Germany 08/09

I´m working on the photographs, they´re making their way to photobucket currently so they´ll make it online soon!

Yes, originally the title to this blog was ´Breakfasting in Bonn´(credit to Evan) as I´ve spent the weekend in Bonn but when I saw this slogan on a girl´s tshirt today I knew I couldn´t leave it. Now my German isn´t perfect (as can be confirmed by the man on the phone who simply said I don´t understand a word, ich verstehe kein Wort, and hung up!)but I love the regular attempts over here to put an english slogan on a tshirt. The other I´ve come across is ´that is me sausage´ a direct translation of an idiom that means I don´t care. Fantastic.

So yes, after school on Thursday I jumped on a train and carried out a four and a half hour journey to Bonn, the current Heimstadt of Evan. It was an exciting prospect to spend the weekend speaking in the Ulster tongue and being able to share jokes that until now I haven´t been able to share!

Bonn is pretty sweet. Big cities are big cities but it´s always nice to see their defining features. I visited Beethoven´s House (Although unfortunately he wasn´t in) and also took a stroll round the uni grounds. Its a lovely big building surrounded by trees, kinda looked like Botanic Gardens in a not really like Botanic Gardens at all kinda way... I have to say that my favourite part of it all was the Rhein. It was awesome just to be near a massive expanse of water! The East Coast is tugging at me...

On Saturday we took a trip up to Kreuzau near Dueren to visit Louise in her Sunflower-clad town and had the experience of the Ruhrtalbahn. A bus-esque train that was, i guess, comfortingly like the Larne trains but with big windows. We were also delayed in Cologne because of the protests unfortunately.
I don´t know if anyone heard what´s been going on. There´s a whole big drama in Cologne at the minute between neo-nazi group Pro-Cologne and the citizens about a Mosque that´s being built. I´ll not go into all the details but there were protests on Saturday, bins being burnt in the street and lots of demonstrations etc The reason I´m mentioning this is actually because what I saw on the news was not what you´d expect. There were teenagers (punks and spides together) and senior citizens shouting at lawyers and doctors for their nazi beliefs. It seemed so strange to see the so-called upstanding members of society being part of a group which is abhorred by all, especially by Germany where they´ve spent so long trying to get away from the problem.

Sorry, got a little carried away but I hope I got the point across. It was great to see Louise and I hope hr birthday present comes in useful!
On Sunday morning we went to the all you can eat breakfast. Totally sprachlos when it comes to explaining it I´m afraid. It was awesome. Once again, photos soon...

I´ll update this again towards the end of the week. Upcoming things include performing with the teacher´s rock band on Tuesday and Oktoberfest for my birthday!

All the best to everyone heading off this week. Don´t sweat it, just go in with an open mind and enjoy it.
Bis bald

It´s been a while since I managed to get on here but I guess that just shows that I´ve been busy!
Due to the really nice rain on Saturday no forest walks or trips to France took place however I had a pretty good weekend regardless!
It seems to be that living in a very small town means you have days of extreme boredom and days when you just don´t stop. My weekend was a bit like that. I finished school on Thursday and by Thursday night I was itching for something to do! I ended up watching Popstars - nur 4 Maedchen, at Janas. A type of X-Factor where they´re trying to find 4 girls for a new pop act. See their pun there? Only 4 girls? Genius huh?
I have to say its something I have noticed with German popular culture, they love throwing the odd English word in. You´d be watching a real tearjerking moment on one of the popular soaps and they´d have just given a big long speech in German as to why they´d done what they´d done and then suddenly there´s a pause and a ´sorry.´What´s wrong with their own language? (Actually don´t answer that!)

Rant over. Saturday I spent with Jessica in the afternoon, she´s a teacher at the school and is getting married in the next few weeks. We drank tea, ate cake and just chatted. It was really nice actually. I left early evening to make my way to Landau where I met the other English assistants and we headed to Weinfest! The biggest wine festival in the world is where we were apparently in Bad Durkheim. Only 45min or so away. When you bought a glass of wine, it was 500ml unless you requested 250ml. There were loads of funfair rides and sausages. It was in essence perfectly German but it was fantastic. Hopefully the photos I´ve attached work below!

Back at school this week and I´ve enjoyed it more now that I´m involved with the classes. I´ve taken two so far and I´ve another two to take. Standing up in front of 30 fifteen year olds is no easy task, especially when you´ve to watch everything you say to allow them to understand! All things considering though they´ve gone pretty well. Pretty successful all in all.

I´´m heading to Bonn for the weekend to stay with Evan and maybe visit Louise. Can´t wait to see them and catch up.
Hopefully the next time I blog, I´ll have internet in my apartment. Enjoy the photos. I´ll put them up when I´m next free, just heard the bell!

Who would ever think I´d be excited about going to school? I can tell you for certain that kids aren´t...

I´ve just finished my second day observing in the Realschule im Alfred - Grosser Schulzentrum. (Alfred Grosser is a man famous here for his work improving the relationship between France and Germany).
I can´t say I was nervous much, more just restless to start. I have classes from every year so I get a good variety and I´m off on Fridays. In fact, most of you won´t be out of bed by the time I´ve finished teaching - I finish at either 1215 or 1115 everyday. (Thats 11.15 and 1015 to the UK!)

So yeah it´s going pretty well. I´ve been part of 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 8th Grade and 9th Grade so far. The younger ones are easily distracted but are really sweet and are determined to impress me. 8R seem petrified to even move, they barely uttered a word, and 9U who are messers are great until they´re given work to do. 9th grade do a project on Northern Ireland and so this is the class that I´ve been looking forward to, it´s kinda like GCSE level but slightly higher. They started the topic of Young People´s issues today and were doing a questionnaire so they could find out what is most important to young people. They´ll be marked on the overall project so being me I decided to walk around and help with vocabulary or give suggestions but they refused to speak. It was so funny. I think they could be a really good class, everyone loves messing around in class, so I hope they get over me being a native and just chat!
I have to say though, some of the stereotypes are true, i try to subtly correct their pronounciation but it doesn´t seem to be working. Ze boy duz not lik playing in ze garten wery much... Bless them

The only downside to school is that I start at 7.55 every morning. It kills me but only cause i´m a natural sleeper - Joel will testify to this. I´m in bed every weeknight by half ten cause i´m so tired!

In terms of settling in I´m definitely getting there! I´m meeting with the Youth Pastor of the local church tomorrow and am going to help out with the Youth Clubs and whatever I can find! I´ve been invited to a Wine festival at the weekend, as well as a tour of the walks in the forests and a trip to France for lunch. Yes, a trip to France FOR LUNCH.

Bis bald
Dani

Still no internet in the apartment so the internet cafe is seeing a lot of me! Another 3 weeks or so should do the trick mind you.

So yeah, that´s the first weekend in Bergzabern over and it was a pretty successful one. I was at ´the disco´on Friday night, it´s normally over thirties and I was there with the teachers, who are all lovely. It was hilarious if I´m honest, i don´t think i was the youngest there but i was most definitely one of the shortest. The club itself was class with giant paint pots and brushes, trains and flowers hanging from the ceiling as decoration. The club itself was really nice and I didn´t see very many drunk people. That´s one thing I like about here, a lot of people can still go out and dance like an idiot without being wasted. They probably sell as many non-alcoholic drinks as they do alcoholic. As well as that you can buy coffee, buns, french fries, hotdogs etc etc etc all at the bar. How handy is that? No need to stop on the way home.

I spent a bit of time exploring over the weekend as well, there are red squirrels all over the place and I saw an actual person in lederhosen. I didn´t ask for a photo though as I didn´t think he´d like that...

Saturday night was spent at a Polta Abend (not sure of the spelling) which is a party a few weeks before someone gets married. It was a good night in the end although it was awkward at first cause I knew so few people.When we arrived everyone was carrying plates and bits of ceramic and I really had no idea why. When we got to the front door, they all started throwing it at the ground and wishing the couple all the best. It wasn´t til after that they explained the custom, although I still don´t know where it originates. It was good fun though and I tried Flammkuchen, which is a really flat airy pizza from Alsace. I was also told a dirty joke involving a pun, i can assure you that it doesn´t work translated in English and the German was spoken far too fast. Give me a few months!

Today has been spent sorting out my flat so that it feels more like mine. I´m also going to have a nosey for a church and see how that goes.
Tomorrow is my first day in school but I´m more excited than nervous. I´m really looking forward to teaching the kids and getting to know them. Plus I think it´s a good way to meet people and get the social life going (not that its been lacking with my ü30s disco and everything!)

This blog seems kinda thrown together but I´ll do another when I get sorted in school and hopefully, finallz get photos up.

Bis bald
D

You should all be glad to know that I found a lovely man on the train who helped me with my suitcase almost the whole way. Bless him the journey was an interesting one.

It took 4 hours in total and I had to change trains twice. I started in Cologne and went as far as Karlsruhe, then on to Winden and finally here. When i got on in Cologne, all the seats were reserved so I (and the lovely man, named as this cause he was so helpful and I never found out his name) had nowhere to sit. He was studying in Germany and came from Africa. We ended up in the dining carriage (yes not all trains are like NIR!) where I ate creme brulee and drank water from a glass bottle as we travelled along the side of the Rhine. Nice or what?
When we stopped in Karlsruhe we had no idea what side to get off so we got off the side the door opened, which turned out to be the wrong side. The conductor on the platform soon realised this and walked us along the tarmac between the traintracks until we could cross. I then proceeded to defend myself as he began to tell us off! I´m glad to say that I held my own against him and he shut up. Proudest moment yet.
The rest of the journey continued smoothly without anything worthy of putting up here. Total journey time:3hr55

But yeah, so I´ve been here since yesterday evening. I met Jana at the train station and she took me to my apartment. Its quite old fashioned and smells a little like old lady but I can fix that!
She was really helpful as she took me shopping to aldi etc so that i had all the heavy stuff and i´m sure there is enough food there to last me a month.

I´ve managed to unpack and I spent yesterday evening watching Home Improvement in German and the news.

Today I started off in school. To make you all jealous, I work Mon-Thurs and my day finishes no later than 1215. Is that not awesome? I was introduced to all the teachers and got sorted out with a library card and a code for the photo copier. I even have keys to the classrooms and the staffroom. It is crazy to be on the other side of the desk!

Feeling more settled today. I´m officially registered in Germany, I have a bank account (albeit an empty one) and I have a structure to my week. Yay!

Bad Bergzabern is really pretty and is about the size of Larne. The transport connections are better but still not perfect. I will get photos up soon of the area and my travels etc.

Bis bald
Dani

I've been over here for 3 days now so I thought I should maybe write down what's been happening.

The past few days I've spent in buildings beside a Cathedral owned by the Arch Bishop of Cologne learning how to teach English. (There are actually rooms in the turrets, although I didn't get one...) It's been pretty boring to be honest and feels like its delaying what I'm here to do.

We're leaving at 7.30am tomorrow (thats 6.30am to all you lovely folk)to get to Cologne Train Station and I'm heading for a 3 hour journey to Bad Bergzabern which is where I'm living for the next nine months. I'm not sure yet but I'll more than likely be travelling on my own with a 30kilo suitcase so wish me luck!

The Unknown is a really strange thing and if I'm honest I don't know how to feel about tomorrow. I'm looking forward to leaving here, although it's been semi helpful and the food has been an 'experience' (scrambled eggs spinach and potatoes anyone?), I'm dying to get down to the village, get into my flat and get properly settled in but I don't know what to expect!

This is only a quick and reasonably vague blog but hopefully once i get internet sorted properly then there will be more soon, including photos and maps of where I am.

Loves
Dani