Ein schöner Nachmittag in Trier

Today's post is about the lovely afternoon Katie and I spent in Trier yesterday, it was in fact so lovely it gets a post all to itself!

So yesterday Katie and I were invited to the house of the amazing couple we met on the train between Köln and Trier nearly 3 weeks ago. To read about them again click here. They'd told us to give them a ring and arrange a visit but it took us a while to work up the courage to do so, and when I eventually did, with Katie supporting me at my side, I pretty much forgot all my German apart from "bitte schön, danke schön" (please, thank you). Anyway they got back from an event in Heidelberg and rang us, inviting us round at 4pm the following Thursday.

That was yesterday, and from there followed a really good experience. There really is something to be said of saying YES to all invitations (within reason) on your year abroad, as it can mean you meet all sorts of people from your adopted country, not just people your own age.

Anyway, they picked us up and drove us to their lovely house in the outskirts of Trier. Upon arrival they fed us home made plum cake and that marble cake they love so much whos name I missed. They also gave us endless cups of tea and then whipped out the sherry, amazing.

The couple have had such an interesting life, having travelled a lot and studied and lived in all different regions in Germany, so they had a lot to tell us about their travels. But they also had endless questions about our lives and families etc which was very flattering!

Next we moved to the sofas, where we were served Moselwein (local wine from the region) and given an interesting explanation about the wine growing region we live in. Next appeared Mosel grapes themselves, and more nibbles. Resolving to not bother eating dinner when I got home, I tucked in, as did Katie. There we spoke for a couple of hours about all sorts of things: Africa, politics, the NPD specifically, Egypt, the German school system. Basically stuff that stretches Katie and I's German but we coped.

Then, just as we thought they were going to announce it was time to go home, they infact announced it was time for dinner! We couldn't believe how hospitable they were being! Also I wasn't sure I could eat anything more but politeness stopped me from mentioning that part. We had lamb (another awkward point as I'm not a massive meat eater myself and couldn't remember the last time I ate lamb) which was surprisingly nice and rosemary bread and (because I was starting to feel worringly tipsy from all the wine) sprüdel.

(Ok so this blog post is starting to sound like my mum's diary from when she was about 8, which consisted of "Today was ok. We had (insert list of food here for breakfast lunch and dinner) every day as far as I could tell when I read it. )

Around 9 they took us to the car (or pretty much rolled us by this point) and drove us home, but not before giving us a book written by the husband on Kenya! So sweet! He signed it and everything, picture below (sorry its on its side):

Anyway, last night may not have been my wildest night on my year abroad so far, but it was still one of the nicest. I reccommend that everyone who reads this on their year abroad befriends any nice old couples that they happen to meet, you never know how much you can learn from them about the country you're living in.

PS. I had an interesting weekend. Blog post to come soon when I find time.

Random things I've learnt in Germany

Bit of an interlude, but whilst accumulating the miles and miles (sorry, kilometres) of walking I've made a mental list of interesting stuff I've learnt in the last 3 weeks. Most are related to Germany, some not.

Therefore here are a few random thoughts:

1) I know its a stereotype, but Germany really is so efficient! After 3 weeks in Germany I finally had a train be 5 minutes late. For me, it was actually a relief to know the whole country is well, human. That there isn't some sort of secret über efficient clockwork system that the whole country runs on to which I am not party. I felt content. Much to my amusement, the people surrounding me muttered German swearwords and discussed amongst each other how standards were slipping in the country. I suppressed giggles.

2) People are friendly! Well, in general. Friendlier than Britain anyway. Interestingly, the response I get to when I speak English is markedly different to when I speak German. In general when I speak German they're friendlier (once overcoming initial mild surprise).

3) A depressing amount of German teenagers think that Wales is a city in England.

4) On  the subject, German teenagers aren't particularly interested in learning about Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, in fact they seem downright confused why they are at all.

5) As a result of 3 of the Saarland crew coming from the Emerald Isle I saw Gaelic Football for the first time today, it was good! Can't deny that most of the rules went over my head but it was entertaining to watch, to be sure.

6) In general I've learnt a lot about Ireland and Canada lately. This is a result of hanging out with the other Trier and Zoolander assistants, and its been pretty interesting to say the least.

7) Germany runs an hour ahead of Britain. No, I'm not stating the obvious here vis a vis GMT and stuff, I mean that for some (probably easily justifiable) reason the whole country just gets going one hour earlier than Britain. So it appears to be standard to be up at 6, and at work by 8, as opposed to 9 in Britain. This is tricky for me, as even for a morning person like me I'd forgotten what 9am felt like during the holidays, but I'm coping. Just. I'm not going to lie to you my dear readers, life is hard.
I think Germany as a country should just decide to get up an hour later. It's only fair. Then again, maybe that's the reason Germany's financial situation is that much better than Britains? Maybe that hour gained between 6 and 7 is the key to maintaining a healthier country bank balance. If so, I suggest Britain in fact follows Germany's example. In fact, David Cameron, if you're reading this, get on it.

8) Alcohol is so cheap in Germany! I mean, I was aware of this before but wow it is crazy cheap. You don't see so much binge drinking though compared to Britain, however I was surprised how many people smoke in Germany, and how widely advertised it is.

That concludes this random chapter of observations. I had more but I am sooo tired (as always) so I'll have to leave you literally on the edge of your seat until I remember the rest of them.

Englische Verhältnisse? Nur über meine Leiche!

Welcome to another blog written by a very tired Beth Thomas, currently of Cwtched up in Bedland, Trier, Germany.

What a weekend! It started Thursday evening, when I travelled to Merzig to stay with Katie. We watched a film, had some food, laughed at her prison fridge (see below) and cool kids as we are went to sleep at 10.50 pm as I had to be up at 6 for work the next morning. (I felt pretty bad about waking her up so early on her day off too!)


Katie's fridge. You need a key for your 1/8th and everything.

That day at school was a bit different, as it was is referred to in Britain as in INSET day, but it was very interesting for me to find out what goes on in them (or German ones at least). Basically we spent the day working in groups (the teachers that is) discussing ways to improve the school and particular aims for the staff, students and parents. Okay so I'd only been there for 3 days so I couldn't contribute that much but it did involve me listening to German for 7 hours straight on a rather specialist subject and I met a lot more teachers so all in all a good day!

Later we headed to Saarbrücken to meet up with the rest of Saarland lot, which had 2 new American additions (one temporary, sadly) and headed out to the town center after predrinks at Charlotte's. Ok so the night wasn't that mental, as we struggled to find a decent club (cue me insisting that the club give all 10 of us our money back...and being rewarded with a raised eyebrow and a firm no.) but it was fun to see everyone again and made me wish, not for the first time, that I'd been placed closer to Saarbrücken.


This is the Saarland crew, ( or as David says, the Zoolanders). Lush bunch of people.

The next morning myself, Charlotte and Katie made our way believe it or not to a football match round the corner at the Saarbrücken football ground, after Charlotte's neighbour, one of the players for Saarbrücken FC, suggested we did.  Those of you who know me well know I am not football's biggest fan. Or its smallest fan come to think of it. Long suffering girlfriend and friend of football obsessed males has caused me to automatically associate football with boredom, though I do know the offside rule I'll have you know.

Anyway, I didn't go with high hopes but wow what a cultural experience! No joke here, it was amazing, Saarbrücken FC may only be 3rd division. They may have lost 2-0 to Erfurt and we may have been three of the only females within the stadium grounds but we had so much fun. Germany really is crazy about its football but this equates to passionate fans and a brilliant atmosphere. See below for a picture of the ridiculously stolz (proud) crowd, which never stopped chanting


Interestingly, the banner reads Engische Verhältnisse? Nur über meine Leiche. This is a reference to the Hillsbrough disaster apparently, as we got some info about it as we came in.

Später we met up again at the Irish bar, where the aforementioned player appeared to hang with us for a while but sadly left early with the team and their girlfriends as they had post-failure training the next morning. Harsh in my opinion but oh well. I had a good last night away from Trier anyway, as we met a load of regulars at the Irish bar: some German, some Irish, one French guy and to my amazement a Welsh guy. Happy days! I suspect we are the the only two welsh people in Saarland.

Speaking of Welsh, I gave an hour long lesson on Wales today to a group of bemused 15 year olds. Not sure they really wanted to know that we eat bread with seaweed in, how to say you're tired in Welsh and how to say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch  but either way they know now.

I've missed out loads but it's taken me about 2 hours to write this, Katie came over last night for films and stuff but unfortunately we muddled up the train times, so got up at 5.20 am for her to catch her train to Perl but then missed it, then I got my usual train to school at 7 so it has already been 11 hours since I woke up and its only 4.09 pm! 

As to my general mood there is a massive improvement from this time last week, I don't feel lonely any more and feel more content at the school every day. Also I've noticed an improvement in my German already  :)

Until next week then. Exciting things to come are:

Weds: Schnitzelabend at a New Mintons in Trier. 

Thurs: Day off!

Friday: After school I am meeting up with my old German exchange from when I was like 16, Anna! I am so excited, she is so lovely and although our attempts to stay in contact haven't always worked over the years I am now living in the same Bundesland as her for the whole year.

Friday Evening: Birthday flat party of a fellow Trierer, should be fun.

Bis bald! xx

The School Life of Foreign Language Assistant.

So just a quick post about my first proper day as a language assistant, and I really got thrown in at the deep end!

6am: Wake up. Well, wake up and set alarm to snooze for 10 mins, then get up.
6.50 am: Walk to train station feeling oddly awake.
7.04 am: Catch train. Tiredness hits.
7.41am: arrive at train station.
7.55am: Catch bus to school (can't always find a lift) and sit awkwardly amongst 30 kids from the school who think (like everyone else at the school unless we've been personally introduced) that I'm another pupil. Awkward.
8.10: arrive in school, discover the teacher who's class I was supposed to be observing for 2 hours is ill, and so I have to teach it ON MY OWN in 5 minutes time.
8.11 - 8.15: have mild panic attack.
8.15: recover from mild panic attack and go to class. No clue what I'm supposed to teach them or what work they're doing, can't read handwriting in class book which doesn't help as well.
8.16: Stand awkwardly as 30 fourteen year old german kids eye you incredulously and try to think of something to do with them.
Rest of the lesson: Figure out what work they can do from their textbooks whilst trying to keep my nerve. After the first lesson (yes, it was a double) I shameless stole a format another group had prepared at the training the week before, using role play to learn food vocab and how to order in a restaurant. Group 2, Saarland crew, you are lifesavers. Anyway, it went down well I think.
10 am (ish): collapse in staffroom only to remember I have another 2 hours of teaching in 5 minutes time (though I knew about this one in advance. )
10.05: Walk into class 5b, who are a) 10 years old and b) very sweet. This lesson went a bit better as I'd prepared it in advance but I still was terrified throughout. Are all teachers this terrified of the kids at first? I hope so as I'm here for a year.

Midday: Collapse again. Thank God schools in Germany finish early (at half 1 anyway) Have a lift to the train station at 1.30 so spend the time preparing a lesson on Wales for year 10 next week.

1.35pm: arrive at train station. Need to cross to other side of the platform, but the barriers come down on level crossing so can't, meaning I miss my train.
1.38pm: Get to other side and realise there is an underpass which I could have taken to avoid waiting at level crossing. Realise I am also an idiot.
1.39pm: Driving rain starts. Huddle in shelter freezing and soaked through waiting for the train to arrive.
2:16 pm: train finally arrives. Immediately fall asleep listening to a Scott Mills podcast.
2: 48pm (roughly): wake myself up by bursting out laughing at something on the podcast which i was still half listening to in my sleep, startling fellow passengers as well as myself but fortunately stopping me from missing my stop in Trier Süd.

3pm: Arrive home. Wet through, shattered but oddly content. Today I did something I frankly didn't think I was capable of and moreso didn't make a fool of myself. I taught 4 hours of lessons, most of which (particularly for the 10 year olds) was in German and was understood. This year abroad really is testing me but so far I've not done too badly, in my opinion anyway.

Until the weekend then folks!

PS. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow morning. 6am starts and I will never be best buddies.

The Art of Introducing Yourself to Strangers

Guten Tag (oder Abend) everyone, welcome to my new blog post, which could alternatively be titled Reality Sets In. Because it has. But we'll get to that in a bit, first I will say some stuff about my new WG etc.

Soooooo where was I? Ah yes, Saturday morning. The kindly teacher drove me all the way to Trier to move into my new WG. When I arrived everyone treated me like  a guest and were very friendly; we sat in the sun in the garden, went out for food with some friends and got ready for the Abschieds Party (leaving party to you and I) as two of the girls (one of whom is the owner of the room I'm borrowing for a year) are leaving to go on their own year abroad. Später came the actual party, which was a mish mash of course mates and friends of one of the girls, as she comes from nearby. Mindful of my need to make friends and the fact that here was a room full of nice people I ignored my strong urges to give into the almighty fatigue from head to toe and spent the next 4 hours introducing myself to pretty much everyone and having several good conversations (with a few awkward ones mixed in but hey ho.) Finally around midnight (after being reassured that it was not "unbehöflich" -rude- to go to bed early) I gave in and slept like a baby despite the party apparently going on to 4am. 

The next day the girl whos room I'm borrowing left and I moved into my new room, its lush! 

Like seriously if I were to describe my ideal bedroom it would the eerily close to this one. Its also at least twice the size of my dinky uni room and a good £50 cheaper a month haha. The welsh flag is now on the wall and pictures of my friends and family put up so I feel very content in my room.

Then the reality started to hit me. I discovered that most of the students (including some of my flatmates) wouldn't be back til mid October, when uni starts. Meaning there's no one really around to speak to, and being a person who finds her own company rather boring this wasn't so good! But still, I had a lot to do so things were fine, and Monday morning I hit über organisation skills and managed to register at the Bürgersamt, Auslandsamt (partly anyway), open a bankkonto and buy food. Oh I'd also met the Trier language assistants the night before which was nice. 

Sadly, I managed to do this by 10.30 am and suddenly had a long day and a long week ahead of me with no social activities scheduled and no one around to talk to.  Loneliness set in. Ok, so in our many, many, year abroad pep talks at uni they said it was natural to feel lonely at first, but it still was pretty depressing and racking my brains for something to do to meet I came up a bit blank. My flatmate was around a bit, then went off to work. 

If you know me well you'll know I'm very sociable, so this was bad times. Worse was seeing all the Saarbrücken lot arranging meet ups or nights out at very short notice. Some of you may have gathered that I don't actually live in Saarland, because unfortunately my school is right on the border in the north, and a good hour's train ride from Saarbrücken. So being faced with 3 choices: live in one of the small towns near the school, live in Saarbrücken or live in Trier (about a 30 min train ride away in Rhineland-Pfalz) I chose the latter, so I could still have student flatmates and a social life etc. 

All fine, but obviously the students aren't here yet, and Saarbrucken is now a good hour and a half train ride away, meaning I watched like a sad little thing while all the Saarlanders met up every afternoon after school. 

 Ending on a  couple of good notes though:

a) I noticed there were people on the other side of the hedge of the shared garden, so eventually worked up the courage to wander over and say hello. To my relief they were very friendly and didn't laugh when I said I was a bit lonely and said I could come over whenever and hang with them.

b) Being a British person who speaks German has some massive advantages. Mainly that when necessary I can pretend not to understand even when I have, which came in particularly handy yesterday when the young guy opening my bank account started flirting with me in  a pretty creepy manner.  Pity I had to give him my address and phone number to open the bank account, mind. 

c) Tomorrow I have a day off, so I'm staying at Katie's in the evening (as she only lives a few towns away from my school), then Friday morning we head off to school (which for me is just a teacher training day so no actual teaching) and then after school head to Saarbrücken to meet up with the others. On Saturday we are rather randomly going to watch the Saarland football team play then hitting the town after, should be fun :)

First day in the School

Heute I went to school for my first day in that weird role as a foreign language assistant. The school is definitely auf dem Land (in the countryside) so I was grateful the teacher I'm staying with could drive me the first day.  Orscholz is lush though, its situated right on the bend of the Saar (called the Saarschleife) which is a bit of a tourist spot, see below:

The school is a Gesamtschule, which is a little different to most German schools, as all abilities between the ages of 10 and 16 are mixed together. At 16 some go off to do the Abitur (like A levels) and some to a work training.

Anyway, I was introduced to my mentor, who is an english and german teach only a bit older than I and is lovely. She took me to meet some other teachers, then took me to her class, which was the youngest age, just 10 years old! They are very sweet and keen but I will have to adapt myself to how slowly they learn. I managed to earn my stripes a bit though by suggesting that the students write a small dialog with me as their homework when the teacher got a bit stuck as to what to set them.

General impressions of the school were good. The students are in general very polite (a few jokers, obviously) and my mentor incredibly helpful. I'm a little doubtful that they know how to "use" me so to speak (the teachers that is ) but I can bear a few weeks observing, if after a few weeks all I've done is sit and watch still I'll pipe up. I get to teach the 10 year olds on my own next Wednesday when my mentor is on a trip anyway, that'll be fun!

I managed to find a lift from the train station to the school on Tuesday morning, which was a relief, and am now complete with a set of keys to the classrooms and a reasonably well filled timetable (missing two hours but the school suggested I teach basic French, which I can quite keen about doing actually!). I get Monday and Thursday off which is nice :)

After school I collapsed into sleep until the teacher woke me for a meal, then her and her husband took me to see some of the sights which was nice of them. Anyway, now it is time for another meal and then I move to a flat tommorow, auf wiedersehn!

Saarland crew unite!

I'm here! And have been for 5 days now. I have so much to write about I thought I'd write 2 seperate blog posts: the training days and then the second one about my first day at school.

Sooooo where do I start. Last Sunday I suppose. My parents kindly drove me to Heathrow for my flight, then said goodbye at security. Even for an unemotional family like ours it was quite emotional, I felt really rotten leaving my parents behind to deal with troublesome grandparents etc while I got to start a new life in Deutschland.

Once through security I met up with a couple of people on the same flight as me going to Altenberg for the training, which was good as I spent all of 5 minutes through security on my own so had no actual time to dwell on going away before I was sucked into meeting new people. We all sat together on the plane (they were all lovely) and most of us went onto the same hostel. Someone on the fb group had described Station Hostel as a Turkish jail, but it soon transpired they clearly hadn't stayed in a hostel before as it was fine, facilities were much better than average even if the beds were a bit firmer than desired.

First crucial lesson learnt though: when booking alone and female, don't book the cheapest option in the hostel, as I ended up in a 6 bed room with 5 grown men. I'd gone to bed quite late as we'd been playing cards downstairs, so only the 3 korean guys in the room knew I was a girl. So the next morning I get up to find the other two guys wandering around the room in just their boxers. Awkward. Was more embarrassing for them though, when they turned round, saw I was definitely female, turned an interesting shade of red and quickly got dressed.

Anyway, the next day we went to Altenberg, which is a beautiful former monastery (complete with CATHEDRAL!). Here I met Katie (I'll name her as I imagine she'll be mentioned a lot) who was in a room with me, mainly because her school is in the next village over from Orscholz, where my school is. What a relief to find she is a) nearby and b) lovely, it really reassured me to know there is a kindred spirit so close by.

The rest of the training was good, good food in general, the teaching was helpful and our group was made up of the 10 people going to Saarland from GB, Ireland and Canada. We generally stuck together as a group as Saarland was nowhere near the other states being trained (Niedersachsen und Nord-Rhein Westfalen) and it was hilarious, so much "banter" and we left promising to meet up soon (in fact they're meeting up tonight but I can't go as I'm staying with a teacher til tomorrow. )

Highlights of the training included: being invited to go flying with our legend of a teacher Herr Busch, spending an evening being told over and over again how I looked like gold medal winning Irish boxer Katie Taylor by two Irish guys (which is apparently a compliment) and the talent show, where Julia did the Saarlanders proud with her amazing piano skills.

Anyway, sickeningly early Thursday morning we were coached back to Cologne, and from their Katie and I parted ways with the other Saarlanders as we work on the other side of Saarland to them (basically as far away from Saarbrucken as you can get without going into Luxembourg) and headed to Trier on the train.

Best. Train ride. Ever. We got chatting to a mature German lady sat opposite us, who lives in Trier. A few minutes later, she got her husband to come over. Cue 3 hours of amazing conversation (all in German) with the sweetest couple I have ever met. He was an 'economical geography' lecturer (whatever that is) at Trier university, she a teacher at a Fachhochschule. They were amazing, so in love still it was ein Bisschen unglaublich! We asked how they had got together and it turned out that when they were 16 and 18 and Germany lost the second world war, they both lived right on the border that was drawn between East and West Germany, so the woman couldn't go to her old school, had to move to her future husband's and the rest is history. At this point in the story the man gripped his wife's arm, looked tenderly into her eyes and said "if Germany hadn't lost the war we would never have met; every cloud has a silver lining" (or a German version of that phrase. By the end of the journey they'd given us their contact details and insisted we come and visit them for tea sometime and we parted good friends. They also gave us cookies, win.

After that Katie and I parted and I caught a train to Perl to stay with a teacher for a bit. The house is really cool, just 400 meters from the French border and a couple of miles from the Luxembourg border! Pretty much the centre of western europe. The teacher is very nice if a little reserved, so, alone in my room for the first time since I came to Germany it suddenly hit me what I'd done and I felt an urge to cry. All of a sudden I missed everyone, not just my close friends and family but my course mates, my lecturers, my old job as  a waitress, basically where everything was familiar and minor difficulties were just that, minor difficulties. Not being a wimp however, I held the tears back and went to chat some more German with the family, as dwelling really isn't healthy in this situation.

So that ends this blog post, it is rather long but it was always going to be. Needless to say I am still happy and looking forward to my year abroad so all is well.