The Brighter Side

Today was, all in all, a pretty good day.  After a seemingly rocky start with less than thrilling English lessons, it was nice to find that the rest of my day actually turned out pretty great.  I had a short midday break to catch up on some news around the world and eat a quick lunch before running back to school.  Every Tuesday for the past month or so I've been helping out with an extra English lesson at the request of Bernhard, the teacher I lived with for a week or so in September.

Every year Bernhard organizes a trip to for some of the vocational students to travel to Houston, Texas for three weeks and take a few classes at a technical school.  This extra class has really become a highlight of my week.  The eleven students taking part in the exchange this year are genuinely some of the nicest people I've met here, and while their English is definitely not up to par with the upper level Fachgymnasium classes I teach (a Gymnasium is an advanced high school for university-bound students), they make it for it with enthusiasm and willingness.  I've found that sometimes the problem with gifted or advanced students is that they are sometimes too afraid to volunteer in class at the risk of saying something wrong or "dumb."  Bernhard's group is almost fearless in their desire to talk to me in English, and I'm actually somewhat jealous of their unabashed attitude.

After leaving school for the second time today and in much higher spirits, I enjoyed a very serene walk to the university campus, and was able to bask in the rarely seen (as of late) sun.  After three consecutive days of snow, I think today marked the beginning of the (very) slow beginning of spring.  The optimist in me is finally showing up this winter!  Now let's just hope these next few days of sun will take care of this lingering snow.  After briefly walking around a physics workshop and poster session I happened upon and spending a few minutes in the International Admissions Office, I started walking home with an extra bounce in my step in a piece of paper in my hand confirming my official enrollment at the Leibniz Universität Hannover!

To top off an already great day, I cooked a great dinner, if I do say so myself!, of chicken tikka masala, shared a bottle of equally great red wine with my roommate and did a bit of trip planning for my upcoming school break (Osterferien or Easter break).  Details to follow soon!

Last but not least, I finally took a picture I had been meaning to take for months now.  The VW-Tower in Hannover was actually built by the Deutsche Bundespost in 1959, but it was taken over by VW in 2000.  The VW-Tower is actually pretty fitting for Hannover, since VW is one of the largest employers in the region.  Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, a brand of the VW Group, is actually headquartered in Hannover and employs about 15,000 people in the Hannover region.