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jenAisforlovers
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read my profile
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Birthday: 9/28/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: Let's see: BOOKS, I love BOOKS. Art, foreign languages, I love those too. Travelling, awesome dogs named BELLA, decoupage, retractable permanent markers in all kinds of colors, music, DANCING, sleeping, swimming, horseback riding, walks on the beach, walks in the mountains, escalators, MOVIES, and Whose Line is it Anyway?
Expertise: I can wiggle my ears. It's all self-discipline, guys. You too, can achieve greatness.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Art
Message: message me
Member Since:
1/27/2005
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| There are times in one's life when one is fighting the urge to go to bed at 8:51 at night, so they decide to come back to an old blog and see what's up...which would be nothing. However, I like telling stories to Cyberspace.
Dear Cyberspace,
I have been there and back, so now I have moved upward (my very first j-o-b.) I'm working at a high school with my friend Sara. She just started working there laaaaaaast Nov, I think? The other art teacher there put in her 20 years and retired, but our school system has a weird semester schedule, so the first semester leaks over for two weeks after Chrismas break. Mrs. Retiree (not her real name) didn't want to come back for those two weeks after tasting freedom for a month, and so I have a job. And the other teacher in my department is my friend, who without her, I would have definitely been screwed on my first few days. Luckily, she's right next door to my classroom.
I interviewed two days before their Xmas break and started a day after. I made a PowerPoint about myself and drank lots of coffee and had lots of nervousness, so in my first period class, I had a hard time breathing and talking at the same time b/c my nerves were taking up so much space that my lungs could not expand properly. I was hoping the students wouldn't notice, but I saw some concerned looks so I just blurted, "I'M NERVOUS AND EXCITED AND I HAD TOO MUCH COFFEE!" And it totally worked! My nerves flew out with the outburst and the students gave me reassuring smiles b/c believe it or not, high school kids are actually really nice--they're not all angry and disengaged! And so I finished my presentation and no one had questions, so they continued to work on the stuff that Mrs. Retiree had given them...which is pretty much what I've done for the last two weeks. Supervise all of her classes while they keep working on stuff she gave them. And I am going to miss those students! I've only known them for two weeks, but dang! I won't see them again next semester b/c my school is on block scheduling so I'll have all new classes...week after next? I'm still not quite clear on that.
So, here I am. Ms. B, art teacher extraordinaire! I like my job a lot. I hope I like it when I actually start teaching and have to be an authority figure. Right now, I am super cool teacher replacing strict scary teacher, so we're kind of buddy-buddy in my second period class. We were a bit like that in my third period class, but they're 9th graders so it was pretty easy to separate myself from them and keep them on task once they got over telling me about how horribly they suffered under the previous regime. I totally milked it, too. Won't be able to do that next semester cuz they won't've had scary strict teacher to be freed from. I'll be teaching two Art 1s and one Art 2. Woo, I'm excited. And anxious to get started on my own plans...
Talk to you later, Cyberspace. I'm going to bed!
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| So, we have moved in to our dorms in Ludwigsburg and I have not seen
much of my room ever since, what with all of the activities that the
international office has planned for us. For the past week we have
walked this way and that, drank this way and that, and walked this way
and that again. It's a German thang.
One of the activities we did this week was to go on a 'rally', which is
a scavenger hunt. We had to work in teams to find the answers to
questions about Ludwigsburg and the winners received a prize. We left
at 10am and arrived back to campus at 3:45pm. Long day. Another day we
went to Stuttgart to a Long Night at the Museums, which is where you
pay 14€ and zou can go to any museum from 7pm to 2am. It was pretteh
nifteh. We went to the modern art museum and saw plenty of work by Otto
Dix. Good painter. Then we went to a castle and saw oodles of
altarpieces and delicate clocks from the year 1600 AD, which were also
really neat.
I think the coolest thing we have done so far is tour the palace at
Ludwigsburg (Ludwigsburg Schloss), which is the biggest palace in
Europe after Versailles. Wow. It was cool. We saw how the monarchs
lived--disgustingly privileged--and then we saw how the little guys
lived--horribly humble. Interesting fact: one of the descendents of the
monarch who built Ludwigsburg had 300 bastard sons! How many daughters,
you say? They didn't keep track. One of the bastards (meaning one of
the sons born out of wedlock, not one of the assholes) had to put a red
line through his family shield to show that he was a bastard. They
weren't kidding around about legitimate heirs and such. Poor guy had to
display his bastardy at all of the hunters' meetings. Speaking of
hunting, hunting for the king went like this: for weeks, some farmers
catch about 800-900 animals, then feed them and protect them.
Meanwhile, a big fence is built, along with a tent. When the time is
right, the king comes out to the hunting area where the 800-900 animals
are well-fed and hanging out...then shoots them. Sometimes he brings
his friends...and sometimes he allows those friends to dress him.
Apparently it was a great honor to be the one to hand the king his
night shirt. It was a really interesting tour. During the Black Plague,
doctors did not think washing with water was a good idea, so the people
wore perfume instead. They only bathed once a month, the tourguide
said. We even got to smell some of the perfumes they would wear, which
actually smelled like the oils that zou can get at places where thez
sell incense and stuff, like that store in the mall that has all of the
tribal stuff...I can't remember the name.
Between rallies and tours, we have also been taking German classes,
which are really helpful. Every German-speaking person I meet, I tell
them my name, age, hobbies, pets, where I live, that I have one
brother, and what my parents' names are. Because that's
all I can say besides, 'still water' and 'Sprechen Sie English?' Gotta
go. | | |
| (German keyboards have the Z and the Y keys switched, so if zou see a
Z, I mean Y, unless I actuallz remember to switch them when I am
tzping, which I am not having much luck doing!)
SO:
I am across the pond in another country for the first time in my life
and I am starting to get over my disbelief that I am actually here.
While I was on the plane, I kept thinking, I am on a plane to Europe, I
am on a plane to Europe. And then we actually arrived and I got a stamp
in my passport that says FRANKFURT, GERMANY! We settled into our hostel
and ate at a fish and wine restaurant before going back to the hostel
and crashing for five hours. We got up at 6pm German time, 1pm USA time
and went out and about. We had authentic German food for dinner,
bratwurst (sausage), schnitzel (pork), and pork chops and apfelweine
(apple wine, native to Frankfurt, it sounds better than it tastes--too
sour!) and then we went to a rooftop bar for afterdinner drinks.
Kendall and I both got caipis, which is an alcoholic drink made with
lime liquor, brown sugar, and some other things. Genea got a Mai Tai.
Both of those drinks sound harmless, but apparently one German drink=4
American ones. We were toasted halfway through our horrible tasting
drinks that we HAD to drink because they cost 8€ ( about $12-$14 I
think) and having a smashing good time as a result. All the Germans in
the bar were having these quiet, subdued conversations and we were
laughing our heads off because my head looked so much bigger than Genea
and Kendall's in the photo I took. Genea said she felt 'bulletproof and
ten feet tall.' :D
Anywho! We went to a club that had great music. They did a reallz cool
mix of 'Billy Jean' by Michael Jackson among other mixes that were
pretty awesome. Then we went to an Irish pub, which was one of manz
that thez have here, where they had karaoke and we talked with some
Germans about good cities to go to (Cologne, Hamburg).
The next day we walked around to the 'walking street' where no cars are
allowed to drive. All kinds of stores were there. We also went to the
modern art museum, a cathedral, and to Old Towne, where we went to
about three bars and met some Germans, a Croatian, some Swedes, and a
Welsh dude. One in four people in Frankfurt are foreign, so that's why
we were able to met so manz people from so many different places.
On Sunday, we walked around the whole city it seemed like, from the Red
Light District (which is where our hostel turned out to be, by the way)
to the walking street to the Jewish Museum, and to the Main River. The
Jewish Museum is bz the oldest Jewish cemetarz in Germanz, I think. It
was almost destroyed during WWII, but now there is a wall around it
with blocks that have the name, birth and death date, and concentration
camp where they died, of Jews born in Frankfurt who died during the
Holocaust. You could put stones on the blocks, which is a Jewish
tradition: you put a stone on a grave to show that it has been tended
and the person remembered. I wanted to put stones on all of the blocks.
I felt something like panic. I felt that I had to put a stone on all of
them, and read every name. It was horrible. I saw a 5 zear old, a 10
zear old and a 12 zear old. Lots of 20 zear olds. Seeing all of them at
once and seeing how young some of them were, that they were denied
their full life span was...sobering? Not sure what word to put.
The Germans as a people are so nice and I talked to Helen (my German
friend I went to NYC/DC with) about the Holocaust and she said that the
German people were just trying to survive and went along with the crowd
because if you did anzthing different or something that could be
perceived as different, zou could be shot or killed whether zou were a
Jew or not...I am not sure how to comment about this because obviouslz
I can pass judgement now, 50 zears later and safe from a powerful
speaker and a mob mentality. At the same time, it does show that it
could happen to anyone. If it comes to protecting your family, it shows
what horrible things people will do to survive.
Change of subject:
Mondaz we moved in to our dorms in Ludwigsburg, Germany. I have a
private room, but share a bath with my suitemates. Huge kitchen area.
AUGH! The grocery store! So confusing! I did not recogniye anzthing
except for apples! The milk? Not refrigerated! The water? Bubbly! It's
not refreshing! (that's a Kendall quote.) So far, we have met most of
the other international students. We are reallz fortunate that so manz
students from our school came here because manz students are the sole student
from their universitz, which is verz lonelz, of course. Of the
students, we have an Aussie, Americans, Hungarians, Bulgarians,
Chinese, Japanese, Lithuanians, French, Romanian, annnnnd others? I am out of
time, but I am thoroughlz glad that I came and am loving the whole
experience. YAY! Thanks to everzone for the kind wishes! Tchüss! (Bye!) | | |
| Oh, xanga. Sweet, sweet xanga. Well, it's 2008. I had a great break and I'm now back at school, which is not really a problem since I'm only in one class until April. The professor of the one other class I needed wouldn't take me since I'm leaving in the middle of the semester. She said I would be in the middle of my research study when I left for Germany and that it would be best to wait and take the class later. No problemo. I'm unofficially taking an undergraduate course, but that's a secret. Shhhh... Anywho, I've been thinking about this for awhile: I've been on this blog for about three years. I think I agree with my friend Elijah that it's time to move on from xanga. It started as a way to keep in touch with my friends who lived far away from me at different schools. But now all those friends have moved on to other electronic means of keeping the line open, i.e. facebook, of which I am also a member. I may change my mind later, but I think I'm done posting here. I didn't want to just abandon my blog without saying anything because I have thoroughly enjoyed posting and reading other people's posts. But now other people's posts are few and far between. I can always read my own, but even my narcissism wears thin after awhile. And so, I bid farewell. I may post here again once I'm in Germany, but for now, it's radio silence. Over and out.  | | |
| Christmas Break has been la ti da so fa(r). *laughs enthusiastically at own brilliance* I've just been doing what I wanna do, which has consisted mainly of hanging--by myself, with my fam, and Pattie and Sara on Saturdays. Tonight my bro and I hung with Pattie, Sara, and Justin, and we played the Telephone Pictionary Game and watched "The Dark Crystal", which I didn't pay much attention to but was very impressed by the creatures and puppets. Anywho, we played two rounds of PhonePic and my first sentence was "Bend over and I'll show ya." (It's the answer to everything: How do I get to the Quizno's off All-American? Bend over and I'll show ya. My bro picked it up from an old co-worker.) So, it went like this: Bend over and I'll show ya--picture--A young man farts on the globalization of mankind--picture--Could my farts blast me into space? I wishwishwish I had picked those up before we left! I would totally scan them and post them because they were that good. Then, my second sentence was "Free Willy!" It went like this: Free Willy--picture--Good vacation ideas are posted on many signs.--picture--I fell asleep at the wheel and hit a deer. We were all so tired from laughing so hard, all of us didn't play a second time. Sara and I played, but it doesn't really work with two people. But before we got to Pattie and Sara's, my bro and I listened to "Beat it" by Michael Jackson on the way. While we were listening to the song, I was trying to do the dance and Jacob said, "No, no, like this." And proceeded to show me a shoulder move from the video. So for the rest of the ride to Quizno's we did the shoulder move from "Beat it." Later, we were standing in the parking lot and he was telling me that in the Chapel Hill area they have ads for dance studios that teach all types of dance like hip hop, Latin, ballroom, blah blah. And the amusing quotes are: Me: They should have Michael Jackson dance classes.
Bro: Yeah, they should.
Me: (passionately) I would take a Michael Jackson dance class! He asked if I still posted on xanga and that the previous should go on as amusing quotes. So, there they are, for Jacob.  Merry Christmas, all! | | |
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