Back to Work

It's back to (real) work for both of us this week.  I say that because Paul had to work part-time all last week too.  He's a trooper.  A barnacle-nurturing trooper.

I woke up this morning in a panic because I realized that after spending a week completely in vacation-land, I have half a German workbook to complete, a Master's course to start, another German project to start and finish, an English lesson to plan, and a GIS freelance contract to wrap up all before Wednesday.

Huh.  That should be fun.

But aaaanyway, check out these aqua-vases I found for 3 euro.  I got them because there are tulips for sale in the street markets.  I think the purchasing process for vases and flowers is usually the other way around...

That's how we roll in the eastern hemisphere.

Tuesday/Dienstag

I always feel nervous on Tuesdays now.  I have until 3:15pm to wait around at home and get all worked up about my English lectures.  I kind of wish I taught at 8am just so I could get the nervousness over with.  It always turns out desk-knockable and fun, but still, teaching really is like putting on a one-woman show with a paying audience every single week.  And no one likes the thought of getting tomatoes thrown at them, metaphorically or otherwise.

I totally had another stress dream last night.  They come once every six or so months and they are all variations on the same theme.  I have to go somewhere really important that can't be delayed and I have to do about fifteen really small things that may not seem significant on their own, but when you have to do all of them very quickly it gets nerve-wracking.  And of course, in these dreams, one of those small things goes completely wrong and all heck in the world breaks loose.

I think that's what's going on in my subconscious on Tuesdays when I'm worrying about teaching.  I'm paranoid that I'm going to forget one tiny thing, like forgetting to bring chalk for the board, and everything will go horribly, horribly wrong because of it.

I know this isn't logical.  I'm just telling you about my day.

Today is especially jittery because it's my first day of German class.  What do I wear to school?  What supplies do I bring?  Will they speak in English at all?  Will I sit in the front or the back?  Where do I buy my book?  Will the teacher forget her chalk and break out all heck in the world?

The deep, ponderous questions of the universe.

I'm going to go eat some stir fry.

Desk-Knock Success!

The Hallowed Halls of Ulmenstrasse Campus
(The Building Where I Teach)

I've learned a lot of things from my English conversation students so far.

"Licking" is teenage slang for kissing, for example.  I discovered this when we were playing catch-phrase and a student had to describe "licking" for the others to guess.  She started out, "It is like when a man and a woman really like each other..."   You can imagine the look of utter confusion and suppressed horror on my face.

After we cleared up our mutual misunderstanding on that one, I told them that I'd probably end up licking my husband when I went home--which was hilarious to everyone involved.

Or, I also learned that there's a holiday called "Carnival" here.  When I followed up by asking if people threw plastic bead necklaces from parade floats and women wore feathers and glitter and did the Samba, well, you can imagine their looks of utter confusion and suppressed horror as they explained that, no, in fact, Carnival was during January and February (feathers and glitter indeed!) and involved paper lanterns, various sweet breads, and occasionally roller coasters.

Though...I'm still unsure about the roller-coasters thing since, when I expressed surprise that there would be roller-coasters in, you know, the fraggin' middle of the freakin' winter, all the students gave me a look that said, "Well, when else would you have roller coasters?"

There was a slight communication breakdown at that point.