Fast Weihnachten!

Hi!

I can’t believe how fast time is going! I haven’t written a post since the start of November, even though it feels like yesterday! I have no idea where time’s going to be honest with you, but not having written for such a long time means that I now have lots to tell you! I will try and condense it as much as possible so as not to bore you too much!

At the end of November, I went to London for a weekend for the UK-German Connection conference. The aim of the conference was for us to find German partners, who are working as Foreign Language Assistants in the UK, so that we can work on a bilateral project in our schools, as well as also learning how to run a successful project. In order to find the right partner, we had a kind of ‘speed dating’ session on Saturday morning. We had 2 minutes (per person, obviously) to talk to 21 Germans about our project ideas which, on the one hand was a lot of fun, but on the other hand it was exhausting having to take in so much information at once! I did, eventually, find a partner called Anke, who’s working in a school in Lichfield. We are planning to run a project with the sixth form, even though this wasn’t originally my plan! We will be setting up pen pals, showing films and reading literature with the aim of making English (and German) more fun, and to set up more contacts with native speakers. I am also planning to run a similar sort of English Club with years 7,8&9, where we will also play games etc. Hopefully both projects will be successful! As well as my project with Anke, I have also paired up with a girl called Veronika and we will be running a Christmas project. Her year 9 and one of my Klasse 7 will be sending each other a parcel containing typical German and British Christmas gifts, decorations and food. The kids are all very excited, and I think it’s a lovely way for them to learn about Christmas traditions in the UK (and Germany). We are looking forward to sending receiving the parcells!

Whilst we were in London, we also had some spare time, which can only mean that we shopped a lot, and we also did some sightseeing and visited a ‘German’ Christmas Market on the Thames (how ironic!). I had a lovely weekend until it came time to come back to Germany! The journey back was an absolute nightmare! I had a three-hour delay in Heathrow, which meant that I arrived in Berlin just before midnight, only to find that my luggage wasn’t there. After reporting my luggage missing, I was told that there was nothing that the could do until morning, as the airport has to shut at midnight, however it was likely that someone else had taken my suitcase by mistake, as there was one case left on the belt that looked similar to mine. So, off I went to the train station, hoping that my suitcase would show up in the morning. I then found out that as it was midnight, there was no train going in Plauen’s direction until 6am the following morning! I was less than impressed! Thankfully, after a few hours of sitting in the train station, I managed to get hold of Andrew, who came to rescue me! I am very, very grateful! The following morning, my suitcase had been found and was delivered to Andrew’s flat, and I eventually got back to Plauen at 8.30 PM- more than 24 hours after I had left London! I have never been so happy to see my bed!!

London Sightseeing!

So, over the past week or so, I have met lots of new people! I found that Zwickau has a university, and after looking at their language department’s website, I found that they also have a tandem programme, which means that you find a partner and help each other with your langauges. (i.e. I offer help with English in exchange for help with my German). I thought this would be a good way to meet some new people who are a similar age to me, and so far it has proved to be a success! I have been in contact with three people, and on Sunday I met up with one of my tandem partners called Linda. We had a lovely afternoon looking around the Christmas market in Zwickau and I’m looking forward to meeting up with her again soon :) I will also be meeting two other girls, Sina and Jeannine, but probably after Christmas because the run up to Christmas is so busy! It’s nice to finally be meeting some new people, though!

Last week, I also taught at the private school here in Plauen. I taught three classes (one of which my flatmate was in- very strange!), and I spoke about the British school system and the NHS (as most of them are studying to work in the medical profession). I actually really enjoyed teaching there, and all the staff were very welcoming. Bärbel, the English teacher, invited me round for a traditional German meal last Saturday and I was also able to meet her daughter, Daria. We had a lovely day of walking through the snowy countryside, visiting the Christmas museum and market in Rodewisch and watching the GDR’s production of Cinderella before returning to Plauen, where we also payed a quick visit to our Christmas market here! :) I really did have a lovely day with Daria, and I was feeling extremely Christmassy by the end of the day!

The Vogtland looks beautiful in the snow :)

As well as meeting Bärbel and her family at the private school, I also met the school’s secetary, Moreen. Apparently, she was quite excited to hear that I was going to the school, so she invited me round to her house that afternoon to spend time with her and her family. She’s 31 years old (even though she looks like she could be one of my students- I didn’t believe her when she told me she was married with 2 kids!) and also lives in Plauen. We had a lovely afternoon together, and tomorrow evening, we’re going to the cinema together. We get on really well, and again, it’s really nice to spend some time with new people!

You may have already gathered from this post that I am now feeling very Christmassy! I’ve already been to the Christmas markets here in Plauen, and in Zwickau, Rodewisch and Lengenfeld. They are all really small, so I’m really looking forward to going to visit the market in Nuremberg this weekend with Sarah, the Australian assistant. I have also bought some typical christmas decorations that originate here in the Vogtland and the Erzgebirge to try and make my room look as Christmassy as the streets and shops do! I really like the traditional decorations made of wood- I think they look much nicer than plastic decorations :) 

  

 Plauen's Christmas market

         Our pretty Tree in front of the old Rathaus

My traditional decorations :)

I genuinely can’t believe how close Christmas is now! I will be home two weeks tomorrow! I haven’t been this excited for Christmas since I was a little girl! It will be so nice to spend some time with my family and friends, especially now that we have a new edition to our family! My cousin (who also happens to be one of my best friends!) had a little baby girl last week and I cannot wait to meet her! I was a little bit sad that I wasn’t home when she was born, but it just gives me more reason to look forward to going home!

Well, that is all I have to tell you for now! These last two weeks before Christmas are looking very busy already. I will try and post again before Christmas to let you all know what I’ve been up to (for those who actually read this!) :)

Bis Bald :)

Tschüss, Herbstferien!

Hi!

I’ve been back in school for a week now, and I’m not entirely sure where my two-week holiday went! I had a really lovely half term, even if it did appear to fly by!

I’m going to start by telling you about the last school trip I went on (because if I don’t do things in chronological order, I get really confused!) I think I mentioned that I was going to a museum where they produce musical instruments with a year 6 class. It turns out the trip was seriously understaffed and none of the music teachers could make it, even though it was a trip that they had organised! So 50 children, 2 teachers and myself set off to the museum, and none of us had a clue what we were supposed to be doing! Because of the lack of staff, I was asked to be in charge of one of the groups. The children in my group got very excited when they were told I was in charge of their group, and they were even more excited that I was speaking German to them after weeks of nagging me to speak German in our English lesson! Thankfully, my group were really nice and all very well behaved, which made the day more enjoyable. It was also nice to hear one of the museum staff asking me from which part of Germany I originally come from. He was quite surprised that I could speak ‘such good German’ when I told him that I actually come from Wales! He seemed really interested in Wales, although it soon became clear that he hasn’t a clue where it is when he asked me if Wales is a part of Scotland or Ireland!? I’ve got used to having to explain to people that Wales is its own Country, and not a part of England, but this one was a new one on me!

So, on the first day of half term I went to Berlin to meet Jon. We had an absolutely lovely time. There’s so much to do and see in Berlin that we couldn’t possibly see everything in just four days (an excellent excuse to have to go back, I say!). So after meeting Jon at the airport and checking in to our looovely hotel, we got straight to being proper British tourists! ;) We went to see all the ‘obvious attractions’ such as the Fernsehturm, the Brandenburger Tor, the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. My favourite, however was the GDR museum. We met Andrew, who’s spending his year abroad studying in Berlin, and the three of us had a really good day! Jon and I also went to the Reichstag, where we managed to skip the three-hour wait when a man came up to us in the queue to ask if we wanted to go in straight away. I’m still not entirely sure why, but I didn’t complain! The four days went by way too fast, but as I said, I will definitely have to go back some time this year.

Our Hotel Room

GDR Museum- The Trabi

The Brandenburger Tor

Jon and I outside the Reichstag

We spent the rest of the week in Plauen, and even managed to fit in a trip to Dresden before Jon had to go home on the Sunday morning. During the week, we had all possible weather! In Berlin, it was 20 dgrees+, and we were walking around in t-shirts, which I found very strange in October! Then we had typical autumnal rain followed by some very unexpected snow! Although it makes everything look very pretty, it also manages to make everything so much more of an effort! Thankfully it only stayed for a few days!

Snowy Plauen

After Jon left, I decided that I didn’t want to stay in Plauen by my self, so I went to Cologne to see Phil and Charlotte. We had a lovely week and it was nice to see some familiar faces :) This time we had plenty of time to visit the Lindt factory… definitely my idea of heaven!

Yummyyy!

This week I have been back at school. I started my week by giving lots of lessons on the history of Guy Fawkes. Then I was suddenly expected to give lessons on the American voting system and the presidential elections. I’m also giving lessons on the Australian Aborigines next week. Being Welsh, I am obviously an expert on these two subjects…. Well, that’s what my teachers think at least! I’ve come to realise that they expect me to know everything about every English speaking country. At least I’ll be learning new things too, right!? I also joined the volleyball team this week. I’ve never played volleyball in my life, but thought it’d be a good way of meeting new people. The team are all really nice and friendly, so I’ll probably be going back next week. I got a lift home with one of the women on the team who happens to live across the road from me last week and she mentioned that her son is really struggling with English. So we’re going to talk about the possibility of me giving private tuition next week, which should be good.

At the end of this month, I’ll be going to London :) I’ve been chosen to be one of the ‘UK-German Connection’ Project ambassadors, so will have to go to the training weekend in London this month. The aim of the scheme is to create more contacts between British people learning German and Germans learning English. During the conference, I will pair up with a German who’s working as an assistant in a British school, and we will plan and run a bilateral project together, me in Plauen, and my partner in the UK. My plan is to set up an ‘English Club’ in the school, where I will show English films, play games etc. so that the children can learn English on an informal level, without the pressures of the classroom. Hopefully, we will be able to keep in contact with a similar club in the UK. I’m quite exited to get started, and am really looking forward to going to London…even if it is only because I can eat proper cheese and drink proper tea! ;)

As well as organising my trip to London, I have also booked my flights home for Christmas! I’ll be flying home on the 19^th of December and coming back on the 2^nd of January. I’m really looking forward to seeing my family and friends at home. Only 7 more Mondays ‘til home time!! :)

Well, that’s all from me! I actually have a busy weekend ahead of me this week! I’m going bowling with Stefanie and her work colleagues tomorrow and then Sarah (the Australian assistant) and I are going to the theatre on Sunday to watch My Fair Lady in German. Really looking forward to it! 

Tschüss! :)

Fast Ferien!

Hallo!

Again, I’m going to start by apologizing for yet another long post! I’ve been meaning to write this one for a while, but it’s been a bit of a hectic week! Anyway, here’s the news from my past week and a half in Plauen!

Monday is proving to be a really busy day up to now! I’m in school from 7.15-2pm, and on top of that, we had a department meeting this week! I’m hoping that I’ll be able to join Plauen’s volleyball team after I get back from Berlin, who also happen to train on a Monday, so it’s going to be a very tiresome start to the week! Despite my long Mondays, I am still absolutely loving teaching. It is such a rewarding job! Once a week, I teach a year 6 class who have to have extra English lessons because they struggle. This week, one of the boys came up to me at the end of my lesson to tell me how much he’d enjoyed it. It’s nice to hear that they’re starting to enjoy the subject and hearing such nice comments makes all the hard work that I put into planning my lessons 100% worth it. The few weeks that I have been teaching for have confirmed that I definitely want to be a teacher of some sort in the future- although I’m still not entirely sure at what level. My mentor has arranged for me to teach a few lessons at a private school here in Plauen after the holidays. The students there will be a little older than the ones I teach at school, so this may give me a better idea of which age group I would like to work with. The teacher who I met from the private school seemed really nice and they are very excited to have an English native speaker to teach a few lessons!

Last Saturday, I went on a little trip with my mentor and her family. We went to a place called Mödlareuth in Bayern. Mödlareuth is also known as ‘Klein Berlin’ because it was divided in two during GDR times by a 700-meter wall- Just like Berlin, but on a much smaller scale! (The village only had 50 people who lived there.) We went to a museum there, which was really interesting. Even though I’ve read loads of books about the former GDR and have studied a bit about it, I still find it really bizarre hearing my mentor talk about her life during the GDR times and how much everything has changed since the ‘Wende’. It doesn’t matter how much I’ve studied and read about it, I still find it hard to imagine that people actually lived like that- Strange, I know!

Klein Berlin

What's left of the 700 Meter Wall

 I’ve only taught for two days this week. Yesterday and today I went on school trips, and I’m going on another trip tomorrow! The joys of being an assistant!! Yesterday I went on year 5’s Wandertag. I found it sooo odd that we were taking 28 10-year-olds on the train to get where we were starting our walk, but it seems that this is pretty standard in Germany! We walked about 14 kilometers in total around the countryside of the Vogtland. On our way, we stopped at a Gasthof owned by one of the students’ parents, where they had prepared some breakfast for us. There was Wurst, Pfannkuchen, doughnuts and plenty of fresh bread- really really tasty! This is when they told me that they had invited a reporter from the local newspaper along to take some photos and write a story about me. News must be slow in Plauen this week if they’re having to run a story about me!! Year 10 have also written an article about me for the homepage on the school website (http://www.diesterweg-gymnasium.de). Between stories being wrote about me and kids shouting my name down the street, I’m starting to feel like the new local celebrity!

Today, I went on a trip to Leipzig with the Oberstufe (6^th form). We went to the American Consulate this morning to listen to a speech about Obama and the upcoming presidential election in the USA. We then had the afternoon to do as we pleased, so I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with Mike, Chrissie and Graham (Bangor students studying at Leipzig for their ERASMUS year). It was really nice to see all three of them, even if it was only brief. I definitely didn’t have enough time to see Leipzig properly today, so will most likely be returning in the near future!

Chrissie, Mike, Graham and I in Leipzig

In between all these trips, I’ve been busy trying to make my room feel more homely! I now have a wardrobe but had a slight mishap with the sofa! I somehow managed to order a sofa cover, not the actual sofa. As it was pay on delivery, I hadn’t noticed! The cover still isn’t here, however, and IKEA has told me to refuse to accept the package when it arrives so that I won’t have to pay for it. I’m not entirely sure that I have room for a sofa any more, so I may wait a little before I decide to buy one! Stefanie’s friend has also been so kind as to hang up my photos and cupboards, and because my Wohnwand was looking a bit bare, I have bought a few bits and printed some more photos to make the room look homely! I think I’m happy with my room now! :)

My Wohnwand

My Room :)

Tomorrow, I’m going on a trip with the music department to and instrument museum. Apparently it’s really interesting, so I’m looking forward to going! Not as much as I’m looking forward to going to Berlin on Saturday, though!! I am so excited to see Jon and, obviously, to see Berlin. I found out yesterday that I actually have 2 weeks for half term, not one as I was originally told (I swear!!). It’s a shame, cause Jon will have to leave after a week, so I’ll have to plan lots of exciting things to keep me occupied in week 2!

That is all that I have to tell you for now! I do hope that I didn’t bore you too much! Next stop…Berlin! :D

Bis Bald!