My journey to school on Tuesday was a little slower, as I felt the effects of the previous days short effort home (I need to get back into this cycling thing!). Again, as I approached the sheet showing the daily 'Vertretung' or cover lessons, I was surprised to see it was even longer than the previous day! More teachers were off with illness and as a result, almost all the classes had been affected and some of the teachers who were in school were now required to teach two lessons at once! Mad! As a result of this, what appears to be epidemic affecting the teachers at my school, all my lessons for the day had been cancelled or changed. All of them! I was a little frustrated that I had made my way in (again!) for no real reason, but I can't lie - It was nice knowing I had a free day. All that was left for me to do, was take a handful of sweets from the teachers' sweetie jar, turn around, and walk back out of the door, through which I had entered just 3 minutes earlier! Fortunately, as you can tell, I haven't spent much time in this school this week, meaning that hopefully (fingers crossed!), I haven't picked up the virus that is affecting the school so bad!
Whilst reading a newspaper this week, I discovered a rather shocking headline - "F**k you, Germany!". I was very surprised to find such a headline in a very highly respected newspaper (The German equivalent of The Times, if you must know). I tweeted this picture and received some 'feedback' from the German department at university, who explained that many Germans don't understand how strong this word is. I've certainly experienced this, as well as the use of the S word, which students use left, right and centre. They obviously hear it in films and music and get the impression that it is acceptable. It's pretty shocking to hear, but I guess it's just another example of the difference between cultures.
In school on Wednesday Anja showed me a few pictures and asked me what particular items were called in English. She was teaching the Year 10 class some vocabulary they wouldn't necessarily normally come across, but which could be useful for their exam. It was quite specific, so for example, there were pictures of kitchen appliances and home furniture etc. I was surprised, even frustrated, to find that the words didn't come to me easily - in English! For example, I was shown a picture of a coffee table and it took me a whole hour to search my brain for the correct term. The same happened when she showed me a picture of a coat stand. I just couldn't think of the word and embarrassingly, I had to say that I would get back to her later. The only thing I can put it down to is the fact that right now, I have so many words flying around my brain, many of them in a different language, that words I haven't used for a while, get relegated to the deepest depths of my brain and therefore require real effort to dig out! I hope this doesn't get any worse or I may have some issues on my return to England!
In the afternoon I was in the year 10 class with Anja, and whilst she prepared the computer, I was asked to simply chat with the class for a short time. Cue lots of questions. 'What do you think of Bavarian food?' 'Where have you visited?' 'Have you heard about the 'social beer drinking game''? And of course 'What's your favourite German beer?' - With the older classes I always seem to be asked about beer. But they're a really great class and I managed to make them laugh a little so I hope they like me. On Wednesday evening before I went to bed, I came to the end of my first German book. Ok, so I began this book last year, but I'm proud to say that I finished it and enjoyed it. This is the first book that I've read out of choice and not because I have been told to read it in the name of education. My policy was not to look up words that I didn't know (and believe me there were lots!) but instead, to read for gist. I certainly didn't understand everything, but I did understand the idea of each page and feel a nice sense of accomplishment at finishing it. I was recently given another book in German by Anja, so there's no rest and I'm straight into another one!
On Thursday I had an enjoyable day. I assisted with some speaking exercises in different classes before doing my weekly conversation class. For the first time, I watched as the class did the activities I had prepared with genuine enthusiasm and with smiles. Like I said, this was the first real time, so I must be doing something wrong or they are a hard bunch to please! But it was a great feeling and afterwards I had a really nice chat with a group who stayed after the lesson to ask me a few questions. I feel like they are really growing to like me, which makes me feel really comfortable when teaching. On the way home, for the first time, I even found myself thinking that maybe I shouldn't rule out teaching as a career! I was shocked, surprised, even horrified! But I quickly brought my head back out of the clouds and thought about it realistically. Both Lois and I have talked about this and it is very easy, especially after a good lesson, to be pulled by the idea of teaching. But for every positive feeling after a lesson, there are so many more feelings of worry, stress or negativity before a lesson and when planning lessons. It's really not worth it in my eyes and we've both said that we have to be realistic when we remember our experience. It's going to be very easy to look back at this experience 'through rose tinted glasses', and in reality, you don't remember all the negative bits. So just to make it clear, yes, I had a good lesson, it made me feel good and I enjoyed it. But no, I'm not going to teach. Period.
As I'm sure most of you are aware, Friday was Valentines day. Lois and I were fortunate to be able to spend it together, and we certainly knew how lucky we were, considering we were both on our Year Abroad and not many couples would have the privilege of doing so in this situation. Since this was indeed our Year Abroad, and would be, more than likely, the only time we would spend Valentines Day in Germany, we visited Munich for the afternoon, to celebrate in true German style - That was after we enjoyed our cosy valentines breakfast of course! It was a sunny day and warmer than it has been, which made a pleasant change. After a quick browsing of the shops, we took the brave decision to climb one of the church towers which provides some amazing views over the whole city. I say it was a brave decision because the climb to the top isn't particularly easy. The small, narrow wooden staircase that spirals to the top is steep and since there is only one way up and one way down, it can get quite busy. But as we are two fit, youthful twenty-somethings, we reached the top with relative ease (which is a lot more than can be said for many of the other people who made the brave decision with us). The views at the top were definitely worth the climb up and we were lucky it was such a good day. There isn't all that much room once you're at the top, but after a little pushing, nudging and squeezing, we were able to enjoy the view. You really get an appreciation of the size of the city and you're able to see things which are completely invisible at ground level. It was lovely to see the typical German architecture everywhere and the alps in the distance provided a stunning backdrop. Like I said, definitely worth the 1 Euro charge and the climb to the top if you're ever in Munich!
After this we walked along the river bank, hand in hand and just enjoyed being together - Oh, how soppy! After a quick cake stop (an important part of the day in Germany) we visited the university, as we had heard about an interesting exhibition that we wanted to see. The White Rose resistance group were a group of students who produced anti-Nazi leaflets during the 1940's and spread these leaflets around the university, telling of the atrocities being committed by the National Socialists. Two prominent members were Hans and Sophie Scholl, two siblings who studied at the university in Munich. Unfortunately the members of the group were discovered as they spread these leaflets, sent to trial and consequently executed by the Nazi regime. An area outside the university and a university building is now commemorated to these people, with emphasis on Sophie Scholl. The exhibition we had wanted to see was unfortunately closed, but we were able to see the memorial and to enter the building where they had been so prominent. We hope to go back and visit the museum next time. As it was getting dark, we made our way back to Regensburg and treated ourselves to a Valentines meal at our favourite Mexican restaurant. We had a delicious meal and it was the perfect end to a perfect German Valentines Day.
Can you see the Alps in the distance?
We were at the same level as the top of the New Town Hall - 'Neues Rathaus' and even higher than the famous 'Rathaus Glockenspiel' located midway up the tower of the Town Hall.
A commemoration to Sophie Scholl - Notice the white rose.
These are also part of the memorial and although they look like bits of paper, they are actually built into the ground and represent the anti-Nazi leaflets the resistance movement produced.Saturday saw us doing some shopping and chilling around the flat, whilst Sunday was much of the same, but included our traditional Sunday walk. We had our usual weekend German conversations and I was really pleased to see a huge improvement in Lois' spoken German. She speaks a lot faster than when we had arrived and her sentences are really well grammatically structured. She sounds like a real German! I'm really impressed, but a little jealous as my German speaking skills frustratingly still don't seem to be improving. We are pretty much at the '6 months in Germany' point, so I'm hoping for some improvements (or for a better word, miracles) soon! This weekend was also important as it saw us book our flights home at the beginning of June. A while away you might say, but it certainly gives us something to focus on and look forward to. As much as we are having fun and learning lots from our time here, we would definitely be lying if we said we weren't excited about the idea of flying home. Now that the flights are booked, going home is a very real prospect.
Until next time,
Tschüß
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