You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2007.
An insignificant photo of lunch at Ikea taken on 27 Jan 2007
Due to the amount of time I spend down there, it’s probably not a secret to frequent readers that I like Frankfurt. It’s more than just a banking city to me and has a lot to offer (museums, theatre, etc) and granted, there are better places in Germany, but there’s nothing wrong with Frankfurt. It, as with Bonn, should both be on the tourist track (I’ve heard many tourists say that they’d be skipping both).
Now the New York Times has decided to take Frankfurt on.
By MARK LANDLER
Published: August 19, 2007FRANKFURT no longer dreams of replacing London as Europe’s financial capital, a 1990s ambition that collided with 21st-century realities. Sure, there are still plenty of Porsches and bankers in chalk-stripe suits. But shorn of its master-of-the-universe pretensions, the city has rediscovered its essential charm, as a user-friendly Hessian town with big-city accouterments. Its museums are the best in Germany, after Berlin’s, and its opera and ballet are top notch. Frankfurt’s population is the country’s most international — dozens of nationalities, including a large Turkish contingent. Meanwhile, the glittering skyscrapers along the Main River still earn the city the goofy nickname Mainhattan, a reminder that high finance hasn’t left.
My school teaches incompany classes and I travel to a few different companies for them every week. the classes are arranged by the Human Resources Director of each company (as are most ‘training’ courses at most companies) and they are also the contact person with my school (my boss is their contact person).
As previously mentioned, I have a class of 16 year old apprentices at one of the companies. They’re actually 17 now. Two of the group of four left at the end of the school year due to choosing different career paths and I was left with the other two for a few weeks before we went on a four week hiatus due to summer holidays. I saw one of them when I was in the lobby of the company on my way to teach another class last week. We had a bit of small talk about his holiday in Spain and I reminded him that our lessons resumed this week and asked him to email the other student and remind him too (he was on still on holiday) – which he agreed to do.
I went to the conference room that we usually meet in today at the time our lesson was to start, but neither student was there. I waited for five minutes and then decided to check the cafeteria – our original meeting place before I was able to get the conference room, where I found my two students – and four others.
You can only imagine my surprise.
I didn’t really know what to say (and the two students that knew me knew how surprised I was), so I said, ‘Let’s move to the conference room,’ to help to buy a few seconds of time to figure out what to do. I had expected to be teaching two students, so that’s the lesson I had prepared – not for six students.
Quick thinking needed.
I decided to stall for more time to figure out what to do by having us all introduce ourselves (name only). I went first and then asked the new students to continue – which they did. I then asked them all if they knew each other and, luckily, they didn’t.
Great!
I then divided them into pairs, had them interview each other, had them introduce their partners to us and also had the others ask questions about what they had been told. While they were doing that, I was frantically thinking about how I could turn the rest of the lesson that had been planned for two students into one for six. I was able to pull it off, but wasn’t satisfied with my lesson (but I didn’t let them know that).
Then one of them asked if our lessons would continue to be on Thursdays – to which I told them that it would. He then told me that that would be a problem.
All of the students in that class are apprentices, which means that they’re on three year programs that divides their time between school and work. Most of them work three days and attend school three days. One attends school one day and the last one has a completely different program in which he works for six weeks, attends school for two weeks and the pattern repeats for the entire school year.
Less than half of them would be at work on Thursdays.
Sigh.
After analyzing their schedules, it came to light that Wednesdays would be the best days for our lessons. The only problem with that is that it was impossible for me to teach their class at the company they work for on Wednesdays. I told them that and also that I had no idea when our next lesson would be, but got the work email address of one of the students and had the others give him their address with the promise that I’d work something out, email the contact student and then he’d pass on the info to the others.
Arriving back at work, I told the bosses what had happened, including the need for a schedule time.
BossM: ‘What day is best for them?’
J: ‘Have a look at my schedule and tell me what you see as the worst day to have to rearrange my schedule.’
*He looks at schedule*
BossM: ‘Wednesday’
J: ‘Right.’
BossM: *sigh* ‘I’ll work on it.’
The bosses worked on it for a while and, after rearranging many things managed to accommodate the class. BossM emailed the student, informed him of the change of time and day and then asked him to notify the others.
What should have happened is that the Human Resources Director should have emailed the bosses (standard procedure as far as drastic changes go) and then things should have been worked out before lessons resumed. We’ve had similar problems with this HR Director before and also the two others that we have major contracts with – causing major problems for our school.
An unfinished game of beach volleyball (at least it was at the time the photo was taken). Taken on 17 August 2007 in Bonn.
As some frequent readers might have noticed, I’ve made a few changes to my blog(after four years of none). I’d like to tweak it a it a bit more and would like your input.
I’m working on ‘About Me’ and ‘Answers to Possible Questions’ sections. I like the background and that’s (probably) not going to change (because I don’t have time (or can’t be bothered) to make my own). Also, the content won’t change either, so I guess I’m mainly talking about the sidebar. Should I leave the ‘No longer blogging’, ‘Baseball Links’ and ‘Other Links’ on the main page or make another one for each? Would that be too much page flipping if I did? What else would make my blog more ‘reader-friendly’?
Also, should I put a banner at the top? If so, what would go with the background motif?
Go on then, help me give my blog a makeover.
I arrived home from a fun weekend around 20h Sunday evening and left at 7h55 yesterday morning for work.
Or at least I tried to.
I unlocked my bike and noticed that the rear tire was flat, which didn’t surprise me because the rear rim needs replacing, so I thought that that had something to do with it and decided that I’d finally get around to replacing it.
I then noticed that the front tire was also flat.
I don’t think I need to write what I said after making that discovery.
Incredibly annoyed, I looked at the tires for slash marks. None. So, I found the stem covers on the ground (which made me realise that the air had been let out of them) and started walking my bike down the road towards work.
While doing so, I made an astonishing observation: all of the tires on the bikes I passed were also flat! Apparently, some idiots with too much time on their hands had a bit of ‘fun’ yesterday evening at the expense of cyclists.
As with most shops in Germany, bike shops don’t open til 10h, so I wasn’t able to get my tires filled before work. I locked my bike near the bike shop, walked to work and took care of it my lunch break.
I never had to tolerate things like this before I moved to Germany, and don’t understand why things like that keep happening to me here. Life is stressful enough without having to deal with annoyances like this, and I’m getting fed up.
American Colleague goes to the bakery near the school to pick up something for lunch.
AC to Bakery Girl: ‘You don’t have any sandwiches left?’
BG: ‘No.’
AC leaves and passes German Colleague on her way to same bakery.
GC comes back a few minutes later with a sandwich.
AC: ‘How did you get a sandwich? They didn’t have any when I was there.’
GC: ‘I asked her to make me one.’
AC: ‘What? She didn’t offer to do that for me.’
J: ‘You asked the wrong question.’
AC: ‘What do you mean?’
J: ‘You didn’t ask her to.’
GC: ‘He’s right.’
AC: ‘She should have offered.’
J: ‘You asked her a question and she answered it. She did what she was asked to do.’
AC: ‘That’s so wrong. She should have offered to make me one.’
J: ‘Welcome to Germany.’
AC: ‘I should go back there and tell her off.’
J: ‘Don’t waste your breath. She won’t care. That’s just the way it is here.’
AC: *sigh*
Since I’ll be on the road for the next four days (originally posted on 9 August 2007) and hope to be too busy to be blogging, I thought I’d put up a post about the date for the Meet-Up in Dresden.
So, when are those that can attend available? I realise that having it in Dresden might exclude some of our other westerners (and I do apologise for that), but let’s find and set a date for it so we can start sorting out travel arrangements, hotels (for those that’ll be spending the night (like me)) etc. We’ll go with ‘majority rules’ (and when our Dresdener is available) which, unfortunately, will probably mean leaving a few out.
So, only for those that will probably attend (remember, it’s in Dresden), which weekends are you available in October and November?
Note: You don’t have to come for the weekend. You can come for an hour, a few hours, the afternoon, the evening, etc.
It’d be helpful if you could pass the word on by making a quick blog post.
A church in Bremen – taken on 9 August 2007
| What Your Pizza Reveals |
 Your appetite is pretty average. You don’t go overboard – but you don’t deprive yourself either. You are a very picky pizza eater. Not any pizza will do. You fit in best in the Northeast part of the US. You like food that’s traditional and well crafted. You aren’t impressed with “gourmet” foods. You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are adventurous and independent. You should consider traveling to Thailand. The stereotype that best fits you is geek. You’re the type most likely to order pizza to avoid leaving your computer. |
Thanks to Granny for this one. I laughed when I saw the Thailand bit.
