Day 10: More than a Week in Switzerland!

WOW! More than a week in the Schweiz! or as the Swiss Germans pronounce it, "Schwitz". Have to memorialize a few great moments of the last day or so: 1) Took public transportation to and from work in Winterthur today for the first time. May not sound like much of an accomplishment, but let me tell you, unlocking the Swiss Holy Book of Tables, enshrouded and protected by foreign runes, namely the Bus Schedule is a miracle unto itself. Then you have to make it on time, and decide which of the 47, yes 47 ticket options to buy from the street-side automat. I think God makes special angels that help you just to figure it out.

Buses at the Hauptbahnhof. I actually rode this line the other day.

Like all public transportation in Switzerland, the bus system is impeccably clean. If you were to peel a piece of gum off of the floor that someone had just stepped on, you could eat it. The buses are also quite punctual, opening and shutting their doors and speeding along their merry way, like the well-oiled machine they are, though they do make the disclaimer that: "jedoch können  Verkehrsbehinderungen zu Verspätungen und in der Folge zu Anschlussbrüchen führen." (despite this can transportation hindrances lead to delays and resulting connection breaks).

2) Also got the chance to meet students in the classroom for the first time this week (which is also the reason for the absence of posts the last couple of days). In general, I found these students to be much quieter and more respectful than American classes. It's an expectation that they shake your hand when they leave class as a sign of respect (for both parties), and they do. The listen when you speak, and they give serious thought to what you say. Now that's the brighter side. They can talk too. And they tease each other. And they require monitoring just like other kids (I found some climbing up and over bathroom stalls one day), but it's really a positive classroom experience. 

Trollstrasse, the School where I teach; newly renovated as of now.

I also discovered as I was walking home from the bus stop today that some of the kids live right on the same street as I in Iberg (suburb of Winterthur). I came around a corner and there were two boys from the 1. Oberstufe  (about 13-14 yrs old) riding on skateboards down the street. They picked me out first and we proceeded to have a 15 minute conversation about skating in Switzerland, countries they had visited and would recommend (one of them loved Ireland), the recent incursion of drugs and drug politics into Swiss society, and also how they were planning on carrying out their Dienst (mandatory military or civil service) for the state. They both said they would choose military, but that they wouldn't kill anybody. 

Anti-Immigrant Poster for the ultra-conservative Swiss party SVP.

So you can see students are a little different. And it's a real encouragement as a teacher that they are so personable. It makes teaching more like giving something worthwhile to someone that you respect.

3) Third, I went for a walk. Also pretty bland sounding right?  Not when the footpaths through sheep fields are so steil (steep), you wonder how your going to get up them again. I came to realization the moment I walked into the door at home that I had forgotten to run an errand to pick up bread from my host mom. So I decided to go for a walk to find some. Mind you, we're a little bit into the countryside where we are. My guest parent's house overlooks the valley of Kolbrunn which is nestled among thick forested pine slopes on all sides. There are, however homes in Kolbrunn, and so I thought there was a chance of finding something. I did after asking a bicyclist and walking done some 45 degree walking paths past and through the local greenery. It couldn't help but make me think a little bit about places in the Poconos, PA, where you also see such elevation and pine and similar looking red-roofed white painted homes. Comforting thought that. 

There's me and my already snowy house! Or at least it would be cool if it was :P

After inadvertently taking the scenic route around town, I made my way into town and found the COOP (one of the Swiss Adli-esque chains). And it was closed. And had been for the last 15 minutes. I wasn't deeply disappointed. I mean I would have had to carry the bread back. But really it was great for the physical exertion and getting a feeling for the area in which my house is located. Really made the house seem like more of a depot, where I stop to get my food and shelter, before trekking into the great outdoors.

So, as I mentioned it was just the first week of school. Not bad. A little stressful figuring things out. Had all kinds of interesting things happen, like missing deadlines and flip-flopped schedules, leading to more missed teaching. A lot has been chalked up to it being "the first week". Just time to get my act together now. On Tuesday night, I went to the charismatic church that my hosts do, which was great. Except by the time they let out at 10pm, I discovered that my hosts were not there at all, but were already at home. First time I really ticked off my host dad, when he had to come pick me up at the bus stop, which required a car ride. As it turned out there was a connecting bus I could've taken that would've gotten me to within walking distance. As I said, it's good to know the buses now. 

Well, it's almost Friday, end of the first week of school, and boy did it go fast! I think my time here in general will go fast, and I think I will miss it when I am done. I still can't wait though to see some people in October though. I may be doing an emissarial mission then for the school to the U.S. to find someplace for the graduating 3. Oberstufe to visit in America. It will be great to see Angela and my folks!

Well, goodbye for now!

Day 5: First Weekend

Hey Everyone! The first weekend is here, and it's been nice. Slept in until 10:45 or so; then got up out of bed and sat in my chair half conscious for about another half an hour. A necessary thing coming off of being up til 2 the previous night and recovering from jet lag. 

A lot of good things happened today. First of all, I have a cell phone. David Schneider took me out to the local "mall" if you could call it that. Picked up a few different things, one of which was my Sony Ericsson  pre-pay phone complete with sim card. As I learned over the last day or so American phones can operate in europe, provided that they have this special card in them. It's like an identity card that has your phone number, your contacts, etc. on it. You can slip it in and out of different phones and that phone will then become operable. Unfortunately Verizon does not use them. Had I a sprint or AT&T phone, I could be using it in Europe right now for cheap. Ah well, all's well that ends well. 

I also got a forward on my SalZH salary, which was excellent. I now have more cash in my wallet than I have ever had in it in my life (not counting plastic). What I learned in my pre-reading for Switzerland "Xenophobe's guide to the Swiss" proved true, the Swiss do indeed carry large bills around with them... "It is not unknown for Swiss housewives to pay for a loaf of bread at the local supermarket checkout with a 1,000 franc note. Bells do not ring. Security guards do not suddenly appear. The note is accepted without suspicion or rigorous inspection and given no more than a cursory glance; and, equally remarkably, the change is instantly forthcoming from the till." (Bilton, Paul, 16.)

Spent the early afternoon relaxing around the house. Had some lunch. This may sound a little stereotypical, but the Swiss eat a LOT of cheese. It our refrigerator we have Mozzerella, Limburger, and at least one or two other strange French-sounding varieties that escape me. My lunch today was:

--3 Slices of delicious European bread hand-sliced by myself from the loaf.
--Sliced french cheese covering two of the pieces.
--Butter on the third piece.
--Cup of Strawberry Yoghurt
--Glass of Milk

The other day I had something called "Hüttenkäse" for breakfast. Any idea my German-speaking friends what this might be? None other than that familiar Cottage Cheese. I wasn't sure what it was until I opened it, and boy was it good. You could tell that it hadn't been super-processed and sitting on a shelf for weeks. The little bloops of cheese were actually a bit more irregular in shape and larger and the liquid part a bit more congealed. I know it sounds gross to call a food that, but it was tasty! You could image the cow down the street having produced it, and it going right to the shelf.

The limburger I've not yet tried.

This evening was great too. Went over to Irene Marzano's house, one of the other English teachers at SalZH. She married an American, who was from up-state New York no less, near the Finger Lakes. The have three young kids who are just full of enthusiasm and are bi-lingual. And get this: for dinner we had hamburgers and french-fries! I chatted with Gerry for awhile while he grilled in the backyard. :) Talked about American sports, Seinfeld, what he missed about the U.S. but really liked about Switzerland. After moving to the U.S. a few years ago with their whole family they moved back to Switzerland because it was a better deal. Switzerland is expensive, but Swiss salaries are excellent. Here you can survive on one person's salary with a family. After we talked about what the coming school year was going to be like, and she gave me some books.

I'm even more enthusiastic about the coming year after our conversation. Looks like I'm going to get to work with at least a couple of small groups of students including some of the really motivated advanced speakers. We'll be working on preparation for the PET, which is a language proficiency exam offered by Oxford. So widely respected is it that students and professionals will include it on their resume.  I hope to go far with those students and have a lot of fun along the way, do PET, but also enjoy some good literature too. 

All in all the evening was great. Established some new relationships, had a good meal, got the chance to speak my mother tongue for a whole evening (good thing too because I have to keep sharp as a language teacher!). Tomorrow is an open-air church service and then the afternoon I know not what. Probably planning for school. Haven't done a whole lot since I've been because it's been so busy. Yikes! But it sounds like the first week will be a bit slower for me than the weeks to come, thankfully. Goodnight!

Day 4: And God made the Sun and the Moon...

Today, what a busy day! Up a little later than yesterday (leaving the house at a leisurely 7:30) and into the Trollstrasse for another day of cleaning and chores. Morning was mostly spent washing the kitchen windows. Being extra-practical these Germanic windows featured unscrewable frames, allowing polishing betwixt the two panes of glass. Mine still came out smudgy looking. Oh well. It was an eventful morning in the kitchen for two other reasons, however: 1) Half way through cleaning I spilled the plastic basin of soap water onto the floor in front of 3 or 4 construction workers; 2) The construction workers were informing our kitchen crew leader that the sink spigot was of an inferior quality and would not last a year--emblematic of the state of affairs in general. Monday lunch will be consumed with plastic forks and knives as the real have not yet arrived. Wir gehen durch. (we just gotta go through) as the Principal has said.

Did some errands around Winterthur today as well, which consumed a lot of the afternoon. Picked up office supplies, plants, ball pumps at Migros among other places (basically the Swiss Walmart--although there are 3 different sizes of Migros in comparison to the Walmart and Walmart Supercenter; they almost manage to blunt the impression of horizontal market domination by having separate store spinoffs for every category imaginable (Migros Sport; Migros Office, Migros Bank...). Also shopped at a place called Brocken. Sounds a lot like gebrocken (broken) doesn't it? Funny since it's a second hand store. Basically the Swiss equivalent of Goodwill (lest you think the Swiss don't try to spare a little cash now and then); that said, we bought a 70CHF ($88.88) metal bell to sound the advent of Lunch (a bell, which in an alternate live might quite possibly have hung around the neck of a cow). 

Almost an exact replica of the bell we purchased.

In the evening we had a SalZH Team Meeting, which heavily evokes the feeling of office work, paper, blah--and mind you this meeting started at 7:30pm. In truth, it was lovely. Essentially, it was a worship service. We sang praise songs in German, Swiss German, and English with just about all of the teachers from the various schools. Afterward one of the teachers shared about her sabbatical experiences visiting the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and messianic jewish schools in Israel. Then blessing of coming and going teaching personnel, and concluding with the Lord's supper in small circles by grade level. It was really special. It was a real bonding time, and it makes me all the more glad to have to come her. The people are wonderful. 

And there's a shared mission. 

John Mahler (Right).

Well, after a whole long day of running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, I was ready for bed. Instead I was invited to a music festival in the old city by some of the younger teachers. I went. 

This too was super. Most of our time was not spent listening to music but rather to one another. I met my host Father's son, who has the same wild curly hair of his father just in blond and who was engaged just a week ago to a teacher at SalZH. Also there was Raphael Bruehlmann, one of the full-time teachers, a hip Italian-looking guy; and Naieemee (phonetic translation from raw aural mental recording in a live concert setting). It turns out David's son, Timon was one of the previous occupants of my current room and also weekly visitor of the Schneider abode. We got along well. 

Unfortunately further visual details of my room of occupancy will have to way for a later post. Time to go to sleep. Enjoy your evening all you folks in the U.S.!!!!! Jonathan

Day Three: 18. August 2011

It's only been three days, but it seems like my German is improving like nobody's business. A long day of work in the newly renovated Trollstrasse gave me ample opportunity to expand my vocabulary with such features as: der Bohrer (drill bit), die Bohrermachine (drill), der Deckel (cap), die Schraube (screw), and der Staubsauger (vacuum cleaner), with which one staubsaugt or simply saugt ab (to vaccum). It was also a great chance to get to know some of the other people around SalZH. This morning I was under one Daniela Pinösch for cleaning crew, who among other things speaks fluent English, started her own fashion label while living in Vancouver for 6 years, and instructs metal and woodworking class at SalZH. She showed me a few of the upcoming projects, which included students fashioning their own metal rings and hunting knives. Don't you want to be part of that shop class?? Probably would break about 100 regulations in an American school. 

Lunchtime was great. We had pizza, which was delivered on a motorcycle that had 2'x2'x2' metal box, from which about 10 or 15 personal pies were unloaded. They got the size of my pizza wrong (perhaps the delivery box was too small to handle it :P ), but the meal was tasty enough after adding some salzh. For "official mid-afternoon break" around 2:30 our boss, Schulleiter Bär treated us to some Budget Beer (the brand name), which was quite tasty after contorting one's sweaty body in order to install stubborn classroom furniture for several hours. The Budget Chocolate, which accompanied this little repast, I must say trumped many American brands.

After work was all done around 5:15, I went by foot back to the Zeughausstrasse building, about a 10-minute walk through the old city center. Killed some time talking to colleagues there, one of whom was an MK (missionary kid; ie. child of a missionary) with a distinct British accent and facebooking with that Mahler kid. At 6:30 I picked up David Schneider, my host, from the Winterthur train station. "How did you pick him up?" you might ask. Well, I'm going to tell you. It was with none other than the pristine Volvo station wagon that I dropped him off with this very morning. Gorgeous dark-brown leather seats, ultra smooth ride, just beautiful--and in one piece, something I was very concerned about as soon as my host handed me over the keys. Luckily, David showed me the basic routes to follow, so I wasn't surprised by any strange itinerant road signs. FYI: No Rights on Red allowed in Switzerland. When I went to pick up my host, I had a choice to make about that. When I looked at the traffic light though, and saw that there was a distinct arrow for every direction, and the "right" arrow was red, I decided it was worth the risk of sitting there and waiting for it to turn green. I was right. 

It seems I may get the chance to do a lot more driving in Winterthur. In one week, one of the current praktikants will be leaving SalZH to pursue other things. Among his jobs were driving the SalZH-Bus, a big-old honking thing, which is sometimes to be seen pulling a trailer decorated with the SalZH butterfly. When I told David I had experience driving such vehicles, he said he had a job for me.

There are other things I could write about: the handy 14-year old who helped me install shelving on the 4th floor of the Trollstrasse and used the shop-vac to suck his hair in spare moments; the pleasure of a work day with 3 planned breaks, all with delicious nummies; the perception I have of a highly valued workforce and general investment in people. "It's not like in the United States," one co-worker mentioned to me describing the Swiss school system. It's certainly not.

To end on a fun note, here are a few pictures of my house and surroundings. Stay tuned-in for indoor pictures next time!

The drive leading up to Schneider's home. Shared by a number of other neighbors.

 

The Schneiders's.

Schneider's Garage. Sadly, the above-mentioned Volvo was gone. You can see their other beautiful vehicle however...

A Manual Mini-Coop. :) Maybe I'll get to drive it, if I learn stick!

One part of their backyard, located behind the garage. You'll notice a hammock and lounge chairs in the back.

The patio, complete with sun-shade, wall, and out-door pizza oven.

They're hanging from the trellis above the patio. They're real. Silly question, right?

Houses behind Hedges: the view from the patio. Nice camouflage, no?

Looking down from the Patio.

The view from my bedroom. Finally figured out how to raise those dang blinds.

The one-eared stray cat that visits our house.

The End...or is it?

Welcome to Winterthur (17. August 2011)

Hello All Family and Friends in the United States! Here is the first of a series of blogs I will be writing about my experiences in that watch-making, ski-loving, cheese-brewing country in the middle of Europe, Switzerland (and they actually do eat a lot and to us, unusual varieties of cheese)! It's without a doubt that my coming is also a going, and I'm sad to have left so many dear people. It is my hope that by staying here for this year I will become a harder worker, a more fluent German speaker, gain experience teaching, and perhaps learn another language or two--not to mention the many things I will learn that God will stick in there and other people.

David Schneide

My host-family is a wonderful one. David and Vreni Schneider founded the SalZH school where I'll be working 10 years ago. David is a visionary. He's worked as a lay preacher, a businessman, has founded a local social-welfare agency, and is currently a local representative in the Winterthur assembly, in addition to being an administrator and math teacher at the school. Vreni is also a teacher at the school, her area being elementary education. I believe she works with third or fourth grade. They also have a son, Gabriel, who lives and home, and is apprenticing to be a shoe maker.

SalZH is a Christian School that has been around in Winterthur, Switzerland (just outside of Zurich) for just about 10 years. Every year they have grown, and this year they boast an enrollment of approximately 260 students up from 200 last year; not bad for a private school. This year they are opening two new locations around Winterthur: one is the Trollstrasse Campus, where the Oberstufe (high school) is being relocated into a newly (and continually) renovated building, and the other is an entirely new structure for the SalZH daycare program, Kita. Trollstrasse is where I will be working, though there will be plenty of occasions to return to the main building on Zeughausstrasse, as this is where the administration is located and important meetings held.

Zeughausstrasse Campus

 The culture of SalZH is a positive one. There is clearly a shared spirit of building up one another and the students, and I am very excited to see what this year will hold. This was exemplified this morning in a meeting we had called Lehrer Konvent, where all of the 30-40 teachers and staff members gathered at the Zeughausstrasse to open, get introduced to one another, and talk about topics for the upcoming year (which starts Monday!). People were congenial, chatting with one another, and asking me questions. A number people I met while I visited the school in March, which was great--always nice to see familiar faces. But I also met a number of interesting new people: one husband and wife couple worked in South America for an extended period as missionaries, for example.

Trollstrasse Campus

There are many tasks yet to accomplish before the school year starts, chiefly the completion of the renovation of the Trollstrasse Campus, which is noticeable. Floors have to be laid, furniture installed, hallways and rooms cleared of garbage, everything cleaned. We will be busy in the coming days! Well, that's all for now, more to come!