Mid-March Madness

We had one normal work week at Gymnasium Melle after the first week of March Madness... that title seemed appropriate for this month. Alex and I were with new classes until the end of the year, with the exception of Ingmar's 8th graders and Klaus's 10th graders for me. The only group I'm having a difficult time with so far is Matthias's 10th graders. They're one of those classes that collectively don't care about the lesson, and are therefore deliberately obtuse. It's like pulling teeth to make them talk. Matthias doesn't do much better than me, so I'm trying not to take it to heart.

Theater provided some laughs on Friday. One of the scenes includes the word “vinegar,” and the kids absolutely butchered the word. The younger girl in the scene said it like “manger” with a V in front. For whatever reason, she couldn't stop saying it like that. It will forever be the “vanger” scene in my head, now. As for the other kids in the scene, they made a more common mistake. Many Germans pronounce their V's like W's, so we hear that our kids like to “wisit” places and play “wideo” games quite often. Well, they also use “winegar” now. Old habits seem to die hard... we had them repeat the correct way to say vinegar after us several times, so hopefully that will do the trick. It's bound to stick eventually.

One family down, one to go. Our next destination is Berlin, where we will meet Alex's parents and sister, Kayla, after his Fulbright conference. We have more luggage than usual because we were staying longer than our usual getaways. We each brought two bags filled with clothes for the conference and part of his parents’ trip. We leave tomorrow, and luckily, we wouldn't miss any school because the students will be on Easter holidays for the next two weeks. Yes, Easter “holidays.” If you asked them what they were doing over “break,” they would think you were referring to one of their 15 minute breaks between classes. Funny how that works. My only class who responded well to my “break” question was 8L1. I think they're learning the most from me since I've been with them all year so far.