A Few Days Full of Surprises

I have survived my first few days in Germany. Not that there was any real doubt whether I would survive or not, but it was definitely a trying period. The odd thing about a transatlantic travel day is how that one day stretches out into a grueling 36-hour fight against jet lag and fatigue. When I met my host teacher Martina in the Hannover Hauptbahnhof, she surprised me with the news that I had to go straight to the school with her since she was in the middle of a class. Most of the day seemed a bit surreal including the two classes I sat in (after introducing myself, of course) and my meeting with the Schulleiter. I finally made it to my temporary home in Berenbostel (a suburb of Hannover) where I would be staying with another teacher at the Otto Brenner Schule named Bernhard and his "Partner" (not to be confused with wife) Dagmar.


I'm still trying to get into the German language mindset--right now I feel so sluggish and out of practice. I'm staying in a hostel in Köln right now, before orientation, and I woke up this morning to someone getting ready at about 6:00 am. When I turned in bed and squinted my eyes to see what the commotion was all about there was an old German dude putting on his biking pants for the Kölner Triathlon and a loud greeting of "Morgen!" that was on a level of enthusiam too high for me to deal with that early in the morning. I grunted, turned over and went back to bed--how's that for rude American tourists?


All in all I think it's going to be an interesting year. I'm already starting to see how uncomfortable I can be sometimes in such an isolating situation, and I think the key for me to have a great year instead of only a good one is to overcome that barrier. Well see how that goes.


-Hankins in Hannover