The Sweetest Goodbyes and Hellos

Yesterday was the 10^th graders last day of school and will all complete internships for the remaining two weeks. Klaus invited Alex and me to his class to say goodbye to everyone. They prepared cakes for us and a poster with their faces and quotes on it which I fully intend on hanging up in our future home! It was really nice. Of course, we didn’t show up empty-handed. I made my famous Oreo truffles, and it was an instant hit. Sûphan emailed me for the recipe, and I received many compliments on my cooking abilities. Little do they know, it’s the easiest dessert in the world to make! The students asked Alex and I their final questions, and they all thanked us for having such great conversations with them all year. They probably don’t realize it, but I gained just as much from these lessons as they did.

Today, I was with Silke’s 6^th graders instead of 8L1. They all prepared questions for me beforehand, and had their dictionaries out on their desks all period. Each question was simple since they are so young, but I think it was good for them to talk to a native English speaker. They were curious if I knew any German, so I threw a few phrases at them. It’s been a while since I practiced, but they all knocked for my performance, so it couldn’t have been that bad. At the end of the lesson, we said some tongue twisters. I had them say “red leather, yellow leather” and “New York’s unique, unique New York” three times fast. It was a challenge for all of them, but they were having a great time trying to say it. They had me attempt a German tongue twister… and that was ugly. It was “Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid.” I could barely say it once!

Alex and I showed Heavyweights instead of The Breakfast Club at our first American Film Group meeting because my DVD wasn’t working. It almost felt immoral eating treats during this particular movie, but the kids still put a big dent in the snacks we bought them. They loved the German character, Lars, in the movie. I’m not sure what we will show for the next viewing, but we’re going to try and have subtitles.