Pete Mody's The Whiteboard Jungle

Prezi, Tablets, and Social Media in Education

2011-11-30T00:41:00.001-05:00

I have been really busy with graduate school for the past few weeks, but I wanted to throw this out there for a two fold purpose. One is to show a new type of presentation tool called Prezi (not all that new) and the second is to open some deabte about the role of social networking in education.

Below is a link to a presentation I made this past summer for a mock faculty meeting.This is also a chance for me to try blogging on a Droid Tablet, which my wife and I went for on Sunday night when my computer died druring a week when I really needed to be studying for an eight hour exam this coming this Saturday. Just a simple post to investigate the tablet viability for blogging.

I guess this is really a three-pronged reason for posting (if you don't count taking a break from studying).

Prezi on Social Networking by Pete Mody

Researcher: Technology might be returning us to Stone Age-thinking

2011-11-03T14:23:00.000-04:00

from eSchoolNews.com » Top News by Meris Stansbury

It’s not a new concept: Technology is changing theway we think. But one prominent researcher at a recent conference discussed amore controversial idea: Technology could be moving us away from innovation andprogress, and closer to the Stone Age in terms of how we process information—ascary thought, considering the country’s desperate call for 21st-centurythinking.

This disturbing theory comes from Pulitzer Prizenominee and New York Times bestseller Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows: Whatthe Internet Is Doing to Our Brain. And at the 15th annual American Associationof School Librarians (AASL) conference in Minneapolis, Minn., Carr emphasizedthat it’s not just adults who should be worried.

“Schools and libraries are good places to see asnapshot of the cultural mindset on digital issues and change, and what they’reshowing us is that instant access to information is everywhere,” said Carr.

Carr began his opening keynote by relating hisown experiences with technology and the internet, saying he one day realized hehad a harder time concentrating on one task.

“My mind wanted to jump around and not goword-to-word in a linear way. I thought: My mind wants to behave like theinternet, like my smart devices,” he explained.

Carr then began to research why this brainpattern change could be happening. The answer, he found, lies in neuroscienceand psychology.

According to Carr’s research, the invention ofthe internet is nothing new, in terms of history—objects like the map and theclock also changed the way our brains operate.

For the full article: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/11/01/researcher-technology-might-be-returning-us-to-stone-age-thinking/

The ModyBlog is a Changin'

2011-10-26T11:51:00.003-04:00

Alright, so this blog has become massively defunct over the past two years. I just realized that there is nothing I need to say that is that important. So I am making a change and taking something I used to for GlobalSpec out for spin and I am going to tackle Tech in Education here instead. Hopefully it will generate some conversation, but since I think Jake is my only current reader, that might be too much pressure!

Gender Revealed

2009-09-12T19:53:00.001-04:00

We are having a boy!!!
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Updated Blog Roll

2009-08-04T14:39:00.002-04:00

I have decided to add all of the blogs that I write for in the right hand column for easier navigation. They will auto-update every time a new entry is added. Please keep in mind just because it is there, doesn't mean I am always the author. There are several of the blogs that have multiple authors.

If you see ShakespeareTheEngineer in the byline, those are ones that I have written. Any other names (like TechOutReach - who is Mr. Reach, Jaxy, Natural Pro or Moose) are people who are on the same editorial team with me.

Achilles Repair Blog Goes Global

2009-07-24T11:16:00.006-04:00

I am back at GlobalSpec and writing for their blog site CR4 in a variety of capacities. So far, I have been assigned tasks for their blog sections that include automotive, educational tech, great engineers and scientists, an "on this day in engineering" blog, and finally sports, fitness, and nutrition.

Starting on Tuesday, 7/28, and running every Tuesday for about two or three months, the site will be featuring an article and pictures from my ongoing recovery from Achilles tendon rupture. This coming Tuesday's discusses the Achilles tendon, some warning signs of those who are at-risk for injury, and a brief review of how I injured myself.

Unlike blogs here, my editors require that I keep entries between 400-600 words, so they are always a quick read for those who have interest.

I have already written about 16 entries and probably have another 20 to go before the summer is done. There is something for everyone on this site, so I recommend checking it out. It gets about 300,000 hits a month and has 100,000 daily subscriptions. Exciting that my writing is getting out to that big of an audience.

If you would like to find me on the site, my handle (long story) is ShakespeareTheEngineer.

Two Weeks to Go

2009-07-11T12:25:00.001-04:00

I have been out of the splint and into my cast for a week. The good news is three weeks in a cast now and not six (the doc said because I behaved and stayed off of it) so I have two weeks to go.

After that, it is a month in an orthopedic boot. In other good news (trying to stay positive), I have finished the daily abdominal shots and have moved on to Aspirin which is much easier to handle.

I also managed to get my first workout in this week, with a 7000 meter row on the rowing machine (holding my left leg in the air).

I don't really take pain meds (at least in the past week), just some Ibproufen to reduce swelling which has been insane.

I have been back at work for two weeks at GlobalSpec, Inc. And have begun writing articles for CR4 again. I have an "I'm Baaaack" article going off next week and then a three part series starting on 7/20 about the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It was a really fun series to write and I learned a ton about the Saturn V rocket (like what is meant when it says it had 34 Meganewtons of thrust in just Stage 1 of the rocket).

It is just good to be writing for a company again, even if I do have to mix it in with writing product announcements and company profiles and doing web development as well.
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Thank God Almighty, I'm free at Last

2009-06-24T21:04:00.001-04:00

I was finally released from the hospital at 7:40 on Wednesday night. Only 50 hours later than expected. Am home and planning to sleep as much as I can. Who knew crutches were that tiring.
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Morphine Hangover and "The Tararizor"

2009-06-24T11:51:00.001-04:00

Well, it has been forty-eight hours in Saratoga Hospital. The night was a breeze with my nurse slipping me the morphine/tordol combo every three hours. I didn't sleep super well, waking up a lot, but I did sleep which was great.

In the morning, after like five hours without any pain meds, the friend of one of my rugby team mates (Owen "The Animal" Maranville) came to do PT. I had a similar reaction. Just crutching down the hall to his room, going up and down a step five times, and coming back had me light headed and nauseous. He set me up in a recliner, which I tolerated for about 25 minutes before crawling into bed. During that time, I gave myself my first abdominal shot. Didn't hurt at all.

I awoke to one of the scariest sights a teacher can have: a former student standing over you with a needle. Especially when it is a student whose first name, Tara, was turned into Tararizor because she scared classmates and underclassmen alike.

The good news is that she is better at drawing blood than remembering the details of the dynastic cycle of Ancient China.

After that it was time for a chest x-ray (the reason for which I never learned - someone just showed up and said, "Mr. Mody, I am here to take you to your x-ray.".

Beyond general nausea keeping me from eating much and light headedness that seems to be getting better by the hour, so far, so good. Hopefully I can go home this afternoon.
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Day 1 Update

2009-06-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

It turned out to be a pretty miserable day. I couldn't handle crutches very well because the rush of blood to my bad leg was severe. It caused both pain and light headedness.

When Dr. O'Connor came to see me at 6, he was appalled by my day nurse's unwillingness to dispense pain meds, at one point making me go 6 hours without any and flipping on the lights often so I wouldn't sleep despite hardly sleeping the night before.

Dr. O'Connor said he couldn't even imagine the level of pain I must be in and described the surgery in graphic detail. He then sent in a max dose (for me) or morphine and then Tordall, with round 2 coming at ten because he wants me to have a full night of sleep. Thankfully, it was like a night and day difference. It was also nice that my mother-in-law and my boss/school mom Chris Gangemi came by to visit. I even at most of my dinner.

Now exhausted. Signing off...

.
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Complications

2009-06-23T13:15:00.000-04:00

Looks like falling O2 levels and muscle spasms are causing enough concern to the med staff that they are admitting me for a second night. Currently on oxygen so I can sleep without sending off the sensors.

On a plus side, the abdominal shots weren't that bad. No where near as big a needle as Devine had to deal with as a diabetic.

On the minus side, trying to go crutching for more than 50 feet makes me turn green and break out in a clammy sweat. And not a cool Incredible Hulk green.
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Last Blog of Day Zero

2009-06-22T20:48:00.000-04:00

So the Blackberry's battery is about done. But the deal for now is that I will be on blood thinner's for the next ten days via self-administered abdominal shots. Something tells me I should have read Eric Devine's novel, This Side of Normal after the summer instead of early this spring!

So I need to stay overnight and have a consult with the PT Dept in the morning. Then finally home, probably mid day.

Pain has finally started to rear its ugly head so the pain killers are just starting again!
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Recovery Time

2009-06-22T18:41:00.001-04:00

Survived the surgery. Still numb from the waste down. Now I am just bummed they are keeping me overnight.
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Hail the Wise Tom Petty

2009-06-22T14:36:00.001-04:00

Tom Petty is right. Waiting is the hardest part. Come on now! I have been laying here for three hours waiting for my number to be called.

I feel like doing a Joe Swanson-like (from Family Guy) yell: BRING IT ON!!!!
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The Anesthesia

2009-06-22T14:27:00.001-04:00

So much for general anesthesia... Because it is a posterior injury and I need to have surgery laying face down, looks like I will be getting spinal anesthesia. That just sounds like a treat, doesn't it?

At least I won't have to deal with being intubated. There's something, I guess.

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Hurry Up and Wait

2009-06-22T13:50:00.001-04:00

So the IV is in and I am sitting in the hospital bed. The OR is behind schedule (not a surprise) and my wife is claiming I am addicted to my Blackberry (also not a surprise).

Up next: the anestheiologist....but the nurse just came in with an update. One hour behind just became 2.5.
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Modyland to Go Under the Knife - 6/22/09

2009-06-21T23:41:00.007-04:00

So it is about time, I guess, that it happened. I have been playing rugby for 15 years and never suffered a serious injury that wasn't related to my head. It only seems appropriate then that my season and potentially career ending injury came on a non-contact play on a day that was about as non-serious a rugby practice as one can have...

It was the type of practice that I love to go to. It was pouring rain. The ground was soft. There weren't a ton of people which means fewer drills and more just playing. We even combined the men's and women's teams so we would have about 20 people playing. We just started with tossing the ball around and then when everybody was warmed up, started playing two hand touch. The pouring rain practically kept you from sweating, but I could still taste the salt on my lips from the hard running. People were wiping out in the mud, crashing into puddles, and sliding, face first, into the try zone from four meters out.

Forty-five minutes into the practice, it happened. I had already caught a bunch of kickoffs, had a few good runs, and made some solid passes to the speedy Mitch who scored a bunch of tries. I had made halting stops and cut backs and asked my knees to do the moves they groan about. And I was feeling great. As a matter of fact, I can't remember a time lately that I was enjoying playing quite so much and my body was responding in such a positive fashion as it was right then in the cool rain. I ended up on the outside when we were pushing for a try, and I was by myself. The player to my inside dumped the ball off to me as her defender closed in and all I had to do was catch the ball at speed, which I had been doing all day, and after a few hard steps, jog in for a score. As I accelerated to the ball and caught it, someone crashed into my left calf and I felt the smack in my lower leg, as I crashed to the ground, pretty much where I stood. I rolled over to a seated position to see if DeFilippo had fallen on me, maybe slipping while making the tag, and no one was behind me. No one was within five meters of me.

My calf was strangely tight. I have had a long history of calf cramps, but this one felt different. I started massaging the calf and trying to get it to loosen up, but by then, Mitch, Noble, and Aussie came over. Mitch took a look at the base of my ankle and asked if a lump had been there before. It hadn't. I already knew what happened and the look on his face as he looked at Noble and Aussie confirmed what I was unwilling to utter. I had just ruptured my Achilles tendon.

Aussie had thankfully driven right to the pitch, and after getting assistance to get to his car, he dropped me off at my truck. After asking if I was sure that driving was a good idea, I hoisted myself into my truck, and as the pain began to build in my calf, I started the drive to the hospital.

Getting on I-87 at Exit 12, I was hoping that I could make it to urgent care at Exit 15, because I thought it would go better than going to the ER with an injury like this. As I approached Exit 13, all anatomical hell began to break loose. I had my first muscle spasm in my calf. That might not sound like much, but the ER doc later explained that I had likely separated the Achilles tendon from my calf muscle in a rather violent fashion, so a calf cramp at that moment was not ideal.

I grasped for my Blackberry and eventually managed to get my wife on the line and found out that I would miss Urgent Care closing bell by about five minutes, so off to the hospital it was. She asked if I wanted her to come meet me, to which I said not until I had some news so she could just hang at home. And then the second cramp hit. She inquired as to the source of the grunting noise I made, and I told her what it was. She asked me if it was a good idea to be driving and my response: "God, I hope so, hon, because I just passed Exit 14." At this point, I had pushed the speedometer needle up around 75, which wasn't much of note except it was still raining hard. Confident that the aggressive tires on my Dodge Ram would handle it, I worked my way off Exit 15 and through downtown Saratoga as quickly as I dared.

As I pulled into the ER, I saw that there was valet parking. At this point, I was in SOAKING wet rugby gear, still in my cleats, and I couldn't really move my left foot, so valet parking sounded like a pretty good deal. The young valet came to my truck. I explained the situation and he fetched me a wheel chair which sounded like a good deal.

Fast forward about an hour. I am face down on a hospital bed. My wife has arrived with dinner, although I am in no mood to eat. I had spent 20 minutes biting my wallet because when the last round of muscle spasms started, they opted not to stop, and no matter what I did with my leg, I couldn't get them to cut me any slack. A nurse finally showed up with some pain killers. In the next hour, I was given a shot of morphine, a Vicodin pill, and then another shot of morphine so that my leg would relax enough so they could do what is known as a Thompson Test. This nifty assessment was the kiss of death for both Rugby and Summer 2009. If you are laying face down and someone squeezes your calf, you will point your toes. They squeezed my right calf and sure enough, the toes pointed. The squeezed the left and according to my wife there was no movement at all. I couldn't tell because I was trying not to bite all the way through the hospital bed mattress. Yeah...that test stung a little bit. Oh, and don't forget that they have been covering me with warm blankets because I left a puddle of water under the wheel chair and the mattress is SOAKED because I was, of course, coming from practice in a downpour.

The following day I saw an orthopedist by the name of Dr. George Silver. He knows me by my first name as my wife and I are frequent fliers, both already having knee surgery out of his office. Not to mention that Saratoga Rugby sends a lot of business his way. He re-administers the Thompson Test...I have a similar reaction. His reaction is surprising, however. He palpates my calf and traces down where my Achilles should be, if it was intact. I know he is looking at the cavitation that appears just under the skin, the way I was looking at it in the wheel chair at Saratoga Hospital the night before. Here it comes...it is time for everyone's favorite image: the M.R.I. Filmed in Saratoga and read in Pakistan, it will be like #30 in my career. I have a greatest hits for X-Rays, too! But it doesn't come.

He says, "Pete, we don't need to do an M.R.I. because it is clear that you have a complete rupture of your Achilles. I don't an image because I can see and feel it. We are scheduling you for the first open slot that we have for surgery on Monday because we can't get you in this late on a Friday." After I inquire about recovery, only having a few minutes so I can get through the battery of pre-op tests, I hear that all of June and July will be spent on crutches, in a splint or a cast. August will be spent in a walking boot. And if all goes right, I might be able to start walking around the time I go back to school for the fall.

So that is about it. About a half-hour ago, I passed the food and beverage line, so no more drink or food until I am done with surgery. I start pre-op at 11:15AM tomorrow, and then Dr. O'Connor, since he was the first one from the office with an opening, goes in and tries to repair the damage that I did just by starting to sprint from a jog.

It was about 11:45 tonight when I decided that if I am going to be lame this whole summer, at least I am going to blog about the recovery process. I don't know how far I will be able to take the Blackberry tomorrow, but I will try to get pics as I go.

My wife and I also have a bet as to whether or not I will return to work on Wednesday from this. She says no, and will do everything in her power to get the doctor to order me to bed. I say yes, and will be fighting everyone I can pretty much think of in my local sphere of influence to continue to prove to myself that this stupid, stupid injury is not going to control my life.

Should make for an interesting blogging experience because I just hate losing....

Correcting Time Already - Wasn't I Just Here?

2009-06-10T21:05:00.004-04:00

It is that time of the semester again. You can come in and pick them up or contact me for your grade. Please be advised that I may be in either a computer lab or the English Resource Center if I am not "all up in the one-one-seven".

I will begin grading finals as soon as I am done with course work. Keep checking back for updates as to my progress!:

As of 6/16/09 @ 9:15 P.M. -EVERYTHING IS DONE!

American Experience - 3ACE:

American History X Write-Ups
Final Course Reflections
American Experience Final Exam
Final Course Grade

American Experience - 4ACE:

American History X Write-Ups
Final Course Reflections
American Experience Final Exam
Final Course Grade

American Experience - 2BDF:

American History X Write-Ups
Final Course Reflections
American Experience Final Exam
Final Course Grade

Readers' Workshop:

All Course Work for Quarter Four is Done
Final Exam Part 1
Final Exam Part 2
Final Course Grade

Forms of Literature:

All Course Work for Quarter Four is Done
Final Exam
Final Course Grade

2009-01-23T02:08:00.011-05:00

It is that time of the semester again. Please note that as items are completed, the text will change to maroon in color. Once that happens, you can come in and pick them up or contact me for your grade. Please be advised that I may be in either a computer lab or the English Resource Center if I am not "all up in the one-one-seven". I will begin finals/midterms as soon as I am done with course work. Keep checking back for updates as to my progress!:

As of 1/30/09 @ 11:45 A.M. - Everything is Graded - Stop in to Pick Up.

University Level Mythology

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done
Final Paper
Final Course Grades

The American Experience

American History X Write-Ups
Final Course Reflections
American Experience Final Exam
Final Course Grade

American Literature

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done
American Lit Final Exam
English Regents Exam - Canceled (Retake in June 2009)

Writers' Workshop - Green & Red

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done
Final Course Grade
Final Portfolio For Writers' Green
Final Portfolio For Writers' Red

Modyland by Midnight

2009-01-04T20:19:00.002-05:00

Okay ladies and gents,
I think I have a temporary fix. By midnight tonight, and perhaps by 9:00 even, your beloved Modyland.com address should kick you to the normal destination.

Everything curriculum related should be up to date as far as I have updated it. Some lesser used sections might be a little rough (not working pictures, etc), but I think everything is in order.

If you find any section is not how it should be, please let me know.

Temporary Asylum for Modyland.com

2009-01-04T12:04:00.004-05:00

It appears that the world wide web is conspiring against me. In early December, NERIC, the server on which Burnt Hills hosts its public domain, crashed, leaving anything I hosted at the high school marooned from students.

On December 13th, Road Runner migrated all web pages to a new server and subsequently crashed as well. Now, only old files remain that I cannot change and new uploads (like the main page at Modyland.com) that I tried to update show up as blank.

After many e-mails and two rather consternating tech support people at Time Warner later, I am left without a web page I can host reliably at either place. Time Warner's clearest response is "I don't know when we can fix it."Until that point in time, I will try to host certain necessary files here. Unfortunately, the ones that are currently hosted on Time Warner's server were updated on 11/02/08 and if I try to update them, they turn blank.

So here are some links in deplorably plain fashion, but it is the best solution I currently have on the short term. I will try to move everything to the NERIC system as soon as I can as it seems to be up and running for the time being. Please e-mail me directly if you need something specific from my site.

Links like The Coffee House and the Parents' Lounge will have to take a back seat until I get more pressing issues resolved.

University in the High School Mythology

American Experience

American Literature

Writers' Workshop

Oh The Power! A Blog You Can Even Find on Google

2008-08-07T18:10:00.006-04:00

After a good showing for my first few blog entries for their education forum, GlobalSpec has decided to give me my own blog on their CR4 site (which deals with all sorts of technology, science, math, and engineering topics - automotive to zoology).

The name of the blog is The Whiteboard Jungle if anyone wants to check it out. Please feel free to leave comments. People from all over the world have been commenting and engaging in discussion. It would be nice to have some parents and students weigh in. Particularly the students, as it focuses on you often and your voice is not often heard!

And there are some controversial topics coming up in the next few weeks. I am expecting a raging discussion in particular during the week of 8/24.

Paid to Blog?

2008-07-17T14:14:00.002-04:00

Crazy enough, ladies and gents, I have landed a professional blogging gig (kinda).

The engineering firm that I am working for this summer (something like Google for engineers) is asking me to write a technology for education blog. I am one of a few contributors, but it looks like I will be the most regular one (in a lot of ways) for the next few months.

Randomly enough, I am working with a former student from my BSpa days, Nik Gatzendorfer. He is writing for the company's online newsletter, making his former English 9, English 10, and Global History 9 teacher proud.

Anyway, the address for the blog if you would like to check it out and/or comment on some of the topics and what you think of them (like which is more popular with teens, e-mail or text messaging) is: http://cr4.globalspec.com/blog/68/Engineering-Beyond-the-Classroom

The whole site has some cool stuff from Iran using photoshop to make it look like their missile program is more successful than it is to how to change the oil in your car to which GPS to buy or how the new service of having your mutt's DNA tested to see what breeds it is works.

The site is called CR4.

Correcting Time: Spring 2008!

2008-06-12T20:00:00.007-04:00

Okay ladies and gents. Once something is done (the title changes to the color maroon), please feel free to come in and pick it up. I will hang on to materials until the end of the school year (June 26th) and then it is recycle time! You can also e-mail me for grades at pmody@bhbl.org.

Update as of 6/17 @ 12:35 A.M. - EVERYTHING IS DONE!

English 9: ALL DONE!

Shakespeare ReWritten
Final Exams
Thank You Letters

Forms of Lit Green (2BDF): ALL DONE!

Poetry Projects
Final Exams
Thank You Letters

Forms of Lit Black (3BDF):

Poetry Projects
Final Exams
Thank You Letters

American Experience Blue (3ACE):

American History X Film Write-Ups
Course Reflections
Final Exams
Thank You Letters

American Experience Red (4BDF):

American History X Film Write-Ups
Course Reflections
Final Exams
Thank You Letters

Reaction to My Fifth Concussion

2008-05-07T22:36:00.004-04:00

Something I Wrote to the Tune of Mambo Number Five in response to getting my fifth concussion:

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Concussion Number 5
One, two, three, four, five
Everybody in the pack
So come on let's fly
Into the penalty play
The boys say take the ball and crash
And I really wanna use the shoulder smash
A breakthrough run like I had last week
I must stay fleet
And knock that guy off his feet
I like crashing, rucking, putting the game to bed
But I just took a shot to head
My wife thinks I'm gonna end up dead

So what can I do?
Where am I and who are you?
Can't remember things, everything flies
It's all good just tell me the date
The TV's back on but it's the show I hate

Chorus:
I just forgot the last year of my life
Was I playing flank on strong or weak side?
A little bit of Advil is all I need
Two of everything is what I see
I think its dehydration from the sun
Noble, you said I was playing for how long?
The talk of retirement is where I am
Going to Saratoga Hospital? Oh Damn!

Kids and team mates making fun all around
So I turn my head to their sounds
I think I fell on the ground
CAT Scan to your left
And an MRI to your right
Team mates to the front and one to the side
Ask a question once
Ask the same question twice
How did I get home?
When did it turn night?

Chorus:
I just forgot the last year of my life
Was I playing flank on strong or weak side?
A little bit of Advil is all I need
Two of everything is what I see
I think its dehydration from the sun
Noble, you said I was playing for how long?
The talk of retirement is where I am
Going to Saratoga Hospital? Oh Damn!

I'll do what I have to
To get a medical release out of the blue
I can't run and I can't hide
Just like Neach it's scrum-cap time!

Chorus:
I just forgot the last year of my life
Was I playing flank on strong or weak side?
A little bit of Advil is all I need
Two of everything is what I see
I think its dehydration from the sun
Noble, you said I was playing for how long?
The talk of retirement is where I am
Going to Saratoga Hospital? Oh Damn!

Germany - Day 23: 2/22 (The Final Countdown)

2008-02-22T08:32:00.002-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 1

So this is the last full day in Germany. It was somewhat hard to really put into words as I went through in my head the usual old habit that I have had since I was a small child and I realize something was about to end. This is the last time…that I will put on my football pads, that I will get a #6 from the House of Fo in Nanjing, the last time I am going to walk out the door of my classroom at Ballston Spa. It’s more of just a roving observation, but it always happens in my mind, and today was no different. I was realizing that I would not be going back to GSG after today and the morning commute, which I have actually come to enjoy because it is a daily chance to ride on the autobahn, and I saw a SMART car that looked different than anything I have yet seen, as it was a two seater sporster. SMART cars are supposedly coming to the Cooper Mini dealer in Latham. I am all over this model when a) it is available and b) I can afford it. That being said, I have developed a level of comfort and have enjoyed my emerging sense of independence as I can get around town using the buses and it’s a great feeling. I feel like I could actually start to take care of myself here, and that is such a strong part of who I am, it makes it nice to gain that feeling, even if it is on the last day.

Today was somewhat sad, but also it gave a real great chance for reflection in a very humorous way, which it would have to because that is really our group. For the first hour of the 90 minute session, students tried to finish work and get any last academic requirements out of the way. Besides a mildly surprising assignment that came in yesterday (surprising because BH-BL is on break), everyone seemed to be just about done with work (Erin, how is that Animal Farm reading coming?). Once students were pretty much squared away, we worked on material for the going away party this evening. Jessia is giving a speech about her experiences with the exchange, and then the American group is going to do a version of “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” where the kids act out some of the more memorable moments of the last three weeks that all of us have shared. It has the potential to be pretty funny, so I hope it goes as well as it can because the students were very excited about it and actually remained for an extra block, just to do a run through.

After period three was done, Frau Canavan and I had some errands to run. We took the bus, which was an awesome turn of events as the drivers went on strike this morning, but apparently it was settled by about 11 A.M. Gotta hand it to the Germans when it comes to efficiency. We ran around Moers Centro doing some last minute buying of gifts and preparation for the evening’s festivities. We also took the opportunity to have a final doner, which I ordered totally by myself and tricked it out, Mody Style. It was perfect. The best one that I had since I arrived. I even took a video so people had a better idea and took a picture of the end product. Mmmmm…doner.

Frau Canavan spent the next two hours going in and out of shops, checking things off our collective shopping list and when hit the bus perfectly so I made it back just in time for me to meet Beatrix for the ride back to Kamp-Lintfort. Her mother had fixed a great hot lunch of pork schnitzel, baked cauliflower and boiled kartoffel. I also enjoyed my new favorite beverage and a great replacement for Coke, which I gave up for lent (along with walking at least two miles every day), which is basically a mixture of one-half orange juice, one-half seltzer water. Good stuff.

I then decided to repack most of what I did last night in order to accommodate the new items I picked up and something for James Flacke that is being sent home, which might be the entire length of my biggest bag. Should be interesting. As I pack things together, I realized that I had a lot less space than I thought. Especially when I received unexpected gifts at the farewell party this evening. Looks like I might be carrying a pretty good amount of materials in my bag. Mostly laundry, but I was hoping the back pack would end up being light. It’s funny. I am now thinking back of that last night in China. My roommate had left three days before, so I was by myself and two or three remaining American students. Packing up your belongings in a hotel is one thing, but living here was a little more personal. As with China, I really LIVED there, not just staid there. While I hope that I had a positive enough impact on this program for Kelly to invite me again, because of the rotation of teachers and the drive to bring all disciplines on such exchanges, we both know that it will be at least five years before I am able to do this again. By that point I will be almost 37 (yikes) and will probably have kids, God willing, so leaving the country may not be a realistic option. All of this has come to me this evening and while I am not as emotional about it as I was with China (I wanted to stay at least another trimester and break - four months), I am sad to be leaving. This has indeed been long enough to develop friendships and even though I was more secluded than what our students had, and was left more to myself (my family here really respected my privacy a great deal), I can only imagine what it is like for the students.

The farewell party this evening was very nicely done. Each host family brought enough food for 10 people and being that there were 50 people and 15 host families, we did quite alright. There was a great atmosphere, dancing, joking around, and such. At about 9:15, Herr Fabricius called everyone together and gave a speech about the importance of the program and how well it went, and that we need to remind ourselves that the struggle of these programs is what makes it valuable and allows us to grow as people, no matter our age. Amazingly, he delivered it in German, then English. At that point, a German student, Sandra, delivered a speech about how she felt about the program in German. Despite not knowing what she was saying, the pure emotion she was exuding told me everything that I needed to know. I have always found Sandra to be direct, honest, and sincere, and when Kim got up to hug her crying host, I was happy to see that this exchange just works. Maybe not all hosts and American students had that same level of connection, but I think we will see more tears than jeers at tomorrow’s farewell at the airport.

Next, Jessia gave a speech in English about how thankful she was to everyone who put the program together and how everyone she met went out of their way to make sure that she was having a good time. It was also heart felt and included a quote (so bonus points from me). Canavan followed with a speech in German which introduced me, who was to serve as “Drew Carey” for the night’s skit. With Herr Fabricius translating as I went, we did “The Top 20 Moments From the P.E.A.C.E. Exchange to Moers 2008”. I would say that of the 20, about 15 received raucous laughter from most of the room, and many of those laughing the hardest were the parents.

Afterwards, it was dispensing of a few gifts, here and there, and some tearful goodbyes by students who could not go to the airport tomorrow. I feel a little bad that Gloria can’t go to the airport and that she has already come to the U.S., so while most students are in the “see you in eight months…after tomorrow” mode, she was forced to say goodbye for real tonight.

And while at times, American students clumped with American students, and Germans with Germans, by the end of the night those natural cliques had been broken and it was totally intertwined. Because of how stressful the last few days were and how tense, I was very happy to see that we could all put it behind us and concentrate on why we were here and what the point of a foreign exchange is. To come together. To learn about each other. To make friends. To avoid misconception for unfamiliarity.

When I returned home, instead of running down to write my blog, I staid up in the living room with Beatrix, Kevin, Hannah, and Gideon until midnight because I wanted to spend as much time with them as I could. On the way home, Beatrix told me that she thought I was not what you would call a “typical American” and that my intelligence, education, and mostly, my curiosity made it a pleasure to have me around because I showed sincere interest in Germany. It was really nice of her to say to me because I have been trying to hard to not only set that example for the kids, but to really live that credo myself. Not to be a broken record, but I cannot fathom the amount of knowledge that I have obtained on this trip. And while terms like ziekekreig will fade from my memory, eventually, a connection, FINALLY, with the other half of my ethnic roots will allow this experience to remain with me, always.

As everyone seemed about ready for bed, I gave Beatrix the book about scenic views in New York, Hannah a bag of marbles so she can rehab her ankle, and Gideon a New York Mets ball cap, even though he is really all about basketball. They felt pale and thin in comparison to what they offered me for the past 24 days, but I think that this is a time where “it’s the thought that counts” was an accurate representation.

Right now, I have about eight hours before I leave and realize that I have written about 32,000 words detailing my experiences here. I only hope that all of my effort in chronicling my events has one major effect on my readers, no matter if it’s Mr. Schultz, the Board of Education, students, parents, teacher, or just community members (or you too, my German readers!), PLEASE understand that even though I don’t speak German much at all, this is a wonderful program that teaches students so much about the world and themselves. I cannot tell you how many deep and thought provoking conversations that I have with these students who are really just bright, bright people. These are conversations that I could have with many students, but when someone is opening up to new ideas, like students were here to do, it just lends itself to discussions that we never have time for in class, or at least not enough. Whether it was Roman history, or contemporary politics, human rights violations, or literature discussion, it felt so real, and the learning felt so real, that I would go through all of the work it took to miss two weeks of class again in a heartbeat. It really was that great of an experience, even if it wasn’t always easy.

This exchange, and others like it, should be supported, and if possible, more exchanges should be encouraged by any district and department that has the means. Giving students perspective is probably one of the greatest preparatory measures that we can give in terms of getting them ready for life after high school. While no exchange will ever be perfect because of the number of people that it inherently involves, it is a perfect learning experience and I am sad that it is soon coming to an end. My hat is off to all of the people, and specifically to Frau Canavan, Herr Kramer, Herr Fabricius, Frau Lohoff, and all of the host families that make this possible. I thank all of you who have read the pages and pages of writing that I have been able to do. It actually made me feel like a writer again, and I haven’t felt that way in quite a long time.

Barring any unforeseen adventures on the way home, this should bring my Germany blog to an end. So knowing our group the way that I do now, that means I should be posting one more, once I get home. What do you think? Time for a milkshake, Bekah?

(FYI: I will add pictures to the last few entries and post a link to my web albums for anyone who wants copies)

Germany - Day 22: 2/21 (What do Italy, Turkey, and Germany Have in Common? Xanten)

2008-02-22T00:37:00.002-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 2

It’s starting to set in for a lot of us that this exchange is just about over. For me, it’s a little weird in that I had so much more time in China, that just as I am getting comfortable and understanding things, like how to take the 27 stop bus ride from Kamp-Lintfort to Moers, I have to pack up to go home. With all of the travel, there has not been much time for anything but school and dealing with our recent cultural miscommunication flare-ups, some drama, and some punitive issues. Today felt like things were getting back into a manageable situation and that is good because I want everyone to enjoy the party tomorrow night and celebrate the friendships that they have formed with their German students and teachers during the last 22 days.

This morning we went through the normal study session, with a visit from Mike Himpele and Laura Moon, who decided to vacation in Moers this week as BH-BL is on break. Many of the students are done with all of their work, but a few have some items that are still in need of handling. Frau Canavan and I have been stressing very hard that all assigned work needs to be done when we return because we want to rejuvenate the image of the program that students return with all work completed. To their credit, I think most students have been taking this mandate seriously and have been working hard.

There was some interesting events in the study session that involved three students (two girls and one boy) trying to communicate with us from another hall way across the court yard. Frau Canavan decided that Sandmann needed one of the girls to be his girlfriend and some hilarity ensured that he may not have totally appreciated, but we certainly all did.

We next went to a class with ten year olds who were just learning English. We split the American students into groups of three and they sat with groups of 6-8 German ten year olds. There was a two way Q & A session, some reading of student essays, and then some game time. I regaled some of the German students, and J-Fogg and Erin with my three card tricks before we had another administrative conference with Herr Fabricius and all left for Xanten. One hilarious moment today: Kim went into the bathroom outside the cafeteria too close to the end of class and ended up being locked in it. Luckily, Colleen heard her cried of despair and my key actually worked to open it for her, freeing the permanently scared Pommes eating champion.

Xanten was pretty amazing, despite having quite the walk to the main attraction from the train station. It could also have seemed longer because I walked a TON yesterday. What we were going to see was both Roman ruins and some recreation, but also an active archaeological dig. Being a three year Latin student, and a three year teacher of Global History 9, I was drooling to go to this and had a great time. The single most interesting piece was the amphitheatre. After learning so much about them, it was nice to finally stand in the middle of one. A surprising note, the acoustics were ungodly. When I mocked up an Emperor’s address, it sounded like I was connected to a mic. There were also some pretty wild subterranean aqueducts, one of which we were able to crawl through. Beatrix warned me that some of the recreated parts felt very fake, and she was indeed right, but it was awesome to finally see these structures, either ruins or recreations, first hand.

Afterwards, being that Kim lives with her host, Sandra, in Xanten, we hit Xanten Centro and hunted down food. I had my favorite German combo: a doner and cappuccino gelato (somewhat ironic as the first is really Turkish and the second, Italian. In any event, it was very good. On the way home, a group of us chatted about a variety of topics, and I was able to jump off the train early as my stop was in between Xanten and Moers, and that pretty much took care of business for the day.

This evening, I had dinner with Beatrix, Hannah, and Kevin, and then saw Gideon and met his girlfriend, who is studying English and biology and has near perfect English. She has been to every state in the U.S.A., and was very fun to talk to. I also finally felt like I was able to do something for this wonderful family, even if it was small. All three of the Schwich children and avid athletes, with Hannah and Gideon currently playing basketball. The other night, Hannah came home with a rolled ankle, and Beatrix noted that this is a phenomenon that happens pretty often. Today, I sat down with her and looked at her ankle, and then went over four strength developing exercises that should help her roll it less often. She seemed very appreciative.

Even though I am getting excited about going home and seeing my wife, dogs, family, and friends, I am also growing sad that I am leaving all of the people that I have come to know and enjoy talking to. Beatrix and I have developed a fun friendship and have been joking a lot in the past week or so. She has worked so hard to make me feel at home and comfortable, giving me privacy, and exposing me to a variety of great wine, good cooking (and her mother’s cooking absolutely rocks – I am thinking of hiding some in my suitcase), and such developed conversation about so many things. Its hard to really sum up how appreciative and generous the German people are. There are so many times that my dinner has been paid for before I even realize it.

Well, one more full day and the going away party. The following morning, I am probably on the road by 6 AM so I can get to Cologne by 8 and on the plane for takeoff at 10:30. I better get some packing done and then bed.

Germany - Day 21: 2/20 (Paradise Lost: Administrivia Found)

2008-02-20T10:20:00.003-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 3

(Adjusted for Clarity)

So today marks the last day of the first three weeks of the trip (out of 3.5). It some ways it is hard to believe that I have only been in Germany that long, and in others, it feels like I can’t believe that I here more than a day or two. With the whirlwind travel and the many sights, the dealing with the language barrier and the personalities of 13 American students, 16 German students, and other various German chaperons, its amazing that we don’t have Lord of the Flies syndrome some times. But something really cool happened this morning in study session and I was glad for it. It seemed to put the whole trip into perspective.

Students are mostly finished with their work (this week being a break week back at home) or are fighting furiously to finish up. So we had a lot of different topics going on this morning. One of the most popular points of conversation with a variety of German people is American politics. I think it is safe to say that for this area, Obama is the favorite among the German people and most of the people on the exchange. We were talking about the election and the resignation this morning of Fidel Castro of Cuba and, then about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then the whole conversation changed to world politics, history, and literature and we had this surreal discussion lecture going on that included Animal Farm, Huck Finn, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, discussions of the role of the U.N., human rights, Rwanda, Darfur, Kosovo’s recent independence, and the former Soviet Union. Students sat listening and asking questions and when it was done, one of them actually thanked us for explaining some of the things we were talking about. So often, students just spit back whatever political views that they hear on T.V. or from some authority figure. If there was one item I felt was well covered today, it was the importance of being well read, well informed, and willing to think for yourself. And I was happy that both Frau Canavan and I were admant that we were not experts of international politics and the best advice we could give was not to swallow what we said whole and to check things out for themselves. I usually get a “real” lecture like that only a few times a year where you feel like students are intrigued for reasons that are more than just grades. When they are learning about more than information for some test or just so they can do well in college. When they yearn for knowledge, insight, and/or guidance, just because it is something that they want to know. And I cherish those days because there are so many that are in the opposite direction and in the vein of having to lecture on the life importance of iambic pentameter. Sure, I can tie it back to the importance of being well read and well informed, but we all know that it’s not exactly the same. I left the room feeling rejuvenated and energized to be a teacher.

Then I spent the next five hours dealing with some issues involving the exchange. They varied in seriousness from minor to significant, but because of confidentiality and privacy, I am not going to detail them. Suffice it to say, it was a long day and I was about tapped out in terms of moderating interpersonal communications and my role here as chaperon/assistant principal by 2:30. Maybe that jump to administration that I kick around for a few minutes every few months just took a smack upside the head. I don’t particularly enjoy discipline, especially when it involves students that I like and generally trust and respect. We all make bad decisions and mistakes. Its part of life. However, not all of us have to pay for those mistakes because of who we are and sometimes, who we know. That is one area that I always try to stay firm on. Like I learned from a genius of a leader a long time ago, Vince Lombardi, enforce the rules you make evenly, and find punishment that fits the crime, even if its in your own opinion. Once there, enforce it the same way to everyone, no matter the relationship. It’s a true way to gain respect by people that you have to discipline and to be seen as fair by almost everyone. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Tonight I think I will take a walk around Kamp-Lintfort and maybe pick up some odds and ends for my last few days here and my trip home. There is a special on T.V. tonight about the people that the school I am at was named after, so its either that, or more of Truman Capote. That is, if I am not back on the phone and computer with more administrivia for the remainder of the night!

Germany - Day 20: 2/19 (Oberhausen - The Crossgates of Westphalia)

2008-02-20T09:56:00.003-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 4

Today was supposed to be a really low key day. Go to school and run the study session, observe a class, and then either spend the day in Moers City, or get some work done for CDYR around Geschwister-Scholl Gesamtschule. Frau Canavan, however, had other plans. She wanted to skip town early (after the study session) and head to Munster. Realizing that funds were especially low, as I had forgotten my wallet in Kamp-Lintfort, I was pretty much at her whim and fancy for the day. The Munster trip was complicated by the fact that the rail ticket was going to be upwards of 20 Euro each way, plus whatever we were going to do that day, and that I was put in charge of getting lunch tickets for students. Without getting into overly grand (and totally boring) detail, this was a process that went no where after 90 minutes of negotiation.

Instead, wanting to get out of town for a while now that all of the students were with their hosts and had been fed for lunch, the new destination of choice was the largest mall in Westphalia, in Oberhausen. Price of ticket…4.10 Euro. Awww-right!

The mall was cool enough. About as large as Crossgates with prices ridiculously high, considering the ever less forgiving exchange rate. So we walked around and I watched Frau Canavan shop, stopping for lunch and grabbing coffee. Oh, and for the record, Spaghetti Ice Cream (which is vanilla ice cream, with raspberry sauce and while chocolate powder on top, simulating parmesan) is probably really good tasting, but it just looks gross.

After a relaxing afternoon of meandering around the mall and watching some guy try to interview Frau Canavan, and have someone from Citibank try to get us credit cards (Frau Canavan: “We don’t speak German!”), we headed back to Moers and I managed to take a 45 minute, 36 stop bus ride back to Kamp-Linfort. I then walked about a half kilometer or so back to the Schwich’s house. A light dinner and reading some more of In Cold Blood, which, despite me having some negative views of it (assuming that it was only good because it was vogue to like it), I am actually enjoying reading it. I spent a considerable amount of time working on online CDYR material until after midnight, despite designs to be in bed before 11 PM. This was not only thwarted by slow moving computer and internet woes, but as a bonus some lovely person from the greater Burnt Hills, whose identity is still unknown, decided to call me at about 2 AM (but on my personal cell, not the one that I keep by my bed for the explicit purpose of chaperon business and emergency contact). So readers, please! No texts or calls on the personal line and realize that I AM SIX HOURS AHEAD OF THE EAST COAST!!!!

So other than being grumpy when I awoke from lack of sleep and the mid snooze wakeup that kept me up for an hour, the day was low key. I am hoping the remaining ones will also follow suit and I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Germany - Day 19: 2/18 (Kickin' it in "the Duce")

2008-02-18T17:33:00.008-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 5
Broken Rubber Bands by Shan: 3.5
Doerners that I Owe Hagan for A Job Well Done: 2
Emergency Bathroom Trips by E & J = U.S. Nat'l Debt

Random event that I left out of my blog yesterday: there was a mild earthquake in Kamp-Lintfort. I was sitting on the couch, reading in the living room and the house started to shake. It wasn't big shakes, mind you. I have felt worse from ice sliding off my building's roof when I was a sophomore in college, but I definitely noticed. I looked up and none of my host family seemed to take any notice, so I made a mental note to drink less coffee, and let it go. But when Sandmann brought it up in his blog and then I thought about it, I realized that I hadn't lost my mind. When I asked Beatrix about it, she said that because of the massive mining that goes on in Kamp-Lintfort, that the occasional earthquake is a semi-common occurrence and that they don’t even notice them anymore. Even so, they can be felt all throughout the greater Moers area. Parents of young ones abroad: realize it was an interesting tidbit and footnote on the day, not a reason to call in panic. We have not broken apart from the rest of Europe and fallen into the ocean.

Today was yet another excursion, this time to Düsseldorf. I know that I have done some that not everyone has and, likewise, some have done trips that I have not, but have heard about in endless detail (how ya doin, D.J.? - although I will admit that the military museum was pretty cool), not including walking around Moers and Kamp-Lintfort, but let’s count them:

Berlin
Aachen
Essen
Duisburg
Amsterdam
Düsseldorf
Cargill - the company, not a city
Munster (Wasserburg Anholt Castle)
Köln

Each trip has required 30 of us to be organized enough to take multiple means of transportation, including street cars, low and high speed trains, buses, and recently, a boat. The stress of getting that many people on and off all of the transportation venues is starting to show as we have been to upwards of at least 9 cities in 18 days, not including the ones that we are staying in and that we are attending school in (although for a lucky few, they are the same). In short, I can tell we have all been together for 18 days because of two reasons:

Certain idiosyncrasies that were funny on 2/1 have slowly become annoying (myself included)
People have been taking breaks from other people for their sanity

I guess it goes with the territory of traveling as a group of intercultural and intergenerational people. The youngest is a 14 year old American girl and the oldest is 61 year old German man. That is a huge range of difference of experience, knowledge, likes, and personality to balance when you spend as much time as we have cramped together on street cars and running down platforms that we aren’t supposed to be on (thanks, Laja!). It has been interesting to observe the different groupings that have made themselves clear and how different groups interact with each other.

On Thursday we head off to the Roman influenced Xanten, which I have been greatly looking forward to, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning will be school, school, and school. Before that happens, though, we headed via train to Düsseldorf today, where, according to J-Fogg, the shopping was great, but the smells, not so much.

You could really tell that there is something of a cultural saturation setting in. Fewer pictures were being snapped today, and the background of our surroundings seemed to be an afterthought for a lot of people. If it wasn’t for the animal and wildlife preserve that we visited before we left, I would have probably only had about a dozen real pictures, besides the ones shot for the sake of humor and reaction. I called it The Brass Lion Point. There is a side story to go with that, but I have even reached a critical mass with the blog, so it’s going to be concise and observant, not exactly play-by-play (or tangent-by-tangent). The truth of it is that not being an architect, that I can only look at some many gable end roofs and be impressed with the differences between here and there, and not with the exclusively nine different types that were particular only to Amsterdam. When asked if I wanted to take pictures of a unique office building and apartment building and I opted to pass on them as I found them somewhat interesting but not exactly memory worthy, I could feel a little resentment that I was not taking the opportunity to bask in the amazingness of the apartment building. It wasn’t for a lack of interest; it was for a lack of mental and spiritual room.

I wonder if the students are feeling this. I am trying to learn as much German as I can, take in a history that I have not really studies since high school, learn names, places, pick up on cultural nuances, and then compare them from place to place in under three weeks. Maybe that was why I cherished yesterday. I could be “just an English teacher” and veg on the couch doing something I like to do in America…read. And this evening I polished off the first fifty pages of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and it felt good (even if part of me is just reading it to feel some literary posh). That being said, as I walked across the school yard this morning, I heard kids talking in German about the "American Teacher" which was funny because I could tell that they were talking about me for sure, finally, but they didn't know that I knew.

It seems that the breakneck speed that we are seeing Germany is reminiscent of a teacher trying to get through the last unit before the test. It doesn’t matter if you get it as long as the material has been officially covered. And because of that, I have been slowing down to smell the roses, have some fun, and see some things on terms that will make sense to me, not to my chaperon counterparts, per se. It seems that the kids have already beaten me to this strategy, and I take my hat off to their practicality. So I lingered in the aquarium at parts longer than I was supposed to and took ten minutes to site on the bench next to 100,000 gallon shark tank to be by myself and think of the last time I went SCUBA diving, off the coast of Ocho Rio, Jamaica.

Today was fun, overall. Looking over Düsseldorf from the big tower was interesting, but I agree with some kids that after doing something very similar in Berlin, it had a been there, done that feel to it. I enjoyed walking around the city for nearly two hours with Casey, Parkes, and Sandmann, checking out shops, grabbing some stone oven pizza, and walking through a great market where I bough some awesome fresh strawberries, realizing how much I have missed things like fresh fruit as I don’t have much control on my diet here.

The weather was great, sunny and only a little cool, and parts of the day allowed me to walk around with my jacket in my back pack, sporting just the polo and a baseball cap. Notice that they matched, J-Fogg!

At the wildlife preserve, we met up with a teacher from GSG whose first name is Juerg (although I am sure that is not how it is spelled). He gave us a great tour of the aquarium, and I was AMAZED how great his knowledge of the English names for so many fish and water creatures was. He even knew obscure references to these things called knife fish when I said a fish that looked like a swimming peace of bacon looked like one based on how it moved. He teaches English and Biology. I should move here. That sounds just like my cup of tea.

I went through the usual rigmarole of inciting fits of laughter from J-Fogg and Erin, which managed at one point to break rubber band number 3.5 from Shannon, and required an EMERGENCY bathroom break from the two girls. I did notice on the train on the way home, though, that after 18 days of the same reaction, it’s so easy that it’s almost not fun anymore. I mean that single word, not even said with particular gusto or emphasis can set them off. Even Sandmann can do it…well, almost.

So even though Düsseldorf probably won’t be super memorable because of the sights, and that might just be because it was German Destination City #9, it was memorable because of the people I spent time with today. Casey, Parkes, Sandmann, and I hit everything from stores selling surfboard, to book stores (Casey has GREAT vision, by the way), to a shop with the largest Doerner Kebab rack we have yet seen. It was laid back and casual, especially with the kids (as I was the only chaperon with them for those two hours) and it reminded me once again why I wanted to come on this trip. Spending so much time together can make any group grate on each other’s nerves, but I am proud how they, and really, we all are handling it as we wind down to a last few days. It was kind of sad that today was my last “Monday Morning” in Kamp-Lintfort, but I remind myself that this trip is just one stage, one adventure, in the great labyrinth that is life. Why would I want to walk the same path over and over? And what fun is it to head out straight and fast when you can simply spend the rest of your time enjoying the maze?

Sorry to be so abstract and meandering, but that’s where it is at, today.

Germany - Day 18: 2/17 (A Day "Off"? The Great Perhaps)

2008-02-17T17:44:00.002-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 6

I was badly in need of what today turned out exactly to be. After the break neck pace of almost non-stop travel, picture editing, blogging, and taking care of school related business both home and abroad, I need to just chill out and not have anything bloggably awesome happen for a full sun cycle. This entry should push my blog word count over 25,000 since I arrived in Germany (about 39 single spaced pages, so far). And pretty much, a low key, chill out day is what happened. I dragged myself out of bed at 8:30, 45 minutes later than I had optimistically hoped for the night before. I didn’t have to be upstairs until noon, but I wanted to be less of a hermit than I can be, down here in the dungeon, so I worked on my blog for a while to chronicle Amsterdam and the posted it. I also spent about an hour reading the news and sports sections of various websites that I frequent, including The Times Union, The Saratogian, and most religiously, Matt Cerrone’s Mets Blog.

After that I sent a long overdue e-mail to my wife, who I am starting to miss very much. It’s been harder than I anticipated being away from her for this long. It appears that I am not as independent as I thought and I spent most of the day hoping that she would call, just by chance (especially because I am out of minutes on my phone). When I finished typing that tome to her, I then did another round of hand washed laundry, which I am hoping can get me through my last week here. I cleaned up my room, made my bed, and went upstairs at about 11:45, feeling pretty spectacular about things in general. We went to some posh restaurant with the whole Schwich family, besides Esther who is in New Zealand, and whose bungee jumping experience DVD arrived today. She jumped from a height of 48 meters. Pretty impressive courage for a 15 year-old!

After lunch, which was a two hour event, I settled in to do what English teachers do best when they are not correcting papers: pleasure reading. Since Leah G. was threatening to execute me if I did not read the book she gave me while I was away, I decided to see if I could get through some of it while sitting on the couch in the Schwich’s living room. Something that I have come to enjoy, mostly, is that there is pretty much classical music playing 24/7 around this place and that it’s quite easy to listen to AND read. Something I might keep in mind when I am trying to stay up and correct papers to all hours of the morning. The book Leah recommended was Looking for Alaska by John Green. Its upper end Y.A. Literature, but it was a pretty satisfying read and I mowed through it, only getting up, once at 7:30 to stretch my legs and check my e-mail, and grab a bite to eat for dinner (literally) with Beatrix. At about 9 P.M., I finished the book. Something of a modern day Catcher in the Rye, but for me with a more likeable character than J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield. It made me think about a lot of aspects of life, which I always hold as the most important aspect of any book I consider reading. I think that is why I find so many books that I generally enjoy and tend to pass on works like The Sound and The Fury as the only thought I kept getting out of it was “why does this book make my brain hurt?”. I like crushing books in one (basically) sitting and this was no exception. It annoyed me that I didn’t finish the last Harry Potter in one single shot, that it took two sittings to get through it, but Looking for Alaska was only 225 pages. I recommend it, although despite its YA rating, it has some hot and heavy scenes from its eleventh grade protagonists. The second half, while somewhat forced and even contrived at times, did ask some great questions. I personally liked the character The Old Man, who was the world religion teacher. His philosophical questions were interesting and one of them I think I am going to use in UHS Mythology next year.

It also had a character, Pudge, who was addicted to knowing what people’s last words were before he or she died. It made me think about what I would like mine to be. Elias Pisner, German immigrant turned Union College professor and Civil War sergeant (if memory serves) said, “God protect my wife and children.”, and there were some ones in the novel I already knew, like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I might have some time to come up with my final words, but it made me think what I would want the last thing I say on Earth to be about. Would I want to impart wisdom, or make someone laugh? Both?

It also reminded me of a recent lecture series that made headlines. It was about a college, Carnegie Mellon, that asked professors to prepare one lecture about anything and give it like it was the last lecture that they would ever give. One professor, Randy Pausch, was dying of cancer despite being a young guy, and gave what many have called “The Best Lecture of All Time”. I am linking a copy because I don’t have a lot of cultural substance today, so I feel like you, loyal blog followers, should at least get a bell or a whistle today.

And that was basically my lazy, chill day. And to steal a quote of a quote from Looking for Alaska (which has nothing to do with the state of Alaska, coincidentally), I will leave you with the following line:

“I now go in search of the Great Perhaps.” Maybe that is why I came to Germany. It certainly was why I went to China. Now the fun part. Figuring it all out...

Germany - Day 17: 2/16 (Wait...Amsterdam Is In Europe, Too?)

2008-02-17T04:25:00.017-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 7

This morning we left for the Netherlands to visit the capital city of Amsterdam. We took a double decker purple bus with a white unicorn on the side of it which became even funnier when Erin started saying “Shun the non-believer!” when we made it off of the bus. If you don’t understand the reference, watch the following video, entitled Charlie the Unicorn, which is guaranteed to drop your I.Q. at least a few points. Erin, I am thinking about an early birthday present. You can sneak a peek of it, here. I was in good spirits this morning, especially after the play last night. Three hours of high school drama in a foreign language could have been deadly, and to be honest, I had to battle narcolepsy during the first 90 minutes because of all of the dialogue, but by the end I was happy that I went, even if Hannah’s friends didn’t understand why I would want to go to a play in a language I didn’t understand. It did allow me to concentrate harder on the visuals, including stage design and just the physical presence of the actors, but it was a high school production, which I tried to keep in mind. Something that was a little bizarre and hard to get my head around: first, alcohol was served at the performance. It was also tradition that during intermission that the actors go out into the lobby and run concessions themselves which I thought was somewhat interesting to have that level of interaction with the cast DURING the performance. Also, students in the play smoked on stage. It was crazy to see a high school character light up on stage, even though it was true to the character that they were playing.

After how solemn and serious most of Friday was, I was looking to have a lot of fun on this trip and even though morning brought the usual amount of grumpiness from students (which was a little surprising as the party at Laja’s last night was reported to be over at 11 PM and we didn’t have to be at the bus until 8 A.M.), I would not be denied. True to form, I started messing with people and trying to get people to laugh so we could lighten the mood on the way, and by the time we reached the rest stop, about 90 minutes into the trip, everyone seemed to be ready to enjoy the day. Even though we stopped at McDonald’s, I tried to find some way to have fun. After ordering coffee (you offer small size only… “GOOD GOD? WHY SHOULD THEY MOCK POOR FELLOWS THUS???” - Harry's St. Crispin's Day Speech, Henry V), and Canavan had her Happy Meal with wind up roller toy included, there was some fun to be had at the McDonald’s castle. I shot a “slide cam” video, although it is apparent my action footage skills could use some work.

Soon we arrived in Amsterdam and after a brisk walk (traffic had made us late), we arrived at the Anne Frank house, where Anne Frank and seven other people tried to hide from the Nazis, but ultimately failed in doing so and were sent to concentration camps where only one of them survived (Peter Van Pelt, if memory serves). Although it was bigger than what I pictured in my mind, I cannot, for the life of me, imagine what life must have been like in the top of that warehouse/factory. Unlike a variety of memorials that I have visited, such as the Vietnam War Memorial or even ground zero where the World Trade Center used to exist, this just felt different. To be walking the same floors that Anne Frank walked 60+ years ago was just different. It felt like I was touching history, if that made any sense. It was even different than being at the Nanjing Massacre Site. Even though I was in the same place as the atrocity that happened there, the Anne Frank House was just more intimate. Maybe it was also because I read The Diary of Anne Frank as a ninth grader and some 16 years later, I was seeing the setting I had only read about as a teen. I wish pictures were allowed, but I understand why they are not.

There was a pretty wild display at the end of the self-guided tour. It was called “Free2Choose” and asked people to weigh in on decisions they would make based on most of the same freedoms that are guaranteed to us by the “Bill of Rights”. It was interesting to note the number of students who were surprised how these decisions were not so cut and dry. After each scenario was presented, visitors had 10 seconds to vote yes or no to a prompt and then were allowed to see the percentage of each response by the people in the room and then by all visitors who had taken part in the interactive display. Not surprisingly, filled with teachers and teens, the responses were usually more liberally minded than the overall average, although I found myself voting in the mass minority, once or twice. D.J. had some good insights on some of the hypocrisy that was shown by people who okayed some forms of protest and nixed others, based on familiarity or personal connection with the groups involved.

We grabbed lunch a cool little run down café while students had an hour to themselves to explore the shopping and shop area we were in. It felt like a community pub that one might see in England or Ireland and the food was pretty good. It is still so bizarre to see pets in reaturants. There was cat who continually circled our table and I thought how the health and safety inspector would have a stroke in the U.S. if he or she saw something like that.

We next took a boat tour of the canals of Amsterdam, which I enjoyed very much and from the liveliness of the boat, everyone else did, too. It was nice being on the open water as I have done in almost every place I have visited. It was wild to see how much Amsterdam is like Venice, at least what I have seen fronm pictures. There were a ton of small bridges, most that I was surprised that our boat could fit under, and a lot of house boats, which I was surprised to find out, was a very popular place to live in Amsterdam, although the city is slowly weeding them out and forcing them north. There were even some house in the city that were ONLY accessible by boat We saw some great sights during the approximately hour long tour, including a recreation of a ship used by the Dutch East India Trading Company, the largest company in the world at its height and recently made famous the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy. The houses in Amsterdam are so narrow, Herr Fabricius explained, because for a time, taxes were accessed on the width of your house and not on the value. The rest was that each building has a hook for a pulley so you can get your furniture to the third or fourth floor, because doing so through the stairwells would be impossible.

The last organized event of the day was the walk through the flea market. Despite several warnings, some students did not realize that haggle with vendors and ended up getting hosed on prices. There were some interesting wares available, such as a box of old power cords and another of random spoons, but I didn’t find anything that was really worthy of a purchase. Nikki, however, found both what she said was her future wedding dress and a fire engine red fluffy skirt, for which she did not know that she could haggle about the price, and because of that, I won't post for her parents how much she spent on it. I mean, nowadays, a lot of teenagers have mortgages, right? Casey did point out that one shop was advertising cannabis lollipops, which we found as funny to see being sold on the street. Fear not, only a picture was taken and that picture is for educational purposes, only.

There was a split as what next to do. Much of the group wanted to see the Van Gogh Museum, but a faction wanted to buy t-shirts at the Hard Rock Café, which I thought was fad that died in 1996, but that could just be me. What resulted was a mass debate, then a rush to a trolley car, which left Herr Fabricius behind (intentionally or unintentionally, we are not sure) and literally took off as I was throwing students on board and had one foot on the deck and one foot on the street. The best part was when the door tried to close the first time, the only thing that stopped half of us from being left behind was, ironically, J-Fogg’s derrière.

With time waning, we were not able to see Van Gogh’s work and although I was tempted, dropping $37 on a tie depicting Starry Night was not something I was ultimately going to do, so Frau Canavan, Jessia, and myself found a small coffee café called Small Talk, and enjoyed cappuccino (and for myself, some rocking apple pie type thing) with a hilarious multi-cultural wait staff. We were able to see the sun set on Amsterdam from the window and the arrival of Charlie the Unicorn to take us back to Moers, promptly at 6 PM, when all museums and sites of cultural important close, and all other “activities” in Amsterdam begin.

On the way home, Casey, Frau Canavan and I talked about BH-BL’s leadership program for upwards of 65 minutes and then, on Colleen’s request, I told stories from China that got everyone in the general area rolling with laughter. Combined with a story that I told Jessia earlier in the day about Chinese toddler and their clothing in Nanjing, we laughed pretty much non-stop for the last hour of the trip. At one point, Jessia’s laughter went ultra sonic and I thought she might pass out. Good times. We were back by 8:30 PM and everyone quickly departed to head home.

Germany - Day 16: 2/15 (Tragedy at Home and Many Types of Drama Abroad)

2008-02-15T11:46:00.004-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 8

This morning I woke up earlier than the last few days because I wanted to get some work done, including cleaning up my room at the Schwich’s. I was sidetracked by another morning ritual of mine, which is reading the morning news online. While I enjoy looking at the German newspaper NRZ (Neue Rhine Zeitung), I am usually just looking at pictures and for familiar words. For example this morning, I think I was reading a review of Stallone’s new action movie, John Rambo, but I have no idea what was going on for sure, thinking that the film was either taking place in or filmed in Burma. Maybe it was both. In any event, CNN.com greeted me this morning with news of the gunman at Northern Illinois University, who shot 22 people, killing five, before turning the gun on himself. It is a little bizarre being over here and hearing about tragedies at home. In China, I had a friend that sent me the weekly newspaper that was published on campus. Mail took about two weeks to arrive, so I usually found out about information weeks after anything happened, and being that it was a weekly paper, sometimes the news was a week old to begin with. I didn’t even know who won the World Series in ’97 until almost Thanksgiving. That type of insulation allowed a total immersion and an almost disconnect with events at home because I couldn’t read almost a single word in a Chinese newspaper as the pictographic language is so different.

So this is a new experience for me. To a degree, I guess there is a feeling of helplessness when I heard of natural disasters, the monster storms (that have my wife calling at 1 A.M. German time to ask how to start the snow blower), and now this shooting. Really, though, when you think about it, I wouldn’t be able to do much about rural Kansas or NIU. Besides taking care of the driveway, its just a strain of the same feeling that I have when I am home. The only difference here is that no one exactly understands. Beatrix made note that they have issues of their own here, and they are usually and thankfully much less violent than in the United States.

So we have again, someone who writes threats on walls about causing massive change and then, weeks later, thinks the best way to do that is to open fire on a random group of students. How, and in what psychologically deranged universe of neurobiological imbalance does this make any logical sense? Shooting college students will change the world? What happened to people like Martin Luther just nailing his issues to the wall of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. People took notice. The Protestant Reformation ensued. No one died, at least by his hand. Granted, you had multiple inquisitions based on this split in the church, but that is not the point I am trying to make. Sometimes I think that getting rid of guns may actually have some merit, but then I realize that people would just use home made bombs using wikipedia, so what is the difference? Part of me feels sad, knowing that the gunman must have been deranged to a level that most of us won’t understand, but it seems like it is happening so often that I think we are seeing so many more of these events occur because people see the media scrutiny and it’s an alternative to being one of the losers on American Idol. You get your fifteen minutes of infamy and then that’s it. I don’t pretend to be a mind hunter, although I was fascinated with abnormal psychology in college (it was definitely in the top two of my favorite psych courses at Union), but this to me seems like an issue that we had better start finding answers for because for some reason that I am not yet comprehending, American schools are the prime target for gunmen run amok.

Off of that topic, at least for the time being, today provided itself with an opportunity to sit in on a 13^th Grade AP World Politics class, taught in English. Student were learning about the United Nations and the General Secretary career of Kofi Amaan and newly elected (well, last year) General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. It was an interesting class and I was really impressed with the students’ knowledge of English and how it was taught alongside international politics (such as asking for a list of English verbs that cover the different ways we say that a person has started time in office). Students were mostly engaged and asking good questions. Herr Fabricius asked me a few, one about the U.S.’s view of the U.N. and I said that, believe it or not, most Americans didn’t like war and wanted the world to be at piece. This generated a lot of laughter as if it was the most ridiculous thing that any of them had heard. This is our international image among Germany’s educated teens and it is a reality that the next president, be it McCain, Obama, or Clinton, best be prepared to deal with seriously.

Frau Canavan and I did indulge in the German concept of “Second Breakfast” this morning and we went into the City of Moers while we were on break and had a great breakfast and milchkaffe. It consisted of a round, thin, toasted waffle, cherries in sauces, a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, and some whip cream. Totally a part of a balanced breakfast (dairy, grains, fruits, etc.). Despite asking if I was in the land of the Hobbits at first hearing of it, I think that second breakfast is something that I could learn to enjoy.

We did have to deal with some program drama today and I had my first parent-teacher conference where the predominant language spoken was German, about 90% of the time. I thought, from what I understood, that it went well and that I hope the parents concerns were adequately addressed. This meeting, as well as another issue involving an exchange pairing definitely showed me that some people don’t understand the true nature of how difficult a cultural and language barrier can be.

Tonight I am attending a high school play. Hannah (the eldest daughter of my host family)’s school is putting on a production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” and Beatrix asked if I would have interest in attending, despite that it is in German. We are also leaving for Amsterdam in the morning, so I am going to get some packing and laundry done for that trip so I can get some sleep this evening. Never brief, just briefer than usual. My hat is off to you, Polonius!

Germany - Day 15: 2/14 (The Bog of Eternal Stench)

2008-02-14T08:50:00.011-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 9

"If you so much as set a foot in the Bog of Eternal Stench, you'll smell bad for the rest of your life. It'll never wash off!" - Hoggle, from the movie Labyrinth. See a clip here

Happy Valentine's Day. I was reminded of how much this day rots for so many people by having one of the most sensually unpleasant days of my life. I am one of those freaks who tries to find a life lesson in everything that he sees, hears, and or does, and I did even find one in today's excursion (although excretion might be more accurate about the general feeling of the day). But I will get to that later.

The day started with a mini-break for some of the students and we allowed seven of them to take advantage of late arrival this morning as we were leaving for a field trip halfway through study session. We were headed to Cargill, an American Food production company. I wasn’t sure why were seeing an American company in Germany and still am not quite sure why it was on the docket, although from what I understand, it had something to do with the fact that Gloria, a German student in our group, had a connection to see it because her father worked there.

The tour began with about an hour intro into the history of the factory, an overview of it’s production, uses if its material, and such. I tried to keep interest, and the guide, Helmut Klein (awesome, awesome name), really tried hard in his best English to keep us interested, but it reminded me of why its hard but important to make material engaging as a teacher and what happens if you just slam some info on a PowerPoint. And I guess it really comes down to how much I can really listen to about corn. If I lived in Nebraska, maybe, but I don’t. One thing I found out was that France is the Iowa of Europe. Ha Ha! Take that, France!

When it was time for the tour, I was very excited because I wanted to leave the “classroom” about as badly as any of the students, although Sandra (a German student) was peppering Herr Klein with questions, so at least she was really interested in everything. We went to a locker room and were dudded up with all sorts of safety equipment: special non-slip sneakers, white paper lab coats, safety glass, hard hats, and ear plugs. We were all stylin!

I guess the one item that we didn’t have, which looking back would have made the tour much better, were breathing masks. Once we made out of the “locker room” we began walking toward the first building and that is when the smell of cooking corn really started to hit. When Herr Klein said we would smell corn cooking, I know I was thinking of the smell when I boil corn on the cob or making popcorn, but that was not the smell that I experienced in any way, shape, or form. I guess boiling thousands of tons of corn meal is a little different and it created one of the strongest and worst smells I have ever inhaled. We walked quickly across the lot and stated to go into a building, thankfully, and I couldn’t wait to escape the pungent, acrid, overwhelming smell that literally defies description. Until we made it inside and it was worse. Every room we entered for the next 90 minutes was a gamble. I would breathe as little as possible and when we entered the next room, I would gasp for more air and see that I was greeted with a different variation of foul. Every room, except for the three control rooms that we saw, had a different special nastiness to it. And it was overpowering. I thought Erin was literally going to pass out, with Shannon and J-Fogg not far behind. I couldn’t blame them because at times I wanted to jump out of a window and just end the tour for myself. It was really that bad. If Herr Kramer wants to give out a bigger scare next year about breaking the law and consuming alcohol while in Germany, instead of threatening to send a kid home, he should threaten to have them spend a day working in the corn starch room at Cargill. It would have done the trick with me. If I had to choose between not eating and spending eight hours in that place, I would have hit the hunger strike in a second. Bring it on, Gandhi. You don’t even know what you are in for.

To make matters more disgusting, we have the story of D.J. At one point we saw what looked like a giant cylinder of extremely yellow cranberry sauce (the kind you get from a can). Erin had a btter description of it as it was coming off of the cylinder, but I will try to maintain some level of decorum, here. It was just about as nasty looking a substance as I could imagine. And of course, J-Fogg wanted to touch it with her plastic gloves. We joked that D.J. should taste it and to my absolute astonishment and disgust, he did. Twice. With no promise of compensation beyond getting blogged about.

After this horrifying experience was over and we could de-safety cloak ourselves, we went back to the classroom where I had some coffee and spent time trying to get Shannon to break a rubber band for her braces, but had to settle for getting J-Fogg to spit Coca-Cola all over the floor. The Cargill group then treated us to a lunch of currywurst and fried potatoes (Jessia and I missed French fries because we were the last in line). The currywurst was actually pretty solid, although, in truth, I didn’t have much of an appetite and when I tried my salad, whatever the dressing was reminded me of the smell/taste from the factory, and that was the last bite of anything that I have eaten today. Cargill then gave each of us a gift bag with a coffee mug, hat, lanyard, etc., which I thought was pretty nice of them. When then mercifully made it back on the bus and headed back to GSG.

I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to go through that tour again, but I did realize the value of it two different ways. The next time someone is talking about industrial pollution, I know I will immediately think of how horrible that place was in terms of just what it smelled like, not including the diesel fumes and exhaust that gave it just an extra punch. Those conversations will now strike home in a different fashion.

More importantly, however, I think that I have remembered today why I always wanted to go to college because I don’t think I could ever work in a place like that, almost no matter how much it paid me. While there were many engineers there, who have obviously attended college, I can’t fathom smelling like that plant when I came home and not getting seriously sick. It makes me have more respect for what factory works must go through to be able to provide for their families and certainly what it must have been like for the millions of unskilled laborers who flooded the West from the East, looking for employment and a higher standard of living when the Berlin wall came down. Often, the unskilled laborer, and even the skilled laborer, are criticized for their lifestyle and situation. However, anyone who willingly works in that atmosphere must have a level of dedication that I cannot hope to achieve. If Burnt Hills High School smelled like that for one hour, the building would be closed, condemned, demolished, and the rubble quarantined for at least six months. If those of you who are reading this have an literary background (hello, Mrs. Gangemi!), think of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle at about 97 degrees with no wind. I think I would rather visit The Black Hole of Calcutta than spend any more time at Cargill. I thing I am going to recommend this place for the T.V. show on Discovery Channel called "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe". Its a great show and this place would be perfect for him to do a segment. My hat is off to the workers who spend time there 350 days per year that the plant is in production and I say thank you for braving it so I can things like Diet Coke and toothpaste!

Germany - Day 14: 2/13 (A Childhood Dream Suprisingly Realized)

2008-02-13T18:33:00.004-05:00

Days Left to Departure: 10

Number of Orthodontic Rubber Bands I've Made Shannon Break This Week: 2

Today should prove to be somewhat stuffy and difficult for me to manage. This morning (look at this, almost all caught up, finally) we had class as usual and most students worked diligently on work (D.J.!!!) for the nearly the entire 90 minutes. We passed around a Burnt Hills yearbook that we are giving to the school principal here as a gift for his retirement as he has been very helpful during his tenure for the success of the P.E.A.C.E. Exchange program. After dealing with some additional teacher duties and failing miserably in my attempts to print out assignments that were e-mailed to me by Mrs. Gangemi, I stopped by the school cafeteria for a coffee.

This afternoon I have a busy agenda planned. At 12:30, we are getting a group picture done in front of the school of this year’s exchange participants. We are then taking a field trip to a Feuerwehr (firehouse) for the afternoon. After that I am off to Herr Fabricius’s house to prepare for a dinner whose function I don’t quite understand, but from what I have been able to gather, it will involve all sorts of important local politicians, school administrators, and teachers, who will be filibustering items that concern them in rapid fire German, and who are certain to ask me questions in German that I won’t understand. It is also probable that Frau Canavan and I will be split up, so I will be left to again fend for myself. I keep telling the students that this trip is about the challenge just as much as it is about the sights. Its time I put my money where my mouth is, it would appear.

As I so often have learned, I shouldn’t enter any situation with preconceived notions of what I think is going to transpire. After a great lunch from a Chinese place next to GSG (and some how it didn’t seem right to hear the Chinese checkout person speaking broken German), we headed off to the Duisburg Fire Department for a tour. One of the German students, Kharsten (sp?) is a Youth Volunteer Fireman and is hosting D.J., who has a similar designation with the Ballston Lake Fire Department. We received a tour of the facility, and even with Canavan’s translation, I had a hard time hearing with the exhaust system in the garage, so I spent most of my time listening to D.J. and Casey tell me their own (or their family’s) experiences with the greater Burnt Hills area fire departments.

All in all it was fairly interesting, but I was thinking that there were probably other sights that I would have rather seen. Things took a turn for the more interesting when students were allowed to try the fire hose, which is something that I had never seen happen in the U.S., even though the pressure was on minimum. Once we were back inside, students were allowed to climb through the trucks. I had a chance to sit in a couple and they looked like they would be really challenging to drive, although I’d love the chance. I found my perfect fire vehicle in a four axle, eight wheel, all-wheel drive, all-terrain vehicle that even had an accompanying trailer. I was all over that puppy!

Then…something happened that I had not anticipated. One of my life goals was realized. When I was four or five, my kindergarten class visited the New Hartford Fire Department, in good ol’ New Hartford, NY. As soon as we saw the firemen come down the pole, everyone wanted to do it, me especially. Of course, we were told no. I never again had the opportunity to visit the station and I had always been bummed about never having come down and official fire department fire pole (although I have come down a few imitations – the diet coke of fire poles). At that point, Herr Fabricius came over to me and out of the blue said that the fireman giving the tour wanted to know if any of us, myself and Frau Canavan included, would want to come down the fire pole. It took all of eight seconds for a throng of students to be lined up. Within six or seven minutes, after waiting for 26 or so years, I was able to slide down a legit fire pole, button down shirt and all! After some group encouragement, Colleen even went for it. Way to go, Coll!!!

After the fire department I rode with Herr Fabricius back to his house and received the grand tour, enjoyed a cup of coffee, watched CNN in English to see some of Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee’s testimonies (both were smacked around pretty hard), and the BBC to see that my boy Obama picked up another few states in the primaries. At 6:45 we headed to a dinner that was to be attended by local politicians that recognized the P.E.A.C.E. exchange program at an Italian place called Pacino’s. Herr Fabricius stressed that I was to order whatever I liked. For some reason, the Mayor and the rest of the town government was picking up the tab. We had spent 25 minutes going over the menu at his house before I left so I could tell you exactly what everything was. I don’t know if he wanted me to look like I had “mad German ordering skillz”, or didn’t want me to slow down everyone else.

I will spare everyone the content of conversation from the meal, which was conducted in English at my end of the table for the first three hours, but it centered around the difference between German and American schools (and how New York State School Tax works), and how the local government and not a school board runs the local schools. This means that you could be denied employment at a school based on your political party. I was very grateful that we had a school board who, although elected, didn’t really have bi-partisan axes to grind, because when politics enters education, most often it is the students who lose the biggest.

During the dinner, speeches were made (in German) by many members of the local government, including the Mayor and GSG’s principal, Mr. Mielker (sp?), who is retiring this year. They all spoke glowingly of the program and of their hopes that it would continue for a long time to come. They also thanked German and American chaperones, host families, and school staffs, whose support and generosity make the program possible. I enjoyed the conversation and getting to meet new people very much and I chided myself for being so narrow minded leading up to it (reminding myself that ALL of us, even myself as a chaperone, must struggle to maintain an open mind). When conversation switched to German for the last 40 minutes or so, I struggled very hard to even understand a word. I kept hearing words like “student”, “international”, “cultural exchange”, and “teacher”, all in German, but I gave up when I thought I heard “firehouse” until I realized someone was talking about today’s adventure.

All in all it was a good day. Many experiences went in directions I would not have foretold, even as I started this entry after study session this morning. And I think that is a good thing.

Germany - Day 13: 2/12 (Goin' Straight to Bell)

2008-02-13T17:38:00.010-05:00

No school for us today! We didn’t have a snow day like folks back home seem to be getting in spades. We had our trip to Cologne, otherwise known as Koln (with an umlaut over the o, which I don’t have on this keyboard). It meant that once I made it into school at the usual time, I walked to the hosts of Frau Canavan and had coffee with her host, Sarah (pronounced Zara) and her mother, and Frau Canavan. At 9:30, Frau Lohoff picked us up to take us to the Moers Train Station, where we met with the rest of the crew.

We arrived in Koln at about 11 and as soon as we exited the train station I was overwhelmed by the mountain sized cathedral that was located across the courtyard. The train station, and about everything else in a half of a square mile radius, was thrown into a deep shadow. The Koln Dom is the oldest Cathedral in all of Europe, home to the world’s largest church bell and a spiral staircase to the near top of the highest tower (all we need is a dragon and this is straight from Shrek) that was rumored to number near eight hundred steps, although Sandman (and who else could it be?) decided to go all Myth Busters on that and said that it was exactly 500 steps. It was the tightest, narrowest spiral staircase I had ever seen. So much so that when I was behind Colleen, who was behind Casey, and I could reach up and grab Casey’s ankle and trip him, even though I couldn’t see him.

I was warned that my legs would be smoking by the top. Even Casey couldn’t run all the way there (although he will probably give some bogus excuse like he was getting blocked by people in front of him), but I found that it was more of an issues with my balky knees hating stairs and my own stupidity of not taking off my windbreaker, which is both totally waterproof and non-breathable (for extra warmth), all of which combined to me being flushed and perspiring like I had run a 5k and my kneed practically screaming for me to stop the torture. But they don’t understand that if you come to Cologne and not climb to the top is like going to the Great Wall of China and then just looking at it from the car. Besides, it was a P.E.A.C.E. Exchange tradition, so without so much as a single thought to the contrary, I excitedly went after those stairs.

The view from the top was amazing, and since there was limited windows on the way up, you really couldn’t grasp how high you were climbing until you reached the top platform. From there, there was still a steeple above, I am guessing about fifty additional feet, but to get up to that level, you needed to climb a thin ladder on the outside of the steeple, which obviously was only there for maintenance, and despite Jan’s enthusiasm to scale the steeple wall and get to a window so he could climb the latter, I thought that it was probably in our best interest to see the sights from the suggested platforms and viewpoints, all of which were INSIDE the tower.

On the way down, Sandman and I stopped to look at the ridiculously large bell. I had Sandman stand in front of it just so people could get a scale of how huge this thing was. If it decided to ring while we were there, I think I would have bled from the ears, literally. Walking around the platform, I decided that the bell’s maintenance it must be manned by small children or gnomes. I could barely clear the walls walking straight forward and Sandman had fun snapping a picture of me wedged between the walls.

When we made it to the bottom, I shed my coat and tried to cool off in front of the cathedral. It was cool, even in the sun, and when I took off my wind breaker, I was literally steaming. After cooling off and taking some pictures of the surrounding court yard, we started the fairly long walk to the Lindt Chocolate Factory and Museum. Being that Lindt chocolate is a favorite of my wife, who was very jealous tonight to hear that we went; I shot lots of small video clips of the factory machines. It reminded me of the Crispy Cream shop in Latham, before it closed, just with chocolate instead of donuts. I agree with what many of the students said: it would have been better if there was less museum w pictures of chocolate signs, and more chocolate samples. Jessia and I had hatched a plan to invade the bon-bon line when the workers, dressed and resembling Chef Boyardee, left the door open. We had concerned she would be gunned down by a bon-bon gun, which was, we theorized, like a paintball gun with chocolate based ammo instead of paint.
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After this, we split up for about an hour of free time. The chaperons went to a famous restaurant in Cologne that makes its own beverages and served some really good food. I had lightly smoked pork shanks, with weinsauerkraut und kartoffelpuree (wine sauerkraut and mashed potatoes), which I ordered in German totally solo. I am starting to get a little better grip on the pronunciation of common German syllables, especially if I can read them while I am saying them. I have been pretty much working phonetically with my German, spelling everything as it sounds, particularly when I arrived here 12 days ago, and hopefully becoming a little more accurate with each increasing day. We spent almost all of our time at the restaurant with an art teacher from Moers, who grew up in Koln.

Once we were done eating and were heading back to the train station, Frau Lohoff agreed to catch up with the students so Frau Canavan and I could walk the inside of the cathedral, which was not accessible earlier in the day as there was a mass in progress. The cathedral was just as impressive as the Berliner Dom and the Aachen Dom, and like the sarcophagi of Aachen, held a similar one with the remains of the three kings, or wise men, from Biblical lore. I lit candles for my three deceased grandparents and for my wife’s deceased grandfather. It was an impressive structures, also considering it was built and carved totally by hand, which made how ornate it was all the more impressive. All things being considered, I think I like the Aachen Dom the best so far. It was the smallest of the three and probably not the most ornate of the three, but I agree with Beatrix when she says that there is just something about it that makes it special.

At 3:30, students entered the train station and began making their way towards the tracks. I realized that 4.5 hours was really not enough time to get any type of grip on Koln and that even for me, the day felt very rushed and I can ignore most signs as I cannot read them. I think in the future I would recommend that the trip leave earlier, stay later, or a little of both.

For me, however, I had a different adventure in store. At 4:05 I was meeting Hannah Jaeshke, a former exchange student and track star of mine on the steps of the cathedral. I disappeared from the group early so Canavan could convince some gullible student that I had missed the train and didn’t know how to get back to Moers. From what I heard later that evening, Freshie Bekah fell victim to the prank, being quite concerned until she saw a “cute shoe store” passing by on the train and quickly forgot my supposed predicament. I was touched that she had that level of concern, even if it was somewhat below her level of concern for shoes. Even though it was only thirty minutes, my solitude in a country where I don’t speak the language quickly sank in as I sat on the steps looking across the Kolner Domhof. It was wild feeling, sitting there, with some Goth kids sitting twenty steps below me with some mean looking dogs barking at passers by and them randomly yelling at or ignoring these people. I took some time to really take in what was going on. I was in the middle of Germany. I was in the middle of Germany. Four months ago if you asked me if I would be in Germany for February break I would have laughed at you, much as I would have laughed if you asked me if I would live in China for three months by the age of 21 when I was 15. Life has a funny way of offering you crazy opportunities and I have learned that it is most often the wise man who takes a hold of those opportunities to gain a larger understanding of the world around you by just going for it. I think one of the foremost signs that age is catching up with you is when you stop taking those chances. Youth is reckless and old age is cautious. I always want to live in the middle, and hopefully, closer to youth.

It was great seeing Hannah again. She was a student of mine when I was at Ballston Spa and was an extremely hard worker, scoring higher marks in my senior English class than most of her American class mates. On the track, she was also a force for the BSpa sprint team. We have kept in touch since she returned to Germany 18 months ago, entirely through e-mail, and I knew that if I was going to be in her neighborhood that I had to catch up with her and discuss life.

We stopped for coffee. Canavan has me now hooked on milkaffe. I know the spelling is almost certainly wrong, but that is what it sounds like. It’s like regular coffee with cappuccino foam. You don’t even need to add cream, so I like it a lot. We talked about how her year and exams were going (she thinks she aced a recent exam in English – obviously because of my wonderful influence!) and her plans for next semester. Hannah goes to a gymnasium (sp?) or a school for the most gifted and talented students in the area. Geschwister-Scholl is a gesamtschule or a comprehensive school that has a mix of students from all ability levels, but like most mainstreamed classes in the U.S., if a school has A.P. or U.H.S. programs, the main stream classes lack the upper end student because that student is elsewhere. Here, that can be said of entire schools, not just classes. Hannah’s schooling will run the course of 12.5 years, which is different than many schools, such as GSG, which last for 13 years. She also had to forfeit a years worth of education as she gained no school credit for her year in BSpa, or she had to choose to try to advance and pass the more advanced classes without having taken the ones she missed. She choose to work her tail off and do that and is now considering mechanical engineering programs at places like Aachen RWTH.

After coffee, we walked around Koln, and just talked about people from Ballston Spa and what they were up to now. She told me that two former students traveled to visit her last summer and that it was a good experience for one and not the other. I guess the one who had the bad experience was expecting miles and miles of shopping and to be pampered like she was on vacation in a hotel, and not to have to live with an actual family who had responsibilities outside of hosting. Ah, America!

It was nice walking around Koln and seeing what the city looked like for more than the blur as we flew through it earlier in the day. Hannah showed me where the original Eau de Cologne was invented and then we figured out the train system and checked out a few more shops before I needed to board my train. I did note what looked like a homeless woman passed out, faced down on the floor when I was purchasing a ticket, but the Polizei and paramedics appeared to be helping her (she spazzed a little when they were putting her on a stretcher and almost tossed one of the EMT’s over the stretcher and to the ground, but no one else seemed to pay attention, and taking the social cue, neither did I.

The train was largely unoccupied for the first stop. We picked up passengers often and eventually the train was very crowded, but I must have looked foreboding because the seat next to me remained empty. When we hit Duisburg, there was a mass exodus. I found the next track and waited, looking around the station and debating whether or not to get a coffee from Dunkin Donuts. About 15 minutes before my train, the DB 20146 to Rheinberg, was supposed to depart, another train arrived on the same track. It was the DB 31 to Xanten. I waited for it to depart, but five minutes before my own train was to depart, there was no other train on that platform and it was pointed west, the right direction. I decided to just ask somebody. I hopped onto the train and asked a gentleman if I was on the right train to get to Rheinberg, where Beatrix was going to pick me up. Indeed I was. I relaxed on the fairly empty train for the next 30 minutes, getting off at Rheinberg, which was about as much of a train stop as I could imagine in rural Montana. There was a dirt parking lot with no real buildings of any sort, besides some dark, industrial looking structures across the street. I would not have been surprised to see tumble weed blowing across the “parking lot” as I walked to Beatrix’s car. I now have faith that our students here will be okay. If, with my near non-existent German, I can manage to navigate my way across Germany by train, getting around town on a bus should not provide the danger or challenge that I think many students were fearing. And the worst case scenario is that you end up on the wrong side of Moers, or at worst, Kamp-Lintfort!

Germany - Day 12: 2/11 (Meetin' the Mayor o' Moers)

2008-02-12T15:39:00.001-05:00

Hard to Believe, But Today is the Halfway Point of the Exchange.

Only 12 More Days Until Wed Bid Goodbye!

Today proved to be an interesting day. After a morning at GSG, we were heading to a Mores Castle, where we would be greeted by the Mayor of Moers and Casey would give a speech in honor of the P.E.A.C.E. Exchange program (I still don’t know what that stands for) in German. Hendrick picked me up at 7:20 and we headed to GSG to get the day started. The study block went well. After D.J. was moved to his own island, he managed to get working and the rest of the room did as well, as I struggled to help Bekah and Shannon with Math B. And when did that change, by the way? What happened to good ol’ Courses 1, 2, & 3? Although I never understood why they did that and then did Pre-Calc and Calc. Why not Course 4 & 5? Lest I digress further, I shall move on.

Following the study session, we had a little discussion on the difficulties of being in the exchange and the advantages of it. I really hoped it went well and was well received. My exchange to China was one of the most important experiences in my life and taught me so much about other people and tolerance. It taught me about acceptance of different cultures, which at times made no sense, and it also taught me about myself and what was truly important to me. Granted that I was gone for three months and these students will be gone for three weeks, but I want them to get something out of it like I did because I think international travel can be one of the greatest learning experiences of your life.

After period three was done, the students went off to their classes for the next 45 minutes and Frau Canavan, Casey, and I went to the cafeteria to get coffee and so Casey could practice his speech. At 11:30, we caught the bus Moers Castle and were promptly ushered upstairs where speeches were given by the mayor (a German intro and then in English), Casey (in German) and Gloria (in English). It was interesting for me to see that the Mayor’s hands were trembling because she was nervous. It made what Casey was able to do all the more impressive. Even if he did get some of the pronouciations not quite right (by his admission; I wouldn’t know), he was the most relaxed and seemingly prepared of the three and I thought he should have been proud of his performance. If you would like to listen to it, I uploaded the audio here. The video was too big to fit onto youtube.com (300 MB) and I don’t have video editing software here to make the necessary changes. Gloria, a German student from GSG, gave her speech in English. It can be found, here.

Once that was done, there was a presentation done on the evolution of the castle, which was pretty cool, even though it was done with mostly blocks in the shape of castle structures. I found it interesting and informative. It was also interactive, which provided some humor. We then chit chatted, dined on cookies and beverages, and looked around the castle. Students had fun dressing up and battling each other with medieval weapons and being that the castle was supposedly haunted, I took the opportunity of hiding in one of the rooms and using Casey, Colleen, and Frau Canavan as helpers, scare the daylights out of Janina, Sandra, and Bekah. Good times.

After that we took a picture of the group in front of Moers Castle and disbanded for an hour or two into Moers, each depending on his or her schedule. I went with a mass of people, led by Sandman, to Centro Doerner for my first post-Berlin Doerner. Hagan seemed to have a good pulse on things, so I asked him to order me up a Hagan’s Special. It was a chicken based doerner with two different sauces, some cheese and veggies, and a side order of pommes (really good French fries – and Kim had a ball when she saw me with them – note: non fast food fries of okay in Mody’s Rules of International Travel and Exchange). After that I just had time to charge up my phone card before Hendrick showed up for my lift home.

It has been mildly difficult for me to get use to relying on other people to get places. Firstly, I always feel like people need to plan their schedule around me, which makes me feel really guilty, and secondly, I like to believe that I have a great level of self-reliance. I own my truck and if I need to go somewhere, I can go. No one is put out, except the occasional instance where my wife is home and I am not there when I am supposed the be (and that can get ugly, gents, believe you me). All in all, I was really beat when I made it home, so I decided to nap for a little while after responding to a flood of e-mails. Instead of taking what I thought would be a two hour power nap, I ended up digging in until 11:30 P.M., when I heard Beatrix get home from Spain. I got up, did some blog update work until about 3 A.M. and then went back to bed until six. I am never going to be able to get my sleeping straightened out at this rate!

Germany - Day 11: 2/10 (The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Mole Baby)

2008-02-11T20:10:00.001-05:00

I was determined to get caught up with sleep this morning, but when Balu the dog decided to kamikaze into the bed with me, that pretty much ended it at 8:45 A.M. Its somewhat funny, Balu spends more time with me when I am here than anywhere else. He is now sleeping every night a the foot of my bed (on the floor). I know that he is Hannah's dog, but maybe he sleeps down here with Esther usually and is just missing being down here with her. Maybe he just feels bade because his German is better than mine.

I sat in bed, editing pictures and typing up my notes into a full fledged blog for the morning. At about 11:30, I pulled myself together, cleaned my room and did some laundry. On a side note, Beatrrix feels that her housekeeper, Jana, can do my laundry and told me to just throw my things in with the rest of the family’s. I felt funny about having someone else do my laundry, so I reverted to what I did in China: washing it by hand and then hanging it to dry. That might sound funny to some people, but my room has a really cool feature to it. In my bathroom there is something that is connected to the radiator that looks like a clothes drying rack. It is intended to dry your towel more quickly, I think, but it has enough bars to hold like ten towels. Instead of hanging ten towels, I have just been using it to dry my clothes. Some of the bigger items, I think I am going to have to relent and let Jana take care of, like my button down shirts, and slacks. But for items like t-shorts, shorts, and my towel, my hand wash method looks like it will work just as well as it did when I was in China. Weird, I know, but then again, look whose blog you are reading!

I thought Frau Lohoff and her husband were picking me up at noon, so at about 11:55, I parked myself outside. I had no idea what we were planning on doing today, so I was wearing my hiking boots, and cargo pants with a polo because Frau Canavan and I were having dinner at a restaurant afterwards, courtesy of Herr Fabricius and his wife, Katherine.

I must have misunderstood, because at 12:15, there was still no car, so I started walking around the neighborhood and taking some pictures. The neighbors must of thought that I was nuts because I was walking really slowly (compared to someone who is actually going somewhere) and just checking out the architecture of the houses on the street. After about 15 minutes of that, I went back inside and did some odds and ends like returning e-mails and reading the Times Union Online. I still don’t have minutes on my phone, so I couldn’t call Frau Canavan to even see what the deal was and I panicked a little that I missed them and that they had come to my place first at 11:30 and had planned to be at Canavan’s at noon. At 12:45 my ride arrived, with Canavan in the back, and the explanation that she had to find her meds before she left and caused a slight delay.

We were off to a castle that had been 70% destroyed during World War II. It is called Wesseburg Anholt Castle and is also an art museum, hotel, and restaurant. It sounded interesting and Canavan and I had the chance to chit chat with Frau Lohoff and her husband as we rolled through scenic rural Germany and enjoyed an up close look at many windmills, including a more traditional, old fashioned one (sorry, Kim).

We arrived at the Castle and found that you could only tour the outside, and not even much of that, without going on the formal tour, which, of course was in German. I took some pictures of the outside of the Castle, which has been rebuilt in the past fifty years. Its design as a defensive structure was evident, although I agreed with Canavan that I was more partial to castles of the medieval time period, as compared to this one, which was from the late Renaissance, early Baroque period. I just think the older ones are cooler, but I don’t really have much evidence as to why I think so. They just look less Victorian on the inside, which is a time period that I am not particularly fond of, I guess.

Once inside I could read enough in German to tell that pictures were not allowed, which was really unfortunate because it takes away from how the story played out. We had been politely asked to try to stay with the group for safety reasons (which was totally bogus, I think they did it for security reasons so tourists did not run away with ancient books or pieces of art or 16^th and 17^th Century Chinese and Japanese porcelain. Almost immediately, Frau Canavan and I were scolded because we hung back so she could translate for me and not interrupt the tour guide, who was a bit “Old Schul”. We were told to stay with the group, and our guide was not to pleasant about it from what I could read in his body language.

We toured the castle which had some of the cooler looking personal libraries that I have seen. Being a bibliophile, I was in my element and immediately began reading spines of books. People rarely understand this about me. I am interested in what people own in terms of books because I think it can tell me a lot about them. It is why I mentioned some of the titles that are in my host family’s home in a previous blog. TANGENT WARNING: I remember once in college, I was visiting the summer home of one of my rugby team mates and his family owned this mansion on Lake Champlain in Vermont. I mean that the servant’s quarters were bigger than any house that I had ever lived in! He was talking about how his family had owned it for years and he took me to his great-grandfather’s study (he was known simply as “The Duke”). Thousands of books were on the wall and I began looking through them when a particularly old version of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter caught my eye. Now, as many high schoolers do, I hated most of the book and found it dry and boring (not knowing that I would have to read it four more timed before I finished school and by the last time I would actually like it), but I took it off the shelf anyway. As I opened up the front cover, I noted that it was a FIRST EDITION printing. A FIRST EDITION PRINTING OF HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER WAS JUST SITTING ON THE SHELF!!! I know most of you will say, “so what”. Hopefully some of you will understand that even at 19, I thought that was unbelievable.

Obviously, I was at a loss to what the tour guide was saying and since he was pretty mean looking and was asking the group questions, I decided to avoid eye contact with him so he wouldn’t ask me anything and I wouldn’t have to feel like an idiot, more than I already do on a daily basis here because of my lack of German. It did, however, give me a really great chance to look at the art works, which were mostly portraits, with a completely singular focus, unlike Canavan, who had to try to tune out our guide while looking around.

We entered an amazing looking hall where it was obvious that formal occasions, perhaps dances, were held. There were at least fifty portraits on the walls of various members of the family. I had noticed from earlier portraits that the family was not particularly good looking or had lacked the services of a quality painter. But when we entered the great hall, it was a whole new level of physical misfortune. Each painting had the same disturbing face with a different body and hair cut. And somehow, with each passing portrait, the paintings showed people more hideous than the last. I immediately nicknamed the place “The Hall of Hideous” in my mind and made a mental note to share this with Canavan as soon as the opportunity presented itself. In all fifty or so portraits, there was only one in which I would say the person was physically attractive, with the rest having 49 variations of the same disturbing likeness. Much to no ones surprise, Canavan told me that the room was displayed with portraits of the family, which fell in with the often common royal tradition of cousins marrying cousins. Inbreeding. It all started to make sense.

The next room was an actually art gallery and I had a chance to look on an original Rembrandt for the first time (and no, J-Fogg, not the toothpaste, the painter). It was a really good opportunity and although my art appreciation skills are lacking, I could at least appreciate what I was looking at in terms of its value to the greater art community. Had it been Renaissance Art, I could have given you more of an explanation, because I am somewhat more knowledgeable of that period, particularly of the Italian Renaissance.

One item that Frau Canavan and I did take note of did involve a curious scene. It showed a naked woman, holding a little cherub by the wing, and smacking his naked bottom with a handful of roses. Okay. Even I didn’t get what was going on with this one. Canavan and I were already chuckling about Hideous Hall, and this just about sent us over the top until she translated the placard to say that it was the goddess Venus scolding her son, Cupid.

Two rooms later is where it all fell apart. We entered the royal bedroom. On the wall opposite the bed was a 15 foot tall painting of a regal man, looking very serious and reserved. I noted to Frau Canavan how awkward it would be to have that staring at you while you were sleeping or if the royal husband and wife who resided in the bedroom had wanted to share some romance, such as holding hands or plutonic cuddling. This managed to get her giggling. At that point the tour guide suggested that we turn to look at the portrait of the most beautiful Anna Maria, daughter of Mr. 15 Foot Painting. It was right behind Canavan and I, who were in the back, and as we turned to gave upon the large painting of baby Anna Maria, I took in the scariest looking baby that I have ever laid eyes on. It looked half-human and half mole-man. I mean, this was a baby that was so ugly that a parent of this time period might have been tempted to just throw it in a well and start over. Canavan immediately let out a snort of stifled laughter and it was all over. I was shaking from trying not to laugh, which just set her off even worse, which in turn made me have to chew on my lip not to explode in laughter while our guide threw us the German Stink Eye of disapproval. We tried hard to compose ourselves, but it was impossible. Frau Lohoff looked at us trying to figure out what was so funny, but her curious looks only made it worse and the best that Canavan could do was point at Anna Maria.

I told her to get away from me because every time I heard her, I started all over again, but even as she walked into the other room, I could hear her trying to swallow down her laughter, tears rolling down her cheeks, and the sound of a tea pot coming from her every time a split second of laughter escaped her lips. I found the woodworking particularly interesting, trying to give a reason why I had my back to the tour guide so I could hide the tears now running down my face. Frau Lohoff called us over to another painting and explained that it was Anna Maria as an adult and that “at least she got less ugly.” Merciless! I was practically punching myself in the chest and internally castigating myself for acting so immature, but I couldn’t stop myself at this point. Thinking of J-Fogg and Erin collapsing on the floor in laughter only made it worse. Finally, Frau Canavan went to the other end of the room and thankfully, after going down the main staircase, where I found the painting on the ceiling to be of particular interest, the guided tour, and the incident involving the mole baby was over. At least until we started bringing it up and spinning it in as many interesting and amusing ways as we could: Mole Baby, Creature of the Castle Moat. It did feel good to laugh like that. It had been a while.

That evening, Herr Fabricius and his wife, Katherine, who is from Springfield, M.A., took us to dinner at a fairly high society restaurant (not that we really deserved it after our antics at the museum). The best part of it was the concept of urban renewal. The restaurant was in an old factory that had been scrubbed and redone, but was kept in much of the same formation as it had been. Overheard were pipes and duct work so you knew where you were. It was amazing. Classical music played while wait staff, who were dressed formally in black and white formal apparel (not exactly tuxes, but close), waited on us hand and foot. We enjoyed some great conversation and I found out further details about Herr Fabricius’s nephew, who is currently a sophomore at my alma mater, Union College. We touched on all sorts of topics, but mostly related to education and socioeconomics, and often of how these applied to the P.E.A.C.E. Exchange. It was also nice to have an intellectual conversation in English again, and it gave me a chance to take a break from measuring every sentence and every word I say in English, which I hadn’t really realized that I had been doing. The dinner lasted about 3.5 hours, but to me it felt like 30 minutes. When it was done, Herr Fabricius dropped me off at Kamp-Lintfort at about 11:00 PM or so and I called it a night.

Germany - Day 10: 2/9 (Messin' Around Essen)

2008-02-11T11:39:00.002-05:00

Beatrix and Volker have left for Spain this morning at about 5 A.M. I only awoke briefly as I heard them preparing for their departure. Knowing that I have been burning the midnight oil, I decided to sleep in this morning and did not get out of bed until 8:30 A.M. It was a nice feeling and I thought this I had managed to catch up o

with a six week old baby in his home (born on Christmas Day, no less), I thought it very generous to spend a day showing me around. We drove to Moers and picked up Frau Canavan, and set out for the city of Essen. I found this an amusing title because it literally translated means “food” or “to eat”, which confused me at first. On one of the first days here, I spent time leafing through the German-English dictionary that my wife bought for me and stumbled across essen. In any event, if food was the name of the town, I assumed that I would enjoy the trip.

n sleep (especially after nodding off and on in Beatrix’s car on the way home from Aachen). At about 10:15, Hendrick Lemm picked me up to visit the town of Essen. Newly married and The first place we visited was the estate of Frederich Alfred Krupp, the steel tycoon who owned Krupp Steel, who Herr Lemms says is a constant source of political controversy because Krupp Steel helped power the Nazi war effort, not so much through political support, but through accepting government contracts to build munitions for the Nazi military. His palatial estate was indeed impressive, but lacked some of the historical weight that places such as the Berliner Dom or the Reichstag held. It was what I would picture the estate of Rockefeller to be like, even though I have not been. It was almost like Hyde Park, where Franklin Roosevelt lived. Big, beautiful, and impressive, but largely missing something compared to the other sites that I have thus far seen.

After leaving the Estate of Frederich Krupp, we headed into the center of the city of Essen and to its pedestrian center. There was a winter festival going on and they set up a shi/sledding hill and an ice skating rink. Looking like I was ready to fall over, Herr Lemm suggested that we get coffee. I ordered something off the menu without having any idea what it was, feeling like I needed to be adventurous. It was a cherry crumb cake that went very well with my cappuccino, which was laced with cinnamon. Note to others: most German restaurants do not take cards. Since I had not been to an ATM since Berlin, I was rolling with only a few Euros in my pocket. When I mentioned to Frau Canavan that I would be using my card, she made a face and said that this restaurant, like most German restaurants, probably don’t take cards, here. Being that ATM’s are also not as plentiful (not at gas stations, supermarkets, etc.), this made having cash on hand something that I would have to get used to.

Next we hit a four floor bookstore. I was like J-Fogg shopping for shoes…except I was low on fundage. We looked around a bit and then I went up to the third floor to look at books in English as my German skills were limited to reading a German-English dictionary, if you can’t tell by my German spelling in this blog, which former and current German students are kind enough to point out to me. What really started to hit home was the weakness of the American dollar. Each Euro is currently worth about $1.50. When Frau Canavan picked up a copy of the last Harry Potter book to complete her set in German, I thought that might be an equally nice memento for me to sign stay in Germany. I asked her how much and she said 27 Euro…a second for conversion…about $40. She walked around with it for about ten minutes before she decided she'd just get it in German in the U.S. and probably for a cheaper price. This has been, by and large, the experience that I have had shopping. D.J. (or was it Casey) said that they are just treating Euro prices as if they were dollar prices and not worrying about it. Being that I am on a shoestring budget, I cannot afford that mentality. It did make me long for China. A place where a single American Dollar would yield eight kuai, which you would get you a great meal that, at times, I could hardly finish.

After the bookstore, we left Essen, with Hendrick deciding that we could buy anything that it had to offer for cheaper in the States. We headed next to Duisburg and its harbor district for lunch. There we enjoyed a nice sunny afternoon at an outside table right next to the water. It was great. Conversation was pretty light; mostly chit chat and small talk about school and the trip. Eventually a couple with a new born sat next to us and in minutes we were chatting as they recognized our English as the original product and we discovered they were recently moved to Germany so the husband could play professional hockey. For dinner/lunch (sometimes it is hard to tell, here) I ordered Pizza Diavolo. It had a lot of pepperoni on it, and in German, pepperoni means hot peppers. Thus forewarned, I was excited to get at my piazza, and it was as good as I had hoped!

After that, Hendrick dropped of Frau Canavan and then me, apologizing for leaving me to my own devices from 6 P.M. onward. He has a six week old baby himself at home and I told him I thought I could manage until Frau Lohoff picked me up at noon tomorrow. In honesty, I was looking for a little down time as I am discovering that this trip is wiping me out more than I thought it would. I took a nap from 7 – 9 P.M. and then woke up to edit my pictures from the day and write my blog. Now it is back to bed.

Germany - Day 9: 2/8 (Aachen and 180mph on the Autobahn)

2008-02-10T05:01:00.000-05:00

Today I was able to sleep in a little and not get up until 7 am. Beatrix was taking me to the city of Aachen today, where she and Voker attended college and Gideon is now attending. It is also the city where she and Volker where married and is home of Aachen RWTH, which is a technical school that she describes as one tier below M.I.T. I tended to some further e-mails this morning while Beatrix went shopping to stock the house with food while she was off in Spain this weekend and after she returned, we departed.

Aachen is about a 90 minute ride west from Kamp-Lintfort. Along the way we chit chatted about a variety of issues. I found out that Beatrix’s “house helper”, Jana, is Bosnian and has been with the family for eight years. According to Beatrix, her German has improved markedly over the past eight years, but she speaks almost no English at all. I am finding that there are so many words that are similar between the languages that it is near impossible to say that you don’t know any German or any English. For a quick example: to make a long story short, there was a question as to how one would translate Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” into to German. The translation: “Ice Ice Baby”.

We arrived in Aachen after Beatrix showed me the most bizarre looking hospital I have ever seen, where she worked before moving to Kamp-Lintfort and becoming a teacher. It had most of its pipes, ductwork, and conduit on the outside of the hospital, and they were painted bright reds, yellows, and blues. She said that they were in such a rush to build the hospital that they designed it as they went and the end result was that it cost over double the original estimate, over three million Deutch Marks more than originally thought, which caused much political turmoil.

Aachen is an ancient city, which is still structured like it is in the middle ages. It was really built by a man named Karl der Grosse, whom I had never heard of before. It is in the formation of a wagon wheel, with an outer ring of streets and an inner ring of streets. The most impressive structure besides the city’s Capitol Building is the Aachen Dom, which hold some impressive artifacts. The streets and alleys are narrow and have outdoor cafés and wandering musicians who play music in courtyard after courtyard.

Beatrix and I walked around quite a bit and then made it to the Aachen Dom. After looking around the first floor, Beatrix suggested that we take the tour, which I agreed to do. Unfortunately the tour was in German and this time I understood about as much, or maybe even less, than the documentary on gorillas in the Congo, but they provided me with a handout giving pertinent information. While sitting listening to the guide explain things in German, I started reading the handout and it talked about Charlemagne extensively. I sat there thinking about his name in English…Charles the Great. Charles is so close to sounding like Karl. And der means “the”. Grosse means…wait a minute! Grosse means “big” or “great”! Charles the Great, Charlemagne, Karl der Grosse!!! That made everything make so much more sense.

Housed at the Aachen Dom were some amazing artifacts. The first is the sarcophagus of Charlemagne, including his actual remains. A funny fact: 90 of his bones are all that remain because the church, in times on need in the past, sold them off and put a small slip of paper in each one’s place explaining that it was necessary for the financial stability of the church, but to never do it again.

There was also a vessel of like construction dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Inside it was said to hold a dress of Mary’s, Jesus’ nappies (I assume baby clothes), a loin cloth of Jesus, and “the decapitation cloth” of John the Baptist. There were figurines carved into both vessels and Beatrix noted that on one side of Charlemagne’s sarcophagus, there was a carving of Charlemagne in the middle, with the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor on each side. It was noted that Charlemagne’s carving was taller. Each carving sat in an archway. The way the figurines were depicted, the pope and the HRE had to bow their head slightly downward and in the direction of Charlemagne because of the height of their arches. Beatrix noted that this was done on purpose to indicate that Charlemagne was greater than both the Pope and the HRE and it was a political slap in both of their faces.

I also had the chance to see the Imperial Throne of the Franks. Many German kings sat upon this throne and possibly even Charlemagne, himself. It is said that the stone and wood construction is believed to be made of materials that were transported from Jerusalem itself.

After the Aachen Dom, we walked around Aachen, seeing its famous hot springs and taking not of the Roman influence on the area. Beatrix also pointed out that the population of Aachen is very educated and that there is little industry in the area outside of the making of chocolate, baked goods, and marmalade. We stopped at a café and I had kaffe and some dessert (cappuccino canello und Krippekramandel) which I ordered in solid enough German that the waiter came back and spoke to me in German, where then the game was up and I had to smile at him and have Beatrix translate. At least I fooled someone, finally. After that, Beatrix showed me where she was married, I had a chance to see the royal crown and jewels, and we started heading back to Moers. Frau Canavan’s had called me earlier in the day and had asked that I come to Ice Skating Disco Night that night in Moers and I agreed to. At about 5:00, Beatrix dropped me off at Frau Canavan’s hosts (Patrick and Sarah’s) and we talked about a variety of topics from differences between German and American teaching to student attitudes to rugby and soccer.

At 7:30, Patrick (a German who speaks English with a Scottish accent) dropped Frau Canavan and I off at the Moers ice skating rink, where I attempted to not break myself on the ice. It was apparent that this was a popular place for teens because the Germans were all very good skaters and most of the Americans, besides Parkes, were not. It was a fun two hours, even if I was the SECOND oldest person in the building. I had a good time scaring Niki every time I went past her. I may have been a large reason that she spent more of her night lying on the ice than standing on her skates. I also met a German student named Dorian who had done the exchange to BH-BL and knew many people there, including Herren Kramer, Hildebrandt, and Himpele, along with other students whose names I did not recognize.

The event ended at 10:00 and Frau Canavan and I walked around Moers for 45 minutes, waiting for our ride. At 10:45, Volker, who was coming home from Bosnia, picked us up on his way through Moers in his Audi S5, which is just a ridiculous car. After dropping Frau Canavan off, he delivered on an earlier promise. On the autobahn, he took off and the last time I looked at the speedometer, it had crossed over 270 km/hr, and he said before he started slowing down we were going about 180 mph. I could not believe how well the car handled and how fast the other cars were zipping by us and the scenery turned into a straight up blur. What a sweet ride. When I win the lottery and send my wife, mom, and sisters, to Ka De We, I will be at the Audi dealership.

After making it back to Kamp-Lintfort, I am calling it a night. Tomorrow Heinrick Lemm is taking Frau Canavan and I to the Essen, which also means the word food. It should be fun. Even though I don’t need to be ready to go until 10, its now 1 A.M. and I need to get some sleep.

Germany - Day 8: 2/7 - (GSG Day 2)

2008-02-10T04:51:00.001-05:00

The Weekend Homework Assignment is Listed Below This Post!

So I finally had to hit the snooze this morning and didn’t get up until 6:15, so its seems as if my body is adjusting to the new time zone, finally. I am now getting tired around 10:30, but that could also be because the days have been so packed. Its like until I get home from school (and then spend a few hours posting my blog (because I am OCD about the formatting), I don’t have a seconds worth of time to myself during the day. The good news is that until I stopped at the grocery today and picked up some items sure to ruin the phenomenon, the belt has needed to be tightened one belt hole since arriving. Such is the life of walking all over the place and eating normal sized portions.

School was pretty straight forward. The study session was pretty much on point after much persistence in getting kids to stay quiet. I had plans to sit on in Herr Fabricius’s 11^th Grade English class, but ended up spending 75 of the 90 minutes helping someone avoid an international incident that could have cost GSG a reported 40,000 Euro. The tragedy, however, was avoided. I am not sure if relations between all parties are back to a friendly level, but at least they have returned to functional.

Frau Canavan and I caught the last ten minutes of Herr Fabricius’s class. I thought what he was doing was interesting and I like how he included the American students as if they were part of the class and were totally expected to intermix and participate. I would have liked to have seen more of it, so I think I will swing in and catch some during my next opportunity. I am interested in his 13^th grade class, which I am going to see next Friday.

After Fab English, I met up with Heinrich Lemm, who I am going to spend some time with this coming weekend while the Schwichs go to Spain. It appears we are going to Sessen on Saturday and that Kelly is going along as well. Kelly and I hit an Italian Restaurant for lunch and then went to Lidl’s (Lee-dull’s) Grocery so I could get some supplies in the event that I was stupid enough to work through dinner again. After that we headed back to GSG to catch the school bus to a gymnasium and workout facility that has professional looking badminton courts. Waiting for the bus Herr Fabricius wanted my ear to discuss a miscommunication between host and hostee (an apology misinterpreted as an insult – ah, the language barrier!).

I was not going to participate in badminton and just work on my blog instead, but I realized that I needed to calm down on this thing. It was taking up way too much time and it was getting to a point that I was spending more time blogging this week than getting out and experiencing Germany. I figured that that had to be cosmically wrong, so I will try to scale back. Badminton turned out to be much more competitive than volleyball was. The German girls turned out to be pretty solid, particularly Sandra and Cati. As good as they were, though, I teamed up with Jessia, who besides being a master foil fencer as lunatic volleyball player, is a badminton beast, who even knows the legit rules to the game. The result, we were undefeated. I then teamed up with Canavan because Casey wanted to show that he could do more in this world than speak his broken German-English combo language and run fast by schooling us. Sadly, for Casey, even his partner Cati tried to forfeit half way through because it was evident that Canavan and I would not be denied.

I have now decided that the middle finger in Europe must not have the same connotation that it does in the U.S. I see more people giving it to each other than I do in the U.S. and it seems like it does not translate quite as harshly. I noted this because while waiting for the bus, some of the exchange pairs we getting picked up by parents instead of riding back to school. At one point, one of the German girls was walking to the car and flipped her dad the middle finger as she walked by his window. He had little to know reaction. I noted for the students, who also seemed surprised by this, that if I had done that as a teen, my father would have been wearing that finger on a necklace around his neck in about ten seconds and I would be known as the “English Teacher with Nine Fingers”. Canavan noted that someone beaten with a club on the streets of Cleveland for doing something like that. Not really, but I think it adds to the story.

I met up with Beatrix for the ride home and dealt with a mountain of e-mails waiting for me (29 in total). It seems that, unlike China where I only had internet access once per week and didn’t have a job, I cannot also give up my many responsibilities while I am here. Its not that I had intended to, it just makes China that much more special because it was a time in my life that I could devote just to being abroad and not worry about my life as it was on another continent.

I came up late for dinner and found that Beatrix had made me a plate. Hannah’s boyfriend, Kevin, had brought dinner over with him. It was a mix of a noodles in a thick cream sauces, with diced ham and sweet pickles. Not liking sweet pickles, I thought I was in for a tough meal, but I gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised. Afterwards, I discussed what time we would be leaving for Aachen the following morning and watched some T.V. with Beatrix, mostly the local news and some segments on Obama and Clinton’s paths through politics. I spoke with Hannah briefly about her particular passion for The Simpsons and Harry Potter and then I went to bed.

PEACE Exchange Assignment

2008-02-09T11:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry that it took so long to post. I had some technical difficulties this morning. Apparently, the school's server is down for update and repair. In any event, here is the link for the assignment and a little note on blogging at the bottom:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dccrsnn5_35cv82dphv

Let me know if you have any questions.

Germany Blog - Day 7: 2/6 - (GSG: 1st School Day)

2008-02-07T12:17:00.000-05:00

Wake up game earlier than it has felt so far this morning. Today was the first day students would be attending classes at GSG, otherwise known as Geschwister-Scholl-Gesmatschule. Frau Langebeck and I arrived at about 7:55 and I made my way up to the American Students Study Room, located in the blue building (of the three: blue, red, and yellow). Students were there waiting and I heard that a German student had pulled the fire alarm, so there was some early drama. From 8 am until 9:30, students worked, after Frau Canavan checked in with each to see how things were going, personally, and on a large scale. There are some issues, mostly I think related to cultural confusion and misunderstanding, but in the long run, I don’t think anything will turn out to be a major issue.

After that was taken care of, students tried to get organized and rocking on work. Of course, no one wanted to do any and a large part of our period was spent looking for computers and working on getting access, explaining procedures, etc. When all was said and done, it turned out to be a pretty hectic 90 minutes and I thought the decompression from Berlin was good, but that also we needed to take a more strict approach to future sessions so work could get done. I am making that a secret goal of mine for tomorrow.

At the end of the block, the German hosts arrived and took our students to their individual classes. Frau Canavan and I had some time to kill before our first “activity” of that day, which included going with Frau Lohoff and her fifth graders to the Zentralbibliotheke (Central Library). We took a walk across the street to an internet café to get some coffee as she had not had any yet and was getting cranky.

It was a cold, rainy day. The walk, while short, was not pleasant. When we made it to the café, I walked in and realized it looked more like a pub with some computers in the back. Then I hear a loud “woof” (and for German 1 students: it was actually “Das Bark” if you are curious), and this bull mastiff-looking beast comes walking toward me. One of the culture nuances here that keeps catching me off guard is that dogs are allowed in public establishments. They are out in public, in groceries, at restaurants, and this beast actually had part of a bench set cut away and a bed inside of it so if you sat at his table, he would be under your legs. The coffee was good and strong and Frau Canavan and I tried to unearth the details about Super Tuesday from the news reports.

Once we were done, we hiked back to the school to meet Frau Lohoff and catch the “school bus” to the library with her students. The school bus was really a city bus with the word “schulbus” written on the front of it. The fifth graders were typical and reminded very much of American fifth graders. They also reminded both Frau Canavan and I why we teach in a high school (“ugh…miniatures: small hands, smell of cabbage!”). I did notice that there were two Turkish-Muslim students in the class. It was easy to tell by both their skin tone and the style of their clothing. AS we awaited the opening of the library, some of the girls came up and asked me my name, which was odd because I had already been introduced by Frau Lohoff. Feeling Canavan’s uproarious look, I simply said, “Herr Mody”. They giggled and ran away. Canavan took delight in noting that they had been working the courage to come over and talk to me for some time and that I had a fan club. I guess I can finally use Bill McLain’s line (a rugby team mate of mine): I am kind of a big deal in Germany (just in the fifth grade).

We listened to a speech by the librarian. I pretended to pay strict attention, looking at whoever was talking and nodding whenever I recognized a word, even if I had no idea what they were talking about (she did say “Play Station” a lot). Canavan found this amusing enough to take a picture of it. We then toured the three floor library. I took pictures of various books that I found amusing, such as Harry Potter und der Stein mit der Weise. Canavan asked me which one it was. Since I saw the word stein I said Goblet of Fire. She laughed and told me to stop thinking about rugby all of the time (the literal translation was Stone of the Wise – I don’t care for that title, personally). The library trip seemed to be a time filler for us (or maybe for me because I didn;t understand almost anything the libraian said), so I used it to observe the students as much as I could. I couldn’t get over how segregated the Turkish students were and made a note in my mind to talk to Beatrix about it at dinner that evening. I am becoming more and more aware of the struggles between Germans, Turks, and Russians.

After we returned, I went with Frau Canavan to her host family’s house for a lunch that resembled a German Breakfast. Coffee, bread, salami, cheese, butter. I met their dog Rasmus, who was pretty cool as he understands commands in English as complicated as “be quiet” and “go to your bed and lay down”. I thought to myself that I wished D.J. understood commands that well in English, but sadly, though D.J. can out German the dog in physics class, I think he cannot beat him in this regard.

Today was designated as a sport day, which meant a school day where students have mandatory gym time. Before we entered, I spent time trying to get Fogg and Erin to collapse in laughter as we waited to get into the gym. It was again pretty easy and they are complaining of both ab and side soreness. I posted a video of Fogg ready to spit out her drink and then have difficulty staying on her feet while laughing.

It was followed by 90 minutes of some of the worst volleyball I had ever seen, but it was fun to watch, even though I wouldn’t call much of it play. A highlight included Canavan nearly killing Jan, who she must have mistook for an opposing rugby player because she rucked over him (a rugby term meaning run over violently - well at least it means that loosely). We then tried to teach the German students how to play kick ball. A note to others teaching students games with a language barrier: if they don’t know baseball, they are not going to get any game like baseball with only three minutes of instruction. My sense was that there was not a German in the room who was impressed with the game, chaperons included.

At 4:00, the day was done, and I met Frau Langebeck for my ride back to Kamp-Lintfort. I headed to my room in their basement and worked feverishly to get my blog done from Berlin and formatted pictures. At about 7:30 P.M., I went upstairs and had an awesome dinner that included a creamy chicken and green something sauce and greenish noodles. It was accompanied by some wine from South Africa. I think that they must have wine each night at dinner, or at least it is a custom when serving a guest of the legal age, or of relative "honor". I use that term loosely because I cannot think of a true alternative. Once dinner was done we had a great discussion centering on a variety of topics. They included:

Harry Potter
The Simpsons
The Civil Rights Movement
The Holocaust
German attitudes towards reunification of Germany
Issues involving Russian and Turkish immigrants and assimilation
German Movie Star Horst Buscholz (pronounced Orst Boo-holz, I finally now know)
Gone with the Wind
Animal Farm
Catch-22
1984
American Literature
“American History X”
The American Presidential Primary Races
The Reichstag’s Seating Arrangement
Places of Interest in Kamp-Linfort

As you can see, it was a pretty eclectic discussion. I enjoyed it immensely. Beatrix is an articulate and intelligent woman and it is nice to speak with her because I feel like it gives me a much better understanding of Germany. I was concerned to ask about the Holocaust when I came here, but I really wanted to know how Germans felt about it and she was candid and insightful in conversation. It reinforced that if you are willing to ask honest questions politely (such as bringing up the Holocaust only after explaining how Americans asks themselves tough questions about the Civil rights movement and the Atlantic Slave Trade), you can really learn a lot of important information about a place you don’t know much about. I also think that I am coming across as genuinely interested in their culture and language and I think since I am even trying to use my terrible German to speak when I can (not that have enough even to be able to call it "my German"), it as seen not as an affront to their culture, but that want them to know that I am trying to be respectful. The result is that everyone has been more or less friendly and open.

Finally, we settled down on the sofa and watched the nightly news. It was slightly frustrating that everytime McCain, Obama, or Clinton tried to speak that it was quickly voiced over in German, but I understood the gist of what happened. We also watched a documentary on the shrinking gorilla population in the Congo. While I could pick up enough from the context clues and the words that are similar enough on the screen (titles like doktor), it was just a string of images and video with a German voice doing background speaking. At about 11:00, I headed back down stairs, did some further blog work and am now finally calling it a night at bout 12:15 A.M.

Germany Blog - Day 6: 2/5 - (Berlin Day Three)

2008-02-07T11:13:00.000-05:00

We made an early start this morning. Surprisingly, everyone was up and on time, even if they were not happy about it. When I went down for breakfast, a little bleary eyed from the long day of hiking around yesterday, I was looking for coffee and coffee alone. Students were blogging and/or face booking at all the terminals, so I just grabbed two or three cups of the hot stuff and my “German Usual” which has become hard roll, butter, salami and a piece of cheese. Before I knew it we were under way on another cold and crisp day, but clear skies once again.

Our first stop was to the Alexanderplatz station and we immediately set out for the Berlin wall after stowing our belongings in the station lockers. Reflecting on it now, the lickers were 3 Euros. That’s like $4.51.

Today’s mission: walk the longest standing section of the Berlin Wall. The section, near a mile long, was easy to get to and marked by the Berlin Shakespeare Company, which sat at one end, just on the eastern side. The wall was painted by various artists celebrating the German Unification of 1989 in 1990. In 2000, these artists were asked to come back and paint again: to either redo their original work or update their section with something new. Unfortunately, most of their work, which centers on tolerance, understanding, unity, and acceptance, has been trashed by graffiti in the past eight years, such as the vitriol spewed by Niki, via Sharpie, over her ATM card’s reluctance to function at the ATM. Herr Fabricius again served as my personal guide, and helped me translate the German on the wall and it was exciting when I could get half if the words on my own. The English and Latin I could even handle totally on my own! Herr Fabricius spent some time talking about the unity tax that was imposed on all Germans during the unification period of 1989, but that nearly twenty years later it is still being excised. He also talked about the many issues that still faced Germany in terms of the struggle for unification with the much more economically and industrially underdeveloped east flooding the west looking for jobs, while West German companies swooped in and bought up struggling East German companies for very low cost. This also increased the mass influx of both Turkish and Russian immigrants who were looking for work and a better standard of living. Unlike in the U.S., where culturally diversity is so much greater than in Germany, there is an expectation that immigrants will assimilate to German culture and learn German, as it is the national language. Because of the mass numbers, they were able to create their own cultural epicenters where they could get by and even prosper without having to ever learn the language or much of the culture. Twenty years later, even I can see the negativity and tension between Turkish and German students, even as young as the fifth grade.

After the wall, we walked back to Alexanderplatz, where we stayed for thirty minutes before our train departed Berlin for Duisberg. It gave just enough time for four activities: get motion sickness gum from the apotheke, eat my last Berlin Doerner and a healthy dose of gelato, and stop buy the der supermart to get a beverage for the trip – I choose water over Casey’s suggestion of Schwipp-Schwap (which Parkes consumes mass quantities of), all of this accomplished without the aid of German chaperones or teachers (well, not the gum). It was then back on the ICE Bullet Train for the four hour ride back to Duisburg, and then for me, Kamp-Linfort.

The ride back was fairly uneventful. The motion sickness gum worked like a charm and the atmosphere is what one would expect from 28 teenagers on a train. People slept and listened to music after the spazzy first 20 minutes or so. There was the occasional prank played and Hagan picked up some facial eyeliner tattoos from Gloria. The most amusing prank of note was when Laija, one of the loudest people I have ever met in my life (especially because she is very demure in size), who had woken people up and screamed loudly in the halls of the hostels at all hours of night and morning, fell victim to a drive by “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” screaming by about five people. Her eyes went “Sandman” when she woke up.

We made it home and Ina and her husband gave me a ride back to Kamp-Lintfort. Once Hannah made it home, I was very tired and headed straight to my room in the basement. I had the plans of getting to sleep, but five hours later, I was still working on my blog and trying to get my podcast formatted and sent out to several people. Finally, at 1 AM, exhausted, I am going to bed.

Germany Blog - Day 5: 2/4 - (Berlin Day Two - Part II)

2008-02-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

We spent some time walking back up the church dedicated to Kaiser Wilhelm. It is partially destroyed because it was left that way so people can remember some of the damage of World War II. It has new age looking buildings on either side of it that are used for actual masses and are open to any worshipers, and if I understood correctly, are open around the clock. When I told Fogg of KaDeWe, she had to immediately see it, and our travel plans were altered so she could “find her religion”.

After my second stop at KaDeWe, we walked to the SONY center. It was a square with shops and tables and such, with large screen TV’s out in the open and a pretty wild sound system to show concerts and such. I scored the best Italian gelato I have ever had. The person handing me the cone (with cappuccino flavor, of course) told me it was the best. He did not lie.

From there we went back to the Reichstag, or German Parliament building. After getting through airport security more stringent than some airports, we went up to the top of the dome. The dome is open on top to provide ventilation to the Parliament floor through a vortex shaped cone. Fabricius told me that so much hot air comes out of Parliament that snow and rain evaporate before they ever reach the floor. Also, people in Parliament sit on the left side if they are left (or liberal) and on the right if they are right (or conservatives). I never thought your political bend would change your place of seating. It would be wild to see it tried in the U.S. One man’s liberalism is another man’s conservatism. Or something like that. I was given a long lecture from Herr Fab about a variety of topics concerning the Reichstag and its design, including a massive screen, shaped like baseball catcher’s pads, that moves with the sun and mirrors that can be set by computer to reflect certain amounts of sunlight, all to keep the Parliament floor at the perfect temperature for proceedings.It was great, I was trying to be like a sponge and soak it all in, but it was impossible. There was too much to do that day to get it all. I do know the history behind the German Eagle, finally, though. It was selected along time ago by various members of German royal families and appeared on their crests. As Germany was eventually unified, the Eagle, known as the Reich Adler (sp?) became a mainstay and eventually became a national symbol for a unified German nation. Some of the details of the hanging of the one in Parliament were interesting. There is also a restaurant on top of Parliament where many of the members eat dinner. Anyone can get reservations and eat dinner there. Fabricius and I ducked inside to see it and he fetched me a business card, just in case I decide I want to have dinner with German Parliament, or the second in command under the Madame Chancellor, the Minister of Defense (I think), who is also the head of Parliament.

I think most students were burnt out at this point because they were lying down on the benches. Sandman was the lucky recipient of a vogel bomb. Many people say that getting muted on by birds flying above is good luck. I never see flying fecal matter as lucky. That’s just me, though.

As everyone was waiting to take the elevator down, I took a few minutes to stand in the open air and take in the sight of the skyline of Berlin with two majestic German flags blowing in the wind and it hit me where I was. I was in flippin Berlin, standing on top of the German Parliament! Here I am, formerly a kid from a Lebanese home in Utica, the first kid in his family to go to college and graduate with a four year degree, and now I am on the rooftop of the Reichstag. It also hit me, right then, the number of sacrifices that my parents, grandparents, and other friends and family made to help mold me into the person I am and how important they made getting a good education and how great my life has really been because of it. None of that would have been possible, at least not like this moment was and what it meant to me, if it wasn’t for them. I know some people feel like getting handed something for doing nothing, to being entitled to something, is really where it is at. But honestly, even though its sometimes a lot harder and takes more work, and takes sacrifices of your own and of those around you who care about you (like your wife who is home while you are in Germany), it makes the experience so much better. And as I looked around and saw the kids somewhat loafing and checking out, I hoped that at least one of them had an epiphany like I did today. Or that they would have one soon. It wasn’t about being an American in Germany. It was about embracing a chance to embrace another culture for a short while and bring back knowledge that may very well shape your own children and grandchildren. And I hope that some of that have that feeling at some point because it was so incredible that I just had to stand there and look out and say nothing to anyone.

When I finally had gotten my head around all that, I took the elevator down to the ground level and we took a bus to the Alexanderplatz, where I had to make sure Erin could have her first Doener, as I had promised all day long with my “Doeners for Dinner” campaign slogan. I was finally able to order my own; this time with the red schaff sauce because Sandman thought it would explode my head. Erin also managed to get a suitable doener (even though I can't type the cool oomlau) and was seen here before Snoop Foggy Fogg showed up and caused mass hysteria and near rioting. Eventually Fogg had to cave in and give up her vegetarian ways and she decided that now was as good as ever so there were doerners, doerners, everywhere. Everyone else there next took turns making the two girls laugh so hard they were spitting up Doerner and collapsing to floor to avoid “making water”. It really wasn’t fair. They were so tired, it was easy pickings. Note to anyone: just cite any part of Jeff Dunham’s Achmed Routine and the two of them are done. Totally and completely done. Don't believe me, call Erin and Fogg over and read the following to them in a an Apu from the Simpsons voice (or Achmed if you know how to do it): Knock, knock. Whose there? Me. I kill you. If you don’t get it, you probably don’t understand Peanut Butter Jelly Time, either. But that doesn't mean its not gold. Just ask Laija.

After taking the S-Bahn, we went back to the Sunflower Hostel where I sat at a table in the main room while students blogged, played foozeball, and joked around in the Yellow Submarine Room. While I was there, I picked up a piece of German Literature and tried to read aloud to work on my pronunciation prowess and look for common spelling patterns. It dawned on me, finally, what Baba must have felt like in The Kite Runner. I have two degrees and teach writing and literature. Reading aloud, even I knew I sounded like, at worst, totally illiterate and dimwitted and at best, like a first grader and foolish. I get now to a small degree what it must feel like to be so accomplished in your own country but then to emigrate to a different one where you are reduced to being a gas station attendant. I mean, he went from building hospitals to pumping gas.

Finally, Woody, Sandman, Erin, Parkes (and I saw you blog, Parkes. I don't get how I "suck". are the one who couldn't understand the card trick figured out by a five year-old. And Sandman! Ouch!), Shannon and Canavan all made it to the table. After wowing everyone but Sandman with my dazzling card tricks, we played a game of “I Doubt It”, a.k.a. Ballston Spa. That went on until midnight, when Herr Fabricius pointed out to us the early departure time due to the fact that we only had until 11:30 in Berlin the following day, so I headed up to bed (after letting D.J. go out before me so he could feel accomplished) and did my journaling, finally falling asleep around 1:30 A.M.

Germany Blog - Day 5: 2/4 (Berlin Day Two - Part I)

2008-02-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

What a day today was. We spent about 15 hours riding, walking and climbing around Berlin today. I am going to do this in two installments. Here is part one:

So I took to handwriting my blog and then typing it out later on in Kamp-Linfort on my own computer. Its faster, less frustrating and certainly cheaper than trying to learn a new keyboard while connecting to the internet at the going rate of 1 Euro 50 per half hour. This morning I couldn’t resist looking for the results to the Super Bowl. The last time I missed a Super Bowl was the one before Joe Montana and Dan Marino squared off for the first time. I think that happened in 1984, so it’s been a while, and I needed to see what happened and if my dream of a perfect ending had come true (at least based on available options). I was both happy and shocked. I guess I just wanted Bill Belichek and Tom Brady to remember what it is like to be us mere mortals. I posed the question to my mythology class last semester: why do Americans take such delight in delight in tearing down their own heroes? The easy answer is jealousy, and that is probably part of it if someone could really be truly honest with themselves. More so, however, is how quickly we confer god status on all sorts of people in the public spot light without thoroughlt gauging worthiness of a title so all-becoming. When thrust into that level of scrutiny, even the smallest character flaw is ever magnified and when the rest of us feel that the praise is unjust, and as such I for a long time felt about the mountain of accolades that were afforded Tom Brady, it is a grand sense of “I Told You So” when they fall or fail. Brittney Spears was elevated to super stardom as a teenager, when most kids are stressing passing the responsibility load of a driving test. And we act like it was some big debacle that under that scrutiny and pressure, she caved. She used alcohol and drugs and went off the deep end, and we are surprised. There was a time when heroes had to earn our respect. It seems now that just talent alone can afford that status. There is no need to prove oneself as long as you have something that other people want. How could Brittney not have failed? Jamie Lynn? Forget it. She doesn’t have a chance.

In any event, I awoke this morning at 7 AM. Once I showered and prepared for the day, I was down stairs by 7:45 A.M., and quickly typed yesterday’s blog notes up as fast as I could, while kids began filtering in looking for the breakfast and internet access. Breakfast and blogging, the world’s new B & B. After a traditional German breakfast (hard roll, butter, salami, cheese, and four cups of strong coffee – although cereal, milk, and yogurt were available), all for three Euro and paid for by GSG, I was in great and spazzy spirits, especially considering how bummed I was the previous day at the realization that I lost so many Berlin pictures. We again took the S-Bonn to the Alexanderplatz. We stopped at the market outside so people could get cash, buy water and odds and ends such as food, candy, and batteries. We then hiked across the court yard spotting the old Red County Building and stopping for pictures at the fountain featuring the statue of Neptune and other water like and cloven creatures. Niki showed her enthusiasm for mythology by climbing all over it and even riding a sea goat. It was a colder, clear day and I have high hopes for how everyone’s pictures would turn out, realizing that I would most likely lose any shots that I had taken that day. After walking a little further and crossing the Schpie River (sp?), we took in the most beautiful church I have even seen in my life (even though it was not Catholic :) ). The name of this building is the Berliner Dom. Before you enter, Frau Canavan pointed out that in the distance you can see a Jewish Temple from before WWII which had to be reconstructed because even though it actually survived Krystal Nacht, it was accidentally hit by allied bombers later in the war. It is worth noting that there is an issue with Bosnian beggars and I was accosted by three different one, eash carrying a baby or holding the hand of a small child. The first caught me off guard and ended up with some change, maybe a little less than a Euro. After that, I learned who much the polizie are trying to stop them and they can even have their children taken away if they are caught. The ettitiquette: when asked if I speak English, respond with "NEIN!". At the end of the day: Mody 2, Beggars 1.

The Berliner Dom was the most unreal cathedral that I have ever seen. Hand carved wood, stone, marble, and gold adorned the most massive domed ceiling I could even imagine. There were pictures of St. Matthew, John the Evangelist, among others, as well as statues depicting Protestant greats such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. Thankfully, no one asked me why Martin Luther’s statue was white instead of black. I can only imagine the artistry of the dome is outdone by only the Sistine Chapel itself. It was that impressive. Despite being Catholic, I entered a pew and said prayers for my grandparents. Unfortunately, even running on a damaged memory card, my camera battery died and I am going to have to wait to get pictures from Casey as he promised he would shoot a ton. After exhausting the first floor (and not realizing that we could go upstairs – argh!) Hagan and I toured the basement where there were the remains of the German Royal family. Between his knowledge of German and my knowledge of Latin (please hear that, Mrs. Jones, wherever you are!) we were able to decipher much of what we saw, including that kurfursten meant some type of duke or earl (with konig and konigen being king and queen, respectively), and the words for twin son and twin sister. We also noted that there was an alarming run of infant mortality in the German Royal Family between 1650-1700, and were surprised by how many royal children had been born during that time.

Upon leaving, we took a double decker bus to the Postdamerplatz, or thereabouts and walked the path of the former Berlin wall to the Reichtag (sp?). We stopped for a bit while Herr Fabricius checked the length of the VERY long line to get in and Casey and other started playing Frisbee. Soon a photographer from the Berliner Morgen Post was there and snapping pictures of anyone of us in sunglasses and staged “action shots” of Frau Canavan and J-Fogg. We are eagerly anticipating tomorrow’s paper. Canavan fully expects her being back in Berlin and playing Frisbee in front of Parliament to supplant the Super Bowl as front page news tomorrow. Spirits were high. We next headed to the National Holocaust Memorial. It was something of a bizarre experience and I don’t feel like getting back into it because no matter what I write, people who were not there with me today and who do not know me extremely well will not truly understand what happened and the depth of the sickness I felt when I finally understood what happened in its entirety. If you would like to listen to a recording of my reaction, it starts with Hagan and I waiting for people to walk across the street who were caught at a red light and then it head's uphill and then massively downhill about an hour later. Just drop me an e-mail and if I think that I want you to know about it, I will send along an audio of my reaction I recorded about it when I finally made it back to the Hostel. As for the Memorial itself, I will say that even though it was a struggle for the Germans to agree to build it, I am happy that it is there, unvandalized, and ever present.

We walked around a bit more, with Casey getting pictures for me of two statues that celebrated diversity and understanding in the world, and even the acceptace of world religion. The statues were golden bears (the bear being the symbol of Berlin) and one was the Golden Rule Bear, which had the golden rule written on it in too many world languages to count. The other was the World Ethics Bear that had the most common sentiments in every major world religion listed in order to show the commonalities that existed across time and geography. It was cool to see not so far from the holocaust museum. We took the U2 to the Ku-don (sp?), which is something like the Times Square of Berlin and let the kids explore and shop for a few hours. The chaperones went to the Bavarium Restaurant and had traditional Bavarian cuisine, including for me, Vienna-styled pork schnitzel (schweineschnitzel), which are fried pork cutlets, and koroketts (sp?) which are look like corn dogs but are more like tater tots. We talked about a variety of topics, including the PEACE Exchange and how it was fairing. Eventually, and much story telling that will never make it to the printed world, Frau Canavan’s host sister, Anna, showed up and the two of them went off to catch up together. Herr Fabricius and Frau Lohoff helped me secure a new 1 GB memory card for my camera (only 10 Euro, better than I feared) and walked me down the true shopping district strip. They then took me to Ka De We, the most unreal department store I have ever even heard of. I think Santa comes to this place for real. It was seven floors of the most posh and designer items I have ever seen under one roof. I hate shopping, but even I thought this place was cool. If I ever win the lottery, my wife, mom, and sisters are hopping a plane to Berlin just to come here and go to town…lets hope I win the PowerBall. Frau Fogg would later see this store and abruptly stop conversation with her mother and say, "I have to go, Mom. God has said let there be store. And Fogg saw store and saw that it was good."

Germany Blog - Day 4: 2/3 (Berlin Day One)

2008-02-04T01:51:00.000-05:00

Today’s entry will be both short and weird. First, I am using a German keyboard and the letters are not in the same place as an American keyboard so there will be some typos. Secondly, I am at the Sunflower Hostel where it costs 1 Euro for 20 minutes of Internet service. So this is going to be bare bones post. I will update it with more details when I return to Kamp-Lintfort on Tuesday night.

This morning I woke up at 5:15 to get ready for my trip to Berlin. We took the ICE, otherwise known as the Inter-City Express (AKA Bullet Train) to Berlin. It took about four hours and at times we were traveling in excess of 200 km/hour. Unfortunately it was very hot and I got motion sick about an hour into it.
I was able to break out with my German phrases and speak to two different individuals. One was asking directions and there other was a bistro attendant. The first was amused. The second, not so much.

Upon arriving in Berlin, we swung by the Sunflower Hostel to drop off bags. It was an interesting place, to say the least. I will describe it more later. Let’s just note that the interior designer must have enjoyed the 60´s, at least pharmaceutically:

http://sunflower-hostel.de/en/english.html

From there we jumped the S-Bonn (subway) and headed to the Alexanderplatz. It was a combination of a mall and train station. The first mission was to grab some lunch, and I went with Herr Fabricius, and Frauen Canavan and Lohoff to the Pegano Bistro to have a Döner (pronounced derner). It was great. Very close to a Greek Gyro. Herr Fabricius said that I will have to try a different one on the other side of town, where they are made differently. I agreed that this would be a good idea because one can never be too thorough when studying a foreign culture. As said in "Necessary Roughness", "Eternal vigilance is the price of integrity." Upon returning to Alexanderplatz, Frau Canavan and I stopped into a store to get water (with or without gas - too funny). We ran into a few of the boys on the trip buying carbonated beverages that were a mix of cola and orange flavors. I tried some. Better than I anticipated.

Upon hearing that Kim had had lunch at Burger King, of course I berated her. It did not work as she had dinner at McDonald’s. Later on, I referred to her as Frau Pomp-Fritte (Miss French Fry). We visited the area where Americans controlled a sector and visited the Check Point Charlie Museum. It was really interesting. I wish we could have taken pictures, not that it would have mattered because my memory card fried and I lost 117 pictures. I had a really interesting conversation with Herren Ross, Hagan, and Frau Fogg. We discussed communism, propaganda, war, terrorism. It was like a walking Socratic Method experience. I enjoyed it very much.

The chaperones stopped to get kaffe (I was in serious serious need of caffeine). I didn't realize that it was the Balzac Coffee. I rather unfortunate name. Herr Sandman found this to be very amusing.

We hiked around Berlin and saw the Brandenburg Tor. It was really amazing (and big), especially at night. We hit the Alexanderplatz for dinner (Chinese in Germany - kinda weird, although it shouldn't be). We then hit the 200 M tall TV tower which gave us a HUGE view of all of Berlin. Fascinating.

Finally, back to the Sunflower Hostel to set up rooms and go to bed. Out of time. More later!

Germany Blog - Day 3: 2/2

2008-02-02T17:36:00.001-05:00

February 2, 2008

I awoke first at 6 AM and then again when my cell phone went off at nine. I spent thirty more minutes fruitlessly trying to get connected to the internet, but was at least appeased when my sister’s boyfriend sent me a text message letting me know that our Mets had indeed signed the extension with Johan Santana at a staggering seven years/$150 million dollars. I am now VERY happy that Barry Zito is not a New York Met, because this deal would not have happened. I don’t know if they voided this current year of the deal, or if he will be a Met for the next eight years (although I assume that this year was voided) and while the length is staggering, $21.4 per year is less annually than what I thought Santana would command. I was thinking a minimum of 5-6 years at $23-$25 million, per. Even if he is over the hill at the end of his contract, chances are that seven years of Santana will be more beneficial to the Mets than five years at the same price tag. Wow.

At ten, after a shower and a shave (and realizing I didn’t bring my beard trimmer so three weeks of unchecked goatee growth should prove oh so stylish), I made my way upstairs. I immediately met Gideon, who is tall and slender (and it makes sense now, his passion for basketball) and Beatrix for breakfast. It consisted of the same basic meal from dinner. I had a hard roll and butter and two slices of thinly cut German ham. It was accompanied by some very strong German imported Brazilian coffee. It had some kick. I will definitely need to purchase some before I leave. Beatrix forewarned me that Gideon’s who studies Business Administration at Ahkand University (my best shot at the spelling) was not the greatest speaker of English. He immediately offered me the local newspaper and asked if I required something special to eat. I noted that I would like to read the newspaper, even if by reading it, I mean looking at the pictures. He responded that in the morning, looking at the pictures was probably more realistic and beneficial to the brain that reading, anyway. We discussed briefly the Super Bowl, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. Beatrix told me that when they visited American some time ago, that they went to a Boston Red Sox game, but did not understand much of what was going on. Instead of trying to give a baseball tutorial, I did try to explain the rivalry and animosity that exists between Boston and New York sports teams, explaining that my hope that the Giants win the Super Bowl was based more on a dislike for New England than support of the New York Giants, even after my Washington Redskins were eliminated by Seattle.

Soon after, Gideon departed for back upstairs and Beatrix and I sat in the kitchen watching the snow (or shnee) coming down hard (a rarity in the Moers/Kamp-Lintfort region) and discussing a wide variety of topics from education to teenage drinking issues. We also talked about the influence of mass Turkish, Russian, and Polish immigration and how it has changed culture. She noted that she liked the film from the night before so much because it showed both the German slang that was created by immigration, mostly from the Turks, as well as the relationship French Monastery that was a remnant of the one that established Kamp-Lindfort and then a dinner at a popular German restaurant in town. Herr Schwich had not made it home as of yet, so I said that I would like to retire to the basement and get some writing done. Beatrix said that sounded good and that she would alert me when her husband came home. I called Frau Canavan to try to figure out how to call home as my attempts last night were unsuccessful (note, Herr Kramer, it is TWO zeroes, not ONE zero: 001- 518-***-****). Frau Canavan was sleeping at the time and was somewhat groggy and confused. Not having had the kaffee that I had just consumed, I sympathized with her condition and told her to call me later on. She had offered for me to meet up with her, and at the time I though the monastery trip might be cancelled because of the weather, but since the sun has come out and all of the shnee is melted.

I am looking forward to meeting Herr Schwich. From what Beatrix has told me, he is a regional manager for a large corporation and spends time all over Germany, in Holland, Poland, France and even India. He sounds very important and like a no-nonsense businessman. Given my laid back personality, it should be interesting talking to him. I understand that he has excellent English, so at least I won’t embarrass myself with my two German phases (doubled the vocab in 24 hours, baby): Ich sprechen kein Deutch and Das ist OK. The Schwichs seem pretty well off and have a beautiful home with some great books on the shelves in their living room including the works of Marx, Twain, and Durkheim. So far, despite my lack of German, I am finding that I understand more that I thought I would. I was even able to glean some information from the newspaper, noting that Microsoft has apparently purchased Yahoo! and that Parkinson's Disease was a current topic of interest in the science section of the Newspaper. I even smiled and shook my head at the title of one article when it had the word “Terminator” at the end. Sure enough, the Austrian born “Govenator”, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was shaking hands with a German politician.

Since I have a little time now, I think I might read a bit. The thought of an angry Leah G. can be quite intimidating.

So I met Herr Schwich. He is an interesting man. He is an engineer who works for an international firm and is both the vice-president and COO (depending on which country he is in). He commands 30,000 people under him, which is amazing since Kamp-Linfort only has 50,000 residents, when you consider it. He has a pretty good grip on English, and also knows Russian, Polish, French and German (obviously). I also had a chance to watch Foosball with Gideon, Hannah, and Kevin, Hannah’s boyfriend. During the afternoon, Beatrix took me to the French Monastery, Kolister Kamp, and we walked around and I took pictures. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up (again) and I lost some of the earlier pictures that I had of the trip, so Nicki is lucky because the video of the German and teen and herself in the airport was one of the many casualties of the memory card massacre.

The monastery was amazing. It was wild to see the French influence on German architecture, and even learn about Frederick I first hand, since I taught about him in Global History 9. I enjoyed seeing it very much.

At 6:45 I accompanied Beatrix and Dr. Schwich, Hannah and Kevin to a German restaurant for dinner (Gideon and a friend had gone to Carnival, which in honesty, looked like a lot of fun). The meal was unbelievable. We had deep fried fish as an appetizer and then I had (as best I could understand) Fisch Zuppa (fish soup) and, as it was explained to me, sautéed cheek of an ox with parmesan mash potatoes and zucchini. Accompanying the meal was several wines that Herr Schwich selected. He has a very good taste for white wines and has been feeding them to me since I returned from the monastery. He also wanted me to try several German reds, all of which I found satisfactory. Dinner conversation was varied, but it dealt mostly with American industry as compared to European industry and touched on learning language and culture while abroad, often. I also spoke with Hannah and Kevin about a variety of subjects, including use of cannabis among German teens and which beers Kevin found most enjoyable. His favorite American beer being Miller, I began to understand the age gap between us, even though it appears to be much less than the one between Herr Schwich and myself.

Upon returning to their house, he handed me another red which he referred to as “the last drink” (at least for me) and I sipped it while we watched figure skating championships, which Kevin and I made fun of relentlessly.

Today’s Words:

Gooten Tag - Hello
Box Legende – Boxing Legend (referring to Muhammad Ali)
Auf weidersehen – goodbye
Das ist OK – That is okay
Kaffee – coffee
Toilette – bathroom
Fisch – fish
Esen - eat
Mamma – mother
Hund – dog
Shnee - snow

Germany Blog - Day 2: 2/1

2008-02-02T07:48:00.000-05:00

February 1, 2008

As we came through security, students from GSG (the local school in Moers), greeted us with signs and flags and students began meeting their hosts. I was quickly reintroduced to Wolfgang Fabricius and Ina Lunhoff, who were Canavan and my German counterparts. On the ride from Cologne to Moers, Herr Fabricius entertained us with stories of recent highway construction issues and gave me some background and history on the Cologne Airport, the city Cologne and the city of Moers, issues with roadwork, the Düsseldorf airport, low fair airlines and open airway proposals, among other items he though we would find of interest. We also discussed the price of fuel, the proliferation of the SMART car, and the results of the Obama-Clinton debate that we missed as we boarded the plane. Soon enough we arrived in Moers and had an informational breakfast where all parents, students, and teachers, were introduced to one another. Frau Canavan was so delirious she began pouring coffee onto her saucer instead of getting a cup. I laughed until I saw the size of the cups. They must have held 3 oz. of coffee. I inquired if these were used to sample different flavors before you selected the one you wanted.

Sadly, they were not.

Basic info was given regarding the trip and the itinerary. As I listened, first in German, then in English, desperately trying to pick up any German that I could to attempt to fulfill Casey’s mandate of ten new German words per day, I noticed that with grand irony we were living a Kurt Vonnegut moment. In his unusual novel, Slaughterhouse Five, his main character, Billy Pilgrim, spends some time on another planet (whose people’s name currently escapes me. While there, he is treated as an exotic animal and kept in a zoo cage. That is something of a misnomer, because his “cage” is furnished exactly like an apartment. He is even given a B List movie star as a mate (although, that is not what I am talking about). Of course, much of the story takes place in Germany during World War II. The ironic part was that while we were in the cafeteria, many of the GSG students were crowded up against the windows looking in at the American students and chaperones (along with hosts) as if we were some type of exotic attraction. I think it was mildly unnerving for some of the students. While in China, where staring is a sign of interest and curiosity instead of a rude gesture, I had to endure being stared at by everyone I came into contact with. At least in Germany, my appearance and nationality was not so much a novelty, as much as it so very was in China, and I was assuming that until I spoke, most people would not assume my background was anything but German, despite being darker in skin and hair color than most Germans I have thus far met. So, to have so many crowded up against the glass, I found it mostly amusing. Herr Sandman found that he was already missing his dogs greatly. It made me think of Monica and Sampson. Three weeks without my dogs was going to be a long time. Somehow, I managed to survive three months without Monica when in China. Although I was surrounded by Americans students often and could speak with them. So far, most of the Germans that I met had some rudimentary English skills, at least. They all were far more proficient than I was at German.

Frau Canavan and I were given a walking tour of GSG. It was an interesting place. The basic feel is that of an industrial building that was converted into a school. Due to recent updates and the result of fire code violations (sound similar, BHBL?) there were few posters or signs on the walls as anything that was on a wall needed to be in expensive fire retardant wood frames. Thankfully, BHBL has not had that mandate enforced. By German standards BHBL HS Room 117 would be a fiery death trap.

At 1:15, after getting a grip on my bearings, Frau Canavan and I split up. We each met our respective hosts and started heading towards their homes. I am staying with Frau Beatrix Schwich, a biochemistry teacher, and her family. This will consist of Beatrix and her daughter Hannah, mostly. Her husband and son Gideon, who work and go to school during the week and are only home on the weekends. Her youngest daughter, Esther, is in New Zealand as a member of the German National Sailing Team and has graciously donated her room for me to use while I am in Moers. They live in the old mining town of Kamp-Lintfort on Kruse Street, which is very old, close to 1000 years (and was settled by French Monks). They have a beautiful three floor brick house and I am currently residing in the basement as it gives more privacy than the guest room. I have also made friends with their dog, Balu, who is currently sleeping on the floor next to me while I write.

So far my only issues revolve around the fact that I don’t speak German and am not obviously going to learn much before I leave. Casey wants me to learn ten words per day. If that is the case, right now I have the following (although without internet, I cannot look up the spelling):

Hallo - Hell0
Cheers – Informal Goodbye
Ich - I
Sprechen - speak
Kein – no (none)
Deutch - German
Nein – no (opposite yes)
Ya - yes
Danka – thanks
Pappa - father

That is not much of a base, but I guess you need to start somewhere. Upon arriving at the Schwich family home, Beatrix treated me to a lunch prepared by her mother. It consisted of egg noodles and a rolled brisketish type of beef in deep gravy. My mother, who is German, served a variation of this when I was a kid. No offense, mom, but the meal prepared here was much better. After this lunch, Beatrix offered for me to go to market with her if I was interested, or I could choose to get settled. I chose to get settled and secretly sneak a nap, even though Wolfgang said that if we slept before ten o’clock, we would be up all night. Given how exhausted I felt, I did not think that this would be a problem.

After a few hours in the basement of writing, reading, petting Balu and fruitlessly trying to connect to the internet so I could check e-mail and let my wife know that I landed safely and was okay, I had taken about a 45 minute power nap and headed my way back upstairs. Beatrix offered me dinner, which consisted of bread and butter, cheeses and meats. It was explained to me that lunch was usually the big meal of the day, but only on Fridays was it a big deal even then. Surprisingly enough, my appetite has not been very big here, at least yet, so the most enjoyable part of the meal was when Beatrix asked if I enjoyed wine. Upon saying yes, she inquired as to whether I was a fan of red or white, and being an avid consumer of red wines, thanks mostly to my wife and sisters, she returned with a bottle of South African Shiraz. It was moderately dry, but very good. Beatrix told me more about her family. I learned that Gideon is 21, Hannah is 18, and Esther is 16, each born in January, December, and November, respectively. After trying to get me reconnected to the internet, again fruitlessly (although I didn’t say that I couldn’t get my lap top to connect to the wireless network for some reason beyond my understanding), I sat in the living room watching a movie that was about issues involving German gangs. It was something like a milder form of “American History X” (MUCH milder) about a professor and the relationship with his son and wife, and the influence of a Turkish gang member. Not understanding German, I was amazed how much I could follow of the film. I am left wondering if the mediocre performance of the actors was more evident because the content of the dialogue was lost on me. It makes me want to watch a film I have not previously seen in voiceovers when I get home to see if I have the same reaction. But then I think to myself, could Owen Wilson really get that much worse?

I found myself starting to nod off around 9:45, but Wolfgang’s voice rang in my mind. Pushing myself to ten, the film picked up in action and I cruised to 10:30 without a problem. As it ended, however, I mention to Beatrix that I would like to turn in for the night and she agreed that it was a good idea, noting that Gideon would be home very late and probably not awake until noon. She would be having breakfast at 10:00, if I was interested in joining her. Upon returning to my room in the basement, I though I might read a bit from Looking for Alaska so I would not be castigated by one Leah G. when I returned home, but after a few pages, I was starting to nod (not a knock on the book, by the way). Since I have not had almost any sleep since I awoke at 5:30 A.M. on 1/31 and as it is now 10:45 PM on 2/1 (minus six hours for time zone), I am going to call it a night.

Germany Blog - Day 1: 1/31

2008-02-02T07:38:00.000-05:00

It’s been a pretty interesting trip so far. We departed Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School on January 31, 2008, at 11:45. This was about fifteen minutes later than planned because I didn’t leave my class room until 11:30. It seems that I couldn’t get myself to stop teaching and collect my belongings and get to the bus. It was a further delay because Maryellen needed a signature from me on a memo regarding my tenure review, which I had to sign on someone’s back before I jumped on the bus. At 11:45 we were off to Newark, New Jersey to begin the adventure.

I remember how much awe and wonder, heck, even tangible excitement that I had when my parents waved good bye to me on September 9, 1997, as I boarded the plane at Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York, for the first leg of my three stop journey to the People’s Republic of China. I knew how to say hello, good bye, thank you, beverage, and no problem. I didn’t have any anxiety about it either. I didn’t know anyone going on the trip (or so I thought until I met my co-travelers in Shanghai, and unlike other Germanic languages, I wouldn’t be able to sound out pictographic Chinese characters of Hanyu. Yet, with all of this uncertainty, I found myself approaching the trip to Germany with so much more apprehension than 11 years ago. Maybe it was because I was, by-in-large, a reckless 21 year old college kid at the time. Maybe it was because I only was responsible for myself. Maybe I too was looking for The Great Perhaps. It’s been too long and I don’t remember. But I do know that as the bus pulled out of BH-BL, I had trepidation about this trip that I didn’t expect. And it appeared that I was about to embark on a greater trip than merely flying to Cologne, or staying in Moers, or even seeing Berlin and Amsterdam. I was going to be forced to confront something about myself that I had been noticing in spades since the final parent meeting for the P.E.A.C.E. Exchange on January 9^th. I am going to have to somehow deal with the fact that I am a closet control freak to a degree even I didn’t dare admit to myself.

As the trepidation poured over me, I began to root around for the source of it. That is what I do. I sense trepidation or anxiety and I hunt it so as to take it down and mount its carcass on my wall. It’s the only real trophy hunting that I guess I do. I started to admit to myself what had been banging on the periphery on my consciousness for weeks. I was responsible for kids whom I didn’t all know, in a country (despite owing some ethnic background to) I knew very little about, chaperoning a trip in countries where I didn’t know the language or cultural idiosyncrasies on a schedule that was both set by other people and I was in the complete dark about the details of. Consider that until we were heading down to Newark, I thought (didn’t know) that we were flying Continental, but until I received my boarding pass, if you asked me my flight number or time of departure, it would have been as if you were speaking German. And that was another mental issue that surfaced. To some degree, to stay in the loop of what was going on, I was going to have to rely on Ms. Canavan and the 13 students going on the trip. I wouldn’t have all the answers for students as I am so fond of feeling like I do on a day to day basis. It is the first time as an adult that I needed to confront the reality of being in a totally subordinate position in regards to applicable knowledge. As Ms. Canavan so clearly stated as we wended our way to the Northway, the trip would be run based on “German Seniority” with DJ at the top rung (besides Frau Canavan, herself, of course) with the others in German III, followed by students in German II, then Bekah in German I, and then me. In German Zero. There would be jokes. Frau Canavan would laugh. The students would laugh. I would smile because people were enjoying themselves and, like an idiot, sit there having no idea if the true joke was on me. And that was a tough pill to swallow when you are someone who has prided himself on self-reliance, almost to a fault (my wife would argue I am beyond that point, by the way).

I am working on learning my first real German phrase (one that I didn’t learn out of a song): Ich sprecken kein Deutch. I speak no German.

We had our first mild amusement at the Modena Service Stop just north of Newburg, New York. We arrived at 1:20 P.M. It was a quick rest stop and lunch. Most people chose to pick up either McDonald’s or Sbarro’s for lunch. It would have been otherwise unnoteworthy except that Bekah ordered a milkshake. I struck me as odd that they were still serving Egg Nog milkshakes in January as she walked away with it. It was a creamy yellowish in color. Minutes later Bekah was back at the counter. Something was just not right. The shift manager tried it himself. The face he made confirmed the fact that Vanilla is supposed to be white in color and that the new concoction of yellowish cream was less than pleasant. Too much syrup was the culprit. A brand new shake and a less grossed out Bekah was the solution.

It was mostly uneventful all the way to Newark Airport. As we stood in line waiting for boarding passes, we were regaled with stories of people being charged extra for being mere ounces over the 50 pound weight limit on checked baggage. Being a typical male, I tried to pack everything into one bag and when that didn’t work; I just put what I couldn’t fit into that bag into a second bag (namely sneakers, sunglasses, and a rugby ball) and just rejected the thought of evening the two bags out. One bag was bound to be 78 pounds, while the other was 4 pounds. But I think I was saved by some incidental comedy that was only funny because it worked out in the end. It seems when you accidently type an “H” instead of an “F” on a boarding pass for an international flight that the lack of a match between boarding pass and passport is enough to cause major disruption at the ticket counter. So, with Frau Canavan getting ready to break out her Cleveland Meanie Look and me sniggering behind the student in question because her last name had been turned from Fogg to Hogg (man, can I be child sometimes), and with Herr Kramer soon to be texting us with Dukes of Hazard references, my bags were swept through without anyone really looking at the weight.

Security became another fun time. First, upon walking through, a gentleman noted that I had dropped my boarding pass behind me. I saw it on the floor, almost beneath the security machine. As I retrieved it, I realized that mine was in my hand. I scanned the name. It belonged to Nicki, who was two people ahead of me and about to go through the metal detector. I asked her for her boarding pass because I needed to check something. The look of non-chalance tuned to absolute horror was priceless. Eyes wide with a look that could only be summed up in the text language of OMG! WTFIMBP???, I handed her the document and her blood pressure apparently was reduced to sub stroke levels.

As I made it through security, Frau Canavan noted that one Herr Parkes was having some extra difficulty getting through security. Identified as a potential member of the always wily, slender Aryan teenage terrorism cell, he was getting an “extra thorough” search by a man that was at least triple his weight. The security man was very thorough, and in my opinion, was quite friendly. It made me wonder, so I asked Frau Canavan if that type of physical closeness usually required dinner and a movie. She indicated that such was usually the custom in most of the more refined parts of Cleveland. Herr Parkes virtue still mostly intact, we made our way to the terminal. Despite one slight detour that may or may not have been my fault and an apparent fascination with slide walks by Herrs Sandman and Hagan, the rest of the wait was uneventful. It is worth noting that in about four minutes of reaching our gate, Nicki found a teenage boy from Germany to discuss literature, art, and mathematics with while we waited. I am still unclear as to whether phone numbers were also discussed. When I asked her, her face quickly matched her red hair, so I am going to have to say yes on this one.

At 6:15 we boarded the plane, and after some switching of seats, had ourselves situated and ready to go. So of course we sat on the Tarmac until 8:00. All the while I was sending out secret missives via illegal text message in order to find out if my New York Mets had officially secured the services of Johan Santana. We also invented a game. If given $2,000, how many inane items could you buy from Sky Mall magazine without going over the mark, yet getting close as possible? The gear had to be either cheesy or fantastical. You could not repeat items. D.J. won after detailing his purchases of 33 items totaling $1,998.25. This came after being initially disgruntled that the flight attendant said that he could not buy only one of a three dollar pair of socks.

At 8:00, Frau Canavan led the take off charge getting our whole group to hold their hands over their heads like we were riding a roller coaster at the world famous Cedar Point Amusement Park. Once in the air, we were treated with peanuts, beverages, and a relatively edible meal that passed for something close to beef and mashed potatoes. These came out in rapid succession as the flight crew realized that 90 minutes of waiting before a seven hour flight might make some people restless. Seven hours, one warm croissant and Frau Canavan being denied coffee refills for her breach of etiquette regarding the use of flight attendant summoning light, we landed in Cologne, Germany. The local time was 9 A.M. Back home it was three in the morning. Having gotten little sleep the night before and virtually nothing on the plane, I was looking for a real coffee. How disappointed I was going to be.

Grading Update

2008-01-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

As of 1/25/08 @ 4:34 A.M. - Grades are done. Need sleepy.

University Level Mythology

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done (I have Qtr 2 Grades Done)
All Final Papers Are Done - Remember to bring me a clean copy for my anthology.
All Final Course Grades Have Been Entered

American Literature

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done (I have Qtr 2 Grades Done)
American Lit Final Exam are done
English Regents Exam - All Modyland Students Passed - I am very proud of you!

Writers' Workshop - Green and Red

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done (I have Qtr 2 Grades Done)
Final Portfolio For Writers' Green are Done
Final Portfolio For Writers' Red are Done

English 9

All Course Work for Quarter Two is Done (I have Qtr 2 Grades Done)
Poetry Projects are done.
Midterms Exams are done.

You may stop in to pick up work whenever. Please be advised that I may be in either a computer lab or the English Resource Center if I am not "all up in the one-one-seven". I will begin finals/midterms as soon as I am done with course work. Keep checking back for updates as to my progress!

What Makes a Great Teacher? Your Turn to Weigh In!

2007-11-29T08:35:00.000-05:00

Mr. Harrington and I are launching some research in hoping to present at the New York State English Council's (NYSEC) annual conference next year and we need your input. We want to get a better understanding of what characteristics that students, both past and present, consider essential in making a great teacher.

We are asking people to weigh in on what characteristics made the great teachers they have encountered so great. You can simply list qualities or tell a quick anecdote about that particular teacher that illustrates why you hold him or her in such high esteem.

When completing this task, please spend some time considering what made the teacher a great teacher in total. Was she very knowledgeable? Did he have a great classroom environment? Was she tough but fair? Compassionate? Did he or she get your prepared for your exams particularly well or maybe helped you to learn about yourself in ways you didn't anticipate or just have a class that you looked forward to attending?

We ask that you don't use your teacher's names.
If you would like to refer to someone as Mrs. S or Mr. G, for example, that is fine.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you would like. We are hoping to get a real cross section of demographics (ages, genders, locations, etc.) and this is just the first step in that process. To that end, hearing from students, parents, grandparents, principals, custodians, and the like all help to paint the total picture.

Mody Almighty? I Should Have Built an Ark

2007-07-15T12:52:00.000-04:00

Last week during the big storm, it appears that the rainfall was too much for old BH-BL High School to handle. It caused massive flooding in Ms. Murray's room, which is located right above my classroom. Once her room was sufficiently saturated, water poured down the walls and through the ceiling of "the One-One-Seven" destroying most of my ceiling tiles, about 125 books for various courses I teach (but the new UHS Mythology texts avoided destruction) and one bookshelf. In addition, three of my personal computer monitors were ruined, my surround sound speakers and some of my personal texts from my own library are no longer functional. The good news is that the school's insurance will replace all of the school's damaged property so I should have text books for the fall. The bad news is that all of my personal property is not covered so it is a loss. I am very thankful that I moved the actual computer units, printers, scanner, and DVD player to a secured location. Thankfully, it appears that it "rained" around the ceiling mounted projector and that it still works.

Also destroyed were Writers' Workshop Portfolios that were not picked up at the end of the year. I was planning on handing them out to students in the fall, but they were totally wrecked. As of now, I only lost one poster, Hotel Rwanda (although many of my quotes up on the wall were trashed).

That is it for now. I did an initial survey of destruction on Friday and have to go in Monday after I complete a day with the Transition Team (from 7:30-3:30) and complete a total damage inventory. I apologize to anyone who lost his or her portfolio. I tried to sift through to separate them, but it was a lost cause.

I will post pictures on Monday.

You Know You Are Getting Old

2007-06-28T04:37:00.000-04:00

Today I heard one of my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers songs from the early 90's...

playing over the speakers at the grocery store.

That's just not right.

Mr. Mody's Biker Blog

2007-06-27T02:18:00.000-04:00

Yup. I bought a motorcycle and started a blog about my experience. It can be found at: http://modymagna.blogspot.com/

Come on, Jake. You know you want one.

And Julie Fogg: That was me who said hello to you today while you were walking your bike through Burnt Hills.

Last Days for the School Year

2007-06-20T13:54:00.000-04:00

For those of you looking to stop in and pick up portfolios or check grades, etc., please be aware that I will be leaving on Thursday at 10:45 to go to graduation and then I have BSpa graduation right after so I will be gone for the rest of the day. On Friday I will only be at school until about noon and then I have an appointment which will require my attention until the rugby pre-game starts at Shenentaha at 3:45.

If you want your materials, you need to let me know as I am cleaning out my room for the next hour and then tomorrow morning.

It's Grading Time...

2007-06-10T22:13:00.000-04:00

Please be sure to pick them up so we are both sure that I have received everything that you think I should have (i.e. your name was not on something and now you have a zero).

As of 6/19 @ 10:00 A.M. I HAVE FINISHED GRADING EVERYTHING.

Writers' Workshop

Final Portfolios Are Done
Film Critiques are done.
Mock College Essays are done.

English 9 - Yellow and Blue -

Movie Posters are done.
Essays of Definition (Yellow Only) are done.
Response Journals are done.
Final Exams are done

Out of 52 9th Graders, only two had a perfect score on Multiple Choice and you will never guess who the two were.

Forms of Lit - Green and Red

Final Exams are done.
Propaganda Assignments are done for both classes
Poetry Packs are done for both classes.

You may stop in to pick up work whenever. Please be advised that I may be in either a computer lab or the English Resource Center if I am not "all up in the one-one-seven". I will begin finals as soon as I am done with course work. Keep checking back for updates as to my progress!

Virginia Tech Massacre

2007-04-17T11:24:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/index.html

I don't know what this nation is coming to. My first response to this is that I can almost deal with the suicide bomber because at least that person has one misguide moment where they "pull the trigger" to kill multiple people. This man was so disturbed that he killed 32 people, one at a time. That is a level of cold detachment sociopathology that just disturbs me to no end.

I think this is just another example of the slow, yet violent, erosion of society that is a direct result of decayed values with the death of the family unit and the increasing popularity of blaming other people for our own mistakes and problems.

But who do we turn to in order to fix this. As a teacher, I know one of the popular directions will be that of education. But not as we currently know it. Students come to school with such varied backgrounds and moral upbringing, and with the uncompromising rush of curricula and increased standards (most of which, I support - even if I do not support the current delivery/assessment structure), there is simply not that much time to take care of the task at hand, to educate about a subject area, and teach about character...as much as it needs to be done.

I think that students come to school with less of an understanding of character than they did, I feel, even when I was a kid. But to be fair, its not really a non-biased perspective, however, because the basis for my claim is laid within the two districts I have spent significant time working in for the past seven years. These districts neighbor each other and as a result, I have an extreme microcosm of the nation. The pulse not of the national heart beat, with any certainty, but of southern Saratoga County, NY. And what can I compare it to from 10-15 years ago? One district I spent a lot of time in, located in Central New York. Its a good sample of this area, but who knows about the rest of the country?

I think the root problem comes back to something that I talk about, time and time again. The ever increasing sense of entitlement.

Police arrest 21 during melee; gunfire heard in crowd

2007-03-19T11:25:00.000-04:00

Police arrest 21 during melee; gunfire heard in crowd

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Teenagers brawled in the stands at a high school basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night before police cracked down on the melee, which spilled into the streets.

Gunfire was heard as the crowd went from the arena to Times Square, police said. No injuries were reported. Twenty-one people, mostly teenagers, were arrested, police said. Some were charged with disorderly conduct or resisting arrest and one was arrested on a riot charge.

A 17-year-old male was arrested at a subway station on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. He was not the one who fired the shots, police said.

A WCBS-TV camera crew inside the arena caught images of fights breaking out in the stands, including a girl slapping a boy, who in turn hit her. Other boys then jumped him, and police intervened.

The news video also showed police swinging batons at someone who cannot be seen, and the station reported that they were hitting a fan. The police said the incident was under investigation, but had no further comment on the footage.

After the crowd spilled into the streets surrounding the arena, police used crowd control tactics, including officers on horseback and in riot gear. Several fights broke out in nearby subways.

The Public Schools Athletic League's AA division city championship high school basketball game was between Brooklyn rivals Lincoln and Boys & Girls.

The fights started in the third quarter, distracting and displacing many in the crowd of thousands, the New York Times reported Monday. Lincoln won 77-50.

Youth Rugby Arrives

2007-03-09T08:09:00.000-05:00

Finally, my dream of high school rugby in the Capital District, which began with the creation of the Ballston Spa High School Rugby Club in the Fall of 2000, has taken a major step forward with the help of Alex Eves of the Saratoga Stampede and Rob Selinski of the Albnay Knicks.

Starting this spring, there will be four teams for boys and two for girls who wish to compete in FULL CONTACT rugby. While many of the details are still in the works, it is slated to run from April to June, with teams being made up of high school aged students (U-19) from each of the four major counties for the boys and a North/South team for the girls.

For more information, please visit The Capital District Youth Rugby website and keep an eye out in your school for informational meeting times and dates. I will post them here when I get more information. For right now, the Saratoga County team will be coached/organized by Alex Eves and myself, with the potential for more staff to be brought in as this materializes.

To be eligible, you need to be of high school age and be a resident of the four counties in the Capital District.

School Violence is Still a Problem

2007-03-07T12:09:00.001-05:00

I decided that I am going to start posting links to school violence related incidents that I see, here, so it can hopefully keep people aware of how often it occurs and that safe schools, while important, seem to be impossible as presently configured. The latest:

Student shoots, kills self in high school band hall, police say

GREENVILLE, Texas — A Greenville High School student died Wednesday after apparently shooting himself in front of fellow students in the school band hall, police said.

According to a story in the online edition of the Greenville Herald-Banner, witnesses said the student entered the hall about 7:20 a.m. Wednesday and shot himself in front of several students.

Police officials have referred all requests for comment to the Greenville Independent School District. District spokesman Brad Press told the Herald-Banner that the school was in lockdown while the investigation continues. A call from The Associated Press wasn't immediately returned.

No other details nor the student's identity were available Wednesday.

Greenville is a city of about 26,000 residents about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Greenville High School has an enrollment of about 5,200 students.

Answer to the Cynic

2007-02-19T15:31:00.000-05:00

My buddy, and recent contributor to the ModyBlog, Jake passed along this story to defend teenagers from cynical critics of their stereotypical (and oft believed self-centered) behaviors:

Teen Rescues 3 From Icy N.Y. Creek
Feb 19, 6:44 AM (ET)

BELLMORE, N.Y. (AP) - Three young brothers who fell through ice into a frigid creek were rescued by a teenage neighbor who heard his mother's frightened screams for help, police said.

The brothers, ages 8, 10 and 16, were out walking around Sunday afternoon when they ventured onto the Bellmore Creek's icy surface, which gave way, plunging them into the water, Nassau County police said.

Area resident Maryann Rosati saw the boys in the water behind her home and yelled for help.

Her 18-year-old son, Thomas Rosati, a high school senior, heard her screams and ran outside to a dock on the creek while his mother called police. He pulled the three boys to safety before police arrived.

"They were like yelling, saying like they're going to die," he recalled. "And I was like, 'You're not going to die. Just grab my hand.'"

The three brothers were evaluated by members of the Bellmore Fire Department before they were released to their father at the scene, police said.

Am I really that cynical?

2007-01-29T23:51:00.000-05:00

So one of my favorite students of all time sent me a link to her blog and asked my opinion on what she posted. As she was of the first group of students to take my Human Struggle class, which was always controversial and massively based on opinion, perspective, and discussion, she noted, however, that we rarely talked direct politics and she was curious on my perspective, particularly on Barack Obama. Those in my American Experience class known how I feel about this fairly well as it was a topic of discussion for upwards of twenty minutes recently. But for those who don't, allow me post Lauren's blog and my response to it.

From Lauren:
Here's one last topic I want to cover before I end this. Once again, O&A this morning talking about how Obama will never be President. Anthony was saying that even though our cities (LA, NYC, Boston, San Fran, etc.) are very liberal and free-thinking, we don't understand how "outnumbered" we are by people that "use the 'n' word every time Obama comes on the screen." His argument was supported by the recent release of the music tours that made the most money in 2006. Aside from the Rolling Stones at #1, four out of the top 5 highest grossed tours were country singers -- Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, and Toby Keith, I think -- thus "proving" that there are more closed-minded Southerners than "we" think.

He went on to say that it would be "so easy" for the Democrats to win the 2008 election, since Bush has "screwed up so badly" this last term. Even some Republicans are going to be voting Democrat just because Bush is such a screw-up. All the Democrats need to do is "put any white guy out there as their candidate" and they have it in the bag. Any Democrat but a black man or a woman would win the Presidency.

I want opinions on this. Do people agree with him, and think Obama has no chance of winning?

I'm not completely sold either way. I hope and PRAY he has a chance, especially if the 18-24 year olds get out there and do their thing. Even a good Republican friend of mine said he would vote for Obama.

So -- even though he has my support -- what's the word? Does he even have a prayer of winning the Presidency?

I'd also like to point out that the radio guy commented on the amount of black Presidents on TV and in movies -- Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, Tommy Lister in The Fifth Element, Dennis Haysbert and now D.B. Woodside in 24 ... why is it acceptable for us on TV and in the movies, but not in real life?

I want some comments. What do YOU think?

And my response:

I am not sure that Obama is the answer...but I am cautiously optimistic about him as a person. Perhaps the great cynic in me has finally taken over after the last election. When a country votes Bush back into office, the temerity in which the American Voter saunters up to the election booth and picks a candidate without studying platform gives Barack little to no chance.

Recently, I played a clip of him speaking with Conan O'Brien that I found on YouTube. Before playing the clip, I asked students in a class called The American Experience, who would all being able to vote by the next election, if they would vote for a candidate named Barack Obama. Without hesitation, there were several scoffs and refusals. Some responded that there was no way that they American public would ever allow an Arab into office after 9/11. After ten minutes of discussion, one student asked what nation he was running for president of as she thought we were taking about Iraq. Another one noted that if you said his name backwards fast, he actually sounds like George Bush: Obama Barack (Go Bomba Iraq). Once again, my heart chilled that someone was being turned down because of nothing that had to do with leading a country.

The electoral college was originally put into place so the American aristocracy could ensure that, in their opinion, dumb farmers did not vote for the wrong person and make a grievous error by giving that person ultimate power over the country and in some ways, the world. Maybe now, more than ever, we should look at who is in the electoral college, because, be that as it may, and although it serves as nothing more than a rubber stamp, perhaps it is time the electoral college made a statement. It is becoming obvious that the American public would rather watch Salad Fingers or Diet Coke and Mentos on YouTube than make an informed choice for President.

I don't know if Obama is the answer. But I like his story and I like his message, thus far. To this point in time, he has my vote. We will see as his ideas for policy and plan come more to the surface, if he further earns my confidence. I will dare say that there are few others, perhaps John Edwards, who have any chance of getting my support.

I will end this by saying that I have never supported a candidate who has actually won (although I was a big fan of Ronnie, but I was only four when he was elected). Starting in the 6th grade (1988) I supported Jesse Jackson, 10th & 11th Grade (1992) was Ross Perot, in college (1996) I refused to vote as I cared for neither Clinton or Dole, when I started my job in 2000, it was Al Gore (primarily as a anti-Bush vote) and then Kerry in 2004 (see Al Gore).

So, Mr. Obama. Even though I am on your mailing list (through BarackObama.com), it appears that I have given you the Fredo Kiss of Death.

Not that the American Public will open its eyes long enough to give you much of chance. God, I hate being cynical.

Posted 1/29/2007 11:50 PM by Atticus Mody

Diggity Done

2007-01-26T16:14:00.000-05:00

After 37 hours of grading this week...

I am done with all works. If you wan to know a particular score, whether it be exam, portfolio, quarter or course grade, please e-mail me. Now, I am going to bed until Monday morning.

Its Grading Time...

2007-01-24T17:19:00.000-05:00

I know that some of you are chomping at the bit for grades, so here is where I am and the timetable that I have for finishing what is left. Drop an e-mail to me if you want to know what your grade for the quarter or on an exam/portfolio.

Completed Grading:

Quarter Two grades for all classes are done and entered
Midterm Exams for English 9 have been corrected
Final Exams for American Experience are done

Grading in Progress:

Course Portfolios for Writers' Workshop Green: Estimated Completion is 1/24/07 by 10:00 P.M.
Course Portfolios for Writers' Workshop Red: Estimated Completion is 1/25/07 by 10:00 P.M.

I will be in school all day today, Thursday and Friday, each day until at least 3:15 if there are any questions that require seeing me in person.