All Aboard the Berlin Banter Blog!

Hello my darling readers,


I'm actually writing this within a few days of me arriving back from Berlin and haven't left it for a few weeks as I usually do. I hope you are proud of me and appreciate this great display of effort!

I suppose that I should start at the very beginning, as I hear that it's a very good place to start... My journey started at 7am on Friday when I got a taxi to the station. Unluckily, my driver was one of those ridiculously chatty taxi drivers. Now, I have nothing against them and I would even go as far as to say that it's quite pleasant to have a friendly taxi driver, but there should be a law that they are not allowed to talk to you before 9am. I know this sounds very antisocial, but the last thing I want to do at that time of the morning is to make inane small talk with people that I will never see again, particularly in a language that isn't my mother-tongue! It was all the usual questions like "Where are you from?" at the beginning, but once he found out I was from London, he started telling me a story about how he went to London once for three days when he was fifteen, and asked whether I knew someone called Peter who lives in St. Albans. Funnily enough, I didn't. For all of you Non-British folk, just because we live on a small island, does not mean that we all know each other!!! Needless to say, I was relieved to get out and onto my bus to Frankfurt airport, where I could plug in my iPod and nap!

Once arriving at the airport (ridiculously early, because it was the only bus that would get me there on time) I checked in and decided to get something to eat. Now, in an English airport, it is usually wise to eat after you have checked in and gone through security as there is less stress and there are usually a better selection of restaurants. Not in Frankfurt am Main, though... (Or Berlin Tegel for that matter). There was only one restaurant after security and I ended up paying a ridiculous amount for a Flammkuchen that I didn't even eat half of because it was a bit grim. By the time I arrived in Cottbus, I was starving, so was thankful when Emily suggested that we went and got something to eat!

Emily gave me the guided tour of Cottbus as we walked from the station to the main part of town. She said that is was fairly typically East German, but it was pretty dark and misty, so I didn't really get a chance to have a look. She showed me where she worked and we went to a lovely restaurant, which is quite like Giraffe in England. Em recommended the cocktails, so we set to work deciphering the mammoth cocktail list. Finally I settled on a strawberry margarita and Emily decided on a kiwi type thing. When the waitress came to take our order, we said which cocktails we'd like and she replied in German. I didn't catch what she had said, so said "Ich weiß nicht!" (I don't know!) Emily didn't understand what she had said either, but instead of saying that she didn't know, she decided to ignore her and hope that she went away. After a few awkward seconds of her looking at us expectantly, Emily just turned round to her and said "Ja." This seemed to satisfy the waitress and off she went. We just collapsed into giggles as we really didn't have a clue what we'd just agreed to. We were soon to find out, though... As our cocktails arrived, there were four on the tray and I thought "Oh the girls on the table next to us have ordered the same! What a coincidence!" How wrong I was. By saying "Ja", we had actually agreed to double cocktails! The waitress looked ridiculously shocked when Emily and I erupted into giggles again! Thankfully though, it was a situation that could have potentially turned out badly, but actually turned out quite well!

[Our double cocktails faux pas]

[Margarita time!]

The next morning, we got up early for our day trip to Berlin. Berlin is about an hour away from Cottbus on the train, so we lugged ourselves out of bed and caught the train at 9am. On the train into the city, the East and West divide was still really noticeable, which I was quite surprised about. Our first stop on our tour was what remains of the Berlin wall, which we headed to after meeting up with Emily's friend Martha at the Hbf. The station that we got off at to see the wall was in East Berlin, and I was quite shocked to see how different it was from what I'd seen of the West. I think the term that one of us used to describe it was "bleak". I know that it's just one part of the city, but I would have thought that it would have been more developed, particularly as it is a tourist destination and due to the fact that there is an O2 arena there. The arena looks so out of place and, setting it apart from everything else, I really did feel like I had been transported back to East Berlin in the 1980's. The wall is covered in all sorts of graffiti, some sending out political messages and some purely decorative. It was so interesting to see and one my personal highlights of the day.

[Berlin Wall]

[Half East, Half West]

The next stop was Checkpoint Charlie in Friedrichstraße. Friedrichstraße is quite clearly the shopping district of Berlin and it felt quite similar to London. I didn't know what I was expecting Checkpoint Charlie to be like, but I certainly didn't picture it the way it is! The best way to describe it, is that that it's  just chilling in the middle of a road full of shops. It's actually situated right next to one of the biggest capitalist brands that you can think of; McDonalds. (Some irony there, I feel.) Seeing as it was my first time in Berlin, I completely sold out to the tourism industry and paid €2 to have my photo taken with a soldier in front of the Checkpoint. As Emily took the photo, the soldier said to me in a strong Russian accent: "You have boyfriend?" I was a bit shocked as I told him "No". As I said it, Emily told us that she'd taken the photo but the soldier told her to take another one. He then held out his arm for me to take and as I did so, he said "You have boyfriend now." It took all of my concentration not to laugh in the middle of the photo being taken!

[My new "boyfriend" and I at Checkpoint Charlie]

After lunch in the German version of Wagamama, we headed down to the Brandenburg gate. When we got there, we suddenly realised that none of us knew what the Brandenburg gate was. Such bad German students! Thankfully, we found an information board that told us everything that we needed to know. In case you were wondering, it's a former city gate. You learn something new every day! We then walked down to the Reichstag, which is a really impressive building. Unfortunately you have to book tickets in advance, so we couldn't go in, but I suppose that it just gives me an excuse to go back to Berlin, doesn't it? At that point, Martha left us and Emily took me to see the holocaust memorial. I have quite mixed feelings towards the memorial. It is basically a series of large concrete blocks in the middle of a square. I didn't like it too much as there was nothing telling you what it was and if nobody told you, then you wouldn't think anything of it. I suppose that's where the problem lies for me, it was too easy to overlook. Having said that, as you walked deeper into the labyrinth of stone, it did have a sense of atmosphere to it that is appropriate for what it symbolises. I have heard a lot of different opinions about it and if you haven't been before, I would definitely encourage you to go and see what you make of it.

[Brandenburg Gate]

[Emily and I infront of the Reichstag]

[Holocaust memorial]

[Walking through the memorial]

Later on, Emily and I headed towards Potsdamer Platz, where there was a little Christmas market going on. None of the others were open yet and in some ways, it's a shame that I didn't visit a few weeks later when they would be open! We then decided to get something to eat before heading back to Cottbus. We ended up in Alexanderplatz, where the iconic TV tower is located. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the top, as it was so misty! I caught a glimpse of it on my way back into the city on my way home the next day, though!

[Em and I being silly while waiting for the train]

So there you have it, my weekend in Berlin in a nutshell! I had an amazing time and would definitely like to go back again.

Thanks, as ever, for reading,



Bel xxx

P.S. In other news, after being inspired by Emily riding her bike this weekend, I finally got my saddle lowered today so that I can actually ride mine now! I christened it by riding down to the Mosel river and back up through town. As you may know, I'm not the most coordinated person in the world, and I received a few amused looks as I wobbled my way through town. Oh well, practice makes perfect!

Harry Potter, a Tea Party and a Little Bit Of Luxembourg!

Hello lovely readers,

I have exceeded my usual standards of laziness and haven't written in three whole weeks! I therefore won't promise to write every week anymore, just as and when something interesting occurs! I warn you, this post is going to be a long one, so brace yourselves!

I suppose I had better start where I left off last time! At the end of October, Eleanor (an old school friend) came from Bonn to visit me in Trier. After meeting her at the station, I gave her a small tour of the town and some of the main sights. That evening was the much anticipated Harry Potter party at Hillary and Gunjan's place, so we both donned fancy dress and made our way to Ehrang carrying the "very haggard Hagrid cake" that the other assistants and I had made the day before in honour of Hillary's birthday. El looked fairly inconspicuous, but unfortunately the same couldn't be said for me. I was dressed as Hedwig, so attracted many a curious stare as people clocked the feathers sticking out of my coat on the bus. Once arriving at the party, we were all divided into the four houses (Eleanor and I were Ravenclaw) and the game commenced. It was a brilliant effort on Hillary and Gunjan's part, I must say. We had different categories such as Divination (His and Her's type questions), Charms (Charades) and Quidditch (Beer Pong). Naturally, Ravenclaw won (though, those pesky Gryffindors may claim otherwise), and by the end of the night, some people were absolutely Harry Pottered!

 [Hedwig]

 [The Famous Hagrid Cake]

[Those sneaky Gryffindors]

[Eleanor and I in front of the Porta Nigra]

Later that week, Germany had a Feiertag (bank holiday), so a group of us decided to go to Luxembourg for the day. To be honest, we didn't really think it through because everything was shut because of the bank holiday, so we spent most of the day wandering through Luxembourg in the rain. It's a nice city with some nice buildings, but I'm not sure that I would go there again as you can pretty much do the city in one day! Despite this, we had a laugh. We sampled the local cuisine.... Ok, I lie, we went to a Mexican restaurant and drank Margaritas... And I used my rubbish school-girl French! Quite successful, I'd say!

 [Us gathered around a random flame on our very rainy day trip to Luxembourg]

 [Luxembourg]

[Later on in the day and it was still raining!]

Last week I was invited to one of the other English teacher's houses for a little get together for her birthday. A few of the other teachers I knew from school were there (including my supervisor teacher), plus a few more who had retired a couple of years before. For those of you who were in my Year 7-9 German class with Mrs Schofield and know about her German cake obsession, you will understand what I mean when I say that she would have had a foodgasm. There were only ten of us there, yet there were about eight massive German cakes. There was a cheesecake, a kiwi cake and an apple cake, just to name a few! (In case you were wondering, I went for the apple cake.) It was a really nice afternoon and a good opportunity to socialise with my colleagues outside of school. Plus, I got to practice my German a lot!

Later that evening, I cooked a typically English meal for my housemate Steffi; Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy (made from the gravy that my Mum sent me!) We had no masher to mash the potatoes with, so we improvised and used a hand blender. I wouldn't recommend this method. The potatoes adopted the consistency of glue and with the gravy it turned a bit soupy! Nevertheless, it tasted OK and we washed it down with some wine. I don't know whether it was because I'd spent most of the afternoon making conversation in German and was in the zone, but I was able to speak fairly eloquently about loads of things. At one point, we were talking about World War II and, without blowing my own trumpet, I was really proud of the way in which I was able to speak, as I wouldn't have been able to speak like that when I first arrived. Even Steffi commented that she thought that I had improved. I must say, it's good to hear, as the last few weeks I have felt like I've been in a bit of a rut when it came to my language skills. Having said that, I have had conversations and even straight after, I  can't remember whether I had the conversation in English or German. That has never happened to me before!

Last weekend, Gunjan (who is Hindu) held a party to celebrate Diwali. On the Saturday, we all went to her house and she drew beautiful patterns on our hands in Henna and we watched a Bollywood film about cricket. Those of you who know my Dad will understand why I am fairly knowledgeable about cricket (though I'm sure that he will deign to disagree, as I spend most matches shouting nonsense like "LBW" at random times, just to wind him up), and so I spent the last hour or so of the film explaining some cricket rules to those who didn't know. It was a great film, but ridiculously long! I swear it lasted over three hours!! The next day, we commenced the second part of the party. All of us dressed up nicely and most of us cooked something yummy for the evening! Later on, we set off some fireworks (because Diwali is the festival of lights). It was great fun!

That brings me nearly up to date! Just one more thing, though! After our weekly Schnitzelabend, a few of us went to see the new James Bond film this week. We saw it in English and it was absolutely amazing! It was also quite funny to read the German subtitles and see how it had been translated. I definitely think that quite a few of the jokes would not have worked in German, but that's just me! Having said that, there were hearty chuckles from most of the Germans in the cinema, so it must have been funny to them!

Tomorrow I'm off to Berlin to visit Emily who is living in Cottbus. I actually cannot wait, as I've never been to Berlin before!

Stay tuned for our adventures aboard the Berlin banter bus! I'll try and get them up as soon as possible after I get back!

Thank you for reading,



Bel xxx


P.S. Sorry that this post is a quite bitty, but I left it for so long that it was hard to get a continuous writing style going!

P.P.S. We found this when we went on a shopping trip to Saarbrücken (there's a Primark there!)
Oh dear, Germany! Is there something you're not telling us?

Herbstferien - Part II

Hello lovely readers,

Yet again, I have been stupendously busy/lazy and haven't updated you for a while on my life here in the Land of Lederhosen. (I'm not being stereotypical by saying that. This blog has a massive whiff of German tradition about it.) As you may have read in my last post, the week before last and the week before that was the Herbstferien (Autumn holidays) for the Rheinland-Pfalz assistants. My last post outlined part one (the first week), and this one shall tell all you all about the wonders of the much anticipated second week, in which Emma, Tylor, Whitney and I decided to have a few days away moseying around Baden-Würrtemberg.

As I mentioned in my last post, the others headed down a day before me as I had to wait in for my bed to be delivered, so this post starts with me waiting at Trier station for my train to Koblenz. As I waited on the platform, a woman with a dog turned up and sat next to me. I love animals, when she saw me looking at the dog, I smiled with the telepathic message that I thought her dog was cute. This was a bad idea. By doing this, she took this as an invitation to tell me everything about her life, until another woman sat on the other side of me. Grateful for the interruption, I pretended to be checking my phone. All was well and good until the women struck up a conversation and started talking extremely loudly (and a little bit raucously) across me. Thankfully the train came and I escaped... Until the next train where I had a woman sit next to me, offering me sweets every two minutes and telling me that I look and sound Scandinavian. Although both were amusing experiences, by the time I reached Karlsruhe I was pretty relieved to meet the others and not to have to speak to any more randomers!

After dumping my stuff at the hostel, we decided to hit Karlsruhe Zoo. I can imagine that in the summer it would be really busy, but in the middle of October it was a bit of a ghost town. There weren't many people around, apart from a group of adults wandering around whilst swigging beers. I can imagine that they must have had an absolutely thrilling time... We wandered round the various animal pens where we fed some very unruly goats and saw the penguins, lions and leopards being fed (not all at the same time, obviously.) Our prime aim was to see an Eisbär (Polar Bear), but unfortunately we couldn't see it in the enclosure! After this crushing disappointment, we headed down to the Schloss. I was told by the others from their exploring the day before, that there was an epic Kinderspielplatz (children's playground) there. And epic it was. You wouldn't believe that four 20-something year olds would get that excited by a children's play area, but we did. From then on, the places we visited were judged on the quality of their Kinderspielplatz. Carrying on with that kind of theme, we later went to a bar to taste the delights of the local beer. Just before leaving, we found out that there was a slide running through the bottom two floors of the bar. It blew my mind. Of course, we had to try it out and compare it to the thrill of the earlier Kinderspielplatz. All in the spirit of science, you must understand...

 [The feeding of the Penguins]

 [The Schloss at Karlsruhe]

 [Emma and I, in the bar with the slide]

The next day, we went to a lovely town called Freiburg. It was a really good day, except the weather wasn't on our side! It was pouring with rain and ridiculously misty! We had a wander through the town to the Münster (cathedral), and the thing that stuck out to me was the flag of St. George that kept popping up everywhere. It turns out that it is the flag of Freiburg! Another thing that was unique about Freiburg were the channels of water flowing through nearly every street. We didn't work out what exactly the point of them was, but I found them a very useful way of cleaning my boots of the mud that I had acquired at the zoo the day before! At lunchtime, we found a delightful little place which had a fabulous atmosphere. We all ordered the Schweinshaxe, which came with potatoes and this red sauerkrauty type thing. It was amazing! After a bit more exploring, we headed back to Karlsruhe for an early night before our departure to Stuttgart the next day.

[The Münster in Freiburg]

[The water channels running through the town]

[Whitney and I, about to eat our Schweinshaxe]

Stuttgart was what I was looking forward to the most and it certainly didn't disappoint! After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we headed down to the Cannstatter Volksfest, which was just outside of town. I actually felt like a child as we caught glimpses of the funfair through the window of the S-Bahn. Once there, Whitney, Tylor and I hit the first hard core ride we could find. I must say, that I felt slightly worse for the wear afterwards! We carried on wandering through the various rides and stalls, which sold things like typical German food, sweets and Lebkuchen (the heart shaped German gingerbread with messages written on them in icing). Amusingly, there was also a stall called the "Condom Mobil" which sold all kinds of "interesting" goods. What was even funnier was the fact that it was located right next to the Bible stall! After a quick go on the Dodgems, we headed into a beer tent. Calling it a beer "tent" is a complete lie. Basically it was a massive beer hall, packed with people wearing the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl, singing, drinking and dancing on tables. It was fantastic. We found ourselves a place at a table with a German couple and ordered ourselves each a Maß (the southern German word for a litre of beer.) After a couple, we were dancing on the benches with the rest of them!

 [The "Condom Mobil" next to the Bible stand]

 [Whitney, Tylor, Emma and I, outside a beer "tent"]

[Just casually chilling in the beer tent with a guy in Lederhosen]

[Whitney, Tylor and I with our Maß]

Feeling a bit worse for the wear the next morning, we started our journey back to Trier. A million train changes later (ok, more like four), we arrived into Trier Hbf. I was completely shattered and retreated into my bed for the most of following weekend!

Monday meant back to school! It was definitely hard to get up at 6.00am again. I also started some classes at the Uni of Trier this week, which was really cool. I'm still really enjoying working at the school, though some of the kids are so loud that it really makes me relish the peace of the staffroom! This peace was disrupted by a massive argument between two teachers yesterday! It was really awkward. I didn't know where to look and I couldn't understand much. It wasn't that I couldn't hear them (they were yelling at the top of their voices) but they were speaking so quickly and one was speaking in Bavarian dialect, so it completely went over my head. Oh well, at least I can't say that it's boring at my school!

On that note, I think I will wrap it up. I've rambled enough for one day.

Thanks, as ever, for reading,

Bel xxx



P.S. I found McVitie's Chocolate Digestive biscuits in Stuttgart!! It made my day. Also, my mum has sent me a jar of the holy juice (aka. Bovril) and some gravy. All is now well in the world!

Herbstferien

My darling readers,

Once again, I have let time slip by without updating you on my antics here in Germany! I do apologise, but time really is flying. I keep meaning to do shorter, more regular posts, but this time, you will have to put up with yet another long, rambling one!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was invited to dinner with a family who want me to tutor their daughter in English. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Not wanting to be late, I overestimated the journey and ended up arriving really early! They made me feel at ease, though, and soon I was helping with the cooking and chattering away in German. I think that the father was really surprised, seeing as our conversation on the phone was very stilted. A bit later, a few other guests arrived (one was an English teacher) so the evening progressed into a delightful mix of Denglisch (Deutsch and Englisch) and... Hungarian. One of the guests was Hungarian, and as the evening progressed, (and wine was consumed) some of the Germans became increasingly confident in their ability to speak the language. Having said that, the wine had the same effect on my German! Overall, it was a really enjoyable evening and I think that I will have good fun teaching Rosie as we seemed to get on really well!

In other news, the Herbstferien (Autumn holiday) for schools in Rheinland-Pfalz started last week and we start school again next Monday. It has been a really nice opportunity to chill out and do a bit of exploring! On Monday, the weather was absolutely wunderschön, so I had a little wander down to the Mosel river. It was really relaxing just sitting on the river bank reading my book in the sunshine! After a while, I saw a tour boat coming in, so decided to seize the opportunity and go on it. It went down the river in the direction that I had never been before (I know the opposite direction pretty well as it is my route to work) which was really nice. I was being such a tourist and taking loads of photos! Afterwards I decided to have a look at the Cathedral, which I hadn't really seen close up since I'd been here. Again, the role of the tourist was assumed and there was more picture taking. It really is a beautiful building!

[The Mosel]

[Trier Cathedral]

On Friday, a few of the other Trier assistants (Emma, Hillary, Tylor, Whitney) and I went to a lovely little town called Cochem. It is a very quaint little town, overlooked by a castle on a hill. Before walking up to the castle, we decided to sample some of the local Federweißer (wine that has not fully fermented.) A couple of us (me included) hadn't had any breakfast and seeing as it was still before midday, it was decided that the wine had been our breakfast! Oh, how my Mother would disapprove... It was lovely, though. I would recommend trying it even if you don't like wine, as it is a lot sweeter and fruitier than normal wine. After walking through the town and going for lunch, we headed up to the castle. It is surrounded by vineyards and we decided that it was very Hogwarts-esque. We then went on a tour of the inside of the castle, which was really interesting and informative. After heading back to Trier, the day was rounded off by pancakes back at Hillary's flat. Yum!

 [Whitney and I with a random man in a Toga with a massive glass of wine]

[The castle in Cochem]

[Me, Tylor, Emma, Whitney and Hillary in Cochem]

This weekend, Beth (one of the Saarland assistants who is living in Trier) had a couple of friends over and on Sunday a group of us made a day trip to Saarland. Our first stop was Saarburg, which was another very quaint German town. One of it's unique features is the canal that runs through it and then drops into a waterfall. There is also a castle on a hill there (as there seems to be in so many German towns!) After climbing to the top and admiring the wonderful view, we then headed to Saarbrücken which is the capital of Saarland. It is a nice town and has lots of good shops. It even has a Primark, which blew my mind! I will definitely be going there at some point in the future! In Saarbrücken, we met up with some of the assistants teaching there, which was really good fun. It was a great day, even though it got really chilly towards the end! Germany is so cold, brrrrr!

 [Me at the top of the castle in Saarburg]

 [The waterfall in Saarburg town centre]

[Beth, Helen, Me, Whitney and Tylor in Saarburg]

Tomorrow, I am heading down to Baden-Württemberg to meet up with Emma, Tylor and Whitney, who travelled down there today. We are going to be there until Friday and part of our travels will include a trip to the Volksfest in Stuttgart. I'm so excited! Hopefully I will have lots of stories to fill you in on when I get back.

Bis dann,

Thanks for reading,

Bel xxx

P.S. I finally have a bed after being here for over a month. No more sleeping on a mattress on the floor! Yay! 

A month in!

Hello lovely readers!

Gosh, time does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it? The last few weeks have absolutely flown by. Maybe I'm having more fun than I should be! I can't believe that I've been here for a month!

The weekend before last, my friend Katrin came to visit me. My mum and her mum were exchange partners when they were 18 and always kept in contact. When they both found out they were pregnant, they sent each other letters to let the other know and they arrived at the same time! Katrin was born four days before me and we have been friends ever since! Our friendship even survived the moment when I learnt my first German word at the age of three, and apparently just said "Nein Katrin!" (Nein = No) at her for the whole time we stayed there. I was such a charming child... Sorry, I keep digressing, but you may have realised by now that this is a regular occurrence! So anyway, Katrin came to visit me from the other side of Rheinland-Pfalz and we had a lovely weekend! On the Saturday evening, we had Fajita night at one of the other language assistant's flat and then the next morning we discovered an epic pancake house! We later went to Trier-West, where we visited a friend of Katrin's who is studying in Trier, which was really nice. And I spoke German nearly the whole time, so all in all a pretty successful weekend!

[Katrin and I]

[Fajita Night!]

I should also mention that we have had a few additions to the group of language assistants here in Trier, who we've got to know in the last couple of weeks. Everyone is really lovely, and it's been great having a support base of other English speakers when the German all gets a bit too much! Speaking of English speakers, I've also met a couple of them at the choir that I've joined here. One man came from London but hasn't lived there in a while and another is an English teacher, who came up to me asking for advice on a piece of English grammar! I also stumbled across some English people on the way to meet some of the other assistants at the cinema the other day. They were having a massively heated debate about where to go for dinner in the middle of the Hauptmarkt and I couldn't help but chuckle. They looked at me as if to say "crazy foreigner', but I took it as a compliment; at least I'm blending in with the general population of Germany!

But it's not all fun and games! There is work to be done too, even though I only have to do 12 hours a week! I'm actually really enjoying working at the school, even though the children can be massively challenging at times and I have seen a couple of teachers reduced to tears. I think I'm pretty lucky with most of my classes, as they all seem to be nice. I find it harder to assert authority in my Year 10 class than my Year 6 class because they are nearer my own age and are in that teenage "I really couldn't care less" phase, which can be ever so frustrating! Especially when a pupil is good at English but spends most of the lesson messing around. I also have a Year 9 class, which I only have twice a week. I hadn't really had anything to do in these classes so far because the teacher had been preparing them for their next class test, but yesterday she was rather sneaky and didn't turn up to class! I knew she was downstairs in her office, but she just didn't come! Thankfully a friendly neighbouring English teacher photocopied me a couple of worksheets to do with them. The kids in this class are a lot more disruptive than the other classes I teach, so it was a bit of a baptism of fire for me! At first it was a bit chaotic, but without blowing my own trumpet, I'm quite proud of the way I handled the lesson overall (even if at one point it did resort to me attempting to moonwalk at the front of the classroom! Don't ask...) I'm also really excited because I've been asked to be an English tutor to a 16 year old girl. Her father asked for my number from one of the teachers and rang me on Tuesday. It was actually quite awkward, as all of my German knowledge left me and all I could muster was "Ja." "Cool." "Gerne". In the end, he switched to English (not that I asked him to!) I'm going over to dinner tomorrow evening to meet the family and to discuss things, so let's hope that my German doesn't fail me then!

Speaking of German failures, I have had quite a few so far, especially with pronunciation. As my A-Level German teacher once told me, I apparently speak German with the most dreadful Essex accent. Apparently I do in English as well, as I taught a ten year old the word "roof" and she parroted it back in the strongest Essex accent I've heard in a while! Anyway going back to German fails, I have had a few mares while using the public transport system. Apparently my pronunciation of the "Porta Nigra" is completely incomprehensible and justifies me having to repeat it about six times before the driver says "Ahhh Porta Nigra" in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY AS I JUST SAID IT! Adding to this, I have given up trying to spell things for people in German as they always thing that my "e" is an "ä", and no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get it right! At choir, we have to do this exercise where we sing some of the songs without consonants to work on getting the sound as full as possible. This was a total mare for me, as I literally pronounced all of the vowels wrong! Gah! Despite this, I can feel my German improving every day and it is slowly becoming easier for me to speak. Plus, I dreamt in German the other night, which is really cool!

So yeah, apart from going to work, I've mainly been exploring, meeting up with the other ELA's and sleeping (school starts at 7.50am here and it's a bit of a killer!) I hadn't really been homesick since arriving here until I had a bit of a pang on Sunday. It's weird, I miss the strangest things! Obviously I miss things like my family and my cat (yes, my cat. Don't judge me.) But I also miss silly things like Robinson's blackcurrant squash, chocolate digestives and gravy! It's so weird, I don't even have gravy that much at home, but here I've been craving it constantly for the last couple of weeks! So, if anyone fancies sending me some Bisto over, you are most welcome!

I think I've rambled on enough now, so I'll wrap it up there. I'll try not to leave it as long next time!

As ever, thank you for reading,

Bel xxx

P.S. For your amusement: I learnt the best word the other day: "Milchbubi". Milch means "milk" and "bubi" is pronounced like "boobie". My flat mate used it; "Er ist ein Milchbubi" (He is a Milchbubi). I did a double take, as it sounds like something else to an English ear. Apparently it means a guy who still has a baby face. Who knew?! 

What a week!

Hello my lovely readers!

I have survived my first chaotic, busy, interesting, brilliant week in Germany!

I really don't know where to start!! Firstly, I just want to take a moment to say that I have well and truly fallen in love with Trier. Every time I walk through the town, I have this big, goofy smile on my face. It's just so pretty and there is always something going on or something new to look at! Here are some photos that I have taken of the town:

 [The Hauptmarkt]

[The Porta Nigra]

 [Me with my first ever Currywurst]

 [The other ELA's and I]

[The Palace Gardens]

See, it's really pretty, isn't it?! 

On Monday, I had my first day at the school. School starts at 7.50am, so, not knowing how long it would take to get there, I got on the 6.45am bus and ended up arriving at 7.10am! It was a bit like a ghost town when I arrived, but I didn't mind that much because it allowed me to find my way to where I needed to be without other people laughing at how lost I looked. Despite this, my confusion must have been spotted because the caretaker wandered over and asked if he could help me. Well, I presume that's what he said. He had such a strong accent, that he could have been speaking Swahili to me for all I knew! Anyway, he seemed to have understood me and took me into the school. I then followed him to the staffroom, where (at a more reasonable hour) I met my new colleagues, who are very friendly and welcoming, despite speaking to me at about a million miles per hour. My new most used phrase is "wie bitte?" (pardon?) and I have also become very accomplished at nodding and smiling blankly. Anyway, I digress...

So, I went to my first lesson (a year 6 class) and they showed me around the school while asking me a multitude of questions. They are all so adorable apart from one boy who, when he found out that I couldn't speak French, decided that it would be fun to talk to me entirely in French, just because I can't understand it. Thankfully, after a couple of times chatting to him and allowing him to discover that I'm not a complete psycho-ogre, he now speaks to me in a language that I (semi) understand and is becoming one of my favourites! There is also a girl in this class who reminds me of one of my best friends because neither of them have "inside voices" and they are so cynical and sarcastic.

The year 10 class that I taught were a different kettle of fish! They are all quite rowdy, but they are great kids. The teacher had them write me letters introducing themselves, and I must say, I was very impressed with some of them! Others on the other hand were a little... Interesting. I had one boy write that while I was at this school he would do anything for me which was sweet and made me laugh a lot! Another student wrote that they were happy that I am here to help them to "speak and ride English" and another asked "Why did you come on our school?" Although they were funny, I understand what it is like to learn another language, so I wasn't too harsh on them!

On Wednesday my mentor teacher was off, so I shadowed another teacher. I went to a year 9 class, where they didn't let me introduce myself at first, but instead talked over me, asking me if I was the teacher's wife, sister or daughter! They were a very low ability class and were also, frankly, a little scary! I don't think that I will ask to go back there again...

All in all, this week at school has been a busy, yet very enjoyable one! It's been chaotic, though, because I've had to register at the town hall and set up a bank account etc. By last night I was completely shattered! I went for a Chinese with some of the other ELAs (English Language Assistants) and could hardly keep my eyes open towards the end of the evening! But that may have also had something to do with the "Tsingtao" and "Bitberger" beers and strawberry (yes, strawberry!) wine that I drank!

So there you are, there is a brief overview of my first week at school! I know that there must be things that I have forgotten to put in, but every time I come to write this blog, my mind goes a bit blank and I forget everything that I meant to write! Oh well, they will come back to me and I will write them another time. Right now, a bath and a glass of my (surprisingly good) strawberry wine is waiting for me!!

Thanks for reading,


Bel xxx



P.S. As promised in my previous Blog, here is the picture of the pickled veg aisle in the supermarket.

Enjoy!

Wilkommen in Deutschland!

Hello my lovely readers! (Or maybe I should say "Hallo!")

I do apologise for the lack of updates lately. My life has been ridiculously hectic for the last few weeks, so I haven't had a chance to write my Blog! I was planning to do a countdown to departure and everything, but oh well! I suppose it's the thought that counts! Due to my cyberspace absence, I have ludicrous amounts to fill you in on and therefore this post may be a bit longer than usual, but I'll try and cut it down as much as I can!

As you may have guessed from the title, I am now in Trier, Germany! But before I get into all of that, I should probably tell you a bit about the build up to it!

I'll start with my emailing the school back at the beginning of June. There is no other way to put this: I was terrified. Terrified of making a mistake and terrified of giving a bad impression. So I sought help from a friend at Uni and sent my email off. For the next few days, I jumped every time my Blackberry pinged and told me that I had received an email. It was absolute torture! Finally after a couple of weeks, I got a reply email from the school secretary, telling me that I should get in touch with the English department and giving me their contact details... Which didn't work! Nightmare! So I told her that they hadn't worked and she said that she would make sure that they got in touch with me... Which they didn't! For those of you who know me well, you can imagine my panic. Thankfully, I finally heard from them three weeks before I was due to leave, by which time I had already sorted out accommodation etc. myself. I found a lovely three bedroom flat in the middle of town with two other girls, which I went to view on a trip to Trier with my Dad. I'm so glad I looked before I agreed though, because two of my other viewings were absolute dives (and that is putting it nicely.)

By the time the end of August arrived, I was ridiculously nervous yet extremely excited. It seemed to have come round so quickly! I left London Stanstead for Köln on 27th August as I had a training course in Altenberg (a small town outside Köln). Much to my relief, an old school friend was going to the same course, so we met each other at Stanstead, which seemed to relax us both. When we got off the plane, we ended up meeting with a few other English Language Assistants heading to the same course, so we all ended up going to Köln together, which was really nice! We were pretty early so were sitting on the steps of Köln Cathedral for ages before the coaches came to pick us up. By this time, there were loads of us waiting, which for some reason really surprised me! I didn't expect there to be that many of us, bearing in mind there is more than one training course! Nevertheless, everyone was really friendly and it was a great opportunity to practice our teaching skills. I also met a few people going to Trier, which was really reassuring.

On Thursday, the coach took us from Altenberg back to Köln Hbf, where we were let loose to go to our various destinations. My Dad came to pick me up with my stuff and, much to my surprise, my Mum came along too! (She was supposed to be working but she took a couple of days holiday at the last minute.) Once we got to Trier, we went straight to my new flat where one of my new flatmates, Steffi, was waiting for me. She is so lovely and helped my parents and I to move all of my stuff in. After having dinner and going food shopping with my parents, Steffi showed me around a bit of the town and the "Palastgarten", which is gorgeous.

The next day (yesterday) I went furniture shopping with my parents as I don't actually have a bed at the moment! I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor, which, although very comfy and allows me to roll right out of bed in the mornings, is not exactly ideal! Unfortunately, I have to wait a few weeks for it to be delivered, but I'm not that fussed to be honest. I also got myself a German SIM card for my mobile phone. It was a bit of a trial getting it though, as the guy in the shop spoke at about a million miles per hour and didn't slow down, even though I asked him loads of times! At least it is better than trying to speak German and being spoken back to in English. This has happened to me quite a few times now and it is so frustrating.

Now I'm up to date! Today my parents headed back to England. To take my mind off it, I went into town to explore and meet a couple of the girls that I met in Altenberg. We had a lovely afternoon chilling in a cafe and then wandering round the shops. It amused me no end that random guys on stilts and dressed as Romans were walking past us every few minutes, due to the "Brot und Spiele" festival that is currently taking place in Trier. I was also amused by a Dirndl and Lederhosen fashion show taking place in a department store and a WHOLE aisle of picked vegetables in the supermarket. It doesn't take much to amuse me, I know, but who really needs a whole aisle of pickled vegetables?! The sheer scale of it was just shocking and clearly hardly anyone buys them because most of the jars had gathered dust on the shelves! Sometimes the Germans are a mystery to me. A mystery that I aim to solve!

Anyway, I shall wrap it up there. I'm really tired and my bed is calling!

Thanks for reading!

Bel xxx

P.S. Just reading this back, I would like to apologise for the extensive use of commas. But I'm not going to change it now because I'm tired. I will try to do better next time, but do not get your hopes up.

P.P.S. PHOTOS TO FOLLOW!

Big News!

Hello my lovely readers,


As the title of this latest post implies, I have more big news! Today, I found out what town and school I will be working in! And I am going to.......(Drumroll, please!)..... Trier!

[This is a map of the journey I will make from Hornchurch, England to Trier, Germany. Click on image to make it bigger.]

For those of you who don't know, Trier is a town in the South West of Germany near the Luxembourg border. It has a lot of history (particularly Roman) and looks like such a quintessentially German town. I have never been before, but my parents visited once and said it was lovely. To be honest, I don't know anything about it so I am currently stalking the Trier tourist information website for insight into the town that will be my new home for a year. If you fancy seeing where I will end up, here is the link!


http://www.trier-info.de/english/index


I am teaching at a Realschule (the equivalent of an English comprehensive) just outside of Trier. From what I've gathered from the school website and my haphazard translation skills, the school is fairly modern and was founded from two schools that merged together a year or so ago. From the look at the number of staff, the school doesn't seem to be particularly big, which is nice as it's more personal and also because I am awful at remembering names. Oh, that's going to go down so well when I start taking lessons. I will be one of those teachers who still doesn't know your name at the end of the year, or gets you confused with someone else in the class who looks NOTHING like you... Anyway, I digress...


Now, that I have told you all my "big news", I had better tell you how I found out about it. It all started with an email today from the education authorities in Rheinland-Pfalz. My reactions were as follows:


1. Hyperventilate
2. Feverishly try to translate the formal German language
3. Hyperventilate
4. Text a friend asking for help
5. Hyperventilate
6. Get excited. 


As you can see, I did a lot of hyperventilating in a relatively small period of time. You may think that I am being a drama queen, but I'd like to see how you would react if you got a formal German email with an about a million page contract (also in formal German) with all sorts of scary things mentioned in it like insurance etc! I must say that it freaked me out a bit, at first! Especially when I ascertained that I have to attend a training day in Cologne on 27th August (I have to go straight to Trier and start work from this course), which clashed with my time working as a London Ambassador for the Olympics. NIGHTMARE! Thankfully, I was tremendously lucky and managed to change my London Ambassador dates to a couple of weeks before at the same location. Even more hyperventilation and possible nervous breakdown avoided. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I have to read this contract, sign it and send it back to the education authorities. Unfortunately, I can't do this for a bit as I am going to Spain tomorrow and then have my final second year exam when I get back. I want to read the contract thoroughly and understand exactly what I am signing before I return it. How sensible of me. I must say though, it's all starting to feel very real now. Extremely scary/exciting!


So there you are folks. I now know what I'm doing, where I'm doing it and when I'm doing it. And thanks to this blog, so do you!


I hope I haven't bored you to death with my digressions and panicking! 


Thanks for reading,


Bel xxx

And so it begins...

Hi everyone!

As many of you may know from my Facebook status, I got very over-excited by an email that I received from the British Council last week:

"Dear Annabel,

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ASSISTANTS TO GERMANY 2012/2013

I am pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted by the German authorities for a post to RP [Rheinland-Pfalz]."

Ecstatic wasn't even the word! Rheinland-Pfalz (in the South-West) was my first choice of Bundesland (German federal state) and it is part of Germany that is special to myself and my family. My Mum went to work there as an Au Pair at the age of 20 (same age as me! Weird, eh?) and we still have friends in that part of the country. It truly is a beautiful place to be and is very famous for its wine! The more I think about it, the more excited I get! (About going to live there, not about the wine... Haha!)

[Here is a map of Rheinland-Pfalz and the surrounding area. I apologise that it has a logo on it, but this was the most detailed map that I could find.]

Having said that, I still don't know whereabouts I am going city/town-wise. I hope that the school that I am allocated to is fairly helpful when sorting out accommodation, because that is one of the scariest parts for me at the moment! Also, I am worried about the point when I will have to email the school asking what kind of age groups I will be teaching, where to find accommodation etc. It's a silly fear, but I'm not yet overly confident with my German, particularly in such a formal context. I will definitely be getting my other German speaking friends to check it makes sense before I send it!

Besides waiting to hear which school I've been allocated to and waiting to hear when I have to do an induction course, I only have a few simple instructions to follow at the moment: My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to collect as many maps, articles, photos, tourist brochures etc. as possible, in order to give the children the most realistic impression of England that I can. I must say that at the moment, my Mum seems to have taken this task on board with such gusto, that I feel fairly inadequate! Personally, I think she is more excited than I am, though she insists that this is not the case! 

With this in mind, this is where I will be cheeky and ask you lovely readers a tiny favour: If you see anything at all that I may find useful/interesting, please, please, please let me know! I want to gather as much material as possible so that I am well and truly prepared. I would be really grateful, and I may even bring you back a large supply of Knoppers (or any German foodstuff of your choice) to return the favour!

Anyway, I think I will wrap it up there for now. I have a date with my Downton Abbey DVD box-set and my bed. Hopefully more updates to come fairly soon!

Thanks for reading!

Bel xxx

Quick Update!

Extract of an email received from the British Council at 22:32 today:

"Dear Candidate,

Application for Appointment as English Language Assistant in Germany 2012/2013

I am pleased to inform you that you have passed the eligibility and quality assessment stage for applications to Germany."

Woohoo!

Ok, so I'm still not guaranteed a post yet, but it's a start!


I hope that I haven't jinxed it by posting this...

Keep your fingers crossed for me guys and gals! 

Bel xxx