Weekdays (not including Pra-having a good time in the Czech capital)
I started writing a post about the last seven days, which included a trip to Praha at the weekend, but soon realised that I had so much to say about this week that it wasn't going to really fit into just one post. Also writing it all in one go is exhausting. SO firstly, for your reading pleasure, here is the non-Praha-related post.
Wednesday
As I didn't mention in my last post, on Wednesday evening I went to the Cafe Brühlaffe with my German class (the same cafe that has featured in a previous post, well-spotted!). I fully expected this to be as awkward and stilted as previous experiences with this class, but it turned out to be surprisingly lovely. Perhaps due to the teacher turning her attention to the other end of the table, I was able to have a real, interesting conversation with two others whom I'd hardly spoken to at all before. There's not much more to say than that really; it was just a really nice evening!
Also on Wednesday I managed to completely miss a job interviews lesson with my favourite teacher that we'd both been looking forward to and preparing for several weeks. I have no idea how but I somehow convinced myself that the lesson was second period rather than first, even though Anke had definitely told me otherwise. Anyway, to cut to the chase, I felt absolutely terrible about it. However it did cause to me have the realisation that I essentially just needed to pull myself together. For that whole week - and in fact the ones leading up to it - I'd been feeling very weird and not as perfectly happy and content as usual, and it obviously affected me more than I'd been at all aware. I am pleased to report that this week has been much better and I feel quite normal again.
Thursday
Thursday was marked by two quite small things: firstly, I was in a lesson with the 8th grade and we were all ready to watch Some Like It Hot, a film that, incidentally, I love, when this boy, Phileas, whom I think I have complained about before, announced that he didn't want to watch the film because he 'didn't like it' (despite NEVER HAVING SEEN IT so how did he know!?). The teacher called his bluff and said, "well, you can go and do an exercise from the textbook with Eleanor instead then". Of course he didn't want to do that because literally no one in the world would choose a textbook exercise over a very good film, but because he's a stubborn little pissbaby and had already burnt his bridges he had to say he would rather do that. So Phileas and I went to the staffroom and read an incredibly boring text and I asked him some astoundingly boring questions about it, and we were both so grumpy with each other that it was actually slightly funny. In conclusion, I hate him a bit.
The second thing to happen on Thursday was my second meeting with Marlene in Cafe Michaelis, where I drank an amazing mint hot chocolate, we talked for ages, and I discovered her English is brilliant, of course. We're going to do something together over the holiday, or at least sometime soon hopefully! Oh and one more thing on Thursday was that Jack came over and we drank wine and watched Grease and realised yet again just how weird and rubbish it is. (We still love it though.)
Skip a few days...
Monday
This Monday was very weird because I was so incredibly sad to leave my mother in Prague after the most wonderful weekend. Although I will see her soon, it's all a bit difficult, you know? What didn't help this was the fact that I had two lessons to prepare, one quite a serious one, and I had to be in school at 10. This, clearly, is not early at all, considering I'm normally in at 8. However it was remarkably annoying because, once again, the teacher failed to keep me updated on the situation and let me know that the pupils were having their picture taken at that time instead of a lesson. So that was the first of three times this week (so far) that I've gone into school unnecessarily. The lesson later that day was partly very successful, and partly a huge flop. The first forty five minutes was great; I did a presentation about schools in Britain, which included pictures from my school days of me modelling various different uniforms. Germans are fascinated by school uniforms, as they just don't really have them here, so we had a nice discussion about that. Then the boring part began: reading a newspaper article and trying to interest them enough to get them to answer questions about it. I have learnt an important lesson from the tedious, annoying half hour that followed: don't just ask questions about an article for ages because no one will care at all. The good news is, I don't have to do that lesson again, and a girl came up to me after the lesson and complimented me on my cardigan, which was nice because it's my favourite one that I wear constantly, so that makes at least two of us who like seeing it nearly every single day.
Also on Monday I gave in my notice to choir, by which I mean I turned up twenty minutes early to the rehearsal to explain to the conductor that I was leaving. He seemed to know straightaway, perhaps because I have never in my life been that early to anything before, ever. I felt bad about leaving right up until I told him my reason, which is that I've discovered a place that does kickboxing in Chemnitz three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 7.30-9 (choir is 7-9). At this, the conductor grimaced and said, "Kickboxing! That's no sport for women". Of course what I wish I'd done at this point is demonstrated my skills by kicking him hard in the face, or somewhere softer. You'll be unsurprised to hear that I didn't though; courtesy prevailed and I politely explained why he was wrong before walking out of his life forever. That'll teach him. Then I went home and had a calming bath with a Lush bath bomb; I've only recently discovered these properly, but I am able to recognise an obsession is in its early stages.
Tuesday
Relatively uneventful. I turned up to school at 8 only to be told by the headteacher that 'today's lesson won't be interesting for you so you can go home if you want'. I just cannot understand why teachers think it's okay to do this. The ones that I know and that seem to realise I'm actually a real person would never do it, which is why it's so incomprehensible that others do it so often.
Also on Tuesday I went for a coffee with Caro, the trainee teacher who's there on placement, when school finished at 3.30. We ended up staying in the cafe until nearly 7, talking about her demon 6th graders (6/3) and the angelic ones in the other class (6/2, my babies), various issues with the other teachers, and life in general. It was a missed opportunity for me to speak German, but I was surprisingly relaxed about it because I know the next time will be in German, and more importantly it was lovely to have a conversation where I can show that I do in fact have a personality. I am so boring in German.
Wednesday
Today I went to the job interviews lesson that I missed last week and it was really fun! The highlight was when the three whose task it was to apply for the job of 'Headteacher of Hogwarts' had their turn and Anke made a dramatic entrance wearing a sparkly witches' hat with a veil, carrying a clear plastic 'wand' with glitter inside it, and announcing that she was Professor McGonagall. The other interviews were funny too; three had to apply for the role of 'The Queen's Cook', where Anke had them make a cup of tea to demonstrate their skills. On hearing this instruction, one kid put a teabag in the cup and then filled it from the basin in the corner of every classroom that is there for the sole purpose of wetting the sponge to clean the blackboard and, needless to say, only has a cold tap. Every British part of me was revolted, although I was slightly appeased when one of the others handed round cake that he'd brought to the lesson to show his aptitude as a cook.
This afternoon I met up with my third tandem partner, Beatrice, for the first time. It was what you might call the opposite of a success. There was something very odd about her, which I tried to ignore at the time, so only realised the full extent of her weirdness after leaving the situation with veritable screams of gratitude. A few low points were as follows: she asked to look round my school and maybe come to a lesson because she's 'interested in it' (she would give no other reason), and when I said I'd ask, she said 'you don't have to ask!' as if I was being ridiculous; when asked if she wanted to speak English at some point she said that her English was already very good so she doesn't need to, and she's just doing the tandem scheme because she wanted to get to know a British person and because she loves ignoring the entire point of how situations are supposed to work; she had a cake but no drink, AND she likes marzipan; she asked if I like Germany, and I answered with all positive things apart from one which is that I find some Germans are quite rude, to which she took great offense and started ranting about how "not all Germans" and "there are people like that in every country" and "some British people are rude" and so on. I couldn't quite believe it. Also she has no sense of humour and kept responding very literally to my obviously not serious statements. So my current question is, how do I tell her that I never want to see her again? Any help greatly appreciated. Answers on a postcard, if possible. I love postcards.
Finally, this evening was the last time I met with my German course, as it doesn't continue after the holiday (which starts on Friday; I have two weeks off!). We went to the Schlosskirche which involved a twenty five minute trek through the snow followed by an hour and a half or so of wandering or standing about in a freezing (literally sub-zero temperature) church, at the end of which I could not feel my feet, hands or sense of perspective. I hated the teacher more and more with every stupid, pointless comment she made that extended our time there. As I write this now in my very warm (and soft, very soft) dressing gown, I don't hate her at all, but I don't blame Past Me for doing so because it was understandable. I was debilitatingly hungry at the time too, so I'm amazed I didn't actively strop out of the church or punch anyone. The German course in general was fairly useless, but I met some lovely people and it got me out of the house so I don't regret doing it. And hopefully I'll see at least some of them again!
In conclusion
This weekend I am going to Regensburg, followed by spending the day with Katrin on Monday where we will make pancakes and Thai food and I'll meet her family. Then (hopefully!) skiing on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which I have a few other things planned. I am really looking forward to and also dreading starting kickboxing again after the holidays, as I am weak and may not survive the winter at this rate (it is SO COLD at the moment. So cold. And I can't cycle to school at the moment because it's too slippery and icy because of all the snow. Boo.) But anyway. In general I am doing well, and if I manage not to have caught a cold after all the faffing about in the snow today then I will be doing even better!
As I didn't mention in my last post, on Wednesday evening I went to the Cafe Brühlaffe with my German class (the same cafe that has featured in a previous post, well-spotted!). I fully expected this to be as awkward and stilted as previous experiences with this class, but it turned out to be surprisingly lovely. Perhaps due to the teacher turning her attention to the other end of the table, I was able to have a real, interesting conversation with two others whom I'd hardly spoken to at all before. There's not much more to say than that really; it was just a really nice evening!
Also on Wednesday I managed to completely miss a job interviews lesson with my favourite teacher that we'd both been looking forward to and preparing for several weeks. I have no idea how but I somehow convinced myself that the lesson was second period rather than first, even though Anke had definitely told me otherwise. Anyway, to cut to the chase, I felt absolutely terrible about it. However it did cause to me have the realisation that I essentially just needed to pull myself together. For that whole week - and in fact the ones leading up to it - I'd been feeling very weird and not as perfectly happy and content as usual, and it obviously affected me more than I'd been at all aware. I am pleased to report that this week has been much better and I feel quite normal again.
Thursday
Thursday was marked by two quite small things: firstly, I was in a lesson with the 8th grade and we were all ready to watch Some Like It Hot, a film that, incidentally, I love, when this boy, Phileas, whom I think I have complained about before, announced that he didn't want to watch the film because he 'didn't like it' (despite NEVER HAVING SEEN IT so how did he know!?). The teacher called his bluff and said, "well, you can go and do an exercise from the textbook with Eleanor instead then". Of course he didn't want to do that because literally no one in the world would choose a textbook exercise over a very good film, but because he's a stubborn little pissbaby and had already burnt his bridges he had to say he would rather do that. So Phileas and I went to the staffroom and read an incredibly boring text and I asked him some astoundingly boring questions about it, and we were both so grumpy with each other that it was actually slightly funny. In conclusion, I hate him a bit.
The second thing to happen on Thursday was my second meeting with Marlene in Cafe Michaelis, where I drank an amazing mint hot chocolate, we talked for ages, and I discovered her English is brilliant, of course. We're going to do something together over the holiday, or at least sometime soon hopefully! Oh and one more thing on Thursday was that Jack came over and we drank wine and watched Grease and realised yet again just how weird and rubbish it is. (We still love it though.)
Skip a few days...
Monday
This Monday was very weird because I was so incredibly sad to leave my mother in Prague after the most wonderful weekend. Although I will see her soon, it's all a bit difficult, you know? What didn't help this was the fact that I had two lessons to prepare, one quite a serious one, and I had to be in school at 10. This, clearly, is not early at all, considering I'm normally in at 8. However it was remarkably annoying because, once again, the teacher failed to keep me updated on the situation and let me know that the pupils were having their picture taken at that time instead of a lesson. So that was the first of three times this week (so far) that I've gone into school unnecessarily. The lesson later that day was partly very successful, and partly a huge flop. The first forty five minutes was great; I did a presentation about schools in Britain, which included pictures from my school days of me modelling various different uniforms. Germans are fascinated by school uniforms, as they just don't really have them here, so we had a nice discussion about that. Then the boring part began: reading a newspaper article and trying to interest them enough to get them to answer questions about it. I have learnt an important lesson from the tedious, annoying half hour that followed: don't just ask questions about an article for ages because no one will care at all. The good news is, I don't have to do that lesson again, and a girl came up to me after the lesson and complimented me on my cardigan, which was nice because it's my favourite one that I wear constantly, so that makes at least two of us who like seeing it nearly every single day.
Also on Monday I gave in my notice to choir, by which I mean I turned up twenty minutes early to the rehearsal to explain to the conductor that I was leaving. He seemed to know straightaway, perhaps because I have never in my life been that early to anything before, ever. I felt bad about leaving right up until I told him my reason, which is that I've discovered a place that does kickboxing in Chemnitz three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 7.30-9 (choir is 7-9). At this, the conductor grimaced and said, "Kickboxing! That's no sport for women". Of course what I wish I'd done at this point is demonstrated my skills by kicking him hard in the face, or somewhere softer. You'll be unsurprised to hear that I didn't though; courtesy prevailed and I politely explained why he was wrong before walking out of his life forever. That'll teach him. Then I went home and had a calming bath with a Lush bath bomb; I've only recently discovered these properly, but I am able to recognise an obsession is in its early stages.
Tuesday
Relatively uneventful. I turned up to school at 8 only to be told by the headteacher that 'today's lesson won't be interesting for you so you can go home if you want'. I just cannot understand why teachers think it's okay to do this. The ones that I know and that seem to realise I'm actually a real person would never do it, which is why it's so incomprehensible that others do it so often.
Also on Tuesday I went for a coffee with Caro, the trainee teacher who's there on placement, when school finished at 3.30. We ended up staying in the cafe until nearly 7, talking about her demon 6th graders (6/3) and the angelic ones in the other class (6/2, my babies), various issues with the other teachers, and life in general. It was a missed opportunity for me to speak German, but I was surprisingly relaxed about it because I know the next time will be in German, and more importantly it was lovely to have a conversation where I can show that I do in fact have a personality. I am so boring in German.
Wednesday
Today I went to the job interviews lesson that I missed last week and it was really fun! The highlight was when the three whose task it was to apply for the job of 'Headteacher of Hogwarts' had their turn and Anke made a dramatic entrance wearing a sparkly witches' hat with a veil, carrying a clear plastic 'wand' with glitter inside it, and announcing that she was Professor McGonagall. The other interviews were funny too; three had to apply for the role of 'The Queen's Cook', where Anke had them make a cup of tea to demonstrate their skills. On hearing this instruction, one kid put a teabag in the cup and then filled it from the basin in the corner of every classroom that is there for the sole purpose of wetting the sponge to clean the blackboard and, needless to say, only has a cold tap. Every British part of me was revolted, although I was slightly appeased when one of the others handed round cake that he'd brought to the lesson to show his aptitude as a cook.
This afternoon I met up with my third tandem partner, Beatrice, for the first time. It was what you might call the opposite of a success. There was something very odd about her, which I tried to ignore at the time, so only realised the full extent of her weirdness after leaving the situation with veritable screams of gratitude. A few low points were as follows: she asked to look round my school and maybe come to a lesson because she's 'interested in it' (she would give no other reason), and when I said I'd ask, she said 'you don't have to ask!' as if I was being ridiculous; when asked if she wanted to speak English at some point she said that her English was already very good so she doesn't need to, and she's just doing the tandem scheme because she wanted to get to know a British person and because she loves ignoring the entire point of how situations are supposed to work; she had a cake but no drink, AND she likes marzipan; she asked if I like Germany, and I answered with all positive things apart from one which is that I find some Germans are quite rude, to which she took great offense and started ranting about how "not all Germans" and "there are people like that in every country" and "some British people are rude" and so on. I couldn't quite believe it. Also she has no sense of humour and kept responding very literally to my obviously not serious statements. So my current question is, how do I tell her that I never want to see her again? Any help greatly appreciated. Answers on a postcard, if possible. I love postcards.
Finally, this evening was the last time I met with my German course, as it doesn't continue after the holiday (which starts on Friday; I have two weeks off!). We went to the Schlosskirche which involved a twenty five minute trek through the snow followed by an hour and a half or so of wandering or standing about in a freezing (literally sub-zero temperature) church, at the end of which I could not feel my feet, hands or sense of perspective. I hated the teacher more and more with every stupid, pointless comment she made that extended our time there. As I write this now in my very warm (and soft, very soft) dressing gown, I don't hate her at all, but I don't blame Past Me for doing so because it was understandable. I was debilitatingly hungry at the time too, so I'm amazed I didn't actively strop out of the church or punch anyone. The German course in general was fairly useless, but I met some lovely people and it got me out of the house so I don't regret doing it. And hopefully I'll see at least some of them again!
In conclusion
This weekend I am going to Regensburg, followed by spending the day with Katrin on Monday where we will make pancakes and Thai food and I'll meet her family. Then (hopefully!) skiing on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which I have a few other things planned. I am really looking forward to and also dreading starting kickboxing again after the holidays, as I am weak and may not survive the winter at this rate (it is SO COLD at the moment. So cold. And I can't cycle to school at the moment because it's too slippery and icy because of all the snow. Boo.) But anyway. In general I am doing well, and if I manage not to have caught a cold after all the faffing about in the snow today then I will be doing even better!
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