The second half of last week flew by as I met with the middle school staff for the first time, found my classroom, began working on lesson plans, and started setting up my classroom for the beginning of the school year. I found out that I will be teaching three classes this year: 6th grade math, 7th grade science (life science), and 8th grade science (earth science). Additionally, I'll have an 8th grade homeroom. The 8th grade is so large (29 kids) that it is being split into two sections this year so I'll have one for homeroom and teach two sections of earth science. I'm also what's called a class sponsor for the 8th grade, which basically means I will be involved in all aspects of the 8th graders' educational and social experiences this year, attending all of their events and getting to spend quite a bit of time with them. It also means I will be chaperoning the 8th grade week-long class trip to Lugano, Switzerland next spring during the middle school's "Experiential Learning Week"... more details about that much later.
After kind of a crazy week, I was fortunate to have quite a bit of fun and relaxing things to do this weekend. Friday night I went with new staff into Basel, Switzerland to do some sightseeing and explore the town. Basel is the nearest "big city", feeling a bit like Chicago with crowded sidewalks, buses, and five Starbucks. Kristi took us on a walking tour and showed us a church, the Rathaus (town hall) and the Rhine River. There was a jazz festival going on, so the river was especially crowded. The Rhine River has such a strong curreny that the ferry (which we took) is simply attached to a line that runs across, and all the boat operator does is turn the rudder and the current carries it across. We literally crossed the river in about 1 minute's time!
We had a delicious lunch on the streets of Loerrach, where I ordered my meal in German for the first time! We had currywurst, which was a brat chopepd up and covered in an amazingly delicious curry sauce. I didn't think I liked curry, but apparantly I thought wrong. We topped off our meals with pretzels and apfelchorle: sparkling apple juice, my current Deutsch drink of choice. From there, the three of us went to a thrift store in search of a few things we are still looking for to have in our apartments. I found a hiking backpack very similar to the one I took to Minnesota, but about 2/3 the size, in extremely good condition, for only 5 Euro! It will definitely come in handy for things like weeklong class field trips to Switzerland...
After an adventurous afternoon, Jill and I returned home to work on our lesson preparations. When I left school on Friday I was feeling very overwhelmed with the lack of progress I'd been making on my lesson plans, but on Saturday afternoon I managed to get my first unit of Life Science outlines, and 6 of the 11 lessons written.
As a reward for all of our hard work, Jill and I treated ourselves to dessert at the Eiscafe, an Italian ice cream parlor around the corner from our house. They may not have Graham Central Station in a waffle cone, but ice cream is only .60 a scoop, and they have the cutest desserts! Their most famous seems to be the Spaghetti Eis, consisting of vanilla ice cream run through a spaghetti maker, smothered in strawberry sauce, and sprinkled with crushed almond "parmesan cheese". Delicious!! I am proud to say that I also made this order in German. I'm slowly making progress. After we ate, Jill taught me how to count to 20. Now that I have Euro in my wallet, I need to know how to count it.
After kind of a crazy week, I was fortunate to have quite a bit of fun and relaxing things to do this weekend. Friday night I went with new staff into Basel, Switzerland to do some sightseeing and explore the town. Basel is the nearest "big city", feeling a bit like Chicago with crowded sidewalks, buses, and five Starbucks. Kristi took us on a walking tour and showed us a church, the Rathaus (town hall) and the Rhine River. There was a jazz festival going on, so the river was especially crowded. The Rhine River has such a strong curreny that the ferry (which we took) is simply attached to a line that runs across, and all the boat operator does is turn the rudder and the current carries it across. We literally crossed the river in about 1 minute's time!Saturday morning Jill and I went with Suzanne (piano teacher) into Loerrach. First we went to the Musikhaus, a music store, becuase she needed to have some repairs done on school flutes. While we were there, the three of us music lovers played around with all the wonderful instruments on display. The staff was very kind and had no problems letting us play! The downstairs was devoted to stringed instruments . . . I picked up a guitar, Jill picked up a violin, and we jammed! We even recorded a little video we like to call "The Last Day of School: Deutsch Remix."
We had a delicious lunch on the streets of Loerrach, where I ordered my meal in German for the first time! We had currywurst, which was a brat chopepd up and covered in an amazingly delicious curry sauce. I didn't think I liked curry, but apparantly I thought wrong. We topped off our meals with pretzels and apfelchorle: sparkling apple juice, my current Deutsch drink of choice. From there, the three of us went to a thrift store in search of a few things we are still looking for to have in our apartments. I found a hiking backpack very similar to the one I took to Minnesota, but about 2/3 the size, in extremely good condition, for only 5 Euro! It will definitely come in handy for things like weeklong class field trips to Switzerland...
After an adventurous afternoon, Jill and I returned home to work on our lesson preparations. When I left school on Friday I was feeling very overwhelmed with the lack of progress I'd been making on my lesson plans, but on Saturday afternoon I managed to get my first unit of Life Science outlines, and 6 of the 11 lessons written. 
As a reward for all of our hard work, Jill and I treated ourselves to dessert at the Eiscafe, an Italian ice cream parlor around the corner from our house. They may not have Graham Central Station in a waffle cone, but ice cream is only .60 a scoop, and they have the cutest desserts! Their most famous seems to be the Spaghetti Eis, consisting of vanilla ice cream run through a spaghetti maker, smothered in strawberry sauce, and sprinkled with crushed almond "parmesan cheese". Delicious!! I am proud to say that I also made this order in German. I'm slowly making progress. After we ate, Jill taught me how to count to 20. Now that I have Euro in my wallet, I need to know how to count it.This week is All Staff Conference, one of only three times that the entire BFA staff is together at the same time. I shared my testimony this morning with other new staff members, and tomorrow we will hear more stories. The mornings are pretty packed but we have the afternoons to continue in preparations for the beginning of school!
Some prayer requests:
- Construction at Palm/Maug
- ResLife staff and dorm preparation
- Teachers and classroom preparation
- Families preparing to say their goodbyes
- Continued progress at adjusting to German culture and language
- For a few more people to join my monthly support team - I'm still not at 100%
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