Lära Bars and deodorant and peanut butter, oh my!

A little more than a week ago, Arran and I got a package in the mail from his mom!


And long story short. It was amazingly awesome, with super great stuff inside! Peanut butter crackers, peanut butter, Lära Bars, Cliff Bars, wash clothes, toothpaste (! for some reason not only is a tube of toothpaste smaller here, but that smaller tube is more expensive than in the States), deodorant for both of us, tooth brushes, colored contact cases, contacts for Arran, a card, and more!

Interestingly, I needed to buy contact solution last week and was having a lot of trouble finding it at the drug store. While I was looking for it kind of in the general area with the other personal care (teeth, face, skin, hair, etc.) items, I ended up finding it with the vitamins, nutritional supplements, and a small selection of organic food items. I'm still trying to figure that one out.


Look at those happy faces :)

In der Schule

This week I did my first official lesson! I taught the 13th graders about how to write a CV and the difference between a CV and a resume. It went over well and the teacher that I work with said that she told the other teachers that I did a good job, so I might be teaching even more Germans about the joys of applications!


Here's a few shots of the main class room that I work in. The chalk board in the picture below is pretty neat in that it moves up and down and also those two panels open up, so there's 4 panels in total that can be written on. On the black board is an assignment that I wrote out for the 13th graders.


One of the questions that they are supposed to answer and that is written on the board is what is the race of the author of the article that they had to read. One of the girls asked me if race meant "skin color". There was a huge part of me that wanted to go off into an explanation of how "skin color" is a hugely inept definition and that race is and has been socially and historically constructed. Plus, race would be more accurately described as a description of phenotype rather than just skin color, but I held myself back and said, "Yes, basically." Some times being a social science and humanities major makes life a bit more complicated than it needs to be.

This week I also got to visit a few 7th grade classes, which was a lot of fun. The kids are at the point in learning English that they have a very basic vocabulary and understanding of grammar, they're excited to use what they know and they're not yet embarrassed by making mistakes. In both classes the kids asked me questions for the whole 45 minutes, which is about 30 minutes longer than it usually lasts with the older kids. I made a particularly favorable impact in one of the classes when I disclosed that I own a Nintendo DS, which I think made up for the let down that happened when I informed the kids that I was in fact not from England and that I don't remember the last time I ate at McDonalds.