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-Sarah
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Seminars and Berlins and Apartments, oh my!
So much to share! Where to start? How about with...
...My First Seminar!
All the FSJlers (people who are doing this year-long thing) must complete five weeks of seminars, three of which are predetermined (intro, middle, and closing). The other two are chosen from a list of about eight assorted topics. Because I am in ORFIDE: Orientierungen Finden, Identitäten Entwickeln, a special project, I went with twelve other ORFIDElers to our Intro Seminar.
The seminar took place in Niederndodeleben, or Lower Dodeleben (and yes, there is a Dodeleben as well as a Higher Dodeleben), and I was not looking forward to spending a week with strangers in some village. Neither was anyone else, it turned out. But, WOW! It was amazing. We had a lot of fun, learned some stuff, and are currently arranging a time to all get together before our next joint seminar in Febuary. Here's a rundown of our week:
Berlin
I met Emalyn and her host family in Berlin last Saturday. It was such a strange feeling, standing there with her. Us! Together! In Berlin!! Not so very long ago, people risked their lives on journies by ship in order to get anywhere. Now, we press a few buttons, wait in a few lines, and poof! We're across the ocean. Crazy.
My Living Situation
So, I'm currently living in the absolutely beautiful room that belongs to Susanna, a friend of Johanna's. The problemo is, it's only available until Febuary, and the big rush for new rooms isn't until March. I got a phone call a few days ago from an apartment I had looked at. They originally decided to take in a stray Bulgarian because he couldn't speak any German, and I had this room availble if I needed it. Well, things didn't work out with the Bulgarian, and so they want me! Yay!! Sorta. I'm working on the guilt issues of moving out of Susanna's room so soon after I moved in. The other place isn't nearly as beautiful, but the people there are very cool and I can see myself enjoying nine months with them. The down side: it's on the top floor, and the builing has no elevator.
The School
The school moved while I was gone for my seminar. I'm so very lucky not to have been there for that week. Yeesh. But now that we're all moved, there's plenty to do with unpacking, reconstructing shelves, etc. Julia (another FSJler) and I spent two days repotting plants. I hate plants now. I'm thinking about going vegetarian again just to get some revenge. As for my duties, and if they'll change, I am hopeful. I told Uta, the director, that I needed to speak with her about it, and she said she also needed to address it because it shouldn't be like it is now. So, next week when she's back we'll have a little chat.
...My First Seminar!
All the FSJlers (people who are doing this year-long thing) must complete five weeks of seminars, three of which are predetermined (intro, middle, and closing). The other two are chosen from a list of about eight assorted topics. Because I am in ORFIDE: Orientierungen Finden, Identitäten Entwickeln, a special project, I went with twelve other ORFIDElers to our Intro Seminar.
The seminar took place in Niederndodeleben, or Lower Dodeleben (and yes, there is a Dodeleben as well as a Higher Dodeleben), and I was not looking forward to spending a week with strangers in some village. Neither was anyone else, it turned out. But, WOW! It was amazing. We had a lot of fun, learned some stuff, and are currently arranging a time to all get together before our next joint seminar in Febuary. Here's a rundown of our week:
- Monday: This was our "get-to-know-eachother" day. We played a lot of games, learned a lot of names, etc. It was fun. Even the people who said they don't like those team-building activities enjoyed themselves.
- Tuesday: We had a whole day devoted to "Project Management," an important topic as we are all supposed to have a project. However, it was far too much information for one day, and we were all glad when it was over.
- Wednesday: Because ORFIDE has to do with discrimination and integration, our seminar wouldn't have been complete without a day given to this topic. Karamba lead the day-long seminar about diversity, focusing mostly on immigrants and our experiences with them, methods of intraveneing when someone is being racist, etc. Karamba comes from Senegal and has been in Germany for about 20 years. It was very interesting to hear his stories, both about his time in Germany as well as in Senegal.
- Thursday: A lot of us will need to use cameras and such to document out projects. That's why we went to Offener Kanal (public TV), where Tobi did his FSJ last year. Tobi had written a program for the day, but unfortunately couldn't be there himself due to Uni. I'm sure the program he wrote was brilliant, but we didn't use it and so the day was pretty unorganized and I don't think I learned too much. It was fun, though. My group went around the block interviewing immigrants about their experiences in Germany. Thursday evening we had a movie night. I had forgotten that popcorn in Germany is sweet. Ick. We started watching "Mein Fürher," a paradoy about Hitler. It could have been very good, but it wasn't. I went to bed halfway through.
- Friday: We had a very good and quick workshop on writing press releases in the morning, and then we did a short evaluation of the seminar. Then it was time to go home.
- The food was terrific. We had rolls with butter, cold cuts, jam, etc. for breakfast along with eggs. Lunch was always warm - pizza, casserole, fish, etc - and dinner was bread with cold cuts, potato salad, or something else cold. We also got coffee & cake every day! Yummy.
- The cat was adorable. Still very young and kittenish. She didn't mind being held and goggled at by all of us. Once she drank some coffee... and was hyperactive for the entire morning...
- The group coordinator was pretty okay in the end. We had all been a bit worried that Pascal didn't care about us, was unorganized, etc. This wasn't the case at all, and we're all sad now that he is only there for another month or so. :-( But Janett is very nice and I'm looking forward to working with her.
Berlin
I met Emalyn and her host family in Berlin last Saturday. It was such a strange feeling, standing there with her. Us! Together! In Berlin!! Not so very long ago, people risked their lives on journies by ship in order to get anywhere. Now, we press a few buttons, wait in a few lines, and poof! We're across the ocean. Crazy.
My Living Situation
So, I'm currently living in the absolutely beautiful room that belongs to Susanna, a friend of Johanna's. The problemo is, it's only available until Febuary, and the big rush for new rooms isn't until March. I got a phone call a few days ago from an apartment I had looked at. They originally decided to take in a stray Bulgarian because he couldn't speak any German, and I had this room availble if I needed it. Well, things didn't work out with the Bulgarian, and so they want me! Yay!! Sorta. I'm working on the guilt issues of moving out of Susanna's room so soon after I moved in. The other place isn't nearly as beautiful, but the people there are very cool and I can see myself enjoying nine months with them. The down side: it's on the top floor, and the builing has no elevator.
The School
The school moved while I was gone for my seminar. I'm so very lucky not to have been there for that week. Yeesh. But now that we're all moved, there's plenty to do with unpacking, reconstructing shelves, etc. Julia (another FSJler) and I spent two days repotting plants. I hate plants now. I'm thinking about going vegetarian again just to get some revenge. As for my duties, and if they'll change, I am hopeful. I told Uta, the director, that I needed to speak with her about it, and she said she also needed to address it because it shouldn't be like it is now. So, next week when she's back we'll have a little chat.
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