Give me shelter

In addition to working hard and having a lot of help from knowledgable people, I have also gotten along here on a good deal of pure unadulterated luck. 

For my first six weeks in Magdeburg I have lived in a (temporary) gorgeous apartment with a huge bathtub, a fantastic view, and a whole bathroom just for Sophie. I managed to negotiate a great bargain on rent for this place, but it also came with free TV and utilities too. So, when looking for a new place, I assumed I would be taking a big step down. Even searching for new accomodations in the U.S. can be a grueling undertaking, as everyone knows, but add in the difficulty of a language barrier and you have the potential for disaster. 

When surfing the internet for available apartments, I found only ads and sites in German, of course. Had my German been good enough to call and contact the landlords in the first place, I still would have had the obstacle of not owning a phone with which to call anyone. On top of that, apartments here are different than apartments in the U.S. I discovered this when I visited my first empty apartment and was less than impressed. On the way to the apartment the landlord kept telling me about the refrigerator, which struck me as odd. What was so great about a fridge? And was the apartment really so shabby that the fridge was the most exciting thing? Upon entering the apartment, I realized the fridge was a selling point because it was the only thing in the kitchen. There was no stove, no microwave, and only a couple of cupboards. I did not tell the landlord I thought this was really strange because I did not know how to broach the subject politely and my German is no where near good enough for tact. 

The manager of the EU project I work for explained to me that apartments that are unfurnished (unlike my temporary one, which was furnished completely) usually apartments in Europe do not come with a kitchen. Sometimes they don't even come with light fixtures, and they never come with closets. This meant that when I moved, I needed to buy myself a whole kitchen. Those of you who know how domestic I am and how much I love cooking are probably laughing right now. And really it would be the perfect excuse for never cooking--to not even own a kitchen. But that is not very practical, even for me. 

So I scoured the city for suitable places to live and mostly came up empty-handed, but my trusty project manager helped me out again and we found a few apartments worth looking at. There was even one where the previous owner was offering to sell me her furniture, which seemed great! We went to look at the place right away, but when we buzzed to be let into the building, no one said anything over the intercom. The door opened anyway. We were greeted on the other side of the door not by the girl who owned the apartment, but a cheery Jack Russel terrier. He ran up the stairs to the first landing and we followed. He repeated the same antic twice more and then ran inside one of the apartments. This was the place we had come to look at. 

The current ownder's incredible interior decorating in addition to the hard wood flooring, a furnished kitchen, a balcony, and a central location convinced me. This would be a great place to live. During the course of our conversation though, it became clear we were visiting the wrong apartment. The very polite owner was indeed moving out, but was taking everything with her, kitchen and all. When we spoke to the owner of the correct apartment though, we discovered she wanted 2,400Euros for her furniture. Impossible. 

After another four days of searching, I got an email from the owner of the Jack Russel terrier and the adorable apartment. She had decided to leave the whole kitchen, and the rent was LESS than previously advertised. A few days later, thanks to a curious little dog, I signed a contract to make the adorable apartment, kitchen and all, my own. (The Jack Russel wasn't part of the deal though--he left with his owner.) Today I got the key and the landlord even put my name on the mailbox outside the building. It reads erroneously, "Akermann." Every German who has tried to spell my last name is convinced that there should be another "n" at the end. To top it off, the terrier's owner and her pal who met with me to sign the papers offered to stop by and check up on me to help me with things like getting electricity, internet and more furniture. So I have acquired an apartment and possibly some new friends as well.

Not everything is going quite so smoothly as the apartment deal though. I have been sitting through a large number of meetings. I hate meetings. The meetings and all the running around town searching to keep a roof over my head have been cutting into the time I should be spending with children and animals. I feel I have not see quite enough of either for the past two weeks. Our last teammate has finally arrived from Malaysia though, and since she will be spending her whole work day with the children, that frees me up for a little more animal time each day (at least that is the plan). 

Despite my occasional absences, the children are finally warming up to me and growing accustomed to hearing English. The children are really picky about who they like, and it took me a whole five weeks to win them over. The animals were much easier. My favorite animal this week is Remy the rat. He looks like a big brown sewer rat, but is amazing in action. He is trained to do things that I would never have thought to train a rat to do. To demonstrate his intelligence for audiences, he sits on a platform that has a tiny bucket on a string hanging down. The trainer puts a treat in the tiny bucket and he pulls the string up until he can reach the bucket and the treat. It is not exactly a natural behavior, but it is neat to watch. When he is finished with this, his trainer taps her chest and Remy takes a huge (for a rat) flying leap from his platform onto his trainer. Seriously, he launches about three feet. What amazes me the most about Remy though, is the precise stimulus control the trainers have over him (for non-animal trainers, this just means he always does a behavior when asked and never does it when he hasn't been asked). When he is places in front of the obstacle course that he is trained to run, he doesn't move until his trainer cues him. Since I spent more time that one would have thought necessary to train a couple of rats to run at all, under any circumstances, let alone on cue, I marvelled. I will try to figure out how Remy was trained, but since I am still learning how to say things like, "yesterday I gave the anteater an avacado," discussing the intricacies of training is a little beyond me.

Meet the Press

Officially, the kick-off for the EU project that the zoo and kindergarten are involved in was October 1st. In celebration of this, the project managers invited all the local newspapers to come to the school on the 7th to see this project in action. We have been calling the project "Green Immersion," referring to the immersion method of teaching foreign languages and "green" referring to living an ecofriendly and eco-aware life. The lesson for that particular day was about snakes. My project partner, Shannon, is also a native English speaker; she comes from Canada. We were in charge of the lesson for the morning and were more than a little nervous. 

My first task was arranging for an actual snake to be present at this press conference/lesson. The boa constrictor from the Magdeburg Zoo is a well-behaved individual, but is so large that she can be difficult for one person to handle. I hefted her out of her enclosure (which is located inside of one of the keeper's offices, so she has no real exhibit) and put her in a burlap bag tied with twine from a bale of hay, and then put the bag into a big styrofoam box to retain heat. This was the official protocol for transporting the snake apparently. 

Back at the classroom, eight or ten journalists had congregated and listened raptly as the children sang a song about a snake along with a CD. Next I showed the kindergarteners pictures of snakes and explained things about this pictures entirely in English. The press took pictures of their own as I talked. "The snake in this picture is BLACK. What else can you find that is BLACK? Yes, Kathleen's socks are BLACK." After four pictures it was time for the kids to meet the real snake. She was extremely impressive extending out of her carrying case like when magicians pull colored scarves one after another out of their sleeves. More flashes from the journalists' cameras. Shannon demonstrated how to properly touch the snake and invited the first child to copy her. The kids loved it. Afterwards, I coiled the boa back into her big box and went with the journalists and project managers to another building where we discussed the project, our backgrounds, and our plans for the zoo/school partnership. 

The very next day we had a very similar appearance at the Ministry of the Environment where we presented our project and brought the snake too! All of the other presenters at the conference were nearly as enthralled as the kindergarteners. She really is impressive. 

Today I went for my usual Sunday run and found a stack of newspapers on the doorstep of my building when I returned. I figured I should take some time to try to improve my German by reading it, and also thought maybe there would be apartment listings to look at. When I sat down on my couch with my yogurt and granola and opened the paper, there I was. On page three of the Magdeburger Zeitung there was a quarter of a page photo of me with the snake and a few of the children. With some effort I could get the gist of the article. I found a similar article in the Saxon-Anhalt newspaper (that's the one for the state instead of the city).

To be honest, I wasn't as impressed as the journalists. After all, what they watched me do was just what I used to do all the time at my old job. I handle an animal and teach about it in English. Pretty simple. But apparently it's a big deal here. In a way, this is great news for me because I am a novelty, and experienced at doing something they think is really amazing. To top it all off, the local TV station is coming along on one of our zoo visits in the next couple of weeks to film us doing a very similar lesson with the baby giant anteater. If you have never seen a baby giant anteater, please take this time to google-image it immediately. You will not be disappointed. 

Exploring Magdeburg, part zwei

Long-time Magdeburg residents call the city a "town" and tell me I will quickly get bored of what Magdeburg has to offer, but this weekend I found plenty more new things to entertain myself. For the first time, I ventured into the mall. This hub of activity is not exceptionally large, but really very much like an American mall. It happened to be some sort of anniversary of the mall's opening that day, so unbeknownst to me, I went on a day when it would be guaranteed to be absolutely packed. There were all the usual mall things available, like bookstores, clothing stores, electronics stores and cell phone stores. Not only do Germans stand too close behind me in line, but they also walk too closely behind for my American personal-space bubble. In Germany it is the "in" thing to try to sell products by using English words and phrases. One store I enjoyed was "Clark Kent Clothing," and another was unceremoniously titled "Outfits." I looked inside, and indeed they were selling outfits. Also, when I bought Sophie cat litter, the brand name itself was "For Fur and Fun." Maybe they didn't know what the cat was going to do with the cat litter when they named it that...

One thing that even the pessimistic Magdeburgers can't deny is that Magdeburg is a very green city. There are many parks here, some so large they give the impression that one has left the city entirely. Since I still try to go for a run many days, I was hoping to find a park near my apartment to run in. I had tried running on the streets, but the dangers of bicycles and trams and pedestrians with canine companions were greater than they had been in Kent. I had noticed a stone wall surrounding what appeared to be a very lush park just a tram stop away from my apartment, so last week I walked over to look at what was labeled, "Neustaedter Friedhof." The first thing I came to was a small building that seemed to be a florist and I though how very strange for there to be a florist actually inside of a park. But when I walked just a little farther, I remembered what a "friedhof" is in German: it is a cemetery. I could just imagine if the Germans looked at me a little askance for running on the streets, the looks I would recieve for tearing through a cemetery. In my defense, this cemetery is more sylvan and densely foliated than any park I have ever been in. I don't know if this is standard for German cemeteries or if this one is unusual, but it was very different from any burial place I have seen. There were rows of graves, but each had it's own plot of land that was expertly tended. I assume the friends and families of the deceased designed the mini-gardens and cared for them, but the work invovled to cultivate the beautiful sites must have been pretty extensive. There were tiny fences and well-trimmed hedges along with fully blooming rose bushes, and every other type of plant imaginable. While I probably won't be going for a run there anytime soon, it was a very pleasant place for a quiet walk, and what better way to remember our loved ones than by growing something alive and beautiful in their memories?

Another way I have been exploring the city is though meeting more people and trying to make friends in both English and German. Last week I went to what the Germans refer to as a "Stammtisch" which is just a regular meeting of people. Usually there is some common insterest among the regulars; they might all be business majors, or all like to scuba dive etc. The stammtisch I attended was for anyone who wanted to speak English. The regulars were from a variety of countries: Ireland, Ukraine, The Netherlands, and of course, Germany. Already in a new part of town, at a new bar, talking to new people, I adventurously ordered "Alster," the name for the strange German concotion of Sprite and beer. Surprisingly, it was good. I don't know if it is something to run home and try to replicate (I am unsure what kind of beer they use or what the percentages are), but it might be worth a try. A college student studying English offered me a ride home because she lives near my apartment and I accepted thankfully (I wasn't sure how to get home from the bar because the trams run differently at night). She also was taking two of her friends with us, and when they got in the car one of them exclaimed, "We want to play Cash Cab!"  Without missing a beat, the driver responded, "You're in the cash cab! I'm Julia, the host of Cash Cab--a game show played entirely from the inside of this cab. Answer questions right to win cash; get them wrong and  you're back on the street!" A fan of the American version of Cash Cab, I followed this exchange and laughed. So we played, and fortunately, we were good at it so Julia didn't have to kick us out of her cash car. 

In addition to meeting people, of course I am also meeting animals. This week the elephant keeper took me to meet his two girls, who were each nearly forty years old and weighed in at around 10,000lbs! I had no idea I was going to meet the elephants actually; I had followed Michael through the back hallway of the elephants' house as he explained about the new building that will be constructed specially for their herd. We passed a concrete doorway (no door though) and as I passed, a trunk started to feel its way around the frame, and I discovered there were two elephants within reach of the hallway. One dipped her head down to look through the doorway at us, and Michael introduced me to them by handing me an apple. The trunk came through the doorframe and quite gently lifted the apple out of my hand and then quickly returned to search me for any more produce. Finding none, the elephant turned back to her hay and I gawked. I had never touched (or been touched by) an elephant. (Is that the name of a show: "Touched by an Elephant"...? No, I guess not) This place is full of firsts for me. 

Exploring Magdeburg

The people I meet who are from the city of Magdeburg tend to underscore the unappealing parts of this place. I have heard, "it's not pretty, but it's cheap" and "you can find everything you need in Magdeburg, but if you want nice things, do your shopping in Berlin" as well as comments like, "Magdeburg is practically country living" and "everything shuts down at 7pm because this place is full of senior housing." My theory about these people is that they live so close to so many bustling metropolises that in comparison, this city seems a little behind the times. To me though, Magdeburg is new and European and fascinating. 

There are statues around the city of famous people from Magdeburg, and of course there is there are occasional buildings that are centuries old. When I walk from my apartment toward the city center, I pass an opera house, a university campus, a part of the city that is pedestrian-only, two Turkish restaurants, and eventually come to an open-air market in front of the old government building. Of course, there are also cafes, dollar stores (Euro stores actually), florists, banks and all the ususal things one might come across walking in America. In my part of town grafiti is a problem though and any building that is left empty for any amount of time gets tagged. Despite this, I have never seen anyone on the street who looked like the type to deface property. I feel completely safe walking here, even when it is late, but then I never really felt I was in any danger living in the U.S. either. I have not seen one person here who appears to be homeless, but I read that the rate of unempoyment in Magdeburg is quite high. 

Today is reunification day in all of Germany. There was no school, so I took a long walk looking for apartments where I could take up permanent residence, since I have to leave my fabulous temporary apartment (The Germans who speak English all say "flat" instead of apartment). After a lot of wandering and site-seeing on foot, I came to the hub of the city where the open-air market usually takes place. I thought I might like to buy some more fruit, so I walked toward it, noticing something seemed a little strange. On Sundays and holidays the whole city shuts down. Knowing this, I expected to see very few people on the streets and all the shops closed, but instead there were tables set up and vendors out on the side-walks selling socks, handbags, jewelry and CDs. This was unusual to say the least. I turned the corner where I normally would find the carts where farmers sell their produce, but where the market stood last week was now an event reminiscent of the Puyallup fair. There was a stage with a big brass band, two carosels, games where boys were trying to win stuffed animals for their girlfriends, stands selling everything from crepes to donuts to fried fish, and booths of crafts for kids--all of this had sprung up directly in front of the old city hall. Strangest of all was the giant bungee bouncing ride that reminded me of those jumpers for babies that can be hung in doorways so the baby can jump all over. The difference was that these jumpers were a whole story high and situated right next to a somber statue of Magdeburg's most famous leader, Otto van Guerke (sp?).  I didn't have my camera handy at the time, but I would have liked a picture of teenagers in giant Johnny Jumpers right next to the frowning mayor statue; it was a fantastic juxtaposition. I still don't know why there was a fair in the city goverment square, but maybe it was part of the celebration for reunification day.

On an unrelated note, even though I was not unemployed in Washington state, I did not have health care. The very first building I entered in Magdeburg that was not my apartment was the office where I got health insurance. I am not sure how it works exactly, or if it's true that everyone has insurance even if they have no job, but I know that anyone legally employed has health care. This was pretty exciting for a person who hasn't had health care in three years. Then about a week ago (after I had been here only a week), I got a toothache. It was a tooth that had been bothering me earlier in the year, but had eventually the pain had stopped and I had forgotten about it. This time, the tooth did not let me forget. So I had to try to go to the dentist...in German. The first question I asked was how much this would cost. The girl behind the desk looked a little apologetic and said that she was sorry but I was going to have to pay a fee for the whole quarter year and the fee in now 10 Euros. I repeated, "Ten Euros? And then I can go to the dentist for the next three months, for free?" So I got my tooth fixed for 10 Euros. There was a funny pantomime where the dentist tried to ask me if I was pregnant (for x-ray purposes it's important), but she didn't know the English word and I didn't know the German. She also asked if I would like a shot for the pain while she worked. If?! IF?! Does anyone ever say NO? Of course I wanted her to give me something while she drilled! So she did.  Whew!