Inevitable Disillusionment

Remember all my griping in my last post about how my class was too easy?  I take it all back.  As it turns out, the easy teach was only a week-long substitute for our new teacher, a man who looks like a young Einstein and sounds more like a German than anyone else I've met so far.  He has a very different teaching style from the other teachers I've had up to this point, meaning that he's very direct and very demanding.  That isn't to say that he's not nice - my friends and I have chalked it up to a mixture of culture shock and die-hard feelings of American entitlement.  That, of course, doesn't keep me from getting my feelings hurt when Einstein tells us, quite seriously, that our attempts to successfully utilize subordinate conjunctions was a "Katastrophe," or when he tells me that my presentation would have been good if I didn't start so many sentences out with "And here we have..." (Und hier haben wir...).

Of course, that isn't the half of it.  What's really been baking my noodle are my table-mates, a young girl from Taiwan, and a forty-something guy from Turkey.  Both of them are extremely nice, but they're a nightmare to work with.  A basic example: we're given a half hour to complete the task of coming up with a commercial for our school's program and then perform it in front of the class.  From the word go, Ali, the Turkish guy, buries his nose in his dictionary like he's stocking up nuts for the winter and won't come out even if Jesus Christ himself came through the door.  When he finally does emerge he always manages to have something completely irrelevant to add to the discussion.  On the other hand, Pei (Taiwan) is ready to work, but offers little of her own suggestions and doesn't respond one way or the other when I ask her if she likes my ideas, just stares at me like I'm either the purdiest or ugliest thing she's ever seen.  And when I do just go ahead with my ideas for lack of feedback, she seems to get mad.  Fifteen minutes into our half our, we've got a healthy portion of nothing written down, and I just sit there listening to two of my American friends at the next table joking with the Irish guy at their table; they're already finished.  "Ali, got any ideas?" Nothing from behind the German-Turkish dictionary.  "Pei, wanna run with my idea, or would you rather do somthing else?"  Blank stare.  Laughter from the other Americans.  "What, Ali?  You want to talk about fishing?  You don't care if that has nothing at all to do with this project?  Okay.  Cool."  AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!

Needless to say, all of this, while not horrible by any means, has been building up on me all week and contributing to the gradual breakdown of my spirits.  I was at about the breaking point yesterday right before the first morning break when I realized what was really bothering me so much.  I wasn't looking forward to school anymore.  For the first time.  It was something of an emotional roller coaster for me all day, but speaking with a few local Germans and going out with my friends for a drink managed to distract me for the most part.  Today was better, but perhaps because I've decided to ignore my teacher and learn anyway (he is a nice guy 75% of the time) and do all the work myself when my partners seem unable to.  Harry Potter in German (and all of its translational hilarity) has also been key in helping me keep my sanity.  And venting to Megan.

In any case, tomorrow we're going to Nürnberg and it promises to be very schön and historical and wonderful and Einsteinless.  I promise to have a happy post and many pictures thereof upon my return.