Teaching—Take 1

10-6-09

Today I taught my first lessons. Such fun. I really like the teachers I am working with, and all the kids seemed to be very interest in my introduction. Teaching is like acting—if you put on a good show, the audience will love you and participate more. I've got a lot to work on as far as putting on a good show goes, but for a first go of it, it wasn't all that bad.

In all three classes there was time for the kids to ask questions, and I shared a lot of great stories with them. I think that their favorite was a story about me in shopping in Austria. I was in a grocery store getting some essentials, and I was looking at some of the myriad sausage varieties. I knew that I was looking at a sausage in the braunschweiger family (liverwurst), but I was not positive that the stuff didn't need to be cooked first. It's pretty weird shopping here—since everything has a different name and packaging it can be tough to recognize the foods I want. Anyway, I asked a little old lady if she could help me for a second. She jumped about a foot in the air and glared at me like I was a leper, or about to offer her a life insurance policy. I quickly explained that I was not an insurance salesman and that I really only wanted to know if I needed to cook the Streichwurst before eating it. She told me no (which I had already suspected) and asked where I am from that I didn't know that. I told her, and she asked me why I don't know what Streichwurst is. I told her that the US has a dearth of sausage on the market—to which she replied: "Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that. It must have been hard growing up there." I couldn't make this up.

After school I came back home, but left my introduction artwork there. After cursing for a while I went and opened a bank account (so I can get paid) and bought a new piece of poster paper to make a new intro poster. When I got back to Kolpinghaus I started drawing again. Not long thereafter, the headmaster of Kolpinghaus knocked on the door and gave me a full tour of the building and let me in on some of the secrets the administrator conveniently left out. There is a weight room, a shooting gallery, free internet, a bar with a kegeln alley (a game similar to bowling, only the balls are smaller and have no holes), and much much more. For twenty of my two hundred Euros per month a lady cleans my room and empties my trash for me. And for another small fee (twenty to thirty Euros per month) she will do my laundry as well. Pretty nice deal. Added to that, the manager is giving me a bike to use for the year, and outfitted my room with two lamps and a microwave. He also expressed his regret that I spent my money on a pot, fry pan and other kitchen equipment because he had a full regalia of cooking supplies ready for me.