I cannot believe that it is nearly three weeks since I moved to Germany. The time has gone so much faster than I thought it would, which must mean that I like it here. School is seeming strangely familiar. I know where most of the classrooms are, I have my place in the staffroom and I have teachers that I talk to during breaks. When I walk down the corridors students say 'Hi Miss Wilkinson' and they wave at me when they get on the bus to go home. However, I have no idea what the students are called. Well maybe one or two. And there seems to be a Stine [steen-ah], Nele [nay-luh] and Leon [lay-on] in every class. Ah well, they are still confused by my name so it's even.
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| Hameln // Marktkirche St. Nicolai // Me and Katherine // Market Square // Old town // Bürgerhus |
- 5a. Same as last week but this time happily learning about animals. The proud moment of being asked what Bartagame is in English and knowing the answer. Bearded dragon. Win.
- 9b. Again, same as last week. Not very enthusiastic about anything.
- 6b. A class with a bad reputation but were actually really good. The lesson was more like what I expected to be doing as a language assistant, as I took groups of seven out of the class to practice a dialogue, changing group every 15 minutes. The first group started talking amongst themselves, discussing how much they wanted the lesson to be over. I let them continue for a couple of minutes then said "ich kenne Deutsch" [I know German]. Hah. More priceless reactions. Now they all think I'm super cool for pranking them. One of the girls even came up to me at the end of class and gave me a keyring! So, it seems their reputation is worse than the reality.
- 7d. So much talking about sports. But we got to 61 on FizzBuzz so that was a success!
- 7a. Yet more sports but otherwise good.
- 7abc. Awful. My first lesson with this class and they had no questions for me at all. This is a lower ability class and their English is limited. I'm not entirely sure what the point in me attending their lessons is, as they know their English is poor but are not remotely interested in improving it. Even worse, the teacher thinks I am also a teacher so wants me to take the lesson next week... I think I've got some explaining to do.
- 5c. There wasn't much for me to do this week but it's a lovely class. They are the most talkative and happily chat to me in both English and German. Pretending that I don't understand something usually results in them attempting to translate it into English for me so it's good practice too. For some reason one of the students brought real chinchilla fur into school and they all love it. No idea.
- 6c. Not in school today, something about a research project in the woods.
- 5d. Also not in school, not sure why.
Other highlights of the working week included putting my name label on my letter box (and feeling like a proper German) and watching The Great British Bakeoff. The internet went a bit crazy and actually worked, so I downloaded a VPN program (means I can connect to a UK network, pretend that my laptop is in the UK and therefore access iPlayer!). There was only one thing to do: make myself a cup of tea, whack out the Dairy Milk and enjoy. It sounds like such a small thing but it made my day.
With all Thursday lessons cancelled I headed into Hildesheim for the afternoon (and evening as Katherine's train journey didn't go quite to plan). I went to the library and registered for a library card, so sat reading until Katherine arrived.
Despite having a visitor I wanted to continue with my plan to visit a different city every week so on Friday we got ourselves a Niedersachsen ticket and headed off to Hameln/Hamelin. Yes it is a real place, and yes it is completely obsessed with (and defined by) the Pied Piper. Literally everything was Pied Piper themed and the selection of rat shaped items was vast. There were glass rats, mirror rats, cuddly rats, bottle-opener rats, giant statue rats, cobblestone rats and bread rats. Seriously, bread rats in multiple bakeries.
Other highlights of the working week included putting my name label on my letter box (and feeling like a proper German) and watching The Great British Bakeoff. The internet went a bit crazy and actually worked, so I downloaded a VPN program (means I can connect to a UK network, pretend that my laptop is in the UK and therefore access iPlayer!). There was only one thing to do: make myself a cup of tea, whack out the Dairy Milk and enjoy. It sounds like such a small thing but it made my day.
With all Thursday lessons cancelled I headed into Hildesheim for the afternoon (and evening as Katherine's train journey didn't go quite to plan). I went to the library and registered for a library card, so sat reading until Katherine arrived.
Despite having a visitor I wanted to continue with my plan to visit a different city every week so on Friday we got ourselves a Niedersachsen ticket and headed off to Hameln/Hamelin. Yes it is a real place, and yes it is completely obsessed with (and defined by) the Pied Piper. Literally everything was Pied Piper themed and the selection of rat shaped items was vast. There were glass rats, mirror rats, cuddly rats, bottle-opener rats, giant statue rats, cobblestone rats and bread rats. Seriously, bread rats in multiple bakeries.
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| Bread rats // Cobblestone rat // Bridge rat // Mirror rats |
Hameln itself was a very pretty place, full of narrow cobbled streets and old timber buildings, so we had a lovely time exploring the historic city centre. During our wander we went into the Münster St. Bonifatius, a very impressive building from the outside but less so from the inside. There was however a sign for the tower climb. The door was unlocked for us and we set off up the spiral staircase, which progressed to wooden stairs and walkways with doors to open, until eventually we arrived at a the bottom of a wooden ladder. At the top of the ladder was a closed trapdoor. Not to worry, we had been warned before climbing the tower that the trapdoor to the top might be closed. Eeek. So up I went, unbolted the trapdoor and clambered out onto the top to be greeted by a stunning view of Hameln and far beyond. It might not have been the safest ascent ever but it was incredible.
Safely back on the ground, we encountered the Pied Piper. I will concede that he wasn't the actual Pied Piper but he was dressed up, playing a whistle and leading people through the streets of Hameln. The obvious choice was to follow the music/Pied Piper on what we thought was a free walking tour (in German of course). Later we discovered that is was actually a private group tour costing 130€. Oops. But we can still say that we followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Next stop was the glass blowing works in which we were the only visitors (that just keeps on happening). The glass blowing demonstration was amazing and really interesting, although the jokes were definitely lost on us. We headed back to Badse, stopping in Hildesheim for a schnitzel (my first since arriving here!) in a restaurant on the market square, the name of which I somehow translated as Bone-Fang-Tusk.
At this point you'd think that the day had been eventful enough, but Bad Salzdetfurth had other ideas. On the walk from the station we heard music and decided to follow it. In most places this would have led us to a house party, but here the source of the noise was a concert in the town centre. The band were best described as a 'Fleetwood Mac' tribute but were actually quite good. Katherine unleashed her A-level German and successfully ordered drinks that weren't beer and we stayed for the remainder of the concert. Of course, we didn't question the CDU umbrellas, assuming it was some sort of fundraiser. We were proved wrong when Ute Bertram (the local CDU candidate) hopped up on stage at the end and asked us all to vote for her in the upcoming election. Ah. I did gain some CDU gummy bears though.
The weekend was uneventful, beginning with the Saturday morning shop for roast dinner ingredients (upsettingly minus parsnips). We did very little, staying in Badse, eating and watching 30 über Nacht [13 going on 30]. On Sunday I went to Konzert in the Kurpark as usual then headed home to prepare for the 6am start.
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| Hameln // The trapdoor |
At this point you'd think that the day had been eventful enough, but Bad Salzdetfurth had other ideas. On the walk from the station we heard music and decided to follow it. In most places this would have led us to a house party, but here the source of the noise was a concert in the town centre. The band were best described as a 'Fleetwood Mac' tribute but were actually quite good. Katherine unleashed her A-level German and successfully ordered drinks that weren't beer and we stayed for the remainder of the concert. Of course, we didn't question the CDU umbrellas, assuming it was some sort of fundraiser. We were proved wrong when Ute Bertram (the local CDU candidate) hopped up on stage at the end and asked us all to vote for her in the upcoming election. Ah. I did gain some CDU gummy bears though.
The weekend was uneventful, beginning with the Saturday morning shop for roast dinner ingredients (upsettingly minus parsnips). We did very little, staying in Badse, eating and watching 30 über Nacht [13 going on 30]. On Sunday I went to Konzert in the Kurpark as usual then headed home to prepare for the 6am start.
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