Letting the days go by...

Hallo! It's been a while since I've written here, so I hope you haven't lost interest. :-) Germany goes really well at the moment. Doing the teaching thing and generally living it up. Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) is in full swing so there's lots to do in the old part of town at the moment and everything is quite festively decorated. Around the apartment we have been doing advent's calenders which has also been a lot of fun.

The recent theme at work seems to be Wandertag. Wandertag is a day in which the class sets out to do something fun. The first one I was on went for a bike ride to a near by town called Lippe where we played soccer and bowled. My 9th graders ran circles around me on the field but it was definitely a good time. Tomorrow I'm heading to Cologne with the 11th graders to check out the Kölner Dom and the art of Gerhard Richter. Should be a good time.

We also recently celebrated my roommate Katrin's birthday at our place and had some people over. There was a lot of music and dancing and my roommates even drank enough courage to speak in English with me, which they all did very well.

Speaking of speaking English, my dear brother Jared will be coming from the other side of the world on Monday to visit me in Germany for the Holiday season! We're going to spend the first few days messing around here in Münster and the heading off to Bavaria and Austria to enjoy some mountains and snow. After which there will be a New Year's party here and the he's off to Italy all by is foreign lonesome self to eat spaghetti and drink espresso. More on all that later!

A group pic of the apartment from the party.


I guess that's about it for now. Bis bald!

Deutschland goes Spooooky!

Happy Belated Halloween from Germany! Turns out that Halloween is quite the trend here nowadays, so there was quite a bit of celebrating to do. My roomies had never carved pumpkins before, so I figured there was no time like the present. Hendrik and Crissi and I went to the big market and looked for some pumpkins. We didn't find much there but we did end up coming up with some good ones from a local store. We carved them on the Monday before Halloween and they held out till Friday. They all did a really good job and it was definitely a lot of fun.

On Halloween we went to a party. The people who live there had decorated their basement quite spookily and we all really enjoyed it. There was quite a bit of music and dancing and definitely a bunch of good costumes. I was impressed! It was nice that we all went out in a big group and everyone had a great time.

I made my radio debut last Tuesday. Two of my roommates work at the local campus radio station and they kindly invited me to come in and speak about Halloween. I, of course, also carved a pumpkin throughout the hour long show. My dad got a chance to listen in through the live stream online and I even had the chance to greet him on air. (from over 4,000 miles away!) Next week there will be an article in the Coesfeld newspaper about me. By the time I get back to the states, I'll be a celebrity...

We acquired two more roommates. Luckily these don't require the bathroom or refrigerator space. They're names are Clarence and Mr. Brown, two baby box turtles that Carsten got from his girlfriend's mother who seems to have a little turtle farm. They're really cool, even though they don't do much and what they do do is always done very, very slowly.

And now some pictures.

Four of the five roomies carving their first pumpkins in our kitchen. Hendrik, Cristina, Carsten and Katrin. (Left to right)


This is about half way through. (Carsten and Crissi)


The punpkins! I think they looked pretty good and my roomies were very proud of themselves.

Group photo before we headed to the party.


Our newest roomie Hendrik and myself at the Halloween party.



Katrin and Hannah! Katrin was an Italian widow and Hannah was her husband who "passed away". What a gold digger.


Katrin and myself at the party yet again.


A German delicacy.


It's been a while since I've published a list so here goes.

10 reasons to come to Germany

1. Open air markets on Saturday morning.
2. To acquire a new respect for cleanliness and organization.
3. Ocean, Hills, Mountains. In a descending southward order.
4. Driving your car as fast as it will go.
5. To learn about recycling.
6. Bread and Beer!
7. It's full of Germans!
8. A history that predates the written word.
9. I live here.
10. More kinds of sweets, candies and chocolates than you can imagine.

That's it for now. Bis bald!

Schön!

Hi all. Hope everything is going well across the pond or where ever in the world you may be. Things here in Germany are going pretty well. Just doing the school thing and taking care of business. I've started teaching classes now which has been a lot of fun. The kids seem pretty interested and I'm doing a variety of topics in many different classes. At the moment we're learning about the American Dream in my 12th year class. It's harder to teach than I thought it would be because it is so varied and changes from generation to generation. Definitely encouraged me to form some new ideas about immigrants in America.

A room in my apartment was renovated last week and we now have a 6th roommate. It's a little crowded but we're rarely all in the apartment at the same time so it seems to work. The newbie is Hendrik and he's just as interested in languages as I am which makes from some good nerdy linguist conversation.

I'm trying to find a class at the university that I can take in the evening which will fit my schedule. Also thinking about working part time as a tutor to make some extra money on the side. Last Sunday was beautiful so I decided to jump on my bike and get lots of pictures of Münster. Here are just a few. Hope you guys enjoy them and I'll be writing again soon.

This is my school in Coesfeld. There are about 800 students so it's pretty big.



This is where I live. My room is the one on the fourth floor, single window, opened slightly at the top. Can you see me?


This is the Promenade, also known as the Bicycle-Autobahn. It circles around the old part of the city and you usually have right of way on it so it's a great way to get around the town. Very pretty in the Fall.


This is Lake Aa. (Yes, just two A's. Pronounced like the A in "Amen") It's not really big enough to be called a lake but a little too big to be called a pond, so I guess they aimed high. It runs pretty far into the city and is a great place for running, cycling, strolling and BBQing.


This is the University. It's in a big palace that some sort of royalty used to own. I think it looks pretty cool and believe it or not they have buckeye trees in front of it! (not pictured) Behind it there's a botanical garden and a restaurant.


Call me childish but I think this is really funny.


This is the Stadtturm and Prinzipalmarkt (City Tower and Prinzipal Market) They're pretty much in the middle of the city. Very old and medieval looking.

Mind the Gap II

The sunset on Brighton Beach. The structure standing in the ocean next to the sun was a pier. It burned down about 8 years ago.

A picture of one of the main streets in The Lanes, a district of Brighton with VERY narrow streets. Many of them are too narrow for three people to walk side by side in.


London skyline. The funny looking tall building is the Gherkin, which I found to be particularly interesting.


Kamila and I. Kamila spent a year studying at OU. I stayed with her in London.


This is the Notting Hill market. It's a bit like a flee market that takes place every Saturday. Lots of good stuff though.


That's it for now. Hope everyone is well.

Mind the Gap

This blog originate from sunny (sort of) England! I had two weeks of vacations so I decided to jump a cheap flight to the UK and see what's going on over here. I spent the first three days or so in Brighton with my friend Emrys from OU. He has a great place and the town was unbelievably entertaining. It's roughly the same size as Münster and is down on the southern coast right on the Channel. It's also a university town and there were lots of students out who had just arrived for the fall semester.

After three days in Brighton I was off to London! London is just simply amazing. It's so unbelievably HUGE! There's so much to see and do here that you can't possibly appreciate it all in a week. I'm staying with a friend of mine named Kamila who I met at OU when she was studying abroad there. She and her boyfriend, Carl, live in a borough called Herne Hill which is just south of the river. Only about a 10 minute train ride to the middle of the city which has been very convenient. I've visited lots of the interesting landmarks like Tower Bridge, the Tate, Camden street and Parliament. Kamila and Carl have been working all week so there hasn't been lots of time to hang out together but this weekend I think we'll be hitting the town.

I took lots of pictures of Brighton and London. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post them until I return from England because my internet connection doesn't seem to be strong enough. So, you'll see them as soon as I make it back to Deutschland.

Time for a new list.

Nuances of the British Accent

1. Most questions end in "then". Shall we take the Bus then? Were they Americans then?
2. The subway is the Underground or the Tube. If you ask where the subway is, they'll send you to a sandwich shop.
3. Fries are Chips. Chips are Crisps.
4. Cheers is the most useful of phrases. Cheers = Thanks, Cool, Good lookin out, Bye, See you later, etc. When in doubt use this word, you'll seem polite and friendly.
5. You alright? and You ok? are not used to figure out if something is wrong with you. Only to figure out how you're doing.
6. Bathrooms and Restrooms don't exist. They're all Loos or Laves.
7. Here I thought I was putting trash in the trash can, when I was actually putting rubbish in the rubbish bin. My bad.
8. It's always acceptable to swear.
9. Cigarettes are called fags. So if someone says that the room smells of fags, they're not being homophobic.
10. Mind the gap means watch out for that small space between the train and the platform. Very important.

First Day

Ich bin endlich angekommen!
(I have finally arrived)

Here I am finally in Münster, Germany! The flight went pretty well for the most part, however the good people at STA Travel Company saw fit to give me just an hour and fifteen minutes in London and I made it to my flight with just five minutes to spare. My suitcases were really heavy and lets just say that the charming cobble stone streets of Münster were not designed with rolling suit cases in mind. I made it, however, and in one piece!

My roommates were kind of scattered around the country when I got here but one was present for a little meet and greet. His name is Andreas and he seems like a cool guy. He took me to my first party in Germany on Friday. It was out in the country a bit so we road our bikes. Good times. The others are filtering in slowly but surely. We also have a girl from Spain named Maria (of course) that's living in the house temporarily so I've had the chance to go out with her and practice my Spanish a bit.


Münster! What a beautiful town. Things seem very laid back here. It's a university town of about 300,000 and 60,000 of them are students. There's a lot to do and see here so I think I'll be busy for a while. Münster is the "bike city" of Germany and you can get absolutely every where on a bike with special pathes and lanes that run through all the streets. The people at my school have been nice enough to organize a bike, and a bunch of furniture as well, for me.



I had my first day of school yesterday. The school is kind of far away which isn't so awesome but I think I'm going to be able to enroll in the university, which grants me a free semester ticket which I can use to ride regional trains for free. The ride is about 35 minutes.

I had my orientation meeting for three days outside of Cologne in an old cloister which is pictured above. It's called Altenberg. It was very peaceful there and it was weird to suddenly here so many American voices again. The seminars were intense and long but we made it through and definitely helped me.

I've decided to steal an idea from my friend and old roomie Marna. She made one or two lists on her blog and I've decided to include them in mine from time to time. Lists will be written in no particular order. So first list, here goes:

10 things that I miss about America.

1. Sunny warm weather.
2. Cheez-its and milk.
3. Having a basement to hide out in.
4. A big yellow house in Athens, OH.
5. Cheap clothing.
6. Campfires.
7. Mexican Food.
8. Eating on the back porch with mom and dad.
9. Forgiveness for arriving 4 minutes late.
10. Wide streets.

That's it for now.

Tschüß alle, wir sehen uns bestimmt bald wieder.

Predeparture

Hi all. This is my new blog! I'll be using it to chronicle my adventures in Europe over the next 11 months or so. I'm going to try to keep it updated as regularly as possible.

Feel free to pass this along to anyone who you think might be interested. My first "real" entry will be shortly after I get to Germany.

Man sieht sich!

-Brenton