Three weeks in...

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So, I've started a blog for my year abroad, which you probably gathered since you're reading this :D This first entry's a bit long - promise any further ones will not be anywhere near as arduous.

Three weeks ago, on Saturday 27th August, Mum, Dad and I travelled to London Waterloo by train and crossed London to St Pancras station in a taxi. There was a long wait for my train to Brussels (I was going on the Eurostar!) but eventually it was time to leave. The only thing very remarkable about that journey, apart from the fact that it was the EUROSTAR, was a very nice young French chap, who was visibly wriggling next to me as I laboriously struggled to complete a basic su doku. In the end, he couldn’t contain himself and helped me to complete it in broken English, apologising all the while for interrupting me. Needless to say, I didn’t mind at all.

I had panicked a little about my 17-minute connection for the fast train to Cologne at Bruxelles Nord (not least because my luggage was VERY heavy: far exceeding plane allowance, which is one of the pluses of taking the train, but certainly has its downsides); but when it came to it, it was very simple, and I was on the right platform with ten minutes to spare. The next train was AWESOME: it was a special German train that had a pink, purple and red colour scheme, with groovy purple lighting all down the carriage, and I’m sure it was all the more impressive because by this time it was getting quite dark, which showed the train décor off superbly. I really enjoyed this leg of the journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I was sitting across from two small, very happy and talkative German children – the first German I’d really heard spoken on the journey, and it got me all excited about the idea of moving to Germany again. Secondly, the English translations of the announcements in the train were amazingly funny. They were given by a slightly hesitant German man, whose best lines were: “Welcome on board this Thalys train to Cologne. During your journey, we would be delighted to sell you in Carriage 24. Thank you for your comprehension.” Classic. Had to record that in my notebook for posterity.

It was about nine o’clock in the evening when the train pulled into Koeln Hauptbahnhof (Cologne station), and pitch black outside. I made my way to the taxi rank. It soon became clear that I got rather unlucky with my taxi driver: he had a severe smoker’s cough, which had clearly irritated him the whole day, because he was in a truly foul mood. First he complained about the weight of my luggage (granted, I had to expect that…). Then when I gave him the name of my hotel and the street where it was, he looked at me incredulously and told me sarcastically that it was 200m down the road and it would have been quicker for me to walk. Undeterred, I retorted that with luggage as heavy as mine, I couldn’t be bothered to walk even that distance in a strange city at night, at which he huffed a little more and then proceeded to drive. We shared the car in stormy silence until we reached the hotel. One thing checked off the list, anyhow: my first argument in German! Rather exhilarating, if anything…

The hotel itself was simple and clean, and luckily, my room was on the ground floor. It was eerily quiet, though, at all times of the day, and it was not until my last day in Cologne (Monday) that I saw the office open.

I had a fantastic couple of days in Cologne. My first job on the Sunday morning was to find a bakery to get some breakfast, and I bought a Kaesebroetchen (cheese roll) and a Croissant (…croissant). I approve of the fact that, even though every other shop is closed in Germany on a Sunday, you can always get fresh bread and pastries on practically every street. I then proceeded to St. Ursula’s RC Church for the morning mass – it was the church nearest to the hotel, and quite historically significant, apparently. Next I somehow found my way to the city centre: had a look round the cathedral (impressive building, understatement), wandered round for quite a while, realised that I was getting tired and hopped on an open top bus for a 90 minute tour of the city in German and English. This was the best decision of the day, as it took its passengers to parts of the city all of which could not be reached on foot in a day. I ‘hopped off’ (it was called a ‘Hop on/Hop off Tour’ – that’s German) at the botanical gardens and spent a long time there (it was incredibly hot and sunny, and the gardens were fabulous). When the bus dropped us off back at the city centre, I retraced the route part way, as I wanted to visit the ex-HQ of the Gestapo, which was now a museum, but it had closed. So I had a look round the cathedral sacristy and went to the evening mass at the cathedral instead.

By this time it was 6pm, and definitely time to sample some German grub. The main restaurant in the cathedral square (Domplatz) was very pricey, but round the corner I found a quiet pub oozing German character. Before even looking at the menu I could sense that this was a place at which I would undoubtedly be able to source a plate of Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and Kartoffel with a glass of Koelsch (famous Cologne beer), and sure enough that was right at the top of the specials board. I tucked in, and when my Koelsch arrived, a lovely old couple at the table across from me raised their glasses in my direction and said: ‘Prost!’ (‘Cheers!’) It was delightful. Also delightful was the playlist in the pub. People in England may have had something to say about my taste in music, but I clearly belong in Germany in this regard. Only in Germany can you sit in a pub and hear ‘Show Must Go On’ by Queen, succeeded by ‘I Know Him So Well’, cheesiest of all cheesy musical numbers. It made me incredibly happy. Even better, the old couple eventually moved over to my table and we had a really long conversation about their sons, and about Cologne, and about the myth that the cathedral was built because a former archbishop of Cologne had won the bodies of the three Magi from Milan, and had commissioned the cathedral to be built in their honour, hence the three crowns on Cologne’s coat of arms.

Following this meal I made my way back to the hotel for a bit, then headed back into the city, to see the Rhine at sunset: beautiful. Then I went to bed, watched some German TV and had an early night.

The next day, I packed up and made my way to the main train station (where all the assistants were to meet before being taken to the introduction course) hours ahead of schedule. I ordered my Bahn 50 (discount train fare card) and bumped into a whole load of other students, who had also come to the station long before the official meeting time, because with so much luggage, there wasn’t very much else to do. I made some good friends, we went for a coffee, then waited on the cathedral steps until the buses came to pick us up.

The course at Altenberg (about 40 minutes drive from Cologne) took place in an ancient monastery that had been converted into a Catholic retreat centre (Cologne, in the far west of Germany, is overtly Catholic, unlike central Germany, where I am for my year abroad, as this is where Luther was based and was most influential. In truth, though, the former Eastern Germany is far more secular, particularly through the philosophy of the former GDR). It was beautiful. The course itself was very enjoyable: there were whole group sessions about insurance, ‘Anmelden’ (registering in your city) and similar administrative things, and group sessions: ‘Landesgruppen’ in our individual Bundeslaender (states – so I was with the Thueringen group) and ‘Arbeitsgruppen’: the group in which we gave practice lessons and discussed teaching techniques. I gave a primary school level English lesson on ‘parts of the body’ with two other people from the group – think ‘Simon Says’, ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, and a lot of pointing to things and shaking them about, a la ‘Hokey Cokey’. It was all a lot of fun, and the bar in the evenings was very cheap (particularly good, as I’ve discovered that German beer is much nicer than English beer, and I actually enjoy it: a relief, as cider can only be found in the requisite Irish pub that is found in every German town).

After three days in Altenberg, on the morning of 1st September, we were all packed up and on our way back to Cologne train station. We arrived at 8:15am, and I had a three-and-a-half hour wait for my train to Erfurt. At last it was time to make my way to the platform, and I was delighted to see that my friend Josh, from Wales, with whom I had given primary school lesson, was on the same train. This was a relief, as it was going to be a five-hour journey. The train journey was very enjoyable: it was fascinating to see the landscape of Germany change as we travelled across it (in daylight this time). Thuringen, the state where I am living, is predominantly green and rural – I feel quite lucky to be living in the busy, beautiful capital, as most of Thuringen is green hills.

I was met on the station by my mentor teacher, Gabi Baum, who was waving a little English flag and gave me a lovely posy of flowers. She took me into the city centre, where we sat outside a cafe drinking ginger ale and talked about the school. She then drove me to my flat, which is in a brilliant location, a 10 minute walk from the city centre and on a main tram route, and very nicely furnished. My housemate was working, so on my first evening in Erfurt, I went on a walk towards the city, got ‘dinner’ (not so German this time – Subway (well, nothing else was open at that time…)) and then went back to bed.

On my first day I met the first of my housemates, Therese, a student at the university. With her help, I did all the administrative things we were told to do in the city and she showed me some of the important city amenities. In the evening, I had an invitation to a German BBQ. This came from Matze, a guy I had got chatting to during the weeks of intense flat searching online whilst in England. I had registered interest in his flat, he had replied, it had not worked out, but we stayed in touch. He was having a BBQ at which I could meet his housemate Hanna, some of his friends from the university and try a Thueringen speciality: Rotbratwurst (a kind of German sausage…). This is, for the record, FANTASTICALLY tasty. I was very impressed, and have since had a few Rotbratwuersten. It was a great evening: I got on well with him and his friends, and picked up a few tips on things to see in the area.

At the weekend I looked round Erfurt Cathedral (stunning) and wandered round the town getting a feel for the place. I started work on the Monday, and it was rather a baptism of fire, as although I only work 12 hours a week, on this day I spent 10 hours in school: lessons, followed by a teachers’ conference (I was officially introduced to the staff body by the headmaster, and presented with a posy of flowers!), a shopping trip to Rewe (supermarket) with Gabi and two other teachers, during which we sat down and I was bought a coffee, then finally a parents information evening about the sixth form. The parents had to go to their children’s form room, and I sat in Gabi’s form room and had to introduce myself to the parents as the foreign language assistant for the year.

Finally – at 8pm – we left school, Gabi dropped me off at home, and I cooked dinner. None of the following days in school have been as intense: so far I have only been observing lessons, although on Thursday I played consequences with the upper sixth so they could practise narration (went down very well) and a game where I gave some in the class a card with a country on it, and they had to describe some famous people/things from the country for the others to guess. The pupils are wonderful, as are the teachers. All have been very welcoming.

Last weekend, I went to another party at Matze’s house: it was a housewarming party for Hanna and a ‘Welcoming Katy to Germany’ party too, which I didn’t realise until I was presented with a present of another Thueringen speciality, a massive jar of plum jam (which I haven’t been strong enough to open yet…). I did a lot of baking for this party, and my potato wedges, bread and butter pudding, flapjacks and lemon curd all met with approval. We played a game, ‘Der Siedler von Catan’ (The Settler of Catan – I had a bit of an embarrassing moment when I was describing to a good friend of mine from university over Skype that we played ‘a German game’ called ‘Der Siedler von Catan’ and he said it sounded a lot like the game ‘The Settler of Catan’, which is apparently not a German game at all, and he has it at home…ah well) and then we watched boxing on TV, which was not at all interesting and I fell asleep after five minutes. Then I went on a walk (having woken up) with a friend of Matze’s who showed me the citadel, and some other notable Erfurt sights, such as the best pub in the city, and ‘Little Venice’. It was lovely.

The next day I went to the annual Thuringen Biermarkt (beer market), had a complimentary pint of German beer, tried Currywurst (words cannot describe – most amazing fast food) and looked round the beautiful gardens. There were lots of live acts, some performing in English, most performing comic German pieces in very short Lederhosen.

This last week in school has been a Festwoche (party week) to celebrate the 20th birthday of IGS (Integrierte Gesamtschule Erfurt). It’s the same age as me! From a teaching perspective, it’s been quite a disruptive week: a lot of the lessons have been moved around, and Wednesday was just one big food fest (no complaints there). There were all kinds of projects available for the children to take part in: TenSing, a singing/drama sort of project, and a circus skills project, with a massive big top in the school grounds and a professional circus company. I went to the show that was put on by the youngest pupils (aged 9-12) on Thursday – very funny! I get the impression from conversations in the staff room, however, that the teachers will be relieved to get back to normal timetables next week; although I’m off on another adventure for the week from tomorrow, as I’m heading to Venice on the school trip with the upper sixth! Not bad so far...

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