You Can Call Me El

Hey friends! Festive greetings to you all! In the past I have been one of those cynical people who complains that late October/early November is too soon to think about Christmas and that it all just needs to  stop  and oh GOD it's so commercialised and annoying and I don't even like advent calendars that much.  However , in recent months I have come to accept that my outward cynicism and sarcasm is simply a thin protective layer, and in fact I am one of the most enthusiastic and excitable people I know. Especially about Christmas. In Chemnitz, the Christmas markets open on 28th November, and I am literally counting down the days on a little chart I've made. I also carefully planned when I needed to start my advent calendar (25th November) in order for the end of it to coincide with my going home for Christmas on the 18 th December. This year is the first that I have had a chocolate advent calendar that didn't cost less than £2; last year I bought myself a token choco...

Today is a bank holiday (although in German it's more excitingly named: Feiertag , ie. celebrate day!) so there are a number of things I am going to do - write this post, make a start on my Learning log thing, plan a few lessons - and there are a number of things I am not going to do - put on a bra, go outside for any reason. I've decided that I need a relaxing day after the incredibly hectic Monday and Tuesday of this week, which both involved getting up upsettingly early (5.40 and 6.40 respectively) and being constantly with people . I may have mentioned this on here before, but Germans are very tiring to be around. Anyway, enough rambling, and to the point of this post: friends and enemies! Friends In the last few weeks, there has been a lot more general contact between other language assistants in Saxony. First there was the Gluehwein fest that I mentioned last time, which was swiftly followed the next weekend by meeting with David and Verity in Leipzig. I'd gone t...

Germans have a reputation for being incredibly efficient. Everyone knows that, right? My German lecturer told us last year that 'German punctuality' means being there five minutes before the agreed time. Their transport system is fantastic. They are just so organised. OR ARE THEY?????!! I'll give you a clue: the answer is no, no they are not all like that. Perhaps I was misled by the amazing efficiency of a certain German lecturer in Manchester (hi Wiebke!!! Oh wait she'll never read this), but I really expected them all to live up to the stereotypes. Some are true of course, for example, they love their bureaucracy. I must have signed about fifty forms since coming here. However, sadly the efficiency thing is less true, and this is especially noticeable with transport. The trains are often delayed, as are the long-distance buses, and while this perhaps should be expected and is certainly no worse than the UK, it was still somewhat disappointing. The trams, on the oth...

Another week of school, another few days of feeling like I'm a fraud for actually being paid to do this. This week has been very easy because lots of English teachers were off school, and for some incomprehensible reason, this means that I don't have to go to their lessons. Although you might think it would make a lot of sense for me to go, so the students have some kind of continuity, and you might also think I could even cover the lessons so that other teachers don't have to, it seems that the school loves to give me no responsibility at all. I did go to a few extra lessons with my favourite teacher though, as she seems to really enjoy having me there and I feel as though I'm actually contributing to the class, so it wasn't too bad. It was in one of her classes today that I got the inspiration for this blog post title; we were doing adjectives, and the task was to list them as the 'root' word, the comparative and then the superlative. One unfortunate girl...