Only My Students

Sept 24th, SURVEY:

#15: If you could be any flavor of Jell-O, which would you be, and why?

-"I'd be pimp, cuz it's pimp"
Great answer, sir.

My Friends Don't Think I Match.

Whoa, end of the first week: it was nuts- I am exhausted. My feet hurt. I don't want to do anything on this fine Friday night except eat the torte that I made (as an attempt at brownies...) and maybe go to sleep in 25 minutes. We'll see.


But it was incredible. I am going to be doing what I love... this much is apparent now, and I am teaching a content that I think is horribly boring (sorry, Paul)- rocks, weather, geography... I don't really care, but I do care about my 155 kids that spend 1/8 of their school day in my classroom.

______________________
"Ms. Schmidt"
"Yes, LaKitra"
"ooooooh- she knows your name!"
"I know your name too, MarQuan, so you better watch out."
(giggles)
"Ms. Schmidt, you crazy, thats TyJuan."
______________________

"Who dat?"
"Ohh, her? Dat's Smiles. Ms. Loeffler treating you ok, Smiles?"
______________________

And, my personal favorite of the week:

"Ms. Schmidt, I like your outfit today. Well, actually I liked your outfit yesterday, I just forgot to tell you."
______________________

Really? Does that transfer over until the next day? Either way, I'll take it. I'm not used to people complimenting my clothes. In fact, these are the usual clothing comments that I receive:

'Nicole, can I borrow some socks... but like, normal colors, nothing bright.'
"Do I usually wear bright socks?"
"Well, you're just like me, you just seem to pick things and put them on. Only, most of my things are neutral."
Who knew?


I compliment my kids too... they have a dress code (solid navy, khaki, or white tops and bottoms), but can wear whatever shoes they want. Which is why most of them have super colorful or bright shoes. One big personality wears multiple pairs of socks, all showing his Nike swoosh. I'm not cool enough to pull that off. In fact, they all think that I have "lame" shoes. But I'm cool, at least. Well, sort of cool. Today someone actually warned me to not "get all gangsta on him."

"Ms Schmidt!"

"Ms. Schmidt, I didn't know you had a nose ring."


"You've known me for 14 minutes JaMal."

(Note: ma and pa... it's already helping me to build relationships with the kids.)

There's gotta be someway... yes, there's gotta be someway.

Wow- it is ''prenora'' that it is already the 23rd of July... meaning I leave Slovenia in a few days... less than 2 weeks. I am pretty heart broken, but realize that I have chosen this way of life... knowing people deeply and well- allowing myself to be blessed by them and also, then, living away from them... feeling their absense. I find myself in this pattern that I am completely thankful for, and completely broken by.


I miss you. If you are reading my blog, I am assuming that is true, mostly because I do not think that I am such a stellar author (or storyteller, for that matter, as much as it pains me to say that) that people who do not care about me would read my writings.*

This has been a really unusual summer. I fought against allowing myself to form any expections- mostly becuase I have a wild and extremely optimistic outlook on life and tend to imagine perfect situations where everything always goes right. Therefore, I am glad that I tried to go without expectations... certainly I would not have expected this summer to go this way. Please understand, I am having an incredible time. I spend most of the school day in the company of 2 American men (Peter and Andy) and a Croatian woman (Petra). Along with most other relationships from this summer, I am the youngest (so be prepared for super mature nicole in a few weeks). After class, I continue to spend most of my time with the same people, plus the incredible Jure Tanko (And Petra Arko when she comes, or goes to the sea with us :) ). We eat, we drink, we sit by the Reka Ljubljanica, we get to know each other. And I am glad- I am incredibly thankful for these people that I have done life with for the past 3 weeks. I am thankful for the Slovene people that I get to spend weekends and short evenings with. I am thankful for my friend in Canada that I visited in May and may see again if I visit Dalhousie in 2 weeks (seriously- does anyone want to meet me there??? It will be really fun!), I am thankful for Tiljo and Špelica that return to me tomorrow. And in less than 2 weeks (or possibly 3 weeks), I will go back to another very significant part of my life- my home. Where I will finally be around people that I have missed deeply for the past 2 months, but will also feel the void from the people I am around now.

Anticipating this void makes me ask: Am I making the choice to always feel a slight yearing for relationships that cannot be a part of my life all of the time? Getting to know people is a cause for joy and, eventually, for grief. Letting your life be enriched with the company of others will inevitably cause great delight and great sorrow.

There is a song that I have fallen in love with called 'At the Hop' by Devendra Banhart:

Put me in your suitcase, let me help you pack
Cause you're never coming back, no you're never comin back
Cook me in your breakfast, put me on your plate
Cause you know I taste great, yes you know I taste great (note: does not apply really apply to this summer...)

And my favorite line:

Put me in your blue sky, or put me in your gray
Cause there's gotta be someway. Yes, there's gotta be some way.


I like this a lot. I think that this one line is why I did not realize that this song is really sad until Peter pointed it out to me.

I like knowing people, for selfish reasons, really. I like learning from you, and I like sharing with you, and I like seeing the things that you think are worth it in this world. I will miss you, sometimes so much that I physically hurt, but if you become even a fraction of my world, I will be thankful.






*If this is not the case, please... email me! Write to me! Let me know who you are! I'll take you out for coffee for being my first unknown reader!

Slika-me

Don't have much time- only a preview:



Andy is one of my charming American friends here- with the lovely Petra. Andy kept making slightly off-color murder jokes, which were a lot creepier when we noticed this van.



Both of my American boys... after the hike to Sveta Ana.



DUNJA!


A nice view of Zagreb, only slightly less beautiful with the huge cranes in the middle and the settings on my camera that I forgot to change.

Sink or Swim: And I'm Gone

'Allo folks:

Whoa- how is it July 12th? I feel like someone better make this crazy summer slow down fast.

Tečaj is already one week down- 3 to go. And already I am 'that girl' that complicates everyones life:

So last Monday we take a entrance exam... just testing us to see what level we should go to. I test into level 3. Ok, good, intermediate. Then I find out that there are 9 levels. What? I was a little crushed to only be level 3, but ok, no problem. I go to class prepared to learn. However, it's not so much of a challenge. I understand pretty well what is going on, which is very unusual for me in this lanugage, or Slovenia as a whole, really. So, being the nerd that I am, I ask them if I can move up to the next level. 'Wow, are you sure that you want to do that? There's a big change in between levels 3 and 4!'. Ok, true, but there are 9 levels right? It can't be that huge. So I move to level 4. It's great, I meet really cool people, my teacher is stellar, only one problem. I have NO IDEA what is going on. Every once and a while my friends give me looks like they don't know either, and I comfort them because I look completely dumbounded for the entire 3 hours. Do I quit? No, no. I am wayyy too stubborn. I continue to go, thinking that all of a sudden this Slavic vocabulary will 'click'.
Then I find out that there are not 9 levels for the summer students. There are 4.

I switched back today. I think that I will be happier, only my pride is a little wounded...


Blog about the wonders of Zagreb, to come! Dunja: You deserve a shout out- I miss you already. And I cannot make the coffee to taste nearly as wonderful as you did, btw.

One of these things is not like the others