Hey hey everyone! Or as the Germans say, “halli-hallo!” Even better still, as the Bavarians say, “servus!”
It’s been a little while since my last post, and for good reason. So, here it goes.
I arrived at Basel-Mulhouse airport, which sits on the Swiss-French border, on August 31. From there, I traveled by bus to Freiburg im Breisgau, where I studied for a semester last year. I stayed with my friend (who I met at Penn State while she was studying abroad) and her family. Visiting Freiburg once again was great. It was truly a pleasure to visit my old stomping grounds; the centuries-old church, the university cafeteria, the biergarten on top of a mountain…I even gave a tour to the new students on the program in which I participated!
On September 4, I packed up all my things, a large camping backpack, a medium-sized gym bag and a laptop case, and headed to Freiburg’s Hauptbanhof (main train station). There I boarded a train for Aachen by way of Cologne. Aachen is a small city right on the German-Dutch border. It is a historically significant city, because its main cathedral was not only the seat of Charlemagne’s empire, but also houses Charlemagne’s mortal remains (among other relics). Furthermore, Aachen was the first German city reached by American forces in the European Theater during World War II. The city itself is rather small; I saw the historic center of Aachen in about 2 hours. Capitalism has struck the city well, as the old city streets are now lined with grocery stores, department stores, souvenir stores, and so on. While there, I stayed with my friend who I met while she was doing a residency abroad at the hospital where my father works.
On September 8, I once again packed up all my things and boarded a train back to Cologne, where I joined 179 other native English speakers. We traveled by bus to Altenberg, a pleasant small town outside of Cologne. There, we had our orientation conference. Most of the people were Americans, although there were also people from Canada, Australia, Ireland, England and Scotland. I was delighted to find out that there would be 2 other Americans in Nuremberg, one of whom was my roommate. He’s from Arizona and attended Fordham University in New York City. We’ve been in close contact and have met up twice since we arrived in Nuremberg. Anyways, the conference was good, save for my being slightly under the weather. I met 2 other Penn Staters and several people who had also done the same study abroad program as I did, albeit different semesters. We learned about making lesson plans, and did a sample 45-minute lesson in groups.
On September 11, I once more packed my things (notice a pattern here?) and boarded a train for Nuremberg by way of Frankfurt. I spent the train ride to Frankfurt talking with one of my colleagues who was on a train bound for Thueringia, the small federal state which borders Bavaria to the north. She got off at Frankfurt’s airport train station, while I had one more to go, Frankfurt’s Hauptbanhof. Well, the train was scheduled to arrive at 4:13PM on track 1, and my connecting train to Nuremberg was scheduled to leave at 4:21 from track 4. Well, as good fortune would have it, my train arrived in Frankfurt at 4:19 on track (to quote Dave Barry, “I am not making this up”) 18. So, with two minutes to spare, I dashed through the train station, all the while dreading having to explain to the person picking me up in Nuremberg that I’d be a little late. I weaved my way through the intricate series of obstacles: baby carriages, oversized rolling luggage, Euro-trendy teenagers decked out in white, pink, purple and green, guffawing German businesspeople, and so on. By the time I arrived at track 4, it was 4:22 and the train was still there. I leapt on board, and had to take off my backpack in the foyer to rest for a minute. This was probably the only time I’ll ever be happy that a train I was taking was running late.
I arrived at Nuremberg’s Hauptbanhof and was greeted by my Betreuungslehrerin (beh-troy-ungs-lair-er-in; “mentor teacher,” or simply the teacher with whom I’ll be working). I presented her with the bottle of wine I had purchased for her, and she drove me to the youth hostel where I’d be staying for a few days. I was originally supposed to stay with the schoolmaster, but due to some slight miscommunication he was out of town and was unable to have me stay at his house. So, I spent 3 nights at a youth hostel. This youth hostel is actually set inside Nuremberg’s famous imperial castle, one time the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. After answering a few questions, the teacher left and I went out and explored the city. I was by this point in time quite hungry, and asked the front desk clerk for a suggestion. He recommended a Doener place to me (Doener is a popular German-Turkish dish; it’s shaved meat with mixed vegetables and yogurt sauce in a piece of thick flat bread). We had a lost in translation moment, actually. He told me where his favorite Doener place was located. The German expression of favorites is stated by the prefix “Lieblings-“ and then whatever the favorite thing is (for example, Lieblingsmannschaft is favorite sports team). However, outside of this context the root word “lieb” usually pertains to love. So rather, he said “here is where you can find my loveliest Doener.” Unfortunately, his loveliest Doener stand was closed, so I had to settle for McDonald’s. It was not a total loss; I finally got to try a McRib sandwich. I’ll never have one again, either.
Well, I can sum my first impression of Nuremberg in one word; nay, one syllable: “wow.” This city is amazing! The city screams history, with its old bridges, churches, and town squares. I very much enjoyed meandering the cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways. I can’t really sum up how I feel about this place in one paragraph; I’ve only been here for a few days, and I love it already, but I also have another 10 months to describe it!
Two days ago, I received a phone call from my schoolmaster. He had returned, and would pick me up the next day at noon. So I once more packed up all my things and he drove me to his house, just north of the historic city center. I went to one of my schools today for a teacher conference, and had to introduce myself to a roomful of German teachers, of course, in German. It wasn’t difficult at all.
As far as I know, I’ll be working at 2 schools. Both are roughly equivalent to American high schools, but students often come at a younger age and stay until a later age. I’ll be working between the age groups of 13 and 16, providing the expertise that only a native speaker of English can provide.
It’s almost 11PM and I’m tired, so I’ll call it quits here. More to come, of course!
Heilig Geist Spital (Holy Spirit Hospital, the one on the left) was a hospital in medieval times, then a location for the city's lepers, and is now a restaurant. It sits on the Pegnitz River
Nuremberg's Imperial Castle. Inside, there is a youth hostel. So, for the first few days, you could say I lived in a castle!
