My first week in Germany has passed, and it has been a whirlwind of lugging heavy suitcases, drinking German beer, and meeting a lot of new faces.
Cologne was nothing like I expected. It is so world reknowned, that I expected to walk in and be bombarded with tourist attractions left right and centre. It was nothing at all like that..the central attraction is the beautiful Koelner Dom, which stands with pride at the entrance to the train station. It is one of the few things to have survived the war, and is the central attraction in Cologne. Sam and I spent a day exploring, however ended up drinking a lot of coffee, having a few muddled (but successful!) German conversations, and attempting to see some other sights than the Dom. We reached the chocolate museum, to find it closed Mondays, and decided against going to the less popular Senfmuseum (Mustard Museum, yes, honestly) that was opposite. So, we opted for Currywurst and Pommes and sat on some seats by the Rhein. It was lovely.
Then came three days of training in Altenberg. We were in a gorgeous old Catholic Youth Hostel, with amazing scenery. Training saw us plan lessons, and receive general information for life in Germany. Planning lessons was great, and having to teach the "class", i.e. other language assistants, was so much fun, as was getting to be a child for the day!
The evenings at training were a mixture of lots of German beer (at 1,50, who could say no) and meeting 160 new faces. Although quite often we stuck to our little group of people we knew, on the last night I decided to go chat to my friends from my Arbeitsgruppe, who I'd planned my lessons with, and this decision led me to not sleeping until 3.30...with a 6.15 rise the next day. Ouch.
Thursday morning arrived with a deep pit in my stomach. I had to leave all my friends behind, and embark on my own journey to my new town, Diepholz, in the South of Lower Saxony. My journey was helped along by meeting someone from London who is nearly in a neighbouring town, a reassuring thought! Despite the feelings of fear I had on my 3 hour train journey, the views as we spanned over the Rhein were stunning, and I slowly began to fall in love with the country I will call home for the next 6 months.
I arrived in Diepholz, Lower Saxony, and Cornell, the lady whose house I am staying in, met me at the train station, and took me to sort out all the formalities in my new town. The next day I went into school, and there was such excitement! The people at training had made us ready for no one to care about our arrival, however, Diepholz has not had an English Languag
e assistant before, so everyone was rallying around me, and several English teachers informed me they "wanted me", I can but presume for English teaching! I then visited three classes, which were all really nice. The kids seem really nice, very intelligent, and I am therefore hoping this might make my life a wee bit easier than had thought! I spent all my breaks having to do paperwork for the school, which meant getting to meet people properly was hindered massively- this is my aim for next week! I did however get chatting to a few teachers, one of whom says she will organise some teacher and me day out next week. Which is nice. I got invited to go dancing on Saturday by one teacher, an invitation I did accept...more on that later. I spent Friday afternoon in Vechta, a neighbouring town, that seems to have a lot more going on. I can see myself spending a lot more time there!
Going to school on Friday though really was funny. In training last week, my group decided to do a lesson on "Stereotypes", and discuss what people thought about Britain...having now arrived in my town, I cannot quite get over how much the people I've met believe in our stereotypes. The teachers in the school kept asking me all sorts of tea/scone/fo
otball team/Manchester related questions, and my confessing to not having tea and scones at 5pm every afternoon genuinely did make one teacher's face fall. I think they actually whole heartedly believe in British stereotypes, so from now on I think pretending might be the way to go! A moment that truly did make me smile was one teacher saying "Amelia, oh, like Amelia Earhart!". Him then discussing the Joni Mitchell song Amelia with me has meant that we will definitely become firm friends.
Saturday came, and I awoke with a tinge of sadness, something I have all but avoided since arriving here. I realised I had a big friendless weekend ahead of me, in a brand new town, with just one or two people I knew....this, thankfully, was saved by a phone call from my mentor teacher, who invited me out to Schloss Ippenburg in Bad-Essen, which was stunning. It was like a palace, with beautiful themed gardens. It was such a cute day out!
Following the language assistant code, I decided I could not decline an invitation to dancing class, although I did foresee that it would not be my cup of tea. On arrival, I noticed the name of the class to be "freies tanzen". Free dancing. I essentially spent two hours in an incense filled room, expressing my inner hippy. Any Peep Show fans that have seen the epi
sode where Mark and Jeremy attend the dance class, yes, it was identical to that. Only without the touchy feely aspects. But all in all it passed my Saturday evening, and you can't say I didn't try it!
My flat, in Diepholz, Lower Saxony, is more of a first floor of somebody's house. Cornell and her son Yannick live on the ground floor (and the dog Luna, who has finally stopped growling and barking at me whenever she sees me), whereas I live am ersten Stock. I really have got a good deal. The staircase up to my flat is away from their rooms, so if I were to come in late (which I sincerely doubt, Diepholz is extremely quiet!) then they wouldn't hear. Also, my flat has a sizeable bedroom, study, bathroom and kitchen. Anyone who wants to visit, there is plenty of room for you!
This brings me to today. The family I live above have some friends visiting, and have invited me for Pflaumekuchen und Kaffee, and this evening my mentor teacher is taking me out for dinner. Then tomorrow I have a 6:30 rise for my new week in the school! Hopefully this week I will get my timetable for future weeks, so I can know when to go on my travels :) I am but 3 1/2 hours from Amsterdam, 4 hours from Berlin, and just 40 minutes from Bremen. Very excited for my many trips around! I was at first slightly disheartened by how quiet Diepholz is, however the train station has great connections to Oesnabruck, the nearest city, and once I have met a few people from around here, I am sure I will be keeping busy!
Now to the Pflaumekuchen. Auf Wiedersehen!
No comments:
Post a Comment