Two Tours in One Day, 22 Juni 2010

So today was surprisingly busy and tiring at the Museum. We had two tours, of which I really only observed and yelled at some kids, of elementary students. Matthias was initially supposed to give them alone, but since he's still got a gimpy foot, a lady, Frau Pernt, was recruited to help. She did most of the tours, with Matthias either taking a second group or being an additional resource.
The first tour was turned out to be very crazy. I wasn't really sure what was going on and neither did Matthias. When I met him and Frau Pernt in the foyer, he was carrying a real lance with a tennis ball speared on the end, so it wouldn't stick anyone. The next hour was sprinkled with him pretending he was going to cleave my head in two. But then I got to carry it for a while that made me feel pretty cool. But the tour started with us going outside to the Museum garden and then to the Romaeus Turm (tower) ne Michaelturm. This was a little cool but the sun was out and it was nice. The kids knew a lot about Romaeus, which was surprising, but maybe they were from Villingen and no one told me. From there, we went all the way up to the Aktion 2, which is a fancy way of saying a classroom on the third floor.
From there we handed the kids worksheets and then shortly thereafter, released them into the museum to find some answers. This is where it got bad. Matthias had gone over with the kids to not run, be quiet, and not touch things. Well, lets just say for the next half hour I think we had to deal with rule breaker for all of those rules.
I found myself saying, "langsam" or "slow" and confiscating pencils. Towards the end, Matthias actually shouted at some boys who were beginning to wrestle. The girls were mostly sweet, though. One of them drew a picture depicting Romaeus (who died in 1513) as a hiphop artist. That was pretty good. I saw them later outside the museum during my lunch break and they all were happy to see me again and waved. We were glad they were gone, though.
I took about an hour and a half lunch break today. I figured there was nothing else I could do and after that tour I deserved it. I went back to the garden and ate lunch staring at the Romaeus fountain. Then I went by the library to use a computer. This was not a successful endeavor because all two of the internet computers were already occupied. So I walked to Mueller and bought some more conditioner, since the first stuff I bought is almost gone and is crap. Then I went back to the Museum, let the copy machine repairman in and drank some tea until it was time to meet for the next tour.
The last tour was actually quite enjoyable. The class was second grade, and we divided them into two groups, which were quite manageable. I went with Matthias and we did the clay jar activity first. This was the same tour about the Celts that I went on a few weeks ago, so I didn't really learn anything new. But the kids were good, though the boys were ALL smartalecks. It did kind of bother me, but I wasn't the teacher. I mean, five people telling you one after the other what they know about the Celts: "They're called Celts." And they were all kind of pushy.
But the kids dug in the sandbox model of the Magdalenenburg again. This time it was less messy. But I think the bench Matthias and I sat on has been broken since the last time we sat on it; it kept rocking back and forth today. But the kids all cooperated and we filled up the time well.
It was kind of sweet, too, while the kids were getting their bags from the coat check, the girls wanted to translate their names into English. Apparently "Randy" was really funny. But after the tour and clean up, it was time to catch my train home.