Having complained on Tuesday that I was bored, Wednesday turned out to be a 14-hour day. Let's start at the very beginning... I was timetabled to follow 5 lessons that day, some of which I just watched, others of which I was able to help out a bit in. The most interesting lesson of the day by far was Klasse 10, the first year of the Oberstufe. Not only did I venture into their 'Neubau' (new building - ooh the excitement!) but I walked in to discover their current topic was about teenage pregnancy, and that in that day's lesson they were going to be looking at the poem "But bases and sex" by Ron Koertge... Not quite what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that! Still, in what became a bit of a Biology / English lesson combination, I did establish that my German was just about still better than their English - only just mind you!
Anyway, after lesson 5 I had to wait around to have a meeting about sorting my timetable, or so I thought. One of the Referendare asked me if I wanted to go out to lunch with a group of them, so I explained about this meeting. Her answer was, okay, I'll invite him too then you can both come. Okay! So instead of a meeting, we had a quick conversation whilst in the pub - not gonna complain about that! Whilst there various people also offered to show me bits of Cologne / German culture etc, but more importantly I found 2 people who will more than happily eat any left over food from a meal that I can't finish. And they aren't backwards in coming forwards either, something that's actually very helpful!
Anyway, after lunch that only finished about 4pm ish, it was time to do battle with the buses and attempt to mission it to Bensberg (the other part of Bergisch Gladbach) in order to go to the cinema with Emily. Now Germany may have lots of buses, but they don't have many idiot-proof signs to explain to ignorant English people what to do! I managed to ask for help and then buy a ticket ready at the travel info centre. However, something must have got lost in translation because I then spent about 25 minutes waiting at the wrong bus stop! Just as well I asked someone about to get on a bus whether it went to Bensberg seeing as her answer was "nein". Oops. I then got directed to a different bus stop (I would like to point out, both stops had the same bus number listed on them, so I'm not a complete fool, just partially) where I had another quarter of an hour wait before finally getting on a bus. Just as well I though I was going to be early, 'cause I wasn't by the time I arrived!
My arrival in Bensberg would have been a prouder moment if I hadn't promptly got lost. But then again, when the cinema looks more as if a tiny shopping centre had cinema 'screens' thrust into it by mistake, what can you expect. And that was only the beginning of one of my most bizarre cinema experiences. The cinema screen itself (1 of just 4) was really quite small, and was decorated more like a theatre / puppet stage. You then get allocated set seats, and someone had to shut the door themselves. After the commercial adverts, but before the trailers, the lights then came back up again so that someone could come in and sell the ice cream that had just been advertised. Bizarre.
Time for another bus trip back again, but not before we discovered escalators that could change direction, and not before I could see my favourite German road sign so far!
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| Approx meaning: "Only board and alight" Found just below a taxi rank sign, seemingly implying: just get in/out the car, no kissing! (Apologies it's a little blurred, I felt a tad stupid taking a photo of a signpost with everyone at the bus stop watching...!) |
After a busy day Thursday's alarm clock once again came round too soon. School passed fairly averagely, but did involve having to stay on for a couple of extra lessons just waiting in the staff room for a meeting to actually sort out said timetable. Anyways, it's hopefully now been sorted for the next 6 weeks / couple of months and I have Mondays off, one 'late' start and a very early finish on a Friday - result/ With this week's day off being Friday, as of about half 1 this afternoon, my 4 and a half day weekend began - can't complain about that!
Also, as of tomorrow - hello semester ticket!
NB. Schatz = darling / chuck (term of endeament)
(Thursday 30th September 2010)
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