Translation: Those who come late are punished by life.
A little harsh in my opinion.
Anyway, I thought a little update was needed. I am alive and well, and things are good.
The school is lovely to me now after our little misunderstanding and there's always someone asking if I'm ok, do I have something to do etc etc. They were also very understanding when I eventually succumbed to the billions of illnesses the schoolkids have undoubtedly exposed me to. So long story short I'm very glad I said something and I have no complaints now. So ist das Leben :)
Best news of all: I have a semesterticket!!
This means I can finally travel on all public transport in the Trier area and several trains out of the Trier area for free. Including the train I take to work, saving me 22.50€ minmum a week, result!
Due to a couple of mistakes and a large amount of confusion (both on my part) it took a lot longer to sign up for the uni and receive my semester ticket than it really should have. I'd attempted to do it weeks before and failed miserably, so it was only when I had the bright idea to ask Annabel and Tylor what they'd had to do did I realise my mistake(s).
Cue me traipsing to the uni for the sprechstunden early the next morning to beg the woman to put my application through despite the fact I'd originally missed my deadline. This sort of disorganisation is a new part of my character that has only appeared since arriving in Germany. In fact, I don't think I'm actually becoming more disorganised, rather Germany's expectation of organisation is much higher than Britains.
Anyway, I digress. I arrived (sneakily, I thought) 20 mins before the office even opened, but lo and behold 8 people had already had the same idea, scheisse. My spirits sunk further. Until at least it crept closer to the important hour and to my surprise floods more people arrived and started queueing for the woman. Queues! I was mainly surprised by this, as Germans only really do queues in supermarkets, until I realised that duh, this was the international office.
So suddenly I found myself one of the envied, powerful few who had arrived early enough to have a seat and a smug look of comfort etched on our faces. Once the original 8 people had gone in (and come out again, obviously, this wasn't the beginning of a horror film) I cheerfully sprang to my feet, grinned at the guy about to steal my place and said "ich war die nächste" and strolled in. So I suppose my blog title is actually relevant after all!
Happy days.
I've also done a lot of travelling around with various assistants and also my fellow Southampton language students Helen and Meg recently, dass hat viel Spass gemacht.
Pictures below!
From left to right: Whitney, Emma, Annabel, Hilary and Tylor. All Trier assistants.
Meg, Tylor and Helen.
PS. Now I have no excuse not to start my Year Abroad Research Project. I repeat: scheisse.
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