Well, since you last heard from me I've been to the UK and back! I had a weekend in Scotland with all my lovely friends from CU at uni, and although not much sleep was had, I loved every minute of it! I think I'd forgotten how much God has blessed me with friends at uni - it just felt so natural and easy to chat with them, even about the silliest things! The weekend was filled with teaching, singing, hugs, catching up, pirates, drama, mud, and much much more! I also got a chance to see Em, Katrina and Becky who I lived with last year which was fab :) But, all good things and all that, so Monday saw me and Sim leaving Newcastle heading south for Peterbrough where I saw Sim's lovely flat before making him get up at 5 on Tuesday morning to take me to the airport - thanks Sim, you're a legend! Thankfully I managed not to cry my way back to Germany and once here, Ramona came to collect me - yey! It's really nice to be back but I still miss everyone loads. Thanks guys for a great weekend, for remembering who I was, for giving me a bed, and for listening :)
16th November was Buß- and Bettag here which is a public holiday to do with forgiveness I think! Haven't quite worked it out yet! But i spent the day at a teacher's house baking for Christmas (oh my goodness, they have such yummy food here!) and playing the Disney equivalent of Trivial Persuit (I won!). Since then it's been back to porridge - I'm really enjoying the extra-curricular English class with some of the Klass 10s (7 of them to be precise). We chat and play games and it's really relaxed. My teaching is coming along slowly althought there are times I find myself standing in front of a class thinking "what on earth am I doing here?"! Today someone asked me to explain the difference between using "will" and "going to" in the future tense...I had no idea! But I quickly grabbed my grammar book and gave them a brief run down and a few examples - I'm learning so much!
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
Second week
Monday and Tuesday of the second week were devoted to the English Camp at school. The English department is planning to run an English club one day a week for primary school kids, so they invited Class 3 students from the primary schools in the area to come to the school for a couple of days to try and encourage them to come to the English club. We had so much fun these 2 days - the first day we did classroom words so we sang songs, made pen-toppers and played lots of silly games. The second day was food which included a huge pumpkin sitting in the middle of the desk all day! We also made toasties (some of which had spaghetti in them - weird!) and banana smoothies. The kids had a ball, and I hope they'll all come to the club.
Wednesday morning saw me and Jos on a train bound for Hamburg. We went to visit the city and stayed with a couple of language assistants there who go to Newcastle Uni. Hamburg is such a lovely city and we managed to fit in loads while we were there, including a tour of the Rathaus (town hall), an organ recital and a trip in a tiny lift to a viewing gallery at the top of a church with fabulous views of the city. On Friday night we said our goodbyes and headed across to Berlin as mum and dad were arriving on the Saturday and I figured I really should be there to meet them! Berlin is an amazing place and if you ever get the chance, or have a spare weekend, GO!! The highlight was probably the 3 and a half hour (english) walking tour we did - it was so interesting and I really enjoyed seeing all the things that I've only ever read about in books. I was just overwhelmed by the amount of history there is and how almost everything has been remembered in some way, though a monument, a museum, or in the case of the wall, actual sections still standing. Seriously, go visit.
After Berlin mum and dad came down to Glauchau for a few days and were able to see my flat and even the school. They came in for a quick tour before meeting Ramona (who looks after me) and also the headmistress! We had a day in Dresden and visited the recently rededicated Frauenkirche, which is beautiful. Sadly they had to leave on Friday, but I had to sleep all day Saturday to recover from all the things we'd done!
Wednesday morning saw me and Jos on a train bound for Hamburg. We went to visit the city and stayed with a couple of language assistants there who go to Newcastle Uni. Hamburg is such a lovely city and we managed to fit in loads while we were there, including a tour of the Rathaus (town hall), an organ recital and a trip in a tiny lift to a viewing gallery at the top of a church with fabulous views of the city. On Friday night we said our goodbyes and headed across to Berlin as mum and dad were arriving on the Saturday and I figured I really should be there to meet them! Berlin is an amazing place and if you ever get the chance, or have a spare weekend, GO!! The highlight was probably the 3 and a half hour (english) walking tour we did - it was so interesting and I really enjoyed seeing all the things that I've only ever read about in books. I was just overwhelmed by the amount of history there is and how almost everything has been remembered in some way, though a monument, a museum, or in the case of the wall, actual sections still standing. Seriously, go visit.
After Berlin mum and dad came down to Glauchau for a few days and were able to see my flat and even the school. They came in for a quick tour before meeting Ramona (who looks after me) and also the headmistress! We had a day in Dresden and visited the recently rededicated Frauenkirche, which is beautiful. Sadly they had to leave on Friday, but I had to sleep all day Saturday to recover from all the things we'd done!
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