stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2011-08-01 10:32 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2011-08-01 10:32 pm
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Germany: Mountain Tours and the Return of the King
July 24, 2011 (Sunday)
Today I spent most of the day down at the school on the computer, trying to catch up on work.It was slow going, but I got a chunk of material knocked out.Go me!
In the evening, C and M took me on a tour of the top of Esslingen.This involved first visiting the TV tower that perches atop one of the low mountains that surrounds Esslingen.We took the elevator to the balcony that rings the top.The wind was biting cold up there, despite the supposed summertime, but the view was unmatched.Miles and miles away, the Alps made a blue ring all the way around us.The Black Forest lay in one direction, with little tiny buildings for Esslingen and Stuttgart occupying the bowl in the between.
Eventually the cold drove us back down to the ground, and we headed for other sights on top of other mountains—a tower built in honor of Otto von Bismarck, a 300-year-old quarry that had been turned into a playground, a little concert hall built 200 years ago.All of them were put on top of the mountains that ring Esslingen, and the view was invariably stunning.
My German seems to be stuck.My vocabulary is coming back to me in big chunks, and I’m getting a better handle on the local dialect (though I will never, ever understand the school custodian’s Swabian accent), but my spoken grammar is horrible.I can’t get word order right, and my verb tenses are just horrible.I’m making elementary mistakes.Everyone tells me my accent is great, but I’m catching awful, awful grammar blunders.Ugh! It makes me self-conscious every time I open my mouth.I make myself go on—I won’t learn or improve by keeping silent—but it’s awful, knowing I used to be able to pass for a native and now I shout /AMERICAN!/ with every word.
July 25, 2011 (Monday)
Today the American students had some final activities at school—surveys to fill out for the exchange program, paperwork, instructions for the trip home.Afterward, we all went out for ice cream.It turned out that a couple of the flavors were made without milk, so I could have some even though I didn’t have any lactase tablets.Cool!
In Hamburg, I went to a custom shirt shop and had a shirt made up for KL that read /Beste Austauschlehrerin der Welt,/ or /Best exchange teacher in the world./I got all the students to sign it with a fabric marker, and I presented it to KL.She, in turn, gave me a Swabian cookbook with English measurement conversions in it.Many of the recipes involve potatoes in some way, so I know the boys will like them.I was very happy to receive it.
Then it was home.On the way, I stopped at a couple stores to pick up flowers and a thank-you card for C and M.I’d already given them other gifts, but wanted to do a final gesture.I stopped on an apartment house stoop to write a long letter in the card in my careful German (my written German is much better than my spoken) and then finished the walk back.
Then it was time to pack for the return trip.This was a long, arduous process, really.You never know if the airlines will enforce the weight limit on luggage or not, so you have to assume they will.I spent considerable time with the bathroom scale, culling things and moving stuff around and finally got what I figured the airline would accept just in time for bed.
July 26, 2011 (Tuesday)
Rose very early.The flight was to leave at 1:10, which meant we wanted the students at the airport by 11:00.I had to leave the house by 9:30 to ensure I’d arrive a little earlier than the students, so I was up by 6:00.Breakfasted and said good-bye to C, then loaded my stuff into the car so M could drive me to the airport .Arrived in good time, and it was a good thing we had everyone arrive nice and early—the airport good-byes took quite a while!
The rest of the trip home was fairly easy. No major snags, no hitches, just the usual tedium of air travel.I got hung up briefly for two luggage searches.I don’t know why.And at customs in America I ended up in the line behind a family of three who were having some kind of issue that took fully half an hour to resolve.No idea what the hell was going on or why they didn’t send them to an office to figure it out.But in the end it didn’t matter because once I got through customs, there was still a good ten minutes of waiting before the luggage showed up.Right when you really, REALLY want to get home is when the waits are the longest.
At last we were through everything.My mother-in-law picked me up and drove me home.The boys were still at my mother’s.I wanted to see them, but it was also nice to have an evening to unpack and settle back into the house.
And I was home!
Today I spent most of the day down at the school on the computer, trying to catch up on work.It was slow going, but I got a chunk of material knocked out.Go me!
In the evening, C and M took me on a tour of the top of Esslingen.This involved first visiting the TV tower that perches atop one of the low mountains that surrounds Esslingen.We took the elevator to the balcony that rings the top.The wind was biting cold up there, despite the supposed summertime, but the view was unmatched.Miles and miles away, the Alps made a blue ring all the way around us.The Black Forest lay in one direction, with little tiny buildings for Esslingen and Stuttgart occupying the bowl in the between.
Eventually the cold drove us back down to the ground, and we headed for other sights on top of other mountains—a tower built in honor of Otto von Bismarck, a 300-year-old quarry that had been turned into a playground, a little concert hall built 200 years ago.All of them were put on top of the mountains that ring Esslingen, and the view was invariably stunning.
My German seems to be stuck.My vocabulary is coming back to me in big chunks, and I’m getting a better handle on the local dialect (though I will never, ever understand the school custodian’s Swabian accent), but my spoken grammar is horrible.I can’t get word order right, and my verb tenses are just horrible.I’m making elementary mistakes.Everyone tells me my accent is great, but I’m catching awful, awful grammar blunders.Ugh! It makes me self-conscious every time I open my mouth.I make myself go on—I won’t learn or improve by keeping silent—but it’s awful, knowing I used to be able to pass for a native and now I shout /AMERICAN!/ with every word.
July 25, 2011 (Monday)
Today the American students had some final activities at school—surveys to fill out for the exchange program, paperwork, instructions for the trip home.Afterward, we all went out for ice cream.It turned out that a couple of the flavors were made without milk, so I could have some even though I didn’t have any lactase tablets.Cool!
In Hamburg, I went to a custom shirt shop and had a shirt made up for KL that read /Beste Austauschlehrerin der Welt,/ or /Best exchange teacher in the world./I got all the students to sign it with a fabric marker, and I presented it to KL.She, in turn, gave me a Swabian cookbook with English measurement conversions in it.Many of the recipes involve potatoes in some way, so I know the boys will like them.I was very happy to receive it.
Then it was home.On the way, I stopped at a couple stores to pick up flowers and a thank-you card for C and M.I’d already given them other gifts, but wanted to do a final gesture.I stopped on an apartment house stoop to write a long letter in the card in my careful German (my written German is much better than my spoken) and then finished the walk back.
Then it was time to pack for the return trip.This was a long, arduous process, really.You never know if the airlines will enforce the weight limit on luggage or not, so you have to assume they will.I spent considerable time with the bathroom scale, culling things and moving stuff around and finally got what I figured the airline would accept just in time for bed.
July 26, 2011 (Tuesday)
Rose very early.The flight was to leave at 1:10, which meant we wanted the students at the airport by 11:00.I had to leave the house by 9:30 to ensure I’d arrive a little earlier than the students, so I was up by 6:00.Breakfasted and said good-bye to C, then loaded my stuff into the car so M could drive me to the airport .Arrived in good time, and it was a good thing we had everyone arrive nice and early—the airport good-byes took quite a while!
The rest of the trip home was fairly easy. No major snags, no hitches, just the usual tedium of air travel.I got hung up briefly for two luggage searches.I don’t know why.And at customs in America I ended up in the line behind a family of three who were having some kind of issue that took fully half an hour to resolve.No idea what the hell was going on or why they didn’t send them to an office to figure it out.But in the end it didn’t matter because once I got through customs, there was still a good ten minutes of waiting before the luggage showed up.Right when you really, REALLY want to get home is when the waits are the longest.
At last we were through everything.My mother-in-law picked me up and drove me home.The boys were still at my mother’s.I wanted to see them, but it was also nice to have an evening to unpack and settle back into the house.
And I was home!