Errrr...How you say in American??

   One of the funniest things about being in a foreign country is the lengths at which the native people will go to get to know you.  It is probably one of the best things about being here in Germany.  I do not speak more than five words of German.  Babies learning to talk know more German than I do.   In this respect, I am pretty embarrassed.  My host family has a freaking German to English dictionary that they carry with them to communicate with me if they ever find themselves thinking, "How you say in American?"  It's actually kind of hilarious.  They will stop talking, grab the dictionary, thumb through the pages, find the one word they are looking for, spit it out, then continue to speak perfect English.  I am very appreciative of the lengths they go to in order to communicate with me.  Truly, I feel awful that I can't talk to them in their language.  Today, when I was buying a lunch ticket for the first time at the small concession stand at the school, I gave my order proudly in perfect German complete with "Ein" and "bitte."  Hanz, the head school keeper, smiled and went on to blather German to me for a good 30 seconds...I smiled, nodded, then shamefully confessed in English that I had no idea what he just said.  Hanz proceeded to grab a nearby German student, and had him translate.  After this exchange, I realized the only reason he didn't realize I did not speak German was because my order was perfectly pronounced! Or at least that's what I like to think anyway.  I plan to order from Hanz again tomorrow and practice my German pronunciation.
   I had coffee with a bunch of the teachers today as well in the teachers lounge.  They have this coffee machine that does makes a mean cup of joe.  And not just normal cups of joe.  This thing is capable of doing cappuccinos, cappuccinos with chocolate, latte macchiato, latte mit milche, espresso, and straight black coffee; and all with freshly ground coffee beans.  The teachers are very fond of it.  This machine is almost like a gathering place, a shrine in which they take turns buying me coffee and shooting the shit in German while I stand there and smile.  They like telling me stories about standing next to Dirk in the discotech and how gigantic he is; I've even been invited to play in the faculty volleyball game.  I could really dig being a teacher in Germany; these people have serious style.
   On the teaching front, I feel that I have made a breakthrough in my abilities to teach about DNA to German 9th graders.  My lectures were focused, my students attentive (most of the time), and my post assessment for the kids went fairly well.  Watching them do the post assessment took me back to high school.  The smart students who payed attention worked diligently, the group of chatty girls in the back looked over the shoulders of the boys in front of them to get answers, and the desperate ones constantly looked around the room to get answers from anywhere, and I got to watched it all happen.  One group got 100% on their quiz, so at least tonight I can sleep soundly knowing my 5 hours of babbling about DNA made it into the heads of four students.  At the end of my marathon lecture, the only question they had for me was if I had a facebook.  I wonder if I made a mistake by giving them my full name ... We'll see.   All in all, pretty good day, don't ya think?