Wednesday and Thursday

By Tuesday night, Kirsten got sick as well, so we slept in a little on Wednesday morning. A round noon we headed for the school where Daniel is an English teacher. It's in a town called Hamm. Maybe I'm getting old, but big groups of teenagers irritate/intimidate me. And there were kids everywhere when we got there. We decided to find a bathroom, because we were a little early. It was really nasty!!!!! And there was no toilet paper. Foul. Luckily, we had Kleenex. How do you have a bathroom with no toilet paper? Gross. Then we waited in for Daniel. We told him the bathroom story, and he said the staff bathrooms were nicer. Too bad we didn't wait. I went to class with him (Kirsten stayed out and studied, as it would have been too many people for her to come to). Haha, Ashton just told me he saw a "moldy lizard." I think he meant it was green. Daniel kept telling me that the students weren't very good, like I would mind. I could sympathize with them, since I had been trying to speak German (mostly unsuccessfully) for nearly a week. They were reviewing for a test, and My task was to help with essays. The students were supposed to write a short essay about a job they wanted to have, and why, and then I proofread them. The first group wrote an essay together, and had a really hard time with it. They kept calling Daniel, and he kept telling them to ask me. They didn't want to, because we didn't really tell them how much German I understand, and they didn't want to speak English. They were funny. They would try and come up with a sentence, but they wouldn't actually write it down. So finally, I helped them by saying, that sounds good, write it down. Anyway they decided they wanted to be Kindergarten teachers, and the funniest mistake was that one of the activities they came up with was to puzzle with the children. Haha. I had a little trouble, and had to ask Daniel how much I should correct them. It was hard for me to hear something I would never say, but was kind of correct, and not make it better. For example, one of the girls asked me if I would become a boy or a girl. I wasn't expecting the question (not usual to be questioned about your pregnancy there), but when I thought about the German verb bekommen (it means to get something), the question made sense. Daniel said, "remember, you get a cheeseburger, you don't become one." The point being, getting a baby, although admittedly better than becoming one, sounds totally strange to me, like I'm going to procure a child from the local Wal-mart. But I can see that's it's simpler for beginners than learning what sounds right in what sentence. Also, it was strange for me when some of the students in later groups said they wanted to work in a retirement home, and wrote about all the things they would do with the "old people." But that really just has to do with political correctness, rather than grammar. All in all, it was a really interesting experience, and the hour and a half went really quickly.
After the class we walked around a lot waiting for Daniel to be through with a meeting. There was a lake there that was nice if you didn't get too close. Kirsten and I sat there and talked for a while. When Daniel was done we went to Burger King. It was exactly the same as Burger King here. I ordered by myself, and the only mistake I made was ordering ketchup and mayo instead of just ketchup. Not too bad. Then we talked about linguistics. I love words, so it was really interesting to me. Then Kirsten and I met Verena for a choir rehearsal, but just as we were leaving Verena's house, it got canceled. So we relaxed that night instead.

Thursday, we shopped a little, and packed for Copenhagen. I bought Dirk Nowitzki's biography. So far I have only looked at the pictures, but it will be good practice when I get around to reading it with the help of the dictionary. I bought books for my brothers, and I giant book about Germany with lots of pictures. I spent more money at the book store than any other single place (except the train ticket), which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me. Also, we went by Kirsten's Gymnasium (High School). That was fun. we saw the little monument her graduating class (70 people) made. It was really neat, every graduating class makes one, and they are all over the courtyard. I took these pictures of them. The other ones have Kirsten's friends names on them, so I took pictures of them to. Mostly because one of the names is Batty. It's a nickname for Sebastian in Germany, but I can't help but conjure up a vision of an old lady who lives alone with 25 cats, and always wears the same black sweater (even in the summer), and stares at you when you walk by like she is surprised you aren't a cat, and goes to the grocery store with a big black bag, and buys only cat food (she must eat it herself). I have never met this lady (prolly because I made her up), but she is what I think of when I see "Batty," so it always makes me laugh.