Orientation in Altenberg

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Orientation began yesterday and will last until tomorrow morning. We are in Altenberg, about one hour outside of Köln and they could not have picked a more picturesque location for us. Only accessible by car or charter bus (I.e. no trains) the city is not very big at all, but we are staying in a compound that has been converted from a Monastery. The cathedral remains intact, with the other buildings connecting to it, so I am literally sleeping 200 feet from the bell tower.

They randomly split us into rooms. I have one roommate name Erin who is from Oregon. She's so sweet and we get along really well. Small world - her sister goes to Bob Jones. Being here has felt like the first day of college all over again, except for one small difference: we will only be with each other for three days. Everyone is running around trying to learn names, making plans with each other, forming cliques. I guess it's good to network, but it's a little overwhelming. Everyone has been really nice, except for the very first person I introduced myself to. I found her in the starbucks in the Cologne train station, introduced myself. She gave me a look like - and why are you talking to me? and then went back to reading her book, lol. O well!

In our classes, they have been going over practical things mostly (insurance, visas, rental agreements, etc).

Funny story - When they were going over the rules of the compound and things like that, they had a list of don'ts. Don't smoke inside, don't move the furniture around, and no alcohol allowed inside the clerical buildings. BUT, don't worry, they said - we created a bar in one of our temporary classrooms which was not part of the monastery, so it's fine! (So German!)

We have also had teaching classes where we learn how to give short lessons to our students. The other fulbrighters have to pretend to be whatever age we are teaching and are our class. I had 6th grade and me and my partners did a lesson on Superheroes, teaching the kids how to write a simple story. We gave them a mad-lib sort of thing to fill in and I think we did a good job. Other topics we sat through were body parts for the elementary school kids, stereotypes for high school, and the civil rights movement for beginning college students. After each lesson we would give feedback as well as receive feedback from the teacher. It was alot of sitting today, though (4 sample lessons of 70 minutes each) and then we had a separate Fulbright meeting for 2 hours.

Tomorrow I will take a train to Braunschweig! Until then, enjoy the pictures from Altenberg.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2077046&id=28304250&l=362fe623ba

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