On Monday morning I discovered exactly why everything continues to run so smoothly following heavy snowfall here in Germany. And the reason... Because they start shovelling the damned white stuff at 5:00 in the morning! I was woken on Monday by the sound of a spade scraping across rough tarmac right outside my window. Now I knew the Germans were efficient, but not this efficient. The snow had barely settled and already it was being shovelled to the side to allow the week to begin as normal. Although I complain, I guess it's a good thing and I can put the timing down to the fact that everyone begins school / work so early in comparison to the UK. I have to say, the subsequent ride to school was, at times, a little sketchy, but I made it without any problems. This is the heaviest snowfall I've experienced here in Germany so far, but like I said, it doesn't create a problem. Roads are cleared from the early hours, as well as most footpaths, and it really isn't as exciting as it in England. Maybe I've just grown up too fast or maybe because the chance of a 'snow day' is virtually non-existent here (since they are all too good at dealing with it! - Many students can't remember the last time they had a day off because of the snow), but the excitement and joy I used to feel when I opened my curtains to fresh snow has completely disappeared and has been replaced with frustration and a begrudging sigh.
It was a normal Monday for me this week. In one of my lessons I was put on the spot and asked whether the British still consider Germans to be 'Nazis' - I felt unbelievably awkward as the class turned around and awaited my answer. I think its difficult to say, because I know a lot of people strongly associate the two. However I explained that this isn't really case, especially with the younger generation. We didn't experience the era of Nazism and I think young people now are a lot more open minded. But I think for some of the older generations, the Germans and Nazis are always going to go hand in hand. For the past 3 years, I've been met with expressions of shock, surprise and confusion when I tell people I'm studying German. "Why?" is what everybody asks. And I think these expressions of shock and surprise are as a result of the negative, warped image of Germany and Germans, that many people unfortunately still have. One boy was quick to point out, that there is actually more Right Wing extremism in England than in many other countries at the moment, which gives an idea of the real situation.
Also in this class I was asked to act out part of the Year 10 speaking test with the teacher. It's basically introducing yourself to each other for 3 minutes. However when we had finished, and I'm no actor in the first place, I was criticised by the teacher for asking her too many questions about herself. She then put this down to the fact that I'm British and that's just how we are - polite. I would agree, and I think this can be a little strange for other cultures to understand. But I'm certainly proud of the fact that we are seen as a polite nation. We went on to discus how we Brits queue for everything, which is another strange concept for Germans especially to understand.
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Tuesday was a normal day, with very little to report (apart from the fact I may have treated myself to a new bike for the summer months back in England! I'm excited to ride it already!) On Wednesday, I did some more speaking with a Year 5 class. They are slowly opening up, but it is still pretty hard to get anything other than "Yes/No" out of them and sometimes I have to revert to German, in order to get through to them. I was blown away, however, when one young girl approached me after the class and asked for my autograph. That's right, my autograph! I proceeded to sign her piece of paper. I had barely finished before a hand was thrust into direction, with another girl asking me to sign her actual hand! I did this as well, and before I knew it, there was a line of students, with outstretched arms asking me to sign them! Crazy! Signing on skin is actually pretty difficult, I'll have you know! I hope their parents didn't mind. I can imagine a few confused faces, even angry expressions, when their child comes home with the signature of an Englishman in black ink on their body! Nevertheless, I had to smile about it and as I explained to Anja after "Ich fühlte mich wie einen Star" - I felt like a celebrity!
Thursday was a busy day in school, but with nothing much to report. For the first time in a while, I really enjoyed teaching one of my lessons, which was a pleasant change. Friday was another chilled day in Regensburg with Lois (which involved nearly being charged several hundred pounds when we
mistakenly booked a train journey at the 'Deutsche Bahn' ticket office in the train station. Fortunately we made it out before being forced to pay, but the assistants were definitely not happy with us!) On Friday evening we received news that we had successfully got a flat for our final year at university. This made us really excited and we cannot wait to move in in September. We are living with some really great people, who also study German, meaning there is going to be lots of partying 'German Style!'
Our weekend trip to Stuttgart, which I mentioned last week, took a disappointing turn on Thursday evening, when it turned out that Anna and Anthony wouldn't be joining us. Their journey to Stuttgart would last around 9 hours, meaning the time we could spend in Stuttgart would be even less than normal. They decided that the journey just wasn't worth it and we, although very disappointed, agreed. This didn't stop Lois and I still making our way to Stuttgart on Saturday morning. (The hotel had already been booked, so we didn't really have much choice!) We didn't really know what to expect, but looked forward to visiting one of 'The 10 best reviewed cities in Germany'...according to TripAdvisor anyway (we've done them all, except 3! We're hoping to tick them all off). Stuttgart is famous as the home of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and 'Ritter Sport' Chocolate (The Germans love it!). We successfully navigated the Stuttgart Transport Network, (we're getting pretty good at finding our way round now), but it wasn't made any easier by the fact that the U-Bahn (Underground) actually runs overground. Was it just us, or does this make no sense at all!? Anyway, we found our hotel, which was just on the outskirts of the city and despite the deceptively shabby exterior, the interior was rather posh. We, the two of us, checked into our 4 bed room that we had booked, which probably looked a little odd, but it meant we had lots of space. We went back into the centre and investigated what it had to offer. Stuttgart is a modern metropolis and full of shops. Königstraße, the main street, is almost a mile long and is similar to Oxford Street in London. It is just full of shops. It's a great young persons' city or great for a girly shopping day. It's definitely the best city we've seen in Germany in terms of shopping, but the city lacked culture and history. Yes, you can visit the Mercedes Museum, or the Porsch Muesum, or even the Pig Museum, but I felt it lacked the architectural beauty, and quite simply the 'German-ness' of many other German cities. It could have been a high street anywhere in the world.
The walk around the city was made a little more exciting by the discovery of (another) protest. If you remember, when we visited Leipzig, we almost got caught up in a rowdy protest. Here, with a large police presence, we made sure we didn't get too close. However, as one drunken man next to us, began scuffling with police, we decided to scarper! If you haven't guessed, Germans love to speak their mind and in this case it was concerning Sex Education in schools. Well, they love to speak their mind, or we just choose the wrong days to visit other cities! Protests aside, as the sun set we decided to look for somewhere to eat. Despite the huge collection of shops, we found it difficult to find a good restaurant to eat at. Our search ended up leading us to a 'different' area of town. We soon discovered we had found the red light district of Stuttgart. With flashing signs all around us advertising various 'shows' and with strange men wandering the streets and pavements, we concluded this was not somewhere we wanted to spend a lot of time, so made a quick exit. Fortunately we soon found a really cute little bar and restaurant and decided to make ourselves comfy. We enjoyed some good, and slightly stronger than normal, beer and exceptional food in a really cosy atmosphere. After this we made our way back for a well earned sleep.
Mercedes Benz is Stuttgarts claim to fame
Königstraße is the bustling hub of the city with lots and lots and lots of shops
There is a large house in the centre (in the background here)but it seems to be unfortunately 'outshined' by the shops.
Having a well earned cake break - This Mohn Streusel has become one of my favourites!
We discovered that there is a large Turkish population in Stuttgart. This is the biggest Döner I've ever seen!
This shop made us both laugh - On the right, the regular 'adult' entrance. On the left a special entrance for children. Or for people under 1 metre. Unfortunately I was a little too tall.
Sunday morning consisted of another quick visit to Königstraße, but as I'm sure you now know, NOTHING is open in Germany on Sundays, so we ended up passing the time in Starbucks before getting our train back. Four hours later, we were back at Lois' flat, another weekend over. Next weekend, we have a particularly exciting weekend trip planned. On Friday we're flying to Barcelona for two nights. We can't wait! But before then, another week at school beckons. With the Year 10 speaking exams getting ever closer, I sense my workload increasingly over the next few months. However, it's now February and it's nice to see the back of January. The weeks are slowly getting ticked off, and I know the end will be here before we know it. But until then, we have lots more to look forward to.
Until next time,
Tschüß
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