The ruin in the background is a castle that we visited today, making use of outlandish "Nordic Walking" Poles that were deemed necessary to climb a gentle slope. Waldkirche is beautiful, and the weather is great.-Sam
Monday, June 30, 2008
The View
The ruin in the background is a castle that we visited today, making use of outlandish "Nordic Walking" Poles that were deemed necessary to climb a gentle slope. Waldkirche is beautiful, and the weather is great.
A Crash Course in German
Made it to Germany in one piece and so far I am loving it here. I’ve been working hard to pick up bits of language so that I can communicate and am quite proud of myself for what I have accomplished in a mere 7 days. When I got on the plane I could count to 100, when I got off I knew a handful of verbs and how to conjugate them. By the time we made it to Rotheburg ob der Tauber I was making simple sentences and by the time we made it to Waldkirch I had started talking in front of strangers and can even understand simple words and phrases.
Then again my first foray into the German language was not entirely successful. Which is to say that my first German sentance was, "Wieveil kostest du?". (How much do you cost?)
Before you wonder what sort of trip you’ve sent your children on, allow me to explain. Before I left for the trip, I printed out a list of the "50 most useful German verbs" and I spent the majority of the plane trip practicing conjugating them as I was trying to get a feel for the pronunciations. I was basically going through all of verbs I knew and trying them with the different endings.
When I got to the verb "kosten" I ran into trouble as the 2nd person form of the verb (kostst) looked like a bit of a mouthful. So I turned to Jack who was sitting next to me to ask how I was supposed to pronounce it and he thought about it for a second or two before wisely informing me that I probably was not going to need the 2nd person form of the verb "to cost".
I’d like to say that my German language skills improved by leaps and bounds after this initial confusion. After all, your children have been very kindly attempting to teach me the language and are quite enjoying assigning me one new word each to learn every day. It is thanks to them that I am able to say such useful sentences as, "Dine papguy ist häßlick". (Your parrot is ugly.)
Alas, they’ve neglected a few of the basics as evidenced by the situation I found myself in just the other day.
Here I should mention that getting from Rothernburg ob der Tauber with 10 students is no mean feat and indeed involved changing trains no less than 6 times. As some of the changes between trains were fairly tight (the shortest a mere 4 minutes), we made a rule that if you needed to use the bathroom you had to do it on the train. So it was that I found myself desperate to use the bathroom just after we left Stuttgart. Fortunately the compartment we were in had a gigantic handicapped bathroom right in it.
I used the toilet and had a brief moment of confusion as I tried to figure out how to flush it as on the wall beside it were three buttons none of which were labelled in a way that I could comprehend. I decided that the one closest to the toilet was probably the one I wanted but when I pressed it a loud alarm sounded and a moment later a voice addressed me over the intercom. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that," I replied in a panicked combination of English and German. It seems I had pressed the emergency call button by accident.
I tried a different button and then stumbled out of the bathroom in hysterical laughter. "Who were you talking to?" the kids demanded. In between gasps for breath, I told them.
I was understandably quite pleased to leave that train far behind.
Then again my first foray into the German language was not entirely successful. Which is to say that my first German sentance was, "Wieveil kostest du?". (How much do you cost?)
Before you wonder what sort of trip you’ve sent your children on, allow me to explain. Before I left for the trip, I printed out a list of the "50 most useful German verbs" and I spent the majority of the plane trip practicing conjugating them as I was trying to get a feel for the pronunciations. I was basically going through all of verbs I knew and trying them with the different endings.
When I got to the verb "kosten" I ran into trouble as the 2nd person form of the verb (kostst) looked like a bit of a mouthful. So I turned to Jack who was sitting next to me to ask how I was supposed to pronounce it and he thought about it for a second or two before wisely informing me that I probably was not going to need the 2nd person form of the verb "to cost".
I’d like to say that my German language skills improved by leaps and bounds after this initial confusion. After all, your children have been very kindly attempting to teach me the language and are quite enjoying assigning me one new word each to learn every day. It is thanks to them that I am able to say such useful sentences as, "Dine papguy ist häßlick". (Your parrot is ugly.)
Alas, they’ve neglected a few of the basics as evidenced by the situation I found myself in just the other day.
Here I should mention that getting from Rothernburg ob der Tauber with 10 students is no mean feat and indeed involved changing trains no less than 6 times. As some of the changes between trains were fairly tight (the shortest a mere 4 minutes), we made a rule that if you needed to use the bathroom you had to do it on the train. So it was that I found myself desperate to use the bathroom just after we left Stuttgart. Fortunately the compartment we were in had a gigantic handicapped bathroom right in it.
I used the toilet and had a brief moment of confusion as I tried to figure out how to flush it as on the wall beside it were three buttons none of which were labelled in a way that I could comprehend. I decided that the one closest to the toilet was probably the one I wanted but when I pressed it a loud alarm sounded and a moment later a voice addressed me over the intercom. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that," I replied in a panicked combination of English and German. It seems I had pressed the emergency call button by accident.
I tried a different button and then stumbled out of the bathroom in hysterical laughter. "Who were you talking to?" the kids demanded. In between gasps for breath, I told them.
I was understandably quite pleased to leave that train far behind.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Planes, trains and automobiles!
After many hours of traveling and 3 wonderful days in Rothenburg of der Tauber we have all finally made it to Waldkirch. Besides mastering the train system we were treated to absolutely magestic scenery as we traveled through the black forest to Waldkirch. The kids were all incredibly good sports about our less than pleasant train connections and consistently tried to use their German every chance they got.
Our hotel location in Rothenburg was amazing. We were right next to an ice cream parlor, across the street from the tourist information office, a bank, a movie theater behind us and right in the market square. We couldn't figure out how all of the other hotels were booked but this one with a great location and a cheaper price was not. We read traveler reviews and everyone seemed very pleased with the hotel so we booked it. Well, we figured out why the rooms were still available and at such a great rate... the clock tower, that we were right next to chimes every hour in various tones :) though the chimes are much softer at night it was still pretty funny.
While in Rothenburg they also got to experience their first major European championship soccer game when Germany beat Turkey 3-2 in the semi-final. Equiped with German flags, basic soccer rules and some German victory chants everyone was able to participate in the street celebration which followed. It was truly wonderful for them to experience the brotherhood and comraderie that soccer fosters between countries in Europe.
Our hotel location in Rothenburg was amazing. We were right next to an ice cream parlor, across the street from the tourist information office, a bank, a movie theater behind us and right in the market square. We couldn't figure out how all of the other hotels were booked but this one with a great location and a cheaper price was not. We read traveler reviews and everyone seemed very pleased with the hotel so we booked it. Well, we figured out why the rooms were still available and at such a great rate... the clock tower, that we were right next to chimes every hour in various tones :) though the chimes are much softer at night it was still pretty funny.
While in Rothenburg they also got to experience their first major European championship soccer game when Germany beat Turkey 3-2 in the semi-final. Equiped with German flags, basic soccer rules and some German victory chants everyone was able to participate in the street celebration which followed. It was truly wonderful for them to experience the brotherhood and comraderie that soccer fosters between countries in Europe.
I have been so proud of all of the kids about how respectful they are of the German culture and how adventurous they are in trying new foods. It is truly a rewarding feeling to be able to share a language and culture I care deeply about with such an open minded and appreciative group of young people. They've been gathering all kinds of new vocabulary words and doing quite an interesting job of teaching Miss Leadbeater some "critical" German words.
Today we went on a nordic hike (hiking with ski poles) up to castle ruins on a nearby mountain. Tomorrow we're spending the entire day in school shadowing host partners and on Wednesday we'll tour a local salt mine. We're going to finish out the week with a city tour of Freiburg, a scavenger hunt through Waldkirch and a 4th of July cookout.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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