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!
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| 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?!
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| 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!
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| My not just slightly broken but LIKE A LOT broken glasses... :( |
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!
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| PROST! Kat, Tom, Matt, Katie, Loren, Charles, Joe, Guy, John, Mel, Me and Ashleigh |
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| 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
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