Hello! Time is passing quickly here. I'm still enjoying my life just as much as before, yet I wonder if when things will begin to slow down or to at least settle into a pattern, whether my perspective will be different. It's hard to miss things back in the states simply because I don't have the time to. God has surrounded me with loving, welcoming people and a challenging work load; my mind has had no time to wander. I look forward to a time soon when I can slow down to reflect. I hope that comes this weekend.
The students have a four-day week because they leave on their senior trip to Rome (Junior trip to Normandy) this Thursday night. They'll be gone for 8 days - so I won't be teaching at all next week, rather preparing lessons and sitting in on other classes. This Friday, the 9th and 10th graders are going on field trips to some trenches and a concentration camp in France, respectively. I'll be going with the 10th graders to the concentration camp as a chaperone. I'm really looking forward to this, in a sobering way.
Today I taught my first, full, 50 minute lesson to Period 2. I don't think I could have started out with something more difficult. The entire class period was poetry analysis discussion over two sonnets. Not only is poetry difficult to make exciting for students, but discussion-leading skills are not my forte. Looking back on it, it didn't go poorly, but, I know I could have done much better, and left discouraged. For one thing, Jill's presence in the room made me nervous to teach on something she was so knowledgeable about. Secondly, it's my first time leading an analysis discussion with seniors. Thirdly, for a number of reasons I wasn't able to teach the lesson as I would have liked; it felt like I was trying to imitate someone else, and doing a poor job because it wasn't me. I look forward to being able to take the class on completely, and feeling the freedom to teach "my style." So, today did leave me feeling some uncertainty about whether I'll ever be really good at discussion leading. My perfectionism is kicking in, and I understand it just takes practice, but I still can't help but feeling that I want to do it perfectly NOW. The more I see Jill teach and hear her talk, the more I realize how little I actually know about teaching, and even about my content. This has a twofold effect on me: to work hard to become better, and to feel too intimidated to even try. I would appreciate prayer, that I would laugh at my mistakes and allow them to motivate me to press on even more diligently.
On to Tickets and God's provision. This weekend, Julie and I sat down to buy tickets for an upcoming weekend trip to London. The school has one day off this entire semester, and we are looking forward to using that 3-day weekend to travel! Previously, we had looked online for tickets and found them at $75 a ticket. We thought this a great deal, but when we were ready to buy, the deal was no longer there without a near alternative. We were disappointed but tried looking at another recommended airline. To our amazement, the second airline was offering roundtrip tickets for $25 a ticket on the exact dates we needed ($42 once you include "processing fees" i.e. hidden charges. Yes, I've learned this is universal and not just in America :). We were amazed! We kept double checking the deal to find a loophole, but never found one. We immediately bought the tickets and went on to look at lodging. One of our first hits was for a hostel called "the clink." Ranging from between $15-30 a night, this hostel looked nice and clean and is centrally-located at Kings Cross St. (Yes, Platform 9 3/4 really exists there, and yes, we are going to find it. :) Praise God! All for under $100! For the Brits, I'm sorry that the pound is so weak, but it's sure great for tourists! :)
The great ending to this story is that an hour later Julie and I walked over to a Bible study we are doing with some other young, single BFA teachers, who upon hearing of our great deal, immediately bought tickets to join us. So now, on October 30, we five girls are traveling to London to see as much as we can in 48 hours! Of all the places I could visit, London is my first pick, so I'm very excited.
I'll end with a funny story. I'm making tacos for dinner tonight, so I made a list of ingredients and stopped at the grocery store on my way home from the Post Office. While in Germany last year, I often went to the grocery store and did all my own shopping and cooking. Though I haven't shopped yet this time around, I thought, "no biggie, been there done that." Upon entering the store, I suddenly remembered how little German I knew, but still managed to find the sour cream (Sauerrahm), lettuce, and tortillas quickly enough. After unsuccessfully searching around to find the ground meat, I realized with great consternation that I was going to have to buy it from the deli.
I slowly walked over to the deli and made a few preliminary, "casual" passes to scope out the scene. It looked like people were lining up along the meat glass windows, waiting to be helped. On one such pass, I made a close inspection of the meats and prices. "Should I just go back to the house and grab Maria to find the pre-packaged meat?" I thought. "I don't want to pay an extraordinary amount for the 'nicer' meat, and I especially don't want to try to communicate in front of all these people." Finally, eyeing what looked to be the closet thing to ground beef there and feeling desperate to buy some and get out, I took my spot in line and thought about what I would say. I could point at the meat and say "eins pound." Thus far, I've been able to get along fine with "danke", "Hallo," and my pitiful knowledge of German numbers. Hopefully, she'd know what "pound" meant. I envisioned myself walking home with a huge bag of ground beef and explaining all the ways we could use it in dishes for the next 2 weeks. The line slowly trinkled down till I was next up. I almost had my very short speech down when I looked a little closer at the sign next to the ground meat. I suddenly remembered that Germans use the gram weight system, not the pound! I could feel my heart freeze. I quickly tried to remember the conversion between pounds and grams. Was a kilogram close to a pound? Was it significantly more, less? Did I know any other size grams come in besides the kilo?- no. No time to think, I was next. She flung a string of German at me. I pointed accusingly at the meat and blurted out "eins......."
I can't really remember what happened next except that I think she filled in "kilo" after my stuttering to which I quickly nodded my head. She seemed to think that was an appropriate amount. I watched her scoop out a fair-sized piece and weigh it at .755. I figured that looked like enough and motioned that I was happy with that. I was very thankful to say my "danke" and to walk quickly away. Oh boy, what a traumatizing experience. I was thankful that I had at least remembered to bring a basket from home to carry my purchases in. (fyi, we still ended up having extra meat after dinner and are currently planning on having a nice red meat sauce and pasta for tomorrow night's dinner
Thanks for reading. :)
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