Flying home for Christmas
Greetings friends! This will be my last post before Christmas probably, unless it isn't. It is my eighteenth post, which means I have written slightly more than one a week in the sixteen weeks I've been in Germany.
I'm too excited to do a proper post, so I'll just note down a few important things.
On Thursday I went to Leipzig and we went to the Christmas markets with Jack's two housemates called Micha and got surprisingly rapidly tipsy on mead, Gluehwein and a Feuerzangenbowle. What larks. Friday was spent recovering and doing nothing, and was therefore blissful.
On Saturday I had my final concert of the year with the university choir. Despite some reservations about how much fun it would be, as the stress of finding new places and talking to almost-strangers potentially outweighs the joy of singing, it was actually great and I'm glad I went. At the end of the concert the conductor was presented with a bunch of flowers, which he gracefully received before promptly turning, mumbling something about 'Frau' and 'unsere' and then handing it to me. After we'd left the stage, several members of the choir asked me why he'd given them to me - "What's special about you?" - to which I could only mumble in confusion. I do not know why. But he does seem to find the fact that I'm English very intriguing, so perhaps that merits blatant and seemingly inexplicable favouritism.
On Sunday Jack and I cooked Christmas dinner, with roast chicken, potatoes, vegetables and GRAVY. It was excellent. Also on Sunday we did a Christmas market present challenge, where we each had fifteen minutes to buy the other a present from the markets, with a budget of five euros. Foolishly thinking Jack would appreciate a present he'd actually like, I bought him some almonds roasted with Baileys. Jack had a different agenda, however - tackiest thing you can find for five euros, which turned out to be a mechanical dog toy with terrifyingly flashing green devil eyes and horrendous wiry legs that scrabble about when you switch it on. The only redeeming feature of this 'gift' is how amusing it will be when we set it on the tiny dog. That is if the toy makes it into my suitcase before I ritually burn it.
On Monday I taught twenty five thirteen-year-olds the Twelve Days of Christmas, plus actions. They were very enthusiastic and mostly unembarrassed, which meant it was great fun. It was also hilarious, mainly because it was ludicrously reminiscent of that scene in Ice Age 2 where Sid meets loads of tiny sloths and they think he's some kind of god and copy his every move exactly. If you think I'm saying I'm a sloth god then you are absolutely correct. Also, they laughed every single time at the action to 'six geese a-laying' (wiggle crouch - like you're laying an egg. Obviously.) which I was surprised by because it happens...seven times, plus rehearsals. It seems that that some humour truly never gets old.
On Tuesday I had another lesson with the headteacher, in which he got me to write up thousands of quotations on the board for the kids to copy, before stopping me when I was only two thirds of the way through and only then reproaching me for writing it too small. Of course if I'd actually known how much he wanted me to write I could have judged the size a bit and made it actually easily legible. Fortunately I now have moved on from this and regained my zen-like state. (I was unnecessarily annoyed at myself, I realise that.) Although I don't feel at all useful in his lessons, they're the most interesting and academically stimulating ones I go to; I feel as though I'm really engaging my brain in a way that the task of correcting eight-year-olds' pronunciation simply does not provide.
Today I did yet another lesson using my now well-used Christmas quiz (I'm using it again tomorrow and I never want to see it again) and it went quite well despite the slightly rowdy class. In my second class we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was a welcome break. Also today, I wrote eleven Christmas cards in English and German, made a convincing start on packing, wrote about 700 to-do lists because they are incredibly calming, and cooked and iced several dozen biscuits with Melanie, which was oddly relaxing considering how much I still have left to do (e.g. PRINT MY BOARDING PASS).
Tomorrow I have to take three separate lessons with the 6th, 7th and 8th graders all about Christmas in some form, indiscriminately hand out biscuits and cards/presents (first finding a way to transport a thousand iced biscuits), renew my library books, print my boarding pass, finish packing, finish Christmas shopping, enjoy a final waffle and Gluehwein, say my tragic farewells to the Chemnitz Christmas markets, hide my bike in a cellar somewhere so it doesn't get stolen, go to Leipzig for a Wurst probably, then go to the airport, get the plane and arrive safely at home with no mishaps whatsoever. EASY.
I'm too excited to do a proper post, so I'll just note down a few important things.
On Thursday I went to Leipzig and we went to the Christmas markets with Jack's two housemates called Micha and got surprisingly rapidly tipsy on mead, Gluehwein and a Feuerzangenbowle. What larks. Friday was spent recovering and doing nothing, and was therefore blissful.
On Saturday I had my final concert of the year with the university choir. Despite some reservations about how much fun it would be, as the stress of finding new places and talking to almost-strangers potentially outweighs the joy of singing, it was actually great and I'm glad I went. At the end of the concert the conductor was presented with a bunch of flowers, which he gracefully received before promptly turning, mumbling something about 'Frau' and 'unsere' and then handing it to me. After we'd left the stage, several members of the choir asked me why he'd given them to me - "What's special about you?" - to which I could only mumble in confusion. I do not know why. But he does seem to find the fact that I'm English very intriguing, so perhaps that merits blatant and seemingly inexplicable favouritism.
On Sunday Jack and I cooked Christmas dinner, with roast chicken, potatoes, vegetables and GRAVY. It was excellent. Also on Sunday we did a Christmas market present challenge, where we each had fifteen minutes to buy the other a present from the markets, with a budget of five euros. Foolishly thinking Jack would appreciate a present he'd actually like, I bought him some almonds roasted with Baileys. Jack had a different agenda, however - tackiest thing you can find for five euros, which turned out to be a mechanical dog toy with terrifyingly flashing green devil eyes and horrendous wiry legs that scrabble about when you switch it on. The only redeeming feature of this 'gift' is how amusing it will be when we set it on the tiny dog. That is if the toy makes it into my suitcase before I ritually burn it.
On Monday I taught twenty five thirteen-year-olds the Twelve Days of Christmas, plus actions. They were very enthusiastic and mostly unembarrassed, which meant it was great fun. It was also hilarious, mainly because it was ludicrously reminiscent of that scene in Ice Age 2 where Sid meets loads of tiny sloths and they think he's some kind of god and copy his every move exactly. If you think I'm saying I'm a sloth god then you are absolutely correct. Also, they laughed every single time at the action to 'six geese a-laying' (wiggle crouch - like you're laying an egg. Obviously.) which I was surprised by because it happens...seven times, plus rehearsals. It seems that that some humour truly never gets old.
On Tuesday I had another lesson with the headteacher, in which he got me to write up thousands of quotations on the board for the kids to copy, before stopping me when I was only two thirds of the way through and only then reproaching me for writing it too small. Of course if I'd actually known how much he wanted me to write I could have judged the size a bit and made it actually easily legible. Fortunately I now have moved on from this and regained my zen-like state. (I was unnecessarily annoyed at myself, I realise that.) Although I don't feel at all useful in his lessons, they're the most interesting and academically stimulating ones I go to; I feel as though I'm really engaging my brain in a way that the task of correcting eight-year-olds' pronunciation simply does not provide.
Today I did yet another lesson using my now well-used Christmas quiz (I'm using it again tomorrow and I never want to see it again) and it went quite well despite the slightly rowdy class. In my second class we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was a welcome break. Also today, I wrote eleven Christmas cards in English and German, made a convincing start on packing, wrote about 700 to-do lists because they are incredibly calming, and cooked and iced several dozen biscuits with Melanie, which was oddly relaxing considering how much I still have left to do (e.g. PRINT MY BOARDING PASS).
Tomorrow I have to take three separate lessons with the 6th, 7th and 8th graders all about Christmas in some form, indiscriminately hand out biscuits and cards/presents (first finding a way to transport a thousand iced biscuits), renew my library books, print my boarding pass, finish packing, finish Christmas shopping, enjoy a final waffle and Gluehwein, say my tragic farewells to the Chemnitz Christmas markets, hide my bike in a cellar somewhere so it doesn't get stolen, go to Leipzig for a Wurst probably, then go to the airport, get the plane and arrive safely at home with no mishaps whatsoever. EASY.
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