"Whatever you do...stay away from the coffee shops!" - Klassenfahrt nach Amsterdam

Yet another exciting week of my year abroad has passed. Only this week, I went on my first school trip as a member of staff, taking a group of Year 13s to the city of clogs and coffee shops…the one and only, Amsterdam!

Bright and early on Monday morning, off we went. Actually, it took us a while to get going, as no sooner had we sat down, buckled up and began to drive away from school, than one of the students helpfully pointed out that the luggage hold of the coach was still open. Once that was sorted, we thought we were off again. But no! We were just pulling out of the school driveway, onto the main road when the cry of “Achtung, das Taxi!” went up – for any non-German speakers, that means “Watch out you crazy bus driver, you’re about to hit a taxi!” - which, unfortunately, he did. So that set us back a bit. In respect of “ ‘elf ‘n’ safety,” the police had to be called. But once the police officer had come aboard, and clarified that none of us had been critically injured during the small scratch sustained by the cab, we were finally, (third time lucky), on our way. I did wonder if that would set the tone for the rest of the trip, i.e. one small disaster after another, but it definitely did not. It was an absolutely brilliant few days, and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

 Amsterdam, though, is truly the quirkiest city I’ve ever been to! It has none of the towering skyscrapers you would perhaps expect from a capital city – its skyline couldn't be more different to  London, for example – but it is beautiful in its own way, nonetheless, even if some of the buildings are quite literally sinking into the ground! Two major things that you can’t miss; firstly, they love their cyclists! Seriously, I don’t think I've ever seen so many bicycles in one place at one time, and the people who ride them are truly a law unto themselves. ‘Survival of the fittest’ became a phrase often used during the week.  Secondly, they don’t really seem to do pavements in Amsterdam, at least not along the side streets of the city centre, which often makes it quite confusing as to who has right of way when a car, or more often a tram is heading right for you. It would be interesting to see whether statistically people are more likely to get run over by a tram or a rogue cyclist!! Possibly even both at the same time. I also hadn't appreciated beforehand just how open they are about their ‘coffee shop culture.’ I thought the whole smoking-thing they've got going on would be much more secretive and on the down-low. But I discovered over the course of the week that it is entirely normal to glance into the window of a coffee shop and see a group of people sitting around a table, casually smoking a spliff! Each to their own, I guess.

A little taster of the Heinenken Museum

But of course, you can’t travel to such a famous city, and not see some of the sights it has to offer. I must admit, I’m becoming quite the tourist since arriving in Germany. We visited various sights; Madame Tussauds, the Ajax Arena to name a couple,  and visited the Heineken and BOLS ( a liquor) museum – I did wonder to myself whether there was a deliberate theme with those two! Both were very informative, but I think we were all most excited by the free glasses of either beer (Heineken) or cocktail (BOLS) that you get at the end of your visit, which were really rather tasty. There was also enough free time for us to explore the city for ourselves. I think Amsterdam is definitely a city, where, if you have the time and the willpower to search off the beaten track, there are so many things it has to offer! ( I do apologise if I’m sounding like a travel brochure!) The evenings, for example were free, so the other teachers and I mainly spent them sitting somewhere in a bar making the most of the cheap Heineken beer, or chilling in the youth hostel and enjoying Happy Hour, which was a really nice way for me to get on friendlier terms with some of my fellow colleagues, whilst enjoying a beer (or three). It was also really the first time since arriving in Bensheim that I’ve had the opportunity to properly get to know my mentor. She is absolutely wunderbar, and I think we are going to be great friends! On Wednesday night, we went to a nearby pub with her class of Year 13s. They are such a lovely group, and made me feel very welcome, so it was really nice for me to get to know them a little better too, especially as we’re almost the same age. Also, I was so impressed with how they were able to go out in the evenings, stay out till the small hours, and still make it up in time for breakfast at about 7.30 the next morning!! Maybe two years at uni has turned me into a premature old person, but honestly, if I go on a night out now, I need about three days to recover, so I don’t know how they did it.

Lady Gaga and her new band - available for bookings now! 

And then, as it inevitably does, Friday came around, and it was time to wave Auf Wiedersehen to Holland, and head back to Bensheim. Walking around a city for three days on the trot did eventually take its toll, so I was very excited to sleep in my own bed, and make the most of my lie-in on Saturday. Also, maybe it’s a European thing, but try as they might, they just can’t make a good brew like the Brits do, and surprisingly enough, Yorkshire Gold wasn’t a brand of tea bags that was available in our Dutch youth hostel, so it was nice to get home, curl up with a good cuppa, and look forward to many more exciting weeks here in Deutschland.

Ciao for now.

Die Zeit geht so schnell vorbei!

This week marks the four-week post of my time in Germany. How cer-aaa-zy is that?!  On Wednesday I will have been here exactly a month. I’m having such a great time so far, so if time would be so kind and slow down a bit, I would be very grateful!

I feel like I’m finally getting into the swing of things, and establishing a routine and a life for myself here, especially with working in the school, which is a nice feeling. Don’t get me wrong, the first few weeks were brilliant in their own way too, but there’s always that feeling of apprehension lurking in the pit of your stomach while you adjust to a new place, as you’re never quite sure what each new day will hold, but, (*touch wood*) that seems to have gone now.  I’m becoming more confident, both when I’m hanging around in the staff room in between lessons, and when I’m actually teaching. I’ve added another couple of lessons to my repertoire this week. On Wednesday I taught a class of Year 11s, and surprised even myself which just how much I enjoyed it! The class is full of really lovely students, and my fabulous mentor teacher was in the room with me, which helped. But there seems to be some sort of bug going around school, so the teachers were dropping like flies towards the back end of the week, which meant that on Thursday I had to teach a class of twenty 16 year olds completely on my own. Although the thought of this beforehand terrified me – the class can become…restless…shall we say, all I had to do was remind myself a few times: “me, teacher; you, student,” and it proved much easier than I thought to keep their attention. I even managed to raise my voice a few times to quieten them down, and that’s normally not something I’m very good at!

I’ve also managed to download a few of my favourite TV programmes onto my computer. So I’m now able to watch ‘The Great British Bake Off,’ ‘Dr Who,’ and even ‘Mock the Week’ entirely at my leisure, which is a nice touch of home to have, especially on quieter days like Sundays, or if I’ve got nothing to do of an evening. And very slowly, but nevertheless surely, I am kind-of beginning to get to grips with the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road here. Actually, I say getting to grips, when what I actually mean is that I’m learning that if I think the traffic should be coming at me from one direction, in all likelihood it will be coming from the other direction. Either way, I’m walking out into the road in front of far fewer cars that I was when I first arrived!  It may even be time to invest in a bike!

One of my proudest moments of the week, however, was that during this Wednesday’s Lehrersport, I managed to master that weird technique volleyball players use whereby they clasp their hands together and hit the ball with their wrists. Ok, so maybe ‘master’ is a strong word, but I managed to hit the ball using this technique and…wait for it…it went over the net. Boom!! I also almost scored a basket in basketball (funnily enough!). Get me!! However, the dreaded word “hockey” was mentioned by one of the teachers; I have a feeling they won’t want to let me loose with a hockey stick, so maybe I’ll sit that one out!

Seeing as I’m spending the vast majority of my time at the moment speaking and listening to people in German, I’d almost forgotten that I do, in fact, study two languages at university. My somewhat limited knowledge of the French language has been a little neglected thus far, so I thought it was about time I refreshed my memory, and went along to a couple of Year 11 French lessons this week.  It was useful, as I don’t think I had realised up until that point, just how immersed in the German language I had become, so I hope it will prove helpful to have a weekly dose of French to keep me going. Otherwise I feel trying to attempt final-year ‘Modern French Language III’ could prove to be very tricky indeed!! The class I went along to has only just started learning French properly, so, as you would expect when learning a foreign language, the teacher kept switching between French and the class’s native language. Unluckily enough for me, however, this meant that the conversation in class kept switching between German and French, which essentially meant I was learning a third language through my second language. Mind-boggling is the only adjective I can think of to describe that lesson! It’s good brain-training though, I suppose. Mixes it up a little.

And to tie up the week, I ventured to Frankfurt, to embrace my inner-tourist, and meet up with a friend from uni. I don’t know about you, but when I think of famous German cities, Frankfurt isn’t one that immediately springs to mind. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect; envisaging perhaps a 60’s-style concrete monstrosity, but it isn’t like that at all! It’s an eclectic mix of the very modern and very quintessentially German. Round one corner, there are towering skyscrapers, huge modern shopping centres and of course, the European Central Bank. (I did get very excited when we spotted the big EURO sign outside, half-hoping that Gavin Hewitt would appear at any moment and start doing a report for the BBC, but it’s closed at the weekends, so  sadly no big ‘Greek Rescue’ this week.) Then if you walk for five minutes towards the river, you come across the ‘Altstadt,’ where it’s all cobbled streets and iconic pointy-roofed buildings. It’s a really nice city though, with something to appeal to everyone, and it’s really easy to get to for me, so I definitely want to go back there at some point over the year, especially when those infamous German Christmas markets get underway! 

Outside the ECB

The Altstadt in Frankfurt

Ta ta for now. 

Just Chuck Yourself In.

So another week has passed. I’m having a great time, and I feel more and more at home here every day.  Life is good.

On Tuesday morning, I taught my first class. Up until now, I’ve mainly just been observing how the class teacher conducts a lesson, and occasionally helping out with the odd bit of vocab. But this was the first time (since Altenberg) that I’d actually stood up in front of a room full of teenagers and tried to teach them English. I was really nervous at the start – trying to hand out work sheets when your hand is trembling is not the easiest of tasks – but I soon relaxed into it, and luckily enough for me, the class I was teaching is full of really nice students, who were all keen to get involved, which made my job a lot easier! The theme of the lesson was the ‘English school system,’ so I got to talk to them (with the aid of various photos) about all my school’s funny little quirks and rules. They seemed completely shocked that we had things such as ‘detention’ and weren’t allowed to wear earrings! I got good feedback from the class itself as well as the teacher, so that was a nice confidence-boost to start off the week.

On the subject of teaching, this week has also seen me start to work with the foreign exchange students in the school, and attempt to teach them German. I think it’s incredibly brave to go to a country on your own, where you don’t speak a word of the language (I was terrified myself, and I’ve been learning German for nearly 10 years!), so I have nothing but admiration for them. I’m hoping that at some point, once we’ve left the realms of learning the names of colours and food etc. behind,  I’ll be able to unleash my love of German grammar on them, (adjectival endings, here we come!), but I’m not sure they’re quite ready for that yet. Baby steps, Emily. Baby steps.

I also, in the spirit of “chucking myself in,” tried ‘Lehrersport’ [teacher sport] for the first time this week, as I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know a few of the teachers better. They get really into it, and I had a great time, except for one small flaw; that being that I am terrible at sport. When I say terrible, I mean terrible! I have no hand-eye coordination, and there also appears to be no connection whatsoever between my brain and my limbs. I see ze ball. I kick ze ball. Doesn’t matter to whom or in which direction. There is no interim involved. This being true, volleyball was always going to end badly. I think the other teachers took pity on me, and heartily congratulated me every time I managed to get the ball over the net!! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally un-fit, I like swimming, and even go for the occasional jog, but when I’m confronted with any kind of ball-shaped object that I either have to throw, catch, or kick, any modicum of sporting ability that I may possess goes völlig aus dem Fenster. Physical activity is clearly not my calling in life. So for the poor group of teachers that had to have me on their team, thank you for the encouragement, and my most sincere apologies. Needless to say I don’t think this was their most successful week! I am, however, determined to stick with it. In the immortal words of Yazz & The Plastic Population, “The only way is up, babehhh,” so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will…eventually…improve. If, by the end of the year, I can stand on a volleyball court and serve from the correct line, instead of one 5 miles closer to the net, I will be a very happy lady!  

Now that my fridge is all in place, I have finally started to get to grips with German food. I must admit, after my first German supermarket experience that was Aldi, where I could not find pasta sauce for love nor money, but where duvets and paint brushes in various sizes were available by the box-load, I did have reservations about what my diet would look like while I’m here. However, this was all before I discovered the wonder-shop that is…Netto!! Now, I have been a steadfast Waitrose-gal for the past 3.5 ish years, and I will be the first to admit that Netto’s customer service did not quite fit the bill of what I’m used to.  I was for example, not offered a bag for life, nor was I escorted to the product I was after, (honey, in this case,) but it’s dirt cheap, and what’s more I managed to find genuine Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, PG Tips and Heinz Tomato Ketchup, so I think I’ll let them off. I’m still on the hunt for McVitie’s Chocolate Digestives, but I guess you can’t have everything in life!

And finally, to end my week, I had my first visitor from home; my lovely friend Rachey. I decided that it was time I explored somewhere further afield than a 5 mile radius of Bensheim, so we travelled to the gorgeous city that is Heidelberg. It’s very typically German, and we did all the normal touristy-activities, like wandering down the Haupstrasse, climbing up the huuugggeee hill to the very strategically placed castle, and taking lots of touristy photos. The highlight of the day for me, however, hands down was the ride on a double-decker train that delivered us from Bensheim to Heidelberg. T’was incredibly exciting!  

 a double-decker train!!! How cool!!!!

So, another week full of exciting new adventures, (and yes, I do consider the discovery of Netto an adventure!) is over.  Here’s to many more.

This is Heidelberg. It's sehr pweeety.

Oh, and I’ve started dreaming in German. Ok, so it may have been a dream where I met the Queen in the laundry room of my flats, and told her to please hurry up using the washing machine, because I’d run out of socks, but it was nevertheless auf deutsch. 

Maybe I’m settling in more than I thought.

Until next time, folks.

A Week of 'Firsts'...

Was für eine Woche! In some respects it’s flown by, and in others, I feel like I’ve been here for aaaages. I hope this is a good thing. My first full week as a teacher is over, I am now officially a fully-registered German citizen, and I’m loving it. It has been manic. That I can say without a shadow of a doubt. There have been so many new opportunities and experiences, I am completely exhausted. But it’s the same type of exhausted you get after walking round Disneyland all day. You’re knackered, but in a I-want-to-go-back-for-more-tomorrow kind-of way!

I’ve completed my first full week working in my new school. I’ve been bombarded with new names to learn, new faces to recognise and it is still beyond me how the students and teachers manage to make it into school for 7.45 am every morning, and still look perky! Despite this, I’m beginning to slowly adjust to life in Germany. Everyone thus far has been so nice and welcoming that I already feel at home there. Having been a student for the last 16 years (my God that makes me feel old!), I’ve obviously always been on the receiving end of teaching, having to absorb every piece of information that is divulged to me. It’s very interesting and rewarding to be on the other side of the teacher’s desk, so to speak, and to be the one that students learn from. I’ve even been asked to help a few foreign exchange students that don’t speak any German, learn to speak it. That could be…interesting!

It’s been a ‘week of firsts’ in other ways, too. I finally have an internet connection that is fast enough for me and my pc (thank you, very nice man in the O2 shop!), a German mobile number, more mugs than you could shake a stick at - for those of you who don’t know, I drink a lot of tea - and thus feel I can finally start to call my little flat home. Perhaps more importantly, however, for the first time since arriving in Germany nearly two weeks ago, I have a fridge!! There was a super-dooper, fancy-nancy, swanky-danky one in my flat…but it doesn’t work. So now I have a smaller, but nevertheless functioning fridge to keep my milk cold. Cereal, or tea for that matter, with luke-warm, long-life milk just isn’t appealing! But who knew I would get so excited about a fridge!! Seriously, I keep putting things in it, leaving it for a while and then squealing with excitement when they get cold. Be warned – this is what happens when you spend too much time in your own company!

I’ve also had my first taste of a German ‘zumba’ class. For anyone who doesn’t know, zumba is a keep-fit class that’s a little bit like aerobics, but with set dance routines, rather than “march-2-3-4-arms-2-3-4” instructions. I do it pretty regularly at home, and I love it, because our instructor very kindly shouts out instructions as we go along. Not here. No, no, no. The instructors very rarely say anything, actually, except to shout out the occasional “schneller!” when the pace slows down. Also, I’m not exactly Miss Hand-Eye-Coordination-2012, so it was a lot more difficult to inconspicuously bumble around at the back, like I normally do at home. I’ll stick with it though. Who knows, by the end of the year I might do it as precisely as the Germans.

So there we have it. It’s been a week of completely new experiences and new people. I think and hope that I’m going to be very happy here over the next 9 months.

Oh, and the wine-festival is still going strong…outside my window. It’s not so bad, in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s quite comforting when you live on your own, to know that civilisation (and food) is just outside. If only they wouldn’t play ABBA all the time!! No word of a lie, they played Mamma Mia a grand total of 5 times the other day. I mean I love ABBA as much of the next person, but I think the phrase ‘you can have too much of a good thing’ has never been more appropriate!

Also, this is what greeted me when my internet was finally good enough for me to skype my family, (note my expression). Now perhaps I know where my eccentricities come from...

"Please can you fasten your seatbelts. You will find them at your seats...obviously!" - Herzlich Wilkommen in Deutschland!

So I’ve arrived in my little corner of Germany, more commonly known as Bensheim. But before I could reach this lovely, quintessentially German town, I spent three days on a so-called ‘Einführungstagung’ in a place called Altenberg, near Cologne.  Basically you are thrown together with a group of people you’ve never met before, who are also aspiring language assistants, for three days and you are taught how to teach. It reminded me very much of Freshers’ week, just with less alcohol and more work. (Although having said that, the one bar that was open for us did very good business while we were there!)

Before we went on this course, our university lecturers warned us that “it’s in the middle of nowhere, and food is scarce.” This was, fortunately, only really half true. It’s not exactly at the heart of civilisation, (being a former monastery, this is perhaps unsurprising), but then again it wasn’t the shed-in-the-middle-of-a-field that I was expecting, either. As for the food, it’s available in abundance if you’re willing to ask for it, but I was nevertheless still grateful for the couple of cereal bars I’d chucked in the backpack (you’re not allowed to take a suitcase up to your room with you), just in case.

I’m not the most outgoing of people, so doing something like this, even if it is only for three days, takes me so far out of my comfort zone, it’s a small speck in the distance. There’s a lot of information to absorb in a very short space of time, and not only do you spend almost every waking minute in the company of people you don’t know very well, but at the end of the third day you have to get up in front of these people and pretend to teach them English for 45 minutes. But, I survived, and I’ve learnt a lot from it. And what’s more, I think I’ve made some really nice new friends out of it. Every cloud, and all that! It’s also good to share your expectations and worries about your imminent arrival in your destination with other people. Some of these turn out to be unfounded, but a lot of them are actually shared by the people you meet there, so it’s nice to feel like it’s not all in your head. Wir setzen alle im selben Boot, after all.

And then comes the time when you have to leave the shelter of the monastery, and make your own way to your town. As my train approached Bensheim Bahnhof, I must admit I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nervous. But the town is lovely, and living practically in the town centre means that, luckily enough for me, I’m right in the centre of it all. I also couldn’t have asked for a nicer mentor. She has been an absolute star already – and I’ve only been here two days!! I wouldn’t have felt half so at home it if were not for her. I was really nervous on my first morning in school,  but all the teachers and students were really welcoming, and I hope that once I adjust to life in Germany and get into the swing of it, that I’ll relax into it a bit more. Fingers crossed!

So now I’m off to enjoy a wine festival-type-event…but German-style! My first proper experience of German culture, and I’m very excited.

Oh and one thing I forgot about Altenberg. The bells! Every morning, 6am, there they were. Only the lucky few amongst us slept deeply enough not to be woken up by them. I, unfortunately, was not one of these! At least I can sleep a bit more peacefully now I'm in Bensheim. (She says, as the wine festival starts up directly across the road from my flat.) Joy!