Hello again an alle,
Sorry for the very long break between posts. A couple of reasons, one being laziness, the others being a two week trip to the Balkans at the end of October, lots of stress due to the Landesschulbehörde, and lastly I’ve been really sick for the last three weeks, basically since I got back from my trip. Anyway, I’ll use this post to go over some of the previously mentioned events in more detail and to explain what else my life has entailed these last few months in Germany.
So, after some initial -not very big- issues at my school, like not really having a Betreuungsleher and such, I finally have found my rhythm and which classes I want to be in. I especially enjoy lessons with my 5 graders, as they are in “English Fast-forward” and are leagues beyond what you’d expect for their age. I can just speak normally to them and they mostly understand me. Plus they’re ridiculously funny. Today we actually did a sort of presentation which was part of the school’s Christmas event where the kids sang two Christmas songs. They sang “Last Christmas” and “Jinglebell Rock” both of which (especially “Last Christmas”) where much too hard for them, but they chose them themselves! The performance didn’t go exactly as planned (Music cut out during Jinglebell Rock and the kids had no idea what to do) and I was on stage with them looking ridiculous, but it was fun anyway!
Aside from the I spend a lot of time with one Oberstufe class of students doing their Abitur exam at the end of the year. Right now they are doing the film Billy Elliot as their topic. Otherwise I dabble in 7th, 8th, 9th, and sometimes 11th grade. Which is actually less diverse than last year (where I also did 10th!). Anyway, sometimes getting between Wolfsburg and Braunschweig is annoying, but it’s worth it to live here in BS, which is much nicer than Wolfsburg, and has the added benefit of the other assistants living here!
Anyway, speaking of people being sick, I was out with a terrible cold flu for like two weeks from beginning of November on and I am technically still a little sick even now, over 3 weeks later, but I am a lot better! Before the sickness though I was living it up on my trip to the Balkans, which included going down through Romania from Cluj-Napoca to Timisoara and then on into Serbia and finally Bosnia. I learned so much from the experience, as I knew very little about these Eastern European countries. Bosnia and the capital city of Sarajevo were particularly interesting, given the wealth of information on both WWI (and what started it all) and the Siege of Sarajevo. I was only a little kid when the Bosnian war was raging, so learning about it now is crazy! I also had awesome travel companians in to other Assistants from the States, Andrew and Vicky. All in all it was an awesome two weeks, but word to the wise, trains (and all public transport for that matter) are absolutely awful in Romania. There are no signs and indications letting you know where stops are, or where to get out, and the bus drivers are like sealed into their compartment so you can’t ask them (even if they could speak English :P). This lead to some misadventures, but hey that’s the fun of travelling!
So last but not least I’ll mention my troubles with the Landesschulbehörde, which is the governmental organization that pays me (essentially the school district). Now to be fair, we are told that we may have to wait up to six weeks for payment, but my expectations were that I’d be paid within a month, which is what happened last year. However, this was not the case. In fact, I didn’t get paid until basically November (while I was in the Balkans, basically penniless, save for some handout money from my saint-like generous parents) , which was really pushing it, seeing as I arrived in Germany beginning of September and started work on the 15th. I was starting to have problems with my roommates (not paying rent and all) and I was super stressed and annoyed, but thankfully I sent an angry email and managed to work it out. A friend of mine didn’t get paid till last week though, so I wasn’t the only one getting screwed over. Anyway all is good now, but it was a stressful time. Here’s hoping the rest my time here goes at least a little more smoothly!
I swear I will add some pictures (and maybe even spice the text up some how) as soon as I get it all onto my computer and sort through the huge collection of photos on my phone. It takes forever to get them on the laptop!
Ok thanks for reading!
Craig