Hallelujiah Berlin

There's this really hilarious, corny German song that compares Berlin to the province Brandenburg which surrounds it. Among other things, Brandenburg is known for the German equivelant of hicks and neo-nazism. Compared to cosmopolitan Berlin, it stands no chance. This week I had a few really unexpected hallelujiah Berlin moments, in spite of working an amazing amount. You see, suddenly, school vacation ended, one of the other teachers from my company became ill and another one found out she was pregnant. So suddenly, I went from having 2 hours a week to like, 20. Of course, a few schools decided they wanted to add courses, and parents decided they wanted to add kids to existing courses...so yeah. It's been an intense week. And the hours that I've been substituting have been early morning hours. We all know I am not made of sweetness and light in the early morning. Other times, yes. Early morning, no. Despite this phenomenon, I had a few of those awesome moments when you just think "damn, my life is pretty awesome". One of the ones I can concretely remember was riding the S-Bahn (fast, overground public trains) to the outskirts of the city. The sun was rising and the whole city was fresh. Berlin is a city that goes from being hardcore urban residential to being woodsy at the drop of a hat--or within a few miles of train track. The leaves are also starting to turn color here--not nearly with the same glory they do at home, but it's an effort I appreciate nonetheless. So two mornings this week, I got to barrel out into the countryside and teach wee little German kids the intricacies of the English language.

That's the fun part. It's an exhausting job--don't ever listen to anyone who says otherwise. Little kids suck the lifeblood out of you. There is no better birth control on this earth than working with small children. What's not so much fun is teaching the slightly older kids--you know, the ones in second grade. That is officially my least favorite age. I teach these kids in Horte (plural of Hort), which are the after school programs (I think partially government subsidized) where the kids hang out from 1pm until whenever their parents are done with work, which can be as early as three pm or as late as five or six. Although I was in a pretty cool Hort today (music classes, sport classes, swimming, art...anything you could possibly think of, these kids do), I don't know how much of a fan I am. My initial impression is that there are always WAY too many kids for any number of qualified or unqualified personel to keep an effective eye on, so the kids get up to god-only-knows-what for hours and hours on end. I mean, sure, children need to be able to adapt to social situations and get along with their peers and be able to resolve conflicts, etc. but man...every Hort I've been in, even the best-organized ones, seem like pure chaos. As a result of this, when I get the kids to teach them, they're totally riled up and nigh on impossible to control, let alone teach. I learned a new German word the other day: Verhaltens-auffaellig. Literally translated, it means "noticable behavior". In real words, the kid is hyperactive or has behavioral problems. I definitely do not feel qualified for what I do. I mean, I have an extraordinary amount of natural patience...and I was born speaking English, but really...I have a whole new level of respect for elementary school and preschool teachers. They are superhuman individuals, that's for damn sure.

In other news...working out has been a fabulous release. The only problem is, I come home and I'm utterly exhausted. And I have little or no interest in working out. I crashed today for like, an hour. Stephan took one look at me and was just like "aaaand you're going to bed!" so I slept for an hour. Now I'm functional and putting off putting together material for Amelie, the nine year old that I tutor in German. Well, mostly German. We're supposed to do Math, too...but let's be honest, Math sucks. She's a sweet girl, and her parents are a riot. And the money is almost worth me giving up the better part of my Saturday morning. I have been able to make yoga twice a week for the last few weeks though, and it has been amazing. I spend so much time rushing from place to place and being on my feet that twice a week is barely enough decompression time. I'm pretty sure it'll balance out though--it's only my first week of a full course load. Oooh, other cool thing that happened this week: I got a new phone. And a real plan, like with a contract and shit. So I now have (though my cell phone) a German land line aaaaaaand a cell phone number. And 100 free texts a month. This just blows my mind. I mean, for those of you who have had American cell phone plans forever, this is probably not at all interesting. My only prior forays into the world of European cellular technology have been in the prepaid realm, so I find this exciting.

Anyway, I should probably wrap this up and outline some things for Amelie, otherwise I'll have to do it later and let's just say other things are planned.