Settling In

Another week of work in the books. I've been employed officially here in Bavaria now for two weeks, but it feels more like a month. This past week involved more workshop time at MIS filled with new teacher meetings, time to work in our teams, a couple more social events and our big "back to school" day for all MIS teachers. Will it surprise you to hear that I was exhausted again by the end?

In addition to meetings and prep for the start of school, my English (EAL) team began language assessments Friday with new students in grades 5-11. I was somewhat nervous leading up to this, mainly because I am looked at as our EAL assessment leader, and because I wanted to make sure I had all my ducks in a row and that the process went smoothly. All in all the testing went well. We broke up by grade level, with me taking the incoming 10th and 11th grade students. I fumbled my way through the directions a bit, mainly because back in EP we did these types of assessments online and there was minimal proctoring by us teachers. The computer did most of the work. During a break between the writing and the reading portion, I took the opportunity to chat with the students a bit which was fun. Two are from Belgium, one from Montenegro, one from the Netherlands and another from Denmark. They were all very pleasant students, equally, it seemed, nervous to be at a brand new school just like me. The only real glitch in the testing was that a student showed up who didn't need to be there. Not sure why that happened, and I didn't really figure it out until halfway through the testing, but he took the writing portion then I sent him on his way. No harm, no foul I suppose.

One of the highlights of the week came at the end of the day yesterday. And it was in typical Bavarian tradition. Beer. At school. In the cafeteria. Crazy. I had seen this on the schedule weeks ago and had been anxiously anticipating it, but to stand there, on school grounds, with a beer in my hand toasting a tough couple weeks and the school-year ahead was something else. As I was having a colleague take photos of me tipping back a cold one, my Head of School came over to get into the fun, knowing that I was snapping the pictures to have evidence of the moment. He is a genuinely nice guy - one of many very kind people I've met at MIS.

Away from school, there have been many opportunities to spend time with fellow teachers. Sunday I was invited over to the home of a 4th grade teacher and his wife to watch some Premier League soccer. He's a Brit - a Manchester United fan - and she's originally from Thailand - a Liverpool fan. They make it work. We watched the match, enjoyed a few beers and had dinner together in the garden after the match. A family from Australia had the new teachers over Wednesday night to their place in Wangen for a bbq, then a few of us closed down a local beer garden afterwards. Tuesday the school had an event at a local Italian restaurant in Starnberg and Thursday evening I met another friend - the school librarian - for dinner.

Finally, yesterday, again after a busy week and a successful day of EAL testing, I decided to head into Munich. It was a beautiful night, and I didn't feel like hanging out at home by myself. After getting off the train in the center of the city and popping up onto the streets near Marienplatz, I found the city buzzing. Lots of locals were dressed in Bayern Munich gear as the team was playing its first Bundesliga match of the season, sidewalk cafes were packed and tourists meandered around in large groups. I strolled the streets and made my way to the Englischer Garden where I was going to meet a couple of colleagues at the Hirschau Biergarten.

As I entered the sprawling park I walked past the point in the river where surfers gather to ride a man-made wave. It was quite a trip to watch. I then walked for another 40 minutes or so through the beautiful park filled with couples and family, bikers and walkers, until I made it to the beer garden. The three of us sat, sipped from our 1-liter glasses, talked and enjoyed a band made up of a bunch of German old-timers playing slow swing and jazz tunes. It was a nice way to end the week.

Today I'll be relaxing a bit, probably cleaning and doing some laundry, and doing some school prep work for next week. We have new student orientation on Monday, then on Tuesday the fun begins as all the students return. I'll start teaching immediately that day, so I need to be ready. Not sure exactly what to expect, but in a lot of ways I'm really looking forward to it. After all of these meetings, I'm anxious for my "real" job to begin and for the machinery of school to begin moving forward. It should be a nice weekend, getting ready but also enjoying Starnberg as well. I plan to do a long walk today or tomorrow in a park along the river where I have yet to go. It's a beautiful day here, so I expect a nice weekend ahead. Ciao!