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 2nd
of January ready to start term again on the 3rd. 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!
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| 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!
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| 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 2nd 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!
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| Mam, Dad and I in front of the Brandenburg Gate |
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| 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 21st 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!
