So by the end of September I was mostly in the swing of things at school – still haven’t sat in on the 10th grad classes I’ll be helping with, and the teachers still aren’t quite sure what to do with me – but I’ve picked up a pattern and started helping with Model European Parliament (you guys it’s so fun I am probably more excited than the kids). My mentor teacher invited me to go to Gelesenkirchen to have dinner with one of his old teacher friends. This is notable because 1) they made lamb, WHICH WAS DELICIOUS and 2) the teacher friend’s son is studying English and super interested in America (upon my arrival the teacher friend told me that his son was so excited to meet me and had so many questions). He asked the golden question that all American ETAs were prepared for at Orientation: “My friends and I have heard that all Americans are fat, own guns, and think America is the best country in the world. Is that true?”
I wasn’t surprised that I got the question, only that it took me 3 weeks into the assistantship to get it and that it wasn’t a student of mine that was asking the question. But anyway, it was great to talk to him, as he was the same age as my students and so it was great to have a preview of what sort of questions their sweet teenage minds will conjure up, and it was also good practice for coaxing self-conscious language-learners out of shyness.
Another really interesting conversation over the course of the evening was about my teacher’s friend’s father, who was a POW in Alabama during much of World War II. He was drafted into the Army in 1943 and sent to North Africa. Lucky for him, Germany surrendered in Africa a few weeks after he got there, and he was captured and spent the remainder of the war working on farms in the South. They were transported by bus in the middle of the night so that Americans wouldn’t realize who they were or where they were going, and the guy said even after the war his father loved America and ate cornflakes every day for breakfast. I found this story totally fascinating. I’d actually heard of German POWs working on farms in the South; while I was at UA one of the German grad students was writing about Germans on Arkansas cotton farms. But most people haven’t heard of it, and I think it’s actually really interesting, especially that guy’s story. I know from my dad’s stories that picking crops all day is definitely not easy, but I bet it definitely beat fighting on the Eastern front.
Laufen mit Liz 