About an hour after the last post I did wake up, get dressed, packed and caught a cab to the bus that took me to the airport that took me to Germany. Oh, but there's more. Once in Bremen (the city I flew to) I had to get from the Airport to the train station. Of course I take the tram. But even though I planned on buying my ticket from inside the tram, I couldn't figure out the system there, so I just rode the tram without buying a ticket (what, in German, is known as "schwarzfahren") The very first thing I did when I got to Germany for my Fulbright year? Schwarzfahren. But I made it to the train station undetected, and bought my train ticket to Köln where we were meeting to take the bus to the orientation hostel.
At the meeting point, there was already a pretty sizable group of Fulbrighters gathered around. As new people came up we played the same game of "What's your name? Where are you from? Where will you be teaching?" I met a lot of people and forgot a lot of names. Our hostel was sort of church affiliated deal, connected to a Cathedral. I really knew I was in the right place when, during the opening remarks, the director assured us that the "strict no alcohol policy" would be lifted for our visit before even going over the schedule for the week. We were divided into rooms based on Geography, so that our roommates and hallmates were all people who would be teaching in neighboring cities. My roommate happened to be a girl I met right away in Köln. The best part was, we pretty much bonded right away because she had also spent a year for study abroad in Zurich a year or two before me! Swiss German runs deep.
Over the next two days we were divided into groups based again on Geography. It was nice to get to know all the people in your area, but was also helpful because the schools vary slightly from state to state. It was pretty amazing, though, how most the people I really started to get along well with were those also from Bavaria. What can I say, we're a special breed down in the south.
We spent our days learning about the German school system, speaking with former Fulbrighters, learning how to teach, and actually getting a chance to "teach" a class (of our peers pretending to be German students) ourselves. And every night they brought in German beer and wine (we had to pay for that though, but it was only like 1 euro for a half a liter!)
Overall it was a really positive experience. I feel a lot more comfortable about working in a German school and more prepared to teach them. I also really enjoyed getting to know all the other Fulbrighters and comparing stories, concerns, experiences, etc. It's nice knowing everyone is basically feeling the same excitement and apprehension
I'll post more tomorrow about my arrival in Forchheim and the new apartment. Suffice it to say an emergency trip to Ikea is in store!
No comments:
Post a Comment