lambissson

Thanks a lot! That makes me feel better. I guess if there was a problem, I would have heard something, but I'll still call anyway.

Has anyone at all received their medical clearance? I sent mine in on April 13 and still haven't heard anything.

What all are we supposed to have sent in already? All I did was send in the grant authorizations with the passport pictures and I sent my orientation registration by email. Is that all we're supposed to do? I see the banking account information form, but I guess they don't expect us to do that until September. Someone else mentioned insurance forms. We don't have to fill out any of those, do we? Hopefully we'll all receive our placements soon!

I'm a substitute teacher this school year. I was talking to another sub today and it turns out that she just declined a France ETA because her parents wanted her to start earning money. So there's still hope for the alternates! This is from a current Berliner ETA and thought that some of you might find it interesting: In the paychecks, they prorate, so in September, as you probably won't start until the 8th or 10th or something, you'll only get about 3/4 of your monthly pay. And in terms of when you get paid... They told us to bring enough money for the first 4-6 weeks. I didn't get my first pay check until October 31 (2 months into the grant). That kind of hurt. Be prepared for that. The 12 hours thing varies by school. I have some friends in former East schools who will get yelled at if they try to teach more than twelve hours; it is absolutely forbidden. I also know some people who are taken advantage of and are working way more than they should. It really depends. In my school, I have a set schedule of 12 hours, but during some weeks I work more (extra help, conversation courses, requests from other teachers to teach certain topics, etc.), and sometimes it's less (exams during normal meeting times, etc.). It really varies. In Germany, as I'm sure you know, the concept of teaching assistants does not exist, and the Fulbright Kommission and the PAD do not provide any training for the schools or teachers. Most of them have no idea what to do with us. Again, here, people's experiences vary by school. One of my friends teaches full lessons and substitute teaches (not officially allowed). Another one just sits there. All the time. I am in the middle. Some of my teachers are control freaks and/or do not know how to use me (despite lots of suggestions) and I am more or less another student (at least I feel like I am). Some team-teach with me, or let me run my own conversation courses, writing workshops, and speaking/pronunciation sessions. These are awesome. I have one teacher who splits her 32-student class with me; we each teach the same thing to smaller groups in separate rooms. It really is a mix. When you're working at your school, you basically need to communicate a lot, offer ideas and suggestion of what you can do, and make your own position. From the collective experience of all of the Fulbrighters I know, the school won't really do it for you. I don't mean to discourage you at all. I have really loved my Fulbright experience, but the Fulbright Kommission/PAD didn't really tell us all that beforehand. It would've been nice to know. As for teaching materials... I brought a ton of newspapers, maps, etc. that I haven't used at all. I would ask your Betreuunglehrer(in) what he/she would recommend. Each school has different supplies, and a lot of them use different textbooks covering different materials, so you really just need to see what your specific school/teacher needs/has/does. That being said, the kids in my conversation class loved looking at American (teen, fashion, etc.) magazines that I brought in for them when we did the "Teen Magazine" unit in their book (you can buy all of these in Berlin though), and personal photos were a big hit/ great conversation starter with all of my classes. They don't even have to be American photos... I brought some from trips I've taken and used them to talk about travel/different countries/geography, etc.

I'll arrive on August 31, go to Sweden for a few days, and then fly to K

No, not really. STA Travel will only allow us/them to book as far as April 8. I went to a STA Travel store to buy a ticket for a year long exchange and they still told me they could only do 330 days. They'll book the return for whatever the latest available date is, and then you have to change it before that date for $50 and any applicable airline fees. At least that's how it works when you get one of their special "Blue" tickets, or I think it's what they now call STA exclusive tickets.

I just booked my ticket and here's a tip: For the ticket I booked, you have to be a student or 25 or under when you return. He said that you don't have to take classes full-time to be considered a student, and you don't have to have any proof of being a student either. Just so you all know... All I had to pay for was the ISIC card but I read that this is reimbursable. Good luck to everyone else!

I wrote Fulbright Germany and they said that I do NOT need to follow the Fly America guidelines. I'm not sure if this is true for all German grantees, the ETAs, or maybe just me because of the issue with it being twice as expensive. I definitely recommend contacting the Commission, like the letter says. I don't want anyone to book a flight and then have to end up paying for it because they had to follow the guidelines. On page 5 of Circular I, under Item 8b it says, "Please contact the Commission regarding travel arrangements, including whether the Fly America guideline must be followed for your travel." I've called the number listed for us to contact at STA Travel several times and every single time, the person didn't really know what Fly America was and had no idea if we had to follow it. STA Travels offers a lot of non-American flag carriers, which was why it's so frustrating. They are much cheaper than the American ones!

They cover up to $1200 and sadly, $100 is a lot to me. Of course I'll pay it if I have to, but it's just frustrating to know there's flights out there for half the price.

Aww, that stinks. Thanks for the answer and good luck finding a flight (that doesn't go over the allowance)!

German ETAs: Does anyone know if we have to follow the Fly America Act? I thought that we did but then I read somewhere else that we had to check on that. I really hope that we don't. The cheapest flight I can get with an American carrier is $1300. That's just silly, especially considering I could fly with British Airways for $603... I called Mr. Restrepo about it, so if nobody here knows, we'll know soon enough

Well that's weird. You have been the first to say that theirs was filled in. We are supposed to learn about our school placement in July, but I know some people in Berlin and they say that it's easy to find housing. I guess we could just find some place now and possibly end up sitting on a train for 40 minutes to our future school, but I'd rather just wait. I'm normally worried about everything, but this is one thing that I feel like I can wait for

Congratulations! Also, I found out that we'll be getting 800 Euros per month in Berlin I received a great and really interesting email from one of the current Berliners. I'm going to ask her if it's okay to post it here because it'll be helpful to all the German ETAs.

That's really weird. There was some stuff about insurance in the circular (the one that's also on the website), but not anything specifically about insurance. Was it like a booklet? Everything was in English.

I got a "Here is your grant authorization" letter, 5 grant authorizations (where it has the financial coverage of grant area that was left blank), Circular I A-C, Terms and Conditions of Award, Homestay in Germany for Fulbright Teaching Assistants application, and an Experiment E.V. booklet. The grant authorization is numbered 1-11. 8 is Financial Coverage of Grant. Does yours just say "monthly: Euro" or "monthly: Euro 703 or 800"? Or maybe you have a different form? I'm so happy that I'm in Berlin that I don't care THAT much, but whether it's 703 or 800 Euros, it's kind of important. I looked on that list of current German ETAs and emailed some poor random person and asked them. I figure I'll be able to get my answer that way. I'll let you all know what they say, but that'll only be helpful if there are some Berlin lurkers out there.

Some of the German ETAs are getting $1089 and some are getting $957, depending on which state we're in. Since that's a big difference, I'd like to know how much I'll be getting so I can convert enough money. Housing isn't paid for. Do ETAs from other countries get a lot more or something? I don't think that 800 Euros is so bad, especially considering we're only supposed to be working "up to 12 hours a week." If I were in Iceland or Sweden or some other awesome Scandinavian country and was getting $1000 a month, I wouldn't be super happy, but it's doable in (some places) in Germany.

Thanks, and congratulations to you too! On the grant authorization, under 8. Financial Coverage of Grant, it says this: A. Maintenance monthly: Euro B. Transportation and Baggage Allowance: Total: Euro 150 I know that the circular says either 703 or 800 depending on your Bundesland, but you'd think that since we know the Bundesland now, they could tell us. But maybe it was just a mistake and only mine isn't filled in...

I got Berlin! It was my first choice so I'm really, really happy. The only thing is that it says: A. MAINTENANCE monthly: Euro Did anyone have that part filled in? I'm also extremely shocked by how quickly we received these! That first letter took like 3 weeks and this took only 5 days. YAY!

How did you find out that you were selected? I'm happy that you're excited about it! Congratulations

That list of Germany ETAs is pretty interesting. There is 1 Hauptschule, 2 Realschules, 10 Gesamtschules, 6 Grundschules, 8 Berufliches Schules and 84 gymnasiums. And then some schools that don't fit into any of those groups. As far as the big cities go, there are 11 in Berlin, 3 in Frankfurt, 3 in Cologne, and 2 in Munich.

All they said was, "The grant authorization letter will be sent out this week." That's all I know :/ The circular says that we need to book our flight by May 30. We can't book our flight until we know what Bundesland we're in, so I'm assuming the grant authorization will give us our placements. I think it said that in the circular too, but I can't find where. I guess it's coming from Germany. That's who I emailed anyway. I sent in my medical clearance forms a few days after I got them, and I don't think anyone has received clearance yet, so I guess it doesn't matter. Didn't Charles Restrepo say that clearances had nothing to do with placements? Or maybe I'm getting things confused.

To all the Germany ETAs: Grant authorization letters are supposedly being sent this week!

It says, "These three sources normally all provide the same benefits so that all teaching assistants receive the same amount. HOWEVER, as of this program year most unfortunately not all Bundesl

That's good to know. Did he also happen to mention when we're getting our placements? They used the word "soon" way too often in the letter from Germany! It was sent on April 1 and it's now April 28. I think it's past "soon." I just read the first circular. It's really unfortunate that some people are getting 703 Euros this year instead of 800, like we were all supposed to get. 97 Euros makes a huge difference, especially if you're in an expensive city...

I've been checking that site everyday since I received the letter from Germany. Since it wasn't up last night, today is the first day it's existed. Before it would just redirect you to the sitemap. Also, the letter from Fulbright Germany referred us to that link and said it would open in late April.