“…really really really wanna zig-a-zig-ah.”

I think I've come out from under the homesick cloud, so this week has been much better, if not very busy! There have been several teacher-conferences in the past couple of weeks that I've gone along to. I've never really appreciated before just how many teachers work at school – there are about 150 of them – I don’t think 9 months (well actually more like 7 now) will be sufficient to learn all those names. I can’t always understand everything that goes on during these conferences, but there seems to be plenty of opportunities to knock on the tables, [the German version of clapping – it’s brilliant!] so I assume they've gone well.

The Year 11s I work with have focused on English grammar, specifically tenses this week, which, considering I've been employed as an ‘English expert’ really exposes the gaps in my knowledge of the English language. One of the girls asked me, “Emily, would we use the present continuous or the present perfect in this sentence?” I must admit, neither of those expressions mean anything to me. I couldn't tell you, for example why we say “I saw the film last Tuesday,” but “I have seen the film.” I find myself taking notes on my own language’s grammar during the lessons, so I have a sneaky feeling that an English grammar book may be a key addition to my Christmas list. Joy.

The undisputed highlight of my week, however, came during last week’s ‘Deutsch Als Fremdsprache’ lessons (where I’m helping the foreign exchange students learn German). Now, I consider the two American students my allies in school, as obviously they’re native English speakers too. However, I realised that even people with the same mother tongue confuse each other sometimes. We were learning the names for clothes in German – skirt, trousers etc. and when I asked “what’s the German word for a jumper?” I was met with four blank looks. Emily then asked “errrr, what’s a jumper?” thinking it was one of those super-sexy, all-in-one, velour jobbies that people used to wear in the 80s. LOL. I should have realised, the Americans are far too sophisticated to use words like ‘jumper’ to refer to a sweatshirt.  

And speaking of the US, I stayed up all night on Tuesday to listen to the election coverage on the radio. I've been rooting for Obama right from the start. I've never been a Romney fan, mainly because he insulted the London Olympics, so it was worth getting next to no sleep to hear Obama get re-elected, but Wednesday in school passed in a bit of a blur to say the least!

After my swim on Friday, which is becoming my day-off ritual, I finally had my first proper ‘night-out’ since being in Germany. Before I elaborate, can I just point out that people in Germany are far more open about nudity than we are in the UK. After my swim I was trying to discreetly get changed, whilst being surrounded by women, (most of whom were deffo at least 60) wandering around completely starkers!! What’s all that about?!?! I didn't know where to look. Seriously people, it’s just unnecessary. In the leisure centre I go to at home, we don’t even have communal showers. Anyway, regardless, I headed to Heidelberg with my exchange partner Ann-Ka and some of her friends to a 90s party. I’m a big fan of cheesy pop music, mainly because you can sing along like a loony at the top of your voice, jump, sway, wave your arms, whatever and you don’t even need to be drunk. It’s wunderbar. We had great fun boogying on down to the Spice Girls, Take That etc., and I even got to learn some German songs from the 90s. One called ‘Männer sind Schweine,’ [Men are Pigs] was a personal fave. One thing I did notice, however, was that people in Germany can party for a lot longer than we can in England. When we eventually made it home, there was a 6 on the clock, which is round about the time I normally get up to go school. It made a night at Evolve look tame!

On a slightly more solemn note, today, 11^th November, is Remembrance Sunday at home. My parents sent me a poppy over, as I haven’t seen anyone selling them over here. Commemorating our war dead is a huge part of being British. It’s something that’s embedded in our culture. I find it quite sad that there’s no German equivalent. At the end of the day, no matter which side you fight for, if you are one of those brave young men or women that makes the ultimate sacrifice for your country, it deserves to be commemorated.

Lest We Forget

And before I go, the Christmas-market season is now fast approaching. I’m very much looking forward to Christmas shopping, Lebkuchen and Glühwein. Christmas songs have even made an appearance on my ipod.

Ta ta for now.