Today, I had two school visits and both meetings went very well. In fact, both meetings ended up being exclusively in German, and I spoke only a bit of English in the first meeting (none at all in the second). Both schools, although extremely different (one is a Gymnasium; the other was formerly a Hauptschule but is now an integrated Sekundarschule), were very open to having me interview some of their students for my research.
Since I was meeting them for the first time, I had to have the headmasters sign the letter explaining my project and then submitting those letters of permission to the Berlin Senate. I was lucky to catch the headmaster before he left at the first school, and with my teacher contact, I explained my project and my goals. After giving me some background on his students and their families, he signed the letter and wished me luck.
At the second school, I had a great conversation with the teacher about my own interests and why I was pursuing this project. Although I said it all in German, I caught myself making tons of mistakes. Oh well. She understood me just fine. Sadly, the headmaster was in a full day of meetings and conferences, so in the two minute break where the teacher and I caught him, he only said he would like to read the letter over the weekend and get back to me at a later time. The teacher thought he would sign it anyway though, so it should work out fine.
All in all, I had a productive and successful day. So on the way home, I stopped by the Irish Harp Pub, which was literally around the corner from the second school. I had seen it on my way to the school, so I popped in for a Guinness, just like the Irish folks did after work in Dublin and Galway. It was surprisingly quiet with only one or two customers in the corner. There was no one at the bar and no one I could see in the kitchen, so I just waited. I should've just poured my own Guinness—after all, I did learn how to pour the perfect pint at the Guinness Factory in Dublin and am the Master Brewer's Honorary Apprentice.
Finally, after about 5 minutes, a server came out and got me my Guinness. I sat at the bar, drank my Guinness, and updated my documents with all the materials I need for my Senate proposal. It was nice to have a Guinness on tap again.
Anyway, I headed home after that, cooked fried rice with some leftovers, and chatted with the new roommate who took Ronny's old room. His name is Luka, and he's pretty cool. Although he speaks great English, I speak with him in German, since that's what we started speaking when we first met yesterday. He offered to just speak in English, but I said it would be better for me to practice. Besides, I plan to speak in German with Lenz when I move into the new apartment on Saturday, so why not start speaking German at home now?
As I was sending emails tonight to more schools who have contacted me, I came across some stories from Ambassador Murphy's speech last week. You can watch a video clip of his speech (or read the whole thing) as well as view a couple pictures taken at the event. Sadly, I'm not in any of the pictures or video. The last pan shot in the video cuts out right before it got to me in the audience though. I was sitting in the back to the right if you're facing the podium. Nevertheless, it was a neat event.
I should've been in bed an hour ago as I have to wake up early for another school visit tomorrow, so I'm going to get off the computer and get 8 hours of sleep. I got 13 hours of sleep yesterday and 'twas heavenly. I needed it badly...so badly I fell asleep at 9 pm, which is wayyyy early for me by normal sleeping standards.
Ok, good night.
Sam
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