You Just Don’t Pass That Up

15. Januar 2011

Seriously. You just don’t pass up a chance to go skiing in the Italian Alps for a week. You just don’t. And so here I am, a 10-hour bus ride later in a cozy ski-house in Lappach, relaxing in bed after my first day on the slopes.

Every year the 11th grade students at the Gymnasium where I work have the chance to attend “Ski School” as part of the Abitur P.E. class, and I’ve elected to join them. If you’re thinking, “Wait, I didn’t know N* skied,” no worries, you haven’t missed anything. For someone whose family lives in Colorado and enjoys outdoor sports, it’s remarkable that I’ve only downhill skied once before this. I went five years ago with my high school orchestra senior year and was enamored with the speed of it. Ever since I’ve been lobbying for another chance, and here it just fell into my lap. Not to mention the fact that I don’t think I could pass up a trip to the Alps, no matter what the activity.

Skiing today was as good as I remembered, and I am studying along with the middle group, so I’d say I’m doing pretty well for my second time ever on skis. We’ll see if they just can’t make a “Profi” (what the German students jokingly call their best skiers) out of me by the end of the week!

Deine,
N*

Ein Ausflug nach Werni

16. December 2010

The car strained up the incline, wheels alternately whirring and grinding as they slipped, gained purchase and slipped again. Being native to an area often blessed with copious amounts of snow in the winter, less-than-ideal conditions are nothing out of the ordinary, but this snow-covered sloped was nothing short of ghastly. The snow shone eerily in front of us, lit only by the outdoor lamps shining dimly through the mist from the adjacent buildings.

“I’m going to try to find the reception,” H finally decided, and she climbed out of the car and trekked crunchily up the hill in front of us. J and I sat in silence, chilled by the sharp blast of freezing wind and the prospect of attempting the incline again.

“This can’t be the entrance,” J mused and began backing down the road. The car fishtailed wobbily and he cursed worriedly under his breath. We cleared the tree and turned back onto the main road. And this was the start of my weekend in Wernigerode. Thankfully, this first grueling episode didn’t translate into a grim tone for the rest of the weekend.

In fact, it was quite the contrary. I left H and J with their family and met my friend, Erin, who also works as a teaching assistant. We took refuge from the wind and she cooked a fragrant tortellini soup in her cozy apartment. Between soup and lots of tea that we cooked whenever we came in from the cold, we had no problem staying thawed.

The next day the shopping activities revolved around cookies – the sugar kind with icing. Unfortunately, there was a minimal selection of sprinkles, and there were no red hots to be found. Erin’s apartment has a kitchen, but no oven, so we had to use the kitchen in the WG (Wohngemeinschaft – shared apartment) next to her apartment. Mixing the ingredients posed the challenge of converting everything in the recipe to metric, and then I proceeded to mix away as one of the WG guys watched curiously.

While the dough chilled, Erin and I braved the cold once again to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt. A giant Pyramid spun in the main square, and we perused the wares. I completed my Christmas shopping and treated myself to melt-in-your moth Creppelchen, which are called “Schmalzkuchen” in Werni. Then we saw something odd.

“Puf-fer-fies,” we stuttered, “What’s that?”

“I think we have to try it,” Erin decided.

I agreed. Pufferfies turned out to be like little pancakes with a hollow center. They are made on a griddle with rows of round indents by pouring batter into each indent and then flipping it when it’s halfway done to create the aforementioned hollow inside. We tried some with Eierlikor (literally translated: egg liquor…but I’m still not 100% sure exactly what it is), which was odd, although the Pufferfies were very tasty.

On our way home, we also purchased a Schneeballchen (like pie crust remnants formed into a ball, baked and then coated in almost anything to can imagine) because it was just one of those “have to try it” kind of days. Hmmm…possibly we enable each other…

Cookie time was quite a success, although we have a small disaster trying to boil sugar in water to make a corn syrup substitute. As in the common German Christmas song, “In der Weihnachtsbäckerei” (In the Christmas bakery): Gebrannt! (burned). Then WG guy had a lot of fun stirring up a new batch and using it to “thicken” our green frosting. Really, I think he just wanted to experiment with his concoction. It was funny, though. I wish he and I would’ve had Erin’s saintly cookie decorating patience; sadly, our contributions were rather haphazard. But they tasted good.

Riding home on the train the next day, I felt utterly content. Sometimes going away for a few days really helps you put a different perspective on things.

Bis bald!

Deine,
N*

Let It Snow!

*Even if it’s a little late in coming, my blog wouldn’t be complete without a post about German Christmas!

December 15, 2010


Since the week of Thanksgiving, winter has set in for good. Last week the temperature dipped below 10°F and settled there. We also received a hefty helping of snow – unusual for this early in the winter (December).

Although it’s milder this week, I’m still aware of my first real winter experience in four years. Sure, I visited Colorado winter over my breaks, but let’s face it, South Carolina, where I went to university, isn’t exactly known for its frigid temperatures, so it’s been awhile since I’ve actually had to LIVE winter. Huh. I like winter, and I don’t particularly mind the cold. Walking everywhere through the slush isn’t particularly thrilling, and neither is standing in a freezing train station waiting for the trains to overcome the railway chaos that descends the moment the first flakes start sticking to the steely tracks.

All in all, I really don’t mind most of the previously mentioned winter qualms, but there is one thing that would make it all worth it, if I really had a problem with winter: Weihnachtsmärkte! For those sad souls who are unfamiliar with the German Christmas Market, prepare to be awed. Almost every German city and town has at least one Christmas Market and the larger ones often last the whole Advent season. Big deal, you say? But going to the Christmas Market is THE activity for this time of year. In the evening the town squares transform into veritable fairylands and the hum of laughter and joyous voices fill the twinkling rows of stand keepers peddling their wares.


Our Pyramid at home in Colorado

Germany is known for its handmade wooden crafts: ornaments, pyramids (wooden centerpiece contraptions which spin with the help of candles hitting the fan blades attached to the top of the spinning mechanism) and Schippbogen (semi-circle, wooden-carved candle holders, which many Germans display in the windows in the evening during the Advent season). You can also find nutcrackers and smokers (little wooden men with hollow bellies for incense, a hole making a droll open mouth from which a pipe protrudes, so they appear to be smoking…hence their name). Baskets woven from chestnut-colored branches are also a traditional craft and are sold frequently. Many German Christmas stars, folded intricately to create paper ornaments and decorations, are also to be found.

So, perhaps you can imagine that someone who comes from a family that loves these types of decorations, Weihnachtsmärkte are a Mecca of all things fascinating, beautiful and easily giftable. They are also the scene of a sizeable sum of money *ahem* leaving *ahem* my purse.

All this, and I haven’t even mentioned the food yet. It might be easier just to make a list, since these are not items commonly known in the U.S.:

1. Lebkuchen – Soft, gingery cookies with lots of flavor from Christmas spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves, which are then coated with either a clear sugar glaze or a thin layer of chocolate. Mom and I made them one year from a traditional recipe and worked all day for almost 200 cookies. They are complicated, but well-worth the effort. Here, though, I just get to enjoy the goodness. Aldi sells 7 cookies for €0.89!

2. Stollen – A dessert bread with raisins (and sometimes other candied fruit) and marzipan inside, coated with a snowy dusting of powdered sugar. So yummy. And marzipan in chocolate is also good, by the way. I love almond flavor, so I should’ve known marzipan would really grow on me! (*Note to Michelle about the marzipan pig incident of 2010…those pigs did NOT taste good!...marzipan revisited is much better!)

3. Creppelchen – This is market food. It’s basically just cubed inch, friend pieces of dough covered with powdered sugar, but they taste like the homemade French Beignets. For a while my family was making these “doughnuts” a couple times a year. *On a related note: Fair food in Germany is so much better than in the U.S. It’s definitely not healthy, but it tastes real, instead of tasting just like a fried grease mess.*

4. Gebrannte Mandeln – Toasted almonds covered in caramelized cinnamon-sugary goodness. Often they’re still hot when you buy them, so they’re both tasty and functional as a handwarmer.

5. Glühwein – Hot red wine with lots of spices in it. I guess the English equivalent would be mulled wine. If wine is not so your thing, they also have Glühpunsch.

My Adventskranz

All in all, if I have to be away from home during December, at least I’m somewhere where they really do Christmas right! The lady I rent from even brought me up an Adventskranz (Advent wreath), so I could burn a candle each Sunday of Advent, adding one each week, until they were all lit for the fourth Advent.  Here's to starting new traditions.

Deine,

N*

Yes it's true...I love school!

*I apologize for the long blogging hiatus!  Between life and visiting my family for Christmas, well, not much got done.  However, now I'm back!

Believe it or not, I do actually work! I know I haven’t written a lot about school up until now, but I seem to keep pretty busy between one thing and another. I only work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (Wednesdays I help H with the language festival or work from home, and Fridays are my day off), but Monday and Tuesday are very intense. I’m in five classes and one English A.G. (Arbeitsgemeinschaft, or afterschool club), and I’m in six classes, one English A.G. and two Dance A.G.s on Tuesday. I’m up at 5 AM, at school by 6:45 and not home until 5 or 7:30 PM depending on the day. I’m just in two classes on Thursday, which, thankfully, isn’t so strenuous, since the other days are so long. I really enjoy it, though. I’ve been going to the same classes long enough now that I know most of my students by name, and many of them are super-friendly because I’ve been around enough that they aren’t so shy anymore. I do a lot of team-teaching with H, work in small groups with students, lead parts of lessons and give long presentations. I also run/help run A.Gs., and I’m even setting a piece of jazz choreography for the dance groups. My work is varied, and I like being active in the classroom and having the chance to work with so many students.

It’s kind of a weird in-between situation that I’m in as a teaching assistant; I’m half a teacher, half a cultural exchange partner. I sit in a Russian class, and sometimes I see students outside of school. *Fun fact: It’s normal for some teachers to invite students to their houses, and that students sometimes know where their teachers live.* I really enjoy that I have the chance to get to know my students outside of the classroom because I think being able to speak without conforming to a curriculum allows the students a chance to speak English where they don’t have to worry about grades and thus facilitates a deeper level of intercultural exchange.

I know two of the classes of 9th graders the best of all my other classes because I work with them in small groups and correct a lot of their papers. One class has lots of smart students and always works really well. One of the girls from that class, Lena, has befriended me and sends me long e-mails every week. She is sweet, loves learning English, and like many of my students, she is very interested in knowing all about America. The other 9th grade class is very friendly, and I must admit, though, some of my favorite classroom personalities are in that class. There are only three girls, and one of them is Nadia. She is one of the best students in both classes, but she has no idea. Her content is always excellent and well-developed; she just needs someone to push her for perfection. I wish she realized how much she is capable of, but she’s so modest that she just sees it as part of her job as a student. Then there’s Antonin. He’s smart, but his brain goes a million miles a minute, and his mouth (and pen) just can’t keep up. He’s got great ideas, but sometimes no one can understand what he’s saying. It’s always “Slow down, Antonin.” Mercifully he’s realized what a hard time I have reading his handwriting and types all his assignments for me. Frank is also in this class. Frank’s name is really Frederick, but there are two Fredericks in the class, so the first day, when he said he is sometimes called “Frank”, I started calling him “Frank Frederick” and it stuck. He’s always laughing a smirky little laugh, but it’s not meant in a bad way. I think he just likes to see the humor in everything. I don’t mind; if something I do can make his day better…cool with me. I like to see someone get such true enjoyment out of life. He always writes funny essays and sometimes leaves little jokes meant for me in them when he knows I’ll be the one grading. I guess he thinks I’m alright. The moments when I feel accepted by my older students, who were leery of me at first, really makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something here.

Those are just a few students who jumped to my mind, but really there are so many who are eager to learn and bring their bright personalities to the classroom. Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to mention many of them in the future.

Deine,
N*