The Daily Grind

Now that the holiday season is over, the ham dinners digested, and the New Year's resolutions quickly tossed to the wayside, it's time to get back into the usual routine here in Magdeburg. A normal day for me in the dreary January weather looks like this: First I get up at around 6:30am, long before the sun has started to peer up over the horizon. I put on my winter peacoat over a sweater or two, add a knitted scarf, a wool cap and gloves and waddle a few blocks to take the 7:32 tram to the zoo. The Magdeburgers are all marvelling at the weather, which they tell me is unusually cold this year. Today we actually reached almost 35 degrees, so the weeks-old snow that has caked onto the sidewalks finally started to melt just a tad. Upon arriving at the kindergarten, I pretty much just play with small children for a while. This includes acting as conductor for the "train" made up of tiny chairs, building barnyards with wooden blocks for plastic animals, and anything else the children think of.

Reading is the most difficult morning activity for me because I am only allowed to speak or read English to the students, yet most of the books in the classroom are in German. If a child brings me a book and says, "Kannst du mir vorlesen?" ("Will you read to me") I agree. The child sits on my lap and I open the book and proceed to make up a story based on the pictures. Occasionally a book is written at a rudimentary level and I am actually able to translate quickly enough in my head to tell the real story. One morning when a five-year-old girl brought me a book about monsters, I had a lot of trouble understanding what the plot was based on the illustrations. Apparently my story was unconvincing because the girl assured me, "It's okay. I can't read right either." ("Es ist okay. Ich kann auch nicht richtig lesen") Thanks.

At 9am we start our morning circle time by sitting everyone down in a cozy, but never really circular shape on the floor and talking about some topic ranging from which items float in water to what the English word for jumping is. Some days after morning circle we attempt crafts, games or songs. Crafts generally result in glue or paint someplace it doesn't belong, games generally end in a giant giggling dog-pile, and songs are recognized as finished when the teacher becomes hoarse.

Without fail, the children spend time outside in the kindergarten yard every day, even when it's only twenty degrees. To prepare for this, the adults spend what seems to be an exhorbitant amount of time shoving little bodies into puffy snow suits, so that each student looks like Ralphie from A Christmas Story, who can't put his arms down because of his outfit's immense padding. The students become impossible to tell apart, especially from a distance, unless a teacher has skillfully memorized which child wears which combination of hat, boots and snow suit.

Next, we eat, brush our teeth, listen to a story and take a nap. Well, I don't get a nap, but the kids do. Most days I leave just after dessert (always something healthy like yogurt or fruit salad) to go to the zoo. The following four hours might be spent planning environmental education lessons with my Canadian coworker, Shannon, or working with any animals or keepers who might be involved in upcoming lessons, and some days I go to meetings, which may be held in English, German, or possibly a mish-mash of the two.

In all, it's not a bad gig. There is a lot of pressure on me though, since I work for the zoo, the kindergarten and the university's research project--it can be quite an intricate dance to please all the directors from these organizations, not to mention the children, their parents and the zookeepers on top of it.

The one person I know is always pleased with me, is not a person at all, but rather my cat, Sophie. Currently she is reclining directly on top of my arms, purring like a jeep with a bad exhaust pipe, while I do my best to type. Sophie is delighted with Germany, but I get the feeling she would be delighted anywhere. For my part, I was delighted this weekend when Shannon and I, plus the teacher from Malaysia, Diana, felt adventurous and dined at an Asian restaurant in Magdeburg. The small establishment served mostly Chinese and Thai food, each dish for around five euros. I ordered pork fried rice that tasted just like pork fried rice should and would had I ordered it in Seattle.

Before I conclude this entry to obtain a sofa (yes, finally I will have a place to sit while I watch either the international version of CNN or German cartoons!), I would like to say thank you to everyone who made my holiday season truly fabulous. Also, I am leaning toward returning to the U.S. for good in December of 2009. Nothing is set in stone, but I think it is a fairly good estimate. What does this mean for you? It means if you plan to visit Suzanne in Deutschland, get over here this year!