Thus Spoke Zarathustra

I name this entry thusly, not because I'm reading Nietzsche or have any idea what this particular work of his is about, but because these were the first words on my mind when I was startled awake this morning by a grating sound outside my window.

Before going to bed last night, I had accomplished a milestone 45,676 words on my book--officially only 5000 words from the finish line. (However, I've just introduced the wolf in sheep's clothing to my protagonist, and I'd say I've got another several tens of thousands of words to go before I'm really done...) I nodded off to sleep wondering, "I'm 10,000 words ahead of schedule...I wonder what kind of little treat God's got for me as a little reward..." (Again, not a theologically sound argument, but maybe a step up from my waking thoughts of Thus Spoke Zarathustra...)

So when I woke up to Nietzsche and the scraping sound outside my window at 6 a.m., I knew. This was my reward!

I went to the window and looked out, and this is what my extra 10,000 words looked like:

(except it was 6 a.m., so it was still dark)

I was happy for my little treat, but perhaps in return for my bad theology, I couldn't fall back asleep. Instead I tossed and turned with Thus Spoke Zarathustra repeatedly running though my head with the occassional Also sprach Zarathustra (the original, untranslated title) jumping in. When I finally dragged myself out of bed two hours later, I was tired, confused (Nietzsche has that effect on people), and ready to share the first snowfall of the year with my lovely audience.

If you were an Austrian teenage girl...

...which famous people would be on your mind?

This past month, as I've mentioned before, I've been at the new school with all the girls. This has been fantastic, as most of my lessons have required little to no preparation, leaving me plenty of novel-writing time. I've done a lot of introductory lessons where I play the sentences game, introduce myself, and have a Q&A time where they can ask me anything about myself or America they can think of. (This year's highlights: What are Austrian men like compared to American men? Do you have a boyfriend? Would you get married and stay in Austria forever? ...Nary a question on war or guns and plenty of questions on boys...Yes, you can tell--I am teaching GIRLS!)

Usually this takes the whole lesson (and in one exceptional class, about 4-5 girls had their hands raised with burning questions right up until the bell rang!), but in a couple of classes the students opted for silence. Not even the usual questions such as 'Do you have brothers or sisters?' were asked. So then I turn the tables--I ask them questions. But eventually even I run dry of interesting things to ask them, and we're stuck with 10-15 minutes left in class...what to do?

I decided to play one of those time-filler games with a couple of particularly quiet classes, asking the girls to write the name of a famous person on a piece of paper, fold it in half, then pass it up to the front. Then I'd choose a student (my new favorite method, if there aren't any volunteers, is to ask, 'Is there anyone named Katharina in the class? No? How about Stefi?...' and so on...), seat her in front of the board, and then tape a name to the board behind her. She has to ask the class questions and try to figure out which famous person is behind her. (It's similar to 20 Questions, but not just yes or no questions.)

The funny thing is, this really gets into the psyche of an Austrian teenage girl. Who are they into? Who are their favorite singers/actors/etc.? I loved getting the answers because it is so telling about what's cool and in right now--and almost all of them were American! So, to give you an insight into what is on teenagers' minds today, here are some of their answers...

• Johnny Depp (Best question: 'Is he old?' They couldn't reach a consensus on this one--half of them thought he was old and half of them thought he was just kind of old!)


• Madonna (In contract to Johnny Depp, Madonna was considered 'very old.')


• Elvis Presley


• Heath Ledger


• Hillary Duff


• Bryan Adams (a surprising choice!)


• Britney Spears (by far the most popular choice, with 6 entries)


• Rihanna


• Paris Hilton (also very popular with about 4 entries)


• Orlando Bloom


• George W. Bush


• Heidi Klum (also pretty popular right now because of her show Germany's Next Top Model)


• Christiano Ronaldo (I had to look him up...)


• Brad Pitt (Britney Spears' counterpart, also entered 6 times)


• Pink


• Adam Brody (Yes, The OC has made it to Austria)


• Leonardo DiCaprio (I actually laughed out loud when I read this one, because I realized he was all the rage when I was their age too--around the time that Romeo + Juliet and Titanic came out...and after 12 years, he's still going stong in the hearts of teenage girls!)

Quick Update: The Story of My November

The last thing I want to do write now--um, I mean right now--is use the mental energy to update my blog or write a thoughtful email. Most of my mental energy is being consumed by another source, but more on that soon.


It's the second week of November, and my second week at the new school. I'm still mostly making the rounds and introducing myself to countless rounds of teenagers who somehow all look the same, but the contrast to my other school couldn't be any greater. I've seen only 3 male students since I've been at the new school--since it focuses on things like cooking, most guys go to other sorts of high schools. But these three guys and the countless girls are amazing. I love my students. They are quiet, they are well-behaved, they are attentive, and they ask questions. They're open and curious, and I've had nothing but good experiences in the classroom. Granted we're still in the honeymoon period with each other, but I'm really looking forward to spending my three week intervals with them. After one of my introductory lessons to a senior class last week, the teacher later came up to me and said, "The students told me after you left that they think you made the right decision to become a teacher." Hearing that from the students (albeit secondhand), was the biggest compliment/encouragement/affirmation I could have received.


I'm keeping this short (yes, you're allowed to cheer) because that other source of mental energy consumption is the novel I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which I mentioned earlier. You'll notice the new NaNoWriMo badge to the right of this post--I thought I'd add some NaNoWriMo flair to the page to keep me going. I'm at 20,057 words, which is 50 pages (12 pt Garamond, 1.5 spacing to be exact) and counting. In these first ten days I've learned that no matter how much you love writing (or art, or music, or anything creative for that matter), it's still a discipline to keep it going. On a good day, I can pump out my 1667 words in a breezy two hours; if I'm not feeling the muse, it can take up to four hours. I've read pep talks (THANK YOU NANOWRIMO!!) from numerous published authors who've described the very same process. The fairy tale of the inspired author whose novel simply materializes in an endless stream of inspiration has been put to rest. And I'm okay with that. I'm in the middle of a massive creative process, and even the days where writing a few pages is like pulling teeth are valuable.


So that's it for now...I'll update again later when I need another diversion or hit an extreme case of writer's block.

My first words at midnight, November 1, 2008. ...Then I went to bed and started over in the morning.