Gearing Up

The Blue Ash visit to Ilmenau (and Berlin) is fast approaching. We leave a week from tomorrow, and I'm not ready. I've got to do the mundane (get my passport from the safety box at the bank, wash clothes and plan which items to take), to practical, work-related and personal goals.

Practical goals:
-meet students coming this summer
-talk with Frank about alternative times for the program after 2012
-translate for delegates and avoid possible embarrassments by delegation members

Teaching-related goals:
-get information for Berlin Ppt/presentation
-obtain "free reading" items for students
-get Kindereier for class

Personal goals:
-get to top of Kickelhahn (!)
-presents for people
-keep journal
-visit Ursula Nixdorf
-visit Langewiesen


Friday 4/24: depart Cincinnati

Saturday 4/25: Arrive Berlin
Friedrichsstadtpalast (Revue Qi)

Sunday 4/26: Tour Berlin:
Brandenburger Tor
American Embassy
Checkpoint Charlie
Jewish Museum

Monday, 4/27: Visit Potsdam
Continue to Ilmenau

Tuesday, 4/28: Visit the university
Meet with students coming to Cincinnati this summer
Business roundtable discussion



Wednesday, 4/29: Business visits
Dinner with city politicians and businessmen

Thursday, 4/30: Visit to Erfurt
Tour State Capitol
Meet with state representatives



Friday, 5/1: May Day holiday
Tour garden gnome factory
Visit Checkpoint Alpha (Geisa)
Farewell dinner

Saturday, 5/2: Depart Ilmenau
Arrive Cincinnati

Inculturation

The students (Sommerkurs 2008) have worked through the first stages of inculturation. As usual, each student has exhibited a unique form of dealing with the pressures of sleep deprivation, jet lag, different foods, different cultural expectations and living in a different language. Some flourished, some complained, some became angry, some withdrew, some remained calm. Now that most have overcome the time difference and are sleeping more regularly, most problems are resolved.

There is the additional problem of creating a familial group among the participants. Stuck here with each other for three weeks (as one student said), they are a family, and as a family have let individual members know when they do not behave properly. For example, one student skipped the Grundkurse and was behaving as though she were superior to the others. Well...the women took care of that with a stern talk, which I'm rather glad that I missed. That said, they group dynamics are good. Most are positive (only one negative member, but I think that is based on fear due to a lower level of ability in German--curiously one of the lowest level students is doing quite well socially, which only goes to show).

I've been frustrated with trying to find the newspaper archives for Berlin. It turns out I can get most of the materials from Wien, so I may not have to go there. Instead, I'll go to Prag or possibly Berlin if it turns out I need to go there to get the materials.

It's time...

Getting the students ready for the Ilemanu study abroad program has taken some time. All of their tickets/IDs/blogs/concerns are prepared. They really do stand in the calm before the whirlwind of new experiences.

I love to go places and talk with people--always have. Connecting to other people around the world centers me, allows me to gain insights into others' perspectives, and helps me understand existence on earth. I've been bumbling around since I was 15, eagerly approaching the expansion of space that travel offers. It's time to record and examine those experiences, to go beyond the mental images and memories, to get away from scribbling in ring-bound travel journals which require nothing more than a repetition of the days events.