Super Angie...My favorite teacher

My favorite teacher of all time was Frau Stroud (Ms. Stroud), my German teacher at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, WA. I remember my first day in her class, 10th grade. German 1.

"Guten Tag! Ich heisse Frau Stroud. Wie heisst du?" she said. We all sat their staring. WHAT THE HECK? Doesn't she realize we have no idea how to speak German? She walked around the classroom saying this over and over. Finally, I figured it out and raised my hand and said, "Angela". And so is my first memory. "Hello. My name is Frau Stroud. Whats your name?" I was hooked.

German is a hard language and I was not at all thrilled with some of the rules. In fact, for about a week, I refused to learn the articles that go with all the nouns. Then it dawned on my that millions speak this language around the world, and they didn't care if some little 15 yr old didn't like it...rules were rules and I wasn't going to change this language.

I loved Frau. She was so interesting and had great stories and experiences to share. Her class room had shopping bags from German stapled to the ceiling. All the bags had German written on them. I spent many of classes staring at the ceiling reading the signs.

I remember "Hore zu, und Wiederholen, Listen and Repeat". I remember some of the tapes we listened to. I remember "Sie liebt mich" from the Beatles. I remember the friends I made in the class. I remember when she would drive her Porsche to school, bring her doggie or wear her beautiful Dirdel (one of the prettiest I have seen!). I remember going to German camp with her and doing a skit (oh my, my German was horrible in that skit, but at least I had fun!!).

Like many other language class, we got to pick a German name to be known as in our class. I picked Katja (after Katia Gordeeva) and I started using Katja as my preferred name in other classes, email addresses and even adopted it as my middle name, since I didn't have one.

In 1994, after graduating, I went with Frau to Germany for 2 weeks (and then I stayed for 4 more weeks with Knut Hannemann--my German exchange student ex-boyfriend). It was so much fun traveling through Germany, Austria and Switzerland with Frau. I remember cruising the Rhein river with Frau. I remember walking the streets of Innsbrueck and Munich. Frau and I took off from the group and explored Rottenburg on our on...we found so many neat "hidden" places. So many great memories.

In 1995, my parents moved to Munich, so I moved there too. :) I attended Ludwig Maximillion Univeristaet. I traveled and just fell in love with everything. My German skills were great, thanks to the firm foundation that Frau planted for me.

Later, on another time visiting my parents, Frau was in Munich at the same time with another student group. We met up and went to an art museum together. Shes just great.

After marriage and moving back to Seattle, I started working in the Theater department at LWHS. I quickly found that Frau was no longer there. I had attended her wedding just a year prior but didn't know where she was. I talked to the Spanish teacher who, after learning that I had gone to Frau's wedding (and thus must be a good friend) was told she had Breast Cancer! HOLY CRAP!!!! Frau was okay and infact started runing in races for the cures etc. How incredible!

We have always sent Christmas or Thanksgiving cards to each other, but this year, I lost my address book. Luckily Frau still had my old address and thankfully, the postmaster forwarded her card to me. Now we are emailing and its so fun to keep in touch. She sent me this email today:

Life is too short to wake up with regrets..
There comes a point in your life when you realize:
Who matters,
Who never did,
Who won't anymore...
And who always will.
So, don't worry about people from your past,
There's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.

I love the fact that through email and my blog, I have been able to re-connect with people from my past.

--Super Angie Katja Waibel Miske