It sucks to be sick in a foreign country!

To start off this blog post, I just had the best sushi I’ve ever had (not that I eat a lot of sushi) at school today. Because MIS is an International School, we have students from Japan that go to school here. In order to fund-raise for the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami disaster relief, the parents of the Japanese students made and sold sushi. I normally don’t like sushi because apparently the sushi I’ve been eating in America sucks. The sushi that I had today was AMAZING! Just thought I’d let you all know! :)

I was sick last week and had to miss two days of school, Monday and Tuesday. It really stinks being sick in a foreign country. There isn’t the same type of medicine, and it’s difficult to get medicine. Most medicine you buy at a pharmacy you have to ask the pharmacist for. You don’t need a prescription, but it’s hard for a non-German speaker to ask for something as complicated as a decongestant. In an American supermarket, I would know exactly where to go to get the medicine I want. Here, it’s much, much harder.

I’m feeling better, still have the sniffles, but well enough to be in school. I taught for the first time today. I did a lesson in the History class I’ve been observing about the Russian Revolution. The students seemed to accept me as their teacher, and the lesson went pretty well. Tomorrow I will be teaching in the Geography class I’ve been observing. We’re doing a unit on the Geography of AIDS, and I’ve got a few clips from a documentary on the history of AIDS for the students to watch.

One observation for this blog post about German patriotism. I’ve noticed, and I think most Americans would notice as they travel abroad, that there is a distinct lack of German flags flying anywhere. Compare this with America, where you see red, white, and blue everywhere you go, outside of banks, schools, public offices, businesses, houses, on cars, clothing. If you’re not as patriotic or show your American patriotism in other ways, it can feel as though you’re being bombarded with the American flag.

In Germany, however, you will not find the German flag flying much anywhere. I was paying attention on the train ride this morning, and I saw one, yep, just one German flag, and it was hanging from a balcony of someone’s apartment.

The Germans don’t identify with their country as much as they do their region or “state”. I had this discussion with a few colleagues in the teacher’s lounge the other day, about how we identify. It seems in Germany that people will firstly identify with their region, like Bavaria, rather than as Germans. I suppose the same could be said for America too. I know I identify more as a Minnesotan than as an American. I tend to think that is because America is so vast, and the State’s tend to be quite separate from our national identity. I didn’t think that similar type of identity would happen in Germany too.

So, this week I will be up in front of the students a lot more doing some actual teaching. It should be quite interesting!!

Quote from a student in the history class: (talking about the conditions in Russia during the 1917 Revolution) “No one is happy in Russia”