I haven't abandoned you, I promise...

Fear not fellow bloggers I haven't abandoned you just yet, just been swamped with fun fun fun!

I know it has been a long time since my last post, just over a month to be precise, and I am disgraced at myself for abandoning you like that but its all good now, I'M BACK!

Ok so apparently the last thing I talked about was Oktoberfest in Munster...Wow that really was a long time ago! So much has happened since then not to mention having to teach a translation class without any glasses on which I can promise you was definitely an experience... But as you can tell, I did survive to tell the tale and so did all of my students so its not all bad! Anyway, I think I am going to have to skip over some of my more boring exploits over the past month otherwise we are going to be here forever!

First of all, lets start at the beginning of the month and tackle my move into my new abode... As of 1st October I became an official Seppenrade resident. Now don't get me wrong, I now live on a lovely little farm just outside the 'village' of Seppenrade, my room is lovely, my landlady is very charming and helpful and the canine company, although a little attention seeking/chaotic/loud at times, are sweet which is great, it really is in the middle of nowhere (my last bus from town in the week leaves at 6.41!) and I'm not going to lie, the lack of oven is beginning to become less of a novelty and more of a burden but for 250 Euros a month I am happy to take the good with the bad.

My new front door...

Back garden...

New bedroom

My moving day was a little hectic and my head was close to exploding with the amount of German I had to speak but seemed to pass without too many problems. Actually I am kind of hoping that now half term has passed and I will be spending more time here rather that travelling around Germany, I will be able to get back to speaking that much German again... I swear sometimes I forget that I am living in Germany because when we are together all of us Munster lot speak English and when that happens, shop assistants like to 'English us' (as Rachel has affectionately termed it).

Next up for discussion would be the following day, the eve of der Tag der Deutschen Einheit. During the day I experienced my first Lehrerausflug, basically school finishes early so that all the teachers can head into town to do a fun activity together and then go out for a meal (I have never been aware of this happening in England but then again I have never been a teacher in England so what do I know!). Having heard all about Rachel's boozy Ausflug a week previous, I was quite excited about it but sadly it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Turns out the 'KrimiTour' around Munster was ridiculously difficult to follow and that my teachers are very tame in comparison to Rachel's as once it hit about 8.30/9 they all decided to head off home. No matter, I had other plans anyway...a Munster Massive meet up!

Since the German's themselves (apart from the lovely folk over in Berlin itself) seem to treat this public holiday as just an excuse to have the day off work, we down at Munster Massive HQ, decided that we should take it upon ourselves to celebrate the day in style for them. After an unnecessarily complicated trip across Munster, involving a detour via the 'coffin' we arrived at Melissa's flat. Cue a gathering of about 15 MM members squished into Melissa's flat with gallons of alcohol and a packet of cards - let me tell you now (and I'm sure our lovely friend Miss Katie Maloney can vouch for this too) that is a volatile mix! At about midnight, after a group of us had put the most drunken member of our party to bed while the others proceeded to get ridiculously drunk, we set off on the freezing cold walk across town in search of our clubbing destination, Die Eule. We arrived in typical 'Brits abroad style' singing Oasis at the tops of our voices and being scolded by the bouncers for being too noisy in a 'residential' area. Countless TEQUILA's and hours of listening to some questionable 'tunage' later, a group of us stumbled upon the club's other room where the DJ proceeded to play The Cure and Morrissey one after the other... Needless to say that was the climax of the evening and next time we enter the smokey bowels of Die Eule that will be my hideout for the entire night!

Very soon after that it was half term! 2 whole weeks of freedom stretching ahead of us...what to do? Well in typical student fashion we decided that our first night of freedom required a trip out to celebrate. We gave it our best shot but we can't deny it, our plans were foiled by public transport (and possibly Rachel and Matt's incredible sense of direction problems!) and so after a few cocktails we decided to give in and head home early.

Over the next week we took a trip to Duesseldorf to see Muriel, a trip to the cinema and countless other trips to town for Kaffee und Kuchen. I am beginning to worry that I might have a Kaffe und Kuchen addiction...

Then, on the first Friday of the hols it was time for us to set off for what henceforth will be known as the 'Triangle Trip'. The first morning of the trip cannot be described as a complete success. The plan was for us all to wake up all bright and early ready to meet at the Munster Hbf at around 7.30 nice and early for the 8 o'clock train, however that is certainly not the way the morning panned out... Without my new phone (because I had managed to leave it at Hannah's the day before) I was forced to set the alarm on my old phone which turned out to be a very bad plan as I somehow managed to sleep through the alarm/turn off the alarm and only woke up at 6.16, 2 minutes late for the bus - CHAOS!! I was forced to wake up my landlady and beg her to drive me to Ludinghausen bus station so that I could get the later bus and still be in Munster in time for our train as I had no way of contacting the other girls. On finally making it to the station I was greeted by none of the group, they were nowhere to be seen... When I finally found Hannah, I was informed that Rachel had had a similar problem and was going to be getting into Munster later too so we would have to get the train an hour later anyway. Regardless, as the clock struck 9.03 we began our trip to Bremen, Hamburg and Hannover!

When we arrived in Bremen we were greeted by some absolutely atrocious weather but being British we braved the wind and rain and did some serious sightseeing followed by some serious consuming of Kaffee und Kuchen to cheer us up after our through soaking! :P 

After an eventful night in the hostel (which consisted of cotton wool pillows, scary staring room mates and a naked man) it was off bright and early to Hamburg where we met with Lukas and Sebastian (a student from Rachel's school and his friend). We took a walk around the Hafen in the sunshine before we headed off to Minitaur Wunderland. There are no words to describe Miniatur Wunderland, it was amazing! They have moving minatures of Switzerland, Hamburg, Austria and Las Vegas, etc, not to mention a working Flughafen where model planes actually take off and land in accordance with a timetable...AMAZING! That evening we headed back to the hostel to beautify ourselves and don our Dirndls in preparation for that evenings festivities at the Hamburg Oktoberfest.

The following morning we awoke (perhaps not quite as early as we had originally planned), found that drunk Rachel had decided to shower her only pair of shoes the night before, hair-drying said shoes and heading down to meet the 'men' at breakfast. From there we decided that we should get a Stadtrundfahrt bus around the town so that we would be able to cover all of the main sights in Hamburg in such a small space of time (not to mention being able to use the bus as our very own method of public transport without any further costs :P) and so that is what we did. It was definitely a successful venture as we made friends with the lovely tour man, won a Hamburg pencil and successfully saw all of the main sights in Hamburg (some of them more than once when we later decided to use the bus for public transport means...). That evening was much more uneventful, we ate tea in what seemed to be the ONLY gluten free and vegetarian restaurant in town and had an early night - hard core travellers right there!

The following morning we dragged ourselves out of bed a bit earlier than the previous morning (but still later than we had originally planned) and prepared ourselves for our trip to Hannover. Since we got to Hannover a bit later than we had originally wanted, our plans for the day were somewhat limited so we decided to just spend a few hours walking round the city (oh and Rachel and I took some time out to play on the children's playground) before heading back to our beloved Munster.

The next week was once again filled with meets, Kaffee und Kuchen and cinema excursions because that seemed to be the main week when everyone's parents were coming over or people had made their own plans to see friends. On Saturday night, Rachel and I took a trip to Cologne in the day before returning to Munster to listen to a German radio play adaptation of Orwell's '1984' (which I hate to admit wasn't all that great because everything seemed to be in the wrong order and loads of the important stuff was missed out) and then went out for what was originally going to be a couple of cocktails with Holly and Tom in town but in fact ended up with the four of us staying in the pub until 6 in the morning and then getting the first trains home.

As of Monday, school started again so the fun levels plummeted slightly :( Though it was Katie's 21st birthday on the Tuesday so a few of us girls met up in town after school for a girlie shopping trip followed by a trip to what can only be described as the cutest cake shop in Munster. We had a lovely time and I also got to try my first ever gluten free cake which I can certainly recommend because it was divine :D

And finally to this weekend... On Friday night the MM decided that there was no better way to let our hair down after the first week back at school after the hols than a trip to the Kirmes (funfare for those lovely people out there who aren't down with the lingo) :) Cue hours of us running between rides screaming like small children, ooo-ing and ahhh-ing at the incredible fireworks display before heading back for a bit for screaming and shrieking! One thing the German's certainly know how to do (other than drinking and beer making of course!) is a good Kirmes - AMAZING! Honestly felt like we had been transported into an American film where they all go out when the funfare is in town...

So last night 'us girlies' figured that we would have yet another celebration for Katie's 21st birthday so we all headed to hers to cook ourselves pumpkin risotto (which I have to add, even if I do say it myself, was DIVINE!) followed by a trip to the aforementioned cocktail bar for more fun, frolics and of course COCKTAILS!

And so here we are, its Sunday afternoon, I am sitting in bed, relaxing, having finally finished my blog entry after being distracted by three episodes of The Mighty Boosh and three episodes of Eastenders and so I will let you all go back to your exciting lives and I will sign off...

Bis bald bloggers!

P.s I HAVE MY NEW GLASSES !! I can now officially see even if they were delayed and I had to wait 12 days in total :D

It's been one hell of a week...

Guten Tag Bloggers!

I'm afraid that today's blog is going to be another epic one (in terms of length, I cannot comment on its quality)...sorry! It has certainly been an eventful week and a bit.

So let's start with the 'bit'. Last Saturday, that is to say Saturday 15th Sept, the Munster Massive decided that the time had come, we could put it off no longer, we had to experience the infamous German nightlife! Deciding that if we were going to do this, we would go the whole hog and adopt the German approach to nights out, we piled into Rae's flat for pre-drinks about 9ish (thank God her flatmates were out for the night because I'm not sure they would have enjoyed such a British invasion) where we remained until gone midnight. This 'typically German' approach to not leaving for a night out until gone midnight definitely has many perks as it gave us hours to sit and get to know the people we had been spending so much time with over the last two weeks properly but at the same time, a few of us could feel ourselves lagging before we had even set off... We are definitely going to have to learn to be more hardcore if we ever want to fit in properly over here! Sufficiently merry on cheap German spirits, we headed off through the streets of Munster in search of Heaven and its huge dance music night, drunkenly singing countless tunes by Oasis and, of course our beloved Carly Rae Jepson (I mean we wouldn't be the Munster Massive without her) in typical rowdy British style towards our destination. Sadly at that point the evenings antics took a turn for the worse! Arriving at the club after a number of unplanned, drunken detours, we were told that we wouldn't be able to go in as we were under 21. At this point a number of us gave in and took the last train home but all was not lost for the 'men' who continued with much more enthusiasm to paint Munster red!

My Munster girlies!
Me, Rachel, Katie, Sabrina (behind) and Holly

Due to the antics of the night before, Sunday was a much quieter day. A few of us met up again but in the nearby town of Coesfeld for the FUNFARE!!! I don't think I need to say much more about this day apart from that there were a lot of rollercoasters, sweets, slushies, chocolate fruit, sun, laughing and of course WURST! - wouldn't be a German funfare without sausages, would it?!

Funfare!
You can see the fear in our eyes...

So the week started off pretty uneventfully. I spent my day off on Monday food shopping, doing grammar practice and generally chilling out. Then it was school as usual on Tuesday morning. I joined a new class I had never met before this week. The teacher, Christiane (who turned out to be the friendliest German I have met so far!) had me take a few pupils out of the room and quiz them about what they had learnt about nursery/primary schools in preparation for their exam in two weeks time. I'm not sure how they have all been in the same class for the last month and a bit and some of them know a lot about the subjects where others struggled to even tell me what a nursery nurse was (slightly worrying as that is what they are currently training to be!!) - not 100% that this class is going to have a 100% pass rate in this test.

And then we move on to Wednesday...

So Wednesday started off as a pretty standard day, I got up late, ran around like a headless chicken so I wouldn't be late for my only lesson of the day (I managed to keep the damage to a minimum and was only a few minutes late! Pretty good for me!), got to the lesson, 'taught' said lesson (well pretended to have some knowledge of UK nursery/primary schools anyway - Tuesday's lesson's quizzing actually came in useful here, turns out I am learning through this job too!) before heading back home which was when my problems began. In typical me fashion (can't resist a good dance session), whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, a cha cha came on the radio so I decided to whack out my routine in the kitchen when horror struck and as I turned round, my glass flew off and snapped in half on contact with the floor... Needless to say at this point my first thought was, there is no way that just happened, it has to be a bad dream. A few seconds later, I found myself still looking down at my broken glasses on the floor, soon realising that it was not in fact a bad dream but 100% reality! Sadly, I am now faced with the prospect of teaching classes for the rest of the week 'blind'... Not a particularly comforting thought let me tell you!

My not just slightly broken but LIKE A LOT broken glasses... :(

Later that afternoon, after I recovered from the trauma of breaking my glasses, I headed into town to meet up with a couple of the group for lunch and drinks in town. After suffering excessive mocking laughter at the hands of Holly and Tom we finally made it into Munster where we met up with fellow glasses wearer Rachel who needless to say was much more concerned about my plight. While we waited for the others to join us, a group of a few of us took a DIY hunt to Rewe in search of something to fix my glasses... We had success in that we found super glue but failure in terms of fixing my glasses. Despite our best efforts my stubborn glasses refuse to be repaired so I am forced to live in a cloudy/fuzzy world for longer than I would have liked. The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully, thankfully!

Thursday I turned up for morning lessons glasses-less and despite explaining my plight to the teacher she insisted that I still teach the portion of our lesson as we had planned. I can safely say teaching a class full of faceless shapes about banking (something I know NOTHING about) was certainly an experience! In the staff room, I bumped into Christiane who was much more helpful in aiding my with my problem, directing me to the 'best' and 'cheapest' optician in Munster- life saver! Later that afternoon, I again met up with Rachel and we headed to see Herr Rehwinkel in the university to register there. This day was definitely one of new experiences because our meeting with Herr Rehwinkel was certainly not what I expected... Herr Rehwinkel is the sort of character who only exists in universities with his eccentric personality, Dumbledore-esque office of trinkets, not to mention his cartoon moustache! Despite Herr R's obvious dislike for 'the so-called Great Britain' we managed to register, though I am pretty sure my form says I study at Cardiff University and Rachel was born in Cardiff, two things he was definitely not told by ourselves but who are we to argue with the powers of Herr R!!

So on Friday, having been to lessons, I braved calling the opticians to book an appointment to get new glasses only to be told that I didn't need an appointment and that I should just turn up at the opticians and go from there... All that psyching myself up for nothing! At the opticians I explained my problem to a lovely lady who after gasps of horror at my plight (finally someone who felt my pain rather than laughing at my misfortune!) proceeded to be the most helpful glasses shop assistant EVER! She was so good in fact that if glasses out here weren't so expensive I would contemplate flying back over to buy new glasses every time I needed them! Between us we chose a new pair of glasses for me and then I just sat there nodding intermittently and trying to look like I understood what was happening as she tried to explain all the different variations and prices of lenses I could have... Needless to say I have no idea what lenses I will end up with, I just opted for the medium priced ones :) So now, much to my disappointment, I am still going to have to wait another 7-10 days for my glasses to arrive... I will just have to try not to kill myself due to poor vision between now and then! Wish me luck!

Friday evening brought with it an unplanned trip to Munster's very own Oktoberfest! Despite looking completely out of place due to my lack of traditional German dress, which it turns out EVERYONE wears to Oktoberfest (Note to self: purchase Drindl so this embarrassing problem does not happen again!) I can safely say it was worth every single cent of the 10 Euros I paid to get in! Row upon row of German people drinking huge amounts of beer, eating traditional food and later on climbing up on the benches and dancing like maniacs! 100% my kind of place, well apart from the beer but still we are in Germany so what else would they be drinking!

PROST!
Kat, Tom, Matt, Katie, Loren, Charles, Joe, Guy, John, Mel, Me and Ashleigh

A bunch of us with our favourite man from the band!
Kat, John, Joe, Favourite German man, Guy, Katie (in front) and Me

Oktoberfest in itself was definitely an experience in itself but my evening was filled with another first later on... At one point the band starting playing '(I've Had) The Time of My Life' from Dirty Dancing and Guy and Joe both drunkenly decided that it would be a fantastic idea to attempt to lift me the way Johnny lifts Baby in the film... Needless to say that against these two men I had no choice and so despite my protests, before I knew it, I was flying through the air being supported by Guy, Joe and countless other Germans who apparently agreed that this was a brilliant idea! I can safely say I was terrified the whole time I was up there but it was definitely an experience... Will have to hunt down a picture and post it next time to show you all.

Think that will do for this entry I think. Bis bald bloggers!

P.s Charles if you are reading this (highly unlikely but if you are...) we are all thinking of you! <3

I'm back...

Sorry for the delay in posting guys. I have no idea about how often people blog but I had planned on it being a weekly thing for me but as you can see things haven't really gone to plan... So now I am here let's not waste any more time and I will continue telling you about my 'exicting' experiences in Germany...

So since we last spoke I have been pretty busy so I will do my best to tell you everything but I'm not sure how much patience you have with my ramblings at the moment so I will try and make it nice and concise :D

At the beginning of last week John, Charles, Holly, Daniel (fellow ELAs who happen to be living in the surrounding area) and I all met up and took a train down to Cologne together to attend what promised to be a thrilling 'training course' organised by the British Council. I think we even surprised ourselves at how well we all got on and how quickly the journey past. Though I'm sure the men where glad when we arrived in Cologne and they were able to have a break from mine and Holly's incessant talking...OOOOPS! Well start as you mean to go on I suppose, so if they plan on keeping in touch then they are going to have to get used to it because that is just who I am. From Cologne Hbf we then met up with everyone else who was going to the training course and piled into a coach and headed off to nearby Altenburg.

Altenberg - view from my bedroom!

Over the next few days we were subjected to early mornings and HOURS of being bombarded with information about the coming months, which although useful was also EXTREMELY boring at times! Though I can't complain too much because our days were brightened by breaks for Kaffee und Kuchen and hours of cheap booze and socialising in the evenings :D Despite my preconceptions, I had an amazing time on the course and met so many amazing people who I will hopefully keep in touch with over the next 9 months and well into the future. The 'training' and mock lessons we taught in groups in hindsight, despite our whining and moaning at the time, were actually useful and gave us a chance to get our fears and worries out of the way ready for proper school in the coming days....

That last night in Altenberg only served to top off a wonderful few days as we were treated to a talent contest put on by the Ehemalige students. As well as introducing me to some incredible new bands/songs and allowing some of the others to showcase their talents, the evening definitely reinforce my belief that musicians are way hotter than normal people.

So having being woken up at the crack of dawn on Thursday we were bused back to Cologne station and the newly formed 'Muenster Massive' found ourselves trying to cram ourselves and our luggage into a small carriage on the train and beginning our journey back out into Germany and away from the the comfort of our new-found English friends. I am lucky enough to have another ELA, Tom, living with me in Marianne Haus so even though I don't have any Germans to speak to at least I have some company.

So now on our whistle stop tour of the last week we move on to my first day of teaching. I woke up at stupid o'clock on Friday morning and headed into school for 8am to teach my first class of the next 9 months. Despite my nerves it was actually a success! Wooohooo! After standing at the front of the classroom, introducing myself and being bombarded with questions about myself (*note to self* make sure you have a fav. film/song/german word/football team ready at ALL times!) Astrid (my lovely tutor and tutor of my first lesson) sent me off with the 3 top students in the class and had me teach them about the UK education system. Definitely didn't realise how complicated it really is until I had to explain it to a group of students who are used to a completely different system. Genuinely excited about teaching this class next week :D After first break, I had to face the class of metal workers which was what can on;y be described as an experience but I survived so its not all bad! This is the first time I realise how in awe I am of Astrid... Can't really explain it, but she is just the most amazing teacher. I have never seen a teacher who can act all chilled out in front of a class and banter with them yet at the same time maintain complete control. (Also I think she may secretly be a witch because she is seriously attractive and looks way younger than she actually is - might have to start keeping and eye on everything she does and learn her secrets!) School day down and 'teaching' week over I headed home for a much needed relaxing afternoon...

My school - Richard von Weizsaecker Berfuschule

Hang in there blog readers not too much left now...YOU CAN DO IT! I will leave you with my thoughts on my weekend and then update you on my school life for the week next time we speak or rather next time I speak and you (hopefully!) listen/read...

Saturday and Sunday brought with them some incredible sunny weather which was divine! We organised to have a big girlie meeting at Holly's in Duelmen on Saturday night so come 5 o'clock Rachel, Katie and I all piled into Holly's flat all geared up for sharing 'horror' stories about school and have a relaxing evening :) It was wonderful to see the girls and have a good natter but sadly we got a bit carried away and one of us missed the last train and had to camp out on Holly's sofa (she has a fear of bunk beds so I wasn't allowed to sleep on the top bunk..) OOOOPS!

Then on Sunday, because the weather was even better (didn't think that was possible but apparently it was!) a bunch of us headed into Munster and chilled out in the sun! I thought I was happy staying here in Luedinghausen but spending the day sat in the park in Muenster I think I have changed my mind! I don't think I have been to such a beautiful town...

Right that's it, I will let you all leave now!

Bis dann blog world!

So it appears that today I am to lose my blogging virginty...

I have never done anything like blogging before, except perhaps Twitter. But then again I'm not sure that counts as for me it seems to serve as a method of 'celebrity' stalking or contacting friends rather than as a method of imparting my thoughts and feelings for the twitter world to see (or perhaps ignore would be a more apt description!).

Anyway, that's enough of that, lets get on to the nitty gritty of the blog, shall we?

So hello and welcome! I originally wanted to have this set up and ready before I arrived here in Germany but no such luck. As it is, I have now been in Deutschland for just under a week now but have only just managed to get myself an official place to live rather than living out of a suitcase in a youth hostel as I have been for the last 5 or so days! Well I say official, its not ideal because the only people staying here are me and two Czech lads (who are undoubtedly lovely) who don't speak any German and hardly any English - might have to learn Czech instead! - and I am only booked in here until 30th September. Though with a view like that I can't complain too much :)

Like many of the people in Muenster I am struggling to find a lovely WG to live in because there are just so many people looking at the moment... Bloody Munster uni has closed two of its halls of residence so there are LIKE A LOT of people looking for somewhere to live. Though I am not one to give up, I am DETERMINED to find somewhere so I hope to have some happier news to report in the future.

Despite managing to open a bank account and buy a mobile phone in German as well as sussing the bus system here in Germany I still feel as if I am failing at speaking German. My tutor while she is lovely speaks such fantastic English that she seems to forget that while I am here to teach English I am also here to practise my German. Heres to hoping that situation improves! I have decided to give German TV a go but unlike with UK TV I have no clue what I should be watching... If there is anyone out there in the Bloggersphere who could offer some advice I would be extremely grateful. :D

One final thing before I sign off for now and leave you all to recover from my ramblings and that is just one word...Zwiebelkuechen! It literally translates as Onion cake but I can 100% reassure you that it tastes much nicer than it sounds! In fact, I cannot describe my love in words for this German delight and would recommend it to anyone and everyone for that matter. Simple to make and dead tasty! And making it taught me two new words:

kneten - to knead

der Teig - dough

Mit freundlichen Gruessen Bloggersphere!