Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This site is not an official Fulbright Program site. The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State, the Institute of International Education or the Fulbright Program.

Tomorrow officially starts my time as an English Teaching Assistant here in Germany, hence the inclusion of the disclaimer.  I'll travel back to Köln tomorrow and then board a bus to a teeny-tiny town called Altenberg, where we'll spend three days learning everything possible about what we're supposed to be doing (teaching) as well as dealing with all the dreadful logistics stuff (banks, etc).  Next Friday I'll finallllllllly go to my school and meet some other teachers, observe some classes, and hopefully get an even better sense of how my upcoming year will look.

Until then, a few thoughts: I forgot to write yesterday that Ikea doesn't accept credit/debit cards (ex, VISA), which totally surprised me - H&M, for example, does.  Ikea will only take an EC-Karte,which as far as I can tell is really just the German equivalent of a debit card in that it pulls from a checking account.  I'll have one soon!  I imagine it will make me feel super-German and very legit.

Second thought: In the past, I've extolled Germany's lack of customer service as we understand it in the states - your waiters don't hover, you have to pack your own bags at the grocery store, etc etc.  At the present moment, however, I'm fully in favor of the U.S.'s emphasis on "the customer is always right," after dealing with a zillion (well, only like 7) baggage representatives.  After finally getting to the number that I thought would put me in touch with the German shipping company that is going to deliver my luggage, I found out it was just some other person from the Köln airport.  Forging ahead, I attempted to demand in the best Bob-Conkey-demeanor that I could muster up that they get in touch with the company and get me expedited shipping, pre 8:30 am arrival, for tomorrow (my train doesn't leave til 10am).  The woman had a fit and told me it was absolutely impossible to do that now, so I asked for her supervisor, at which point she asked me "Why do you need to talk to her? There is nothing she can do" to which I answered "I just do.  Please get her."  THEN I hear her tell another woman, in German, that I was trying to change the delivery address.  At this point I entered near-rage-blackout stage and told the woman, also in German (I'd been speaking English before with the other one) that I did not, in fact, want to change my address, then DEMANDED she make the expedited shipping happen and then...my piece of shit prepaid German cellphone ran out of credit and the call hung up.

Being an American in Germany.  Rough stuff.  

Final thought: I hit up church this morning - this one in Detmold has far better acoustics than Tübingen's did, I was amazed at how much I understood! - and we only had one reading before the Gospel.  What's up with that? I think I need to do a little research before bed.