World Cup Fever

For the most part we all try to be impartial; being politically correct is something we are acutely aware of. However, when it comes to the World Cup, the gloves come off, passions run high and loyalties are etched in stone. This past weekend Sister Cities of Louisville and Greater Louisville International Professionals, hosted a World Cup kick-off celebration at Molly Malone’s for the highly anticipated USA V. England match. I should start by saying how impressed and excited I was at the enthusiasm and intensity of the U.S supporters. It was a far cry from 4 years ago and was practically non-existent 4 years earlier. It wasn’t just the fans who took a different approach this year either, the media and networks finally seemed to wake up and get on board. When I think back to the last World Cup I really don’t remember any build up and not much coverage either, in fact two of the key games were interrupted for 45 minute infomercials! This year, we feel like a country that cares about the World Cup and its team. A place where you no longer have to go out of your way to find that one international bar that is showing the matches. Is it too much to say we have become a soccer loving nation? If you were sat in Molly Malone’s on Saturday afternoon that would be an understatement. The room we had reserved was packed, the walls lined with people and still more squeezed in at the door as everyone watched on eagerly. In the main bar area U-S-A…U-S-A chants rang out. Our room held supporters for both teams; flags, shirts and face paint told the story. As we cheered on our different teams there was still a feeling of camaraderie, maybe that comes from Louisville’s Internationalism, where you can fit right in but still remain true to your roots.

Join SCL and GLIP for some other key matches at Molly Malone's on Baxter:

Thursday, June 17, 2:30 France V. Mexico
Sunday, June 20, 10:00 Italy V. New Zealand
And 2: 30 Brazil V. Cote D’Ivoire
Tuesday, June 22, 2:30 Argentina V. Greece
Wednesday, June, 23 2:30 Ghana V. Germany
Friday, June 25, 10:00 Brazil V. Portugal

Because of the Rain

Since the last time I have written I have spent another week in Lameshegu Primary School and learned much more. The biggest learning experience thus far came last friday morning. I arrived at Lameshegu at 8:30 just like every other day, however, unlike every other day none of the three first grade teachers were there. As I was walking in a teacher in a neighboring class explained that the teachers were late because of the rain the night before. I wasn't sure what to do. I was alone in a classroom with ninety plus children who were completely out of control. Many of them at this point were running around hitting each other with sticks and tackling one another to the floor. I decided that this was an inefficient use of school time and that I would teach. Remarkably, after telling everyone to sit and that we were going to do English, they listened immaculately. Everyone calmed down and filed into their crowded desks. I passed out books and began teaching, and though I know they struggle to understand me through my unfamiliar voice, they paid attention extremely well. After twenty minutes or so the teaching assistant showed up and if it was nothing out of the ordinary simply looked at me and said, "Good morning, I'm late because of the rain" and sat down. Things had seemingly calmed down, I assigned an exercise, which they dutifully completed and then it was time for break. During break men began removing the desks in the classroom to repair them, which generally would have been appreciated, but its difficult to conduct a class with no where to sit. Adding to the chaos that I feared the lack of desks would cause the teaching assistant(the only one of the three that ever showed up that morning) informed me that he needed to go to town. At the end of break things were even more chaotic than before. There were hardly any desks, and I was the only teacher(if you can call it that). Children were beating each other to the point of tears. So after pulling several boys off of one another I sat everyone down(the best I could with less than normal desks) and once again began teaching. When the teacher returned awhile later he again just sat down as I taught, and observed the now relatively calm classroom. It was an extremely chaotic morning! But I certainly learned a lot!

Mainz in Spring

morrow is Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi), and as such, we poor stressed out students are given the day off from Uni! Giving us a nice little break during the middle of the week, and a well earned day off - or at least an opportunity to catch up on a little overdue homework or reading. Or maybe just the chance to go down to the Rhine and relax with friends, either way... the Summer Semester is full of one day holidays and random protests (preventing us from going to uni - as an example, when the public transportation strikes... very difficult to get around then). Just this weekend there was a great protest/party in the city - Night-Dance-Demo, in english - this was 500-600 people literally dancing their way through the old part of town with three large trucks carrying suspended mixing tables and a slew of dj's to entertain the crowds. Definitely one of the most interesting ways of taking an issue (literally) to the streets. It was so bizarre watching hundreds of people with live music dancing through the city - past buildings that are hundreds of years old, past statues of Johannes Gutenberg and Friedrich Schiller - juxtaposition if I have ever seen it! I have been auditing a few courses this semester (I can't enroll in them for credit as I last some serious prereqs, BUT I am here to learn, so that is what I am going to do!). One of the absolutely most interesting of them is Exchange Rates and International Capital Markets, the professor works in Swiss Finance and is just a wealth of information, especially considering Germany's role in the current Euro Zone economic troubles. The professor knows his material, and tries to represent as balanced a view of world Capital Markets as possible. Even though I am not taking the 'Klausur' (the exam), but I have definitely been trying to learn as much from this course as possible. Like last semester I have been really focusing on my German and taking a lot of courses about the language and the german literature - I have been trying to take advantage of every possible opportunity to learn the language while i am here. I do an English-German Tandem with a friend of mine, I live in a German-speaking WG (Wohngemeinschaft - apartment), and I am taking a courses about the language, that I simply can't take back in Louisville. I had signed up to take 'Business German' (Wirtsschaftswissenschaftsdeutsch), but the course was unfortunately canceled after 3 sessions due to lack of interest. I did manage to get into 'Scientific German,' which has been unbelievably helpful. I have been learning a great deal from my job in the International Office - just like last semester - but this semester I feel that my German has really gotten to the level that I can talk to the people I work with at a mature and appropriate level. Just yesterday my boss and I spoke about the events unfolding with Israel and the humanitarian aid ships, which has certainly taken a lot of people's minds and discussions off of the European financial crisis, at least for a little while. I am still translating documents and preparing an online portal for all the new exchange students, like last semester, but I would gladly do it for free just for the experience! I can not describe how great of an experience it has been working in a German office, even if it is only one or two times a week. You can read all about how an office should work, and how you are supposed to act in intercultural situations, but to actually work in one... that is something totally different, something totally unique. Definitely making my experience here worth it in my mind, without a doubt! Liebe Grüße, Justin

Back to Tamale!

On May 22 I boarded the plane from JFK to Accra for the third time! I could not wait to return to Tamale yet again! When I arrived two days later I was greeted by many familiar faces happy to welcome me back into Tamale. After a few days of settling in and calling on various chiefs I began work both at Lameshegu Primary School and with Sister Cities.

My first day at Lameshegu I began in the Primary 1 class, which is complied of mainly six year olds. Though I had been told I could immediately start teaching I opted to observe so I could see how classes here were taught. As expected, it is very different than your typical American first grade class. Firstly, there are about 90 children in a small classroom with one teacher, obviously making any kind of instruction fairly difficult. However, the students were well behaved and the teacher did a good job controlling them, at least for awhile. After teaching one lesson and assigning an exercise the teacher left for about 10 minutes. She later returned with her one year old daughter, who she promptly started breast feeding in the middle of the class. After this point no more teaching was accomplished. For the rest of the class the children sat impatiently in their crowded desks anxiously awaiting break, while the teacher graded their exercises, all 90 of them.

After being at the school for a few days I have noticed that this is very common. Teaching is done for a few minutes at the beginning of class, an exercise is assigned and then graded one by one while the students sit there with no further instruction. I have already learned so much about the school system and can't wait to learn more. Tomorrow I will begin teaching english at the first grade level and will progress up to the sixth grade by the end of my time in Tamale!

The British are Coming

By Joanne Lloyd-Triplett
Over the past two months I have met more Brits than the whole 5 and half years that I have been in Louisville and it's all thanks to GLIP: Greater Louisville International Professionals. Through years of working and volunteering in the International Community I know many immigrants from dozens of countries, many have their own groups, associations and support networks, some even their own festivals. As far as Brits though, in 4 years I had met only one. It seems that we are hard to find; I happened to find them down the Pub - it figures.

I volunteer as the United Kingdom Ambassador for GLIP and last month through GLIP, myself and one other Mancunian (that's someone from Manchester) organized the first 'Brits Night Out' in an effort to find our fellow countrymen and women, and out of the woodwork they came. We had roughly 11 Brits that had never before met and last night at the second 'Night Out' even more new Brits showed up, plus 2 Australians and several Americans. I can't possibly explain in words the emotions of finally finding people from your home country after years of trying to 'fit in' to a new culture. No matter how well adapted and content you become in a new environment there will still always be a part of you that enjoys the comfort of the familiar; the need to 'breath out' after 'sucking it in'. To talk to someone with your own accent, to know that they too sometimes can't remember which is the British or the American term anymore - do we say courgette or zuchinni? Someone who can relate to the experiences and challenges you have also faced, to recall things from home and reminisce together. In the same way that a certain scent or taste can have the power to immediately trasport you back to a vivid memory; talking with my new British friends last night made me feel like I was back home, at a pub in Manchester - just for a moment. It fulfilled a craving I didnt even realize I had and I intend to get my fix every month at Brits Night Out.

• Join us on June 12th for the USA V. England World Cup Match at Molly Malone's on Baxter Ave.


• For the next Night Out keep an eye on the GLIP website or Sister Cities of Louisville Events Page.

My Vote My Voice

By Joanne Lloyd-Triplett
Today I exercised my right to vote for the first time since becoming a citizen. It had never really occurred to me previously that my voice wasn’t being heard; after all does one vote really make a difference? Well now that I think about it, yes! And certainly in Louisville where we have a huge international population for a city of our size and it continues to grow at an astonishing pace. I can’t help wondering how many of my fellow immigrants don’t have a voice either. Never has the phrase ‘No Vote No Voice’ meant as much as it did when I filled in my voting slip this morning. There is a big difference between not having a voice and not exercising it, perhaps the lesson here is that you treasure something more if you’ve gone through a difficult process to get it – I waited 5 years for my voice and I intend to make it heard.
As the local Chamber of Commerce steps things up to attract educated immigrants to Louisville through it’s ‘Greater Louisville International Professionals’ arm I am excited at the prospect of true international representation at the polling stations, after all this is ‘Possibility City’!

A little about my travels

As I am starting to settle back into the school mode, I have been preparing myself for the coming semester. I have been traveling on and off through Europe for the past two or so months, and am just now returning to some form of normalcy (though some friends and I are off to Barcelona for a friend's birthday at the end of the month - some birthday party!). The way that most German universities break up their year is as follows: the summer semester, from about the middle of October through the middle of February; and the winter semester, from about the middle of April through the middle of July - with short breaks and vacations within the semesters, of course! But, this system leaves the students with a substantial block of time (mid Feb. through mid April) to travel, prepare for the upcoming semester, take exams from the previous semester, work or a whole slew of imaginable other time-occupying activities! Aside from my job duties at the university, I was very happy to be left with a great deal of time to travel and enjoy the convenience of living in Germany (within 5 hours of pretty much everything!). I was lucky enough to have a few friends of mine come over and visit during this break. A great friend of mine from high school and fellow business student, Eric Chapman (University of South Carolina) came over and visited for about a week and we trained to Brussels and Bruges in Belgium, and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, were we met up with a friend of mine from Texas, Katie. After this we went to Stuttgart (in southern Germany). It was definitely really wonderful seeing two of the three Benelux countries (the third is still to come)! It was a very enjoyable experience and wonderful to see my friend Eric again, but I would definitely like to return to Belgium! Two days after Eric left two friends of mine from UofL flew in and visited for about a week - my friends and coworkers at the Office of the President Megan and Britney. I showed them around Mainz and then we were off to Paris, Strasbourg and Munich! We met up with our friend and other coworker, Patrick in Paris. Patrick is doing the year long exchange in Montpellier, so this is the first that the four of us have been together since sometime in August, so it was a very surreal experience. The four of us all reunited, and in Paris of all places! So that was quite an experience, no doubt about it - and it was great to see my friends again! It was really great to have a few weeks with my friends - the first time I have seen any one from home in a long time, and as I am not going back to visit, it is going to have to last me until August! After we returned, two friends and I went on a road trip to Vienna and Bratislava - well, we started off for Croatia, but road trips are all about spontaneity and enjoying the ride! It was a very interesting trip - and we met a few very interesting people in Bratislava... but you will have to ask me about that in person when I return! Before my friends came and visited I did a little traveling - Berlin and Hamburg, to name a few. Before christmas I went to Morocco and New Year's Eve I spent in Venice - that was a pretty amazing experience! I have been working pretty diligently for the university - I am a Mitarbeiter at the university's International Office (Abteilung Internationales) and I receive a scholarship to help cover my expenses, which is really helpful and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Most of my job entails translating or proofreading documents for the International Office or the President's Office. The largest task I am responsible for is translating a website for international students to come out soon for the next year. I think that it is going to be a valuable resource for students who will be studying in Mainz in the future (I wish I had it!). Either way, I have been putting in some extensive time and effort translating all of the documents - it is a lot harder that you might imagine! Especially when the original documents have very Mainz-related terms (dialect, for instance!). Ok, well I have written enough for now! Liebe Grüße, justin