Hello there August...

August (also known as 'move to Germany month') has arrived and it's finally sinking in that in 12 days I will be on a one way flight to Germany. The apprehension is beginning to set in but so far I am managing to convince myself that it will all be fine and that I can survive a year abroad. Obviously I am excited about going, it has just come around a little sooner than I had thought. Where has the Summer gone?! 

Kraków // Schwarzwald // Leaving party // Freiburg // Schwarzwald Kirschtorte // Bahncard25

So that's where the Summer has actually gone. Special mention has to go to my friends for organising a surprise leaving party for me and K. (who is going on a year abroad to the Netherlands) which I genuinely had no idea about. Please come and visit me!

Moving on from the Summer 2013 review, it's time to discuss all things year abroad related. I have sent all my paperwork off to uni International Office at last (cue happy dance) so will hopefully receive my erasmus grant on time. Paranoia of forgetting something important (and consequently being dismissed from my teaching position and sent back to England) is making me super duper organised and my packing list and I are becoming quite good friends. I haven't actually started packing yet but I feel better knowing that there is some sort of plan.

Speaking of plans, M. sent me the English teaching year plan a few days ago for me to have a look at. I can request specific topics that I would like to help with (and one's I would rather avoid...) and collect some teaching resources whilst I am still in England. The special request is London maps and leaflets. The majority of the topics are standard for school language learning (think food and drink, sport, film and TV etc) so should be fine. In other school-related news, IGS starts at 7:45. I had prepared myself for early starts but not quite that early. Now is when I am so pleased I chose to live in Badse with school being an arduous 10 minute walk away as opposed to relying on the once-an-hour train and walk combo for commuting from Hildesheim. Happy days.

As the photos suggest, I went to Germany for a few days last week and popped in to Freiburg Hbf to get myself a railcard. I say 'popped in' but the queue (yes, a queue in Germany) was long and buying the railcard was the first true test of my ability to speak German in a 'pressurised' situation. After a lot of 'langsam und deutlich bitte' (slowly and clearly please) and making up verbs I am now the proud owner of a Bahncard25! To celebrate this I got all carried away and bought my ticket from Köln to Badse so now have another important thing to remember. Wahoo.