Christmas cards

The longer I live here, the more I learn about things that just aren't as simple as they were back in the States. One of those things is buying Christmas cards. In the States you can walk into any Wal-Mart, Target, bookstore, Dollar Tree, or grocery store and choose from a wide variety of boxed Christmas cards, anywhere from 10-50 cards per box. Here in Kandern, however, boxed Christmas cards can't be found. Oh sure there are Christmas cards, but they're sold individually, in racks right next to the birthday and anniversary cards. I searched all the shops and stores in town, and asked around at BFA to see if anyone knew of places out of town where I could find my coveted boxed cards.

Finally admitting defeat, I resorted to making my own Christmas cards. Last year I also made my own, but I had friends equipped with the supplies to make nice looking cards: thousands of rubber stamps, inkpads in every color, and a massive collection of pretty patterned papers. This year, I have a pad of construction paper and a 10-pack of Crayola markers.

So I sat down this afternoon hoping to crank out a stack of cards and get my Christmas mailing ready. I gave up two hours and eight cards later because I was getting a cramp in my hand from all the cutting, drawing, and writing. Even with all that effort, my cards look like a ten-year-old made them. If you got a card from me last year, I apologize in advance for the poor quality of this year's card!

The interesting thing is that as I searched for these cards and agonized over how simple it would be to do this in Ohio, I started thinking about how this is a reflection of culture. Americans place a huge value on the frills and thrills of Christmas; all the material aspects like decorations, presents, parties, and cards. Why do we really send Christmas cards? Because we truly care for people and want to with them Christmas blessings, or because we got a card from them last year and feel guilty about not returning the "favor"? This week I read John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, on which the movie "Christmas with the Kranks" is based. If you're unfamiliar with the plot, Luther and Nora Krank have decided to forgo the formalities of Christmas and go on a Carribean cruise and face hilarious consequences. Here, Nora considers not sending Christmas cards this year:

According to Luther's audit, The Pumpkin Seed had collected $318 from the Kranks last Christmas for cards, and at the moment it did seem somewhat extravagant. Not a major expense, but what did they get from it? Luther flatly refused to help with the addressing and stamping, and he flew hot every time she asked if so-and-so should be added to or deleted from their list. He also refused to offer so much as a glance at any of the cards they received, and Nora had to admit to herself that there was a diminishing joy in getting them...Nora asked herself how many on her list would even notice. She received a few dozen each year, a dwindling number, she admitted, and she kept no log of who bothered and who didn't. In the turmoil of Christmas, who really had time to fret over a card that didn't come? Which brought up another of Luther's favorite holiday gripes - the emergency stash. Nora kept an extra supply [of cards] so she could respond immediately to an unexpected card. Every year they received two or three from total strangers and a few from folks who hadn't sent them before, and within twenty-four hours she'd dash off the Kranks' holiday greetings in response, always with her standard handwritten note of good cheer and peace be with you. Of course it was foolish.

Unlike Nora, I don't feel the need to send a Christmas card to every person I've ever spoken with. But also unlike Luther, I don't want to neglect the important people in my life at Christmas. So somewhere between Nora's obsession and Luther's total apathy, hopefully I've found the balance with my cards this year.

Christmas in Kandern

While I was in Paris, Jill and David bought and decorated a Christmas tree. It felt a little strange to not have done any Christmas preparations, but I had several of my own ornaments to add to the tree, so I did that on Christmas Eve as well. After my triumphant return from Paris on Christmas Eve, Jill and David made and frosted Christmas cookies. Then, we each opened one present. Both of our families have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, and I had told Jill awhile back that my Christmas Eve present is always pajamas. However, I was still surprised when I opened my present and found myself holding a new pair of pajamas! I was a little worried that the pants would, as usual, be too short for me, but these ones aren't too bad. Aren't they cute?

Jill's Christmas Eve present was the movie UP, so we snuggled up to watch it together. Unfortunately, by that point in the evening I was exhausted so I fell asleep. I had been waiting for a skype call from my family, and they called in the middle of the movie, which woke me up. We talked for over an hour, and then it was time for me to listen to Candelight Carols! I did the math and realized that the rebroadcast would begin at 3 a.m. for me. So Jill, David, and I sat around the Christmas tree listening to carols and (in Jill's case) falling asleep. David and I finally went to sleep sometime after 5 a.m. I crawled into bed, fell asleep instantly, and didn't wake up until 1 p.m!

For breakfast (maybe it's more appropriate to call it lunch?) we had french toast and then opened the rest of our presents. Jill got me a fleece blanket, a new scarf, and some beautiful beaded necklaces! After my shower, it was time to skype my mom's side of the family and go to dinner at the Careys house. We had delicious Swedish meatballs, sweet potatoes, salad, and a yummy chocolate cake for dessert. The Careys also gave us each a stocking with some goodies inside: chocolate, tea, and an ornament.

We came home from dinner and watched Ice Age 1 and 2 (a present from David), then I worked on putting Paris pictures on Facebook. I was supposed to be receiving another skype call, this time from my dad's side of the family. After waiting for a long time, I crawled into bed and set my computer next to me so that I would wake up if it rang. Sure enough, at 3:00 a.m. my skype went off and there they were. They couldn't get over how good I looked for waking up at 3 a.m. but what they don't know is that I brushed my hair before turning on my video feed!

I finally went to bed and then slept hard until around 11 this morning. Jill and David leave today for their weeklong whirlwind tour of Europe, and the plan is for me to meet them in Vienna next week, at the end of their trip. I'm hoping to go to Vienna to see my friends from Vienna Christian School, including the ones who I didn't see in Paris last week. The train ticket is causing me a lot of confusion but hopefully on Monday when everything opens again I will be able to go to the station and figure out the cheapest way to get to Vienna. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to a quiet week at home involving lesson planning (gotta start sometime), reading, hanging out with other BFA friends still in town, and skyping friends back home.

It's my prayer that everyone reading this had a safe and wonderful Christmas with friends and family, and that the new year will bring lots of blessings.

Christmas in Paris

I had a chance to travel to Paris this week. Now that I live in Europe, all those places that always seemed so far away are much easier to get to, and rather affordable to do so as well. The distance between Kandern and Paris is roughly the same as the distance between Tallmadge and Chicago, but it still felt like I was going on a huge journey to visit Paris. I'm including a few pictures with this post but the rest can be seen in my Facebook album by clicking here.

While in the city I stayed with my cousin Leslee, who has lived there for nine years. She speaks French fluently and is currently giving French lessons and working on her master's. I also met up with a few friends who are teaching at Vienna Christian School and had made plans to visit Paris at the same time as me. I was thrilled to spend time with the girls again, since I hadn't seen them since summer of 2008 at PFO.

I arrived in the city late Monday evening, hungry and worn out from a seven hour train ride. It was only supposd to be 4.5 - 5 hours but because of snow on the tracks, the trains had to go much slower than normal and I arrived in Paris two hours later than scheduled. Leslee took me to where the girls were staying so that we could make breakfast plans.

Tuesday morning we had brunch at Leslee's place, then went to Notre Dame. The cathedral is such a beautiful place; I love looking at all the details in the stained glass windows and carvings. After studying the outside and taking lots of pictures, we went inside and walked around the church. Even though there were a ton of busy tourists inside, I managed to quietly observe the candles, statues, windows, and plaques (in French!) telling the story of Notre Dame.

We then waited in line outside for over an hour to climb the towers and visit the bellfry. It was a lot of fun to see Paris from the top but the climb was grueling. I didn't mind the number of stairs as much as I did the construction of them...it was a very tight, narrow spiral! Going down was even harder though; by that point our legs felt like jello and we fought to keep them from buckling as we gingerly tiptoed our way back down. After seeing Notre Dame we explored the area on foot and discovered lots of architecture and shops. Many of the tourist places had started to close, so we grabbed a snack at Subway and then made our way to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up after sunset.

We spent awhile enjoying the view of the Eiffel Tower after dark, then made our way back to the apartment where the girls were staying to have dinner. Mmm...tacos! Following dinner we met up with Leslee and she took us to see the Galleries Lafayette, an upscale shopping area that goes all out with Christmas decorations and does fun window displays like Marshall Fields used to do in Chicago. She also took us to see the Madeleine (a church) and the Opera House because they were in the same area and they both look really cool lit up at night.

Wednesday was another full day. The girls and I grabbed breakfast at a bakery (Parisian pastries are so wonderful!) and made our way back to the Eiffel Tower, where we planned to go up to the top level and enjoy a spectacular view. Unfortunately the tower was shrouded in fog, so we moved on to the Arc de Triomphe. By the time we got there, the weather had begun to clear up and we had a nice view from the top. Again, we climbed many stairs but the spiral staircase here was much more tolerable than the one at Notre Dame. We spent awhile looking at all of the carvings and reading our Paris tour guide books before we decided that we were ready to eat lunch. We planned to return to the Eiffel Tower after lunch so that we could get up to the top while there was still nice weather.

After climbing all those stairs at Notre Dame and the Arc, I decided why not make the trip complete by taking the stairs at the Eiffel Tower? But I didn't, for a number of reasons: 1) you can't take the stairs to the very top level, 2) we got in the wrong line and could only buy tickets for the lift, and 3) I was the only one who wanted to take the stairs, and it would have been no fun to climb them alone. So I took the lift, where we were packed like sardines into a big glass box. The view was great, but we were so high up that we began to notice a difference in temperature. It was definitely much colder up at the top! You wouldn't think this by looking at it, but there are a lot of things to do up on the Eiffel Tower: there's a gift shop, a little museum area, a cafeteria, and even a bathroom. After about a half hour of freezing our faces off, we retreated to the lifts and made our way back to the warmth of the ground level.

Upon returning to solid ground, we spotted an international Christmas market out in front of the Eiffel Tower, so we spent about an hour exploring the little shops and eating crepes. We also spotted an ice skating rink, but unfortunately we were running low on time so we didn't skate. It was time to go to the Louvre! Because we went after 6 pm, we only had to pay 6€ to get in! By that point in the day we were so tired but we managed to see a lot of fun things inside the Louvre. I laughed when I saw the Mona Lisa because it's such a small painting. I already knew that it is much smaller than we picture it in our minds, yet I was still surprised by how small it really is. We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, Venus de Milo, and several other fascinating pieces. I wish we had had more time and energy to see the whole museum because I know we barely cracked the surface, but I'm thankful for what we DID get to see.

The next day was Christmas Eve, also the day that I would return to Kandern. I met the girls at their apartment for crepes, and then we went to see the Sacre Coeur, the Church of the Sacred Heart. It was a much more somber place than Notre Dame, and I felt a bit of eerieness as we walked through. Outside, a man played a harp and another man, dressed all in white with white facepaint, pretended to be a statue. He looked like a dead pope to me. We also learned an interesting piece of information about the Sacre Coeur: the Germans tried bombing this church during WWII but there were people inside praying. Thirteen bombs were dropped, and none of them hit the church. They all fell in a line along the street outside the church.

After that it was time for me to say goodbye to the girls and make my way to the train station for my return trip. Leslee walked with me up to the platform, where we were greeted with a huge crowd of people trying to board my train. We waited in line for about 5 minutes before realizing that no one was moving. Lines or waiting passengers snaked out of the trains and inside, people were bustling and setting and moving bags here and there. Leslee asked someone and we found out that my train had been incredibly overbooked and there were way too many people trying to board! The thing with trains is that you can buy a ticket on the spot and board the train, but if you sit in the seat of someone with an advance ticket (with seat assignment), you have to move. So there were a ton of last minute people boarding the train, preventing us ticketed passengers from boarding. I should have been able to simply go to my seat and tell whoever was sitting there that they had to move, but the conductor refused to let anyone else get on the train!! So there were a ton of people trying to get back to Mulhouse who were instructed to take the TGV, a faster train that would leave in another 1.5 hours. The only problem here was that the train people refused to trade my ticket for a TGV ticket, so my only options were to BUY a ticket for the TGV (way more expensive than my original ticket) or simply board and hope I could find a seat. Leslee told me I should be able to find a seat if I go to the dining car, because there are seats there but they are not ticketed. Imagine my dismay when I reached the dining car and it was already packed full of people! I ended up having to stand for two hours, but then a nice little lady came up to me and offered me a seat that had opened up in the back of the car. I was so relieved to finally sit, but I was able to relax and enjoy the last hour of my train ride home.

I learned a few things on this trip. I still have a lot to learn about how to work with groups of people and communicate effectively in foreign settings. My trip to London was a rather painful lesson, and I used those mistakes to plan this trip better. There were still things to be learned, but they were very minor and didn't put a damper on the trip. Another thing I realized was that I haven't yet come to the point where I consider Kandern my home. But after being away for four days, I found myself saying, "I can't wait to go home." Returning to Kandern felt like a homecoming for me, and it's starting to feel a bit more like home for me now. For this reason, think it's safe to say that LEAVING a new place can also help in the settling process because it helps you establish your home base. And finally, I learned that German is becoming more a part of me than I realize, even if I still don't know that much. As we were walking along the Seine river one afternoon, these obnoxious vendors kept coming up to us and trying to sell Eiffel Tower keychains. I fully intended to be polite and tell them, "non, merci" but instead, what came out was "nein, danke." I was stunned by the fact that I had spoken German without even trying. I didn't think about it, didn't phrase my sentence in my head before speaking it, just said it reflexively. I guess that's a good sign!

Colmar Christmas Market

This morning I stayed in bed a little while longer than usual. I woke up slowly, putting off getting out of bed as long as possible. As I lay curled under my duvet, I listened to the people walking and driving by on our street. My window is about a foot away from the street, so this is pretty normal. Suddenly, I became aware of a new sound, and noticed that I couldn't hear anyone's footsteps. I had a sneaking suspicion, but I had to get up and pull back the curtains to confirm it: there was snow on the ground! We're not talking the snowglobe fluff that's been swirling around all week, this was serious snow. 3-4 inches, at least. So naturally, I went outside in my pajamas to take pictures.

I also another taste of Christmas in Europe! Jill, David, and I went to Colmar, France with our other friends Katrina and Amanda. I've been to Christmas markets in Germany and Switzerland, but this was my first French market. I haven't studied French since 7th grade, but somehow I understood more French than I normally do German! Also, it felt more Christmassy than the other markets I've attended. Maybe it was the snow, maybe it was the American Christmas carols being blasted from speakers hanging in the trees, maybe it was the overabundance of stuffed Santas. Regardless, I'm finally starting to feel like it's Christmas. I picked up several new ornaments for my very first Christmas tree away from home, and have started an international Christmas ornament collection. Several people have already given me gifts of very German Christmas ornaments, and today I picked up a cute little red phone booth ornament to represent my trip to London this fall. In a few days when I visit Paris, I'm hoping to find a little Eiffel Tower ornament. It's exciting to start new traditions, but at the same time my heart hurts a little to think of all the things I will miss by being away from my family this Christmas.

Here are a few more shots from the Colmar Christmas Market!

Joyeux Noel!

it's here! it's here!

I'm officially done with the 2009 fall semester. I finished grading finals yesterday around 3:00 and then did some last minute things at school before coming home for good. Before I left school, I stopped in the library and checked out a nice stack of books and movies with which to occupy myself over the next three weeks while I don't have lesson plans to think about. Here is my proposed reading list:

• finish the last 500 pages of "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" (I've been reading this since October)
• The Bourne Identity
• The Bourne Supremacy
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• The Great Divorce
• The Screwtape Letters
• Gathering Blue
• Skipping Christmas
• Al Capone Does My Shirts
• Al Capone Shines My Shoes

I also checked out "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and the BBC "Planet Earth" series to watch. In case you're wondering, the plan is not necessarily to accomplish all of this, I just wanted to have options and be ready for anything. Sherlock Holmes and the Bourne books are rather long, and will take several days to work though, while the others are much shorter and can be knocked out in a few hours on a cold winter evening while I'm curled up in bed. I also have a few train rides that are several hours long and will require some reading material.

Last night I was finally able to experience a Christmas evening in Kandern. Every Thursday they light up the Marktplatz with flaming logs, open the food booths, and have live performances by local artists like the BFA choir or the Stadmusik Kandern (local band). Since I sub at Maugenhard on Thursdays, I haven't gotten to attend any of the special nights yet. Last night was the last night of the event, and I didn't have to go to Maug because all the kids are going home. So I went to hear my roommate play in the band and enjoyed some hot kinderpunsch because I don't like gluwein. It was a fun evening and the perfect way to start my German Christmas.

Today I did a little running around downtown and bought a few more Christmas presents, and then Jill and I did a big grocery run because we were almost out of food and her brother would be arriving today! After unloading all the groceries, we went into Loerrach with our friend Katrina to do a little more holiday shopping, and then we picked up David in Basel and brought him back to Kandern. That's when he gave me a special delivery: my new computer! My parents made the purchase back in November, then gave it to my Uncle Joe at Thanksgiving. Joe drove it back to Chicago and then met up with Jill's brother, who goes to Wheaton. David then brought it to Germany in his carry-on. And now it's FINALLY here!

Tomorrow we hope to go to a Christmas market, and then in the evening I'm going to the Boettcher's house to spend time with Leslie and help keep awake her kids who have come home for Christmas and will be getting over jetlag. On Monday I leave for Paris, where I will spend a few days with my cousin Leslee and some friends from Vienna Christian School, and then I'll return to Kandern on Christmas Eve. Hopefully I'll have a chance to post from Paris, but if not, I'll be sure to have an update ready when I get back.

Frohe Weihnachten!

the end is near

So, after the crazy week I had awhile back, the most recent week has been much better. On Friday, the middle schoolers had their Christmas party, where we donned our pajamas, watched "Unaccompanied Minors," and revealed the secret santas. I proudly wore my hot pink cupcake pajamas and got lots of compliments from the kids. :)

On Saturday, I had a whole day to myself for the first time in a few months! Jill and I slept in, wandered though some shops in town, then watchd TWO movies together. It doesn't get much better than that.

Sunday was the BFA Christmas concert, which was so much fun to attend. There were performances by the piano class, guitar class, middle school choir, high school choir, and orchestra. I've spent the better part of this quarter listening to some of the eighth graders moan about how embarassing it is to be in choir (they don't get a choice in middle school), so I was impressed with how well everyone sang during the concert. Actually, I was really impressed, and pretty proud, too. This is the first time I've been able to attend a school concert and not have any part in performing or directing. Needless to say, there were no sobbing angels on my shoulder this year!

The other day I noticed that I have attended quite a few Christmas parties/gatherings. So far, I've attended the New Staff Christmas Gathering, the New TeachBeyond Staff Christmas Dessert, the middle school staff Christmas (slash Happy Birthday Bob and Lee slash Goodbye Julie) lunch, and the middle school Christmas party. Tonight, I will attend Christmas Part #5, A Charlie Brown Christmas Party. I knew I would get more than one Thanksgiving but no one said anything about five Christmases!!

PS: In exactly FOUR days, I will hold in my hands Lila, the newest member of my family. No, it's not a puppy. It's a computer! :D

give me Your eyes

The rest of this week has been absolutely carazy! I've been praying over a few big things and dealing with some emotions, but the weekend is here now, and I finally got a chance to get some rest last night. I've spent most of the week trying to figure out what it was that God wanted me to share with my students during middle school chapel this week. Way back in August when I was still dazed and confused, I agreed to speak in middle school chapel sometime, and that sometime ended up being yesterday! After much prayer, I felt God laying His love on my heart. So I put together a message that involved the poem "The Christmas Guest", my stuffed lamb (yes, Lamby came to school!), Matthew 25 (Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me), and Brandon Heath's song "Give Me Your Eyes." I gave the students two things to think about: 1) We don't get to choose who we should love, and 2) What we do here on earth will have an effect on where we spend eternity. And why should we love even "the least of these"? 1) God commands it, 2) God loves us, and 3) We act out our love for God by showing love to others. I ended by showing them the Brandon Heath music video and challenging them to start each day by asking God to give them His eyes so that they can see people like He does and know how and who to love.

I was shaking the entire time I was up front, but somehow God gave me peace enough to speak clearly and confidently. My hope is that the students had open hearts and will respond.

This leads me to my next big event of the week. A little background: every year during spring break, BFA sends teams of students led by staff to various places around the world for missions trips. Early this week, it was announced that there was a crucial need for one specific trip. The team had been assembled, but no adults had stepped in to lead it. I immediately knew I wanted to do it, but I also knew I needed to take time and pray over it to make sure my desire was from God and not my own. I spent all week praying, going over options, jounaling my thoughts...for those of you who prayed for me this week, thank you! On Friday as I was giving my message to the middle schoolers, my message about loving others and asking God to allow you to see through his eyes and show you how to love... it hit me. God has clearly given me some people to love. So on Friday afternoon, I went down to the chaplain's office and informed him that I was in.

So, in March 2010, I will be spending the first half of spring break serving in Central Asia. Please pray for all the preparations and details we as leaders will need to cover before we go in three months.

hello december

The Christmas season has officially begun! Here in Germany Thanksgiving is not a national holiday, so there is no reason why Christmas preparations can't begin in November. Kandern began decorating about two weeks ago and put up about 100 Christmas trees this past weekend. Also, I received my first Christmas present already! In the middle of math class, one of my sixth grade boys said, "Miss Bertschi, heads up!" and suddenly there was something flying toward my head! My poor reflexes meant I had to pick it up off the floor, but its contents weren't damaged. It was a little bag of chocolate candies from a Christmas market! I asked him, "Ben, what is this?" and with an impish grin he replied, "Merry Christmas Miss Bertschi!" You know you teach middle schoolers when the preferred method of giving gifts involves chucking them at them at the recipient.

Saturday evening was BFA's annual Christmas banquet. It's mostly a high school event, and all the students get all dressed up for dinner and a show. Students sing duets, play musical instruments, and do stand-up comedy routines for entertainment, and a few teachers serve as MCs for the night. This year's theme was Candyland, so there was lots of candy sprinkled on the tables and fun, festive decorations all over the place.

A handful of our eighth graders are chosen to be banquet servers, which requires them to don a Santa hat and feed everyone who comes to banquet. They did a great job as servers, and next year they will get to sit back and enjoy banquet for themselves! I'm looking forward to attending banquet in a few years, when all of my current students will be high schoolers... it's much more fun to attend these sorts of things when you

know all the students.

The next day, I went to Basel, Switzerland after church with a few friends to visit the Weihnachtmarkt, or Christmas market. Apparently, Basel has the longest Christmas street in the world, so I was pretty excited to see it. Unfortunately we didn't get to see very much because we ran out of time, but the parts we did see were really cool. There was just booth after booth of people selling everything from candles to jewelry to wool socks to Christmas ornaments. There were also a lot of food booths, and many vendors selling gluhwein, a traditional spiced wine typically consumed at Christmas time. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, but I wanted to try a cultural experience. I took a sip of someone else's drink and almost spit it back out. Yuck. Jill and I happily nursed our hot chocolate and brought home the souvenir mugs in which the drink was sold.

Today, the handbell choir of which I am a part played at the Luise Klaiber Haus, a nursing home right next door to BFA. It's nice to be so close, because many of the students have found ways to minister there, either through music or service opportunities. Unfortunately I don't speak German yet, so when a kind old man starting talking to me, I had to run and get my friend Katrina to translate for me! I felt just a little bit silly. Our bell choir is composed of teachers, staff, and parents from the BFA community, and we have only been practicing for about a month. So yeah, we were a little rough around the edges during our first performance. But that's ok, because we still had fun! Plus, we get a chance to redeem ourselves this Sunday when we play at the Mennonite church in Basel, during their morning service. I haven't played bells since the spring of 2007, so it was really great to be playing challenging pieces and performing again. I wish this could be a year-round group.

Now that the middle of the week has passed, I need to focus on the next few days. Tomorrow I head up to Maug for my weekly dorm sub duties, and on Friday I am speaking in middle school chapel! EEK! I have an idea of what I would like to share, but I'm having a little trouble tying all the loose thoughts into a coherent message. Please pray for me as I share my heart with the middle schoolers on Friday. Pray also for our basketball teams, who will be playing in the first games of the season here at home this weekend, and for me as I am learning how to run the scoreboard and will be the official time keeper for two games! Double EEK!

I forgot to mention that today was another spirit day for middle schoolers, and the theme was Twin Day. Ironically, Mrs. Watson and I accidentally dressed like twins on Monday, two days before we were supposed to! Here are some pictures from Twin Day - click on them to make them bigger.

constellations, closets, and Christmas presents

This week was absolutely crazy, but in a good way. On Monday my 8th graders turned in their Shoebox Planetariums, and I suddenly found myself with 28 shoeboxes to grade! The project involved a bit of research on a specific constellation, and then compiling the info into a shoebox and turning the box into a viewer, with holes punched on one end of the box to represent the constellation. I had quite the pile of grading!

I spend the better part of three days wading through the grading of these projects, so anyone who entered the middle school office saw this interesting scene:

On Wednesday there was a traveling market in town, so I spent a few hours in the afternoon walking around with Julie, one of our student teachers. It was only in town for one day but it wasn't a Christmas market so I didn't feel too badly about rushing through parts of it. I did manage to find a few Christmas presents though! It will be a fun experience to buy Christmas presents somewhere other than Wal-Mart this year. Not that I don't love Wal-Mart...actually, there are some days when I REALLY miss it. But this year I have a chance to really put some thought into each person's gift and make them uniquely special. Ironically enough, this market reminded me of Wal-Mart because of all the random items being sold. You could buy anything from cookies and Christmas ornaments to soap and garden tools. One booth had every shape, size, and variety of brush ever thought of.

This week I also became aware of the fact that my desk has now become my closet. On Sunday morning I was getting ready for church and looking for my black dress shoes. After searching everywhere, I realized that they were at school! I walk to school each day, so I wear my tennis shoes for the walk and then change into nicer shoes when I arrive. There's no sense in toting my shoes back and forth each day, so I just keep them all under my desk. Thankfully I attend the church that meets at school, so I just got there a few minutes early and ran upstairs to get my dress shoes. I took this picture because the whole thing just cracks me up. Here you can even see my rain boots, which I have had many chances to wear!!

Finally, the end of the week arrived! After school on Friday I went out to Riedlingen to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Boettcher family. I had grilled cheese with the Maug boys on the actual night of Thanksgiving. Tim and Leslie are teachers in the high school and middle school, and their son Phil is in my 8th grade class. They also invited Susan, our middle school vice principal, Jerry and Lois DeRenzo (more staff at BFA), and one of their friends named Karen. I took this picture with the Boettchers to show my mom that a family did end up adopting me for Thanksgiving.

After eating a delicious meal, Phil and I rushed back to school with Hannah, another 8th grader who lives a few houses down. The science department hosted a video night, and we watched "The Privileged Planet." The main question was whether or not the Earth has any significance or purpose, or if we are just a lonely speck in the vast emptiness of space. It explored the suggestion that the earth was designed and specifically placed among the cosmos, and that it couldn't have been a coincidence. It was perfect for my 8th graders, who have just wrapped a three-month study of astronomy, and my 7th graders just finished discussing creation, evolution, and intelligent design. Naturally, I offered my science students an opportunity to earn extra credit by coming to the video night, staying for the discussion afterwards, and then doing a little writeup telling me what they learned from the experience. About 12 or 13 students showed up, which made me really happy! Even if their sole motivation was a few extra points, they were exposed to some intelligent discussion and mature interaction between Christians regarding scientific theories and ideas. Yep, I'm officially a nerd.

Tonight I'm going to the BFA Christmas banquet, and tomorrow I'm going to Basel to see my first Christmas market! It's officially the Christmas season!!

BFA Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I know I'm a week early for those of you in the States, but here at BFA we celebrate Thanksgiving a week early, for many reasons. It's not a German holiday so we don't get any time off from school, and since many of the families here are American, they still celebrate with other families. In order to allow for all the families who sub in the dorms to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with the dorm in which they sub, the dorms celebrate a week early. So last night I trotted up the hill to Maugenhard and enjoyed a wonderful candlelit dinner, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole (my first time - would you believe it?), sweet potatoes (unfortunately nowhere near Great Grandma Bertschi's delish dish), stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cheesecake, and pumpkin cheesecake. Yes, it was quite the feast. After the meal was done, the boys stood and shared things for which they were thankful. It was really good for me to hear what the guys had to say, and I wish you could have been there to see how honest and meaningful this time was. They certainly know how to count their blessings.

MMM...Thanksgiving food!! I'm not sure why, but whenever I eat Thanksgiving (or Christmas) food, I always arrange my food in a circle on my plate. Maybe it's because there are so many options and I don't want all the food to run together. But it doesn't end there - I also EAT my food in a circle, starting in one spot and then working my way around by eating one food at a time. I blame my mom for this one.

There was quite a crowd at the Maugenhard Thanksgiving, and the boys even got dressed up for dinner! Typically when I eat with them on Thursdays, I observe the boys scarfing down their food and disappearing to their rooms before I'm done eating. Tonight, however, they slowed down to enjoy their food and engage in conversations with their friends. Something about eating by candlelight calms even the rowdiest boys.

It's not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie and whipped cream. I couldn't resist. I got some strange looks when I started spreading out the whipped cream so that it covered every single spot of pie. David and I used to do this all the time when we were kids. Well, I'm sure he still does when given the chance, and apparently I still do too!

Of course, such a huge meal also requires a good deal of clean up! Thank goodness for gratises (chores) and an industrial dishwasher. This is what the kitchen looked like post-feast. There were lots of leftovers, sure to feed the hungry men of Maug for at least another day or so! I say that because we always think our leftovers from Thanksgiving last forever, but you would be surprised at how much food is consumed here at the dorms. I would not be in the least bit surprised to find that the food is gone before Monday.

Tim (student), Timmy (RA), and Maggie oversee the return to normalcy at Maug following the feast.

umsatzlos

The lockdown is almost over! For the last few days I've been volunteering at Palmgarten and Maugenhard doing everything from baking to chopping veggies to watching movies and playing Trivial Pursuit with students. On Saturday night I attended the high school play where, as I mentioned before, every member of the audience was required to wear a mask. I felt like an extra in the movie Outbreak. In all honesty, I think the masks were a bit of overkill, especially since the virus is not airborn. But hey, if this made people feel safe, great. I, on the other hand, felt like an idiot. From what I can tell, though, the worst is behind us and we should be able to resume classes tomorrow with most if not all students back to full health. Praise the Lord for that.

Yesterday I had an interesting cultural experience. Over the weekend Jill and I had stopped at the bank to check the balance on our German bank accounts. In the states you would put your debit card into the ATM and push the button for balance inquiry, but here they have special machines that do nothing BUT balance inquiries, and they print out little statements with holes punched in them, all ready to be placed into your little register book. So I stepped up to the machine, put in my card, and waited. Suddenly the screen said "konto umsatzlos" and spit my card back out. Thinking there was a problem with the machine, I put my card into the machine next to it, and the same thing happened. Jill didn't know what the word umsatzlos meant, but I knew konto meant "account" so something was fishy. Whatever the mysterious message was, it referred to my bank account! We wondered if maybe it had been disabled from lack of activity, but that couldn't be the case because I had used my account within the last month. Then again, stranger things have happened so I figured I'd have to come back when the bank was open and talk to a banker about the issue.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do just that, since school was cancelled and I was home during business hours. So I hopped over to the Volksbank and inserted my card into the machine one more time just to make sure it still said umsatzlos. It did. So I proceeded into the bank and greeted the woman at the desk. I asked if she spoke English, to which she replied, "Yes." So I held up my bank card and explained that when I put it into the machine, it tells me that my account is umsatzlos. I looked at her expectantly, while she looked back just as expectantly. She politely said, "Yes?" but looked at me as if she were thinking, "aaand?" So I asked her, "But what does that mean?"

She smiled at me and said, "It means the account balance has stayed the same."

Here I was thinking something was seriously wrong with my bank account and all it meant was that the account balance was unchanged! I guess if I had tried taking money out of the ATM I would have found that my account was just fine. This must be another way in which Germans are going green: there's no sense in printing out a new statement if there hasn't been any new activity on the account, so if your account balance is unchanged, then the machine knows not to print anything so as not to waste paper.

You learn something new every day.

this little piggie had swine flu; this little piggie had none

Over the last week we've had anywhere from 10-30 students out each day with flu-like symptoms or other illnesses. The German doctors are no longer testing everyone for swine flu because many insurance policies do not cover the test, but earlier this week one of my students was tested and it was confirmed that he did have the H1N1 strain of flu. He and his family have been quarantined in their house and will be allowed "out" again this upcoming Monday. In the meantime, the Gesundheitsamt (German health authorities) has threatened to close our school for 7 days. After having five more students and staff tested (with positive results), a compromise has been made that will hopefully be of best interest for everyone involved.

From yesterday at 4:00 until Tuesday, BFA has shut down and asked all staff and students to stay at home as much as possible. We are told to avoid all contact with the German community in an effort to prevent spreading the virus. Even if we don't all look sick, we have all been exposed and are all carriers. So there is no school on Monday or Tuesday, the announcement of which the students met with cheers and applause. The one thing that will go on as scheduled is the high school play, with one exception: all audience members are required to wear a mask. There are many friends and family members flying in from other parts of the world to see their children in the play and we don't want to risk exposing them to swine flu.

On Wednesday we will resume classes and practice "safe" procedures like extra hand-washing and avoiding physical contact. That means no kissing, kids!! But what many people do not understand is that because of the unique nature of our school, there is a possibility that cancelling school will do more harm than good. When the majority of our students reside in dorms, they will not be going back to the refuge of their own home, instead they will be going into the danger zone. However, it is believed that this will be the best thing for our host country and the surrounding German community of Kandern because we will keep it contained. All teaching staff are being asked to help out in the already under-staffed dorms by signing up for one 4-5 hour shift for each of the four days that we are "locked down."

Since I'm one of the healthier ones, I will be spending about 20 hours at Palmgarten and Maugenhard over the next for days. My first shift begins this afternoon at 2:00.

Please pray in the following ways:

• That I would remain healthy and my body would continue to fight off any germs that I will inevitably come in contact with this weekend
• That the other healthy staff and students would stay healthy
• That the sick staff and students would be healed
• That we all would get some much needed rest
• That we would be effective in preventing any further spread of H1N1, especially to the German community and the people coming in from out of town to see the high school play
• That the students would be mature, respectful of the rules, and understanding of why we must do this, and that they would find positive ways to spend their free time this weekend

the week after

Returning from my whirlwind London trip made for a very miserable Monday morning. I was having trouble working through my lesson plans before we left, so I wasn't completely prepared for school to begin again so soon. As a result, I stayed up way past my bedtime on Sunday night trying to finish my preparations and was not thrilled when my alarm clock woke me up only a few hours later. I don't think I've experiences tiredness to that degree since my junior year of college, and I don't intend to experience it again.

But I wasn't the only one wishing it were still the weekend. My first period students trudged into class and sat staring at me with glazed looks on their eyes, doing nothing to help the situation. I realized that I would need a plan B, and fast. Setting my lessons aside for a short time, I warmed the kids up by asking them about their weekends and their herbstmesse experiences and telling them about my crazy trip to London. Then, I led them in morning exercises that I used to do with my kids at Peace. Our last exercise was jogging laps around the classroom (which apparently the whole school could hear!) and as the students were returning to their seats and I turned to pick up my notes, I bumped into the whiteboard rather violently. Thinking I was just struggling with my depth perception I turned to face the students but happened to look down and saw that I had just ripped a two-inch hole in my pants! Evidently I snagged them on the little metal tray that holds the markers, and the students saw the whole thing. Brilliant. That definitely made the rest of the lesson interesting. After class I raced back to the office and found what appeared to be the only solution: the stapler. Yes, I stapled shut the hole in my pants, and no one was the wiser.

After lunch, I ended up going home because not only was I exhausted, but I was starting to feel sick again (probably picked up a bug on the Tube). So I climbed into bed and slept the afternoon away. The rest of the week sort of trudged on and while I did my best to get caught up again on sleep, I still found myself longing for the weekend.

On Thursday morning just before classes began, I found out that a good friend of mine had lost her sister the night before. While I didn't know her sister at all, I was deeply moved by my friend's loss and the suddenness of the whole thing. At that point, I wanted nothing more than to be in the States, holding my friend and being there for her during this incredibly hard time. The bell rang for homeroom and I tried to conduct myself normally, but knew almost immediately that I had to share this with my students and ask for their prayer. Each day I lead devotions and on Thursdays we spend our time simply thanking God for the things He has done for us. Each of their prayers were ones of thanks, and I was touched by the prayers they spoke over me, my friend, and her family. I can't even begin to express how thankful I am to be teaching at a school where I can share my burdens with my students and ask them to pray for me, and to be able to take time out of class to actually pray IN school. I'm also thankful for students who have experienced more hardships than the typical teenager and therefore know how to comfort others (including their teachers) who face similar struggles. Finally, I'm thankful to you for your role of prayer and financial support to keep me in this position. After class, one student just warmed my soul when she came to me, hugged me and said, "Miss Bertschi, thank you for teaching us, even though we know you don't want to be here today." What a blessing these children are to me.

After that, I had to jump the mile-high hurdle of parent teacher conferences. There was no school on Friday for middle school students; the tradeoff was that we had conferences. I was super nervous going into them, but I soon relaxed and was able to talk openly and honestly with the parents about their children and was pleased to find how involved, interested, and supportive the parents are of their children and what we as teachers do for them. Thank you for your role in allowing me to be here and minister to these families! After the day was over, I tallied up my appointments and realized I had a total of 33 conferences in 7 hours! That's a new one for the record books. At 4:00 I walked home, peeled off the pantyhose and climbed into my long johns for pizza and a movie with my roommate. I was so tired that I actually went to bed at 8:00.

So overall, it was a rather down week for me. But I don't tell you these things because I enjoy complaining, or because I want you to feel bad for me. I share them because I want you to understand all that is involved in my service here at BFA. Life is not all fun and games, and I'm not on an extended European vacation. Some days, life is just plain hard. But through it all, God is good. This is the third time in one post, but THANK YOU for whatever role you have played in getting me here this year. YOU have made a difference in the lives of these students.

herbstmesse

Every year the city of Basel, Switzerland holds its annual herbstmesse, or fall fair. It's somewhere between the county and state fair and includes carnival rides, bright lights, and LOTS of German food. So on Thursday October 29, the entire BFA community took six buses down to Basel and we literally invaded the city. Most of the rides are very expensive (think $6-10 per ride) but every year BFA buys a huge amount of tokens for one very fun ride and then sells them to the students for a discounted price of 1 Swiss Franc.

At such an unbeatable price, the bumper cars are where the action is! There isn't a line for the ride, simply a big open pit of bumper cars and a platform around the cars where customers stand and wait. The hard part is getting into a car because as soon as the cars begin to slow down there is a panicked mass of bodies running, pushing, elbowing, and weaseling their way into an empty seat in a car. To start the engine you insert your token, then hang on for the ride of your life. From 6:30-7:30 the middle schoolers had dibs on the cars, and then from 7:30-8:30 the high schoolers took over.

At first, I only planned to ride two or three times with a few of my students...but once I remembered how much fun bumper cars are (and how much MORE fun it is to crash into your students) I quickly bought more tokens. I lost count because sometimes I rode with a student or friend who paid, but overall I think it would be safe to say I rode the bumper cars about 15 times. Yes, I am STILL just a big kid at heart. It was great to experience the German tradition of herbstmesse and also spend some time with my students outside the classroom.

Here are a few more shots of my students. I didn't take a camera to Herbstmesse, so all of these photos are courtesy of Greg Storrs, Jill Musick, and Michelle Phoenix. What would I do without blogger and facebook?