March 2012 Articles

Archives by Months

Notes from Germany

On September 1, I left for Germany, flying out of Monroe, Louisiana. Ten hours later, after a stop-over in Atlanta, I finally arrived at the Frankfurt International Airport, tired, but excited. Back in May, I had been awarded a Fulbright scholarship from the U. S. State Department to serve as a teaching assistant in a German high school. I would be assisting a German teacher in teaching students English, as well as about American culture. After arriving in Frankfurt, I took a train to the Fulbright orientation outside of Cologne, Germany, where I met with both the program’s organizers and my fellow teaching assistants from America. There were 140 teaching assistants present at this orientation, with every region of the U. S. represented. I met students from as far away as Alaska, Michigan and Massachusetts, and some from as close as Mississippi and Texas. At the end of three days, we had all gotten acquainted, had learned about our assignments, and were ready to travel to our individual schools.
So, after a week in Germany, I finally arrived in Freiburg, the place where I would be staying for the next two months. Freiburg is in the far south of Germany. A small city of about 200,000 people, its downtown area is historic, with countless shops and restaurants, and a main street that is everyday bustling with hundreds of shoppers and tourists. In the middle of town, is the old cathedral—das Muenster, as the Freiburgers call it. It is the tallest building in the city and was built in the 1100’s. Today it is the center of worship for Freiburg’s mostly Catholic population, as well as the best way of orienting yourself if you’ve lost your way down one of the city’s narrow streets.
The school where I have been teaching is located in Neustadt, a small town about 40 minutes south-east of Freiburg. Every weekday morning, I wake up early to take the train to Neustadt, riding it as it winds its way through the mountains towards the town and the school. Neustadt is located in the middle of the Black Forest—the Schwarzwald, in German. It was named by the Romans, who claimed sunlight could not penetrate through its thick stands of trees. This is true, judging by my own experience hiking through these woods. My school is located on a mountain in Neustadt, with students traveling into town to attend from the many small villages scattered throughout the woods. Most of them are German children, with thick accents—“hill people,” one of their German teachers called them. In the last three weeks, I have taught them English. They already know a lot—German students begin English in kindergarten and won’t stop until they graduate—but they certainly appreciate having a native-speaker around who can help them with their grammatical problems and pronunciation. And of course, they love to hear about America. Last week, the 7th graders wrote me letters, asking questions about my life in the USA.
“Hello Mr. Bennett,” one of them wrote, “I am big fan of America, I like American food and American movies like Indiana Jones. I know you come from Louisiana, but where is that? My brother was a month in America and see a lot of great things? Where were you in America?”
Other than teaching, I have eaten a lot of German food, have gone hiking through the Black Forest Mountains, and saw the Pope when he recently visited Freiburg. However, the most exciting thing about living here is the chance to talk to these German children, to learn about their lives and to tell them about the USA, about the place half-a-world away that they can scarcely comprehend. The excitement in their eyes when I mention my homeland is what makes living here for ten months worth it, and what makes me proud to be teaching students abroad about America.
Cody Bennett, Freiburg, Germany

The Hinterwald (German: Hinterwälder-Rind) is an old local breed of cattle from the Black Forest. There is a breed association in Germany and one in Switzerland. The cows are small, only 45 to 49 in tall and weighing 840 to 1,100 lb, making them the smallest breed of cattle still extant in Central Europe. The head is mostly white, the remainder of the coat being pied light yellow to dark red-brown. Having been bred to cope with extreme conditions, such as cold winters, steep pastures and a frugal diet, they are well adapted to the Alpine climate. They are used for both beef and milk production and are noted for their thriftiness, longevity and lack of calving difficulties. These qualities have led to a significant rise in the number of Hinterwald cows in the Swiss Alps since the introduction of a breeding program initiated by Pro Specie Rara, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of endangered domestic species. However, the breed is still endangered. The government of Baden-Wurttemberg pays husbandry bonuses to conserve it. The breed was "Domestic Animal of the Year" in Germany in 1992.