Ready to get our Volksfest on!!!
Yummy chickens!!!
Dancing on the benches
Proof that Alfons was on the benches too!!!
Can you spot the lederhosen???
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Stuttgart Cannstatter Volksfest
While most people know about the Oktoberfest celebrations in Munich, Germany, few people realize that the Stuttgart Cannstatter Volksfest is actually the oldest celebration of that kind. Alfons and I, along with some friends from an English-speaking expat group, went last Saturday night for great beer, great food, great music and great fun!! See for yourself...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Explaining English
If you haven't noticed, it's been a while since my last blog. That's because I'm finally teaching! Once I have my lessons planned, I hope to blog more regularly again, but for now, I'm brushing up on my grammar skills from way back when!
It's much harder than I thought it would be to explain the language I've been speaking for nearly 30 years. Below are some things my students have asked me in my first two weeks. YOU try to explain them!!!
What's the difference between "rise" and "raise?"
Why can't I put "ing" on the word "need?"
Why doesn't the word "funny" describe something that is "fun?"
Why does "clothes" sound like "close?"
Can I describe scenery for a movie as "cute?"
Are the job titles "accounter" and "musicist" right?
Can I ask "How many luggage are you taking?"
Why do "pear" and "pair" sound the same?
It's much harder than I thought it would be to explain the language I've been speaking for nearly 30 years. Below are some things my students have asked me in my first two weeks. YOU try to explain them!!!
What's the difference between "rise" and "raise?"
Why can't I put "ing" on the word "need?"
Why doesn't the word "funny" describe something that is "fun?"
Why does "clothes" sound like "close?"
Can I describe scenery for a movie as "cute?"
Are the job titles "accounter" and "musicist" right?
Can I ask "How many luggage are you taking?"
Why do "pear" and "pair" sound the same?
Monday, September 20, 2010
My First Day of School
I started teaching English today. What a day!!!
As a new teacher, it's tough to know how long activities will take in class, especially when you don't know the language level of your students before you arrive. While I made tentative schedules to follow for each class, I had to make adjustments and improvise throughout the day. Luckily, I'm fairly good at thinking on my feet when I need to!!!
The biggest adjustment was at my last class from 5-8pm. I arrived WAY early and talked to the students who walked in a few minutes before 5, but didn't notice until just after 5 that none of the students had books, so I had to make copies...quickly! I thought they'd take it out on me for not having their materials ready (which I had nothing to do with), but they didn't mind once I handed them the copies. We actually had a great three-hour class and I was able to share my MBA knowledge to teach them about entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
The language levels here are as follows from the least amount of knowledge to native speaker: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. My classes range from A2 to B2, so there's quite a difference in the vocabulary they know and the grammar rules they are familiar with. It's tough to switch from one class to another in the mornings when I have a B2 group from 8-9:30, an A2 group from 9:30-11 and an A1 group from 11-12:30. I have to slow down my pace as the day goes, which is harder than getting faster as the day progresses.
Another tough thing is that some students learn faster than others. As the teacher, it's important for me to keep the faster learners from getting bored, while not overwhelming the students who need more time. That's my objective for two of my classes, as the knowledge gap is quite large from one student to another.
Finally, I have always known that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes with teachers, but never realized how difficult it truly is to prepare for classes and be ready to take any questions that are likely to arise. As the "expert" in the room, I feel like I should be able to answer any question, but today an A2 students asked "what's the difference between 'do you have some money' and 'do you have any money?'" I know when to use each one, but it's hard to explain on the spot! I know experience will help me with this one!
Almost forgot...the icing on the cake of the day was when I pulled out of the last company (it was dark), I thought the two lanes were for left turns and right turns. WRONG! It was for travel going in two different directions, so I was sitting in the lane of oncoming traffic. Luckily no one was turning into the company since it was late, but all my students saw me pull into an imaginary lane trying to turn where I wasn't supposed to. I hope they forget that happened before our next class on Monday!!!
As a new teacher, it's tough to know how long activities will take in class, especially when you don't know the language level of your students before you arrive. While I made tentative schedules to follow for each class, I had to make adjustments and improvise throughout the day. Luckily, I'm fairly good at thinking on my feet when I need to!!!
The biggest adjustment was at my last class from 5-8pm. I arrived WAY early and talked to the students who walked in a few minutes before 5, but didn't notice until just after 5 that none of the students had books, so I had to make copies...quickly! I thought they'd take it out on me for not having their materials ready (which I had nothing to do with), but they didn't mind once I handed them the copies. We actually had a great three-hour class and I was able to share my MBA knowledge to teach them about entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
The language levels here are as follows from the least amount of knowledge to native speaker: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. My classes range from A2 to B2, so there's quite a difference in the vocabulary they know and the grammar rules they are familiar with. It's tough to switch from one class to another in the mornings when I have a B2 group from 8-9:30, an A2 group from 9:30-11 and an A1 group from 11-12:30. I have to slow down my pace as the day goes, which is harder than getting faster as the day progresses.
Another tough thing is that some students learn faster than others. As the teacher, it's important for me to keep the faster learners from getting bored, while not overwhelming the students who need more time. That's my objective for two of my classes, as the knowledge gap is quite large from one student to another.
Finally, I have always known that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes with teachers, but never realized how difficult it truly is to prepare for classes and be ready to take any questions that are likely to arise. As the "expert" in the room, I feel like I should be able to answer any question, but today an A2 students asked "what's the difference between 'do you have some money' and 'do you have any money?'" I know when to use each one, but it's hard to explain on the spot! I know experience will help me with this one!
Almost forgot...the icing on the cake of the day was when I pulled out of the last company (it was dark), I thought the two lanes were for left turns and right turns. WRONG! It was for travel going in two different directions, so I was sitting in the lane of oncoming traffic. Luckily no one was turning into the company since it was late, but all my students saw me pull into an imaginary lane trying to turn where I wasn't supposed to. I hope they forget that happened before our next class on Monday!!!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Bringing Back the Mustache
The Wilhelma Zoo & Botanical Gardens is one of the top attractions in Stuttgart. It has amazing animals and plants of all kinds. While we saw lots of typical zoo animals like giraffes, elephants and tigers, these were my favorite!!!
(Background noise on video is loud...sorry!)
And here are some gorgeous shots of the gardens...
What Goes Up - Must Come Down
There's an old elevator open to the public in the Rathaus (Townhall) in downtown Stuttgart. Dad and I visited it during his trip! It's called a Paternoster. You can see more information about the mechanics and remaining locations around the world at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Do you like THIS blue or THIS blue?
Alfons said I could redecorate some things at the condo, so I've been spending some of my free time looking for inspiration for each room. I try not to pick things that are too girly and luckily he and I like most of the same colors and designs. We haven't painted any walls yet, but here's our progress so far...
BEDROOM BEFORE
BEDROOM AFTER
SMALL BATHROOM BEFORE
SMALL BATHROOM AFTER
(those are seashells on the wall)
TERRACE BEFORE
TERRACE AFTER
(we built this new door and the bench is gone now too)
Monday, September 6, 2010
One Potato, Two Potato
Our friends are hobby farmers and several weeks back they asked if we would help harvest their potatoes since it takes at least three extra people. I didn't know what exactly we were signing up for, but we said, "sure!"
So Saturday morning we got the call that it was potato harvesting day and that we should meet them at the field at 4pm. It was a gorgeous day outside, so we put on our work clothes that afternoon and headed about 5 miles away to their field.
We arrived just as the potato machine was pulling up. I had no idea how this thing worked, but I was about to get my first lesson. There were three conveyor belts on the machine: one big one in the middle and a smaller one on each side of that. There was enough room for three people to stand on each side of the machine, and thank goodness for that, because it took all the hands we could get. This crazy machine dug up the dirt where the potatoes were growing and put the potatoes and dirt on the conveyor belts. It took the small clumps (assuming they were dirt) and shoved them to the small outside belts, while the larger clumps (assuming they were potatoes) were shoved down the big middle belt where they landed in a large bin that would be transferred to a truck later.
Our job was to get the dirt out of the middle belt and put it on the outside belts, while also checking the small outside belt on our side for little potatoes that should be on the middle belt. For both jobs, we had to watch our fingers so they didn't get caught in either belt. The belts were only made of little metal bars going across about every inch (so dirt could fall through), so it was easy to get yourself stuck in between the bars.
You'd think with six people at one time that this task wouldn't be so difficult, but sometimes we'd have to yell at the man driving the tractor to stop for a minute, because there were more clumps of dirt than we could fish out in time! It was crazy!
I asked if anyone knew about "I Love Lucy" and her time spent at the chocolate factory. (Unfortunately, they didn't.) That's exactly how I felt! The conveyor belt was going so fast and we couldn't keep up watching both belts....dirt here...potatoes there! I kept yelling to the other side, "save the little ones," because I could see them falling off their side when they were too busy getting the dirt out of the middle.
There were eight rows of potatoes to harvest and each row took about 15 or 20 minutes on the machine. After the 4th row was done, our shift replacements arrived so a couple people could take a break. We told the replacements how fast we had to work and sure enough, their first row was a piece of cake with very little dirt on the main belt. They thought we were crazy, until they experienced the madness during their second row.
After our evening of harvesting, our friends made dinner for all six of their helpers. It was delicious, but I want to know when I'm getting my free potatoes!!! Hahahaha!!!
(Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this. I forgot my camera that day.)
So Saturday morning we got the call that it was potato harvesting day and that we should meet them at the field at 4pm. It was a gorgeous day outside, so we put on our work clothes that afternoon and headed about 5 miles away to their field.
We arrived just as the potato machine was pulling up. I had no idea how this thing worked, but I was about to get my first lesson. There were three conveyor belts on the machine: one big one in the middle and a smaller one on each side of that. There was enough room for three people to stand on each side of the machine, and thank goodness for that, because it took all the hands we could get. This crazy machine dug up the dirt where the potatoes were growing and put the potatoes and dirt on the conveyor belts. It took the small clumps (assuming they were dirt) and shoved them to the small outside belts, while the larger clumps (assuming they were potatoes) were shoved down the big middle belt where they landed in a large bin that would be transferred to a truck later.
Our job was to get the dirt out of the middle belt and put it on the outside belts, while also checking the small outside belt on our side for little potatoes that should be on the middle belt. For both jobs, we had to watch our fingers so they didn't get caught in either belt. The belts were only made of little metal bars going across about every inch (so dirt could fall through), so it was easy to get yourself stuck in between the bars.
You'd think with six people at one time that this task wouldn't be so difficult, but sometimes we'd have to yell at the man driving the tractor to stop for a minute, because there were more clumps of dirt than we could fish out in time! It was crazy!
I asked if anyone knew about "I Love Lucy" and her time spent at the chocolate factory. (Unfortunately, they didn't.) That's exactly how I felt! The conveyor belt was going so fast and we couldn't keep up watching both belts....dirt here...potatoes there! I kept yelling to the other side, "save the little ones," because I could see them falling off their side when they were too busy getting the dirt out of the middle.
There were eight rows of potatoes to harvest and each row took about 15 or 20 minutes on the machine. After the 4th row was done, our shift replacements arrived so a couple people could take a break. We told the replacements how fast we had to work and sure enough, their first row was a piece of cake with very little dirt on the main belt. They thought we were crazy, until they experienced the madness during their second row.
After our evening of harvesting, our friends made dinner for all six of their helpers. It was delicious, but I want to know when I'm getting my free potatoes!!! Hahahaha!!!
(Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this. I forgot my camera that day.)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Work Story
I knew the process to get permission to work in Germany wasn't going to be a breeze, but I had no idea what I was in store for. Here are all the juicy details (that I still remember) that I can finally share with you!
I knew I wanted to teach English to business professionals as my first job here, so I began applying to language schools in the Stuttgart area about a month before I left the States. Before I arrived in Germany, I had one interview scheduled and they offered me a freelance opportunity at my interview, but they said I needed to get another school to also hire me as a freelancer before I would be able to obtain working permission, since the government wants to be sure you'll be able to support yourself financially. So I continued applying to more schools and within two weeks, I had another letter of intent for freelance work from a second school. That's when I submitted my paperwork at Office #1 on June 4.
Office #1 then added some items regarding my residency in our small village and sent it to Office #2 to be processed. Office #2 said they needed approval from Office #3 to prove that these companies and my freelance contracts were legitimate, so they faxed the information to Office #3 on June 17. For full-time employees (not freelancers), Office #3 has to process these items, but as soon as they saw the application was for freelance work, they shoved it to the side thinking it was sent by mistake (or so we think). So Office #2 (and we) waited for 8 weeks to hear back from Office #3, not knowing they had no intention to process my paperwork.
Along the way, Alfons tried to call Office #2 and Office #3 every week for a status update (since they claimed they didn't speak English when I called). He got more and more frustrated as time passed because one person was on vacation, then another would be out for surgery, then when the first came back from vacation she said she's not the person responsible for my paperwork, etc. The worst part was never knowing if we were even leaving messages on the right answering machines since we got tossed from one person to another. Most of our messages fell on deaf ears and few people returned our calls.
When Alfons reached someone on the phone at Office #3 by accident in early August, the guy checked his system and said my name wasn't even in there. So Alfons called Office #2 and had them fax the paperwork to Office #3 again since it had been "misplaced."
Side note: Most gov't offices here are only open in the mornings and most gov't employees only work two or three days per week since many are stay-at-home moms. That made it even tougher to reach people since their answering machine messages and reply emails did not say their schedules.
On Friday, August 20, Alfons finally reached someone on the phone again at Office #3 who said her office did not need to process the paperwork since it was for a freelancer. He explained to her that Office #2 said Office #3 only had to APPROVE the companies, not PROCESS the paperwork. That's when she realized what was going on and said that their office COULD do that. By the end of the phone conversation, Alfons assumed that she would take care of that approval. WRONG!
Another side note: Americans are allowed to visit Germany for 90 days with no visa. And as long as your paperwork for a visa or residence permit is in process, you can stay beyond that time, but you need a letter from a gov't office stating you are still waiting for your confirmation.
So as my 90th day drew closer and I still had nothing saying I had permission to stay, we decided to go straight to Office #2 on August 23, a day we knew our contact would be there (because we had figured out her schedule by then). The woman was very pleasant and sorry that the process had taken so long. She couldn't believe her office hadn't heard back from Office #3 after Alfons told the woman what she need to do, so our contact at Office #2 started by calling the woman Alfons talked to the previous Friday at Office #3. Thank goodness the woman answered the phone, but when our woman at Office #2 asked for the approval of the companies, the lady said that wasn't her job! She didn't tell Alfons that on Friday! And she didn't tell us we needed to contact someone else to take care of it!
The Office #2 woman in front of us was appalled and asked who she should contact to get the approval asap. The woman on the phone passed her along to another woman at Office #3 and within 90 minutes Office #2 faxed the paperwork to Office #3 (for a third time), Office #3 sent an approval letter back to Office #2, Office #2 printed out my residence permit with permission to work, and we left!
Whew!!!
I knew I wanted to teach English to business professionals as my first job here, so I began applying to language schools in the Stuttgart area about a month before I left the States. Before I arrived in Germany, I had one interview scheduled and they offered me a freelance opportunity at my interview, but they said I needed to get another school to also hire me as a freelancer before I would be able to obtain working permission, since the government wants to be sure you'll be able to support yourself financially. So I continued applying to more schools and within two weeks, I had another letter of intent for freelance work from a second school. That's when I submitted my paperwork at Office #1 on June 4.
Office #1 then added some items regarding my residency in our small village and sent it to Office #2 to be processed. Office #2 said they needed approval from Office #3 to prove that these companies and my freelance contracts were legitimate, so they faxed the information to Office #3 on June 17. For full-time employees (not freelancers), Office #3 has to process these items, but as soon as they saw the application was for freelance work, they shoved it to the side thinking it was sent by mistake (or so we think). So Office #2 (and we) waited for 8 weeks to hear back from Office #3, not knowing they had no intention to process my paperwork.
Along the way, Alfons tried to call Office #2 and Office #3 every week for a status update (since they claimed they didn't speak English when I called). He got more and more frustrated as time passed because one person was on vacation, then another would be out for surgery, then when the first came back from vacation she said she's not the person responsible for my paperwork, etc. The worst part was never knowing if we were even leaving messages on the right answering machines since we got tossed from one person to another. Most of our messages fell on deaf ears and few people returned our calls.
When Alfons reached someone on the phone at Office #3 by accident in early August, the guy checked his system and said my name wasn't even in there. So Alfons called Office #2 and had them fax the paperwork to Office #3 again since it had been "misplaced."
Side note: Most gov't offices here are only open in the mornings and most gov't employees only work two or three days per week since many are stay-at-home moms. That made it even tougher to reach people since their answering machine messages and reply emails did not say their schedules.
On Friday, August 20, Alfons finally reached someone on the phone again at Office #3 who said her office did not need to process the paperwork since it was for a freelancer. He explained to her that Office #2 said Office #3 only had to APPROVE the companies, not PROCESS the paperwork. That's when she realized what was going on and said that their office COULD do that. By the end of the phone conversation, Alfons assumed that she would take care of that approval. WRONG!
Another side note: Americans are allowed to visit Germany for 90 days with no visa. And as long as your paperwork for a visa or residence permit is in process, you can stay beyond that time, but you need a letter from a gov't office stating you are still waiting for your confirmation.
So as my 90th day drew closer and I still had nothing saying I had permission to stay, we decided to go straight to Office #2 on August 23, a day we knew our contact would be there (because we had figured out her schedule by then). The woman was very pleasant and sorry that the process had taken so long. She couldn't believe her office hadn't heard back from Office #3 after Alfons told the woman what she need to do, so our contact at Office #2 started by calling the woman Alfons talked to the previous Friday at Office #3. Thank goodness the woman answered the phone, but when our woman at Office #2 asked for the approval of the companies, the lady said that wasn't her job! She didn't tell Alfons that on Friday! And she didn't tell us we needed to contact someone else to take care of it!
The Office #2 woman in front of us was appalled and asked who she should contact to get the approval asap. The woman on the phone passed her along to another woman at Office #3 and within 90 minutes Office #2 faxed the paperwork to Office #3 (for a third time), Office #3 sent an approval letter back to Office #2, Office #2 printed out my residence permit with permission to work, and we left!
Whew!!!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Festivals Galore!
Germany is known for its great festivals and I recently had the pleasure to attend these!
Wine Fest (Weindorf) in Stuttgart
Restaurants from the area bring their cooks and servers downtown to offer great food and great wine outside. We had small portions of different German food to try several things and, of course, ordered a few bottles of wine for the table! Don't worry...I took the train home!
This was a beautiful fountain with restaurants all around.
These were the musicians at our tent who had the whole place singing!
Summer Night Fest (Sommernachtsfest)
This is a great evening event held in Schwabisch Hall, which is about an hour outside Stuttgart. There were thousands of candles in small cups all around the park that lit up the pathways and made shapes in the grass. There were lots of stages with different bands, big fireworks after dark, and there was a neat traditional show with a marching band, dancers, gunmen, cannons and more!
Here are the paths lined by candles throughout the park.
I love seeing the traditional dresses, dances and music!
(Sorry for the random light in the middle.)
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