A German Christmas.

A direct quote from one of the teachers at school, addressing a 4th year class (9-10yrs old) learning an English Christmas Carol: 'Because after all Christmas is a church festival, maybe you've heard the story about Jesus being born in a stable?' and even that doesn't emphasise enough how it was such a throw away comment, as if it was perfectly normal for 10 year olds for really never to have heard the nativity story. I know the Germans have a lot of their own Christmas traditions, and possibly it is more about Nikolaus and the Weihnachtsmann, but they are big on Advent, and I thought that was always linked to the Christian side of things. Possibly it's to do with the fact that the childrens parents nearly all grew up in East Germany, where religion wasn't taught in schools, and wasn't very widespread, but still, it surprised me.

It snowed today, and at least this time the children seemed excited about it, though I explained the concept of 'Snow Days' to the group I was working with, and they were completely and utterly mystified. Which is promising, considering I have to get a train and a plane tomorrow, but hopefully the snow won't affect that!

At school one of the teachers invited me to join her and one of the others getting a Glühwein before the proper teachers' Christmas celebration starts. It was nice of her to invite me, though it was funny how she seemed to be trying to convince me, and telling me that Glühwein is nice! (As if I didn't already know- a fair few of our trips to Weihnachtsmarkts in different places have involved a Glühwein at some point).

So I better be off, I don't want to miss out on the Glühwein!

For anyone who has been counting, as of tomorrow I have been in Germany for exactly three and a half months. I still think the most impressive thing is that I actually got on the plane at all, once I'd got through all the stress of packing my life into a bag, saying bye to everyone I knew, and then leaving mum behind at the 'Passengers only past this point' sign at the airport, I suddenly remembered that I don't actually like flying, which didn't really do much to improve how I felt. Hopefully the excitement of returning home will get me through the flight tomorrow, and then I will see the vast majority of you at some point in the next couple of weeks!

Now that's an exciting thought! =)

German TV

I now have a working German TV, so here are some of the highlights I have found so far:

Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten- (Good Times Bad Times) seems to be some kind of German Hollyoaks, I plan on getting seriously addicted (it's something to do in the evenings, isn't it?) and then talking about the characters like they are my friends. I've only seen it twice so far, but there is romance, arguments, a money scam, a gay subplot, and so on, and so on. It looks promising!

Viva- A music channel which seems to be like The Hits, or Music Factory, whatever the free ones are called. It is extremely exciting to own a music channel, and the temptation to watch it the whole time is strong. Luckily there is not always music videos, and when programme which features some weirdo skateboarding around the studio shouting 'Yippee!' comes on, I turn it off and go and do something useful. It is quite good to watch the music videos though, seeing as they are the exact same ones trhat have been on the radio the past few weeks.

Jimmy Neutron-auf Deutsch! It was actually quite good! And it didn't have any annoying voices, unlike the Simpsons, where everyone just sounds wrong.

Michael Mittermeier- My first experience of German stand-up comedy. I found a lot of what I understood quite funny, but maybe I've just been in Germany too long.

Das Super Talent- Germany's talent. My vote is with the Swedish Juggler, he learnt German specially for the competition since he got through the first round, so not only is he juggling, with flaming toy hamsters, he was narrating in German, despite only learning the language a couple of weeks ago. And he was just so smily. I hope he got through! Also, the finalists are performing in Rostock next year, we are thinking about going. It's um... cultural...right?

The adverts- some of them are boring, obviously, and some of them are just the English versions dubbed over, but some of them are funny, and there are lots of Christmassy ones for chocolate and so on. I saw the German version of the Christmas cola advert too, I wasn't sure if they had it in Germany, but apparently they do.

I've only had a TV since Friday, and I was out most of the weekend- I promise I haven't spent the whole time watching TV! Everything just seems a lot funnier because it's all German and weird!

Munich

I went down to Munich, on a train journey that lasted nine hours. If you ever do have to make a nine hour train journey, I highly recommend travelling by ICE (Inter City Express). The seats all come with their own individual pillow, and the interior looks a bit like a cross between a private jet and a space ship- all flashing lights, smooth automatic doors, chrome and wood. I was able to sleep my way through a few of the hours, spent a long time looking out of the window, ate, read, and amazingly didn't get too bored. That didn't mean I wasn't greatful to eventually get to Munich though!

It was really good to see Hayley, her Munich friends, and some of the many Leeds lot spending their year in Germany. We had a meal, went to Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer hall, then spent the evening in an entirely sensible way for someone who'd been up since six and had a nine hour journey- we went out to a club, and didn't get back until the trams started running again in the morning. Apparently that's a typical Munich night, and I was there to see what life in Munich was like...

After a long lie in, and some good bacon sandwiches (bacon is one of those ingredients that only appears in German shops very infrequently), we went out to see the Olympiapark, which had good views across Munich from the top of a hill. The Alps were even visible in the background. It's amazing what a difference in temperature there was, I was walking around in just a jumper, whereas in Stralsund I can't remember the last time I left the house without wearing my coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

We also saw the English Garden, a massive park in the centre of Munich, which has a river which has a current big enough for surfing on. It was quite surreal seeing someone wearing a wetsuit and flippers, carrying a surfboard, just walking through the park alongside all the families and other people who were out enjoying the weather.

In the evening, we had pizza, then went ice skating with a group of Hayley's friends at the outdoor ice rink. Ice skating always seems like such a good idea, until you get onto the ice and remember that you can't actually skate very well, and you've just paid for two hours clinging to the railing and being overtaken by small kids going backwards. It was fun though, and then we recovered in a beer hall afterwards.

On Sunday, we went out to the outskirts of Munich, to a lake called Starnberger See, which was very pretty. The Alps were visible in the background, the lake was calm, the weather was nice, and although there were loads of people there, it still felt quiet and peaceful there.

Basically, full marks to Munich, it's a really nice city. One weekend is definitely not enough time to do everything there, so at some point (probably not this year, there's only so many times I can face a 9 hour journey, and there are other corners of Germany I haven't been to yet) I will be heading back!

The Wonderful World of Frühstücksangebote

I can't quite believe this blog has gone on so long without mentioning Frühstücksangebote! It means breakfast-offers, and when I'm with the Mecklenburg people, it's what we do on Sundays. Due to the fact that there isn't a lot else to do... A German style breakfast is bread rolls, meat, cheese and jam, so we find a bakery with a good offer on (that hopefully also offers 'schwarzer Tee' (black tea) too) and enjoy the bakery atmosphere. We have so far sampled Frühstück in Hamburg and Berlin, but due to being in an unfamiliar city, and having to go to the first bakery we found, which didn't always have a good offer, they did not live up to the Frühstücksangebote in the Lila Nordback Bäckerei in Rostock, or the französische Frühstück Grace and I found in a bakery in Stralsund- basically the same as a German one, but with croissants!

Last week Daniela and I were in a cafe that offered two whole pages worth of Frühstücksangebote, including a 'make your own breakfast' where you ordered exactly what you wanted, piece by piece. Also, it's offered all day everyday, from what I understood from the menu, which is pretty cool- Frühstücksangebote are usually a Sunday only deal. I am SO excited for when all the MV people come to Stralsund and we go to test it out!

Of course, this is only a weekend thing, my usual breakfast still consists of muesli and tea, though what is starting to emerge from our weekend Frühstücks is that I no longer consider cheese and meat as a strange breakfast. I don't think I will ever reach the 'curry for breakfast is okay' stage, but it is true that my opinions have been altered. When the University department claimed we'd change during our year abroad, I don't think they really had breakfast habits in mind...

This was mainly written for all the people who accused me of being obsessed with Frühstück. Why not live up to your stereotypes?

I would like to dedicate this post to Georgina, the cheese-crazed alcoholic, for appreciating my Frühstücking needs.

Swine Flu Update!

So, for any of you who didn't know, the Germans like to shake hands. They shake hands with everybody. It is considered impolite not to shake someone's hand, the first time you see them in the morning, which means when someone first arrives in a room, they will go round and shake everyones hands to greet them, even if the room is full. Even young people shake hands, right down to all the kids at the school. I hope the staff don't think I'm rude for not immediately thinking to offer my hand. And if I start shaking your hand when I'm back, it's only because I've got used to the German way, I'm not trying to conclude a business deal with you.

Anyway, due to the risk of swine flu, all the hand shaking is being cut back a bit. The kids at school have had lessons where we all practised how to wash our hands the proper way, and were expressly told that they weren't allowed to shake hands to say hi or bye anymore. I feel slightly smug, due to the fact that when I first got here, I had conversations with people at home, about the amount of hand shaking, and whether it led to diseases being spread more rapidly. Turns out I could in fact be a health minister. Not that it makes much difference, the children tend to ignore the new rules. It's very nice being greeted by a long line of children who want to hug me or shake my hands on the way into school, and I appear to still be swine flu free at the moment, but maybe I should be trying to keep them back!

Compared to the other language assistants in my area, my school is fairly laid back (or I'm just more oblivious to the teachers' panic) but at the weekend I managed to clear a space in a crowd just by blowing my nose. Which is good to note, as the Germans don't always seem to understand the concept of personal space- I did not enjoy being shunted in the knees by an old ladies shopping trolley at the supermarket. At least now I know I just have to cough, and I'll probably clear a space right to the front of the queue!

Open day, police input and rollerskates.

Last weekend, I went into school on Saturday morning, to help with the open day for the school. It mostly involved me playing memory with 6 year olds, while the teacher answered the parents' questions, and tried to convince them to send their child to the school. It somehow made me feel good that open days in Germany are exactly the same as open days in England- before it started, everyone was busy washing the tables, cleaning everything, dusting things that probably hadn't been dusted since last open day, and then when the children were there, all the classrooms were full of games and puzzles and activities which I have never seen any of the classes actually use. (Though to give credit to one of the year one teachers, she used a lot of them in one of her lessons the next week.)

In other news, I got stopped by the police on my way to school one day this week. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds. I was cycling along, when someone called from a car 'Guten Morgen!' I looked round, thinking maybe someone was asking for directions or something, and saw a police car. I know it's illegal to drive without lights in Germany, I didn't think they'd be stopping me for that, as it was daylight, but I thought maybe they do random checks. I wasn't worried though, as I'd got them fixed a few days before. However, the policeman didn't say anything about that, just called me something -it sounded like Geistfahrer, but I'm not sure...- and told me I should be on the right. As I was on the right, and on a cycle path, I wasn't really sure what he meant. At the corner before the place they stopped me, there is quite a difficult corner- the pavement is narrow, and it's hard to see what's coming- and I had actually passed someone on the left, just because of the way we'd both come round the corner. I wondered if maybe the policeman had seen me do that, and was just reminding me I should be on the right. So I moved my bike to the very right hand side of the cycle path, and got ready to set off again, but the policeman told me No! and that I shouldn't go any further, and I worked out he was telling me to cross the road. Is it the rule that cyclists have to cycle in the direction of the traffic, even when they are on the pavement? If it is, there are not many Germans that actually follow that rule, and that's unusual when it comes to Germans and road rules. After having done some research on the internet, I think it's something that depends on the situation, usually you are meant to stay on the right pavement, but if there is no pavement on one side of the road, or there is a cycle path on the other side, then you can go on the pavement against the direction of the traffic. I'm very confused by the whole thing really, but at least I managed an encounter with the German police, without getting shot! (Again, don't worry, it really wasn't as bad as all that...)

And lastly, the other day I saw someone, dressed normally (for German standards) on his way somewhere, using roller blades as a method of transport. Not skating like skaters in England, who do tricks and so on, but just using them to get from A to B. Why not, I suppose. Logically, as long as you remember to bring another pair of shoes, it might even make more sense than a bike- you don't have to worry about finding a place to put them, you can use an umbrella as you skate, and so on and so on, but it still looked a bit weird.

Just a few random observations and stories for you there.

Tschüss!

It's Snowing!

As an English person, this is just too exciting not to write about. It's snowing, and I mean proper snowing. This would definitely be a snow day in England. The fact that most Germans probably haven't let it affect their day, and the Russian international students probably wouldn't even classify it as proper snow, is not important at the moment, let me be excited about how it looks like a blizzard!

I've just got back from outside, I went to rescue my bike and put it in the cellar, but I got distracted and now there is a little snowman sitting on the compost bin. It wouldn't have felt like real snow if I hadn't been out to stomp around in it.

And I had to test out the German coat. Yes, I am now the (proud?) owner of one German winter coat. I have to say, I am beginning to be convinced... It was toasty warm in the snow, and I was dry when I got back inside, and on my way to school in the mornings I almost don't notice the cold.

I worked up the courage to go coat shopping on Monday, it was tipping it down all day and it was freezing, so I went into town and tried on a large variety of winter coats. Most of them were your standard German raincoat, with varying degrees of ugliness and making-me-look-like-a-square effects. I didn't go for any of those. There were a couple that were almost nice, quite long, and a bit fitted, but the saddest thing is that I didn't actually go for one of those as they just weren't practical enough! (The one I have bought has a removable inner layer, so it's effectively a fleece, a raincoat and a thick jacket- three coats in one.) I'm hoping that this coat will last me years, even if only just to save me from having to go sensible coat shopping again.

So, I've got the bike, the coat, the ability to choose things based purely on practicality and efficiency... what else do I need, and where do I apply for German citizenship?!

Happiest German Word of the Week Award

The results are in:

The word for lightbulb, Glühbirne, translates literally into English as glowing-pear. A lightbulb is pear shaped, it glows. How logical, and how much more artistic than the English word!

A day out in Rügen

This weekend bought my first visitor to this part of the world, Grace, from my Uni course. It was great to see her, and to show her around, and on Saturday we went to Rügen with Georgina and Carli, and Jeremy, obviously. Rügen is the island you can see from Stralsund. The guidebooks always mention that it's Germany's biggest island, and you can get to it with a train or car, as there is a giant bridge connecting it to the mainland.

Jeremy, for those of you who don't know, is the pink elephant who has had a very complicated lifestory, including a kidnap, ransom and subsequent release, and an ongoing custody battle between Becca and Zaq. He is spending this year in Germany with me, and I have to provide photographic evidence of his sightseeing.

Luckily everyone else joined in with that task, and Jeremy's trip to Rügen is well documented.

It was a really good weekend, even if it did involve a lot of sitting around at train stations. We missed the first possible train by about 5 seconds, we were just about to push the 'open door' butten when it pulled away. Foiled by the efficiency of the German transport system. So we waited at the station for half an hour, then got the next train onto the island. It went to a different town to the first train, but we'd planned to go there anyway. However, as we were travelling on a special group ticket, we weren't allowed to use the fast IC trains, which meant the ticket inspector came around, checked our ticket and informed us that we'd have to get out at the next station, or pay for a new ticket. So we had an unscheduled stop at Bergen. As the town seemed to be quite a distance from the train station, and we only had about 20 minutes, we didn't really see a lot. But still, if anyone asks about Bergen, I've officially been there and done that.

We eventually got to Binz, saw the sea, walked along the beach promenade, and had lunch in an Italian restaurant that also did locally caught fish dishes, and German specialities. The waiter taught us how to say everything in Italian. After a wander around the town, we got the train to Lietzow, where we had to change trains. Luckily we only had 20 minutes in Lietzow, and even then we had to resort in trying out the self timer functions on our cameras (with varying degrees of success). There were two platforms, a sign saying 'Lietzow', a bench, a clock, and nothing else. There was a slight fear that the train wouldn't come, and we'd be left there for ever, so it was a relief when it arrived, and we were able to get on our way to Sassnitz. We'd been trying to get there since 10 o'clock that morning, we eventually arrived at about 3pm, and the boat trips out around the island weren't running anymore. Oh well, we'll have to come back. We saw a lot of the town anyway, and the famous chalk cliffs- the inspiration for Caspar Davis Friedrich's paintings, don't you know. (Grace and I learnt about Romantic- Expressionist artists in one of our modules last year) Then we concluded our tour of Rügen's train stations with an hour wait at Sassnitz station. -It was either that or go back and change at Lietzow again, this time in the dark... At least Sassnitz station offered a place to sit that was inside.

T'was a good weekend.

My first German party

Well, after the excitement of the bed, it turns out I don't have too much to say about my eating and sleeping habits anymore - Although I've not sure I've mentioned my recent muesli fixation? I didn't even really like muesli before I came out here, now I look forward to breakfast time, I have it as a snack with yoghurt, I have even breached my lifelong rule that I can only eat cereal in the morning.

So, German parties... There was a party going on at the student union of the college I go to. I got invited by one of my classmates from my 'German for Foreigners' class. A party! Social contact! Something to do in the evening! It was all very exciting. Even though it was on a Wednesday, and I still had school at 8.30 the next morning, I decided to go, at least for a bit. School on Thursday was my last day before the holidays, and I hadn't been out for so long! I cycled across town, met Rafał, (the classmate who had invited me) who took me to the flat where the 'Warm up Party' was going on. It was fun, there were a lot of people there, of all different nationalities. I spoke German for parts of the evening, English for the others, and sat and wondered what they were talking about, when they all broke out into Russian or Polish.

As the only English person there, I felt so much like a celebrity! As soon as anyone found out I was English, they just wanted me to talk English, so they could hear my accent, and practice talking English with a real native. It was very exciting. One of the Polish guys was going out for a smoke, and he said 'Will you rescue my chair for me'. There is no reason why rescue and save shouldn't be interchangeable in that context, so it was just another example of why I'm glad English is my native language, and I don't have to learn all these complicated differences...

It was a good party, we ended up staying at the flat until about midnight, which I had decided was hometime, so I didn't get to experience the German nightclub (and Oktoberfest party going on there) but maybe soon. I got home in one piece, and although I woke up way too early the next morning, and couldn't get back to sleep, I managed the full day at school and at college. At college, everyone looked slighlty worse for wear. As some of them hadn't got back till 4 or 5 am, it wasn't really surprising! It was a bit hard to get motivated about Konjunctiv 1 (Conditional Sentences, Regrets and Wishes) but our German teacher made us practice, with a lot of sentences like 'If only I had gone to bed earlier...' or 'I wish I was asleep now'. And by the time it got to the class at 4pm, everyone was in hysterics mood and laughed a lot, so at least it was fun!

Half term this week, yay!
xoxo

I HAVE A BED!

It only took about a month and a half, I really hope it was worth the wait. In Köln and the training course I didn't sleep very well, I wonder if it was because I wasn't used to the luxury (of youth hostel foam matresses...oh dear).

Man-o-man*, this was meant to be something other than a run down of my sleeping and eating habits, which the past few entries seem to have become.

However, if I can't talk about eating or sleeping, the next thing I think of to talk about is the weather. It is very cold. On my way to school today, there was a police van at the traffic light. The driver was wearing a jumper, and despite the fact it was obviously part of the police uniform, and it was a khaki green colour, with mustard yellow trimmings, which looked like it would get horribly misshapen, I caught myself thinking 'Wow, that looks like a warm jumper'.

I'd like to think that I've developed a sense of German practicality, in reality I think the cold may be affecting my brain. And still there's that nagging thought- it's only October, how am I going to manage the proper winter months?!

And finally: On the school trip to the zoo on Wednesday, the kids learnt all about monkeys, and then they created a little model monkey out of pipe cleaners and so on. One of the children named their monkey after me. I'm not quite sure whether to be flattered or offended...


*The kids say this all the time at school, I still find it hilarious.

A package arrives.

On the last day of the training course, we'd had to be up and out of our rooms, and returning our keys by 6.30am. After breakfast, we'd been returned to the station, and then it was 'just' a seven hour journey to get back to Stralsund. As long distance travel always seems to make me sleepy, and the hours on the training course were a lot longer than I've been used to recently, understandably I was a little tired when I got back.

You may be able to tell I am explaining all my reasons, and trying to build up a justification... I went to sleep at about 11pm on Thursday, and woke up at about 11.30am on Friday. I got up, had breakfast, read my book for a while, and then because I was getting a little cold, decided to read my book in my sleeping bag. Shortly after that, it was 4pm, and I was waking up. Presumably, I needed the sleep.

The big news of this weekend is that yesterday, I had a marmite sandwich. 'Marmite?!' I hear you cry, or at least read with a perplexed expression, 'how has she managed to acquire Marmite, in that strange land where they don't have real tea and they eat pasta with gravy*?!' And the answer to that would be that I have amazing family members, who are willing to send Marmite and teabags across Europe, to help me cope with German life.

I know I've been going on about how much I missed those food items, but I think I had actually forgotten just how amazing they taste. My marmite sandwich was definitely one of the best ever, and when I made a cup of tea it was actually slightly orange, rather than slightly grey! I used to hate tea that was too orange, but it was such a welcome sight! Though I'm having to remember I'm using English teabags now- German teabags have to be left to brew for about half an hour before they taste of anything, but the thought of doing that with an English teabag makes me feel a bit ill. When the doorbell rang, I was debating whether to answer it or not, as I was wearing my fetching polka-dot-pyjama-trousers-and-oversized-grey-fleece combination, but I'm glad I did.

That's about all there is to report from this weekend, I've spent the rest of my time drinking proper tea and eating marmite sandwiches. Oh, and I have been informed today that cheddar cheese is on sale somewhere in Rostock (the town about an hour away by train, where a few of the other language assistants are situated) so I may have to make a trip there next weekend.

I've got school tomorrow, hopefully my week away from school will have the effect of renewing my 'new and exciting' credentials, and the kids won't have forgotten who I am.

Bis bald! xoxo

* This is true, it was one of the meals on the training course- a big chunk of roast beef, gravy, and pasta. (and nothing else... there was a little bit of salad on the tables, but unless you were prepared to spend half an hour picking the seeds out of grapes to make them edible, there wasn't really much vitamin C on offer.) The pasta-gravy combination wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it was still a bit weird.

The training course.

So, on with the story. The training was quite fun, if a bit pointless in places. It was good to get to know all the people in my area, and to meet some other language assistants around Germany, and share our experiences with other people going through the same thing at the same time.
However, as we've been here for a month, all the 'Introduction to the German school system' and 'What you need to do on arrival in Germany' talks were just a little bit pointless. They kept explaining that this wasn't the usual way of doing things, but they could have changed the talks a bit, rather than just apologising that it was probably going to be irrelevant, and then telling us anyway.

It was very nice to be with a load of native English speakers, but I'm beginning to be slightly distrustful of all those lessons we've ever had, telling us not to believe in stereotypes:

A vast majority of the English people there spent a lot of time complaining about tea. We even asked the catering staff specially, and they started providing pots of tea at breakfast (the German equivalent, but it was nice of them to try...).

The German tutor who was with us for our sessions was very direct. He was very judgemental, which isn't something I attribute to his Germanness, but then he went and told us his opinions of us, very clearly and directly to our faces. The other tutors, who gave feedback on our lesson plans, were equally direct. Luckily, the man giving feedback to our group admitted that he didn't really know how it works in primary schools on the other side of Germany, which meant we didn't get too much negative feedback.

They had planned to run a talent show on the last night, and were very surprised by the fact that none of us had volunteered and put our names down. The course organisers kept going on about when the Americans were at the training, and everyone had got up and performed, and it was just so 'Awesome!' but it just didnt happen like that with us. Luckily they changed plans last minute, and we had a pub quiz instead.

The final stereotype is that the Germans get up early. This is something I can confirm to still be very much true.

Köln

7 hour train journeys are really not that bad. This is possibly becuase I had built it up in my mind that it was going to be the most boring thing ever, and I'd made sure I was equipped with a variety of things to do, and loads of food (which I rationed myself to one item of food per hour), but I was pleasantly surprised that the time passed quite quickly. Of course, I was still glad to get off the train when we eventually did get to Köln, and I wouldn't recommend a 7 hour train journey every weekend, but all in all, it wasn't too bad.

In fact, the train journey was one of the least stressful things of the whole day. After getting to Köln, I had to get a U-Bahn and a tram. I got the right place, and got on, but as I was standing by the on-board ticket machine, waiting for the person using it to be finished, I was approached by a conductor asking to see my ticket. I didn't have one, so I had to get off the train, and basically tell her my lifestory- I provided evidence of my passport, my registration in Stralsund, told her about why I was in Germany, what I was doing, that I had joined the college, and so on and so forth. I also had to explain that I had only just got on the train and I was waiting next to the ticket machine, which must have provided great entertainment, as I was using my broken German, and doing the actions of 'getting on the train', just to make sure she understood. Luckily, she decided not to charge me a €40 fine (for which I was very grateful) but it was very scary.

The conductor advised me to buy my ticket before getting on the tram next time, to avoid such a situation, so I went to the ticket machine at the station, but I didn't have enough small change to buy the ticket. There was an option to pay with a card though, so I tried doing that. However, it kept not working. I tried three different ticket machines, and they kept getting to various levels of being finished, but malfunctioning at the last moment. I didn't even have a €5 note on me, so I couldn't ask if people had enough change to exchange that. All the shops and drinks kiosks at the station were closed, so I couldn't buy anything and get change. I was seriously getting worried I would be stuck in the station all night. I had to start asking people if they maybe had 60 cents, but that didn't bring any luck. Finally, a girl took pity on me, and even though she didn't have any change, she said I could wait with her till her friend came, who might have change, or be able to take me with her. I can only assume they have some kind of multi-person ticket, (which I've seen in other areas of Germany,) as I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but I was glad to be out of the station, and then finally off the tram without incident.

Then, I had to get to the hostel. The instructions did not make much sense, or the road names were not clear enough, or something, but I ended up wandering around Köln at night, asking if people knew where I should go. Eventually I got back on track, and I was so happy to see the hostel. (Though even there, the woman thought I had a reservation for two people, and I had to explain that wasn't the case- but I was proud that I told her I could speak German and carried on talking in German, even when she started speaking in English).

At least I got a lot of 'Excuse me, can you help me?' vocabulary practice...

The hostel itself was nice, there were five other people in my room, three of them were taking part in the Köln marathon the next day, one of them was pretty quiet, and the other one came in late, after the rest of us had all gone to bed. They were all gone next morning, and I made the most of the breakfast bufffet, then went out to see what Köln had to offer.

I kept meeting the marathon, and then I'd stand and watch and offer support for a while (at least until there was enough of a gap to cross the track). Köln made a better impression on me in daylight, when I wasn't panicky and lost. I didn't have much of a plan, so I just wandered around, saw the Rhein, the bridge decorated by padlocks -couples write their names/anniversaries/ love messages and attach them to the bridge, and it looks very nice and shiny- the Dom, and other sights.

I met up with Georgina, a language assistant from Meck-Pomm, who was also in Köln a bit early before the training course. We continued wandering around, took a few pictures, watched more of the marathon, and then went for food. I felt a bit bad for coming all the way to Germany and eating in a Pizza Hut, but the training course promised a week of traditional German food, about which I'd heard mixed reports, so I didn't feel too guilty.

After eating, we headed back to our respective hostels, but met up the next day to do more sightseeing. We set off to the chocolate museum, only to find out that it was shut on Mondays. Very disappointing. Even worse, we went to the tourism office, and found out that Monday was the day most museums were shut. The perfume museum (the birthplace of the original Eau de Cologne) was the only museum that was open, and after we eventually found it, organised a time for a tour-it was very small, and apparently it was too full when we arrived- killed time in a nearby cafe, and then returned, it was actually quite interesting, though the guide woman went a bit over the top when she sprayed us with an example of the perfume.

After the museum, we headed to the train station, to meet all the other language assistants on the training course, and it was quite exciting to find a massive group of English people, and talk to them.

I'll leave it there now, with us waiting at the station for the training course, as this has gone on quite a while...

Lot of love to everyone

xoxo

A hazelnut in Germany.

My last class today was with the DFK 2 class. DFK stands for Diagnose- und Förderklassen, and is for children with special needs or learning difficulties. There are only 10 children, but they all have problems with anger management and control, and have conditions such as ADD/ADHD. My experiences with them so far have been very mixed... either they are completely lovely, and give me thier attention and tell me stories about themselves, or they are trying to kill each other, and during those moments it is very clear that I am just an assistant and telling them to stop and go and do something else has absolutely no effect. It's a bit worrying that I always seem to be with this class when the teacher doesn't turn up for half of the lesson, or has to go and deal with another class, and leaves me to supervise them. This means that it's just a cycle of them getting more and more noisy and lively, and then me somehow getting them under control and quiet, only for them to get chaotic again.Luckily, everytime she comes back into the class room, I've somehow managed to get them back under control, and we are sitting quietly in a circle, but I'm dreading the day she comes in and the kids are all running riot!

Today, after the initial ignoring-me-and-trying-to-kill-each-other-instead phase, I enjoyed the lesson. One of the kids is in my English club, so he told the other kids my name means Haselnuss auf Deutsch, and suggested we play the game we played at English club. So we taught the others, it's a game where you sit in a circle with one space free, and the person to the left of the free place has to say '1, 2, 3 ______ [one of the other names in the class] come to me' and then that person moves places, and the person to the left of the new free place starts again. Quite often one of them would say '1, 2, 3, Haselnuss come to me' but it's quite cute and I'd rather they call me Haselnuss than ignore me...

It's also very cute when I leave school and everyone says 'Tschüs, Haselnuss'', ''Byyeee Haselnuss''.

After the game, they sang the German song they've been learning with their class teacher, and it goes like this:

Die Fische, die Fische sind heute fröh,
sie schwimmen durch's wasser und machen so:
blop blop blop blop blop, blop blop blop, blop, blop
blob blop blop blop blop, blop blop blop, blop, blop

[a rough translation, though I assure you it sounds better in the original:]

The fishes, the fishes, they are happy today,
they swim through the water, and go like this:
blop blop blop blop blop, blop blop blop, blop, blop
blob blop blop blop blop, blop blop blop, blop, blop

It was a bit strange the first time I was in the class, and the teacher suddenly got out a guitar and started playing, and they all started singing along. I like it though, and because the teacher has to speak so clearly and slowly for the children, I understand nearly all of it.

However, the verses continue, with frogs, ducks, and doves, BUT in Germany, the frogs say 'quack' and the ducks say 'schnat'. Which is just confusing.

The song is also ridiculously catchy, so I have had it in my head all day!


[Edit: A few days after posting this, I had a sudden inspiration for how this could be translated so that it would still rhyme, and fit into the original rhythm of the song:

The fishes, the fishes, they are happy today,
As they swim through the water, this's what they say:

and then all the blops, as in the original.

Maybe there's a career to be found in translating children's songs and stories? ]

German Efficiency ...or not.

Germans seem to divide into two very distinct categories. The first is very direct, very efficient, if they say they'll have something done by tomorrow, they probably have it nearly finished already. The other category is a lot more laid back, if they say they'll do something tomorrow, you won't see them for another two weeks, and when they do they'll still have certain obstacles to deal with, before they can get whatever it is done.

I have been very lucky that both my supervisor at the school and my landlady are firm members of the first category. My supervisor almost overpoweringly so- my first week in school, where I was easily confused and everything was new, she asked me what the project for the interschool foreign language competition was going to be, and seemed a bit disappointed that I didn't alrady have a fully formulated plan. I don't want to disappoint her, and I'm trying to do everything as efficiently as she does, but even now, she'll ask me to do something, and she still seems a bit surprised when I actually do it and return it to her... I'm hoping that's more to do with her being the head teacher, and always being so busy and having so much on her mind, and that she doesn't actually think I'm completely useless.

On reflection, perhaps my landlady belongs to a small subset of the first category, she is very efficient and will do everything as soon as she said she would, but unfortunately she never seems to be home, so even though I know she'd help me as soon as I ask, she is never around to ask! At the moment, our flat has no washing machine, so we have to ask her for the key to use her washing machine in the cellar. I have some washing that needs doing, but I have been knocking her door and ringing the doorbell every afternoon this week, and I still have not been able to get hold of her. (She lives upstairs, and rents out the entire ground floor, so it's not like I have far to go, but I don't want to have to add 'being smelly' and 'having no clean clothes' to my list of things to deal with!) Also, I have no idea how late is too late to knock on someone's door, especially you are knocking from within the same house. I know the Germans get up early, but I don't know what's the average time to go to bed, and seeing as I'm religiously going to bed at 10pm every school night (or at least trying to), anything after 8.30 pm seems horrifically late!

Unfortunately, the teacher who has the bed seems to be very much a member of the second category, which is why, nearly 4 weeks after moving into this flat, I still have no bed. It doesn't look like I'll be getting a bed this weekend either, then I'm going to Köln for the week and I'm not going to be in school to ask her if it's sorted, or arrange a time, so it's going to be a while yet...

Maybe I should start taking bets on what will happen first: will I get my clothes washed, or will the bed arrive?

Half an hour later...

I said you'd hear from me soon... I didn't actually mean this soon, but I have a lot of pent up stories, and now that I've done my washing up and had some hot chocolate, I don't have anything else to do, so here I am.

Some general observations on Germany:

Today, I bought a packet of 'Vegetable Meatballs'. I later read the packet, to find they contain '25% pork-mince'. Luckily I'm not actually veggie, and they were delicious, but only in Germany can you buy vegetarian products made of meat. (Though having thought about it, probably in France too.)

On the subject of shopping, it is ridiculously hard to find hot chocolate powder here. It's cold and miserable outside, especially in the evenings, so I just wanted some hot chocolate... The shops all sell coffee in every variety you can imagine, in every format and every flavour, and this includes 'Schoko-cappucino' and so on, but I don't really want to get hooked on coffee here, and it's probably not the best idea for just before bed. I have eventually found some, but still... I miss Cadburys, and I even miss Asda Smart Price hot chocolate powder...

Other foods I am missing include Marmite *sigh* and cheddar cheese... It's weird that whenever I toast the bread I have at the moment, I know it would make perfect cheese on toast. But there is no cheddar, or even anything cheddar-like for me to put on it. I'm experimenting at the moment, and hopefully I'll find something that works.. either that or I'll have to track down a specialist cheese supplier and hope they deliver to Germany! Obviously the other thing is teaaaaa, it's just not the same here, and it's depressing having to buy it as a speciality drink, as that means it's small packets, one of the packets I bought actually had individually wrapped tea bags... It's also sad that whenever anyone else mentions tea, they are either making fun of my Englishness 'Oh, it's tea tiiiime' or when they are suggesting it seriously they mean herb tea, or fruit tea, which are all very nice, and there's a lot more variety here, but stopping for a herbal tea is NOT what having a tea break means! I've started drinking some herbal tea made of anise and fennel though, and that's pretty tasty.

However, there are good foods here. The afore mentioned Veggie Meatballs, with 25% meat, were yum. I've been buying by bread from a bakery mostly, and that makes me feel like I'm here on some kind of holiday, or that I'm being very European/villager-y, which I like. I'm slowly making my way around the bakeries, trying out certain types of bread and everything else they offer. They have things called 'Hörnchen' which are a cross between brioche, white bread and croissants, and are basically a more practical croissant- it tastes nice and it doesn't flake all over the place- which are tasty. The cereal here is pretty good too, Ian you would love it, they sell it in boxes as tall as at home, but as deep as they are wide, so the top of the box is a square (I hope I've explained that well enough, I basically mean they are BIG boxes.) They also sell it in massive bags, but the only thing I can think to compare that too is the big bags of cat litter, which doesn't make it sound that appealing. I also go to the market on Fridays, and pride myself that I'm buying fresh cheese and locally grown vegetables. It's slightly worrying that they sell vegetables I've never even seen before but who knows, maybe I'll learn all about them.

Food is one of those ongoing topics- I'm still working out the best places to shop and the best varieties of things to buy, no doubt I will find some firm favourites (and some things I definitely won't bt buying again-the packet of biscuits I bought were such a let down!), and I'm sure I will be commenting, should I find anything amazing!

I'm leaving it there for now, it is well past my bedtime (I'm writing this at 10:20) and I have school and college tomorrow.

Bis Bald =)

Here goes...

After reading the blog of another language assistant here in Germany, I've decided to give it a go myself. Hopefully it will let me keep everyone at home (and in other parts of the world) up-to-date, and I'll just add to it whenever I've done anything interesting, or I have an observation to make, or when anything else occurs to me.
Maybe eventually I'll be able to put up photos and so on, but we'll see how the basic writing goes at first...

So, my third week in Germany.
I met Daniela, the Bulgarian, and she is absolutely lovely. I am very jealous that she is fluent in Bulgarian, English, and practically fluent in German, but it's good, we talk in both German and English, depending on where we are/what we are talking about, and whether we know certain words in either language. She goes to the local college, to do German lessons, and she invited me along, so now I have lessons 3 afternoons a week. It's good, as well as giving me the chance to learn and practice more German, it turns out I can do a fair amount of the technical grammar stuff, which reassures me that there is some German in my brain, and its not completely pointless being here. It's also good as it's a whole class of students, so I've already met some more people my age. I'm going to have a weird accent by the time I'm finished here- our class comes from all over Europe.

I spent Friday and Sunday with Daniela and Dinara, a Russian girl from the college. Daniela is a language assistant too, and this weekend we met her supervisor/teacher, Sonja and family. Her husband fixed my bike, for which I am very grateful- it was so annoying not having it, especially as that meant having to get up earlier to go to school, and needing to have the right change for the bus, and so on and so on. I think it's fixed now. (Fingers crossed, thumbs pressed, and so on*) Sonja also has a daughter our age, and on Sunday we all made muffins together- baking vocabulary increased! =) It was funny when we were all talking together, Daniela and I helped each other with translations into English, Dinara could sometimes follow the English but not always, Bulgarian and Russian have some similarities so sometimes Daniela and Dinara would try to help each other, but often they'd find out the exact same word has a completely different meaning, which was very confusing, Maria (the German- Sonja's daughter) obviously is a native german speaker, and kept speaking teenage slang German, very fast, and probably also found it hard to get past our accents/ roundabout way of saying things, and to top it all off Sonja speaks a little bit of Russian, what she remembers from school, so every so often she'd just spout a lot of Russian, and I'd severely worry that my German skills had suddenly completely disappeared. It was mental, but it was pretty fun. It's a similar atmosphere in classes, the teaching is all in German, but everyone uses German synonyms, English and their own language to try and work things out. It's great getting to listen to everyone, I hope I pick up a few phrases!

That's probably enough for now, though lists and stories are already forming in my head for next time, so no doubt you will hear from me soon.

Love to you all. =)


* In Germany (and also Bulgaria, according to Daniela) rather than crossing their fingers for luck, they press their thumbs... 'Ich druck dir die Daumen' is 'I'll press my thumbs [cross my fingers] for you' but I'm not sure if 'Daumens gedruckt' or 'gedruckte Daumens' has quite the same effect as 'fingers crossed!'.