Hamlet and Barry's Noodle Bake

Dear Friends,

It's been a while since an update. Things are busy as usual. This week went well; I'm getting more and more into the routine of teaching, yet still have a few "settling in" things to wrap up - my passport comes back tomorrow!

This week I had the opportunity to talk with one of my students who has demonstrated issues with authority (specifically, female) in class. He has a rough background: abandoned by his father at a young age, brother commited suicide a few years ago. We have a fun/bantering relationship in class, but I can tell, and am wary, that if I need to use my "teacher authority" on him, sparks will be sure to fly. Already, when I ask him to do something, he does it begrudgingly. Anyway, I talked to him after class one day, and asked him if he would tell me how he would like me to correct him. I told him that I knew he didn't like authority over him, and asked how he would take correction best. He seemed surprised and pleased that a teacher would ask him this. The conversation ended up taking about 30 minutes as we got off onto topics about doctrine, authoritative institutions and their purpose, and the origin of truth and morality. He asked some good, challenging questions, and I appreciated that he was a thinker and was observant enough to ask them. Yet, his thoughts evidence a faulty groundwork and perspective. More a result of ignorance and imaturity, I believe, than anything else. I think he'll have quite a worldview challenge and wake-up call when he goes to college. However, I was so glad for this connection and time with him. I had been wanting to find ways to connect spiritually with my students, specifically some of them - this young man being one. I look forward to more opportunities like this. These type of conversations are part of the reason that I teach.

This Saturday I took a day trip to Freiburg where Heidi Forman works at Starbucks. Julie and I both went and had fun exploring the town. It was nice to get away from the "BFA bubble" for a while. It felt nice to make my own choices as well. Living without a cell/car and with a host family takes away a lot of my opportunities to make personal choices and decisions. Things like what/when I eat, how I dress, where I go, and things I do. My last 3-4 years have had varying levels of independence between going back and forth between Cedarville and home and between high school and college. For instance, I am more restricted now in what I can do than I was over the summer, yet I've more entered the "professional" world now by teaching, than I had this summer. Typically, I think independent living and entering the professional world would come hand in hand, and while my time teaching here has taught me a lot, it really hasn't prepared me for teaching in the states - not that I really expected it to. I wanted to teach at BFA for the things it can teach me about the international world, missionary community, and MK students, but I still have much to learn about living on my own, teaching American public school students, and working with secular but professional co-workers. So, I wonder what kind of growing/learning I will have to do yet again when I get my first teaching job. More on this later.

Following my Freiburg day, which consisted of two trips to free Starbucks, shopping, meeting random Germans, and getting lost because I lost the map, I got back to the house, changed, and then went with a friend to a local German "dance." I say that in quotations because it ended up being more of a social than a dance, as many people didn't enter the dance floor, but it was interesting to observe how Germans have parties and to get to know the lady, Anne, I went with a little better. I think we'll be good friends for the rest of my time here. She's a really strong Christian and works with ESL students at BFA, and we both have a shared interest in dance. She studies foreign languages and our conversations have really motivated me to want to learn German when I get back to the states.

Last week on of my students invited me to her dorm, Palmgarten, for Sunday lunch. The dorm has 19 female students, 11 of whom are in my classes. It was fun to see them outside of the school setting and to be able to talk with them more personably. We played a game which I want to find when I get back to the states that was hillarious! It involved lots of charades and random acting and is a perfect party game. It makes you get out of your element - I had to act out different scenarios like "Tell your daughter you just ran over her favorite pet" and "Show the transformation of a werewolf in a full moon" and " Pretend you're a ghost and scare everyone away." I was glad to act goofy in front of my students and one of my student's visiting parents, and it did make me get out of my comfort zone.

Now, I am starting week 6, and can't believe that this week marks the halfway point. The time has literally flown by! This week we finish Hamlet (we read the last part today). The next 3 (and final) weeks of my teaching will be over Renaissance poetry. I'm not looking forward to this section as much because it will be harder to teach and maintain interest, and I am not as prepared.

This past Friday I cooked for the Formans, my favorite recipe, Barry's Noodle Bake. It's a noodle/tomato/ground beef/ sour cream caserole mix and is o-so-good. Yum! Here's a picture of the caserole, and Heidi and I accidentally matching.