A bit more school, a lovely view and some Ice Hockey!

On Wednesday and Thursday I visited my second school that I will be working at during my time here. This School is pretty different, as its located almost in the centre of the city! It's still pretty big and the resources are really good. My first day here just involved me introducing myself to the English staff, during their 'start-of-term' meeting. I stood up and introduced myself and said all the usual stuff - But looking back maybe I shouldn't have said "you can use me however you want" - This caused a few sniggers and a few awkward glances. But despite this, the whole team were really welcoming and, without meaning to brag, I've even got my own pigeon hole.
   Thursday was an early start and I visited a few classes. The kids were once again very intrigued by the presence of a 'real English person' and I was bombarded with more questions. I think it's great that the pupils are so enthusiastic. (Once again 'Do you speak German' was the most popular. I replied with 'only a bit' and then they asked what words I knew! "Danke" "Guten Tag" and "Hallo" are apparently the only words I know, so shhhh! They also tried the devilishly sneaky tactic of asking me an easy question in German and seeing how I responded. I almost fell for it, but at the last second I whipped out my confused face and said 'wwwhhaaattt?' so hopefully I've managed to fool them) One particularly amusing episode that I feel I must share with all was when the teacher asked me to confirm the pronunciation of something. The word was 'Country.' Seeing as though my Yorkshire heritage means I pronounce short vowels, my pronunciation sounds different to how many others would pronounce it. The children and the teacher pronounced it with long vowels - think 'Queens English.' However when I was asked I replied honestly - 'Cun-Tre' Cue the following dialogue:
 
 Teacher: Ok, you heard Marcus, lets say it all together
  Pupils: 'Cun-tre'
  Teacher: And again..
  Pupils: 'Cun-tre'

It was quite surreal. It sounded as though I was back in primary school. Ha, but it was funny. I smiled to myself, knowing that I wasn't just teaching these pupils English, I was teaching them the best kind of English - English with a Yorkshire accent.

After this, my lovely mentor teacher took me for a coffee, which gave me chance to once again practise some German. I found this 'smalltalk' pretty hard actually. I find myself constantly lacking the necessary vocab to say what I want, which is pretty frustrating. I cant help thinking, it's these kind of language skills that should be taught more in Schools. Yes, I can talk about the environment and describe my home town and tell people about my hobbies, but its the practical, every day language which is a lot more useful. Anyway, I'm getting there and I just about managed a proper German conversation. I came home on Thursday afternoon feeling very smug that my weekend had now begun - I'm still trying to work out what the catch with my job is...

  Lois came on Thursday evening and it was really nice to share our experiences of our first week. Whist our schools are very different, we seem to be sharing the same kind of experiences and we seem to be feeling the same and it's great that we're going through this all together. Thursday night I cooked a traditional German meal of Schnitzel, Spaetzle and veg, which was tasty. Friday consisted of a relaxed wander round Regensburg, whilst on Saturday we went back into the city for a tour. This was really interesting, despite only understanding 70% of it, as it was in German. But it was clear that Regensburg has lots and lots of history and it is a really interesting place. On Saturday night, we went for a drink at a traditional Bavarian pub. It was a lovely evening and it reinforced one of my previous observations - German beer is by far the best type of beer. Sorry England, your beer doesn't even come close.




On Sunday we went up one of the tall church towers in Regensburg, as the sun was shining and the views were apparently spectacular. After scaling the pretty hazardous steps we reached the top and the views, were indeed, spectacular. I was amazed at how close everything is packed together. There are so many houses/flats/rooms and yet I still struggle to find one! Later on, Lois headed back. It's always sad leaving each other at the station, but this time, knowing that we were seeing each other on Wednesday (LOIS' BIRTHDAY!) made it a little easier.

This evening, I went to watch the Regensburg Ice Hockey team, with one of the husbands of one of the teachers. It was fantastic. I've never watched Ice Hockey before, but I got really in to it. It's such a fast and exciting game.
 The atmosphere was really good and, after a penalty shoot out, the result was equally as good. Hopefully I will get chance to go again, because it's one of the most popular sports to watch here in Regensburg. Tonight, I'm going to bed with the chants still racing through my head

 

 'Regensburg! Regensburg! Regensburg!'