The Post in which the "In Which" Part Will be Excluded

Hark! Two posts in one day. Told you it'd pick up.

Ridiculous amounts of excited noises! Only not really, since I'm not a very squeal-y person in public. In my mind, sure.

So, it appears that I shall be under the temporary care of a host family of awesome upon my arrival at Celle. This afternoon, Kat forwarded me a message from another school colleague, Christi, which informed me that the latter had found me a very nice, fully-furnished room in the home of a particular family within the same area as is Klein Hehlen. Yes, that was a poorly-constructed sentence, but I don't care! I have a place to live! Temporarily, but yay, nonetheless! This makes me rather content.

Let's just hope that they don't lock me in the basement.

I'm kind of joking.

Anyway, since I don't know if it would a terribly wise choice to display a photo of the house itself on here (right now, anyway), I'll instead show one of the interior of my room. It's purdy. I approve of the windows. Escape plans, if necessary, will be made easier by the windows.

Yay!

The Post in which There are Thoughts

Huh. I guess I should start packing.

Short, tiny women can carry hiking backpacks, right? Well, we'll find out.

So, I'm sitting at my mother's rather pink laptop this morning, staring at the dog lazing in the armchair by the window rather than thinking of anything useful to say. But, seeing as I don't have too many days of looking at the dog and using my mother's laptop in the mornings, I suppose it is something useful for the purposes of this blog.

The weather in North Alabama has been quite cool for August, so the past few days have been enjoyable, at least temperature-wise. The situation in the house is a bit tense, of course--no one in my immediate family has ever done something like this before. Like what? Why, moving out of the country where the locals don't speak no English (actually, they do) to teach those local yokels how to do so. So, quite understandably, everyone is stressed out, trying to hide the nerves so a verbal sparring doesn't bubble above the surface before I leave. Again, we'll see if this is successful. I do hope it is.

One week, two days before departure.

The Post in Which I Feel Bad About Not Posting

Eh-heh.

I really should be posting a whole lot more right now. Lots o' stuff going down, all related to Fulbright goodness.

I'll be flying into that good ol' (and I do mean old, as in ancient, as in holy shit, that's been around for awhile now) Koeln starting the 3rd of September. Eep. This is where I'm beginning to wonder if the good people at the Fulbright Commission are not utterly insane for thinking I'm not going to screw all of this up. I'll be taking a long weekend in this city and then heading off to Altenberg, near Odenthal, for the Big and Important orientation for all Fulbright teaching assistants. This, I am not too worried about; I'm already fairly comfortable doing teaching assistant things, though on the much smaller scale of tutor/underpaid serf. I will be overwhelmed--especially with all the German that's going to be hurled through the air--, but I'm hoping that this prior experience will help with potential lesson planning and group work that's sure to pop up.

After orientation (which lasts a glorious three days), I will finally be off to my new home: Celle. This is what I'm looking forward to the most. I'm actually quite nervous about the first part of my trip, but making it to Celle will be most welcome. I have already semi-established contacts in the city--one, whom I shall dub Kat, works at Klein Hehlen, the Grundschule at which I will be assisting. I shall be provided a furnished room at one of Kat's colleague's lodgings, even though later I will need to search for a more permanent living arrangement. Then, I shall conquer the world. Or, at least Celle. ...Or, at least my semi-crippling insecurities.

So, now, with a little less than two and a half weeks until G-day, I'm taking in all that I'm going to miss: family, friends, pets, places, things. This summer, on the whole, hasn't been great for me, personally. Since this is a blog about my travels and general awesomeness, I won't go into anything here. But, I do think, despite just how much I'm going to miss everyone and everything, this is the opportunity to actually establish a more concrete understanding of who I am. Perhaps I'll make myself proud. Perhaps I won't. Maybe I'll fulfill my loved ones' expectations. I probably will. I've got to get out there and at least try, dammit.

When I was traveling through Germany last year, I told my instructor, Dr. J., that I had to return. And, I'm doing just that.

The Post in which There is Much Excitement

Celle.

I shall be living there.

And there was much rejoicing. (Yay!)

Honestly, it is quite the relief to actually know where I will be living and working for the next ten months. It banishes some of the apprehension I have been experiencing lately, most of which centering on this next major adventure in my young adult life. And, what an adventure it shall be, I'm sure.

I will be the Fremdsprachenassistentin at die Grundschule Klein Hehlen. Here is the website. It looks quaint and comfortable, but not in a condescending way, really. It appears to be the kind of school in which I could rather enjoy teaching. It is a bit surprising to me that I have been placed in a primary school, but, seeing as younger children are awesome, I'm not deterred in the slightest. I do, however, need to find out whether I'll be visiting all grades, or the older section. Because I'm awesome like that.

The city itself looks like a dream. (As it should; one of the main economic contributors is tourism.) Go to Wikipedia (that bane of the history major's existence) and bask in its very European niftiness.

...Celle!

The Post in which I Divulge a Bit about Myself

...I've booked my flight! Late! But, I did it!

The official departure date is 1st September, wherein I will leave the opulent Nashville airport, saunter over to D.C., strut down Paris (actually, I'm dreading that airport), only to make a splashy arrival at Cologne. I will arrive approximately six days before the T.A. orientation at Altenberg, so this will give me time to a.) travel to Niedersachsen and find a place to live, b.) embarrass myself in Cologne, and c.) get used to a foreign country where polite people seem frightening solely because they speak a different language. Okay, so the third option will require a longer period than one week, but I do believe that an early arrival is a wise choice. Money? Who needs money? Oh, right. A teaching assistant.

Excitement!

* * *

So, a little bit more about myself, before I recount the Fulbright application process in a future post. No, my name hasn't changed since the last post. I am an alum from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (definitely an engineering school), where I majored in history (with an early modern English/Atlantic World slant) and minored in English literature (particularly eighteenth-century and post-World War I utopic/dystopic). Being a Liberal Arts-y person in an engineering-dominated university has its quirks, like...receiving an air of disdain when you tell someone you're a history major. I very nearly completed another minor in German--indeed, just one class away--but I kind of wanted to graduate only one year over the "standard" limit for a bachelor's degree. I have no regrets, really, because I was able to stay within my comfort zone concerning the language. Do I feel comfortable speaking German? Of course not. However, I feel that this teaching assistantship will, er, relieve me of some of that insecurity. It'll pretty much have to, dammit.

I have spent the last five years fiercely devoted to my studies, and I, for the most part, loved being in that sort of academic setting. It's rather...liberating, in its confinement. I suppose analysis has become my forte, and I aim to combine both my passion for early modern history with my love of literature...so, I conjecture that I'm set for a cultural studies M.A. or Ph.D. This means I'm screwed for job prospects, but you know what? Tough noogies. I like being completely useless to society, thank you very much. Take that, engineers.

This brings me to the Fulbright process, which I began in September 2008...and will be recounted in another exciting post! Stay tuned, duckies.

The Post in which We are Introduced

Hullo.

This is a Jennifer. Nice to meet you.

This blog is intended to document the crazy happenstance of my becoming the recipient of a teaching assistantship in Germany through the Fulbright program. Given my rather peculiar nature, I'm just as surprised as anyone.

I applied for the assistantship way back when in the fall of '08, surviving through a grueling, confusing, and rather German application process. After being notified in January 2009 (on-ish my birthday, natch) that my mad German skillz had hoodwinked the circle of big-shots known as The Committee, I once again went through the frightening process of selling myself ("Why, yes--I can teach English while also handling flaming batons...German style"). April 2nd was the day I discovered the gleeful news. April 2nd was a good day.

Anyhow, more information trickles in every now and then. I know now that I will be placed somewhere in the magical land of Niedersachsen, though I know not which city. I also need to book my flight...soon. Like, this week soon. But, that is one of my charming characteristics: I am a procrastinator through and through. I shall certainly do the job...but, even though this is the most exciting event that has happened in my life thus far, I continue to drag myself. I love me.

Also anyhow, yes, it is May. I leave in August. Or, at least I believe I will depart in August, but this fact will be decided in the very near future, when I book my flight. I do, however, want to maintain this blog, if only sporadically, through the summer, in order to document the preparation for taking over ze Germans. Additionally, little snippets of myself will shine through these months, as I will explain a bit about myself in future posts.

So, hullo. (waves) I'm generally a nice chap, so please stick around. You are very welcome here.