Woche 9

Moinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, from the train back from Berlin to Hamburg (then on to Lübeck, and then a bus home). My fiancé and I have spent the weekend here and it has been super fun.

Words this week:

irrenfuehrend - deceptive/misleading

lindern - alleviate/relieve

entwoehnen - wean sb/sth

die Heimsuchung - affliction

reinlegen - screw sb/con/spoof

die Nadel - pin/needle

einsperren - confine/cage/imprison

der Entzug - withdrawal

das Grundeis - ground ice

die Attrappe - dummy/mock up

der Zuhaelter - pimp (watched Trainspotting in German)

der Bursche - fellow/lad

die Tunichtgute - good-for-nothings

der Schlaffi - wimp

der Tintenfisch - squid

der Massstab - benchmark

das Geschirr - dishes/crockery

die Poststelle - post office

locker - loose/casual

der Lehrling - apprentice

die Zeugnisse - evidence/testimonials

der Papierkram - paperwork

die Glocke - bell

jdn verkuppeln - set sb up

jdm geht der Arsch auf Grundeis - sb gets scared shitless

die Dienstvereinbaring - service/work agreement

der Mutterschutz - paid maternity leave

die Belehrung - indoctrination/instruction

die Genehmigung - approval

gestalten - pattern/shape

die Beauftragten - commissaries

die Fortbildung - further education

Montag

This morning I walked to work and it was quite a nice walk. It was pretty much straight with some alright sights, although it was absolutely nipple-glass-cutting freezing. Got to work a bit earlier, because I had to go through the lesson I had planned with the teacher. Did my lesson, and it went ok, though I think I put in too much input. There was a lot of information for them to absorb, but I’m unsure how to make the Irish famine interactive and fun? (If any ideas, please leave them in the comments below, I am genuinely interested). I went through a timeline of the famine, showed them the Sinèad O’Connor song “Famine” and got them to fill in the gaps, then I ended with a debate about whether the English were responsible for the Irish famine, which was a bit stiff, but as I said, there was a lot of information beforehand, and it was Monday morning. Next, I popped home for a bit because the usual class I had on Monday had a test, and the teacher asked me to go to another class later on. In that class, I took a small group out (who were doing the English Abitur (A-Level equivalent) to go through their mediations (they do a mediation in the exam, where they have to loosely translate an English text in a certain amount of words). They asked me lots of questions about the language “When do you use commas? Like in German?” (in German there is a comma after every clause, in English I said it’s when you need to take a breath, in lists, and after a Nebensatz [subordinate clause, do we call them?]) and asking whether you could say “they’ve”, which yes you can in normal English, but in the Abitur it’s cheating your word count. When I got back, I was knackered. I thought about doing some shopping, but I actually didn’t need much, seeing as I was only there technically until Thursday afternoon, and ended up just buying some salad and water (interesting times).

Dienstag

In my first class today, we watched scenes from Lost in Translation (they are doing about intercultural competence) and answered questions about how the protagonist is feeling and why. We discussed differences between the Japanese culture and German/English culture. Then we looked at funny mistranslations from signs across the world and tried to figure out what they actually mean. In my next class, the teacher had to sort out admin with the class, as they had just had a talk about jobs and careers. The students have to do a project in January that combines three different subject areas, so they all had to vote for which ones they wanted to combine, and opted for English, Gemeinschaftskunde (similar to sociology), and Gesundheit (health). Next, they all voted on what to do for Nikolastag (Nicholas Day- 6^th December), because they set up stalls in the school between 9-12 where people pay for activities. The popular vote was for Lebkuchen (a cake here) and using icing to style their own, and for Laternedosen (really not sure what the translation for this is- lantern box)? I then did some photocopying, and spent the rest of the day cutting out and paperclipping, and doing washing.

Mittwoch

Got to work a bit earlier to sort out my lesson for later. Then in my first class the whiteboard wouldn’t work (which ended up being a nightmare, as the class I had to do a lesson for was in the same classroom- had to do a room change that got confused for whatever reason, then stumbled upon more technological issues and ended up losing 20 minutes of the lesson, which is never great). So, they had to do worksheets about the difference between “for” and “since” (thank God we never had to learn the rules for that). I was sent on a chase around the school to find the computer guy who fixed whiteboards, but whatever he did didn’t work (leading to the room change catastrophe). However, when the students use their mobile phone in this class they have to bring in a cake to the next lesson, turns out 4 of them used their phone last lesson, so we got quite a large selection of cake. Two of the students (who are brother and sister) work in a bakery, and bought the teacher and I some special marzipan pastries, which I thought was super sweet. Then in the next class I had to do my lesson, but it was simply too difficult for them, none of them really wanted to be there, and it just flopped, which makes you feel like a failure. I shouldn’t be too hard on myself because I am obviously not a trained teacher, and the teacher said there were some nice resources, but the video was too difficult, and there was too much audio input. So, she suggested we use some of the resources and make easier worksheets for them to do.

Donnerstag

Huzzahhhh, the day I met Joe. Had to do a bloody lot before that happened. Firstly, I had to pick up the weekend bag that I had ordered from Amazon. I had ordered it to come on Wednesday, but the hours it gave me I was at work. I asked Joe to change the drop off point to a local shop. Unbeknownst to us, this changed the delivery day. SO, I had to pick it up today from the shop, praying it got there before I started work (which it did- in perfect timing actually). Everything resolved. Alles in Ordnung. As I was waiting for the bus in thick layers, scarf up to my nose, with my hood up, someone came up to me and started chatting me up, which is always flattering, though I was a lil paranoid he was going to follow me. He didn’t, no problem. So, then I had my lesson, where we discussed English as a lingua franca, and how English words intercepting a language could ruin it (I joked that I should just get the next plane home). Then I had to go through singular and plurals with the class, giving them a word, asking if it was singular and plural, and if it was singular what was the plural and vice versa. Well, ya local bloody goon here thought “criterium” was the plural. Nightmare. Teacher wasn’t impressed. I was disgusted in myself. I’ve only been here 2 months and my English degree has taken a hard hit. Then I had a teacher conference, a staff meeting, where I had to stand up and introduce myself in FRONT OF ALLLLLLLLL THE TEACHERS. It went ok, they chuckled, and clapped me. That lasted about an hour and half, going through general improvements the school could go through, how to act in a fire alarm, about becoming a Fair-Trade school etc. When I got home, I had an hour to pack and leave for Hamburg to meet Joe from the airport. Did all that, left the flat, got the bus, then the train, then Joe said he’d landed when I was about 20 minutes away from Hamburg Hbf (you have to get a 20 minute S-Bahn from Hbf to the airport). Thought I’d dropped the ball there, was hardly gonna be a romantic meeting at the airport now. So, when I finally got there, he was on his 27^th cigarette, and we had a hug in the smoking area. Then we got the S-Bahn back to Hbf, and arrived at our hotel. We then ate a Boots Meal Deal in bed. Perfect.

Freitag

Rise and shine all early, was the day to go to Berlin. Had some breakfast, checked out at 11, then we had 2 and a half hours to kill before our train (oversight on my part- I’ve fucked up a lot this week, now that I reflect back). So, we walked around Hamburg, found the place where our hotel and restaurant will be when we go back in December for Joe’s birthday, where we’ll watch Star Wars then go out for a steak (treatin’ ‘im like a wee princess). Got to the train station, AND THE TRAIN WAS CANCELLED BUT LUCKILY THERE WAS A REPLACEMENT AND WE GOT A SEAT IN FIRST CLASS SO AT FIRST MY MIND WAS RACING AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT THEN EVERYTHING RESOLVED ITSELF PRETTY SMOOTHLY. Got to Berlin, had to get the S-Bahn to the place where our hotel was, checked in (hotel was v posh), then went to look for something to eat. We opted for a pizza, and then we went back to the hotel for a bottle of wine and ended up in bed about 21:30 (we are wild cats), but we were knackered and had a big day the next day.

Samstag

Got up early, got the S-Bahn to Hbf, where we walked to the Reichstag, Brandenburg Tor, taking many pictures as we went. We went to the Brandenburg Tor, where Greenpeace were annoyingly protesting about nuclear weapons. Then we walked around the Jewish Memorial, where people were making out, taking cute selfies and running around, which was also really annoying and disrespectful. We then carried on walking down to the Mall of Berlin, where we bought some lunch. Then we went to the spy museum, then on to Topography of Terror and the Berlin Wall, which were both very moving. Then we went to Checkpoint Charlie, passing the Trabi tours on the way, which is now in the middle of a KFC, McDonalds and Starbucks. We went around that museum, then went for a Starbucks ourselves, as Joe had “only had 2 cups of coffee today”. Then we headed towards Alexanderplatz, where we saw the Fernsehturm, which was scary as hell. Then we went to the DDR museum, then went for a drink. Then we got some fish and chips and got the S-Bahn back to the hotel about 19:30, got lost so got back about 20:30 we had a lie down, then went out for a drink at about 21:30. Then we headed to bed. This paragraph might seem a bit vague, but I really recommend that you go see this city for yourselves. Joe was worried that the city would be like another city we had been to, but it wasn’t, it had a lot more personality, and was honest about it’s history.

Sonntag

So we checked out the hotel, got the S-Bahn to the train station, now we’re an hour or so from Hamburg. When we arrive in Hamburg, Joe wants to buy some gin for his mom (if the shop is open), and we will go back to Lübeck and he can finally see my flat :D. We will probably just lie down for the rest of the day and chill, then order a takeaway later. I think the ETA for arriving home is about 16:30, and it is currently 13:27, so yeah.

Have a great week y’allllllllllllllll, next week will probably be boring as hell and I’ll be sad that Joe’s gone on Tuesday. Tschüsssssssssssss!