Benny's Arrival

Yesterday, I got up early and put some finishing touches on the rough draft of my paper before getting ready. I emailed that with the bibliography to Dr. Veltze and then took a shower and got dressed. I left the house a little before 9:00 and went to the Pasing station. I had to pick up an extension ticket to add to my regular ticket to get to the airport and back again, which cost 9 E (way cheaper than a cab). I picked up some breakfast, a raisin sticky bun from the discount bakery and a cup of coffee, and a pretzel as a treat for Benny. I went back to the station and caught the S8 train to the airport around 10:00.

On the way to the airport, I started reading the book from Andrew Fusek Peters that I purchased at the poetry conference. It's about a group of skateboarding detective kids and is very well done. There's a definite British flair to the conversation and some of the word choice, but it just makes it that much more interesting. I think that my students are sure to enjoy this series of his, especially some of the boys.

I arrived at the airport around 11:00 and found my way to the terminal where Benny's flight was due. I spent the next hour or so reading some more of the book and watching the arrivals board, looking for updates on Benny's flight. It arrived a few minutes after the scheduled arrival time of 12:25, but soon, Benny was coming through the gates. It was great to see him after so many days apart and we spent a lot of time walking to the ticket booth for the S-bahn and catching up. After purchasing the tickets for him to ride the train and bus for the time that he's here, we found our train back to Pasing. About midway through the train ride, the driver came over the intercom and said something in German and everyone got off at the next stop, so we piled off as well. It seemed that there was something wrong with the train. So, we regrouped and found another train going to Pasing and got on that one. When we arrived at Pasing, we went down to the station floor and I showed Benny some of the stores and we picked up an S-bahn map for him. Then we got back on the train to go to Grafelfing.

When we got off at Grafelfing, we took Benny's things to the house and were greeted by a wary Alegra. She was not at all sure about Benny, although she remembered me. Once we got Benny's things upstairs, he unpacked a bit and dozed on the couch some. Later, we went on a walk to the grocery store and bought a few things for breakfast and dinner; tomatoes, salami, bread, mozzarella and brie, apples and a soda that looked interesting. When we finished at the grocery store, we stopped by Petra's shop, where we chatted and offered our approval of the new window decorations. On the way home, we stopped by the park and looked at a few restaurant menus. Once back at the house, we unpacked the groceries, fixed some dinner, and enjoyed eating together again.

When Petra got home later that evening, we went downstairs and visited with her for an hour or so, chatting about what Benny would do and sharing funny stories about the dogs and our lives. It was 9:30 when we finished talking to Petra, and since Benny hadn't slept much on the plane, he went to bed and I stayed up a bit longer to finish up some blog postings. I didn't really take pictures yesterday, but I will have more to post.

Augsburg

I got up and dressed early yesterday and arrived at the station in time to get breakfast before the train arrived. I had a wonderful pastry and a cafe latte, a bit of a splurge for breakfast, but tasty none the less. Our train ride to Augsburg took about 40 minutes, so it gave me time to plan what was important to see, one being the Jewish Cultural Museum, since it might be valuable to my paper.

When we arrived, we picked up some maps from the information desk (which turned out to be less than helpful since not all of the streets were marked) and I headed to the Jewish Cultural Museum with Dr. Veltze and Tara, our Iranian friend who is a scholarship student at the library. No one else seemed interested in this museum, so it was just the three of us. When we arrived at the museum, we discovered that there was a huge translation barrier between the gatekeeper (there was literally a gate), and us. Eventually, we managed to explain that we wanted to see the museum, which is housed in part of the synagogue, and were allowed in. There was no cost to enter the museum, but we soon discovered that we were going to learn very little unless we paid 1 E for the printed English guide. The museum had information about the presence of Jews in Augsburg from the middle ages through WWII, and up to the present day. The artifacts were beautiful, many of them done by hand, and the synagogue itself was incredible, with many ornately decorated alcoves. We were not allowed to take pictures in the synagogue, so I picked up a postcard for 1 E.

We ate lunch at a Turkish restaurant, which appealed to Tara, who has had trouble finding food that agreed with her stomach and sense of taste, as the food is vastly different from Iranian food. I had a salad with some seasoned meat and a piece of bread that was sliced perfectly to make a sandwich. It was quite tasty and reminded me a bit of Greek food with the yogurt sauce.

After leaving the Jewish Museum, we made our way to the Fuggeri, by way of a Catholic cemetary, which was very elaborate and appeared to be for the wealthy members of the community. What surprised me most were the miniature gardens that were at each grave site, including shrubbery and vines. When we arrived at the Fuggeri, we were pleasantly surprised that they offered a student rate of 3 E, and went inside. The Fuggeri was a family that was extremely influential in Augsburg during the 1500s, as they were wealthy from the spice trade and served many of the popes in providing capital for certain things. The amazing thing that the brothers did in Augsburg was to create the first (in the world) form of housing for people on a low income. Their idea was to create an area where people could live in reasonable housing at affordable rates, in hopes that this would enable them to save enough to start their own business or purchase their own property. This complex is still open today, and is incredible shape. The family still owns and operates the endowment which helps to finance it. Rent is still 0.88 E per month, as it originally was, but now tenants have to pay outside fees for water, sewer, and garbage. There were two model apartments open to the public, one being furnished as it might have been originally, and the other has been renovated and furnished as it might be today. Today, the primary residents are elderly people on fixed incomes. (The picture here is of Tara and a cardboard cut-out of the tour guide, who dresses as the Fuggeri brothers likely would have.)

After visiting the Fuggeri apartments, we walked to find a cafe so that Tara and Dr. Veltze could have a drink to cool off. Tara had some Turkish tea and Dr. Veltze had a Coke. I sipped from my water bottle and we chatted about Tara's home, her family, and her lifestlye. After this, we went to St. Anna's Lutheran Church, where Martin Luther spent some time, and I had the chance to discuss some of the basic tenants of the Christian religion with Tara, and explain the similarities and differences between the Protestant church, the Catholic church, and Judaism. She was very intrigued and shared with me a bit about her own Muslim faith.

We also visited the Maximillian Museum, which houses great collections of Renaissance and Baroque artifacts, including silver services, china, frescoes on ceilings, and many statues. We didn't spend as much time here as I could have, but it was more a function of the fact that I had kind of reached my saturation point for the day with artifacts and history, rather than the group pushing me on. Dr. Veltze wasn't feeling well due to a cold, so the two of us sat in a beautiful little courtyard here and she had a cappuccino, which she said gave her the energy to get through the rest of the day.

After visiting all these places, we headed back to the train station and on the way found a snack for me for dinner, a salami sandwich, and Dr. Veltze and Tara found a little table at a beer garden to have a look at some of the books that they had purchased throughout the day. When the group was gathered, we all headed for the train and ended up back at Pasing around 8:30. I was home by 9:00 and ready to fall into bed. If I had the opportunity to go back to Augsburg, I certainly would, since it sounded like the others saw so many things that we didn't get to see.

Fourth of July

I woke up around 7:00 this morning, but laid in the bed until about 7:30. Once I was up, showered, and dressed, I enjoyed my regular breakfast of Nutella on toast and a banana. After breakfast, I did a bit more reading for my paper and then took a little break to listen to the news and check email. After some more work on my paper, adding to the math unit, and a little break to chat with Benny online, I had 34 pages. Overall, my paper is pretty much done, it just needs some polishing and I need to tie up some loose ends with the handouts and rubrics for the unit itself. I also need to add a few more resources to the bibliography, but I should be able to get that done tomorrow evening and Monday morning early.

I got ready to leave the house around 4:00, but almost as soon as I closed the door behind me, the rain began to come. It rained for most of my walk to the train, and then abruptly stopped. Thankfully, I had my umbrella and rain coat, so I didn't get too wet. I stopped in Pasing to get a pretzel as a snack, but when I got to the bakery, I discovered that they were out of pretzels, so I settled for a peach filled doughnut instead. (I know, real bummer.) I hopped on a train at the Pasing station to go to Marienplatz, where I met the group for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. (Not my first choice, but after working on the paper all day, I needed a social outlet.)

I arrived early, so we would be sure to have a table, not knowing how crowded it might be on a Saturday night. I ordered a hamburger with fries and an orange soda that was reminiscent of Fresca. Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy the live music, and it was fun getting to know our new colleague from the library, Tara, from Iran. She is primarily a translator, but she also teaches some language courses at her university, including Prussian. We left Hard Rock around 9:00 and took the trains our separate ways to get home, since we've got an early day tomorrow.

The walk home was beautiful as the sun set and the moon came out. It wasn't as dark as the picture here makes it seem and it was still dusk when I arrived back at the house. Petra and Petra were both here when I arrived, so I visited with them and played ball with Alegra some. They were watching boxing on TV, and it was kind of nice to watch something on TV that I could make sense of without having to understand all of the commentary, although I'm no boxing fan. But for now, I'm in my pajamas and ready for bed, knowing that tomorrow will be a long day in Augsburg, but a beautiful one.

Another day at the library

I woke up this morning to a slight breeze blowing through the window and the sun shining. After getting cleaned up for the day, I put on capris and a white shirt and headed downstairs for breakfast of toast with Nutella and a banana. Alegra came in and greedily attacked her water bowl while Petra changed for work. We were off with time to spare and Petra and I discussed 4th of July plans in the car. She had offered to do a barbecue, but it seemed that no one else in the group wanted to do that, so we decided to postpone that until some evening next week when Benny is here. Petra dropped me off at her shop and I walked to catch the train. After taking the bus from Pasing, I arrived at the library with a few minutes to spare, so I watched the ducks around the lake.

I spent the morning working on writing up the last bit of the science unit and fine tuning some other sections of my paper. I also had a few minutes to do a bit of job research; nothing promising, but at least I'm trying. I found some new resources to use in my math unit, as well as some information to add to the rationale of my paper, so that was helpful. We went to lunch at 12:30 and again were able to sit on the patio. Lunch today was a German version of macaroni and cheese with homemade french fried onions on top, and a side salad. Tiffany did not want her salad, so I ate hers as well as mine. (It made me feel better about not having any veggies to speak of yesterday.) Lyme and Shea ordered alfredos after lunch, but I just enjoyed the conversation. Petra and Johahn joined us for lunch today, so that was fun. Johahn leaves tomorrow for his family holiday to Spain for two weeks. Since he is the Spanish language expert at the library, he prefers to take his vacations to Spanish speaking countries. I was hoping that he would be here when Benny arrived, since Benny would enjoy his perspective on history, but no such luck. After lunch, Mary and I went to the locker area to refill our water bottles and chat for a few minutes before getting back to work.

I spent the afternoon narrowing down pages I wanted to copy (it's .20 E a page to copy, so I'm trying not to copy too much) and reading some more of the books that I can't take out of the library. I continued finding some online secondary literature sources using some of the online journals through ASU, as well as filling in some holes in my math unit outline. I made my to do list for tomorrow, since I'm going to spend tomorrow morning working on my paper. My goal is to finish and submit the rough draft of my paper by Sunday evening, so that I can spend Monday picking up Benny from the airport, getting settled at the house and acquainted with the neighborhood, etc. The rain began falling around 3:00 at the library (the picture here is before the rain came) and continued all the way until I got back to the house (so I didn't get to take a picture of the bakery).

The cat is currently lounging on my bed as I listen to NPR and browse some various other blogs. I'll spend the rest of the evening working on draft one of my math unit and perhaps visiting with Petra and Petra during girls night before getting into bed.

Bavarian State Library

I got up early enough today to get my shower and get ready, and then make my blog posting from yesterday. Breakfast today was toast with Nutella and a banana, which were quite tasty. Petra and I had a nice visit in the car this morning, discussing our tour with Johahn and Alegra's impromtu swim in the pond during their walk this morning. She also shared with me that children here learn to ride a bike by age 3-4 and are quite adept at it (as I've seen around town). However, they are not allowed to ride to school (usually only 1-1.5 km from where they live) on their bikes until they reach 4th grade, where they have to take a bike test of sorts and get a "license" from the state, which gives them the authorization to ride on their own, without the supervision of a parent. After Petra dropped me off, I caught the train, the bus in Pasing, and was at the library a few minutes before 10:00 to visit with Mary under the linden tree before our work began.

During my work time this morning, I managed to write the bulk of the science unit into the paper, so I've only got two more major sections to complete tomorrow and Saturday morning before turning in the rough draft on Monday. I had enough additional time this morning to organize the pictures for the blog and eventual Movie Maker project. We went to lunch a few minutes early today so that we could be on time for our 2:00 appointment for a tour at the Bavarian State Library.

Lunch today was again on the patio, which was gorgeous. We enjoyed cordon bleu, which seemed to be made with a boneless pork cutlet, rather than chicken, but was very tasty. There was also a portion of roasted potatoes with chives and bacon. The waiter brought us all some tap water today, which was a nice treat. During lunch, we discussed our plans to take Petra, our host from the library, out to dinner the night before we leave. After eating lunch, we gathered our belongings from the locker area and headed to the bus.

A bus, train, and U-bahn ride later, we were at the Bavarian State Library, which is one of the oldest libraries in Germany. The collection began with a vision from Duke Albrecht V in 1558, and expanded in 1803 with donations from monestaries throughout the area, as well as a donation from a court library of the Electors Palatine. Currently, the library has over 10 million holdings. Much of the building was burned or bombed during WWII, so most of what we saw was a reconstruction of the original. We had the amazing opportunity to see what remains of a collection of books that were salvaged from the Nazi book burnings during WWII; an incredible commentary on censorship. One thing that struck me while visiting the library was the vast cultural difference between this European setting and our libraries at home in terms of rules and regulations. There are several rooms in which personal laptops are not allowed and the reading rooms, even one with seats for over 550 people, is absolutely silent. The area for the reference librarians is in a more separate area with half walls, so that patrons can ask their questions without having to feel rushed by other patrons in line behind them. Unlike many of our libraries, this library has a cafeteria in the basement and a beer garden in the courtyard, a true reflection of how much this culture values time outside and good food. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the library, so I've included a link to their website here: http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/The-library-in-brief.263+M57d0acf4f16.0.html. The building is beautiful and the catalog is incredible! You can also find a chronology of the library through the homepage.

Our tour of the library was over around 4:00, so I decided to come home, since I still had my laptop and it was getting heavy. So, I came home and changed clothes and spent the evening working on my paper and blog postings. After listening to a bit of NPR and Radiolab podcasts, I'll turn in for the night.

Another Beautiful Day

When I got up yesterday, it was beautiful once again, so after my shower, I put on a brown skirt with a green shirt. I thought I might be able to wear my sandals, but they just weren't as comfortable as my tennis shoes, so I put those on instead. I had my breakfast of toast and jam, but it wasn't enough to fill me up, so I stopped at the discount bakery when I got to Pasing. I found a yummy apple pastry that was made of puffed pastry and brushed with a glaze and nuts for .95 E. I arrived at the library a few minutes early, so I had time to enjoy the beautiful morning under the shade of the linden tree.

I forgot to mention in an earlier post the solar panels we saw on the way back from Salzburg. There were whole neighborhoods that had at least a portion of each roof covered in the panels. Ula, the landlady for Tiffany and Shea, said that by the end of next year, it is required for all homeowners in Bavaria to have solar panels, triple paned windows, and make an effort to reduce water usage. The government is not putting forth any money to fund this initiative, so I don't know what those individuals who cannot afford to make these changes will do. I have not yet done any research on my own on this current event topic, but will try to do so and share with you what I learn.

I spent the morning yesterday working on the science portion of my unit, weaving some of the Holocaust history into the sixth grade study of population dynamics. I also created a reflection and comparison activity where students could compare the science used during the Holocaust with some events today, as well as creating a forum for them to share their thoughts regarding the ethics of the history versus today's events. After spending a few hours working on that, it was time for lunch.

We ate outside again and enjoyed the views of the pond and the ducks. Junko joined us for lunch, so we had the chance to discuss some of the things she's written and hear a bit about her life story. Lunch was a lovely roasted chicken with a very yummy sauce and potato salad. Colleen didn't want any of her potato salad, so I had two portions. After lunch, we all went back to work in the library for the afternoon. I managed to finalize my science unit enough so that I only need to create a few rubrics for some of the activities.

After leaving the library, I stopped by the discount bakery again in Pasing to grab a snack, a pretzel. (I'll try to insert a picture of the bakery tomorrow since I've written so much about it.) I managed to catch the train with a minute to spare and rode back to Grafelfing. On my way back to the house, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some crackers, cheese, bananas, and Nutella. (I have been getting a little tired of the jam with the toast in the morning and thought this would be a good alternative... and I can take home the leftovers.) Just after arriving home and greeting Alegra and the cat, the afternoon showers came, so I was glad that I'd come home when I did. After a light snack of cheese and a pretzel, I worked on my paper a bit more, listened to a few Radiolab podcasts (a production out of NYC through NPR), and called it a night at 11:15. All in all, a very nice day.

A lesson in socialist history

Yesterday, I got up early, took my shower, and put on a denim skirt and a polo shirt. It was warm and I was ready to greet the day! I had my breakfast of toast with raspberry jam and visited with Petra about our trip to Salzburg on our way in to town. I arrived at the library a bit early and had a chance to visit with Ursula a bit. She shared with me the success of their children’s festival on Sunday, despite the rain, and said that they had almost 400 people in attendance. I’m hoping to get some pictures from the staff to share. (Pictured here is Johahn; I mention him later in the post.)

I spent the morning working on my paper, taking occasional breaks to check email and look up websites and other resources to add to my bibliography. I managed to get the bulk of the social studies unit written into my paper before lunch. For lunch yesterday, we had fish with a creamy mustardy dill sauce served with mashed potatoes. It was pretty enough that we could sit outside, so we enjoyed the weather and the ducks on the water. Amanda got an iced coffee for dessert, that was served with fresh whipped cream, which she shared with me… delicious! After lunch, we went back to work.

For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on an outline for the science unit and finished up the social studies portion of my unit. When we finished our work, we had a short meeting about some upcoming events, and then a few of us went to Pasing to do a little shopping and pick up a snack. We left Pasing around 5:00 and took the S-bahn and the U-bahn to go to Odienzplatz, where we were meeting Johahn, who had offered to give us a tour of some of the Socialist Party historical sites.

We met Johahan at the yellow church just outside the U-bahn exit and visited for a few minutes while we waited for the others to join us. Carolina, the editor studying at the library from Columbia, and Junko, the professor from Chicago, both joined us for this excursion, so it was nice to visit with them some too. What struck me the most about Johahn’s tour was the German perspective he presented of the period leading up to the war and the war itself. He gave us some prehistory on the rise of the party and the political climate that enabled this party to come to power. The building pictured here is in the center of the old part of the city of Munich and was the area of the city where the party first met and where the Nazi flag was flown in the middle of the square in front of this building. After the party’s rise to power, anyone who passed this place was required to salute the flag. As a form of passive resistance, there was a path behind the building where people chose to walk who did not want to salute the flag. The path is marked today only by the presence of the copper cobble stones, which stay shiny whenever someone walks over them. As an aside, he said that his mother, who was very young during this time, actually liked what the party did for the young people, because they organized camps and swimming classes and the like for children. The goal of the party was to provide these kinds of programs for kids so that they would have them hooked from a young age, so that when they were old enough to “think for themselves” they would not have cause to question the actions of the party.

Johahn then took us to a memorial site for the White Rose resistance group, which began on the campus of the university with a group of students and professors. This memorial site is outside of one of the old buildings that was bombed, which you can see here. We also saw a piece of the Berlin wall, which is outside the US Consulate in Munich. The question that Johahn posed to us at the end of the tour, after visiting a few other sites, was the question that the German people ask themselves now, which is what would we have done in the same situation? I don’t know that I can answer that question, given the times and the stress of the economy prior to WWII. I’d like to think that I’d be a part of some form of resistance, but it’s so difficult to say that not living during those times. But then we can look around us today; around the world, there are similar situations, and so often, we are content to turn our heads and look the other way. So, I’m beginning to ask myself, what can I do with a group of students to bring this question to the forefront and perhaps give them a forum to do something.

After leaving our tour with Johahn, I went back home, hoping that I could pick up a bratwurst or something for dinner. I got back to Grafelfing at 8:30, only to realize that all of the grocery stores and cafes closed at 8:00. Only the restaurants were open, but I didn’t want to wait that long, so I ended up eating a few cookies and some bread with jam for dinner. After dinner, I did a bit of research online, and then went to bed.