mouth. Each time I got that piece of meat near my mouth I had to put it down as I thought of how disgusting and rubbery it felt and smelled. After several attempts, I was trying to hide the fact that I wasn’t eating it by cutting it and stuffing pieces underneath other pieces and hiding it under the extra dish. I also attempted to routinely change dinner conversation partners so no one got a complete picture of my abhorrence of the meal. Eventually, I ate enough rice and French fries so that the waiter took my plate along with the majority of the tables dishes. At last. I was free from the shackles of liver consumption and managed fairly gracefully, I thought. Then, the waiter returned to the table and interrupted a conversation I was having with several people to ask why I didn’t eat my meal. Stupid. I forgot that the German waiters have a different set of manners. Didn’t he know that this was a hush-hush, just between the two of us exchange? I said liver simply wasn’t to my taste. I felt like an imbecile. It would have been different, funny even, with a group of friends or family. You know, one of those classic tales you tell everyone about when you return home to discuss your travels. Now, however, I’m simply the girl who wasn’t thorough enough to choose a meal.
On the bright side, at least I learned a new German word. Leber=liver.

(Afterword: Bethany told me at breakfast this morning that Joost, the PE teacher, now believes I'm a vegetarian. I tried to explain my Lenten decision while eating last night. Come on now, I was born in the Bratwurst capital of the US.)

I saw this darling t-shirt in a children's store. It says, "Berlin is big, and I am small." I totally want one in my size!

Bethany regularly compares my German abilities to that of Duston Hoffman's character in Rainman. Randomly, the Deutsch burbles out of me in somewhat coherent sentences and I often read signs aloud. This ability, naturally, failed me while reading the Greek/German menu. Stupid leber.