16. September 2010--Altenberg and Hoping the Sun will Come Back

We couldn't even fit all of the Kölner Dom in the picture
of all of me for that matter. . .

Ive just finished me first week after the three day training session outside of Köln which lasted from Sept 6. through Sept 9.  We learned many things about what we were supposed to do this coming year, a bunch about bureaucracy (which royally stinks to deal with b-t-dubs), the German school system, and most importantly I discovered that coffee gives me strength and confidence.  Its a lot easier to speak German after a cup of it! I think one of the most important things about it was meeting other fulbrighters in Dresden, Saxony as a whole, and throughout Germany.  It was quite a pleasant splash of cold water over my face to go from hearing practically only German to standing in the middle of a chattering crowd of 160 American, British (20), Australian (3), and New Zealander (1) Fremdsprachenassistants.  Luckily, I was able to break into the English-speaking world by meeting up with the other UP Fulbrighters the night before training in Köln.  I reveled in being able to speak English, share travel stories (Liz and Allison by far outshine my own, having been on the continent doing exciting things for weeks), and catch up. 

This is the Cathedral at Altenberg.  The complex is a former
monastery that is now shared by the Catholic and
Evangelical Churches. About 30min outside of Köln it
was pretty much all by itself. Over the wall to the right
is a cow pasture. .

The four of us (Liz, Allison, Sarah, and me) shared a few drinks and went out in search of Turkish Kebabs that evening.  It was definitely a sweet and glorious moment having a Kebab again. . Im pretty sure that they are going to be my downfall at some point.  A Turkish Kebab requires the server to slice meat (usually chicken) off a rotating 2.5ft stacked slab of meat.  Sarah and I shuffled giddily waiting for our Kebabs and were content for the day thereafter. 

The next morning we headed to the Kölner Dom after grabbing breakfast and sat at a coffee shop trying to peg who other fulbrighers were.  With somewhat dubious success we finally pegged a girl sitting next to us as a fellow assistant.  Picking out Americans is a not so delicate process of eyeing their shoes suspiciously.  Running shoes are pretty much a dead giveaway. . also certain backpacks are certainly red flag markers.  Comments varied from "He's for sure American, look at those kicks" to "if he's a Fulbrigher I call dibs" and falling to the point of something like, "look at his gate, he even walks like an American." Four hours at a train station is never a good sign.

This is my bed (top bunk) at training. . nice view of the
Cathedral out the window along with the 30min long
alarm clock (bells) at 6:30

The training was busy at its worst and lively and fun at its best.  They even opened an impromptu "bar" in the evenings after the sessions.  Meeting so many new people is exciting, most of all when there are set conversations to fall into because we all shared the same upcoming experience.  Even having similar conversations gets exhausting though. I found myself gravitating toward the people I knew or had previously met after a little while.  The German hosts of the conference were extremely nice and often had a funny dry sense of humor which kept even the bureaucracy from grating our collective patience too raw.

After the conference I was able to travel back with Sarah and we ran into another Fulbrighter during our train change to travel the rest of the way with.  Traveling with people really is much more splendid than alone. I'll post something else in the coming days about my first week.  I want to get some pictures of the school/Dresden first.  :)