beyond the green

May is here and you know what that means. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I will go ahead and tell you. School is almost out, graduation is coming up, and summer is on the horizon.

Although May is a time to celebrate, it’s also a time to buckle down and get all the last minute assignments that are being assigned done. These assignments can make or break a grade especially with it being so close to the end of the year. Although there are positives and negatives to the arrival of May, one can always relax by going and enjoying the beautiful May weather on the Green or playing catch with friends. May is the month that gets you out of a funk!!!

Today marks the fourth week since I left Kansas, meaning tomorrow I will have officially been in Germany for a whole month! It’s kind of hard to believe my time here is already a quarter over . But I don’t want to think about that right now. I’d rather talk about all the fun stuff from this past weekend!

I’m going to go ahead and say I think I weigh about 5 pounds heavier after this weekend. First, on Saturday it was the birthday of one of the international students from China, Bin. There were about 10 of us who gathered in his apartment for a sumptuous feast of authentic Asian food prepared by him and another one of our friends, Tan, from Singapore. Though it wasn’t exactly like “American” Chinese food, it was more similar than I had expected, with chicken and sweet and sour sauce and the works. All of us brought something to contribute, preferably something representative of our own country. I brought peanut butter and jelly (of which no one actually partook . Valentina, a student from Italy, made real tiramisu, and the usual tradition was kept: we put candles on the cake and sang “Happy Birthday"–only we sang it in 3 different languages: English, German, and Chinese! Surprisingly enough, the Chinese version is to the same tune as the English version.

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I’ve never been sure what to think about the spread of the American culture throughout the rest of the world. Some people say it’s a bad thing–that too much spreading of the American culture causes other cultures to be stamped out, ultimately creating a single monoculture for the whole world. I can see why this might be a concern–after all, even though I’m in Germany, I still see/hear many traces of my country here: the movies playing in the theaters, the shows on TV, the music on the radio. Not to mention the fact that the majority of the people I encounter know at least a little bit of English.

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General list of events that have sneaked up on me:

-The end of the year.
-The end of my full-time weeks as student teacher.
-The end of April.
-My PLT–THE test required by Kansas (and 34 other states) which will determine whether or not I receive my teaching license. The test is tomorrow at 7 am. And though it was at the front of my to-do list last weekend, it has receded to the farthest reaches of my memory until tonight at supper. I’m taking a break from a bit of review right now………

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Hey all. Bethel has been in a spring fling kind of mood lately, in fact last week was dedicated to the celebration of spring, as denoted by it being called Spring Fling here on campus. We had several activities going on, such as a talent show, various outside sports events, and finally our annual Bubbert’s film awards.

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