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?