Sorry!

I haven't abandoned the blog, I promise!!  It's just been a busy week, and I haven't done too many interesting things!

My practicum is still going well!  I'm getting to know the kids really well, and for the most part, they're very sweet!  School is getting really busy, and I have three papers due this week...which is kind of a lot in my humble opinion!

My week was pretty uneventful... Last Sunday (the 20th), Tyler and I went and saw part of the "Berlin Festival of Lights", which was pretty cool!  I took a few pictures, but they didn't really turn out too well.  We walked from Brandenburger Tor all the way past Alexander Platz, which is a pretty long walk!  Basically the Festival of Lights is sort of like an art installation, but instead of actual art, it's done using projections, mostly on famous buildings/things, like the Brandenburger Tor or the Berliner Dom.

It was pretty cool, and I'm glad we went and saw it!

The school week was pretty uneventful, besides going to two plays; one on Monday and one on Tuesday.  In those two days, I'm pretty sure I spent more time in the theater than I spent sleeping!  Both plays were almost 4 hours long each...so it was a long two days!  The first one we saw was "Glaube, Liebe Hoffnung" which I actually enjoyed!  The one on Tuesday was "The Three-penny Opera", which I did not enjoy at all.  It's by Bertolt Brecht...and I don't know much about Brecht, but he seems like one weird man.  

Anyways, on Saturday (the 26th) Tyler and I decided to go to Potsdam to see the fall colors and such!  Plus Tyler hasn't been to Potsdam before, so we thought it would be a nice little day trip.  We walked around the Sanssouci Park for a while and took some pictures!  It was a nice day and we had really good weather!

These people wouldn't get out of my picture, so I just took it
anyways! :)

It was a really good day!  Well, I'd better be off to write my papers!  I promise I'll try to update more regularly!

Practicum

So (besides having to wake up at 6am to get there on time twice a week) I'm loving my practicum!

It takes 45 minutes each way, so it's a bit of a hike.  The school I'm doing the practicum at is called The Carl von Linne School for Disabled Children.  The kids can have any kind of disability that would hinder them from doing well in a "regular" school.  The class that I'm working in has 7 kids, which I think is great!  I'm really getting to know the kids well, which is nice.  One girl has high functioning autism, a few of the kids have learning disabilities, and a few have physical disabilities.  I think it's really going to be a learning experience.

I go on Mondays from 8am to 12:45 and Fridays from 8am to 11am.  On Mondays, the kids have math for two hours and I'm basically just go around and help them if they need it.  After math, they have two free periods, which is something completely different from in the States!  In the States we don't really have free periods (and if we do, it's just study hall)...but in the free periods here, the kids are free to go around the whole school, go outside, and basically do whatever they want.  It's amazing how much freedom they give the kids, and how they don't take advantage of it.  After the free period, they always come back to class on time, which I just don't think would happen in the States.

After free period I go with them to lunch and then to music class and then I head back to IES for my two classes in the afternoon.

Fridays are the only day I don't have class, but I have to wake up early anyways to go to the school!  Fridays they have German for two hours and then they have "Sachunterricht", which we don't have in the States.  It's basically like general knowledge class, and from what I understand they learn about anything from potatoes, to water, to whatever they think is interesting.  It's definitely a different type of class.  After class I go back home, take a nap, and then do homework or something.

It's only been one week so far, but I'm really liking it and I think I'm going to learn a lot.  It'll definitely be good for my resume!

Warning: This is an Unhappy Post

WARNING WARNING WARNING: This is going to be an unhappy post.

Ok, it's not going to be that unhappy.  I've just had a long day and I'm stressing about homework and money.

Thursdays are my worst day, since I'm in class from 8:30am until 6:00pm (with a small break where I can eat something, do a little reading, etc.) so that's one of the reasons that I'm so crabby.

I'm stressing just a little bit about money, but I'm pretty sure I'll be okay.  Another reason that I'm crabby is that a lot of people (both in my program and in different study abroad programs) are traveling a lot and going to other countries, and I just can't afford it.  I guess I feel that since I'm already in Europe I should travel, not to mention that I feel like everyone else is.  One of the main problems is that flying out of Berlin is enormously expensive because the current airport (there's a new one being built) is too small to handle the amount of flights that it currently has.  So flying to London from Berlin is around $276; not that I've looked or anything. ;)

I am glad that I'm not relying on my parents/grandparents for money while I'm here, but it just means that I have to make some sacrifices.  If it's not too expensive and I can find someone to go with me, I may go to Hamburg for a weekend, so we'll see what happens.

I'm actually not that crabby anymore...it is what it is.  Writing about it helped :)

I'll probably write about my practicum tomorrow.  I go on Mondays and Fridays and Monday it went really well!  I'll write about it in more detail soon!

A Plethora of Essays

Writing essays in German is hard.  I have to think about what I want to say, try to sound intelligent, translate what I want to say into German, and then somehow try to sound intelligent in German.  It's not as easy as it sounds since the majority of German essays I've written don't require too much intelligent thought.  (A lot of the time it's based on class discussion, which doesn't necessarily require "intelligent German")

In reality, I don't have a plethora of essays to write, but I do have two that are due (one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday) that I'm working on.  As well as a bunch of other homework...I guess school is actually starting. :(

...Incidentally, instead of writing them, I'm updating my blog...don't judge. :P

That Time When Classes Started and Stephanie Didn't Update Her Blog For a Week

Well...I've been remiss in updating this blog lately.  I'm going to blame it on classes starting and getting used to my new schedule...so let's go with that.

Besides classes, I really haven't been up to much this past week.  The weekend was pretty boring and I didn't do much.

Like I said, classes started this week (ok, technically they started last week, but four of my classes were delayed by a week).  My schedule isn't the greatest, but it seems like it will work pretty well with my practicum (which I'll write about in another post once it actually starts).  Tuesdays and Thursdays I essentially have classes all day, so that'll be a tad difficult.  Mondays I only have 2 classes and Wednesdays I only have 1 though, so those days will be the days I go to my practicum - as well as Fridays, when I don't have any classes.

As far as my classes go, they seem relatively interesting so far.  I like all of my teachers, too.

I'll probably talk about all of my classes in greater detail later, but for now I'll tell you a little about my Theater in Berlin class!

We had our first meeting on Monday, and went right to our first play!  We saw "Ödipus Stadt", which is about the story of Oedipus, beginning right before he finds out that he's married to his mother.  (If you haven't read/heard of Oedipus before, you're probably a tad confused/disturbed...so here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus)

The play itself was...interesting.  It was my first experience of a play spoken in German, and I'm just glad I knew the history of Oedipus!  It would've been very hard to understand otherwise!  It was an interesting staging of the play - there weren't any real 'costumes' (the actors just wore regular clothes) and there also weren't any props.  It relied mainly on facial expressions and speaking, which was really interesting!

Other than that, I haven't done anything besides homework this week!  Hopefully I'll do something fun this weekend so I can blog about it! :)

Berliner Bears

So the first week of classes has been going well. Of the 5 classes that I'm taking, four of them don't start until next week, so it's been a very easy week! The one class that I've had (German Art & Architecture) seems pretty interesting.  The main reason a bunch of my classes were cancelled this week is because of "The Day of German Unity", which is tomorrow.  There's a big party at Brandenburger Tor that I'll probably go to for a little bit.

Yesterday, I didn't have class until 6:15, so I decided to go take a walk and see the bears at Köllnischer Park and to walk along The East Side Gallery.  It wasn't too cold yesterday, so I brought a book with me and read for a little while in the park.  The reason there are bears in the middle of Berlin is because the mascot of Berlin is the bear! :)

He was eating an apple! :)

East Side Gallery

Looking at the Spree from the East Side Gallery

Other than going on my walk and going to class, I didn't do much else yesterday. It was a nice, relaxing day.