Revisiting Lessons

I wrote once before about how I am now having the opportunity to repeat some lessons (they are better the second time around), most of what I am doing this year is new, although certainly at times based on things I have done at home, variations. I have been doing my introduction to Canada lessons over again recently and found myself in a position where I had to write another poem, this time it was suggested that I write an ‘I’m a Canadian’ poem. I guess I have written often enough that it is now expected that I too write when they are writing, as a student said ‘that’s how it works.” Here is my poem.

I’m a Canadian

Justin Bieber and Celine Dion,

that girl on “How I Met Your Mother”

when you talk about Canadians

I wish you thought of others

I’ve never built an igloo

though Whitehorse got pretty cold

I think I say ‘about’ pretty normal,

but that’s not what I’m told

I had a pet bear named Barney

I’ve put a saddle on a moose

A beaver dammed the crick again

I’ll have to shoot it loose

I hear that I am friendly,

I might be too polite

are these really qualities

that describe what I am like?

When I think about what’s Canadian

It’s really hard to know

But what I can tell you is this:

Denmark could fit into Canada 231.7 times

Dystopias and my first zombie novel

I just finished reading my first zombie novel, ‘Rise Again’ by Ben Tripp. I have no idea if it is a good zombie novel because I am ignorant when it comes to this genre, but I liked it. I think it appealed on the same level as a lot of novels for adolescents, I was entertained but it also made me think about humanity.

One of my classes has started novel studies with a focus on dystopias. A student suggested that zombie books are dystopian, and though I hadn’t really looked at it that way before I supposed they must be and it fits so nicely with the trend of zombie books and dystopias if they are all lumped together. In class we aren’t reading a zombie book, students are in groups reading ‘Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, or Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. This has led me to search for supplementary materials on dystopias, and Bradbury, and Atwood, and I was delighted to find a zombie novel co-authored by Margaret Atwood: http://www.wattpad.com/8283993-the-happy-zombie-sunrise-home-chapter-1-clio#!p=1. Now I have more zombies, and more Atwood, life is good.

One of the things I am growing to appreciate this year is my increased use of web- based resources, almost everything I do in class is on-line content, the novels are the first real exception. No one is burning or banning books so I don’t think I’m in a dystopia but without the print sources I am accustomed to having at GMD, resources are almost all computer based. This has made me think about the paper vs. screen arguments, is paper still the best way to go for learning? While I think that maybe it is for now, I’m not convinced that it will stay that way, we are still learning how to use the screens after all and for many of us paper is still more familiar, not so for our juniors.

In another class we are watching ted talks from a playlist titled: Our Digital Lives, in the last one we watched Clay Shirky makes reference to how the printing press gave us erotic novels 150 years before it gave us scientific journals, his point (I think) being that we have yet to see what the internet can really do for us. I think the screen reading issue might be the same, given time I think we will learn to get more out of it than we currently do and the longer we cling to paper the longer it will take us to make the transition. But what do I know?

For the record, I prefer books, lying in bed and reading on my computer just isn’t the same as reading a book, it’s just not hygge.

Home for the Holidays?

 I have had that song about there being ‘No place like home for the holidays’ stuck in my head recently, I don’t really seem to know the song so I’m really just singing that line over and over again and then it turns into some sort of mumble humming like it does when you don’t know the words. I’m not sure that I even think that home is an essential part of the holidays, family is, I offer as proof the ‘home is where the heart is’ stuff, but when the holidays are over we go back to life as usual and that usual involves home. This year the return to life as ‘usual’ after the holidays is a return to life that is not as usual as it has been for a number of years and this does not come without struggle.

January is never an easy time, it is dark, the days are short, and we are beginning our long wait for spring. Few are really excited to end the holidays and go back to work/school, but this year… this year every weekday is a struggle and each morning is a debate about the merits of school in Masset versus the experiences we are having this year. Each morning I feel as though we are being put on trial, how could we have done this to our children, tore them from the utopia that Masset has become in absentia and placed them into the purgatory that is school in Denmark.

To be sure it is a big ask of kids to pick up and move to another country where they don’t speak the language but I stand by my belief that it is good for them, that they will learn things this year that will make all the hardships worthwhile. Still it gets difficult when each day starts with sad/mad children who want to be at home. Lucky for us moods seem to be better after school and only decline again when it is time to get ready for bed because ‘you have school tomorrow’. But then maybe this is not so unusual at all and only a symptom of the long wait for spring.

Frankfurt

 The final stop in our German odyssey was Frankfurt, where once again we were reminded of Haida Gwaii, this time because we saw people from the island! We went to Frankfurt because we knew that the Koenigs would be there and we wanted to see them and to take the boys to the opera where we could see Michael perform. The boys declared our final night in Frankfurt the best part of the trip.

Our time in Frankfurt was brief but we stayed in a lovely apartment overlooking the river Main. The apartment had a small kitchen and our first night we had a great meal whose ingredients we found at a nearby market, few things taste as good as market fresh food. The next day we were anxious to see our friends and the morning was a countdown until their arrival, however we did manage to get ourselves into a church tower with a winding staircase that made us feel claustrophobic and height wary in turn. Our reward for having conquered our fears was a great view of the city when we finally reached the top.

In the afternoon we began our long awaited visit and were happy to feel a familiarity we hadn’t felt for some time (apart from the family visit, but that wasn’t the same either, these people live where we live). The opera was a great experience; so fun to see people you know in a different context than the one you usually see them in. After the opera I was introduced to someone else who lives on Haida Gwaii who also happened to be in attendance and after some autograph signing the star and we the entourage headed to a Turkish restaurant for dinner.

The food at the restaurant was great, but other than the food in front of us I found myself talking about the food on Haida Gwaii for the second time that day. We have been eating well and I’m sure the same can be said for the other Haida Gwaiians away but we all seem to miss what we have on the island, nothing beats Haida Gwaii fish… and deer, and chantrelles, and berries…. we have it good.

By the end of the evening the adults struggled to stay awake and conversation took a backseat to watching the kids enjoy the best part of their vacation, playing ‘Big Booty’ late into the evening.

Munich Again and Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Our second round with Munich was longer, the Christmas Market was gone, we stayed further out of the city, and I was sick for the duration of the visit. My fever and uncooperative stomach made things harder to appreciate, but didn’t keep me bedridden. The first day we visited the Allianz Arena, home to the greatest team to play the beautiful game. I am not a religious man but the feelings I got as I approached the site were as close as a secular man can get to religious fervour, or maybe it was fever.

The highlight of the arena was the F.C. Bayern museum, which chronicled the past of the club and included some especially interesting bits about wartime Bayern Munchen; stories of a Jewish trainer, buried trophies, and farmers supplying the travelling team with extra food when provisions were scarce.

The next day we visited the Deutches Museum, which was overwhelmingly large, you could take a week and still have much to see. Luckily the writing was mostly in German so that sped things along and we had to accept that we could not digest such a massive amount of science and tech history in one afternoon.

Our last day in Munich we visited the hunting and fishing museum which had a great collection of old hunting implements including a flask made from a large lobster claw. The fishing section included some west coast hooks that reminded us of Haida Gwaii (though these were from Bella Coola, they were similar). The museum also had a temporary collection of masks representing the Krampus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus), the demonic character who deals with the bad children around Christmas time. The masks are carved from wood and in addition to being cool because they look like something a member of GWAR might wear it is nice to see the darker side of traditions, in North America even the Grinch ends up with a big heart.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

For New Years and Leanne’s birthday we decided to get out of the city and went to a small medieval walled village northwest of Munich. Rothenburg ob der Tauber was quite possibly one of my favourite places I have visited, though the signs were clear enough that I would not want to visit in the high tourist season.

Inside the walls all the streets were narrow, winding, and cobbled. Many buildings were timber-framed and despite knowing that much of what we were seeing was re-built there was enough of the original that it all felt authentic. We spent our days walking the streets, the walls, and the paths into the valleys surrounding town. Jesse and Gus took advantage of the frequent holes in the wall to volley arrows at the ever-approaching Orcs.

We also took in the Christmas museum, the Criminal museum, and enjoyed hitting all the tourist shops that gave evidence of a far busier tourist season with the shop signs clearly printed in Japanese, and Bundesliga jerseys of Japanese players displayed prominently.

The Criminal museum like the fishing museum reminded me of Haida Gwaii, they had a fair number of shame masks on display and I remembered ‘the helmet of shame’ that sits in my classroom back in Masset. My helmet of shame was a student project that has been turned into a popular joke, but now I’ll have something to go with it and masks of shame will proliferate at GMD next year.

Christmas in Bavaria

Our guests left for Canada on the 23^rd and later that day we left for Germany where we spent the night of the 23^rd in Munich before taking the train to Bad Endorf on the 24^th where we stayed with Leanne’s friend and her family for 3 nights and experienced a Bavarian Christmas.

Munich is where my Dad’s family comes from (or there abouts) and I grew up hearing about Munich, cheering for F.C. Bayern Munich, eating weisswurst, and yes, wearing lederhosen. Our first night in Munich (we will return for 4 more) we stayed at a hostel close to the train station and to the Marienplatz where they have a famous Christmas market. We ate and drank our way through the streets and found our way to our first F.C. Bayern Fan-Shop. Here the warm wine is called Gluhwein (dots over the ‘u’) and we added cups to our collection. I should point out to any (are there any?) younger readers that the drinking is done for enjoyment of the beverage, we aren’t getting drunk, and what seems a bit surprising is that despite the fact that all around us people were drinking I don’t think we saw many who were drunk. To accompany the Gluhwein we ate sausages and sauerkraut, fried potato patties with apple sauce, something we called german pizza (a flat bread with sour cream, bacon, and green onions), and roasted chestnuts (maroni). It was the best possible way to start a Christmas vacation.

The next day (after a quick return to the market because we had to see it again) we were on the train to Bad Endorf, a one-hour train ride east out of Munich. Here we spent three nights with a family who treated us as though Leanne was their daughter and our children their grandchildren, we weren’t allowed to do anything to help because we were ‘on vacation’, which apparently means they pay for everything too. Their house was built 30 years ago in the traditional Bavarian style and Gus proclaimed it to be the most beautiful house he has ever been in. The view from the windows is spectacular, a picturesque town with a lake in the background all framed by mountains. Our Christmas was a traditional one and we were impressed by how calm Christmas is when the traditions are tied to religion rather that consumerism. The air was cleansed by the burning of frankincense, and we ate a simple and delicious dinner, the Chriskindl (Christ child) came while we were on a walk before dinner (he usually comes while the children are in church but Jesse expressed his opinion that church is boring…oops), and when a bell rang after dinner it was time to go into the tree room where we sang Silent Night (I felt like I was in the old Saturday Night Live Skit where Tonto, Frankenstein, and Tarzan sing. I know my kids don’t know the words and I wasn’t too sure myself), and then opened presents. I’m not sure it is an appropriate way to describe it but it was all very chill and I liked it a lot. We gave very few presents to the boys (a pair of socks was the big ticket) and they seemed to be okay with it. Santa Claus was nowhere to be found.

Christmas day we learned more about the town name. ‘Bad’ is the German word for ‘bath’ and on Christmas day we spent a couple of hour floating on our backs looking up at the stars from hot spring fed pools. On Boxing Day we went to two islands on a nearby lake, the women’s island and the men’s island. The women’s island is so called because of the cloister on the island and we visited the church and had lunch before moving onto the men’s island where there was once a monastery before it became known for the castle built there by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, our guides enjoyed calling him the crazy king and delighted in telling us stories of his eccentricities.

Not a Boxing Day sale in sight.

Almost Christmas

The lead up to the break was really busy, Leanne’s sister was here with her daughter for a week, and I started teaching another class. I didn’t write anything for a while; I couldn’t seem to find the time and so I think it makes some sense to write about the things that have kept me from writing.

The visit was a treat for all of us, nice to have a little family time near the holidays. It was especially nice to watch Jesse and Gus enjoy time with their cousin, and having someone with whom to share some of what they have experienced I think helps them to see that they have experienced/are experiencing a great deal. It felt neat to go from tourist to guide, not exactly expert guides but it was nice to realize that we now know some stuff about Denmark.

We knew we had to take them to Tivoli, the amusement park and gardens where the boys went on their first rides. Gus and Maria went on everything they were tall enough to ride, including one that would need a near 4-figure amount for me to even consider it.

The park is not open all winter but they open it around Christmas time and it was nice to walk around and see the Christmas displays, the lights, and to have a drink of warm mulled wine known as Glogg (again my North American keyboard fails me, the ‘o’ should have a diagonal line through it). After Tivoli we walked to Nyhavn and enjoyed the lights and Christmas displays in Copenhagen’s shopping district. So nice to walk the busy shopping streets but not feel the pressing need to shop. Our Christmas presents this year are the places we will see and the things we will do and this feels so much better than focusing on buying stuff. I take great pleasure in knowing that everything we buy has to come home on the airplane, it limits the purchasing.

Another highlight during our visit was our traditional Danish Julefrokost lunch. Most Danish breweries have a special Christmas brew and a glass of Carlsberg’s Jule brew complemented the meal nicely. We started with pickled herring on Danish rye bread, followed by smoked salmon, a baked whitefish, some pork served cold in an aspic like jelly, some duck served with prunes and red cabbage, and finally the traditional Danish Christmas dessert Ris a l’ amande (yes the name is French) which is rice pudding with whipped cream topped with warm cherry sauce. Not too surprisingly dinner was light later that evening.

The other time consumer before the holiday was the additional class that I have taken over for a colleague on a medical leave. While it will place more demands on my time I think I am accustomed enough to the school and system to handle it. It was strange to feel the first day of school jitters in the second week of December but also quite fun to start again with a new class who haven’t had the chance to grow tired of me. It is also a great opportunity for me to have a look at what I have been doing with my classes this year and apply what I have learned from my other Danish English classes to a new one. I know that I haven’t done a bad job with any of my classes but the first time teaching anything is never the best and I’m getting a chance to do for the second time what I thought I would only get to do once.

I don’t know how long I will be teaching this class, it could be the rest of the year, it could be much shorter, but the bonus that may come from this additional class is a trip to Ireland in March. Each second year class goes on a study trip and this particular class is bound for Dublin, a field trip for which I would be sure to get my permission slip signed.