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!