Ok, so I'll admit...

…I might be feeling a bit homesick. But more on that later.

So for the last two weeks we've had ‘Herbstferien,’ which can only mean one thing…two whole weeks of lay-ins – hell to the yeah! Two weeks is actually quite a lot of time to fill, especially when a place is still quite new to you, but it was a nice break, nonetheless.

Luckily enough, during the first week, Germany was experiencing a mini-heat wave. According to the BBC, temperatures reached 22 degrees on Thursday – London, eat your heart out. No rain for us here! I took that as a sign to make the most of the nice weather while it lasted, and get out and about, with the odd lazy day spent in pjs with multiple viewings of the Lion King and Harry Potter thrown in, natch! I went to see a performance by Simone (my mentor’s) chamber choir in a huge church in a town called Weinheim, which was really lovely, and something a bit different. I’m a bit of a sucker for classical music anyway – I know, I know, you’re all amazed at just how cool I am – so a chamber choir / orchestra / big church combo was always going to be something right up my street. Plus it made me miss the good old days of Senior Choir and Mr Werner at school. I also paid the nearby city of Mannheim a visit, meeting up with a teacher from school and her friend for a very relaxed afternoon of coffee and shopping, and, due to the gorgeous weather on Friday, I cracked out the walking boots and went for a hike into the hills that surround Bensheim with Simone and Thomas – a great way to spend an afternoon; chatting, walking and blowing the cobwebs away.

A snippet of the weather we were having

On Monday, I ventured over to Nuremberg for a couple of days, as it was a great excuse to meet up with some uni friends and explore a new German city. Monday was mainly spent shopping, catching-up and enjoying ‘Kaffee & Kuchen’ – a German tradition that I’m embracing wholeheartedly at every opportunity, despite the calories. From what I can gather so far, we’re all going to comeback with many-a weird and wonderful tale of life here. I’m collating a small dossier of them already. After a dinner of Bratwurst - they’ll make a proper German out of me yet – Sarah and I wished tschüs to the others, and stayed overnight in Nuremberg to do a few more culturally things on Tuesday. After wandering aimlessly around the Hauptbahnhof for a while trying to find the tram (note to self: the overhead signs are there for a reason,) we eventually headed out of town to the Doku-Zentrum, to a huge Colosseum look-a-like that the Nazis had built for their party rallies during the 1930s. It’s hard to convey the sheer size of it unless you’ve been there yourself, but ‘imposing’ seems the most appropriate adjective to describe it... hence why they had it built, I guess.  Despite that, and the weather, which was beginning to turn much colder after the short-lived Indian summer of the previous week, Nuremberg is a truly beautiful city, and I think definitely one of my favourite places I’ve visited so far.

You may be wondering how the mention of feeling homesick ties in with 10 days of travelling, nice weather, and a Warwick reunion. Well, on the last weekend of the holidays, the famalam arrived in Germany to pay me a visit. In fact, I've just left them at the airport, which possibly isn't helping the situation. I've mentioned this several times now, but it does genuinely feel like I've been in Germany fooorrrrevvvverrrrr, and I've been looking forward to seeing my family for practically the last nine weeks – ever since I waved goodbye to them through the security gates at Stansted airport. The past couple of months have been all-systems-go, and my feet have barely touched the ground, so many have been the new experiences, new people and new places. But two weeks off gives you enough time to stop and re-evaluate your situation, so it’s only really been the last couple of weeks that I've begun to appreciate how much I miss home. That’s not to say that I’m not having a good time, or that I want to leave Germany, because I don’t. I really don’t! I absolutely love it here, I think I've settled in well, I’m [hopefully] making new friends, and feel really at home, but I miss my family and my friends…a lot. And hence I've come to the conclusion that it is ok to admit to missing home as well as wanting this year never to end.

Moving to another country and setting up shop there on your own can be a fairly daunting task at times, and everyone needs a family hug every now and again to give you an extra boost. We had a really lovely weekend, although the weather in Bensheim very hospitably made my family feel at home, by merrily tipping it down throughout Saturday. (Some of the rain, however, did turn to snow, which was quite exciting). Having had my parents visit me, it also means they can now appreciate for themselves all the things I've been harping on about for the last two months; the school, Lehrersport Simone and Thomas, double-decker trains etc. There have been several occasions in that time, however, when I've thought to myself ‘Gah! This would be so much easier if Dad were here to help me through it, and Mum were on hand to give me a massive hug, and the brother were around with his endless supply of “helpful” comments.’  But what I have to keep reminding myself is that missing home doesn't detract anything from how much I love this year.

There…I've admitted it…that’s a weight off my chest. Now to put the kettle on, crack open a packet of chocolate digestives, and put on an episode of Downton Abbey. There’s nothing like a few home comforts when you’re feeling a bit wobbly. 

Maybe I’ll have to wait a little while longer before I feel like a true German!

You Call This A Brew?!

The last couple of weeks have been a bit manic, so I haven’t really had the chance to update this, but I’ve now got two weeks holiday, so I thought I’d give you all an update. I’ve been in school for six weeks now, and Germany for nearly 7, which just seems insane. Time really does fly!

I’ve taken the opportunity in the last couple of weeks to explore Bensheim a little closer, as it really is a beautiful little town.  There’s a very dainty-looking tea shop in the town centre that sells Scottish shortbread, so last week I decided to see just how good the German attempts at a decent cuppa really are. Bless them, they do try, but sadly good-old English tea this was not! I suppose alarm bells should have started ringing when the very nice waiter served it to me in a glass instead of a china mug. Oh no, no, no!  I think he must have waved the tea bag at the hot water, and then whisked it away, as my 'tea' was definitely not tea-coloured. But the major issue was that there was no milk!! Now, tea that contains barely any calories (essentially flavoured water disguising itself as tea) is sometimes appealing, but I was looking forward to a decent brew, and instead I was left with a glass containing vaguely brown-ish water and bereft without my milk!! Maybe in future I’ll stick to just buying Scottish shortbreads from there!

The proper way to serve a cup of tea - jus' sayin'

I’m still going with Lehrersport. We decided to mix it up a little bit a week or so ago, and headed to a sports park in Bensheim for a couple of games of badminton and squash. I’ve never played squash before in my life, so I thought it would be safer for all concerned if I sat that one out, but I did very much enjoy badminton. I also realised that I am slightly less terrible at badminton than I am at other sports, which was a bonus. My partner and I won 3 out of 4 games (Olympics 2016, here we come!), but somehow I suspect that was due to the fact that my partner was really bloody good, rather than my own abilities, but oh well! It’s also a tradition of theirs that they go out for a meal after sport during the last week of term, so it was really nice for me to chat to them in a slightly less sweaty environment than normal.

Over here in Hessen, we have two weeks holiday now, which was very welcome. Two whole weeks of lay-ins – boom! As they did when I was at school in England, things tend to wind down a lot towards the holidays, so last week was a very relaxed one in school. Some of the Year 11 classes I work with have moved onto learning about Shakespeare, and we studied one of his sonnets together on Thursday. I really did not enjoy Shakespeare at school – I’m sure he was a lovely chap, but his literature and I did not get on at all, so when it was mentioned that the students would be covering one of his sonnets, it did fill me with dread ever so slightly. It was, however, actually quite interesting to study it again, and to see how the students interpret it.  Because they’re studying literature that’s not in their own language, they obviously have to take it right back to basics, and analyse it from there, so they came up with some really good ideas, and gave me a fresh outlook on ol’ Shakey. Maybe he’s not so bad, after all.

On the subject of poetry, on Friday night I went to something called a ‘Dichterschlacht’ (poetry slam) in a city called Darmstadt with a friend from school and his German class. It was essentially a poetry competition by aspiring writers, who had to perform their various poems or short stories, and then we got to vote for our favourite. Apart from the fact that it was all in German, so understanding it was slightly tricky at times, it was very fun. But what I’m noticing more and more since being here is the way in which little English phrases or idioms are slowly infiltrating the German language. Phrases like “super-awkward,” or “true story” and even “homepage” and “meeting” are things regularly used in everyday German, and it always makes me chuckle when I hear them!

On Thursday afternoon, I got the afternoon off, and went on a staff excursion to a nearby town called Worms. As we had in Amsterdam, we had a woman take us on a walking tour of the town, and explained all about its history. It was a very pleasant afternoon, followed by a meal in a brewery. I still have yet to properly sample German beer, so that is definitely on my list of things to do in the near future!

So now it’s time to enjoy the holidays. I’m meeting up with some friends from uni and hopefully some of the teachers,  discovering some new German cities like Nuremberg and Weimar, and maybe even going hiking. How exciting!

So all is still good in the hood.

Although Dominos keep sending me texts reminding me about ‘Two for Tuesdays.’ I’ve never craved pizza so much in my life. It’s torture.

Gah!