Big Week O' Fun

Big week coming up...driving to Paris to see Jimmy Buffett Saturday with our friends Mike and Nicolette. Driving back Sunday morning to hang out with Ks dad. Then I'm off to chaperone a week-long field trip to the German Alps (near a town called Oberstauffen). 50 eighth graders and six teachers in the woods going on excursions for a week. I'm pretty stoked.
THEN, upon return from the field trip, I'm hopping in the car and driving to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest with the Bavarians and our friends Jen and Seth, who are visiting from PA.

It's gonna be a fun-filled nine days...

Some days you're the bug

Holy cow did I get a wake up call today. After 3 weeks of absolute bliss, working with polite and motivated students all day every day, lessons going smoothly, a total lack of math teaching experience not holding me back, I finally had it. My first terrible math lesson.

Now, I've had plenty of terrible social studies lessons, but while social studies is about content and concepts, math is all about skills. Every day, I introduce a skill, show an example or two, the kids do some problems to learn the skill, then they do some more for homework to practice the skill. Next day, same drill. Seems easy, right?

It's not. With three levels of students working from three different math textbooks in each class, it can get very hectic very quickly. Last week things were going smoothly. Today, it all fell apart. My sixth graders are working on sequences and introductory algebraic concepts, and I'm pretty sure I managed to undo everything they've learned in one period today. Not quite sure where it all went wrong, but suffice it to say, it doesn't look like they'll be ready for Thursday's scheduled test...oh well. Tomorrow's another day. Maybe I'll go back to being the windshield again...

Back to Reality...

and loving it.

After seven months of hiking, biking, swimming, reading, traveling and enjoying all the beauty Switzerland has to offer, I headed back to work in mid-August, as a math teacher at the International School of Zug and Luzern (www.iszl.ch). So far, so good, as my sixth and seventh graders are hard working and eager to learn (despite the photo on the right showing desks delivered on the first day of school...). More on the kids later.
A lot has happened since my last post on July 21, so here's a review:

• One of my former Tamanend students and her family visited on July 23. We had a wonderful time touring Zurich for the day, sampling chocolates, taking a boat ride, and just enjoying the sites. Easily one of the coolest experiences of my teaching career.
• On July 24, I headed back to PA for the first time since moving to Switzerland. GREAT trip. Golfed with family and friends, caught up with old TMS colleagues, had a bball team reunion at Thunderbird Lanes in Warminster, golfed some more, headed to Avalon for a few fun and relaxing beach days, caught a Phillies game, and golfed a bit more.
• After a jam-packed US trip, I arrived back in Switzerland on Sunday, August 10, just one day before starting my new job at ISZL. Snuck in a quick game of touch football Sunday night before my first day...

And since then, my life's been filled with 6th and 7th grade math, half marathon training, soccer matches, student council, and the MYP (middle years program) terminology used at my new school. Fun times.

Schwierige Situationen

So Saturday night my friend Daniel (from Starbucks) invited me to his birthday bbq along Zurichsee. Nice little pool house and lake access, complete with beautiful views of the lake and alps. We went for a quick swim early in the evening before enjoying some Sangria and grilled meat, and a nice night of conversation. There were about 10-15 people there, all very nice friends of Daniel from various places in and around Zurich. The fun part of the night, was the fact that of his 15+ friends, only one was a native English-speaker (a huge guy named Joel from the West Indies, who recently finished his career in NFL Europe, playing linebacker for the Barcelona Dragons and the team from Frankfurt, Germany). So the other guests, while all fluent in English, were carrying on their conversations in mostly Swiss German and High German, with a little Italian mixed in for good measure. Well, after my 2nd or 3rd Sangria, I decided to give my German a whirl, and I started chatting up one of the partygoers. Tasha was a Zurich native, and she was very nice in conversing with me in high German, helping me out a bit along the way. After the first conversation (in all German), I gained a ton of confidence, and got into a conversation with a nice guy named Fabian, who came from the Italian region of Switzerland, known as Ticino. Fabian was very friendly and very patient (with my German), and we ended up having a 45 minute conversation about jobs, politics, the environment and various other topics, totally in German. What a rush! Now, my German has been steadily improving over the past few months, but this was the first time I was immersed in all German speakers, and to my surprise, I was able to not only keep my head above water, but I was having some decently meaningful conversations! After a few more one-on-one conversations, I jumped into a group conversation about living in Switzerland. This proved to be much more difficult, as the pace of the conversation picked up, and the different dialects and accents became tough to decipher. Probably caught every other word in the conversation, but it was still a great experience. By 10:00pm, my head hurt from concentrating and translating for almost 4 hours (surly, the fruity drinks had nothing to do with my headache). I headed home having gained a few new friends and a newfound confidence in my second language skills.

A Long Bike Ride and Some Ancient Egypt

Another eventful week, as I continue to explore all Switzerland has to offer. Wednesday, in upper 20s temps (mid 80s F), I played another round of golf at Golfpark Holzhauzern, with my friend Scott. Started off playing well, but I couldn't keep it up through the whole round, as the high temps got to me during the last four holes. Still a decent round on a beautiful course. I'll play one more round before flying back to the US.
Thursday, Kristina flew back to Philadelphia for her friend Jocelyn's bachelorette party in AC. After getting her to the airport, I headed uptown to check out the Tutunkamen Exhibit, which is in town through September. Though it's a fascinating historical exhibit, I was expecting to see some real artifacts, but it was made up of replicas and photos, which were still very interesting. Overall, I'm glad I made the trip.

Since we first moved to Thalwil, I've wanted to bike round the Zurichsee. I'd been told it was about a 3.5 hour trip on a road bike, but I only have a mountain bike so I'd have to take it a bit slower. Yesterday I finally decided to make the trip. After packing a PB & J sandwich, some raisins, a water bottle and a book in my backpack, I set out on the road. After biking for about 2 hours through the towns of Ruschlikon, Kilchberg, Zurich, Kussnacht, Meilen, and Uffretikon, among others, I reached the beautiful lake town of Rapperswil. Here I decided to take a break for lunch and do some reading. I found a cozy bench along the lake and relaxed for about an hour. Then I headed off for the rest of my journey. Biking along the lake, I passed through the towns of Pfaffikon, Bach, Au, Richterswil, Wadenswil and Horgen, before arriving back in Thalwil about 5 hours after I had left. What an awesome trip. The tired legs are totally worth it. Can't wait to do it again soon.

Dan's Visit Part II - Guest Blog

During his recent visit, my good friend Dan expressed interest in being a "guest blogger" on this site. As his writing abilities far exceed mine (you may have caught his recently published prize winning essay for "Delaware Today"), I gladly accepted his offer. Enjoy!

John and Kristina (with a "K"),

Please accept this email as my thank you note and guest blog post. I
am greatly appreciative for my time with both of you and the
graciousness with which you housed me for four to five days. Allow me
to recount the highlights of my trip:

July the 9th

I arrive in Switzerland by way of US AIR coach class service, ticket
prepaid. After clearing the efficient customs queue, I met John in
the airport greeting area. He was rocking out to his i-pod and seemed
happy with my arrival. We took the train from the airport to Thalwil,
during which ride John informed me that my trip would be none a
relaxing one, but instead an action-packed, physically grueling
adventure. Having only slept for a couple hours on the plane, I
declined to object.

A short while later we arrived in Thalwil, and after a quick pit stop,
were ready to head to Zurich. Not by car, nor train, as that would be
too safe, but instead by bike. I advised John that I hadn't ridden in
some time, knowing he was well aware that I lacked any athletic
ability or the sense of balance that appears to be inherent in
everyone else. John responded by suggesting we wear helmets, and off
we were. I cannot quite be sure what happened next, but a bike
accident involving me and a curb occurred. My right big toe, knee and
elbow will never be the same though I suspect I will lose the limp in
the near future.

After a quick pit stop and some makeshift first aid, we arrived in
Zurich and ate and drank like kings. At the cost of kings too -- John
was truthful in stating that food is expensive in Switzerland. It was
great to relax outside at Zurich pubs and catch up with a great friend
living half way around the world. After we were thoroughly fed, we
limped to the nearest train station and boarded the train, bikes and
all. That night we relaxed in Thalwil (after a quick swim in the lake
and a few games of ping pong), eating pizza and playing Trivial
Pursuit. Kristina joined us in the evening, exhausted from a lengthy
day at the Swiss office.

July the 10th

Determined to make me "play through the pain" of my bike accident
injuries, John and I set out for a mountain hike on the Rigi. Like
the characters of "Down and Out in Paris and London," our lunch
consisted of a chunk of bread and cheese. With that, we were on the
train headed up the mountain, an accession of approximately 1800
meters in elevation. At the top, we witnessed people jumping off the
side of the mountain with parachutes on, and drifting around courtesy
of the wind, it was very cool.

We began our descent downward which we later determined to be
approximately six miles. The trails were well-marked and though
crowded at the top, we had the descent trail almost to ourselves the
entire way down to Weggis. With an injured knee and toe plaguing me,
we took it slow. Even without the injuries, the trail was often
difficult, being very steep with unsure footing. Nonetheless, we
persevered, and neither one of us fell or was injured (further).

We arrived in Weggis too tired to do anything and chose to rest and
wait for the arrival of our ferry boat. On time as all things Swiss
are, our boat left Weggis at 5:42pm and took us to Luzerne. Luzerne
is a neat city/town, which one could easily mistake for Zurich (as
both look the same and are on the water), but for its identifying
landmarks. We walked through the town and its shops and sat for a
rest by the water with the ducks. We then caught a train to Zoog to
meet up with Kristina for dinner.

Kristina and I each ate a delicious cordon bleu, and John ate a steak
which came out on a sizzling slate platter and cooked right before our
eyes. The food was delicious -- I ate every bite of a cordon bleu
which could feed a family of four. Only the company was better.
Thereafter, we headed back to Zurich for more Trivial Pursuit.

July the 11th

We slept a little later on Friday morning -- finally, John had allowed
me a moment of rest! Once awake, we did some swimming and played some
more ping pong. Then we walked into Thalwil's shopping area to do
some shopping, pick up lunch and prepare for our trip to Munich,
Germany. After a quick bite and a pit stop at the Lindt Chocolate
factory store, we were en route to Munich. Driving in Switzerland is
an anomalous experience in Europe, orderly and considerate. Somehow
though, John's driving skills had worsened.

We arrived in Munich and checked into our hotel. As storm clouds
blackened the sky above, one thing became apparent, we needed to find
a pub and quickly. We sat at the bar at this pub around the corner,
and stayed there most of the night, enjoying their food and drink, as
well as the interactions between the locals as well as the lovely
ladies of Germany. Germany is a great place. In what may be the
highlight of John's year, the bartender asked him if he was American,
and then, asked him why he was "fluent in German." After bouncing
around to another bar or two, we ended up back at the same place after
closing time. The bartender advised us that since they were closed,
he could only give us half a drink. Germany is a great place.

July the 12th

We woke early the next morning to tour Munich. Arriving at one of the
most famous brew houses at 10:30am, we immediately observed a 90+ year
old woman drinking a pint, as well as two children under the age of 5
splitting a pint. We each drank an early morning liter of beer.
Germany is a great place. After that, we headed to the BMW World and
checked out all the BMW has to offer.

We arrived back in Switzerland around dinner time and met up with
Kristina. After some delicious local pizza we played our final games
of Trivial Pursuit. After a grueling final three games, John took the
series. I went to bed sad that night, knowing my next adventure would
be a plane ride home.

I have had a few days to reflect on my visit to Switzerland, and I
have several observations. First, John and Kristina are great people,
a lot of fun to spend time with, and very good friends to have. This
I already knew, but my trip was a welcome reminder. Second, I think
John and Kristina have an amazing opportunity and I am glad they were
able to take advantage of it. Third, living in Switzerland has forced
John and Kristina to grow as people and face many challenges, which
they have done very well and become better people for it. Fourth,
Switzerland is a very well-run, cool country from which we could learn
a thing or two. Fifth, the Swiss sure play a lot of Trivial Pursuit.

Guys, thanks so much for such a great time, cannot wait to see you in
the U.S. soon. For those reading the blog, do yourself a favor and
book your trip ASAP, you don't know what you're missing.

Thanks again for a great trip,

Dan

Breaking the Law

As it rained yesterday, and I stayed inside most of the day doing laundry, I'll share a story about the Swiss trains:
On the way home from a 4th of July party, I was issued a CHF80- citation on the train. I had a valid round trip ticket, but I wasn't aware of a rule about late night travel. Passengers who ride the train home after midnight are required to purchase an add-on to their ticket, known as a "nachtschlag". Not knowing I needed the "nachtschlag", I simply got on the train from Zurich to Thalwil. Needless to say, I was quite surprised when the checker questioned my ticket and issued me the citation. But the Swiss have their rules, and they're strictly enforced. Lesson learned. Yesterday I went to pay my fine, only to find that I have to wait for a receipt to come in the mail. Still not totally sure how to purchase the "nachtschlag," but in the future, I'll certainly make sure I take care of it...