Grüß euch!
Like Stephanie and Alex, I will first excuse myself for not posting earlier, it took me a while to figure out exactly what I needed to do (and what I should write about!).
My name is Lauren Thompson and I am one of the many (well 6) former UVic Germanic Studies students who are working as Fremdsprachenassistenten in Germany for the school year 2014-2015. However I have been sent to place quite far away from most of my comrades, the borderlands between Bavaria and Austria.
The city where I am living and working is called “Laufen” and it is in Bavaria. It is not to be confused with Laufen in Switzerland or the city named “Lauf” in Bavaria. It is a city of 6000 which lies directly on the border of Austria. The border here is the river Salzach and on the opposite side of the bridge over the river is the town of Oberndorf (ca. 5500 people), so the two function as a sort of international combined community. The internet tells me that they used to be the same city, but they were split between Germany and Austria after the Napoleonic wars. Laufen is quite an old city which got rich because of the use of the Salzach for shipping salt from the mountains (I will aim to write a post about the salt trade as there are multiple museums and salt related attractions in the area).
In Laufen I am working at two schools, a Gymnasium and a Mittelschule*. My time is split so that 1/3 of my hours are at the Mittelschule and the rest are at the Gymnasium. I’ve been at it for almost two months so far and what I do varies week to week.
- At the Gymnasium I have a few hours that are consistent. In particular 3 hours per week I have small groups from the Oberstufe (the grade 11s and 12s) to practice speaking English. I also help to organize activities in normal classes, give pointers on presentations and help clarify English vocabulary during writing exercises.
- In the Mittelschule I am always with the same classes, one 5th, one 6th and one 9th. The exercises I do with them also vary (as does how much I use my German). With the grade 5s I act as an example for pronunciation, with the grade 6s I lead exercises with small groups and with the grade 9s I do small group exercises where we work on speaking and pronunciation.
I also live in the city of Laufen, but on one of the last streets that can really be considered in Laufen proper. The secretary from my school was lovely and found me a place which is typically a Ferienwohnung (vacation rental), which is not the cheapest accommodation, but is also not terribly expensive and I have two bedrooms, a full kitchen and a large living room with a view of… farms. It is about a 10-15 minute walk to the schools and a 25 minute walk (or 10 minute bike) to Austria.
Now that you know where I am and what I’m doing, I’ll tell you a bit about my free time and what I’ve done so far.
You don’t have to pity me too much for being in the country as Laufen is only about 20km North of Salzburg and I can quite easily be in the mountains here. Unfortunately the train journey to Salzburg isn’t the easiest connection, from Laufen it only runs now and then, but from Oberndorf there is a “Lokalbahn” that travels to and from every 30 minutes. Although it isn’t the best of connections, if I want to go out to one of Salzburg’s many Irish pubs (yes, many) or to the theatre, Salzburg really isn’t too far.
As mentioned, the mountains, aka the Alps, are quite near to here and I pretty much live in the foothills. I really like hiking and skiing, so this is a fantastic for me. On the weekends I’ve done a few hikes and a short bike tour with a colleague from the school. I am already planning some ski trips including possibly going on a school ski trip.
I’ve done some longer trips already, pretty much all within Germany apart from my frequent forays into Salzburg and 5 days spent in Amsterdam before I started to work. These were mostly visiting friends in Mainz, Köln, Trier, Freiburg, Frankfurt and München. I already have some other plans in the works to head up north in December and January.
So that is a short introduction to my life in Bavaria, you’ll be sure to hear from me soon. So stay tuned if you want to hear about the Bavarian dialect, living on the borderlands, my arrival in Germany and my adventures in and out of school!
Pfiat eich!** Lauren in Laufen.
*Mittelschule is the Bavarian Ministry’s euphemism for Hauptschule.
** Also can be spelled “Pfiat euch.” Bayrisch for something like “Tschüß,” though the actual hochdeutsch would be “behüt euch Gott.”