Do you know the muffin man?

"Muffin muffin muffin muffin muffin muffin muffin ...."

This was how the deputy head's Verabschiedung / farewell presentation began, with an a cappella rendition by the sixth form choir of 'Do you know the muffin man'. Bizarre does not even begin to describe parts of my week.

The highlights of this farewell do were of course the muffin man performance, and also the little year 6's bank robbery sketch which I had helped them practise. Those aside, the whole to do came down to sitting through about 2 hours of various speeches and vows of thanks, followed by another hour of socially awkward mingling in the staffroom. Fun.

This wasn't the only singing I was audience to this week though. One of the lads in Klasse 6a is leaving at the end of the Halbjahr, which apparently somehow led to him agreeing to perform to his class. Song number one - a trio with 2 of his mates: "Alle meine Entchen schwimmen auf dem See" (which, if you don't know, sounds a little like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1fnhjP-Cz0 And, fyi, also has a techno version...). Second song choice was a solo performance of Queen's "We will rock you".

I wish I could have videoed all of these performances.

Change from €40

Today I learnt a very important lesson. Not from school, nor from uni, but from the Deutsche Bahn. When attempting to buy advance train tickets, as well as a BahnCard, don't bother wasting your time talking to rude and unhelpful staff in Bergisch Gladbach, don't even bother buying your tickets online, but hop on a train to Koeln, visit the Reisezentrum, and return tickets in hand, cheaper than expected. Amsterdam return and change from €40? Thank you kindly.

Add in a quick trip home/Leeds, and a couple of visitors, and here's to a hecticly fun February! :)

Gummersbach, teaching,and a productive day off

This weekend we went on a trip to Gummersbach to visit Marina in the nicest WG ever. Compared to Bergisch, this town is a bustling metropolis. After massive amounts of chinese food, a proper student night in with her German flatmates, and a mere 3 hours sleep, we woke up to fresh snowfall. Totally unecessary, but all is forgiven thanks to good company, and the fact that it actually looked quite pretty in the snow.

This is Gummers

Yesterday I kept up my act of being a proper teacher and took Klasse 6 for conversation lessons, helped in a back-chat filled year 11 class, used my frees to prep lessons, battled the photocopier, taught a Klasse 8 lesson ganz allein, and even filled out their Klassenbuch - progress! That said, battling the photocopier didn't prove quite so successful as I discovered I now appeared to have 60 copies of a worksheet for a class of 26... British vs. American English anyone?

Most bizarre moment of the day? Watching some people pick and help an injured pigeon sat under a tree in town.

As for today, I had an überly productive day off including a trip to the hairdressers (second time round it's a much more enjoyable experience when you know some of the right vocab / know they aren't going to cut all your hair off!) Whilst there and eaves dropping other people's conversations - you know you do it too! - I heard them describing February as 'the snow month'. Fab.

And tomorrow? 45 minute work day! Prize goes to Fr. Neumann for, despite being ill, actually telling me that I don't need to be in, even if a lie in at the cost of someone being ill feels a little schadenfreude-esque...

Actually being a teacher

This week has been busy - one of the busiest I've had since being out here - but I'm not really complaining. Yes it's been a bit of a shock, and yes I still have a lengthy to-do list which needs attending to, but it's nice to be occupied and actually achieve something in school. I realise I am probably only now doing what a lot of assistants have been doing since September, but lesson planning / teaching whole lessons on my own / taking conversation groups in more than just one or two classes, are all boxes I can tick for this week alone. Bring on a better few months!

Highlight of the week though definitely has to be Klasse 6e. All my class 6s are lovely, but this lot are this week's winners by far. I've already met most of them but this was my first proper lesson taking them out in groups of 4 for 15-20 minutes conversation practise. Never mind encouraging them to talk, getting them to shut up is more of a challenge! Anyway, apparently they all went back into their lesson very enthusiastic and saying how much fun they'd had - proud moment :) Add in one of lads providing a laugh by asking if I was my (second) mentor teacher's daughter (?!) they have easily won their right as the sweetest and my most favourite class.

Not only that, but my (first) mentor teacher asked me to pop to his office for a chat about how I was getting on etc. This guy is retiring next week and it turns out he had bought me a farewell present and card... Something tells me that should have been the other way round??

As for now? Time for lunch at my landlord's before continuing the 'Bach safari' with a trip to visit Marina in Gummersbach. And in her wise words... "Just make sure the lunch is not in a bowl with your name on it!"

First 10 days back in Deutschland

Somehow this week changed from dragging its heels at the start (after I had first Monday and then Tuesday off) to it suddenly being Sunday, and me feeling somewhat left behind! So just a quick round up of my first week back in Deutschland...

Starting with the positives, the best discovery has got to be white hot chocolate - beats any other hot drink hands down. Definitely a guilty pleasure, and definitely not been consumed twice this week already... Also having had most of my timetable changed, I think this term in school should be a little better, hopefully with me even being able to do a bit more :) The only downside? My day off being changed to a Tuesday - not a fat lot of use to anyone really, but at least I can still have a lie in day! Favourite class of the week? Klasse 7. When making up their own sentences to practise relative clauses (who/which/that) I looked over one lad's shoulder and read "The woman from England who is in my class is nice." Not bad considering all I'd done was introduce myself!

This weekend entailed a group of us missioning it to visit Heidi, in the happening (?!) little town of Morsbach. Such a pretty little place, but an absolute bugger to get to! As far as I'm concerned, this does not constitute a bus ...

The bus. In the bus station.

Not only that, but said bus only runs twice a day, on a good day, when the wind's blowing in the right direction, and definitely not on a Sunday. Still, at least the taxi drivers are friendly! Also, if you do ever find yourself stranded in Morsbach, don't rely on whiling away your hours in the pub - despite only opening at 5pm, by half 9 on a Saturday night, we turned up to find it had already closed! That aside, it's a very idyllic place, has a nice italian restaurant and it was lovely to catch up with people.

The pub that shut before half 9...

As for tomorrow, not only do I have to work both the first and the last lesson of the day (shocking, never mind lessons in between too), but I also have to help a small group of Klasse 6s practise a theatre play auf Englisch in order to help them with their pronunciation - should be interesting...

Einer kommt, der einer geht...

Landlord calls round to return plates and chairs that he borrowed for his dinner party yesterday...

Him: Would you like a piece of the meat left over from yesterday?
Me: Err...what type of meat?
Him: Meat.
Me: Yes but what type?
Him: Meat.

Me: ??

Him: I'll show you.

(... brings a piece round on a plate ...)

Him: Do you want it?

Me: What is it?

Him: Meat.

Me: Yes, but what type of meat?

Him: Meat. Meat and ham.

Oh Germany, your love of meat will never cease to amaze me!

In other news, Cologne looks a lot different when the snow melts and floods the Rhein...

(Click to enlarge)

Call me woof

Dear Germany, how I've missed your spontaneity / my ability to agree to things I haven't fully comprehended...

Today I established that I am effectively the replacement for my landlord's muchly missed dog. If only I was joking. On Friday he put food out for me, today he took me for a walk. Need I say more?

I don't even know quite when I agreed to this, but being a Sunday he seemed fearful that I was short of things to do, so after assessing whether my 'suitable shoes' really were suitable or not, off we went for walkies. We drove up to the Bergisches Land (the local countryside / national park) to a spot where we could leave the car. On setting out he explained that this route was where he used to bring his dog... fab.

An hour and a half later, not that much more conversation than a dog would have mustered, and one explanation of the words to 'In Dublin's fair city', we finally arrived back at the car. Instead of going back the way we came, apparently it was time for a tour through some of the local, typical Bergisch villages, a tour which was continually extended until he was no longer lost! Turns out there are some unfortunately named towns here ... the winner of which has to be "Habenichts" - literal translation: 'has nothing'. Poor little village!