A (very!) belated Frohes Neues Jahr!

Hi!

So, I haven’t written a post for a while mainly because I keep forgetting! But also because time seems to be flying by! Although it doesn’t feel as though I’ve been doing much, when I look back, I have actually been quite busy!

February was the start of our two-week winter half term. Even though we had only been back in school for four weeks, it was lovely to have another break! Christmas didn’t seem half long enough! I had such a good time at home with my family and friends, and it was lovely to finally meet my cousin’s beautiful little baby, who was born in November, so it was really difficult having to leave everyone to travel back to Germany on the 2^nd of January ready to start term again on the 3^rd. Anyway, February half term was lovely! Jon came to visit in the first week and in the second week my parents came over to Germany. Jon and I spent the first few days in Plauen, then we managed to visit Dresden and Leipzig before spending the last two days in Berlin. Dresden was lovely. It’s such a pretty city with so much history. We started the day in the military museum, which was absolutely HUGE! We would have needed much more time to be able to see and read every detail, but we managed to see the majority of the exhibition and it was very interesting. Definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in Dresden. After spending quite a few hours in the museum, we decided to take a walk around the city and we went to visit the Frauenkirche. It’s such an impressive building! Again, worth a visit!

Dresden

In Leipzig, we met up with Mike. It’s always nice to catch up with friends from Bangor :) The three of us decided to visit the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, which is a monument to the battle of the nations, which (I think!) took place in Leipzig in 1813. On our second day in Leipzig, Jon and I visited the Stasi museum. I’m really, really interested in GDR history etc. and have been told that the Stasi museum in Leipzig is really good. It was very interesting, but we were a little short of time, so I may have to go back again to visit properly!

Jon and I in front of the Völkerschlachtdenkmal 

After our two days in Leipzig, Jon and I made our way to Berlin. This is the second time we’ve been to Berlin now. In October we went to lots of museums (mostly GDR-related!) so this time, Jon wanted to go somewhere that he would be more interested in- the technology museum. Again, the place was massive and we didn’t actually manage to see the whole exhibition. What we did see was very interesting, though- especially if you are interested in the whole development of computers etc.

 After two days in Berlin, I swapped Jon for my parents at the airport! We were originally supposed to spend a couple of days in Berlin and then make our way to Plauen. However, I’ve been having some housemate troubles, so I decided it would probably be best to spend the whole week in Berlin.

We had an absolutely wonderful week. My Mam and Dad had never been to Berlin before, so I showed them all the famous, ‘touristy’ sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Eastside Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie and the TV tower. We also went to the GDR museum (my 2^nd time!) and to the museum at the Jewish memorial site. I had been to the Jewish memorial before, but the museum was closed, so it was good to have the chance to be able to go again. Some of the personal stories were really sad, but overall the museum was very interesting. We also went to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, along with Andrew, who is spending his year abroad in Berlin. It was a really strange feeling being there. I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to feel. It was definitely eerie and bitterly cold! Being there sort of made the history seem more real, I suppose. In a strange way, I actually enjoyed it (for want of a better word). As well as visiting all the historical sights, we decided to go to Madame Tussauds and we also spent a fair bit of time shopping! I really did have a fabulous time with my Mam and Dad and I was very sad to see them leave at the end of the week and having to return to Plauen by myself after a wonderful two weeks! But I soon settled back in to life in Plauen!

Mam, Dad and I in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Since being back I’ve been fairly busy. I’ve met up with a few friends for lunch and went to the cinema with Moreen. I’m hoping that we’ll go to the cinema again soon ‘cause I really want to see Les Mis and Til Schweiger’s new film Kokowääh 2! I also have a new timetable at school. I still get Fridays off, which is good! But now I see some classes more than once a week. I find that I get to know the students better this way, and I get a better idea of what they’re doing and how they’re developing. I’m still really enjoying teaching. Although receiving praise from the other teachers about my lessons is always good, nothing beats the students themselves telling me that they enjoy learning English in my lessons. A few weeks ago we had an open day at my school. In Germany, parents are allowed to choose which school their children go to. There’s more than one school in Plauen, so they basically compete against each other to try and make their school look the best. I never realised how competitive the whole process is! After deciding on a school, parents then have to apply for a place. Very different to my experience of school back in Wales. Anyway, for the open day, I was asked to prepare a short sketch with a group of 8 students from class 5, which we then performed at the open day. The aim was to show how much English the students have learnt in less than a year at the school. The students did very well, so well, that we then decided to enter them into a talent competition! We continued practising the sketch and last week, the students performed at the talent contest. We are still waiting on the result, but I think they did very, very well! I was very proud of them!

Outside of school, I have joined a step-aerobics class and a gospel choir! I’ve never really sung gospel before, but they were the only choir I could find that didn’t consist of only older men! The choir only meet once a month, but it’s a good opportunity to meet some new people. I’ve also been trying to work on my dissertation. It’s not going as well as I would like at the moment, but it’s getting there slowly!

So, I’ve just realised that this post has ended up being really long!! Tomorrow morning, I am going back to Berlin for the weekend to celebrate Charlotte’s 21^st birthday. I am so, so excited! There’s going to be 7 other Bangor students there, so it’ll be so nice to spend some time with friends! I think that is all I had to say so I will leave it here!

Bis Bald!