NRW

NRW is the abbreviation for Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia to us english-speakin' folk), which is the state in which Dortmund is located. It's the most populated and most densely populated state in Germany, mainly due to the high concentration of people in the Ruhrgebiet as well as the metropolitan regions of Duesseldorf, Koeln (Cologne) and Aachen. I spend most of my time within the Ruhrgebiet, but this post will describe some of the experiences I've had in other parts of NRW. This would also be a good time to look at the pictures in my Nordrhein-Westfalen - Fall 2010 album!


We begin with the Fulbright orientation, which took place from September 6th-9th in a retreat house next to the Altenberg cathedral, which is in the middle of nowhere about 45 minutes outside of Cologne. There were about 200 Americans there, all in Germany to be English teaching assistants. Most, like me, had just graduated from college. They also came from all over the US and were assigned to the most diverse locations in Germany, from Munich to a tiny town on an island in the North Sea by the cost of Denmark that can only be reached by ferry (I'm not kidding, a girl I met was actually assigned there). Before we all headed off to our future homes and jobs we spent a few days together "networking" (aka meeting people whose couch you could crash on later while traveling) and getting a little bit of basic instruction about German bureaucracy, the school system, and foreign language pedagogy. It wasn't exactly an extensive preparation for teaching, but it did equip us with the essentials to get a start in our new towns and our schools. And I did meet some great people there with whom I'm in regular contact.

Next stop: Sauerland. This is a hilly/mountainous region to the southeast of the Ruhrgebiet that's not very developed and pretty popular for hiking and winter sports (at least for people from western Germany and the Netherlands who have never seen a proper mountain in their life). Pascal's grandparents live there, so I go out there occasionally with his family to visit them. It really is a beautiful and peaceful region, and his grandma, in true grandma-style, loves nothing more than forcing delicious food on us until we burst. In my photo album you can see pictures from a hike we went on up to a cross erected on a hill overlooking the village. If only it had been a few weeks later we would have been able to see some real fall foliage. Next year!

The next pictures in the album are from the Allerheiligenkirmes (All Saint's Day carnival) in Soest, a small town about 45 minutes east of Dortmund. Even though the rides, games and stands selling unhealthy but delicious food were more or less the same as at carnivals in America, the atmosphere was a million times better because the carnival was set up right on the streets and squares of the old town, creating a fascinating juxtaposition of centuries-old half-timbered houses and neon lights. I can't say I've ever seen a roller coaster in front of a cathedral before.

Last we come to a few pictures that I took in Duesseldorf when I was there for a conference held for all foreign language assistants (including languages other than English) from my area of NRW. I think there were around 100 of us, with the largest contingents coming from Great Britain and Spain, followed by the Americans. This event was organized not through the Fulbright Commission, but through the Educational Exchange Service (a German agency), through whom we get paid and who are our direct overseers here in Germany. It lasted for 2 days and was basically another networking event, which I appreciated because I got to know a lot of people who live in or very near to Dortmund, so I can actually hang out with them on a regular basis. We also went on some small excursions around the Ruhrgebiet (a "region in change" as they kept calling it) to take a look at the old industrial sites and the uses they were being put to now. It would have been pretty interesting, except that I had seen literally every single thing we went to before; Pascal's mom has done a pretty good job over the past several years of taking me to all the architectural highlights and museums in the area. Perhaps she's secretly in cahoots with the Ruhrgebiet tourism agency? Regardless of the redundancy, I enjoyed the Duesseldorf conference and getting to take a couple days off work to hang out with my friends :)

That about covers my exploits in greater NRW; next time I'll focus more on the Ruhrgebiet and life there (a propos the title of this blog). Til then!