What I Don't Miss

All right so quick update on the rest of my weekend. On Friday night, I went to Schlappen with some people. It's a bar in the city. Then we ended up going to this club called Nachtschicht. It was a pretty good time. Yesterday, I didn't do much of anything. I basically did homework most of the day. And watched a few movies for study breaks. And today I've basically just been doing homework as well.

In one of my previous blogs, I talked about the things that I miss since being in Germany. But in this one, I thought I might say a few words about what I really don't miss since being gone, or other things about Germany that I've learned to appreciate more since being here.

I don't miss being wasteful. So many people in the states have this attitude that it's just fine to throw away tons of things that could be reused or recycled. Which is clearly reflected in our wimpy ass recycling policies in the states. Seriously, they recycle everything over here. The plastic that candy bars are wrapped in. The bag that bread comes in. All paper. Cardboard boxes of any kind. That is probably one thing that I will miss about Germany when going back to the states.

I've learned to appreciate public transportation and walking a lot more. I mean, I do a lot of walking at the U and everything, but I don't really use the public transportation that much. The buses are just not that convenient. And I know when I get back to the states, I'm probably going to need a car for spring semester so that I can do my classroom observation and volunteering stuff.

I don't really miss TV all that much. I just never really watched it that much in the states anyway. We'll see how much TV I watch when I get back to the states. I suppose it's one of those things that you use if you have it, but you don't really miss all that much when it's gone. Definitely a luxury, not a necessity.

I'm trying to decide if I miss American politics or not. This one is probably a double-edged sword. American politics can definitely be interesting. But I don't miss the ignorance and lack of morals in the American political system. We (in the states) are fricken struggling just to try to make it easier for people to have health coverage. HEALTH COVERAGE. How can we not agree that we should try to have less people suffering and dying? We pay the most for health care, and we have the 37th best health care system in the world. 37th! Let me list some of the countries that have better health care systems (according to WHO rankings): France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Norway, Portugal, Greece, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Finland, and Denmark. Hmm...noticing a trend? So I appreciate that the European political system for the most part seems to have come to its senses on that issue.

I don't miss boring lectures. I feel like we do a lot more of those in the states. They seem to be a lot more about group presentations and group discussions and small group work and such over here. Which makes it more interesting (sometimes), but I feel like I also learn a lot less with the group work. And it makes it a lot harder to study for tests when you don't have lecture slides or lecture notes to look at.

I'm still trying to figure out what a good teacher is. Which is really hard to do, because there are a million varieties of good teachers. But I need to figure out which one I want to be, which will probably take a lot more time and experience. It scares the crap out of me that I could be standing in front of a class of high school students in a few years with absolutely no clue about how I'm supposed to effectively teach them what I'm supposed to be teaching them. I don't want to be one of those teachers that just reads from a powerpoint presentation. But I also don't want to be that teacher with absolutely no structure to the class who just bounces from one point to the next with no clear intent. I suppose finding the right balance is key, as seems to be the case with most problems in life. I still have a lot to learn about being a teacher. And no, the irony is not lost on me.